"I can show you how," Matt Murdock offered, his fists already clenched.

Jessica Jones shook her head no. She wasn't interested in boxing lessons or karate or anything else. She thought she had made that perfectly clear.

Yet despite her ardent dislike, Danny and Matt thought it best to learn how to control her strength after the events of Friday night. But now on Sunday afternoon, with the sun streaming into the dojo once again, Jessica felt exposed, judged. She wasn't ready to give an inch of her stubbornness away.

"Come on," Matt cajoled. "Danny and Colleen won't be back for hours. This is the perfect time. I promise not to judge."

There it is again, Jessica thought. How was he always able to do that? Able to read her mind? She must have let something slip, a skipped heartbeat or a too heavy exhale. It had to be that because if it was anything else it meant that Matt knew her, really knew her, and that kind of vulnerability was something foreign to her. It was something she refused to get used to.

"I'm really not in the mood to hit you in the face," Jessica told Matt.

"Liar," he returned playfully. "What happened to being ready for the next time we meet up with Fisk?"

"I never said that. That was all you and Danny and Luke."

"Well, it was a good tip," Matt said. "We're all a little rusty."

"Speak for yourself, Murdock. Only one of us had a mysterious vacation after our supposed death. Where did you say you were again?"

Matt knew what she was doing, prying into his life in order to move the heat off of her own. But he knew training her, allowing her to really understand her strength and how to use it, could make her more confident.

"I'm telling you, this will help," Matt said. "After the other night-"

"That was a mistake!" Jessica blurted out.

"I know," he told her calmly. He hoped that she truly believed he was on her side, but lately Jessica felt as if no one was on Team Jones.

XXXXXXXXXX

Last Friday

Jessica awoke in her own bed for the first time in almost a week to the sound of her cell phone dinging from the floor just beneath her jeans. She stumbled from the mattress and reaches out to grab it, turning it over to read a message from her bounty hunter friend. A quick thanks for the heads up on Derek Smith, AKA Tucker. One less scumbag on the streets. That was something to be happy about, but Jessica just couldn't muster the energy.

She flopped on her back, clad only in her panties and a white tank top. They were dirty. She was dirty. The last few days had just been too long. With a frustrated grunt, Jessica pulled herself up and contemplated making her way to the shower, but just as quickly fell back down. Sleep was much more appealing.

She had spent the remainder of the night before drinking heavily. Full bottles of whiskey found their way into her stomach, some on her shirt and some in her hair as she stomped about her apartment cursing Malcolm for wondering about her hatred toward Kilgrave. That hatred bled into her still simmering anger at Danny and Luke, especially Luke, who was still questioning her certainty that Fisk was Kilgrave 2.0.

Jessica wasn't stupid. She knew Luke's peace offering in the alley the morning before, his suggestion that Fisk wasn't making an antidote, but rather something to make him stronger wasn't apology enough for doubting her in the first place.

All that anger led to the consumption of more and more alcohol, so much so that she forgot to call Matt and tell him she was onto something. The old woman made a visit to Fisk in prison. He was given something. The next day he seemingly walked out. But Jessica had drunk herself stupid before any more thought could be given to Fisk's greater plan.

Now she rubbed her head. She must have drank too much, if that was even possible, because hangovers were usually not her forte. Yet, there she was feeling the brunt of one full against her skull.

Groaning heavily she finally crawled out of bed and practically tumbled into the shower. As she started to lather up she realized she was still wearing her tank top and underwear. Letting out a hazy laugh, she peeled the wet clothes off and dropped them outside the tub with a splat. At that same moment she thought she heard something inside her living room/office/everything else. Probably Malcolm.

But when Jessica eventually turned off the lukewarm water and heard no pithy comments about the countless empties she knew were strewn about the apartment, she realized Malcolm couldn't be out there. Her imagination was getting the best of her.

"Where have you been?" Matt Murdock asked as she stepped out of her bathroom clad only in a towel.

Jessica couldn't help but gasp, not loud, but she knew he heard it, felt it. "Fuck, Murdock. What are you doing here?" Her imagination had failed her again.

He was dressed differently, better. She assumed he went shopping. The clothes could not have been Danny's because there was no linen or open-toed shoes. But then she spied his trademark red sunglasses and she knew what that meant.

"You went back to your place," she said, shaking her head. "So breaking and entering is a theme for the day, I see."

"It's not breaking and entering when it's your own apartment," he told her, shifting in the only chair he could find that wasn't in tatters on her floor.

Malcolm had cleaned up, somewhat, after the events of the other night. They had all assumed Fisk's men broke in, but what they were looking for she still wasn't sure. Trish's address? Any fool could have followed her home from the radio station? Information about Kilgrave? If they had his body, as she now suspected, that wouldn't make any sense. Information about her? Maybe that's why they took her laptop. But nothing gives more information than her blood, and if that was their plan all along trashing her apartment hardly fit. Malcolm had suggested it was just a random robbery and Jessica couldn't help but wonder if he was right. But she didn't dwell on it, or his cleanup efforts. She liked the place a mess. It seemed to fit everything else in her life

"Well, it was idiotic," Jessica told Matt as she strode into her room. She let the towel drop, unsure if he could see her or not. "You know Fisk is looking for you. You know he's aware Matt Murdock and the Devil of Hell's Kitchen are one in the same."

"So?" Matt replied. "He could have taken me the other night at the warehouse. He knew I'd come for you; you said so yourself. But he fled before I arrived. I figured it was safe to take a chance and grab a few things from home before this really starts to kick up again."

"And you thought suits and skinny ties were the way to go?" she asked sarcastically.

She stepped out of the bedroom clad in a different pair of ripped blue jeans and yet another button up shirt, this time jet black like her hair, which was wet and heavy against her back. She pulled at it, piling it high on top of her head. As she did she watched Matt's neck crane to the left, as if he could hear the movement of her hair, or smell her exposed collarbone. She wasn't sure, but the slight smile that crept across his face almost made her blush. Almost.

"So," Matt finally said.

"So what?" Jessica replied, finding her own spot on the desk, letting her legs dangle off the edge.

"So where have you been?"

"Um… here."

"I came by last night," he told her.

"And I wasn't curled under that blanket in a drunken stupor?" Jessica snapped. "Well, then I must have been on a liquor run or liquor binge."

"Or shaking down a source," Matt offered.

"No, that happened earlier in the evening."

"Come on, Jess. I thought you wanted us to go at this like a team."

Jessica sighed, before grabbing her own legs and tucking them beneath her, sitting like Danny had the other day in Colleen's dojo. "Malcolm and I found a guy who saw the old woman at the prison."

"The old woman?"

"The woman from The Hand, the one that got away," Jessica said, frustration creeping into her voice. Did no one listen?

"And what was she doing?"

"Visiting Fisk," Jessica told Matt. She watched his neck crane again. Now he was interested. "Giving him something."

"Giving him what?"

"I don't know, but whatever it was I think it made him more Kilgrave than Fisk. I think it's what allowed him to walk out of prison."

Matt leaned back in the chair, thinking. Jessica let him have the moment. Hell, she had taken all night. "Okay," he finally said. "So what's the play?"

"You mean, you don't want to rush in fists flying and just see what happens?" she cracked at his expense.

"Yeah, I do," he told her sheepishly. "But we don't know where to rush into. I had Luke check out the warehouse last night. He says it's completely empty."

Jessica pressed herself off the desk violently at the mere utterance of Luke's name. She stomped back to the bedroom to search for her missing boots.

"What?" Matt asked.

"Nothing. I just need some coffee."

"Coffee or whiskey?"

"You know, I don't judge your vices," she yelled from the other room.

"Ha!" Matt let out. "You're all about judging."

"No," she told him, peeking out of the bedroom with only one boot in hand. "I observe. It's my job. And if my observations happen to be spot on, as they usually are, that's not on me but on you fuckers for having so many problems I can easily identify."

She ducked back into the room, frustrated, but also feeling better overall. Her hangover was drifting away and she had new purpose.

"Besides," she continued, "As far as vices go, booze is better than woman."

She emerged once again, this time wearing both boots and her signature scarf and leather jacket combo.

"Are you implying I'm addicted to women?" Matt asked.

"The worst kind of women," Jessica teased. She grabbed her keys from their spot on the floor just inside the front door and her scarf from it's perch over the doorknob.

Matt stood, readying himself to leave with her. "I'll have you know my taste in women is fine. It's good. It's totally normal."

"That almost sounded convincing," Jessica cracked as she pushed him out the door and into the dingy hallway.

"Fine. After coffee are you going to tell me what's going on with you and Luke? Or do you want me to pretend I didn't notice how pissed you got when I said his name?"

"Keep your gifts to yourself, Murdock."

"I wasn't using my gifts." He hated that word.

As the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside together, Jessica said, "Don't call your powers gifts. It makes you sound pretentious."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

After consuming three cups of coffee, each without the aid of any extra alcoholic flavouring, Jessica was relieving herself in the bathroom of Colleen's dojo. Washing her hands Jessica peered into the mirror and caught a glimpse of her own tired and dull face. Splashing water on her cheeks and forehead and letting it dry, she did it again. She was stalling. She didn't want to go back out there and have another huddle up with the team.

Just the day before she was finally coming to terms with being a member of this group. Now, she wanted nothing more than to go it alone. Alone she was able to find Trish, find a source that led her closer to how Fisk was able to use Kilgrave's mind control abilities, and alone she suspected she could find him and stop him.

"Are you okay in there?" Colleen asked from the other side of the door.

Jessica knew she was just being polite, but it irritated her anyway. "Yeah," she called back, trying not to sound annoyed. "I'll be out in a minute."

Finally, after much longer than a minute, Jessica opened the door to find Colleen still standing there.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Jessica returned.

She could tell Colleen was trying to find her words. Jessica didn't have time for shit like that. "Just say it. Say whatever you need to say."

"I think you should lay off the guys," she told her.

"Fuck," Jessica croaked. Another person against her.

"No, no, Jessica," Colleen continued. "I'm with you on this one. I think there's enough magic and mystery in the world to make almost anything possible. You know this Kilgrave better than anyone and if you say he's now Fisk or Fisk is using his power... I don't get it, but I believe you."

Jessica softened, not quite understanding. "Then why do you want me to lay off the guys."

"Because they don't believe you yet. And in my experience you catch more flies with honey than-"

Jessica cut her off. "I'm sorry, but wasn't your experience killing people?"

Colleen lowered her head, as if ashamed.

"Hey, I'm not judging," Jessica told her. "Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. But I'm also not going to pussyfoot around what I know to be true just because your boyfriend and Luke can't handle it."

"Okay," Colleen replied. Jessica began to walk away, back toward the training room. "But, just so you know, killing isn't something I'm proud of."

Jessica shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it depends on who you kill."

XXXXXXXXXX

Colleen's words still in her head - lay off the guys - Jessica listened to everyone else's plans and theories before offering her own. Danny suspected Fisk was staging an assault on New York, perhaps similar to the former Hand. Maybe he was the new Hand. But Matt reminded him The Hand wanted immortality and to return to K'un-Lun. That didn't seem to be Fisk's M.O.

Matt wondered if Fisk wasn't simply planning to leave, to find Vanessa and move far, far away. But after saying it aloud, Matt knew it couldn't be true. He had angered Fisk, threatened his love, and now that his secret as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was exposed and vulnerable, he knew Fisk would be coming for him.

"Plus, you're dead," Danny reminded him. "So if Fisk kills you again no one will ask any questions."

"Thanks for reminding me," Matt said, sarcasm dripping from his lips.

Luke suggested, once again, that this was all a rouse. That there was no way Fisk could be Kilgrave; that Kilgrave was dead. When Matt reminded him that they had kidnapped Trish to force Jessica into giving blood - what reason would they have for that if it was all an act? - Luke had no explanation.

Jessica had kept her mouth shut long enough. "What is the issue here, Luke?"

"What?" he asked.

"Look, I just need you to be on my side about this."

"Yeah, Jess, you already said that. But I need to be honest and true with what I believe. You can't expect me to just jump 'cause you say so."

"But when Danny and Matt say so, it's fine," Jessica returned.

"What does that mean?"

"You went all recon on the warehouse for Matt. And now you say you don't believe Fisk is up to something. Then why help?"

"I never said I don't believe he's up to something. He definitely up to something. So, yeah, I did some recon for Matt - for all of us. But that doesn't mean I think he has the power to control my mind."

"You've experienced it firsthand, Luke," Jessica reminded him. "Of everyone here I thought you would be the most receptive to the danger out there."

"I have experienced it," Luke grumbled in return. "And so I know that sitting around talking about maybes or what ifs isn't going to help. Let's just get Fisk off the streets. He's a criminal and he escaped prison. That's enough for me."

Jessica started to laugh. It wasn't deep or loud, but it lasted longer than she would have liked. But she just couldn't help herself.

"What's so funny?" Luke asked her, annoyance creeping into his voice.

"I couldn't understand why you just wouldn't believe me, but now I get it."

"Oh, yeah, Jess. What do you get?" he barked back at her.

"In your mind, it can't be Kilgrave. It just can't. Because then the man who caused Reva's death, the man who altered your mind, who forced me to shoot you in the head isn't gone. And if he isn't really gone all those feelings you're burying deep down inside will bubble to the surface."

"So we're making this personal now."

"Yes! What the fuck, Luke? Of course it's personal. It's always been personal!" Jessica shouted.

Luke turned his back on the group and began stomping to the wall. He was grunting. He was seething. He was reeling for a fight and in one swift motion he let his fist fly against the brick and it smashed around his impenetrable skin.

Danny and Matt both stepped back in shock, but Jessica loved it - it meant that she was right.

"Is that what you want, Jess?" he asked her.

"No, asshole. I wanted you to talk," she quipped. "But we can smash things if that makes it better for you."

"Stop it, Jess," he told her, trying to make his way to the door, fully intending to leave the structural damage in Colleen's dojo behind him.

"No, no, no. Admit to me that you know I'm right. That you know Fisk is using Kilgrave's powers!"

"I don't know that!" Luke yelled. "I don't want to know that."

"Because then it's real."

Luke sighed. "Yes, Jessica. Of course. Then it's real."

Jessica smiled, smugly satisfied with herself, but Luke wasn't finished.

"And if it's real it brings back all the hatred I have for you. All the disgust I feel for sleeping with the women who killed Reva, for letting her in my head and my heart. If this is real then you and I are done… again. And I was hoping against hope that wouldn't be the case."

Jessica stood silent.

"Okay. Hey, hey," Matt said, trying to interject some reason into their brewing fight, but Luke wouldn't hear of it.

"And this guy," Luke continued, pointing to Matt. "I don't know what you're doing to him, but you better think long and hard, Jess, before you drag him further into this. Do you want what happened to me to happen to him? Do you want him to become a pawn in this game? Or is that what you're into now? Sleeping with men and using men and leaving men-"

"Alright, that's enough," Matt shouted, placing his body between Jessica and Luke.

Jessica shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. Not that Luke thought these awful things about her - hell, they were things she thought about herself. She was surprised he was saying them out loud because saying them out loud made them just as real as the Kilgrave threat. Saying them out loud also meant Matt could hear. She'd have given anything for him not to hear.

"I think we all just need to calm down," Danny offered, as he placed a hand on Luke's shoulder.

"Right," Matt said, nodding. "We just need to take a step back."

Luke shook his head no. "I'm done stepping back."

"Me too," Jessica replied.

"Good."

Danny released his gentle grip on Luke as the tension in the room refused to settle. But Matt would not move, could not. He felt protective of this team, but of Jessica more than anyone. Yes, she could handle herself, but she shouldn't always have to, he thought.

"Matt, get out of the way," Jessica said, as if she could hear Matt's thoughts and all the reasons why he had yet to move.

"Jessica," Matt whispered.

"Move!" she cried, but before Matt could follow her instructions or argue with her plan of action, she had already shoved him to the right. Matt knew she could have shoved harder, but he wasn't the one she was mad at.

"I don't want to fight, Jess," Luke told her, but she could see his fists clenching. It was probably defensive, she knew. Luke was too good to haul back and punch her.

Jessica wasn't good at all.

She reeled back and let her right fist fly straight into his shoulder. Luke felt the blow, and while it didn't break this skin, it couldn't, it certainly caught him off guard and forced him back against the wall. Another hole was made, this time bigger, with bricks crashing to the floor at his feet.

"What the hell?" Luke said to himself, but before he could process any further, Jessica was barrelling toward him.

Luke moved his arms, protecting his face, and Jessica crashed full force into them, a body slam that sent them both back and then tumbling to the ground. Matt moved to stop them, but by this time Colleen had entered the room and both she and Danny held him back. No one wanted to see the dojo destroyed, but this didn't seem like the type of fight they could successfully break up.

Luke stood and grabbed Jessica by the jacket, hauling her to her feet. As she swung wildly to punch him yet again, Luke used his free hand to grab an errant fist, crushing it in his palm. Jessica winced, but not for long. Soon her foot found his shin and he dropped her hard on the floor yet again.

Luke stumbled back, never once thinking about kicking her while she was down. They stayed relatively calm for a moment, each wondering what their new line of attack should be, until Jessica pulled herself up. She waited for him to hit her, yell at her, anything. But he hadn't started this, not really. And Jessica could tell he was ready for it all to be over.

The thought of it being over, of losing Luke, killed her and she reacted the only way she knew how. She pushed him repeatedly in the chest trying to provoke him. The longer they fought the longer he would stay.

But Luke only replied, "This isn't what I wanted."

"Really? I thought I disgusted you. The murderer of your wife, your seductress, your downfall. Isn't that what you said?" she yelled, still pushing, poking. "You've always wanted this."

"And we've done it all before," Luke reminded her. "I wanted to move past this. That's why I couldn't let Kilgrave be real again."

Luke shook his head at the scene around him. He reached out and grabbed her arms pulling her close to him, his fight gone. "You just couldn't let it be, could you?"

Jessica didn't know what to say.

Luke let her go and silently walked past a stunned Danny, Matt and Colleen.

"If Kilgrave is back, if Fisk is using his power, then I hope you stop him, Jess," Luke told her, his hand on the doorknob, his back to the group. "I would tell you to be careful, but…"

He didn't finish. Instead, Luke Cage walked out, leaving the team and Jessica behind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Present Day

Jessica stood in the corner of the dojo's training room, as Matt rattled on about the importance of anticipating the opponent's next move. But she wasn't listening to him. She was replaying the events of Friday night in her head, over and over, like a summer song the radio refuses to quit.

Drinking so much she was basically hungover, condoning murder to Colleen - a woman who probably wanted to reminded of anything but - yelling at Luke, fighting with Luke, losing Luke.

Ugh, she thought. Enough.

But it wouldn't stop. Ever since Matt came back from the dead her judgement was impaired. Everything was off and she was too slowly realizing that she couldn't set it right again.

Matt shadow boxed in front of her. "You have to control your strength," he said. Jessica continued to ignore the words, and instead took in his form.

Unlike Luke, it wasn't Kilgrave that had her spooked. It was Matt.

How could someone so unassuming disrupt everything she knew to be true? Was she meant to be mad at him for introducing Fisk into her life? Or should she force herself to hold tighter to him now that Luke, and the team, was fracturing around her? With Trish gone was Matt all she had left.

Stop it! She was yelling at herself internally, while Matt continued to perform kicks and twists accompanied by fortune cookie sized mantras. She wondered if this is what it was to be trained by that weird guy, Stick. If so, she could see why Electra hated it.

Now you've done it, Jessica thought. Electra. Really? Why are you thinking about her?

Matt was too. He couldn't help it. The idea of training Jessica, a powerful, stunningly beautiful woman, reminded him of sparring with Electra. Sparring that led to kissing. Kissing that led to sex. Jessica didn't need that now. She was just crushed by Luke's words, crushed by her own over-the-top response to them. Matt had to stay level headed at all costs.

"I don't want to do this," Jessica told him finally. He was in mid-sentence, but she hadn't noticed.

"I really think it will help."

"I know. You said that. And I really think it will be awful and embarrassing," she replied.

"Learning basic fight tactics takes time, but there's nothing to be embarrassed about," Matt told her reassuringly.

She laughed, a full hearted all out laugh. "Not me! Embrarring for you. I'd kick your ass, Murdock."

Before he had time to refute her claim, she continued. "Besides, what happened the other night was terrible. I know that. But this won't make it better."

Matt was taken aback by her honesty, by her own realization that what she and Luke had done was terrible. But it was also human. Matt could hear their heartbeats throughout the fight. There was no bloodlust there. Just confusion and feelings of betrayal on both sides.

"I think I know what will fix this," Jessica said.

"I don't know, Jessica. Luke might not be ready to talk. It's only been a few days."

"Tequila."

Matt smiled. "No."

"Yes, Murdock."

"Wasn't drinking yourself stupid part of the problem?"

"That was whiskey. This will be different."

Matt shook his head, but Jessica was already heading for the door.

She turned back and smirked at him. "Follow me Devil. I dare you."