A MONTH PASSED, THE SPIDER-MAN AND DANNY WEDGING THEMSELVES ALMOST PERMANENTLY INTO DIANA'S DAILY LIFE AND ROUTINE. The Spider-Man, a beacon of hope. Danny, the rocks ready to destroy the life she had built. Both consumed Flash and, as a result, consumed her. She worried about Flash, as well as everyone else. She worried about everyone except herself, it seemed.

"Get some sleep, Dina," Harry said, gripping her shoulders, "This is the third time today, go to the office and go home."

She shook her head, rising to her feet. "No, no, I need to stay."

Harry sighed, looking at the clock. "Have you gotten any sleep the past few days?"

She shook her head. "Finals start tomorrow, then it's Christmas a week after that. You know what that means, Harry, I can't sleep."

He sighed. "I'm sorry things are so shit at home, we've noticed Flash breaking too. He's been pulling his punches, though?"

She frowned up at him. "Pulling punches still means he's punching."

Harry slung an arm over her shoulder. "C'mon. Ned's not here today, so Peter's sitting with us. I don't want to keep him waiting."

Diana hummed and allowed herself to be dragged to the cafeteria, still part asleep. Harry had a point, she needed to sleep, but she couldn't, the nightmares get to be too much after a while. Not just hers, but Flash's as well.

"Hey," Gwen chirped, waving, "Peter was just telling me a secret." She motioned to the boy on her left who still seemed to be getting used to the fact he was wearing contacts and not glasses, pushing the bridge of his nose before dropping his hand.

"Ooh," Harry sang, sitting down across from the two of them, Diana on his left, "Do tell."

Peter looked around the room. "Look, so Sally Avril's been holding this over my head, so I've just been telling everyone, then telling them to spread the word, can you guys do that?"

"Sure," Diana said, "But why's she holding it over you?"

He scoffed. "No idea. Point is, I'm the guy that's been taking pictures of Spider-Man for J. Jonah Jameson."

They all blanched. "That jerk who—"

"Yes, that jerk," Peter sighed, "I don't like him either, but I won the contest and he got me a job and it pays and I need to help out my aunt, so..."

"That's really admirable of you, Peter," Gwen said, "We'll be sure to pass it around before Sally Avril does."

Harry nodded, then jumped up on his chair. "Hey, everyone! Peter Parker wanted me to let all of you know that he's the one that takes pictures of Spider-Man for Jameson. It pays well and he was a little afraid of what you guys were gonna think, so let's all be nice, huh?"

There was a smattering of applause throughout the room, some people cheering quietly, others asking if he could introduce him to them.

Harry jumped up again after Peter made a cutting gesture at his throat. "Peter doesn't know Spider-Man, he's just a very skilled photographer. You want an interview with the guy, find him yourself, he finds Peter kinda annoying."

Peter scoffed. "He really does."

As Harry sat down, Peter dropped his head, groaning. "Sally Avril..."

Gwen glared. "I hate her. Have I mentioned that? I don't hate a lot of people, but I hate her."

Diana turned and found Sally stalking over, fire in her eyes, only to be stopped by Flash who all but shoved her back towards their own table. When she tried to argue, he shook his head, gesturing sharply to Diana, then motioning her back.

The girl turned to leave and Flash turned to them. He gave Diana a small thumbs up and she returned it, nodding slightly before turning back to Gwen who was staring at Flash sadly before looking down at the table.

"Diana," Peter started after a few minutes of eating in silence, "I hope you don't mind, but I heard about what's going on with you at home and I'm sorry that that's happening."

She pursed her lips into a smile. "Thanks. Does everyone know?"

"No," Gwen said quickly, "I'm sorry, I told him. I was explaining why Flash was getting particularly aggressive lately."

Peter sighed. "You have finals, then Christmas to worry about. That sounds awful."

She nodded. "Oh, it is. I mean, I'm prepared enough for finals, freshman don't really have to worry. But Christmas. I mean, it's the holidays, you'd think we'd catch a break."

Harry frowned. "Maybe that's what they're hoping for. Catch you at a good time, you slip up easier."

Goosebumps covered her arms and she pulled her jacket closer. "I guess we'll just have to see."

º º º º º

The Glicks were the smartest family Diana had ever met. Instead of showing up on Christmas like they had promised, they waited until two days after to show.

That made the Thompsons cocky. Just like Harry had predicted.

"I can't believe they wound us up like that just so they wouldn't show," Flash ranted as he got himself another slice of pumpkin pie, "That's just sick. Just wanted to mess with us, that's sick."

"They were being serious, Flash, maybe they got held up, it is the holidays," Rosie suggested, as she had been for the past three days, but her words had no meaning behind them, by this point she seemed to believe her son.

Diana was sitting at the dinner table and grabbed the plate Flash was holding, quickly taking a bite from the pie before he could take it back. She giggled as he made a face, going back to get himself another piece.

That was when the doorbell rang.

Everything came to a standstill. Jesse, who had been shuffling cards for UNO stopped cold, the cards flying in different directions. Flash's hand went slack and the knife clattered to the floor.

"D-dina," he whispered, glancing over to where his mother was rushing to change out of her pajamas, "Get the door. Please."

She nodded, standing and walking over to the door. Flash was rushing to clean up the knife and the mess on the floor, grabbing another one to replace it. She could hear Jesse scrambling to grab all the cards from the floor of the living room, whispering curses under her breath.

She opened the door and found herself looking at a little girl with hair as light blonde as her own. The little girl's eyes brightened the second she caught sight of Diana, starting to cheer.

"You're Diana! I'm Daisy! This is my brother, Danny. We're from London. We're your family." The girl motioned for some people to hurry and Diana caught sight of Danny and a few adults following close behind.

"Hi, Diana," Danny greeted with that same bright smile that he always gave. He was wearing a Christmas sweater underneath his suit jacket.

"Hi," she said softly, trying to smile, "Please, come in, would you like something to eat or drink?"

Before any of them could reply, Rosie stepped out from the hallway. She had changed from her pajamas into a Christmas sweater and nicer pajama bottoms. She smiled and walked over to them, introducing herself and shaking their hands.

Diana turned quickly, making a beeline for Flash who was almost hiding behind the counter, watching. Jesse was still in the living room.

"They showed up," Flash whispered, "They wanted to catch us off guard, they—"

"I know," Diana whispered back, "Harry mentioned that they might do that. I should've thought more about it, he knows a lot about the ruthlessness of rich families."

Flash narrowed his eyes at the family that was following Rosie to the living room, "The adults don't look that bloodthirsty. They look nice."

She hummed. "So does Norman Osborn when he talks to people, you think Harry likes him all that much?"

He shook his head. "No, look closely at him. His smile's more like a shark than Santa Claus. I'm telling you, I don't think these people are anything like their devil son."

She shushed him. "Calling him the devil isn't going to look good for you." She winced, realizing what she just said. "He's getting in my head. He is the devil."

Rosie rushed over to them, shaking her head. "Do not, we cannot risk this. I need both of you in the living room, mingle with our guests, I'm getting them food. Go on."

The two nodded and took a deep breath, peering out from the kitchen into the living room. Jesse was talking to the little girl—Daisy—who seemed to be ecstatic at the sight of another girl. Danny was sitting on one of the armchairs, watching the two. He caught the two other freshman staring and winked, waving his fingers.

Diana looked away quickly, shaking her head. They glanced at each other and nodded. Taking a deep breath, Diana grabbed Flash's arm and walked towards the living room. Flash reached over and held onto her arm, the two sitting down next to Jesse.

A gasp pulled their attention away from the young girls and over to a woman. Diana stared at her, her heart aching. The woman pulled her hand away from her mouth. "You look just like her."

Diana swallowed thickly. "So do you."

It was true on both ends. If anyone were to look in they would immediately think that Diana was that woman's daughter, they looked so alike. Diana couldn't look at her for very long and had to tear her gaze away.

"How are you related to my mom?" she asked softly, looking back over.

"Wait," the man next to her said, "You just believe that you're related, just like that?"

Rosie spoke up. "We went over the tests you had done, made sure everything you had given us was legitimate and they were. We had no reason to believe otherwise. At least, not since Danny came to us last month with the file."

The man smiled. "Thank you for being so trusting, we appreciate that."

Diana couldn't stop staring at the woman. "H-how are you related to my mom?"

The woman gave her a sad smile. "We were twins." She paused; saying 'were' seemed to pain her immensely. "We had a falling out right before you were born. We refused to be in each other's lives and cut off all contact."

Diana frowned. "Mom and dad never told me what happened to my grandparents, what happened to them?"

The woman shook her head, laughing softly. "Uh, our biological parents weren't in the picture, we were raised by an older couple, they died while we were in college."

Diana took a deep breath. "I-I'm sorry. I...I can understand how hard that is."

The woman shook her head. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, Diana, I really am. Your mother and I haven't spoken in fourteen years, there was no way to—I never meant to—" she stopped and turned away, covering her face with her hand.

Diana leaned against Flash, closing her eyes; everything was getting to be too much. She took a few steadying breaths, but she couldn't focus. She opened her eyes and glanced up. Danny was staring at her, his eyebrow raised.

Daisy tugged at her sleeve and she looked over. "Hm?"

"Danny said you're gonna come live with us," she said, "Is that true? Because we have a room for you and everything. I can help paint it, I'm good at painting."

She felt Flash tense and saw Jesse and Rosie do the same. She glanced around at the various adults—two of which haven't even spoken yet—then over at Danny who smiled smugly. She shook her head. "N-no, I haven't said anything to that yet, Danny's just being..." she tried to come up with a description for the boy that wouldn't offend his parents.

"An asshole?" Flash offered and Jesse smacked his leg.

"Eugene Thompson!" Rosie shouted.

Flash shook his head. "I mean no disrespect to you, Mr. and Mrs. Glick, you two seem like very wonderful, loving people, but your son has made both my life and Diana's life a living hell since he introduced himself."

"Flash, what are you talking about?" Diana whispered, "I mean, sure, he corners me and talks bad about you guys, but what does he do to you?"

He sighed, glaring at the other boy. "Remember when I had to take three F's in one week because I didn't do my homework?"

She nodded, frowning, "Yeah and I know you did them, we did them together, what happened to them?"

Flash jerked his thumb towards Danny. "Pretty boy here pawned them off, I found some hockey studs trying to pass off my work, got a black eye when I tried to stop 'em. That's the one I said I got from a football even though the season already ended."

Danny whistled. "He's a compulsive liar too. Seriously, what are your redeeming qualities, Flash?"

"Come here, you little—" Diana grabbed Flash and held him down, but the boy just kept talking, "I lied to save your ass, you could've gotten expelled. This is a STEM school, they don't take lightly to plagiarism or anything like that."

Danny snorted. "He can't even come up with a name for what I did."

"Daniel Glick, that is enough," the woman, his mother, snapped.

Danny leaned back in his seat and Flash relaxed and shrugged Diana off, turning so he wouldn't have to face the boy. He shook his head and grabbed the cards from Jesse, shuffling them quickly, not even looking down.

"Wow," Daisy gasped, staring at his hands. He smiled slightly, doing some tricks that he had learned from Diana's dad all those years ago.

"What's your name?" Diana asked, looking at her aunt, "Maybe mom mentioned you in passing."

"Daphne," the woman replied, "Donna and Daphne, the prettiest twins on the block." She laughed mirthlessly, shaking her head.

"I guess the naming trend stuck,"Jesse commented, gesturing towards Daisy, Diana, and Danny, smiling.

Daphne nodded. "I guess they did."

There was a heavy sigh and they all turned to look at the other woman, much older probably Mr. Glick's mother, who was looking at Rosie with disdain. "Can we please just do what we have to? I don't want to stay in this place longer than I have to."

"Excuse me?" Flash said, card shuffling stopping completely.

"Flash," Rosie said quickly, "Please, she meant no harm—"

"No, I do, actually," the woman interrupted, "I don't think it's healthy for my daughter-in-law's family to be living with you people, it's just not right."

Jesse blinked. "Excuse me, what could make it not right?"

"Well, look around you," the woman laughed, "Look at yourselves. Diana is nothing like you people, it only makes sense that she stays with people of her own kind."

Flash jumped to his feet. "Her own—can you hear yourself right now? Oh my God! Okay, let's pretend your point makes any sort of sense. Where were you when her parents died? Weren't they 'your kind' too? Aren't you supposed to look out for your own, where were you?"

"My sister cut me out of her life," Daphne spoke up, "We hadn't made contact in over fourteen years, we disowned each other, she made a will explicitly stating that Diana was not to be placed in my care, there was no way for anyone to reach us and let us know what happened. We couldn't be there."

"Then why are you here now?" Diana demanded, jumping to her feet as well, "After all this time, you show up now. Why five years? Did you just find out?"

The elderly woman scoffed. "Please, we've known all along. That interview you had at the city-wide funeral, we saw the news. Everyone did. We just waited until we were fully capable of raising another child, it's hard work, we couldn't just take on another burden."

It was all getting to be too much. After the woman spoke, Flash started to argue, Jesse jumping in. Rosie was talking to Daphne and her husband, the last adult still staying completely silent. Daisy was mindlessly shouting at everyone. Everyone was just too much.

The interview. They knew about the interview, they saw the interview, and yet they did nothing. They didn't want to deal with another burden until they were ready, she wasn't family, she was a burden. They saw the interview. Everyone saw the interview, everyone at school did, that was why they always acted strangely.

Everyone saw the interview.

Diana looked over and saw Danny just watching. When he saw her looking he smiled.

That broke her.

She ran to her room, blindly throwing open the door. She grabbed her phone from where it was charging and grabbed her wallet from the drawer.

She could hear everyone calling out to her, but they were muffled, as if she was underwater.

She ran for the door, throwing it open, grabbing one of the keys from the bowl. She shoved them all in her pockets, not even bothering to close the door.

She just had to get out.

She stumbled into the elevator and out into the apartment lobby, ignoring the man at the front desk calling out to her, pushing past the lobby boy, shoving open the door. The cold air bit at her face, but she could barely feel it.

She started walking down the street, not bothering to check where she was going. She was making the stupidest decision of her life, but she didn't care, not even when she tripped over a fallen Christmas decoration, she just kept walking.

She just needed to get out.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

WRITTEN: JUNE 5, 2017/PUBLISHED: JUNE 11, 2017

I based the title off that one song "Baby, Please Come Home" since it's Christmas, the biological family wants Diana to come live with them, and the Thompsons want Diana to come back since she ran off at the end.

Heads up, next chapter is where everything...starts.

Sally Avril did, in fact, try to blackmail Peter with secret of him taking pictures of Spider-Man, but Peter told everyone else before they could so they had nothing on him, so I incorporated that in here.

Basically, Danny is an asshole and he gets it from his grandmother. His parents don't know what Danny threatened them with. Just to be clear, they never confirmed the threats Danny made which will become important later on.

MISCOMMUNICATION!

That's all I have to say so thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!