Chapter Text
Busy at work at his desk, yellow screens surrounded his whole body as Miguel watched over every active mission happening at that very moment. One of those screens showed two of the youngest spiders, Miles and Gwen, who had pleaded with Miguel for weeks to go on a mission together. He caved eventually, seeing how much they found comfort with each other compared to others made his heart soften (though he’d never admit it) and after the rough start he had with Miles, he did feel enough guilt to let the kid off easy. The least he could do was let him have fun with his best friend, especially when he had specifically separated the two in the beginning.
He could remember the day he told them, the way their faces switched in an instant was humorous. Gwen’s puppy eyes, Miles’s slightly more hesitant look of hope, and both their crooked smiles turned to exhilarating shrills of excitement as soon as Miguel spoke.
He had already decided that day that they would have ONE mission together, what he didn’t expect was an elaborate meeting planned by Peter B, where the two kids had created an incredibly detailed powerpoint presentation on why they should work together, though they did present evidence that their dynamic together worked better than when they were with others, it honestly boiled down to ‘I just want to be with my bestie’.
It was a charming attempt Miguel had to admit, he would have been angry if it were on a busy day too, but the stars seemed to align for the 3.
Almost too perfectly.
He did notice that all of the spiders that day seemed to be overly sensible, all the missions were finished early, Prabhakar had bought him extra food from his dimension, even Hobie wasn’t as loud and boisterous that day (though he did hold a wide grin constantly).
Realizing now, they were all probably in on it.
Miguel found himself staring at the kids' dedicated monitor the most, they were capable, just as capable as the rest of his team, but they were still two of the youngest. Even though he let them work together, he didn’t say that he would let them go alone. One other glowing gold screen showed the pov of another spider in the same location, the sound of a motor engine and high winds as the monitor desolated a view of a high speed chase, tailing the two kids from the ground was reassuring. He could always rely on Jessica to look after the kids, she was strict yes but they seemed to prefer her over him any day.
Miguel’s unconscious concentration on the two tabs were broken at the small sound of footsteps approaching him from his doorway. He didn’t turn around, as he could already tell who it was. Little babbles and giggles accompanied the heavy steps.
“Miguel! How you doin?” An upbeat Peter B called out for his boss casually. “and how are the kids?”
This Peter seemed to be incredibly attached to both Gwen and especially Miles, not surprising looking at how their encounter went. Mayday’s existence proves his admiration literally.
“That’s all you came in here to ask?” Miguel answered in his regular blank tone. “You do realize I have more to worry about than those children.”
“Don’t pretend like their screen is literally right in front of your face.” Peter scoffed with a smirk.
“And also on your biggest monitor.” He quickly added as he swiftly swung up to Miguel’s floating office with his daughter safely held against his chest, big enough now to stay with him without the baby support he always wore.
“See for yourself, I have other issues to deal with.” Miguel dismissed as he focused his attention on other matters. Like blank sheets of paper sprawled across his desk.
Peter hadn’t noticed however, or rather he chose not to mention seeing how oddly soft the big boss man was when it came to children (well- right now at least).
“Man… seeing them both grown up is so weird. I mean- they were so small when I first met them!” Miguel could practically hear Peter’s smile as he spoke, and initially responded with silence.
…
“… they’re still small.” He finally muttered without looking back at his coworker.
“Aha! I knew you noticed!” Peter laughed in triumph, holding his daughter up in delight and looking at her like she also understood. Miguel, in response, simply grumbled under his breath.
The two men were an odd duo, compared to the other Peters, this one managed to actually get somewhat close to Miguel, and the stranger thing was that he didn’t mind. Possibly the fact that he looked very similar to the Peter he once idolised in his dimension, the respect he had for him for having a good life despite his troubled situation, or maybe the fact that he also has a daughter similar to the little girl he used to have. Other spider-men and women were also parents, but they were different, their family lives had their different struggles and successes.
Either one of those was probably a contributor to how well the two got along, though from an outside perspective it most likely looks as though Peter is speaking to a brick wall whenever they conversed.
Following a giggle and the sound of a silk web being launched, Miguel finally looked up from his ‘work’ and watched as Mayday swung away from her dad as he frantically went to follow her while yelling concerns to be careful back at her, only making her laugh even more. Despite her still young age, she seemed to have already mastered the art of the web shooters better than she could walk. It seemed to be more amusing to the small child too, to stress her dad out in as many ways as she can.
For a moment Peter looked back to his boss for a little help but did a double take, and Miguel didn’t get why until he heard a small chuckle escape from his own chest.
He was smiling.
He quickly returned to his regular stone face and gazed away, Peter thankfully didn’t point it out, and just smiled as he went back to try and catch his adorable goblin.
The father was, in a way, glad his relationship with his girl didn’t put Miguel off. He knew how he felt about families, children to be exact, especially considering his tragedy happened shortly after Miguel recruited him, he even attempted to avoid him out of respect.
But surprisingly he was called by Miguel often, and could have sworn that he treated him slightly different to the other Peters. He would catch the tough guy’s glances at his girl a lot, not even minding whenever she would accidentally ruin his work by spilling juice or food crumbs on him or his desk.
He clearly had a soft spot for the child, and he wasn’t about to poke fun at him for it.
After about 20 minutes of struggle, a few shouts and tricks later, Peter returned to the office platform with a squirming Mayday under his arm. Though before he could even regain his composure, a horrid noise ripped through the room from one of the monitors, one that had both men instantly stop and glance up, even Mayday stopped her struggle and instead opted to cling to her dad in surprise.
It was a shrill, or rather a scream. Guttural and dreadfully real.
Like an animal instinctually and desperately calling for help.
One look at the large screen showed what the two dreaded.
Gwen was shown stumbling to the ground disoriented with her hands clutching her stomach, her body dropped down to reveal Jessica standing behind her, the damage was clear.
The villain, who was one of the scorpion variants, had landed a nasty hit on her, leaving a huge bloody wound on her abdomen.
“GWEN!!!”
“WHAT DID YOU DO???!!!”
“What happened?! Is she ok?!”
Miles and Jessica’s alerted voices could be heard in the background as the camera naturally panned down to Gwen’s trembling body, Jess’s louder than the boy’s as he was still fighting off the scorpion while the Spider-woman stayed close to Gwen, she sat still, keeling over and breathing heavy.
“Girl- why did you do that?! I could have dodged easily!” Jessica was then seen trying to pull Gwen to face her so she could see the extent of the damage, and what she saw, what her camera recorded, what both Peter and Miguel saw made all their hearts plummet.
The wound was life threatening if it weren’t for her spider powers giving her fast healing and extra resistance, her suit was also doing it’s best to heal her (thanks to Miguel’s upgrades) but it was still a deadly injury.
The strike was meant to kill that's for sure.
Despite this, Gwen managed to heave out a dry chuckle as she looked up at Jessica.
“He could-“ she tried to speak through her pained coughs “He was aiming for your belly.”
You could tell from the breaths in Miguel’s office that the statement stung all of them.
“…I couldn’t let that happen.”
In a single breath, both Peter and Miguel ripped a portal open, uttering curses and commands to Lyla to send immediate medical backup.
In which she responded that both Jessica and Miles had already called.
=====
Arriving at the scene was gut wrenching.
Jessica had already scooped Gwen up and dashed her away to a safe location away from the chaos, but she was still in awful shape, not to mention Miles had been left behind to face the Villain alone.
Placing her down against a wall in a hidden cove, a familiar woosh of light and air formed behind her still running motorcycle. Miguel emerged first, as Peter had to stop by his dimension to keep Mayday safe. He’s reckless enough to bring her on Spider chases, but smart enough to realize that this was no fun walk in the park.
The heavy footsteps splashing against shallow rain puddles approaching from behind alerted Jess of the new company.
“Miguel! I called backup but she’s in really bad shape. We need her out now.” She demanded without even taking time to check if it was actually her boss behind her. She had to focus on Gwen and only her at that moment, but part of her also didn’t want to face him out of fear. She was given charge to look after these kids, and yet they were the ones to end up taking hits for her.
Miguel’s silence wasn’t reassuring either.
The still open portal created a silhouette that loomed over the two girls' bodies eerily.
Thankfully Peter’s voice ripped through the rain filled silence.
“Gwen! How- How is she? Is she ok?” Peter was the first to speak upon arrival, rushing to the girl’s side. Neither she or Jessica had responded with any smart quip for the two men to see her condition. Even with the young girl’s mask on you could easily tell she was fighting to stay conscious, her waist was wrapped in first aid supplies that were clearly not enough to keep back the bleeding.
She was clearly still in some shock, seemingly not hearing most questions being hurled at her.
“You idiot! You should’ve done that!” His voice grew quiet as he came closer to her level on the ground. Her eyes seemed to barely recognize that he was even there. She was a fighter he had to admit, but he could clearly tell how terrified she was from the way her breaths seemed to beat faster than her heart breathed.
“Listen to me, just focus on breathing. Keep your eyes on me ok?”
As Peter tried his best to calm the frantic kid down, Jessica finally turned her head to Miguel to shout at him, to ask where the hell backup was.
But her voice was quickly silenced.
The expression Miguel wore was sickly familiar, she had only seen it maybe one or two times before, but it was enough to engrave itself into anyone’s head. She would blame her spider sense for seizing her body frozen, but the truth is anyone with a clear mind would do the same. Most of his features were hidden in shadow, but the glow emanating from his eyes told Jessica everything.
Pure rage was engulfing his entire being.
She just had to hope it wasn’t towards any of them, or Miles, who was still fighting just a block away.
“Miguel. I can explain.” Jessica’s voice wavered despite trying to sound as stern as possible. They still needed to treat Gwen, she took first priority, the last thing they needed was a full rampage.
Peter took a second to look up too after securing the trembling girl in his arms, and only halted for a second, before continuing to stand up properly to approach his superior.
“Miguel, listen to me. Gwen needs all the help she can right now, we need to have you with your clear head.” Peter spoke, bold and clear. He was confident Miguel wouldn’t actually do anything too rash yet , but the reality of the situation was that this guy was the most experienced with medical treatment than any of them. “You and I both know that you’re the best one to treat her right now, and we don’t have a moment to waste.”
The enraged beast looked down at the young girl cradled in Peter's arms for a second in silence.
“...No.”
With that, he began to walk away towards where the Scorpion was left with Miles.
“Miguel!” Peter tried to call out, but not following to chase as not to move Gwen any more than he needed to, with every slight move he was already making he could feel her squirm and tense in agony silently, and with each struggle his heart sank even further. Though nothing could prepare him for what she would do next.
“ Dad? ”
Her tiny croak of a voice was barely heard in the downpour, but it was enough to stop Miguel in his tracks.
Peter looked down at her and saw that she was now facing towards Miguel, disoriented enough to only register his presence at that moment, but mistaking him for another figure. A heartbreaking mistake for both of them.
“ Where are you going? ” She weakly asked, clutching her stomach tighter. She hadn’t shown much sign of upset until now, distress and agony yes, but not this.
Miguel finally turned slightly, eyes still completely red, but he was listening.
“ Don’t do this to me again… please… ”
Both Peter and Jessica were both at dead ends, this was an awful scene to watch no matter which way you look at it. Both Gwen and Miguel were in dark places that the two mentors couldn’t reach.
Even so, Peter decided to make the first move to break the tension, and turned Gwen away from Miguel slightly, just enough for her to break that eye contact she had with him, instead facing Jess once again.
“Jess, lets g-” Before Peter could even finish his sentence however, he felt the weight he was holding begin to lighten.
Miguel seemingly had a change of plans, thankfully choosing to care for Gwen instead of the Villain. It was a good call, but bittersweet. His moves were gentle, betraying his extremely intimidating aura, making sure to make the switch from Peter’s arms to his as soft as possible. It was only when the young spider was finally tucked safely in his arms, that his eyes slowly began to clear, showing not an angry expression, but one of anguish and regret.
Silently, Jessica took the lead into the portal back to HQ, keeping her regretful takes to herself in the moment, she quickly glanced back at Peter only to offer him good luck as she fully trekked through the flashing lights of the twisting passage.
“Don’t let him get away.” Is all Miguel could say before disappearing himself, leaving the father by himself to take care of the perpetrator, as well as make sure Miles was also safe.
“I won’t.” Peter’s reply echoed through the now empty alleyway.
After a breath to recompose himself, he wasted no time to dash over to where the active fight was currently still occurring.