JESSICA

From the look on Matt's face she could tell that he was just as surprised as her that her suggested safeword "Chicken Tikka" came up that quickly on the flight. She saw him swallow, surprisingly conflicted about such a simple decision and when he finally scrambled for the eggs option - apparently against his will - the little smirk on his face almost made her laugh out loud.

Well, at some point they would have to give the viewers some reason to get invested in them as a couple and this moment in which he struggled to let her know he'd not be against that, despite having to suffer through the even less tasty meal because of if, was as good as any. So, that's when Jessica decided to kiss him.

Even Rachel could not have planned that any better.

If you asked her what it felt like Jessica would say, that it was pretty damn funny. she still remembered the flabbergasted look on his face and the way he blinked in surprise afterwards. His lips luckily still knew how to do this instinctively.

A part of her expected him to ask if they could try that again, but he had agreed to follow her lead on this and he stuck to that.

Jessica even considered switching food with him and have some mercy, but that egg really didn't look good. When he almost ran to the toilet shortly after he ate it all she hoped he hadn't gotten sick because of it, but he did look a little pale when he came back.

The rest of the flight Matt was extremely tense. At least as much as she remembered, because Jessica fell asleep after one hour of listening to some music. The channels on the airplane didn't offer a huge variety, but she finally found something that wouldn't make her want to tear her ears off after five minutes. But apparently it put her to sleep which Jessica didn't like, although she probably needed it.

She woke up what must have been hours later to the camera filming her drool and at that realisation she kicked Matt's shin. "Why didn't you wake me up...?!"

"Why should I? I think you needed some sleep." He frowned at her and that's when she noticed that he still was very tense.

"Did you get any sleep at all?"

Scratching the back of his head he mumbled: "Um... no."

"But you didn't watch me sleep." She'd kill him if he did. Not for real, just in her head.

Matt looked confused for a moment. "No!" Gesturing at his eyes he reminded her of his blindness, but they both knew this wasn't what she meant. If he could tell if a person was attracted to someone, she didn't want to know what he learned from her sleeping next to him. Crap.

Although he looked so amusingly scandalised at the idea that she believed the good Catholic boy hadn't done anything creepy with his ears and whatnot. "Good." Maybe he was really preoccupied with something else.

They arrived in Japan shortly after, the tension never leaving his shoulders. If only she could find a way to talk to him without those stupid cameras, because it was starting to make her really nervous. But she decided it had nothing to do with her. She had a feeling that he was in his own head.

Then it appeared to get even worse when she noticed that strange noise. Well, everyone did. It was impossible not to hear, even inside a bus. Rachel was the one who asked their driver about it. "Oh, those bugs are the cicadas. They're the sound of the summer. You can hear them especially at sunset and sunrise. They sit in trees."

Rachel visibly paled, because that probably ruined some of the quiet peaceful dates she had planned.

"BUGS are making that much noise? That sounds like you're standing next to a construction site." Lucy exclaimed.

But the Japanese driver just laughed and in his accented English confirmed Jessica's fears. "Foreigner often find their singing annoying. Be prepared to have them wake you up before 6am."

"Singing...?" Now that's a weird way to call it.

As bad as it was for her, Jessica could imagine that this was even worse for the man with the good ears. And sure enough, she saw Matt hold his head in agony. Rachel noticed, too, and she could hear her arrange some noise cancelling headphones.

By the time they reached the hotel Jessica feared to hear the cicadas' full volume, because the place was in a forest, far away from noisy cities. Ha. Okay, maybe that's what shocked Rachel before. She saw Matt actually wince when the bus door opened, but after that he tried not to let his discomfort show. Which worked for about two minutes, until he had to throw up on the sidewalk.

Or maybe it was the eggs. Or both.

She really wanted to talk to him, but it appeared he was a little preoccupied with the show's doctor checking on him and he looked quite sick. So when they got to talk on their own briefly, she told him to get some rest and he just gave her with one ominous warning: "Keep an eye on Annie. She's dangerous. And please tell Elektra, too."

Jessica found the room of Matt's ex-girlfriend as soon as possible and checked for cameras when she entered, but there were none yet. Then Elektra made a quiet sign with one finger in front of her lips and pulled out a strange device while Jessica was ready to defend herself.

After she switched it on, Elektra started talking. "They won't hear us now. I feel like we might have something to discuss that isn't for everyone's ears."

Good call, actually. "Matt asked me to tell you that Annie's dangerous."

"Huh... I wasn't even sure that he took my warning seriously, but I had a suspicion, that something happened during the flight. I'll take care of it." She smiled sweetly and Jessica was wondering what exactly 'taking care of it' would entail.

Looking back at it now Jessica really isn't sure what to make of Elektra. She seemed to be just as secretive as Matt, but in her case Jessica feels more like she doesn't want to know what's up with her. Elektra has this vibe of being mysterious and challenging someone to try and figure her out and when you did she might kill you.

Trish told her she knows this guy Gary who is Quinn's boss at the TV network and his secretary was very informative, because she doesn't like him very much. Apparently Elektra did visit him and shortly afterwards there was another strange meeting which made Gary call Quinn for some corrections in their cast. He does that every season apparently, exchanging some girls for others that he finds more attractive... or others with wealthy sponsors. The Everlasting-team then has some candidates forced on them and others they get to pick from. Some are just suggested.

The secretary even found a list in his emails. Elektra, Celine and Annie were on it. So, all of these could have potentially gotten on the show for some weird reasons. Nina's name apparently featured in another list of suggestions from which only she was picked.

Elektra definitely knew more about all that than she was telling her and when she directly asked her what exactly she was there for all Jessica got was a shrug. "I found out that Matty was going to be the suitor, so I thought this would be a nice chance to reconnect with him."

"And you could just knock on the producer's door to invite you on this show."

"Yes." She flashed her a smile that Jessica knew not many men could say no to.

"You think others got on the show in a similar way?"

"Obviously." They were both thinking of Annie, obviously.

"Anyone apart from Annie?"

"Could be." Elektra raised her eyebrows. She clearly enjoyed their little chat and didn't give anything away. "Is that all? Because I have questions, too. Would you answer them?"

"Fine. Ask." Jessica crossed her arms, not used to the role of being interrogated.

"How did you get on the show?"

"Do you know who Trish Walker is?" A vague nod. "She's my sister."

"Right." Elektra then sits on her bed, crossing her long, skinny legs. "And what are your intentions with Matthew?"

What the...

RACHEL

Matt sighs in relief when Rachel offers him the noise cancelling headphones a couple of hours after they arrived in Japan. "Thank you. Those insects finally stopped with that insane monotonous sound, but I feel like I can still hear it." He even looks a little haunted.

"I hope this works. I've been trying to find a more quiet accommodation, but these pests seem to be everywhere. I had no idea about this, I swear."

"I know. You have other ways to torture your puppets." Rachel rolls her eyes at his remark, but she does feel bad because she suspects that the noise really must be some form of torture for him, even more than he admits. He puts the headphones away, passing an older blind man as he quickly follows the women in training clothes.

At least the cicadas can't be heard now and she hopes it's possible for him to meditate there, because that would be the next activity, one he actually suggested to her. One half of the group is facing the other half as their instructor tells them what to do and eventually describes a peaceful bug-free place somewhere far away. Matt sighs and the contestants laugh at that, before they try to concentrate on the mental image that's being painted in front of their closed eyes.

"You could at least have asked him to take his shirt off," Quinn says when she joins her behind a monitor. Of course her boss thinks this episode is going to be boring.

But five minutes into the lesson she stops complaining. Jane and Kelly have a hard time taking the exercises seriously as well. They squint while everyone else is relaxing and start to look for ways to make each other giggle or lose focus by making funny faces.

Lucy becomes aware of what is going on 15 minutes into it and she joins in by tipping Nina's shoulder with her finger and making her glare at Jessica for a moment, before she takes in Lucy's suppressed smirk knowingly. Quinn seems a bit invested in these two, but none of them are really sure if Matt's nudge towards Lucy was the right advice for Nina. They don't even know if the superhero enthusiast is interested in women. So far she made no clear indication that she could be. On the other hand: Nina has also been too subtle, probably.

Finally the group is left alone by their meditation instructor and that's when it all ends up becoming a lesson in how focused Matt Murdock can be. One candidate starts it by leaning very close and softly blowing some air against his cheek. She looks impressed when he doesn't react. They also take turns in whispering secrets into his ear, unaware that this is ridiculously unnecessary and then Kelly tries to tickle him to make him lose his concentration. Until suddenly Matt grabs her offending hand and pulls her close to retaliate clumsily on her arm, careful not to make it uncomfortable.

They all have a bit of a laugh then before going back to their rooms to change, with only Matt staying behind and indicating that they have to talk. "You're not allergic to cats or something, right?"

He looks a little taken aback. "Um... no. Why?"

"Because you're going on a date in a cat café with Jane tomorrow."

"Great."

His expressive eyes however tell her that nothing is great. "What's wrong?"

Matt sighs deeply. "Annie tried to blow up the plane."

"What?!" Did she hear that right? Why didn't he say anything? Should they be calling the police?

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to anyone." Okay, good. Still, that probably shouldn't relax her as much as it does. She is responsible for her contestants and her crew. A responsibility she didn't always acknowledge. "Elektra and Jessica are also keeping an eye on her."

Trusting Matt more than she should, Rachel congratulates herself in her head on getting mixed up in another horrible mess. She never would have suspected anything bad about Annie. "The quiet girl with the sick mom?"

"Yeah... that one."

MATT

He had a bad feeling about Annie as soon as they arrived at the airport, but Jessica distracted him, until he smelled explosives around the other contestant on her way to the back of the plane. He followed her quickly and when she arrived at the toilet where nobody could see what she did he pushed her inside and locked the door.

Immediately a fight broke out. One in which Matt tried hard not to accidentally hit anything that could blow up and make the plane crash. Luckily, Annie hadn't put her bomb together yet, which may have made it a little less destructive, but the psycho ninja dressed as a debutante couldn't care less if they both died that close to it going off. She made it difficult for him to avoid the explosives and finally managed to kick him between the legs.

But instead of leaving the cabin and either taking the bomb with her or getting rid of it, she again started working on it, apparently determined to carry out her mission. Matt however recovered quickly, because she didn't get him as good as she thought. So after dishing out a sudden hook that made her drop the package, he caught it on instinct and kept it from her hands, punches and kicks. The cabin didn't offer much room for good moves, especially while trying not to blow up. But he was able to slam her against the wall a couple of times and eventually maneuvered around enough to shove the threat down the flushing toilet, to Annie's astonishment.

She recovered quickly though and before he could ask her some pressing questions she decided to flee the cabin, kicking his hands away, to leave him alone in the aftermath of this little encounter. He couldn't run after her without outing himself. Although this woman seemed quite determined to have the plane crash, so there was no way he'd get sleep before they arrived safely in Japan. He had to concentrate on her for the rest of this flight.

Since he could smell some blood on his fist and the sweater, he took the bloody thing off and washed his hands. Folding the sweater over his arm to hide the evidence, he hoped that this covered it up when he stepped out again to return to Jessica. Annie was also innocently occupying her seat now. Maybe the danger was dealt with, at least until they were back on the ground, where the noise of the running engines wouldn't mess with his hearing anymore.

What he didn't expect though, was switching the airplane engines for those horrible bugs "singing" in an unbearable frequency. Still, he managed to focus every one of his senses on Annie as much as he could and he only lost her once when he had to throw up. That being his most embarrassing moment during this public farce, even worse than his pathetic plunge in the lake. Stick would have laughed at him.

And he did when his mentor also shocked him by showing up a couple of hours later, mocking his need for the noise-cancelling headphones. "Aww... Are you worried that you won't be able to sleep, Matty?"

What was he doing in Japan? Did he just come here to insult him? How the hell would he even know where they were shooting? They didn't actually talk openly because of the cameras, but while Matt told the old man to shut up under his breath, Stick was muttering insults at him. "Surrounding yourself with all these distractions... Don't you think you're going a little far in rejecting everything I've taught you?"

Talking so quietly that nobody apart from Stick would be able to hear, Matt defended himself angrily: "I didn't have a choice. And one of these distractions tried to kill us all, which I prevented, by the way." Annie was sitting right behind him, but had made no further attempt to harm anyone. Would it be enough if Elektra and Jessica had their eyes on her and he his ears? What was she up to? He should probably warn Rachel about her as well.

Matt could hear Stick snort in the other room, while the women decided this would be the perfect time to test his ability to focus. "You don't have a clue what your dealing with." That was the last comment from the old man before he left the building.

Stick's words are still ringing in his ears in the evening, as the annoying insects start to fully come to life again. Maybe putting the headphones on to get some sleep is a bad idea or maybe he should stay awake until they quiet down at night. But he didn't get any sleep the night before and Annie is fast asleep in her bed now, while Jessica appears to be doing some research and Elektra is lying awake, just waiting for an opportunity to fight.

It won't help if he doesn't get any rest and things don't apear to escalate right now, so he decides to lie down for a couple of hours, depending on his senses, with the exclusion of his hearing.

Big mistake apparently, because in the middle of the night he wakes up to someone pressing a cloth to his nose and falling unconscious before he has a chance to figure out what's happening. He comes to a while later in a different room, tied to a chair, listening to people talking in an asian language he doesn't understand. And, of course the annoying sound of the cicadas is making him a little nauseous again.

He's however determined not to find out what these people are planning with him, so he starts to test the ropes. They appear to be are pretty tight, which makes the wooden chair he's sitting on the thing he needs to break. Matt moves the chair next to the wall as quietly as possible. The next part is going to get loud though and he waits for the conversation in the room under him to hopefully be engaging and agitated enough that they won't hear him.

When he finally hears some cooking noises he decides it's now or never, so he slams the chair against the wall. But apparently these people also have good ears, because they immediately rush in the direction of his room. Not bothered anymore with the noise it makes Matt smashes the chair against the wall some more times and he just keeps going when two guys run in with their knives drawn. Matt then avoids a cut from one by jumping back, but the other one buries a knife in his leg, just when they all hear another fight break out downstairs.

Too preoccupied with trying to make the men hit him in a way that would put more pressure on the weakest spot of the chair, Matt can't focus on what's going on somewhere else, so he isn't sure if rescue is on the way and if he should be acting more helpless just in case. He earns himself a cut in his side for thinking too much. Time to focus: Matt manages to surprise the man in front of him with a proper headbutt and then summoning all his strength, he pushes the man behind him back against the wall making the chair finally break a little. Enough for him to move a bit more and loosen the ropes. He uses the broken chair to fend of some more attacks, until he is able to free his hands.

Now armed with a wooden chair leg Matt faces his two captors realising that it's Jessica who's keeping the rest busy downstairs. Tilting his head he figures she doesn't need his help, but he probably should make sure she doesn't see him fight either.

Blocking a knife on reflex it gets stuck in the wood, while he feels someone hit against the other weapon buried in his own leg and making him yell in pain. He hears Jessica curse downstairs, but now she knows where to look for him. So to make sure this is over quickly, he pulls out the knife in his leg and uses his most efficient moves against his opponents, ignoring all of his injuries.

As soon as the second one falls unconscious, Jessica storms in to Matt holding a knife in his hand and moving it in front of her face randomly, as if he doesn't know who she is.

"Calm down, asshole," says the woman who already pulled him out of a lake and grabs the bloody knife, before he can hurt anyone. "Care to explain how you knocked those two out?"

He shrugs. "They underestimated the blind guy and I got lucky."

"Yeah... right."