Chapter Text
Before.
718-555-5698: I need help
Peter: Who is this?
718-555-5698:Gwen. Pls Peter. I don't know where else to go
When Gwen Stacy stepped into the apartment, she looked entirely different from the way she had when he last saw her. Gwen had left school two months before graduation, in a move that barely anyone but him had noticed. She was an orphan, like him, but didn't have the ready made family support that he had.
In an already overworked foster system, a missing 18-year-old didn't cause any bleeps on the radar. It had been six months since then, and Peter was beginning to wonder the reasoning behind her disappearance.
First, though, his senses had him checking behind her in the hall, and out the front window of the apartment, making sure she wasn't followed. His brother was still at work and wouldn't be there for another hour. Peter would have to text him with a heads up before then.
When they were locked inside, he sat on the chair across from where Gwen was on the couch. A long silent wait was filled with anticipation, but it didn't seem like she was calm enough to talk yet. Giving her a moment, he got up and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
"Do you need something for that?" He motioned with his chin towards the splash of dried blood on her collar.
Gwen didn't just look different — her entire persona seemed to have gone from blazen extrovert to quiet and timid. Her face was hidden by her dirty hair, brushing back and forth as she shook her head. "Not mine."
"Is it…"
He was shit at dealing with people. That had always been Bucky's gift, not his. It had started getting better, by graduation, but that was probably also a product of being forced into the workforce at the beginning of the year.
What all of that meant was… Peter had absolutely zero clue as to how he was supposed to delicately address the elephant (er… baby) in the room. Because Gwen's petite form made it absolutely clear that she was pregnant.
"No. Was someone at the compound. They were escorting me back to my room, after lunch. Avengers showed up and suddenly there was blood everywhere."
Okay, wait… what? Peter pulled his phone out, scrolling through the reddit channels that he monitored for Avenger news. Nothing. He typed out the text to his brother while he had his phone in hand. "Maybe we should start from the beginning?"
Gwen finally opened the water and proceeded to drink half of it without stopping. When she finally pulled the bottle away from her lips, she took a deep breath and began to talk.
"Two months before graduation, I was offered a job. It was a nanny gig upstate. Room and board included, access to their food as needed. I've always been good with the foster siblings, and the couple seemed really excited to hear about that."
Peter leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees as he listened.
"I had enough credits to get the diploma without staying, and they were adamant that I start as soon as possible. Everything seemed fine. When I got there, it was late at night and they said the baby was in bed. I was shown to my room for the night…" Gwen stopped, shoulders shaking a bit. When she started speaking again, her voice was rough with emotion. "I woke up in a lab. There were dozens of scientists and guards. To get me to stop screaming, they explained… they were experimenting with breeding babies and the artificial incubators wouldn't work, so they had moved onto real women."
The rest of the story came out in bits and pieces as the night went on. Bucky showed up with a large pie from the pizzeria where he worked, just as Gwen explained the raid on the facility. She barely blinked at his arrival. Probably used to Peter just being one half of the equation… where he went, his twin was usually not far behind.
After a couple slices of pizza, she admitted that she had been scared that if anyone found her, she would just end up in the same situation… another lab experiment. So when her escort had gotten shot, she'd feigned being dead beneath him, until she could sneak out.
'I had nowhere else to go, but I knew you would help.'
Bucky seemed unphased by the story, but he had a look in his eyes that Peter could easily recognize. He was putting together a puzzle that only he knew the pieces to. He hadn't said anything more than hello, completely okay with only being an illusion, so that Gwen would feel safer about telling her story.
After the tale had finished, though, it was obvious that she was exhausted from her experience. Peter stood up and motioned for Gwen to follow him down the hall.
He took a couple minutes to clear off Aunt May's old bed. There wasn't much on it… mostly stuff that was May's and had been in the living room. Her box of mismatched half-knit scarves, a stack of food magazines… the socks Bucky bought her last Christmas. "You're welcome to any clothes that might fit you. And I can try and find some other stuff tomorrow. One of the thrift stores a block over has nice stuff."
Gwen was standing next to the bed and staring at May and Ben's wedding photo. "Where's your aunt, Peter?"
He flinched, as if Gwen had actually hit him. "Car accident. Week before graduation."
"Fuck."
"Thankfully this place was paid off after my uncle. May was real big on life insurance after that, so we're squared away for a while. You can stay… until.." he motioned towards her stomach. "After, too, if you need. Got the space. Bucky and I still share. Neither one of us wanted to be in here."
"Are you sure he doesn't mind?"
Peter nodded. "Positive. Twin intuition and all that."
Gwen brought a shaking hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Thanks, Peter."
Peter sat in his bed, staring across the room to where Bucky’s bed was. His brother was still changing and getting ready for bed in the bathroom, so Peter wasn’t really staring at anything in particular. More so just… waiting. Anticipating.
When Bucky finally walked in, he shut the door behind him and flipped the light switch, leaving the room in the soft glow of Peter’s bedside lamp. He sat down on his bed so that he was facing Peter. He gave a soft grunt, finally breaking Peter’s concentration.
“Thoughts?” Peter finally asked, voice soft with the knowledge that the apartment had terrible walls when it came to sound traveling.
Bucky grabbed a baseball from the table by his bed and threw it at Peter without even looking. Peter caught it and threw it back just as easily. “It’s an interesting thing,” Bucky finally replied.
“You think she’s lying?”
“What would be the point? You would have let her in either way.”
His brother had him there. No matter what story Gwen had shown up with, if she said she needed his help, he wasn’t going to turn her away. Especially when she was pregnant. “So now what?”
Bucky put the ball back on his bedside table and laid back on his bed. “Baby-proofing?”