Chapter Nineteen: Bedtime
Day 25:
Today, Jessica had merely instructed Kilgrave to call her if anything strange happened, rather than actually being there with him. She had a limited amount of time to work on the details of a case with Malcolm before they had a meeting with their client. Though Kilgrave wasn't nearly as busy as Jessica was today, he still had a job of his own and a deadline attached to it.
Standing in the apartment of the woman he was sent for, Kilgrave sighs as he pulls out his phone. As he puts it to his ear, he glances at the couple sitting on the sofa in front of him. They are both in their early to mid-thirties and appear to be happy enough, though neither of them really had anything going for them.
When Jessica answers, she sounds eager. "Well?"
Kilgrave shrugs out of habit. "She's not a mutant, she's never heard of Zayden and she's only vaguely familiar with ODMA."
The couple had been instructed to sit down and stay silent, but even upon hearing this, the woman fidgets nervously.
"Jesus fucking…" Jessica trails off, continuing to curse as the phone briefly moves from her mouth. The lack of connection between the people Kilgrave was being used to retrieve and the organization was evidently frustrating. When her voice is clear again, she asks, "And what about her job?"
He sighs again. "I don't know, she doesn't have one."
"You don't know, or she doesn't have one? Which is it?" Jessica groans, regretting the decision to let him go alone. Instead of waiting for what would be a snappy answer from him, she simply demands, "Have her repeat it to me."
Kilgrave's eyes roll, but he doesn't hesitate to do as she says. Taking the phone away from his ear, he holds it out in front of the woman. "Repeat what you told me about your job."
The woman sits up a little straighter and leans closer to the phone automatically. "I'm a writer." She starts, her unplaceable accent giving a certain nasally tone to her voice. "So I'm currently working on getting my first book published. I haven't quite gotten through the editing stages, which my boyfriend is helping with," she motions to the man next to her, "and I'm trying to find the right publisher for my style of writing which is -"
"Skip to the point." Kilgrave cuts her off with a bit of a growl, growing tired of her rambling.
Jumping to the end as she was told, she mutters, "I'm looking for a full-time job right now, so I can support myself until my book comes out…"
Putting the phone back to his ear, he asks, "Did you get that?"
"Yeah." Jessica huffs out a breath. "I guess that's it."
"I guess so… I'll see you back at the office."
"Fine." Jessica is the first to hang up.
Once the call is disconnected, Kilgrave pulls up the instructions of his newest contract on his phone, rereading them over to ensure he got the wording correct. It's a strange request, but once again, they have no real evidence of wrongdoing. He speaks the commands stiffly and slowly. "At eight o'clock today, go and apply for a job at the ODMA headquarters in the city. The man you should speak with is Zayden Price. You really want this job." Having covered the specifics of the contract, Kilgrave pivots on his heel. Before he walks out the door, he instructs the couple to go about their day normally until then.
*****BEDTIME*****
It's always a good day for Zayden when he gets to knock something off his to-do list. Today is one of those days.
As eight o'clock draws closer, he prepares himself for the exciting night he has yet to come. If nothing else good came of having Bliss and Aura back on his side, this would be well enough. So many stars had to align in order for this one specific idea to play out, including Kilgrave and the sisters all working for him at the same time. Since he had given Kilgrave a few softball missions, he figured this one wouldn't exact any suspicion either.
To remind himself why he is going through all this trouble, he opens the encoded icon on his desktop entitled 'Reminders'. It takes a few passwords to get into, as the contents reveal a lot about him and his life. Inside 'Reminders', there are two folders; 'Finished' and 'Current'. The number of items in the finished category is considerably less than those that are current, only because people are constantly being added to the current list.
Inside the 'Current' folder, Zayden scrolls past the long list of names he has yet to move to 'Finished'. He passes the files titled 'Jones, Axel', 'Jones, Jessica' and 'Thompson, Kevin' before he reaches who he is looking for. A man named Arnold Wagner.
His file contained a large amount of informational text about his life, career, and family, along with a single audio file that was dated back nearly a year ago. This is among one of the older unfinished cases that Zayden had yet to get to, which is one reason today excited him so much. Taking a deep breath, he plays the audio aloud, skipping to a designated time-stamp.
"- solution is to make cuts to something." The tape begins. Arnold was speaking. "How else are we supposed to fund a brand new division in Dallas? Have you even looked at the numbers?"
A woman's voice is heard scoffing. "We shouldn't have to make cuts to existing programs. How is that helping? We just need D.C. to approve my higher funding proposal, and we can -"
"D.C. isn't going to give us more money, Cheryll!" Arnold barked. There's an awkwardly long pause before he's heard sucking the air through his teeth. "Seriously? Everyone's too scared to say it? Fine. I'll say it. We should make cuts to division 2."
"Excuse me?" Zayden's own voice cut in the call.
"We were all thinking it!" Arnold said defensively, waiting for someone to jump in and back him up. No one did, so he continued digging himself a hole, going on a tirade. "Mr. Price, your division has spent more than division 1, 3, and 4 combined last year. I warned the board against giving you this much control. I have nothing against you, you're a good kid. But you have absolutely no idea how to run something of this scale. You're completely incompetent when it comes to management. I'm sure it's no coincidence that your father was -"
Zayden cuts the audio off, his jaw clenched as he's reminded of his anger.
Arnold's daughter would be here any minute.
As her arrival is imminent, Zayden calls for the sisters to join him in his office.
Aura had been given very specific directions a few days ago, since she needed it, however, Bliss' directions were purposely much vaguer.
The sisters enter Zayden's office just as a security guard was calling him. He puts his hand up to stop Bliss from opening her mouth as he takes the phone to his ear.
"Sir, Chelsea Wagner is here to see you." The guard says, choosing his words carefully in front of an outsider.
As this is right on time, he grins. "Did you get her on camera asking for a job?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Tell her I'll meet with her in a few minutes and take her across the street."
The building that was being referred to wasn't owned by Zayden or ODMA, but he rented out a unique room there, which is laid out similarly to a hotel room, including a bathroom, bed, and office space. Zayden sometimes has himself or his staff conduct business there when something involves the use of abilities, which they obviously can't do in the power dead-zone, nor is it worth it to drive out to the warehouse he owned. Bliss herself is very familiar with this room, as they often spend nights there together, considering he never allows anyone back at his actual apartment.
"Yes, sir." The guard repeats.
Zayden hangs up and motions towards Aura, who abruptly looks up from staring at her feet. She uncomfortably pulls at the gloves she had just put on, as she was informed that they were about to leave the power dead-zone. "Aura, go downstairs and catch up with them before they leave." He tells her, making sure the contract instructions were as clear as they could be. "As soon as you arrive with them, use your powers on Chelsea and come back to your room here. That's all you need to do."
Aura nervously looks at her sister, again worried about being split up. Bliss does her best to comfort her with the limited information she had. "This will be quick. You got it."
"Yeah…" Aura mutters as Bliss pats her on the back. She turns and leaves in a hurry to catch up.
When it's just Bliss and Zayden in the room together, Bliss frowns at him. A new bruise on her cheek is nicely covered up with make-up now. She had gotten enough bruises from her time with him to know how to hide them properly. Her frown is for a different reason, however. "I thought I could calm her down, but… I don't think she's ready to start doing assignments again."
"She'll get used to working more soon." Zayden answers with a complete lack of concern. He turns around and picks up his silver overcoat that was laying on his chair and throws it on.
Bliss's nod is unconvincing. She mutters, taking a breath, "I'm just really worried about her… She's kinda shut down more than usual…"
"It's an adjustment period." Zayden huffs, still not giving her his full attention as he prepares to leave his office. "Just like after you became a Risen. It'll take some time to get used to being productive again." When he actually stops and sees her troubled expression, his tone changes to something sterner. "Bliss. She'll be fine."
Taking that as her cue to stop talking about it, Bliss attempts a more decisive nod. "Yeah. I'm sure…" Watching him slide his phone into his back jean pocket, she reverts to a more joyful attitude. "So… how come you gave her a contract and not me? Do you not need me for this?" She playfully pouts at him, taking a step closer.
He finally smiles at her, stepping towards her as well. "I do need you for this, actually. I figured there's no point in giving you contracts anymore. After all, you're not just any employee, are you? We're a team now."
Bliss' eyes light up. Her breath catches as he leans closer, teasing her with a kiss. "What do you need me to do?"
"I need your powers." He whispers, grinning as he looks at her. "I also need you to hold the camera."
*****BEDTIME*****
"Have we considered the possibility that the missions I'm given are completely meaningless because there's nothing really being hidden from us?" Kilgrave asks, sitting on the desk next to Jessica's chair.
Axel is in his bedroom, doing homework, but since his door is open, Jessica keeps her voice down, answering concisely. "No." Twice now, she had made the mistake of underestimating both Kilgrave and Glitch, before going head to head with them. The consequences of that were still being felt in her life. She doesn't plan to make the same mistake this time with Zayden. Something more is definitely going on.
"Right." He sighs, having thought the same thing, but questioned if it was just paranoia or annoyance.
"This one felt oddly specific. We should follow up with Chelsea later." Jessica watches Kilgrave nod as she begins to yawn. Looking at the time, she sees that it's only nine o'clock. Yet, she is already fatigued. She hadn't gotten nearly as much accomplished today as she wanted to. Closing her laptop, she stands up and makes her way to Axel's room. "Okay, kid. Time for bed."
When she steps into his room, she lets out a long breath upon finding that he wasn't visible. Her eyes shift to the second small plastic chair in his room. She had employed a new method of dealing with this that she started last week, considering he did this so often now, not only to attempt to get out of going to school, but also to delay bedtime. Instead of seeking out his obvious choice, she says, "If I get to three, you lose your TV time for tomorrow. One… two…" She begins to count, pausing a little longer in between this number and the next.
Just on time, Axel quickly reforms from his desk chair, already in his pajamas. He huffs out a breath to imitate his mother. "It's not fun when you don't come find me…"
Instead of responding, she scoops him up under his arm and swings him into bed. This gets him to giggle and despite her tiredness, she smiles. Still, she doesn't linger much and tucks him in quickly. "Goodnight, I love you. Always have,"
"Always will." Axel responds automatically but reaches for her before she leaves. "Can I have a bedtime story?"
"Not tonight." Jessica shakes her head.
"Please." He's quick to resort to whining. "I'm not even that tired yet!"
Before Jessica can decline again, Kilgrave appears from around the corner. "I can read him a story." He had been lingering outside the door, as he had for a few days now, familiarizing himself with their normal routine. To him, it was an integral step in becoming more incorporated in their familial system.
Jessica raises her eyebrow, glancing at him over her shoulder.
Axel beams at him, "Yes, please." He says, not even recognizing that his mother had to give permission for this to happen.
Three weeks ago, Jessica wouldn't have even considered the idea. But today, she pauses before saying a tentative, "Okay." If Kilgrave wanted to prove that he could be a father, maybe it was time she started letting him. As she stands up, she kisses Axel on the forehead.
Kilgrave smiles, taking a seat on the edge of the bed where Jessica had been sitting as she leaves. "What are you in the mood for?" Kilgrave asks Axel, leaning over to the bookshelf to scan the selection of children's stories he had.
"Hmm…" Axel only peeks at the bookshelf for a second before deciding to ask, "Can you make one up? I've heard all of those a lot before."
"Oh?" Kilgrave tilts his head slightly. Thinking on it, he glances behind him to find that Jessica is gone, and her interjections won't stop him. "Sure, I can come up with something."
Axel continues to beam and pulls the covers up to his neck, snuggling under the blanket to prepare to listen intently.
With as much kid-friendly creatively as Kilgrave could muster, he begins telling a recognizable story. "Once upon a time, there was a boy. A special boy who could have almost anything in the world he wanted. But that much power made the boy incredibly lonely. And one day-"
Axel's curiosity immediately causes him to interrupt with a question. "How did power make the boy lonely?"
Kilgrave blinks, not expecting an insightful inquiry. "Well… he got practically everything he wanted, and he became unhappy because, after a while, there was no satisfaction in getting or accomplishing things anymore. It all became repetitive and boring. And it pushed people away. So the boy was incapable of forming genuine connections with people. Does that make sense?"
Axel quickly nods, proud of himself for understanding what he viewed as a complex idea. His mouth stays closed as he waits for what would happen next.
With that, Kilgrave continues, "One day, the boy met an equally extraordinary girl. She was beautiful and powerful and everything the boy never knew he wanted. The boy very quickly fell in love with this girl, but the girl… she didn't love him back."
"Why?" Axel's question is significantly less complicated now.
"The boy was…" He hesitates, trying to come up with a delicate way to phrase this. "... reckless, and he was angry. He made a lot of bad decisions and in the process… he hurt the girl. Very badly." This causes Axel to frown, as he was already invested in the story, but doesn't say more and allows Kilgrave to continue. "But the girl was so brave and strong that she decided to hang out with the boy more, despite being hurt by him. She knew that he was unhappy and lonely and that deep down, he was a good person.
"Not only did the girl hang out with him, but she taught him to be better and use his power to help other people. She did this with a great deal of success. The two of them ran away together and for the first time in his life, the boy was truly happy. But then, while continuing to try and help people like the girl taught him, the boy became badly injured by a villain."
Axel visibly tenses, now too enthralled to interrupt with questions.
"The girl was very worried about the boy, and with the help of a few other people, the girl managed to defeat the villain and get the boy out of harm's way. Unfortunately, everything still wasn't okay."
The relief on Axel's face dissipates.
"The boy's injuries didn't heal. They were getting worse, so bad in fact, that the boy began to die. The girl did everything she could to help him, but nothing worked. Even with the boy's immense power, he couldn't save himself. Believing that the boy had died, the girl left. She went home without him."
Kilgrave's somewhat long, contemplative pause causes Axel's eyes to flood with worry.
"A long, long time passed. The girl grew up. But she never moved on. One day, the girl got a knock on her door…" As an immersive touch to his frankly already dramatic storytelling, Kilgrave gently knocks three times on the wooden dresser next to him. Axel doesn't even look at his hand to see where the sound had come from, but rather gasps a little bit as if the story had arrived in his room. Kilgrave forces his smile back. "When the girl opened her door, she saw the boy standing across from her. His was alive and his injuries were perfectly healed.
"Since it had been so long, it was very hard for the girl to come to terms with his return, but eventually, the girl hugged the boy tightly. Just like he had many times before, the boy told the girl that he loved her. And for the first time ever, the girl told him that she loved him too." Kilgrave looks back at Axel, finally allowing himself to smile.
There was an obvious sense of happiness that came over Jessica's son upon hearing this. Still, he wasn't quite satisfied yet. "Then what?" Axel asks.
Knowing that there was only one way for a children's story to end, Kilgrave gladly says, "Then, they lived happily ever after. The end."
As if on cue, Axel slowly yawns, his face settling into a contented, sleepy expression. "I like that story."
"Me too." Standing up, Kilgrave quietly switches off the lamp light.
"Goodnight, Daddy." Axel mutters, twisting to lay on his side.
"Goodnight, Axel." Still smiling, Kilgrave leaves, closing the door behind him. He finds that Jessica is in the kitchen, lethargically washing dishes from the dinner they had eaten together.
"Well?" She asks upon hearing him approach, pretending that she hadn't been listening to most of the story. Hearing him recount their lives that way, no matter how rudimentary and oversimplified it was, showed her that Kilgrave had a much more in-depth understanding of his own behavior than she might have previously thought. She, of course, would say none of this to him.
"He'll be asleep soon." Walking up directly behind her, he wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head on her shoulder. "You should go to sleep too."
She mutters her response, not even breaking the speed at which she was washing. "I have to finish this."
"Surely the dishes can wait until tomorrow." Lifting his head, he breathes against the back of her neck, before gently kissing it. "Christ, you're tense." He remarks, only from observing the way she's moving.
"I'm exhausted." She retorts, her jaw tensing too. "But I'm never gonna feel like doing this so it might as well be now."
Taking this as an opportunity to stay on her good side even longer, Kilgrave slowly pulls away, moving to stand next her. "Fine. Why don't you get in bed, wait for me to come give you a massage, and I'll finish the dishes."
Scoffing, she still doesn't bother stopping. "Yeah, right."
"Seriously." He rolls up his shirt sleeves before putting his hands between hers and the dishes.
Jessica finally stops and eyes him, only to discover that he actually means it. "Okay…" His willingness to help is frankly puzzling and it causes her to squint her eyes at him as she starts to dry her hands.
Her skepticism only makes him grin, as he picks up where she left off. Her eyes stay narrow and she glances back at him as she heads to the bathroom.
Though he is happy to appease her, he still grimaces as he reaches for the next dish and the sponge. It's a task that he is generally foreign to, but he gets the idea. He still struggles with the thought that normal people have to do stuff like this for themselves all the time… Luckily, Jessica hadn't left him with too much.
By the time he's done, Jessica's in bed.
She left the bedroom light on for him, which Kilgrave switches off as he enters, taking his shirt off simultaneously. His trousers follow, before he sits down on his side of the bed. Jessica is barely awake, laying on her stomach and she lets out a quiet sigh when he sits down.
Instead of getting under the covers with her, he pulls them back and carefully lifts the bottom of her loose, cotton nightshirt that she had on. Before he starts to massage her shoulders under her shirt, she attempts to roll over. "No, you don't need to -"
"Jessica. I was serious about this too." He says back immediately, expecting this initial resistance from her. To prevent any more protest, Kilgrave leans down and plants a series of kisses down her spine. "You had a long day." He mutters, against her skin his hands going back to working the knots out of her muscles.
With that, she falls back into the position she had been in before, saying nothing else.
Using a combination of his hands and his lips, Kilgrave works his way up and down her back, worshipping nearly every inch of her exposed skin. It doesn't take long before she begins to hum involuntarily, showing her inevitable appreciation in the only way she was comfortable with. It was all the gratification he needed.
Faster than he expected, he observes the significant decrease in the tempo of her breathing. Pleased with his work today, he pulls her shirt back down and slips under the blanket next to her. And he was truly happy.
*****BEDTIME*****
Bliss tries her absolute best to stop trembling, but can't seem to. Her hands clutch Zayden's phone as she watches Chelsea being escorted out of the room by the security guard that brought her. Chelsea leaves in a daze, being influenced by both of the sister's powers, their effects lingering. She would never remember what occurred here today, but Bliss would have a hard time forgetting.
There are so many emotions raging through her. She's disturbed, angry, turned on, and most importantly, she's jealous.
"How did that look?" Zayden grins at her when they're alone again. He sits up on the bed and looks around for his shirt, which ended up on the floor on the other side of the room. He shrugs and doesn't bother, but rather pulls his jeans up, that had fallen around his ankles.
Part of her wanted to make the joke of saying 'I forgot to start recording', but she knew that he lacked such a sense of humor. Besides, she wasn't in the joking mood either. Instead, she mutters a disheartened, "Good…"
"Let's see." He holds his hand out, waiting for her to hand him his phone.
Silently, she walks closer and places the phone in his hand, avoiding touching the bed when she does. That bed is one she had fond memories of and it hurt immensely to watch him get into it with another person. The two of them weren't necessarily exclusive before she left him, and she was always aware of the fickleness of their relationship. But she thought things would be different now that they had professed their love for each other. Besides, how could he expect her to be okay with this? Using her powers on a woman to allow him to sleep her, then having to witness and record it. Was he trying to torture her?
As he starts to review the video, she hopes she can't be heard behind the camera whimpering.
Seeming pleased enough with it, Zayden glides his tongue over his lips. Momentarily ignoring Bliss, he does some quick editing. He cuts out all the foreplay and has the video start when he actually penetrates her. Bliss cringes rehearing the recording of Chelsea calling out his name. He goes on to cut another significant amount off the tail end of the video, removing the ending to ensure that the intended recipient would have no idea how long they were actually having sex for.
When he's done editing, he opens the encrypted app on his phone. The app allowed him to send messages without them being traced back to him. It also deleted any messages from the recipient's phone after they've been viewed and prevented screen recording on the recipient's end.
He enters Arnold Wagner's number and sends three separate messages. The first is a twenty-second video that security had sent over of Chelsea asking for a job at ODMA and inquiring to meet with Zayden. The second message simply reads {Your daughter thinks I'm perfectly capable when it comes to management} - 9:54pm. The last message is the concise two-minute video that he had just edited.
The likelihood that anything would come of this was low. Arnold probably didn't even remember saying what he had that so deeply pissed Zayden off. Why would he? It was such a long time ago comparatively and the budget issue had been resolved. There was honestly nothing to be gained from this for Zayden, besides the satisfaction of knowing that Arnold would be horrified to see this. And that was it. A week's worth of planning to violate and humiliate one man who had made a single and legitimate complaint about him. It was incredibly trivial, and yet, it was what Zayden thrived on.
He smiles again, thinking of how satisfying it would be to move another name from 'Current' to 'Finished'. Only when he sets his phone down does he notice Bliss' unnerved behavior. Knowing at least part of what she was thinking, his eyes flash at her and he breaks the silence in the room. "Does it bother you, seeing me with other women?"
Her eyebrows furrow, as this question had a far too obvious answer. "Of course…" She mutters, turning away from his piercing gaze momentarily.
"Good." He answers, looking her up and down. The intensity of his stare increases and he shifts, sitting on the edge of the bed facing her. He says nothing else. No words of comfort or reassurance to put her at ease. Instead, he leans up and pulls on her jacket to draw her in with a kiss, which seemed to be reconciliation enough for Bliss.