2011
"That's the last of it." 20-year old Jessica Jones mumbled as she loaded the last of her boxes into her Red Mini Cooper. She's glad she didn't have a lot of things, since it helped minimize the expense and hassle that come with moving. She walks back inside her home for the past 4 years. She'll leave tomorrow and it will take her at least 2 days to drive from Cambridge to her new home.
Jessica still has one more thing to do. She heads back to the bathroom while reading the instructions for the hair dye. She puts on the gloves and starts mixing the dye. "Here's to hoping I'll have fun as a blonde!" she says to herself as she raises the bowl for her dye in a mock-toast. Jessica takes one last look at herself in the mirror. She knows that despite changing her appearance, she'll still be the same. She isn't delusional. Changing looks won't expunge the pain nor will it repress the memories or stop the flashbacks. "When a snake sheds an old layer of skin, it's still a snake. But I need this - I need to move forward. I'll still be the kangaroo-fearing and mystery-hating broken genius who also happens to be ridiculously strong." she babbles to herself. Jessica then gets to work and applies the hair dye carefully. Once she's done with the application, she sets the timer and walks back to the bare bedroom.
In the next few days, she'll be in Starling City and settling into her new town home. Jessica couldn't wait to leave and move away, so as soon as she received the offer from Queen Consolidated to be an IT Analyst, she accepted. Sure, a person with her skills and abilities could perform at a more advanced role but she wanted to keep a low profile for now. The promise of a new job in a new city was just too good - she jumped at the first opportunity. She can always sharpen her hacking (such an ugly word) skills on her own time. Starling City seemed nice. The Glades is the part of the city that she was warned about and she just shrugged. She can handle some hooligans and lowlifes. All cities have their sketchy patches. "Maybe the residents could use a watchman of sorts" she sassed. She doesn't start work at Queen Consolidated for 2 weeks and she found a short gig at a small startup to help her cash flow. She figures that's enough time to adjust and get situated in her new surroundings.
The timer buzzed - signaling it's time to rinse the dye off her hair. After she's done, Jessica takes a look at the mirror. "Trish will laugh her ass off if she sees me." She thinks of her best friend who tried and failed to convince her to move to New York. "It's better this way. I need to figure things out by myself." she recalled herself saying to her visibly disappointed best friend. She finishes drying and styling her hair.
There's no turning back now. To the world, Jessica Jones moved to South East Asia. But to her and her best friend, Jessica Jones will live on as Felicity Smoak.
End of Prologue
Note: Let me know what you think. None of the characters are mine and this has not been beta'd. Mistakes are mine and will be revisited and corrected as much as possible! I'll eventually tag this as a crossover as I flesh out the story and characters. Cross-posted on AO3. I love Jessica Jones - I'm a fan of noir and psychological thriller genres. This came to me when I was binged on Jessica Jones - what if Felicity was Jessica Jones (the mystery-solving, vulnerability, and yes the dark hair did it for me)? I've obviously taken quite a lot of liberties but I feel like these two incredibly compelling and intriguing characters while starkly different, can be merged and that is what I hope to do. I'm thinking of basing some of the chapters on certain episodes/storylines – they'll all be connected but the timeline might be different. The prologue is pretty short but I expect subsequent chapters to have a decent length.