11. Ally wanted

Vera was pissed. She was pissed at Matt for not telling her things, she was pissed at herself for not being more careful when keeping Matt's secret, she was pissed at the Avengers who had lied through their teeth when saying she or Matt could call them any time, she was pissed at the Hand for making their world insanely dangerous again and she was fucking pissed at the whole universe, because Matt was apparently about to die.

Vera knew Matt would be pissed too if he knew she was trying to drag someone else into this fight. But honestly, she didn't give a shit, because him staying alive was kinda her priority. She just kept trying. Over. And over. Again. She lost count.

Somewhere along the way, Mrs. Walker called her, asking her if she knew when she was coming back to work again; Vera had no answer for that. Her boss was not pleased, but when Vera gently reminded her, that it didn't depend on Vera and it was on the police to decide when she would not need their protection anymore, Mrs. Walker seemed mollified; especially hearing Vera's tired voice. Vera wondered how her terrified voice would work, because the longer she spoke to her boss, the more impatient she was getting, the more guilt she was feeling, because she had no time for that, there were so much more important things to do; like trying to save Matt's freaking life.

Matt had had three super-powered people and his mentor with him when his psychotic ex had impaled Stick and kidnapped Danny. How could she have done that? How was even possible for anyone to do that?! And if Luke, Jessica and Danny hadn't been enough, how could Vera help to keep Matt alive? Her only option was to call up some back-up, but obviously, the Avengers weren't around, just like the last time this whole Hand and Chaste shit-storm had arrived.

Vera froze. Just like the last time.

The idea was insane and condemned to fail, Vera was well-aware of that. But she didn't really have much of choice, did she? She searched the internet; she had no idea if she should be even keeping her hopes up when she found the number. She copied and dialled.

Oh boy. This is what clutching straws looks like.

When the voice on the other end of the line actually spoke, introducing themselves , Vera gulped, panicking. What if the answer indeed would be no? What option she would have left?

"Hey. It's… Vera, uhm, Vera from New York. Hell's Kitchen. Barista… among other things. I— I really need your help."

The lump in her throat was growing gradually as she was explaining the situation – not that she had much time for that, so she was keeping it as short as possible. Yet, she was barely in the middle of the story when Detective Knight walked out of the precinct, spotting Vera and making her way right to her.

"Shit. I gotta go. Just… please?" Vera murmured to the phone, her last chance to speak up before the detective was in the earshot, watching her with inquiring gaze, attentive eyes scanning her. Vera kept her body from shivering with the power of her will.

This could mean nothing good.

"Detective Knight. Is everything alright?"

"Had an important call to make?" the detective asked, suggesting Vera's hidden agenda. Oh, she had no idea what Vera's agenda was, that was for sure.

"Yes, as the matter of fact. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Maybe it was only Vera's imagination, but the woman's smile was a little predatory. And Vera was her prey; it didn't feel good.

"Actually, yes. I'd like to talk to you." We're talking. "Let's come inside."

Vera gulped as Detective Knight spun on her heels. Vera followed her with displeasure and fear. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad. Detective Knight wanted to talk to her, that was the thing Vera had been afraid of. Though 'had' felt like the key word, because ever since Vera had talked to Terri, a different fear made it to the top of that list.

When they were passing the common room, Vera peeked in, shooting Terri a panicked gaze. She noticed Karen was frowning at her; apparently, the other Matt's friend did not share Foggy's opinion about Vera not being responsible for spreading Matt's secret. Vera quickly looked away. She was not about to give up Matt's identity to anyone else. Especially not Detective Knight.

Don't let her see your fear, Vera reminded herself as she entered an interrogation room. Yeah, easier said than done. Christ.

"Take a seat, miss Machackova," the detective beckoned to the chairs and Vera, because she needed something to pluck up her courage, sat down on the side where there was no hook for handcuffs. Knight raised her eyebrows at that, but the corners of her lips quirked.

Yeah, Vera was hilarious, no doubt, thanks for noticing. The detective leaned onto the table, causing the unpleasant knot in Vera's stomach becoming impossibly tight. The position Knight was in – it reminded her of the infamous Collins interrogation. It felt like ages ago, but Vera remembered her own fear too well.

But she also remembered she had kicked his lawyer's ass at court. She looked up to her face; Knight seemed curious.

"I was hoping you could fill in some blanks for us," the woman announced, making Vera's heart jump. Yep, this was it. Keep it together, Veronika.

"Me? Why? Why do you think I have information to fill in your blanks?"

"Cute. Both you and Murdock are cute when playing dumb, but not very convincing." Vera's eyes widened in horror. Did she just…? "You can drop it. We are cooperating with the 15th precinct."

Vera allowed herself to breathe. Okay, if Knight knew Matt's identity, she would probably throw it to Vera's face victoriously. She wouldn't mention the 15th precinct. Vera had no idea where the 15th precinct was.

"Turns out you're quite a piece of work. You had your amount of adventures. Not only the crew of former Nelson & Murdock has ties to Daredevil, apparently you do as well," Knight continued.

Bouncing off, she slowly walked around the table. It probably should have been intimidating, but surprisingly enough, it wasn't. It made Vera smile for some reason; possibly because she was finally going insane.

She remembered Collins once again.

"The last cop who thought that is behind bars, because he kidnapped me and tortured me with no result, so that suggests your assumption is wrong," Vera exclaimed with confidence she didn't know she had.

Knight would not find out about Matt. Just no.

The woman looked annoyed and slightly irritated. She leaned onto the table again.

"Look, Ms. Machackova. I recommend you to cut this bullshit. You are Daredevil's confidant. You know things," she replied Vera's challenge with same confidence. Except unlike Vera, she actually had a reason to have some. "You were talking to him outside, weren't you?"

Vera blinked in surprise. Oh. Was that really what the detective think? Nice guess, actually. But no. Vera tried to keep her face straight, fighting the urge to smile.

"Maybe."

"'Maybe'…. Despite the loyalties you apparently have towards the vigilante, I believe that you are a reasonable person. Your fiancée is now a person of interest. I believe you don't want him behind bars before you can even get married. Not to mention what it would do to his career if the information of him being a murder suspect leaked, if he was under investigation."

Once again, Vera should be intimidated. She should be horrified. All she was right now was desperate and pissed.

"I'm sorry, are you threatening me?" she asked incredulously.

"No-"

"Because it sure as hell looks like it."

"I'm trying to reason with you, so we don't have to hold you for obstruction of justice-" the woman explained simply and Vera was in fact getting afraid. Mostly because it would probably mean more questioning and she had no idea how long she could keep the secret and how long until she would become insane in this room.

"What?!" she shrieked.

The door to the interrogation room buzzed, revealing another black officer of law. Vera couldn't believe her eyes.

"Mind if I enter your interview, Detective Knight?" he asked with a tiny smile.

Vera stared at the man as if he was a fata morgana.

Brett?

The 15th precinct. Hell's Kitchen. Of fucking course.

"I don't believe you should," the detective refused, measuring him from head to toe disapprovingly.

"Due all respect, Detective, I have much more experience when it comes to Veronica Machackova," he offered, unfazed. "Threats won't make her cooperate."

Well, they might. But Brett's presence made her relax, lose the tension in her shoulders she hadn't realized she had. She took a deep breath, calm. It really was like Collins case all over again. Righteous cop to the rescue. The thought almost made her smile.

"Due all respect, Sergeant-" Knight snapped, irritated by his boldness.

"I much rather talked to him, Detective Knight," Vera interjected, earning a sharp glare from the woman. Her heart stopped, but her mind raced. "And he's right. Your threats won't make me tell you anything you seem to think I know. I'm not afraid of you or of what you can do."

Thank god the detective couldn't hear heartbeats like someone else Vera knew.

"Listen to me, you-"

"Detective?" Brett cleared his throat tactfully and Knight looked at him strictly, before raising one of her hands in a defensive gesture.

"Fine. But I'm staying." She rested her back against the wall, crossing her arms on her chest.

"Of course. Hey, Vera," Brett greeted her as he sat opposite to her, expression rather serious, but his eyes kind as always.

"Sergeant."

He frowned. "I thought we were on the first name basis. I almost considered us friends. I was actually offended to be the last to know about your engagement."

Vera couldn't help it. She snorted.

"I'm sure Matt would love to hear that." She tried to ignore Knight's incredulous glare. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We thought we covered everyone. "

"You do have lots of friends these days."

"Uh-uh…" The cop was back, overshadowing the friend.

"Look, Vera…. I know you keep secrets, I might not like it, I might tolerate it. But we need you to give us something. We don't ask you to give up Daredevil's identity. We just need to know what you know about what's going on in here. So we could help. Because no offense, your friends look like they're way over their heads."

You have no idea.

Brett spoke to her bluntly. No loops, no traps, no sugar-coating. Detective Knight was direct as well, but she was far less friendly and while she might make a disapproving face at something Brett had said, she could probably see that unlike her, Brett was getting to Vera.

"It'll only get you killed. Everyone who gets in their path ends up seriously hurt or dead," Vera whispered, her voice wavering on the last word.

"I already know that." Knight cut in. "Which is why we need to stop them."

"You know that, huh?" Vera snapped, earning two surprised faces. They didn't know shit. And Vera knew more than she wanted.

"Vera-"

"You don't know anything," Vera chuckled humourlessly before covering her mouth to stop another desperate sound. She finally broke under all the pressure. That was it. "Want to know what I know? Fine. The body you found? I had the pleasure with the guy."

"Which one?" the detective demanded, leaving her place, voice curious and pleased with them making some progress.

"What do you mean 'which one'?!" Vera burst out, horrified.

"There were two bodies. One impaled, one decapitated. Black male over forty-"

"Jesus. I don't know anything about him." Thanks for that, Matt.

"The older white male then?" Brett offered patiently.

"Yes."

"When and where did you meet him?"

Vera gulped, looking away. Brett would not like this. She had lied to him. But she had reasons, okay?!

Doesn't everybody?

Not the time, Veronika.

"He was at my apartment."

"What? When?" Brett asked, frowning. "And when you say 'your apartment'…"

"I mean the apartment I lived in before I moved in with Matt," Vera clarified, unable to meet his no doubt betrayed gaze. "He was the one who tried to strangle me and also one of the men who attacked me at my apartment and… and impaled me."

"But back then you described someone else and the other guy you said you hadn't seen-"

"I lied." Technically. She hadn't seen the guy who impaled her from behind, so she hadn't been lying compeltely.She gulped, finally looking into Brett's eyes. He seemed surprised, but not extremely offended or wounded.

"Do you have a name?" Knight wanted to know. Vera shook her head.

"Just an alias. 'Stick'."

Vera tried her best to ignore the feeling of being punched to her gut as the name left her lips. And their sceptical gazes.

"Do you know why this… Stick guy came after you?"

"He wanted Daredevil. Daredevil cared about me. Easy equation – he kills me, the Devil rather leaves than lets it happen to anybody else," Vera explained, shrugging.

"Why would he want the Devil to leave?" Brett queried, apparently lost.

"Leave with him, to fight an ancient war. Yes, I know how insane that sounds. But at least it gives you the idea of with just how crazy shit you're dealing with."

"The Hand," the woman stated matter-of-factly.

"I'm sorry?"

"The Hand, that's the name of the organization we're tracking, Luke told us that. What does some war has to do with that?" the detective pried.

"The war is between the Hand and another organization that is trying to stop them, obviously," Vera said simply.

"Wait, so when The Devil of Hell's Kitchen dropped off the face of Earth…?"

"He left with the organization fighting the Hand, yes."

"So what? Now the man was back and… who killed him?" Brett wondered.

Vera licked her lips. Who had killed him? Matt's ex, who is apparently a crazy assassin, who might and might not be dead and apparently is strong enough to fight off Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Daredevil. Though Daredevil might have been holding back, because he possibly still has feelings for her, which would be a perfect explanation of why he never bothered to mention her to me.

Vera had honestly no clue what she should be feeling. Jealously? Confusion? Exhaustion? Fear? Panic? Because the last one just started crawling up to her throat.

"I'm not sure… " It wasn't even a lie. "I don't know everything. I just know that this is some serious shit and whatever they want with Danny Rand can't be good and you keeping Jessica and— and Luke isn't helping things-"

"What about Murdock? What does he has to do with it?" Detective Knight asked, curious once more.

"What?" Vera breathed, tone somewhere between all the feelings that kept fighting to win the superior position.

"Vera, how did Matt get involved in all this? Is it a stupid coincidence? He happened to be Jessica Jones' lawyer when she got involved?" Brett offered her patiently, some gleam in his eyes that scared Vera despite the fact his expression was nothing but kind.

The way he asked the question felt weird. Why was he creating theories? Why not just ask her? Not that she complained. Her brain was slowly shutting down. It was a matter of time before she would slip, she could feel it, and it made her feel even weaker. She couldn't let any other people know.

"Y-yeah."

"And he was Danny Rand's lawyer as well, wasn't he? Helped him to get his life back after Danny Rand turned out to be alive?"

He was giving her an out, Vera slowly realized. Brett was giving her an out, because he didn't want her to worry about what she was saying. To worry about giving away something she wanted to keep secret. A secret that was very important and Vera seemed to be spreading it involuntarily everywhere she went.

A secret Brett apparently knew.

A cop actually knew. And wasn't that just an icing on the cake? A cherry on top?

Well, at least Vera liked Brett and trusted him.

"Y-yes. And he's— he's my fiancée. You said that yourselves; apparently I'm known to be tied to Daredevil, which makes people around me a target. It- it's a vicious circle. I'm involved because of Matt's activities and he's involved because of me."

Brett smiled at her reassuringly. Yeah, it wasn't too bad Brett knew, right? He could be their inside cop.

"Okay. Good. Do you know any-"

The fire alarm went off.

Knight took a beeline for the door, Brett right behind her. He turned to Vera from the doorway, pointing at her in warning.

"Stay here!" he hissed and Vera, who had risen from the chair as well, sank back. Brett quickly nodded, disappearing. Vera jumped to the door before it could close.

'Stay here.' Like hell.

Brett sighed when he saw her in the hall after the biggest chaos calmed down.

"I told you to stay there," he admonished her, not looking really surprised she wasn't where he had left her.

Vera shrugged. She didn't really care. All she could think of right now was the hole in the wall of the office Matt had been recovering in. A hole in a wall, created by a punch. What was their life?

"Come here," he took her elbow and Vera hissed.

She had completely forgotten about it – one, the pain faded a little and second, she had bigger problems than a sore arm. Jesus, if felt like eternity since Matt had pinned her to the ground. Even longer since had he pinned her anywhere the fun way. Vera felt like she had aged years in the past few hours.

Brett led her to the vending machine room, seating her on one of the chairs. Vera didn't protest. She felt… numb. Matt had just run off with Jessica and Luke, apparently. The good news was that Vera had glanced Claire and Colleen on the halls, so they possibly had time until Terri's vision would come true.

"What do you want? Mars? Reese's? Got fond of peanut butter?"

"Thank you, Brett. That's very kind of you, but I don't really feel like eating," she assured him, attempting at least a small grateful smile. She failed.

The cop sighed again, choosing by himself. A package of mini Reese's landed on the table. "Eat. You look like you could use some sugar or hard liquor and the latter is not an option, so…"

"Shame," she hummed, staring at the package of sweets with displeasure. Her stomach growled. Traitor.

Vera huffed and reached for the stupid chocolate. If she was about to be numb and on verge of a mental breakdown at the same time, she might as well do it with some glucose in her bloodstream. Maybe her brain would reboot.

Brett sat down few chairs over, watching her. "You know, they think Jones and Cage kidnapped Matt."

Vera was glad she had something in her mouth, because otherwise she would hardly hold back a snort; but she had a little self-preservation and knew better than making weird noises with her mouth full.

Yeah, sure. Because Matt would totally let them took him against his will. Vera wouldn't be surprised if it would have been his own idea.

"What do you think?" she asked, not really caring.

"I sure hope you don't consider me completely stupid," he hummed, taking one candy as well, casual as if they were talking about the weather.

Vera wasn't surprised. She had been sure he knew Matt's identity the moment he had helped her deal with Detective Knight.

"How long do you know?"

Brett did seem surprised how emotionless she sounded. Honestly, she didn't care about it either.

"For a while. There were just too many coincidences. The timing of the disappearance, the return. You being so close to all of it. I got to know you; there was no way you were playing it on two sides – you're too honest for that. So if you're with Daredevil and with Matt… him breaking my jaw helped too."

That did snap Vera from her apathy a little. "I'm so sorry for that-"

"Vera, I've told you before. You're not responsible for the guy," Brett noted, unimpressed.

"But I was the one who pissed him off," Vera questioned. "I was the one who decided to get involved in the whole Worshippers shit and you were the one who got his bones broken for my decisions."

"Just one. It wasn't your fault. Don't go there. If I didn't ask you about contacting the Devil and didn't spill the beans about the Worshippers, you might have never gotten involved and almost got crucified. Don't you think?"

Vera huffed, taking another candy. She had no response for that.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Do you have any idea where did they go, Vera? I'm asking so we could help them, I promise. The guy who almost killed you is dead and there is a billionaire they have taken and we still know jack-"

Brett was cut off by Claire and Detective Knight storming into the room. Brett and Vera snapped their heads to them. Vera did not like their expressions.

"Colleen's gone," Claire announced sharply, breathless.

Vera's heart stopped. That could mean nothing good.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Vera burst out, jumping off her chair.

"The chick that came in bleeding," Knight reminded her as if Vera needed it.

"I know who Colleen-"

"We need to get to them," Claire interrupted her urgently. "Where do you think, Vera? Midland Circle?"

The firm ground under Vera's feet disappeared.

'What building? Who was there?'

'I have no fucking idea. Some fancy skyscraper…'

The architect. The fancy building Matt had fought the Hand in. The C4 Matt had mentioned.

Jesus fucking Christ, how could I be so incredibly stupid?

"The skyscraper. Doprdele, doprdele, do píče— YES. That's exactly where they would go-"

"Vera, what's wrong?" Brett caught her forearm and Vera realized her hands were shaking uncontrollably.

They had gone to Midland Circle. Vera hadn't heard anyone talk about the C4 when they had disappeared, but that didn't mean anything. Four of six people Terri had seen in her vision were probably already on place – well, three, because the one she hadn't seen had stayed behind.

Vera didn't really think she and Claire staying here now would change anything. She had tears of helplessness in her eyes when she whispered the simplest answer she could.

"Everything."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In Mambo no.5 rhythm: A little bit drama in my life, a little bit of fear by my side, a little bit of angst is all I need, an upcoming tragedy is what I see…

…Sorry. Thoughts?

At the end, that's just Vera cursing in Czech more colourfully than ever, don't worry about it… and don't use it randomly when visiting Czechia, people would look at you really offended.