st_hotflashes | We need to talk

We need to talk - Peter

Liz walked up to Peter's door with a bag filled with food for lunch including sandwiches, chips, some fruit, and brownies for dessert. They had planned this before, but now she had another reason to sit down with Peter and talk.

She took a breath and knocked. She was a little early, so she hoped she wasn't interrupting anything

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"Yeah," Peter says, nodding. "I get it." He really does. But more importantly... "Why were you looking for him?"

Right.

"Well, um. You know how I've started being able to do... more things? Well... I took a sample of my blood and I was hoping Mr. Stark could analyze it." She paused, looking at her sandwich. "And he did. Well, the AI Mr. Stark did."

Peter takes another bite of his sandwich, listening attentively as Liz explains. "What'd you find out?" If anyone could find out something, it'd be Tony.

She picked at a piece of bread, still looking down at it. How did she say it? Liz felt a lot of apprehension about the information.

"My DNA is changing..."

"Changing?" Peter frowns. "Changing how?"

She pressed her lips together and pushed the words out, though she had to close her eyes while she said it, tense. "I have Max's DNA inside of me."

"What?" Peter blurts.

Her sandwich was left in her lap as she frowned and brought her hands to her face. She groaned. "No matter how I phrase it, it just sounds so wrong."

Peter leans over the table to place a hand on Liz's shoulder. "Hey," he says. "It's okay."

"No, it's not." She shook her head. "It makes me feel... I don't know. Bad."

She sighed. "Mr. Stark thinks it happened when Max healed me."

Peter sits back down in his chair. "Why do you feel bad about it?"

"I don't know..." She leaned on the table, thinking. "I don't think it's the actual alien DNA. I think... I think it's the fact it's Max."

"Yeah..." Peter could imagine it'd be weird having some part of someone else inside of you. Especially when it was someone like Max.

"I know you might not agree, but if it meant saving your life... I'd rather you have Max's DNA than not."

She glanced up looking rather sheepish. "You're not like.. mad or something?" She knew it was an irrational thought, but Liz couldn't help but feeling like she'd betrayed him somehow.

"No," Peter says, perplexed. "Why would you think I'd be mad?"

"I don't know... I mean." She gestured vaguely in front of her because she really quite wasn't sure how to put her feelings into words. "I guess, maybe, I feel like somehow it's... unfair to you or, something. Even though it's not like I chose this and stuff. It feels... well, not like cheating but something like that?"

She peered at him with an expression that seemed to say 'I don't really know what I'm talking about.'

Peter shakes his head. "I don't think of it like that at all. If it's me you're worried about, you don't have to be."

Peter reaches for her hand and gives it a squeeze.

She smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Maybe I'm a little worried about that." And the other part was just this strange feeling that her whole being was changing and she didn't really get a say in it.

"I'm lucky to have you, you know."

"You're not lucky," Peter admits, feeling embarrassed. Even though it's awkward to do so, he keeps his hand rested over hers as he takes another bite of sandwich.

"Have you told Maria yet?"

"You mean about the DNA thing?" She paused, then flushed just the tiniest bit. "Yeah. It... well, it went as well as it would have with Maria." Maria had made several jokes about a boy being inside of her.

"She's the first I told about what happened at the diner, you know? I tell her almost anything." Almost. There were some things she kept when it came to other people's lives.

Peter figured; still, he feels a tinge of guilt. Normally, he told Ned everything, too, but he still hadn't told him anything about what was going to happen and he needed to.

"What'd she say?"

She looked at him with an expression like 'do you really want to know?' then wet her lips. "She, um... She made a joke about having to, um. you know -: She pulled back her hand gently, looking down at her sandwich while spoke. A part of her told her just to say Maria said nothing and then another part of her wouldn't stop answering the question, "Having to correct that by having a better boy inside of me."

Her cheeks felt like she turned as red as a stop sign and she was observing the lettuce in her sandwich quite carefully.

Peter is midbite when Liz says that and he chokes on his sandwich. He turns around, coughing, red just as from embarrassment from the statement itself as he was from the actual coughing.

She might have been paralyzed from embarrassment had it not been for Peter's coughing. She looked up, eyes widened a little as she stood up. "Are you okay?"

Peter reaches for his bottled water, nodding furiously and uncaps it. After a few long swigs, he manages to clear his throat enough to give Liz a verbal answer.

"Yeah," he says, finally. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

He takes another sip of water, his cheeks still red with embarrassment. "If you," Peter says, hesitating. "If you wanted to, I think I'm ready."

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