A/N: I'm trying to keep up the pace of posting a chapter per day. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this soon. As always, thanks so much for reading! And for Sarah, my wonderful reviewer, THANK YOU!

Enjoy…

"Foggy?"

Foggy looked up from his laptop. "Yeah?"

Karen fidgeted nervously in his doorway. "I want to ask you something."

"Okay." He asked as he closed the lid of his computer and gave her his full attention.

"Do you and Matt know him—The Mask?"

"What?"

"I remembered you guys saying you talked to him…and I was wondering if you knew how to get in touch with him."

Foggy felt the weight of the secret and the lie he was about to tell settle heavily on his heart. "I don't exactly have his cell number. We just ran into him."

"Oh."

"Can I ask why in the hell you're trying to track down a vigilante?"

"I just needed to ask him…about Fisk."

"Fisk? Don't worry, that bastard is exactly where he belongs."

"I know…I just—"Karen waved her hand and turned to go back to her desk. "It doesn't matter."

Foggy came around his desk and walked to her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just sort of processing everything that's happened."

"And you think that guy has what you need?"

"No. I don't know." Karen shrugged. "I haven't seen him since that night in my apartment."

Foggy felt a cold finger of dread along his spine. "Karen, have you been looking for him?" He watched the blush creep up her pale skin.

"Not really."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous he is?"

"You and Matt said he was on our side!"

"He is, but Karen, he's…he's—"

"He's what?"

Karen and Foggy both turned to face Matt as he entered the office. Foggy watched as he friend and business partner crossed the room, pretending he hadn't heard every word of their conversation. Foggy felt momentarily guilty for talking about his alter ego in those terms, but then he reminded himself that Matt actually was dangerous when he wanted to be.

"Nothing." Karen answered quickly.

Foggy watched Matt raise an eyebrow, but he said nothing. They each retreated to the safety of their desks and proceeded to work on the mundane tasks of the day. Foggy felt his concentration waning and when his stomach growled for lunch, he'd had about as much as he could take.

"I'm heading out for lunch." He announced as he left his office and grabbed his coat.

"I'll walk out with you. I'm headed out, myself." Matt said as he joined him by the doorway.

xXx

Matt waited until they were outside in the cold air before speaking. "Foggy, what the hell is going on?"

Foggy exhaled in frustration. "I'm sure you heard. She's looking for you."

"But why?"

"I have no idea! She wants to talk to you for some reason—she thinks you can give her answers or something."

"So at least that means she has no idea that it's me…I mean, that I'm—"

"Yeah." Foggy interrupted him. "I'd say you're secret's safe for now. But obviously she'll figure it out if you meet with her in the mask. You can't disguise yourself that well. She knows you now."

"You'd be surprised."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's so inconceivable to people that I'd be…him that I could basically forgo the mask and people still wouldn't believe it."

"Well, can you blame them? You're blind…or you know, sort of…or whatever."

"Yeah."

"So? What are we gonna do? We can't let her wander the streets every night hoping to spot him."

"I know." Matt said thoughtfully. "Maybe I should let her find me—and see what she wants."

"Matt," Foggy warned. "If she gets too close, she'll know. Are you really willing to risk it?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Foggy didn't answer. God, he hated this. He loved Matt like a brother but he hated being put in this position and it was entirely, one hundred percent Matt's fault.

xXx

Karen put on her black hat, careful to tuck all of her bright hair inside. She tried not to be scared. After all, she'd been taking accelerated classes with Alex and now could hold her own in most scuffles. Still, her hands trembled as she zipped up the black nylon jacket.

She stuck to the shadows as she checked out the building currently housing Wilson Fisk's offices. Just because the man was in prison didn't mean his empire stopped rolling, even despite all the legal battles they were facing. Karen had a feeling that Fisk's team would find a way to keep the river of dirty money flowing.

As much as that thought bothered her, it wasn't why she was here now. Her mission tonight was to find out if anyone else, besides James Wesley, knew her name. She felt tainted by the association and wanted to make sure that Wesley was the end of the road.

The building looked like a fortress. It was all glass and steel. Even now, at one o'clock in the morning, a security guard manned a desk and another patrolled the inner lobby.

"There are cameras around the perimeter."

Karen jumped and sucked in a hard breath to avoid screaming.

"You are about two feet away from being caught on TV."

She could feel her heart beating erratically. There he was, in the flesh. The Devil. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." He said as he gestured for her to follow him deeper into the shadows.

Karen watched him move away from the building and into the alley. His footsteps were nearly silent. Finally, when he deemed them to be safely away from prying closed-circuit monitoring, he stopped.

"We're you planning on breaking in?"

Karen thought about denying it, but something about the man in black before her compelled her to tell the truth. "Yes."

"You'll get caught. You'll end up in jail."

"Maybe that's where I belong."

Matt was stunned by her confession. He fought the overwhelming instinct to reach out to her. "No, you don't."

"You don't know—"

"I know you're a good person. You don't belong behind bars."

"Who makes the rules? About who's good and who's not?"

Matt often wondered the same thing. Was it God? The devil? Lately, he'd trusted in his own judgement about such matters. He didn't know how to answer her, so he changed the subject.

"What do you want from in there?" He gestured to the building behind them.

"Information. I need to get inside."

Matt was puzzled. What could Karen want from Fisk's offices? "Why?"

"I…I just need to check…"

Matt could feel her reluctance to share the details. He wanted to respect her need for privacy but he couldn't' risk her getting caught. "Can I help?"

Karen looked up suddenly. She was surprised that he'd make such an offer, but wasn't that the entire reason she'd tried so hard to find him? Now that he'd offered what she'd hoped he would, she wasn't sure she could accept it.

"I don't know. It's risky."

Matt allowed himself a small smile. "I know."

"I need to see if anyone associated with James Wesley knows me—knows who I am."

"Why?"

Karen swallowed hard. She wanted to tell him. The need to unburden her soul was overwhelming, but she resisted. "I'm afraid it could lead back to my friends."

Matt could feel his own heart beating hard. "How could it hurt them?"

"I have….information and if anyone else in his organization knows who I am, I'm afraid they'll go after me or the people I work for."

"What'll you do if that turns out to be the case?"

"I'll leave." She answered immediately. "I don't want anyone getting hurt. At least not anyone else." She finished softly.

"You should go home. Leave this to me."

"Why? Why would you do this for me?"

Matt half turned, not sure exactly what to say. "I don't want Fisk's mess to land on anyone else. Especially someone innocent."

"I'm not—"

Matt held up a hand to stop her. He wanted to know her secret; in fact he felt a seed of fear in his stomach about what exactly that secret might be, but still he held her off. "It's not important. Not tonight."

Karen looked up suddenly and into the shadowed man's face. His words reminded her of something Matt had said so long ago when she'd asked him if believing in God helped. He'd said, "Not today." Again, this feeling of familiarity niggled.

"Do you know my bosses? They're lawyers…Nelson and Murdock?"

Matt exhaled and closed his eyes. "I do."

"They're good people. I don't want anything to happen to them. Especially Matt…he's blind…and I doubt he'd appreciate me pointing this out, but he's more vulnerable, even if he doesn't think so—"

Matt interrupted her ramblings. He was both slightly relieved that she still had no idea he was The Mask and slightly annoyed that she thought him so helpless as to need extra protection.

"Go home. I'll be in touch."

He didn't give her a chance to respond as he slid past her in the darkness and all but disappeared. She thought she could see his faint outline briefly, but then there was nothing.

xXx

Matt didn't attempt to gain entry into Fisk's offices that night. No, if he were planning a break-in on that scale, he'd need a lot more prep. Instead, he decided to follow Karen home. At least he'd be able to tell if anyone else was doing the same.

He kept to the rooftops and shadowed her movements on the street. He had to hand it to her; she did a good job of staying safe. She kept her head down, but her eyes sharp and moved quickly and confidently down the nearly vacant streets.

At one moment, he saw a few men on a street corner pause and give her a long second glance, but for whatever reason, they left her alone.

As she neared her building, he dropped down to ground level but still maintained a safe distance. He was just about to turn away when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He quickly scanned the area and found several heartbeats. One belonged to a homeless man, snoozing on a church stoop a few doors down. Two others belonged to inebriated men stumbling out of a bar, laughing. But the fourth was different. Steady. Healthy. Strong. And it wasn't moving.

Matt pinpointed the heartbeat to a location about a half block down from where he was currently standing in the shadows. The man was tucked into a hidden alcove. Matt concentrated and listened to the man's steady breathing as well as what sounded like fingers clicking on a phone keyboard.

He waited it out for what seemed like an eternity until the man finally left his hidden spot and travelled away from Karen's building.

Maybe Karen was right to be worried after all.