"You have to apologize to him."

Peter groaned. The team had been pestering him on something he already knew. He was planning on apologizing to Sam. Just… at the right moment.

Sam had been away for a couple of hours and was back at the house by the time they had finished patrolling. He was in the kitchen with Aunt May talking and preparing something. Peter didn't say anything to him and went to the living room to watch TV with Luke until Sam bid Aunt May goodnight and went up to Peter's bedroom.

And that was when the team decided it was a good time to poke Peter and make him apologize to Sam. He knew he had to. He just wanted to wait a little bit to think about what he was going to say. And give Sam some space and time to calm down.

"I will. Just… give me a bit of time ok?"

Ava sighed and fell onto the couch next to Luke.

"And how long is that gonna take?" Ava lifted an eyebrow.

Peter simply put his head down and passed his hands through his hair. He was getting frustrated. Ever since they had caught up to him on patrol, they had been nagging him about making up with Nova and apologizing. He knew he had to do that but having people perched on your shoulder for hours saying the same thing over and over again was bound to drive anyone crazy, no matter how right they were.

In the end, Peter just sighed.

"Fine. Let me go take a shower and I'll talk to him."

He got a few weird looks but he ignored it.

The hot water felt good on his skin. Being out all day training and fighting bad guys, especially on a weekend, left his body tired and sore. It would heal, sure, but nothing felt better after a day's work than a hot relaxing shower.

Truthfully, he wanted to stay in the shower for as long as possible. He had to talk to Sam but he only had "I'm sorry I dropped you on your head without your bucket" going through his mind at the moment and that wasn't an option. And the team wasn't helping him one bit.

Well, soul searching for the right thing to say was proving hopeless.

"Time to face the consequences. How exciting…"

He didn't dare go into the bedroom for clothes before so he just grabbed a towel from the bathroom cupboard and tied it around his waist, taking another one to dry his hair with on the way. He grabbed his dirty clothes and walked to his bedroom.

Sam was lying on his mattress on the floor when Peter opened the door. A blush started showing on his cheek as he closed it and walked around Sam to his closet. The towel around his waist wasn't very long and Sam was as close to the ground as the mattress let him. Peter tried not giving it much thought. They were both guys and this was his room anyway.

With his back towards Sam, Peter dried himself with the towel on his head as fast as he could. Sparing only a glance towards the content of his closet before picking out underwear, socks, shorts and a t-shirt. He wasn't planning on leaving the house tonight so he didn't care much for what he was going to wear. And if Spider-Man was needed, he would just wear his suit, not his casual clothes.

With the towel once again on his head, Peter turned to look at Sam. His teammate was lying on his back with an arm under his head and a comic book on his face. Sam had been reading it when he came into the room just a few minutes ago. Somehow Peter seemed both relieved and offended that Sam had stopped reading it and put it on his face; but he told himself not to dwell much on it. He had an apology to make.

So, he took a deep breath and sat on Sam's mattress, next to him.

"Sam. I need to talk to you." He said, hesitantly.

Sam's free hand lowered the comic book from his face and he looked at Peter, his expression strangely blank. Strange; Peter thought he would be still glaring at Peter.

"I…" He sucked in another big breath, "I wanted to… apologize for what happened earlier. And before too. With your helmet."

Sam didn't say anything. He didn't even change his expression. Not even a hair moved on his face. He just blinked and stared at Peter's face. Which made Peter continue speaking. He didn't know if it would do him more good than bad but he had a feeling he needed to say more.

"With the prank… I just wanted to play a little joke on you." At this Sam glared at him. "I didn't know your helmet was such a big deal for you. I honestly didn't mean any harm. I just wanted to…" Peter sighed and passed his hand through his still wet hair. The motion made the towel fall on his shoulders.

Sam's expression had loosened. He stopped glaring and simply followed the towel falling from Peter's head to his shoulders, then back at Peter's hair.

Suddenly, he got up and walked up to the desk. He grabbed his helmet and slipped it on. Sam was encased in a brilliant blue light for just a moment and came out of it with his full uniform on. And once again, Peter couldn't see his face very well. Those glowing eye sockets rarely made his eyes visible. Which, Peter figures, is what people felt when he himself put on his mask. At least he could still see the lower half of Sam's face; though now it didn't give him much since his face (or his mouth at least) appeared to still hold a neutral expression.

"Put your suit on. We're going out." Sam said.

"Uh…" Peter said intelligently, getting up.

"Do you want to talk or not?" Sam's mouth moved into a thin line.

Peter didn't know if he should be happy that Sam was talking or if he should be wary at the moment. For one, Sam appeared to want to talk, but then again, going out in his suit with Sam might mean he wanted to get rough… And not in the good way.

But either way, Peter moved to his closet again and stripped down to his underwear. Through the mirror on his door, he could see Sam was looking at him. A blush moved through his cheeks again and he tried to ignore it by moving fast and putting on his suit as fast as he could without looking to be in panic.

Sam moved to the window and motioned Peter to come closer.

"Grab onto me. We're flying."

"Are you sure? Couldn't I just, you know, web sling my way to wherever you want to go?"

Sam frowned, or at least his mouth looked unhappy.

"Ok, ok. I'll grab onto you."

Sam moved behind Peter and grabbed hold of his chest. Before Peter could prepare, they were suddenly in the air. Looking down, he saw the buildings of his neighborhood getting smaller and smaller. A blue trail of light could be seen just behind them.

It didn't take long before they reached their destination. The torch of the Statue of Liberty. As good a place for a private conversation as any, Peter guessed. Sam let him down and got on the ground as well, the blue glow dissipating from his body.

"Last time I was here, the police tried to shoot me for being on this dude's shoulders." Sam looked up at the statue's head.

"The Statue of Liberty is a Lady Liberty, Sam. Not a dude."

Sam tilted his head to the side, still watching the statue's sculpted face.

"Nah. Still don't see it."

Peter gave a nervous laugh. He felt a little cold being out at night in just his Spider-Man suit right after taking a shower. But there was nothing they could do now. And Peter could suffer a little cold if that meant they could talk and be friends again.

Sam sighed and moved to sit in front of Peter, back against one of the vertical supports of the giant torch. Peter dropped down on to the floor as well, sitting in front of Nova. He took off his mask and ruffled his hair, trying to make it stop sticking to his face. The mask made his damp hair stick to his head in an uncomfortable way.

When he deemed his hair's condition less annoying, he turned to look at Sam. Sam was staring at him.

"Look Sam, I… I've been an idiot lately and I'm sorry. At first I was just trying to play a prank on you like always but then I… I got carried away I guess. I'm really sorry."

Sam sighed and leaned his back against the support.

"I know. And if it was about anything else that I have I wouldn't say a thing. Heck, you could have taken my underwear and I wouldn't have made a big fuss about it. But… this helmet isn't just something that gives me power. It's…" Sam took the helmet off and held it in front of him.

Peter waited for Sam to continue. He had a look of both sadness and happiness on his face while staring at it.

"It's the only thing I have left from my dad…"

Peter's eyes widened. Talk about a punch on the face made of guilt. He never thought that would be the reason why Sam was so attached to his helmet.

"I'm really sorry Sam. If I'd known that I wouldn't have done any of what I did."

"I know." Sam frowned. "It's just not something I really like to talk about…"

"I get it. Believe me, I do."

Sam looked up to Peter, a sad smile on his face. He then let out a laugh and put a hand on his forehead.

"No, you really don't. I treated my dad in the worst way possible. I never believed his stories and thought he was this total loser and a drunk. My mom kept telling me to ease up on him, that I was being harsh on him. But I didn't care. And now he's gone." He shook his head and looked back at the helmet.

"I treated him horribly, right up until the day he left."

"Is he…?" Peter didn't know if he should ask.

"He's alive. Just…" Sam sighed. "Missing. In space."

"But if you know he's alive can't you find him? And how do you know he's alive?" Peter didn't know if it was the best question to ask about the subject but his curiosity got the best of him.

"The Watcher told me he was alive." Sam's face got darker.

"You… spoke to the Watcher?"

"Yeah. He was my friend and was the only person I could really talk to. Not… that he spoke back a lot. Or ever really. But he always seemed to like me visiting. And he told me about incoming cosmic dangers and stuff so I went there a lot."

"Cool! Then why don't you go ask him where your dad is?" Peter asked, with a glimmer of hope in his eye.

Sam dropped the helmet on his lap and stared up to the stars. Without the helmet on, his uniform disappeared and left him in his civilian clothes. Peter could see goosebumps start to appear on his exposed forearms. Sam was wearing only a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, obviously not thinking about leaving the house again. Even if it was summer, it could still get quite chilly after the sun went down.

Sam rubbed his arms with his hands momentarily and brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them, resting his head on his knees and leaving the helmet on the ground facing him.

"The Watcher is dead. Killed. I found his body last time I went to visit." His eyes were wet.

Peter felt sorry for Sam. He knew what it was like to have a good friend die, after all, his uncle Ben was nothing if not a big friend to Peter. He got up and moved to sit down next to Sam. He put an arm around Sam's shoulder and started rubbing his shoulder, hoping to be comforting him.

Sam looked up at Peter but didn't say anything. He just sighed and leaned into Peter's shoulder.

"My friend is dead and with him my best chance of finding my dad. I don't even know if what the Watcher told me is still true..."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"The last time I saw the Watcher alive I was 15. I'm 17 now. You do the math, genius." Sam's voice had a bitter and tired tone to it.

"I'm… so sorry Sam. But then why are you here? Couldn't you go out there and look for your dad?"

Sam let out a humorless laugh.

"I did for a while. That was mostly why I joined up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. They trained me while I was there of course but their job was too dangerous for an inexperienced kid like me who didn't even know a third of what he could do at the time. Plus, the universe is too big to start searching without a clue where you're supposed to look. That's the reason I accepted Fury's offer to join this program. It's helping me be a better superhero but… it's not helping me the way I hoped it would. I still don't know the extent of what I can do and I still don't have a clue where my dad is."

"Then why are you still here? Why not go with the Guardians of the Galaxy? I mean, they're in space, they'd probably find something about your dad faster right? Plus, you actually know what you're doing now so, why not?"

Sam sighed.

"Because S.H.I.E.L.D. has a bigger network of contacts. I asked Fury to keep an eye out for any intel regarding my dad. Even just a wiff of him. Anything. And the Guardians told me they'd send word if they found out anything. And when they do have something, I go check it out… which always just ends up being nothing."

Peter put his hand on Sam's head and ran his fingers through his black hair.

"Is that what you do when you disappear for days at a time?"

After a moment of hesitation, Sam answered.

"Yeah. I know the team is important and that we all made a commitment but I-"

"Hey." Peter held Sam's head and turned it so they were looking at each other. "There's no way I'm letting you say sorry. If I knew about this and you were reluctant to go, I'd sling you off to space myself."

Sam chuckled and smiled. Peter was happy Sam finally seemed to show him his smile again.

"I'm sorry I've been giving you all this trouble… I really am Sam. And I promise, if you ever need help to look for your dad, I'm here for you."

Sam laughed again.

"Oh yeah? How are you going to help me? By freezing and suffocating in space and giving me something to laugh at?"

Peter chuckled and lifted his face to the sky, a cocky expression plastered on his face.

"Why, my dear friend, of course not. I will 'borrow' one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. ships and chase after you."

"Yeah right, like you'd be able to keep up."

"I'd still go if you needed me."

Sam stared at Peter's eyes, as if trying to guess if he was saying the truth. Then he looked down and smiled. Peter smiled as well.

"So, what do you say we go back home? I'm sure they're all wondering why the house is still standing and if they'll find my body parts scattered all over New York tomorrow."

"Yeah, especially if they don't hear anything from our room soon." At Peter's curious glance, Sam rolled his eyes "I know they pushed you into talking to me tonight. They were probably eager to eavesdrop on us through the door. Which is why I wanted to come here to talk. More privacy."

Peter nodded. He didn't doubt Sam's words in the least. It was hard to have privacy in a house filled with teenagers. Especially when those teenagers were as nosy as his team.

Sam pulled his black helmet over his face and blue light surrounded him yet again. But this time, it wasn't as bright as usual. Seemed like Sam was letting the process go on slower than usual, letting Peter see the Nova uniform appear slowly and wrap itself around Sam's body. Peter had to admit, the whole thing was pretty cool.

Putting his mask back on, Peter put his hand on Sam's back.

"Come on, show-off. Let's get home. Unlike you, I just took a shower and went out into the cold. I'll probably come down with a cold by tomorrow because of you."

"Yeah well, I didn't exactly force you to come along." Sam grabbed Peter by the chest again and took off, careful not to go too fast and make Peter go through stronger and colder air currents.

"Hey, doesn't that helmet have some sort of life support system? Does it work on colds?"

Sam looks down for a second.

"It does but I wouldn't rly put it on if I were you. Unless of course you're somehow related to my dad, which I highly doubt."

"Why?" Peter lifted and eyebrow at Sam's statement, even if he couldn't see it because of the mask.

"The helmet is designed to work only for my dad and his DNA signature. Meaning only him and his bloodline can use it."

"And if someone else puts it on? What happens to them?"

"Dunno. There hasn't been anyone dumb enough to try yet. Nothing could happen. Or you could die. I really have no idea."

"Well… You just made sure I NEVER try that helmet on."

Sam really does think the Statue of Liberty is male. I'm not joking. Just check the comic issue Nova # 007

Sure he's 2 years older now but I like the idea of him sticking to the belief the statue is male, despite everyone saying otherwise.

SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT

The Spider-Man Nova meets in that issue is the Superior Spider-Man, meaning it's not Peter Parker but Doctor Octopus in Peter's body. Check out the recent adventures of Spider-Man to know why and how. (This is in Earth-616, the main universe)