i am leaving, i am leaving

“Hey, think what you want. But I’ll have you know I’m an expert on kids, and I know what I’m talking about.” He shrugged, but his tone was perfectly cheerful.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

He led Frost into Matt’s apartment building and up to his apartment. The second the door was closed, the questions started: “Look, it’s been twenty years and you still look like a kid. How?”

shediedonce

“A ninja cult that wants him dead,” Elektra deadpanned. It wasn’t like any level of detail would help him. If the Hand wanted to make themselves known to Jack, they would have. Just because they hadn’t, didn’t mean they weren’t around every corner.

#ooc #((the entire basis of this blog existing tbh))

“...you’re shitting me.” It was very, very clear that he didn’t buy that for a second. Jack’s ability to control his facial expression made Matt look like a master poker player in comparison. “C’mon, really?”

#shediedonce

poedameronxflyingace

any form of media: yeah this character’s parent(s) are dead

me: ok I see what you mean but what if…they weren’t…

Jack laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment. He turned out really well–I think a lot of that was you.”

He scoffed quietly in disagreement--not that Matt had turned out well, but that he had anything to do with that. He’d been gone for twenty years. Hadn’t done that much while he was alive except throw fights. If Matt turned out okay, that was on him.

shediedonce

“Matthew lies. A lot.” If she felt bad about breaking that to Matt’s father, Elektra sure didn’t show it. It was about time that Jack learned the truth about his son, probably. “He’s very secretive.”

Yeah, no shit. They were going to have to talk about that. Jack could understand why Matt wouldn’t tell him shit--didn’t want him to worry, didn’t want him to try and get involved in anything (he resented the thought, but knew it was probably true)--but this was officially Jack’s problem now, too. Which meant he had to know. “Who are they?” Maybe he had seen them around and just hadn’t realized.

#shediedonce

None of this could be real, but…she couldn’t stop crying. Couldn’t stop clinging to him. Smelling him. God, he smelt just like when she was a kid. She’d thought she’d forgotten.

“I love you…”

She could barely whisper out the words through her sobs, burying her face against his neck and shoulder. It had been the one thing she’d regretted never saying to him. Never telling him how much he’d meant…how he’d made her feel like she had a family. A father. All those years of regret.

He still didn’t know what to say. She sounded like hell. Not even Matt had reacted like this, and he’d cried up a storm. “I’ve got you,” he said again, a slight tremor entering his voice. “It’s okay. It’s okay now. I’m sorry, kiddo.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes weird is good, right?” he agreed, smiling as well. “Keeps you from getting bored, anyway.”

“You sound like Matt.” Jack would take some normal, honestly. He knew it wasn’t gonna happen, but he missed it.

shediedonce

“I know a lot of people who want him dead.” Was Jack really so clueless that he didn’t know how many people Matt had pissed off? Or had Matt lied about that, too? “Some of them can bring people back from the dead and twist their minds. Who send you?”

“Whoa, whoa. He didn’t say anything about that shit.” Jack was pretty sure Matt hadn’t told him everything. He was willing to put up with that, because he wasn’t sure he wanted all the answers. But that felt like something they should’ve discussed.

#shediedonce

Slowly, she started to turn, teeth gritting as she fought against the tightness in her throat and the sick feeling in her stomach. She’d missed him so much…but…all her fears, of how ashamed he would be if he knew everything…It was all suddenly real. And terrifyingly possible.

She was a child again, the second she looked at him up close. Lost. Alone. Heartbroken. And she was barely holding herself together as she reached out to him…to touch his face. And the moment her fingertips met his skin, a sob wrenched out of her, hot tears streaming down her cheeks.

She lurched forward, arms wrapping tight around him, gutteral sounds tearing out of her as she wept, for all the years she’d spent without him..without her mother, alone in the world. Missing them both.

Don’t let go…don’t leave me again….please…

“Hey, hey...” Jack wrapped his arms around her immediately. That look on her face had set him on age, and so was the crying, but he swallowed past it and hugged her tightly. Maybe that was all she needed...just had to cry it out. Matt had done that a few times when he was a kid. “It’s okay. It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’ve got you, hey...”

She turned her back on him. Tried to block out his voice as she frantically dialed for Matt.

It’s not real It’s not real It’s not real…

The second she heard the click and pause of him on the other line, her voice came out in a near keening wail.

“Matt!! Matt, I need you! Please, I’m not okay! He’s here, he’s…Jack’s here and he’s talking to me and…”

Silence, as Matt scrambled to explain.

“THIS ISN’T FUNNY!!! Fuck you, don’t fuck with me!! He’s dead! He’s not… real...”

She couldn’t keep herself on her feet, sinking down as Matt yelled over the receiver, to snap her out of the panicked stream of words, and explained. She dropped the phone, struggling to breathe and terrified to look behind her. To see him again…

“I’m Charlie,” she whispered, straining through tears. “I’m Charlie…”

Jack flinched at the sound of her voice. She was panicking. He didn’t do panic well, and he was so on-edge that her voice was drilling into his skull. At least she wasn’t attacking him. Eventually, she stopped talking. He could make out the sound of Matt’s voice on the other end of the phone, just barely.

We’re going to have to re-think that whole “don’t tell anyone” thing.

He risked stepping closer, just to see if she was okay. She wasn’t, but she’d stopped screaming and she wasn’t throwing punches, so he could work with that. He hoped he could work with that.

Charlie. I’m Charlie.

“Charlie...Mary’s girl?!” That was it. That was where he knew the eyes. She was a hell of a lot older now, short hair, fucking missing arm somehow, but now that he knew. “Jesus...I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you...” He crouched in front of her, a safe enough distance away that if she did start throwing punches, she wouldn’t hit him. She’d always been scrappy. “You got...you got big.”

Maybe she’d lost more blood than she thought…

She had to be seeing things. Had finally snapped and…saw the ghost of someone long dead. It had been happening more and more, hadn’t it? Her detachment from reality. Losing hours…days.

But the second he spoke, her grip on the bottle fumbled. The smell of vodka suddenly pungent as it spilled out over the floor.

The phone…Matt…She was slipping into a panic and she needed him…needed someone…real…

This couldn’t be real.

“You’re dead,” she breathed, side-stepping toward the table, trembling fingers struggling to grab the phone. She closed her eyes tight, andnstaggered back into the kitchen counter.

“You’re not real!”

Whoa, okay.

“I am...I am real?” He lowered his hands cautiously. “I’m...I was dead...do I know you?” He squinted at her in the low light. There really was something familiar about her face; it was in the eyes. Something about her eyes.

“What’s your name?” Please don’t throw that bottle at me.

His silent question was answered when she undid the latches that held her false arm on, a sharp sigh escaping her as she let it fall to the floor and kicked it aside. Her half-arm was already discolored with bruises and scrapes, a small wound where the base of the prosthetic had been bent and cut into her. It made the phantom limb itch, on top of it all. And throb. As if the damn thing was still there.

Charlie cursed under her breath, little dots of red-black dripping to the floor as she reached into the cupboards, and pulled down a bottle of vodka.

When she turned, she could only see the dark shape of a man against the neon light of the city coming in through the window…hunched, mid-step. Bigger than Matt. Broader. Her grip on the neck of the bottle tightened. Her spine went stiff.

In the cool blue, faint shades of light, she could barely make out his face. But she knew it. She knew the shape of him…And a chill ran through her, from the back of her throat.

Shit, she’d spotted him.

Jack froze, his stance instinctively going on the defensive. She only had one arm, that gave him an advantage, but she did not look like the kind of lady who fucked around. It was really familiar, but whatever that familiarity was could wait until he was sure she wasn’t gonna kill him. “...please tell me you’re a friend of Matt’s,” he said hesitantly. “One who...isn’t gonna kick my ass.” Shit, why was he trying to talk his way out of this? He was terrible at that. “He knows I’m here. Call him and ask him.”

It was the only place she felt safe. The only place that felt like home, even if she was out on her own now. And she could always count on Matt to have fresh stock of first aid supplies. And an open couch if she ever needed it. Tonight, she needed it.

The moment she stepped foot on the apartment floor, it was all she could do not to collapse. No major injuries this time, but…god, she knew there were bruises, massive plumes of purple and sickly yellow spreading across her skin.

She paid no mind to the faint sound of movement. Probably Matt, shifting around in bed. Probably awake. Damn.

“Please have alcohol,” she whispered, and limped for the kitchen.

Dining room table. He’d left his phone on the dining room table. Fucking hell, Jack, you goddamn idiot. He waited until she was closer to the kitchen before moving--slowly, carefully, but ready to bolt--out of the bedroom and towards the roof access door. Maybe if he got out, he could hunt down Matt and ask him what the fuck was going on...

Does she only have one arm?

#rageandregret #((YOU ASKED))

@rageandregret

Goddamnit, if that Elektra person is back...

He peered around the divider between Matt’s room and the rest of the apartment. The person coming down--limping down from roof access was a woman, yeah, but a different one. Something about her looked familiar. Couldn’t put his finger on what, but she definitely looked familiar. He ducked back into the room. Where in the fuck had he put that phone? Matthew Murdock, how many people can get into this apartment?

“Uh, yeah. Someplace without a bunch of people would be nice,” he pointed out, swerving around someone as he followed Murdock. Then again, he wasn’t sure it was the right time to tell Murdock he was invisible. “So…you’re taking this pretty well, I gotta say.”

Jack laughed. It wasn’t as strained as he thought it’d be. “Well...things have been weird. I think I’m getting used to it.” He wasn’t, not really, but he was handling it better. Sometimes, that was all you could do, right? Especially when...aliens and superpowers and possibly immortality got involved.