j.d purnell

"Jessie, come down here for a minute!"

J.D's footsteps were loud and booming as she jumped down the stairs of her home. A large, breathless grin graced her tiny features as she bolted into Albert Purnell's home office. She turned the corner and saw the tall, welcoming sight of her father seated at his dark desk, his hands fiddling with something she couldn't see. A soft light illuminated the room, as the curtains had been drawn shut. "Yeah, dad?"

"C'mon over here, sweetheart," he muttered, glancing down at her with a wide smile. The two were very similar in features, with the same nose and high cheekbones, the likeness was uncanny. He reached down and picked the eight-year-old up, balancing her on his hip as he pointed towards the surface of his desk, where a strange, distorted piece of material sat.

"What's that?" She asked, her voice soft and curious. It was just the two of them at home that day, as Mason and Sylvia were at a birthday party for the afternoon. J.D had spent a couple of hours playing with her toys upstairs while her father worked far too hard by himself. She loved the moments when she could spend time with him, as they were limited, even on weekends.

"Technically, it's me," Albert responded, and J.D's eyebrows furrowed in pure confusion. Albert chuckled a little at his daughter's adorable expression, before pointing to the pale, strange thing before them. "I made it using my DNA, but that isn't what I wanted to show you. What I wanted you to see was this."

Using his free hand, Albert picked up a vial of clear liquid and poured it on the specimen. J.D watched in awe as the substance bubbled against the dead skin and blood, before the entire object disappeared in thin air. Her eyes widening, J.D gasped loudly. "Where did it go?"

"It's still there, see?" Albert reached forward poked it, his finger stopping as it hit the article. "The fluid enhances the cells and locks onto specific attributes of my DNA. It's cool, isn't it?"

"It's awesome!" J.D exclaimed, leaning forward in pure interest, innocence and curiosity lacing her features. "Can it work on me? Can I be invisible?"

"I don't know, I need a lot more power than what I have if the serum will ever work on a human," Albert responded thoughtfully, placing his daughter back on her feet. J.D sighed, stepping towards his desk and standing on her tip-toes so that she could see his experiments. Albert stared down at her with a soft smile on his lips. "But I promise, if I ever perfect it, I'll give you the coolest powers out there."

"Really?" J.D beamed, and Albert laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side. J.D latched onto his leg, cheery giggles escaping her lips. "Thanks, dad!"

"You're gonna do great things someday, kid," he smiled down at her, his voice a little quieter, though she still heard him. He paused, before beginning to clear up his work station. "How about we go and get an ice cream?"

J.D's grin widened, and she threw her hands up in joy. "Yes please! I'll go get my shoes!"

Albert laughed as she rushed off, her face pink with delight. As she turned the corner, his smile fell a little and he turned back to his workspace, his chest tightening slightly. He heard J.D's loud footsteps in her room above him, and he sighed, opening his drawer and pulling out a digital camera.

J.D rushed around upstairs, picking up her yellow raincoat and neon green wellies, slipping them on her feet and pulling the jacket over her shoulders. She looked around her small room, before grabbing her Winnie the Pooh plush toy and running out of the space again. "Dad, I'm ready!"

She rushed back into her father's office to see him hastily shoving something in a drawer, though she didn't think much of it. Albert turned to her and smiled, picking up his jacket that hung over his desk chair and his house key, before ushering her out the house. "C'mon, sweetheart. Let's get you some ice cream."

J.D sat up in her bed, her head a little hazy. Her thick eyebrows knitted together and she pushed herself from her mattress, picking up her phone and turning it on as she walked over to her wardrobe. A sigh escaped her lips as she glanced down at her illuminated phone screen.

3:56am.

"Nice," she muttered to herself, before quietly opening the door to her closet, flicking the light on and stepping inside. Her eyes scanned the top shelf of the messy space, before they landed on an old grey box hidden behind some blankets. Standing on her toes, she managed to reach for it and took it off the wire shelf, her tired eyes meeting a bright green padlock.

Pursing her lips and exiting her wardrobe, she shut the door with her foot and took the box over to her desk, where she set it down and sat on her computer chair. The teenager opened one of the desk drawers and shifted through the mounds of paper, grasping her well-hidden knife that she treasured so dearly. She still wondered what she should name it, even after so long.

J.D placed the tip of the blade into the lock and shifted it around, waiting for the click. It took a moment, but she managed to get it unlocked. Lifting the lid, she was met with a dozen sanitary towels and tampons, which she pushed aside, instead seeing a bloodied file and a leather wallet. She frowned as her hands picked up both objects, each of them filling her with a different kind of dread.

The file was back in her hands after Tony had returned it when she stayed Upstate over summer. The Manilla folder was covered in a scarlet handprint that had dried over time, and drops of blood had marked their place. Her stomach churning, she put the file to one side, not wanting to see anything that lay beyond the cover. Instead, she focused on the dark brown wallet, one of the few objects she had been left after her parents died.

Opening it, she felt her heart clench when a wedding ring tumbled out and onto the desk surface. A loud 'clunk' sounded and her eyes widened, her hands leaping out to grab it before it made any more noise. A cringe rested on her face as she paused for a moment, though she didn't hear either Gus nor Herb get up from their bedrooms either side of her.

A relieved breath left her as she clasped the gold band, staring down at the engraving of the date her parents got married and their initials. Furrowing her eyebrows, J.D reached into her small jewellery box in the corner of her desk, opening it and picking up an empty necklace chain. She carefully looped her father's ring through the chain, her fingers handling it as if it were the Queen's jewels. She knew Mason had her mother's ring, as he often wore it on his pinky. She barely wore her father's as it was far too big for her little fingers.

After clipping the necklace around her neck, she resumed searching through Albert's wallet. It was an expensive brand, clearly, but she had no idea what it was. Opening it, she saw bumps in the material, so she knew there was something in there. Her parents had died so long ago, she could barely remember what she had been left in the will.

The teenage girl reached into the pockets only to come up with nothing. Frowning, her fingers lined the back of the wallet, and her eyes widened when the back pocket split open, revealing a secret pocket with a key and a piece of paper inside. She picked the items up between her fingers, eyeing them cautiously.

The key was completely unfamiliar, and the piece of paper had black marker scrawled upon it. Turning it around so that it was the right side up, she squinted a little as she tried to make out her father's messy handwriting.

Double Mint Chocolate Chip with rainbow sprinkles.

"What the hell, dad?" J.D muttered, tossing the paper back onto her desk. Her head was spinning as she tried to think of what message her father was trying to get across to her. She frowned, tapping her foot quietly against the ground. Obviously he was talking about ice cream, it was what she would order every single time they went out when she was a kid. The best mint chocolate chip was from the corner store down the road from their old house a few miles away.

The restless teenage girl wanted nothing more than to tug on her suit and run down the street to figure out the puzzle her father had left behind, but the thought of having to break into an old ice cream store on a school night seemed utterly exhausting. Leaning back in her chair, she reached for the ring now resting on her collarbone, fiddling with it. She found herself thinking about her father and all that he had done. She had never thought of him as a particularly evil man, but everything that she had learned about him in the past few months made her realise that she didn't really know anything about him.

She still missed him and her mother, they were incredibly important to her and they had died trying to help her. There were times where she wished her life could have been taken instead of theirs, but that would never be the case.

Tightening her lips, she sighed through her nose and opened her desk drawer again, rummaging through it until she found what she was looking for. She had never thrown it out, but it made her feel sickly and upset whenever she stared at it. She was feeling that way now. Her heart thudded in her chest as her eyes rested on the old photograph of her family. It was moving day, and the photo was a complete mess. The seven and a half year old had grabbed the family camera and taken a series of pictures that made no sense, and one of them happened to be of the Purnell group preparing to leave their home in England.

Mason was in the background with Sylvia, obviously crying his eyes out, as he didn't want to leave the house forever. J.D's face took up the centre third of the screen in an unflattering but undeniably adorable way, her large cheeks bunched as she grinned widely. Albert was behind her, his eyes sparkling and his smile broad as he chased after her.

J.D stared at the photograph for a moment longer, smiling a little. She felt her heart ache as she thought about Mason, still wishing he was in the room next door. Averting her eyes from the picture, she picked up her phone and began texting Mason, who was going on about becoming a Pastafarian minister for thirty-five dollars online.

mason are you awake I'm bored

what time is it there

answer me you hoe

dude

duuuuuude

wow

you care about this flying spaghetti monster god more than your own sister

how rude

mase

mason you dick

ugh

you suck

you stupid asshole and your relatively responsible bedtimes

fine

i don't need you anyway

bye

J.D groaned and threw her phone onto her bed, standing up from the chair and walking over to her window. Resting her hands on the sill, she stared out into the black abyss of Queens. She wished, like many nights, that she could be normal once again, but that would never happen, and it kinda sucked.

She wondered what her life would be like if her parents were still alive, if she could leave her room and she'd find them down the hall. She wondered if they'd still be in New York, if they'd still love each other. She wondered if she'd ever become the Bladerunner, if all the pain and loss she had experienced would ever have gone away. How would her relationship with Peter have turned out? Would they still be as close with Herb?

"Shut up, J.D," she muttered to herself, running a hand through her hair and walking over to her bed, dropping onto the soft mattress.

The fact that she was missing her father and thinking about ice cream at what was now four in the morning was less unusual than other things she had woken up thinking about, but she wished that her brain could stop torturing her every so often.

+++

Ah yes, another weird sentence to end the chapter on

this chapter is v important cause this book is gonna include major pointers about j.d's past yay!! also soz if this gave off major amazing spider man vibes didn't mean it lolololol oops

also unpopular opinion i'm starting to like albert purnell bye