Nory Lake walked quickly through the dark streets in Hell's Kitchen, the warm dank breeze ruffling her loose hair and stealing inside her thin uniform making her pull her sweater tighter around her. She hurried past every menacing alley, kept her eyes down as she passed street dwellers, didn't stop for any catcall or other more crass suggestions. The smell of gasoline and trash, piss, hung heavy in her lungs as she walked the same path she traveled the last week and a half since her car broke down; telling herself that just because it was dark didn't automatically make it scary and that every night before she'd gotten home fine.
Only she suddenly looked around to find the streets empty. It was such a surprise to realize she was now completely alone, no druggies in the shadows, no nightcrawlers to leer – she should've breathed a sigh of relief at the peaceful walk. But there was a car alarm going off two streets over, sirens whooped in the distance, muffled voices yelled from far away, dogs barked somewhere out of sight, and she had a very distinct feeling of being watched. Ice wedged itself in her chest as she picked up her already brisk pace, wishing for dirty men with even dirtier minds to be sitting or leaning as they stared cause at least there were other people around, not this endless emptiness that tightened around her suffocatingly.
At the distinct sound of tires slowly crawling over asphalt, that she could hear now it was so quiet, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she forced her aching feet to walk faster, forced her hammering heart and burning lungs to push further. She didn't turn around to see if there was a car following her, she was too afraid of being right and the act of turning around would have someone jumping out of the car she was now sure was behind her. She thought she was being smart, thought if she could just get past this block she could make a run for it – she didn't have to make it home, she just had to make to a place where she knew people were awake to hear her, cause from the look of the buildings around her there was no one.
She almost made it, she was twenty feet from the curb, the tires still crunching gravel, and the house across from her had a yard encased in shadows – that's where she'd run, through their backyard and make it to her apartment the back way. That was the plan, it was a damn good one, and she was so hoping once she'd run into the shadows she'd turn around and find there was no car and she was overreacting.
But she wasn't. She was a step away from the curb, a second from lunging forward, when a hard blow had her crying out as she was knocked off her feet. Pain hadn't registered in her face yet from the panic racing through her veins, but she couldn't see straight – it looked like two men with broad shoulders were bearing down on her. Before she could scream a hand covered her mouth and she was dragged toward the now stopped car that had been following behind her.
From the rooftops the faint sound of a woman's cry was heard, the first as she was struck and the second much fainter as her body hit the ground. With baited breath he listened, pushing past all the normal cadences of life, waiting for her to cry out again so he could find her. And then he heard it, a brief moment where the sound of a shrill terrified scream reached him before it suddenly cut off.
Nory had struggled relentlessly in a panic, her legs thrashing, her hands clawing at the arms that pulled her, her teeth sinking into the flesh around her mouth. She'd screamed all the while, muffled beneath a large hand, but for a moment she heard her own voice ring clear as a bell before that same fist struck her again. Harder.
She lay curled on her side with her eyes wide open seeing nothing but black for several moments, honestly wondering if he'd knocked her head clean off cause she couldn't feel anything. The man growled something she didn't understand before grabbing her collar and sitting her up, and before her eyes could focus on his face he hit her again. He would've continued if the driver hadn't yelled to get to her in the car.
Nory heard none of it, her ears were deafened by the sound of her heart inside her skull, the world was spinning out of control and it was so heavy she couldn't move. With a hand wound in her hair she was dragged toward the car, her slow mind trying to get her to fight again and her body tried to listen, but she hung limply not even able to scream as she was pulled along.
Her body crumbled again to the pavement, her head hitting the concrete with a thud, her eyes staring up at a black sky where a few stars shined rebelliously through the haze of streetlights. They twinkled and danced to the sound of yells and grunts, a pair of quick light feet on the hood of the car, a door slamming, a body falling to the ground. She didn't pay mind to any of it she just kept staring at the few stars that flickered in and out, out and in, and she set her breathing to their rhythm – with her mind beaten clear and the sense knocked out of her she set the tune of her body to that of the universe, and for a brief moment she felt infinite.
"Can you hear me?"
His blackness blended with the dark of the sky she hadn't noticed him kneel beside her, didn't see his masked face hovering over her. "Yes," she said so softly she didn't hear herself.
She was gonna pass out, he could hear it in her erratic heart, in the small gasps of air she took; she was in shock. "Where do you live?" he asked needing her to focus, smelling the iron of her blood. The guys were out for now and he certainly couldn't leave her, nor could he just find her I.D. and read her address.
"No," she said with a small shake of her head, at least until she realized how much of a mistake moving was and then she was left almost whimpering as her brain sloshed around inside her head.
He gave an irritable growl of a sigh before he pulled her to her feet and held her against him as her knees gave out. "In less than a minute you'll lose consciousness, I can either take you home or leave you here when they wake up."
"4D," she answered staring up at his face, wondering how he could see with the mask over his eyes. "It's two blocks that way," she said aiming to point but she was doing good lifting her arm at all, not that he saw it.
He knew her voice, that was his first thought, he saw her on a frequent enough basis and spoke idly to her enough – if he pulled off his glove he'd recognize the feel of her sleeve from how many times he touched it. His second thought was he didn't know what way was 'that way'. "Nory," he said hearing the chaotic rhythm of her breathing change – her heart was still thudding relentlessly, but her breathing slowed, deepened. "Nor-" he sighed heavily as she fell completely limp.
He was left with her purse hanging on his elbow as he carried her in the direction the car had been facing, taking a guess that they'd followed her. He counted the streets, doing nothing more than hoping she meant two full blocks rather than the complex being on the second block.
The hum of the generator caught his ear, down the middle of the third sidewalk, and he was careful to feel for the wall rather than hit her head on it. Pulling a glove off with his teeth he threw his favorite waitress over his shoulder and began feeling for numbers on the doors, climbing a flight of stairs, and finding 4D at the end of the hall.
…
Nory woke the next morning to a crippling headache, barely able to keep her eyes open to the sunlight for more than a blink before her entire brain began to ache. It was easy to remember the man who attacked her, how afraid she'd been, how close she'd come to harm – and she had no idea what would've happened if she'd been loaded into that car. What wasn't as easy was the man in the mask who'd saved her. And yet she was laying on her couch not quite sound but she was safe – and he'd even draped a blanket over her before he left.
She convinced herself to get up. It took a lot of talking into but she needed to check her head, her face mostly, and see how she looked cause she felt like shit. She also needed advil, which she was surprised to find sitting on the coffee table with a glass of water; she almost smiled, tried to before she winced at the feeling. With an arm braced on the back of the couch she climbed shakily to her feet, feeling like gravity was actively pushing down on her head.
And then she saw something black lying forgotten by the door. She stumbled her way to the hall and picked up the glove he'd dropped from his mouth after he'd gotten the door open, that he hadn't been able to find before he left. Holding it in her hand she wondered who her masked savior was, how he'd found her – how she could thank him for saving her life.
This is an idea that popped into my head almost the moment Wesley appeared with his stoic, snobbish, arrogant self - and somehow that translates into awesome for me. I ended up loving his character. I'm hoping that while kind of a tragic romance this story will also be a bit humorous, especially with Nory and Wesley cause they're very different. Also, this is kind of a preface to the start of the first episode; my idea was that this attack is what started Matt to finding the human trafficking ring.