One Day Later
June 13th, 2005
Mary Jane's POV

"Are you sure about this, Chris?" Mary Jane asked in a meek voice as the two of them stood just outside the back entrance of the Broadway theater, glancing towards the door and avoiding her friend's gaze.

"Absolutely," Christina replied, crossing her arms as she curtly nodded. "I know I'm not really allowed in there but I can wait here. If anything goes wrong, you come out and get me and I'll do whatever I can to fix it."

The redhead nodded as she took a deep breath, attempting to calm her shaking hands. She had a horrible feeling about what they were doing and she started becoming extremely concerned as she peered all around the two of them.

Christina had offered to come with her to the next rehearsal for the following runthrough of Manhattan Memories just to see what would happen. If anything were to become a mishap, the blonde had planned to step in and put a stop to whatever it was despite Mary Jane's protests. The two of them had the idea that the aspiring actress was about to get fired and that's what terrified her.

She wanted more than anything to not be fired over one stupid negative review; she had been working to this point for most of her life, after years of her father saying that she didn't have what it took and lingering anxieties and countless insecurities. When she had gotten the part in this musical, it had seemed like a dream come true and she didn't want that to be broken forever.

"It's going to be alright," Christina assured her with a friendly smile. "I'll make sure of it. Go inside. If all goes well, then break a leg, okay?"

"Okay," Mary Jane said before slowly walking towards the back door, casting a glance back towards Christina and then stepping inside.

Shuddering from the air conditioning, she made her way to the house of the auditorium and stepped through the double doors, being met with the beautiful stage and the crew. A broad smile grew on her face but it vanished almost instantaneously when she spotted something she had prayed desperately not to see.

An actress was carefully sauntering down the prop staircase that she herself had been on a few nights before, fitting perfectly into her costume and in her makeup and her hairdo. The woman didn't even look a thing like her, for crying out loud! And here she was, taking her place in the one musical she had dreamed of starring in. Right then and there, all of Mary Jane's dreams began to shrivel up and die an agonizing death.

The actress even seemed to have a better singing voice than she did, for sure. Tears furiously stung M.J's eyes as she lowered her head out of pure humiliation, just wanting to sprint out of there as fast as she could. But she only remained rooted where she was, unable to move her legs.

The actress then halted her singing as she spotted the redhead, peering at her out of interest and sympathy, since she knew who she was. She suddenly wanted to excuse herself since she felt bad for the scenario she was now stuck in, and she reminded herself to apologize to Mary Jane later.

"Why are we stopping?" one of the directors spoke up in a confused tone of voice, staring towards the stage. A few seconds later, he turned to face Mary Jane along with the co-director of the play, and both of their eyebrows raised in mild surprise.

"What is she doing here?" the director asked in a more hushed whisper.

"Gary was supposed to call her agent..." the co-director pointed out with a sigh as they made their way out of the row they were sitting in.

All Mary Jane could do was stand there, absolutely dumbfounded by everything that was going on. A tear trickled down her right cheek but she swiftly wiped it away as she stared at the director and his coworker in disbelief.

"Hi, honey," the director greeted with the most sincere smile he could muster. "We tried to reach you. I'm so sorry..."

"One critic...?" the redhead mumbled weakly, her voice cracking as she tried her hardest to not succumb to the tears.

"No, all the papers, dear..." said the co-director, deciding to tread lightly now that he knew she was aware of the negative review for her performance.

Mary Jane balked at the concept of what he had just said, unable to think it into reality if she were being honest. She thought she was on top of the world a few nights ago with her first performance, especially with how the audience reacted to it; in particular, she would never forget the overwhelming praise that John, along with Christina and Peter had given her. Right now, they were the most important people to her and all four of them were like a family at this point, which she desperately needed after how she was raised.

But now, hearing of this information that every newspaper in all of Manhattan had dragged her name through the mud, her heart plummeted as she sighed quietly. While she wanted to lash out at the two men in front of her or even plead with them and say she could do better, she just stayed silent.

"Mary Jane, honey..." the director spoke up, sensing an emotional breakdown. "Sit down. Let's explain it to you, okay?"

"If you'd like, we could say you became ill," the co-director offered with an apologetic expression.

The only thing M.J. could think to do was simply lower her head and turn around to walk out of the auditorium, absolutely ashamed of herself because of what had led up to this moment. When she heard their voices behind her saying something like, "That was so poorly handled," that caused a few tears to stream down her face out of absolute embarrassment and insecurity.

The moment she stepped out of the back door, she could tell that Christina knew something was really wrong. While her heart warmed as the blonde rushed over to her, she couldn't prevent even more tears from seeping out of her eyes.

"What happened?" Christina asked with a deep frown etched into her features.

"They... They fired me..." was all she could say, sniffing as she swept the tears away. "It's over, I guess..."

An expression of utter rage overcame Christina's face as she stepped around the redhead and walked towards the back door. In the process, she gripped Mary Jane's arm and gently tugged her along.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm getting you back into the play," the blonde said simply. "They're gonna fucking pay."

"Chris, they're not gonna listen to you!" M.J. pleaded, shaking her head out of refusal. "Just don't bother."

Christina just ignored her friend as she let go of her arm and forcefully shoved open the double doors of the auditorium and stepped inside. "Hey!" she shouted furiously over the sounds of the new actress singing and the piano being tinkered with on the stage.

The director turned his head at the new voice thundering into the room, which utterly confused him. "What the hell is going on?!" he said, raising his voice an octave, which led to the music halting once again.

The young woman stopped in front of him and the co-director, breathing heavily out of exhaustion. "Are you the people that run this musical?" she asked him as she tilted her head.

"Um... yeah, we are," he replied with raised eyebrows. "And who are you?"

"I'm Mary Jane's friend," Christina answered with a tight smile. "And she just told me that you fired her over bullshit, and I think it would be a good idea if you put her back into the role that she rightfully deserves."

The co-director sighed as he stepped forward to get a better look at the much shorter woman. "Miss, you don't understand," he said. "The amount of negative reviews that were in those papers were enough. Mary Jane just didn't have the voice it took to bring our vision to life. Surely, you can get that, right?"

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

"Funny..." Christina muttered with a smug grin. "Then why did I only see one negative review out of every single paper in the city?"

The two men in front of her froze in place as they struggled to come up with a response to what she had just said. But all they could do, really, was stutter out a bunch of shitty excuses, none of which satisfied Christina in the slightest. That led to Christina smirking as she crossed her arms tightly.

"How did you know that?" asked the director as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"I have my connections," was all Christina answered with. "Now, you listen to me. Mary Jane is more than good enough for this musical. I'm sure the only reason that critic couldn't 'hear her' is because of her nerves not allowing her voice to be projected as much. It wasn't her fault. I want you to put her back in and rehire her."

Both of the men chuckled as they shook their heads in disappointment. "What are you gonna do if we don't?" inquired the director with a taunting expression.

Christina's face suddenly changed as she stepped forward a little bit, her eyes turning from sincere to almost menacing. "If you don't put her back in the play, I will simply delete you two from existence," she threatened with a frown. "And I'm not afraid to."

In response, their eyes widened as soon as they came to the realization that the short woman in front of them that looked petite and vulnerable wasn't fucking around... especially once they saw her metallic arm. Instantly, they turned to Mary Jane and put on the biggest smiles they could form in that moment. "Okay, Miss, right this way," the director said extra enthusiastically.

"That's what I thought..." Christina whispered in a satisfied tone before glancing at M.J. "Have fun, okay?"

Mary Jane just hugged her friend tightly as she thanked her profusely.

_____

Three Hours Later
3:25 P.M.
Christina's POV

The constant rapid tapping of wooden sticks against drums and the incessant cheers of the enormous crowd around Christina was nearly peaceful to her. She stared around at the thousands of people that had gathered in Central Park to celebrate Spider-Man being gifted the Key to the City by Captain George Stacy after he had saved his daughter the day before. She was more impressed with the extremely quick process that it had been to get this to happen.

She hadn't seen Peter since yesterday but she knew for sure that he was around somewhere, either swinging around in his suit or taking pictures for the Daily Bugle in his regular attire. Until then, Christina was just fine hanging out with her family that stood on either side of her, especially since they were all fans of the masked hero like she was.

"I never thought they'd be this crazy over him," Michael spoke up with a surprised chuckle as little Aidan squirmed around in his arms. "I mean... three years ago, people weren't like this."

"Time can change people," Allyson replied as she playfully elbowed her husband, hinting at his change of heart towards Christina the year prior.

"Where is he?!" Sidney exclaimed, looking all around her sister and parents. "I thought he'd be here by now!"

"He's not supposed to make his grand entrance yet, Sid," Christina pointed out. "It was semi-arranged by the Captain."

"Well, it was stupid to be that way," said Sidney.

"Sidney Eleanor, let's not be like that," Michael said in a slightly stern tone, patting his daughter on the shoulder. "Just be happy that Spider-Man at least got this opportunity. He deserves it."

Sidney just turned around and gave her father a joking glare. "Does someone have a man-crush on Spider-Man?" she asked in a taunting way.

"No, no," Michael answered a little too quickly, shaking his head. "Not at all."

"Mm-hmm," Christina muttered before looking at Aidan with a huge smile. "Hey, kiddo," she said to get his attention. "Can you say 'Spider-Man?'"

"Spwider-Man!" Aidan shouted joyously as he clapped, his adorable Spider-Man onesie making the action all the more endearing.

Christina shrugged her shoulders as she figured that was good enough, ruffling the toddler's hair and making him giggle in response. She then looked up to face her dad and stepmother. "I'm gonna go over to a booth, see if there's snacks or anything," she informed them before walking away after they nodded.

The blonde strolled up to a booth that was selling a bunch of old and vintage items as a part of the event. She took her right hand and ran her fingertips over a shelf of VHS tapes, seeing titles such as The Ring, Back to the Future, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The last one had caught her attention, since she was a huge fan of the first Elm Street film and hadn't watched it yet; she had definitely heard of it because of the concept of being in the real world and it being about the actors of said first movie.

She grabbed it and took it to the person that owned the tapes and asked if she could buy it, then paid ten bucks for the movie so she could watch it when she went back home later.

"Hey, beautiful!" came a voice from behind her and, although she flinched from startlement, she couldn't stop the inevitable smile.

She spun around and was met by Peter holding his huge camera with both hands, so she posed adorably for a few photos, which made her boyfriend's heart soften considerably. He took one more picture of her, making note of how her bright eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

"Nice to see you, too," Christina greeted semi-sarcastically with a giggle, stepping forward.

Peter replied by pecking her on the lips and pulling her into a hug. "You alright?" he asked with a gentler smile.

"Yeah," the blonde said in return, combing her fingers through his hair for a moment. "I'm so proud of you, Pete."

Peter's face became pink for a moment as he thanked her before pointing somewhere behind her. "I'm gonna be swinging in from over there," he whispered in a more secretive tone. "So you know where to look, you know?"

Christina briefly glanced to where he was looking and saw a tall skyscraper, and it made more sense to her. "Sounds great," she mumbled before leaning slightly closer. "You ready to surprise Sidney?"

She was met with a huge smile as Peter eagerly nodded his head. "Yeah, I can't wait to see the look on her face," he said with a chuckle.

"Me neither. She really looks up to you... not just as Spider-Man, either."

"I know. She's a good kid."

"Hey, guys!" came a young girl's voice from behind Christina.

The couple looked to see Sidney jogging up to them, Michael and Allyson (who was holding Aidan) being dragged along with her. The sight made them chuckle as the pre-teen greeted Peter with a hug that he returned.

"Hey, kid," he said as she pulled back.

"You looking forward to this whole thing, Peter?" Michael asked him, having to raise his voice so he could hear him over the cheers.

"Yeah, I am, sir," Peter answered before putting an arm around Christina's shoulders, not missing how she instinctively smiled at this. "Um... Michael, would you mind taking a picture of Chris and I?" After saying this, he took the strap his camera was attached to and removed it from around his neck.

Michael simply nodded and took the camera from Peter. "Sure, why not," he muttered before raising the camera.

In response, Christina placed her metal arm around Peter's waist and leaned her head on his shoulder before smiling towards the camera lens. Her face was the slightest shade of red as she posed for not just one, but two pictures that her father took of them, and it made her all the more relieved that she had let him back into her life and that he had truly proven himself to be a great parent again.

All the while, Peter was somewhat zoned out as he thought about when he had visited Michael and Allyson the day before after the crane incident to talk to them regarding something extremely important to him.

"You want to marry my daughter?" Michael had asked him as they sat in the living room.

"Yes, sir..." Peter had replied while his hands trembled. "I really do. I already have a ring for her. It was my Aunt May's."

Allyson had turned to look at her husband, clearly having made more progress with him over the past year. "I think he's good for her, Mike," she mumbled to him. "You should let it happen."

"I didn't say I wasn't," was all Michael had said in reply before glancing back at the younger man. "Peter, if I'm gonna give you my blessing... there's some things I want you to promise me, alright?"

"Of course," Peter had said.

"First, promise me that you'll keep my daughter happy, and that you never hurt her. Second, be supportive and let her be independent. Don't make her decisions for her. Third, put Christina before yourself. I wish I had done that with her and her mother. And fourth... don't ever break her heart. If you leave her heartbroken like I did to her and Margaret... it won't end well for you. Is that clear?"

Peter had nodded quickly. "Yes, sir. I promise."

And Michael had given Peter his blessing to marry Christina.

After the pictures were taken, Peter jogged away from the group to supposedly take more pictures for the Daily Bugle but, while the others brought up another topic of conversation, little Aidan stared after Peter with what seemed to be an expression of suspicion. It was almost as if the tiny boy had an idea that the older man was hiding something from the others... and maybe even that he was Spider-Man. But he chose not to speak up about it in the end.

"Hey, Sid," Christina suddenly spoke up. "I found this cool booth that was selling metal band stuff if you want to check it out."

Sidney's brown eyes brightened as she nodded. "Sure, let's go!" she said excitedly as she pulled her sister along.

"She's fine with me," the blonde assured Michael and Allyson, whose heads bobbed up and down as they continued onward.

As soon as the two girls were out of sight of the older adults, Christina suddenly steered Sidney in the opposite direction and to a more private area of the park.

"Chris, what are you doing?" the younger girl asked with her eyebrows raised.

"I lied," Christina whispered. "There isn't any booth like the one I mentioned."

"Then where are we going?"

"You'll see. I may or may not have a surprise for you..."

"Chris, you know I hate surprises!" Sidney groaned as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but you'll like this one, I promise," Christina replied with a grin. "I'm taking you to meet a friend of mine... of some sorts."

When they rounded one of the trees and arrived at a section of the park that had next to no people surrounding them, Christina couldn't help but grin while Sidney gasped with surprise.

"See?" Christina said. "It was worth it!"

"Spider-Man?" Sidney spoke up, gawking at the sight in front of her as she let out a chuckle of pure shock.

A figure in a red and blue spandex suit hopped down from a nearby tree and landed on both feet, waving towards the two in a friendly manner. "Hello to you, too, kid," he responded before kneeling down to the younger girl's level. "Your sister's told me that you're a fan so I arranged a meeting of some sort."

As Sidney glanced over at her sister, the blonde only shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "I told you we were friends," was all she said.

"I don't have a lot of time," Spider-Man muttered as he looked at Sidney through the eyes of the webbed mask. "...but I just wanted to take time to say that it's nice to meet you, Sidney."

The brunette smiled politely before extending her hand to shake his. "You too," she replied. "It's really cool, what you do. I wish I could do it."

Spider-Man carefully shook the girl's hand as he laughed, shaking his head. "Oh, I don't know about that," he said. "It's a struggle, that's for sure."

Suddenly, a bell tolled from not too far away, signaling that it was nearly time for the hero's grand entrance. A young woman's voice then overcame the microphone on the main stage that everyone was crowded in front of.

"Welcome, everyone," the woman said. "My name is Gwen Stacy and I'm glad you're all here."

"Well, that's my cue," Spider-Man said as he stood up. "Enjoy the show, kid."

Right before he swung away, Christina mouthed something to him with a huge smile on her face: "Give them a good show."

_____

"People of the city of New York, I am here today..." Gwen Stacy spoke up again with a serious expression on her face, "...because I fell sixty-two stories... and someone caught me. Someone who never asks for anything in return. Someone who doesn't even want us to know who he is."

Christina now stood alone not too long later with her arms crossed over her chest, the rest of her family having wandered off to move closer to Miss Stacy's voice. She smiled with respect towards the woman on the stage, finding herself relating to the feeling of Spider-Man catching her as she fell once or twice before. While she prayed nothing like that would happen again, she chose to not give her hopes up while doing so.

She briefly glanced down at her metallic arm and watched the fingers flex and glint in the sunlight, smiling softly to herself.

"Chris, hey!" came a voice from behind her and, while she tensed up greatly, she put on a friendly grin as she turned to face her former best friend.

"Hi, Harry," she replied, not about to let on that something was wrong despite being shocked when he pulled her into a hug as a way to greet her.

"Where's Pete at? I thought he'd be with you," Harry pondered as he tilted his head, the gauze on his forehead more apparent than ever now.

"He's on his way," Christina lied through her teeth with a shrug. "When he shows up, he'll probably be taking someone's picture for the Bugle." She then paused before glancing up at Harry, forgetting just how much taller he was than her. "You look good. Better, I mean. You adjusting back home well?"

Harry nodded with a carefree expression on his face. "Yeah, I am," he answered. "I've never felt better, honestly. It's a weird feeling... not knowing who you are. A bump on the head, and I'm just as free as a bird."

Christina was only able to let out a chuckle. "I wish that happened to me sometimes," she said in response.

For a moment, Harry was about to ask why that was, obviously having no recollection of that August night the year previously. But he wanted to mind his own business about whatever could have possibly been bothering the woman, so he spoke up about something else. "Hey, Pete said you're a social worker now," he brought up.

The blonde only gave off a smaller smile. "Uh, yeah, I am," she responded, wishing Peter had never mentioned a thing about that. "It took a lot of effort but I made it, and it's been worth it."

Christina hated to admit that, while her thoughts on Harry were still mostly negative, she was ever so slowly growing comfortable around him again. Her tensed shoulders started slackening as she relaxed just a little bit and she wanted to scold herself for feeling more at ease.

But maybe Harry actually did have some sort of amnesia and had gone back to the way it once was before everything went downhill in their lives. If that was true, Christina might have been willing to allow things to return to how they were a few years back, such as all of the times where she would teasingly call him 'Harry Potter' and he would get annoyed.

"Well, I'm proud of you," Harry said with a caring smile. "I always knew you had the ability to get there... despite not giving a shit about school like I did."

Christina snorted at that, throwing her head back with laughter before punching Harry's arm gently with her metal one. "Don't remind me of that, asshole," she said jokingly, shaking her head. "I still hate college, so don't get me started on that."

"I don't blame you. But all you can do is make it through. You drop out, and you might just fuck yourself over."

"Luckily, that's not gonna happen," Christina muttered truthfully. "But I appreciate the support, really."

"Ladies and gentlemen," Gwen Stacy continued with a prideful smile on her face, directing Christina's attention back towards her. "I ask you: when you're dropping without a parachute or your store's being robbed or your house is on fire, who is it that breaks your fall, puts out the flames, and saves your children?"

"SPIDER-MAN!" the crowd screamed as a high school band began the infamous tune for the hero, which prompted Christina to glance over at the building Peter told her to look towards just in time to see her love pulling his mask over his face.

"Then let's hear it!" Gwen shouted into the microphone excitedly. "For your one and only friendly neighborhood... Spider-Man!"

Christina brought her hands together to clap – despite it stinging a bit thanks to her favorite pal in the world, her fucking metal hand – along with everyone else as Spider-Man's figure swung down over the crowd, making sure to high-five a few people in the process. The action made the blonde laugh a little bit despite nearly being blinded by both the sunlight and the flashing of cameras as they repeatedly took pictures of the masked man.

Spider-Man landed on the very top of the stage before attaching a web to it and hanging upside-down, making Christina smile at his goofy antics. But her eyebrows raised a little when she saw him lowering himself down with the web to face both the crowd and Gwen. This made her perk up a little more as she paused her clapping, wondering what the next few moments were going to be like. She naturally assumed that Gwen would be interviewing him while he was hanging like this, but her gut tried to persuade her that that wasn't true.

She didn't know what the two were saying, but she knew it couldn't have been good considering the crowd kept chanting and shouting one sentence in particular: "KISS HIM! KISS HIM!"

He better fucking not, the blonde thought as her smile faded instantly.

But he was going to.

Christina saw Gwen pull Spider-Man's mask down to where only his mouth was exposed....

And then she saw her passionately place her lips against his as the audience erupted with cheers.

The woman's heart immediately plummeted to the neverending pit of her stomach as a single tear streamed down her right cheek, nearly scoffing out of utter disbelief at what she was looking at. While the kiss lasted only a few seconds, she couldn't help but feel the deepest level of betrayal known to man. After all she had been put through, after all of the pain she had suffered from, and after all of the effort Peter had fought through to keep her as happy as can be, Christina now felt as if it were all for nothing.

She suddenly felt as though she had just wasted a good portion of her life pining after him and being with him... and she didn't even know if it was worth it anymore.

Was it worth having my life saved that night? she thought as a memory of the night she had nearly taken her life came back to her.

"Hope Pete's getting a shot of this," Harry said in an amused tone and Christina nearly lashed out at him, but she then remembered that he no longer knew that Peter was Spider-Man.

Instead, she just turned and walked away without another word, frantically wiping away the tear that had fallen down her face.

"Chris!"

"Christina, what's going on?!"

"Chris, are you okay?"

That last voice came from her father, who had noticed her from not too far away speed-walking away from the crowd. After catching up to her, he had gently placed a hand on her arm to get her attention. "What's wrong?" he asked her, trying to get his daughter to look him in the eye.

"Nothing, I'm alright," Christina mumbled, making it even more obvious that she was lying since she avoided Michael's gaze. It was made all the more worse by the concerned expression on Harry's face and that nearly made her completely break. "Something came up that I forgot about and I need to go take care of it, that's all."

"Are you sure, hun?" Allyson spoke up, looking down at her in a worrisome way as well as Sidney and Aidan.

"I said I'm fine, okay?" the blonde mildly snapped at them before going back to her regular self. "Don't worry about me, alright?"

And she then removed herself from the group and made her way towards her Volkswagen as the tears finally arrived, not even noticing the odd sandstorm that had entered Central Park and was making its way across the city.

_____

Thirty Minutes Later
4:15 P.M.

The first thing Christina thought of when she entered her apartment was having absolute privacy despite there being nobody else with her at the time. Regardless of that detail, she still felt too exposed to the world outside of the window, so she did her best to escape to the one room that had no windows: her bathroom.

Barely acknowledging that the medicine cabinet mirror had been replaced after she had broken it last year, she removed her clothes and metal arm and stepped into the shower. She yanked the curtain aside to shield herself from the view of anybody that could have also been there and turned on the faucet, making sure that the water was piping hot before she furiously scrubbed at her skin.

She closed her eyes at how weirdly relaxing the scalding water was against her, and she only wanted to feel that for the time being... especially considering it was the one thing she would allow to bring her comfort.

Even more tears started slipping down her cheeks at the painful memory of thirty minutes ago, and she started sobbing as well as she crumpled up on the shower floor. She hugged her knees to her bare chest while she cried her eyes out, just wanting everything in the world to crawl into a hole and rot away where nobody could see.

Peter had literally taken their very first kiss from three years ago and had shared it with someone else, and that didn't piss Christina off. It only broke her heart entirely....

She could never forget the memory of how that kiss felt, especially considering how gentle Peter had been when he had placed his hand on her arm to help her feel safe. It had only made her wish that she had removed the mask right there. After all, she would not have been disappointed had she found out she was kissing him and would have just continued onward.

Peter had always made her feel safe and loved and she returned the favor if he was ever upset, and she thought that was a good aspect of a healthy relationship. But she was now starting to think that it was worthless.

As she continued to cry, unaware of the telephone ringing in the living room, two memories hit her that just made her cry harder: first, the time they had danced at the planetarium the year prior and had nearly shared a kiss. The sensation of Peter rubbing her bare back as they swayed and pecked her cheek repeatedly was one that would never leave her mind and it almost made her smile... but not quite.

The second one was much more recent....

A trembling breath slipped out of her when she felt his lips specifically brushing against a spot that was sensitive behind her left ear. It led to her tilting her head back further into the pillows beneath her, placing her right hand on his smooth back and relaxing even further.

"Peter..." she whispered weakly, shivering at the feeling of his hands delicately caressing her exposed skin. A small part of her wanted to speed things up but she knew that this was supposed to be a special moment, so she chose to let it linger for as long as it could. After all, it wouldn't last forever, no matter how much she wanted it that way. She made sure she wouldn't ever forget it, however.

"You're so amazing..." Peter murmured in her ear, briefly kissing Christina's neck before carefully grabbing her leg and wrapping it around his waist. "I love you more than anything..." He then placed his lips on hers as he slowly began grinding his hips against hers again, blushing madly at the quiet moans that left her as a result.

They continued this for a long time before Peter pulled away and stared deeply into his angel's eyes, smiling softly. He reached out to brush a strand of her damp blonde hair out of her face and didn't miss how her eyes seemed really shy now. "Are you sure you want this...?" he asked really quietly despite it just being the two of them in the darkness of the bedroom.

The woman nodded with a sweet smile as she placed her hand on his cheek. "Of course I am..." she replied. "You don't know how long I have... I'm ready, sweet boy."

Peter felt more assured than ever as his head bobbed up and down. "Okay..." he mumbled. "I won't ever hurt you, sweetheart. I promise."

And as he began to trail sweet kisses down her chest and stomach, Christina let her eyes flutter shut as she hummed inaudibly. "I know..." she said.

A/N: so, yeah... that happened. i bet you guys are extremely pissed off. and i understand that.

anyways, thoughts on this chapter? did you enjoy it despite getting furious?

what did you think of the scene where christina threatened the directors to put mary jane back in the play?

thoughts on the celebration scene in its entirety?

what about the scene with christina and harry?

what about... the scene where peter kisses gwen... or rather... gwen kisses peter...? it's explained who initiated it later on, don't worry!

and finally, thoughts on the flashback at the end? did you like it?

also, who do you think was calling christina on her phone while she was in the shower?

predictions for the next chapter?

be looking forward to the next chapter... i guess....

-denbroughswife