Chapter Four: Smiles

Relief washed over his face the moment she answered. Relief that there was an answer. Relief that she didn't say "Nothing" to leave him trapped in a completely loveless relationship.

However, what she wanted would be more than difficult to achieve, washing over his relief with frustration. "Don't use my powers?! Jessica…" When he laughs, it's forceful and weighed down by angst. He proceeds to slide his hand down his face and shake his head. "Jessica, Jessica, Jessica… what do you expect me to do?! If my power wasn't keeping you here, how could I stop you from leaving? How could I stop you from killing me?!"

The questions were rhetorical, but she was still forced to answer honestly. This time there was no hesitation. "You couldn't."

Her response made him clench his jaw with irritation but it didn't anger him. She was right after all. "Exactly." He shifts in his chair uncomfortably, and loosens his tie. "So tell me this. If you were me, what would you do in this situation?"

"If I was you?" She blinks twice, furrowing her eyebrows. "I would forget about you."

"What?!"

"I would forget about you." She repeats in a monotone voice. "Move on. Get over it." Shrugging, she stares him dead in the eye to show her lack of fear. "The love you speak of is weak and replaceable. You never loved me, you just love the challenge. The game. It was all just a game to you. Being tested, being pushed. You loved that fact that I didn't act like all your other mindless bitches. You loved that I made you want it." Now, she was snarling at him, baring her teeth and clenching her fists. If she hadn't been told to stay seated, she would have been up in his face. "Get. The fuck. Over it.

Why don't you stop bullshitting yourself and admit that you want to keep your power more than you want me to love you! Because you sure as hell can't have both. You love your power! Always have, always will. You don't love me. The fact that you even think you do proves how fucked up and psychopathic you are! Is this what love is to you? Huh?!" She motions around the room and then points from him to her. Her eyes full of desperation and anger in one, as if she was trying to get him to understand. "Look around you! Who told you that love was holding people hostage?! Making them prisoners? Slaves?! Wake the fuck up Kevin! You want me, because I was the only one that walked away from you, and left you longing for more."

Taking a deep breath, she gathers herself, before adding with a smirk, just for kick, "Oops, sorry. I wasn't the only one, was I? Your parents were the first."

Through this entire rant, he had sat and waited patiently for her to finish. Of course, he disagreed with nearly every word that came out of her mouth, but he was respectable enough to let her finish, knowing eventually she would run out of steam. She had been tip-toeing around it, and using the name Kevin was aggravating, but not interruption worthy. And yet at the mention of his parents, she had crossed the line. It was a sore subject for him in multiple ways and she knew that.

"Stop. Talking." He growls, and stands up, stepping closer to her until she has to look up to look him in the eye. "You have no idea what I have gone through to get here. To get you back." his voice is threateningly quiet. "I went through torture, Jessica. More torture than I had ever endure when I was experimented on as a child. Do you have any idea what it feels like to be injected with anatomy changing chemicals in your spinal cord? Here." He reaches behind her and presses his index finger against the base of the back of her neck, where multiple injection scars were on his body. "Or here," He moves his hand up a few more inches to the soft spot on the back of her skull.

The slightest touch of his fingers on her skin gave her goosebumps and an unwanted chill down her spine. He was too close for comfort. With his arm over her shoulder, he stood directly in front of her, and the familiar aroma of lavender cologne filled her lungs. Such a lovely smell to some, but it was putrid to her because of the memories attached to it. The way her body had reeked of the same scent after the endless nights they spent together in bed. It made her dry heave silently as he continues talking.

When he pulls her hand away, she lets out a breath that she didn't realize she'd been holding in.

"Do you know what that felt like?! I did it for you. To get you back! If you can't call that love, then I think you're the one with the off definition." He takes a step back to get a better look at her. "Jessica… my Jessica." Softly, he brushes the back of his hand against her cheek, causing her to flinch away, so he grabs her chin instead and tilts her head up to look at him. "The only way to get you here was to use my power." His tone had gotten considerably softer now, the intimate space allowing him to have a bit more sympathy for her.

He could she just by the look in her eyes that she was itching to say something in response, and graciously, he gives her another chance. "You can speak. Choose your words wisely…"

Pulling her chin away from him, she smiles as sweetly and innocently as possible, batting her eyelashes as she says, "Well you know… you could have just asked me nicely. I'm sure I would have loved to come with you willingly."

It was shocking to him that in a time like this, she could still retain such a sarcastic and dark sense of humor.

He laughs condescendingly, before sighing and shaking his head at her. "Using humor to mask your pain. That is so you, Jessica Jones." First, her looks out the small window across the room, and then up at the clock behind her. "I'm going to leave now." Just by the look on his face, she could tell he had something uncomfortable planned for her and maybe pissing him off wasn't the best idea.

"And while I'm gone," he goes on, "you're going to smile, look pretty, and sit completely still." The fear could now be seen in her eyes as he crouches down in front of her, talking softly, as if to a child who was getting a timeout. "And when the muscles in your face begin to ache, and burn, you're going to think about what you said wrong, that made this conversation so much more unpleasant than it had to be." Flashing her one last smile, he stands up, presses a quick kiss to her lips, and walks out.

The moment he's out of her sight, she smiles with her teeth showing, and stays completely still, sitting in the chair like a life-sized doll. The taste of him still lingering on her lips.

Author's note:

Thanks for the continual support! I had writers block for like a month but now the chapters are coming faster than ever!