SUNLIGHT ━━ frank castle

part iv

Frank knew your number by heart. Call him old-fashioned but he couldn't shake the habit of learning numbers by heart instead of just saving them to his contacts and forgetting about them.

He was trying his hardest to control his breathing as he typed in the numbers on his phone's keypad. Trying to stop the shaking in his hands as he brought it up to his ear. He listened, for what felt like forever as it rang.

Were you taking too long to answer? Or did it just feel like thousands of years passed instead of seconds?

The ringing stopped

"Hey, Frankie."

"Hey." He cleared his throat, his voice scratchy and rough from worry. "Hey, sweetheart. You goin' grocery shoppin' today, right?"

There was a seconds pause.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. I just left the apartment. Why? You want something specific for dinner?"

"I need you to stop." He said, his voice low and he hoped to god that you'd hear how serious he was being. "Don't go back to the apartment. Somethin's happened and it's not safe. You remember that support group I told you about?"

"Uh... The one with Curtis, right? Your friend from the military?"

"Yeah, yeah that one. Go there. Right now. You hear me? No stops." He ordered, and if that didn't work he was more than happy to resort to begging.

"I'm going to pick something up on the way."

"No. Listen to me, doll, you come straight here."

"You listen to me. I know how serious the situation is, okay? I'm going to make one stop and then I'll head over. It's on the way and I'll be twenty minutes tops. I'm not arguing with you, baby, twenty minutes. I'll be there."

Before he could reply the dial tone rang out. Shocked, he pulled the phone back to check that, yeah, you had absolutely just hung up on him.

"Uh," Laughed Amy, drawing his attention from his phone to the girl. "You didn't say she was your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend." He defended, walking back over to the large group.

"Yet." Commented Dinah, raising her eyebrows.

"Well," Matt spoke up with a hint of a smirk. "She just called him 'baby' so, the finish line's in sight."

40 MINUTES EARLIER

What Matt had said to you before he left put you on edge and you were lucky for it. In the months that you had been doing his grocery runs, you'd felt completely at ease out in public. Well, as at ease one could feel in Hell's Kitchen that is.

If he didn't have that talk with you then you wouldn't have been checking your surroundings like you were used to before coming to this dimension. You wouldn't have noticed someone following you.

You decide to take this guy on a journey. Walking to the poorer parts of the city that don't have security cameras on or in the old buildings and walking into one that, upon prior research, you knew had hardly anyone in there. The second you were in the lobby you ran for the old elevator, hoping and praying to a god you no longer believed in that you'd get in before your tail caught up to you. That you would make it up to whatever floor you decide to click on to lose him.

Luck was not on your side.

He walked in just as the doors opened for you and you both stepped into the elevator.

You clicked the button for the third floor.

He did nothing.

You both sat in silence for a second or two when he turned to face you. Adrenaline shot straight through you at the dead look in his eyes. And as per usual, when faced with these situations, you couldn't help but open your mouth to let the nerves out.