"Lucas Cage, did you break into my apartment to clean for me?" Claire put her hands on her hips and glared into the alleyway.
"Technically Jessica stole your key and made a copy." Luke said, throwing the trash bag into the dumpster. He smiled. "You work too hard; making you dinner once in a while and making sure that your apartment isn't a pig sty isn't much compared to all you did for me."
"I took an oath." Claire said. "And breaking and entering doesn't seem to be a very nice way to say thank you for saving your life." She shook her head. "Do you have any idea what it's like to walk into your place and find it completely cleaned with dinner sitting on the table?"
Luke laughed. "Seems pleasant."
"It seems like the opening scene of a horror movie." Claire said. "And spoiler alert. Girls who look like me don't usually make it past act 1, hell we don't even make it past scene 1, if we're in the damn movie at all."
Luke raised his chin and gave her a knowing smile. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?" Claire asked.
"I'm a bartender, Claire; I can tell when someone's been having a rough day. You want to talk about it?"
Claire sighed and crossed her arms leaning against the alley wall. "It was a rough day at work." She admitted.
"Jessica mentioned you had to find a new hospital." Luke said.
"After I got fired from the other one because I wanted to tell the truth." Claire nodded. "I've been doing part time, but...I've been bouncing from hospital to hospital and I'm sure the board of trustees is blackballing me." She shrugged. "Then..." She sighed, "there's...something else."
Luke looked around. "Well maybe an alley isn't the best place to have this conversation." He'd correctly guessed the weight of the load she was carrying.
"I'd invite you in, but you've already done that yourself." Claire said.
Luke chuckled and walked into her building.
"Where did you learn to cook like this?" Claire said.
"My mom." Luke said. "She's one of the best cooks you could ever meet. She's from down south."
"Well she should be given some type of award for teaching you this." Claire said. "My mom tried to teach me to cook, but I'm hopeless."
Luke laughed.
"It was her greatest disappointment. When ever I call her she always asks 'miha, how is your arroz con grandules?'"
"Puerto Rican?" Luke asked. Claire nodded. "My wife used to make that dish." He explained. "She was Puerto Rican as well."
Claire leaned back and sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I lost someone...in the ER today." She winced. "A man came in with his son. He was...they'd been walking and a car hit them and drove off. The man carried his son in, but...there was nothing we could do. He was basically dead when we arrived." Claire closed her eyes. "A whole damn city bursting at the seams with superheroes and no one could do anything to save this boy." She looked at Luke. "How is that fair?" She asked. "How is it that I can save people who are extraordinary, but there was nothing I could do to help this boy?"
Luke was quiet. Then got up and walked towards the window. "This city is full of horrors and you can't save everyone. I learned that the hard way; with Reva." He turned back. "We can't save everyone; but we can try."
Claire smiled, Luke's words were oddly comforting, though they did little to erase the images of blood and the sound of crying from the ER, but she knew that Luke knew that. That he understood.
"This is gonna sound weird," she said, "but you can break in anytime."