Matt let himself awaken slowly, the sounds, smells, and feel of the hospital around him quickly assembling the world around him in the back of his mind. Taking a deep breath, he smiled slightly as he realized he felt no pain. Stretching out in his hospital bed, Matt luxuriated in the feeling of not feeling twinges of pain again. He felt this was a guilty pleasure though, as Hell's Kitchen had been without Daredevil for a while now.
In fairness, he'd hung up his red outfit in the trunk for a while, wanting to cleanse his mind and soul - but Midland Circle made it very clear to him that he had been running away from his responsibilities instead of clearing his head. With that in mind, Matt took a secret, guilty happiness in the rest he'd been having over the past week, feeling all his injuries and discomforts fade into the background noise of the hospital over time.
Today though was his last day, and that meant he took an extra few seconds of enjoying the comfort of laziness in his bed before getting up, getting dressed, and going with the nursing assistant to get checked out. The sounds of people frightened, families reuniting after tragedy, and people overjoyed for those they love wafted around him like gentle breezes, whispering stories of life and humanity to him as he passed. His heart gave a twinge at the fear, he felt his lips twitch at hearing people's joy after trauma, and he smiled at the sounds of an especially exuberant family happily hugging their hospitalized member so closely that the small one was almost buried.
"Right this way, sir," the nurse next to him said, gently leading him by the arm through the hallways. Matt was content to let her for now - privately, he cursed himself for being lazy for being willing to lean on his disability for this, but on the other hand, there was a small part of him that wanted to feel as if what he did hadn't been for nothing.
Letting the nurse lead him along, he privately mused to himself about this. He hadn't minded sacrificing himself to ensure the pain of his home was at least kept at a low ebb, and was perfectly willing to do so for the rest of his life. However, even though he didn't consciously want a reward or anything for doing so, he did at least want to feel like what he did at least had a positive effect. Right now, he still wasn't sure.
The nurse led him to the nurse's station, and kindly let him know that there was a braille pad to his left to sign paperwork with. As he did so, Matt's mind returned to the present, because the paperwork here for his hospital stay didn't make sense. "As grateful as I am for this," Matt began in a kind voice, "there seems to be some mistake. I only had a lower-tier insurance to cover this visit, so there should be a fairly substantial bill, correct?"
The nurse expressed surprise to this, but gave him a smile in return. "Oh, no sir - not at all. All your expenses were paid for using the highest tier possible of care. Your sponsor seemed adamant that you receive the very best care possible, and to spare no expense."
That... didn't at all make sense, and made him rather more suspicious. "My... sponsor?"
"Yes," the nurse said with a warm smile. "She said that you and she both had the same teacher once upon a time, and was willing to spend the money to make sure you were well taken care of."
Matt felt the smile freeze on his face, but he had to know. "Did she say who she was? I'd like to thank her for it."
"Oh, of course," the nurse said, and he began to hear the rustling of papers. "Here it is - she left a card with her place of business the last time she was here, in case we had any questions. It looks like a nice place - a little coffee shop where Midland Circle used to be. Isn't that nice? Here you go," she said, handing him the card.
Slowly blinking, Matt began to feel a headache forming. He was about to nicely explain for the ten thousandth time that being blind, he couldn't read business cards - but to his surprise, he felt the raised dots of braille on the card itself. He let his fingers lightly move over them, and felt his eyes squint closed.
"Chaste Hand-Made Coffee & Imports
Elektra Natchios, Owner"
Opening his mouth once, Matt closed it again, unsure of what he could say. Apparently drastically mis-reading his facial expression, the nurse continued. "She was very pretty, and she seemed to care about you a lot," she said, and Matt could almost see the coy smile on her face. "Maybe being a lawyer for Hell's Kitchen has some benefits?"
"Yeah," he said distantly, somewhat hoping that he was still dreaming all of this. "I should catch up with her."
"Yes you should, she seemed pretty concerned about you," the nurse continued with the same coy tone. "There you are - all your paperwork is settled. You're free to go, Mr. Murdock."
"Thanks," Matt replied, giving the nurse a tired smile of gratitude, and taking a deep breath. The scents and sounds of the hospital made a tapestry around which he could center himself.
Mistaking his intent, the nurse gave him what felt like a sympathetic smile, and gently wrapped her arm in his. "I know it can be overwhelming, but just take it one step at a time. Before you know it, you'll be back to your old life, like nothing happened."
Matt gave her a twisted smile. "One can only hope."
"Oh, it will - you'll see," she informed him with the air of one who's said this many times, to many troubled people before. The sounds and smells of greater New York suddenly assaulted him as the outer hospital doors opened, sketching a much larger painting that took him a moment to adjust to feeling. "It'll happen before you know it. Here you are - your cab is waiting right in front of you."
Matt stopped, feeling that this wasn't right at all. "I didn't order a cab."
"Oh, it was part of your care package," the nurse replied to him with a kind tone. "She specified that you were to be called a cab to take you home once you were released."
"How... nice," Matt said with a tight smile. "Thank you for your time, nurse. You didn't have to do this."
"Oh, I know," she laughed, "but I've had friends and family in the same position. I really don't mind."
"You're very kind," he said, gently patting her hand in thanks. "Thanks again for everything."
"You take care, Mister Murdock," he heard her call to him as he walked to the indicated cab, and he waved to her with a smile in return. The cab driver opened the door for him, made sure he was in, and then immediately got into the driver's seat and took off.
The cab driver didn't pay him the least bit of attention as he drove, talking on his earpiece in a language Matt didn't recognize by sound the entire time. Matt didn't mind - it gave him time to puzzle over how Elektra appeared to be causing chaos with his life again. It would be one thing if he knew where she was mentally, or what she was thinking - but it seemed like every time he got to the point where he did, her life changed drastically - or worse, she was trying to deny the very thing that kept him unable to turn away from her completely.
She had the spark of light within her, but she had been told so many times and so many different ways that she was a monster. For her, really facing the idea that she did indeed have a spark of light within her would mean acknowledging that many of the things she had had to deal with weren't fate, weren't justified, and weren't right. It was a terrible choice to be faced with from her position, and he didn't envy her. With that said however, he wasn't going to let her drag him down into the shadows, either.
But... there was the fact that she had somehow brought him out from beneath the ruin that the Midland Circle building had become, and the fact that she had made sure his hospital stay was paid for. It didn't make sense.
He felt the cab slow to a stop, and listening and smelling through the window, he confirmed that the cab had indeed brought him right in front of his apartment building. He offered the cab driver a tip, which was mindlessly accepted as Matt got out. Shaking his head about people's inattentiveness, he opened the outer door to his apartment building, and began to walk up the stairs.
He stopped halfway up the first flight.
Matt knew Elektra's heartbeat as well as he knew law - perhaps better. For the entirety of the Midland Circle debacle, she had had no heartbeat, and was utterly and terrifyingly silent - until she wasn't. Now though, he felt her heartbeat coming from above, and it was... louder than he remembered it being. Hotter, in a few ways, which seemed puzzling. What made him narrow his eyebrows, however, was that the heartbeat was coming from his own apartment.
Clenching his jaw, Matt took his time walking up the next few flights of stairs. He didn't smell her distinctive perfume in the stairwell, but he did smell it faintly from his apartment now - which means she didn't climb up the stairs to get to his apartment. He darkly wondered if she would still be there by the time he opened the door, or if he'd simply find another memento missing.
At last, he reached his door, and smelled the faint smell of orchids coming from beneath the doorframe, as well as what smelled like... beer, of all things. Narrowing his sightless eyes, Matt opened the door to his apartment, and felt the sight of Elektra sitting in his favorite armchair, an opened beer in hand. His jaw clenched at how familiar this felt. "Why are you here, Elektra?"
He could feel the small smile on her face as she took a sip of her beer, and set it back down. Her rich, smoky voice with that upper-class English accent danced around her words as a belly dancer might. "I missed your German beer selection, of course."
"Elektra, I don't need games right now," Matt informed her flatly. "I need to know what you're doing."
He heard her sigh, and braced himself.
"I've made many mistakes, Matthew," she said quietly. "You've said many times that you saw the light in me that I didn't want to see," she said softly, gracefully getting out of the chair, and slowly walking toward him. The slow swishing sounds of her clothes, and her now fiery heartbeat seemed to freeze him in place. "As much as I don't want to admit it, I don't think I could have until I were in a situation where it was my only way out," she said just as quietly, stopping just in front of him.
"So, that's what the hospital bills were about?" Matt asked, not wanting let himself get his hopes up again.
"Among other things," she replied, and he could feel the coy smile on her face. "I'm actually going to become a legitimate businesswoman."
"Did you really have to pick that name, of all names?" Matt asked her, annoyed.
"That's precisely why I picked it," she said, as he felt a cold glass bottle being pressed into his hand. "As a middle finger to Stick, to the Hand, to their secret war, to all the broken and destroyed plans they left in their wake."
He felt the label of the beer in his hand, the lettering finer, and different than he was familiar with. "This isn't the kind I usually get," he said slowly.
"Of course not," she replied haughtily. "You have this terrible habit of picking only the very worst of the beer selection, so it falls to me to ensure that you're not simply making your taste buds seek penitence."
He snorted, but he didn't let himself relax yet. "What are you doing, Elektra?"
"I wanted to repeat what I said to you under Midland Circle, those days ago now," she said, and he smelled her perfume more strongly as she stepped up to be only inches away from his face, reminding him headily of orchids. "I am sorry for all the pain I've caused you, Matthew. I'm trying to make up for it," she said before leaning closer to him, and he tried not to shiver as he felt her hot breath in his ear. "No matter how long it takes."
Matt sighed, took a sip of the beer, and set it down. "You're being more forthright than I expected," he said flatly to her.
To this, she actually laughed - albeit quietly. "I realized that the game I enjoy most with you is just being with you - you didn't really need my help to be interesting, I just told myself that so I wouldn't have to look at certain things."
Matt stared in her direction for a moment, and then reached down and took another sip of his beer. "What do you want, Elektra?"
"You," she said quietly. "I have more things I need to do, some leftover nonsense from the Hand's idiocy that needs to be cleaned up - but I want to make a real life for myself here - and I want to spend it with you."
Matt massaged his nose. "Elektra, I don't want to play these games with you anymore," he said to her, looking as tired as he felt. "I do want you in my life if you're not still fighting against yourself, but I want you to feel happy and at peace with yourself more than that," he explained, hands outstretched to make his point. "But I can't keep doing this tapdance with you, where you're trying to get me to kill, and I'm trying to get you to live. Elektra, it doesn't work."
"I don't want you to kill, Matthew," Elektra told him quietly before she softly kissed his nose, her hot breath dancing lightly across his face. "I want you to be the man you already are."
"And I want you to be able to try to let go of your rage, and stop using it to drive yourself down into the depths," Matt told her plainly.
"The coffee shop was a small step with that," she told him with a small smile. "I'm... trying to reconcile myself with my memories of Stick, and how I knew him. It'll take me much longer to be fully done with that, but Colleen and I sparred yesterday, and... I used Stick's old style against her. Then, there's Gao..."
Matt rubbed his eyes. "What did Madame Gao do?"
"Die," Elektra said with a smirk.
Matt lifted his hand from his face, and did his best to glare at her despite not being able to see her face.
"She made it clear that she wanted to reclaim the Black Sky for herself," Elektra said darkly. "While you were in the hospital, I found out exactly what the Black Sky actually is - and it's worse than you think," she said, as he felt a warm, female hand with callouses on the palms gently grab his. "The Black Sky within me got tired of me fighting it, and so forced itself to leave me - because only with its influence was my body able to even pretend to be alive. I managed to find a way to live anyway - Gao was displeased by this to the point where she tried to have Claire kidnapped to get Daniel and I to submit to her."
"So, what happened with the Black Sky?" Matt asked, in a softer voice.
"I killed it, after it told me that it wanted to watch me die," Elektra said, her shrug making the air dance like sprites around her. "After quite a bit of studying, of course."
"What were you studying?" Matt asked, despite reminding himself to stay skeptical.
She laughed ruefully. "I learned as much as I could about how and why it functioned the way it did, and how it actually interacts with its hosts. Amusingly enough, it had a weakness to living energy, the same type Daniel focuses. I used that to draw it out, and doing that apparently also helped save my life when I had to be resurrected again."
Matt blinked at her slowly. "You mean to tell me that you died again?"
"Yes," she informed him with a wry smile. "I am now apparently a connoisseur of resurrections. Personally, I liked the one where I kept my memories and heartbeat more."
Matt looked at her using all his senses, and her explanation did give a reason as to why she felt more like her old self, and yet... not. He also belatedly noted that she hadn't been lying about any of this, but he also knew he didn't yet know the whole story. "You seem... hotter, than before. Is that part of it, too?" he asked.
"Why Matthew," Elekra told him with a gasp of indignation, and he could hear the teasingly aghast tone in her voice. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to take advantage of a poor, innocent woman in your home. Right after you got out of the hospital, no less!"
"It must be the medication, I don't know what came over me," Matt retorted flatly.
"Must be," she agreed in the same shocked and appalled tone. "Why, it's enough to make a woman not want to break into her ex-boyfriend's house anymore!"
Matt couldn't help but chuckle at that. "So, I have to ask," he said, before taking another sip of his beer. "Why a coffee shop? Of all the possible things you could have picked... why that?"
"Well," Elektra told him with a shrug, "there are a number of important reasons," she said, before taking a sip of her own bottle. He tried to not be fascinated with even the little movements she made. "First, Starbucks mortally offended me to the point where I was tempted to execute the entire store's staff and burn the building down to the foundation," she said, and he could tell that an annoyed look flitted across her face as she took another delicate sip of her beer.
Catching the look Matt was giving her, she shook her head. "I didn't do it, don't worry. I didn't even set the manager's car on fire, and I can most certainly tell you I had reason, means, and opportunity," she said with a smirk. "Beyond that, I went to a small coffee shop shortly after the Midland Circle incident, and got myself a small coffee - to warm my hands, and to think about everything that had just happened," she said, and Matt just listened, hearing the sincerity in her voice that wasn't usually present.
"Having that quiet time, with a mug of warm and comforting coffee after so much chaos and tragedy was something I didn't know that I needed until then," she said, her voice quieter than before. "Being able to use the funds formerly owned by the Hand for a good purpose," she continued with twin notes of amusement and pride in her voice, "to give people a place where they might perhaps have a similar epiphany as I did - I felt that was something worth working toward."
Nodding to this, Matt gave her a smile.
"That, and I wanted to spit on the graves of both Stick and the Hand at the same time," she said with an indifferent shrug. "It was the efficient move, I thought."
Matt began to massage his temples. "Of course that's what it was."
He felt her hands gently grab his, and pull them from his temples to be held. "I made sure to add conference rooms to the place, in case a certain plucky lawyer from Hell's Kitchen wants to have a proper conference," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice, even as her warm thumbs gently rubbed the backs of his hands. "Or even for get-togethers with fellow violent insomniacs such as yourself. Either way," she added with a shrug, but Matt could still feel the heat of the smirk on her face.
Squeezing her hands in return, Matt pursed his lips for a moment before speaking. "I want to believe you, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."
With that, he felt very warm lips gently brush across his, and another ghost of her warm breath across his face. "I have my own place - I won't be imposing on you. You've waited for me for years, I trust that I can wait until you're sure in return."
"You're talking about trust after you broke into my apartment? Again?" Matt asked her, though without heat, and with a smile on his face.
"Well, some things should be done for old times' sake, don't you think?" she asked him, right before he felt her hot breath on his cheek, followed by the feel of her lips.
"I think that depends entirely on what other things you mean," he replied, even as he wrapped his arms around her. Elektra's nearness was setting his blood on fire, just as it always had.
"Well," she replied coyly, as he felt her press herself against his chest, "if I recall correctly, your bed's mileage could use some work. The futon really should have more of the attention from us that it deserves, and your bathtub was always an experience to be shared."
"So, no more Chaste, no more Hand, and no more killing?" he asked, bringing his focus back to the present.
"Yes, yes, and... most of the time," she replied.
Matt began to massage the bridge of his nose again. "Damn it, Elektra," he said with a sigh. "How many?"
"Three," she replied without pause. "With Gao being the third and last."
"And who were the first two?" Matt asked her, feeling his tiredness creeping back.
"Two hitmen hired by Wilson Fisk," she replied calmly. "One was hired to imitate Frank Castle's particular style, and the other was hired to imitate mine. I paid the three of them a visit in Fisk's office after they arrived that night. Don't worry, I left Fisk alive and ambulatory."
Matt paced for a few moments, letting the movements calm his mind. "And you didn't do anything else?"
"Well, I told Fisk that he was being watched," she said, and he could feel the smug smile in her voice.
Sighing, Matt turned back to her. "Anything else?"
He could feel the slight air movements generated by her nonchalant shrug. "I'm sure Luke, Daniel, and Colleen could tell you their side of how the Gao debacle went, but beyond that... no."
Massaging the bridge of his nose again for a moment, Matt looked in her direction, and sighed as he opened his arms. Almost instantly, he felt his arms filled by a very warm Elektra, slowly but thoroughly kissing his face while her warm, soft but calloused hands gently touched his cheeks. "I think I can live with you like this," he said with a smile," as long as you cut down on the heart palpitations you give me."
He felt her throaty but quiet laugh in his ear. "No promises there."