#23 for Kastle?
It had to wait until after season 3, apparently.
Hope it’s worth the wait.
Much love ♥
P.S.: I’m a sucker for third person POV
What you do
Frank doesn’t say much about Karen. And David doesn’t ask.
Because there is no need for any sort of explanation, really.
He knew there was a storm coming the moment he saw the news - the Bulletin had been attacked, and employees of the paper were among the multiple fatal victims -, and he was right. He had barely managed to contain Frank, and even Sarah had to help, half soothing half scolding him into calming down, not act without information, wait a little bit.
Thank God for his wife, honestly. Frank had just sat down on the couch, his head in his hands, knee bouncing up and down uncontrollably while David tried to track Page’s phone, when she called.
“Karen?” Frank picked up, urgently, and Sarah sighed, a “thank God” leaving her while she got up to walk to the kitchen. “Jesus, are you ok?”
Soon, they were in the bunker (Sarah’s word for his and Frank’s new… Office) and he was working on upping security of the place, and Frank was grilling Karen about what had happened.
“It wasn’t him”, she was saying, sitting on the chair Frank usually occupied when he wanted to bug David to hurry up, while the man himself sat on David’s own chair, who had to make do with a stool from the kitchen area to work. “He was dressed as Daredevil, but it wasn’t him.”
Her voice had a shaky quality to it, and David turned to offer her some tea while Frank shook his head.
“You don’t have to tell me that”, he said when David got up to put the kettle on. “That doesn’t sounds like him at all.”
“Oh, God, all those people”, Karen said into her hands, losing a battle against the tears that had been threatening to fall since Frank got her there, and, David suspected, even sooner. “They got killed because of me, I should never have-”
“Hey, hey, hey” Frank interrupted. “You stop that, you hear me? Right now. That was as much your fault as it was Red’s. You can’t take responsibility for some lunatic’s actions, Karen.”
“But it was Fisk”, she said between tears and controlled sobs. “He was there for the witness, and if I hadn’t-”
“That son of a bitch will get his. He’s responsible for this, not you. You were trying to do the right thing.”
David saw as she lifted her head to look at Frank and nodded, her face and eyes red.
“I was.”
“I know”, his friend said, sweeter than he ever saw him, even when he was talking to Leo, lifting his hand to wipe her tears from her face. “I know you were. That’s what you do.”
David put the chamomile tea bag in Frank’s ‘Drama Queen’ mug he had gotten him as a birthday gif/joke, but then thought better of it and chose the plain one from the cabinet.
Karen thanked David when he came back with her tea, reaching her hand for the steaming mug, but Frank took it from his hand and gave it to her himself.
David shook his head, sitting back on the stool that didn’t allow him to move at all, to continue working on the feed of the particular traffic and security cameras they would need surveillance of from now on.
.:.
He was back in his chair when he finished the order for the cameras that Frank would install around Karen’s place. She had gotten up to use the shower, since her clothes were stained with blood, and David used this opportunity to claim his swivel chair back, almost sighing in relief when he wheeled back and forth to his monitors.
Frank had given her one of his shirts, and she was wearing one of Sarah’s leggings, from her gym bag that she had left on David’s car a few days back.
The place smelled heavily of Frank’s shampoo, the one he kept there. Since her hair was much, much longer than both of theirs, it wafted the scent as she walked around.
It was quiet, now. She took some time to calm down, but, eventually, the day caught up to her. And she must have believed Frank when he promised her that he would keep her safe, because she sat down on the couch by Frank’s wall of guns, where the light from David’s work station wasn’t so harsh, and, soon, fell asleep.
He could see from the corner of his eye as Frank looked down at her, her head resting on his leg, one of his hands on her hair while the other ran from her shoulder to her elbow over and over again.
“You want an alert in your phone in case someone breeches her security perimeter?” He asked, lowering his voice, not wanting to startle her.
Frank looked up at him, nodded, and then turned his focus back to her, as if he needed to literally watch her sleep to make sure she’s ok.
“You think it was luck, today?” He asked, even though he knew the answer already. “That she made it out ok?”
Frank’s hand made its way from her shoulder, down her arm, past her elbow and to her wrist, until he picked her hand up, carefully and slowly.
“It was a warning”, he said, and David knew him long enough to recognize the murder in his voice, even if he was speaking softly as not to wake her.
“What does Fisk want with her?”
Frank shook his head, still watching her as she slept.
“It’s something to do with Red. Daredevil. I don’t know the whole story yet.”
David wanted to ask if he thought Karen knew who Daredevil was, and, come to think of it, if Frank did, or if it maybe it had something to do with the fact that she used to work for the lawyers that put Fisk in prison, if it had something to do with Frank at all, but his questions would have to wait.
Looking over, he saw as Frank ran his knuckles over her cheek, and touched the hand he still held in his to his chest.
He looked both tortured and entranced. David felt as if he was intruding on a intimate moment, so he hurried to finish the code to link Karen’s building’s not-that-great alarm system to Frank’s phone, wishing to give them some privacy for a bit.
Before he opened his mouth to ask what kind of security kit he wanted for Karen’s apartment, he saw as his friend took the woman’s hand that was pressed against his chest, and lifted it to his mouth, placing a kiss that David knew exactly what it was about: relief.
It was the same kind of kiss he pressed to his children’s forehead once he was reunited with them, the exact same kiss he shared with Sarah when she saw he was alive and he saw she was unharmed.
A kiss only someone who feels deep, rooted and unselfish love is capable of.
He could almost feel the waves coming out of Frank’s body as he sat there with the woman that probably meant more to him than he even knew.
But David knew. He could see it, plain as day.
Finishing up as quickly as he could, he left the system running.
“You gonna crash here tonight?” He asked Frank, getting a nod in return. “Alright. Security’s up, we should be getting the kit for her place some time tomorrow. You need me to stay or…”
“No, go home. Sarah and the kids must be worried, you go.”
“Fine. But call me, though, if you need anything.”
“Yeah.”
Maybe it was a Marines thing, maybe it was just Frank, maybe it was that Karen was bone tired, but she didn’t even threaten to wake up as Frank picked her up from the couch to place her on the twin bed that came with the place, that they would take turns sleeping in when they needed to pull all nighters, here and there.
.:.
He was back in the bunker first thing in the morning, almost before the sun rose, since he had to go back home to drive the kids to school - it was his turn in the carpool chart.
It was rare, for him to catch Frank sleeping. That only happened when he was injured or dozed with something, and it has been a while, now, since someone managed to get the jump on him to drug him with anything.
When he punched in the code and opened the door, though, the place was still dark and quiet.
Walking carefully, he moved to peek at the living area where the bed sat.
There they were, fast asleep. Karen nestled between Frank and the wall the bed was settled against, both his arms around her, her face tucked under his neck. One of her arms rested over his middle, hand pointing towards the mattress.
Doing his best to make as little noise as possible, David made his way over to his computers, checking the feed from the night.
Quiet.
Scribbling a note to Frank, he silently made his way back out, after a quick stop to the kitchen, arming the alarm again.
Best to let them rest. God knows they need it.
.:.
Karen was still asleep when Frank walked to check the outside cameras, but he could tell she was about to wake up. Her sleep had been restless, and he had to plead for her to take a sleeping pill after she woke up gasping for the third time. She had clinged to his shirt the whole night.
It was quiet outside, and it has been the whole night. He did see the footage of Lieberman’s car driving in and off an hour ago, but he hadn’t stayed long.
Looking at the desk, the pad had a note on it. After reading it, Frank shook his head and walked to the kitchen, dismissing his friend’s attempt of a joke.
Funny guy.
“… .- .-. .- …. / … . -. - / -… .-…- -.- ..-. .- … - .-.-.- / -.. .. -.. -. - / .– .- -. - / - — / .– .- -.- . / -.– — ..- / .-.. — …- . / -… .. .-. -.. … .-.-.- / -.-. .- .-.. .-.. / – . / .– …. . -. / -.– — ..- .-. . / ..- .–.”
