"The first step to healing is recognizing that there's a wound." Unknown
The bouncer at the door let her pass after checking her handbag and Lena enters the club. She looks around. The décor of the club is held in Japanese style, a lot of red and black glossy surfaces. A band is performing on a small stage, the artists almost disappearing in the artificial fog. The club is not really crowded; it is probably still a bit too early. Lena sits down at the bar, orders a beer and scans the patrons. Most of the guests look like bankers or lawyers, not one looks like the average gangbanger. And no signs of Marshall. The barkeeper, a young woman with incredible blond hair and a crewcut, puts the beer in front of Lena. "Nice hair," Lena says.
"Like yours too", the girls replies. "I thought about shaving them completely."
"Saves time in the morning," Lena grins. "Perhaps you can help me. I'm looking for a friend of mine," she continues, "Tom. He looks a bit like George Clooney. He told me that he's here every Saturday."
The barkeeper frowns and hesitates. "Are you a friend of his?"
Lena shrugs casually. "I met him a couple of weeks ago. He said I should drop in when I'm in the city." She gives the barkeeper a conspiratorial smile. "Did I mention that he looks like George Clooney?"
"He's a regular," the girl finally says. "He's in meeting with the owner upstairs. Might take a while."
Lena sighs theatrically. "Business at Saturday night? I'm not into workaholics."
A man, obviously drunk, approaches Lena and grabs her arm. "Hey Babe, what you're doing so alone?"
Lena shakes him off and rolls her eyes in the direction of the barkeeper. "Washrooms?" she asks.
"In the back", the girl answers, shrugging apologetically.
The drunken patron has given Lena a good excuse to leave the bar and have a look at the upstairs rooms of the club. She ignores the door to the restrooms and takes instead the next one with the label "Private" on it. Stairs are leading up to the next floor. Lena slowly walks up, listening carefully for any noise. At the top of the stairs is a short corridor. Lena catches some hushed voices through one of the doors, but despite eavesdropping she cannot understand what they are saying. A super-hearing would come handy, she thinks. She listens at the next door and slowly opens it. She is prepared with an excuse if someone was in the room, but it is empty. It is a small office room with a big desk in the middle and a couple of shelves on the walls. There is a connecting door to the next room from where the voices come and it is left a crack open. Now the voices are more distinctive and Lena realises that they are not speaking English but an Asian language, Japanese she guesses. She peeks through the narrow crack and catches a glimpse at a broad back which she assumes belongs to Marshall and the face of a young Japanese man. She makes a step back to not being discovered and examines the room she is in. Spread on the desk is a big map of Hell's Kitchen and a couple of site plans. Lena takes some pictures of them with her smart phone. She silently goes through a pile of other documents on the table, most of them related to building permits. Nothing which seems to have a connection with weapons. She hesitates when she spots a document with a blue logo in the letterhead which looks familiar. It is an offer for some construction related logistics. Not really suspicious but Lena takes a picture of it anyway.
Finally she opens cautiously one of the cupboards, but not cautiously enough, because something falls from one of the boards before she can react. The thing, which turns out to be a rifle, lands noisily on the floor. Lena hears the men in the adjoining room get up and come towards her. For a short moment she considers running, but she knows that is too late for that.
"What are you doing here?" the young Japanese barked at her when he enters the office through the connecting door and spots her. Marshall and another Japanese man enter the small office just behind him. Lena weights her chance to take on all three of them. She would not put money on her.
"Uhm, I tried to hide. There's this guy. He's totally drunk and followed me to the washrooms. Sorry, I didn't want to disturb you." Lena smiles as innocent as possible and just ignores the weapon which is lying at her feet. "Perhaps one of the gentlemen would be so kind as to have a look at the corridor and check whether he is gone?"
"She was sneaking around", Marshall accuses her, pointing at the rifle on her feet.
"Oh sorry, the cupboard was open and I wanted to close it. I couldn't help." She shrugs and makes a step towards the door.
"I'm sorry, M'me, but I can't let you go." The Japanese slowly pulls a gun from under his jacket. That is the moment Lena realises that it does not matter whether they believe her or not, she has seen too much and would kill her in any case. She leaps forward, pushes over the desk, forcing the men to step back, and grabs the rifle from the floor. She realises that it is unloaded and tries to uses it to hit the Japanese with its stock. But the man blocks the hit and pulls the weapon out of her hands. Lena flees the room, slamming the door behind her. She hastily looks around, she hears steps coming up the stairs so she turns in the other direction and runs along the corridor. Someone is shouting at her, she does not turn back but flees into the staircase at the other end of the corridor. She runs up the stairs, hears door slamming behind her. She feels a bullet whizzing close to her before she even hears the explosive sound of a firing gun. She leaves the staircase at the fourth floor, entering another corridor when suddenly the lights go out. Lena hopes that her blind backup is accountable for that, securing an advantage. She turns around a corner, picking up a metallic waste bin on the way, and presses herself against the wall. She forces herself to breath regularly, listening to the heavy steps of her pursuer. The moment he comes around the corner she hits him as hard as she can with the bin. He stumbles back and Lena punches him with her fist in the stomach. Another man is approaching her and Lena tries to grab the gun her opponent has let fallen. She is not fast enough and one of the other men hits her hard in the face and makes her stumble. He raises his gun and in the moment Lena thinks that he is going to pull the trigger, he goes down, hit by a fast flying object. Only a split second later, a dark shape appears, flipping and going after the man. Lena gets back on her feet, kicks her first pursuer in the guts when he tries to get up again. Matt is still pounding with his fists on the other even though he is already unconscious.
"Let's go out of here," Lena gasps. Matt does not react, just goes on beating the guy.
"He's out!" Lena grabs his shoulder. "He's out. Let's go out of here."
Matt breathes heavily and it takes him a moment to react to Lena. "To the roof," he says tersely, finally let go from his opponent. Lena has problems to keep up with him when they are running along the corridor and out of a window to the fire escape, up to the roof.
"Jump!" he commands and drags her with him, letting Lena no time to think whether she actually can take the four meter leap to the next building. She lands hard on her knees. Matt pulls her up. "Keep going." He leads her through the night, over roof tops and fire escapes until they arrive finally at Matt's building and enter his apartment through the roof access.
"What were you thinking?" Matt yells angrily when they finally arrived in his apartment. He throws his mask in a corner.
"And what you were thinking?" Lena yells back, trying to catch her breath. "You've almost beaten that guy to death and you couldn't stop yourself!"
"That guy would have killed you. That's not a game!" Matt is angry. Angry with Lena, but mostly he is angry with himself that he let Lena going into the club in the first place.
"No, it's not," Lena agrees. "And I'm not sure that you know that. There's accountability for everything we do."
"Do you think that I don't know that?" Matt replies hoarsely.
Lena sighs and shakes her head. It may have been a mistake to get even deeper involved with a vigilante. But she does not want to fight anymore, not tonight when every part of her body is hurting, not only from the fight but also from the parcouring over the roofs of Hell's Kitchen.
She picks up her duffle bag and goes towards the door.
"Where do you want to go?" Matt asks.
"In a hotel. I'm tired and I need a shower and I was beaten on enough today."
"You can't…you can use mine." Matt forces himself to calm down. "It's late and it could be a bit difficult to find a hotel room in your…condition. You can have my bedroom, I sleep on the couch."
Lena glances down and notices that her jeans are torn and her knees grazed as well as her knuckles. She touches her cheekbone where the guy hit her and winces. She does not need a mirror to know how bad she must look. She feels torn and tired and does not fancy the idea of finding a hotel room in the middle of the night. For a moment both are just standing there, facing each other, silently. Finally Lena gives in and let herself fall to the couch. Matt grabs an ice bag from the fridge and hands it to her. He clears his throat. "What have you found in club?" he asks. "Apart from the obvious fact that Marshall works for the Yakuza".
"There were some weapons in a cupboard. Definitely the same as on the streets. But I hadn't time to take a closer look. And I found this." She takes her phone and scrolls through the pictures.
"You will have to describe it to me." Matt says, hinting a smile.
"Oh, sorry." Sometimes Lena just forgets that he is blind. "There were construction plans of a block in Hell's Kitchen."
"Where exactly?"
Lena examines the plans more closely. "It's a block at tenth and forty-ninth."
"Elena Cardenas' building," Matt states and suddenly the feeling of helplessness and guilt is there again.
"Who is Elena Cardenas?" Lena asks, noticing Matts change of mood. He sighs and tells to Lena how they gain Elena as a client and how she died.
"What happened to the building?" Lena asks after a pause.
"They have torn it down. But after the arrest of Fisk, all of his construction projects were put on hold."
"Looks like someone has plans for it again," Lena says. "I also found an offer of a company named Listed Logistics Ltd. Does that sound familiar?"
Matt shakes his head. "No, why?"
"I don't know, I just have the impression that I've seen their logo somewhere else. I'll have someone at my office make an inquiry on it. If there is any connection with the military, they'll find out." She glimpses at her watch, it is already after midnight. She yawns.
"You can have the bathroom first," Matt offers.
Lena nods and half an hour and a hot shower later she feels better. When she comes back to the living room Matt has taken off his suit and wears only boxers. "Shall I have a look at your shoulder?" she asks when she notices that the wound has opened again. Matt shakes his head. "I'm fine." Lena doubts but she does not insist. When she reaches the bedroom she turns around again. "Thank you for saving my life. Again."
Matt smiles. "You're welcome."
She closes the sliding door which separates the bedroom from the rest of the apartment and Matt hears her lying down.
The walls seem to collapse and Lena tries to escape but she does not have control over her legs. Someone is screaming. She tries to breath but the air is full of dust and dirt. Lena startles awake and realises that she has heard her own scream. She sits up and it takes her a moment to realise that she is at Matt's place. She forces herself to breath in and out to calm down. She hears Matt walking around in the apartment. She gets up and opens the door to the living room. Matt is standing in the kitchen, pouring in a glass of water. He wears sweat pants and Lena wonders whether this guy does not own any shirts.
"Sorry, I woke you up," she says.
"It's okay," he replies, handing her the glass. "Do you want to go to the roof? Or hit something? I'm available; I'm quite good at taking punches."
Lena manages to smirk. "I just need a moment to shake it off, before I can sleep again."
She steps to the window bank, glancing at the moving add which illuminates Matt's apartment in ever changing colours. He approaches her, laying a hand on her shoulder. She takes a deep breath and leans against him. He feels warm and safe. "Sometimes I have the feeling that the world around me is just cold and dark, violent and merciless," she says.
"I know the feeling."
"And how do you cope with it? How can you just go on?"
"I remind myself that I'm not alone. That there are people in my life who care about me and that I only have to let them care about me."
She turns around, reaches out and touches the long scarf just below his ribs with her fingertips. "What's about 'I'm not your type'?" he asks hoarsely.
"What's about that I'm a liar?"
Matt bends forward and kisses her, tenderly first, then more intensely, absorbing the enticing scent of her skin. He feels the heat of her body and her touch makes him shiver. He presses her against the window and leaves a row of kisses down her neck. Lena closes her eyes and tries to concentrate on prickling feeling Matt is causing in her and to ignore the growing anxiety. Matt makes a step back, giving her some space. "Are you okay?" he asks softly.
"I want this," she assures him. "I really do. But since my…captivity, I…it's hard for me to be close to someone. Last time I tried, I panicked and the guy freaked out."
"I don't freak out so easily," Matt replies, "And you lead the way."
She takes his hand and leads him to the sleeping room. She sinks to the bed, pulling Matt over her. He kisses her and feels that she becomes tense again. "Do you know why sharks won't attack lawyers?" he asks suddenly.
Lena looks up puzzled. "What?"
"Professional courtesy," Matt says without stopping caressing her neck.
Lena frowns and tries to concentrate on what he has just said. "Are you trying to tell me a joke?"
"Yes, and you should actually laugh", Matt replies, pretending to be offended. "Let's try another one: How do you find a blind man in a nudist colony?"
"I have no idea."
"It's not hard."
Lena laughs and relaxes. "You may be wrong on that one." She moves her hand down his body and coaxes a gentle moan of him. "Thank you."
"What for?" Matt asks.
"Making me laugh."
"I have one more. Walks a blind lawyer in a bar…" Matt does not get to finish that joke that night.
