Author's Note: Written for Day 10 of the 2019 August Fic-A-Day.
Six days after introducing Jessica Jones to the supernatural world and starting to train her in the basics of hand-to-hand fighting, they left Boston. It took Jessica all of two minutes to reject the option to stay in the Boston Slayer House after meeting the four people who lived there permanently. They had all looked a little offended, but the two Watchers took it worst. Faith took it in stride since she had been expecting it. She had also rejected either of the NYC Slayer Houses for the same reasons.
It had been obvious since the first time they met that Jessica wasn't a people person, and moving into a house with four of them just wasn't an option. Faith was the same way, and there was no need for her to change it.
The second option was to send her to their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. That included even more Mini-Slayers, more Watchers, and in addition, there were Witches, assorted demons, people with various abilities, and a few normal people. Jessica declined that one as well but was told they would have to drop by there at some point to quote-unquote show her off at some point.
Which meant she chose the third option; travel with Faith, at least until she had learned enough to take it to another level.
The day after arriving in Boston had been a blow to the New Yorkers ego, as she was easily defeated by one of the minis in hand-to-hand combat. She'd been determined though and the sparring match had segued easily into a beginner's lesson in how to properly use enhanced speed and strength when your opponent also had enhanced speed and strength. One of the Watchers also insisted on teaching her to properly pull her punches when normal humans were a part of the fight.
Less than a week of practice had done the woman well, despite being told she needed to basically relearn how to do many of the things she'd taken for granted for more than two decades. It wasn't enough by a long shot, but it was a start.
Like Faith, she knew how to fight as they did on the street; fast and brutal but with no real skills. There were basic moves, how to do them, when to do them, and perhaps more importantly when not to do them. She needed to learn when to hit and how and when to block in the most effective ways, and so on and so forth.
On the bright side, it turned out her new stray was research-oriented thanks to her years as a P.I. Which meant she spent her time reading up on everything from Slayers and demons to the true origins of the world, and quite a lot in between while Faith drove. The two Watchers had done their thing, but try as they might it had come off sounding dryer than the Sahara Desert. For the most part, they kept their own counsel unless Jessica had questions or they needed to make a stop.
Faith would Slay something most nights, usually vampires, and if there were some minions she'd leave one for Jessica to test out her new skills. Afterward, they would go dancing. Or rather, Faith would go dancing and Jessica would get her daily dose of whiskey, and if they felt like it one or both of them would pick up some random guy to scratch their itch.
Mornings were used for training and correcting any bad moves Jessica had done the night before if she had been fighting. Learning new moves and countermoves was also on the agenda. Still, the Slayer wasn't really interested in being a teacher and it showed but they persevered.
They got into a routine and it worked for them. At least until Jessica got overconfident one night and needed to be brought to the nearest hospital with a broken elbow and needing a blood transfusion. Given her healing factor they needed to move fast so it wouldn't need to be re-broken and set straight so as not to cause any undue harm long-term.
Which was how Faith ended up in the waiting room closest to the ER, pumped up on adrenaline and without anything to take it out on. The offending vampire had been dust soon after trying to drain her partner? Teammate? Whatever. There would be no vamps or demons in Jessica's immediate future until she had properly understood where she went wrong and why. And got even more training.
Which meant they were going to Cleveland and the Sineya Council's Queen B.