I can just close my eyes and see Spider-Man leaping across the New York rooftops: so light, so free. I didn't get the details (if Spider-Man was one for details, he wouldn't be wearing a mask)...but he said he’d been through something that had really changed him, in a deep an inexplicable way.

I'm not saying, he told me when he finally had a chance to talk it all over, that my problems were magically gone. But something inside me had...shifted, I guess.

I was ready to see the good in myself, in the world, for the first time in – well, let's just say it'd been a while.

But that night, he continued, life seemed...precious. Blessed. Really worth living. Those moments of clarity, of connectedness, are all too rare for most of us. I just hope he had someone special to share it with.

I'm pretty good at reading people – that's what they pay me for, after all – and I got the distinct impression...that he did. "

Mary Jane is watching television. Suddenly, she is alerted by noises coming from the adjoining room. She runs into the room and to her surprise, it is filled with thousands of flowers.

Spider-Man (a.k.a. Peter Parker for the newcomers) appears through a roof window and asks MJ if it's safe to come in. MJ replies that a room of flowers is not going to make up for the awful way he yelled at her earlier but she adds that it’s a wonderful start and that him swinging down into her arms would be a pretty terrific time. He retorts that he’s got a better idea as he throws a web line down and hoists her up onto the roof where they embrace.

[Narrator] "I hope he realizes how lucky he is. There are so many people out there with no one to turn to...no one to share the joy or the pain with. So much suffering in the world...and I’ve seen more than my fair share. Sometimes, it's just too much for me. God knows I’ve thought about quitting. More than once. But then, another client comes along...another tortured heart, another loss soul...and what can I do? "

"No! No! No! No! No! No! " screams the tortured being known as Vermin. “You’re not gonna win! You're not gonna kill me! Never, never, never!! – Let me out! " yells Vermin as he jumps towards his cell’s Plexiglas window and tries to scratch his way through it with his deformed fingernails.

[Narrator] "What can I do...What I always do...Help. "

Vermin slams the ground with his bare fist screaming at the top of his lung that he "kept them safe, kept him alive". He then slowly regains his human form: turning back into Edward Whelan.

As he lies on the ground, Dr. Kafka gradually approaches Edward. She helps him up and guides him to a room where he sits down.

[Narrator] "I've been told I bleed too much for my clients. I don’t keep enough of a professional distance. And maybe that’s true. If too much compassion is a crime, then I guess I plead guilty. Bud I defy anyone with a heart to spend time with a man like Edward Whelan...and not have that heart melted. That night was pivotal. We were searching a turning point after months of intensive therapy. The more Edward was getting in touch with the repressed memories of his childhood abuse...the more whole he was becoming...the less of a hold Vermin had on him. He’d been hidden inside that cocoon for so long...that watching him burst through it...breathe air, talk, think, feel...for the first time in years...was like watching a miracle unfolding right before my eyes. Everyday...another miracle. But, for all the miracles, for all our progress, we weren't safe yet. The mind’s a tricky thing. Just when it seems we've made it up into the light...the beasties manage to grab hold of us...and drag us back into the darkness. "

She hands him a cup of tea as they start discussing about what triggered Vermin to be released. Edward explains that he can sense how Vermin is frightened and so angry, and that he cannot understand what's happening to him; only that he's dying and that he doesn't know why. He adds that Vermin was part of him long before Baron Zemo's machine pulled him out of Edward's unconscious. Edward now feels he’s murdering Vermin...

Dr. Kafka tries convincing Edward that he wasn't responsible for all the things he did, that it wasn't him but a psychological construct. She adds that if he wants to blame someone, he should blame his father, Zemo; the ones who created Vermin. He replies that he must be a terrible person to have such thing inside him. Dr. Kafka retorts that he’s not the criminal but the victim. "Every man...every woman...has a vermin inside. You've just been unlucky enough to have yours set loose in the world. "

[Narrator] "Poor Edward. Dealing with the complexities of his childhood was difficult enough...but dealing with Vermin! He was so overwhelmed by it all. So full of conflicting thoughts and feelings. I have to admit there were times I felt like I was in over my head. Like I wasn't doing Edward any good. Times I wished I was one of the lucky ones – with someone to turn to...share my troubles and frustrations with. Someone to love. "

Peter and Mary Jane dance around the room and finally lay down in bed.

[Narrator] "That night was one of those times. I couldn't sleep. (Never could when there was a full moon.) Just tossed and turned on the office couch...wallowing in self-pity. But I told myself I was being selfish. Your own struggles are nothing compared to Edward's. I remembered what Mom used to say: be grateful for what you have. There's always someone less fortunate than you are. My mother wasn't much of a philosopher...frankly. She wasn't much of a mother...but sometimes she was right. At that moment, Edward’s struggles were far worse than mine. Their summoning was strong. Their need was desperate. They called...from the depths of their pain. How could he not answer? They were linked...heart-to-heart...mind-to-mind. But not to Edward to Vermin. That's what saved him – however briefly. As deeply as Edward left for Vermin...that's how deeply he hated it when the man-rat emerged. 'The stink of him', he once told me, 'the blind unreasoning rage. Most of all, the awful hunger. When it...when he rises up in me...I’d rather be dead than be him. I swear to God. I’d rather be dead'! "

Edward attempts to sleep. The voices keep calling him to "come now". As the voice continues, he slowly transforms back into Vermin. "Now! Now! Now! " the voices yell. Edward suddenly wakes up, half-transformed physically into Vermin. Dr. Kafka comes running in. She sits down with Edward as he gradually regains his human form.

[Narrator] "And what got me up...brought me in to him just when he needed me? Could be that I was as linked to Edward...as those things down in the darkness were to Vermin. Or maybe...it was just the moon. Whatever...there was something in the air. Disturbing. Seductive. Electric. Spider-Man told me that he could feel it too. 'It grabbed hold of me', he said. 'Not that I could say what it was. It was weird: I'd just gone through one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. I needed time to let it all sink in. To digest it. So what was I doing going out at five in the morning...chasing shadows? ' ”

Spider-Man suddenly wakes up, as if the same creatures calling at Edward had called him. He puts on his costume and web-slings away.

Out of the city's back alleys, comes crawling creatures after creatures all going in the same direction.

[Narrator] "What was he doing? What he always does. What he does best: saving the world. Or trying to. I can just see him out there, the rain coming down in sheets again, the October wind cutting through him...swinging over the city in that skimpy costume (I wonder if it keeps him warm enough. I can't help it. I worry about people)...determined to fix the broken, help the helpless, find the lost, and trounce the bad guys. Y’know, if he ever decides to hang up his mask...that man would make one incredible therapist. "

[Narrator] "I must've drifted off a little before six: mind finally wore down; body finally caved in. When I first heard the ruckus in the corridor, I didn’t want to get up. Leave me alone. Let somebody else take care of it for once. But when I heard that scream...I knew something was horribly wrong. ('Doctorrrrrrr!!') I rushed out into the hall, a hundred different disaster scenarios unreeling in my head. One good thing about being a chronic worrier, you can usually imagine just about any disaster before it actually happens. But some things...simply defy imagination. "

Thousands of creatures swarm the corridor, carrying Edward.

[Narrator] "I pride myself on my ability to respond to a crisis in the moment. Take care of things quickly and efficiently, without getting swept away on a wave of emotion. Been that way ever since I was a little girl. I remember my kid sister once chopped part of her finger off in a kitchen fan...and, while dear old Mom blubbered hysterically, running around the apartment like a headless chicken. I packed Norma's finger on ice...and got her off to the hospital. They saved the finger. And it was only later, when we got back home, that I allowed myself to really feel what had happened. To really cry. But when those...things grabbed me...when they swarmed over me...I just couldn't control myself. I reacted like my mother: weak and afraid. Helpless. Hysterical. I started to scream. And scream. And scream. "

The creatures grab Dr. Kafka and drag her along with Edward...

[Narrator] "I didn't see the sun come up that morning. But from what I've been told it was a perfect autumn day. Crisp and clear and beautiful. A good day for love. That is...if you were one of the lucky ones. "

Mary Jane wakes up to quite a sight: Peter holding a breakfast tray...she asks him if anything went wrong when he went out the night before. He replies that he had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen the previous night but after covering half the city, he didn't find so much as a mugging. "I’ll tell ya, MJ – I don’t think I was ever so glad to be wrong..."

Police lines are drawn around the NYU medical center...

The Death of Vermin continues next issue.