But now they’ve got her keeping three fugitives in her living room, including Jessica Jones, and the only reason there aren’t four is because Colleen Wing has insisted she can’t leave for at least another month or so. And now it turns out Matt has superpowers too, and he’s supposed to come back with the famous Inhuman Bess is still intrigued to see, in spite of everything.
But instead he arrives with only small cardboard box. “Agent Johnson’s been spotted in Hoboken. They’re sending in-I don’t even know, but it’s bad. Mr. Harrington’s two students understood the instructions and they put the nanotechnology together, but I don’t think she can get here without us all getting caught.”
“If we could get that to her,” says one of the refugees, “she could knock their stuff out without knocking out her own and fly off with everyone, right?”
“Yeah” says Jessica, “but we’ve got to go ourselves now, and I still think you should come with us, Matt. Karen and your kids could be on the road after us by six…”
“I told you, I’m not leaving when they still don’t know who I am. And Captain Knight’s really going to need me now, next time they try to classify her as superpowered. But…” He shakes his head. “She’s made clear to me she doesn’t want me spotted as Matt Murdock anywhere near any situations involved superpowers…”
“Would it be a problem if I was?” Bess hears herself asking, a moment before she realizes she has that thought.
It’s a crazy idea. There’s no way she can get there before the cops did if they were lucky or the army did if they weren’t. She has no idea how to smuggle things even in normal situations, let alone that one. She waits for someone to tell her that.
But Jessica’s just standing there. And then Matt, who’s had his eyes closed and is clearly listen to something, says, “If you went now and took the PATH trains, you could probably get to Hoboken Terminal before they stop the trains. I can still hear some police communications right now, and they’re not being efficient about this.” It’s still kind of unnerving, to actually witness him doing this.
He spends another moment or so silent again, before saying, “I can get to Stark Tower. They’ll allow me to send Agent Johnson a message telling her to expect you there, and they’ll crash out the security cameras. But don’t try to leave the station. Believe me, Mrs. Mahoney, if it wasn’t for how many refugees Agent Johnson has with her, I’d tell you not to do this at all.”
After that there’s little time for goodbyes. Bess puts the box in her bag, puts her shoes on, and hurries out. Getting an idea when she steps outside and sees a small piece of slate on the pavement, she grabs it and puts it in the box.
She gets to the train station without any trouble. But there’s no trace of Daisy Johnson on the platforms, and near the entrance, she instead finds cops setting up a barricade-not enough of them to keep their eyes on everything, though.
The first two people she asks questions of have no idea what’s going on. The third believes “that bitch Quake” busted out the terminal’s cameras. When she asks in response, “Is she in here or outside?” two different people give her both answers.
Most of the people now stuck in the waiting area are gathered as close to the barricade as the cops will allow. But all else aside, Bess is too old a woman who’s taken too long a trip to remain standing. Instead she seats herself at the other end of the fancy wooden seats, listening to the announcement that all trains in the area have been stopped. She already supposed she’d get stuck here for a while, but she’s holding out hope she’ll at least get home by the evening.
In the end, the all she gets to actually see of Daisy Johnson is a look at her eyes and brow, peering out from a closed ticket window. It’s a good thing she spent so much of the trip staring at a photo on her phone; she never would’ve recognized her otherwise. But she can also tell she’s looking at her.
When she takes the box out, after a quick glance confirms noone else is paying attention to her right now, Bess risks holding it up, in her clear sight, before placing it on the floor. Then she gets up and starts walking, craning her head as if she’s trying to get a glimpse of the barricades. When she’s on the other side of the waiting area she deliberately slips and falls, yelling as she hits the floor.
Three different people are immediately offering help, and a lot more are distracted. There’s nothing broken-she made sure not to land on her hip-but she’s genuinely grateful for the aid getting up. She makes sure to chatter as she rises, vague reassurances and thanks. She tries not to look too closely at the young man who reminds her of Brett.
She only gets one glimpse of the box, when she’s nearly up. By then it’s shuffling itself to the far wall, obviously being pulled by the piece of slate she put in it. She hopes Agent Johnson gets herself and it out of the station before she does whatever she’s going to do.
She dawdles just a touch, just to buy a little more time, before she sits back down, and waits.