A Dislike For Purple

Chapter 30

~~6 months later~~

I knocked on the door. I wasn't expecting her to answer.. I knew how long I'd been gone. I didn't even answer the phone. I knew where I stood in a possible argument. I was at fault... It was all on me. Jessica opened the door...

"I'm so-" She immediately hugged me and silenced my apology. Jess wasn't much of a hugger but she held on tight and didn't let go. Tears rolled down my face and I wiped them away quickly. When I saw Jessica's s face her eyes were red from tears.
"Im sorry Jess, " I apologized. She wiped away the tears and had me come inside. The place was covered in pictures of me, newspaper clippings and articles all to do with the murder and my disappearance. "You understand why I had to leave... Don't you?"

"You could have called, " she replied.

"I know, I just wasn't ready to come back yet, "

"Where did you go?"

"Those people I told you about before, they helped me go underground until things cleared up with the police, "

"Why did you come back, " Jessica sounded cold.

"I was tired of living a life that wasn't mine... "

~~6 months earlier~~

I was standing in a clean office, the outside establishment said it was a doctors office but I wasn't here for the same kind of appointment.

"Emma?" The receptionist called. I got up and followed her into a side door separate from patients. We stopped at an office, I walked in to see a very business looking man sitting behind a desk. As soon as he realized we were there he stood up and greeted me while the receptionist returned.

"It's so nice to finally meet you, Emma!" He shook my hand excitedly.
"I'm  Mr. Zaffer but my friends call me Zaff," he introduced. Zaff was wearing a white collard shirt with a red tie.

"Very nice to meet you, sir," I said shaking the man's hand, he had a firm grip.

"The pleasure is mine, I've heard a lot about what you did.. Im impressed,"

"Excuse my arrogance, what type of reputation do I hold?" I asked feeling a bit confused.

"A strong fierce one, to me it sounds like you've mastered your abilities,"

"I rarely use them," I added to his comment.

"Good, normal people don't tend to understand it anyway,"

"Im sorry for my bluntness but, what exactly is this meeting?"

"No, Im glad you asked, I arranged this meeting to congratulate you on your escape. You are a true hero,"

"I wouldn't say that,"

"Give yourself some credit, you single-handedly defeated the worst man on the planet!"

~~Present day~~
Jessica started to take down the pictures and posters of me. Other than the missing posters everything had stayed the same. I flopped on the couch like the old days and reminisced for a few moments. 

"Don't get comfortable, we're going out,"

"What, we never go out?"

"That was before," Jess said then walked out of the door. I jumped up and followed her out.

"Where are we even going?" I asked. Jess didn't answer she just kept walking and I followed.

After a decent walk, Jess walked into a large building with a sign labeled 'Anger management'. I followed her inside and it was almost as if we had walked through a portal rather than a door by the look on Jessica's face... She was in hell and I felt somewhat responsible. I stayed back standing by a table of some snacks and a pitcher of lemonade. I poured the lemonade into a clear plastic cup. While I was at it I grabbed a cookie and removed myself from the temptation table. The meeting was rather boring and Jessica barely spoke but that was normal. After we grabbed a cup of coffee and headed back to the apartment.

"What are you working on?" I asked sitting in my usual spot on the couch. Jessica Also sat in her usual position, face buried in her laptop.

"Just an old case," she replied. Jess and I never had investigated anything, I hadn't seen a single case that shes worked on... Then, I remembered that we were busy with kilgrave. Not that I really 'forgot' but I tried.

The phone rang and Jess finally lifted her face from the screen.

"Hey, Trish- What?- Okay, we're on the way," Jess hung up and grabbed her black leather jacket and threw it on. I stood up quickly ready to follow Jess.

We arrived just before 11 pm. Trish seemed more wired than I felt. She had an almost manic look on her face.  When her eye finally caught me she looked overloaded with emotions and just began crying. Jess turned away from the empathetic scene. Trish grabbed me up and squeezed me tightly. She was asking so many questions and changing her emotions so fast I didn't have time to respond.

"Where were you??" She finally asked.

"In hiding but I retired,"

"In hiding?? From who?? What??" Trish questioned.

"Trish! Focus, you called us here for a reason," Jess refocused. Trish gave me a sort of look that told me her lecture was far from over.

"I found something I think you'll find interesting..." Trish said alluding to a box on her counter.  "It's your missing time Jess..."