"Shelter" - The XX
Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on
Maybe I had said, something that was wrong
Can I make it better, with the lights turned on
Karen and Frank listened silently to David's scolding as Sarah fluttered around them, administering pain medication and bandages.
"Of all of the crazy stupid things that you could have done you go, alone, to an abandoned warehouse district and you didn't think that somehow that was going to end badly?" David asked Karen before turning to Frank "And you. I give you a heads up and instead of-I don't know asking me to come along or at least run surveillance on all of the surface streets-decided to go in blindly."
"I wasn't planning on alerting them to my presence, it was an accident." Karen said and hissed harshly between her teeth when Sarah poured rubbing alcohol on her hand and began putting butterfly bandages a crossed the cut.
"You should have told me what was going on." Frank said in his usual raspy voice and Karen wanted to smack him.
She'd since filled them in on everything, not seeing the point in keeping it to herself now that they were both firmly entrenched in the mess that she'd caused by digging too deeply.
"I would have had I thought you wouldn't decide to take this whole thing into your own hands and solve everything-like you always do. I need to get this story out into the public so that they can avoid this drug. Besides-" She said and pointed at Frank "You are supposed to be retired."
Frank shifted uncomfortably in his seat before replying, "Well, it's a little hard to stay in retirement when I have to constantly pull your ass out of trouble."
Karen's mouth flopped open, fury flashing in her blue eyes and at that moment Sarah stepped in, "Okay you two I'd love to watch you hash this out, really, but I've got to kids upstairs who have school in the morning. I want you both to stay here tonight and tomorrow we will figure this out-together."
Placing a hand on Karen's shoulder she gestured towards the stairs "Karen I have some pajamas that might fit you-you'll want to get out of those bloody clothes. Frank I'll bring something down in a little bit."
Karen sent one last glance at Frank, who looked anywhere but at her, before following Sarah up the stairs and into the large master bedroom. It was painted a comforting blue and the warm wood warmed her bare feet.
Sarah chattered quietly as she rifled through the large walk in closet and Karen sat on the nearby armchair numbly, the shock of the day finally hitting her.
Tears rolled down her cheeks and her hands began to shake. It took until Sarah popped her head out of the closet to realize and suddenly the other woman was kneeling in front of her comforting her.
"Hey, it's going to be okay Karen." She dabbed at Karen's dirty face with her sleeve and patted her shoulder. "Let's get you out of these clothes and into the shower."
Stiffly Karen let the woman that she barely knew pull the torn, ratty, tank top over her head and gasp when she saw Karen's midriff-which to Karen's surprise was covered with angry purple bruises.
"I fell onto a garbage can." Karen explained, prodding at the bruise with her fingers.
"You could have broken ribs Karen, you should get that checked out." Sarah said as she turned on the shower.
"Yeah, I'll get right on that." Karen said, almost sarcastically, as she kicked off the rest of her clothes and stepped under the hot spray.
"Come downstairs when you're finished." Sarah called over the sound of rushing water before shutting the bathroom door. At the sound of the click Karen leaned against the cool shower wall and let herself cry. Why was it that she always ended up crying alone in the shower when things got bad? Why hadn't she learned her lesson after dealing with Wilson Fisk?
Karen stood under the spray for fifteen minutes before grabbing the body wash from one of the ledges and soaped herself up, letting all of the dirt and grime wash away from her body and down the drain. Only when she was as clean as she could get did she shut off the water and step out of the shower.
Sarah had left the clothes and some towels on the counter and Karen quickly toweled off and pulled on the soft purple pajama pants and grey long sleeved shirt.
Heading back downstairs she found David and Sarah talking quietly in the kitchen.
"Where's Frank?" She asked, joining them.
"Your guess is as good as mine," David shrugged "I went downstairs to grab some things and when I came back he was gone-he left this though."
Karen took the note from him and rolled her eyes at the 'i'll be back' which was hastily scrolled a crossed the receipt, "What is he? The Terminator? He was much more hurt than I am he needs to be resting."
"And so do you. I've made up the guest bedroom for you to sleep in." Sarah gently pressed a hand into Karen's back, steering her back towards the stairs.
"You've both done so much for me, I'm sorry I've brought all of this to your doorsteps." Karen apologized as they climbed the stairs for the second time that night.
"Hush it's fine, David would have tried to help even if you hadn't asked him and I'm just here to make sure all of you crazy people keep all of your limbs." Sarah joked as she opened the door to the guest bedroom, which was yet again painted in another calming blue color.
"You just get some rest tonight so we can start on the game plan in the morning, okay? There should be some pain medication in the drawer for you if you need it."
Karen nodded and waited to shut the door before sinking down onto the bed. She wanted nothing more than to take the pain medication and crawl under the sheets. But she needed to look at her phone first.
Sarah had left her bag on the armchair and Karen dug through it, quickly finding her phone. Luckily it still had some battery life left and she was able to unlock it and begin to flick through the pictures she'd taken that day.
The crates that they were unloading were unmarked, but Karen had a gut feeling that they were full of the drug that she was trying to track down. She wished she'd gotten pictures of the drug itself-these wouldn't hold up in court-and no doubt that warehouse would be completely empty by dawn.
Karen flipped over to the pictures of the man who had stepped out of the mercedes, she'd known him from somewhere but her tired mind couldn't pinpoint where exactly.
With a sigh she crawled under the sheets and turned out the light and briefly debated taking some of those pain pills to quell the ache in her body-but drowsiness ended the debate as she dropped off into an exhausted sleep.
Some time later she was pulled back into the conscious world to the sound of a body shuffling in the room that she was in.
With a jolt Karen began to sit up, but the figure stopped her "Shh Karen, it's only me."
The bedside table lamp switched back on to reveal Frank sitting in the armchair next to the bed. His bruises had darkened in the past few hours and the cut on his temple was neatly bandaged-Sarah's handiwork no doubt.
"Hey…" Karen said groggily reaching out with her palm upturned. "Where'd you go?"
Frank reached out and took it, "I went to get some more supplies and also grab your car."
"You didn't need to do that." Karen tried to rub the sleep from her eyes but failed, her body was so tired.
Frank shrugged and paused for a moment as if debating on what he would say next, "Karen I wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I don't think that I always have to pull your ass out of trouble."
Karen chuckled, "You're right, sometimes I have to pull your ass out of trouble too."
"You're right about that." Frank said with a chuckle "That's what we do Karen. We pull each other out of trouble and protect each other-which I now realize was what you were trying to do earlier."
"Yeah and it worked real well didn't it?" She asked drily.
"It doesn't matter if it worked or not Karen. We're in this together now," Frank squeezed her hand, "I want you to know that I'll protect you-no matter what."
Karen smiled blearily, she could feel the exhaustion creeping in on her again.
"Get some sleep, Karen." Frank said and he moved to release her hand but she squeezed tighter.
"Stay?" She asked with a yawn.
Frank sat quietly for a moment before switching the lamp off, "Sure." He said in the darkness as sleep overcame Karen once again.
Author's Note:
Hi y'all! Welcome to Chapter 6 which, compared to the previous chapter, is a lot let action-worthy. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter-I do hope that you are all listening to the song that is at the beginning of each chapter. It's not a requirement but it helps set the ambiance of the chapter and it's usually a song I'm listening to while I write the chapters. Anyways I'll keep chugging a long with this story until it's finished, so I'll see you all in chapter 7!
As always thank you for reading, and I hope you leave me a review, question or comment down below!
-LittleMoonLover-