strangetrip | [EP] Pies (OTA)

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[EP] Pies (OTA)

Her mother had always made pie making look so easy. Amy DeLuca's pie were the best in Roswell and a selling point in Liz's parents' cafe. Maria decided to try and make some of her mother's famous Keylime pie to stave off the homesickness she was starting to feel. So far her attempts were poor.

"Third time's the charm, right?" She said as she slide a pie slice over to Brad. He had volunteered to help her taste-test and hadn't died from her two previous attempts. "I promise I put less salt in this one."

Brad nodded and dug in. He chewed thoughtfully. He then smiled.

"This isn't half bad," He said. "It tastes like Keylime this time for sure."

Maria took a bite of her own and pumped her arm.

"Yes!" She said. "Not quite as good as my mom's, but it's edible."

"I'll take this one to go," He said, lifting the plate with a nod.

Maria nodded back and watched as Brad walked over to the table he had previously been occupying. There was a series of psychology books strewn about. They all seemed focused on depression or other behavioral illnesses.

Maria took another bite of hers and looked over her hand-written recipe as she tried to decide what to change to make it more like mom's.

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"Yeah, it's really weird," Peter says, looking down at the pie. "I mean, Alec and Dean have the same thing going, but Alec looks a lot younger than Dean."

Peter and Bradley on the other hand were virtually the same age.

"Kitty looks a lot like this woman back home named Dr. Foster," he says. "But most of the people here don't look like anybody I know. I wonder if we all have a double in some other timeline, though."

"God, I hope not. I saw doubles of like, Michael and Isabel back home, they were all grunge and whatever because they came from New York," She said, making a face. "No thank you. I don't want to see me into some weird fashion like that."

Maria shuddered dramatically. She liked her own style which she liked to claim was 'hippie chic'.

"Plus the whole timeline things gives me a headache," She added.

Peter rubs the side of his nose. "Imagine knowing there's a whole bunch of you. There's I think, three other Peters people here know of." Or knew, in the case of Piotr, who was gone now. "I guess I just happened to be the lucky one who got pulled in here."

"Maybe it's all about how like, important you are or something." She offered. "Like, you're a superhero, right? So maybe it makes sense for you to always be someone in a timeline. Someone like me, well, it's like, a 50/50 chance cause -"

Maria shrugged. She wasn't necessarily being self-deprecating so much as being practical.

"Maybe, but there's a lot of timelines where I don't exist, at least as Spider-Man," he says. "Like yours and Liz's." Sure, there might be a Peter Parker there, but it definitely wasn't a Peter Parker who was bitten by a radioactive spider, anyway.

"In my timeline, aren't you not even born yet?" She asked, then scrunched her nose. "Don't answer that. It makes me feel like I should be in a museum."

She cut a slice of pie for Peter and then one for herself. Maria leaned on the counter after.

"Liz showed me that phone she got in Europe and then stuff on it," She said, shaking her head. "Crazy to think how much things change in like 10 years."

Peter facepalms. It completely slipped his mind. 2001, or was it 2002? He didn't exist in either year yet. It weirded him out whenever he really thought about it.

"It's changed a lot even in the time I've been alive," Peter says. "And Tony has a lot of tech more sophisticated than even our cell phones that he developed back home."

"He seems to have a lot of fancy stuff here, too." She said. "Being able to fly in that suit being one of them."

Being handsome for a guy his age is also a feat.

"The music's changed a lot too," She continued. "But I like some of it. Still catching up though."

"I have it." A beat. "Well some of it on my other cell phone." The one he came here with. "I can loan it to you, if you want."

"Sure," She said, with slight hesitation. Liz is so going to have to teach me how to actually use one of those things. "I mean, if you want. I promise not to break it or something."

Maria forked a small piece of pie into her mouth.

"How's everything in the here and now?" She asked.

Maria was aware he and Liz were kissing again, but that was about it.

"Yeah, no problem. I'll drop it off later." He technically had two phones now -- the one from back home with all his photos and music he downloaded from home, and the other from their brief European stint that had photos from there.

He hums at Maria's second question, though. "I guess better than it was." Sort of.

"I don't know exactly what's going on, but whatever it is... I'm sorry." She said.

Liz would share a lot of things with her, but not exactly what was wrong with Peter. Liz told her that it was "really bad" and to give Peter a break. So I'm giving you a break.

"Probably shouldn't have been such a pain in your ass at New Years." She added.

"Don't worry about it," Peter says, shaking his head. "I probably should have handled things better than I did." He couldn't, though, not at the time.

"Liz knows, so, um, I don't mind you knowing if you wanna know." It might be good for Maria to know, especially if Liz sees it like he's worried she's going to.

Maria took in Peter as he stood there, then leaned on the counter like a bartender willing to listen to a patron's story.

"Alright," She replied, slight concern in her voice. "If you're okay with it."

"So," Peter starts, not exactly sure how to start. "When I go back, I'm going to end up leaving Earth with Tony to fight this bad guy named Thanos. He wants to wipe out half of all life in the universe."

It seemed like a pretty extreme reaction to Peter, but he's not even sure what his reasons were.

"Quill was there, too. That's how he knows me." Peter stops there for a few long moments.

"Okay..." Maria said, her voice lingering.

Going into space isn't so strange. Some guy wanting to kill half the universe is

She watched Peter, trying to look open to his words.

"We end up in this big fight, but we don't win. He does and he winds up wiping out half the life in the universe." Peter feels something catch in his throat, and it takes considerable effort for him to finish that thought: "Including me."

Maria stared at Peter. She let the news sink in and really process the words. She blinked and for a brief moment looked like she was going to handle the news calmly.

"Holy crap," She said suddenly. "Holy crap!"

Her stare turned more concerned. She opened her mouth and paused.

"Holy crap," She said, unable to think of more words.

Peter has no idea what to say to that. "I mean," he stammers, in response. "It's okay. I mean, it's not actually okay, but there's people here who are trying to stop it from happening and if they can't do that, reverse it. So there's a chance that maybe things -- you know, maybe things will be all right."

Peter's not sure he can believe it, but it does seem like the right thing to say.

And Liz still wants to go home with Peter...

"Yeah, but still... holy crap." She repeated. "That's like, really heavy. No wonder you were acting like a total jerk."

Maria suddenly sucked in a quick breath and her eyes widened as her brain caught up with her mouth.

"Oh my God," She said a notch louder and faster together. "And you didn't want to kiss Liz because she can totally see things sometimes and you were trying to protect her from it."

Peter runs a hand along the back of his neck, face warming with embarrassment, or something close to it. "Yeah," he says softly. She isn't wrong.

"I am so sorry," She said, leaning on the counter toward him. "I said like, a lot of bad things about you. Not like, to you or anything, but like, Liz's track record with guys is pretty terrible and when Christmas happened I sort of just saw it all happening again and I went a little crazy best friend."

Maria straightened.

"So, I apologize." She said. "Not cool of me."

Peter lets his hand fall down to his side. He lets out a laugh weak. "Liz has really had a pretty bad track record with guys." That much they can definitely agree on.

Maria nodded to agree.

"So... what are you going to do?" She asked. "I mean... do you guys know how to time travel?"

She sucked in a breath and her eyes widened as a thought came over her.

"Maybe you could go to Roswell and see if we exist! Or, existed. Or whatever." She said excitedly. "Max and the others have this machine. It can apparently be used for time travel."

Peter shakes his head. "No, not that I know of, but there's this one guy, Dr. Strange, who has an Infinity Stone that allows him to manipulate time, so maybe he can help." Peter's not so sure about that, given his attitude, though.

"I could go and check to see if you guys are there," he says. "But it's gonna be over a decade in the future for you guys. You might --"

Peter pauses there.

"-- already be in New York. Liz said you wanted to go live in New York, right? I could give you my number and we could meet up."

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