"Higher Daddy," May cried, "higher!"

Peter Parker smiled at his young daughter. Shortly after her birth three years ago, she was abducted from the hospital nursery, no note, no clues, nothing. Peter and his wife Mary-Jane had feared the worst. In fact, the couple had split for a period of several months because of the trauma from the abduction. In the middle of it all, one of Peter's greatest enemies, Norman Osborn, returned from the grave, revealing that he survived the accident that "killed" him years ago thanks to a healing factor from the Goblin Formula. Norman returned Peter's Aunt May, who had supposedly died. He bought the Daily Bugle and made Peter's life in general a living hell. For some reason, several weeks ago, Norman returned the second May Parker in Peter's life- his daughter.

"Again!" May's cry brought Peter out of his thoughts. He pushed his daughter on the swing again, propelling her into the air. She giggled happily. She leaned forward, and her reddish hair blew around her face as the swing went backwards. Peter was grateful for the nice day that it was. He wouldn't have this opportunity otherwise. He wondered though- why did Norman return her apparently unharmed? Why?

Peter backed up and plopped down on the park bench his wife sat on. He patted her leg and MJ smiled. She had a small notebook and a calculator on her lap, and doing simple arithmatic.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Peter asked. May drug her feet in the sand beneath the swing, skidding to a stop. She hopped off the swing and toddled over to where three other children played in the sand.

"Mm-hmm," MJ muttered in agreement. She chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen. It was an old smoker's habit from long ago. She wrote several figures in the notebook, then the pen went right back into her mouth.

"She gets that from her mother," he said, grinning slyly.

MJ looked up and smiled. "Sure didn't come from you!" she teased. Peter scowled and stuck his tongue out at her. She merely leaned closer and kissed him lightly.

"You know I'm kidding."

"That's one reason I love you," he replied. "Now, what did you figure out?" He leaned back, put his arm around MJ's shoulders, and looked at the notebook. She glanced down at the page.

"Well, lucky us, Norman potty trained her," she said. "That means we on't have to pay for diapers, and that means that we're going to be fine as long as you still get occaisional assignments from Jonah. Between your aunt and mine, we've got all the free babysitting we need. We had no need to worry."

"Great," Peter replied. "Norman goofed giving her up."

Their conversation was interrupted by a pleased cry from May. "Mommy, Daddy, look at me!" They both looked up and saw May standing atop the jungle gym. Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the jungle gym.

"She gets that from you!" MJ laughed as he retrieved their daughter.