"I'm sorry." It could be an automatic response; it isn't. 

"Thank you." His voice is quiet, compassionate. "I don't want to push you into making any decisions, but... I think you deserve to know what sort of man your husband is."

She nods, very carefully. 

"Thank you," she says. "For the information." 

"If you ever want to leave," he says, "I can make sure that you're safe and financially secure and that you never have to see him again."

"Thank you for that as well." 

"I'll leave the folder with you so you can look at it. My card's in there in case you want to talk to me."

She nods again and thanks him again and takes the folder and the card with her when she leaves. 

She thinks, long and hard, about her life and the choices she's made and the things she had always dismissed. About her son. About her husband, who she is very sure loves her, and yet. 

She calls a lawyer. 

She didn't ask for a Stark Industries drone to be perched by her front door ready to call the cops if necessary, but there's one there anyway. It's very small. Discreet. She probably won't notice. 

Asher has learned to be careful.

She talks to her son. She talks to her husband. She smiles, like nothing's wrong, it was just a long day at work, did you hear about the Supreme Court case. 

That weekend she files for a divorce. 

Asher edits and re-edits the file he's going to send to the police and to the newspapers.

He breathes a gas that makes him fearful, is subjected to a ray that makes him want to obey Pepper, drinks a liquid that makes him fall in love with Marlo. He learns to think through all of them. 

He designs the next generation of StarkPhone, gets frustrated by its limitations, decides to just skip ahead to the generation after that.

The Stark Foundation is tired of how many requests he keeps making.

He rereads Asher's texts over and over. 

He thinks a lot about how Asher doesn't talk to Lev anymore. 

He takes a photo of a flower growing through the crack in the sidewalk. He opens the notes app to draft a text. He never sends it. 

When Vanessa has left and is safe and won't be hurt by it, Asher sends Wilson Fisk the following email:

Dear Mr. Fisk:

You mind-controlled me and caused me to kill Spiderman, whom I love. Through no fault of your own, a mutual friend managed to resurrect him. 

If you are going to try to take the people I love from me, I am going to succeed in taking them from you. If I have any say in it at all, you will never see Vanessa or Richard ever again. 

I'm a pacifist. I don't kill. And I believe in second chances. I've benefited from them in my life; I want to extend them to other people. I want you to know that Vanessa loves you and she would be happy to take you back if you ever quit being Kingpin for good.

But you aren't going to take the second chance, are you? That's not the person you are. I want you to wake up every morning knowing that you decided that being a criminal was more important to you than being with the woman you claim to love and your very own son. I want you to know, every minute of every day, whenever you miss them, that you could have them back whenever you want, and the only thing keeping you in misery is your own choices. 

That's the sort of revenge I do.  

Sincerely,

Asher Stark

Asher gets a number of emails in response. 

All of them are furious. 

Asher smiles for the first time in a while.

Before, when he woke up in the middle of the night, he would have texted Asher. 

That's not an option anymore. Not in that he thinks Asher doesn't want to talk to him, but it wouldn't help; this isn't the kind of dream that seeing Asher's face will help him forget about. 

He scrolls through tumblr for a few minutes and drafts texts for Asher and then gives up and texts Marlo. 

hey

you awake?

Yes.

What's going on? 

it's not a big deal or anything I just 

can't sleep sometimes 

Me either

can I come over? 

Of course

He gives Sasha an address. 

And Sasha swings over and knocks on the door and hugs Marlo as soon as it's opened. 

He picks Spiderman — Sasha? Can Marlo call him that? — up and brings him to the bed and sits down with him. "Are you going to be alright?" 

"I'm okay, I just —" 

He takes off the mask. (He's still very young, but he looks more tired this time than he did before. Less pale.) 

"I can't tell anyone and I don't want to wake up Lev and I. Don't really want to talk to Asher about this." 

"Yeah." He hugs Sasha again, closer. He has been very reliably informed that he gives good hugs. "I won't always be awake, but — super soldier thing, I don't need much sleep.You can come here if you need to." 

He nods and curls up on Marlo's shoulder and — doesn't sleep. He doesn't know if he could. But.