[ FBI Headquarters ]

As the two men closed the door, Matthew Murdock sat down alongside the tired Peter Parker. He was a little bit confused; but at the same time he was thankful that he came in to the rescue. The man himself was calm and relaxed, laying out the files with his hands and not his eyes.

Peter squinted, "I—I'm really grateful for your help, Mr. Murdock, but am I supposed to know you?"

"Me?" He adjusted his belt, "Uh... no. A client referred me to you and he told me to get my ass over here. It's not that I mind; I owed him a favour for a long time now."

"What client?"

"Mr. Hogan. He was one of my first clients and he really got me on the map. Told him that if he needed me, I'd be there for him." He checked his watch, "I just didn't expect it at this time."

"Oh," He extended both of his hands and waved, "I am so sorry. I really didn't mean to get caught, sir, I just—"

"It's fine, kid. Besides," He smiled while flipping over some files, "I have a soft spot for hopeless causes."

"Oh... hehe." Peter forcefully laugh to not make him feel bad.

Instead, he waved his hand. "It's fine. It's just a joke I've been running with me... anyways."

Scanning the files with his hands again, he looked as if he was trying to understand him. There was information that he took in and glanced at him.

"Mr. Parker, do you need to get some things in your apartment for school?"

"No, sir."

"Do you have school tomorrow?"

"Uh, the day after tomorrow."

"And how many school works?

"Just a few. I could probably do it in school..." Peter kept on looking around for why he was asking it. In the end, he couldn't. "Um, random question, but are you supposed to ask this? I thought you would be asking more about my current situation?"

"Oh, yeah, we can go over that tomorrow. It's just that I need your files in braille." He composedly said.

"Oh..." Peter leaned back and nodded, "Sorry, I didn't notice."

"Yeah, it's fine. It's not the first time." Murdock removed his glasses and sighed. Peter noticed a lot of bruises on his face—as if he was a professional boxer; or he just got into a lot of fights. "Uh... to be honest, we don't need to be having this conversation right now. I just needed to come here so they knew you had a lawyer. We can continue this tomorrow—when I get the files. For now, I'll get these guys to uncuff you and have a room for you. How does ten o'clock sound like?"

"Ye—yeah. That'd be great."

Packing up his things, Murdock stood up with his cane and walked over to the door. He stopped at the door frame, listening to the stillness of time that presided just outside. He took one last glance at Peter.

"Peter, I know you won't believe me, but I do understand what you're going through right now. And I can promise you one thing: we will win this case."

Peter lightened up. These are the things he needed to hear. "Yeah, I hope so too, Mr. Murdock."

He smiled, "Get some rest, kid."

"You're really good at this stuff, sir."

Murdock paused with only a small part of the door open, "Eh... it's not my first vigilante."

He closed the door and Peter thought about how nice he was. Then he realized, "Wait, it's not your first?"

Two days later...

Peter was checking the things inside his school bag as Murdock was looking over his files once again—now in braille. It was going to be his first time in school ever since he had his identity revealed. He didn't know what to do or what to expect. What was his classmates going to do? What were they going to think of him?

He shook his head as he checked the contents of the bag once more. It was complete. Now, all he had to do was wait until it was time to go out again. It was a little bit silent, as Murdock mercilessly went through his files.

Peter thought he would do the same; taking the files from the desk, he went through his profile. There were a lot of moments that he reminisced on. It always started with Spider-Man in Germany when he was recruited by Tony Stark. That time when he took down Adrian Toomes on Homecoming night. The time he went to space and was gone for five years. When he went to Europe for the school trip which was quickly derailed by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Quentin Beck. He thought that was just the start of his Spider-Man career—who knew it would be crumbling down after that.

As Peter read his file, he was surprised by Murdock slamming files on the table. He flinched, looking at him confused, "Um, should I be concerned?"

"No," He fixed his glasses, "I just need to go over some things again."

"Alright," He nodded, getting ready. "Give me everything."

"Who knew your identity before the incident that you were Spider-Man?"

"Um... Mr. Stark and Happy. Um... my best friend Ned! Also Aunt May." He continued to think, "Also a lot of people from S.H.I.E.L.D, and Beck too. Also... my classmate M.J."

"What does Ms..." He felt the braille letters. "You've told me how Mr. Leeds found out. How did Ms. Jones find out?"

"I... um." He looked flustered. Feeling the scene himself, Murdock noted.

"She was your girlfriend at that time?"

"We—well, it wasn't like that, during that time. It was going somewhere... um... yeah, something like that."

"I'll just assume that she found out herself."

"... Y—that's one way to look at it, sure."

"So there were a lot of people who knew. Do they have evidence that you weren't in control of the drones?"

"You can try Happy? He was the one who flew me into it. Maybe he can vouch for me."

"That might be one..." Murdock bit his lip, swinging his head back and forth as he took a seat. "We have to be really careful, Peter. One mishap and the case is over. There's a lot going against you."

"I know, Mr. Murdock. I'll be careful..." Peter stood up and grabbed his bag. "I might as well get to school. Don't 'wanna be late for it."

"I'll be here for the rest of the day, Parker." He laid back, "Remember, don't talk to anyone about the case—especially the press. Don't go out of the school campus because there's going to be personnel waiting. Also, just... keep it cool, alright? No one's going to go hunting for you at school."

"Got it, Mr. Murdock." Before he went out, he turned around, "By the way, what's the update on the apartment."

Murdock raised his eyebrows before remembering, "Oh, right. They told me that you can go back to your apartment on the condition that you're house arrested. You'll have a tracker on your foot by the time you get home. Your aunt was moved to the FEAST shelter for the time being. Any objections?"

"Absolutely not. Thank you, Mr. Murdock."

"If I ever need something from you, I'll text you. Just don't do anything stupid while you're out there."

Agreeing wholeheartedly, he went out into the public for the first time.

Thirty minutes later...

Peter arrived in the most eye-catching way possible. There were about three cars that surrounded his car as they parked right at the entrance. However, they were prepared for the scene outside.

As stated by Murdock, it was likely that there was going to be press—and he was right. There were barricades set up and police on guard for the crowd of reporters that were trying to spill in. Before he even got out of the car, Peter was already bombarded with flashing lights and hungry interviewers.

On the sidewalk, the people who wanted to join Peter as he tried to cope with living in the world waited for him—Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones. They were trying to ignore the questions coming their way, but it was bothering them as well.

There was a sense of dread and anger in Peter. He wasn't in his usual mood. There was nothing to be cheery about.

He approached his closest ones while trying to cover his face, "There's still class, right?"

"They said that we had to carry on; even if you were going to show up." Ned explained and placed his hand on Peter's shoulder, "You okay, Pete?"

"Yeah, yeah... I'm okay."

MJ pulled her lip to the side. She was trying to read him. The expression of 'I'm not okay, but I'm trying to be okay' kept on popping off. "We'll get through this school day. Let's just... treat it like no other."

"Yeah, well..." Ned peeked to the opening corridor of the school. "It doesn't look like it will be."

MJ nudged Ned's arm, "Not helping, Ned."

Peter shook his head, "Let's just get in, guys."

They all agreed and began heading inside.

The crowd felt like a sport game. It was loud and intense. There wasn't a moment of silence with any of them. "Spider-Man" was always being brought up. They even had signs put up labelling him as a murderer.

Before he tried to rush in, Peter was stopped by the call of someone from behind. "Hey, Parker!"

The three of them stopped to glance at the newly-blonde haired man. Flash Thompson was now sporting a completely different appearance from years' past.

"Hey, Parker. Um, I heard the news the other day and, I just wanted to say I'm honoured to be your classmate. I'm very inspired by the things you do and... yeah, I want you to know that I didn't mean anything that I said in the past. That's just for fun, y'know, hehe."

"I'm, um..." Peter was quite happy about this outcome. Maybe the best one so far in this entire week. "thankful too."

"I'm here for you any time, bro..." Flash nervously chuckled.

"Bro?" Ned blurted.

"Let's just..." Peter leaned his head to the entrance and the four of them moved.

They kept on shouting humiliating and awful things at them. Even to his friends that were following Peter to school. The entire world believed that Spider-Man killed Mysterio; in other words, Peter Parker killed Quentin Beck. He didn't know what it took, but Peter didn't know if Matthew Murdock was going to be able to handle the case.

Peter felt a warm touch on his left hand. They weren't looking at one another, but Peter knew that MJ was there for him. It was like everything was cancelled out.

When they went inside, it wasn't like it ended. The students stuffed their phones into Peter's face as he just tried to make his way to class. It got so clogged that he was separated from the others. He wasn't going to try and find them—it was going to get worse.

The school guards and teachers stepped in and guided Peter to his class. There were already a dozen students inside. As he got looks from everyone, including the teacher, his companions from earlier entered the room. It was an awkward atmosphere, as everyone didn't know how to react.

—Except for their teacher.

"Mr. Parker..." His teacher, Ms. Warren, called to him. "I would like you to exchange seats with Mr. Brown."

Peter noticed that Abe was at the very back of class. Obliging, he took his stuff to the back and exhausted all his energy into just sitting down.

—This was going to be the life of Peter Parker now.

Few hours later...

Class hadn't ended, but they were on break. As there were too many people that would bother Peter in the cafeteria or even inside his classroom, he opted to stay on the rooftop where everyone was prohibited except for him; and MJ too.

He had managed to persuade his "bodyguards" to let MJ into the rooftop. Ned was too busy doing his homework that he had surprisingly forgot to do—opting to do it during the break time.

So it was just Peter and MJ on the rooftop, lying down on a blanket.

He considered if this was a continuation of there date from the other day. He peeked over to the curiously-reading teen to his side. She was very diligent, spotting Peter immediately.

"So, lot of things happened the other day, huh." He started as she went about on the newspaper.

"On our date?" MJ continued.

"Yea—yeah. There were some interruptions. Major and minor."

"I think we have different definitions of major and minor." She giggled which also made him giggle.

But Peter just couldn't relax. He clearly sighed and closed his eyes, "Can we like, just stay up here all day? It is so crazy down there."

"We still have class, Peter. We have no choice."

"I wish we did. Everyone keeps on asking the same thing... but they won't believe me. It's just a lot for me."

"You have to just... relax about it. I mean, there's a lot of things they're writing about you on the newspaper."

"Really?"

"Yeah, like..." She intently scanned the newspaper, "Oh. This is a good one. Some suggest that Peter's powers include the male spider's ability to hypnotize females."

Peter scoffed and smiled, "Stop... come on."

She went on with a gimmick, "Yes, my Spider-Lord."

They both laughed like children as they lost a bit of worry on the situation. Maybe she was right—maybe they'll get used to it.

—Maybe they'll get used to Peter Parker being Spider-Man.