On the way back to the villa, they happened to run into a sobriety checkpoint. A routine check—blowing into the breathalyzer and showing the driver's license—usually allowed a driver to be on their way without issue. Unfortunately, the officer in charge of Brown knew Gwen Stacy and also knew George Stacy, so he immediately ordered Brown to pull over to the side of the road.
"Officer, aren't I totally fine? Why won't you let me go yet? I still want to go back and sleep."
The officer in charge of Brown looked at his anxious expression, smelled the alcohol inside the car, and saw the soundly asleep Gwen Stacy. The more he looked, the more he felt the man before him was a wolf in sheep's clothing, and he wondered when George would arrive.
"Sir, I am currently checking your license. Please be patient."
Hearing this, Brown lost his temper. What could he do? He couldn't just refuse to cooperate and use superpowers to kill them, so Brown had no choice but to wait.
"Bob, where is my daughter?"
Hearing that, Brown instantly tensed up. He looked at Gwen in the passenger seat, thinking to himself that it couldn't possibly be her dad who had arrived...
"Right in the passenger seat of this Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon."
Mr. George opened the passenger side door, and a reek of alcohol hit him right in the face. Combined with the sleeping Gwen, George completely lost control of himself, rushed over to the driver's seat, and started hitting Brown.
"You bastard, she's only sixteen and you're getting her this drunk!"
As he cursed, he rained blows down on Brown. Brown didn't dare to fight back either—from that visual alone, it really did look that way, unless Gwen woke up right now to vouch for him, and besides, George was wearing his police uniform.
"Sir, sir, please calm down! I didn't feed her alcohol."
Brown's desperate explanations were completely useless. At that moment, George was like a beast that had lost its mind. Bob saw that it had gone far enough and had a nearby officer pull George away to calm him down.
Once he had calmed down, George told Bob to arrest Brown on the charge of abduction and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Hearing this, Brown couldn't hold it in anymore.
"No, I didn't abduct anyone! I just ran into her at a bar and bought her a drink!"
George didn't care about any of that; they would take Brown back to the precinct first. If Gwen getting drunk had nothing to do with this man, he would apologize and pay compensation; if it did have to do with him, he would press charges.
"Officer, I'd like to make a phone call."
"Go ahead, make it."
Brown originally wanted to call Tony Stark, but upon second thought, wouldn't Tony laugh him to death if he called him? Calling Baldy Egg wouldn't do either, so that only left Pepper.
"Hello, who is this?"
「Pepper, it's Brown. Do you have any time right now?」
「I do. What's wrong, Brown?」
「I've run into a bit of trouble and need you to come down to the police station and bail me out.」
「Alright, which precinct are you at?」
「I'm at the 45th Precinct. And remember, don't tell Tony.」
「Got it, I won't tell Tony.」
After finishing the call, Brown handed his phone back to the officer and added, "Could you drive my car over there too? I'd worry leaving it here."
Forty-five minutes later, at the New York City 45th Precinct, Brown was locked in a holding cell. At that moment, Pepper walked into the station.
"Hello, ma'am. Is there something I can help you with?"
"I'm here to look for someone. His name is Brown."
Just then, George Stacy walked past, heard this woman looking for Brown, and remarked, "You must be that pervert's wife? You ought to divorce him sooner rather than later."
"A pervert? What happened?"
"Your husband got a sixteen-year-old girl drunk at a bar and was in an almighty rush to take her home."
"Oh, good lord. Can I go see him?"Pepper first gasped, then looked in disbelief. Although she did not know Brown extremely well, her intuition told her he was not the type to abduct young girls, so she demanded to see him.
Upon seeing Brown, Pepper asked, "What on earth is going on? The police say you got a minor drunk and abducted her?"
"It's not what the police say at all. I just ran into her at a bar, we hit it off, so I bought her a drink, and then she had too much to drink—that's all there is to it."
After listening to Brown's explanation, Pepper turned to the police officer and asked if bail was possible.
"Bail is possible, but until the case is cleared up, he cannot leave New York, and he has to post a ten-thousand-dollar bail."
"Fine, bail him out."
Pepper took out a stack of cash and handed it to the accompanying female officer, who took the money, ran it through a bill counter, and then came back with the keys to unlock the cell door, gesturing for Brown to come out.
Brown stepped out, glanced toward George's office, and saw George glaring daggers at him before following Pepper out of the police station.
"Thank you for making a trip out here for me in the middle of the night. How about I treat you to dinner tomorrow night?"
Pepper smiled and said, "Is that to thank me for bailing you out, or to shut me up so Tony doesn't find out?"
Hearing Pepper's joking tone, Brown also smiled and replied, "A little of both, but mostly to keep Tony from finding out. If he found out, there's no telling how he'd make fun of me from now on."
"Deal, I accept your terms. Time to go."
Brown watched Pepper get into her car, then got into his own and drove home to take a shower and wash away the bad luck. He never expected his first time in a police station would be for something like this. After his shower, Brown went straight to bed.
Early the next morning, Brown received a call from the police station asking him to come in. Full of morning irritability, Brown drove to the police station and saw Gwen standing at the entrance waiting for him.
Seeing Brown step out of the car, Gwen ran over and said, "I'm sorry, I drank too much yesterday and caused you unnecessary trouble."
Brown said flippantly, "It's fine. You were just lucky you ran into your dad, otherwise if you'd come back to my place, heh heh."
"All right, stop joking around. Let's go inside and drop the charges against you."
"Fine, let's go."
When everything was finally sorted out, Brown and Gwen walked out, followed closely by George, who kept his piercing gaze fixed on Brown. George was terrified that this wild boar was about to root up his family's prized cabbage, so he intended to make Gwen cut off all contact with Brown as soon as he left.
"Goodbye, let's hang out again when you have time." As Brown said this, he kept looking past Gwen at George. The moment Brown finished speaking, George immediately chimed in, "Gwen has a lot of things going on at school, so she probably won't have any time to go hanging out in the future."
Hearing her father say that, Gwen could only look helpless as she waved for Brown to leave. After Brown left, Gwen said to her father, "Dad, Brown isn't the kind of person you think he is. He's actually really nice."
"Yes, yes, yes. In your eyes, there are no bad people at all—just me, the bad guy, right? Well, did you know he's married? The woman who came to bail him out yesterday is around his age. He didn't mention that to you, did he?"
With that, George turned around and went back into his office to get back to work, leaving Gwen standing there stunned. *He's married?*
*He didn't mention that last night either! No way, I have to check tonight and see if he's with the woman who bailed him out.* With that thought, she headed straight to the police station's surveillance room to see what the woman who bailed Brown out looked like. And Brown? Having nothing better to do, he headed over to Tony's mansion to see what generation Tony's armor research had reached...