Hello, It's Mrs. Hyde

Prologue Scn.5: Ingredients and Goodbyes

(A/N: This song isn't everybody's cup of tea, but gosh it is so fitting 😭❤️)

Jessica (Narration):
*"We were one step away from the impossible.
One final ingredient.

I should've been in the lab by sunrise.

But monsters never care how close you are to freedom."*

Hyde checked the clock again.
She was fifteen minutes late.
Jessica was never late.
He set the quill down and rose from his seat, jaw tight, eyes flicking to the corridor as his long coat swept behind him. He didn't say a word to the guards posted at the door as he strode down the hall — the clipped pace of his steps betraying his restraint.
He'd been patient with her exhaustion, her fatigue, the increasing spells of nausea and silence she brushed off with that damned half-smile of hers.
But after last night — seeing her curled on her bedroom floor, murmuring names of ghosts as if they stood over her — he had waited exactly long enough.
Now, he was done waiting.

He knocked once at her door. "Jessica."
Silence.
His fist clenched. "Open the door."
Still nothing.
He didn't hesitate.
Hyde threw the door open and stepped inside, heart stalling at the sight that met him.
Jessica lay crumpled on the bathroom floor, barely conscious, skin slick with sweat, lips pale, her arm twitching slightly as she tried and failed to lift herself.
"Jess—"
"Room won't stop spinning..." she mumbled hoarsely. "I tried to get up—couldn't—Hyde, I—"
He was at her side instantly, catching her before she slipped again. Her breath was shallow, her limbs sluggish.
She retched once, but nothing came up.
Hyde's hand hovered just over her skin — calculating — then dropped to support her head gently. His jaw tightened.
Parlaysium-7.
Jekyll's serum.
He recognized the symptoms immediately. A sedative that mimicked vertigo, nausea, neural paralysis. It was never meant to be used this way — certainly not repeatedly.
He clenched his teeth and scooped her into his arms, lifting her bridal style without hesitation.
Her head lolled onto his shoulder.
Her breath was light.
His chest was tight.
He didn't look back.

Later — The Lab
The antidote was in her system within twenty minutes.
Jessica stirred slowly on the infirmary cot they'd brought into the lab, groaning, her hands twitching as awareness returned.
"Hyde...?"
"I'm here."
She blinked up at him, eyes glassy but clearing. "What happened?"
"You've been poisoned," he said, voice calm — but lined with something cold beneath. "Repeatedly. Carefully. By someone who knows how to do it without leaving a trace."
Her face shifted — just slightly — but it was enough.
"You knew."
Jessica didn't answer.
Hyde stepped back, folding his arms behind him.
"I warned you never to trust him!"
"I didn't!" she defended.
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
Jessica sat up slowly, weak but present. "Because I didn't want you to carry the weight of my pain, too."
Silence.
The lab was too quiet.
Hyde's voice dropped. "Jessica.. he's been torturing you. For months."
Jessica swallowed. "I didn't want to disappoint you."
"You didn't!—" he snapped — more forcefully than he intended. He looked away, composing himself.
Then he reached under the table... and pulled out a black backpack.
"I packed this this morning."
Jessica blinked. "What?"
"You're leaving."
Her stomach dropped.
"What—?"
Hyde turned to face her, eyes hard. "You're going. I'm sending you far from here — far from him. You've done enough. You helped me more than I could've hoped for. But I will not allow you to die here."
"No."
"You don't have a choice."
Jessica stepped off the cot, stumbling once, catching herself on the edge of the table.
"You can't be serious—"
"I'm completely serious, Jessica."
"We are one ingredient away—"
"And if Jekyll decides to take your life before we find it, what then?" he said, voice rising. "Who do I consult with then, Jessica?"
Jessica's hands clenched.
"I've worked too hard—"
"I know that," Hyde said sharply. "But this is where your part ends. You are not expendable."
Tears welled, but she refused to let them fall.
"You said you trusted me."
"I do, Jessica. More than you realize. That's why I'm sending you away. Because if I don't, I'm no better than him."
Her voice cracked. "I thought..I belonged here."
"You still do. Just not anymore right now."
She shook her head. "I was doing fine! I could take it. I was surviving!"
"You were suffering in silence. And I let it go on too long."
Jessica turned away, breathing hard.
"I don't want your pity."
"This isn't pity. This is me choosing to save your life."
She faced him again, eyes blazing. "Then let me choose too. Let me stay Mr. Hyde were so close-"
Hyde held out the bag. "Take it. Inside you'll find money. Enough to start over."
"I don't want your money—"
"Take it anyway, Jessica. It wasn't a request."
Jessica's voice dropped to a dangerous hush.
"I'm not leaving because you said so," she whispered, snatching the bag. "I'm leaving because I'm going to find that last ingredient — even if it kills me. Because I've got nothing else left."
Hyde's mouth parted — but no words came.
Jessica slung the bag over her shoulder, wiping her eyes quickly with the back of her sleeve.
He tried, one last time.
"You can have a future, Jessica. A real one. You deserve that."
She stared at him. Quiet. Wounded. Steady.
"So do you and. Hyde. As for me, I already found it," she said softly. "I found it in you."
She stepped back. Hyde's eyes widened in shock hearing her revelation.
"Don't die before I get back," she added, eyes sharp. "Because you still owe me a bottle of Syrah, two glasses and a slow night withs good book by the fire."
Then she turned and walked out of the lab, her boots echoing in the silence.

Hyde (Narration):
*"I let her walk away.
I let the only good thing I'd touched in decades disappear down that corridor.

And for the first time since Mary Ellen's scream echoed out that window...

I felt alone again."*