I told Gill about Jess, since I told him about everything, and he thought that I made the right decision, and he liked Steven even less than he already did. I guess Steven didn't really make that great of an impression on Gill when they met, but, then again, Steven still hadn't made a very good impression on me, so I didn't blame Gill for not liking him. Gill thought it was kind of funny when I told him that Warren and Steven would have to act like a married couple sometimes. The thought it sucked that they would have to make themselves uncomfortable, but he still thought it was kind of funny.

I told Clair about Jess, now that Clair knew about me being Shadow-Man. I decided that it was better if I just told her everything too, because I didn't want her to figure something out that she didn't already know, and then accuse me of sleeping with Gill again or something. Clair seemed to agree with Steven. She said that I shouldn't have taken Jess to Steven's house of all places, because even if I couldn't be Shadow-Man for a while, Jess could still easily find out about it, because of the lab, the batons, and the suit. I soon had enough of people telling me that me doing the right thing and helping Jess, was a bad idea because it could endanger me.

"Listen, I'm going to be one hundred percent honest and tell you that I don't give a shit about why you don't agree with my decision. I didn't ask you to agree with me. I don't expect you to understand my choices, but I do expect you to respect them. You weren't there, you don't know what i saw, and you don't know what I was thinking." I hissed.

"I really don't think you were thinking." Clair hissed back.

"What if that was you? What if you came crying to someone on the street, without your clothes, and terrified because some guy just raped you? How would you feel if someone just turned you away and let the man get you again, just because helping you inconvenienced them?"

"That would never happen to me. Women get raped because they ask for it by wearing skimpy clothes."

"You're a bitch Clair. I want you out of my face, and I want you out right now."

"Do you really think you should be saying those kinds of things to me? I have a lot of secrets about you that yo wouldn't want getting out."

"Bring it Clair. I can handle anything you throw at me easily."

"Says the girl with three broken ribs because she got hit with a stick."

"I'm a boy." I growled. After that, I walked away from Clair, and Gill followed me. Gill looked pretty upset, and I felt bad. I knew that Gill didn't do well with people fighting around him, and I knew that I shouldn't have started an argument with Clair in front of him. I turned to Gill, and placed a concerned hand on his shoulder, and tried to give him a reassuring smile.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. Are you ok?" I asked, Gill nodded, and I knew that he meant it.

"You can still be friends with her if you want." I told Gill. I knew that he valued all of his friends a lot, and I didn't want him to think that he would have to choose between Clair and I, because that wouldn't be fair to him at all.

"I don't want to. She said things that she shouldn't have and I don't want to be her friend anymore." Gill told me.

"That's ok too."

***

At Steven's house, after I had finished the physics books, I was given multiple books about various different murderers and psychopaths. The books were all about the way the people thought, and how their brains worked. Steven and Warren said that I would have to be able to understand how criminals thought, so that way I would know what to expect, and be able to act accordingly in just about any situation. I felt like the multiple criminal psychology books seemed like a bit much, but I decided to read them anyway.

I was in the library, curled up in my usual chair, reading the second psychology book, when I heard a loud bang from beneath me. That meant that someone was in lab, so I got down there as fast as I could to see if whatever caused the loud bang had hurt someone. With all of the large machines in Steven's lab, I knew that it was possible that one of them had fallen on him, and he could have needed help. Warren slipped quickly into the hidden elevator with me, and we got down into the lab as fast as we could.

When I ran out of the elevator, I was expecting to see Steven, instead, I saw Jess. On the floor beside Jess, was the box that held the batons, with the batons on the floor near it. Jess looked over at Warren and I in confusion, and I sighed. Jess was holing my Shadow-Man suit, and I knew that I would either have to accuse Warren of being into some kinky shit, or confess the truth.

"What the hell is this?" Jess asked. I opened my mouth, fully prepared to throw Warren under the bus and say that he wore it during sex, but Jess didn't give me the chance.

"You're that weird guy in the suit who beats random people up at night?" She asked, looking at Warren. I sighed, and shook my head.

"No Jess, I'm that weird guy in the suit who beats random people up at night." I told her, causing Jess to look even more confused. "Let me explain."

"Go ahead and try."

"Have you ever read any comics?" Jess thought for a moment, but still looked very confused, and I didn't blame her.

"No, but I've seen all of the movies."

"Ok. I'm pretty much Spider-Man. Just, without the powers and tragic back story." I explained.

"You're...a superhero?"

"Yeah. My superhero name is Shadow-Man, and I only beat up the bad guys."

"is that how you ended up in that cast?"

"More or less." I shrugged. "Listen, it's very, very important that you do not tell anyone about me being Shadow-Man."

"O-ok." Jess stuttered. She looked really scared, and I gently took the suit out of her hands, and picked the batons off of the floor and put them back in the box.

"Warren, go get Steven." I told Warren, not taking my eyes off of Jess. While Warren was gone, I tried to fill Jess in a much as I could. I figured Jess would be less likely to go blabbing my secret if she didn't think we were up to anything suspicious. If she knew everything that was going on, and we showed that we trusted her, maybe she would prove that our trust wasn't misplaced.

Steven, however, did not have the same thinking as me. Not by a long shot. Steven was pissed when he got into the lab to find Jess in there, and me with the suit. At first, he thought that I just decided to tell her without asking anyone else, and without knowing if I could trust her, but Warren quicky told Steven that that was not the case. So, Steven then began to yell at Jess, wondering why she was in the lab, how she had found it, and why she thought it was ok to just start snooping around in stuff that wasn't hers. However, I didn't let Steven yell at Jess for very long, because she had had a rough couple of weeks, and looked scared enough already.

"Steven, remember how you told me that you were worried that Jess would find out about Shadow-Man, so I told you that we better be nice to her before that happens so that she'll be more likely to trust us and keep our secret?" I asked, not actually wanting an answer. "Well that applies to after she's already found out. Look at her, Jess is scared out of her wits, I'm trying to make sure that she knows that we're the good guys, and you're over here yelling at her, and looking like you're going to kill her. How is that going to help?"

"I'm not going to kill her, but she shouldn't just get let off the hook." Steven argued.

"What hook? There is no hook? Did we want Jess down here? No, but we she didn't know that."

"What is she even doing down here anyway?"

"How about you calm down, lower your voice, talk gently, and ask her yourself." I demanded. Steven forced himself to calm down, then gently asked Jess what she was doing in the lab.

"I-I didn't know that it was off limits." Jess mumbled. "I was just walking upstairs, using the banister, when my hand clicked something. Then some glowing elevator showed up out of the wall. So I did what anyone in that situation would have done, and used the elevator."

"See? She didn't know." I told Steven. Steven sighed, and looked at Jess.

"Do you understand that you can't tell anyone?" Steven asked.

"Yes. Now, I was wondering if you've been having issues with getting this here machine to work?" Jess asked, seeming to drop all of her fear, and surprise us all by approaching a machine that looked like it was supposed to be and arm or something.

"Um, yes. Actually. H-how did you know?" Steven asked, no longer sounding angry at all as he stepped closer to Jess and the machine.

"Well, I was looking over the blue prints, and I noticed that you forgot something." Warren and I stepped back and watched as Jess talked to Steven about his machine, and the two of them messed with it, until it started to work. Steven looked fairly impressed, and Jess looked pretty proud of herself. Any and all evidence of any negative emotions was completely gone from both Jess and Steven's faces. I smiled, thinking that Jess was going to do just fine in Steven's house.

***

I had been in the cast around my chest for months, and by time it had finally gotten taken off, my upper body felt way lighter, and a lot more exposed. I had to wait a few weeks before getting to where a binder again, which sucked, but I was glad to be out of the cast. I wanted to get back to my training as soon as we got back to Steven's house from the hospital, but Warren told me no. He told me that it was better for me to start slow, and take it easy for a while before jumping right back into being Shadow-Man. We decided that when I could start wearing binders again, we would get me back into training. I hated having to wait, but if gave me something to look forward to.

When I had showed up to school wearing my regular uniform again, Gill was very happy. He was glad to know that I was better, for the most part, and that I was going to be just fine, even though it wasn't like I had just spent the year in a coma or anything. I was glad to see that he was glad though, and was happy withe the gentle hug that he gave me. Once we had gotten past the mushy stuff, Gill expressed his excitement about me starting to be Shadow-Man again. He thought that since I had the suit, and the batons, I would start to become a lot cooler, and I would start to get more attention.

Honestly, the idea of people knowing who Shadow-Man was, and Shadow-Man getting some attention didn't sound that bad. i liked the idea of Shadow-Man inspiring people. Maybe, someone would follow in my footsteps and become a superhero for their city.