frank castle / the punisher (mcu) (outofmyskull) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2017-12-05 21:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, frank castle /the punisher (mcu), karen page (mcu) |
WHO: Frank Castle & Karen Page
WHAT: Frank is released!
WHEN: Monday night
WHERE: military base --> their apt building
WARNINGS: they talk about a character death in Daredevil. I think that's it really.
When the portal had opened up above his head, Frank’s first thought had been what the fuck. And then, on the other side of it, memories had come back to him. Memories of another bright light appearing, another time waking up in a medical bay, another time in another world. He didn’t know how he could have forgotten that. But it meant that he didn’t try to fight, didn’t try to argue, just listened quietly as his new situation was explained to him.
He wasn’t really sorry to be here. He had just admitted to himself that he was scared to try to build a life back home that wasn’t centered around waging a war. Hopefully this place would be… different. Mt. Weather had been different, and it had never been boring. Plenty to distract him from being inside his own head.
Now he was in a quarantine room with Karen camped out outside his door. He’d tried to tell her she didn’t have to stay, but it was obvious that she wanted to, and he’d learned better than to try to talk Karen out of anything. He let her keep him company.
It meant she was also there when he was released. When they finally opened the door for him, he stepped out, silently, and offered her a small smile.
--
Karen had stayed at the base for the most part since Frank and Madani had arrived, only leaving once or twice to get some food and get an occasional change of scenery, but she’d refused each time Frank had tried to get her to. As the timer ticked down, she stood and stretched, then stepped away from the door so that his could be opened. Karen waited about five seconds to give him the chance to actually leave quarantine, before she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.
It was nice to be able to hug him when they weren’t both bleeding and covered in plaster and gunpowder, and for a long moment she was just quiet, her face pressed against his shoulder. While she was still sad over Mordecai being gone, she was happy that Frank had arrived - if nothing else, he was practically family, and she was glad he was there and in one piece.
“Now I know this is real,” she said at last, slowly lifting her head to smile at him. She was not going to cry.
--
Frank was a little surprised, but not really surprised, by the hug. He stayed where he was, and after a moment his arms went around her, gentle and firm. He had been through a lot of shit since he’d seen Karen last, and although she probably already knew most of the details of what had happened, he didn’t know how to begin to explain how it had affected him. He felt changed, and he hadn’t entirely sorted through precisely how he’d changed. Talking about it with Curtis and the other vets had been his attempt at a start. There was still a long way to go.
This was pretty simple, though - him and Karen. He knew where he stood with her. Anything that was different for them now was probably because of her experiences here, or because she only had memories of things he’d actually lived through. But at least she had the same memories of the last time they’d seen each other. Madani remembered everything too. Frank was grateful not to have to explain himself to either of them.
He let Karen stay in his arms as long as she needed. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have a lot to offer her, he knew, but if this helped, he wasn’t going to pull away. (It was a little funny, actually, how easily he was taking this in stride, how she seemed to be much more affected by it. But at the same time, not really funny.)
His crooked smile returned when she spoke. “Yeah? You didn’t believe it til now?”
--
In reply, she lifted her hands to cup his face, then gave a small shake of her head. Her eyes were full of affection as she smiled and let them fall away at last, then took a small step back. “Not completely. This just makes it more real, I guess. It’s weird - it’s been over a year since I’ve seen you, and it’s only been a few days and…” Shaking her head again, Karen blew out a soft breath. He was there, and that’s what mattered.
“Do you want to check out your apartment, since we have a couple hours before they let Madani out? You’re by me, right?”
--
Frank held still, watching her silently. He had not been expecting this kind of affection, her hands on his face, not after the way she’d pulled away from him in the elevator. It wasn’t unwelcome, but that scared him a little. There were too many variables here for him to be entirely certain of how to respond.
“I’m real,” he said gruffly. “I’m here.”
There was nothing in particular that he needed or wanted to do besides get his bearings here, and that was essentially what she was suggesting. He had already shown her the address that they’d given him, so he simply nodded. “Sure.”
--
Everything that had happened in the elevator, and before it, with Lewis, still felt like a bizarre dream to Karen - particularly now since it’d been a few days since waking up with those memories. She could still feel the distant ache from the wounds she’d gotten, even though she didn’t have any bandages or bruises or anything of the sort. “Good,” was all she said in reply, because it was. At least he wasn’t going after anyone, and no one was going after him. No shooting or killing or explosions.
“This way,” she said, slinging her purse over her shoulder, then turning to lead him down the hall. Karen knew without even looking at Frank that he was probably memorizing the place and studying the faces of the military personnel as they left, but she didn’t comment on it. When they reached the outside at last, she made her way to her car, pressing a button to unlock it as she approached before looking back at Frank.
“Welcome to Texas, Frank.”
--
Frank was always on his guard, always aware of his surroundings, and that instinct probably wasn’t ever going to go away. He could make his peace with that. It wasn’t as bad as what he’d watched some of his fellow vets go through. He might eventually be able to lower his guard a little, but not right now, not with Karen here.
Even if all his enemies were dead, even if neither of them had a target on their backs, that didn’t mean she - or they - were safe. Life was unpredictable. Mt. Weather had been even more unpredictable than a normal place, and even if this place was more familiar to the world he’d grown up in, he suspected it was more like the mountain than it immediately let on. Tidbits he’d picked up from the network only served to reinforce that impression.
He stepped out into the cool of the evening. He was only wearing a hoodie, which was a little lighter than he might have liked, but it would be fine for a short walk. He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced over at her, with that same crooked smile. “The buildings are all too short.”
--
His words had her give a genuine laugh, and she opened the driver’s side door before sliding into the car. It was a little strange to be on that side with him getting in on the other, but she brushed aside the feeling and buckled, then started the car and turned on the heat. “Yeah - I guess they are. I’ve gotten a little used to it. A few months ago when I was here before, Elektra and I took a trip to New York to get away for a bit, and that felt even stranger.” She shook her head as she waited to make sure he was settled, then pulled out of the parking spot.
“It’s a pretty quiet town - nothing like New York, at least. There’s not a lot of crime, but weird things happen sometimes. Random gifts from the sky, truth-telling rain, gremlins.” Karen gave a shrug, even as she realized that she was sort of babbling to fill the silence. She shouldn’t be nervous, but for some reason a part of her was - probably because usually when she and Frank were near one another, someone got hurt.
But that didn’t have to happen here.
--
Frank was fine with listening to her talk. Her voice was a pleasant sound, and he had enough to sort through that it was hard for him to contribute to the conversation. It was normal for him to be pretty monosyllabic anyway, and she read him better than most. He did wonder how he appeared to her, if he seemed any lighter now that he was on the other side of the war.
He remembered her saying that she wanted an “after” for him, wanted him to get out and make some kind of a life for himself after he finished putting down the people who’d made his life hell. He’d been thinking about that a lot lately. Wondering if maybe it was actually possible.
“Sounds about right,” he said, as he stared out the window at Tumbleweed. “At Mt. Weather, it was always something about witches or shit falling from the sky in pods.”
--
“That’s how the items show up, sometimes. They could be gifts for people, or something random...like assless chaps.” Karen shook her head with a faint chuckle at the memory. “Here, witches don’t really seem to do much, but the mutants cause a stir every now and then.” She glanced over at Frank, studying his profile for a moment, then returned her gaze to the road.
“It’s a good town. Most people seem to settle pretty quickly. It took me a little while before - but that was mostly because I was trying to deal with learning about Matt and...everything. He used to be here, but disappeared over the summer.” And now he was dead, back in their own world. Remembering that, she became quiet again, searching for a way to carry on the conversation past it.
“Some of the Avengers are here, from our world. Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff.” She rattled off the names by memory, glancing over again. “And different versions of some of them from other worlds. Plus others from ours, from New York. Jessica Jones and Trish Walker? Misty Knight? They’re here.”
--
So the pods were still a thing. Frank found that strangely comforting, just because it was familiar. It was weird that it was familiar - he was still trying to figure out how to mentally account for the time he’d spent in Mt. Weather. They were vague, like he was trying to remember a dream, but he knew it had happened. Her other words sparked some memories from there, too - Matt, a different version of him, with his red hair and grim outlook. He had seen some of the others around at Mt. Weather, too, although he’d never met any of them at home. He remembered Thor in particular, because they’d been grouped together as soldiers.
But it was the part about Matt that his thoughts snagged on. Maybe it was the way she said it. Maybe it was the thought of the other one, the way he’d spoken to Frank like he knew more about Frank’s future than Frank did. And it had turned out that he was right, because Frank had eventually met the Hand, though he hadn’t known anything about them at the time he’d been in Mt. Weather. He hadn’t really known much about them when he’d killed them at home, either. He hadn’t destroyed their bodies the way the other Matt, the other Red, had told him that he should. Shit, that was probably going to come back to haunt him.
“What about Matt?” he asked, turning his head back to look at her. “What did you learn?”
--
“You know - about him being Daredevil.” Karen glanced at him again, then looked away quickly. It was true - when she had first arrived in Tumbleweed, she had just found out that he was Daredevil, and then she’d watched their television show and learned everything. She blew out another slow breath because she could feel him still staring at her, and she didn’t really want to continue and tell him what else she knew - something she hadn’t had the chance to tell him, back home. There had been just too much going on.
Finally, she gave in because not only did Frank deserve to know, but she knew he’d be able to tell she wasn’t being honest with him, and if there was one thing Karen hated doing, it was keeping the truth to herself. “And this year...earlier this year. You know how I mentioned that memory thing had happened twice to me? The first time…” Karen stopped again, then pulled over to the side of the road and put the car into park. For a long minute, the blonde stared out through the windshield, stretching out the silence, before finally continuing.
“Matt’s dead, Frank. Did you hear about Midland Circle collapsing, a few months ago? He was underneath it when that happened. He didn’t make it out.” The words brought her grief back in full force, and she closed her eyes against tears that wanted to fall, hands tightening on the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.
--
Murdock being Daredevil wasn’t news to Frank - he had learned it twice over, in fact - so he simply grunted quietly in acknowledgement. He thought about asking her more about it, or maybe changing the subject, but he was still watching her, and there was more that she was struggling with under the surface. He decided to simply wait her out, and it wasn’t long before she spoke again.
Matt’s dead. That was hard to believe. Frank had seen firsthand how durable the man was, how he could come back from a heavy beating, even from being shot in the head. The other Murdock he’d met had seen even more shit, worse shit, than their world had thrown at either of them so far. He hadn’t told Frank about all of it, but Frank had been able to tell. Just by observing the differences between them.
He only vaguely remembered something about Midland Circle; it hadn’t really caught his attention. It was disconcerting to realize that Matt Murdock, Daredevil, might have been gone the whole time that Frank had been going through all this shit the last few months, and he hadn’t even known.
After a long moment of silence, he asked, “Did they find his body?”
Because if they hadn’t found his body, he might not be dead. Frank should know, he’d been considered “dead” once before.
--
If she thought it was a strange question, Karen didn’t show it. She only shook her head, one hand lifting to brush at her eyes. “No - we...Foggy and I, we buried an empty casket.” They hadn’t had any choice, really. Opening her eyes again, she looked over at Frank. “I’m sorry… I didn’t want to tell you like this. It’s the sort of thing you tell someone when they have a drink in their hand, not five minutes after walking out of a box while sitting on the side of the road.”
She smiled a little. “He went out saving New York, though. So he was doing what he wanted,” despite them trying to talk him out of going. “He just had to be a bastard and not come back.”
--
“It’s fine,” Frank said, but he mumbled it a little, so it sounded more like, s’fine. It wasn’t really fine, of course, but: “Not the worst news I’ve gotten lately.”
It sounded colder, crueller than he meant it. He liked Matt Murdock, both as a lawyer and as Daredevil. They didn’t always see eye to eye, but Murdock had saved his life and Frank had done the same in return.
But he didn’t entirely believe that Matt was dead. He believed that Karen believed it. But he also knew Matt Murdock was durable, and smart, and maybe he’d had a reason to make his friends believe he was dead, so Frank wasn’t going to say anything about it. But Frank wasn’t going to believe it until there was a body. People like him and Matt - and even Lieberman - didn’t always die, even when they rightly should have. And other people in their worlds who really should die didn’t always stay dead, or so Matt had told him.
He had to say something else to her, though. Something that didn’t just brush this aside. Even if Matt wasn’t dead, she clearly thought he was, and it had hurt her. Finally, he settled on, “Still bad news, though. New York was better off with him around.” His gaze had wandered back to the window; he looked back over at her now. “I’m sorry.”
--
Right now, Karen would have given anything to know what was going through her friend’s head. He was hard to read, though she generally liked to think she knew pretty well - better than most people, at least. When Frank finally spoke again, she gave him the faintest smile, before looking away once more. “Yeah, it was.” She wondered, not for the first time, how Matt would have wanted to deal with all that had been going on with Frank the past couple of weeks.
“Thanks,” she told him, then shifted back into drive and pulled out again. “We’re almost at the apartments,” she said after a moment, glancing over at him out of the corner of her eye, then smiling a little more.
“You realize that tomorrow you’re going to have to go shopping, right? For clothes, food. Things,” she teased gently. “You can only mooch off of my fridge for so long - and count yourself lucky tonight that I have a spare toothbrush.”
--
Frank looked out the window again, at the neighborhood around them. It really did seem like a quiet place, probably the smallest, quietest place he’d ever lived. At least, right now it was. He didn’t expect it to be quiet for long.
Some small part of him was, in fact, really hoping that it wouldn’t stay too quiet, because the quiet scared him. But he also wanted it, at the same time.
He chuckled when Karen started teasing him. “Don’t worry about me mooching off of you. I’ll get what I need.” Truthfully, he hadn’t thought that far ahead. But he didn’t need much. A few pairs of clothes, a toothbrush, a bit of food in the fridge. He knew how to survive with very little. “No stores open at this hour?”
It wasn’t very late, at least not by his standards, but he supposed in a quiet little town like this, all the shops probably closed up by 6. That was a bit of a shame. He was used to New York, where everything was open late, or never closed at all.
--
“I don’t mind the mooching as much as I’m claiming,” she replied, grinning a bit as she glanced over at him. “There’s a Wal-Mart across town, but around here there aren’t too many places open right now. So tomorrow would be your best bet.” Karen turned another corner, then pulled over in front of a somewhat nice apartment building - it was nicer than where she’d lived in New York, at least. Cutting off the engine, she looked over at Frank, studying his profile again for a long moment, then spoke quietly.
“I am really glad you’re here. In case I haven’t made that clear yet.” And it wasn’t just for her sake, but for his. Maybe he’d be able to find a little more peace, a little more rest here, away from people trying to kill him, or anyone he might be trying to kill. He deserved it.
--
Frank smiled quietly, but didn’t answer. He did take note of the information that she offered - he figured he could find his way to Walmart if he needed to tonight. But going without supplies for one night wasn’t much of a hardship, either. He had the gun and knife that he always carried (he hadn’t yet been able to break that habit, and wasn’t sure he ever would, especially now that he remembered how the universe had a way of unexpectedly sending him to new and potentially dangerous places) and there should at least be water in his apartment. He’d only just eaten, and he was uninjured, and his clothes were in good shape, so he was good for the night, even without Karen’s extra toothbrush.
When the engine shut off, he moved a hand to open the door, but paused with his fingers on the handle. He felt her gaze on him, and he hadn’t heard her door start to open, so he turned his head and looked at her. He let his hand drop back to his lap and watched her quietly.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff but his tone light. “I noticed.”
He wasn’t sure what else there was to say to that. There was a lot going on beneath the surface with her, but there always was. And although he certainly wasn’t sorry to be here, it also wasn’t quite true that he was glad to be. Fucked up shit tended to happen when there were portals involved: he’d learned that from experience in Mt. Weather. And even more fucked up: anyone could come here, from any point in time. Which meant anyone he hated, anyone he’d killed - or in Billy’s case, maimed - could reappear. That was the biggest part he missed about home: the certainty that his enemies were dead and wouldn’t come back.
--
“Good,” she replied, offering him a quick smile before she looked away again. Once she was sure he was settled into his place, she’d head back to the base to pick up Madani, and it wouldn’t be until much later - maybe even tomorrow, if she was lucky - that she’d even have a chance to think about how empty her own apartment would be now. Oh, she’d have to take the time to box up his things and store them, but for now? Frank and Dinah had shown up just in time to keep Karen from being too sad, at least. And it was true - she was glad that they were there, particularly Frank.
“Guess we should head on in,” she said, forcing her tone to remain easy as she pushed aside her feelings. “Give me a second to grab that toothbrush,” and a couple other things, because she wanted him to be okay for the night, “and then I’ll come over, okay?” Karen pulled her key out of the ignition and pushed open the door before he’d have a chance to respond, and headed towards the apartments. She kept her keys in one hand, tucked between her knuckles instinctively for protection - it was a habit she’d picked up in New York after the number of times she’d been in dangerous situations, and the new memories had just reaffirmed it. After a look around to be sure all was well, Karen led Frank into the building and stopped in front of her unit.
“Go on into yours,” she told him with a smile, then unlocked her door and stepped in. She wouldn’t be too long.