Work Text:
It was a chilly autumn evening as Karen left the Bulletin and walked the all-too-familiar route back to her apartment. This being the same apartment that she had meticulously taken putty to cover every bullet hole & about three layers of paint to cover the memories of a certain night. Though, there was one memory that didn’t make her cower in fear when she thought back to it: the memory of her crawled in a ball on the ground with Frank’s hulking form covering her and shielding her from harm.
It had been months since Karen’s last near life-threatening encounter with the not-Yakuza ninja men. Matt had tried to explain who they actually were, but Karen was still in shell-shock from the reveal that he was, in fact, the Daredevil that her brain couldn’t process any more information that day.
Ohhh, that day. Matt’s reveal made so much sense. One side of Karen’s brain was so relieved that there was actually a reason for all the cuts and bruises and absences.
The other side of her brain, however, was so angry with him. Angry that he had hidden an entire side of himself from her for so long. Angry that he thought her dumb enough to believe that he was just THAT clumsy. Angry that he let her think he had cheated on her when she found Elektra in his bed, rather than trust her with the truth of his late-night activities.
Her friendship with Matt was rocky these days, to say the least.
She continued down the street, turning down the one alleyway she had to traverse in order to get home without going three blocks out of her way. She hated it and it always made her cringe through the whole block, but she was in heels today and just wanted to get home and throw her shoes off.
There were no signs of life as she began to walk through the tall buildings that blocked out most of the light in her path. She was just about home-free when something startled her from beside a dumpster.
Just a homeless man she thought as she began to walk past him. But there was something off. Though his clothes were ratty & torn, his hair was too smooth, and his skin was too dirt-free.
She tried not to look at him, just walk past & ignore him. She reached her hand into her purse and grabbed onto her .380 as the tension in her neck began to rise.
The fake homeless man gave a sly grin as he got up and slowly began to walk behind her.
Everything else happened so fast.
The man came at her, going for her arms first so that she couldn’t pull her gun up on him. He twisted her arm behind her, forcing the gun to drop on the ground as the pain increased.
As she screamed out in pain, the man whispered to her “The Kingpin sends his regards.”
It was in the same moment that a shadow appeared out of the corner of her tear-filled eyes. He wrenched the man off of her & she could hear the sounds of a scuffle as she fell to the ground.
She tried to get up but as her legs lifted her off the ground, her eyes caught the gleam of silver and her ears heard the sound of a gunshot. Then another. And another. Before her world went black.
------------
He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he cared about Karen Page. She had made him remember. She was also frustratingly beautiful and stubborn and could never stay out of trouble.
This is why he found himself following her home most nights. He knew she preferred to cut through the alley to get home faster, like a damn idiot, and he felt a protectiveness to make sure she got home safely.
He was about to turn around and follow a new lead on a new player in the criminal underworld of Hells Kitchen as he saw her nearing the end of the alleyway. That was when he heard the blood-curdling scream.
The man was twisting her arm behind her back to get her to drop the gun from her hand. That’s when Frank saw red and the Punisher went into action. He practically flew off the rooftop and down to the ground to toss the man off of her.
The man had balls, he saw Frank’s gun pointed at his head and he kicked, turning his wrist and making the gun useless in ridding the world of this low-life. It took one well placed punch to the face to knock Frank’s vision to the back of his head for a split-second.
It was in that split-second that the man picked up Karen’s gun off the ground and took a shot, not pointed at Frank.
However, the man’s aim being pointed at her allowed Frank to quickly dispel of the man. Two shots to the head. The second for good measure. Then he leapt over to Karen, splayed out on the ground.
He had failed her.
Fighting back his own demons, he inspected her body. The bullet hit her shoulder. She’d be alright if he could get her help immediately. He couldn’t take her to a hospital, gun shots equals too many questions.
He knew what he had to do, but he really, really didn’t want to call him.
“Red.”
“Frank? How’d you?” Matt’s confused expression came through over the phone.
“Nevermind. Call your nurse friend. I need her 5 minutes ago.”
“What? Frank, you can’t just go out all the…” He couldn’t deal with Red’s arguing at a time like this.
“IT’S KAREN.”
“What? What’s happened? Where’s Karen?”
“She was shot. Get the nurse & get to Karen’s apartment right away.”
“Okay.”
Frank hung up and delicately picked Karen up off the ground. She groaned in pain a bit, though Frank could see she was still pretty out of it. Good thing her apartment is close by.
-------------
Frank and Matt both stood tensely watching over Claire as she went to work pulling the bullet out of Karen’s shoulder & dressing the wound.
Claire was good. He would have to thank Red for having a capable medical friend.
He could have done the grunt-work on the bullet himself, but it was Karen and he didn’t want to leave her with messy scarring from his battlefield emergency medical training.
Red was relentless in his questioning. It was really starting to wear on Frank’s already non-existent nerves.
“What happened Frank?”
“She was attacked in an alley on her way home. I heard the screams. I came to her. That’s all I know.”
“Come on Frank. That’s not enough. Who did this to her? What did they want?”
“Dammit Red. I DON’T KNOW. I couldn’t exactly question the guy firing at her and save her from bleeding out at the same time. Would you have preferred me to choose differently?”
Matt’s indignant huff let him know that there was no reply to that. Frank did the right thing in the moment. Matt couldn’t deny that.
Both men were pacing the small apartment as Claire ignored them both to focus on the girl lying unconscious on the floor. Better her to be unconscious while Claire did this.
Frank would never admit that he was frantic in that moment. That he couldn’t take a breath until she woke up. That if she didn’t wake up, he’d most likely lose all the remaining humanity within him as the Punisher fully took over. She was his thread. Thread to the past, thread to the future, and thread to the fact that there were still parts of him that were flesh and bone.
He knew he should probably leave. Red seemed confused as to why he was still there, pacing around, anyways. Karen wouldn’t want to see him. The last time he had spoken to her, she screamed that he was dead to her. Yet, he had to know she was okay before he could leave.
He went to the kitchen to turn on the coffeemaker. It was going to be a long night.
-----------
There was faint humming.
Her mind focused on the sound as she slowly began to wake up. But who was humming? Where was she?
Her eyes flickered open to see the sympathetic gaze of a woman in scrubs, holding gauze to her shoulder and softly making humming sounds.
Karen could just vaguely recognize that she was in her own apartment before her head started pounding and she had to close her eyes again.
“It’s okay. You’re okay.” The woman calmly whispered to her when she noticed her eyes opening and her fidgeting where she lay.
There was a loud clang as something fell behind her and when she opened her eyes again both Matt and Frank were standing over her. Frank was muttering to himself and trying to wipe coffee from his shirt as he looked into her eyes.
“Frank.” She breathed out.
Her energy was depleted and she closed her eyes again to focus on breathing.
------------
He jumped when he heard the nurse begin to calm Karen. His breathe of relief that she was waking up was so huge that his arm gave way and the mug of steaming coffee in his hand fell before him.
“Crap! Ow! Hot! Dammit!” he was trying to keep his voice low as he shook out his wet shirt and ran over to where Karen was slowly making her way back to the land of the living.
“Frank.” She barely whispered as they locked eyes.
He was stunned. She continued to lock eyes with him, seeming to not even notice that Red was there until he spoke up.
“Karen. Oh God. Karen. Are you okay? What happened?” Red frantically spoke out all at once.
“Hey, Red. Easy. Let the girl breathe for a moment.”
“Matt? Frank? What happened?” She looked questioningly to both men before her eyes settled on the calming presence of Claire.
“Hi Karen. My name is Claire. I’m a friend of Matt’s here. It appears that you were attacked and shot in the shoulder.” Claire paused and waited for Karen to shake her head in understanding of what she had said so far. “You’re going to be just fine. We were able to get the bullet out and get you patched up. It’ll hurt like hell for a little while as it heals, but you were lucky the bullet didn’t hit anything vital.”
He watched as Karen nodded again and attempted to sit up only to wince in pain and lay right back down again not a second later.
“One of you will need to stay with her tonight to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t pop any stitches.” Claire states. An unspoken gauntlet is thrown between the two men.
“I will.” Both men declare in unison and glare at each other. Neither standing down.
Claire looks to Karen who’s slightly more awake than she was a few moments ago.
“Frank? Please?” She looks pleadingly to him & he can’t believe she’d willingly choose to have him near, especially over Red.
“Karen, are you sure? I don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, I should stay with you.” Matt seems to be disheartened that she would choose him and not Mr. “I’m a good little Catholic vigilante boy” to stay with her.
Though, Frank’s not sure why she didn’t choose him either.
“Yes, I’m sure. Frank? Will you stay?” She almost looks frightened of his answer as she pleads.
“Yes, ma’am.” Is his immediate reply. Not looking over at Red to see his expression.
At this point he doesn’t care.
Claire stands and motions for him to stand and follow her into the kitchen as she gives him details for Karen’s care.
--------------
“Karen, I know he saved you tonight but he’s dangerous. Let me stay with you. I know you’re mad at me, but Karen you know I care about you.” Matt pleads with Karen. He can’t understand why she wouldn’t want him to stay to watch her.
Yes, he lied to her. He knows she’s angry with him. But is she really so angry that she would rather put herself in danger?
He wanted so badly to hold her and tell her he was sorry and an idiot. But hadn’t he sort of already done that after he confessed who he was to her?
Karen insisted that she would be fine with Frank. He didn’t believe it, but he couldn’t deny her. He could tell the persistence was annoying her, which was causing more pain.
He’d just have to watch over her from a distance then. He’s sure as hell not going to leave her alone with the Punisher all night.
“C’mon Matt. Let’s go.” Claire tugged on his arm to signal it was time to leave.
“Karen.” He let out a large huff. “Please call me if you need anything and call me tomorrow anyways just to let me know you’re okay. Please? Tell me you will?”
“I will, Matt. Goodnight. and thanks, Claire, really, for everything.” She replied to both him and Claire at once.
He got up and walked out the door with Claire, feeling helpless and dejected and so utterly confused.
“C’mon loverboy, you’re walking me home.” The nurse grabbed his upper arm and worked to drag him out onto the street outside of her building.
He couldn’t leave, he needed to find a good spot on the roof. “Claire, I need to…”
“No. You don’t need to. I know what you’re thinking and no, you’re not going to go spy on the two of them from the roof.” She called him out. It was frustrating how knowing she was sometimes.
“I can’t leave her alone with him, Claire. He’s dangerous.”
“There are a lot of people out there that would say you’re dangerous too.” Claire countered. It was true too. He realized he had no argument to that and so he tucked tail and followed along with Claire towards her apartment.
--------------
It was about an hour later when Matt returned to Karen’s apartment building and hopped his way to a perch on the roof of the building across facing Karen’s unit. He plopped down and took off his mask, taking a deep breathe as he settled in and worked to tune into her unit alone.
She sleeps for awhile, but about another hour later he hears Frank’s rough voice waking her. He can sense that Frank is warily leaning over her. Not quite sure how to gently wake her.
“Naunghhh. Sleep. What are you? Why are you waking me up?” He hears Karen groggily protesting. She then winces as she tries to twist and stretch in her sleepy state, only to be hit by a wave of pain.
“Orders ma’am. Claire made me promise that I’d wake you up and check in on you at least every 2 hours.”
“Mmmm. And what’s the diagnosis doc? Am I going to live?” Karen asked with a grin to the sound of it.
“There she is. I was wondering where that famous ‘Miss Page sass’ had gone. I suspect that means you’ll live.”
Matt was struck by the easy camaraderie between the two and by how gentle he could tell Frank was with her. When did this happen?
She went back to sleep and he could hear Frank dozing off on the chair across from Karen. Matt was also starting to doze off on the rooftop until the sound of an alarm going off woke him up about two hours after the last time he heard them speak.
“Here. Awake. Alive.” He heard Karen mutter before being prompted, which was met with a chuckle from the beast of a man in there with her.
Frank got up and walked to the kitchen to make another pot of coffee. Geeze. How much coffee can one man drink?
“Want some coffee?” Frank asked to the half awake/half dead asleep Karen on the couch.
“Yes, please” she replied and Matt cringed as he could hear her painful wiggling to get into a sitting-up position.
There was a bit of small talk that had Matt fading once again, until he heard Frank take a large intake of breath and make an odd statement.
“I thought you said I was dead to you.”
Karen tried to sit up further and Matt was glad that this time Frank saw her painful movements and lifted her up to the position she wants to be in for their conversation.
“I didn’t mean it.” She finally replies.
“Yes, you did.”
“I did. But I don’t anymore.” He could hear Karen’s heartbeat quickening and he was confused but poised to listen in, even though somewhere in the back of his mind he knew this was wrong.
He just couldn’t pull away. He was worried about her and confused by whatever this was going on with Frank.
Frank quietly replies with “You should.” Yes. You should. You really should. Matt thinks to himself.
It’s quiet for several minutes and if he couldn’t hear their heartbeats, he’d believe them to have fallen asleep again.
“Why me?” Frank asks and Matt is surprised at the vulnerability in his voice. Even though everything about this night has been surprising so far.
“What?” Karen responds.
“Why did you want me to stay with you tonight? Why not Matt?” Yes. Why not Matt?
“Matt lied to me. A lot.” Was Karen’s quick reply.
It made sense. She was still angry at him. It hurt him that he had caused that hurt in her and he made a note to make sure, starting tomorrow, that Karen Page knows how much Matt Murdoch cares about her and how sorry he was for lying.
“I thought I told you to hold on with both hands.” Huh? Frank was telling her to hold on? To him? He hated to admit to himself that he was thankful for that from Frank.
“I know. But you can’t hold on to someone who’s only giving you half of themselves. I don’t know. I guess, I mean that it has to be a two-way street. You know?” She paused but didn’t let Frank get a word in before continuing. “I think Matt saw me as some sort of ideal for the life he wanted to have, but not for who he really was. He held me up on a pedestal in that way. But nobody’s perfect and it wasn’t possible to live up to that ideal that even Matt wasn’t living up to himself. I don’t know, I’m just not as good as Matt wanted me to be, I suppose.” He could hear the tears in her eyes as Karen poured out her heart, to Frank Castle – The Punisher – of all people.
Matt didn’t realize that he, himself, had started to tear up at Karen’s confession. He hated himself for knowing that while he never wanted her to think she had to be perfect for him, if he was being honest with himself some of what she said was true. He did want a life that he wasn’t fully capable of and Karen was who that part of him wanted to be with.
He was at war with himself and he had taken it out on Karen unknowingly.
His head is spinning and he stumbles backward as he tries to remove himself from his perch on the roof. He suddenly feels shame for spying on Karen’s private conversation and he can’t get away fast enough.
------------
“Hey.” Frank reaches for Karen’s face. Gently placing his palm on her cheek and rubbing his thumb on her cheekbone. “You are a good person. You know that, right? Not perfect. But good.” He reassures her as she’s sniffling from her confession about the failure of her relationship with Matt.
The unspoken words that she won’t admit to anyone, not even herself, are that she has confusing feelings for the man in front of her and she’s thought of him more in the last few months than she has about Matt.
She stuffs those confusing feelings down deep once again and leans into the comforting touch he’s offering her.
“I …I don’t know.” She mumbles into the palm of his hand.
He moves to sit with her leaning against him gently on her un-harmed shoulder. Slumping slowly into him further, she knows he thinks she’s asleep when really she’s internally battling with herself. Deciding what she thinks she is, what that means for Frank, and if she should share her deepest sin with the Punisher.
Would he think she deserves punishment for her deed?
Before she even decides, she speaks once again. Barely above a whisper, more to herself than to anyone else.
“I don’t know if I’m a good person because of some of the things that I’ve done. But I think I must be, if I still believe that you’re a good person.”
“Huh? I’m not a good person, Miss Page.” It saddens her that he believes that of himself so matter-of-factly.
“You are a good person, Frank. I have to believe that because if you’re not a good person then neither am I.” her passion for his own view of himself pushed the words out without thinking, but she knew that he would catch on to the implication of her words.
Still, she couldn’t look into his eyes. “Ma’am? What are you saying?”
Taking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly, she decided that if she was going to confess to anyone, better Frank than anyone else. “I killed someone.”
Another deep breathe. Silence from the other party.
“His name was Wesley. He was Wilson Fisk’s right-hand man and best friend. But I suppose I should tell you the entire story fro the start.”
“Wilson Fisk? Yes, ma’am. Tell me everything. What were you doing getting involved with that man?”
Before Frank’s anger could rise, she blurted out the entire story. Starting with Union Allied, waking up covered in her coworker’s blood, her attempted murder in jail, leading up to Ben and their discovery of Wilson Fisk’s mother.
When she got to the part where Wesley had taken her to a warehouse, she could see the veins in Frank’s forehead pulsing heatedly.
“Wesley found out about our meeting with Fisk’s mother. He took me to a warehouse, but he hadn’t told anyone else about his discovery or taking me. He threatened to kill everyone I cared for. The gun was on the table. He was so cocky. He didn’t even think I would do anything, so sure of himself that he had me.”
Her own anger rose when she recalled the moment. Frank saw her tensing and grabbed her wrists, squeezing her reassuringly and nodding for her to continue.
“I shot him. I didn’t even think about it. Just grabbed the gun off the table and shot him. Seven times.” She was staring past Frank, lost in her own world at the confusion. “I don’t regret it. I’m glad I did it. He was going to hurt me and those that I love and I shot him and I don’t even feel bad about it.”
Frank lifted his hand up to catch the tears falling from her face that she didn’t even know she was shedding.
Everything was quiet for several moments as Karen worked to catch her breathe and Frank seemed to be collecting his thoughts. When no words came out, she caved in on herself, face buried in her palms, too afraid to face what was surely coming for her.
“I’m proud of you.” Frank said in a whisper to her ear, before laying a gentle kiss to her forehead.
The tender gesture nearly broke her as a new wave of tears flooded her eyes.
“Hey. Karen.” He lifted her chin up to meet his eyes. “You did the right thing in the moment and you’re still a good person. You hear me?”
She nodded slowly and something in her stiffened. She knew his words were true. Frank never lied to her.
She finally felt a freedom that had escaped her for a very long time and she fell into a deep sleep leaning into Frank for comfort.
He didn’t wake her up two hours later. He himself had fell into a restful slumber that had evaded him since the death of his family. They were both going to be okay.