I woke up when a square of light fabric landed on my chest. I opened my eyes to see Felicia, in jeans and a T-shirt, her hair held back in a ponytail, standing over me. She smelled like strawberry shampoo and a delicate floral perfume. The red and blue outfit she'd borrowed now lay on my chest, laundered and folded.
I gave her a smile. "Hey."
"Hey," she replied. "I brought your suit back."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. Red and blue aren't a good combination on me anyway."
I shook my head and met her eyes. "No, Felicia.
Thanks.
For coming here. For staying by me."
She frowned and shook her head. "I was stupid, Pete. I led the bad guys right to your home. To MJ."
"Not your fault," I told her. "You didn't think Oliver would stick a knife in your back."
"But I should have thought of it," she said.
"Maybe next time. Did you find out how he was tracking you?"
She rolled her eyes. "How wasn't he? GPS in the phone, the visor, the power unit on the suit—and tracking chips woven into the fabric of the suit itself. I had to ditch it."
"Back to the old outfit?"
"It's not old," she said. "It's classic. Or at the worst, retro."
I snorted out a little laugh. "As long as it isn't the one with the shoulder pads and the headband. How's our buddy Oliver?"
She gave me a smile filled with very white teeth. "He's out of the company already. He's probably out there trying to plot a way to keep his money without me ruining his life."
"Seems to me if he could subtract you from the equation, he could do that."
Felicia shrugged. "He wouldn't be the first to try it."
"Just so long as he's not the last."
She gave me a coy little look and shifted her hips. "I'm a big girl, Petey. I can take care of myself."
"Just be careful," I said.
"Maybe I'll get a bodyguard," she said. "If I could find one who would guard my body instead of ogling it."
"You and MJ worked things out, I guess?"
" Worked out' is a rather strong term. We called a cease-fire," she replied. "News flash, honey: It's a rare thing for wives and ex-girlfriends to get along. I don't think she's ever really gotten past that portrait I had taken for you." She smiled. "Watson's got guts, though. I'll give her that."
I remembered said portrait of Felicia, and hoped my blush didn't show. "And how," I said. "Thank you for helping me protect her."
Her expression grew serious for a moment. "I know you think the world of her. Maybe we aren't together anymore, but I care about you. A lot. So even if she tried to claw my eyes out every time I came in the room, I'd do the same thing next time. It'd kill you if something happened to her. I don't want that. And she loves you, too, Pete. She makes you happy."
"Yeah. She does." I smiled for a moment and reached up to take her hand for a moment, squeezing. She squeezed back, then leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. "Don't be a stranger," I said.
"Of course not," she replied. "And don't wait for it to get as bad as this before you call me for help, either. No one does it all alone."
"I'll remember," I said.
"Tell MJ I said good-bye?"
"Will do."
She winked at me on her way out. "Take care of yourself, Pete."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," I replied.
"You're no fun at all," she said, and closed the door behind her.
Mary Jane got in late—after eleven o'clock. But she came through the door smiling and humming to herself. I was dozing in front of the TV. My metabolism gets me back on my feet faster than the average bear, but mending broken bones really takes it out of me.
"Hey there," I mumbled, and smiled at her. She came to the couch and kissed me thoroughly and then just sort of draped herself over me. "Someone had a good day," I observed. "The car ran? The driver's test went okay?"
"The car," she said, smiling, "is fixed. You'd never know I crashed it into anything at all."
I blinked. "How…"
She wriggled pleasantly, and drew an old business card from her pocket. The front said, "Stephen Strange, MD." She flipped it over. The back read, in Strange's scrawling script, "Bippity-Boppity-Body Shop."
I laughed and hugged her. "And the test?"
"Somehow, it seemed a whole lot less dramatic on Monday than it had been on Saturday," she replied, her tone smug.
"There's a shocker," I said. "How was your first rehearsal?"
"Wonderful," she said, and kissed me again. "The lead was all surprised that I had a mind. He thought he was just getting to hang around with a bit of mobile scenery."
"So long as he looks with his eyes and not with his hands," I drawled. "You need me to beat anybody up, you let me know."
"I think I'll manage that on my own, should it become necessary. Which it won't, of course." She kissed me again, then drew back, eyes bright. "How was practice?"
"Wong got game," I said. "Apparently he saw the Globetrotters when he was a kid. I guess when he wasn't learning mystic kung fu and herbal remedies, he was teaching himself whatever he could about basketball."
"The plan worked?"
"And how," I said.
"Broken wrist and all?"
"Yep," I said. I grinned. "I cheated. Just a little. Not enough to look weird."
Mary Jane grinned back. "I thought you said cheating would defeat the purpose."
"One-on-one, sure," I said. "But the kid needed to learn that sometimes you run into something you can't handle on your own. So I made sure he couldn't." I put on a pious face. "It was for his own good."
She laughed again. "Did Felicia get out of town all right?"
"Yes," I said. "She said to tell you good-bye."
"Good."
"Good that she said that, or good that she's gone?"
"Yes," Mary Jane said in a cheerful tone. "You're never going to believe who came by the rehearsal."
The phone rang. I sighed and fumbled around for it. Mary Jane sort of wormed her way up my stomach so that she could reach the phone. Which was quite nice, really.
She picked up the phone and held it up to my ear for me.
"Hello?" I said.
Wong's voice came over the phone. "The Rhino asked to speak to you before he left. I took the liberty of contacting you so that he would not know the number I called."
"Right," I said. "Put him on."
"Spider-Man?" the Rhino asked, the strong Russian accent thick and rolling.
"Da?" I said.
He snorted. "You kept your word to me."
"Yes," I said. "It's been more than twenty-four hours."
"I know. Called to tell you am keeping to our deal in any case. Am on the way out of town in a moment. No trouble for you or anyone."
"Good," I said. "Don't suppose I could talk you into extending the deal."
The Rhino grunted. "You going to pay my debts? Give me job?"
"No."
"Then is no deal." His voice turned thoughtful. "Maybe one day, things are different. But for now, is no help for it."
"Too bad," I said. "Someone like you could do a lot of good. It wasn't bad working with you for once."
"Maybe. But things between us do not change," he said. "One day, I will beat you. My way. One day, I will show you."
"Well," I said. "We'll just see about that."
I swear, I could hear the big guy's smile. "Da. We will."
And we both hung up. Well, technically Mary Jane did. My hands were… elsewhere.
"You know," she said thoughtfully, "I think I've worked out what was bothering me about him. Our friend Aleksei is not stupid."
I frowned. "He's not Gump or anything, maybe, but I promise you he's not the crispiest chip in the bag."
"I'm not so sure," she said, voice intent. "You think that because you've always thought it, and so now you expect him to be a big dope. But stop and think for a minute.
Everyone in your circle expects it, don't they?"