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Chapter II

A month had gone by, Jessica was juggling the job of a performing ballerina while being a protector of Hells Kitchen as Spider-Woman, she found a balance...or so she thought.

During this time she had grown rather lonely, but she wasn't the type to go looking for someone...little did she know that someone would come to her. Reports of an abnormal change in the weather had been all over the news, and she thought little of it, She went about her day and tried to be the best she could be at work and while out in the streets. SHe had even built up a reputation while she was at it and criminals were turning themselves in.


Jess was listening in to a police radio, sitting above the squad car on a billboard while finishing off her water bottle. It was a slow night, so she decided to pack up and get some well-deserved rest after a long day.


On her way home she heard a scream, she landed on a traffic light as the brisk winter air hit her body, her suit was still not exactly ready, she wore her mask with some yoga leggings, fingerless gloves, trainers and a hoodie as well as her backpack. "Damn it, I just want a little sleep..."
After sighing she rushed into action "Work comes first.."

She landed behind a bar, noticing a guy all alone, he was an average sized man with brown hair and glasses, on his messy polo was a name tag that read "Bartholomew".


"Hey Bartholomew...or Bart, can I call you Bart? Everything okay here?" The vigilante asked for concern before realizing the poor man was drunk and alone. She walked toward him and then he collapsed..out of his hand fell a picture. Jess picked it up, it was a photograph of him with a woman who looked like she was his wife and a little girl, possibly his daughter...? It didn't matter to Jess. She carried him over her shoulder and looked his apartment key...they were neighbors? He was a floor below her. * "How convenient..." *She muttered before heading home. "He's really messed up...I'm glad I can help him but I should talk to him about finding a drinking buddy...or not...He's a grown man."

When she arrived at the apartment she set him down in the alley before zipping up her hoodie and putting her mask away. She carried him over her shoulder and to his door, setting him down and slapping him in the face gently "Wakeup dickhead."

Jessica got her water bottle and splashed water on his face, Bartholomew (Bart) woke up in a panic and flinched like crazy, then hit his head on his door. Jess was squatting in front of him and rolled her eyes, standing up. "You need to take better care of yourself. And stop being a drunk asshole who puts himself in bad situations...Okay?" She was cursing at him due to her being furious he had a family and did this.


The next morning, Jess woke up and heard a knock on the door...She placed her tea and her book down and walked over to the door...she peeked through the hole and saw Bart outside. She opened it, wearing Brooklyn Dodgers boxers and a tank top

"Look, I don't know how You figured out which apartment is mine but I'll say this now, do not take me helping you the wrong way-"

Bart was holding a tin of cookies in his hands and some flowers "Are- Are those cookies?..." Jessica cut herself off.. "...Fine, come in."

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me, I asked the doorman about you, gave him a description, he says you're a sweet woman, I already knew that though..Oh and he also mentioned you liked cookies so I..yeah.." Bart was sitting with jess at her table, nervously rubbing his arm...he looked sort of ashamed due to her seeing him at rock bottom last night

"All is forgiven..." Jessica noted as she ate a cookie and drank her tea. "So why didn't you just leave a note? Like a normal person? or try and forget it happened?"

Bartholomew began to tear up...it looked as if he couldn't hold himself together one bit. Jessica rose her brow.. "Need to talk about it bud?"

He wiped his eyes "Yeah..ever since I lost my family, I haven't...Nothing is going right for me.."


Jess felt an arrow sink its way into her heart as she reached across the table and awkwardly patted his hand.. "Oh, Sorry to hear that..fella. Is it okay if I ask what happened..?"



He began to tell her what occurred one year ago..

_Bartholomew woke up aside his wife, She was a beautiful woman with tan skin and dark hair, her name was Bethany. He kissed his wife and then suddenly his daughter jumped into the bed and giggled "Daddy, Daddy! I want a kiss too!" The sweet girl giggled. Her name was Lila. Lila was kissed by her parents _

"It all happened so fast.."

Bart was one of the smartest and highest paid computer engineers at a company called Cybertek. He was the man, The best at what he did, and HE LOVED what he did. He was an All-Star worker and a loving father and husband. He had married Bethany after college, she was a single mother who worked at a coffee shop, they were ordinary people. He adopted his new daughter Lila, two years went by and by this time Lila was around four years old. He got the Job at Cybertek, and supported his new family, he was a young and ambitious engineer wanting to make a difference. He wanted to make cybernetic limbs affordable to everyone on the market and help those who were in need anyway he could..so what went wrong?...

He had come up with a program, one that would revelutionize targeting systems for drones and fighter jets, he was proposing they give it to the military for free, but the suits had other ideas, they wanted his tech and wanted to sell it, and some of the men on the board of that company didn't care who they sold it to, knowing this Bart decided to quit his job, and the tech left with him, The company had lost him and others were looking to hire, but the two corrupt memebers on the board decided they would take it by force, hiring some men to go to his home in the suburbs and take it from his lab, as well as make there be an accidental fire in his home. They arrived to steal his technology that night, Bart was out of the house, he was buying his family tickets to a ball game while he looked for a new job due to him being a wealthy engineer he could spend while not working... But, when he returned home what he found was unimaginable.


He had taken his Tech and stored it in a hard drive he kept on himself at ALL times...but when the men arrived to take it, they found nothing, and out of spite, they burned his house anyway, thinking him to be inside.

Bart's wife and daughter were killed that night...And he knew it had to be due to Cybertek. He couldn't prove it to the police..so he tried to steal their information for months and leak it. He was a crafty hacker, but not able to get what he needed unless he had a man inside. He gave up and felt like he had failed his wife and daughter when in reality there was nothing he could have done, he did the right thing and the people he loved paid for it. Jessica heard all this and as Bart further explained, he paused and noticed she was hugging him tightly... "I-" Bart noticed she was quiet but saw tears running down her cheeks, he began to cry as well and the two hugged for what seemed like half an hour.. Jess didn't want to let him go. She knew what losing everything was like..she related to him.


Jess rubbed his back. "I'm so sorry...I didn't know...I understand now.."

"Why are you telling a stranger all of this, why me?" Jessica was curious..

"Because it's been a year and I almost gave up hope on people..no one believed me that the company did it..but I had a hidden camera, I have the footage, but the men were in masks, the cops had no way of pegging Cybertek for what they did and the investigation was closed...I guess when you helped my sorry ass the other night, I felt my faith in humanity restored. For that I am forever in your debt...and I still don't know your name?"

She smiled at him and wiped her eyes. "Jessica Drew, you can call me Jess, Bart. Is Bart okay?" He nodded and smiled "Great." Jess smiled back and then the two just smiled at one another for a moment

Jessica and Bart became more than neighbors, they became friends from that day on. Jessica began to investigate Cybertek as Spider-Woman and as time passed on, she contemplated telling Bart she was the Spider vigilante who showed up out of nowhere. But she didn't know if it was her urge to help that compelled her or maybe feelings she had started to develop. They were mere opposites, Jess was all about fitness and she was tough, Bart was a sweetheart and a geek. But they had such great times. Jess even took him to her shows when she would perform, they became best friends over the span of weeks, talking every day, texting in bed, eating at each other's apartments, and even having movie nights, it was therapeutic she thought, but it was good for both of them as they healed from their wounds.


Jessica woke up a few weeks after they initially met that first day..and under her door were two tickets to a baseball game. She laughed at how sweet and dorky Bart was, and she then proceeded to cry because tickets were the last thing he got for his family, how close did he consider her?

When they were at the ballgame, Jessica was standing beside them, the Dodgers were her favorite team and they had just hit a home run "I've gotta ask, how did you know to get me Brooklyn tickets?...And why? is this a date?" Jessica teased and nudged him with her arm. He looked over at her and replied.. "Not a date...but more of a token of appreciation. You did a lot for me these past few weeks, and I knew you liked the Dodgers because of your knickers you were wearing when I brought you cookies.."

Jessica blushed and punched his arm lightly, he rubbed it and smiled. It was rare that she could be teased back, but the fact he remembered such detail shocked her and it was kind of cute. "Well played chap, but no one calls them knickers anymore, you were so close to being smooth."


"Hey I did my best.." He smiled and the game was now in the background as the both of them linked hands and before their lips met, a foul ball was heading toward them, Jess reacted with her spider sense and caught it barehanded before it hit Bart. Bart was amazed and the two forgot they were about to kiss because of how caught up in the moment they were. Jess dropped the ball and pretended to be in pain, it didn't hurt but for a normal human that would hurt like hell. Everyone cheered for her and at the end of the game, the Dodgers made sure to compensate her and she got to get a signed ball from the team. On their way home, Jess was bundled up in her jacket and holding Barts' hand. She stopped walking and looked up at him since he was a bit taller. You forgot something at the ballpark."


"What do you mean I already accounted for everything- I double checked. Wait please tell me I didn't lose my Captain America Keychain!" He began to fumble with his pockets and Jess rolled her eyes and grabbed him by his collar. He stiffened up and Jessica kissed him..a few seconds into the kiss he relaxed and there the two were, underneath a streetlight, kissing with no one else around.



Jessica and Bart kissed a lot after that day but never really established a relationship, but kissing was as far as they'd go. Jessica checked up on him one day and went to visit him down on the next floor..then when she entered his apartment she saw him sitting at his desk.. "What's all this?" She asked as she went through a box of some wires and gizmos "You building an Irom-Man suit?"


"If I have to." He replied and continued tinkering with his computer. "I'm going to prove my family was murdered...I can't give up."

Jess looked at him and then walked over to his desk and leaned over him, hugging him "Bart..we talked about this, you can't hack unless you have a man inside. It's too risky, if they find out, they'll kill you too...I can't lose you.."

She held his hands... "Bart.."

He shook his head and moved her off of him "You believed in me then, why not now? besides. I can get inside I have all the keycodes, I got those last night. Jess you have to let me do this.."


" I understand.." Jessica shook her head but then nodded "I'd do the same...but that just makes both of us idiots. You're a normal guy. Don't do this, we can figure out a safer way.."


Bart nodded and then sighed. "Here let me take that.." Jess took the keycodes and information, intending on doing this as Spider-Woman. And behind Bart's back...She needed to tell him but she wanted to protect him. She decided she'd "Hold on" to the things in that box so he didn't get tempted but in reality, she was using them for herself.



"Bart..things are going to get better. Trust me. I have faith.."


End.