WHO: Gaby Teller-Mason & Jessica Jones WHERE: The animal shelter Jessica volunteers at WHEN: June 19th WHAT: Jessica saves a life WARNINGS: PG-13 STATUS: Complete
Gaby had jacked the car up properly. She’d been working under cars since she was a kid and she knew what she was doing. At least, she was pretty sure she’d jacked it up properly. She was on her crawler, back supported as she stuck her hands up underneath the car into the brake-line.
“I think,” she called out to Jessica, who had been hanging around to make sarcastic comments and generally provide conversation (and probably hydration if Gaby was the kind to stop working to take a drink), “I found the problem. Your brake line is loose.”
She tugged on the line, grunting with the effort as she did, trying to free it from the catchings underneath. The jacks groaned which was a sound that Gaby was used to, so it didn’t worry her too much.
“How far do you tend to drive in this?” she asked, reaching down to her waist to drag up a wrench.
Jessica had been volunteering at the animal shelter for a few weeks now, and she more or less enjoyed it. One of the big bonuses was animals tended to be a whole lot smarter than people.
They’d asked her to come watch the mechanic who was coming to work on their vans, just in case she needed anything, and Jessica was willing to do that. She didn’t drive, but it wasn’t like she needed to to shoot the breeze, and Gaby seemed alright.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Jessica said. “I don’t drive. I guess they’re out usually for a few hours every day though.” At least, most days that Jessica had been at the shelter, going to pick up strays and doing welfare checks when complaints had come in.
If it was local, Gaby thought, then the distance probably wasn’t that far. Which was lucky, the brake line being shot the way that it was only a matter of time before they’d failed and the van she was currently under would have been unable to stop properly.
“It is a good thing they called,” she announced, tugging on the line again until it was freed. Unfortunately, that also lowered the suspension and caused the jack to shudder ominously, her elbow having caught the edge of the lever and it lowered in a rush, the jack on the other side not quite sufficient to keep the car from dropping down.
Jessica saw the van teeter and fall, and was moving before she even had time to process what was happening. She managed to hook her hands under the frame of the car before it came crashing down, and grunted as she caught it, her muscles straining under the weight. There wasn’t much these days that strained her, but this was, apparently, one of them.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice tight, hoping that she had caught it in time.
When she had seen the undercarriage falling towards her face, Gaby had winced, turned her head to the side but ultimately understanding that she was about to get crushed by a van. It did nothing to stop the way that her heart leapt into her throat, the way that panic ripped and curled its way into her throat, the way her body tensed and her hands lifted like that would make even the tiniest bit of difference.
But then it didn’t fall. Or it did, she felt a part of it hit her face hard enough to make her brain rattle in her skull but she wasn’t crushed and in the seconds that followed, the van even lifted a little. She didn’t reply, not immediately, needing a split second to realise that she wasn’t being crushed. Then she took a breath and used the axel as leverage to move the creeper and roll herself out from underneath the van.
“Scheisse,” she managed, face aching and adrenaline firing. “I- no- I- I am fine.” She sat up and turned her head, seeing Jessica pretty much holding the van up. “Are you-”
Once Gaby was out from under the van, Jessica let it drop with a heavy thump. The van bounced on its suspension, before settling where it was. “Yeah, fine,” Jessica answered her, and resisted the urge to rub her triceps. It wasn’t that they hurt, but they were heavy in the way arms often were after someone lifted too much weight. She studied Gaby’s face, though there was no immediate signs of damage - of course, if there was any bruising that might come later - and then offered her a hand to help pull the other woman to her feet. “You’re not hurt?” she asked, just to be sure.
Gaby shook her head, “No- I- I am fine,” she replied after a moment, rubbing her hand over her face and wincing a little, it felt warm and was throbbing which she knew would be painful later. She knew that bruising would probably form over the next few days and her forearms were scraped but she was okay otherwise. She reached out and took the offered hand, letting Jessica pull her to her feet and she stopped the creeper from disappearing by putting her foot on it.
“I may have to tow the van to my garage though, so I can get it properly lifted and avoid it potentially falling on my head again.”
She tilted her head, looking at Jessica carefully. “I- I believe you lifted- did you just lift the van off me?” Because that was precisely what she had seen, but she found it hard to believe. “Are you alright? Do you need medical attention?”
“Not a bad idea,” Jessica said. “Being crushed by a van doesn’t seem like a good way to end the day.” Watching someone get crushed by a van wouldn’t be exactly pleasant either. Over the last year, Jessica had grown to accept her powers, but it didn’t mean that she liked having them. But today, she was grateful she did.
“Yeah,” she said, answering Gaby’s question. Obviously Gaby had seen it happen and so an answer probably wasn’t necessary, but if someone wasn’t initiated into the ways of Orange County, she could understand that someone might need the clarification so they didn’t think they were going insane. “I’m fine though. No doctors needed.” Jessica tried to avoid doctors anyway, ever since she dreamed of being experimented on by one.
“You sure?” Gaby asked, because honestly nobody should be able to catch and lift a van, certainly not high enough to allow her to slip out from underneath it when it would have crushed her. “You are not hurt?”
Her eyes were tracing over Jessica as if she wanted to make sure for herself. She paused, frowning and then rubbing her palms together. “I- How did you do that?” she asked, because she had read about such things happening when mothers needed to rescue their child but this was not such a scenario.
“It’s a long story,” Jessica said, and not one she especially wanted to get into. Kilgrave might not have had any part in Jessica acquiring her powers, but it was impossible to think of the dreams without thinking of him, and her heart sped up every time she did. Still, Gaby deserved some kind of explanation. “Have you ever heard of the Dreams?”
Gaby nodded, “I- I have seen the network,” she offered. “And I have… had a few of my own. Though they are hardly fanciful.” She’s been dreaming of being in German, behind the Iron Curtain. She’s spent time in the library since, trying to understand or learn more about that time period. “I do not quite understand, though.”
“Some of us were lucky enough to get powers along with the Dreams,” Jessica said, not sounding as though she thought it was very lucky at all. It was hard to, when her powers also came with memories of being experimented on for months. “So now I can open pickle jars and lift vans.”
Gaby was quite sure that the dumbstruck expression had not vanished from her face and she blinked a couple of times. “Powers?” she repeated, “Powers like those of a superhero?”
Not entirely sure how to process that knowledge, Gaby just rubbed her hand across the back of her neck and gingerly touched her face again, knowing that would bruise.
“I- I will need to arrange for the van to be towed, I think.” She rubbed her hands together, “Thank you- for- for not letting the van crush me.”
“Minus the hero part, yeah,” Jessica said. No that there weren’t superheroes in her dreams, but she definitely wasn’t one of them. She did feel a little bad about how shocked Gaby was about all of it. She could still remember the first time she’d learned of the powers, when Logan’s throat had been ripped out by a killer rabbit one moment and then healed the next as if by magic. It was a lot to dump on someone who had always thought the world worked in one way. “You get used to it,” she added, as if that would help.
Jessica shrugged at Gaby’s thanks. “It beat watching it land on you,” she said.
Gaby put her hands in her pockets carefully, “Still, I appreciate it.” She wet her lower lip, “I- I should let someone inside know that I have to take this back to my shop for repairs and arrange for the van to be collected.”
She looked apologetic, “I know it is important; but I think I would prefer to complete this work in my shop, where I can lift it without needing to rely on something that may fail and squash me. I am- grateful that you were here.”
Jessica shrugged. It wasn’t her problem where the van got worked on, but as far as she was concerned, almost being crushed to death by it was as good a reason as any to make sure that it could be worked on somewhere a little more safely.
“That makes sense. I can let them know if you, you know,” she paused. “Need a minute.”
Gaby nodded, “A minute might be wise,” she said with a nod of her head, patting her pockets down to find her phone. She would call for a tow and follow it back in her own car and then, once it was in her workshop, she would get some ice for her aching face. “Thank you.”
Jessica still didn’t think she deserved Gaby’s thanks. It wasn’t as if she had done anything that anyone with super-strength would have done if they weren’t in the same situation. Still, she raised her hand in a show of acknowledgement as she made her way inside. She was just glad that Gaby hadn’t ended up seriously hurt or worse.