(Almost) Murder in the dance floor (for streetlevel )

[hawk_shot]

With her thumb, Kate tried to get it out. She dug, finger by finger, under the rim of each one of her nails as she tried to dig out those mucky red lines that had once been Matt's blood. Her hands were still shaking.

Looking back, she should have known. Deep down she knew, Matt and Kate had spent the day warning each other not to do anything stupid at the Black and White Ball the Fisks had hosted, inviting anyone influential at the city of New York. And not so very smoothly, Matt as his girlfriend's plus one. It was a recipe for disaster and they both pretended to have it all under control.

Things started well, even if by this point the water was starting to boil. Kate's gown flowed as she made her way through the crowd, always clocking Matt, Fisk and the task force around them. She had eventually spotted Jack too who, still warmed her heart with how graciously she treated her despite of how her mother had framed him for her crimes. It's shocking how you can misjudge a person sometimes.

But, before Jack could warn her about his conversation with Fisk, the Mayor had sent one of his people asking Kate to join him in a private room for a chat. Kate could feel Matt's presence on her back as the door closed behind her. She knew his ears were in the room with them too as Fisk, as charming as a murderer can be, reminded her of their first encounter. The fight during Christmas Eve. He made it clear that he knew about Kate's gig now as a vigilante. The demand for a monetary contribution from Bishop Security's behalf had not been all that subtle. A tax to keep his rabid guard dogs off her neck.

By the time Kate walked out of the room, her hands shook with frustration. She should have heard the water boiling by then.

It had all happened too quickly then. The dance, the gunshot, Fisk pushing Matt off himself as if he was trash. Her friend being down on the floor, red blossoming on his white shirt like a deadly rose. While Heather called for help Kate had placed both her hands on the wound while the ambulance came over, blood staining the silks of her dress. His blood giving her red gloves, blood still clinging to the rim of her nails no matter how many times she washed her hands at the hospital.

It was strange and tense and horrible, waiting. Matt might be stable now, but Kate and Heather barely broke the silence in the room until Kirsten showed up.

Comments

TY for starting!

[streetlevel]

The world swam. Sounds, not sights, registered first. Murky as though underwater. They made his head pound. Scents came next, horrible scents of death and decay, of sterilization that couldn't hide the bodies wasting away. Matt hated hospitals. He'd hated them ever since he was a child. That mix of fear and revulsion had never truly gone away, but he was too drugged to feel the full weight of that anxiety. The past mixed with the present in his haze.

Dancing with two women. No, three. That slow spin with Vanessa, where she danced on a knife's edge that neither of them was certain he wouldn't aim towards her. Foggy. He still hadn't gotten the full truth out of her, but Matt knew she was lying. There was something infinitely frustrating about knowing things that people wouldn't admit. To hearing Fisk threaten the people around him, peeling back the thin veneer of civility because it was inconvenient. That white suit housed a monster who would not change, not because he couldn't, but because deep down he didn't want to.

That was where they differed. Matt, too, had gotten his hands dirty when he'd shoved Dexter off that roof. Making the split second choice now to save Fisk's life at risk of his own was in no small part to not be that person again. Whether he wore a lawyer's suit or the Daredevil mask, Matt didn't want to house a monster. He wanted to be a better man. He wanted to win, but not on the terms the Fisks had set.

There was someone with him. Someones? It was so hard to tell with the drugs. His senses came in waves, sometimes faded and far away for him, sometimes so blistering that he felt he was going insane. He couldn't regulate himself and his powers like he usually did, but he was too groggy to do anything about it.

So he said the first name that came to mind as he fought his way back to the world.

"Kate?"

My pleasure 💜

[hawk_shot]

She wondered what it must be like to find comfort in praying, like Matt surely did on this type of situations. As she rubbed at her knuckles, Kate wondered if she should silently give that a go. It felt strange, out of place for her, like singing to a song you don't really know the lyrics to.

Hunched as she was on her seat, she looked up sharply, the attention of all three women in the room captured as Matt coughed, clearly coming back to his senses. Heather approached his bed and, Kate later would be thankful by how she had not seen the look in her face the moment Matt called another woman's name. Her name.

It was like being showered with a bucked of ice cold water.

Their eyes met briefly as Heather turned to give her and Kirsten a look. Kate noticed the confusion, the hurt, the silent questions. But Kirsten was like an angel in that room, quickly reminding Matt's girlfriend that this was surely the drugs speaking.

Kate felt as if she had commited some crime, glad that Matt had now called for Heather and his girlfriend was looking after him, giving him some water. Kirsten shot her a curious glance and rubbed her back, encouraging Kate too to get up and approach the bed with her.

[streetlevel]

He'd come to rely on his senses. They were the trade off for losing his sight, his special way of interacting with the world now. To have them dampened made Matt antsy, and he groggily shifted in his bed as he asked after the well being of Heather and Kate. Once he was assured they were both fine he sipped some water, realizing the creaky sound being made was coming from his own voice. His tongue felt too big for his mouth, the rest having a cotton-like sensation. He swallowed hard as he asked, "Fisk?"

Heather paused a moment, trying her personal and professional best to understand the man that lay in front of her as she answered him. "You saved his life."

"Yeah. I heard someone scream gun and I just reacted." Again with a half-truth, which meant that it was partly a lie. Matt had heard that metal click before anyone screamed. It had given him the edge to respond before anyone else. Otherwise Kate might have leaped in front first, and Matt didn't want to think about that possibility. His head turned a little, but it was in the direction of Kate who approached the bed. "Poindexter? Jack?"

"Bullseye is still at large." Another voice answered part of his question. Kirsten's. Matt was so drugged he hadn't even registered her fully in the room until she helped him cover for saying Kate's name. Hearing that the shooter was still alive and well, and active, Matt ripped out the tube from his nose and struggled to sit upright.

"He... Vanessa Fisk ordered the hit on Foggy." Matt's voice was weak but determined, that stubborn streak not willing to budge on this. He could feel the frustration from some in the room but he stood firm. He licked dry, cracked lips and persevered. "Kirsten, listen, the case Foggy was working on, can you get me access to it from-" A groan overtook him as he sat up too fast, pulling at stitches.

[hawk_shot]

It felt almost safe, stepping in behind Kirsten. "Jack is fine. Everything - It was all a little chaotic, but nobody else got seriously hurt as they were evacuated."

The screams. It was all too loud, waves of terrorized people swarming towards every exit. And then there was Heather and Kate, down on the floor, helpless as they begged for time to stop and wait for Matt, to give him a chance.

"Hey." It was soft, almost shy, the way Kate called him out as Matt tried to sit upright while his body was still clearly protesting. But Matt continued with the little strenght he had, as always. No matter how beaten, he always keeps going. There was something far more urgent, the need to share what we knew and get more answers. Finally, he dropped it: Matt finally knew who ordered the hit on Foggy.

It squeezed at Kate's heart painfully. Something they had waited for too long almost revived the feelings of that night, of the call. Foggy's body felt cold again and all because of that one woman. "Why? How did you--?" Kate's voice grew louder, more confident, not caring about the consequences of anything of what had happened in that room the last few minutes.

"Matt!" Calm as collected as Kirsten normally was, there was an gravity in her voice as she placed her hands on his chest, trying to still him. Kate was drawn out of her pain as she noticed how he had messed his stitches. "I'm getting a nurse," Kate announced and without hesitation, almost leaped out of the room.

The hallways felt oddly empty even though she knew how busy the place was. Rushing thorugh every step, by the time she found a nurse on her way to her station and she guided her back to the room, the conversation had shifted into a whispered argument.

"... They were celebrating an early win, but I think it was just bluster," Kirsten tried to explain to Matt. Kate wished she could ask for context, if this could somehow clarify what Matt had fount ouf about Vanessa Fisk.

"You realize they were the ones getting shot at?" It was exasperated, the tone in which Heather seemed to be trying to bring back Matt to her reality.

Luckilly for Matt, the nurse shushed him and granted him escape from that rhetorical question. Instead, she called him out for having tried to sit up as so soon and undid his gown to explore the freshly open wound. Calling on backup for her colleagues to bring up supplies, he was soon being patched up.

The silence in the room was only interrupted by Heather's frustrated sighs. Could anyone blame her? Kate herself wanted to smack Matt for having risked his life for Fisk, of all people. Kirsten rubbed her shoulders and, almost as if she was being naughty by interuptig the silence, she asked in whispers if Kate needed to call someone. If she needed a ride later. Kate thanked her as the nurses finally chastised Matt one last time and left the room.

Heather lingered by his side, but seemed reluctant to touch him. Did anyone in there not feel the temptation to strangle the man? "I think it's better I come back once you've had some rest," she stated, leaning in for a cold kiss to his cheek. "We all should," she added as she avoided looks and gathered her things. With her gaze down and a firm step, Kate watched her march out of the room.

[streetlevel]

"Fisk is dangerous, Heather. More than you know. I'm sorry you don't believe me, but it's the truth." Matt didn't need perfect senses to detect the frustration in the room directed at him. He felt frustrated in turn that he wasn't able to effectively convince the women around him that he wasn't going crazy, that it wasn't just revenge blinding him. He started to stop Heather then just let her go, tiredly easing back against the cushions. What would be the good even if she did believe him? It wasn't like she was going to approve on what he planned to do about it. It wasn't like she was willing to see Daredevil as an ally rather than a public enemy.

He quietly thanked the nurse who stitched him up again and closed his eyes, feeling the room spinning. A motion to dismiss. Why had Foggy been bent on filing one? His attention was only half on Kirsten as she reiterated that she was glad he was all right, but that they needed to have a serious conversation later. He could hear the gravity in her voice as she took her leave.

One heartbeat left. Matt's head was still tilted towards where the two other women had stood, each turning their back and leaving once having their final say.

One heartbeat left.

"I suppose you think I'm insane and dangerous, too."

[hawk_shot]

It pained her, watching Matt giving up. Kate wondered if he felt betrayed, even if he sure sounds insane to anyone who isn't aware of everything that Fisk was doing or is capable of. It's the kinda nightmare you read in books or see in movies, isn't it? The world thinking you're insane, leaving you alone. Ophelia with a mask, stubble and a gunshot instead of a deadly dive. So very chic urban, huh?

"No, I think you're stupid."

Kate might be mad at him, but she is aware that she's not carrying the same frustration Matt's girlfriend does. Or even why Kirsten isn't willing to listen. So many things went wrong tonight.

She still reaches for his hand and takes it between hers, aware that now more than ever Matt needs a friend.

"I can't believe you took a bullet for him. For once Bullseye could have made all of our lives so much easier." But then, that's a lie.

Taking a deep breath, Kate lets out a stuttery sigh.

"Fisk's wife killed Foggy?"

[streetlevel]

Her blunt comment about his stupidity startled Matt out of his defensive self-wallowing. His brow furrowed as he prepared for another fight, but Kate taking his hand eased a little of the building tension within him. It was as though it was a gesture to indicate she wasn't about to turn on her heel and flee from him. Stick had always warned him that people would turn away from him because of his powers, but the old mentor never mentioned all the other ways Matt might lose his family and friends. Over the years he'd found out in quick succession. It genuinely surprised him more when people didn't leave from his life, and he knew he could be self-sabotaging in furthering that process along.

He made a small sound, not quite a mirthless laugh, at the statement that Bullseye could have made their lives easier if Matt had just let Fisk die. It wasn't completely wrong. Fisk being alive meant people were in danger and likely to get hurt. To die. Was Matt just protecting his own soul at the risk of so many others by saving the man who was a monster?

"There wasn't much thinking going on in that moment. I just reacted." An instinct to push one man off a roof, an instinct to take a bullet for another. Matt couldn't entirely figure himself out, either. He was just tired of death being the answer even to a question he'd been having.

"I believe Vanessa sent Bullseye after Foggy, yes. Foggy wouldn't have been having that drink if he didn't think he had a rock solid case, that he'd already won. He was too superstitious for that. I need to get my hands on those old files. There was something in them that Vanessa was willing to shut down at any cost." He started struggling to sit up again only to have a dizzy spell so hard he fell back against the pillows.

[hawk_shot]

Kate didn't need special superhuman powers, echolocation or whatever tag might be close to making justice to Matt's abilities. No, his pain is easy to see. She knows he surely doesn't hold any grudges towards Heather or Kirsten over how they walked away. He's enough of a good guy to know when to put himself in other people's perspective. To understand how insane this all sounds.

Pissed off as she might be with him right now, why would she leave his side when she just had the scare of her life about losing him? About losing another friend to a gunshot. Another friend being stolen away.

"Yeah, the not thinking much part I already guessed." And yet, Kate's tone shifts into something softer, her thumbs stroking Matt's knuckles. There's time to call him out for this bullshit, but as new as Kate is on the job, she knows that time is something they don't exactly have. Specially if Matt has outted himself to Vanessa Fisk, letting her know that he knows.

"Okay, so what's the next step? Do you want me to go after Kirsten and insist on her getting..." She shrugs. "Whatever file or thing you want from her? Do you want me to talk to Cherry? I-- Matt!" Again, he was trying to get up. Kate grabbed him by the bicep, trying to hold him in place. "Hey. Hey, stop this. I know you think you're Superblind, but you need to take a fucking minute now."

[streetlevel]

A part of Matt, because he wasn't perfect, was feeling resentful and frustrated with Heather and Kirsten. While he knew that his claims might sound outlandish to strangers, he'd hoped that those closer to him would trust him. He's frustrated that his relationships with the two women have become so strained that they can't take that leap of faith with him. He's upset that he knows he was partly to cause for that dynamic to decay. He's bothered that even despite his faults and what he's done, they won't listen. There were a lot of conflicting feelings and emotions right now inside of him that combined with the drugs and pain made rational thinking even harder. He wasn't about to condemn Heather and Kirsten, but he's absolutely a little mad at them along with himself.

At least they're alive right now for him to be mad at. They won't be for long if Fisk keeps getting ahead.

He let out a frustrated grunt but he didn't try to move again, at least not yet, from the pillows as Kate pressed him back down onto them. "We don't have a minute." Even he could tell how dramatic he sounded, and his defiant expression faded to one of tired yet grudging acknowledgement. He needed a few more minutes before he could get up. Just a few. "Yeah. Maybe call Cherry. Tell him to be careful, though. ... I wonder what the news is saying. I can't hear it from the other rooms yet." Surely televisions were on elsewhere, but Matt was too groggy still to pick things out just yet. "I need to tell the nurse to cut my painkillers." He'd rather have a clearer head and be in pain than having his senses scrambled.

[hawk_shot]

Matt couldn't wait. The people they love and care about, the city itself needs them to keep going. It's a tough lesson, one that reminds her why Clint wanted her to keep away from this lifestyle, back when being a superhero meant nothing but going out each night, doing a good deed and coming back home with a happy conscience.

Now, Kate is starting to understand how different things are. How this never stops, doesn't let you sleep, doesn't even allow you to accept a moment to rest even though you really need it.

She shifts, moving to sit on his bed, against his hip, as her hand stays lightly over his torso. A silent request for him to try and stop. At the same time, her thumb keeps stoking those knuckles of his, the ones she's used to seeing bloody and sore.

"I'll call Cherry, okay? I'll talk to Pete, too. Hell, he probably heard all about this on the news already." The news had been vague when Kate allowed herself a minute to check them, every channel, every piece of social media a copy paste version of the same statements, she explained. By now, however, she wouldn't be surprised if things changed. "I know you have a hard time delegating tasks, but we are a team, remember?"

But Kate herself needs that minute.

Holding his hand with both of hers again, she slowly held them up until the back of his fingers touching her forehead. Almost as if she was praying.

"You scared me shitless, Matt."

[streetlevel]

He felt the mattress sag a little as Kate settled her weight onto it. Her body felt warm against his hip and upper thigh through the blanket laid over him. It was a welcome addition. He wasn't freezing, but hospitals were always cold even with the blankets. Her hand was warm, too. The rubbing against his knuckles is soothing, and for a brief moment he turns his hand enough so that he could give hers a slight squeeze in return. The hand on his chest felt like it was practically against his skin through the thin hospital gown. He could feel the beating of his own heart vibrating back against her palm. Concentrating, he could feel her pulse as well, moving slightly at a different cadence than his.

"... yeah. I'm sure Peter's already out there, just another night like always." It was compulsive, this drive to help because they could. That inability to stop. Matt has done it for longer than any of his friends who wear masks. One year of having walked away. It still didn't stick. He knows that Kate is just like them. She doesn't know when to stay down or tap out. He admired that about her, while at the same time being worried for her.

There was a small half-smile, a tired sigh at her words. Air that blew out of lungs that might not have kept breathing. How many times by now had he nearly died? One less time than Fisk wanted. His fingers uncurled to brush back the hair from her forehead. In a quiet voice he said, "I know. I'm sorry. It felt like the right thing to do, though." A beat, then even quieter he added, "Besides, if I hesitated, it might have been you throwing yourself in front of a bullet." He'd always rather take the hit than someone else.

Especially her.

[hawk_shot]

This last year has felt surreal. After what happened to Foggy, it was as if hope was drained out of their lives. Kate had continued going out there, expecting that a world that proved to be so unjust would only encourage Daredevil to hit back even harder. Hoping that fighting crime would bring a little more sense to how the world had disappointed her.

But Matt was nowhere to be seen. The job became what it had once been, something that Kate did alone, feeling a little lost despite of how much she'd learned by Clint's and Matt's side. Feeling like a child that needs guidance. Excelling at sports is always so much easier when you have a coach.

She felt drained herself and started taking some nights off. Nights of something close to good sleep. Sometimes just bingewatching things and cuddling her dog. Fighting to get out of bed in the mornings and finding herself able to do so around noon.

It's not a luxury you can have, being depressed over the death of a friend and the loss of another one while keeping up with a vigilante's lifestyle. Kate started pushing the pain aside, little by little got back into her own rythm. Things got so much easier when she and Matt reconnected. Even though Wilson Fisk was making their life a living hell.

"You think I'd take a bullet for Fisk?" Even though she huffs out a quiet, humorless laugh, she leaves it at that and doesn't argue. Kate second-guesses herself, wishing she could be the person Matt sees with his heart and not who she feels she really is.

It's hard not to be aware of her heartbeat, of how unfair it is that he can see through people by hearing that. Can she still it? Can she quiet it down? Perhaps she should try meditation like he's suggested. It's hard to think straight or focus on taking full control of her body when she's so focused on the realization that she's never felt his fingers on her face before.

It's selfish, the way she moves his hand down until his fingers are on his cheek.

"I'm never dancing with you again if this is how you plan to end the night."

[streetlevel]

"I thought there was enough of a chance that you would that I wasn't about to risk it." Matt did believe in Kate's heart. He did think that push come to shove, she wouldn't let even her worst enemy die. Leaping in front of Fisk hadn't just been to prevent Kate from doing it, that was just one of several reasons, but it was part of his split-second decision making. He would always rather take a hit than risk someone he cared about deeply. He wouldn't always make choices that weren't bloody, and violent, and dark. He knew that about himself. He wanted to think though that there was still some light in him too, though.

Maybe there had to be, if someone like Kate wanted to stick around.

A soft laugh escaped him at her mentioning the dancing. She had tread a little on his toes, but he didn't mind. "You weren't that bad. You made me think you couldn't manage anything without a limbo stick with how you were talking."

Matt's unfurled fingers hovered on her cheek, lightly touching, a silent request for permission. She didn't pull him away. He let his fingertips, with a touch so sensitive that it could trace pencil lines on a paper and commit a picture to memory, glide over her features. He felt her forehead and cheekbones, noted the tip of her nose and chin. Felt over her eyelids.

He saw her, in the way that made sense to him.

There was a small smile on his face, a sense of peace in the bubble of a gathering storm. His voice was ragged, but in a way that mimicked worn leather. Bendable but not easily broken. "So that's what you look like. Hi you."

[hawk_shot]

She didn't argue with Matt, not when she resented Fisk so much about having almost taken him again simply over the fact of how both men tend to gravitate around each other. Would she have taken a bullet for him? She would have taken a bullet for Matt for sure. But she doesn't dare to say that outloud. Would he cut her out of his life if that meant protecting her? They're all make believe scenarios in her head right now, 'what ifs' that add worry and pain in a moment when they have plenty of that.

Instead, she's glad they're joking again. That they can take a moment to think of the tiny sparks of light in such a dark day. "Oh, so you were just pushing for that dance because you wanted to publically humilliate me?" She was delighted by how much easier that laugh had come out of him now. Still tired, but genuine on the way that those creases around his eyes show up.

She really adores those creases.

It had been a sweet dance. She had been clumsy and having to lead added pressure, but to Kate's own surprise his soft words had encouraged her to relax and let go. To go with the flow.

She is allowing herself to go with the flow now, too. Closing her own eyes to try and see what he sees, as Matt's fingertips start tracing her face for the first time. It's something intimate, but not something that feels wrong. In her heart, she knows they've earned this. Kate wants him to have it and Matt seems happy to take it.

"Hey," she breaths out in barely a whisper, the cheek leaning properly into his palm. Surely he will feel it, ther corner of her lips as her smile grows wider, how it pulls on that cheek.

And just like that, the power is gone.

[streetlevel]

It was something Matt would never forget.

It only lasted a moment.

He could feel that change in Kate's heart, just as his own was pounding in his chest. Matt licked his lips, his brow creased in that knitted way that it did when he was intently focusing on something. On Kate. He knew her smell, and he let it wash through him to wipe away some of the hospital scents that were making him nauseous. He felt her soft edges and contours of her face that eased a little of the brittleness he felt inside. It was peaceful. For a moment.

Matt couldn't tell that the lights went out, but he could hear how all the machines stopped. How the steady cadence of the generators even didn't work, and instead, the hospital was filled with screams and chaos. The city outside shouted, alive in a new and panicked way. Matt's eyes widened in mirroring as the sounds overwhelmed his drugged body. "I can't - Kate, I can't -" His back arched painfully off the bed and he grasped at her in terror as he fought to control senses that his exhausted, spent, addled body couldn't handle. "There's so much noise, I can't..."

Click.

He knew that sound. Not where it was from, but he knew it.

Matt had managed to struggle into a sitting position without realizing it, clinging to Kate's shoulders in a tight grip. The look of agony and terror on his face became more focused and controlled because through the chaos Matt had been trained no matter what to pick up on those danger signals. Guns. Fire. Grenades. The city was erupting in chaos. There was a gun somewhere. Close. Here? Fuck, he couldn't pick it exactly. Someone in the hospital was walking with a weapon but Matt couldn't place where precisely.

"Kate, someone's here. Someone's coming. We have to get out." This couldn't be a coincidence. If the city was shut down, Matt knew the two who were likely at the top of Fisk's hit list. "If they find an empty room, they'll abort. Maybe." Hopefully.

[hawk_shot]

"Shit."

It was a shock, drawing Kate right out of the moment but only with the mild surprise of someone who goes through a daily inconvenience. "The power went out," she comments to the total darkness in the room, vaguelly noticing the distant sounds that raised in the building. Honestly, the silence that followed was more impressing after you got used to the sound of the machines attached to Matt.

But it's him who truly shocks her. She notices how suddenly his breathing becomes agitated, his hands reaching for her in a different way, clawing at the silks of her dress before he found a proper hold.

"Matt? Are you --?" What's wrong with him?

There's so much noise.

"Calm down. It's probably the drugs, right?"

It's probably what started that little moment they just shared. Had she abused his trust in that moment of weakness? Would Matt in his full sense allow Kate to cross that line when he has a girlfriend that, despite of everything that is going on, he loves and respects?

Now, she is the one that is blind, her hands using his arms as guides until she is the one able to touch his face. Her palms cover his ears clumsily, unsure if that could bring any help at all at quieting down a world so overwhelming. She can only hope it'll help him focus for a moment. "Matt, try to breath, okay? This will last nothing, hospitals have their own power generators. Take a breath and I'll talk to the nurse about lowering the drugs, okay? I'm here with you. I'm--"

He was still panicking, his tighter grip on her shoulders making Kate wince. But experience had taught her to never take his words lightly.

"Are you --? But why would they put a hit on you? You saved his life, shouldn't he..?" It's Fisk they're talking about. And Matt had outted himself to his wife, letting her know that he knew.

Vanessa Fisk had indeed got Foggy dead then. Matt's lead had to be right.

Easing his hands off her shoulders, the sleeves of her dress got a little tangled on him as Kate slid off his bed. "I love this dress, but fuck I should have chosen something more practical." With a tug to the bracelets they were attached to, the silks now fell to her sides, his dry blood now brown marks that interrupted the watery green of the fabric like one of those stories in his Bible, where blood interrupts the clear water of a calm river.

"Okay, let me get my shit, you put on your shoes, I'm getting you out of here." She could call an Uber, Cherry, Pete, anyone for help. But she needed her phone at the very least.

And she needed to check if Matt could walk.

"Take off the tubes and everything you have attached to you, I can't see anything right now." And so she stumbled in the direction of the chairs, aware of where she'd find her clutch. "You're gonna have to be my eyes now. For a change."

[streetlevel]

"It's not the drugs. The city - the power's out in the entire city." He could hear the shouts about it, he could already hear the police sirens and clamoring and windows breaking. Panic and opportunity to capitalize on it wasting no time.

There was a snort and wry look at her starting down the trail of Fisk feeling like he owed Matt anything. That wasn't how the Kingpin operated, certainly not when his wife was at risk. Nothing mattered more to Fisk than Vanessa - except perhaps his own well-being. Unfortunately, Fisk's well-being easily aligned with his wife's, the two doing a dark tango of crime together.

Matt pulled out the tubes and got to his feet, immediately wobbling and reaching out for the bed or Kate to hold him steady. "SHIT. Fuck shit. Okay. Okay. I'll steer us, you keep us upright." He couldn't possibly focus to maneuver them and move on his own - or perhaps he could if he really pushed himself, but Kate helping was much easier. He also knew she wouldn't leave him. Working together they could get one another to safety faster. "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but ditch your heels and go barefoot if that makes moving easier." So gross to walk through New York barefoot, but better than being slow in heels. He wouldn't put it past Kate to be able to run in heels, though. He'd leave it up to her.

He managed to get his shoes on, didn't bother with his clothing. "Wait. Kate. We have to get the person next to us out. They-" Were way too sick to move. They stood a better chance in a chaotic, unpowered hospital than on the streets with two known vigilantes. Matt's heart broke so hard that he couldn't save everyone in this hospital. That he wasn't the answer to everyone's problem.

Then he heard an orderly rushing in next door, heard them say in a slightly scared but firm tone what needed to happen to other workers.

Experts were here. He should let them work.

He was not always the answer.

He shook his head. He smiled.

It was a frightening smile in the dark. A vengeful, satisfied smile. The workers would keep people alive. The devil would get the due of those who didn't survive. Not with death, but with justice.

"They're in better hands than ours. Let's do what we do best." He had to trust the city now. Now more than ever.

He moved with wobbling certainty towards her. He let her carry his weight as he guided them. He wanted so badly to fight the man who was carrying the gun, but he turned them in the other direction. He wove them in and out of the crowd, into a city as black as night.

The day would come.

It was all the same as him. It was time to get to work.

[hawk_shot]

It was frustrating, even a little scary to get the dimension of how Matt's body worked. Like when people claim that if a whole city jumps together, they can make the whole planet shake. Wonderful metaphor for working together, freaking terrifying when it all happens inside a single man's body. And this? The Fisks crafted a great plan, letting Hell's Kitchen's lights go out and crime go rampant. Using it as an excuse to let psychos go out. Sending a murderer into a hospital.

Matt Murdock, the martyr that saved the Mayor. It would be forgotten news come Monday and a giant loss that the city would never be aware of. It wouldn't be the first time Daredevil disappeared, after all.

No. Fucking no. Not under her watch.

"Okay, yeah, that's a good idea." And frankly, considering how much Kate hates high heels, a welcomed suggestion. It's a testament of how worried she was about him, how Kate simply forgot about those feet torturing devices instead of taking the first chance she had to ditch them. Losing those couple of inches emphasized how she was shorter than Matt, but she couldn't be happier to be closer to the floor. Kate held the shoes along with her clutch as her arm wrapped around his waist, Matt's own arm hooked around her neck and firmly held by his wrist.

His hesitation to simply go out proved something. He was an idiot, yes. Same idiot that had put the life of his biggest enemy before his own. The same man who's now activelly hunting him down. But Matt was not the man that had given up on this city. Someone who didn't see the point in helping others out of court anymore. It was a reckless thing, probably self-destructive, but isn't that the life they both chose?

The man who's broken heart had pushed Bullseye off a rooftop would have never saved Kingpin. Matt had barely had any time to think, but still made that choice.

Kate could practically feel that tiny knot she'd been carrying for a year, losing its tightness.

Like watching on a mouse going through a maze, Kate asked Matt to keep checking where their gunman was, checking on which corners they should take a turn to put as much distance from him as possible. They followed the same plan as the cold air of New York's evening hit them mercilessly. At least, walking together they kept each other warm, but the wind was ruthless. He surely was having a hard time in that hospital gown.

"Where to? That guy probably called on backup and it must be waiting at your place or mine by now." Shit. She needed someone to go get Lucky. "We should probably lay low for a while. Specially if we investigate the whole deal about Foggy." Matt couldn't simply go to work now, pretend that they can keep up a normal life. Neither of them could, not considering she had got a threat of her own that very afternoon. They could both put everyone at work in danger and Fisk wouldn't even hesitate about collateral damage. "What do you think? Where do we go?"

[streetlevel]

"I'm going back to my apartment. I have to pick up a few things." His suit. His clubs. Any evidence if the task force had already gone through there. "I'll be able to hear if they're there or not. If they are, then I'll deal with them. If not, I'm getting my stuff." Either way, he was getting his stuff. He was not going to let Fisk make him cower like a rat, and in order to take action, he needed to be in something other than a hospital gown.

Maybe more than ever right now, he needed to be in his Daredevil suit. The city needed to see that, lest they all fall prey to the lies Fisk was telling.

Whether or not he returned to work he didn't yet know. Once the city's power came back on, to have the task force barging into companies and killing everyone just to get to him wouldn't be a good look even for Fisk. No, they were just being brazen right now as the city was in chaos. Once some order resumed, even if it was an ugly sense of order, he might very well be able to return to work. With a target on his back, of course, with Fisk fighting every case he took, but what else was new and people would need a lawyer more than ever. First though before he resumed that part of his life, he had to properly return to the other. Nobody was going to work right now though with the city in darkness. Nobody doing anything legal, at least.

He wasn't about to do anything legal.

Almost as if reading her mind, knowing who else mattered to Kate, he said, "I'll call Cherry and send him over to Riker's. To keep an eye on things there with your mom. Why don't you call Peter to see if he can watch Lucky?" That about covered it. Matt's few remaining friends in the city, Jessica, Luke, and Danny, they could take care of themselves until Matt found a time to connect with them. He hoped.

He started to trudge his way through the city as he called Cherry, the cold and the chaos both battering at him. His expression didn't alter. There was a pained but focused look on his face, one step in front of the other. He stopped Kate a few times as he listened, then proceeded. Once outside his building he confirmed, "I don't hear anything outside people cowering." Slowly he made his way inside, one hand wrapped around his waist, his step getting heavier.

As they went up the stairs he did, in fact, hear something familiar.

Someone familiar.

Matt sighed in resigned exasperation as he let them into his apartment, shaking his head. A wry smile came to his face as he limped in, letting himself collapse for just a moment on the sofa. "You're pretty much the last person I expected to find here."

Frank Castle, the Punisher, newly shaven and with new aftershave, "You know you're a wall-to-wall asshole?" Seeing Kate, Frank raised an eyebrow but gave a slight nod. "Ma'am. You know this guy's insane, right? And that's rich coming from me. Power goes out and he doesn't even have anything to make a goddamn pot of coffee."

[OOC: I could not resist the great introduction of Frank, LOL.]

[hawk_shot]

Even though she didn't have to like Matt's logic, going to his place was a no-brainer. They both needed their gear, Matt at the very least needed something to cover his naked ass. And after the threat and last minute move to his place for shelter, Kate's own equipment was there. Well, the basics. She had plannead ahead and aside from bringing a bag of clothes, she'd brought her bow and a good bag full of arrows, some of them even the trick ones.

Surely, at the mention of her mom, Matt easily felt the way some tension eased off her body. He wasn't wrong. That very afternoon his visit at Riker's had eased some worries she'd been carrying for months, but the situation could change at any given time. Eleanor's safety wasn't written in stone. Kate thanked him, before getting an Uber as she realized just how much the walk was taking a toll on Matt.

The city was chaos and without the traffic lights for a moment she'd wondered if they'd make it alive to his place. Her feet were still grateful for the choice.

Noticing a few cops around his block was a bad sign, but Matt assured her that the way into his building was clear. He could have warned her that once up, the Punisher himself was waiting for them.

Kate isn't a fangirl, she isn't even big on his methods. But she had heard enough from both Matt and Karen to feel like she knows Frank Castle personally. She is well aware that, intimidating as he is, he is also a very good man.

Sue her, she can't stop beaming! "Crazy and kind of an idiot, but his friends, we still love him." Lucky, already at her feet, comes to eagerly demand pets. But in his excitement he quickly moves on, hopping onto the couch to cover Matt's face with kisses. "I'm Kate. And it's so, so good to meet you, Frank."

He is the exact kind of backup they need right now.

"There's Thai leftovers in the fridge if you want some?" Less than a few hours crashing at Matt's place and Kate is already acting like she owns the place. Boundaries. Spoiled rich kids never learn about those.

Turning to face Matt again, she waves a hand at herself, knowing that he won't miss the gesture. "I need to get out of this thing," she mentions as she unceremoniously throws her shoes at a corner of his apartment. "Can I get changed in your bedroom?"

[ooc: That is a perfect, PERFECT introduction and I'm living for it.]

[streetlevel]

Frank gave a small snort at Kate's brazenness in offering food from Matt's fridge. "Seems you already know my name. Thanks for the tip, kid. I like her, Red. Maybe if you had more smart people around you wouldn't be in the fuck-infested mess you are now." He made his way to the refrigerator, opened it up, and started eating the Thai takeout cold and right from the carton. He returned the favor, gesturing towards Matt's bedroom. "Yeah, why don't you go get changed?"

"So glad you both have let me stay in my own apartment," Matt said dryly at their antics. "And yeah, who could have predicted the cops would be running around killing people with my face tattooed on their necks - oh wait, that's right, that's you." Matt clung to Lucky's fur, smiling a little at the dog's loving welcome. "Okay, okay, it's okay, pal. I missed you, too." The dog's presence was warm and welcoming, a balm on Matt's bruised soul.

Frank came over to stand near Matt, eating his leftovers. "So is that your new costume? Might need a stripper name to go with it with your bare ass hanging out. What's your first pet's name and the street you grew up on?"

"Aw, are you flirting? I'm gonna start to think that aftershave and a haircut are all for me." Matt wincingly sat up on the sofa. His tone was tart and a touch bitter. "I thought this wasn't your fight, Frank."

"Yeah, well, someone made me change my mind."

They both knew who that was. There was only one person who could do that.

Frank tossed the carton onto the ground. Lucky jumped off to lick up the remains. A helicopter was heard flying nearby. "Made a promise I'd get you out of here alive. There's a van of shitbags heading this way, won't be long. You clock that?"

"Yeah." Matt slowly, achingly, got to his feet.

Frank nodded at the bedroom door. "This kid can hold their own? It's gonna get ugly, Red."

"I'm gonna remind you that you asked after she saves your ass."

"All right, then." Frank sniffed, reaching out to pet the dog and moving to stand just beside the window. "They come up here I ain't pulling my shots with these fanboys, you get what I'm saying?"

"Not sure I want that kind of help, Frank."

"Yeah, well, that's the kind of help you got." Frank paused. "Why'd you take a bullet for that asshole?"

Matt blew out a breath and shook his head. "That's a good question." He wasn't sure he had a good answer.

"Shit." Frank pulled out his gun and called out, "You ready, kid? Bare ass here needs to get off his and cover it." He smirked as Matt flipped him the finger while walking away.

[hawk_shot]

Kate had bantered plenty of times with Matt, but missed the times when Foggy and Karen were there to team up at messing with him. Alliances changed quickly, but it was all in good fun. As what was left of her designer dress came off, completely ruined and probably having no chances of being saved, she listened carefully to the conversation going on at the other side of the door.

It almost felt like the old times. Even if Frank was way more rougher around the edges than their other friends ever were.

It was so relieving to have him there.

"I was thinking Stevie Pole Wonder!" She called out, interrupting the pair's conversation after Frank asked about Matt's imaginary stripper name. She couldn't help herself, both she and Matt needed this. Frank probably too. The world was going to shit and having a moment to pet her dog or think about Matt's hands on her face... Yes, they were all reminders of the reasons why they all fight.

Friends. Family.

They fight so that nobody ever faces a loss like they did with Foggy. Or Matt's dad.

Her own dad.

Kate probably broke a record by how quickly she changed into her Hawkeye costume. She was well aware that the clock was ticking and she still had things to do, she needed to get ready for what was about to happen. This was important, she needed to pull her weight and couldn't depend on these guys. She wasn't going to hold them back, she wasn't going to prove Matt wrong and keep him distracted, watching over her ass.

Gathering her hair into a ponytail, she walked out of Matt's room to join Frank. "I swear I don't normally wear all this makeup for this kinda thing. Hope these assholes feel special."

Making kissy noises and patting her lap, Kate got Lucky's attention as she headed towards one of the bags she'd brought with her, taking out Lucky's leash. She handed it to the dog, who obediently took it in his mouth. "Okay, boy, We're going for a walk. You go downstairs and wait for me. Wait downstairs, Lucky," she insisted as her dog eagerly wagged his tail, following Kate to the door.

Holding it open, she let him out and repeated. "Downstairs and wait, Lucky." The retriever headed to the stairs, hesitating as he looked back. "We're going to get pizza. Wait downstairs."

That did the trick. Quick as an arrow, Lucky followed her orders and, she could only hope, would be clear of any danger.

"Matt brings you up more often than you'd think." She commented, her gaze going up at the ceiling as she was well aware that Murdock was listening. "Even if he plays hard-to-get, I'm sure he's glad you're here." Heading to her things again, Kate opened a leather duffel bag to get out her quiver and select her trick arrows. She needed to choose quickly, keeping in mind something short-ranged that wouldn't backfire on them.

[streetlevel]

The banter felt both familiar and new. A shift in dynamics, with the addition of Frank. The other man was someone Matt had known off and on for close to twenty years now. Kate was a much more recent addition to Matt's life. He was glad for each of them in their own way. Matt knows he can't do this without help. Frank might just be here because of Karen, or maybe he'd just been looking for an excuse to join the fight, but this was Kate's city, too. He knew that she fought for it as hard as Matt did.

They're getting out of this. All of them. Alive.

His fingers brushed over the reinforced leather uniform, over the horns on the helmet. Then he began to get ready.

Out in the living room Frank watched Lucky race down the stairs and commented, "Good mutt." He didn't care about most people dying, but he was glad the dog might get to safety. Resting his gun on his shoulder he watched Kate as she chose her arrows and gave a small snort at her comment. "I'd ask what he says but I don't wanna blush. Anyway, whether he's glad or not, when times turn to shit you can't get picky." He paused a moment before adding, "Me and Red go way back. We don't gotta like one another to work together. I know his deal. But what about you? What's yours?" He noticed the bow and arrow. An interesting choice for sure. Not one he'd have chosen. He preferred something as common but efficiently deadly as a gun. "Living this life, it fucks you up, you know. So either you're already fucked up, or something matters more to you than getting that way."

[hawk_shot]

Kate couldn't help smiling to herself. The levels of testosterone in a room shared with Frank Castle? It explained the mild annoyance in Matt's tone as he had bantered back.

"Huh? Well, I might be a little fucked up." The quiver was new. Definitely held way more arrows than the last one and kept the trick ones firmly attached as an extra safety measure. "When I was a kid, my dad died -- My dad was murdered during the Battle of New York. Mom and I almost get killed. But as this... This thing came towards me, a single arrow took him down."

Clint can argue as much as he wants, he can carry as much pain and doubts as Matt does. But she'll never stop reminding both men of their value. Of how much they mean to their people.

"All my life I've practiced martial arts, kick boxing, I picked archery when I was eight. Now, I'm not gonna use what I learned to pretend I'm giving a real fight in a competition when people out there need all the help they can get."

Satisfied with her choices, Kate picked her duffel bag, carrying to Matt's balcony.

"I don't know, I just can't stay at home and do nothing. And I don't want other little girls to lose their dads and have nobody to help when they need it."

[streetlevel]

A single arrow. Barton? Frank only knew the man in passing, heard he'd retired. Sounded fake to Frank, but that wasn't his business. Instead he focused on Kate and her story, what she'd done when rising from the rubble. It was like the inverse of his story. He'd lost his kids, Kate had lost a parent. "Yeah. That'd fuck anyone up at least a little." He paused, because he wasn't very good at this shit. He didn't say he was sorry, because sorry meant nothing. "I'm sure your dad would be proud of you wanting to help out. World needs people like you two."

He raised his voice then. "You hear that, Red? It's the only compliment you're ever getting from me."

Matt left the bedroom, smiling a little. He had his clubs already in his hand, one of which he spins lazily to warm up. "Where would our coffee industry be without you, Frank? The feeling's mutual. You're a good man when you want to be."

Frank made a face. "Ugh, let's cut this sentimental shit."

"Sure? Kate and I can talk about our feelings for hours."

"Yeah, I heard you're dating a shrink now. Good for you, maybe you'll figure out why you're shit talking to a guy who's shot you in the head before."

Matt turned to Kate. "He didn't kill me. I think he liked me even then. Frank, maybe after this, we can all find small animals to pet and talk about all the other good things and people in the world."

A gun was waved right in his face as Frank mockingly prayed. "God that doesn't exist, let the assholes barge down the door right now or I'm gonna shoot him first." The barrel pressed on his head, turning it aside as Frank went to stand catty-corner across the room from the door, hidden on the balcony but with a good vantage spot. He was in position.

Matt chuckled. "I'm gonna go on the roof. Keep an ear out." He touched Kate's shoulder on his way, giving her a small nod. "You do, you know. Save a lot of little yous in the world. I'm sure of it." He gave her shoulder a squeeze and then vaulted onto the rooftop. He stood waiting. Waiting.

Footsteps, heavy and certain. An easy break into Matt's apartment that looked empty. At first.

CRASH.

Matt broke through the skylights, landing in the middle of the room. Screams and shots began to fill the space, with Matt keeping steady track of Frank and Kate's heartbeats throughout the fight.

[OOC: I'm not great at action scenes so I tend to gloss over a lot of it. However, feel free to add in whatever details you want! I figure the general vibe of the fight would stay the same but I am totally down for that arrow through the hand and things like that. <3]

[hawk_shot]

Frank Castle could claim to be as cold as stone to reflect his methods, but Kate is well aware that no person endures what he does if they don't have a heart. No person tells a stranger that their late father would be proud and that what they do is needed. There's a reason why Matt trusts him and in less than half an hour he's already made his way into Kate's long list of people she likes. Instant BBFs, that's how it's done. She makes a mental note, promising herself that in the future she'll get all three of them friendship bracelets to watch Frank squirm.

Simply nodding and making faces in the background as Matt teased Castle, Kate was thankful for how this little breather shook out some of the anxiety off her body. As trained as she is, so are the guys of the task force and each of them is probably twice as a big, more than twice her weight. Every shot needs to be perfect.

Matt has probably noticed it too, the way her body speaks more than her silly words and jokes do. He comes to her and, after a brief touch, gives her something very precious. Like his God, her father might not be able to speak to her directly, but she needs to have faith too on what Matt says. Faith on what they do.

"Be careful, Red," she whispers with a playful cadence as she goes to take her position outside with Frank.

The world is dark and quiet for a while, it's hard to tell for how long. It's impressive, because even though a whole van of these men is without a doubt about to burst through Matt's door, they are indeed quiet. Kate second guesses herself, sure that she's heard a door creaking. Is her mind playing tricks giving her what she can't wait for any longer? Are those steps? How many?

Kate looks at Frank, mirroring her position as he waits by the other side of the balcony's door. Like Matt, he doesn't need to see, but he's probably already figured a body count. She can see it in the way he's focused, the man is a professional. Kate on the other hand, she's inexperienced still. Completely blind. Depends on Matt's cue.

It all happens at once. The men approaching the balcony, making her hold her breath. Changing their mind and turning around, surprised as Matt crashes down through the skylight. With the end of her bow, Kate smashes the door's window, arrow at the ready. She shoots a net, capturing two of the men surrounding Daredevil, the darkness in the apartment lighting up briefly as electricity runs through the wires and shocks them unconcious. One by one, she hits them on arms, shoulders, shoulderblades and even kneecaps before they hide in every corner, taking every piece of shelter as Matt and Frank hunt them out. The lights of every shot surrounds the men fighting like fireflies in hell's garden.

Kate jumps into that chaos. She notices him, a blur of red that crosses a room full of shouting and shooting. He's fine despite of the shot he took earlier. Regaining her focus, she fights men without faces and takes her share of punches despite of how she does anticipate a good bunch of their moves. Castle is near and, even tough Kate is keeping distance to let him do his thing, she glances his way in the exact moment a man holds up the barrel of his submachine gun, ready to take a perfect shot.

"Frank!" With a swing of her metallic bow, she hits the officer right across the head and knocks him down. Castle, who had been on the floor and wrestling another one, jerks his knife up as blood and pieces fly across the room. The blood of one of his victims sprays everything, hitting Kate right on the face. Shocking her. It's a mistake, a pause only interrupted by how strong arms wrap around her throat to try and knock her out.

She fights and whrites, kicking her legs desperatedly until, hitting the wall with both her feet, she makes the guy holding her lose his balance and hit the back of his head against Matt's kitchen island.

The task force is almost down and things become less and less confusing. Pulling arrows from her quiver, every shot is far more calculated now, making those that Matt has beaten stay down in the ground as she continues hitting feet and limbs, immobilizing them while Matt kicks weapons off their reach.

It finally feels like more familiar territory. This is what they do. How they work as a team.

Glass crackles under her boots as she slowly scouts the apartment, one last arrow flying across and right over a fallen Frank, hitting an officer square on the hand and nailing him to the wall.

Matt checks on them, calling their names. All three of them are out of breath, completely beaten, but alive and relatively in one piece.

"I'm good," Kate calls back as she holds onto what's left of his couch, leaning into it for a second. The bruises are swelling already and, as adrenaline eases off, her body starts letting her know.


[ooc: Don't worry, I'm the same and don't get enough chances to give this kinda scene a go, oddly enough considering the genre we play in. Hope this worked!]

[streetlevel]

Be careful. Matt smiled at the sentiment, even if nothing about this moment was safe. They were all watching one another's backs. He could sense that in the moment even among the chaos. How Kate, himself, and Frank weave around one another, trying to stay in some semblance of a triangle so that attacks are less likely to happen from behind. It wasn't a full proof plan of course, however much good it did. Matt could hear his friends struggling, could also make out their methods and motives.

He yelled at Frank to stop when he felt things were getting too brutal, but of course the Punisher didn't listen. The man was in his death machine mode, tearing down the people who'd put him on a perverted pedestal. Blood soaked the shirts of these men bearing the skull logo, and bodies dropped to the ground with either a silenced or erratic heartbeat. Matt's own gunshot wound was throbbing, the pain radiating outward as new bruises were added to the list. At one point Matt even had to lean against his corner bookshelf, holding his arm tight around his body and panting to give himself a moment to recover before rejoining the fray. His clubs were tossed at all angles, even behind him, finding purchase with their targets before returning to him. Bones cracked, but Matt was careful not to have any of the injuries he levied be fatal.

Matt heard Frank fall to the floor, leaping over a counter to collide with an assailant. He also heard someone approaching from behind while that scuffle was going on. Matt turned, ready to help, but Kate was already on it. He heard the clang of the bow against skull and the person go down. In a ragged but smug tone Matt called out, "Told you!" as he grappled with another gunman, turning their spray of bullets into the walls when it had been about to shower his friends. He just managed to wrestle the gun away and knock the man out against the counter when someone rammed into his side, making him see stars before Matt used the other man's heavier weight against him and flipped him over the sofa and into the coffee table, crushing it.

"Shove that baton up your ass if you're not gonna really use it," was Franks retort, but he did clock that Kate helped him. There'd be time to thank her later. For now he was busy barreling bullets into bodies.

Matt flung one of the men into his television then vaulted himself into the air to evade a parade of shots fired at him. Kate managed to pin the hand of the man to the wall to stop it. One last man standing, Matt used the cable in his billy clubs to thrust out and trip them, a final punch on the ground knocking them out cold.

Matt stood in the middle of the room, panting heavily. The adrenaline was still rushing through him enough that he could hold himself upright. The combination of the earlier gunshot, the drugs, and the new battered bruising would take it's toll eventually, but not yet.

"Just getting warmed up," was Frank's answer as he sat up, leaning against the kitchen cabinets for a moment. "You good, Red?"

"Yeah. Yeah..." Matt sucked in air.

Frank's fingers picked up a bullet with the skull on it, slowly getting to his feet and tossing the small piece of metal to Matt. "Think we found your guy." Matt stiffened at that, knowing what Frank meant. Hector's killer. Likely the same man that had threatened Kate, too. He approached Cole who was desperately radioing for help, saying that the Punisher was on site.

Matt knelt in front of Cole, holding up the bullet. His voice was lower, a hellbent growl. "This yours? Yeah, you recognize it, don't you? You killed Hector Ayala. He was a good man. You threatened an innocent woman. You've been terrorizing this city."

Cole spoke through a mouthful of blood and spittle. "Do what you gotta do. I stood with my own. I can die easy." Cole's head tipped to the side, studying Kate without remorse as he addressed them all. "Nobody here is innocent."

Rage. Matt didn't see the world, but he could see red. He stood up, backed away a moment, then with a sickening whack he knocked Cole practically unconscious. Memories flooded back to him. Of Hector, newly freed for only one last day of life. Of Foggy and Karen, and what that loss had nearly driven him to do on the rooftop with Bullseye - what he had been driven to do, not knowing Bullseye would survive.

"Do it, Red," Frank encouraged him. "Come on, he's right there."

"He's not worth it, he's not worth it," Matt kept repeating like a desperate prayer, trying to convince and calm himself. He heard Frank's frustrated scoff, heard the Punisher's gun click and he stepped in front of Cole to create a protective barrier between Frank and Cole. "No, no. Frank! It's not what I want. Please don't."

"Yeah?" Frank studied him with resignation and a little derision. The divide that always separated them in the end. He looked over at Kate. "What about you? Keeping this shitbag alive, is that what you want?"

[hawk_shot]

That is the guy.

He'd murdered another vigilante as soon as people stepped up for him, proving hs innocence. He showed no remorse, pretty much admitting to being at her door. Letting her know that just as easy, he could throw down her door and put a bullet in her head after...

She didn't want to think too much about it, but these kind of men tend to be extra brutal with women. They do find enjoyment as they show off their power, taking away their victim's sense of safety, their dignity. Kate knows this kinda trash.

"What about you?"

The word resonated as she stared at both Frank and Matt, this corrupted cop's life dangling from their fingers. Even though the cut on the top of one of her eyebrows kept pouring fresh blood and the bruise made it hard to see, Kate still felt like a deer in the headlights as Frank demanded Kate to admit if she wanted her pound of flesh.

For a moment, she looked at Matt with guilt, because in her heart she knew they were pieces of shit with cruel methods that ate up being backed up by Fisk. They had free range for cruelty and, as a group, encouraged each other to be the worst they could be.

'Nobody here is innocent'. If the tables were turned, they wouldn't have mercy on them. Matt surely realizes that and he is still stepping in for that piece of crap.

But can she be executioner? Can she do it in cold blood out of a fight? Where does the fight really end?

"This is not how we do it." It scared her shitless, almost even more than the firefight they just endured. Because she wanted Frank to like her, she wanted them to be a team. And she also wanted to prove her value, be at their level, say something smart. But this wasn't college or debate club.

This is standing her ground and realizing that a man's life might depend on her answer.

"If Fisk had died tonight they'd have a martyr," she points out, surprising herself by what suddenly hit her like a lightning in the dark. She was still mad as hell at Matt for risking his life, but what would have happened if Fisk was dead? They might have called Bullseye a vigilante too. Things would grow out of proportion and the ideas Fisk stands for? Vanessa would have a poster boy for destroying everything they believe in.

If they kill every member of the task force, their friends and new recruits will come back, bigger in numbers and with a more personal revenge.

"I don't know, break their bones, make it impossible for them to grab a gun again. But if we kill them we make their ideology stronger. We can't kill that, we have to prove them wrong."

They had to change the mind of people. Of good people like Heather who now thought Daredevil and Muse were the same thing.

[streetlevel]

Even though the moment was thick with tension, a part of Matt felt nothing but pride in Kate's answer. He knew how terrible things were right now, how nerves danced on a knife's edge. How justice and revenge felt so much the same when blood was spilled as it was. The men on Fisk's task force had done unspeakable things in the name of the law, a perversion of what it was meant to do and what those who held such positions were meant to serve. Matt didn't want to think that anyone was too far gone to save, but at the same time, the city was run afoul right now with corrupted power with Fisk at the helm. A man who very much had not changed.

Matt held his hands up, weary but resolved. "She's right. If we just start killing everyone right back, then all that happen is chaos. A warzone that will make innocent people continue to fall. We have to inspire what's left of the city to fight back in a way that doesn't leave us all in ashes."

Frank scoffed, shaking his head. "So getting in front of bullets that would stop killers is what you do, heroes? He's not worth it? Well, what about him? Is he worth it?" He pointed at a nearby man incapacitated on the floor and blew his brains out.

Immediately Matt grabbed him by the collar, thrusting him back. "God, you just can't help yourself, can you? What is wrong with you? You're a liability every time!"

Frank pushed back just as hard, roaring, "Get your goddamn hands off of me! Go play church somewhere else, blind boy, hiding under your-"

"SHUT UP!" Matt's head tilted to the side, listening intently. Frank, for all his bluster, was trained enough to know when to get quiet.

He recognized that look on Matt's face even if he couldn't hear anything.

"Oh shit." Frank immediately reached out and pulled Kate towards him. "Kid, get over here." Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Grenade. RUN! Run, run!" Matt shoved both Kate and Frank towards the balcony. As they moved towards the edge, he reached out and grabbed Kate. "Hold on no matter what," he told her, trying to swing her so that she was holding onto him from the back with her arms around his neck. Frank already knew the drill, starting to leap off the side. Matt thrust out one end of his wire, the grapple at the other end finding purchase. With his free hand he wrapped an arm around Frank's waist. The weight was excruciating for Matt, but he clung on grimly and hoped that Kate did the same as they plummeted towards the ground.

An unsuspecting car beneath his balcony took the brunt of their landing. Matt's legs buckled and he rolled off the car, letting go of Frank and landing hard on his knees on the ground rather than risking rolling into his back and injuring Kate.

[hawk_shot]

There was a brief moment of satisfaction, of actually being happy with her own resolve and knowing that it alligned with Matt's. Immature, maybe, like getting a gold star for saying what she believed was the right thing. But that sense of contentment was short-lived. Despite of how many gunshots resonated in that apartment before, Frank suddenly executing that one man echoed with a much, much louder bang. Against her own will, Kate sucked in a breath sharply as she flinched, drawn out of her thoughts, completely caught by surprise.

All of a sudden Matt and Frank were at each other's throats, spitting over each other as they yelled. It took a moment for Kate to draw herself out of her shock. "Hey, stop it! You two stop it!!" Stepping in to try and put her hands, even push her arms between them, Kate found it impossible to pull them apart. It was like trying to push two walls away from each other.

Kate tried yelling and even pushing herself between both men, but just as suddenly as the fight had started Matt himself shut them all up. She didn't get it, didn't fully understand why Frank was pulling her aside, barely registered that Matt had said 'grenade' as she tripped on her own feet, thankfully being dragged out by the two men.

"What the fuck, what the fuck," she repeated like a mantra, realizing she was finally freaking out. But Matt grabbed the steering wheel, adjunsting her arms around his neck as they got ready to get out of there. Jump. They were going to jump. Like swinging across the city with Peter, she told herself. Not a big deal. But what about Frank?

Before all those questions fully registered, she found herself hiding her face against the back of Matt's neck, feeling the pull of his jump and her ponytail moving like a whip when the wind hit them. One of her legs dangled while the other half-wrapped itself around Matt's waist, the weight of Frank hitting their left.

She squeezed, not realizing she must have almost choked Matt in her desperation to not let go, to cling to him as they fell, unsure of where they would land.

And then, just as suddenly, came the landing. She didn't take the hit, but her whole body shook as Matt did, her feet barely registering something solid that sagged under their weight. They rolled together as the alarm of a car went off.

"Matt. Matt?" Easing her hold, she let go of him, her legs wobbly as she cupped one of his cheeks, checking on him. "Are you okay? Frank?" Kate could barely stand, landing on her ass as she looked at the both of them. Bloody. Having taken an impossible jump. The sound of the explotion followed, making her flinch again just as she looked up, the sky lighting up as Matt's apartment was blown up.

It looked like something out of a movie.

"Lucky." Rolling around, she got on all fours and scrambled on her feet. "I need to get Lucky!" All her body ached even though she'd taken the easiest slice of the pie, but Kate ran with every little strenght she had in her body. Not caring if there was other members of the task force waiting there or not.

The coast was clear. Her one-eyed dog, obedient was waiting at the exit door of Matt's building. Rubble kept raining dangerously around them as Kate kicked the glass into pieces, calling him out. The dog had been cowering, curling against a wall after all those loud, terrifying sounds. He practically launched itself over his owner, covering her in kisses as he was finally out.

But Kate didn't see the car taking the turn around the corner and heading straight for Matt and Frank. She could't have anticipated what would happen next. The healights fell on both of them, emphasizing what sore thumbs they were in the middle of all of that destruction.

But Karen Page wasn't shocked at all by what she found as she stepped out of her car.

"Come on. Get in."

[streetlevel]

"Yeah." Matt answered Kate's question from the ground, slowly getting his breath back. Kate really had a vice grip when she wanted to, and carrying Frank hadn't done his chest injury any favors. Still. He didn't feel like he was in immediate danger of his injuries. "You?" He could tell she'd taken some hits, but at least he couldn't detect any life threatening injuries from her. Which was good, because Matt had a feeling their evening was just getting started. He slowly, painfully, started to get to his feet.

Frank rocked himself into a standing position with a groan. "Just... getting started." He watched as Kate sprinted for the building, not stopping her. Hell, if it was his dog, he'd have done the same thing. He started to trudge after her, feeling Matt fall into step beside him.

"You're an asshole, Frank." Matt wearily began limping, hearing Frank agree with him as they went. Matt could hear the joyful reunion of girl and dog, making him not feel the need to rush. Instead, the light from a car stopped both Frank and Matt in their tracks.

Matt knew that heartbeat, even before a word was spoken.

Karen.

Any other time, Matt would have called shotgun. This time though, he felt like it was the wrong thing to say when Kate would also be joining them. After all, she'd just met Frank, and the man had blown people's brains out not three minutes ago. She might not want to sit alone with him in the back. "I know that tone. I'm guessing the dog gets shotgun," Matt wearily joked instead, holding the door open in the back for Kate.

"Funny man. I'll risk it," Frank said drolly, sitting in the front passenger seat with Karen. Lucky absolutely bounded over when Kate moved closer, snuggling into the front seat with Frank despite the man's token protests. He looked over at Karen and gave a small nod, eloquent as ever with, "Hey."

[hawk_shot]

"Karen?"

Even thought weariness was starting to catch up with her and Kate had a limp of her own, she practically raced to meet this friend she had missed so much since she and Matt reconnected. Karen's face genuinelly lit up as she held her eyes open and captured Kate into a tight embrace. Both women had kept in touch since Karen moved to San Francisco, but only keeping a casual connection sharing memes and short exchanges. Grief didn't need much words sometimes. Or allowed them.

"You've looked better," Karen pointed out teasingly as they both chuckled. "Come on, get in," she encouraged as Matt held the door open for Kate.

Not understanding the connection between Frank and Karen, this was all just an unexpected but wonderful reunion to Kate. But, as she settled on the back of the car, taking off her quiver and dropping it with her bow at the feet, she finally allowed her aching back to rest. Her eyes closed for what she told herself would be a short break, not more than five minutes. As Matt joined her by her side, she could't help but slide towards her right, leaning onto him.

Showing a little anxiety himself, Lucky wouldn't stop panting, his tongue lolling out as he shifted positions over Frank every few minutes.

"Hey there, handsome. I've missed you too," Kare granted him, stroking the dog's face even though he gaze strayed towards Frank briefly. The dog seemed to follow her intructions, soon twisting to face the Punisher and aiming at giving him a mouthful of dog tongue.

"You'll have to give me directions to your new bunker," she told him, keeping her tone casual even though a delighted smile kept pushing to come out. "Hard to keep track of where you hide these days."

[streetlevel]

Frank gave a small snort at Karen's teasing, then made a face at Lucky's slobbering kisses. "Hey, hey. Thought you were a ladies man," he said to the dog, but his voice wasn't loud and he didn't make any movements that would hurt the dog. It was clear that Frank was actually treating Lucky nicer than he did Matt. Kids and dogs held a soft spot for him. His heartbeat quickened a little at hearing Karen say 'handsome' even if she'd directed it at Lucky. He held her gaze for a moment. "Yeah? Good. I know a nosy former reporter who would be asking me for favors all the time if I stayed in one spot and she found it." His voice was gruff, but there was an element of admiration in it, too. Karen was the single most dogged person Frank knew, and he respected the hell out of her for it. "How about I'll just say warmer or colder depending on the street you turn down?" he teased.

Frank Castle, teasing. Not in the rude soldier way he normally did, but dorky teasing.

Matt sat quiet, listening to the words. Hearing what was left unsaid. Heartbeats and aftershave. Feelings on both sides. Something in his chest squeezed, and it wasn't the popped stitches. He tilted his head towards the blown up building, saying a silent goodbye to what was lost in that apartment. Old boxing gloves, worn billy clubs. A silly little trinket that reminded him of Foggy. Matt said goodbye to parts of a past he likely wouldn't get back, and his chest hurt for yet another reason.

He changed focus yet again. A warm body resting against him. A steady heartbeat that was still strong, if exhausted. He very lightly rested his head back on Kate's. Just for a moment. He breathed in a scent that he wouldn't admit made him feel a little better. "We need to take a look at your eye when we stop," he murmured to her. Then, in a louder voice, he asked Karen, "Any trouble getting here on your end?"

[hawk_shot]

Steering the wheel and with her focus divided between a strategic way out and the reunion they were having, Karen quiped back at Frank distractedly. "Sure, we can play that and waste about two hours with guessing games. Wait until someone spot you two in a car and see how that turns out." There wasn't malice in her voice, only a little challenge.

Frank could claim as much as he wanted that he kept his distance. But he was a steady presence, one which Karen knew she could put her trust on. If he got a new burner number, he would reach out to let her know. That is why she had not even hesitated before asking him for help. After hearing what had happened with Matt, she knew Castle was their best bet before they could regroup. Things had crossed a line and they needed to put an end to it.

As Kate felt the weight of Matt's head on her temple, she shifted slightly, adjusting her cheek agaist his shoulder. It felt good, the sort of relaxed closeness she needed. Simply knowing they were all right. Safe for a moment.

"It doesn't hurt," she mumbled, aware that he'd know she was lying. It didn't matter.

Karen briefly looked at them both in the back over thre rearview, her own heartbeat betraying something like Kate's did. "Traffic is crazy in certain areas, I had to avoid Midtown completely. But that's hardly surprising given what's going on." She didn't to clarify why. Or to ask how Matt was holding up. With both him and Frank, and apparently Kate too now, that was pointless.

Time to let them catch up.

"Every news channel is already discussing the possibilities of going into martial law. Fisk is going to milk everything he can about this situation. Reinforce his new laws, claim that this is an attack on the city itself."

[streetlevel]

Matt felt so tired, overloaded from the past night. There were things he knew he wasn't up to fully processing yet, like his apartment, and that as comforting as the current moment was, he couldn't trust it to last for long. He still kept a vigilant ear out, waiting for trouble around every corner as Frank navigated them towards the safe house. He didn't register right away that Karen was looking at him in the rearview mirror, only that he could feel the change in her heartbeat once more. Just as he did Kate's when she shifted.

His life was a complicated mess, and his girlfriend who despised his alter ago wasn't even in the car with them.

Karen brought them to oddly safer conversational grounds, rooting the talk in Fisk.

"I'm glad you're all right," was all he said on her arriving to get them, trying to sit up a little straighter without jostling Kate too much. "And of course he is." There was a bitter edge to Matt's tone. "There's more to this than that though, Karen. More than Fisk just holding the city under his thumb. I'm certain of it. There's something about Foggy's last case that they're trying to keep buried."

"All this would be done and buried if you hadn't gone and taken a bullet for the bastard," Frank retorted as he scruffled Lucky's head and told him in a very quiet voice that he was a good boy.

Matt sighed. "Not now, Frank." A beat. "Did you just ask who's a good boy?"

"I think you need to get your hearing checked," Frank replied stiffly as Lucky licked him. He looked over at Karen. "The news saying anything about Fisk's chosen task force wearing the Punisher symbol? 'cause we just fought a whole lotta them that weren't afraid to show it."

[hawk_shot]

"Foggy?" Even though bringing up their late friend instantly jolted Karen up, the shock shifted into understanding. It had been their initial suspicion, old grudges and revenge being the obvious motive. But Matt was now talking about something different, something Karen had not been able to anticipate as hard as she'd worked to find any connections between Fisk and Bullseye after the funeral.

It had been her way of coping with it all, work had always been her way of coping with pain. And Matt had turned her back on her, leaving her again on her own.

She tried to push that pain into the dark back of herself. Now's not the time.

"It was his wife," Kate interrupted. "You mentioned something about Vanessa. Maybe that's why Bullseye tried to take Fisk out? He might be working for her." What if she was trying to take over their empire? She was taking two birds with one stone. Foggy first, then her husband out of the way.

As questions squeezed her brain, Matt teasing Frank managed to steal a much needed chuckle out of her. That only encouraged Lucky, who again gave another turn over the ex soldier and another shot at kissing his face.

"That shitstain left one of those bullets with your skull at my door," Kate commented bitterly, still remembering how Matt had spit that out on that bastard's face.

Nobody here is innocent.

Karen shook her head. "They're not saying anything about that, they're not wearing your simbol for the public to see. My guess is they're not gonna risk the backlash." Karen shared a brief look with Frank. "No offense."

[streetlevel]

Matt could hear the pain in Karen's voice when she said the name of their former friend. Still their friend, just now gone. He knew there wasn't anything he could say. There hadn't been anything back then either, part of the reason he'd pulled away. An asshole move, he knew. It didn't go unnoticed that Karen still hadn't felt comfortable reaching out to him. That she'd only reached out to Frank. She cared about him, but that didn't mean she really wanted anything to do with him.

So he stopped himself as he started to reach forward and touch her shoulder for comfort. His hand curled into a fist and he sat back again, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

"I'm certain that she's the one who put the hit on Foggy. Her doing it on Fisk... that one I'm not as confident. Fisk moved Bullseye to gen pop, likely to kill him so that link to Vanessa would be gone. Bullseye felt betrayed, so I think he went off book once he broke out and tried to take on Fisk for it." Matt might be wrong, but that was how he imagined the scenario going down. "I've known Wilson and Vanessa a long time. There's nothing they won't do for one another. Vanessa turning on him... I'm not sure I see that."

In a sick way, Wilson Fisk had managed to maintain a more consistent romantic life than Matt Murdock by a mile. Whether that said nothing good about Vanessa or even less good about Matt, he didn't know. Maybe both.

"In any case, there's no way they're turning on each other now. They're going to present a united front, so we have to find out what that chink in their armor was that they're trying to hide so they go down together. And Bullseye is still on the loose. I doubt he'll go to ground for good, and who knows who'll get hurt with him running free." Matt rubbed a hand over his aching face. It didn't work as well with the mask on.

"I can handle Bullseye," Frank said calmly, letting Lucky get in one lick. "First on my list is this task force, though." He looked over at Karen. "No offense taken. These guys think they wanna emulate me? They're gonna find out what that really means." He gave a small nod up ahead. "Here. Find someplace to park. It's not a long walk from this spot."

[hawk_shot]

The car bounced lightly and Kate felt her body rocking agaist Matt's. Following Frank's direction Karen was driving them into much bumpier roads, less smooth than the ones near where Kate lived and moved about on daily basis. She thought about what Matt said, the car falling silent as Karen and Frank calmly discussed the best place to park her car. Somewhere not too conspicuous but close enough in case they needed to run.

"Do you think Heather could help?" Kate asked as she finally opened her eyes, tilting her as she looked up at Matt. It was so strange to see him wearing the mask in this sort of situation. Out of the job, simply in the back of a car. Sitting down and trying to enjoy a break as much as they could. "Or maybe she has tapes from her sessions with the Fisks? Notes?"

That would involve betraying her trust, which she knew is the last thing Matt wants. Or needs. Things were bad enough as they were and she can't help the guilt that creeps up for simply asking him if that's even on the table.

"Maybe if you guys talk..."

The car came to a stop and Karen got out. Frank waited for Lucky to hop off him and out, before getting out and shoving the door closed.

[streetlevel]

Matt grimaced as Kate made her suggestion, because he knew it was a good one. It was also incredibly unethical. It was a personal betrayal of Heather's trust. It was a criminal action, an invasion of privacy even if it was against a man that Matt despised. It also might very well be useful in a fight that had escalated to unimaginable levels. Where was the line drawn? He wouldn't kill, but was that it?

"Heather would never hand over those tapes. Her professionalism means everything to her," Matt said tightly. What he didn't say was an automatic no for getting those tapes or notes some other way.

God, he was an asshole for considering it.

"Hey, maybe the boy scout has some balls after all," Frank bandied back, a smirk on his face at Matt's annoyance in return. He walked alongside Karen, ahead of Kate and Matt, leading them down the winding path and into his bunker. "Here we are. Wipe your damn feet." He went to located his medical supplies. "I've got stuff to get us cleaned up. And I'm making coffee. Anyone want any?"

"Do you have oat milk?" Matt asked as he gently stopped Kate, nodding at her forehead in a silent request to see how bad the cut was.

"Blind bougie bastard," Frank was heard muttering behind him.

[hawk_shot]

Gathering her things and getting out, she circled the car and joined Matt again, offering an arm for him to lean into her. Truth is, her leg was killing her so much even after that break, that she needed to lean into him just as much.

She felt horrible for making that suggestion. It was like she was pushing Matt into going further down that slope. Betraying a woman who had been nothing but kind to her and that, even if things were rocky at the moment, she still made her friend happy. Heather had helped Matt through one of the hardest years in his life, hadn't she?

Shit, there's probably a special hole for people like her in hell or something. She's just glad that she didn't follow up on the catholic upbringing like Matt did.

Frank Castle's little hideout was definitely something else. Packed with guns and equipment, something that shouldn't be surprising but still shocked Kate as she saw it. She could't help the little whistle of appreciation that escaped her lips as she took the place in. "This is like an actual secret lair."

Even though Lucky had been following Frank around, the mutt was now stopping every few steps, clearly impressed by the several different scents the place had to offer. "I'd kill for some coffe," Kate practically groaned, surprised by how much she suddenly craved the caffeine. Karen, with her arms folded, snorted and shook her head, politely declining the offer.

Kate was so distracted by everything that was going on that she didn't quite understand what Matt meant when he first stopped her. "Oh! It's fine, don't worry." Even though her eye was now a shade that matched her uniform and clearly radiating a warmth he wouldn't miss.

However, even if she could only see half of Matt's face, she knew that look. "Honestly, I'm okay." But, following his request, she took his hand and guide it to her forehead, trying not to visibly wince as his gloved hand touched the wound. Even if her eyebrow concealed it, it was clear that she needed stitches.

[streetlevel]

Matt was pretty certain his ribs were a mess, although if he was honest, his entire body felt like that so it was hard to really discern problem areas. His chest wound was certainly open again, he could feel the blood seeping out beneath his uniform. He didn't care. His focus was on Kate, and once he felt the wound, he gave a small nod. "Sit down." He nodded in the direction of one of the rare seats in the area, going to get the medical equipment.

He felt Karen put a hand on his chest. "Matt..." her voice trailed off. She knew he was hurt. Matt knew it, too. She also knew that Matt wouldn't rest until their mutual friend was helped. Always the martyr, no matter what it did to the man. She blew out a sigh, knowing and tired, and gave him a small smile as she patted his chest, then walked away from him. "I'll look after Frank. You help Kate." There was a knowing resignation in her voice, an unwillingness to fall back on old patterns with Matt as much as she could admire and respect the intention behind his self-destructiveness.

Frank had put on the police scanner, turning to look at Karen in surprise. It was just a shoulder shot. He could easily patch himself up. Karen just said, "Sit," in a tone that said she couldn't handle him being a stubborn ass, too. So he sat and let her help him, saying in a wry voice, "You leave me any scars and I'll complain about not being pretty anymore." His foot nudged hers, understanding her needs right now. After all, before it all went to shit, Frank had known how to be a caring husband. Not that he and Karen were...

"You're crazy for coming back, you know," he told her.

"You're crazy for answering my call," she shot back at him.

They smiled.

Meanwhile, Matt had taken out the materials and if Kate let him tried to start cleaning her wound so that he could stitch it. "If you sit still, Lucky won't be as upset," he said. "That is entirely a manipulative tactic, but I'm not afraid to use it." He smiled, hoping to charm his way into helping her.

"Fisk sent men after Matt Murdock. That's bold, even for him. After both of you, if he knew Kate was with you," Karen commented as she helped stitch Frank.

"Like I said, he'll do anything for love. Especially when the love of his life helps him move millions illegally. We need to see that motion Foggy meant to file. I think there was something in that motion to dismiss that Vanessa made sure he didn't."

[hawk_shot]

She sure was picking things from Matt, as guilt kept eating Kate up. It had been such a long day in a week that had barely granted her any sleep. But here they are, aware that this is only a brief stop on a night that's going to be even longer. She really needed that coffee Frank had offered, to become more aware of her surroundings. How had she not paid attention to just how weary Matt was himself? He clearly messed up his stitches. And who knows how bad looks the rest of him under that suit?

Well. His wounds, anyway.

She didn't argue, simply nodding and taking a seat. "You know, maybe we can just glue it," she commented as Matt approached her, taking a seat by her side as he started picking pieces of gauze to clean the crust of blood tangled on her eyebrow. His joke about manipulation at least earned him a smile he wouldn't miss. Lucky's whimper seemed to agree to his point.

Kate isn't exactly a fan of needles, but she knows she will suck it up if needed. She knows these guys won't bat an eye about getting their stitches and neither should she.

Voices mumbled through the police scanner, for a while the one sound interrupting their silence. "All our files are in storage. Unless anyone broke in, that's where we start looking," Karen pointed out as the thread pulled on Frank's skin, stitch by stich closing his wound. "It's gonna take a while, but six eyes are better than two." There was a pause, in which she briefly looked at Frank. "You comin' with us?"

[streetlevel]

Matt removed his helmet not because it would help him see better, but it was more comfortable as he set himself to this task. His brow furrowed, gaze falling far short of Kate's even though his head was inclined in her direction. Nimble fingers worked at her wound, cleaning it. He'd done this so many times over the years, first for his father, and then for himself. For friends too, every now and then. Some who were still alive, and some who weren't. If his actions tonight cost anyone else their lives, he'd never forgive himself. If Kate's wound permitted gluing he'd do that, otherwise, he would thread it. "If I can glue it, I will. If I can't, I promise, I'll be quick. I've had a lot of practice stitching."

Lucky sat right at Kate's side, his head on her lap, the devoted second half of her soul that wouldn't part. It was the sweetest thing, and made Matt love Lucky all the more for how he loved Kate.

Pulling out a medicine bottle whose label he covered with his palm before pocketing, Frank dry swallowed some pills and grunted, "Sounds like you got plenty of eyes, Ace." Ace reporter, a nickname he'd never let fully go off, but one that had developed over the years independent of Matt. Frank liked his nicknames. "Besides, I got shit to do." That task force? That was his problem.

"Fisk will be coming after you too now," Matt pointed out.

"Yeah, well, let him come. I'll put a bullet in his big, fat head," Frank retorted, the usual aggression between him and Matt present. When he looked back at Karen though he sighed. "Look, they're wearing my symbol. They don't get to do that. If I thin the ranks, take out those on top? It'll buy you all some time before they can rebuild. I got this, Karen. I'll handle the task force, then I'm going after Bullseye. After all, that's why you called me in the first place, isn't it?"

Silence.

Matt stilled while stitching Kate. He knew Frank was speaking the truth. Karen had heard the news, heard the psychotic assassin was on the loose, and called in the one assassin who might go toe to toe with him. To protect Matt, sure. Maybe. Was that it, though? Or was Karen calling Frank to handle a problem that she knew Matt wouldn't?

"I mean, to help Red with him," Frank tried to cover. "Best way to keep Bullseye off all your backs is to have him on mine. And trust me, Karen. Karen? Trust me. That asshole won't know what target hit him. I'll keep him occupied while you figure shit out." That was what Frank did. He wasn't the hero. Not even in the Army. He was Black Ops. He worked quietly, in the shadows. He eliminated so that others could rebuild. He stifled, so that others could fit through. "You go do your hero shit. Leave the dirty work to me."

Bluster. Bravo at the end. He wanted her to understand, but he also needed them gone so that he could protect them how he knew best.

[hawk_shot]

It helped, the way the familiar weight of Lucky's head on her lap gave her something to do. Running her fingers over the fur, stroking his face and letting her fingertips run over the lenght of those ears. It was distracting, soothing. It reminded her of how for the first time, tonight, Matt had seen her face in the only way he could. Kate smiled to herself as she relived the moment, how oddly comforting it had felt to have those fingertips tracing her face.

This almost felt like an inside joke, realizing that he got to feel her face for the second time tonight, bruised and swollen and getting to fix it.

"I know I'm in good hands," she assured him, even if her face twitched lightly as he had no option but to put a gentle pressure on some particularly sore spots. But Kate held her ground. She stood still, holding her breath every time the needle pierced skin, unable to participate in the chat as her jaw tightened, grinding her teeth when Matt stitched her up.

Karen wasn't so shocked by Frank's plan. As always, Frank danced to his own tune, did his own thing. As much as she had trusted that he would follow through with her request when she first called, even she knew that there was only so much she could ask of him.

Her gaze met his briefly on the reflection of the mirror he had on his desk. Her fingers stopped working, the last stitch done. Fingertips traced her work. Nothing odd, just tracing her own work. Not a real caress.

"You do your thing, Frank," Karen agreed, her tone soft but collected. After all, she could hardly see him joining their little Scooby gang, going after the clues instead of doing things the Punisher way. It was what kept them apart, wasn't it? Like Matt, who tended to disappear when things got ugly, Frank went off the rails. It was their way of dealing with pain, for the both of them. It was how they both thought they were protecting the people they cared about.

With the knot done, Karen cut the thread and, before he could move off his seat, put pressure on his shoulder in a silent request for Frank to remain seated.

"Be careful." Grabbing his chin, she forced him to turn to face her. She scanned his face, looking for anything else she might need to take care of. "Call when you're done."

[streetlevel]

Feeling his chin her hand, Frank gave a small nod and smirk. "I got this shit on lock, Ace. I'll call you when I'm done." When he'd cleared the task force, maybe. As he was plotting to go over Bullseye. After all, that man was miliary too, wasn't he? Former, at least. Also former FBI. Off the grid, black ops, the world is on fire and you've got hell on your back soldiers.

Frank knew Bullseye. He knew him in a way that Matt couldn't. This wasn't about a city, or heroics.

This was putting a former Brother, a rabid dog, down.

Frank clasped Karen's hand and gave it a squeeze. 'I got this. I got you.' He didn't say it. He just meant it. He leaned forward, tapped her forehead to his. Then he stood up, and he went to make coffee.

It wasn't long before the brew, too bitter and astringent for Matt's taste, filled the air.

He cleaned and fixed Kate's wound, putting a patch over it that he taped when done. "Your leg." So many injuries to go. So many people to help. Fuck. Alice? Fuck... Matt had most of his building on speed dial. He reached for his phone, it fell from his clumsy fingers. Fuck.

Lord, was it ego to have brought them back? Was it blood money to have kept them contained, fought to a standstill, in one location?

"Alice watched out for me..."

His tone was soft, just for Kate. A friend they shared. That addled, paranoid, influencer who was so kind to leave treats out for Lucky, to help Kate without question when she needed to get into Matt's apartment. That kind kid in grad school, hundreds of thousands in debt, who hid behind a mass of matted hair and was stronger than she looked.

That girl who had been abused, frightened, who felt safe inside thanks to Daredevil and who had hoped for a future beyond it thanks to Kate, because of her savvy online skills.

He looked at Kate, not with his eyes, but his heart.

Ping.

Ping.

Ping.

Shots in the dark.

Messages beyond the rumors.

Peter was out there, with his Spider channel.

Ping.

Ping.

Bishop security was receiving messages, on a level that was too deep for any tax bureau to detect.

Ping.

Ping.

Ping.

It was so small. It was so minimal. But Kate and Matt get a message from Alice.

'At Sam's Deli. Tell me you're okay. I got everyone here I could gathered, but I can't hold them for long.

I heard that bomb.

I got everyone out I could.

I told them we're taking back the night.'

Matt sent back a message. Of direction. Of hope. He didn't even know what it meant just yet, it was a blind shot in the dark that he hoped Kate would confirm, or correct as needed.

'Head to Josie's.'

[hawk_shot]

Kate was ready to argue, to tell Matt that her leg was fine and his busted stitches from the gunshot was far more important. But she noticed the way he zoned out. His focus went somewhere else, like it did whenever he was trying to figure something about his surroudings. Except this time was different. His phone, what about his phone?

"Matt?"

He didn't need to explain, a single name said it all. His building. The place had exploded, but how many people were collateral damage? Even their own. Frank had not killed everyone, the task force had been willing to kill their own, completely pissing on everything they had talked about not winning this by following Fisk's rules.

And then there was the innocent people. Matt's neighbors. Alice. Alice who had been doubtful at first but so incredibly kind towards Kate and so welcoming. Normally Kate could have easily broken in, but had forgotten her lock picks at home. And honestly, she was exhausted and desperate for something normal, for the fake sensation of protection Matt's apartment would grant her.

Alice had been so kind and welcoming.

Reaching for her quiver, Kate checked the pocket she had made for it, installed to fit against her back to keep her phone protected. But her inbox wasn't as full as Matt's, she'd had plenty of time to catch up with worried friends and co-workers while Matt was unconscious. Despite taht, she heard Alice's message coming from Matt's phone before she even read it on her own screen.

Before she knew it, Kate was doubling over, wrapping her arms around Lucky in a relieved hug. "Oh, my God. I swear I lost like ten years of my life over how stressful this was."

Turning to Matt, and only a little unsure, she held her arms out and, showing enough hesitation for him not to accept it if he didn't want to, pulled him in for a hug too.

"Do you wanna go there first? We don't have to do the storage right away. Or you can go check on Alice and Karen and I can look for the files?"

[streetlevel]

It was reaching a point where Matt didn't know if he could feel anything any longer. The constant battering was overwhelming, wringing him out from the inside. He'd insisted in going back to his apartment. Maybe if he'd moved quicker, they wouldn't have been there to bomb. He'd lost everything in his apartment, but he cared more if his neighbors got hurt just because they lived next to him. Guilt and worry already laid heavy on him for his choices that night, a crushing weight he had to carry to keep moving forward.

After a moment's hesitation he leaned in for the hug, moving slowly as pain coursed through his upper torso. He held Kate and Lucky for a moment, letting the warmth seep in before reluctantly pulling back. He finished stitching up her head wound then set to patching up what he could with whatever was wrong with her leg. "I'm pretty useless in looking at files, so. I can go check on Alice and the others while you two get a head start on the files. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

He knew he had to talk to Karen, a real talk, eventually. Plus he didn't like the thought of leaving both of them alone for long with Kate injured and Frank going off on his solo mission literally nobody but himself assigned to him. Not that Matt was annoyed or anything. Not that perhaps in this respect, Frank was too much like Matt for Matt's taste.

Behind them Frank had started the coffee, coming over to hand Kate a cup. "You can take it black or not at all, Red. Up to you."

"All or nothing, I'm so surprised, Frank," Matt muttered, then sighed. "Yeah. Black is fine. I can smell the motor oil from here that's passing for the coffee, but it's better than nothing."

"It's coffee, it shouldn't cost nineteen dollars so someone can fart cinnamon into it or whatever the hell you order," Frank retorted, going to get them both a cup now.

Matt sighed as he worked on Kate's leg. "Yeah. Should have warned you that he's a charmer."

[hawk_shot]

Kate always wondered if Matt would feel uncomfortable with how touchy she is. How she favors a good hug when she's feeling stressed out and is never afraid of holding a friend's hand. But Matt never did, never really turned her down. Kate held him, aware of the tension on his body and how worries ate him up.

"You know," Kate started as she tore even further the hole on her legging, giving Matt more room to work without forcing her to strip. "Once you talk to the people in the building, ask if they have somewhere to crash at. If not, give them my number. I'll cover hotel costs until they find somewhere to stay at." Aware as she is that Matt will consider it a big gesture, it's meaningless to Kate. And therefore, something she will insist in if anyone turns it down.

As Frank approached them, she took the cup of coffee and thanked him, blowing off the steam as she tried not to wince while Matt patched up her leg. "Aaaaw, I was half expecting you'd draw me a little skull with milk on my drink. Totally a wasted opportunity there, Frank," she teased him, wasting no time in being her usual, shameless self again.

Karen, already on her phone, tapped at the screen rapidly, catching up with sources along as she checked on things. "Okay, the people at storage will open up for us." She lowered her phone as she stood next to Frank, taking his own cup from him and giving it a sip, before returning the cup. "And Fisk is giving an emergency announcement first thing in the morning."

Yes, she had turned down coffee, but even the motor oil he drinks became a temptress in a moment like this one.

[streetlevel]

"I'll make sure they have a place to stay," Matt promised, leaving it open-ended on what that might look like. He didn't love the idea of using Kate's money for his mistake. If he had no other solution he'd turn to it, but he'd try and find an alternative first. It wasn't like he needed his personal savings right now.

Frank gave a snort at Kate's remark, bantering back with, "Yeah, maybe see how well cyanide tastes in that milk, really lean into the skull theme. Hey..." That last word was directed at Karen as she stole his drink, though he didn't make any real effort to stop her beyond that token protest. Taking it back once she was done, he took a long drink then set it on one of his tables. Moving to one side, he began to gear up for the rest of the night.

Matt finished with Kate's leg and slowly got to his feet. He drained the coffee in his cup, wincing at both the hot temperature and the burnt, acidic flavor of the brew. His body could feel though that it was very, very high in caffeine. "Damn," he murmured, unsurprised. "Cuban coffee would feel inferior right now." Matt only got Cuban coffee when he was very, very tired because of the punch it packed. Even that didn't hold a candle to Frank's coffee.

Rolling one stiff shoulder and then his neck, feeling joints pop, Matt listened to Karen and gave a small nod. "All right. There's no time to waste. I'll make my way back to Sam's Deli and get everyone settled. You two head to the file storage. I'll meet you there shortly. And Frank?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't be an asshole." Matt set the cup down and headed for the door.

He smiled a little, his back turned so it couldn't be seen, when Frank called back, "No promises."

[hawk_shot]

"Matt." Karen's voice resonated with the authority neither of the men in the room could muster when they were too busy being hot-headed. Either to run back into danger or to bash their heads against each other.

Grabbing the first aid kit Matt had been using to clean up and patch Kate's wounds, she crossed the room, grabbing him by the wrist and gently stirring him back in. "You're still bleeding," she gently reminded him in that tone that Matt surely remembered well. A tone that gave no room for argument but that also carried so much empathy and care for those she worried about.

Aware that he had a point and she wouldn't be able to hold him down for long, Karen kept the conversation to the minimum and focused on the wounds that truly couldn't wait. She worked on his suit, probably not surprising Matt with the ease in which she remembered where the Daredevil uniform cocealed its zippers and how to unattach each piece until his torso was bare. That gunshot had clearly pulled a number on him.

"If you don't stay still you're not going to be able to go to the beach this summer," she playfully chastised Matt, aware of the tension that was growing in the air. She could hear Kate trying to make herself busy, Frank gathering his equipment and filling duffel bags with it. Her heart beat faster at the realisation.

Before they knew it, she was helping Matt dress again. Holding his helmet, she pressed a kiss to its forehead before carefully placing it on Matt's head again.

"We'll meet you at the storage." With a pat to his arm she dismissed him, turning and getting off her seat, ready to go grab her coat. "Be careful, Matt."

Kate, done with her drink, took her and Matt's mugs to Frank's sink, thanking him again for his help and hospitality. "The coffee could do with an improvement and I would maybe put some pictures on the walls? I know Matt can't appreciate the art, but it would make the place more lively," she teased him as Lucky came forward, standing againts the man on his hind legs to get Frank's attention one last time.

Unsure of how to approach him, Kate simply held her hand out. "Thanks for helping us, Frank. It was real good to meet you."

[streetlevel]

Matt had held every intention of just walking out the door. He thought his body would survive no matter the trauma he put it through, no matter the punishment he thought he deserved. He didn't want to be a few seconds late again. Matt barreled ahead through a lot of things, but when Karen put herself in his path, it made him stop. Much like with Frank, Karen knew Matt in ways that nobody else alive now did. She knew how to handle each man, and if their roles had been reversed, wouldn't he have made sure she got treated?

So Matt found himself in a seat, helping to inch off the top of his Daredevil suit. His body was clear of any tattoos, but there were a series of various scars he'd accumulated over the years. The left side of his body where his ribs had been injured was bruised, and the chest wound was bleeding badly. Around Matt's neck was also a chain, with a cross at the end. He'd never taken it off earlier when he'd changed. Matt Murdock wore that under his suit shirts daily.

His eyes closed for a minute as Karen worked. He felt the familiarity of her touch. His lips turned upwards in a small smile at her teasing. "Maybe I could get one of those Popeye shirts to wear, really lean into a sailor motif at the beach." He'd never taken Karen to the beach when they'd been together. Why hadn't he? Nearing the end of her work, Matt reached up gently to take her hands in his. Slowly he brought her hands up to his face. Then he slowly reached out to touch hers, briefly. With permission. He felt the side of her face, felt her cheek and gave it a light stroke. "It's good to see you, Karen."

Clearing his throat, he dropped his hand and nodded. "Yeah. We should get going. Stay safe. I'll join you all shortly."

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Frank gruffly rubbed Lucky's head, letting his fingers fluff the dog's fur.

"Yeah well, I ain't putting shit on the market so the place looks fine," Frank growled as he shook Kate's hand, but there was a small smile on his face, too.

He did miss having a dog, dammit. Seeing that Matt and Karen were still busy, he sneaked Lucky a bit of jerky, warning Kate, "You didn't see shit." A beat. "Watch out for yourself, kid. This task force, they don't operate like a street gang. Most of them are ex-service, I'm sure. They're gonna move as units. They're gonna follow standard tactics, just without any leash. Which means wave attacks, snipers in position, clearing rooms out with gas and bombs. That sorta shit. You hear them coming from one side, figure they've got a set up on the other. Break windows first, open your space. Stay on the ground when you can and go for shots in places only their mamas have seen. You got me?"

Matt came up then, touching Kate's shoulder. "Hey. I'm heading out. I'll meet you at the storage unit. Stay safe. You too, Frank."

"See you on the other side, Red. Just like we always do."

[hawk_shot]

Kate nodded to each one of Frank's suggestions, pleasantly surprised by his generosity, by how he had not once looked down on her despite of her age or gender. Ex soldier and big macho as he was, the guy showed nothing like respect. It was so different from Kate's past experiences with athletes, were people were cutthroat but at the same time wouldn't take a woman seriously. "I'll always try and keep in mind an extra exit. Breaking windows, shooting as many balls as possible." She nodded sharply. "Got it, Frank."

The weight of Matt's hand on her shoulder distracted her, making Kate turn to face him. Despite of the shades of his suit, she could still notice the dry darker stains coming from the spot Karen had thankfully patched up for him. "Promise you won't do anything stupid, Matt." There was a weakness in her voice, a cadence that showed she was worried he wouldn't be able to keep up with that request. He had already failed at that tonight. "And don't lie to me just because I can't do your crazy heartbeat reading thing."

She let him go, grabbing her phone and equipment and attaching Lucky's leash to his collar. Both women watched him go, Karen still rubbing her thumb to her fingertips. It was strange, the things you learned when you met someone who didn't rely on his eyes to see. Someone who opened you own eyes to your other senses.

The memories touch could awaken.

"Come on, we gotta get to work." Just done putting her jacket back on, Karen placed an arm around Kate's shoulder's as they headed to the door, only stopping at the door as Kate guided her dog out. It was enough time for a last lingering look at Frank.

"Thank you, Frank. For everything."

For again proving that he cares.

So many of the people in her life just left. People that shared her every day, suddenly gone, suddenly lost. Karen had to step out of the wreckage on her own so many times before, used to picking up the pieces by herself. Even Matt, who she would have trusted with her life, had left her on her own after Foggy was murdered. She knew it was a self-preservating thing, but at the end of the day, she couldn't always rely on him.

Frank might not step under the sun like other people in her life did. But he was a steady presence. Someone who would always step forward and out of the shadows if needed.

"Be careful."

[streetlevel]

"I'll be just as smart as you are," Matt promised, a knowing tone in his voice, a light teasing to carry them into the dark. He embraced Kate a final time, hoping that she and Karen would keep one another safe. Hoping that Frank would keep himself safe.

Hope. It could save the world. It could be lost in an instant.

Matt left, hearing Karen's and Kate's heartbeats on his way out. Hearing Frank's, when Karen spoke. Ignoring his own, which reacted to each and every one.

Frank picked up the bag and slung it over his shoulder. He hadn't missed the movements of Karen after Matt left. He didn't know what each meant, but added together, he got the gist. Who wouldn't want the good guy? The hero. Even if those heroics would get him dead one day.

Looking at Karen, it was hard not to think about all he'd lost. It was also hard to deny he still had something worth fighting for, even if it was just a shared cup of coffee and fighting assholes. Karen was something in his life that didn't hurt. Something that made the world a little less shitty, even if they were often dealing with shit. Even if this was all it was with them, he couldn't say it was nothing.

"Yeah. Don't mention it.

You know me. I always survive. Be seeing you, Ace. Count on it."