Your Friendly Riverdale Spiderman | RIVERDALE/SPIDERMAN CROSSOVER ¦

11.

"You went to his house?" Betty shrieked as Peter started to explain. He'd called her a few minutes after finding his photo, apparently seeming so panicked that she'd simply got in her car and driven over to his trailer.
"Yes, okay, but that's not even the most important part." Peter groaned. He was sitting on the sofa, head in his hands. The photo of his parents was on the ground and he could just see it between his fingers.
"What is it then?" Betty asked urgently, sitting down beside him and placing a hand gently on his shoulder. "Peter, you're scaring me."
With a sigh, Peter straightened up, turning to face Betty. "When Fred Andrews came to see me," he started slowly. "He told me some things that I honestly didn't really think about until now."
"Okay," Betty prompted when Peter stopped talking. "What did he tell you?"
"My mum was a Spider."
Betty didn't respond for a short while.
"She left," Peter added. "She ran off before she even finished high school, I'm pretty sure."
"Okay," Betty said. "So she grew up here? As a Spider?"
"I guess so," Peter sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "He also mentioned something about a cousin she had called Alice. That wouldn't happen to be your mum would it?"
Betty blinked in surprise. "Uh, I'm not sure. I don't think she's mentioned anything about that but I can ask her... What's your mums name?"
"Mary," Peter said.
"What got you so freaked out, though?" Betty asked softly. "Did they mention something about your mum?"
"Not exactly." Peter sighed. "But afterwards, we were in Casey's room and-"
"Wait, did he do something to you?"
"What? No!"
"Oh, sorry," Betty said. "What were you saying?"
"We were talking about parents and losing parents and stuff," Peter said. "And he told me that his mum took off right after he was born. Then he showed me this photo of her and it was..."
"It was what?"
"It was my mum," Peter said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Wait, what are you saying?" Betty asked, sitting back.
"I'm saying," Peter said, standing up and folding his arms over his chest. "That Casey and I have the same mum."
Betty released a long breath.  "So he's your brother? Your brother is the son of the Spider leader?"
"Yes! I mean, his photo looked exactly like her!" Peter grabbed his photo off the ground and shoved it into Betty's hands.
"You're sure?" Betty asked, glancing from the photo back up at Peter.
"Yes! They look the same!"
"I mean, it's possible I suppose," Betty said slowly. "Could you contact your mum and ask her?"
Peter gave her an odd look. "Betty, my mother is dead."
Betty's face dropped instantly. "Oh, Peter, I didn't- I'm so sorry."
"It's fine," Peter sighed, grabbing the photo out of Betty's hands and studying it. "I never actually got to know them."
"Peter..."
"Betty, how is he my brother?" Peter exclaimed, tugging at his hair.
"You know, if our mums are cousins we could also be related."
"Wow." Peter collapsed into the sofa again. "I went from having one blood relative to twenty million."
"That might be a slight exaggeration." Betty laughed.
"Barely, though," Peter said with a long sigh.
"Hey," Betty said. "You get some sleep, okay? I'm going to come pick you up tomorrow morning and we can discuss this further when you've calmed down a bit. I'll drop off my stuff too, and move in after school."
"Okay," Peter mumbled, suddenly realising how tired he was. He'd still been going out every night as Spiderman to help out the Serpents and had definitely not been sleeping enough. It hit him suddenly that if Betty was living in the same tiny trailer as him, how was he meant to carry on with that?
"Are you gonna be okay?" Betty asked as she got to her feet.
Peter nodded slowly, then remembered something. "Hey Betty, do you know much about Casey's dad?"
Betty frowned. "Just that he's the leader of the Spiders. I don't think he really surfaces much though. Jugheads never even come across him, so he must be a bit of a coward, having everyone else do his dirty work for him."
"He honestly seemed like a really nice guy," Peter said, yawning again.
"It was probably an act," Betty said. "Don't trust him, okay? We don't know enough about him."
Peter shook his head. He knew all too much about trusting the wrong people, and he wasn't about to make that mistake again. "Of course not," he said, offering Betty a tired smile.
"Right." Betty smiled back. "Can we talk about this tomorrow? It's kind of late."

When Betty picked Peter up the next morning, he had pulled himself together, so he wasn't in the same state of panic as he had been the night before.
"Morning," Betty said as he got into the car.
"Hey." Peter pulled his seatbelt across himself and looked up to find Betty staring at him expectantly. "You want all the details from last night, don't you?"
"Yes," Betty said.
Peter sighed. "I'll give you the short version. They live in a totally normal little house. It's just Casey, his dad, and this little deaf girl they took in after her brother killed her parents. They seem like a totally normal, functional family. Well, as normal as they can be. The mums out of the picture and Ilsa..."
Betty, already driving again, glanced at Peter. "Your mum," she said softly.
Peter nodded slowly. "How am I meant to face Casey now?"
"Well you're not actually friends are you?" Betty asked. Peter responded with a shrug. "Peter..."
"What?" Peter asked innocently.
"Are you telling me, what, you like him now?"
"No!" Peter exclaimed, then rubbed a hand over his face. "I mean, maybe. He's kinda nice, alright?"
"He wanted you to mess with me for fun," Betty said. "He thinks that's what you're doing. Are you doing that right now? Please tell me you're not  doing that right now."
"Betty, I just found out the guy is my brother," Peter said. "I wanna get to know him a bit better. I'm sure under the dark side he hides under the humour there's just the nice guy who misses his mum, who learned signs language so he can speak to the random deaf girl they took in."
Betty was silent for a short while. "You're forgetting all the bad stuff that his dark side entails," she said softly as they pulled into the school parking lot. "Maybe there's some good stuff in there too, but you can't forget all the bad."
"I won't," Peter said with a sigh. "I just want to find out who he really is."