Maureen McNally was good at her job. No, she was damn good at her job. She had made a name for herself as one of the top criminal defense attorneys in New York City and over the last year, she'd defended some big names. Maureen loved her job and never questioned what she did.

Until that day on the train.

She had always believed it didn't matter whether her clients were guilty or not. The courtroom was a game and she knew how to play. She'd "won" many cases for clients that she knew were not innocent. But this never kept her up at night. It was the way the justice system worked.

When Doc Ock attacked the train, instead of cowering in fear, all she could do was laugh.

Poetic justice, she thought. After years of defending criminals, she was about to die at the hands of one of the city's most notorious.

Then he came along. Spider-Man fought off Doc Ock, risking his life to bring the train to a stop, while simultaneously exposing his face for her and all the other passengers to see.

For some reason, putting a face to the man behind the mask changed everything.

She had more than a few clients who had been "stopped" by Spider-Man. Before that day on the train, her only opinion of him was that he was a menace who had humiliated her clients. Sometimes she was able to use this to her advantage, this illegal apprehension – no, assault – by a rogue citizen without the reading of the Miranda rights. That was all he was to her – a loophole in the game she had mastered.

After seeing the man behind the mask, who had risked everything to save a group of strangers, she realized that he was so much more.

For a while after that day, Maureen lost her edge. Perhaps she felt remorse for defending people she knew were guilty. But eventually she consoled herself with the fact that this was the way the justice system worked; this was the way the world worked. Someone had to defend these criminals, it was their right as an American, and she was the best person for the job.

Deep in her heart Maureen knew that this was what she was meant to do, what she was born to do. Everyone in the world had their place, like cogs in a wheel. They didn't choose it. Spider-Man was meant to stop criminals and she was meant to defend them.

It only took her a couple months for her to accept this fact and get over her self-doubt. Just like that she was back at it, the best of the best, without a second thought.

It seemed like any ordinary day when she walked into the courtroom that Monday morning. She had been preparing the case for a high profile client – the twenty-four year old son of the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company. Ironically, he had a drug problem and few months ago he was allegedly involved in a shoot-out between two rival dealers that resulted in a wounded bystander. Spider-Man had come to the scene and apprehended the shooters, supposedly preventing the violence from escalating.

Maureen had prepared a strong case to case for her client and was ready for any thing the prosecution might throw her way.

Little did she know, it wasn't the prosecution that would throw her a curveball.

Her defense team had spent most of the morning reviewing potential jurors and interviewing them to see who would be the best for their jury. The file that came up next:

Peter Parker, a student at ESU and part-time photographer for The Daily Bugle. She read over the answer to his questions and he seemed like he might be what they were looking for in a juror. He was called into the back room to be interviewed by both legal teams.

And then she saw his face.

Maureen turned to one of the other defense attorneys on her team, "He's out."

"What?"

"Believe me, we don't want him on the jury."

Again, Maureen couldn't help laughing at the irony. She had spent 12 years at Catholic school, but the one thing they had neglected to mention was that God had a sense of humor. He had to for this to happen.

Spider-Man had jury duty.

The various lawyers took turns asking questions to determine whether he'd be biased for the case. They didn't know what she knew. Of course he would be biased - he was involved in the incident.

Maureen then took over the questioning.

"So, Mr. Parker, is there any reason you wouldn't be able to commit to jury duty?"

"I'm very busy with school and my job…at the Bugle. Sometimes my boss calls me away without much notice."

That in and of itself was not enough to be excused from jury duty. Everyone had jobs they felt were important. But she knew it wasn't his job at the Bugle he was referring to. Interesting. He went to school and worked in addition to his "other" job. She could use this time to learn a lot more about him - you never knew when it might come in handy - but then again the other people in the room might start to get suspicious.

She knew that New York needed Spider-Man. He apparently kept pretty busy as it was and he didn't need jury duty to compound that. She knew exactly what to ask to get him off the hook.

"How do you feel about Spider-Man?"

"I'm sorry?" His eyes widened at the mention of Spider-Man's name.

"I'm sure the judge explained before that this case involves Spider-Man and we need to know if you are in any way biased about him?"

"I take his picture for the Bugle sometimes." His eyes shifted uncomfortably from Maureen to the other lawyers in the room. It was amazing how young he looked right then. It was hard to believe that this nervous young man was the same as Spider-Man.

"Anything else…any particular feelings about Spider-Man?" Maureen goaded him.

"I know the Bugle has a different point of view, but I'm a very big supporter of Spider-Man and I have to believe that if he was involved in the case he was stopping someone who was breaking the law."

Bingo. That would disqualify him.

"Thank you, Mr. Parker."

He was escorted back to the room with the other potential jurors. He didn't know it yet but he would not be selected for jury duty.

She turned toward her partner, "I told you we didn't want him."

"It's almost as if you knew it from the moment he walked in."

She smiled back at him, "There was something about his face."

Author's note: Thanks to htbthomas for the beta! I have 2 more chapters planned and I hope I will do a better job of updating. Reviews fuel me, so maybe that will help me post faster. Thanks for reading!