Just an Empty Seat
Title: Just an Empty Seat
Author: Jenn
Summary: Movieverse Mary Jane thinks of Peter even when John surprises her after her play the night Peter was supposed to come to see it. One Shot.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Both movies.
Timeline: The night of M.J.’s play, the one that Peter missed in the second movie.
Category: Drama/Romance
Feedback: Always happy to hear what readers have to say.
Archive: Anywhere, but please ask me first. I would like to know where it’s going and to make sure it will have my name on it.
Disclaimers: They’re not mine. Stan Lee and Marvel own them. Not making one penny for this story. This fic is just for enjoyment.
Thoughts and flashbacks/quotes from the movies are in italics.
- O - O - O - O - O - O -
“You hungry?”
“Starved.” Mary Jane Watson smiled at her boyfriend, John Jameson. Linking their arms together, they started down the street.
Feeling like there were eyes on her, Mary Jane turned to look across the street at a building with some steps while a violinist playing nearby. But there was no one looking at her. At the oddest of times lately she felt she was being watched.
Sighing, M.J. tried not to think of that, or of Peter Parker. Instead, she should be happy that her boyfriend had surprised her by coming by.
They didn’t say anything to each other but walked in companionable silence. M.J. cared for John dearly. She was fond of him and comfortable with him. Mary Jane smiled a small grin in the darkness. If she told Louise Wood, her co actress, that Louise would start on one of her fits about how she should feel passionate love or something like that, not fondness.
But M.J. had found her passionate love in the boy next door. But he didn’t feel the same. At least it hadn’t sounded like that last night after Peter’s party.
“I liked seeing you tonight, Peter.”
“Oh, boy, yeah…”
“’Oh, boy, yeah’ what?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you want to say something?”
Was she missing something? Or did Peter like to play mind games? Had she pushed him to try to reveal something that he didn’t want to share or didn’t have to share? Shoving the questions away, Mary Jane saw the restaurant come into view.
After going in and getting seated, they talked of causal topics while they ordered their food.
“Sorry I didn’t get in early enough to see the play.”
Laughing lightly, Mary Jane said, “You’ve already seen it five times!”
“I know,” John grinned but looking sincere, he said, “I would have loved to see it again.”
Mary Jane smiled at him, but remembered someone that should have seen it tonight…
“I’m coming to see your play tomorrow night.”
M.J. hadn’t been expecting that. She had been asking and hoping that Peter would come to the play. She asked with surprise, “You’re coming?”
Swallowing hard, Peter managed to say, “I’ll be there.”
Knowing she shouldn’t get her hopes up, Mary Jane responded with, “Don’t disappoint me.”
With one quick shake of his head, no, Peter said with quiet conviction, “I won’t.”
Headed back to her house, Mary Jane couldn’t help thinking, Oh, but he had so many other times…
“Earth to M.J. Our food is here.”
Blinking, she looked at John, and blushed. It had nothing to do with spacing out on him. It everything to do with the fact she was sitting with him while thinking of Peter. But then this hadn’t been first time she’d done that.
Now she couldn’t help thinking that she would have to add this to the ‘Peter disappointed’ list. Would there be a phone message when she got home?
But she jolted herself out of that thought. Who cares! You’re with John, your reliable boyfriend.
“So how was your friend’s birthday party?” John asked as he took a bite of his hamburger.
It took a second for Mary Jane to realize that John wanted to know about the party from the night before.
“Oh, it went fine.”
John was hoping for more of an answer then that. “So, was he surprised?”
Surprised would be an understatement, Mary Jane thought. Peter looked like he really forgot his birthday. Is his life so hectic that he forgets plans and is late for things?
Taking a bite of her chicken salad, M.J. didn’t feel that hungry. She was still was upset with this evening’s events.
“Yes, he was surprised. But once Peter got over the shock of it, we had a pretty good time.” Had the good time been before or after Harry Osborn got on his case about Spider-Man?
Though Mary Jane hadn’t heard their conversation from the kitchen, when she and Aunt May came back out Harry was standing some feet away, livid. Peter was rooted to the spot he had been when M.J. had left room, very uncomfortable.
Would Harry ever get over his feelings of revenge? His father had been gone for a year and a half. Mary Jane didn’t believe that Spider-Man would kill anyone, not deliberately. Try telling that to Harry.
“Are you going to eat your salad?”
Looking down at her more then half filled plate, Mary Jane shook her head, no. “I’ll take it home. Maybe I’ll eat it as a midnight snack.”
After M.J. got her leftover bag, John paid for the meal. When they got outside, he hailed a cab.
“How was the play tonight?” John asked once they were in a cab, on their way home.
“It was one of my off nights.” She didn’t even bother getting into it. She remembered that the reason she was off had been that Peter was supposed to come, but didn’t.
It was funny how Peter promised that he’d come to see the play after she had told him about John. Why hadn’t he mentioned it when they, along with Harry, were talking about it?
Though, there may have been something behind it. Considering that she’d nearly kissed Peter last night, until she thought of John, which had stopped her.
Backing away from Peter, Mary Jane hoped her heart rate would go back to normal. Tell him about John, her mind screamed at her.
Stopping, she turned back to him, “I’m seeing somebody now.”
Looking stunned, Peter asked, somewhat stupidly, she thought, “You mean, like a boyfriend?”
“Well, like I like him.”
Peter looked away from her. Had Mary Jane hurt him with these words? Was it possible that he was regretting that he let her go a year and a half ago? It was too late now.
“What?” Would Peter say what was really on his mind and heart?
“Nothing.” Clearing his throat, Peter continued, “That’s good, you know?” He smiled at her, but M.J. could tell it was faked. “Companionship…” he trailed off.
“Maybe more than that.” Things with John had gotten serious, but he hadn’t proposed to her yet. What would she say, when, not if, he did?
She almost missed his, “More?” It sounded the way Peter would have said it when he was 13 and his voice was changing.
Sighing, she said more to herself than him, “I don’t know.” What would she say to John when he did ask?
Seeing that the cab had stopped at her apartment building, Mary Jane said to John, “You don’t have to walk me up.” She was sure he was tired from his trip.
“I don’t mind,” John insisted, ever the gentleman. Telling the cabbie to wait, he got out of the cab and came around to open M.J.’s door.
Walking up to her place, Mary Jane hoped John would just give her a quick peck on the cheek and go. She was starting to get a headache.
“Mary Jane, I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” John started, and he forged ahead. “Will you marry me?”
No, no. she thought. She couldn’t handle this on top of everything else that happened tonight. “John, I…”
Seeing the indecision on her face, John said as smoothly as he could, “You don’t have to answer now. I know you’ve been distracted all night.”
Feeling wretched, Mary Jane didn’t know what to say. Here was a great guy, who just proposed to her, which she knew should come as a surprise. But all M.J. could think about was how mad she was at someone else!
“John…this is all sudden, can you give me some time?”
“Take as much time as you need.” He leaned forward, to kiss her lips no doubt.
But he didn’t, since at the last minute, M.J. turned her head. “Why don’t you come over tomorrow? I’ll cook you some breakfast,” she offered to soothe her guilty heart.
Smiling, John said in a slightly less than jovial voice. “Sure.”
Unlocking and opening her apartment door, she said, “Good night, John.”
“Good night, and sweet dreams,” he said and walked down the steps through the hall to the waiting cab.
Now in her apartment, Mary Jane’s eyes landed on the answering machine. There were no messages. She couldn’t help but think of another message that she had gotten once. It had been a bizarre one, that was for sure.
That turned her thoughts to the events of Norman Osborn’s funeral. The things she’d had said, because thanks to the phone message and her near death experience she had the confidence to tell Peter what was on her mind. It had been so new, but she knew that she couldn’t keep it to herself.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you. When I was up there and I thought I was gonna die, there was only one person who I was thinking of. And it wasn’t who I thought it’d be. It was you, Pete. I kept thinking: ‘I hope I make it through this, so I could see Peter Parker’s face one more time.’”
Remembering the next words she had said, M.J. couldn’t help but think that they were so true. She had been so sure Peter felt the same way, because Mary Jane repeated his words back to him, from her heart, like she knew he had his.
“There’s only one man who’s always been there for me, who makes me feel like I’m more than I ever thought I could be. That I’m just…me. And that’s okay.”
Heading toward her bedroom to change into her pj’s, Mary Jane turned on the TV, not bothering to listen to it. Absentmindedly she thought, I’ve got to get groceries for tomorrow.
M.J. let her mind take her back to that upside down day, the funeral. To that kiss that seemed so eerie familiar. Nothing ended that day as she thought it would. Peter’s words after that bittersweet kiss hadn’t made sense.
“I can’t…” Peter trailed off.
“You can’t what?” she tried to encourage him.
“Tell you…everything. I mean, there’s so much to tell.”
The TV interrupted her memory, and for that she was grateful. Mary Jane didn’t want to go through agonizing thoughts about what secrets Peter Parker could possibly have in his life. She took the clips binding her hair out as she started listening to the news.
“A car chase that went through the city tonight, around 8:00, could have turned deadly, but thanks to New York’s masked hero, Spider-Man it wasn’t…”
Mary Jane looked at the news on TV a minute longer, but she turned it off when it continued on about Spider-Man. She was so upset that she couldn’t bear to watch what the news had to say about Spider-Man.
“I want you to know that I will always be there for you. I will always be there to take care of you. I promise you that. I will always be your friend.”
Always? Would she always love him? She didn’t bother wiping away the tear that went down her cheek. After all these years, Peter, you’re nothing to me but an empty seat.
The End
Note: By the time I was finished with this, I was feeling so bad for poor John, I almost want to give the guy a hug.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment! Jenn