He was running a bit late, so she had decided to get a drink while she waited. Not the smartest move when she was already on edge, but not an uncommon mistake on her part.

The light jingle of the bell snapped her attention back to the door, and she looked up. He was here, but why didn’t that make her feel any better? 

“Sorry I’m late, I ran into a little bit of a traffic jam so I got held up!” he said, taking off his coat and sitting himself down on the opposite side of the table. 

Despite her nervousness, she offered him a kind smile, “Don’t worry about it! But, why would you need to take a cab? Your house is still just a few blocks down the way isn't it…Peter?” 

His eyes went wide and he was silent for a moment, as though he’d forgotten that very basic detail of his own life. He chuckled nervously, “Uh, that’s right. Actually, it was more like a traffic accident, they had to close off my usual route so it took me a little longer to get here!” he stumbled over himself. She hadn’t heard any sirens or noticed any other sign of an accident, but before she could question him further about it he started up again. 

“I sure was surprised that you called me though, Brie! I don’t even think my voice had dropped yet last time I saw you.” 

She smiled again, the soft warmth of nostalgia starting to ease her mind. "I know, you've gotten so tall! And I'm pretty sure you used to have glasses, huh." 

Peter Parker, little Petey. When she was in her teens, she'd made a little extra money for her family by babysitting him, and had thought of him as an honorary member himself. Which was what made it so hard once she actually got her internship at Oscorp, and had less and less time to spend with him. It made her feel guilty for spending this time with him now, for asking to see him only when she needed this favor. 

"I know...I'm sorry its been so long, Pete." She started, "I hate to ask you to come here so suddenly, but you know I wouldn't do it if it wasn't important." 

He smiled back at her, the dimple in his chin deepening charmingly the way it always did. The feature of his having gotten him out of trouble during several instances throughout his childhood. "Don't worry about it at all, its the least I can do for the girl who cut the crusts off my sandwiches all those times, anyway!" He said, half jokingly. 

She laughed, it had been so long since she'd last seen him, and he had grown up so much. There was just too much to say and to explain. If there had been time, she would have loved to tell him everything, to hear about all he had gone through in the years they'd spend going about their own lives. Unfortunately though, there wasn't. 

Fiddling with her hands, twisting the golden band around her right ring finger, she brought her attention right back to why she called Peter here today. He noticed this, and his eyes lit up inquisitively. 

"So, when did that happen?" He asked, knowing, at least, the who but not the how. After all, the gossip in New York city was insidious, and he worked for one of the biggest purveyors of it in the whole state. Not only that, but the very minute Harry woke up long enough to notice that his dad had started dating someone, Peter was the first to hear of it. 

Brie’s smiled warmly, recalling the memory. When she had met Norman Osborn, she was beginning her internship, and could never have guessed in a million years that it would eventually lead to this. 

"Almost a year ago now, actually. And that's sort of why I asked to see you, Peter. Norman has...changed.” she said, quietly. 

“Changed?” he repeated, “Are you sure you needed me? I mean, I’m pretty sure they make pills for that.” his quipped, but upon seeing her grim expression, he realized that this wasn’t the time to be joking. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. When did you...notice it?” 

“I guess it would have to be...” she began. 

She had first noticed it the morning she'd woken up to find her husband passed out on the floor in his at-home office. 

No, something was off even before then. The same night he was told that their funding would be pulled unless he produced results for his new super-soldier program, and he didn't come home. They were supposed to work on fine-tuning the performance enhancers together, but it wasn't exactly uncommon for him to do extra work by himself and to stay out late. Despite being just as much of a team at work as they were in their marriage, she supposed you just couldn't reason with geniuses. 

Even then, she had always woken up with him next to her, able to greet him with a morning kiss and start the day off right. Not this time, though. When she was able to raise him off the floor, a thin sheet of sweat coating his forehead as though he'd just woken up from a nightmare, it was only bad news from there. 

However, this didn't seem to phase him. In fact, after getting over the initial shock of the loss of Dr. Stromm and the robbery at Oscorp, he seemed better than ever!

After breakfast he put on one of his handsomest suits, and though she didn't dress in anything particularly special, he looked at her like she was brighter than the sun in the sky. 

Walking up to her, he took her hand and spun her around so that her skirt flared gracefully around her hips before pulling her in close. He pressed one hand against her waist, while the other tilted her head up to meet him for a kiss. His lips were hot, and a bit chapped. 

"You are a vision, my love." He whispered, barely audible and for her ears only. 

Her head still spinning from this display of passion, she giggled at him playfully. "Norman Osborn, what's gotten into you?" She asked. To which he simply smiled, and for a split second the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. 

In her husband's face, there was a smile that she didn't recognize. A trick of the light, or of her half-asleep mind? 

"I don't know how to explain it, darling. I simply feel like...a new man!" 

And it was fun at first. 

When Brie met Norman he was kind, thoughtful, and intelligent, but he didn't exactly have the presence of the powerful owner and founder of Oscorp. In contrast to how his reputation might precede him, he seemed to struggle in assuming an air of confidence, especially around his superiors. 

And when they started working together, growing closer, she noticed him getting better. Little by little, the way he carried himself and the way he spoke began to change, and she liked to believe that she’d had a hand in that! 

But ever since that day, it was like a switch had been flipped! Suddenly he was able to command the room whenever he walked in, his nervousness and self-doubt gone completely. Not only that, but he began surprising her regularly with lavish gifts and fancy dates! 

He had never needed to do these things in order to win her over, in fact it almost seemed like too much. But seeing the confident sparkle in his eye when he was toting her around on his arm, seeing that he seemed happier made her happy too. So she elected to ignore that unfamiliar grin he wore. 

Then, suddenly it wasn't so fun anymore. He'd become more confident, sure, but also more irritable. Even aggressive at times. He never used to yell at his employees before, but now anytime someone made a mistake he went out of his way to scream belittling things at them until it was corrected. Maybe they hadn’t respected him as much as they should have before, but now they feared him, walking on eggshells and obsessing over every detail to ensure no mistakes are made again.

Ok, maybe he was just under a lot of stress, she reasoned to herself. Trying to get ahead of Quest Aerospace was always on the back of his mind, and a genuine source of worry for him, she knew this. In response, she tried to be extra attentive to him at home, hoping that if he was well taken care of then he'd be a bit less high-strung at work. 

For a little bit it worked, but it didn’t last. Soon enough it seemed like those problems only followed them home. Norman hadn’t been particularly jealous before, maybe a bit wary because their relationship was bound to come under scrutiny due to her being his employee and so much younger than him. He never felt like he might lose her, though. At least, she tried not to give him any reason to, reminding him of how happy she was as often as possible! 

One night, when he had brought her to some new, exclusive club, she didn't exactly mind it when he slipped his arm around her waist to pull her up against his side when there were too many men in the room. It made her feel special, important, even. They still went about their night, Norman shooting a dangerous glare once in a while when someone came too close. It was no secret that she wasn’t used to the high society crowd in the slightest, but if Norman was going to start taking her to places like this then she might as well be making him look good! So at first she avoided speaking too much, fearful they’d sense that she wasn’t one of them, but soon she felt herself coming out of her shell. 

She found that the bourgeoise were easy to charm! And she did so, listening to them talk about themselves, learning how to say what they wanted to hear, and telling them jokes, letting their laughter fill the room. 

Suddenly, she felt herself being jerked roughly to one side. Norman’s hand an iron grip around her wrist, pulling her along and parting the crowd easily as he made for the exit. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked, but he kept his eyes forward, not stopping until they stepped out of the door and into the frigid December air. “Norman, what’s going on?” she asked, more firmly this time. 

This time, he did look at her, and it froze her to the spot and chilled her blood even more than the bitter cold surrounding them. He didn’t look like himself anymore, something about the shadows on his face giving him a frightening appearance. What’s more was there seemed to be a sort of glow behind his eyes. It pierced her heart like daggers, his hand around her wrist like a vice squeezing even tighter. 

“We had to get out of there, I don’t like the way those men were looking at you!” he snapped, even his voice sounding different. It was harsher, more gravelly, and seemed to come from deep within. 

“What? Norman, they were just being nice, I thought you’d want me to be friendly with them-” she started, but was cut off as he yanked her closer to him now. Close enough to feel his breath, and to see how sweaty he’d become despite the snow that was beginning to fall to the ground.

“No, not that friendly, not with them!” he snarled, “You don’t know anything about this world, about what kind of horrible things men like that will do if you give them the chance! They’re like sharks sniffing around for even a drop of blood, you can’t let your guard down around them!” 

Brie’s heart was racing in her chest, she’d never heard him speak like this in all the years she’d known him. There was pure venom dripping from every word, and she struggled to keep her voice steady as she tried to wiggle out of his grip. 

“Norman, you’re hurting me!” she said, and the shadows on his face lessened, as if whatever darkness that covered him was starting to pass. He let go, turning away from her, and ran both of his hands through his hair slowly before letting out a deep sigh. 

“We’re not coming back here, or to any place like this again. I have to protect you, I’m the only one that can protect you.” He stated, seeming to be talking more to himself than to her, getting stuck in his own head. These days, it was getting harder and harder to tell just what he was thinking, but it was clear that whatever was going through his head now was hurting him. 

“Norman…” she said simply, softly. Taking ginger steps towards him, before wrapping her arms around his middle and squeezing him gently. His hand came up to rest on top of hers where they linked, and nuzzling her cheek against his shoulder, she could feel the heat of his body even through the layers of clothes he wore. They stood like that for a moment, letting the soft snowflakes fall onto their heads and stick to their hair and eyelashes. 

He turned to look at her again, and she breathed a sigh of relief to see that his face was no longer harsh and shadowed. He looked guilty, almost scared, but he looked like her husband again. Reaching up to cup his cheeks in her hands she placed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. 

"Let's just...call Charles and get home, ok love?" She said, running her thumbs over his prominent cheekbones. He nodded, and they waited in the cold, his arm around her shoulder pressing her flush against him until the driver arrived. 

Peter listened to all of this, gripping his cup nervously the more he heard. 

"He hasn't spoken to me like that again, but it still doesn't stop there," Brie continued, "sometimes I hear him all alone in his office just...laughing to himself, and it just doesn't sound like him. Not to mention he's been coming home late almost every night covered in bruises and cuts!" 

Peter nodded slowly, knowingly "And...you have no idea what could be causing this?" 

Brie’s eyes darted to her cup, now empty. "No. I don't. The one thing I do know is that it had something to do with the performance enhancers. He didn't come home with me that night, and he'd mentioned human trials to the General, but I didn't think that he would-" 

Brie stopped short as her voice began to break, not wanting to cry about this in front of him. A warm but calloused hand wrapped around her clenched fist, and squeezed gently. She looked up to meet his soft expression, and sighed, composing herself.

"He won't tell me anything. Every time I ask he insists he's fine which tells me that he's not, and I don't want to upset him again." That she was scared of upsetting him felt more accurate "That's why I called you, Peter."

"Why me?" He asked, although he was flattered, and more than willing to help. Something about the way she spoke of this sort of alter ego rubbed him the wrong way, his heightened senses telling him that it may have more to do with him than she thought. 

"Because other than him, you're the smartest person I know!" She replied, simply, getting a bashful chuckle out of him. "And I know we're both familiar with his research so maybe if we work together we can do something! I know you must be busy with school and finding a job and everything, so I'd be happy to pay you-" 

He shook his head, cutting her off. "Don't worry about it, Brie! Growing up you were my only friend other than Harry. If I can help you with this, I will, no questions asked!" 

Brie felt herself getting choked up again, tears threatening at her eyes. Only this time, they were tears of happiness, of relief. She chuckled shakily, "When did you get so mature, Pete?" 

After the bill was paid and they'd both finished up their drinks, Brie took note of the time and proclaimed she'd been away too long. She hadn't told Norman about meeting up with Peter today since he might have wanted to tag along, and she still needed to run some errands. These days Norman got nervous when she wasn't home after a certain amount of time. Standing outside the cafe, waiting for a cab, Peter waited with her patiently. 

"I honestly can't thank you enough, Peter. Really, it means everything to me!" She said, voice raised slightly to be heard over the bustling traffic and the clamor of the New York city streets. 

Peter smiled back at her, "it's nothing, just see if you can get a sample of his DNA like some hair or something, then we'll meet up next week and see if anything looks off!" 

Brie nodded, though she wondered how exactly she was going to manage to do that discreetly. "That sounds good. Plus, I want to hear everything you've been doing lately! We have so much to catch up on. Like...do you have a girlfriend yet?" 

Peter laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. "It's complicated, but there's a couple of girls I really like…" he said, and trailed off. "I'm sure you remember MJ! And I sort of met someone in one of my college classes, she's really special!" 

"Aww! I guess you're not so scared of catching cooties anymore, then!" She teased, punching him playfully on his arm. Holy cow, it was firm! She wondered when he must have started working out too. 

Peter just laughed nervously in response, "I'll tell you everything soon, I promise!" Seeming to want to drop the subject, and she wasn't about to pry. 

The wind blew and she shivered, pulling her coat closer around her. 

No...it wasn't just the wind. The chill went down her spine and through her bones, like she was being watched. Hunted, even. Looking around her, she tried to find the source, but couldn't pick up anything that stood out, so she tried to shrug it off. Her cab had arrived anyway. 

Before parting ways, she pulled Peter into a tight hug. She could feel how firm his shoulders were too, and his grip around her was tighter than what she imagined he could muster! What was this kid eating? Certainly not peanut butter sandwiches anymore. 

"It's gonna be ok, Brie. It'll all be over soon, and then maybe me and Harry can come over for dinner...ok?" He reassured, and she felt just a little bit better. 

"Ok." She sniffled, wiping her eyes as they had begun to get misty again. And even after climbing into the cab and driving off, she couldn't shake that anxious feeling. Like a prey animal in the sights of a vicious wolf...she wished it would go away. 

kayla was raised by her parents in the suburbs of massachusetts. she worked hard in school to get into a good college, which ended up being nyu. there she studied journalism and got an internship with the daily bugle, a local paper. she worked there through college and secured a job after graduation. it was then that she began to try to make a name for herself in the industry. to do this, she planned an exposè on oscorp and the experiments they were doing.

there, she was stung by a bee. she didn’t think much of it until she started seeing symptoms. she grew tiny stingers on her fists, started to be able to attach to things, among a few other mildly insignificant symptoms. on her next visit to the company, she found an unused suit with wings and a mask.

in a panic, she tried to find spiderman, knowing that if anyone could help her it would probably be him. she tried to lure him out, eventually getting him out by pretending to be in trouble.