Ghost of You

Matt Murdock could hear his friends discussing Rose in his office. Obviously not because they were speaking too loud, no, in fact they were leaned over Karen's desk gossiping in hushed tones like two school girls, and thanks to Matt's heightened hearing, he got to easedrop the whole exchange.

"Did you see how Matt just stood there lost in thought after she left? What does that even mean?" Karen asked, a smile in her voice, though her heart pounded in her chest and her breath hitched ever so slightly. Matt was certain sometimes that even to the unheightened person, her crush was a little obvious, but he would never hold her jealously against her.

"I know, he wouldn't even tell me how MMMDog came about," Foggy pouted, causing Matt to roll his eyes, but he smiled when the memory of a 7 year old Rose and an 8 year old Matt, lying on their stomachs in his living room, giggled over creating the names for each other, with his dad's match playing on the radio in the background.

Matt remembered always trying to make her laugh before she left his home for the evening, for with their paper thin walls, he knew a lot of laughter didn't go on at her house.

However it wasn't a complicated answer. His initials were Matthew Michael Murdock and it didn't take much child-like imagination to come up with MMMDog.

"Has he ever mentioned her to you?" Karen began cautiously, "Like, have you met anyone who knew Matt before the accident?"

Foggy, for once, was quiet for a moment. "I haven't heard much of Matt's life before well, college, really, but he told me once about a girl he knew who's mother was murdered. The husband did it, but somehow he got off scotch free. And that was what planted the first seeds of being a lawyer in his mind," he finally answered.

Karen's voice hitched for a different reason this time. "And you think she's the girl?"

His friend let out a loud breath of air, probably throwing up his arms in a 'who knows?' gesture.

"It's a bit daunting. Meeting someone who knew Matt before the accident… meeting someone Matt has seen with his own eyes, who is very, very pretty," Karen admitted very softly.

"Karen…" Foggy began with her name, though obviously didn't know how to finish. "Matt doesn't care about that sort of stuff." Now his voice hitched ever so slightly and his heart pounded in his chest. Even if Matt wasn't nursing his own crush on his nurse friend, that little hitch forbade anything to happen between him and Karen.

"But maybe he did then."

"He was like nine when he knew her. Sounds like they sat around making rap names for each other! I couldn't think of anything less sexy. I didn't even care much about looks back then. Okay, that's a lie, I thought my 5th grade teacher was really pretty..." Foggy trailed off in a thoughtful voice, before adding, "But that's so not the point. At all."

Karen took a deep breath and replied, "It doesn't really matter. It's just a bit weird, y'know? To know he's never seen our faces but he has this woman's. Anyways, I bet you have some lawyering stuff to do. We have been open for," she paused, and Matt heard her watch slide against her wrist, into her view, "Four minutes and we should prepare for the massive hoards of people that will no doubt show up at any moment."

Matt pulled out of their conversation then, feeling slightly guilty he listened to any of it. He had wanted to hear their impressions of Rose, but apparently his own reactions caught their eye than anything she did.

He sighed and turned back to what he had returned to his office to do… to see what he could find of Rose on the internet. Matt plugged in his earbuds and typed 'Rose Bryant' into the search engine.

'Searching for Rose Bryant,' an electronic woman's voice informed him. The same voice read him link names and descriptions.

Finally, about eight links down, the women told him a 'singer/songwriter Rose Bryant has worked for Turtle Island Records for five years, providing back up vocals, guitar, piano, and songwriting'.

"Never thought I'd see the day Matt Murdock stalking a girl on the internet," a muffled voice startled Matt, coming unexpectedly from his right. An earbud to fall out of his ear and Matt had to resist the urge locate Foggy's arm and flip onto the table. "Have you tried her Facebook yet?"

"Foggy! Haven't you heard of knocking?" Matt asked, slightly annoyed and a little embarrassed he'd been caught searching Rose's name. He ripped the other earbud from his ear and took a deep breath, trying to calm his adrenaline rush.

"Yeah, and I did. I even called your name multiple times and announced my presence upon deciding to open the door and entering. You were way into what that little electronic voice was saying about Rose that you lost track of your surroundings," Foggy accused him, before pulling out his phone. "Seriously though, you find all the good stuff on Facebook. But you wouldn't know that because you're stuck in the middle ages and refuse to get one."

"Yeah, you find too much stuff through Facebook. People have no filters-" Matt began his spiel on the dangers of Facebook, but Foggy cut him off.

"Which is why, thanks to you, nobody can search me, and people can only add me by me adding them first."

Sighing again, Matt pulled out his earbuds before using the speak to type function.

"Rose Bryant, facebook," he told the computer and waited, knowing Foggy wasn't going leave him alone anytime soon now that he knew what Matt was up to, and it would go a lot easier with his eyes and not just an electronic voice.

"Already got it, buddy," Foggy said, lifting up his phone. "Her profile picture is with a guy, younger… with the same eyes and nose and blonde hair."

"Bentley," Matt put in, remembering the tiny baby he held in his arms the one fateful night when Rose practically threw the baby at him and crumpled to his feet in a fit of tears.

"Yeah, Bentley Bryant. He has a Facebook too, but anyways, back to Rose." Foggy went silent for a moment, his fingers tapping against his phone screen. "She's like you, I guess. Her Facebook is mostly private. Just says 'singer/songwriter at Turtle Island Records,'" he finished in a disappointed voice.

"That's all right, I just wanted to see what she had been up to..."

"Rather than meeting her for drinks after work like we promised and asking her like we use to do before social media took over the world?" Foggy asked, rhetorically. His phone suddenly dinged. "Yeah, that's overrated. She just added me back."

"Foggy!" Matt cried in an exasperated voice.

"Sorry?" Foggy said like a question, because he so obviously wasn't. "It's not like you were going to tell us anything about her."

"Have you asked me anything about her?" Matt replied pointedly, "Or did you just assume?"

Foggy made a noise. "Well… you wouldn't have of."

"I have nothing to hide with her," Matt answered. She's the one hiding something.

"Oh…" Foggy paused a second, before calling out the door, "Karen, get in here!"

"Hey, Bent," Rose answered her phone on the third ring. She dreaded the conversation she was about to have with her brother and slightly relieved she was only five minutes away from the Bulletin.

Though a lot of damage could be done in five minutes.

"Ro, please tell me you didn't quit your job at T.I.," Her brother began immediately.

Rose didn't reply.

"And returned to freaking Hell's Kitchen."

More silence on Rose's end.

"If this is true, at least tell me how big of an idiot you are and that you have a good reason," Bentley finished with a loud sigh.

"I got a new job, Bent! It's no big deal," Rose finally said, while thinking 'Yeah, you. You needing to be alive in this world is a pretty dang good reason.'

"But you loved your job at Turtle Island," Bentley accused and Rose couldn't deny it. Her brother would see right through it.

"It wasn't paying the bills, Bentley," She replied, using his full name in hope it would stop the questions.

"But… why Hell's Kitchen? That's where- that's where Mom was murdered, isn't it?" He asked, his voice suddenly muffled.

Rose swallowed before she answered, "Yeah, Bent, but it's just a place. We can't avoid it forever."

Truthfully, Rose had the same thought as her brother when she found she was returning here. Anywhere but there, she begged with her captors. But Matt never left and Rose wasn't all that surprised.

"Listen, I just arrived at work. I'll call you later. Go study or something. I love you, B," She said and held her breath, like he could possibly reply with anything but 'I love you' back.

Bentley was quiet for a moment before saying, "Love you too, Ro."

Rose's first day at work was quite overwhelming. 'They' told her it was just like songwriting and to make it work… but it wasn't just like songwriting and she couldn't help think the rest of the staff thought of her as incompetent idiot.

"You gotta get with it, kid, or get out. This isn't a tumblr blog found on the internet. This is the real deal," Someone told her at one point, which prompted a quick Google search of 'how to be a reporter' that her day go a little bit better.

At some point, she passed an office with a door left slightly ajar and started when she found she recognized the man sitting behind the desk. She abruptly stopped in place, staring in shock at the dark skin man that sat through the crack. He suddenly looked up, feeling her eyes on him.

"Can I help you?" Ben Urich asked, but she quickly fluttered away, unable to speak a word to him, and to her relief, he didn't follow her.

She returned to her desk and began writing a piece about a new playground being built in the city, though based on internet sources, and was shamed by her new editor, Ellison, for not hitting the pavement, and stealing someone else's research. Which was not what she had intended at all, but his shaming worked.

When Rose left work for the day, the highlight of her shift had been when Foggy Nelson added her on Facebook. Nobody was particularly glad of her appearance. Nobody spoke to her unless it was to tell her she was doing something wrong. Though she did successfully avoid Urich and she didn't get fired for her apparent lack of skills, so that is what she hung onto for tomorrow.

Now back in her apartment, she sat in sweatpants and a loose t-shirt on her couch, wanting to just check out for the day, but found her mind was a constant whirlwind of thought. Running from 'must keep Bentley safe at all costs' to 'Matty didn't deserve this' to 'Foggy's everything she will never be' to 'she will have to physically go to the dang playground tomorrow to write that article'.

Eventually all Rose could do was jam her earbuds in her ears and turn up her music as loud as it would go, trying to focus on the songs of hope her favorite band, Switchfoot, tried to lend her. But it just didn't feel real anymore. Who will she be if (when, because she will have to find something) she finds something on Matt and betrays him? Bentley, none the wiser to his life being threaten, will be the same, but Rose will forever be changed.

At some point, Rose had to get up and rummage her fridge for food, though that wasn't too hard considering two boxes of leftover Chinese takeout was really the only thing in her fridge. She thought about her old fridge in her old apartment- Tennessee was her home. Not here. Back then, though 'back then' was only 3 weeks ago, her fridge was stocked to the brim and she was never alone at dinner. There were photos of Bentley and their friends all over her walls and books overflowing her bookshelves. Now she had an empty apartment .Tucked away in her closet were her boxes of picture frames but it just seemed out of place in a place that was not her home. So Rose let her walls bare nothing and her tables were free of pictures of loved ones.

But she was lonely. She missed her brother. She missed her friends. Heck, she even missed her dick of an ex-boyfriend. Rose was about twenty hours from everyone she loved.

And then a thought formed in her mind, a thought that wasn't unceasing till she untangled herself off the couch, threw on a sweatshirt, and pulled on her shoes. Rose slid her phone and keys in the oversize pocket of her sweatshirt and headed out the door.

Daredevil stood on the roof of Rose Bryant's apartment building. He heard the massive sigh of relief that escaped her when she dropped her keys on the counter of her kitchen. He heard the groan of the couch when she plopped down after changing out of her work clothes. The pounding of her heart as she stressed over something internally and soon Switchfoot began playing like they were in the roof with him with a loud speaker.

She was definitely stressed about something and he wasn't so sure he was going to learn about what it was by just listening in.

Matt was given a chance to ask some questions when suddenly Rose jumped up from the couch, causing the old thing to creak, and bolted out the door. He quickly left his perch and silently followed her from the rooftops and dark alleyways.

At some point he realized exactly where they were going and a feeling of dread hit his stomach. The way Rose's heart rate continued to grow, she was feeling the same thing, but she was on a mission. Had she been back since her mother was murdered?

They weren't going to be as Rose remembered. The townhouses were abandoned ten some years ago and now mostly homeless people and prostitutes would be found roaming through these streets.

Rose's steps began to slow as she realized this, but she kept going till she arrived at her house, with Matt's house just one over. She abruptly stopped then, taking in a long, jagged breath.

Matt didn't think she'd been there since the last time he saw her, with tears streaming down her face, and a baby Bentley crying loudly in her arms. They were the last ones in the house and Rose and Bentley's father honked from outside. Bill Bryant was skipping town, despite the fact he hadn't been charged with the murder of Lillian Bryant, his wife.

Daredevil didn't follow Rose in quite yet when she finally entered the house, though he knew he eventually would. It was a perfect place for… questioning.

Rose was scared. She wondered if maybe, if… she was still there. Her mother. If Rose could feel her mother in the house she was murdered. Ghosts aren't real, Rose chided herself, but something brought her here nonetheless.

As she entered her old home, the hairs on the back of Rose's neck rose. She found she had a hard time breathing as each step felt like somebody had taped weights to her feet, and suddenly she was in.

Her hand reached for the light, but it didn't surprise her when they didn't turn on when she flicked the switch. The moonlight streamed through the cracked wood that boarded up the windows and she pulled out her phone, switching on the flashlight feature.

It was only just now occurring to Rose that someone might have taken up residence here, but it was too late for such thoughts now. She wasn't turning back.

Rose directed the light throughout the room. The wooden floors were mostly gray with dust, though there was lighter gray footsteps trailing across the foyer. However, the prints were covered in a thin layer of dust, so she doubted anyone was there now.

The house felt like it was being held up by the loud silence that covered every itch of the place. Rose felt like if she even breathed too loud, she'd shatter the silence and the house would come crumbling down.

Her soft soled shoes didn't make a sound against the floor as she continued on. She flinched so loud when she tripped over a piece of plywood, before filling with relief when the home stayed intact.

Broken pieces of wood and glass covered the floor. Unfamiliar wallpaper was cracked and ripped, falling off the walls and ready to be pulled off.

Rose wasn't entirely sure where she wanted to go, till she stopped in the hallway that led into the living room. The hallway where she found her mother's body.

She froze, facing the wall, remembering the blood that pooled the wooden floors and the blood covered the wall like paint.

Suddenly, Rose didn't feel like she was alone. She took a breath and decided to go against logic and indulge in her hopes above all hopes.

"Mommy?" Her whisper cut in the darkness. "Mommy, I-" Her words disappeared when she noticed a peeling strip of wallpaper. She pulled a strip down and covered her mouth with her hand when a very faded red mark began to appear. "I'm so sorry." Tears streamed down her face, catching on her hand.

A floorboard creaked from behind her and she jumped, spinning around. Her flashlight from her phone spun around too fast and she couldn't register anything she'd just seen.

Rose brought her phone up just in time to see a man in black lunge at her, pushing her against the wall. She let out a startled scream as he pinned her in.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I will," The man emphasized the words and towered even closer to her then, "if you don't answer my questions."

Rose's wide eyes betrayed how terrified she was and the weight of him on her caused her to struggle to breath.

"And it doesn't matter if you scream. You saw the area when you came in. There is no one around," he finished his threats.

She didn't speak, searching the black abyss of mask for… she didn't even know what.

The man loosened his grip ever so slightly as he began questioning her. "Who do you work for?"

Rose swallowed loudly and tried to answer with, "The New York B-B-Bull-"

"Wrong," He cut her off immediately, in a venomous voice, "I know when you're lying. Try again."

"I-I-I..." Bentley's face flashed acrossed her mind as she tried to answer. What Rose did next surprised the man in black and her both. Instead of finishing her sentence, she headbutted him in the face.

A soft grunt escaped him and he took a step back, enough for Rose to make a break for it. But second her forehead collided with him, intense pain exploded across her face and stars erupted her vision. She ran blindly, blinking hard to try to regain her vision. And then she realized she dropped her phone somewhere and it was literally pitch black.

But it wasn't long till Rose was on the floor. She didn't know whether because of her own two feet or from the man who was attacking her, for he was on top of her in an instant. He flipped her to her back and pinned her arms and legs against the floor with his own.

It took a moment for a gasp of pain to escape her, as something sharp had lodged in her shoulder when she fell. The pressure of him on her arms didn't relieve that pain one bit.

"Tell me now," He hissed in her face, and she finally finished her sentence from earlier. "Who do you work for?"

"I-I-I can't. I can't, please. Ple-please..."

"Bentley Bryant, that's your brother, right?" There was a taunt in his voice and as soon as her brother's name was out his lips, she began thrashing around.

"That's not part of the deal!" The words escaped her mouth before she could even think about them. "If you hurt him, I will kill you."

"What. Deal."

Rose let out a frustrated scream. "I. Can't. Say."

Suddenly, the man loosened the grip on her. "Are they threatening him? Are they threatening your brother?"

"I… can't, please," the anger she had in her voice, in her body just a moment ago left her.

His fight seemed to have left him too and he mumbled, "I'm so sorry, Rose."

In an instant, he released her, and she laid alone, a bloody and bruised mess, in the middle of the hall of her old childhood home.

It took a while for Rose to push herself off the floor, wincing in pain all the way. She quickly searched the floor for her phone and once she retrieved it, she stumbled back to apartment as quickly as possible.

Rose stood in her bathroom, gearing to get in the shower to wash off all the blood that was drying on her skin, but a nail was jammed in her shoulder. A cry escaped her as she realized she'd have to pull it out herself, that she could tell nobody what happened.

The next seven hours of Rose's life were worse than any torture 'they' had over put her through, or the man in black did to her just eight hours before.

After she pulled out the nail, she found it impossible to take a shower due to the more blood that followed. Rose succumbed to sitting on her couch in a board-straight position and using a once white towel to put pressure on it.

In the morning, even the slightest movement caused it to bleed, and truthfully, all the baidaids she had had Frozen or Scooby Doo characters on them. Rose didn't have the slightest idea how she would get through the day, but the day had to get started.

So, she layered up. Despite the 80-some degree weather, she wore a black blouse and a scarf to cover up the bruises that now adorned her neck. She hoped if the blood bled through the bandaids again, it wouldn't be noticeable in a dark shirt.

Tears dripped down her face all morning, any hope she had was non existent but she couldn't give up for Bentley. It was slightly one of the reasons that made her give up covering the deep bruise that was forming on her face from headbutting the man. However what ultimately made her give up was the fact it refused to be covered.

She couldn't even say, 'You should see the other guy.'

Rose had never felt more miserable in her life.

After covering up as much as she could, she slowly left her apartment building for the walk to the Bulletin. It seemed impossible that just yesterday she was seeing Matt for the very first time in about 16 years. If Rose was to see him, at least he wouldn't say anything about her appearance.

And Rose was to see him. And was terribly, terribly wrong about her assumption he wouldn't notice she'd gotten the crap beaten out of her.

He was on way to work as she was and called her name from behind.

The voice words out of his mouth were, "What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Rose asked in a tired voice. She couldn't even comprehend that he could possibly know in that moment.

"I'm blind, not stupid," Matt chided her and she sighed, just wanting to get to work.

She didn't feel like anyone cared enough about her there to ask her what happened.

"I just tripped, banged up my shoulder pretty bad," Rose tried to answer, but he wouldn't take it.

"You're still bleeding."

"I landed on nail."

"You've been crying." His tone was gentle, but Rose was losing all patience.

"How do you even know that?" she snapped, an edge of irritation crept in her voice.

Matt didn't answer her question, but asked another one of his own, "Why didn't you go to the hospital?"

"You first," she shot back, but he didn't answer.

The fact that both of them were hiding something was loud in that moment.

"I might have had help in the tripping..." Rose finally said, and she realized her pain was uncontrollably coming out in her voice.

He didn't anymore about it, but gave up something about himself instead. "After the accident, I woke up, and I couldn't see anymore, but yet… I could see better than I did in my entire life."

Rose's shoulder throbbed and all she wanted to do was collapse to the ground and sleep (or cry) for a week, but she replied, "What do you mean?"

"When you have a disability like this, sometimes other things rise up to take it's place," he answered, but Rose didn't say anything more.

"C'mon, my apartment is only down the block," Matt said, placing a gentle hand on the shoulder that didn't previously have a nail in it.

"I have to get to work," Rose mumbled out, and Matt let out a hard laugh.

"You don't think the first place they'll make you go is a hospital, which you seem to be to venomously against? I don't know what you look like, but you smell like the walking dead."

"Thanks, Matt. I appreciate that," Rose deadpanned, before sighing, "Take me away."

Matt felt like if Rose wasn't in so much pain, she probably would have noticed the guilt written on every itch of his body. He had no idea she wouldn't be able to bandage herself up probably, though in hindsight, it was probably something he should have realized.

He could feel the heat of infection radiating off her shoulder and the taste of blood on his tongue. Not to mention the water down salty smell of tears dried on her face.

Daredevil should have never visited Rose. Ever. But terror filled him at the thought she was hiding something, something that obviously pertained to him as her heartbeat ratted her out as they spoke.

Matt said once he enjoyed it, hurting people, and the pain he felt radiating off of her, that he inflicted on her, put him in check. If it wasn't a friend of his he hurt last night, he wouldn't be feeling the same way this morning, but the fact it was made him realize he was losing himself to the Devil. He couldn't do that.

He made Rose sit on his coffee table and she pulled off her layers, till she sat there in just her bra and jeans. Matt had already pulled out his trusted first aid kit and pulled out the things he needed.

"I don't understand how you can do this," Rose said as he cleaned off the wound with alcohol and a towel. "Did you mean earlier, that some senses were heightened because of your blindness?" Her voice was as loud as she could muster, which wasn't above much more than a whisper.

Matt knew he shouldn't answer the question honestly, but guilt caused his head to ache. He couldn't talk this way through this right now and this was when she was asking these questions. And not talking about it was starting to build up in him.

"Try all the other senses. Smell, taste, hearing, touch..." He admitted in a voice not much louder than hers. Matt was quiet a moment, and so was she, before he finally told her, "It's going to need stitches. I can do that, but really, Rose, I'm not sure how you thought could patch this up with cheap bandaids."

"They weren't cheap. I paid extra for the Scooby Doo and Frozen ones..." Rose muttered, though absentmindedly, but then her breath caught, "How can you do stitches?"

"I did them on my dad all time. That's why… you weren't allowed to be there when he came home from a match," Matt answered, then hesitated before continuing with, "The h-heighten senses help a lot, too. I can feel the infection forming on this wound."

Rose suddenly stiffened under his hands, her heart palpitating into over time. "I don't want to know anymore."

Matt couldn't help but to be hurt at her harsh tone. His hands fell away from her back. "Do I freak you out?" His heart ached slightly, he just seemed like a mess of bad decisions lately. He should have never told her about this, especially since somebody was threatening her brother and she couldn't tell anybody. But he just wanted to tell somebody… and he realized that hurting her last night was all in vain for what Matt told her today.

"No, no, Matty..." Rose sighed softly, "If I wasn't in so much pain, so get back at it buddy, I'd hug you right now. Do I even want to why you have supplies for stitches in your first aid?"

This whole situation felt slightly dangerous. Both of them were avoiding questions and he was positive both of them knew it.

"The only person I've ever told what it's really like is Foggy, but he doesn't even know I can do this, and I'd like for it to stay that way," Matt finally said, and though his fingers began to stitch up her back, he couldn't breath as he listened for her response.

"I don't think I could ever do that..." Rose whispered and he felt her breath catch under his fingers. Her heartbeat had been elevated since before Matt called out her name earlier in the morning. He was sure that was due to the pain she was in.

Matt wouldn't let himself feel relief, but he was pretty sure she believed, at least in this moment, she'd never tell anybody.

Matt stitched her up (seriously, she could barely believe it) and gave her some meds to help with infection. She stopped questioning him about why he had certain things. Before she left, she sprayed some body spray she had in her purse, causing Matt to nearly gag in response.

Rose forget herself and laughed at his face. "Is this not better than 'walking dead'?"

"I will be smelling this for weeks," Matt grumbled, causing her to pull him in a tight hug as a way of thanks before letting herself out.

However Rose was now almost two hours late to work. She left a quick message for Ellison, deciding to tell him she got mugged, and decided to just head out to the playground to finish her stupid article about the creation of it, and luckily for her, it was the grand opening. So way more people were there than she intended. If she got back to the office and quickly wrote about it, maybe she could go home early…

As Rose geared up to interview some parents and kids, she just watched the festivities going on. There was a balloon stand and face painting. Screams of laughter filled the air and she found herself jealous of the innocence of all the people in this park.

She didn't even know what she was anymore, just that she wasn't innocent. And neither was Matt. They were both ghosts of the person they once were.

And then her phone vibrated in her pocket, alerting her of a text.

Third bench to your right. Time to debrief.

Another text was sent while she was reading the previous one.

You better have something.

One more text appeared, turning Rose's blood cold.

If you don't hold up, our end with Bentley doesn't either.

Rose looked up and to the third bench on the right. A women in a black pencil skirt and a white blouse sat alone with her legs tightly crossed. Her heels were so pointy Rose was certain they could be used as a weapon.

Rose was not so certain she could keep her promise to Matt.

All right, guys! I come with a second chapter and a more developed story! While it's based in mid season one, after researching the story of Daredevil (I haven't unfortunately read any of the comics- where do I even start!?), I'm going to say I'm adding an extra supervillian to the mix. Hope that pikes your interest… any guesses? ;) Tell me what you thought of this chapter pretty pretty please! xx Anna :)