Hero Business [Defenders -- Sigr & Virginia]

Virginia Greene · Sep 15, 2017

Since she'd started answering the phone again, Jessica Jones had waded through a lot of cases. The sound of ringing had basically permeated her life to the point that it was just a thing that happened. What wasn't as usual was her cellphone going off. There were only like four people who called that she cared about. Well, exactly four. Hogarth, Trish, Luke, and Malcolm. Danny had it, but the last time he'd called she'd just sorta not bothered to pick up. She'd get back to him eventually. Danny only ever wanted her to come out with him to do... hero things, and it didn't seem to matter how often she told him that she wasn't that kind of person, he still thought she would help out. This time, it was a number she didn't recognize, which was weird but prompted an answer. Once she had, she was glad she did. The details were stressful enough that she had to be careful not to crush her phone, and Jessica couldn't afford to replace them so she held the thing a little like someone might hold a valuable vase while she listened. It was all ridiculous. Ridiculous bullshit, and she couldn't help but feel like it was probably her fault. Given the kinds of things she ended up poking around in, it was basically inevitable that eventually someone would get at her friends. Again. This time it wasn't something she could just bust in and solve though, this was... well it wasn't legal, but it was going through the law.

So Jessica needed the law too.

She tried calling. She had Matt's work number from when he'd been her lawyer ,but according to Luke, the lawyer and vigilante had been ignoring everyone. He hadn't picked up when she called either, and whether that was on purpose or because it was pretty solidly into the standard lunch hour, she wasn't sure. If he was ignoring her, Jessica supposed she could understand why - he hadn't exactly been pleased with them the last time they'd all been together. She and Luke had hauled a goddamn elevator up what felt like a million stories right before the entire building exploded, and apparently that had been the wrong thing to do. Jessica got it, or at least she thought she did. Losing someone like that had to suck like nothing else in the world, but they weren't going to just leave him behind. But as far as she was concerned one person being alive was better than two people being dead, at least, as long when she was thinking about other people. That meant making a personal visit.

To her credit, when she got to his office she didn't break the door. Sure she swung it open with a little more energy than needed but that was what happened when Jessica was stressed out or in a rush. The fact that the doorknob banged into the wall hard enough to leave a dent was pretty mild compared to what could have happened. "Malcolm got arrested," the dark haired private detective announced immediately, loud enough that no matter where in the little office he was, Matt would be able to hear. He probably didn't know who Malcolm was, and that entirely didn't matter right now. What mattered was that Matt was going to be able to help, because law was his thing."Someone planted drugs on him." Probably the cop who'd arrested him.

There was no way Hogarth would have helped. When she'd been arrested she'd end up with Matt anyway, and had the feeling that if she went to Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz, she'd just end up right back here anyway. No charity cases or whatever. But Matt, Matt was all about being the good guy and taking the charity cases. And he didn't, she'd throw his desk out the window.

((there was really no reason to slap a picture of JJ in there but it's become such a habit it seemed wrong not to, haha))

Sigr · Sep 16, 2017

Every strike and block. Each word and sentence. Her smile that she wore like a mask. Matt Murdock had been mulling over all those things and more since it happened, what could have been different, what could have he done in another way, but there was no going back. Even if at the end the choice had been taken from his hands by those he had started to consider allies, all the decisions that lead him there were his and his alone.

And now Elektra was dead. Again. For good.

Of course he tried to go back and check if it was true that there was no escape, but it was going to take months to dig the rubble of the Midland Circle out of that hole if they ever did. In those hectic days both Elektra and any means or knowledge to bring her back from the dead once more were lost. No matter how much he thought that the Hand had to be stopped, that they needed to be gone, it was painful if it also meant that he wasn't going to be with her again. Letting her go when she pushed him to kill opened a wound that never healed, being unable to save her from the Hand tore him to pieces, and getting the tiniest hopeful bit of recovering her just to let her die?

Matt had been missing from church. Nor had he been in Josie's. He didn't want to answer Karen's questions, nor Foggy's endearing attempts to bridge the gap. And the one that dragged him out of that certain death? Some of them tried to reach him, but they had their own things to take care of. Luke and Claire were taking care of Misty with Danny's help, and the Rand golden boy himself had his own things to do now that the Hand was gone. Jessica... well, she returned to be Jessica, Matt guessed, so that was it. Without church or alcohol, without friends or comrades, Matt had only other two avenues of relief.

And he hadn't been taking any cases.

Fighting for the sake of fighting, Matt was taking care of the rabble that felt a power vacuum in the city, violence and that cursed scarlet suit, that devilish mask, becoming his refuge. Unaware of what time of the day it was, or even what day of the week for that matter, Matt knew himself well enough that such was a foolish path that had to stop somewhere, so one day that was nothing special nor meaningful, he finally managed to get showered and dressed in something that wasn't a crime fighting costume and went to his office. What for remained to be seen, he probably hadn't been receiving many cases if any, but even if it wasn't the same without Foggy there, at least had a little semblance of normalcy.

Until she came banging the door against the wall. "Jones" Matt mumbled. He would have recognized her stride outside the door, or the faint hue of alcohol that sometimes seemed to envelop her like an intoxicating perfume. Matt could have bragged about knowing that something was wrong, as if her presence her wasn't obvious enough, but he didn't get to say much before she started barking at the empty office. It was so tempting to get out of a window and escape that he almost took that exit, but if Jessica came seeking help it had to be something important, something big.

"Jessica" he said, appearing into her view from one of the side rooms. What to add? He wasn't going to whine about what happened, it would serve for nothing and she wouldn't care. What was she going to do, apologize for saving his life? A heavy sigh preceded his next words. "Who's Malcolm?" he asked honestly, having just met him in passing on those hectic days.

Virginia Greene · Sep 16, 2017

She'd known he was there. The door was unlocked, there were little things around the office that made it clear that someone had been there recently. And there'd been enough Daredevil that he'd be running out of resources soon, she figured. He couldn't have made much more money than her, given the state of his office. Jessica was no stranger to breaking into buildings, but there wouldn't have been any use in doing it

"He's my..." she paused and frowned, trying to figure out just what to call him, "assistant." One of her few friends. But she gave him a cut of the pay in her cases and he did basically everything to keep her office functional and presentable, so she supposed 'assistant' worked as well. "He used to be a drug addict and that's a real long and unnecessary story," she didn't want to talk about Kilgrave, "but he's clean. And he definitely wasn't carrying." Malcolm was better than that. "You're the only one who's any good I can afford." And who she trusted to really believe her and Malcolm about his innocence. Jessica's choice of the word 'I' betrayed her care - she'd be paying for it, not the man she was seeking help for. It was the least she could do, really. Malcolm was only in this position to begin with because of her. He'd only gotten addicted in the first place because of Kilgrave, because of her, and this was almost certainly because of her too.

The detective stared him down for a moment, not bothering to hide the fact that she was looking him over. Didn't matter, wasn't like Matt would be able to call her on it even if she thought he'd have cared. "You look like shit." Maybe it wasn't the best thing to say to say to someone who's help she wanted, but it was also true. What Matt might not know was that it was sort of her way of expressing concern. He looked like shit so something was probably wrong, she just wasn't gonna ask outright. There wasn't a whole lot of room to probe into the fact that Matt probably felt as much like shit as he looked, because she had something more pressing to focus on. "Brush your hair and have some whiskey and let's go." Fishing into her pocket, she took out the almost always present flask and shook it, letting the liquid slosh around inside it like it would motivate him to get going. The advice sounded like something she probably told herself as opposed to something that would be exceptionally useful to other people, but it was all that Jessica had. Life advice - especially for cheering people up - was not something she had in spades. Not unless it was on how to do research or keep from being tailed, things that were mostly useful for her.

If she actually asked Matt to help, he'd be able to say no. As long as there was no question there, she might have an easier time getting him to help. It required that the lawyer and vigilante be able to interpret the way she communicated to pull out the real message underneath all the spines and fire without the help of having been around her long enough to really get to know her like her little inner circle did. He a had super senses though, he should be able to figure it out. Somehow. It wasn't like she ever really asked anyone for anything, not directly. She told them she needed things and her friends knew what that meant. 'Please' only came out when she was playing a role to get information or in moments of deepest desperation.

This was that, but she didn't want to just jump straight to putting herself out there. It was hard to ask for things, it felt like opening herself up. While she trusted Matt, it was hard not to after what they'd been through, it was still something she wasn't sure she could do. That took time and patience from the other person, and not a lot of people hung around that long. Some of them accepted it because it was part of the service they were paying for, but that wasn't him. She'd punched ninja with him though, and that had to count for something.

Sigr · Sep 17, 2017

He wanted a case, he needed a case, anything to keep him from thinking or returning to the streets one night more. And yet his first impulse was to say no. Not knowing Malcolm he wasn't as sure as Jessica that he wasn't using, after all he had been before and even if Matt didn't do anything beyond alcohol he knew what being addicted to something felt like. Maybe the recent events had caused him to fall into old habits as Matt himself did, but he would have no way of knowing without talking to him. That meant spending more time with Jessica, something he had mixed feelings about. Of all the bunch, she was the one Matt liked most, despite her abrasive personality. Luke was too righteous, and he tended to come across with a holier than thou attitude that Matt felt uncomfortable with, if only due to being a reminder of himself. Danny was a hotheaded brat, and even if he could be easygoing when things were just fine, things were never fine, so it was a side that he rarely showed to Matt. His connection to the Hand didn't help either.

So in the end, even if it was a bit by default, Jessica was more palatable. Matt stepped closer to her, taking a small sip of her flask before returning it to her. "I don't keep booze around" he croaked, familiar with the burn of the cheap stuff she carried. He respected that she worked as a private investigator, and a good one to boot. During those days they teamed up and she was quite amazing, not to mention that she had discovered his secret like it was nothing, something that made discomfort mixed with admiration. How many secrets of different people was she privy to while keeping hers close to the heart. "You say he's clean, you say he wasn't carrying. Are you sure?" he asked. Jessica was as tall as him, so they were face to face, or would be if Matt's head wasn't slightly tilted as usual. She sounded pretty sure when she said it, but he wasn't exactly paying as much attention as he was at the moment. "The closest ones to us are the ones we are usually blind to" he added, trying to soften the question, but he had probably rattled her already.

"I could use a shave, but that can wait" Matt commented, touching his own face. He wasn't court ready, but there would be no court that day, just going to the police station where they had him and run some questions. He couldn't help but feel that a conspiracy of sorts was acting, that someone was after Jessica and perhaps the rest of them... but maybe now he felt like there were enemies in every corner, in each shadow. Maybe Malcolm had just started using again. People did that all the time, right? Weak people. "Lets go and figure out what happened" he said, trying to sound helpful but unable to start judging already. The habit troubled him, even if his education, his instincts and his abilities made him a good lawyer, he was also aware that only judges or God were up to the task. The closer he stepped to the role of jury and executioner, the more and more true Frank Castle's words rung.

Perhaps they weren't so different after all.

Virginia Greene · Sep 18, 2017

She relinquished the flask easily, something that wasn't really usual. It wasn't like she was going to not give him some now that she'd offered it, so really it was the offer that had been unusual, not the actual sharing. "That's on you," she informed him, like it was a personal failing not to have bottles of cheap whiskey and vodka stashed around his office. Jessica refrained from a comment on the fact she could hear his reaction to bottom shelf liquor, but refrained from it because there were more important things to attend to. She'd give him shit for it later, there'd be time.

Whatever calm was starting to come from having someone she knew and trusted around to talk to was lost in an instant when he asked the question. "Yes I'm sure," she snapped. Malcolm was near as much a soft spot as Trish, and the idea that people could get hurt just because they were around her... well, it hurt. Jessica didn't like hurt. Didn't deal well with hurt that wasn't physical. "Are you trying to tell me to be suspicious of people?" That was all she was. And he was using a line she'd have used with clients, though he'd delivered it with a lot more gentleness than Jessica probably would have. There was the grating sound of metal shifting, as the flask crumpled inwards a little bit under the force of her grip before she unscrewed it and took a swig to force a calm that she didn't really feel like she could have right now. "Look, it's a real long story but he didn't get into drugs of his own free will in the first place. Someone got him hooked to... to get at me. I'll explain later." No she wouldn't. Not unless he asked specifically. She lifted the flask again, tilting it back for just long enough it was a little bit weird, and then screwed the lid back on and tucked it away in a pocket.

"I know what happened. What I don't know is why. I'll figure that out, I just need you to keep him from going to jail. And keep me from going to jail when I find out the who and why." It was supposed to be a funny, her tone said it was a joke, but it wasn't really. Bones were going to break, and she would find it satisfying.

That moment of vengeful fantasy was cut into by the memory of vertebrae snapping under her hands, the heavy thud of a limp body onto concrete. She didn't regret that, but it still weighed on her. Jessica wasn't sure if it was because she'd done it or because it had taken her so long to get to it. Her fingers curled around the flask in her pocket again, and then Jessica tore herself away from those thoughts and let out a tiny grunt. "Hope the police like you better than they like me." They weren't her fans, to put it lightly. Probably had decent reason, but it didn't mean that annoyed her less. They seriously needed to get their shit together. "Don't do that slow pretending you don't know what's going on walk, I don't have time for it. I'll tuck you under my arm if I gotta."

That was actually a joke.

She held the door open for him - sort of. What happened was more her shoving her foot in the way so the door didn't close and giving Matt an almost aggressively pointed stare that he wouldn't actually be able to see. Her breathing and heart had evened out a little since she'd gotten there, betraying the fact that having Matt on her side was calming her a little bit. She was still stressed and angry. Angry was easier than being worried, after all. Came more naturally to Jessica at this point. A lot of feelings flowed into anger, really. Exhaustion, hunger, pain, worry, fear, hangover. Yeah, she was pretty sure that hangovers counted as an emotional state at this point, she was hung over more often than she was happy. The moment he was out the door too she was heading for the street, steps quick and focused. She wouldn't let Malcolm know she'd been in such a rush when they actually got there, but if Matt said anything she wouldn't really mind punching him. He might be blind but he also wore a real dumb armored costume, and that evened it out in her mind.

Plus she was equal opportunity. People got what they gave, whether in violence or in words. Sometimes people who used words got violence in return, but that was how life worked. Mouth off to the wrong person and your mouth was gonna get all messed up. As far as she was concerned, no matter what someone wanted, she was the wrong person. For the job, for friendship, for romance, didn't matter. If what you wanted wasn't a total destruction of your life or someone to break down a door, Jessica was the wrong person. Other people were just too stupid to realize it or didn't listen when she tried to tell them.

Sigr · Sep 19, 2017

Matt knew that Jessica wasn't lying, someone did really made a number on Malcolm to get to her, or at least so she believed. That didn't really mean anything, but since she was rattled and could punch his head off his shoulders it was better to not pressure on. Not that she actually would hit him, that much he knew, but if she had come to him for help she was already making an effort as far as Matt knew her, so it was better not to punish her for caring. There was a sheen of dishonesty there somewhere, she wasn't telling the whole truth there somewhere. Was it the part about the explanations? Or that thinly veiled promise of violent retribution when she finds out who did it? It was hard to pin it. Matt sort of believed Jessica roughing someone up, he could understand the need of it, but he hoped that she was better restraining herself than he was, or with such power it could get beyond what Matt would just ignore.

"Well, we'll know once I meet my client" Matt just stated. "It's probably some bad apple in the department I guess" he added, not wanting to go very far with the guesswork as having a preconceived notion would only cloud his judgment. Matt grabbed his walking cane and put the crimson sunglasses on when Jessica finally pocketed the flask. "Police are never fond of defense attorneys, so I'd set us on par" Matt shrugged. "I know you would, but lets try to keep it civil" he couldn't help but smile briefly to the idea of Jessica carrying him on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and dropping him on the precinct. Yeah, that would be quite the entrance. The smirk didn't last long, perhaps short enough for Jessica not noticing it, so he followed her diligently.

"There is something you can do in a hurry though" Matt voiced, folding his white cane back into the jacket pocket. "Instead of tucking me under your arm, how about you hold and guide me?" he offered, standing next to her and presenting his right arm for her to hook into. "We will go faster that way and I can still pretend I don't want to get disbarred over being some kind of costumed vigilante" he added, following her dry joke with another of his own. "It will be also easier to get a cab" added.

Matt could almost feel her fuming, hearing the heightened rate of her beating heart. Perhaps the part about exerting violent revenge upon the one that had snared Malcolm wasn't a lie, not if she was in that state. He knew all too well what was to be moved by that fury, and even if one wanted to disguise their choices, their mistakes on that state of mind, the truth was that the responsibility didn't magically vanish because someone was angry. "It will be fine, I'm the second best lawyer in the city" he tried to joke, aware of the extra edge his abilities gave him to stand over most of those practitioners of the law. "And I've seen you in action. We'll get to the bottom of this" Matt finished, before taking a cab to the precinct. For a moment he wanted to add a 'don't worry' to his sentence, but that would probably only rile her up, and that was far from what he wanted.

Virginia Greene · Sep 22, 2017

"There have been a whole lot of bad apples." When Kingpin got arrested there had been a pretty big cleanup of the police system, but Jessica didn't trust that it had purged everyone who was problematic. Especially because the Hand was a thing now. Had been a thing for much longer than Kingpin. "There are always going to be bad apples." This was a thing that Jessica believed completely. She let out a tiny snort at the suggestion of 'civil', but didn't say anything about it. She didn't really need to, there was no way Matt didn't know exactly what she thought about civility. It... had a use, of course, but it wasn't her forte. Maybe on the phone or for short periods of time, but she got by just fine and just the way she was. In whatever version of functional she and her life were.

She hooked her arm around his when he offered, rolling her eyes. When she realized that he wouldn't be able to see it, Jessica announced "I'm rolling my eyes at you," thought the fact that she had his arm did sort of take some of the intended meaning for that away. "Fine, but now I'm real close to dragging you." It was a half warning, though she kept pace with him carefully on the way out to the street as opposed to just dragging him like she could have. "Hard to believe you can stand cabs, even I hate the smell." And she didn't have super senses. It had to be real bad for Matt. Still, he was right. "I bet this is the fastest you ever get a cab." She was a pretty woman and she knew it, and Jessica had no qualms about using that to get the thing she needed. In this case it was a cab, and she plastered a stupid fake and super happy smile on her face to flag the cab down.

"Oh boy. Second best. That's what I wanted to hear." There was no real fire in her tone, just the same sarcasm that seemed to drip from her words at least half the time. She dropped down into the cab and shoved herself up against the window about as far from Matt as she could be. It was nothing personal. Well, not too personal. Not more personal for him than it would be with anyone else. She just didn't like being too close to other people. Well actually she might not mind getting real close to Matt, but only once and only if she never had to talk to him again. He was a good looking guy, even if a little bit exhausting.

When they got to the precinct, she took a moment to drain the rest of her flask and then let out a loud sigh. "Right. Let's go. Christ I hate this." The people in there, they knew her. Detectives were dead because of her, there had been the incident with Kilgrave, some of those officers still wouldn't look her in the face. Admittedly she'd only seen them once or twice since then, but she knew. These were the sorts of things that Jessica noticed. "I'm coming into the interrogation room," she informed him. "I don't care how we have to get me in, it's happening." There had to be some legal maneuver, otherwise she'd have to do her thing to get in, and that was a lot less friendly than Matt's thing that didn't involve menacing and fussing at the police officers until they gave up and let her do what she wanted. "Every time I'm in here I'm being interrogated and then something weird happens," she warned him casually. "Not my fault," she clarified after a few seconds, which would have sounded entirely true to anyone who didn't happen to have super senses.

Sigr · Sep 26, 2017

Matt could feel how Jessica didn't entirely believe in the system, even if the end result of many of her cases would probably lead to either in divorce or arrest. He was part of the system as well, but with his other half as a vigilante he well knew that any lukewarm defense of the system he could do would come as hypocritical. He tried not to smirk when Jessica agreed to walk with him despite threatening Matt with carrying his body around and making sure he knew she was rolling her eyes, but there was only so much he could take without wanting to partake on Jessica's verbal back and forth. "If the smell is too much I'll borrow your scarf again, this time for the lower half of my face" he commented, Matt's poor attempt of a joke since he had taken her scarf once to hide his identity. Her smell of booze, sweat and the cheap deodorant she used had a charm of its own, and was way better than any of the smells a New York cab could have.

It didn't take her long to send another verbal jab on his direction, although he had been deserving it for leaving the door open with the 'second best' nonsense. The cab ride was as awkward as it could possibly be, with Jessica sitting as far away from Matt as she could on that, to be honest, strangely humid smelling cab and being silent the whole time. The next time she opened her mouth they already were by the precinct and it was once again to whine about something. "Don't use His name in vain" Matt chastised seriously when she started to grumble. If she took it to heart or just ignored his sanctimonious request Matt didn't know, as Jessica was more worried about getting to see Malcolm than anything else.

"I'll make it happen" Matt assured, letting Jessica meet Malcolm would be easy enough, but what worried him was if it would be a good idea. At least that should make Matt appear as a friend and make Malcolm prone to trust him, but if Jessica did something impulsive the three of them could be into trouble. "I don't know if us meeting for the first time while you were cuffed to a table weird" Matt noted, as it was how he was assigned to her case thanks to Foggy and Hogarth. "But weird doesn't have to mean bad, your fault or not" he added, resuming his hooking of her arm, so Jessica could help him in and could save some time and the familiar rhythm of the cane tapping around. "What's Malcolm's full name?" he asked, as they approached the precinct entrance.

Virginia Greene · Sep 29, 2017

When she worked for the law it was finding things for defense attorneys or delivering subpoenas. Not everyone was probably innocent, but a lot got off anyway because they could afford. Between her own issues and the fact that she got paid to find bad things about people, it was probably no wonder she was a negative person. Not that Jessica really bothered to do that sort of internal thought. She knew it, she just chose not focus on it because it wasn't going to get anywhere useful. "You look better when I can't see your whole face anyway." There wasn't any venom in it, not really. But if he was gonna make a comment on her scarf, she was gonna take a swing at his face. Didn't mean it, and she expected him to know that.

She didn't say anything about his chastising, but Jessica made note of it. One word (or two, she bet 'God' was out as an expression of annoyance too) wasn't that hard to cut out of her vocabulary while around Matt. It would be a little bit of an annoyance, but just because she didn't like to edit herself. She hated doing it for anyone else's sake, anyway. If it had been any other person there was the chance the detective would have told him to shove it, or completely ignored what he said. But Matt was doing her a favor, she could be... not a complete asshole to him.

"Thanks." She said the word like it had to be ripped out of her body. She trusted that he would, because... well, Jessica didn't really know how great of a lawyer he was, but if someone from Hogarth's office had designated him to defend her in court, he had to be good. Her lips quirked up slightly, not quite smiling but almost. "After that there was a guy who said he punched a dragon and a building blew up." She avoided mentioning his part in that because Matt was protecting his dual identity fiercely. That meant not talking about Daredevil related things unless he was in the costume, at least for now. "And also you're not exactly normal," he was Daredevil was what she meant, though it could have just as easily meant the whole blind lawyer thing, "so that counts." Two people with super human abilities didn't just stumble into each other in daily life. Okay no, that was a lie. This was the second time it had happened to her, so maybe it was actually super common. "Weird has never ended in me getting a thousand dollars and a cookie." Matt himself wasn't bad, but the overall experience they'd shared hadn't been... great. Nice to have people watching her back, but they were a bunch of misfits. Danny might be straight up nuts.

When he hooked his arm around hers, she bent it slightly to make it a little bit easier and so it wasn't just her ignoring his gesture entirely. "Malcolm Ducasse." Her mind was already on to bail money. It wasn't going to be cheap. Probably not too expensive, but more than she'd like. Maybe she should take some of the shittier cases and start saving a little bit more. Just thinking about it felt a little bit like a betrayal to who she was as a person, but Jessica also didn't want to have to rely on Trish for money in an emergency.

((university has started again, so I'm gonna slow a little, sorry))

Sigr · Oct 1, 2017

"I can't do anything about the money as I'm pretty tight with it myself" Matt said, feeling a little bit lighter after Jessica thanked him. That couldn't have been easy for her, although presuming to really know her after just a bunch of hectic days would be saying too much. "But if our visit to the precinct goes well I'll get a cookie for you" he added. Perhaps it was a tad too goofy, but having Jessica calm down a bit would be nice if they didn't want even more trouble. Taking a deep breath, Matt walked into the building guided by Jessica and his senses, although he had been around a few times already and he knew the place well enough.

"I'm here to see my client, Malcolm Ducasse" he said to the policeman at the front desk, firm and serious without being hostile, cops didn't answer well to confrontation. "I'm his lawyer, Matthew Murdock, and she's my assistant, Jessica Jones" he introduced them both, although small changes on the man's breathing made him think that he had recognized both of them. Matt hoped that Jessica was able to play along, even if she wanted to chew him later about calling her an assistant.

"I know who you are, both of you" he said. "You may pass, but she can't go in" he said, the voice sounding affected, trying to project authority. It seemed to be more of a disdain or trouble with Jessica than anything related to the case, but even if Matt didn't knew the reason, it didn't feel that it was directly connected to the case.

"If you know me, you are aware of my condition" Matt said. "Condition that allows and almost requires that I have some sort of help" he continued, leaning over the desk and making an stapler fall to the ground. "Sorry" he said, pausing for a moment. "What I mean is that without my assistant to guide me I could harm myself and that would be terrible" Matt continued. "I also need her to take notes and visual confirmation of any injuries or anything my client may have suffered, as he has right to it. Burdening him with my own shortcomings is nowhere near fair, there is no justice there" he finished, feeling the man waver and not wanting to push him further.

"Fine, fine, fine" the cop sounded more tired than anything else. "You two may see him, I'd point you the way but I'm sure your assistant knows it plenty" he added, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

Nodding in appreciation, Matt awaited for Jessica to guide him to the cells in the back. He wanted to talk to Malcolm and get his recollection of what happened, sizing him to see if he was honest.

(There is no hurry whatsoever, real life comes first. Take your time, we aren't on a schedule here)

Virginia Greene · Oct 8, 2017

She was a little surprised that worked. The man definitely knew who she was, and anyone who had been around her for more than five minutes could probably guess that Jessica wasn't the sort who worked as an assistant for a blind guy. Matt's appeal worked, which was probably good because her plan had been more along the lines of just being incredibly menacing. She scowled from a spot behind Matt, thought not nearly as threateningly as she probably could have.

There'd been more than one occasion where Jessica had called herself an assistant in order to get people to give her information that she wanted. There was a specific voice for that character, pulled from memories of the most annoying girls in high school, but it wouldn't do any good here. This guy knew who she was. So instead she wrapped her arm back around Matt's and let out an at least slightly more friendly than usual "yes, Mr. Murdock". She gave a gentle tug to let him know which way to walk, not that Matt actually needed it. "This way." They hadn't actually told her what room Malcolm was in, but that didn't matter much to Jessica who just looked in every little window until she found the right one. "Here. Now... do your thing." Legal them into letting Malcolm out. If Matt could get them to let him out until arraignment that would be good, she didn't want Malcolm spending time in a cell. He didn't deserve it.

Between now and arraignment there'd be time for investigation. She was going to need a lot of whiskey and even more energy drinks. How much sleep did lawyers need? The thought crossed her mind briefly, but Jessica shoved it right out because she didn't need him for that part. This would be like every other case. Jessica would treat this like every other case she'd ever worked on. Find the evidence and provide to the lawyer. The stakes were higher than a paycheck though. She didn't really like to admit that was a thing. Paycheck was lower than vodka though, there was a hierarchy of things that she liked a lot that weren't people. That she sometimes liked more than people.

... that usually she liked more than people.

"I don't actually have anything to write notes on, so you better be good at memorizing." She was. But it didn't matter that much, she couldn't imagine there were too many notes that would need taking here. If he was injured, someone was going to get at least that much in return. She gripped the doorknob for a second and then pushed it open, fingers tight on the metal for the few seconds until she let go. Nothing damaged this time, but there was no way to brush off finger dents in doorknob. Couldn't explain that away as easily. Malcolm looked exhausted and uncomfortable, maybe a little bit roughed up though it was nothing serious. He hadn't been beaten, which was an immediate relief that Jessica had reluctantly accepted that she wouldn't be able to hide from Matt. Would he know that she'd just thought he was a dick? Because the fact that she couldn't hide her feelings from him made him a dick.

((oops a few days became too many days. I'll try not to let it happen again))

Sigr · Oct 13, 2017

Matt could feel Jessica's posture and body language, specially so close as she guided him along. The tension of her muscles, how the breath changed pace, the trepidations of her heartbeat. He felt a bit bad for peeking, but even if it was something he could control, he could avoid, Matt couldn't help himself but peek. He just had to be mindful of not being too sanctimonious, of not poking Jessica too much, too far, even if she showed signs that worried him. She seemed to be mulling over something, but Matt felt like she had abandoned whatever she was thinking about and hurried almost indiscernibly, perhaps anticipation to see how Malcolm was. Whatever it was going through her mind, they were about to find out how Malcolm was, although Matt could already start to guess that he was more or less fine.

"So I guess for the lack of swearing that Mr. Ducasse looks mostly fine" Matt said, even if he knew Malcolm was fine thanks to his senses and Jessica's relieved reaction. "I'm your lawyer, Matt Murdock" introduced himself, offering a hand to shake in the general direction he was, keeping his act. "We met briefly during... that" added, having seen each other in passing on the precinct in those dreadful days. It was somewhere that Matt didn't want to return, so it was better if they moved on with things. "Ah... chair..." Matt mumbled, feeling about for somewhere to sit down, more or less in front of Malcolm.

"Please, tell us what happened" Matt asked gentle, no need to be rough with him unless he was hiding something, specially if he didn't want Jessica kicking his ass out of the case. "Leave no details out and..." he took pause, wondering if it would be appropriate to add more or not, but in the end he decided to keep running his mouth. "And don't lie to me" Matt's tone was less gentle and more firm, this time including only himself in the sentence, Malcolm's relationship with Jessica wasn't his concern after all, was it? "There is no reason to, and it would hinder my defense" he added, softening his tone noticeably.

"I've been told that I'm good at spotting lies as well" he said with a smirk, clearly a joke for anyone that didn't know him well.

Virginia Greene · Oct 21, 2017

"I'm fine." Malcolm spoke instead of Jessica, who had opened her mouth to say something that would probably have been less positive than that. It was a good choice, because she had only sarcasm at the moment. A slightly perplexed Malcolm managed to properly cross the distance for the handshake, though he had to sort of realign Matt's arm once their hands were connected to do it. "Malcolm Ducasse." He was confused for a brief moment, and then realized both what Matt was talking about. "Yeah. Weird day." That was an understatement. Jessica had filled him in on most of it afterwards. Like most of the world however, he hadn't made the connection between the lawyer in front of him and Daredevil. The owner/chief (and only) investigator of Alias Investigations had made no attempts to inform him of the things he still hadn't connected, out of respect for her team-mates and to make sure that her friend wouldn't be put in danger by the things he knew.

Jessica moved the chair closer to Matt like a person should when helping out a blind man, but didn't help him further than that. She just pulled out the one she was going to sit in and dropped down gracelessly. As an afterthought she did pull the chair out for him before pushing her own back far enough that she could kick her feet up onto the cold steel table. "Jessica," Malcolm half chided, and she shot him a stubborn look, head tilted a little defiantly. The ex-social worker didn't push it any further, knowing that it would be pretty much useless and Jessica was going to do whatever she wanted. Especially now, when she was a little on edge and trying to find a way to express her displeasure in the issues at hand.

Jessica didn't particularly like the tone he used with Malcolm, and she kicked the lawyer under the desk. Not hard, not even in a way that would be considered hard for a normal person. Had it been anyone else she would have understood the suspicion, but she had responsibilities towards the man. Because she hadn't stopped Kilgrave properly the first time. "I trust him. Mostly" It was more towards Malcolm than Matt, who had already gotten that spiel, and more aggressively. The simple fact that she'd brought him was enough for Malcolm to assume the Jessica trusted the blind stranger, but hearing the words was a heavy reassurance. It also told her that he didn't know about Kilgrave. Well, he couldn't be sure, but it was a fair assumption if she was tacking on qualifiers like 'mostly'. "I was walking home from the support group I'm part of," he figured Jessica wouldn't want that dirty laundry aired so he didn't get specific, "and this guy started tailing me. Revealed he was a cop, and said he had a tip. Said he needed to search me. Did a pat down and found and two grams of cocaine. I've... been in trouble for it before, and didn't have a whole lot of room to argue." He'd tried, of course. But he didn't want to end up on the wrong side of the police officers, he knew what that could be like. His heartbeat was as steady as one could expect for a man who had been arrested for a crime he hadn't committed, but Jessica's was erratic and her breathing was a little tense.

"I told you," she half snapped at Matt. He'd be able to use his weird super ears to confirm everything. The idea that she was wrong had briefly occurred to her in the beginning, but Jessica had banished it. She couldn't be suspicious of the entire world, life was showing her that. She'd picked Malcolm as one of them, and was working on everything that meant. She wasn't not quite there yet with Matt, but she didn't distrust him, and that was good enough.

Sigr · Oct 29, 2017

Matt did notice something iffy about the support group, an unsteady beat, a hold breath. It was probably nothing more than just a bit of shame or embarrassment, so he thought nothing of it, trusting that in case it had any impact on the case Jessica would divulge it. "A tip over two grams is certainly suspicious" Matt commented, ignoring Jessica's told you so attitude. "I'm gonna guess that no one in that support group is angry at you and would slip something in and then call the police, right?" he asked for confirmation. "That would leave us with the cop himself. Did you do anything that would warrant that cop having a thing against you? Did you recognize him?" Matt questioned further, discarding options.

"In any case 2 grams is a class D felony at worst, so we should be able to get you out with a fine, even if it's a steep one" Matt continued, tilting his head towards Jessica slightly, making her know that he wasn't done yet. "Besides that, I'm going to request talking with your arresting officer so we can..." Matt took pause, "size him up. See how he reacts. He shouldn't even have your fingerprints on the cocaine bag so I guess we can push him easily enough even with your priors" he said. The case didn't seem to have much complexity, maybe the agent was overzealous or wanted a catch to fulfill some kind of quota and saw in Malcolm an easy catch for a detention or perhaps a bribe.

"If we can't settle this with the arresting officer quickly by intimidating him with lawsuits..." Matt commented. "Is there anyone that has that kind of money close to you? Because if we want Malcolm out today either we find something dirty to use against the officer or it is going to be expensive" he said. Even if they managed to get Malcolm out in the most civilized and law abiding manner, Matt almost itched to pay a nightly visit to the arresting officer. Corrupt cops were always a good target for some old fashioned vigilantism.

Virginia Greene · Nov 7, 2017

He shook his head firmly at the suggestion that it might be someone from the support group. "No. Definitely not. And they're not drug related." Get that out of the way now, so Matt didn't think that was the direction to go prodding. It was basically the biggest collection of people who knew Jessica and didn't hate her, but that might have been more about what she'd done and less about them having adapted to and understanding her personality. "It's a trauma support group," Malcolm clarified further. "I help run it." He was good at it. It was helpful for him, but it was also close to what he'd used to want to do with his life, it felt comfortable and good. "A bunch of cops don't like me." Matt could thing this was simple, but she didn't believe it for a moment. Paranoia was part of the job, and she was very good at it. "Because of my job and because of the uh, incident." The one that he hadn't been part of because he absolutely wasn't Daredevil, and they'd had to think of a reason why a blind lawyer would be beat to shit that wasn't the fault of the three bruisers he'd been with.

"It's not the first time. I used to have a serious problem." So it was unlikely that he'd get away with just a fine this time. Jessica perked up a little at the mention of talking to the cop, because while that wasn't always her strong suit, she was very, very good at making it clear to other people that they should stop and listen to whatever it was she wanted them to. Her ability to put people at ease and gather information only worked when they didn't know who she was. Probably shouldn't threaten the police, but she might not need to. If the guy knew who she was, her presence might be enough.

Jessica heaved a deep sigh. "Yeah. I know someone." She and Trish were on much better terms, and it felt a lot like how it had been before Kilgrave, but that didn't mean she liked asking Trish for cash. "I'll call her when you're done talking." She wasn't going to leave Matt and Malcolm alone unless specifically asked to. She wanted Malcolm out now, so he could stay at home until he had to be arraigned. They needed that time, and she needed to not feel like shit about the fact he'd be sitting in a cell. "I'm offended you don't think I've got the money." She didn't look like someone who had money, and she didn't act like someone who had money. She definitely didn't lawyer up like someone who had any sort of cash to spare.

The moment they weren't with Malcolm, she was going to be speaking to Matt. His ability to bust heads and appear out of the darkness like the a blind ninja with stupid costume was definitely something she could appreciate, but it wasn't going to be useful to find out why this had happened without alerting anyone to the fact that the cop was being watched. This was her thing.

Now, could she use a blind ninja in a stupid costume? Yeah, probably.

((uuugh the site keeps needing the page to be reloaded and then doesn't hang onto the work I've done))

Sigr · Nov 9, 2017

The way Malcolm said "trauma support" and how it resonated gave Matt pause. He had been doing some digging those days, as Jessica has been doing the same on him, and even if he lacked the prowess of the private investigator, it wasn't specially hard to find the incident she had been involved in. Was that mind controlling thing real? He had seen weirder things, so he was inclined to believe it, but there was still a lingering feeling that there were huge parts of the story missing. Either way, he wasn't going to ask about it, that road would lead nowhere. The news about Malcolm having priors weren't a surprise, but for a moment Matt hoped he didn't, or at least that they weren't serious. He had to get his hands on Malcolm's file as soon as possible.

The money thing seemed to be easier to sort out than expected, so Matt wouldn't have to worry about that beyond listening to Jessica grump about it. Maybe he could even get paid? Not that it was a priority, but the money he had would only last so long unless he returned to take either paying cases or the ones that Foggy passed him from Hogarth, Chao, and Benowitz. Remembering that it was precisely that way how they met, Matt wondered what was the interest they had on Jessica or why she didn't resort to them. He didn't feel he was being played, but the sensation of something unknown being so close to his grasp and yet away from his fingers irked him. It wasn't like Jessica didn't have the right to have a private life that was indeed private, the one that wandered in a mask to protect the shreds of his civilian life was him after all, but that woman was more of a puzzle than he thought at first.

Hoping that the things he didn't know about Jessica Jones wouldn't be related to the case, Matt had no choice that let it rest, noticing that both Jessica and Malcolm had been silent for a bit now and his pensive silence was making everything a bit awkward. "Don't talk to anyone, about anything, if I'm not present. Not even a good morning without your lawyer in the room" he instructed, getting up from the chair and removing it of his way. "Jessica, a word" he added, tilting his head towards the door and signaling her to guide him by the arm, keeping the appearances. Malcolm may be his client, and if he and Jessica disagreed on something he would have to do what Malcolm asked, but Matt knew that it would be her the one calling the shots.

"What do you think?" Matt asked once outside. Jessica's insight wasn't to be scoffed at, and she was the one that knew Malcolm personally.

(That's odd, perhaps a browser issue? Have you tried another one? I write my posts directly on the web, but some people use a word processor beforehand, maybe that could help if the issue persists)

Virginia Greene · Nov 17, 2017

Malcolm's file wouldn't reveal everything Matt might want it to, but it would be at least good for how his life had been before he'd gotten clean. A lot of thing were going to have to come from Jessica, and both she and Malcolm knew it. They'd just avoid it unless it became inarguably relevent. "No problem." He knew most of what to do, he'd been through this before. Had a public defender last time who'd seemed to care a whole lot less, though. This time there was... whoever Matt was, and Jessica. Which meant there was something to Matt, or he was attached to someone else she knew.

Matt's pay would be coming from her, though she wasn't going to necessarily tell him that. Jessica didn't like being in debt, except when it came to bar tabs and people she could ignore. Him though? No, she'd pay him what she could because she wasn't going to be indebted to him. She didn't really like to ask Trish for money either, but she did it on a regular basis because it was the kind of bad feeling that could be squashed by alcohol and self serving logic. It didn't make her feel worse about herself than anything else did in life. She had gotten things a little bit under control, but it was a long way up and she wasn't trying all that hard. Liquor, sleep, and fist fights were all easier.

"Yeah sure." She pulled herself out of the chair with a look of severe disinterest, though she knew that facial expressions were entirely pointless with Matt. Once he was standing as well, the dark haired private investigator took his arm gently, guiding him out of the interrogation room. Closing the door, she leaned against it almost protectively. Maybe Matt would want to move farther away so there was no chance of Malcolm trying to listen in, but she trusted him and she wasn't going to go anywhere that she couldn't get to the door before someone else. Call it overprotective, call it paranoid, she didn't care. "You know what I think. I think there's half a dozen people who'd like to hurt me who would be too scared to come after me face to face. Cops don't like me, people who pay me to find out secrets don't like me, you and Danny introduced me to a bunch of crazy political ninja, take your pick." Yeah, she was blaming both of them, because both of them had known about it ahead of time.

Sure she was suspicious, but suspicion was part of the job. It was what made her good at what she did. He work a devil costume and ran around the streets at night, he didn't have the right to call her out on it. He was objectively weirder with more concerning behavior. "I guess there might be a drug dealer or two who wouldn't be happy with Malcolm, but they seem less likely. Nothing is ever going to be as simple as we want it to be." Not that is probably ever had been, but there was no going back at this point. They'd blown up a building that had a portal to another world or... something. She was a little unsure on what K'un-Lun actually was, and hadn't bothered to research it. If it became relevant again, she'd come in well equipped with knowledge but right now she was leaving that to Danny. It was a hole she didn't want to go down.

Sigr · Nov 21, 2017

Once they were out of the room, Matt was caught unaware by Jessica's take on the situation. Was she right? She was probably right and it was someone after her and not after Malcolm the one that had set that in motion, but who they were and how much they knew was a mystery yet. Matt wanted to keep it professional, to keep it calm, but the events of Midland Circle were too close to ignore. "So it's me and Danny yeah?" Matt hushed, getting closer to Jessica so she and only she could hear. "You could have left. Well, you did leave" he hissed on her ear. Being that close to Jessica was akin to approach a live wire, Matt could almost smell the sparkles and it was a matter of time until he got shocked.

"But you did return, running over those same ninjas with a car" Matt reminded her. "And it wasn't for me or Danny, was it?" he asked, knowing well that there was, there had been something between Luke and her. Some history, some past. Maybe a relationship, maybe one of those debts she hated, but something. Matt also knew that he had gone too far the moment he said it, there was something about Jessica that pulled him to her orbit, almost pushing him to act with the same honesty she did. Or perhaps it was just him, and Jessica's attitude was an excuse to get some parts of him that rarely saw the light out in the air.

Matt backed of her, giving Jessica space before she took it by her hand. "That was out of line, sorry" he admitted. "But you are probably right, if someone is after you we won't solve it with daily technicalities. Maybe I can handle the paperwork while you get the bail money..." he insinuated more than instructed, knowing not to step out of boundaries twice in a row. "And we can look at the issue from..." Matt paused, tilting his head, listening to make sure nobody was close. "Another angle" he suggested, feeling the itch on his knuckles again, feeling that need to vent building up inside him after being rude with Jessica.

Virginia Greene · Nov 28, 2017

Ooh, he was touchy. That wasn't exactly an unusual when people who spent time around her and weren't used to it, and she supposed that was only going to be made worse given what she assumed wasn't the most fantastic emotional state he'd ever been in. She got it, she just wasn't giving him much wiggle room here. "No. It wasn't," she responded bluntly. That was partially true - it wasn't about anyone in the room specifically, it was about what they'd been intending to do and what was happening to the city. "I'll leave anyone behind. I didn't particularly give a shit about either of you." The second half of her statement wasn't a lie. She wasn't going to let them die, but at the time Jessica wouldn't have felt like she was missing out on anything if she'd never seen their faces again.

Her fingers twitched briefly like she was considering curling them into a fist but instead she she lifted a hand, setting it on his chest and pushing him backwards out of her personal space. It was restrained and slow so that she wouldn't knock him off his feet (or force him to act in a way that might be revealing as he tried not to fall), but with a strength that was very hard to argue with. "If you push, I'll push back." There were several threats there. The obvious one where her palm was still pressed against his tie where it lay flat over his shirt and she could break his bones like eggshells, and the more subtle point that if he was going to bring up things about her, she had a lot more to weaponize in return. Jessica wasn't exactly hiding who she was, after all. It was what attracted people to her business these days. That note seemed like the end of the conversation, and while she didn't verbally respond to his apology she did let her hand drop and then shoved them both in the pockets of her leather jacket. Being accused of being selfish was something she was used to and was willing to own. In the end her actions when things got messy tended to betray the attitude she put forward when nothing was going wrong, and Jessica knew it. She just ignored it and down-talked it when someone brought it up. "Don't be mad at me just because you can't drive." Out of all the things he could reasonably be mad at her for that wasn't one of them but she was still bringing it up, almost entirely to lash out at him. Or maybe it was just a joke.

"It's getting done my way." She wasn't saying that he could join in but she hadn't outright said that he wouldn't be part of it, either. He'd be invested in this no matter what, the best she could do was make sure he played by her rules. She gathered information without people knowing what she was doing, Matt threw down with criminals. "But we won't... ignore anything ." That was admittance that she was expecting him to tag along. Jessica was still pretending she didn't care about that sort of thing. Part of it was because she had, once, and it had turned out very poorly. Helping people had for a long time been something that was more trouble than it was worth if she wasn't getting something out of it. Or that was what she'd told herself, and she was a very good liar. She was back to being vague, because that was safer. Not because of her, and but even if she could lump him in without fear of exposure for some of the situation, she couldn't talk about the things they'd be up to later unless it sounded like research or her running off to be herself and him staying behind to be a good boy and proper lawyer. "I'll go make the call and then come back and... I dunno, point at the dotted lines you need to sign?" It seemed unlikely that they had anything here that would help Matt with reading the documents, and it didn't look like he had something for that on his person. She wasn't gonna read that shit to him, but she'd read it for herself if she had to.

Could he actually read? She knew he had some sort of seeing thing going on, could he feel the ink? That wasn't something that he'd be able to do with other people around, it'd be super suspicious.

Sigr · Dec 3, 2017

As Jessica planted her hand on Matt's chest, pushing him back in a firm and unflinching way, he couldn't help but feel he had overstepped but also a bit of admiration. He knew what she could do, or at least part of it, as she always seemed to be holding back a bit. But that touch? That restraint over herself? For a woman that tended to seem like a mess and acted in such a brash way, her awareness of her power and how she used it was admirable. Of course, it wasn't like Matt was to give out any awards for not crushing him like a peanut, but the fact that she could do much more and still elected not to, remained. It was hard to make both her reputation and facts like those mingle, so Matt wondered how much it was true, and if she did kill someone, he knew for a fact that they had it coming. Even if he didn't share the sentiment, he had been close to doing it himself, so the sinner Matt Murdock was well aware of the temptation.

When her hand abandoned his chest, Matt adjusted his tie and shirt. They had been somewhat crumpled to begin with, but Jessica's calm push didn't do his wardrobe any favors. "I can drive. Although you'd have to tell me what color the traffic lights are" Matt added to the joke, understanding that it was time to stop that grudge dance and do their work. "I'm fine with doing it your way, I just want to help" he commented. It was the reason she had come to him, right? So he could help? He wasn't going to say it out loud and start yet another cat and mouse game, so he just fell in line for the time being. "Yeah, I'll do that, won't be hard to find" he nodded, agreeing to deal with the boring paperwork stuff that was his task.

As Jessica did whatever calls she needed to get the money, Matt dealt with the bail and release paperwork he had contended with a thousand times. It was just procedure, but the fact that the arrest was a move against Jessica, or so it seemed, made it all the more tiresome. When Jessica returned, things were sorted out already, just a few details more about the money, a couple signatures and they would be able to take Malcolm home. That made Matt wonder, if it was that easy to get him out, what was thinking the one that targeted him? A distraction? A warning? Matt felt uneasy not knowing what was going on, and hoped that Jessica's way did bring some light to the issue.

Virginia Greene · Dec 16, 2017

Control was necessary. Jessica had to be able to open doors, hold coffee mugs, and not hurt the people she wanted to touch, after all. She broke things all the time, but mostly they were hers, and very replaceable. Alarm clocks in particular got the worst of it, as did her office door. They suffered for entirely different reasons, but they both suffered. She would, however, say that she definitely should be given some kind of award for not crushing people because there were a bunch of people who deserved it. His understanding of what she'd done wasn't necessary. It didn't matter if nobody else got it, not anymore. She knew it was the right thing to do, and there were more people than she'd probably ever know who'd felt his effects and could sleep at night now. He was dead, they'd be fine, that was what mattered.

Matt accepted the topic change, and she settled down the rest of the way. "The light color doesn't really matter." That wasn't an opinion based on Jessica's personal driving habits - she barely ever drove - it was casual observance of twenty-some years of formed and held memory of what the city was like. [color=AB3ECF[b]"Good."[/b][/color] That made things easier. The dark haired woman hesitated, lips tugging down into a frown that went further than it usually did, and she all but forced out "that's why I came to you." It was followed up promptly by the less flattering "well that and you're the cheapest lawyer I know and I was pretty sure you'd feel obligated to answer my phone call." She wasn't sure how well he'd listen to her because she may not have entirely have planned to listen to him if things were reversed. Depended on how things went down, she supposed. Jessica liked to have a plan, but sometimes plans were garbage and it was just better to wing it.

"Keep an ear out. If anyone says anything weird, I want to know about it. Information gathering starts now." It turned out that what she meant by 'go' was 'walk to the end of the hall where she could skill keep an eagle eye on Malcolm's door. The conversation she had was short and a little bit stressed, but her voice was gentler than it often was. Not obviously, but there was something that relaxed in her when she talked to Trish. She was the closest person Jessica had, and she'd realized that was important. Using a credit card was kind of a pain in the ass - Jessica couldn't help but run through all the ways she could end up tracked every time she swiped the card - but it was the fastest way to move money for this kind of thing and Trish had convinced her.

She found Matt when she was done, tucking the slightly beat up cellphone into her pocket. "Malcolm's going to go stay with a friend until I can pick him up later." She hadn't asked the man about this plan, she was just assuming that he would agree to it. Leaving Malcolm home alone left him open to reappearance from the police. Trish's apartment had cameras and she would know not to let anyone in unless it was illegal not to. "After he's out I'm getting him a cab and going to the bar. To think." Obviously that was why. Telling him was kind of

((I still don't have a finale for all the little shit we're going to heap up on them, but I think Karen should be targeted next. I rewatched some Daredevil and oh man, I don't think he'd deal with a whole bunch of paranoia better than Jess, and we know she's a mess.))

Sigr · Dec 19, 2017

Done with the bail paperwork, Matt had nothing for Jessica when she returned with a plan that included packing Malcolm over and getting into a bar. He certainly sympathized with the idea of getting hammered, but he couldn't afford it, not without turning into someone he didn't want to be. "They aren't talking about it" Matt said, having caught on the chattering going around the place. "The cops are either doing their things or worried about your presence, but nothing on Malcolm or any misdeeds. A rotten apple, I guess" he said, chalking the issue to some corrupt agent instead of the whole system. Matt debated if he should go with Jessica to the bar or leave her be, when his phone ringed.

"Karen. Karen. Karen..." the monotone voice said, identifying the caller as Karen Page.

"One moment-" Matt asked, taking a few steps away. "Hello Ka-" Matt greeted, knowing at the moment that something was wrong. Even through the phone Karen's breathing sounded restrained, held back, as she usually did when trying to appear calm when she was scared to death. "What happened?" he instantly asked.

"Some-someone has been in my home. The police is here" Karen stuttered, clearly affected. "I'm... I'm fine, but can you... can you please come?" she sounded affected, making Matt's heart rate jump and him to move as soon as Karen ended the call.

"Whoever they are, they are going after us" Matt informed Jessica. "Something happened in Karen's house" he said. Matt didn't even took the time to explain who Karen was, or why did she matter for him, too eager to go with her for that. If Jessica bothered to look into him when they stumbled with each other she would already know who she was, but that didn't occur to Matt. He noticed that a guard was already moving to release Malcolm. "They are letting Malcolm go, lets pack him to safety and get a cab" he said, pacing in circles, a caged dog.

(We will figure out an ending along the way, it will probably entail releasing some pent up stress in the form of a lot of punching. Lets put Malcolm into safety and move to Karen, so I can reveal what happened at her home. Matt will me a hectic mess along the way.)

Virginia Greene · Jan 3, 2018

"Good. They should be." Something in her tone didn't match the conviction of her words, though in a way that probably only Matt would be able to pick up on. It wasn't her that she felt like they should be afraid of, it was the things she brought with her. Not that Jessica wasn’t dangerous, she just knew better than to fight in a police station unless things turned real bad. "It's more than a case of a rotten apple." She was going to keep repeating that until the proof inevitably turned up. Because it would, she was entirely sure of this. It wasn't worth it to fight him about it, the lawyer was in on this with her even if he didn't fully believe it was a bigger issue. His phone started to chant, which got an arched eyebrow in response though Jessica wasn't a hundred percent sure that Matt would be able to tell that was happening. It probably would have been politer to walk away while he talking to someone else, but polite wasn't something that she cared that much about.

The dark haired woman perked up a little when she heard him ask Karen what happened, because that meant that something had happened. The conversation didn't last long, and then Matt was telling her that something was up.

She didn't say 'I told you so' because it wasn't the time for that, but the expression did slip onto Jessica's face for a moment. She knew it had been more than Matt had initially agreed was going on. "You sound like you're expecting me to come," she did say, but it was a toothless protest at best, she fully intended to come with him. "I still need another drink." It could wait. When Malcolm appeared she prepped him on the plan brusquely. The man didn’t initially agree, but Jessica shut them all down until eventually he gave up. She waited with him until a cab showed up and sent him off with strict instructions. And then he was gone and she had to force herself to move on to this next thing. He and Trish would both text when he got to her apartment, everything was arranged as well as it could be given how little time she had to set it up.

Matt's stress was obvious even without any kind of weird super senses. It was making her feel a little extra stressed out, which wasn't going to do anyone any good, but she didn't bother to bring it up. Telling him to knock it off wasn't going to any good, so until everything involving Malcolm was sorted out, Jessica pretty much just ignored him. There was no need to engage him in anything until it was time to leave, she wouldn't have been sure how to reassure him or make him feel better even if she'd taken the time to try. Reassurance wasn't something that she was good at during the best of times, and definitely not right now. Her words would probably be more harm than help.

"Let's go." She had looked into Karen a little bit, partially while hunting down information about Matt and partially because Trish had mentioned the reporter. She was still aggressively protective, that was unlikely to ever change. Every time she started to relax and become less concerned, something happened. "Won't even charge you for this." They were probably the two best people who could be investigating this. Matt had the super senses, she had the... investigative sense. Common sense, maybe. She didn't run around in a costume, which was a point in her direction. "Tell her to make sure to get the names of everyone who goes into her apartment." Police officers, in other words. "Pictures if possible, but only if she can do it without it being a risk. And start writing down everything that might be missing or moved." If she started now, she'd have her head on straight by the time they got there so that there so hopefully there'd be less struggle talking to someone who might be hysterical.

Sigr · Jan 8, 2018

Jessica's protests didn't get an answer from Matt, eager to sort out the Malcolm thing so they could move on. Perhaps she was right and he should go without her. No, that was just his nerves, his nature. He wasn't always that bad working on a team, Foggy and him had been a perfect team for a while. Until he messed it up, of course. Perhaps it wasn't as much as he was decent working on a team, but the people around him put up with his attitude? Maybe he wasn't so different from Jessica, or at least the perception he had of her...

Taking a second cab, it was obvious that Jessica was coming with him, need of a drink or not. Her dry remarks helped break the silence, even if in Matt's world there wasn't such a thing, just the constant noise of New York rumbling in his head, an echoing soul that was almost like the cities personality, from the smell of the subway or the hot dog stands to the screams of the angry people and blaring of sirens. "She's a tough one, been in several... situations" Matt said, partly wanting Jessica to know that Karen wasn't precisely a damsel in distress, but also trying to convince himself that she was going to be fine. The truth was that Karen had gotten herself even into more shit than even Matt himself knew, but just judging by how she had dealt with the Castle trial and all that cemented the idea of her being a tough woman in Matt's mind.

"Can you text her? It'll be faster and more discreet than me struggling with the voice to text thing" Matt offered his phone to Jessica. "She'd normally do all sorts of stuff... she surprised me with that whole journalist thing, how good she's at it" he added, a small pause punctuated by a frown. "But she sounded... weird. Not exactly scared but... startled, surprised. It's hard to judge across the phone, it reminds me of how clueless we can be about each other" he rambled, showing that he wasn't exactly calm himself. It didn't take long for them to reach Karen's place, noticing a couple of police cars by the sidewalk, just two agents there in wait, so the other two should be upstairs.

There was no trouble nor questions getting into the building, but once they reached Karen's apartment things were different. The door was open and the other two agents were sorting things out with her outside, talking. Karen seemed perfectly fine, even if jumpy, and her face brightened when she noticed Matt and Jessica. Of course her expression also showed surprise at the sight of the black haired detective, but there was something else on Karen's face when looking at Matt. Worry. She was worried about something, and it was just a fleeting moment that Matt would never be able to see even if frozen in time, but Jessica quite caught it.

"Matt Murdock, Ms Page's lawyer" he said as soon as was close to the cops. "Ms Jones is here to assist me" Matt added, wanting to hurry up and listen to what happened as soon as possible, disregarding everything. "I'd like to have a moment with my client" he requested, firm.

"She's not accused of anything, but of course. Don't touch anything though, lets not make the work for the lab cops even harder" one of the agents, a young one, said, gesturing his partner and getting away to the other end of the hallway.

"What happened?" Matt said. "Jessica is here because I was helping her with a friend that got unfairly arrested, so she's helping me" soon added, almost sensing the question come from Karen.

"Arrested for what? It doesn't have anything to do with this, I hope" Karen commented. "You won't be able to see-see it, but Jessica can" she said, taking a step to a side, allowing for a better view of the apartment. "As I arrived I saw the door slightly open and I called the police, but couldn't resist to peek, I wish I didn't" she muttered. The entrance was perfectly clear, specially around the door, but as soon as you passed a couple of steps into the apartment, the floor was littered with bullets of all kinds and sizes, so many that you couldn't walk inside without leaving a trace. "The cops had been inside, there is no one there, no bodies either. Only pictures" Karen added, her voice noticeably faltering at the mention.

"Pictures of dead people" she hushed, stepping closer to Matt but yet not touching him, an awkward distance built by the troubles of their relationship. If Jessica peeked inside she could see some of those pictures, some of them perhaps appearing during the investigation she did. "Daniel Fisher, Ben Urich, Elena Cardenas..." she hissed, all she could do without sobbing. "All of the people that died around me..." Karen finished, covering her mouth with a hand.

Virginia Greene · Jan 22, 2018

Teamwork was overrated. Jessica could do it and she understood why it was sometimes necessary, but having to worry about other people stressed her out. Getting more tangled up in this issue with Matt wasn't her first choice, but his was a siuation where it was probably necessary. She'd started it by coming to him for help, the fact that she couldn't just immediately kick him out of the job was something she'd accepted. Especially now. It was a little annoying, but at least she knew he was functional and intelligent.

Sending the text made sense to her, and Jessica did it without complaint. He was right, it would be faster if she did it, and she could do it silently. So while he spoke her fingers moved across the screen until the instructions were typed out. She didn't say anything to his comment about Karen being a 'tough one', she didn't need to. It didn't matter that much. Wouldn't have mattered how tough she was anyway, there was always something that got to a person. "I don't really care about how little you do or don't know about your girlfriend right now," she said, pressing his phone back into his hand, "not until it becomes relevant to the work." They were in a cab so she was going to treat him like a normal blind guy, because even if it was a little annoying she wasn't about to tank his life entirely. "Of course she sounded weird, her apartment got broken into." That shook people up. Many thought of their home as their safe space, the place to go where the bad things couldn't reach them. It was hard knowing that wasn't true.

She chose to solve that problem by not having any safe spaces at all.

When they got out of the taxi she let Matt pay and then took his arm to 'help' him onto the sidewalk and into the apartment building. In reality she was letting him lead because he knew where they were going and would be able to hear if anything required them stopping, but it was a subtle little thing that she didn't think most people would notice. The police were a good sign they were going in the right direction, and she made note of names quickly and filed them away for later. She wanted to compare them to the arrest notes and the names of the officers that Malcolm might have noticed interacting with him or acting strangely. She let Matt do the introduction and just stood there silently, dark eyes scanning over everything that was in the hall like she was looking for something. She scrutinized the people standing there, both police officers and the blonde woman. She even took a quick look at Matt, just to see if there was anything worth knowing on his face.

Jessica noticed the worry, but didn't really make anything of it. It was absolutely to be expected, the woman had her apartment broken into after all. Matt could handle the emotional stuff, it wasn't one of her skills anyway. She was just here to do the detective work. When Karen commented on the other case, she shrugged. "It might," she said a little bluntly. [color=AB3ED9]"But that means they're not after you for you." [/color]It was hard to tell if that was supposed to be a reassurance or not, it was up to interpretation. "You're a Daredevil supporter and Matt was our lawyer, you're in the blast zone if someone's after... heroes." The word came out like it physically hurt to say. It wasn't something she really thought was accurate to her, but some people had called her that and it made Jessica want to lay on the couch and drink. Admittedly a lot of things made her want to do that, but this more than many others.

She almost asked if they were pictures of the people while they were alive or pictures of them dead. Had it not been Matt's friend and someone who she knew Trish thought was fine, that question would have come out. She wasn't dealing with a kid or playing a role, so it wasn't her immediate instinct to pull her verbal punches. "I'll take a look, see what I can tell you." She noticed the awkwardness but didn't comment on it because it wasn't any of her business and now wasn't the time for it. She had some semblance of good behavior. The dark haired detective didn't 'take a peek' as much as she just swung the door open and stepped inside, taking a look around. She wanted to get Matt in here, but figured she probably shouldn't interrupt the moment, Jessica had no interest in accidentally getting in the middle of whatever that was. His skills weren't the most useful for a bunch of pictures, but maybe he'd be able to smell something. A lingering cologne too weak for her to smell, something like that. It would probably be muddled up because there had been cops in the apartment, but whatever they could get would be good.

"You're probably not in any immediate physical danger," Jessica announced after a few minutes of looking and thinking. She didn't need to pick anything up, she just took photos on her phone and stared at the room from her spot a few steps past the doorway with a focused, sharp expression until she was ready to talk about what she saw. "Unless they made some kind of demand, anyway. This is a scare tactic and it's unlikely someone put effort into that just to come back and kill or kidnap you. They want you to know that they know." It wasn't exactly an encouraging thing to say, but it was the truth and she was pretty confident in it. "For whatever that's worth to you, anyway. Still might want to get a hotel room for the night and pay in cash." Personally she would also use a different name, but she was paranoid like that. If Matt tried to offer his apartment she'd list the reasons that wasn't a good idea but they didn't seem like they were really in an apartment sharing place in their relationship (whatever it was) right now.

Hero Business [Defenders -- Sigr & Virginia]

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