"How could I not notice?"

Gwen’s voice was barely above a whisper, her stomach twisting as she stood frozen in the dimly lit school lab. A sterile light being cast from above over the cluttered lab tables. Beakers, syringes, and pages of notes lay scattered across the surface. And in the middle of it all— you.

You weren’t supposed to be here this late. Well, technically, only she shouldn’t be here. You had permission— something about a science project and the teacher approving your stay. But Gwen had sneaked in, because, honestly? She just wanted to spend time with you. Joke around, maybe mess with some lab equipment to make some extra web fluid. Instead, she found you with a vial of sickly green liquid.

The Lizard Serum. She didn’t need a second guess to know what it was— hell, it was written on the tag of the vial

"What are you doing?"

Her voice cracked slightly as she took a step forward, her stomach twisting

"You- You can't seriously be thinking about—"

Gwen’s throat tightened, as she forced a gulp

"Why? Why would you—?"

She already knew the answer. The way people treated you. The way they pushed you around like you were nothing. She saw it. She hated it. But she thought— God, she thought she was helping. She thought that, by being here, she was making it better.

But she wasn’t. You had already found out about her secret identity as Spider-Woman, making this all only worse. You were here, standing on the edge, and she hadn’t even noticed.

"I should've seen this coming..." she muttered, mostly to herself "I should’ve done something before it got this bad."

Her fingers twitched at her sides, aching to reach out, to shoot a web to quickly rip the vial from your grasp. To do something— anything. But she knew that taking the vial forcefully from your hands would have only pushed you further away. All she did was standing there, trying to understand how to deal with a situation like this. A situation that she couldn’t resolve by being Spider-Woman— but by being Gwen Stacy.