Newspaper scandals + death = your typical blooming romance... right?
Raimiverse!Peter Parker story.
Book [2] of the Paracosm series (but can also be read as a stand-alone).
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⋆ fifteen ⋆
"You've got a lot with you," Jesse notes as Lily heads into the office, this time with a larger bag than usual, full of files sticking out. He eyes them speculatively. "Planning on doing homework?"
"Is it homework if I'm doing it here?" she challenges, although there's something exhausted in her voice. At closer glance, JJ notices the bags under her eyes covered up as best as possible, clearly from nights of no sleep. "Besides, I've got some things to look into."
"Anything I can help with?"
"Cancel that meeting for today. It would have been better as an email anyway – get the department head to send me one with any issues she'd like to discuss. And make sure I'm undisturbed today please."
"Sounds mysterious. Secret?"
"Till I've completely worked it out. I just want to be sure first."
The latte is at her desk already in usual fashion, steaming hot when Lily takes a sip before tucking her chair in and opening up Oscorp's hologram files. It's honestly times like these that she can't help but remember what a godsend her best friend is, always making sure she's eating at work, getting what she needs.
At first, she and Jesse were hesitant about working together. The summer after graduating from high school, JJ's father fell extremely sick and he couldn't attend college, which made finding a part time job extremely difficult. Lily had managed to pull some strings, get him a job at Oscorp. JJ was smart, after all – after seeing his grades and his abilities in practice, it wasn't very difficult to convince Norman to employ him.
After she'd become CEO, JJ quickly rose to PA, Lily knowing she wouldn't trust her personal life with anyone else. Besides, he's more competent than most of the people that work in this hellhole. Not only did it work out well for them, but it made their friendship stronger, which can't be said for everyone. Lily considers herself lucky in that sense.
She opens up one of the files from the performance enhancer, opening up pictures, only to wince at the sight of Dr Stromm's dead body on the ground. How did he die? When the camera footage was checked after, it was just a black screen – the cameras must have broken or something interfered with them.
Just as she's about to close the photographs, she stops. Flicks back to the previous one. There was a lot of damage, but she zooms into the corner, where a table is crushed in, almost as if there was a body there. But falling onto it wouldn't break it, which means something else must have broken it... or if he was thrown... but by who?
Her mind shoots back, recalling how the Green Goblin showed up just a short while after the accident, at the World Unity Day Festival. Had somebody broken in? And killed Dr Stromm for seeing him use the performance enhancer?
She pulls her folders out, the one she looked at on the way to a meeting the other day. She opens up the formulas on both her computer and the paper files, but something doesn't feel right. As she scans them... she realises they're not the same. The online file has been changed.
