Jennifer quietly walked up to her office in a morose kind of mood, her unbroken heel clicking on the pavement. Another pair of heels down the drain, another suit ripped. This was not a good evening, not by any scale she judged by, and she had a list of bad days that would stretch a mile wide.

Just as she reached up her knee for the first step a voice boomed out. "Jen!" It startled her bad enough for her to lose her footing. She fell backwards onto Michael, as he tried to react, attempting to reach his arm out to catch her but instead she struck him with her elbow in her surprise and they both hit the pavement in a wrecked looking pile. She landed on top of his chest with not even a scratch, he was not so fortunate.

"Ow.. Michael you scared me you idiot!"

"Please.. get off of me. I need air.." He wheezed the words out forcibly and she lifted off of him on her arms. He sat up gaspng for oxygen. "Sorry, no insult intended."

"Michael where the hell did you go?! Oh for Pete's sake here, get up off the ground." Jen offered him her hand and he took it for leverage to stand.

"I'm sorry Jen, I didn't want to stick around and end up back at the Raft. I also didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay, I understand you and Spider-man still have a thing.. You two are unnecessarily hostile you know that?"

"He's a douchebag." He refused to look up at her, the fact was that he knew he was being unreasonable. There was fear. Fear that Spider-man would throw him back in jail to be starved or tortured. The Raft was not a kind place and there were many civil rights violations that never made it to the public eye.

"See? This is exactly what I'm talking about." She smirked at him, despite his aggression she found their feud amusing.

He scratched the back of his head and thought his words over carefully as he tended to do around her. "He.. brings out the worst in me." It was the most succinct way he could possibly phrase it and it made Jen laugh.

"Understatement of the damn year."

"Look, I came to apologize. I know I bit you earlier.." Again he turned away avoiding her eyes, his body language showing that he was uncomfortable with the topic but felt he had to address it.

"I fed you." She tilted her head back and smirked.

"What?" His jaw dropped.

"I let you bite me. You needed it. I'm a hulk, I can deal with it. How do you feel?"

He paused, his lip almost twitching into the shape of a smile but he stopped himself. "Near invincible. Your blood is remarkable.. and addictive. Please don't do that again."

"It's okay. I heal quickly.." To illustrate she held out her wrist and it was indeed fully healed already. Skin capable of stopping even bullets.

"It's not that. I don't want to think of you as food Jen, you're too important to me." There was no other way he could see phrasing it so he pushed the words out as though they were a burden.

"Oh.." Jen blinked twice in surprise and stared at him, her mouth slightly agape.

"I'm sorry. I should go."

She called out as he turned from her to leave. "Wait.. it's getting late and you have a ways to go to get home. Are you sure you don't want to crash on my couch and catch up? I could order pizza? We could watch a movie?"

He turned to her, for a brief moment his eyes uplifted and she could almost see the outline of a retina in their hazy red glow. it was only a moment though and he quickly dropped his gaze to the cement below his feet. "No.. that would not be wise."

He stepped off the sidewalk and she reached forward with one giant-hulk step and grabbed his hand. Her skin was warm to the touch and he savored it, not taking his much smaller hand from her palm until she pulled it away. "If you ever need me. My office is right here. Don't be a stranger, and don't get into trouble Michael.. you need all the damn friends you can get."

Morbius simply smiled at her and lifted off of the sidewalk, using his transvection to fly him off towards the nearest portal. He could indeed use a good friend right now.

Sometime later he quietly snuck through Monster Metropolis, it was late so the citizens were bustling every which way in an attempt to get their tasks for the night accomplished. It would be okay to be seen, just so long as he didn't run into.."

A warm hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder, a parallel to Jennifer's touch but it was unexpected and made him jump with a reactive hiss.

"Whoah pal. You do that too often I might think you're a cat. You know what I think of cats." Jack smirked, standing behind the vampire in half-wolf form.

"God damn it Jack! You scared me.."

"No shit." The werewolf smirked and tipped a longneck beer to his lips. Cheap and domestic, just like he liked it. "You good Mike? The spider is gone, the stone is safe, Blade's got his tail between his legs. Trust me, I'd know." He pointedly wagged his own tail behind him, an act that made Morbius laugh and cover his mouth with his hand.

"I'm sorry I ran off, Jack. I had to talk to Jennifer."

"I'll bet you did." He said it with a smirk that made Morbius sigh in response.

"It's not like that." He started walking knowing that Jack would follow. He always did. Sure enough there was the soft sound of paws behind him.

"It's not like what Mike? I didn't say a damn thing about you two." He was still smirking, this was a game they played often. Well, Morbius was unaware it was a game but Jack knew and he always won.

"She's a friend. My friend.."

"I know, I know, you saved her life. Just friends, I've heard it all before. There are a lot worse friends to have than a lawyer. Should have her clear up the charges that had you thrown on the damn Raft in the first place."

"She can't, no one can. I was never formally charged. It's just been decided that I'm too dangerous to live around my primary food source.." He sadly opened the door to his lab to be met with a rush of squeaks and trumpeting. The rest of the legion stood inside with party noisemakers and balloons, a makeshift banner read mission accomplished in green marker and Morbius slapped his own face with his hand in reaction, slowly transitioning to rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Manphibian stepped forward, offering him a glass of blood with a shot of ouzo mixed into it and for a second he was sure he heard the sound of Morbius laughing. "I have worked with Bruce Banner, Otto Octavius, Reed Richards.. and you guys are still the biggest bunch of dorks I've ever met."

Jack stepped behind him and slapped his back in a familiar way. "Much obliged, Mike but you ever not let me in on the plan again and I'll make you into kibble."

"The dog jokes Jack, stop. The world is asking you to stop."

He sipped his Coor's Light and smiled. "Never, you damn bat. Now, I say we party. How do you order strippers in these damn tunnels?"

"I know a placccce. Cute girlssss." Manphibian handed off the glass to Morb and took a beer for himself. Morbius noted that they had parked the cooler on top of his research desk. His notes would undoubtedly be soggy, again. It happened more than he cared to admit.

Michael couldn't hold the laughing back anymore. He struggled for words and took a sip of the donated blood. "No, absolutely not Manny. Not after the last time and that horror convention."

"ThaT wASn'T So bAd.. WhaT iS cOspLAy AnYwaYS? ThOse GIrlS tHougHT MinE WaS GreAT."

"It was terrible. The worst.. I got so many Twilight jokes that day. Why did I ever come back here?"

Jack's tail thumped against the wall. "Cause you belong here Mike. We all do. You helped build it for all of us. It's home now. So, welcome home bud."

Morbius took a sip of the drink and grinned. "It's good to have a home."