Chapter 1: Time and Space
On the outside, it seemed like it should have been tiny, hardly big enough for one person, let alone three. And if it was a time machine, it had to be full of controls, too, leaving even less space. But it was huge.
Huge and orange and bright.
The Doctor entered right behind Jessica, brushing past her and bounding energetically up the stairs. She blinked out of her confounded daze as Jack gently put a hand on her shoulder and propelled her a couple of steps forward, enough to fit himself in and close the door behind them.
"Holy shit," Jessica blurted. She looked up, scanning the high ceiling, all of the orange and glass and gleaming metal. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack and the Doctor exchange a grin. She turned her attention to the platform suspended in the middle of the room - made of glass, with glass stairs leading up to it, and a large, shiny contraption in the middle of it. It reminded her vaguely of the kidnappers' control panels, littered with buttons and levers, but the Doctor's was incredibly less organized. She thought she saw a ketchup dispenser, and a typewriter. He pulled a monitor over to him, the edges of which were littered with scrawled-upon sticky notes.
"That's what I said," Jack agreed.
The Doctor cleared his throat. Jessica, with effort, stopped her eyes from continuing to roam the room and looked at him. He beamed at her, spread his arms theatrically, and announced, "Welcome to the TARDIS, Jessica Jones!"
Jessica raised her eyebrows. "The what?"
"Time And Relative Dimensions in Space!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You have to say the thing, though, before we move on." He clapped his hands, and clasped them expectantly in front of him.
"The thing," Jessica repeated. Jack rolled his eyes, although he kept smiling. The Doctor only waited.
"You noticed the size difference," Jack clarified. "From the inside and the outside. Didn't you?"
"Uh…" Jessica glanced back to the Doctor, whose grin faltered. "Yeah. Hard not to."
"How would you describe that difference?" the Doctor prompted.
Jessica squinted at him. "It's...bigger on the inside?"
"Bingo!" He whirled around, beaming once more, and started typing away on the typewriter. "So, Trish's apartment, yes?"
Jessica only took a moment to try and make sense of the previous exchange, before deciding to simply move on and ask questions later. "Yeah. How are you planning to explain this to her, exactly?"
The Doctor didn't look up, still busily typing. "Oh, I dunno. Pop in, say hello. Introduce myself. You can vouch for me, can't you?"
"I guess," Jessica said. "You know this is pretty weird, though, don't you?"
The Doctor paused. He flashed her a wild, mischievous grin. "I specialize in weird, Jessica Jones." Jack rolled his eyes again. The Doctor didn't seem to notice, or maybe didn't care, and continued working. "Address, please?"
Jessica rattled it off. She still felt kind of...detached. She almost expected, at any moment, to wake up in Trish's apartment, with none of the past thirty minutes having happened at all. Maybe her brain was just making this up, trying to cope with the fact that she'd lost Kilgrave, or-
"Hold onto something," Jack warned, moments before the Doctor yelled, "Geronimo!" and threw down a lever. Jessica only just had time to grab onto a nearby rail.
The whole ship shuddered violently, practically throwing her into Jack. It occurred to her that the Doctor still wasn't exactly trustworthy, and with his controls cobbled together as they were, that likely meant that the rest of the ship was the same. It could rattle apart, flinging them into space, or time. She could die right here, and no one would ever know what the hell had happened to her.
The shuddering halted, as suddenly as it had begun, and Jessica almost flew into Jack again. The Doctor was babbling away already, or maybe he'd never actually stopped, saying, "You go first, Jones. She'll be worried enough without a stranger jumping out at her first thing."
Jessica briefly cast her eyes to the doors. "Did we even move?" she questioned. "Kinda felt like we just rattled."
The Doctor huffed, descending the stairs with a frown. "Of course we moved! I can fly my own ship, thank you!"
"Some would beg to differ," Jack mumbled, just loud enough for the Doctor to hear.
"Oi!"
Jessica shook her head. The banter sounded familiar. She recalled similar barbs being exchanged on Trish's couch, not two days previously. But when she looked at the Doctor, she could only see the slightest shades of the man he claimed to have been. She had no reason to doubt him - Jack didn't, jumping right into familiarity like he wasn't speaking to an entirely new face. And she wasn't sure that she did, not really. She just...couldn't quite reconcile Kilgrave's wide brown eyes, freckled nose, and painful frustration with this new, floppy-haired, bowtie-clad, excitable Doctor in front of her.
This was not a situation she had ever imagined herself being in. Goddamn, her life was weird.
The Doctor gestured grandly to the blue doors, bowing slightly. "After you."
Jessica took a step forward, grit her teeth, and pulled the doors open.
To find a gun in her face.
"Shit," she said, and dropped to the floor just as a shot fired off.
"No guns in my TARDIS!" the Doctor yelped, hardly audible for the ringing in Jessica's ears. "Patricia Walker-"
"Jessica!" Trish said in something of a scream. "What the hell is this? You-you just-"
Jessica, heart in her throat, pulled herself up to standing again, and snatched the gun from Trish's hands. "Jesus Christ," she croaked. "Trish-" She found herself silenced as Trish pulled her into a frantic hug.
"It's really you, isn't it?" Trish whispered.
Jessica hesitantly wrapped her arms around Trish's back. "Yeah, yeah, it's me."
"Oh, not again," the Doctor muttered. "I swear I hit the right year. You saw me, Jack, I did, didn't I? I swear-"
Jessica ignored him, gently pulling back from Trish. "What happened? What the hell's with the gun?"
"A blue box appeared in my living room," Trish said. She met Jessica's eyes, with suspicion and fear overwhelming any relief. "It's been a couple of days, Jessica. We haven't heard from you."
"Thank Rassilon," the Doctor breathed. Jessica twisted to look at him, finding him leaning heavily in the TARDIS' doorway. "Right year," he said, a smile alighting on his face. "Couple days late, not too bad."
Jessica tucked the gun into the back of her jeans before Trish could even think to make a grab for it again. "It's a time machine," she explained, more weakly than she'd intended. Trish's eyes flew to Jack, and then to the Doctor. Jessica thought she saw some vague sort of horrified recognition there.
"Okay," she said, dragging out the word. "Explain."
"No way," Luke said, a few hours later. He paced around the Doctor, who kept trying to track the other man with his eyes.
"Ta-da," the Doctor said with a grin. "It's magic! Except not. Not at all like magic, actually. Science-y. Biology stuff."
Luke paused, narrowing his eyes. They scanned over the Doctor, who stood remarkably still. "Okay, maybe I can sort of believe it."
"One thing stays constant," Jack put in with a smirk, "the Doctor's ability to speak absolute nonsense."
"It's not nonsense," the Doctor argued, crossing his arms.
"You just like to talk to hear your own voice," Jack said.
"And?"
Luke brought a hand to his face, palm to the eyes in a self-soothing gesture. Jessica twitched, fighting the desire to go to him, touch his hand, something. He was standing pointedly apart from her, guardedly, and kept stealing disbelieving glances at her.
She could give him some space. She understood. And, more than anything else, she was good at keeping her distance from people. No matter how much she might not want to.
"Anyway!" the Doctor exclaimed. Luke lifted his head. Trish worried at her lip with her teeth, pensive and tired. Jessica herself was beginning to feel the drag of the past few days' events in full. The Doctor's surprise arrival and the following excitement had burned most of it away at first, but it was creeping back. "We were sort of thinking of going on a bit of a trip!" the Doctor explained. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Interested?"
Trish met Jessica's eyes. "A trip where?" she asked.
"Anywhere you'd like," the Doctor said. He had that grin on again, the one he'd worn when he'd introduced the idea to Jessica. She'd never seen anything even close to an expression that genuinely excited on the other Doctor's face. "I'm not a big fan of guns, but under the circumstances I suppose I can excuse your response."
"A trip in your time machine," Luke clarified. The Doctor nodded.
Jessica cleared her throat. "I'm going," she offered. Trish stared at her like she'd grown a second head. "It's all of time and space, Trish," Jessica said, maybe a little peevishly. "God knows I need a fucking break."
"What better way to vacation than throughout the universe?" the Doctor encouraged. "There're lots of lovely places all over. Boring, most of them, but lovely all the same. And you lot might like a bit of boring, anyhow. Bit of a rest. A repose. A-"
"When did you decide this?" Trish asked, still staring. "Jess, I don't know…after everything that's happened..."
"Isn't there anywhere you'd want to go?" the Doctor prodded. "Anywhen? We could go see New York City's first settlers! We could go ice skating on the universe's most ice-skating-friendly planet. We could go to any concert, any show you've ever wanted to see. Ooh, there's the sand dunes of Ra IV, although I've heard those have a little bit of a...well, an infestation problem, so maybe not. Could be fun, though."
Trish blinked a few times. Glancing to Luke, Jessica found him wide-eyed and disbelieving.
"Ice skating?" Trish said.
"I've been to that planet," Jack put in. "Nice place. Do you bring everyone you meet there, Doc?"
"Your criticisms are being ignored," the Doctor informed him. "And for your information, no, the Ponds haven't been yet."
"But they are going."
"Ohhh," the Doctor grumbled, "...hush."
Luke slowly shook his head. "This is a lot to process," he said.
"Er, right, suppose that's fair," the Doctor replied, rocking on his heels, face falling just slightly. "It's been a busy few days for you all." He glanced to Jack. "I have to admit, I sort of might have forgotten that this could have been a bad time. A bit sudden, maybe."
"Sudden is a good word," Jessica said.
His face fell just the tiniest bit more. "Well, I don't want to pressure you. Is it peer pressure if we aren't the same species? Good question. Er, don't let me...do that. Whether it is peer pressure or just regular pressure. Any pressure." He cleared his throat, jabbed a thumb to the door while straightening up. "I'll just leave you to it, shall I? No rush."
"We didn't say no," Luke pointed out. His voice came tired, and he looked worse than he sounded, but Jessica saw a light in his eye that jerked at her heart. It was something like wonder, or hope, or excitement. Things she all-too-rarely found on Luke's face.
Trish nodded, jerky and uncertain, but she had a spark in her eyes, too.
A grin spread over the Doctor's face, and Jessica found herself very nearly mirroring as something warm and hopeful blossomed in her chest.
"Then let's go pick up Ianto," Jack declared.
Ianto had a sort of round face, an air of anxiety about him, and a well-worn, sharp suit. He didn't react nearly as badly as the others to the TARDIS' sudden appearance in what Jack had called only "the Hub."
He also took a little bit less convincing to come aboard.
"Come on," Jack said, "pack a bag."
Ianto eyed him, visibly uncertain. His eyes skirted over the rest of them, assembled just behind Jack, crowding the doorway in order to see.
"Don't worry," the Doctor put in, "we're keeping the excitement to a healthy level this time."
"No more mutant killer robot monsters?" Ianto checked, which had Jessica wondering, again, what the hell she was thinking.
"Most likely not," the Doctor hedged. "I don't want to absolutely promise that there won't be - but listen, it's not like you lot are doing any better down here, are you?"
Ianto exchanged another look with Jack, who started smiling.
"Fine," Ianto said, a hesitant smile creeping over his face. "Give me five minutes."
Introductions were made as Ianto re-entered with a small duffel, although Jessica noted that the Doctor kept them vague. He didn't mention where he'd met them, or when, or how. He simply said, "this is Jessica Jones, Trish Walker, Luke Cage-"
And Ianto didn't ask. Didn't even seem surprised. He responded only, "Hello. I'm Ianto. Jones as well, actually."
"Jones and Jones," the Doctor sing-songed. "Maybe we should pick up Martha, too, make it a full trifecta. The holy trinity of Jones. The-"
"It's probably a less good idea to show up at Martha's door unannounced," Jack advised, though he was smiling.
"And she's got Mickey, and a job, I know," the Doctor dismissed. "Maybe later."
Jack linked his arm though Ianto's. "I'll try giving her a call."
"Just like old times," the Doctor said, still grinning.
Jessica leaned against the railing surrounding the console. "You have a lot of friends," she remarked. Trish sat down on the bench a few feet away. Jack and Ianto lingered by the doors, having started a back-and-forth in some European language. Jessica thought she recalled Jack mentioning that Ianto was Welsh, but she couldn't remember exactly.
The Doctor hummed. He turned a couple of dials. "I think you'll like the Ponds," he said. He paused, then sharply looked up, scanning the room. His eyes slowly widened. "It's a couple's cruise."
Jessica glanced to Trish, who smiled bemusedly back. "What?" Jessica asked.
"You and Luke, Jack and Ianto, the Ponds...it's a couple's cruise." Jessica couldn't decide if he looked horrified or amused. She tried to ignore how Luke turned his eyes to the ground when he called them a couple, and her own pain growing in her chest.
Trish laughed, in such a way that Jessica immediately knew she was fighting to change the topic. "Well, I'm still single."
The Doctor turned to her, pointing a finger. "Maybe we'll find you a boyfriend, then."
"In all of time and space?" Trish asked with a grin.
"Naturally. Plenty of fish in the sea. Don't worry, I'll make sure he's human. I know how you lot can get about that kind of thing."
Jessica took a deep breath. "The Doctor's going to find you a space boyfriend," she said. She would have laughed, if it wasn't actually fucking happening.
The Doctor beamed. "That I will."
Jessica looked up to the ceiling again, taking in the color and shine and alien-ness of it all. Her dark clothes, which helped her blend in well in the city crowds, now felt stark and obnoxious against the brightness of the Doctor's ship. It was, strangely, kind of nice.
To be somewhere different. To feel like things had changed. In the weeks the Doctor had been in her apartment, things had started to feel stale and hopeless and dim. And he'd left them in much of the same state, the only difference being the new knowledge they had to contend with.
But now Jessica was leaving. Not just leaving the city, leaving the planet.
The TARDIS shuddered and lurched, but this time Jessica was prepared enough to not go spinning into anyone else.
'The Ponds' were a young couple named Amy and Rory. Amy was tall and leggy, with shockingly red hair; Rory had an impressive nose and a nervous smile. They dressed nicely, clearly not wanting for money, in warm fall colors. They brought only a suitcase and a laptop bag with them, and they greeted the Doctor like he was their oldest friend.
"We're going ice skating," the Doctor informed them. Amy immediately grinned, while Rory looked a bit skeptical.
"Where'd he find you lot?" Amy asked them all, while the Doctor busied himself at the console.
Jessica wasn't sure where to begin. She glanced to Trish, who was biting her lip. Luke spoke up first, saying, "New York City."
"What year?" Amy pressed, like it was normal. Jessica guessed it was, for her. She leaned against the railing on the stairs, looking them over. "Not too far from us, I'm guessing."
"2015," Luke said.
"What's 2015 like?" Amy asked. "We're 2011, me and Rory."
Jessica's first thought was the Incident, and she felt Trish go still beside her. Luke, having joined them on the Doctor's bench, stiffened.
"That's not reassuring," Rory muttered.
"The world doesn't end," Luke offered, though his voice was a little rough. "It's an American thing, anyway. You guys...you'll probably be fine."
Amy and Rory exchanged a glance.
"Don't worry about that," the Doctor put in, making them all jump. He didn't sound even the slightest bit concerned. Jessica's nerves itched - he knew how New York had suffered, didn't he? He had to know. If he was a time traveller, he'd have to know. Wouldn't he?
"If you say so," Amy said, though she didn't sound too happy about it.
"No spoilers," the Doctor told her. "Sorry, Pond. TARDIS policy."
"Doctor," Rory complained.
"We're going ice skating," the Doctor repeated. He finally looked up from the console, to fix each of them with a remarkably stern glare. "And we're going to have fun, and not talk about bad things."
"Okay," Trish agreed, all too ready to be done. "There's nothing we can do about it anyway, right?"
The Doctor pointed at her, a smile threatening to emerge. "Exactly right, Trish Walker. Now." He turned a few dials, and moved again to the large lever that would send them off. "Hold on, everyone."
The TARDIS shook, as usual, and that peculiar grating sound filled the room. Amy was smiling again, grabbing at Rory's hand, although she seemed a little more subdued. The Doctor, for his part, seemed to have forgotten it all entirely, as he grinned up at the ceiling with unrestrained joy.
The moment they landed, he was bounding down the stairs, past the Ponds and Jack and Ianto, and throwing open the doors. All Jessica could see from her vantage point by the console was blinding whiteness. A rush of cold air swept into the TARDIS, enough force behind it that Jessica could feel it several yards away.
Jack whistled. The Doctor held his arms out wide, as if trying to embrace the air itself.
"Looks like we'll need boots or something," Ianto remarked.
"Don't be silly," the Doctor said, and started off into the blistering snow.
"Doctor!" Amy called, though she was grinning. Beside her, Rory seemed a little more concerned.
Jessica adjusted her boots, and wound her scarf a little more tightly around her throat. "I'll go after him, I guess," she said. Her jacket would be a little thin, but she would probably live. And she had to admit, she was a little too excited to be on a new planet to care all that much.
"Me and Rory'll take you all to the wardrobe room for some proper coats," Amy declared. "You sure you're okay, Jessica?"
Jessica nodded, even as she was heading down to the doors. "Bring me something?" she asked Trish, who nodded eagerly back.
"Be careful," Luke called, a smile twitching at his lips. Jessica pretended that her heart didn't flip at the acknowledgement.
"I will," she promised, and stepped into the wind, closing the doors behind her. Her feet immediately sunk into snow, deep enough that it started to seep into the tops of her boots. So much for that. She squinted through the blinding light and picked out the Doctor not too far ahead, making his way to a large reflective surface. The promised ice skating, she presumed.
Pulling her scarf up to cover her mouth, she followed the Doctor's footsteps, planting each foot carefully in the prints he'd left in a vain attempt to salvage something of her already-freezing feet. By the time she made it halfway to the frozen lake or pond or whatever it was, the Doctor was already spinning out on the ice and making a fool of himself. It put her a little more at ease.
"Jessica!" he exclaimed, turning himself over to sit on the ice. "Where's everybody else?"
"Being responsible and getting coats," she replied. Her voice came out muffled through the scarf, but the Doctor paid that no mind.
"Bah," the Doctor said, waving his hand disdainfully. Carefully, he stood again, wobbling on the ice. "Who needs coats. Humans are funny."
Jessica ignored the vague jab, and continued walking towards him. "You aren't cold?" she asked doubtfully.
"I don't get cold," the Doctor declared, all too proudly. He skated forward, and immediately fell again, prompting Jessica to smirk at him. He didn't even seem to notice her, too busy attempting to disguise a wince. "This body's a bit less agile than previous ones, though," he admitted. "A little bit...flaily." He then pointed at her. "Don't tell Amy I said that."
Jessica kept smirking. "I won't," she said. She paused as she reached the edge of the ice, crossing her arms over her chest as if that would somehow keep her warmer. Fortunately, the wind was beginning to die down to a less painfully cold level, though her hair still whipped around her face.
"I don't believe you," the Doctor said, but he didn't seem terribly bothered. He got to his feet again, and once he was apparently satisfied with his position, looked up at her and grinned. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"It'll hold our combined weight?" she checked. She peered down at the ice - it was remarkably clear, enough so that she could see down to the sand beneath.
"That's what makes this the best planet for skating!" the Doctor explained, his eyes lighting up. He spun in a cautious circle, somehow managing to keep his balance. "Beautiful clear ice, and incredibly strong. It stays cold like this for the majority of the year - I've never even seen the ice crack, all the times I've been here." He performed another careful spin, slightly faster, and held himself up again. "There are plenty of reliable places on Earth to skate, but it's not nearly as fun."
Jessica had to concede to that. She took a step onto the ice, planting all of her weight on that foot to avoid slipping. She'd learned the technique from her mother, when she had learned to skate as a child. The memory surfaced, unbidden, in a blur of color and cold and her mother's soft laughter.
Distracted by the new pain in her chest, she slipped, and fell flat on her ass on the ice, hard enough that she was sure she would bruise. She found herself staring up at the Doctor, who looked down at her with an oblivious grin. "See?" he said. "Not so easy, is it?"
She pushed the memory away, and glared up at him. "I got distracted," she defended. He backed away while she scrambled awkwardly up, trying to ignore the pain in her tailbone. "I learned to skate when I was a kid."
"You don't act like it," he snarked. She threw a hand out to smack his arm, and in the process of trying to escape, he toppled over. She laughed, and the air was cold and surprisingly refreshing in her lungs. "Oh, hush," he said.
While he got to his feet again, Jessica gazed across the snowy landscape. In all directions, there was nothing but snow, except for the sharp blue of the TARDIS back where they'd come from. Everything was clean, seemingly untouched by any life whatsoever. Besides her and the Doctor's footprints, and the TARDIS on the horizon, there was no sign of life at all.
Having come from the packed streets of the city, it felt like a breath of fresh air. And speaking of - the air was clean, too. Untainted. Free of cigarettes and gas and engine fumes. It didn't feel like another planet, not really - Jessica had seen winters like this in New York, and Central Park in the dead of winter was a beautiful place. But New York winters were never so smooth or silent.
Her eye caught the TARDIS doors opening, and a group of dark figures, clad in puffy coats and long scarves, emerged. Amy and Rory lead the way, only so distinctive because of Amy's hair. Luke, highly visible with his height and dark skin, took up the rear. He raised a hesitant hand in greeting when he saw Jessica staring at him, and she waved hesitantly back.
It felt like things might be okay. At least a little bit. They probably still had a lot of work to do. But he hadn't brought it up, and she wasn't about to start the conversation herself. Not anytime soon.
"Took you long enough!" the Doctor shouted at them.
"Shove off!" Amy shouted back. "Some of us like to be warm, thank you."
The Doctor made a tsk noise. He skated to the side, and then back. Showing off, Jessica suspected with a smirk.
The others arrived soon enough, all clambering onto the ice in heavy boots. Trish said, "you look half frozen, Jess," as she handed over the coat she'd brought for Jessica.
"I'm okay," Jessica insisted, even as she shrugged it on. Trish grabbed her hands the moment she was done, and pulled her farther onto the ice. They nearly fell into a snowdrift, and Trish laughed. It was a surprising, happy sound. Jessica couldn't remember when she'd last heard Trish laugh like that.
Jack and Ianto busied themselves performing half-stumbling skating tricks. As much as they could without actual skates, that is. Jack seemed pretty sure of himself, but Ianto was nowhere near as confident. Ianto did most of the stumbling. Jack took it in stride; even seemed to find it charming. Jessica had to admit that it made a cute picture.
Amy pushed the Doctor forward on the ice, and he fell. Rory tumbled over himself as he laughed.
Luke hovered at the edge of the ice, expression unreadable. Jessica's stomach flipped, and she bid Trish a quick, one second, and headed over to him. He smiled at her, just a little, as she approached him.
"Never learned how to skate?" she asked, hands on her hips. The words felt heavy and uncertain in her mouth, but they came out relatively confident. Breezy, without much of the awkwardness she'd expected.
"I'm from Georgia," he said. It sounded like a confession.
Jessica looked him over, her heart doing an odd skip in her chest, and extended her hands to him. For the first time in what felt like ages, he had trusted her with something. Something small, but it was something. "I'm not an expert," she warned. "I haven't skated in a long time. And you're supposed to actually have skates." She cleared her throat. "So."
The smile twitched, just a bit wider. "It might be easier without them, anyway," he said. "I feel like having to balance on blades is a little more difficult."
Jessica couldn't help but smile herself. "Maybe." He took her hands, and his were warm, despite the cold. Her heart beat strong, loud enough that she could hear it in her ears. She pulled him, slowly, out onto the ice, closer to Trish. They wobbled precariously, but it might have been more related to their collective uncertainty than actual issues with balance.
Jessica would have denied that her breath came a little fast as he crept closer to her, but the truth was that it did. He was close enough to kiss her, now. They hadn't been close like this in days. Not since he'd discovered Kilgrave-or, the Doctor. What she couldn't deny, even to herself, was how relieved she was now.
He moved to hold her in his arms like they were dancing, and a smile forced itself to her lips.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack and Ianto share a quick kiss, before Ianto knocked Jack playfully to the ground. The following curses and laughter floated through the air. On their other side, Trish had joined the Doctor and the Ponds, and was trying to coach him into skating correctly - or, as correctly as he could without actual skates. Amy and Rory watched with twin smirks, which broke into giggles as the Doctor fell again.
Luke pulled her attention back in with a soft murmur. "Can we talk?" he asked. "Later, not right now, just…"
Jessica swallowed her nerves. "Yeah," she whispered back. All of her previous reservations flew out the window. She couldn't say no to Luke, not now. Especially not when he smiled at her - not a forced smile, nothing that promised pain in this future conversation. Warm and hopeful.
"Would it be kind of stupid to say that I missed you?" he asked. He ducked his head a little, in a way that made Jessica's heart twist and her knees go embarrassingly weak. She wondered, for a terrifying moment, how the hell she'd gotten here. With him. "It was only a few days, and I was so pissed. But I did. I was upset, because I thought…"
"You should have been upset," she said. "You, uh. I wouldn't have been surprised if you hated me."
"I don't," he said back, the words coming like a rush. "I really, really don't. Maybe I should."
Jessica swallowed back a lump in her throat. "Maybe."
He met her eyes again, and again that smile returned. "I want to try," he said. "This. Again. I like you, Jessica Jones. Maybe I shouldn't like you, either, but I do. I want to forgive you, despite everything. Maybe that's stupid, but it's the truth."
Her heart pounded. "I like you too. You don't have to forgive me. I don't want you to feel like you have to do that."
He kissed her.
"I want to try," he said again, as they parted.
Jessica was ready to try, too.
AN: Hey everybody! It's good to be back. :)
I know I said at the end of Gray that this story would be posted a month or so later. Obviously, it's been much longer than that. And unfortunately, it's going to be a bit longer until I update again. I've been having an unexpected amount of trouble with a few of the chapters, and I've been writing and rewriting them for several weeks now. Bleh. I've got to get it just right, and it's not turning out like it needs to.
But anyway, I thought I'd give you the first chapter as a taste - this is a little choppy, imo, but all the introductions and exposition needed getting out of the way, and I didn't want to keep you guys waiting more than I had to. It only gets better from here! :)
I have no idea when I'll post chapter 2. I want to say that it'll be before school starts up again in late August, but I have a sneaking suspicion that my to-do list is going to turn out to be both longer and more complicated than I expect right now. As enjoyable as this story has been to write, it has also been an Adventure. And will probably continue to be.
So let me know what you think! And I hope you've all been having a great summer so far :)