Chapter Text
Before the moderate fame, before their first tour and before the real start of their career, The Defenders were mostly just four idiots from New York. The four aspiring musicians got lucky enough to meet a couple of years back. Jessica Jones, who would become their keyboardist, was the real reason why they started their band. She was the one who encouraged all of them to form this band, the glue to their friendship. All of which she would never admit under any circumstances.
Matthew Murdock was nine years old when he first started playing drums. After an accident that left him completely blind, his father encouraged him to pick a hobby, a passion, that didn’t require his sight. It was mostly to keep a smile on his face. He half expected him to quickly grow tired of it, but no. Matt was completely in love with music. Even when his college years started, he never stopped drumming. When his father died, leaving him an orphan during his second year, music was all he had left. That’s when he met Jessica.
Jessica had a similar relationship with music. It was all she had, all that mattered to her. As a child, she took piano lessons from an old lady living down the street from her house. She was passionate and, according to that lady, very talented. When tragedy struck the Jones’ family, killing all her family in a car crash, Jessica was put under the care of Dorothy Walker, the mother of a young superstar, Patsy. Jessica was never starstrucked, never phased by her new adoptive sister, but they found a common ground in music. As they grew up, they became closer, even writing some music together.
When she decided to get into college, Dorothy hated this idea. She wanted her to pursue music, to be famous, like Patsy. She mostly wanted to make money off of her. Jessica almost gave up completely on music because of that. She didn’t want to be her caretaker’s puppet, like her adoptive sister. She didn’t want to be forced to do music she hated. She wanted to feel free with her music, which it always was for her. So, afraid to lose this freedom, she thought about giving it all up. Until she met Matt.
Inspired by his roommate and best friend, Foggy Nelson, Matt was looking for someone to play some music with. He needed to change his hobby into something more serious, something that could ground him while he was going through the grief of his father’s death. He had met with some people, never finding the right sound for him. That, or they would treat him differently because of his blindness.
Jessica had heard from some friends that a guy at Columbia was looking for a band. She didn’t believe in bands, really, but she felt that she needed to go see for herself what this guy was about. The first thing she told him was that he dressed too fancy for a rocker and already Matt knew they would get along. It only solidified when he heard her play. When Jessica asked him where the rest of his band was, he admitted he didn’t have anyone yet. So, she introduced Matt to Luke.
Luke Cage was the bartender at Jessica’s favorite bar. A big guy with a huge heart, he could make any lady fall in love with a smile. When this didn’t work out, he had another weapon : his guitar. That’s how he really got to know Jessica. A fling, nothing more, but that led to a good friendship between them. When he wasn’t working at that bar on 7th Street, Luke was playing music at weddings with his best friend, Danny Rand.
They planned to jam together a couple of times, just to see if they would be a good match, but as soon as they started playing together it was as if it was always meant to be. That's how The Defenders got together. Matt on the drum, Jessica on the keyboard, Luke on the guitar and Danny on the bass and as their lead vocalist.
They weren’t excellent at first, only another rock band in New York City, a city filled with thousands of mediocre garage bands. But they had passion. And a lot of contacts. As soon as they started to find their sound, Jessica asked help from her sister. Patsy – now going as Trish and slowly turning into another pop star following the trends – gave her some numbers from agents and people looking for talents.
It took them three years of playing at small venues and trying desperately to have someone interested in their music before someone actually noticed them. Their first manager was a guy in the business, Stick. He was mostly horrible. It didn’t last long before they knew he was bad news for the band. But he got them their first album contract and their first tour. Even if he was horrible, he brought some good in their life, right?
Their first national tour was a couple of months after the release of their first album, Worst Behavior. They were the opening act of the very enigmatic, pop-rock sensation of the moment, Elektra. According to the world, she was a femme fatale, a seductress who sold out shows in Europe. When you saw her, especially on stage, you wanted to be her or be with her. She was becoming a sex symbol. And she was now touring the United States for the first time. However, according to The Defenders, she was mostly insufferable.
Once you got to know her, Elektra was a calculated cold-hearted manipulative diva who would throw anyone under the bus to get what she wanted. Metaphorically and probably literally, according to Jessica. The worst part was probably how, despite her attitude, one of them fell right into the trap of her manipulation. Matt fell in love with Elektra. With that, he became someone else. The lovable nerd he once was became cocky, distracted and insufferable. He always showed up late, barely did the work and almost avoided everyone. He shut them out, again and again.
Once the tour was over, Elektra was gone, leaving Matt completely alone. He had spent the last months shutting his friends down, leaving them behind. There he was, alone, to deal with his broken heart. How was he supposed to act with them? He didn’t know. So, he shut them out even more, spending more time alone than anything else.
That was until the band decided it was enough. By isolating himself like that, Matt didn’t only put himself on the line. The band was in danger every time he didn’t show up to practice. And Jessica was tired of this. After a month of his absence, she knocked on his door, angry and impossibly annoyed, ready to kick his ass. When he opened the door, he looked miserable. Still, that didn’t lessen her anger.
“Listen to me asshole,” she said to him, words hitting harder than any threat ever could. “You want to ruin your life, fine. But you’re not ruining ours. I’m done with all your bullshit. So get your shit together or leave the band. The choice is yours.”
“Don’t leave me,” was all he managed to say before breaking down right in front of her, taking her by surprise. “Everyone always leaves.” He tried to calm himself, tried to breathe, tried to stop it, but only ended up sitting back on his couch, tears streaming down his face. “I’m so tired of this. It hurts. I can’t take it anymore. It’s too much. I just want everything to stop.” And she understood exactly what he meant by that.
“Shit, Matt,” Jessica breathed, sitting next to him. She wasn’t the best at this. She was usually the one pushing everyone away. She couldn’t let anyone depend on her. But he was her friend, one of her best friends, and he needed her. So she let her head down on his shoulder, probably the most physical she had ever been with him. “You’re not alone, alright? I want you to know that. You’re maybe an asshole, but you’re our asshole. We would suck without you. And my life would be shit without you, too.” She was sincere. Sure, her words were probably a bit harsh at times, but she couldn’t help it, that’s how she was. But, through all of those curses and half-insults, it was her way of showing she cared. “You still need to get your shit together, Murdock. But I’ll always be there for you when you feel like this. That’s what family is for.”
And Jessica was always there when he called, as much as she could.
“I hate her,” she told Foggy late, one night, as they sat in Matt’s living room. It was one of those bad days where Matt had texted her, telling her he couldn’t stand to be alone. So, Jessica did what she did best. She brought alcohol – and called someone else to be with them, unable to be anyone’s moral support. She gave him beers after beers as Foggy truly listened to him. She would never say it, but they made a great team in the ‘Save Matt’ business.
“I hate her too,” Foggy said in return, like he was about to cry. The guy had watched his best friend slowly drift away from him. When, eventually, he got his friend back, Matt was mostly just the shell of who he once was. Just like Jessica, Foggy was now always a little bit afraid something might happen to him. All because of Elektra. They hated her, because this is all they could do. That and support Matt until he actually got better.
With Matt slowly getting back to himself, to the band, things should’ve started to get better. It didn’t.
A call past midnight, on a friday where Jessica and Matt were drinking together, sitting on the floor of his apartment, sobered them up quickly. It was Luke, calling from the police station. He needed a lawyer. “Luke, what the fuck?” she yelled through the phone.
“We all make our mistakes,” he answered coldly. He didn’t explain anything. Probably couldn’t. She didn’t push it.
“We’ll call Foggy,” Jessica told him. That’s the only thing they could do. If he had called her and not Danny or anyone else, it was because he didn’t need a fancy lawyer. He needed someone who would actually help him.
Luke ended up with two months of jail time for assault. At a party, things went out of control and he ended up in a fight, defending the girl he was with. The guy ended up in the hospital with a broken arm. He decided to press charges against Luke. Sixty days in jail and a thousand dollar fine. It could’ve been worse, but because of that the band had to cancel every show planned for the next few months.
The band seemed to be falling apart. And the more it did, the more Jessica drowned in her drinking. Nothing was the same without Luke and they all decided that they couldn’t really work without him. She missed the days when all they had to worry about was if they could find somewhere to play. She missed the days when they had their shit together.
Between drunken nights, she kept telling herself she had to do something before everything got ruined beyond repair.