Vigilance

Prologue

The night sky seemed to darken the already dim room as Vanessa stood in front of her bathroom mirror. Sweat slightly matted her golden locks to her forehead and her mascara tracked down her cheeks. She met her own icy green eyes with a painful glare of guilt and regret. Her gaze traveled down her sweater-clad body curiously.

Now that her mother knew her secret, it was an entirely new world of real. She was pregnant.

She began to fidget with the woven sweater and sighed as she pulled it over her head. Even in the meager illumination of the night-light, the curve of her body was obvious. Lips pressed together, she delicately traced the tight skin of her small bump with her fingertips.

She couldn't believe it.

What would Emma say?

What rumors would Meredith spread?

Or worse... what would Sam think of her now? She wanted him to look at her. Just not like this...

Her mother was on the phone downstairs. The frantic and distant Spanish was enough to snap her out of the trance and she pulled her sweater back on.

It had taken so much effort to hide it this far. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this from her teachers, her coaches, her friends.

She left her bathroom and almost mindlessly pulled the safe out from under her bed. Unlocking it with the key around her neck she flipped back the top and looked at the contents, the wheels in her head visibly turning.

Glancing up at her locked door to reassure her mother was still preoccupied, Vanessa pulled the substantial contents of the box into her hands.

It was her suit. The only barrier between her identity as Vanessa Adrian and her vigilante alter ego, Leopardess.

She became a vigilante out of necessity, she had a job she swore to do and she had failed, right on the brink of the biggest discovery yet. She was so unbelievably angry at herself.

She kept her breathing even, because she knew she wasn't in control of her hormones anymore and the tears would flow freely. This was a mistake.

One stupid mistake...

A mistake she could have easily prevented in hindsight, but she was so... caught up in it all. Caught up in him.

She only knew her partner by his own vigilante alter ego, by Raven, and she had gone to such great lengths to keep it that way the last three years. She refused to let her life as Leopardess infringe on her personal life. But now their lives had mixed, in the most personal way possible.

She had scores to settle, people to protect, lives to save, and she had jeopardized it. Now, who knew how many peoples' lives would be affected.

She was shameful. Her actions were selfish. People needed her, her partner needed her.

Her partner couldn't know. For her sake and his.

Vanessa stole one last glance at her suit and locked it back up.

"It will be okay." She breathed. "I'll be okay."

She knew what she had to do...