negativeone | ( for calltoaction. ) i'll keep the wolf from the door.

All right. [ He doesn't ask if he's sure. Doesn't want to cast any doubt on her own agency being exercised. He can't imagine what it's been like for her over this past year. He can hear the blood rushing under her skin, scrabbling to the surface as she scrubs herself raw. It's not so bad that it'll draw blood, but he listens for when he might have to coax her into stopping.

The slight smirk that turns up one corner of his mouth is enough to cause the split there to crack and sting, but he just licks at it to keep it at bay. She's still just as good as she was, despite the lost time. More lost time. ]

I joined a blind Fight Club. Membership is down, so now I've got to make due with just falling down the stairs occasionally.

Ugh. Still the same shithead you've always been. [Her tone is monotone, amused in a melancholy way. It feels like a gap of her life is gone, missing, taken from her. It's left her ruined, like this, ruined in a way she can't put back together. She scrubs harder at that thought, breathes out hard, knows she should stop but she can't. Need him out, need him gone.

She'll figure Matt out later, when she's feeling less like this. But she doesn't know when that will be, really, and rests her cheek on the cool porcelain of the tub, a contrast to the scalding water.]

He never let me call you, Trish, anyone. Only under his watch. When he would leave me, he would tell me I only wanted him, only loved him. I believed it, for hours, and just as it wore off, he'd come back.

[She's getting angry, furiously scrubbing at her shoulders and chest.] He ordered me to threaten this woman, Reva Connors. She took us to a construction site, where he made me dig up a flash drive. Then he had me take care of her. That was enough to break his command, apparently, because he told me to come back and my body wouldn't listen, not after I--not after I killed her. Then he was gone.

I killed someone, Matty. I killed someone, and she didn't even deserve it.

I'm a creature of habit. [ Still is. He just has new habits. Worse ones.

She may not know how to put everything back together and god knows Matt doesn't either, but he'll be there. He'll help where he can, where she wants him to. ]

I know. [ He doesn't say that he wishes he could do more. This isn't about him. He did what he could but she doesn't need to know about that, not yet. He's going to catch enough hell with it later.

He listens as she tells him about everything. Tells him all that happened in the last handful of hours, at least he thinks it must have been. He finally reaches out to try and gently stop her hands as she scrubs harder at her skin. ]

You didn't want to do it, Jess. He made you.

[ And he's not sure why there aren't already cops at his door if it's so cut and dry, but here they are, still here. ]

He made you do it. It wasn't you.

[Jessica halts at the feel of Matt's hands on hers and she sighs, glancing up at him. When they were kids, they could solve this with ice cream--two scoops of strawberry. Ice cream and the park swing, Jessica pushing Matt high, high up. No amount of ice cream could put her back together, now.]

It was still my hands that did it, Matt. He violated every cell of my body, every neuron. I don't know where I end and where he begins.

[She reaches for the towel as she stands, pulling the plug out of the drain.] Do you have any clothes I can use? I can't go back to mine and Trish's place.

[ Matt remembers those days. Ones after Stick left, and he began to try and put things back together. Times where he spent most days alone, but found Jessica, of all people. He remembers that she didn't laugh or smile much unless he was there.

He remembers ice cream on his nose, and being pushed on the swing so high he thought he was almost able to fly. ]

But he's gone now? [ She shifts and he hears the plug come loose and the tub start to drain. ] Yeah, I can get you something. I'll be right back.

[ He stands, and heads toward the door. ]

He should be. I saw the bus hit him. I heard him scream.

[She breathes, wrapping the towel around herself after she dries off and sitting outside the tub.] I'll only be here until I can find a place and what to do after this.

[ So what he heard earlier wasn't a figment of his imagination. He's not sure if he's relieved or not. ]

You can stay as long as you want.

[ He gets a pair of sweats and an old soft t-shirt for her, and heads back into the bathroom. ]

[She takes the clothes and dresses, toweling off her hair. She feels a little better, marginally.] Thanks. You got anything to drink?

[Already, Jessica's heading out of the bathroom, a beeline to the fridge and kitchen.] Anything that's not wine, Ivy League?

( for calltoaction. ) i'll keep the wolf from the door.

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