Jessica walked through the front door of the familiar little shop with a new pomp in her step. She felt lighter than she had ever felt in a very long time. For once, the gradient of New York City looked brighter, with vibrant green and orange gold, and not the depressing grey she used to live in.
"Are you sure this is the place? This looks like a pawnshop. A regular pawnshop." The indirect/direct reason for her new look on life unhelpfully noted as he trailed behind her.
"Because it is a pawnshop. And besides, you're not one to talk about what looks regular and what doesn't." She said to the blind man now beside her.
"Touché." Matt Murdock remarked. "And pray tell, why you thought to bring me here?"
She glanced at him as he looked over at her, even if his face was staring at the wrong direction by a few angles, "Because seeing you go out in whatever that drab is that you call an outfit, hurts my eyes."
"Inside voice much?" Matt hardly kept the biting reprimand from showing in his voice. They were outside, even if inside a pawnshop, and speaking so loud about things not to be spoken of was a generally obvious bad idea.
"Relax Red," she snorted, already relaxing into the atmosphere of the shop, "I promise you that it's completely legal."
"Doesn't feel like it." The objectively blind man muttered even as he looked around the store at wrong angles.
Jessica couldn't help the smile that came on her face. She wasn't his biggest fan when they both met, with him having his huge moral basket and her cringing at every motivational quote he gave. She quickly got over him being as blind as a bat, along with all the perks of one, but what she couldn't get over was how much common sense he traded for moral integrity. Who went out fighting crimes in a sweatshirt and a towel? Matt Murdock apparently.
But then again, he did do her a solid recently, a major one at that, and she figured that she could repay a small part of the favor by introducing him to Isaac, who she hadn't seen for a while.
"Isaac, you in here?" She called out as she came over to the empty counter.
"Coming!" The reply came immediately from the storage room. She turned and saw a small frown on Matt's face as he looked behind the counter.
"What?"
"Nothing." He said unconvincingly to which she just shrugged. Maybe his heightened senses were poking up on Isaac's weirdness. "Jessica, why are we really here?"
The groan came out in reflex, which was another thing that was becoming familiar to her since knowing him. He was pointedly curious, which she couldn't really fault with him being a lawyer and all.
"I already told you. You need better than a sweatshirt if you want to continue doing this. I'll feel bad if you die one day because a common thug got off a lucky shot. Isaac has things to take care of that."
"Like that healing drug of yours?"
She wanted to brush him off like he did the last few times he needled about that particular thing but she didn't. They were already here and it was the exact reason why she brought him along.
"Yes. And please stop saying it like that. You make it sound like I'm doping or something."
"I wouldn't if you understood that back alley drugs don't just heal you. There's always a side effect to these things." And that was exactly what she meant by him carrying a moral basket. He never, ever, ran out of logical points to make.
"Oh hey there, Jess." Isaac said as he drifted into his spot behind the counter.
"Long time no see." She smirked at him with her hands on her hips, even as he gave her a nonchalant shrug.
"Eh it's been a little while, I think." He replied. "You look peppy." He said.
And wasn't that the truth. The last time she had been here, she was contemplating murder(and torture) of the highest degree against the worst scum on earth, and she would have done so if it wasn't for Matt who had shown up at the last second to talk some sense into her.
As for Kilgrave, taking him down had been anticlimactic. It was almost disappointing. She had spent days thinking and strategizing about how and what to do permanently put him down, only for him to go down with a punch.
He never saw her coming. He never even expected it. She literally landed in front of him and broke his face with a punch. Even now she still felt that she should have killed him but Matt being there had complicated everything. Unfortunately, she couldn't buy the stuff that could strip away people's powers because of how insanely expensive they were(and there was no way she was spending that amount for someone like him when a bullet was cheaper).
She shrugged. "What can I say? Dealt with some old baggage. Could've turned out better but that's by and by."
She looked around the shop. It looked the same and felt the same, except for the ever chaotic placements. "What have you been doing?"
"Selling." Was his succinct reply before turning to Matt. "Good day to you, sir."
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Matt looked between Isaac and Jessica and for the fifth time asked himself what he had gotten into. He knew Jessica. Even if it was for a short time, he knew her well enough to know that she was as hardboiled as her punches.
She didn't smile easily. She much preferred sarcasm and dry wit. She was extremely(and he meant this to the highest degree) guarded around anyone she met, most especially men.
Putting away Kilgrave had given him a good enough idea of what had transpired between them and the nature of their history. The thought of it made his tongue taste sour and he wished he had let her have a few more punches.
As far as he knew, the only men Jessica dealt with were the few male clients she had in her official line of work.
It didn't take a genius to know that she barely tolerated him at the beginning when they first met. Actually getting to know her only increased his respect for her because despite her trauma, she always made sure to put herself out there. Whatever experiences she had with Kilgrave, she never let it overshadow who she was.
So knowing all that, it wasn't his fault that he was surprised when she called and said she wanted to introduce him to someone that would help him save his life.
A pawnshop was the last place he expected her to bring him to, and seeing how relaxed she became the moment she crossed the door was another thing he was unprepared for. However, what he never thought was a possibility, especially for someone in her circumstances, was how open she was to the owner.
The Jessica he knew for the better part of a month never smiled, and if she did it was for sadistic reasons. She wasn't what he would call a people's person, even if Foggy seemed to think otherwise, so seeing her being this… personable was eye-opening.
"So what can I do for you both today?" He heard Isaac ask, and once again he was treated to the view of a friendly Jessica Jones.
"What? We're friends, can't I just hop in for a visit?" Even the harmless banter was something he wasn't used to seeing.
"You do that well enough but I have a feeling that's not what this one is for." Isaac replied while Matt did his best to keep his expression neutral. He didn't know the type of person Isaac was but the fact that Jessica vouched for him made him think of him as some off-the-market back-deal broker.
Given the fact that the Kingpin, or as the public knew him, Wilson Fisk, was dead due to a massacre on his building that was perpetrated by who people suspected was The Punisher, there were quite a few off-the-market brokers. He was still reserving his judgment until he saw more of the man.
"Well, Matt here needs something in vestments that will save his life from his strenuous extracurriculars. Oh, and he's also blind but with heightened senses as a tradeoff if that helps."
The neutral expression on his face threatened to slip at Jessica's gross breach of his privacy but he managed it, only settling for giving her a look from the shade of his glasses.
"I see," Isaac replied, "Not a pun by the way."
"And throw in some Estus for him. He's been very curious about it." She said.
This was the point where he interjected himself. Yes, he trusted Jessica a fair bit, but the lawyer in him could not sit still why she made decisions for him that he didn't understand.
"Excuse me, um, Mr. Isaac, but I have to ask; what exactly are your services? I know about the healing drug and the telepathy ring, but what exactly is it you do?"
"He sells things, Matt. Magic things, spy things, mutant things, weapon things – he sells it all."
"And where does he get the things he sells, Jessica? You can't seriously want me to just accept that? And besides, what kind of people does he sell it to?"
"Not this song and dance again." He heard Isaac groan as he collapsed into his chair. "What is it with this dimension and everyone being cautious about everything?"
He looked at Isaac then looked at Jessica who seemed to be stifling a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Matt, just trust me. I'll explain it all after we leave." That was the body of a sentence that promised an explanation he wouldn't like.
Against his better judgement, along with being new on the crime fighting scene, he relented and let Jessica do her thing.
"That was quick."
"Shut up, Isaac." She looked about to curse at it all. That and deeply regretting ever bringing him here. Again, not a good sign. "He's going to need something that can stop bullets, budget end. I doubt he can afford anything on the pricier end on a lawyer's salary."
The retort and correction was just at the tip of his tongue but once again he held it.
"I hope you brought your card. This ain't a date and I'm not paying." He rolled his eyes, which unfortunately, she couldn't see. "And something that can help his eye— how do you see again?"
This time he sighed. "My senses are heighten—"
"Not that one. The bat thing."
"Echolocation?"
"Right, echolocation." She nodded. "Do you have anything that can help with that? Like improve it or something. And some weapons. Like a brass knuckle or a gu—"
"No weapons." He said seriously. That was one line he wouldn't cross, but then he took in the look on Jessica's face and sighed again. "No brass knuckles. Nothing lethal."
"Ohh, how about those Nightwing Batons I saw last time? I think those will be perfect."
Nightwing Batons. They sound harmless enough so those could do. He nodded. He silently watched her name off a few things as she curated the starter pack for his new vigilante lifestyle.
Even with everything that had happened to her, she was trying her best so that he wouldn't die a careless death.
"I have a couple catalogs that fit the options you want so have a look." Isaac said and he wasn't even that surprised. A black market broker had a catalog. Maybe the world was finally spinning in the right direction.
Unfortunately that thought died the moment a braille catalog was put in front of him to browse through. He had to do a doubletake to make sure that his fingers were feeling the characters correctly because of the absurd descriptions his brain was reading him.
He looked up at Jessica and he could feel the smirk on her face, all smug and knowing.
"Yup." The grin on her face split wider. He definitely wasn't going to like the explanation that came after.
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A/N: I'm not fully sold on how the chapter came out, even after retyping some part of it twice, but let me know how it goes. On another note, I was planning to write out how she took down Kilgrave but then realized, as stated, how anticlimactic it would be given all her prep. Like there would be no fight whatsoever on his end, so I just scraped it. If you still need it, I might retouch it and post it as a mini chapter. I'm also working on making the chapters longer so the immersion doesn't feel rushed and premature.
Lastly, I'm planning a bit of escalation but we'll see how that goes in the next few chapters.
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