Yang Ming's Clinic, underground ward.
Gwen Stacy lay in a hospital bed, her shoulder strapped in place. Venom huddled against her neck, with only two white eyes showing.
Peter sat beside her, his ribs wrapped in three layers of bandages and his left hand still secured in a splint by Yang Ming.
"Don't move." Yang Ming cut away the last piece of scorched fabric from Gwen Stacy's shoulder. "The symbiote was hit with high-frequency sound waves and flames at the same time. It lost more than thirty percent of its mass. If you force a transformation now, you might pass out on the spot."
"We won't pass out."
"You threw up three times at the door."
"That was the smoke."
"Smoke doesn't make you hug a trash can and say you want chocolate."
Half of Venom's face emerged from her shoulder.
"That was a medical necessity."
Yang Ming pressed a disinfectant swab against the wound.
"Medical necessity doesn't include sneaking in chocolate."
Venom withdrew.
Gwen Stacy turned her head toward Peter beside the bed.
"You said Oscorp was connected to those lizard men."
Peter didn't answer right away.
He glanced at Yang Ming.
Yang Ming was stitching up a police officer's abdominal wound and didn't look up.
"Tell her," Yang Ming said. "Patients have a right to know why someone's trying to kill them."
Peter pressed his lips together.
"A year ago, there was an accident in Norman Osborn's Underground Laboratory. The research there involved the lizard serum."
Gwen Stacy watched him.
"You were there too?"
"Yes."
"Is that where you met Spider-Man?"
"No." Peter paused. "I am Spider-Man."
Gwen Stacy said nothing.
She had already seen his face once, and she had called him by name in the fire. But hearing him actually say it still made something press