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Gwen drove up to the garage, then keyed in the code for the garage door to open. She pulled in slowly, then killed the engine and stepped out, pressing the switch near the door to close the garage again.
She had news.
She thought about it and realized that she needed to tell someone else. Tell them a LOT of things, actually.
First things first, though. She called out, "Cindy? Can you come on down?"
Coming down the stairs from where she had been cleaning up, Cindy's hair is done up in a ponytail with a bow, with a t-shirt and overalls on as she has her feet bare. A smile is offered, but it's tinged with confusion. She can feel that Gwen has something on her mind. "Is there a problem?" comes the curious question.
Gwen smiles gently. "No…but there is someone I would like you to meet. You could say she is another spider, but not of the same species. There is something I need to tell both of you." She picks up the phone and dials. "I think you'd like her."
Jessica's trying something new with her hair when the phone rings, and both of her hands are busy. With a bit of exceptional spider dexterity, she kicks the phone off the receiver and catches it under her ear, frowning at the coiling black hair on her head.
"Drew's castle, what's your hassle?" she inquires amicably.
Tilting her head curiously, Cindy goes silent when Gwen talks about making a call. "Well at least you are not barging in." she chides somewhat playfully before she moves towards the kitchen. "I'll make sure to get a snack ready for our guest, since you know, it's rude not to offer a snack to a visitor in your home. Unless I'm the snack." She sticks out her tongue.
Gwen gave her a mock-scorn look before saying into the phone, "Jess, it's Gwen. Listen…are you doing anything right now? I need to touch base with you on a few things, and I'd like you to come over." She pauses, then says, "And bring the electric viola."
Jessica sighs, a little melodramatically. "Well, trying to do this French braid, but I think even I'm not flexible enough to do it," she says, wryly. She gives up and shakes out all the hairpins, tugging her raven hair into straight, heavy sheets, and glances at the clock.
"Over to your place? Yeah, I can meet. Are we finally doing band practice?" she inquires. "Either way— I'll be there shortly," she says.
Sure enough, in just a few minutes, Jessica's dressed and hopping into a cab with her viola and the little speaker on her hip.
"Jess, huh." Cindy smirks. "All these girls you know, you could make a roommate jealous~" she sing-songs from the kitchen, even if she's clearly teasing the larger of the two spiders as she works on cutting up a small block of cheese and folding some ham slices to make them pretty with some crackers. Voila, snacks! Now to find something to drink to go with it.
Gwen smirks back. "Maybe I want a whole HAREM of lovely spiders to wait on me, hand and f-f-f…" and then she goes off into a laughing fit. "Sorry…sorry…couldn't help it. I saw ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES last night…"
Jessica gets there just about fifteen minutes later— thanks to an aggressive cab driver and relative proximity to the Stacy house— and walks in the side door without knocking, because that's how she do around Gwen. Front doors are for visitors, side door is for family.
"Helloooooo, I is here," Jennifer calls into the mudroom, and walks into the kitchen. "I smell food, is someone cooking?" she inquires, brightening up a bit.
"For some reason, I can see you in harem pants and a halter top pretty easily." Cindy smirks, before she hears the new voice. "Unless you count Cheese Whiz as cooking.. oh, the toast!" she manages quickly, rushing into the kitchen where there's a brief bit of smoke and the girl sighs, letting out a breath. "Uh. Hope you like crackers with the cheese whiz and ham."
Gwen is dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, but is only wearing socks. She smiles as Jessica enters. "Hey, there, Jess…I want you to meet someone." She walks over to the kitchen, beckoning to Cindy to come out. "Jess…I want you to meet Cindy Moon." A pause. "Also known as Silk."
Jessica didn't go to a lot of effort to get dressed, but she looks like she pulled her get-up from the cover of Cosmo; a tight t-shirt, bell-bottom jeans, and a corded belt complete the 'peace and love' ensemble.
"Ohhh, so /this/ is the notorious Silk," she says, eyes glittering as she takes Cindy in. She moves over to Gwen, giving the shorter blonde a quick hug and kiss to the cheek, then steps over and offers a hand to Cindy. "It's nice to meetcha," she says, flashing a dimple-cheeked smile. "Score one for another Spider-lady with black hair. Too many blondes. There's a war on, y'know?" she murmurs, with a theatrical sotto voce.
"You're terrible at secrets. I bet you totally spoil Christmas and the end of movies, too." Cindy smirks a little, before the Asian girl dips her head a little to accept the hand. "Hi." she greets, a bit nervously and bounces on the balls of her feet slightly, feeling that usual build up of nervous energy when she's been couped up for too long, flashing a glance towards Gwen for a moment. 'I'm notorious?' she mouths gently.
Gwen smirks. "I think Jess is making a little joke. Cindy, this is Jessica Drew. Also known as Spider-Woman." She looks down and grumbles something about "all the good names are taken" before looking up with a wry smile. "Anyway, she is also invited to play with the band being formed, The Mary Janes. There's something I want to show her, but this is more important. Primarily because of its connection to you, Cindy?"
"I'm the boss of small jokes," Jessica confirms with a lazy self-deprecation. She lifts an immacuately sculpted brow at Gwen's circumspection, and sets her viola and the little speaker for it on the table.
She pulls a chair out and seats herself, crossing her legs at the knee, and gives Gwen a flat look.
"Gwen likes her big reveals," she mutters at Cindy, conspiratorially. Then she gives Gwen a perfectly innocent look of wide-eyed attention.
Cindy moves to get the food and drinks - she found a bottle of wine in the back of the friged. Because that goes great with Cheeze Whiz, supposedly.
"She likes everything big." Cindy murmurs and looks down at her chest with a smirk before dropping down into the chair next to Jessica's. "I bet she's got a date. How much you want to bet that's the big reveal?"
Gwen looks at the both of them, then rolls her eyes. "Yep. Official. I'm The Adult here." She takes out her father's leather-bound notepad, opening it slowly. "One of my dad's friends gave me a copy of the file on the bombing at Clarisin Pharmaceuticals Limited. I did some checking at the library, along at a couple of other places, and I wanted to share what I found." She sat down, opening the file. "Clarisin is a front company for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
Jess flicks a cracker at Gwen. "I have t-shirt older than you, sweetie," Jessica reminds the blonde girl. She frowns deeply at Gwen's explanation of the firebombing.
"North Korea?" she hazards. "So… Clarisin is a front for the communists? How did no one pick up on that before?" she inquires, reaching for one of the little snacks and popping it into her mouth.
Now, Cindy straightens in her seat. One could literally feel the senses of the woman roiling off of her. Panic, fear, anger. That name, it means a lot to Cindy. And at the moment, she's fighting everything in her not to run away and vanish yet again.
Gwen sighs, pulling out sheets of paper—reports, scientific analyses, statements. "The cops didn't find much in the way of medical data. Clarisin. It's an anagram of Sinclair. John Sinclair, former Marine, served in the Korean War. Suspected of collusion with the enemy, but never proved. Honorable discharge. Came home and began putting together Clarisin. The money came from a Swiss bank account, but there are some communiques that were found, and a woman in the secretarial pool recognized it as Korean. She served as a nurse during the war."
Jessica's frown starts to deepen. She looks at the documents and starts laying them out to examine. There's nothing wrong with her brain; the woman was trained as a detective, to put things into logical order and break them down. With all this evidence already assembled, it's little work to reproduce the conclusions offered.
She blinks and looks over at Cindy, concern on her features. "Are you all right?" she murmurs to the other woman, sensing her tremendous distress. "You're quite safe here, you know. We're in the middle of New York."
There's a few soft words in Korean. "My father. He was a scientist for them. In Korea. They wanted me. Because I remember things, with deep clarity." Cindy murmurs, folding in on herself. "They are here. That's why Hurricane was here. They know I'm here now.. noone's safe."
Gwen reaches over to touch Cindy's hand, grasping it gently. "Cindy…no one is going to hurt you. Not if I have anything to say about it." She looks to Jessica. "I…WE have to protect Cindy, Jessica. Can I ask that of you? Will you help me? Help us?"
Jessica just gives Gwen a -look- over the papers. As if it even needs to be asked of her! If she had glasses, she'd tilt them down reproachfully.
"Spider-ladies gotta stick together," Jessica confirms, sorting papers out. "It's in our bylaws and everything. Speaking of which, chapter dues come out every quarter," Jessica tells Cindy, a little twinkle in her green eyes. "Ten bucks a quarter. Gwen said she'd cover for you, though," she says, a lilting tone in her voice to try and disarm the tension in the air.
That hand is a lifeline at the moment, and young Cindy clings to it, her breath slowing to keep her from hyperventilating. "I.. I trust you." she says, looking between the two women. "But if it gets too dangerous, I will leave. I will not have anyone hurt.. I will not have you hurt because of me." she says, squeezing Gwen's hand a bit tighter before letting go and then blanches. "Ten dollars? That is more than what I make in a month back in Korea!"
Gwen smiles gently. "She's joking. There are no dues. But you will not leave, Cindy. Once you start running, you never stop." She looks at Cindy directly. "She may not look old enough to have serious skills, but does she *ever.* And I would risk being hurt because I'm not going to stand by and watch anyone else get hurt because I was weak. I'm not going to be weak anymore."
"<I am playing a game, tadpole,>" Jessica tells Cindy, in surprisingly deft Korean. The implication in her words suggests that she is teasing Cindy, but speaking to her as a mentor speaks to a protege, rather than dismissing her youth. She flashes a brilliant smile at the dark-haired girl.
"Running is almost never the right solution," Jessica agrees, switching back to her accented English for Gwen's benefit. "And if they're coming for you, then they're coming for all of us eventually— and there are strength in numbers," she says, with a firm, affirmative nod.
"<I do not want anyone to be hurt.>" Cindy responds quickly and fluidily before she glances down at her hands. "I understand." she finally offers quietly. "I will stay. You play a viola? That is pretty." comes the quick change of subject, before Cindy has to get any more panicky.
Gwen chuckles. "We can come back to this. Right now, I have something to show you, Jessica." She smiles and stands. "I think you'll like it."
Perhaps sensing Cindy's reticence, Jessica reaches over and pats Cindy's hand gently. "Let's play together sometime," she suggests to the new spider-girl. "Meanwhile, I think you should rest a bit. You've had a bit of a shock. We'll have some hot tea when you awake," she says, nudging Cindy gently to head upstairs and rest for a while.
"That.. is a sound idea." Rising to her feet, Cindy moves and kisses Gwen's cheek. "Gwen let me have her old bedroom. It is comfortable enough." With that, she's moving to head up the stairs to get some much needed rest.
Gwen watches Cindy head up to the bedroom, smiling wistfully. "Weirdest summer of my life."
She heads to the door leadeing to the basement, then opens it, revealing the scent of sawdust. "I think you'll like this."
The basement opens up at the base of the stairs, which have been repaired and reinforced. The basement has been widened and deepened, extending clearance to a good ten feet from floor to ceiling. One end of the basement has been expanded for a large stage. To the right of the stage is a sound mixer station, cables running to amps and under the stage itself. There is a podium for two guitars, the drum kit, and a high one meant for a violin or viola.
"Looks good," Jessica tells Gwen, following her downstairs. She gives the blonde girl an approving hug, resting her cheekbone atop Gwen's head and giving her brow a kiss.
"Cindy's sweet. She's all kinds of trouble," she points out, wryly. "Poor girl is even more confused than I was when I got to America."
"But very sweet. If you need any help, you let me know, okay? And don't let her get you into trouble, or at least, don't leave me out of it." She gives Gwen's hand a squeeze. "I need to head back to my apartment, though. Gotta meet with my handlers. See you later?" she inquires, backing towards the stairs.
Gwen nods. "I'll be up in a minute. I have to…do some things down here." She smiles over her shoulder to Jessica. "I'll keep you posted. I promise."