Chapter Forty-Eight: Fresh Air

Day Eighty:

Jessica was up before Kilgrave today, which sent him into a bit of a panic. After being abruptly banished to the sofa last night, his plan was to be up before her so he could suck-up as much as possible and regain his position in bed with her.

Finding that she was already sitting behind the desk with her computer, he quickly stands up, straightening the few clothes he had on. When he clears his throat, she glances up at him.

He's the first to speak, "Good morning."

Instead of responding, she continues to stare at her screen, deciding not to acknowledge him.

Semi-silent treatment.

He sighs and rubs his eyes before dismissing himself to the bathroom. Upon returning from having a shower, he immediately goes to the kitchen. Coffee first, then breakfast. Most of the food they had was dry and came out of boxes, but they had a few packages of frozen breakfast sandwiches in the freezer, so he pops one in the microwave. Once it's done, he takes it out and puts it on a plate, bringing the coffee with him. Setting it down in front of Jessica, he doesn't say anything and just looks at her, somewhat hopefully.

Even though she rolls her eyes, she ends up smirking a little at how he was clearly trying to get on her good side after his obnoxious behavior the night before. "Thanks," She says, nodding at the chair next to her, non-verbally giving him permission to sit down.

Smiling instantly, he takes a seat and looks over her shoulder at the computer.

Sipping her coffee, she thinks out loud, figuring she might as well since he was here. "I don't think Liam ran away."

"What makes you say that?" Peering at the screen, he sees she was reading a BBC News report titled, 'Why More and More Kids Have Been Running Away'.

The article basically explained how this generation of children feel more entitled to freedom. It also went into detail about how parents were raising their kids incorrectly. Pretty much all of the information presented was backed up by some kind of data or study which proved the article to be credible.

"Something's not right." It was more intuition than fact. Having been up for awhile, she stands, ready to go out. "I'm going out to the Murphy's house again today, after I visit Victor."

"Can I come?" He asks quietly, watching her put on her jacket and grab her bag.

For a moment, she considers saying yes, but ends up shaking her head. "Not after the way you treated Victor last time."

Groaning, he lays back in his chair. "Last time I had a rough day! And I was just messing around with him."

"No, you were being an asshole, as usual. Your presence will only freak him out. I don't trust you around him."

"Please?" He begs, knowing how insanely bored he would be if he was left here alone. "I'll be on my best behavior!"

Compromising a little, she concludes, "I might come back and get you before I go to the Murphy's. But you can't see Victor."

That was fair enough, but it doesn't stop him from pouting once she's gone.

*****FRESH AIR*****

The first thing Victor does when he sees Jessica is check to make sure Kilgrave wasn't with her. Then, and only then, does he pull her into a hug.

When he sits her down so that he could work on her stitches, they chat about the less shitty things in life. He seemed excited to tell her about how he was going to be an independent doctor at the hospital next year. By the sound of it, this was the first time he was telling the good news to someone. It only occurred to her then that there was a good chance that she was his only friend.

Therefore, she stays with him even after he fixes her stitches. Ask the right questions and Victor loved to talk. It was refreshing to talk about normal things. She wasn't sure how much time had passed since she got there, but she didn't care either.

The conversation took a turn, however, when the subject was on her life instead of his.

"I don't know. I'm trying to teach him…" Jessica scratches her head, wishing she didn't have to talk about this. But a good part of her felt that Victor deserved to know what they were doing together. "His powers are incredible. And while he's done nothing but use them recklessly and selfishly in the past, I believe he can use them to help people…"

The whole idea of her voluntarily being around Kilgrave made him uncomfortable, but he agreed with her on that point. "H-how has h-he helped people s-so f-far?"

"Um, we've stopped a few abusers… and he can heal people, so that's extremely useful. Just by using his words, it takes absolutely no effort. If I could get him to want to change…" She trails off, unsure where that sentence was going.

He nods quietly, multitasking as he shuffles through some notes. It was entirely stochastic and somewhat uncalled for when he asks, "D-did you h-have s-sex with h-him again?"

Jessica's eyes widen. Victor being Victor, he doesn't seem to notice how that question could be deemed inappropriate to ask, so he goes about his business. Hesitantly, she starts, "No." But her answer quickly changes. "Yes… not really. Kind of…" She tries to whimper, burying her face in her hands. Oral sex was technically still sex.

Flipping through a book, he nods again, unphased by this answer. "I-I don't b-blame you."

"What?" She puts her hands down and looks up at him, but their eyes don't meet.

He shrugs, jotting something down. "S-sex is o-one of the c-core d-drives for existence-ce. U-usually, i-it's a subconscious a-attempt t-to reproduce. A-and w-with the c-cure in you s-system, i-it makes that d-drive have a-a more d-dominant position in y-you brain. T-the longer y-you i-ignore human i-instinct, t-the more agitated y-you're likely t-to become. O-other effects of n-not gaining s-sexual release u-under t-these circumstances w-will probably i-include headaches, l-lack of concentration-on, h-higher blood p-pressure, a-and higher ch-chances of s-sickness a-and depression." When he stops talking and actually looks up, he finally notices the look on her face. "A-are you o-okay?"

"Uh…" Having that information thrown at her was like a slap in the face. Sure, she knew not having sex with anyone would be annoying, but other significant health issues?! Seriously?

Victor was like a walking encyclopedia and basically whatever he said was fact. That only made this news worse.

Instead of answering whether or not she was okay, she asks, "So, you think I should have sex with him?"

This makes him smile. "N-no, n-no. N-not with h-him. B-but I-I don't blame y-you because I-I see how i-it's convenient since y-you're living t-together."

"Oh…" Furrowing her eyebrows, she ignored all other thoughts at the moment and manages to ask something that she's wondered about for awhile. "Victor, do you think about sex?"

Blinking, he puts down his pen, having no problem answering that. "Y-yes. S-sometimes. B-but I-I don't like pornography-y because it's n-not the same as r-real s-sex."

She tries not to make her surprise too obvious. "You've had… you're not a virgin?" Happy that the conversation was back off of her, she leans forward with peaked interest.

"N-no." His response is immediate as he pushes his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Can I hear this story?" She asks, biting back a smile.

"W-what story?"

"About how you lost your virginity."

When she laughs a little, he laughs with her. "O-okay…"

Yes, spending time with Victor was truly a breath of fresh air.

*****FRESH AIR*****

When Jessica enters the apartment, Kilgrave was hanging up the phone.

"Okay, thank you for telling me. - Bye." Sliding his mobile back in his pocket, he looks up to see her coming through the door.

She raises her eyebrow. "Who was that?"

"That was Greg." He states vacantly, as something about the conversation was puzzling to him. "He called to tell us that Liam came back…"

"What?!"

He just shrugs, as confused as her. "I don't know. He said that he got home from work and Liam was in his room like he never left. Apparently, Liam said he did run away, so -"

Shaking her head, she cuts him off, needing to get the facts on her own. "Are they both still at home?"

"I think so… but I -"

Keeping her bag on, she grabs him by the wrist and pulls him out the door. "We need to have a word with them."

After taking a cab to get to their address, Jessica bangs on the door obnoxiously to get a quicker response.

Once Greg opens the door to them, it was clear that he was almost a completely different person with his son returned. The way he held himself was no longer shy, but more like he was superior to everyone else around him.

He scowls at them, keeping the door mostly closed. "I already told you. You're not getting paid since -"

Too irritable to have time for this, Jessica interrupts while Kilgrave stands by. "We need to talk to Liam."

Being cut off, he sounds offended in his response. "Absolutely not. He's with his mother right now and I don't think it's a good idea for you to -"

Losing all patience for this man, she shoves the door open wider, knocking him backwards. "Come on." She says to Kilgrave, knowing he would follow her inside.

Stumbling to catch his balance, Greg tries to get them out. "Oi! You can't just come in here like that!"

He shouts a few other things before Kilgrave makes the decision to make this a much easier interaction. "You're fine with us talking to your son."

"Yes, of course." Greg's attitude changes instantly. "He's right this way." Rushing to get in front of them, he leads them to Liam's room.

Jessica glares at her partner at first, but in this instance, she actually appreciated him stepping in, so she smiles slightly. Opening the bedroom door, Jessica whispers, "Hemlock…" and nods at the mother in the room.

She was sitting across from her son, lecturing him about how worried she had been about him while he was gone, in a fury of emotions. Confusion was added as she sees two people she didn't recognize in her son's room.

Knowing what was being asked of him, Kilgrave smiles before there can be an altercation and commands the woman, "Leave us."

Liam was quietly sitting on the bed, looking up at the two strangers. When his mom and dad are gone, Jessica closes the door behind them. The boy doesn't seem concerned or startled by their presence at all. In fact, he just sits, staring back at them blankly with an absent look in his eyes. He doesn't even open his mouth or ask who they are.

Jessica takes a seat where his mother was sitting and Kilgrave stands beside her. Curious to see if Liam would do anything, she stares back at him in complete silence, observing his behavior. Kilgrave seems to be the only one in the room who was uncomfortable with the silent staring contest happening, that went on for at least a few minutes.

It was impossible to tell if he was always a peculiar kid like this or if this type of nothingness was strange for him. It surely felt strange though. When she determines that he wasn't going to speak first, she mutters to Kilgrave, "Make him tell the truth."

"Answer all of our questions honestly." Kilgrave orders him, glad the silence was over.

Ready to start questioning, she asks the kid, "Do you know who we are?"

Finally shifting, Liam turns his head and looks between the two of them. "No." He states, not bothering to ask.

Next, she inquires, "Did you run away?"

"Yes." He answers, never breaking eye contact.

The answer makes Jessica pause to think. "Why did you run away?"

There's hesitation. "I don't know."

Knowing that she was getting the truth from him, she gives Kilgrave a sideways glance to show her suspicion. He folds his arms over his chest, thinking about how weird this was, just like her. "Where did you go?"

More hesitation. "I don't know."

"What did you eat?"

"I don't know."

"Where did you sleep?"

"I don't know."

"Was it cold outside when you left?"

"I don't know."

"Why don't you know?"

"I don't know."

As a test question to see what he would answer with 'I don't know', she asks, "What did you learn about in English last week?"

"We started a unit on poetry. I learned that haiku's are made up of seventeen syllables. The first line has five. The second line has seven. The last line has five. We also talked about …-"

He goes on to explain more, but Jessica wasn't interested. Something was definitely wrong.

"Is there anything that you do know about the past five days?!" She asks as a final question.

"... I ran away." He states in a whispery tone, not elaborating on anything else.

Standing up, Jessica says nothing else and dismisses herself, taking Kilgrave out by the hand. The parents were standing in the living room having a heated conversation amongst themselves.

When they all stop and look at each other, Jessica gently squeezes Kilgrave's hand, telling him by touch what she wanted him to do.

"Answer us honestly." He says to the Murphy's, grinning since he was actually being of use.

Getting the green light, Jessica looks at Greg when she talks and not so much the wife. "How does Liam normally act"

"He's an energetic kid." Greg responds automatically. "I usually have to tell him to settle down because he doesn't sit still very often. But he's the brightest kid in his class. More than -"

Having no care about his grades, she cuts in. "So you would say that his behavior right now is abnormal?"

"Very."

That was pretty much all she needed to hear, making her and Kilgrave leave just as suddenly as they came.

The gears in her head were clearly turning as they walk out to the sidewalk together. "What are you thinking?" Kilgrave asks her, taking long strides to keep up.

The possibilities of what happened to Liam in the past few days were limited. If he really didn't run away as Jessica suspected, then something would have to make him think that he did, causing his truth to differ from reality. A head injury? A drug? Brainwashing?

Instead of saying any of this to him, she sighs, "I need a drink." There was no real point in stressing over this one kid if they weren't on the case anymore anyway.

There was a pub a few blocks away, but she heads for the liquor store across the street, not caring if what she got was cheap

Inside, she grabs a large bottle of whiskey and makes for the counter. Kilgrave loitered behind her, knowing there was nothing he could do about how much she drank. Upon reaching the counter, Jessica freezes.

Of course, right next to the register was a case of condoms. If her mind wasn't racing before, it was now.

Everything that Victor said before was echoing in her head. '...a subconscious a-attempt t-to reproduce…' But Jessica sure as hell wasn't trying to reproduce. Children were not on her agenda. And especially not with Kilgrave. Pregnancy was not an option. But then again, last time she lost control, she fucked him raw. No protection…

She couldn't let that happen again.

It was just a few nights ago that he was down on his knees in front of her. And she let him… When would she slip up again? Tonight? Tomorrow? Next week? It was only a matter of time, right? Meaning, better safe than sorry, she should get condoms…

The problem was, that by getting them, she would be acknowledging the possibility of it happening again.

She was walking on a tightrope. Every time she falls off would be every time she engages him sexually. Condoms were her safety net. With the net there, she wouldn't need to try as hard, because she knows that if she falls, there would be lesser consequences. But take the net away, and she wouldn't have a choice but to make it without falling. That leaves her with the question, how much does she trust her own balance?

In this analogy, Kilgrave would be the asshole shaking the rope while she was on it. Net or no net, he wanted her to fall. Then there was everything else that Victor said. High blood pressure, depression, mad cow disease and whatever else the fuck he listed. Taking account all of these odds, failure to stay on the rope seemed almost inevitable.

Kilgrave was looking around absently at the things behind her, so she's forced to make her decision quickly.

The moment they exit the store together, she opens the alcohol, leaving it in the brown paper bag to take a long gulp from. Before he can ask what they were going to do now, she says, "Come on. I wanna go somewhere."

Normally to get there on her own, it would take a minute of jumping, but since they were together, they take a cab. They arrive at a fairly rundown building that was an old movie theater with an outside ticket booth and the movable headline letters.

There were chains on the door and a note that explained how this building was due to come down in a few months and was out of service. Jessica easily breaks open the locks and holds the door open to Kilgrave. He doesn't ask any questions and blindly follows her inside. She leads him to the stairwell and up a few flights to the roof, where she shoves open the door.

On the roof, there were boxes of old discarded things that couldn't be bothered to go out in the trash, and on the far side, there was one old theater chair, that Jessica had torn out and brought up last month.

"Sit." She mutters to Kilgrave, putting down the paper bag. "I'll go get another chair." Running back down the stairs, she rips up one of the closest seats with ease and carries it up the steps, setting it down next to him. Grabbing the bottle off the ground, she sits with a sigh.

He had carefully sat down in the first chair and was looking at her with a soft expression. "What are we doing up here?"

She grips the glass bottle and takes another swig before she answers. "Sometimes, I come up here just to relax… breathe in the fresh air." Shrugging, she explains a little more. "It reminds me of the building that Trish and I used to meet on in New York."

"It's nice…" His voice is hushed as he continues to look at her.

After a moment, she offers him a drink, to which he raises his eyebrow. He doesn't say anything and ends up nodding as he takes it from her.

They take turns drinking from the bottle until it's nearly empty, Kilgrave being far more drunk than her. Drinking to this point of intoxication was extremely rare, as alcohol was just a pleasantry to go with dinner for him. But something about today made it seem appropriate to take a gulp every time the liquor was offered up.

They stay silent for the most part, watching as the sun goes down and the stars come out.

When they get down to the last sip, he turns to face her abruptly, his eyes locking with hers. "Jessica…" He says her name and then hesitates before muttering, "I really, really love you." Before she can even say anything in response, he starts to pout at her.

Knowing that this was a result of too much alcohol, she just rolls her eyes. "Okay."

"No, I mean it." He whines, starting to paw at her jacket. "I really do…" Trailing off, he shrugs, sighs, and then lays his head down on her shoulder.

"Yeah, no." She pushes him back upright to get him off her.

"Jessica ~" Purring, he falls back against her shoulder. "Love me…" He mumbles sheepishly, leaving his head where it was comfortable.

Thankfully, no longer being under his control, she didn't have to take that as a command. "Kilgrave." She growls, shoving him back into his own seat again.

Despite how many times she pushes him away, he always ends up tipping back to her, landing his head on her shoulder. The process repeats for multiple minutes until she finally gives up. He probably wouldn't remember any of this tomorrow anyway.

When his persistence wins, he continues to purr, a soft smile on his lips.

Finishing the last drops, she tosses the glass across the roof onto the ground where it shatters. Kilgrave doesn't seem to notice, because when she looks down at him, his eyes were closed.

"Fuck." Jessica groans to herself, realizing that she would most likely have to carry him home.

More time passes and he mumbles something, his head slowly sliding down her chest to land in her lap, laying down entirely.

"Asshole…" She grumbles, shaking her head. Rather than forcing him up again, she turns her head to the sky, letting out a quiet breath.

Before her eyes close, she picks up the brown bag from the store and slides the pack of condoms into her back pocket, her hand naturally falling to rest in his hair.


Author's note:

The tightrope walker decided to get the safety net, eh? Smart? We shall see... Either way, drunk Kilgrave is kinda cute!

So glad that more and more readers are joining us on our little adventure here. I'm flattered! Keep up the reviews and I'll keep on writing! :)