"Look lady, just give up the goddam fucking purse!" the knife-wielding man said as he brandished his weapon on her. Jean stood her ground fiercely. She seriously contemplated the idea of frying the man's brain with a thought. But her hesitation cost her, as a blur of red and blue sideswiped the man.

Her telepathy told her that the blur was Spider-man. She casually tapped into his thoughts as he turned the knife-wielder black and blue.

'...third guy this week. Seriously, I wonder if someone's playing some sorta game with me. It'd be a cruel game, especially if they're involving pretty women...' Jean smiled at the notion that spider-man found her attractive. When she had been with Scott, it seemed like every guy on the X-men wanted to get with her. Now that she was single, no one wanted her. And add in the circumstances of her divorce from Scott, she couldn't blame them, as she'd been rather short-tempered for a few weeks afterwards. Her train of thought made her slightly unaware of what was happening around her, and she only snapped back to reality when she saw the man draw a gun on the hero. Instinctively, she lashed out with a hand, tapping into her telekinesis to send both the gun and the beaten man flying back several feet. The man hit the wall with a muffled thud as she watched Spider-man turn and face her. 'What the hell?' she heard him think.

"Are you okay Miss?" he asked as she listened in on his befuddled thoughts. 'Yeah, definitely a meta-human. Most likely mutant. And not bad-looking either.' She offered a smile and a wave.

"I'm fine, Spider-man," Jean replied with a wink. "Thank you though."

"I think I need to thank you," he said with a tilt of his head. "And no, I don't care about your little secret." He finished as he leaped high into the air with a simple flex of his leg muscles, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She watched in slight admiration as he swung on his trademark lines of webbing. The way he had just come to her aid without a second thought for his own safety surprised her. But what really got to her was the fact that he hadn't run screaming when she shoved a grown man aside with her thoughts. When the thoughts of gratitude combined themselves with her recent lonesomeness, they lit a fire within her soul. She grinned even wider as she placed a mental trace on Spider-man which would allow her to follow his actions. She followed him sporadically throughout the day, doing her best to learn more about the man behind the mask. A little digging inside his brain and she learned his name was Peter Parker. And that he liked to have an inner monologue running at all times. The scientist in her wanted to know more about the man behind the mask.

She followed him as he neared a cemetery, but kept her distance, as he was in civilian clothing. She felt waves of emotions bombard her, all of them coming from his mind. Feelings of pain, grief and guilt.

"...a policy. That if you had the ability to do great things, then it was your responsibility to do those things no matter what and..." The voice of an elderly man echoed.

"Yeah?" an angry teenage voice replied, "then where the hell is he? I wasn't important enough for him to..."

"How dare you!" the man's voice said sternly.

"How dare I? How dare you!" the teenager screamed angrily. Jean grasped at her heart as she felt the pain wash off the man behind the mask. She pondered about the amount of hate he got from the general media. Even several members of the X-men had expressed their open distaste for Spider-man and his actions.

"Goblin! What have you done with Gwen!?"

"Done?" a voice cackled, "nothing, yet!"

"No!"

"Gwen? Gwen?! Gwen!"

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"I'll kill you, goblin, do you understand? I'll KILL YOU FOR THIS!" More pain that she could have anticipated followed, nearly bringing Jean Grey to her knees as she continued to sort through the myriad of emotions that came from Spider-man. The very same man she, along with many others assumed to be a happy-go-lucky vigilante who never shut up. Images flashed through her mind. A man with four extra arms holding a small child over the edge of a building. A charging mass of grey. A sea of sand. A horrible black mass covering his body. Tears fell from Jean's eyes, tears that she refused to wipe away out of respect for the hero.

"You okay miss?" a voice asked from behind her. Jean turned around to see a man in his mid-twenties. He had brown hair and average looks. But she could instantly recognize him. Although his clothes had changed, his mindset had not.

"You brave man," Jean whispered as she got to her feet. "You, brave, kind, wonderful man," she said as she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug of gratitude, earning a grunt of shock from him.

"Ummm..." Peter Parker replied nervously.

I know.. she said through her telepathy, connecting her mind with his. I know. I'm so sorry for all the things I've said about you in the past. About all that's happened to you in the past. No one should have to go through that. Not alone I...

"You wanna grab a cup of coffee or something?" Peter asked, breaking the hug as he did so.

"I..." Jean said, flabbergasted, "yes I..." The fact that he seemed to accepting about her abnormalities and sudden intrusion of his mind caught her off-guard completely. That and it had been a while since anyone had asked her to lunch.

A/N: Leave your opinions, I want to know!

Up Next: Zatanna!