(A/N: Second to last chapter. Enjoy.)

He's back...again.

He's swinging...again.

He's fighting crime...again.

He's having a blast...again.

He just couldn't help but let out a yell of pleasure as he swung from building to building...and he wasn't even in the city yet. After 6 days out of action, Spider-Man swung through Bayville with pride and joy. He has no idea how he survived almost a whole week without swinging.

But that doesn't matter know. It's 11:48 pm, and he's wasting no time to go back to work. The mansion is pretty vacant at this time, so he easily snuck out.. He had to use his X-Men Uniform as well...his original one is still in shreds.

Yes, he's still wounded a little, but 6 days of laying around doing nothing but homework...and a grip load of pain killers...is all the medicine our favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man needs. It was only a few more miles until he left Bayville...but before he left, Spidey decided to check something.

He took a short little detour and landed on the 'Stardust Café', the place he and Gwen met after he saved her...for the first time. He noted that she seems to like going there...especially on late Friday nights. He planted himself on the edge of the roof and waiting for a little bit. There was a slim chance that she would walk of there, but Spidey just felt a certain calmness when he's at this spot in Bayville. Yes, it's not overlooking a gorgeous city or anything like that, but he really connected with Gwen that night. Even if it was for a second.

Suddenly, as if an cue, a beautiful blonde left the café...and it was Gwen. Spidey didn't plan on saying anything to her, but looking over the fact that he's been avoiding her ever since she started putting two and two together about Peter's identities, he felt it was time to give her just a little bit of closure.

He hopped from one building to another. He knows he's going to regret this. Every bone and organ in his body is telling him to just get to the city, and that it's such a cliche to tell the love interest everything at the end of the story. All organs except one...his heart.

He jumped a few buildings in front of her and hung from a web and repelled right next to her. She jumped a little. It was clear she was startled, but she calmed down a little after realizing who it was.

"I'm impressed," began Spider-Man talking from underneath his navy-blue-black mask. "Even after all this crap happens to you, you still have the guts to walk alone at night."

She laughed the sweetest laugh...Spidey is going to regret this in a half hour. "Let's just say someone gave me a little more courage," she said softly. He couldn't stop looking into those beautiful blue eyes. He wants to tell her. He wants to tell her everything. It pains him so much that he has to hide it all from her. "Got a new costume?" Gwen asked.

"This is a spare," Spidey said still hanging upside down. "The other one's in the cleaners."

"Good," she said. "I like the other one better."

"Thank you," Spidey said cheerfully. "I made that one myself. This one makes me look creepier."

"Not too creepy," Gwen whispered as she put her soft hand on Spidey's mask. She slowly began to grip it.

"Don't," Spider-Man said simply.

She didn't take her had away, she just held the face of her savior. "How's you're arm?" she asked. Spidey didn't answer. He knew where she was going with this. He just can't tell her. "Peter, listen to me," Gwen began...but didn't finish.

"Why are you calling me that?" asked Spider-Man somewhat startled. He always had a feeling she knew, but the possibilities always scared him. That's when Peter realized what gave it away. His voice.

Gwen didn't speak right away. She just looked down onto the floor with her hand still on his face. She knows. She always had. The arm. The voice. The timing. The kindness. Gwen isn't stupid. She doesn't know how. She doesn't know why. But she knows.

"No one can know," Spidey said all of a sudden. "About me."

Gwen did not know if he meant the fact that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one in the same, or the existence of Spider-Man in general. Either way, she is apart of the secret.

"Can I at least thank you properly?" she asked. She then gripped the neck of Spider-Man's mask softly and pulled it down to where only the mouth was showing. She was sure of it now. She doesn't forget a face...or the bottom half of one. Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

She moved in closer. He wanted to protest, but something told him not to. He deeply wanted her to keep going. Just to feel her beautiful lips on his is something he thought he could only dream of. She got closer...and closer...until her mouth was pressed onto his. She began to kiss softly, hoping that he would kiss back. He eventually did.

Peter never kissed a girl before, but for some reason, he felt like he knew what to do. His feeling cannot be expressed by words. At this point Peter just stopped thinking. It felt like it went on forever, and that was just fine with the both of them.
Unfortunately, this is the part where Spidey makes his classy exit. While her mouth was still on his, he spun a web onto a nearby building. She heard it, and knew it was time to let go. She slowly backed away from her savior, and watched him swing off into the night.

She didn't know whether to smile or cry.

llllllllll

Typical Friday night in Manhattan. A few robberies. A few would-be murders. It feels very good to be back, Spider-Man thought. Swinging hundreds of feet in the air is one of those things you don't know what you have until it's gone.

He get's his best thinking done in the skies. As the school year is coming to a close, he can't help but think of all the things that has happened this year. Wrestling. Mutants. Magneto. X-Men. The Brotherhood. Kurt and Amanda. Rogue. Dr. Connors. Gwen. Black Cat. Colossus. Kingpin. ...Uncle Ben. He planted himself on the wall of a building and took a quick look at the city. His city. Would he trade any of the hardships he had for a normal life he found himself wanted occasionally.

He doesn't even have to answer that.

He swung through the city freely and without regret. Stopping every crime he came across, all so he could fulfill his promise to his deceased Uncle. He won't let his powers be wasted. These powers may have been an accident, but he refuses to let them go to waste.

Suddenly, he found himself in a certain part of town that he has avoided recently. He doesn't know why, but suddenly he feels drawn to it.

He hoped onto the giant screen in Yankee staduim. You could see a lot from there...no matter how dark they're clothes seems to be. He didn't know why he was doing this...why he was looking for her. And if he found her, he what would he do? Let her go? Take her in? Be friends again? Fight with her again?

He didn't know...and he would never know until he actually found her.

But he couldn't. She was no where to be found. Even with all the lights of New York City, he cannot see her. Is it possible she didn't even come? Hardly. She comes her every night at around this time...at least that was what she always told him. He doesn't recall her ever lying, but he of course recalls her not telling him the whole truth. Maybe it was just time to face facts that he's probably not going to be seeing her tonight.

He hoped off the screen and spun a web and proceeded to wing away, but suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his thigh.

Cramp.

Big cramp.

Spidey cut his swing short and landed on a building relatively close to the baseball field and stretched out his thigh. This happens from time to time...especially when he forgets to stretch before he leaves. He wanted to yell in pain as he stretched his leg as far as he could.

Something then caught his eye. Hair. White hair setting on a nearby building overlooking Yankee Stadium. She had a bottle in her hand. He wasn't even thinking about the pain. He didn't even think about how convenient that cramp was.

He took a huge jump from the building he was on to right behind Black Cat. He didn't turn around. She wasn't even startled she just continued to look at the baseball field.

"You know the games over, right?" asked Spider-Man still holding his position. He identified the bottle in her hand to be a Corona beer, and the fact that a cooler was sitting right next to her.

"My father used to take me to Yankee games all the time," she explained as she took a swig of beer. It was funny...she never mentioned anything so trivial as her father before. "I feel calm here...at home. Kind of like you do when you over look the entire city."

She remembered.

"So are you just gonna stand there on her hand and feet or are you going to take a seat?" she asked. Spider-Man didn't know what to do at this point. Even though he was looking for her all this time, he didn't know what to do or what to expect. He decided to slowly walked towards her side and sit on the edge of the roof with here.

"So..." he said with a voice of slight confusion.

"So..." she repeated not taking her eyes off the field. "What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"I dunno," Spider-Man replied casually. "Maybe just take a rest here and go back to saving this city from crime."

"That's not what I meant," said Cat right after taking a sip of her beer.

"I know what you meant," replied Spider-Man losing all of the causality and confidence in his voice. There was a silence. Spidey looked at Cat. Cat looked at the field. It was starting to annoy him. "What would you have me do?" Spider-Man suddenly erupted. He promised himself he wouldn't get mad...but that doesn't seem to be working right now. "For the last couple of months, you struck me as a good person. Hell, I was really beginning to like you. But now I discovered that you're working for the Kingpin of crime and you even tried to kill me-"

"Oh my God, are you serious?" Black Cat errupted as she slammed her beer down next to her and finally looked at Spider-Man. "I saved you're ass by kicking you-"

"Cat, that's completely besides the point!" he shot back. "It doesn't change the fac that you're still working for the God-damned kingpin!" at this point Spidey wasn't setting down, rather pacing on the roof top in anger. Cat decided to join him.

"I don't expect someone like you to understand this," she began. "But I have no choice!"

"Oh God, I've heard this before," laughed Spider-Man ready to punch something. Real hard. "Did he kidnap you're younger sister and looked her in a God forsaken cell, too?"

Black cat let out a scoff which could have been a laugh. "If only it was something that simple..."

"Whatever it is, you can fight it," Spider-Man assured Cat in the process of calming down. "I can help you fight it."

There was a few moments of silence. Spider-Man saw an unsure look in her face. He prayed it was the face of her coming around and possibly going after the Kingpin herself. Spidey normally doesn't do this with criminals, but Black Cat is different. He knows that she is a good person at heart. Call him Luke Skywalker, but he can sense the good in this woman. He only can pray that she's thinking about rebelling against her boss.

But she isn't. She was only thinking about how little Spider-Man knew of this situation, and if only she could tell him, he would understand why she is indebted to Kingpin. And maybe there was some way she could rebel against him. If she told him, maybe he can do it himself and be the hero she saw him as.

"I can't, Spider," she said sadly.

All of his hope suddenly disappeared. He walked over to the edge of the roof placing his hand right next to her beer and stared at the field. He had no idea what about it calmed her down. He turned to her once again.

"So what do I do now?" asked Spider-Man.

Black Cat walked over to her beer, which was right next to Spidey, and grabbed it.

"I'll tell you what you're going to do." She sounded serious.

She then opened her cooler and grabbed another beer and held it out to Spider-Man.

"Have one with me," she said with seriousness. "We'll set down. We'll talk about whatever we want to talk about. And by the time you finish it, you make a decision all on your own."

This is about the time Spider-Man would say something along the lines of 'you're trying to get me drunk, aren't you?' But he couldn't say a joke now. He stared at the beer in her hand as if it was magically going to float to him. He doesn't drink. He has before, thanks to is childhood friend, Harry Osbourn. He's not afraid of it. He just doesn't drink.

Suddenly, Spidey watched his hand reach for the bottle. He didn't want to pass a chance like this up. All this time, all he wanted to do was get into the mind of the people he's stopping on a nightly basis. Of course, criminals aren't notorious to talking about their feelings, especially to a guy who foils their plans. She works for the Kingpin, and yet she seems so friendly. It would seem that there are shades of grey in a criminals mind after all.

Spidey took the beer and they both took a seat on the edge of the roof facing Yankee Stadium. He lifted up his mask just so his mouth and nose is showing and began to drink. He intends to find out everything he can about her. What makes her tick. Why she results to working from a criminal mastermind. Why she does what she does. And before the night ends, he will make his decision.

He doesn't plan on drinking very much of the beer, though.

Too bitter.


Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.

Dag Hammarskjold (1905 - 1961)