Author's note One: This is my first fanfic in a long time, so I am still working the kinks out. Hopefully, someone out there will like it. ; )
Author's note Two: I do not own the rights to anything Marvel. I do, however, have some free time, a love of comics, and a computer. So here we go...
Summary: This takes place around New Avengers #63, after Luke and Jessica talk about him leaving to fight in the Siege of Asgard. If you haven't read any of that, there may be spoilers.
The Hero or the Stay at Home Mom?
A Jessica Jones-Cage One-shot
The hotel room was silent, sans the sound of her child's breath as she drifted off to sleep. Outside, the early evening soft glow was turning into dusk, leaving her alittle empty inside. Around her, the pale yellow walls seemed small than they where, the room less than adequate. Everything that surrounded her was a reminder of how much of a mess her life had become. From Doctor Strange's magical floating-book house up until these hotel rooms, nothing has felt like home. She almost gagged outloud when she realized how right her mother had been, this was no life for her daughter. She deserved the world, yet she was doing nothing to supply that for her. How could she call herself a mother, when simple things like a walk to the store, or just being outside in general was all but off-limits? What happens if this siege ends in disaster, would they still be forced underground like this? Or worse, what if Luke never came back...
She couldn't think that way, but it was a reoccuring thought that haunted her dreams. At night she awoke drenched in sweat, making sure the love of her life was still laying next to her. She nearly lost him once, she didn't know what she would do if it he was really gone. Even now, while the war was raging in Broxton, she couldn't bring herself to even turn on the news. She was alone, almost hopeless. The stress of spending her days worrying, the long nights spent staring at her family, wondering if she was going to lose them to the menace that was Osborn...it was wearing her out. She lacked an appetite, eating only to keep up the strength she needed to deal with a growing child. Dark circles were begining to form under her deep brown eyes, so now it was getting harder for her to hide how she was actually doing inside.
Jessica thought back to the conversation she had with her husband right before he left and she began to wonder if it was only the fate of her husband that bothered her. Only a short time ago, she had nearly lost her husband to a heartattack and/or Osborn's little ticker-bomb. When the fight hit so close to home, she broke the promise she made to herself about giving up the life of the hero, especially now that Danielle was here. But Luke was everything to her, the man she thought she'd never have in her life. The only man that ever known the real her, the only man she ever truly loved. He knew her when she was a screw-up, when she was a mess. He picked her up when she was at her worse and put her back on solid ground. But most of all, he gave her the greatest gift of all...the chance to be a mother. There was no way she was going to lose him without a fight. And when the same thing fell upon Bobbi, she doned the ol' Jewel number and took the fight right to Osborn's door; payback for nearly killing her daughter while she was still in the womb, payback for what she was forced back into, payback for everything wrong with the world at that moment. It shocked everyone, including herself, when she joined the fray, returning to her 'glory' days as a costumed hero.
Hero...
It was a word she never really thought she could classify herself as. Her career as Jewel was so short-lived, her time as Knightress...even shorter. Sure, she had taken out Scorpion without even trying (then again, that's not a big feat!) and even teamed up with her best friend, Ms. Marvel a few times, but she never really saw herself as a real hero, nobody special. She always hung in the background, helping where needed, but never making a true difference. Even if what happened with The Purple Man never happened, she probably still would have given up. The life of a hero was never for her, yet she always found herself drawn back into that life. And to tell the truth, it didn't feel wrong.
But there is more at stake now. After all she went through in those eight months had taught her how to survive, even if that lesson took years to learn. Now she had a daughter to raise, her responsibilities as a mother trump anything and everything. If they didn't, she'd be on the frontlines next to her husband, throwing guys like The Hood and Stiltman around like ragdolls. (Wait, he's dead. Whoops.) The last time she abandoned her daughter to rush into a huge battle, she nearly lost her to the Skrull invasion. That episode would never be far from her mind everytime she saw a battle she should be in, everytime the world is under attack. As selfish as it may seem to some, her daughter came first no matter the situation. She couldn't go through what she did in the hours that past after the dust settled on the invasion...she still couldn't think of Jarvis without shuttering. Still, even with all the bad that come or could still come from doning the costume again, it was something she was pondering.
Maybe for once, Spider-Man was right. Why tell Danielle all about her days as a hero, when she can show her daughter what her mother truly is...
A hero.