"Tacos? Really?" Kilgrave asked in distaste.
Pausing, I glanced up from the bags of food and shot him a look that had him snapping his mouth shut and immediately quieting. I resumed pulling the containers of food out of the bags and placing them on the table.
"I like tacos," I told him as I worked. "And they were made somewhere far, far away from you and these people I'm not entirely convinced you haven't compelled to be here. You didn't order the food," I continued as I turned to sit at the complete opposite side of the table from him. "You didn't accept it from the delivery person. And you didn't plate anything. And ," I said with emphasis as I grabbed the to-go cup in front of me, "you didn't touch my goddamn horchata ."
He eyed me curiously from the other end of the table for a moment, his eyes looking slightly pinched in irritation. Eventually his gaze lowered and he began slowly unwrapping his tacos. The corner of his mouth partially tugged downwards in revulsion at the food before him.
"You've certainly gotten a mouth on you since we were together," he mused, poking suspiciously at the container of rice and beans in front of him with a spoon.
I rolled my eyes at him before taking a bite of my own taco. It seemed safe enough to eat this food with all the precautions I had taken, and admittedly I was starving. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd eaten at this point.
"You know, I appreciate that you care enough about me to not let me get blown up," he told me after a moment.
I rolled my eyes, chewing my taco and keeping my eyes on my plate. Swallowing the bite of food, I grabbed my drink and took a sip before I answered him.
"Don't flatter yourself. I care more about Hank, Laurent, and Alva," I replied stiffly. "If you didn't have a whole damn house full of innocent people I'd never have warned you."
"Hmmm, I don't believe that," he replied.
I glanced up from my food and glared at him and the stupid smug smile on his face. Anger burned in me as I watched him finally take a bite of his taco.
"Are you kidding me?" I snapped at him. "You killed an innocent bystander last night. Or did you already forget about him?"
Kilgrave balked at my words, offense written all over his features. "I didn't kill anyone, first off," he pointed out. "Secondly, he was an annoying, droll, sniveling man child." When I made a noise of contempt he ignored me and continued. "And thirdly, he said he was… in love with you." He paused to let out a short, bitter laugh. "I mean can you even imagine? In love with you? Him ? No one else is good enough for you, little dove, but me." His eyes grew dangerously dark as he spoke. "I mean it. We share a similar pain–a similar past. You were meant for me ." He shook his head, the dark mood passing; but his words lingered in the air, making my skin crawl. "I mean, I would be hard pressed not to kill any man who thinks he can have you, let alone look at you."
Matt's handsome face flashed through my mind; his soft, warm eyes, crinkled at the corners as he smiled down at me affectionately with that lone dimple that only ever seemed to form on his right cheek.
"You don't have the right to do that, nor a claim on me," I growled back at him, internally seething at how his jealousy had kept me from the one person who had ever made me happy. "I'm a person not an object for you to possess."
Kilgrave's hands clasped over his plate as he calmly chewed his food. His head cocked to the side as he scrutinized me from across the table, scanning the way my shoulders had tensed and the anger that had flashed across my face.
"Careful, little dove," he said slowly, dangerously, "or I might think there's someone I should be concerned with."
My heart hammered in my chest, sweat slicking the hand I was holding a spoonful of rice in. Matt's face still reflected in my mind, but the danger of Kilgrave's threat loomed heavy in the air.
I tried my best to keep my voice even and steady as I said, "Who would want a freak like me?" I attempted to make my self-loathing sound believable. "With my weird eyes and strange parlor tricks?"
"Do not speak about yourself like that !" he roared suddenly, hands slamming down hard against the table as he suddenly rose to his feet.
I jumped in surprise at his outburst, dropping the spoon to my plate and sitting back into the chair, my body going rigid. He was breathing heavily, rage burning in his eyes as he stared across the table at me. I swallowed hard, taken off balance by his explosive reaction. He began to run a hand down his face and then through his hair, visibly trying to calm down.
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to yell or startle you. I just…I don't appreciate you speaking about yourself like that, Olivia. You know that."
I nodded obediently, momentarily slipping back into the fear I used to have of him before he'd drugged me, back when I'd wanted to run away. When the angry outbursts had first started and I had witnessed him do terrible, terrible things. The memory of a chef slicing off of his ear raced through my mind, the screams of pain echoing fresh in my head even now.
"Please," he begged, his voice pulling me back to the present. All traces of anger long gone now as he continued, "please forgive me. I don't want you to be afraid of me–I never want you to be afraid of me."
I licked my lips, pulse still racing hard, as I glanced down back at my plate of food. I repeated the mantra of names through my mind, holding the nameless faces of so many others close as well. I had to be strong and do this for them.
Cautiously, I leaned forward and very hesitantly I resumed eating in silence. I wasn't sure of what to make of his apology; he'd never said he was sorry to me in the almost two years we'd been together. Now he'd genuinely apologized twice in one day.
He lowered back into his chair and began to eat again as well. Silence fell amongst the table. I couldn't see where Alva and Laurent had disappeared to, or even where Hank had gone for that matter. As far as my eye could see, all the way towards the living room just past the kitchen, we were alone. Briefly my eyes darted down to a butter knife across the table.
"So what is it you went to school for?" Kilgrave asked, drawing my attention back to him. "I know you'd gone to university; what did you study? What was your degree?"
I chewed my food thoroughly, not wanting to answer his question but also aware that making pleasant conversation would help me to eventually pry for some answers without him being suspicious.
"Computer science," I told him quietly, my nerves still on edge.
He made a noise of surprise. "I'd have thought maybe you'd go for something like nursing, with the way you care so much. What is it you do for work? You do work, right?"
"I work for a company building apps for data management," I answered reflexively.
Kilgrave made a face. "That sounds rather boring. Do you enjoy it? Working?"
"It's…enjoyable some days, yes," I answered. I paused, trying to find a way to bring up his parents. "You've never worked, have you?" I asked casually, feigning interest into my voice.
"Mmm, no, no need to, really," he said, raising his arms wide and barking out a laugh. "I'm already rich. Whatever I want I can just take."
"What about…" I swallowed hard, picking up my drink and trying to play the question off as pure curiosity, "your parents? Weren't they scientists? Never had an interest in that? In what they did to you?"
I could feel the hard glare on me the moment the words left my mouth and I focused on taking a drink without choking on the liquid. I knew Kilgrave loathed his parents for what they did to him, but I needed something, some way to find out who they were or what they may have done to him.
"You know I hate my parents," he answered, his voice a quiet, deadly snarl.
"You're right, I'm sorry," I told him, waving a dismissive hand as I set my drink back on the table, hoping he didn't notice how my hands shook. "Forget I mentioned them. It's been so long, I just thought maybe…"
"Maybe what?" he questioned, eyes narrowed dangerously as he watched me.
I swallowed hard, my mouth going dry despite the drink I'd just had. "Maybe you'd want to tell me about it? What happened?" I asked him carefully, turning towards him a little in my seat. He continued to stare me down, his mouth a thin line, and I quickly tried to find a way into this topic. "You know I didn't know my parents," I spat out suddenly. "And after…after what I went through…I can't imagine how your parents did what they did to you. In all my time I've been out on my own in the world, I've never met anyone with a similar past."
Kilgrave's expression abruptly smoothed out at my words. The way his mood could shift so rapidly always kept me on edge; he was like a ticking time bomb–one wrong move and he'd lose it.
"Because we're alike, little dove. I've told you that many times," he said sweetly.
"You've…you've never told me before, but what…did your parents do, exactly?" I asked him nervously.
"They experimented on me," he answered simply. "Just as you had done to you."
"With the…the same thing I was being injected with?" I pushed.
He sat upright in his chair, sliding his plate forward before clasping his hands on the table yet again. "Are you curious about your past, Olivia? Did you come to me for answers?"
My heart quickened at his words. Did he know what they'd been doing to me? Why they had been doing it? The thought had never crossed my mind before, but it seemed quite likely that he'd have read up on it before he supposedly erased me from The Facility's system.
"No, little dove, we were not injected with the same thing. Albert and Louise ," he said, spitting out the names that must have been his parents–progress, since I'd never heard them before, "injected me with a virus. Repeatedly. What you were injected with was something called MGA, which was meant to be an amplifier. It stood for–" he abruptly stopped, his head tilting to the side. "You know what? Maybe this isn't an appropriate dinner conversation. I wanted this to be an enjoyable evening, let's not spoil it, shall we?"
"What is MGA?" I shot out quickly, suddenly desperate to know more.
He'd already told me more in that brief sentence than I'd ever heard before. MGA was an amplifier? Of what? For what? And why ?
Kilgrave's eyebrows rose high onto his forehead. "Curious are we? Maybe another time we can discuss it. For now, let's focus on our…meal."
The racing train of thoughts in my mind suddenly derailed at his words. I frowned, finding myself angry and frustrated at his intentional withholding of information about me.
"I'm not hungry anymore," I told him, pushing away my plate of food.
"Oh come on now, Olivia," he drawled. "Let's not let our past spoil the night."
"What are you even expecting is going to happen from this?" I asked him suddenly, glaring at him from across the table. "You buy a house, give me an engagement ring–-all after killing an innocent man, by the way. Now I'm trapped here with no cell phone. What are you thinking is going to happen?"
"You're not trapped," he countered. "And I'm hoping you'll see I'm not all bad."
"After you force me to choose you, right?" I shot back.
He grinned humorlessly. "You really do have a knack for destroying the poetry of the heart, don't you?"
I slid my chair back, rising to my feet. "I'm full and I'm tired. I'm going to bed."
I exited the dining room, thankful he didn't protest behind me as I made my way towards the staircase and back up to my room. I made sure to lock the door behind me before falling back into the bed, muffling a scream into the pillow.
By the time I finally made it down from my room, it was mid-morning. I wasn't hungry, the only thing that sounded good was a coffee but I sure as hell wasn't about to trust anything in this house. I'd have to wait for when I ordered lunch later.
When I made it down the stairs, to my right I saw Kilgrave slumped on the sofa in the living room and looking rather bored and frustrated. With a resigned sigh, I headed into the room with him. Once he noticed I was there, he quickly sat up straight on the couch, trying hard to look like he hadn't been bored and waiting for me to appear. I sat on the far opposite end, my eyes on the breaking news story he'd been blankly watching.
"How'd you sleep?" he asked conversationally.
"As well as someone trapped by an ex can," I shot back.
He let out an unamused snort. I continued to focus on the unfolding story; apparently a man was holding his wife and his children hostage in their house. For a moment I was lost in thought; I could feel his eyes boring into the side of my head.
"You told me a long time ago your parents left you," I said suddenly. I could see him stiffen out of the corner of my eye at the topic. "You were ten, right?" I asked, turning towards him.
He was watching me carefully. "Yes. They spent years experimenting on me, and then one day they disappeared. From their promising careers at the university and their son."
"Do you…" I began, trying to formulate the thought into a question. "Have you done the things you do because…you were never taught to do good?"
His eyes narrowed and he frowned. "Are you making fun of my childhood, Olivia?"
"No," I answered him quickly, knowing that the use of my actual name was probably a bad sign. "I just…is that it? You don't actually know right from wrong, do you?"
"Well somehow you managed to learn it on your own," he mused. "Despite your unconventional upbringing."
My attention turned back to the television, watching as the story continued to be covered by the news. There were multiple police cars surrounding the house, their lights flashing on the screen. So many innocent onlookers had gathered farther back beside the news crews. A thought struck me suddenly.
"Get your coat, we're going for a drive," I told him, standing up.
"What?" he asked curiously, leaning forward on the couch. "Do you have a destination in mind?"
"Yes," I answered simply.
He thought for a moment before asking, "How long will it take?"
"I don't know, two hours?" I guessed, annoyed at his questions.
"Alva! Laurent!" he called, sliding off of the couch. The two appeared in the living room immediately. "If I'm not back in two hours," he told them, "please remove the skin from each other's faces."
I watched the pair exchange terrified looks, my own jaw dropping in disbelief. I darted forward after Kilgrave, anger rising in me as I jumped in front of his path, stopping him in place.
"What the hell?" I snapped. "No, you don't do that. Rule number one–stop making people hurt themselves."
He paused, staring strangely at me. "Rule number one of what?" he asked.
"Of learning right from wrong," I fired back testily.
"If I don't, how else am I to be sure that wherever you're taking me won't end up in me being killed?" he shot back, eyes narrowing. "Your sense of duty to protect them ensures you won't hurt me." He shrugged. "It's common sense."
"No," I said, shaking my head quickly. "No, you take that command back right fucking now. You want me to teach you the difference between right and wrong? That ," I said, harshly pointing a finger behind me towards the pair, "is wrong . You want to work on trust between us? Trust that I'm not luring you into a trap. Undo the command."
"And I'm just supposed to believe that you're not going to hurt me?" he asked skeptically. "With no insurance in place?"
"That's what normal fucking people do, yes ," I ground out. "Stop giving those sorts of commands."
"Fine!" he growled. He glanced behind me at Laurent and Alva as he spoke next. "Forget what I said, no need to harm yourselves if I don't return in two hours."
I heard the sounds of relief from behind me and I smiled, a genuine smile, glad they were not under his control. The sight caused Kilgrave to smile in return.
"You're beautiful when you smile, little dove," he whispered.
My lips dropped instantly into a deep frown and I headed to the coat closet, pulling it open and grabbing my leather jacket.
"Whatever, let's go," I said roughly as I shoved my arms into the sleeves.
I had given Hank the address of where I'd wanted him to take us. It had taken thirty minutes for us to arrive because of the accumulated traffic. The entire way we sat in near silence as I stared out of the window. When we finally pulled up to the scene, police cars and ambulances were everywhere; news crews and crowds of people looking on were filling in just beyond the emergency vehicles.
"You want me to do the hero thing," Kilgrave said when he realized where we were.
"Yup," I answered simply.
I climbed out of the back of the car, hearing Kilgrave tell Hank to stay before following out after me. I began maneuvering through the crowd of people, surveilling the house as I walked. Figuring the best course of action was to sneak around back, I started heading in a big loop towards the backyard with Kilgrave following along behind me.
"I don't want to do this," he complained loudly. "I don't want the attention it's going to bring me."
"Well I'm going," I told him, throwing my voice over my shoulder towards him as I moved. "So you can either come with and learn about doing what's right, or you can stay back and be a chicken shit."
He growled in annoyance but continued to follow me silently. Once we neared the backyard, we were met with a pair of police officers standing guard by the fence. When they spotted us, confused looks crossed their faces and they immediately tensed and headed towards us, their hands resting on top of the guns at their waist.
"Hey, you can't be back here!" one of them shouted, trying to usher us back.
I shot Kilgrave a pointed look over my shoulder before raising my brows and gesturing my head towards the officers. He rolled his eyes, sighing dramatically before he focused on the police.
"We can go wherever we like. Move along. And forget we were here," he commanded, clearly annoyed.
The officers stepped aside immediately, walking away from the fenced in yard as if we didn't exist. I continued forward, unlocking the latch on the gate before opening it and stepping inside the yard. I took a brief moment to examine the space, making sure there were no threats outside. There were kid's toys scattered across the unkempt lawn and an upturned picnic table lying near the house, but otherwise there was nothing of interest. Continuing on, I reached the back door with Kilgrave, but when I tried to turn the handle I found it was locked.
"Well that's that then," Kilgrave said brusquely. "Come along then, let's go home."
I shot him a pointed look over my shoulder, effectively quieting him yet again. Closing my eyes, I focused, feeling the vibration beginning behind my eyes and between my temples. When I reopened them, I was met with Kilgrave's gleaming smile.
"Letting Wraith out to play?" he asked, excitement in his tone. "Maybe this will be fun after all."
"Shut up," I shot back.
My attention returned to the door as I raised a hand. I felt the pulse of energy fly out of me as the door burst open, the door handle breaking clean off onto the ground. I stepped inside, shouldering the door out of my way as I moved. I could hear screaming and crying in a room over and I headed in that direction. We passed through a small, dirty kitchen before standing in the entrance to the living room. My eyes quickly took in the scene; one man with a shotgun was standing a few feet from a woman on a dilapidated couch, holding her children against herself as all three of them were sobbing.
At my abrupt and unexpected entrance, the man with the shotgun suddenly whipped his head in our direction, his eyes wide and terrified as he pointed the gun directly at me.
"Don't move and don't shoot!" Kilgrave quickly called out forcefully at the man before he could shoot me.
Without time to waste, I made my way over to the woman huddling on the couch with her children. I tried to move slowly, hands raised to show I meant no harm. She continued to stare at me warily, tears pouring down her cheeks as she clutched her children tighter the closer I got to them.
"I'm not here to hurt you," I told them gently as I crouched down, aware that my white eyes would be startling. "Can you move?" The woman nodded quickly, grabbing her children tighter in her arms. "There's police and ambulances outside. Go out the back door. Now."
She got up, still eyeing me uncomfortably as she shepherded her children through the living room. The man with the shotgun shouted at her but she ignored him, only pausing in front of Kilgrave for a moment.
"Thank you," she told him softly.
I watched as an unreadable expression briefly washed over his face before he leaned in and told her, "Don't tell anyone you saw us here."
She nodded and then ran off after her kids. Kilgrave's attention quickly turned to the man with the gun, his face darkening.
"Now that that's out of the way–put the barrel of the gun into your mouth," he commanded sharply.
I frowned, rising from where I'd been crouching by the couch and headed back over to Kilgrave's side. The man did as he'd been ordered as I walked, sobbing and choking as he stuffed the large barrel of the shotgun into his mouth.
"No, you can't kill him," I told Kilgrave firmly.
He scoffed, blanching at my words. "Why not? He was about to kill his own wife and kids. Seems a fair punishment he kills himself instead."
My brows furrowed at his words as I shook my head. "No, that's not how this works, Kilgrave," I explained to him. "You don't play judge, jury, and executioner. There's law enforcement for a reason. He needs to be arrested. Dealt with through the proper channels."
"But he could just kill himself," Kilgrave argued back, waving a hand towards the man. "He's clearly insane, he'll never be a productive member of society."
"And that's not for you to decide," I shot back.
Kilgrave crossed his arms, turning his attention on the man still gagging on the barrel of the gun in his mouth. "So he goes to prison and feeds off the tit of the tax payer?"
I rolled my eyes. "You've never paid a goddamn tax in your life. You don't give a damn about that."
He paused for a moment before he shrugged. "Fine. Fair enough. So what would Olivia do? What would Wraith do?"
"Don't call me that," I shot back instinctively. "And I would make him turn himself over to the police. That's the right thing to do. Let the law deal with him, not you. Not me."
Kilgrave chuckled, eyeing the man still gagging on the gun. "Yeah…a shotgun is too messy anyway." He paused for a moment, watching the man's misery and quite obviously enjoying it. Eventually he sighed, his arms dropping to his sides as his hands made their way back into his pockets. "Put the gun down and turn yourself over to the police."
Near tears, the man pulled the gun from his mouth and tossed it onto the floor. He started to walk off before Kilgrave called after him, "Don't tell anyone about us!"
Kilgrave huffed, shifting on his feet as he turned back to me, his hands still in his pockets. He looked bored.
"That was a waste of energy," he muttered.
I frowned at him, my eyes narrowing. "Was it?" I snapped. "Because from where I'm standing, I just watched you save four lives right now. Doing the right thing."
Frustrated, I turned on my heel and headed through the living room and out of the house, back the way we'd broken in. I felt the energy vibrating behind my eyes finally dissipate from me as I walked.
The entire drive back to the house, Kilgrave wouldn't stop buzzing with excitement. I tried to ignore him, choosing to stare out of the window deep in thought. The moment we got back to the house, Kilgrave burst through the front door loudly.
"I want cake!" he shouted, pulling his jacket off and tossing it to Alva. "Chocolate. With strawberries on top," he said to Laurent.
I frowned, pausing just past the doorway and rubbing a hand against my forehead. A headache had begun to grow over the length of the car ride as I'd been thinking.
"The look on that woman's face ," Kilgrave said, collapsing onto the sofa in the living room. "It was filled with awe and gratitude for me ." He beamed up at me. "Is that why you do the good thing? Maybe we should do the whole superhero thing. You and me, working together." He leant forward on the couch excitedly, still on a tangent. "How many lives do you think I'd have to save to get back to zero–on the whole morality spectrum? You know, to make up for the things I've done?"
"That's not how it works," I answered him, feeling worn out. "Saving one person does not unkill someone else."
Kilgrave paused, glancing to the ceiling in thought for a moment. He shrugged a few seconds later as his eyes returned to where I stood near the front door.
"I suppose that's true. But we should do this more often," he continued, the energy back in his voice. "Think of all the people we could save; all the crimes we could stop. We'd be a hell of a dynamic duo."
"You don't need me to do that yourself," I countered.
Kilgrave snorted, leaning to rest his arm on the back of the couch, relaxing a little. "Are you kidding me? I genuinely thought that having that man blow his brains out was the right thing to do. I can't be a hero without you."
His words struck me hard, hitting a nerve as he echoed what had been racing through my mind on that half hour drive back. My eyes clamped shut as I turned, trying to catch my breath that was suddenly coming in faster.
Kilgrave could be a hero, couldn't he? He could tell anyone to do anything. He could stop so many crimes. He could solve world peace. World hunger. Global warming. Poverty. All just with his voice. No one would need to be hurt.
But he wouldn't know how to do that without…without me chaining myself to him for forever. He truly couldn't tell right from wrong; maybe he couldn't even be taught.
"You and I could change the world," Kilgrave continued, voicing the thought that was running through my own mind. He rose from the couch and made his way towards me, leaning against the wall opposite me. He smiled warmly at me as he said, "I'd have a whole new purpose in life. With you by my side."
I could feel my knees shaking at his words and I swallowed hard. I needed air. I couldn't breathe. I needed out .
I turned and made my way towards the still open front door, but Kilgrave jumped in front of me, blocking me with an outstretched arm across the exit. His expression immediately darkened.
"Where are you going?" he asked quickly.
"I need to take a walk," I told him, my brain racing and my breathing heavy. "I need to think."
"I thought…this is what you wanted?" he asked me carefully.
"It's just a walk," I shot back angrily.
His eyes narrowed at me. "I hope so," he said before slowly lowering his arm. "I don't think Alva and Laurent could survive the letdown if you didn't come back," he growled the threat at me.
I frowned at him. "I came here of my own free will, trust that I'll come back," I barked in reply.
I darted out of the front door and down the walkway before he could stop me, my legs moving fast despite how weak they suddenly felt. I was genuinely surprised when he didn't even call after me. When I was a few blocks away, I stopped a couple and asked for directions.
Eventually I managed to grab a cab and ride back to Hell's Kitchen, back to my apartment building. I knew I didn't have long before Kilgrave got suspicious and I just hoped he was home.
I found myself pounding on Matt's door frantically in the late afternoon. I was practically praying he wasn't working late tonight because I desperately needed him to talk me out of what I was thinking.
A sigh of relief flew out of me when the door abruptly flew open to reveal Matt. His hair was a little disheveled, his tie was askew and partially undone, and the shirt sleeves of his blue dress shirt were rolled up to his elbows. His eyebrows rose as he took in my presence in front of him.
"Olivia?" he breathed out, his unseeing eyes seemingly scanning every inch of my face before darting down the rest of my body. "Your heart is racing and your temperature is slightly spiked. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
I shook my head, knowing he couldn't see the gesture. "No, he hasn't touched me. Hasn't hurt anyone. I got out for just a bit. I don't have long I just…I need–need to…"
"Hey, come here," he said gently, reaching out and pulling me into him.
I curled up against his chest, my eyes closing. Inhaling deeply and wrapping my arms around him, I smelled the warm scent of cedar and clove against his shoulder. It was comforting after being trapped with Kilgrave for over a day.
With one hand wrapped around me, he used his other to shut the apartment door before leading me carefully over towards his couch. Faintly I noted this was the first time I'd been in his place, but I was too preoccupied to pay much attention to that.
He pulled me gently onto the couch beside him and I immediately curled up into his side, burying my face in his shoulder and grasping my hands into the fabric at his chest. He smelled good and the warmth of his arms around me was the only thing I wanted right now.
"Did you see the news today?" I asked him, my voice muffled against his shirt. "The man who held his family hostage?"
"I heard about that from Karen, yeah," he said with a tight voice. His arms gripped me tighter. "He did that?"
"No," I answered quickly. "We saw it on the news. I…made him take us there."
His grip loosened and I felt him shift, looking down at me. "That was you? Who saved the mother and her kids?" he asked softly.
I nodded against him. "I made Kilgrave save them. I never…never really realized before but he truly doesn't understand right from wrong."
Matt huffed out a noise of doubt at my words. I pulled my head from his shoulder and glanced up at him.
"No, I'm being serious," I told him. "Kilgrave's parents supposedly experimented on him. Injected him repeatedly with a virus when he was young. For whatever reason, probably because of his abilities, his parents abandoned him when he was only ten. He forced people to feed and shelter him with his powers as he grew up. I mean think about it–he had no one. His parents, the people who are supposed to love you unconditionally, hurt him and abandoned him. He's been alone his whole life. He doesn't understand relationships or connection–but I think he can maybe be guided to do the right thing."
"What are you saying?" Matt asked cautiously.
I pulled away fully from Matt, drawing my legs up on his leather couch and sitting cross-legged beside him. Matt shifted, turning towards me more as his brows knitted together. His head tilted to the side, dipping down slightly towards me. I could feel how focused he was on me with the way my skin began to prickle.
"I came here to pose a hypothetical," I told him. "What would you do–Matthew Murdock, the lawyer and the vigilante, the one who sacrifices himself for the safety of the people of Hell's Kitchen–what would you do if you could harness Kilgrave's power for good?"
He was silent for a moment, his back straightening against the back of the couch. He ran a hand over his chin for a moment, the rasp of his stubble against his fingers the only noise for a long moment before he eventually spoke.
"How would I harness it?" he questioned. "Hypothetically."
"You'd have to be with him; teach him how to do good. Guide him," I said.
" Be with him?" Matt growled low immediately. "As in you'd have to…sleep with him? Let him touch you?"
I reached out and grabbed his hands in mine, gently squeezing them as I pulled them into my lap. His hands instantly turned and clamped around mine in response.
"No, not be with him in that way," I told him quickly. "Just…staying by his side."
"No," Matt snarled firmly. " No ."
"Think about it though," I said. "You could stop so much violence. So much crime. He could make someone choose not to commit murder or rape or a mugging or a robbery just by telling them not to. No one would even get hurt."
"That's not your responsibility, sweetheart," Matt murmured in response.
My eyes narrowed as I shook my head. "Yeah, it's not yours either but you risk your life almost nightly doing exactly that. Imagine if Kilgrave just needed to show up and tell everyone to forget about it and go home. No more crime. No more unnecessary death." My words sped up the more I continued. "And on a grander scale–he could maybe fix poverty, war, hunger, climate change. You could literally change the world for good. You'd just have to sacrifice having your own life." I paused, shifting on the couch awkwardly. "I mean…isn't that the right thing to do? Wouldn't it be worth trying to do that?"
Matt tightened his grip on my hands. "There's no guarantee he would do that," he told me firmly. "No guarantee you could even control him to do those things or that he wouldn't get bored of doing the right thing. And there's no guarantee that trying to solve larger scale issues like world peace wouldn't have negative consequences." He shook his head decidedly. "No, I wouldn't make that choice. You can't control Kilgrave. He's a person, not a tool. And good is ultimately subjective anyway."
He sighed, tugging me back towards him and I moved willingly, wrapping my arms around his waist and curling back into his side, reveling in the way his hand ran up and down my back soothingly.
"Your heart is in the right place, sweetheart," he told me. "But it's not realistic. It's not sustainable. It wouldn't work."
Sighing, I burrowed my face back into his shoulder, closing my eyes and seeking comfort from the feel of him again. "You're right," I admitted after a moment. "Thank you," I whispered into his shoulder.
"Does that mean you're going back to him?" Matt asked nervously.
"I have to," I told him reluctantly. "He has a chef and a maid supposedly on his payroll that he threatened to kill if I didn't come back."
The growl that tore out of Matt's chest caused the hair to raise on my arms. I lifted my head from his shoulder and saw his lips pulled back in a snarl. I tenderly grasped his face between my hands, turning him to look at me.
"Hey…hey, I got this," I promised him. "He trusts me for the moment." My eyes went wide with the realization of my words. "He… trusts me…"
"You said that," Matt told me.
"No," I replied, pulling back from him. "He trusts me. This is my chance. Shit–can I use your phone? I need to call Jess."
"What happened to your phone?" he asked curiously.
"Kilgrave took it so I couldn't plot against him," I told him off-handedly.
Matt slid his phone out of his pocket and handed it over to me. I dialed Jessica's number and held it up to my ear.
"What're you planning to do?" he asked curiously.
"Trick him," I told him, "then trap him."
Jessica answered on the fourth ring.
"Alias Investigations," she answered, her tone bored.
"Jess, it's me," I said into the phone.
"Olivia?" she asked quickly. "Who's phone are you on? Where's yours?"
"My friend Matt's. Kilgrave took mine," I spoke fast. "I don't have a lot of time before I need to get back to Kilgrave or he's going to hurt innocent people. I'll explain later. Do you still have some of that Sufentanil left?"
"Uh, yeah," she said.
"Can you get it to my apartment like…super fast?" I asked her hopefully.
"Sure, I can do that," she said.
"Can you get the hermetically sealed room ready in like…three hours?"
"Yeah, it's still ready from last time," she told me.
"We're trapping him. Tonight," I assured her. "And Jess?"
"Yeah?"
"His parents–find out whatever you can ASAP," I rushed out. "Albert and Louise Thompson. I never knew their first names, just his. I got it out of him last night. They worked at a British University. I have no clue which one, but it shouldn't be hard to find with their names, though. They used a virus on him. See if you can find a way to contact them, I'm getting an idea. I need to know what they did to him."
"Alright, well I'm on my way to you with the Sufentanil," she told me. "Fingers crossed this works."
"I fucking hope so," I said before ending the call.
I handed Matt his phone back, noticing the way he was staring in my direction anxiously.
"I want to help," he said firmly.
"No," I said, tone just as firm. "I need you to stay away. Let me deal with this." I reached out and wrapped my arms around his neck, dragging him into me so his head rested against my shoulder now. He wrapped his arms around my waist as I placed a kiss on his temple, a tentative smile spreading across my lips. "I think we might have him this time," I whispered into his hair.