Thread: Hero Business [Defenders -- Sigr & Virginia]

Ooh, he was touchy. That wasn't exactly an unusual when people who spent time around her and weren't used to it, and she supposed that was only going to be made worse given what she assumed wasn't the most fantastic emotional state he'd ever been in. She got it, she just wasn't giving him much wiggle room here. No. It wasn't, she responded bluntly. That was partially true - it wasn't about anyone in the room specifically, it was about what they'd been intending to do and what was happening to the city. I'll leave anyone behind. I didn't particularly give a shit about either of you. The second half of her statement wasn't a lie. She wasn't going to let them die, but at the time Jessica wouldn't have felt like she was missing out on anything if she'd never seen their faces again. Her fingers twitched briefly like she was considering curling them into a fist but instead she she lifted a hand, setting it on his chest and pushing him backwards out of her personal space. It was restrained and slow so that she wouldn't knock him off his feet or force him to act in a way that might be revealing as he tried not to fall, but with a strength that was very hard to argue with. If you push, I'll push back. There were several threats there. The obvious one where her palm was still pressed against his tie where it lay flat over his shirt and she could break his bones like eggshells, and the more subtle point that if he was going to bring up things about her, she had a lot more to weaponize in return. Jessica wasn't exactly hiding who she was, after all. It was what attracted people to her business these days. That note seemed like the end of the conversation, and while she didn't verbally respond to his apology she did let her hand drop and then shoved them both in the pockets of her leather jacket. Being accused of being selfish was something she was used to and was willing to own. In the end her actions when things got messy tended to betray the attitude she put forward when nothing was going wrong, and Jessica knew it. She just ignored it and down-talked it when someone brought it up. Don't be mad at me just because you can't drive. Out of all the things he could reasonably be mad at her for that wasn't one of them but she was still bringing it up, almost entirely to lash out at him. Or maybe it was just a joke. It's getting done my way. She wasn't saying that he could join in but she hadn't outright said that he wouldn't be part of it, either. He'd be invested in this no matter what, the best she could do was make sure he played by her rules. She gathered information without people knowing what she was doing, Matt threw down with criminals. But we won't... ignore anything . That was admittance that she was expecting him to tag along. Jessica was still pretending she didn't care about that sort of thing. Part of it was because she had, once, and it had turned out very poorly. Helping people had for a long time been something that was more trouble than it was worth if she wasn't getting something out of it. Or that was what she'd told herself, and she was a very good liar. She was back to being vague, because that was safer. Not because of her, and but even if she could lump him in without fear of exposure for some of the situation, she couldn't talk about the things they'd be up to later unless it sounded like research or her running off to be herself and him staying behind to be a good boy and proper lawyer. I'll go make the call and then come back and... I dunno, point at the dotted lines you need to sign? It seemed unlikely that they had anything here that would help Matt with reading the documents, and it didn't look like he had something for that on his person. She wasn't gonna read that shit to him, but she'd read it for herself if she had to. Could he actually read? She knew he had some sort of seeing thing going on, could he feel the ink? That wasn't something that he'd be able to do with other people around, it'd be super suspicious.