"Jessica." Pepper Potts called her from the door of her room, which was completely open. The girl looked at her, knowing what she had come for. "Everything's set."

Jessica followed Pepper down the wide walls of the Avengers' headquarters. It was her second day living in the facility and the day before she had been warned that the most probable was for her powers to be removed today. Pepper opened the door that lead into Tony's lab, waiting for the young girl to step in first. 

It was fortunate that Jessica wasn't afraid of needles because Tony was waiting for her with a few injections in his hands. She remained silent for all the process, clearly making Mr Stark uncomfortable.

"That's the last one. This should mute your powers. I can't assure you it's permanent, but it should work for now." He said once the last injection was done. "We'll see how it evolves."

Jessica still didn't talk. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Thank you, Mr Stark."

"Don't look at me like that kid, you wanted this from the beginning." He said, not to harshly. "Besides, I'm the one who should be mad. You disobeyed everything I told you. Anyways, now you don't have to babysit the spiderling anymore."

"I'm not mad, I just-" 

Tony cut her off. "You miss him?" He associated her need to justify her feelings with the mention of the teen she had been living with.

"No, he's just grown on me and-"

"And you miss him." He got no reply, what actually answered his question. "Listen, boys come and go. And you're not too bad, I'm sure you'll find another one to replace him." 

"Tony!" Pepper yelled from the other side of the room, offended at Tony's comment.

"What I'm trying to say is..." He thought of a way to rephrase his sentence. "You have so much potential in the academic field, you should try and concentrate on that. You'll go far if you do."

"What's going to happen now?" Jessica asked, finally giving up. 

"Just finish high school and live a normal life."

"Are you sure this will work?"

"It worked on Pepper and she's not an Extremis anymore." Mr Stark said confidently. He then looked at his girlfriend and decided to add one last statement. "That I know."

With that, Jessica got up and walked towards the door. "Alright."

"Hey, kiddo!" He stopped her before she could leave. "I'm sorry I had to bring you into all of this."

"Yeah..." She replied, looking down. "I'm sorry too."

...

Once Mr Stark saw that the injections had had the intended effect, he sent Jessica back to school. The girl did as she was told since the billionaire was letting her stay in the headquarters until she finished her studies. The only condition, though, was to avoid starting any conversation with Peter. Mr Stark didn't want for any of them to be influenced by the other. 

Jessica tried to move on. She focused on other things: exams, the decathlon team and homecoming preparations. Thankfully, she wasn't alone. She had grown closer to Michelle, who turned out to be a very interesting person. From time to time she'd give Jessica an update on Peter since she saw him at her voluntary detentions, but Jessica usually just nodded and changed the subject. 

As her friendship with Michelle grew, she felt her friendship with Liz dying. Ever since she met her father, she had only grown more and more suspicious of him. She still didn't have confirmation, but the sound she heard at her house was extremely similar to what she heard in the accident.

Jessica's head was still around that when Michelle spilt a whole bottle of glue on her hands. They were helping in the homecoming committee. 

"Oh my gosh!" She screamed, trying, unsuccessfully, not to laugh. "I'm so sorry Jess!"

"Yeah, I can tell." She said sarcastically but smiled, still. She had glue even on her clothes. "I'm going to go wash up."

"Sure." Michelle nodded, trying to find something to clean the mess she had made. She looked up at Jessica one last time and laughed again. "I'm so sorry."

Fortunately, the glue came up easily. What she found hard, though, was bumping into Peter on her way back to the gym, where they were preparing for homecoming.  

"Hey." He talked first. Jessica first thought she was paralysed. "I thought you had calculus fifth period."

"Yeah, I was just helping with some homecoming stuff." She managed to say, feeling more relaxed as she saw that the situation and the atmosphere didn't seem awkward. 

"Hey, look, I-- I just wanted to apologize about everything."

"It's fine. It's better this way." Jessica showed him her hands, now free of glue, to reveal she wasn't wearing any gloves. "See? No gloves."

But Peter wasn't talking about that. "No, I'm-- I just mean that... I screw it all up and I made you go through a lot, but I want you to understand that... I will never let you get hurt, especially... because... I like you."

Jessica didn't reply right away. She blinked a few times, replaying the words in her mind. They didn't sound strange and certainly, they didn't surprise her.  

"I know."

"You do?"

"You're terrible at keeping secrets." They both chuckled. 

"Can't argue that." Peter smiled and a not-so-awkward silence followed the laughter. Jessica thought about confessing her reciprocate feelings for him. It was only fair to let him know. But then again, she knew nothing could ever happen between them. At least not anymore. "I got to get to class. I'd say we should hang out, but I'm gonna be in detention forever, but- I guess you already have a date to homecoming."

"Actually, I wasn't planning on going." She simply said, ignoring what her heart wanted to say.

"What? Why not?" Peter asked confused. "You're planning it."

"I don't know Peter. I'm not a dance person and I just don't feel like going. Besides, I don't think it would be a good idea if we went together."

"Right..." Jessica could tell the disappointment in his tone.

"You should ask Liz, though. I'm sure she'll say yes."

"Liz?" Even Peter couldn't believe it. 

"I actually think she likes you." Jessica knew it would mean the world to Liz to go with him. This was also her way of cleaning her mind of how guilty she felt because she had stopped talking to her friend. 

"Wow, yeah. Sure. Thanks." Still incredulous, Peter was astonished. "I'm actually going that way." He walked passed her as she watched him walk away. She wanted to call him back and tell him she also liked him. But instead, she stood still, just watching him walk away, like everything else she'd ever had.