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Stay low. Karen can barely hear Frank shout out the command over the sounds of the fire burning. It's loud and hot and Karen can barely see a single thing. If she were to say she weren't petrified, she'd be lying.
They duck down a hallway and head towards a door in hopes to get out, but a beam falls in front of the door. Frank tries to lift the beam but it's no hope. He curses and turns, grabbing Karen's wrist as he heads back towards the original door they were in. Stay low.
Frank and Karen go back through the room they were in and try another door. Locked. Back out the door, back through another hallway that leads to a dead end. “Stairs.” Karen says, holding her hand out for the door. Her bare hand touches the doorknob and she cries out in pain. Frank pulls his jacket down to be able to push the door open, holding it open for Karen.
They run down the stairs as quickly as they can to find another blocked doorway, then another, then another, until they find a door that lets them through. Frank heads towards a window and picks up a chair by it, trying to break open the glass.
It's no use and no matter how hard he slams the chair against the glass, it stays exactly where it's at. “Fuck,” Frank says and turns to Karen. He's getting desperate, but he can't figure out how to get the hell out of here.
Karen stands at another one of the windows and tries to pry it open, coughing and choking when she fails. She turns away from the window and slumps down a bit, letting her head hang low. “Frank,” She says.
“Hey, hey, get up, come on.” Frank says and grabs both of her arms, pulling her to her feet. “We're gonna get out of here.”
“I'm tired,”
“I know, I know. But we gotta keep moving, we'll find something.” Karen Page never thought she'd see the day where Frank Castle would be the optimistic one in a situation. Karen nods and follows Frank out of the room and back to the stairwell. Stay low.
The stairs are getting hard to take, leaving Karen and Frank out of breath and barely able to move at a quick enough pace. Both of them are starting to realize that maybe they aren't getting out of this.
At least one of them isn't.
Frank uses his elbow to smash open a window, almost relieved when his jacket tears open and he can feel blood drip down his arm. “Come on.” He says and kneels down so he can give Karen a lift. Karen looks between him and the window, there's no way he can fit through the window. Only Karen is going to make it out. She shakes her head and looks down at him. “Karen.”
“I'm not leaving you!” She argues, stomping her foot. Karen coughs and brings a hand to her face. The fresh air from the window feels good, but it's not saving their lives.
Frank stares up at her from his position, his hands still together and ready for her feet. “I'm not giving you a choice.”
Karen knows that Frank will physically throw her out the window if he has to. When he stands to his feet and puts his hands on her, she speaks. “Promise me you'll get out of here.”
“I can't-”
“Promise me you'll get out of here or I am not leaving you.”
Maybe it's just to get Karen out of the room and out of the building, but he nods. “I promise. I'll get out of here. Now go.”
Before Frank can kneel down again, Karen's hands are on his face and her lips against his. Stolen, desperate kisses because if this is the last chance she'll get, she wants to know. Know what his lips feel like against hers, know what he tastes like, if he'd even kiss back if she kissed him.
He does.
They part from the kiss and for once, Frank Castle is completely speechless. No smart ass comment, no mumbling of any sort. Frank kneels down and this time, Karen presses her foot between his hands and allows him to lift her and push her out the window.
Her shirt snags on the glass and she feels it tear through her skin but she doesn't worry about it until she's out of the building and there's a paramedic pressing bandages to her skin. “There's someone else in there, in the basement.” She says to the fireman who had dragged her from the ground outside the building. Karen slumps against the ambulance and allows the effects of exhaustion to take over.
Karen's eyes flutter open and everything comes to her at once. The explosion, the fire, trying to get out with Frank, only her getting out. She groans out and suddenly there's someones hands on her shoulders and a voice in her ear. It's Foggy, she knows that even if her vision is blurred.
“Foggy,” She mumbles as her vision clears and she's looking up at him.
Foggy looks like he's been crying or that he hasn't slept in days, or both. He hands her a glass of water and Karen drinks like she's never had a drink of water before. She puts the glass down when it's empty and looks at him. “How long have I been out?”
“A week. I was starting to think you weren't waking up.” His voice tells Karen it was crying that made him look so red.
“I'm sorry.” Foggy laughs when Karen apologies for things out of her control and he leans down to kiss her forehead.
“I'm just happy you're alright.” He says as he pulls away.
“Did you go home at all?” She asks and Foggy laughs like it's a stupid question. It kind of is. “Matt?” Foggy points towards the corner chair and she turns her head, seeing that Matt Murdock is fast asleep in the chair. She doesn't want to wake him, not yet.
Karen slumps back against the bed and keeps her eyes back on Matt then turns to Foggy. “Frank?”
“Don't know how he got out on his own, but there wasn't anyone in the building when they finally got the fire out. No remains.” No dead body means that Frank got out.
She doesn't need to know how or where he is. All she needs to know is that he kept his promise. He got out of the fire.