Chapter 4
All three of them entered Matt's apartment, the door already unlocked. Matt came around the corner dressed in a grey shirt and black sweatpants, holding his first aide kit. Jessica stumbled towards the couch, falling back into it as she sighed in relief before groaning at the hard impact jostling her body. He ripped open a package containing an antiseptic wipe and began carefully cleaning out the cut on Jessica's forehead. She hissed, but made no other form of complaint.
Claire entered the apartment shortly after, medical bag in hand. She set it down next to the couch. Jessica had her eyes closed, but Claire could tell she was still conscious by the shallow but hard breaths the injured woman was taking. She was focusing on controlling the pain. Claire slipped on her latex gloves. "Jess?" she asked, alerting her patient to her presence, even though she was pretty sure Jessica already knew she was there. Still, it was best not to surprise a woman with super strength who also had PTSD.
Matt moved out of Claire's way, throwing the now soiled antiseptic wipe away. She quickly got to work, attending to each injury. "What happened? I saw the explosion on the news."
"Bomb in my apartment," Jessica summed up softly.
"We're not sure as to who or why yet," Danny finished.
Claire prepared the suture, pressing the needle through one side of Jessica's head wound. "Was anyone else caught in the blast?"
"We got everyone out who was left alive in the building," Matt said, giving Jessica a knowing look. Malcolm was still missing. "There were casualties. Not sure how many."
"Call Malcolm," she muttered weakly. "Number's in my phone." She shifted slightly, reaching for her phone in her jeans. She patted her pocket, frowning when she didn't feel it. "Shit."
"Don't crease your forehead while I'm stitching you up," Claire admonished.
"Trish has his number." She paused for a moment, realization dawning on her. "Fuck. Trish. Call her. She'll be freaking out if she saw the news." Her sister had most likely tried calling her after seeing Jessica's building blow up and had gotten no response. Jessica knew she'd be panicking if their roles were reversed.
"I've got her number," Luke said, pulling out his phone.
Jessica had to try really hard not to furrow her brow as to why Luke had her sister's number.
"What about your ribs?" Claire asked as she finished the stitches, noticing how careful Jessica was being when she had reached for her nonexistent phone earlier.
"Either fractured or broken," Jessica replied.
"Fractured," Matt said.
"Weirdo."
Matt smirked at Jessica's familiar remark. "There's also something wrong near her shoulder blade. I don't recognize the exact sound, but it's like a scraping noise, as if something is stuck in there."
"She's okay Trish," Luke could be heard saying. "Her phone was lost in the explosion. She told me to call you knowing you'd be worried...No, we haven't heard from him. That's the other reason I'm calling. Do you have Malcolm's number? Jess is trying to get a hold of him...I don't know...We're at Matt Murdock's place, Claire is treating her...She'll be alright. Thanks Trish."
Jessica's eyes suddenly rolled up in her head, her head lolling to the side. "Whoa, Jess? Jessica! I need you to stay awake." Claire tapped the side of her face gently, noticing the stark contrast between her fingers and Jessica's paler-than-usual cheek.
Jessica's eyes fluttered open. "Mmm-hmm." All of her limbs felt so heavy, even her eyelids seemed weighed down.
"She was doing this in the car too," Matt supplied.
"What's going on?" Danny asked concerned.
"What's her blood pressure?" Claire asked Matt, knowing he could take it a lot quicker than her machine could.
He listened closely, his facial features giving him away. "About 82/56, but her heart rate has sped up."
"What's her blood pressure supposed to be?" Danny asked, not liking the looks on his friends' faces.
"120/80. Increased heart rate but she still has low blood pressure? Has she been dizzy? Light headed? Slurring words? Losing consciousness? Stumbling?"
"All of it," Matt replied.
"How long has she had these symptoms?"
"It's been off and on since she got hit in the head with a support beam and was knocked out. It's gotten worse since her adrenaline wore off in the car. I assumed her symptoms were due to a concussion but with the hypotension and increased heart rate..."
Claire pushed the hem of Jessica's shirt up but was met with resistance, her patient's breathing suddenly rapid and shallow. Luke shook his head at her, knowing Jessica's history with Kilgrave. Jessica's eyes were cloudy, like she wasn't completely aware of her surroundings anymore. That coupled with her sexual assault history made for dangerous consequences inside her mind. Claire removed her hands at her boyfriend's insistence. Out of everyone gathered in this room, he knew Jessica best.
Luke knelt down next to her. "Jess, you're safe. You're with friends. Claire just needs to check your abdomen. It's only Claire."
Jessica nodded, squinting her eyes shut against the sudden dizziness that threatened to overwhelm her from the motion. Her hand slid along the couch, searching for Luke's. He met her halfway. She gripped tightly, using him to ground herself. "I'm right here," he reassured her.
Luke gestured to Claire to continue. She leaned forward, moving slower this time so as not to startle her. Startling Jessica was normally a bad idea, but in her current state of mind, it could prove to be a deadly mistake. Jessica tensed up, but didn't move away. Her hand tightened against Luke's. His thumb rubbed over the back of her hand soothingly.
Claire lifted Jessica's shirt up, seeing the problem immediately. "Damn it." Purple and blue covered Jessica's left side. She pressed two fingers repeatedly in different areas of the bruising, feeling the abnormal rigid tightness of Jessica's side. "She's bleeding internally. She's going into shock."
"How do we fix it?" Matt asked urgently. Her vitals were continuing to worsen. The sound of it was getting to him. He wasn't going to stand by and listen as her body shut down and she died. She was calling him names only moments ago, how had things gotten so drastic so fast?
"We don't. She needs surgery, she needs a hospital. This isn't something I can just patch up on your couch. And it's not something she'll be able to heal from, at least not in time."
Luke looked back to Jessica, all of his feelings for her resurfacing. He may be with Claire now, but that didn't mean that he had stopped caring about Jessica. In a way, he would always love her. Her eyes had slid closed again. "Jess? Jess!" He shook her, but she wasn't waking up this time. "Whatever we need to do, we better do it fast!"
"I'll do it," Danny stepped forward, his face firm and confident in his decision.
Claire turned to him, "Danny, I can't ask you to do that."
"You're not asking, I'm offering."
Luke and Matt were trying to figure out what the other two were talking about. What was Danny offering to do? Drive them to the hospital? But then why would Claire refuse that when it was the exact thing she said they needed to do?
"We're not even sure if you can! Last time it was just poison. This is much bigger." He had been able to burn away Colleen's poison, but they were talking about mending someone's organs.
"I might not be able to," he admitted, "but I'm sure as hell going to try." This was his team, these were his friends. Like Gao said, maybe he had finally found his family. And he wasn't about to lose anyone from it. It was hard enough when they had thought they lost Matt in the building collapse. He wasn't going to go through that again.
"Okay," she relented. Jessica needed help now, and this was their best bet. There was no guarantee the surgery would be successful nor was there a guarantee they would make it to the hospital in time. "But only what's causing the bleeding. The rest will heal at a faster rate anyways."
"Life threatening injuries only, got it." Claire got up, allowing Danny room. He knelt down, taking a deep breath, holding his fist in front of him. He focused on drawing his chi into his hand. Slowly, it began to glow.
"Danny, what-" Luke started to ask but was quickly shushed by Claire. She knew Luke was confused as to what Danny was doing; to him, it probably looked like he was getting ready to punch Jessica. That's all Luke had ever seen the Iron Fist used for. But Danny needed to concentrate right now. There would be time for explanations later.
Danny stretched out his fingers, placing his hand directly above the discoloration on Jessica's stomach. He closed his eyes, reaching out to find Jessica's chi. He locked onto it, pushing even further to focus on her injuries. There was so many that needed attention, but he needed to heal whatever had ruptured inside of her first. Images of muscle tissue, pulsing veins, a struggling heart, and barely expanding lungs flashed behind his eyelids. Finally he pinpointed the cause of the bleeding, honing in on it. He pushed his chi into Jessica's body, the golden tendrils working their way to the source of the problem. They linked together, reconnecting tissue and rebuilding the wall of her damaged liver by regenerating cells.
Jessica groaned, squirming uncomfortably on the couch as she instinctively tried to escape the agony. Danny's face held a grimace full of pain and concentration, sweat beading on his face. Matt's jaw dropped slightly, listening as Danny's chi forced Jessica's body to heal faster than it ever had before. Luke's eyes grew wide, unsure of what he was witnessing.
"Please let this work," Claire whispered.
Danny pushed harder, repairing broken blood vessels. His chi sought out the leaked blood and bile, burning it away as it sizzled inside her. Jessica writhed, her back arching off the couch at the fire searing through her abdomen.
Claire put a hand on Luke's arm when he took a step forward, "I promise you, he's helping her."
"Doesn't look like it," Luke countered. Logically, he knew Danny would never do anything to hurt them. Well, besides that one time they sidelined him and he tried to fight his way out. But that was before they really knew each other, before they were a real team, a family of sorts. This was different, this was life and death.
Matt cocked his head to the side, listening in amazement. "No, he is. He's...healing her."
Luke glanced at Matt before returning his gaze to Jessica, her back falling into the cushions.
With her most serious injury taken care of, Danny branched out his chi even further. Jessica sustained so many, if he could heal just a few of them…
"He's not stopping," Matt announced.
Danny gritted his teeth, his body begging him to stop, but he couldn't. Just a little bit more…
"Damn it," Claire muttered. She gently grabbed Danny's shoulder, "Danny, you did it. You've got to stop or else you'll be the one needing a hospital." He only grunted in response. In his mind, that would not be a good enough reason to stop. Claire sighed, Colleen would kill her if Danny went too far. Claire kneeled down to him. "She's going to be okay," she said softly, "you need to let go."
Danny severed the connection he had with Jessica, pulling away abruptly while gasping.
Matt rushed back to Jessica's side. "Jessica?" He brushed the hair away from her face, fingers making contact with the cold sweat clinging to her skin. He received no response.
Danny leaned his back against the armchair, taking deep breaths. Claire kept her hand on him while Luke crouched down on his other side. Claire tilted her head downward to meet Danny's eyes, "you okay?"
He nodded, "just exhausted."
"Good," Claire smacked him, "next time don't be a dumbass!"
Danny chuckled. His gaze landing on Jessica's still prone form. "Is she okay?"
Matt smiled, relief evident in his voice, "her vitals are stablizing."
Claire rechecked Jessica's abdomen. The bruising was gone. She let out a deep breath, leaning back next to Danny. "It worked."
Luke's gaze shifted from Jessica back to Danny, "would someone care to tell me what the hell just happened?"