Danger of powers

by JadeEleanor

Anna has powers she has to hide from the world in order to survive. If that wouldn’t be enough, she ends up in another mess where she can’t get out, until she saves the life of a certain masked vigilante and her whole world changes.

12. Chapter 12

Anna woke up early the next morning to find the motel room empty. Matt never came here last night, she was up until 5am waiting for him, but apparently she shut down after that and slept for two hours. She knocked on the bathroom door in a hope that maybe he's there, but when there was no answer, her heart rate skyrocketed. He's still out.

Panicked, she ran out of the room and up the stairs to the rooftop, looking around everywhere, but seeing only a few pigeons. At least there was no blood.

She went back to her motel room, pacing in circles, trying to think if he mentioned anything where he was going to look for Karen, when her phone rang loud.

"Foggy!"

"Anna! Oh my God, Karen is home, safe! I've been trying calling Matt's phone, but he's not picking it up."

She dropped down on the couch, feeling a heavy weight lifted from her shoulders. "Oh, probably he forgot to charge it and it died. He's out getting us breakfast." She lied quickly. "What happened, how is Karen?"

"Hey, Anna, it's me. I'm pretty sure they were Dr. Moon's men who kidnapped me, they were asking questions about you and wanting to find out why I was looking into the Moonshot project and what did I find. I'm ok, they didn't hurt me too bad."

"Oh my God, I'm so glad you're safe. I'm so sorry this happened. Did they just let you go free?"

"No, not at all. Daredevil saved me."

Anna smiled, he did save her. "Wow, that's good to hear he found you, I have to thank him if I will ever see him again."

"Well..." Karen went quiet and Anna wasn't sure why was that.

"Is everything ok?"

"I'm not sure what happened to Daredevil. He saved me, but armed a secondary bomb, and he had to stay there otherwise it would have been exploded. There was still 42 seconds left from the countdown when I ran away. He knew it was a trap, but still risked his life for me."

Anna panicked and her face turned white. "No..."

"I'm sure he's fine though, he always figures out a way to escape, right? He's Daredevil after all."

"Right... he is."

"I alerted the police right away, but by the time they raided the hangar it was empty. They found traces of the explosives and a lot of blood, but nothing else."

"So... the bomb... it didn't went off after all?"

"No, it didn't. I'm not sure what Daredevil did, but I think he's ok."

Anna let out the air she was holding, and crossed her fingers that he's really ok.

"Foggy just left, he's on his way to the laboratory, he's very angry. Going to start a lawsuit against the company."

"Just be careful, now you know how dangerous these guys are. Where did they keep you?"

"In hangar 15 at La Guardia. Why?"

"Just was wondering if that building is under their name." She lied, she needed the address to find Daredevil.

"No, it's not theirs, I already looked into it. I can't find any connections to them to prove they were the ones took me. I told Foggy don't waste time on a lawsuit, because we can't prove anything. I was blindfolded and didn't see their faces. But I know it was Dr. Moon behind this."

"Yeah, there's no doubt."

"Ok, I go and take a shower now, a bit still shaky. That bomb was frightening. Say hello to Matt for me, please?"

Anna gulped. "Sure."

They hung up and with shaking hands she dialed Daredevil's burner phone. It rang five times, then went to voicemail.

"Hey, just checking if you're ok? Please call me back when you get this."

Her anxiety was over the roof. Ok, think. She knew something bad happened to him, so needed to get to that hangar. Maybe something was there what help her locate him.

---

Daredevil opened his heavy eyes slowly, feeling like a thick fog was covering his mind. He tried to move, but his arms were tied up high to the ceiling, and his body was hanging down from the chains. He relaxed as noticed that they didn't remove his mask. His last memory was he was standing on that platform while the timer of the bomb was ticking. Karen was safe, he heard her running away from the hangar, and by the time the countdown reached around 15 seconds she was in a safe distance. Then Dr. Moon's team surrounded him with sedative darts, and immediately shot him, not wasting any precious seconds. He couldn't move, and wasn't able to avoid all the 14 darts were shooting at his direction at the very same time. He scanned the room with his senses. He knew this place, he was here before. There were four men standing by the door, guarding him. Not that he could go anywhere, the chains around his wrists were tight, cutting into his skin as his weight pulled them down. His feet didn't touch the floor, but he knew he could still fight in this position, he just needed them to come closer. The vigilante shook his chains to let them know he's awake.

"You are quite the hero, Devil of Hell's Kitchen. You knew you were running into a tap, but still risked your life for a girl. Even sacrificed yourself despite the fact there was a bomb ticking. Impressive..." One of the guys in military uniform stepped closer to him, but stayed away from his kicking range. "You could have just left her there and run."

"What do you want?" Daredevil asked with deep voice.

"We want your girlfriend, and you are gonna help us capture her."

The vigilante laughed. "You don't know anything about me if you think I will help you with that. And Anna isn't my girlfriend."

"We will see... I have the feeling you will beg for your life in a few hours and tell us everything we want to know."

Matt ground his teeth, and was ready for whatever comes.

---

Anna ran up to the rooftop again to take the upper route. When she arrived close to the airport she tried calling his burner phone again, but still no answer. She scanned through the area for blood, then with some struggles climbed through the fence. The hangar was old, and obviously huge, but nothing out of ordinary jumped out about it. She lifted her right hand to tore the yellow police tape and enter through the main door when her phone rang. She clumsily pulled it out from her pocket, seeing Matt's burner number on the screen.

"Thank God, are you ok?" She asked without waiting for him to say anything first. There was a short silence, then a familiar voice replied, but not the one she was expecting.

"Oh, hello, Anna! This time we got the real Daredevil, and it's so good to hear your voice again. I'm happy you called earlier and left a message... I was right after all that he's your boyfriend and you have his number. You just made this way too easy for me!"

"Dr. Moon..." she swallowed hard. "Where is Daredevil? What did you do to him?" This time it was serious, he had his phone, which confirmed that it's not a fake Daredevil.

"We had a friendly conversation... but he can't come to the phone right now..." he laughed. "He's quite stubborn, wouldn't give up anything about you. But damn, this man can take a beating. I'm really impressed."

Her grab got tighter on her phone. "Is he still alive?"

"Mostly. He's still breathing at least, got a bit torn though. But it's all up to you how long he stays alive, and how many pieces you will find him in..."

Anna didn't have to think about it for a second. "What do you want this time?" She knew she would do anything.

"It's simple. You."

"And how I know you're gonna let him go if I give myself up?"

"I guess it's time for you to start trusting me."

She rubbed her forehead. "You never gave me any reason to do that."

"Well, here's one now. Come and surrender yourself, or I drive this knife through his heart. Same as we did with the other one, ring a bell?"

Anna frightened, she didn't need reminders. "Ok, ok. Just stop hurting him."

"8pm, Astoria, at the cross streets of 28th Avenue and 34th Street. Be on time."

"Wait! How do I know he's really alive? At least let me talk to him." She heard footsteps in the background.

"Wake him up." He instructed someone and she heard water splashing and chains jangling.

"Your girlfriend is looking for you." Dr. Moon said, but Matt didn't move. His head was still hanging down on his chest, his arms chained up to the ceiling and his legs were barely touching the ground. The doctor motioned to one of the soldiers and he lifted Daredevil's head up so he would 'look' at the cellphone in the doctor's hand. Except he didn't react at all. The soldier punched him in the stomach, and a painful growl left the vigilante's throat, and he was turning his head left and right, trying to figure out what's happening.

Anna felt a strong hand was twisting her heart to that sound. It was really him this time. He's in big pain again, because of her.

"Looks like he doesn't want to talk to you."

"Just stop hitting him!" Her tears started falling. "I'll be at Astoria by 8pm... just stop hurting him." She was crying now, and the line went silent. She felt like her worst nightmare was about to repeat itself, and all the memories of the bakery incident came to the surface, torturing her and threatening her with a possible outcome.

She let her tears fall and went into loud sobbing for a good five minutes. She knew she needed to let this pain out of her system in order to be able to focus and come up with a plan.

After a few minutes, she shook her head and dried her tears up. "Ok, think..." she went through all sorts of scenarios. Since she was at the hangar, she went inside to search through it, finding it all empty. First she needed to know where they keep him. Then maybe getting a gun and shoot everyone in the building? There will be more men with guns than she could handle, plus she was still against killing people. Get explosives and blow the whole building up? Matt is in there, she can't do that. Asking Tom to come and help her? Nah, putting another person in danger and possibly exposing Matt's identity to him isn't a good idea either. Sending in a fake Anna and in the meantime freeing Matt? But where could she find a fake Anna? Call the police for help? They will arrest Daredevil as well as the doctor, or maybe leave the doctor alone since Matt was the one who "broke into" their building wherever they keep him... Why did Dr. Moon want to meet at Astoria, and why that late? It's still early morning. What he's planning to force her to do this time?

"Arrrrgggg..." she rubbed her forehead in frustration. After hours of debating she still wasn't sure what to do. Wish Matt was here to help, he's the hero, not her, he would know what to do, he would come up with a plan and rescue Daredevil. That's it! He is the hero! He will save her, no matter what happens. But first he needed to be saved. Or at least be found. And if she surrenders herself, he will come to her rescue. If Dr. Moon really will let him go.

First she rushed to the cross streets Dr. Moon gave her, since Astoria was very close to the airport and on the way back to Hell's Kitchen, but finding nothing there. Most likely they will drive there for their meeting. - she thought.

Anna rushed back to Matt's apartment to change to a more serious outfit and grab some tools she might need. As she got to the rooftop she carefully pushed the top entrance open. It was quiet in there, so she stepped in, looking down to the living room. All sorts of objects were scattered around the floor as they searched through the apartment yesterday. Closet door, kitchen cabinets, and every drawers were open, emptied out. It didn't look as bad as her apartment did, these guys didn't break the furnitures, didn't rip the clothes apart and there were no blood stains. But they definitely searched through everything. She walked to the bedroom where the sheets were off the bed, laying on the floor now, and all her clothes were next to them in a pile. She picked up some black pants, a shirt, and her black hoodie, when a small object fell out from the pocket of it. She looked down the floor to pick up the heat sensor binoculars she used back at the piers, that night Matt almost died. She rolled them in her palms. "Hmm.. maybe with the help of these I won't have to surrender." She thought, and pocketed them. Put a screwdriver and a knife from the kitchen in her pockets - just in case - then swallowed as walked back up to the rooftop door, taking a final look back down at the apartment as she said goodbye to this place. She wasn't sure she's gonna make it out from there this time. She opened the breaker box where she hid all of Daredevil's stuff yesterday. To her relief the spare objects and clothes were still there, Matt only took the ones he needed last night. She pulled out the spare batons and pushed them in the back of her pants, as well as a pair of his gloves, and she found Matt's daytime phone there as well.

Anna took the now more familiar rooftops to the laboratory, and it was only 3pm when she reached the roof entrance of the building. She wasn't sure where they're keeping Matt, but figured starting here would be a good idea, maybe she could find something there what leads her to him. So she was hoping she could sneak in and out without being noticed.

She looked into the binoculars to see several figures maybe two stories down, but nothing on this top level. The rooftop door was locked obviously, so she looked around for alternative ways in.

"Skylight window, or duct vent? Choose your favorite." She talked to herself, and decided to go with the ducts, since breaking the glass could make a loud noise. She removed the screws and looked into the black hole.

"There are worse ways to die, you can do this..." She encouraged herself, put Daredevil's gloves on so she won't cut her hands with the aluminum and turned on her phone's flashlight. She was small, but still barely fit in the duct, so this wasn't the time to be claustrophobic. "In the movies these ductworks were so much wider..." she murmured under her nose. She went down on her stomach, worming herself through the dark tight tunnel, carefully avoiding lacerating herself on the sheet metal, but still got some cuts on her jeans. Since it was the winter they were using the heater, blowing hot air in the tunnel and after a few minutes she felt the sweat was rolling down her forehead. She was lightweight, so the vent system was able to support her weight mostly, but there were sections where she felt insecure and was seriously worried it's gonna collapse and she will fall through it. In a good fifteen minutes Anna had no idea where she was, and after a few turns she got all disoriented. Maybe this wasn't the best idea, but she needed to find a way down, which sounded scary and when she finally encountered a drop down line she hesitated for a few minutes.

"Shit, falling head first isn't my favorite extreme sport." She took a deep breath in, knowing that this drop could be a long one where she could injure herself, or die. But there was no other options at this point, she can't turn around. "Oh well, here goes nothing." She reached her elbows in front of her head to protect it and let herself go straight down into the darkness. The vertical fall wasn't too long, and to her luck it turned into a 45 degree angle one, making her slide the rest of the way, rattling the duct and making a loud noise. She slowly opened her eyes after she landed in a horizontal section, and turned the flashlight back on, elbows burning from the pain. There were two ways to go from here, so she randomly turned right. After a corner she noticed some light coming in, so turned the flashlight off right away, and tried moving to the direction as quiet as possible. There was a vent on the bottom of the duct where the light was streaming in, which seemed like opening to a laboratory room, a different looking than the one she was kept in before. She reached for the binoculars to confirm nobody was nearby.

"You should have thought about this little detail before deciding on the ductwork." She scolded herself when realized the vent was screwed in from the other side, no way for her to quietly remove it from inside. She placed the screwdriver in the lip of the register and painfully pried it, then with her feet and weight kicked it hard several times to make it bend enough for her arm with the screwdriver to fit through. The whole suspension system was shaking and the banging was loud, and she hoped it will hold up and nobody heard it. Eventually the vent bent enough so she was able to fit her hand through and reach the long bolt with the tool and open it.

She landed on a desk not that gracefully and quickly checked her surroundings again with the device. Nobody. Which meant if Matt was here they kept him on a different floor. She looked down her torn up jeans and sleeves, and removed the now shredded gloves she used. At least those protected her hands enough in the ducts. She walked through the hallway to the stairs and went a floor down. She needed to scan through the floors one by one to find him, and if he's not here then had to go to Dr. Moon's office and look through the papers to find any lead. Two stories down she still saw nobody, so started to lose any hope finding him here. She was walking in the hall when a door to her right suddenly opened and a girl in blue gown stepped out. Both of them froze, looking at each others in shock. Anna had no idea how she missed seeing her, but then saw the red warning label on the door with the yellow symbol showing x-ray radiation. The walls and door of that room must be covered with a material the binoculars can't see through. - she realized. After a few seconds of frozen silence the woman, who looked like a nurse spoke up. "You are that girl from the experiment. Anna, right?"

Anna tried staying calm. "Please don't scream." She said, reaching back for one of the batons.

"I wasn't planning to." The nurse said. "You are here for Daredevil, aren't you?"

Anna took a step closer, one hand was still hovering over the weapon. "Do you know where he is?"

"Yes, and I can take you there. I want to help you."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Why? You're working for them."

"I'm working for this laboratory, but I don't agree with the things Dr. Moon is doing. He's an evil man, and I didn't sign up for the things he's doing." She sighed. "Look, this place was different before he showed up. We were helping soldiers, but he came here, torturing you, and now this. I support what Daredevil does and he doesn't deserve this. She waved her arm toward the lower level. "Please, let me help you. What the doctor did to you wasn't right."

Anna eyed her carefully, not trusting hundred percent. But eventually decided to move her hands away from the sticks. "I remember you. You gave me water when I was kept here."

Sheila nodded. "I'm really sorry about what they did to you."

"What do you know about Daredevil?" Anna asked her.

"They keep him on the third floor, I can get you there. It's a restricted area, but my keycard works there." She hesitated. "But... you need to know something."

Anna's heart skipped a beat. Did they kill him? She was watching her with a serious expression, trying to hide her worries.

"They... they tortured him very badly." She raked her fingers through her hair. "Seems like you care about him a lot since you are risking your life to save him, I just wanted you to be prepared of what you're gonna see."

Anna gulped. "But he is still alive, right?" Her anxiety was through the roof.

"Yes, I believe so. He was last time I checked on him. They didn't let me help him, but wanted me to be there and monitor him, so he won't die. They needed him alive until they capture you. I heard a lot about Daredevil, saving innocent people, he's a good man. I really want to help you to get him out of here. I know he was the one who helped you and Miranda escape from here."

Anna nodded. "Show me the way." She said and when Sheila started walking to the direction of the stairs she checked their way with the binoculars.

"They were expecting you to show up at that intersection at 8pm."

"I know."

"They didn't even think you will come here."

"So that's why there aren't many soldiers in the building? Why they wanted me to meet that late? And why there?"

They walked two stories down to the third floor and Sheila stopped.

"Most of the soldiers were already sent out to Astoria to get ready for the meeting. I'm not sure why that late, only heard part of their plan. But I think they didn't expect to find you this soon, Dr. Moon was really surprised you had Daredevil's number. And they're preparing a plane for tonight to take you straight to Austin, so maybe that's why the late meeting. Plus Astoria is next to the airport, easy reach once they get you. I heard they're planning to kill Daredevil, no matter what you do. Just so he can't cause any more troubles for them."

Anna felt angry, but what else she would expect from the doctor?

"Wait." She said before they opened the door to the third floor, seeing 2 people through the device on the other side. Unfortunately they were just standing there. "Move there." She motioned towards the corner at the landing of the stair, and the nurse did as she was told.

She opened the door as fast as she could and hit the first man to her left in the throat, and she jumped on the second man on the other side, locking his neck with her arm and applying force on the pressure point there. These guys were part of the regular office security team and to her luck not that trained as the soldiers. The guy tried fighting against her, but after a few seconds he passed out, so she let him drop on the floor and kicked the radio out from the hand of the first man who recovered from her punch and was about to warn the others. The radio fell on the floor and slid several feet. As the man was following it with his eyes, she punched him in the nose twice, just to make sure, then choked him unconscious as well. She called out for Sheila. "It's safe now, help me drag these men to that room, so the others won't find them as easily."

Sheila nodded and pulled both security guards there together. They were big and heavy, even for the two of them.

"He is just down this hall to the right after a safety door." Sheila said.

Anna didn't see anybody in the aisle, which made her a bit suspicious, so kept checking their surroundings in every seconds in case this was a trap. They walked up to a large metallic door with a keycard reader and Sheila swiped her card over it to open it. They ended up by a door to the right, and she saw a man in the room through the binoculars standing or more like hanging motionless, hands upright. They must've chained Daredevil to the ceiling. There was another figure in a sitting position. She can handle one man.

"Stay behind me." She instructed the nurse, not ready yet to just let her go. She still hasn't trusted her completely, and was worried she might call for the guards.

She opened the door quietly, and threw one of the batons toward the guard sitting. It looked way easier when Matt was doing this, but she didn't have experience with long range weapons, and the stick fell somewhere next to the man, missing him by inches.

"Crap." She cursed and turned into motion, running toward the now standing soldier with the other baton in her right hand. Before he was able to pull his gun she swung it at his head, which he saw coming and ducked away, just to meet her left fist. Blood rushed out from his nose, but he didn't seem to mind it much and stroked at Anna. She blocked it and tried countering, but the man was good and blocked all her punches. She eventually hit him in the stomach, feeling the bulletproof vest on him. Since her punches didn't do much, she decided to switch to kicks, so she spun around and kicked his right inner leg by the knee, cracking the joint. He made a quiet hiss and collapsed a bit, but still didn't go down, instead grabbing her and spinning her around in a choke position. Anna was kicking and stomping back at him, preferably hurting that same, already injured leg more. She reached back with her hands trying to poke his eyes out, and she was sure she did it, but he still was holding her strong. While she was struggling, losing her air in his grab she heard a loud thud, and the guy released her neck and collapsed on the floor, revealing a shocked Sheila behind him holding a fire extinguisher in her hands.

"Thank you." Anna said between breaths. "What type of drug this guy was on? He seemed like didn't feel any pain." She looked down at him, his eyes indeed bleeding where she got him.

"Probably our newest one, it's still in experimental stage."

"Jeez.."

Sheila dropped the extinguisher, and her eyes were glued straight ahead. Anna followed them to see Daredevil hanging down the chains, unconscious, and covered in his own blood. His black shirt was torn in multiple places, fresh cuts decorating his torso and collarbone, and possibly his back. They didn't remove his mask, most likely Dr. Moon wasn't interested in him at all, only cared about capturing her and prying some information out of him. Dried and also fresh blood was dripping down his mask - that was soaked in the red liquid -, and from his nose. His lower lip was busted and his jaw definitely swollen. She ran up to him, lifting his head up with shaking hands. He didn't make any sound, and there was no reaction, but she felt him breathing at least. He was alive. She knew he must have taken a lot of beating if he's unconscious. Anna was about to ask for help when she saw Sheila was right next to her with the chair the guard used earlier. She quickly searched the soldier through for the keys and climbed up on the chair. Her hands were still shaking so much it was a challenge to fit the key into the lock on his restraints. Finally did it and Matt fell on the floor with a loud thud like a dead weight.

"Can you heal him?" Sheila asked, and the other girl kneeled down next to his body to turn it over when Matt grabbed her wrist hard, squeezing it painfully.

"It's me, Anna." She said, but he tried sitting up by holding her arm and took a swing at her, hitting her in the stomach. Her eyes widened in surprise and shock, and without thinking rolled on her side to create some distance between him and herself. He had no idea it's her because this punch was one of the most painful ones she ever felt. Her lower arm was also throbbing from his strong grip, which thankfully loosened and he let her go.

He sat up breathing heavily, turning his head right and left in panic, supporting himself behind him with his hands.

"Daredevil? It's Anna..."

There was no reaction or any sign he would recognized her.

"What did they do to him?" She turned toward Sheila, who was standing in shock several feet away from them in a safe distance.

"They... after the torture they gave him a general sedative I believe, which makes him sleepy, so he can't escape as easily. I also saw them beating him with that baseball bat, especially on his head. And stabbing him all over the place with the knife, without damaging an important organ. They really wanted him alive until they get you, but also wanted to cause the most pain possible. They were asking questions about you, trying to break him." She pointed toward the table where several torturing tools were laying, all covered in his blood. "But this man didn't say anything to them, not a word. I barely heard any sounds from him while they were torturing him, I have no idea how he was able to endure all that pain without giving you up."

Anna wasn't surprised he said nothing to them, this at least she always knew. She eyed him carefully, seeing fresh blood still dripping down from under his mask, and just below his ears, also from his nose. Seems like he can't see or hear her, which obviously was the case, and can't smell her either because of the beating he got on his head, ears and nose. Then how could she tell him it's her and to stay still?

She carefully moved closer to him and tried touching his arm again, resulting in another swing at her direction. Luckily she expected it this time and was able to avoid the impact.

"Maybe if we tie him up?" Sheila asked, but Anna shook her head left and right.

"That would be difficult. Now I wish we didn't untie him in the first place, until he recognizes me."

Carefully reached out again, but this time instead of touching his arm she brushed her fingers gently over his left jawline like she did several times in the past, and retreated fast before he can take another swing. But there was no attack, only a visible shiver ran through his whole body to the contact, and tilted his head. "Anna?"

"Yes, but you probably can't hear me." So she ran her fingers over his skin there again, and he lifted his right hand to place it on hers. A big wave of relief ran through her, and gently touched his other hand with her whole palm to make sure he knew it's really her. He interlocked his fingers in hers, holding it.

Sheila watched them for a minute, then looked away blushing, feeling like intruding in their intimate moment. Suddenly realizing these two were more than just friends.

Anna was trying to make him stand up with her. "We need to leave before they'll notice us." She said but he wobbled in an attempt to do so, then fell back down, unable to support himself.

"This isn't gonna work, he can't stand up." She turned to the other woman.

"Maybe if both of us support him?" Sheila asked and walked closer very carefully. Was a bit nervous he's gonna attack her since had no clue who she was.

"Ok, let's try." Anna squeezed his hand and moved Sheila's hand next to hers, so he would know she's not a threat either. The women bent over under his two arms giving him support while he shakily stood up.

"He's heavy!" Sheila breathed. "Now I wish I didn't skip the gym."

They slowly started walking him toward the door.

"Nope... This isn't gonna work." Anna said eventually when hearing yelling from the distance. "I think they found those two security guards, which means we will have a full army around us very soon." She knew she won't be able to fight an army of soldiers by herself, they're more trained than those two security guys were. "We need his help. Could you please be the lookout and yell if you see them coming?"

"Yes." She said and walked up to the door. Anna lowered him to the floor.

Had no idea what injuries he had, but most likely the worst were to his head and torso. He's totally disoriented, lost his hearing and possibly had internal bleeding from all the beating. She knew she can't heal him here, there's just no time to wait for her and him to recover from the after-dizziness, but she needed to heal him just enough so he can hear and stay alive.

She placed one hand below his ribcage and the other on his head by his ear, feeling a large wound there as the baseball bat ruptured his skull. She thinned her lips and felt Matt tensing up, but then nodding slowly. At least he knew what's next. She connected - what happened in a second -, now that they both knew each other's secrets there was nothing to hide or worry about. She felt his love first what filled her heart with pleasant feelings, but there was nothing else. It was dead quiet, dark, no smells, no heartbeats. She knew now what scared to death means, because that's how she felt exactly. This, knowing nothing about her surroundings, the unknown what's coming at her, what danger was out was terrifying. She didn't hear her own breathing, swallowed hard without any sound. She desperately wanted to get out of his head, just run away from this emptiness, but then felt Matt's hand gently touching hers, which gave her enough strength to keep going and let the pain in. Then she felt everything, everything they did to him, and she wanted to scream, wanted to yell as loud as she could to make it stop. But she couldn't, they can't find out she's here, yelling would draw in the guards faster, so she bit her tongue, tasting her own blood in her mouth. She felt them hitting her head with a baseball bat, rupturing her skull, she felt knives were stabbed in her upper body several times, twisting the blade in her slowly to make the pain worse and damage his organs. She felt her ribs shattered as the club hit him at his sternum hard. Her teeth were making a grinding noise as she forced them together. Then the pain got a little better, his skull was mostly in one piece now, the bleeding inside stopped, his ribs were welded together just enough to prevent them puncturing his lungs. She knew she had to pull out before exhausting herself too much, otherwise they won't be able to fight and escape. Forcefully removed her hands, and panting heavily pushed herself back on the floor a few inches, away from the dead quiet emptiness, hugging her knees to her body. She felt dizzy and tired, but it was nothing compared to the memory of the torture and the quiet what were still very vivid in her mind.

"I hear footsteps, they're here!" Sheila said and ran toward Anna, away from the door.

She snapped her eyes open and pointed to the table with the tools. "Hide behind that, they can't see you here!" Then turned to Matt, who was still in that same position, sitting still without any reaction to the person approaching. Which meant he still cannot hear anything. She hoped he just needed a few minutes to recover from the healing, and wished she had stopped sooner. Carefully dragged herself up on her feet to move behind the door, what swung wide open just a second later.

Dr. Moon stepped inside with one military guy, both freezing at the sight of Daredevil without chains. Anna didn't wait any, jumped up to the scientist and grabbed his right hand from the back, eyes squeezed hard, concentrating on all the pain and suffering Matt went through while was being tortured, pushing them into the doctor's mind. She forcefully connected to his consciousness and the doctor cried out in pain and collapsed on his knees. Anna was angry, angry for everything he's done to Matt and to her, to Karen, to her Mom and to that David guy. She wanted Dr. Moon to feel everything, every bit of suffering, every tears, every aches and stabbing pain. Back at the bakery she didn't get the chance to punish the doctor, but now he's in her hands. The soldier next to them saw the doctor's expression, but did not want to touch Anna, fearing this whole thing she's doing gonna transfer through him as well. She felt Dr. Moon's body shaking, his head dropped back and some weird noise was leaving his throat. Oh no, she's not done with him yet, he deserved everything, so she put her other hand on his temple, forcing more pain in him. Then she started feeling his body twitching, and she heard his heart thudding in his chest hard, slowing down with every beat. He's gonna die, she knew it, and she felt satisfaction because he deserved this for what he did to Matt. This would be an easy solution for all her problems, it would put an end to her sufferings, no more hiding, no more running away. She would be free and could be happy with Matt...

The soldier pulled out his gun, pointing it at her. He had an order not to kill her since she's important, but if she kills the scientist there will be no meaning keeping her alive either.

"Matt.." she whispered, remembering his gentle touch, how he protects the innocent, his believes of no killing that she also thought were the right ones what everyone should live by. Everyone. Because in his eyes everyone deserved a second chance, to make a choice and change for better. She killed someone once, without truly knowing about her abilities, to protect herself. But this, this is what she's doing now is revenge, not self defense. It's not the person she wanted to be. She didn't want to be a killer, a monster. She had a choice, being evil was a choice.

"Don't let your anger control you. It's going to turn into an uncontrollable rage and make you do things you will regret later. Where there is no coming back." She heard Matt's voice in her head, and felt her tears falling down her cheek as she pushed the doctor away from herself forcefully. He collapsed on the floor in front of her feet, and she was just standing there eyes closed, breathing heavily. What did I just do?

Slowly opened her eyes, focusing on the doctor's body in front of her, until she finally saw his chest raising and falling. He's still alive. This whole thing happened in no more than a span of a minute, but for her it felt hours. As she started to turn around she heard a shot, very close to her, ringing in her ears. Did she just get shot? Well, that would be a reasonable thing for that soldier to do to protect his boss. She slowly completed her turn expecting to feel that all too familiar burning sensation from the bullet in any second, but instead she saw Daredevil knocking out the guy, gun was already on the floor. He just saved her life.

"Aggrr." Anna covered her face with her hands and saw the masked man through her fingers now standing in front of her, head tilted.

She lowered her hands, feet glued to the ground, tears still rolling down her face. He took a step closer to her, limping on his foot.

"Are you ok?" He asked after a long silence.

Anna swallowed hard. "I will be." She whispered shakily. "You got your hearing back?"

"Not completely." He said, tilting his head again.

Anna couldn't hold it in anymore, and started sobbing. "I... I... wanted to kill him. I almost did, I was so close to cross that line..." She forced the words out. "I'm so sorry."

He closed the gap searching for her with his hands out, and pulled her to his body.

"I felt everything they did to you... what you had to endure just to protect me. I'm so sorry, I wanted him to pay for it. Suffer for everything."

"Shhh.." he hugged her closer.

Sheila stepped out from the table, and Matt tilted his head toward her direction. Anna stopped sobbing and rubbed her eyes.

"Her name is Sheila, she helped me finding you, and also saved my life."

"Thank you, Sheila." Daredevil said, then tilted his head toward the door. "I think someone's coming." He said and lead the two women back behind the hiding spot. "Stay here, don't make any moves."

Anna wanted to protest since he's definitely not hundred percent, not even close, but he silenced her with a head shake side to side. Matt moved behind the same door Anna hid earlier, and attacked the two men entering the room without any hesitation.

A third one entered as well and grabbed the vigilante from the back while he was busy fighting with the other two. He ran up on the wall and with a backflip he got out of his grab, landed behind the attacker, kicking him on his kidney, then choking him unconscious. Quickly ducked down without the need to look behind him to avoid the punch from the previous soldier who he was fighting with, and turned while squatted, kicking out the man's leg, who landed flat on his back. Matt jumped on him, pushed his knee in the man's stomach while punched his head several times - blood splashing - until he stopped resisting. Another came behind him and grabbed him with one arm while punching Daredevil on his temple with his other fist, just above the ear. Matt stood up unsteady, holding his palms up to his ears in pain, taking a step and tripping over one of the unconscious guys on the floor. Anna was about to rush to help, but Sheila grabbed her wrist at the same spot Daredevil did earlier painfully. She hissed in pain, and stayed covered. By this time the soldier walked up to the masked man on the floor who was still holding his ears and kicked his ribcage hard. The women heard his bone cracking and they both covered their mouths to silence a scream. Matt was swinging his arms in front of him uncoordinated, obviously lost track where his opponent was.

"You are pathetic. Just looking at you make me question why people say all those hero stories about you." The military guy slowly walking toward him, reaching for his gun in the holster. "I expected to be fun or a challenge to fight with you, but you're nobody." He towered above the man in black, who obviously had no idea about his opponent's whereabout, nor that his gun was pointing at him. He couldn't hear anything yet again.

Anna was unable to stay hidden anymore, she saw the fire extinguisher on the floor what Sheila used to save her, she picked it up as quietly as possible and swinging it up and around to knock out the guy hard on the back of his head.

"You two are quite a team..." Sheila said smiling in disbelief as she walked up to them. Anna dropped down on her knees by Daredevil, touching him on his jaw again. He nodded and stood up slowly, bearing more weight on his uninjured leg.

Anna grabbed his hand, and peaked into the binoculars.

"Let's go, the hallway is empty, but I'm sure there are more coming."

Matt tilted his head. "I think they're coming from the East staircase. Sheila, you need to run as well."

Anna felt relieved that his hearing was back again.

"No, I can't. If I leave they will know I helped you. They didn't see me, Anna made sure I was hidden when we encountered the guards. I have to stay, I'll go back to my desk like nothing happened."

Matt nodded, and lead the way, limping on his leg. "Ok, let's take you back there then."

The three started rushing down the hall, away from the approaching enemies. They ran up two stories on the West stairs, where Sheila said goodbye.

"Wait!" Anna yelled after her. "Call the office of Nelson, Murdock and Page if you need any help. They helped me once, and you can trust them."

Sheila nodded and left through the door. The two hurried up to the direction of the roof, but when they reached the top floor Matt stopped her.

"There are soldiers on the other side of the door I think." He motioned her to move away to the corner.

"You think, or you know?" She wasn't happy about the idea of her hiding while he fought, especially now that his hearing was in and out and he definitely wasn't hundred percent after all the torture he went through, but looking at his serious face she stopped arguing. He can look intimidating if he wants to, especially with that mask on. So instead handed him the batons she brought with her.

After he disappeared through the door she heard fighting noises immediately, something or someone hitting the door hard, making it shake, probably got thrown onto it. Punches got louder and more frequent, which meant there were more and more people coming at the masked man. After a good 10 minutes a loud shot resonated the air, and everything went quiet. She couldn't sit there hidden anymore, they must've shot Matt. Pushed the door open with all her strength - the man's body who hit it flying earlier was still blocking it from the other side - then she ran out to the hallway and her eyes dropped onto at least a dozen men laying on the floor unconscious and beat up. She nervously scanned through them, but none of them was the certain one she's worried about.

Anna heard footsteps approaching from the corridor, and spinned around to block one guy's punch who just stepped up behind her. There were three guys around her all of a sudden and after her counterattack on the first soldier - who stumbled backwards - she turned toward the other two, who were trying to grab her. She dropped down low before their hands reached and punched out to their groins hard with both hands. A split second later she was back up while they're grabbing their man parts, and clinched her hands over the head of one to meet his throat with her knee. He gasped for air, and she lifted her other knee to his face to knock him out fast, then took care of the other one as well by landing her elbow to the back of his neck twice while he was still grabbing his balls. The first one eventually stood up and attacked her. Anna blocked his attempt by pushing a side thrust kick into his groin area while he approached her. He fell back again on his butt and before he could recover she kicked his side hard, pushing his air out and cracking a few of his ribs, then dropped down on him with her knee painfully digging into that same groin area and her right hand grabbing his throat. She dug her fingers into his jugular just below his jaw, grabbing it strong and giving it a slight pull. She avoided the more painful lower part of his neck, where a grab like that actually could kill him. He stopped fighting and both of his hands moved to his throat trying to remove Anna's right wrist, but she quickly knocked him out with her other hand's knuckle behind his ear.

She heard fighting noises coming from one of the rooms, so walked closer to peak through the window, just to be almost getting hit by a flying body through the glass. The window shattered into small pieces and the man slid several feet on the floor after the impact. She stepped up to his body, but seemed like he was all out. After turning her head toward the now windowless room, she saw Matt still on his feet fighting with two military guys. They were both twice his size, and he started looking out of breath, and most of his punches hit air only. She could tell he was reaching his limit, because he also missed blocking more and more of their attacks. One of the men kicked him on his stomach and the Devil hit the table behind him flying, then painfully collapsed on his four, taking a tray of medical equipments with him. The metal tray made a loud hollow noise on the tiles, and its content scattered around the floor. Daredevil's position exposed him to the man to kick him again at that same spot. She saw him spitting out blood, but before the third kick reached him he grabbed one of the surgical knives from the floor what came down with the tray and stabbed the man's leg with it. The soldier cried out in pain, and stumbled back, and to Anna's surprise Matt was on his feet once again, punching the guy in the face. She heard nose cracking, then arm breaking, and another loud cry left the man's throat. Daredevil finished him with an elbow hit on the back of his head. Finally unconscious as well. She looked around in panic, realizing she lost track of the other attacker, just to feel herself being grabbed by someone from the back. The man holding a strong lock on her neck with two hands.

"Surrender yourself, or I will break her neck!" He instructed Daredevil, who slowly raised his head up towards them, looking deadly serious.

"You shouldn't have done that." The vigilante's voice came very deep and threatening, and Anna felt a shiver running through her whole body.

The guy behind her was also shaking suddenly, trying to move her backwards now, away from the masked man. Anna suddenly felt tired of these guys threatening them, attacking them. She reached up with her hands to touch the man's bare arm holding her, and showed him what real pain feels like. She forcefully connected with his mind and he cried out immediately and released her, stumbling backwards while holding his temples. Anna moved a few feet away to give Matt space to finish her attacker. The vigilante didn't hesitate for a second, jumped on the guy with a flying kick to knock him out on the head with one spinning move. He landed on his feet gracefully, but then bent over panting loud while holding his stomach. Anna walked up to him, gently touching his shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah..." he said, his voice was still rough and deep. "Let's get the hell out of here."

She liked the idea, and grabbed his hand to start walking as fast as Matt was able to out of the room along the hallway to the roof access. Matt kicked the locked door open and they were finally out in the now cold breezy New York night.

"We probably should go to the motel. Your apartment is a bit messy, I didn't have time to clean it up."

He nodded without any words.

The walk to the motel on the rooftops was slower than they wanted it to. Anna felt him stumble a few times, so put her shoulder under his arm to give him some support. His adrenaline faded and he started feeling the aches and pain. Eventually they made it to the motel, and Matt walked down the fire escape ladder from the roof one step at a time, taking a second break at each step, leaning heavily on the handrail, while Anna went inside her room and opened the window for him.

She switched the lights on and watched Matt collapsing on the couch. He reached up and pulled his mask off, revealing several bruises and cuts on his face, his skin was barely visible from all the blood and blackened marks. Anna sat down next to him and traced her fingers along his forehead, pushing out some of the hair that got stuck in the dried blood.

"Are you ready?" She asked him while keeping her hand on his face, but Matt shook his head.

"I don't want you to heal me, Anna."

"What? Why not?" Her first thought was that she scared him away when causing too much pain to Dr. Moon, and he didn't trust her anymore. "I would never hurt you, or cause you any pain..."

"I know." He smiled at her and hold her hand in his. "It's not that." He turned his face toward her. "I don't want you to feel it again what they did to me."

Anna's heart skipped a beat. Even when he's beat up, still thinking of her and putting her wellbeing above his own.

"I can handle it, no matter how bad it is."

"I know you can. But I don't want you to suffer."

"I appreciate it, really do. Nobody thought or cared about how I feel before. But you're in pain and I can help. I want to help."

He brought her hands up to his lips and planted a kiss on them.

"Then help me the old way. I have a full equipped medical kit, and I'm sure you brought it here from the apartment." He gave her a smile, hoping she won't argue. "I'm not dying, and will be fine. You already healed the worst part in the lab."

Anna hesitated, what could be so bad he didn't want her to feel? What else those people did to him? She was worried his condition was much worse than he's showing it, but knew how stubborn he can be, and at least he still let her to patch him up and not trying to deal with it by himself. So she nodded and walked to her backpack where the kit was. She is gonna keep an eye on him, and if his condition gets worse she will do whatever it takes to heal him.

When she walked back to him, Matt already removed his boots and was trying to take his black torn up shirt off. She helped him out of it, so he didn't have to stretch his arms too much, revealing two large blackened bruise covering his ribs and abs where those guys kicked him during the fight. She took a sharp breath in, but didn't say anything, and started wiping off the blood from his skin to see where the cuts were.

"These four need stitches." She said and Matt nodded. The cuts were deep and the skin around them were all separated. Anna had to look away from the one on his side, because she saw parts of his inside what shouldn't be visible. She squeezed her mouth shout to silence a yelp, but she was pretty sure Matt noticed her reaction, because he gently rubbed his fingers over her hand.

She pushed him forward to check on his back. "There are two more here."

She took a deep breath in and slowly let it out, and started stitching up his wounds. She never liked the sound of needle poking through skin, but knew this what she felt was nothing compared to what Matt had to go through. So tried to keep her stitches nice and even, so he will heal up good.

After she was finally done with all four wounds, she wrapped them up, then turned him around a bit to work on the ones on his back, finishing up with a wrap around his yet again cracked ribs. Then moved up to his face, cleaning up all the blood.

"Did they hit you with the baseball bat on the head?"

"Yeah, I believe so, that part is a bit blurry."

"I believe that. I'm sure you have a concussion, and not sure how much that short healing I did there helped."

"At least it gave my hearing back, mostly. And that's important, the rest just need some time. And thanks to you my skull is in one piece again."

"Do you still remember things? I know you recognized me. Where do you live? Do you know what year and month it is?" She asked worriedly.

Matt snorted. "Yeah, 485 West 46th Street in Hell's Kitchen. And it's still November, 2022, which means your birthday is coming up soon."

"Good." She calmed down a bit, and kept going with the cleaning, trying to get the blood out of his hair, revealing another ruptured skin. "Jesus... you really can take punches and hits."

"Thank you for the compliment." He laughed, but stopped immediately because the shaking motion caused sharp pain in his ribcage.

Anna lifted one finger up. "I wouldn't recommend doing that again for a while."

He stayed quiet this time, but she saw the edge of his lips turned upward.

She disinfected everything she could and stitched up another open wound on his forehead, knowing exactly that was a not too old one reopened and got bigger. Then took care of his bottom lip. She thought she finished, but her eyes did a final scan on his body, dropping down to his pants just to notice those were torn as well. He was limping badly on the way here.

"Take your pants off please."

Matt's eyes grew wide, but then he slowly stood up, leaning heavily on the nightstand in front of him. He walked up to her backpack - tracing his palm along the motel bed for support - and pulled out one of his cotton shirts she packed for him, carefully putting it on, then limped back to the couch to unbuckle his belt. Anna blushed and nervously turned her face away. She heard him dropping the cargo pants down to the floor and was hoping he's wearing underwear. She felt him sat down the couch and her eyes moved up to his face. He looked nervous as well, but then his lips turned into a smile trying to hide it. Probably that's why he grabbed the t-shirt, so she won't feel intimidated by his almost completely naked body, and he won't feel awkward either.

Anna bit her lower lip and moved her eyes down, noticing thankfully the presence of his black underwear, then a deep stab on his right thigh.

"Ouch, that looks painful. Was it a knife?"

"A rebar."

She wrinkled her forehead and made a hissing sound. Yikes.

"Ok, this might sting." She disinfected the deep stab with alcohol, and other than tensing up a little he didn't complain. After stitching it up, she wrapped a bandage around his thigh.

"Uhm, do you need sweatpants for tonight?"

"Yes, please." She pulled them out from the backpack and helped him putting them on.

"Well, I didn't imagine our first night together in bed like this, but you just can't sleep on the couch anymore. Plus this couch is much smaller than yours at home." And before he could start talking she added. "I don't want to hear any arguments." Anna took his hand, and pulled him up and lead him to the bed, which was only four steps from the couch. The motel room wasn't big at all.

When he sat down on the bed, she fetched some ice from the hallway, handing the plastic bag to him to keep it over his swollen eyes and right jaw, then walked to the bathroom to clean up and change. After removing her shirt her eyes caught on the mirror image of herself. There was a huge black bruise on her abdomen from the punch Matt gave her, and she said a quiet thank you for him not able to see it. The shape of his fingers was also quite pronounced on her right wrist, turning into a greenish color. She was sure he would self torture himself because of these.

He was still sitting on the edge of the bed when she walked back in, crunching the sheet with his fists.

"Is everything all right?" She asked, but he didn't acknowledge her. "Matt?" Carefully stepped closer to him, his head was down, eyes shut close in pain.

"Shit. You can't hear me again..." she squatted down by his knees, putting her hands on them. He opened his eyes startled first, then had an apologetic look on his face. She rubbed her fingers along his left jawline to give some comfort, and he reached out like a normal blind man to search for her. She guided his hand to her cheek and she saw a smile on his face. They stayed there for a good fifteen minutes, when Matt finally spoke up.

"I'm good now, sorry about that."

"Matt, you don't have to apologize. I just don't get it why you don't want my help, the price I pay is nothing compared to how much it can help."

"It's... it's normal." He said and Anna took a deep breath in to fight back, but he cut into her words. "I've lost my hearing before. Twice, actually. I will be fine."

"Twice?"

"Yeah... well, once I got shot in the head, and then there was that incident when the building collapsed on top of me..."

"Jesus, Matt..." Shot in the head and survived? Building collapsed? What was he made of? How much pain can he handle?

"I will meditate tomorrow, that will help with healing."

She raised her eyebrows, wasn't completely sure if he's joking, or serious.

"Meditate..." she snorted. "Sleep helps with healing as well, so why don't you try laying down and rest now?"

"You are angry." He said while lifting his injured leg with his hands up on the bed.

Anna sighed. "I just don't like when you suffer and I could help."

"Then you should understand me. I don't like seeing you in pain when can help making you avoid it." He pulled her closer to him. "Please?"

"It's hard to be angry with you when you are so nice to me, you know?" She smiled and he placed a kiss on her hands, making her shiver.

He got encouraged by her response and pulled her in completely kissing her on the lips gently. Anna's head started spinning and moved her arms around his neck for support. He always had this effect on her and she's happily giving into it. His hands moved along her arms, then resting on her hips. She loved feeling the goosebumps on her arms while he rubbed his fingers over them. Then those fingers moved to her side, running up along her torso, then down and back up to her abs. She unintentionally took a sharp painful breath in when he touched the bruised area, and Matt froze.

"You're injured."

"It's.. it's nothing, just a bruise." She said, her wording came out more shaky than she intended to. He tilted his head, listening to her erratic heartbeat.

"Who did this?"

"It doesn't matter, it was just an accident."

"Was it one of the military guys you were fighting with?"

Anna didn't answer, she knew she can't. If she lies he will know, if she tells the truth he will be angry. She wished she could just turn her heart off for a few minutes, because it didn't want to slow down. She was a horrible liar and never liked lying, especially to someone she loved. And in this case she wouldn't be able to anyways, because he's a lie detector.

Matt focused on her more intensely, sensing her hiding something.

"It happened at the laboratory tonight, I will be fine."

He tilted his head and knew she's telling the truth, but she was extremely nervous about something, avoiding the complete truth.

"Was it Dr. Moon?"

Anna swallowed and just shook her head, her anxiety growing with each second.

"I... I did this, didn't I?"

"Matt... It was an accident."

He stood up. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done this to you." He started limping back to the couch.

"Matt... please..."

"It's better if you stay away from me."

"It was an accident! You had no idea it was me."

"Exactly! And I can lose my hearing again and can get you hurt... again!"

"No!" She yelled and stepped in front of him before he finished the fourth step and reached the couch, cutting in his way, facing him. "You're not gonna push me away. Not again, not ever."

He rubbed his face. "I... I can't put you in danger. What if I wake up in the middle of the night from a bad dream, without hearing? I will think I'm somewhere else, and can hurt you!" She saw his eyes filled with real pain. "Please, Anna. Just... just stay away from me, at least until I'm better."

She didn't want to, not now when he's injured and needed help. But he can be so stubborn. She could just heal him, and his hearing would be back to normal in a minute. But now that he knew about her bruise he won't accept any help from her for sure, just to punish himself for it.

She took his hand in hers. "I keep a distance while we sleep, until you feel better. But I won't stay away. It was an accident, and I know you would never hurt me intentionally."

Matt shook his head, probably he can't ask for more.

"I don't deserve you." He said and squeezed her hand gently.

"Well, you stuck with me."

He made a weak smile and sat down on the couch. "Please sleep on the far end side of that bed, away from me."

Anna walked around the bed to take the other end on it, and she looked at him before she turned the light off. He was in more pain now than during his torture.

---

The next morning she quietly called Karen from the bathroom, just to check on her how she's doing, then walked up to the couch, standing next to his sleeping form. The morning light made his wounds more intense, and injuries usually look worse the next day anyways. She knew that from experience, bruises change color and get more lilac and black. His temple and eyes definitely showed deeper colors now, the swelling also increased. She knew they needed to come up with a good cover story for Foggy and Karen. Probably hit by a car, or something big, because it's hard to explain this many injuries. She jumped when a loud robotic voice broke the morning silence, announcing an incoming call from Foggy.

Matt growled and reached out automatically for his phone on the nightstand - what Anna put there last night after emptying her pockets - and tapped his finger on the screen to answer. He was half asleep still.

"What time is it?..." his voice was dry and sleepy.

"Are you still in bed? Oh, I hope with Anna finally..." Foggy's voice came through the speaker loud.

She blushed and nervously walked to the bathroom to give them some privacy, not that she couldn't hear everything from there.

"How was it? You have to tell me every single details." Foggy pushed the topic curiously.

"Violent." Matt said rolling to his side carefully to sit up, feeling dizzy suddenly.

"You lucky bastard! I seriously want to hear the details later! Anyways, I believe Anna told you that Karen is safe. I yelled the head off of the front desk people yesterday at the laboratory, want to file a lawsuit against them. Oh, and remember we have a court date in a few hours? Just wanted to make sure you won't sleep in."

He tried standing up, but failing to put weight on his leg, so dropped back down on the couch. "Actually, I wanted to ask if you could handle this on your own? Just this one time."

Foggy laughed. "A-ha! You want to stay in bed with her all day! I get it. I would want to do that as well if I were you." He smirked, and Matt didn't need sights to imagine Foggy's face right now. "I'll do it, you just stay with her. It's nice that you're not kicking her out after last night."

"Foggy! That's a horrible thing to say."

"I know, I know. I just know your patterns. But for this, I'm really happy for you, hold on to it as strong as you can."

He lowered his voice, guilt washing over him. "I will... How's Karen holding up?"

"She's fine actually. She's badass, she's handling this whole kidnapping like it was nothing. But seriously, a bomb? How crazy is that!"

"I'm glad she's all right and didn't get hurt."

"Yeah, me too... I was seriously worried, still can't wrap my head around it."

They hung up and Matt dropped his head back on the headrest.

Anna walked out of the bathroom, studying the guilty expression on his face while standing by the side of the bed.

"I'm sorry." Matt said, lifting his head up. "I'm sorry using you as an excuse, especially like this."

Anna thinned her lips. "I... I am sorry, Matt. I know lying to your friend is never easy."

"I shouldn't have gone with it though." He lowered his head.

"He basically handed it to you. It's ok, I understand... though you wouldn't have to lie if you let me to heal you." She added quietly with a sad tone.

He tilted his head, listening to her heartbeat, he sensed less anger in her. "How are you feeling?"

Anna laughed. "I should be the one asking that from you."

"Like a train ran over me."

"You definitely look like that. But I'm glad you decided to skip work today."

"I would most likely scare those few clients of ours away." He laughed, and grabbed his ribcage. "Ouch."

The corner of her lips turned down, seeing him in pain was hard. "So what happened with that bomb? Karen told me she had like 42 seconds to run away, but later they found out the bomb never went off."

"They put a secondary bomb there, what I triggered when I stepped on the platform to free her. Obviously it was a trap to capture me. I couldn't move, otherwise it would have exploded. So I made Karen run away what reactivated the countdown device, and a few seconds later Dr. Moon's men arrived with an army and I couldn't do anything. They sedated me right away, then I assume they disabled the device before the time ran out. It wasn't a fake bomb, I know that. Not sure what would have happened if I was slower dealing with those two attackers at the beginning... she could have died..."

"Don't even think about it... You saved Karen, and now you're safe too. That's all it matters." She made a weak smile at his direction.

"You risked your life for me."

"I would always do that, and I know you would do the same for me. That's what we do for people we love." She said quietly, expecting him to start arguing with her about her rescue mission.

"Thank you. You were very brave and smart sneaking in there without being noticed." He said and she froze for a second. No scolding her, no lecturing about her being reckless, but a thank you instead? She smiled, it's a progress. Maybe he slowly started accepting that they were a team. She looked at him with a smile and saw his eyes were looking at her direction with love.

"Thank you for getting us out of there and fighting through that army." She replied and they smiled at each other. Yes, they were really a team now, who always can count on each other. It felt amazing.

"Tacos for breakfast? They have a Taqueria next door." She asked casually after a long, but pleasant silence, then walked up to her backpack to get her wallet and hid her long hair under her hoodie.

"Tacos sound perfect. Thank you." He added and stood up leaning on the night stand, then slowly dragged his weight to the bathroom.

After breakfast they called a cab to go back to Matt's apartment. He pushed the door in and headed straight to the couch. The short walk from the cab to the elevator, then from there to their door exhausted him.

"At least they didn't leave any blood on the walls this time." She said. "Could be worse." She walked to the kitchen, eyeing the broken plates and glasses on the floor. "We might need to buy new tableware though."

"You still have my credit card, right?" Matt asked and she nodded. "Just buy whatever you need and like.

She made a big sigh and grabbed the broom to clean up the broken pieces, and Matt slowly limped to the closet to put his clothes back on the hangers. Anna eyed the white lily Matt gave her before their date, sitting unharmed on the dining table in the glass of water, and she smiled. At least they didn't destroy everything.

They did some cleaning in quiet, the only noise was the daytime traffic coming up from the street. Matt didn't have much clutter, so only took a few hours to make the apartment presentable.

After they finished he sat down on the floor to meditate, and Anna decided it's a good time to give him some space, especially since he was still feeling guilty about her bruises. So walked down to the gym. She missed their meeting with Tom yesterday, and also ignored his calls, so knew she needed to make it up for him today.

The back door was ajar and she heard noises from inside. He's probably doing some cleaning still. She knocked on the glass, and stepped in the gym.

"Hello."

"Anna! Good to see you! I brought you coffee in case you show up. I'm glad you did!" Tom greeted her with excitement in his eyes.

She couldn't help but smiled back at him. He was very nice to her and looked all happy, wished her and Matt's life would be something free of darkness like his. At least for a day or two. She gave him a hug and grabbed one of the cups. "Thank you..." She said, sipping in her coffee.

Tom's grin got wider, and she sat down on the bench next to the ring, squeezing her cup. The warmth of it felt great on her hands.

"Is everything all right? You look... troubled."

She laughed. "That's a nice way to word it." She forced a smile on her face, but then sighed. She was feeling bad about Matt refusing her help to heal him. "Yeah, just sometimes I feel like I really suck at relationships."

"Oh... men trouble... Already? You only started dating a couple days ago... " he said, lowering himself next to her. "Can I help?"

She turned toward him. "Actually... You are a man, so maybe can answer me a question. Why men are so stubborn sometimes to let others help them?"

"I guess for some that means they're less of a man."

"So what? Like pride? Rather die than accept some help?"

"Wow... wow.. wow... Who is dying? I thought we're talking about something simple, like replacing a lightbulb."

"I wish." She sighed again, but realized she can't just tell Tom the real truth. "Never mind, just forget about it. Nobody's dying. I was just overreacting a small argument me and Matt had." She forced a smile on her face. "And I don't think it's about his pride... he's not like that. It's not a big deal."

"I assume this was your first argument?"

"No, not really... but it wasn't a big argument. It's just things were so much easier if he would let me help him in this case."

"The secret to relationships is to respect each other. If he thinks he can handle whatever it is by himself, let him do it. Maybe he has a good reason for it. He will appreciate it, trust me. But be the support when he needs you." He said quietly, and Anna got lost deep in her thoughts. Could it be that the torture Matt went through was much worse than any previous injuries he had and Anna experienced, and he wanted to spare her from feeling that while healing him? But what could be so terrible? And he knew that suffering from his injuries was less painful than her feeling that torture? What did they do to him?

"When did you get this wise?" She asked eventually.

Tom smirked.

"You know what?" He jumped up, reaching one hand out. "Let's go to that bakery on 26th, I know how much you like pastries. That will cheer you up. Remember when we sneaked into that old dirty bakery in Austin to steal some croissants?"

She laughed. "I never liked doing that, but they tasted so good!" She smiled at the memories, then the reality hit her. She can't go out in public, especially not to that bakery where she used to work. "No, I'm good, but thank you. Really. I'm already feeling better."

"Are you sure?" He asked and put his hand on her wrist, and she hissed in pain automatically.

"What happened with your wrist?" Tom asked worriedly, and pulled her sleeve up just a little. Anna tried moving her hand away, but it was too late, the now black bruise got revealed. Tom's expression changed suddenly to an angry one.

"Did your new boyfriend do this to you?"

Finally she got out of his hand. "No, it's nothing." Her face turned red and she felt hot all of a sudden.

"Anna!" He calmed down a bit, looking in her eyes worried. "You were always a horrible lier. He did this after your argument? You can talk to me."

She shook her head. "No. It was just a stupid accident, really."

"I can see his fingers there still! These things don't count as accidents."

"It wasn't his fault. He didn't do anything wrong. Just drop it, please."

"Why are you protecting someone who hurt you?"

"I'm not... you don't understand! Matt would never hurt me." She put down her empty cup on the bench and turned around to leave. Tom followed her fast, stepping in front of her.

"Anna, please. I... I want to help." His voice was much calmer now. "I'm here if you want to talk, ok?"

Anna looked up in his blue eyes, seeing that familiar longing and caring in them. He gently rubbed his fingers on hers and moved closer.

"He doesn't deserve you."

Anna froze, this wasn't right. She had a boyfriend, who she loved.

"You know what?" She looked away fast, feeling all guilty. "I forgot I need to go." She jumped and pulled her hand away from him. "I'm sorry, see you later, and thank you for the coffee!" She rushed out without looking back, leaving a very confused man behind.

Her feet took her to Matt's apartment automatically. She slammed the front door behind her and leaned on it.

"Anna?" Came Matt's worried voice from the living room. Her heart was racing and she knew Matt can tell that, so he's gonna ask questions and start worrying if Dr. Moon found her, or something else danger happened. Again.

She slowly walked into the living room, eyeing him standing in the middle with one hand on the couch for support, ready to rush to her even on injured leg. Tom was right though, she needed to respect his wish. He loved her, she knew that and would do anything to keep her safe, literally anything. Even if that meant suffering from his injuries for a while, or keeping a distance until his hearing was back to normal. Especially now that he knew about her bruises, he won't accept any help from her as a self punishment. He's gonna be ok with time. He was still here with her, alive and that's what mattered. Suddenly felt the frustration lifted from her shoulders.

So instead of saying anything, she ran up to him and kissed him on the lips. She almost smiled at his first shocked reaction, then he let the couch go and crossed his arms around her waist, pulling her in more.

"I love you, Matt." She said, and kissed him again before he could say anything.

---

The meditation was really helping Matt, because he was feeling better by Sunday. Was able to stand up without much support and walking with less limp. He was lucky it was the weekend, so he didn't have to come up with another lie why he's not showing up at work. Anna avoided the gym yesterday, felt embarrassed about what happened between her and Tom, but she wasn't lucky enough to avoid Tom himself on Sunday. Her phone rang just before noon.

"Hello, Tom." She answered, didn't want to make things worse and ignore his call.

"Anna, I was just wondering if everything is ok? You rushed out so fast Friday..." his voice was nervous as well. "And I'm sorry if I intruded in your personal life, I am just really worried."

"Yes, uhm... everything is ok. Just remembered something important I had to do." She was feeling embarrassed, but wasn't sure why.

"Oh, good. I was just thinking maybe I overstepped... I'm just really worried about you."

"Uhm... no. I understand. It's just not what you think, I know it looks bad, but it's really not..." she was hoping to drop the topic without mentioning anything specific what Matt could overhear.

"Ah, ok, ok. I believe you, but I'm here if you need help. Are you coming down to the gym today? I have something for you."

She peaked out to the living room, seeing Matt meditating on the floor.

"I wasn't planning on it..." she said honestly.

"I think you will like this one though... maybe I can help changing your mind?"

She rubbed her forehead, he seemed like really excited about whatever was that he planned for her. And it's not like she had any excuse of being busy, plus Matt was still playing the distancing game, which she should respect until his hearing was hundred percent.

She sighed eventually, giving in. "Ok, I can be there in a bit."

"Sounds perfect! See you soon!"

She hung up, dropping her phone on the sheets. It was nice of him to care about her, and sometimes it would be good to talk to someone, but she can't. What she saw in his eyes at the end reminded her of the spark what she saw in Matt's. Well, yes, they were dated for a short while before Tom had to leave the orphanage and town, but they were just teenagers and didn't see each other since then. It's been a long time, so she shouldn't assume he still had any feelings toward her.

"I'm going to the gym, will be back soon." She said nervously, and Matt looked up from his position. He noticed her erratic heartbeat.

"Is everything ok?"

"Uhm, yes, just Tom wants to show me something, so..."

He forced a smile on his face. "Ok, stay as long as you want. Just be careful."

"As always." She said the usual words. He still looked like blaming himself for everything what happened to her.

She walked in to the gym through the alley door as always, greeted by fresh paint smell. The walls all had a nice white cover and the place looked like new, he worked hard to finish everything.

"Wow!" She spun around in awe.

"You like it?" Tom asked excitement on his face.

"I love it!" She said, and she really did, especially that he didn't change the settings much. It still reminded her to the original old gym, except cleaner and tidier.

"It's all ready for students!" She smiled. "Oh, I like you left the old posters on the wall!" She eyed the one with Jack Murdock's name on it, now nicely framed, with the addition of the photos of the karate masters on the opposite side.

"Yeah, I thought it would show some history, and they really fit in here." He smiled back proudly. Was happy Anna approved his work.

"Here." He reached out with a small but long box in his hands, wrapped around with a ribbon.

Anna got surprised, she didn't expect any presents. "What are we celebrating?" She asked confused.

"It's an early birthday gift, I know it's coming up in less than two weeks. Open it." Tom's smile grew bigger.

She was shocked. "You still remember my birthday after all those years?"

"I would never forget."

She was trying to remember his, but couldn't recall, feeling stupid all of a sudden. Tom was still staring at her, and she realized she needed to open the box. Clumsily unwrapped the ribbon and opened the lid. In the box there was a black karate belt.

"Oh, wow." Her expression was pure surprise. "I... I don't think I deserve this." She reached the box out toward him.

"Well, it's not official, you would need to take the test for it, but in my eyes you definitely earned this black belt." He took it out from the box. "You were my first ever student, and we were training together for 5 years. And you never stopped practicing since then."

She blushed, if he knew what men she's been practicing on to stay alive probably would be surprised. The Russians, the Italian Mob, Dr. Moon's men flew across her mind with mostly broken arms.

He tied the belt around her waist. "I also have a real karate gi coming for you, it should be here by next week. I remember you always dreamt of having one."

She started arguing, but he stopped her. "You had a big impact on my life without knowing it. Made me fall in love with this sport even more, and gave me this dream I always wanted. Having my own business and teach people how to defend themselves. And it's all coming together now. So please, I really would like to give you these. And I hope I will see you here in class."

She was speechless.

Tom suddenly jumped, remembering something. "Oh, almost forgot! Come, I want to show you one more thing!" He took her hand and started dragging her toward the front entrance, through the door, out to the busy street. "Look!" He spun her around and pointed up. There was a new sign above the door stating in green letters that an Uechi Ryu Karate dojo opening here. On the window he kept the Fogwell's Gym sign, what warmed her heart. "This is amazing!" She smiled at him. "Congratulations! It's all official then."

"Yes, no turning back now." He grinned. "I need to start thinking more seriously about advertising. Only posted it on a few websites, and newspapers."

Anna kept eyeing the sign, then turned toward him, when a suspicious dark van with two men inside watching them caught her eyes, parked on the opposite side of the street. Her senses were so tuned to possible threats that it wasn't hard to notice. She suddenly had that weird feeling, when something was just wrong, so slowly started backing up toward the door. The two guys got out of the van at the same time, trying to cross the busy street.

"Are you all right?" Tom noticed her change in demeanor.

"Sorry, I... I need to go." She ran back to the gym and out through the back door, taking the alley way back to Matt's apartment, while looking back in every second.

The two men ran toward the corner instead of following her to the gym, and saw her running out through the back door. She was able to run into Matt's building before they got to the turn of the alley to see where she disappeared, so she ran up on the stairs as fast as she could, yanking the door to the apartment open to ran into Matt who was about to open it for her.

"What happened?" He asked her, but she just ran by him and up to the roof. Looking down to the alley she saw the two men indeed searching for her.

"Shit." She pushed herself away from the parapet backing up until her back hit the chest of Matt. He didn't need explanation anymore, knew exactly what's going on, tilting his head as usual, tuning on the guys below. Anna knew she needed to be quiet, so he can hear them better. After a few minutes he spoke up, his voice was serious. "Stay here, lock the door and don't leave the apartment."

"What are you gonna do?" She asked, but he was already on the move, jumping from their building to the next one with ease, following the guys through the rooftops. Anna was surprised he was able to move like that after just three days of going through that torture. He really did have high pain tolerance. She watched him until disappeared in the distance, then walked back down to the living room and went straight to the door to check on the locks.

She hated doing nothing while Matt was out saving her ass, for the hundredth time. She rubbed her forehead, then realized she left Tom alone just like that. What if they'll figure out he knew her? She pulled her phone out to dial his number. It rang four times and she was about to rush down to check on him when he finally answered.

"Tom, is everything ok?"

"Seems like this is your new habit, running away from me without any reason. Is there anything I should know about?"

She felt relieved hearing his voice, and not the doctor's this time. She really didn't want anybody else to be kidnapped or tortured.

"Look, I can't really give you an explanation, but just be careful, ok?"

"Are you in danger?" His voice changed to a worried one. "You sound scared."

"No, no, nothing to worry about. Just have these weird guys lurking around me, and I thought I saw them. But I probably mistaken."

"I can help. Do you want me to come over an stay with you? Or find them and talk to them?"

"No, I'm ok, really. Just be careful if you see anybody suspicious."

"Ok, but you don't have to worry about me. And call me if you need help. Any time."

"Ok, thanks Tom."

She dropped her phone on the coffee table. Here she was, putting another innocent person in danger.

A loud robotic voice made her almost jump out of her skin.

"Foggy... Foggy... Foggy..."

She clumsily dig through the couch pillows to finally fish out Matt's phone underneath and tap on the screen.

"Foggy?"

"Hey Anna... can you give me Matt?"

"He had to run out to the store and forgot to take his phone. Is everything ok?" She lied smoothly, and realized that if Daredevil involved in her lies it doesn't take any effort from her to convince the other person about anything.

"Depends how we look at it. Do you know a woman called Sheila?"

Her heart started racing, please don't tell me she got hurt. "Yes, I told her to call the office if she needs help. Why?"

"Well, Karen was in the office doing some paperwork over the weekend, and Sheila called in asking for our help."

"Help with what exactly?" Anna had no clue how much Sheila told Foggy about the laboratory and the experiments.

"She didn't say. She just said she knows you and she needs our help in a serious matter."

Anna felt lightheaded, and slowly collapsed on the couch.

"Are you still there?"

"Uhm, yes Foggy, sorry. I'm still here... did she tell you where she is?"

"She's with a friend, safe, she said."

Anna relaxed a bit, at least she's not alone at her place where they could find her. Wasn't sure what was exactly going on, but knew it's better to stay hidden from Dr. Moon.

"I told her we would meet her today at the office. But she said she wants to talk to you too. Can you be there by 5pm?"

Anna checked the time, it was only 2pm. "Sure, we both will be there."

"Ok. See you soon then."

Her tears started threatening her, how was this possible, bringing more and more innocent people in her mess? She felt the guilt was overtaking all her feelings. What did Dr. Moon do to Sheila? Did he find out she helped them escape from the laboratory? Suddenly she started panicking, and was hoping they didn't hurt her at least.

There were too many questions, she can't find answers, so before they tear her apart she went to the bathroom to get the medical kit. Matt pretty sure will need new stitches when he's back.

"Yep, you are totally right about that." Matt's voice made her jump. She looked at him walking down the stairs, his white t-shirt was bleeding through at two spots.

"It's very creepy, it's like you could read my mind, you know?" She said with head shaking.

Matt laughed, but his ribs stopped him again. "Just heard you looking for the kit."

"Sit down please." She pointed at the couch and he didn't argue. Anna helped him out of the shirt, revealing two open cuts.

"They don't look good, but will try whatever I can. The skin got shredded where you ripped the stitches out. Probably you just undid that three days of healing."

"It happens sometimes. I felt them rip as I jumped long between two buildings. Will be fine, and at least the other wounds are still intact."

"So was it worth it? Did you find them?" Anna asked while disinfecting the wounds.

"Yes, actually. They drove back to the laboratory, so they were definitely Dr. Moon's men. I didn't interfere, because they were suspecting that you jumped into a cab and ran away. They didn't see you coming in to our building. Not sure how they knew that Tom knows you though, but they were watching him to find you."

"Shit, this was the first time I walked out to the street in front of the gym. So far I've been using the back door." Anna pushed the needle in his skin, starting the stitches. "Do you think Tom is in danger?"

Matt didn't make any hiss while she threaded the needle through his skin. "I will keep an eye on him tonight, just to make sure nobody's at his place. But now I know at least that he's not working with them."

"I always knew that. Thank you." She said, not liking the idea of him going out, but also wanted to keep her friend safe.

"How much he knows about you?"

"He has no idea about my healing abilities if that's what you mean. But he knows I was kept in a facility against my will as a kid, but never told him about the experiments. That incident was my motivation to start learning martial arts from him, so I will be able to protect myself if they'll try it again."

"Does he know where you live?"

Anna froze. "Do you think they'll question him?"

"I hope not, but just wanted to make sure you're still safe here."

"No, he doesn't know anything. He knows I have a boyfriend named Matt, but no other details."

"Ok, good." Matt nodded, and Anna finished stitching the second wound. Her eyes landed on his ab muscles, and she was thinking if she's ever gonna get used to this gorgeous view of his body. Even with all those scars - which by the way just made him look more badass - he looked extremely hot. Then before she will feel like a creep she took her eyes off of his abs and put the needle back in the box, searching for some bandages.

"Let me wrap this all around you, so it will keep the wounds more secure. We need to go to the office at 5pm." She said seriously. "Sheila called Karen, and Foggy said she needs help. Probably you should wear a dark suit, blood is less noticeable on it in case one of these bleeds through."

He nodded in agreement. "Help with what exactly?"

"I'm not sure. She didn't say, wanted to talk in person. Foggy said she sounded like she's in a big trouble, her voice was scared."

Matt sighed. "You think Dr. Moon hurt her?"

"That was my first thought... I feel guilty."

"It's not your fault."

"Lean forward please." She asked, and he did, while Anna carefully wrapped the bandage around his torso, taping the end.

"You keep saying that, but I just can't accept it." She said while helping him putting a darker colored shirt on.

"We will figure something out. Trust me."

She started buttoning his shirt up, resting her palms on his chest when they were done. She looked up at him, and his eyes were focused on the wall behind her. There was that guilt in them still, which made her stomach twitch, so gently gave him a kiss. He wanted to pull away, but when her lips touched his, he couldn't resist and returned her kiss. His fingers moved into her soft hair, other hand holding her by her waist pulling in closer for a minute, before shifting back away from her.

"We need to leave then, it's almost five." He said, and Anna sighed in disappointment.

"Ok, let me put on something comfortable, since I assume you are taking me over the rooftops. Also, we need to apply some makeup on your face, at least cover the black bruises. Can't do much about that swelling unfortunately."

After making sure he looked half decent, they left in a hurry. Her heart was pounding loud in her chest, worrying what they're gonna learn from the nurse and hoping Dr. Moon didn't hurt her much.