Chapter 63: An Exception

That frightened me more than his answer had.

My beliefs hadn’t suddenly changed.

If someone else admitted they’d killed people, I would be horrified.

I would question what kind of person they really were and whether I could ever feel safe around them again.

Yet with Chris, my mind was already searching for reasons why it might have been necessary.

Maybe he’d had no choice.

Maybe the people he’d killed had deserved it.

Maybe there were things I simply didn’t understand.

Or maybe I was making excuses because it was him.

I knew which possibility bothered me most, because even after thinking it, I still didn’t want to let him go.

Mom had warned me that Chris wouldn’t always act according to the ideals I believed in.

At the time, I’d thought that meant I would eventually have to make him understand when he was wrong.

Now I wasn’t sure it would ever be that simple.

I still believed what I believed, but apparently there were lines I was willing to bend when Chris was standing on the other side of them.

I fell asleep again before I could decide how I felt about that.

The next morning, I felt better than I had since returning from the trip.

I told Chris it had been one of the best nights I’d had, then told him I liked him again when he still refused to give me a proper answer.

When he said we could ignore his meeting and focus on my powers, I stopped him.

He’d already changed enough of his plans because of me, and I didn’t want him abandoning everything else.

I also apologized for blaming him when he had to leave.

I knew he’d had things he needed to do, and it wasn’t fair for me to act like he’d chosen them over me.

Chris looked at me for a moment before saying, “Gwen, I might have things I need to do, but that doesn’t mean they’re more important to me than you are.” He paused before adding, “No plan, meeting, or company is more important to me than you or Helen.”

For a moment, I didn’t know what to say.

My thoughts immediately went back to the jealousy I’d felt while sitting alone in my room.

Chris hadn’t placed Mom above me or me above Mom.

We were both important to him.

I knew I should have been satisfied with that.

Instead, some part of me still wanted something that belonged only to me.

I didn’t let myself think about that for very long.

I kissed him on the cheek and ran into the bathroom before he could react.

The moment the door closed, I stared at my red face in the mirror and wondered what exactly I was doing.

I still didn’t have an answer, but I couldn’t stop smiling.

Later, we went downstairs, and White told Chris that Obadiah Stane would arrive at two.

She offered to move the meeting because of me, but I refused.

After breakfast, I brought down some books on human mutation and gene sequencing, and Chris agreed to study with me.

It didn’t take long for me to discover that he understood far less than he’d pretended, which made teaching him much more entertaining than it probably should have been.

Eventually, I became tired again.

Chris let me rest my head on his lap, and I continued reading until the words started blurring together.

I didn’t even notice when I fell asleep.

I woke only slightly when voices entered the room.

Mom was saying something about taking me upstairs, but Chris answered before I could properly understand what was happening.

“No. If he can’t show me the basic decency of arriving on time, I don’t see why I should disturb Gwen just to show him any.”

I kept my eyes closed and shifted slightly against him.

The meeting continued around me, but I only caught pieces of it.

Obadiah’s voice, Chris answering him, something about Arthur and minced meat.

Chris sounded colder than he ever did when speaking to me or Mom, but I was too tired to follow the conversation.

At some point, I moved and felt his fingers pass gently through my hair.

I relaxed and fell asleep again.

By the time I properly woke, Obadiah was gone.

Chris and I talked about why I was sleeping so much, and then I helped him with the part of the genome book he’d gotten stuck on.

After that, he showed me the processor and AI material he’d been studying, and we spent the next few hours going between his work and mine.

Eventually, White returned and announced that Pepper Potts had arrived.

I started gathering the books, assuming Chris would want privacy, but he stopped me.

“You don’t have to leave.”

I looked at him for a second before putting everything back down.

“Okay.”

I liked that more than I should have.

Chris had plenty of things he kept hidden from me, but he wasn’t sending me away simply because someone important had arrived.

A few minutes later, Pepper entered.

I remembered her from before, and I noticed almost immediately that she kept looking between Chris and me.

I didn’t know what she was thinking, but she seemed nervous when she finally sat across from him.

Their conversation quickly turned to Tony Stark.

He had apparently been kidnapped almost three days ago, and Rhodey had the support of the U.S.

military in the search.

Chris offered to help, but when he told Pepper that even his people would need at least a month, she clearly began doubting him.

What caught my attention was what happened next.

Pepper asked whether Chris really believed the military couldn’t find Tony within that time, and Chris answered without even hesitating.

“They won’t find him.” Pepper clearly didn’t believe him.

She eventually refused his help and said she trusted Rhodey and the military to find Tony.

Chris didn’t argue or try to convince her.

He simply accepted her decision and told her his door would remain open if she changed her mind.

After Pepper left, I kept watching Chris.

There had been something about the certainty in his voice that made me curious.

“You really think they won’t find Tony?”

Chris simply answered, “No.” I narrowed my eyes slightly.

“How do you know?” He looked at me for a few seconds before a small smile appeared on his face.

“That’s one of the things I can’t tell you yet.”

The word yet immediately caught my attention.

He wasn’t saying I would never know, only that he wouldn’t tell me now.

“Fine. But I’m remembering that.” Chris smiled slightly.

“I’m sure you will.”

I was about to return to my book when I looked down at my hands and remembered the reason we’d postponed everything in the first place.

“We still need to test me.” Chris nodded.

“I know.” He thought for a moment before asking, “Remember the laboratory I told you I was planning?” I looked back at him.

“The one under the house?” When he nodded, I waited for him to continue.

“I’m changing some of the plans.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Because of me?”

“Partly. We need somewhere you can safely test your abilities without destroying the house. Reinforced areas for strength testing, sensors for speed and reflexes, medical equipment to see what changed inside your body, and enough room for anything else we discover.” That caught my attention immediately.

The laboratory itself wasn’t new.

Chris had already offered me my own section long before the bite, but back then I’d imagined somewhere I could study genetics and work on experiments.

Now part of it was going to be designed around abilities neither of us completely understood yet.

“You already planned all that?” I asked.

Chris shook his head slightly.

“Some of it. We’ll figure out the rest as we go.” I smiled at the way he’d said it.

“We?” Chris looked at me as though he didn’t understand why I was asking.

“It’s your lab too.”

Something about that answer made me smile.

A day ago, I’d been hiding in my room because I was terrified that something inside me had gone wrong.

Now I was thinking about reinforced testing rooms, genetic analysis, and finding out exactly what the spider had changed.

I still didn’t know what I was becoming, but for the first time, I was more curious to find out than afraid.

…….

Author’s Note

Sorry for not uploading for a while.

I had exams, so I couldn’t really focus on writing or uploading properly.

Please bear with me for three more days.

After that, uploads should be regular again.

Thanks for understanding and for waiting.