By Moonlight (P.P + M.J)

*MJ pov*

She knew him immediately. The guy from the bus stop she had met days ago. When Michelle had heard the scientist call his name, she didn't think anything of it. She didn't know anyone with the last name of Russell, so it came as shock to her when she finally looked up. The weird thing was he saw her first, even though she was standing behind Peter. Peter wasn't that tall though, so she wasn't exactly surprised that Jack had picked her out from the crowd. He gave her the smallest smile, followed by a subtle nod of his head. Realizing that her eyes were far wider than she meant, she looked down, heat rushing to her cheeks. What's worse was that Peter seemed to notice.

As Dr.Connors led the students around the lab, he showed them all the instruments that the scientists used. Jack didn't follow him, instead wandering around the lab and looking at charts. Every so often, he would look in her direction. Peter was doing that too, exchanging looks between Jack and Michelle. He seemed to know something was up, and he did a terrible job hiding it.

Peter was being inexplicably careless today. He was being awkward and clumsy, not at all like he was last night. He also smelled faintly of smoke, which made her realize that he must have been in the fire that had happened after their meet up. But it was cute that he wanted to get her attention, even if he looked completely idiotic when he tried. Especially now. He seemed far too skittish for her liking. She swore if he looked back at her one more time she'd end up hitting him.

But there was a yellowed area around his left eye, and she wondered if someone had literally beaten her to the punch. Half his face was sickly yellow color, like the color a bruise turns after a few days. Had he been beaten up recently?

"And this is where we run diagnostics for DNA replicates," Dr.Connors was saying, walking up to a huge glass tube with a hologram of a double helix floating in it.

"Replicates for what?" Flash asked.

"Well, if we were learn how to clone certain parts of the DNA strand, we would be able to discover how to rebuild it so as to heal faster, maybe even multiply it," the scientist replied, tapping a screen. The DNA strand then fell apart, only to quickly resemble itself into multiple smaller versions of itself. The students stared in awe, and as everyone moved closer to observe, Michelle felt a presence next to her.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Jack asked, and it was hard not to flinch. She wasn't used to being snuck up on, and thought to herself, so that's what that feels like.

"Yeah, so cool, Mr.Russell," she mumbled sarcastically, trying to sound dismissive. She almost laughed at the fact that his name was actually "Jack Russell", but what's in a name? He might not even like dogs. But for the sake of appearance, she brushed him off, hiding her own amusement. That hadn't worked the last time she tried to get him to go away, and it sure didn't now. "Aren't you an intern? Don't you have school today?

"Uh, I, uh, had the day off," Jack stuttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, probably too busy chasing speeding buses, right?" Michelle quipped, not believing his haphazard excuse.

He gave her a quizzical look before frowning to him, quirking his mouth. She had thought back then that he could've been Spiderman, but that thought was dashed when Peter turned out to be her web-slinging friend. But there was someone else there that day that he could still be...

"Look, I'm not gonna lie to you, because I can tell you're smart," he said with a shrug, "but I'm not gonna tell you either."

"Oh yes, most definitely not," she said, rolling her eyes. She didn't care about this guy, or his little half-hidden secrets. But still, some part of this mystery intrigued her.

If he did happen to be the elusive wolf creature that had helped her out so long ago, there was only one way to tell. All she needed was eye contact, because up until then, she had never really looked at him head on.

"So what exactly do you do here?" Michelle asked, a dozen students raising their hands to answer a question that Dr.Connors had asked.

"Like I said before, it's all very secretive, but between you and me, I'm pretty important," he replied with a cocky smirk, looking over at her.

"Yeah, whatever you say pal," she said, almost laughing to herself as she tapped the badge that was pinned to his coat pocket that said Junior Assistant. But she took that minute in time to quickly scan his eyes. They shone a brilliant clear blue, intensified by the blue plaid shirt he wore under his lab coat.

Sometimes you see the same eyes in different people.

The group had begun to move on, and Jack broke away again without another word. She didn't know why he wanted to talk to her. They barely knew each other. But those eyes were familiar, even if she did see them on a werewolf long before. Michelle tried to tell herself that blue eyes like his were common, but she couldn't shake the memory of the unique look of sympathy the werewolf had given her after he'd rescued her. Jack seemed to share that same thoughtful light in his eyes.

Get over yourself MJ, Michelle told herself, realizing how crazy she must sound. Jack was a random passerby and nothing more. Not a werewolf, not anyone. Not even Spiderman. He was just a guy.

As they walked into another lab, she saw that Peter had materialized beside her. He no longer carried that nervous air, but he seemed determined, almost confident. Almost the way a lion looks when he's being challenged.

"Who was that guy, Michelle?" Peter asked, his voice slightly demanding. It clicked for her in an instant.

Peter was jealous.

"No one, Parker," she assured him. He looked like an upset puppy that just had its toy taken away. "Just someone I met awhile back."

He frowned at her answer, but moved away anyway. The boy was fuming with silent irritation, aiming visual daggers at Jack, who wandered around the lab doing scientist things. It was completely adorable, him acting all defensive. Michelle had a suspicion that he liked her, but she thought she was just a rebound from Liz, but she always shook off the thought. Peter could never like her. But he would never go out of his way to question Liz's guy friends before, like he'd just done with Michelle. She smiled to herself, liking the thought of Peter having a crush on her.

"I see you, Parker," she hummed to herself, in a voice low enough for no one to hear, "I see you."

Okay, so I changed Jack's last name in the last chapter (and here) to Russell, strictly for plot purposes. And sorry for publishing and republishing. There was a writing error I needed to correct, AKA the name of the chapter. Didn't make sense with the plot, ya feel? Which reminds me, I've actually got a plan now. Sort of. Like 12% of plan. Yeah, I do. But yeah! Here's 15! :)

~Fargone5