Jessica was one of the toughest women he had ever met, and he had never, in all his time knowing her, recall a single time she had come even remotely close to tears with the exception of her wedding. To see her like this was truly painful. And the explanation that he did not want to give, but that she deserved and needed to hear, would not be easy to voice.
"...It's not even about you and Luke, or your family, Jess. It's me. There's an ancient ruler of a mystical city that has an insatiable grudge against the Iron Fist, and she is doing everything in her power to hurt me and break my spirit. It started with sending assassins who looked like Dinah, and now... now this.." He shook his head.
"I believe the person responsible is someone named Steel Phoenix, who has.. as far as I can tell from what I have seen of Luke and the remains of the bar.. abilities similar to my own. If I were to hit Luke with the Iron Fist, it would not hurt his exterior, but enough blows would eventually rattle his insides, and..."
He let out a breath and figured that at that point, she could more than draw her own conclusions.
"Alright.. alright." Anything. He unconsciously touched the mask he had in his pocket, and wished he had had the forethought to grab a ski mask instead. No matter. Anything.
"I'll take care of this, Jessica", he promised. "But if there's.. say.. anything you could do to create a distraction or otherwise draw out some of personnel from that room, that would be great."
He gave her a last embrace. "I'm going to go change", he said, as he walked briskly down the hall.