When the Smoke Clears

Chapter 3

It'd been two months and eleven days since Karen materialized in the middle of a hospital room, with no idea she'd ever left to begin with. One minute she'd been standing there, trying to convince Frank not to push her away, and the next she was scaring the life out of a nurse taking someone's vitals.

Karen had no idea what happened to her when she came back, and she still didn't. She had no recollection of where she'd been for five years; nothing to explain why her entire life had been taken from her. She had no home, no job; no money. On paper, she was dead, and even though breath filled her lungs and blood flowed through her veins, some part of her felt like she really was a ghost.

The chasm of loss was... insurmountable. She had friends, of course, people like Matt and Foggy who were ready and willing to help Karen fight for what was hers. Even Ellison was there, ready to welcome her back at the Bulletin with open arms. In some ways, they helped, but Karen had lost things she knew she would never get back.

She was starting to think Frank Castle was one of those things.

Two months, and she hadn't gotten so much as a phone call. Surely he would've wanted to see her if he knew she was back, right? Though, if their last conversation was any indicator, maybe he didn't. Maybe he was still sticking to his guns five years later and keeping Karen out of his life. As much as the thought pained her, it didn't stop her from looking for him. She scoured old police reports and news articles; even sought out one of his closest friends for help.

Curtis Hoyle had helped Frank out on countless occasions, before and after his family was killed. Frank had always trusted him and, to Karen's knowledge, Curtis never let him down. He was the one person who might know, or at least care about, what happened to Frank, but he, like everyone and everything else, ended up being a dead end.

"He took it pretty hard, what happened to you." Curtis told her when she showed up at his apartment one day. "He was desperate for answers. Didn't care who he had to go through to find them."

He'd gone on to tell Karen how the city was a mess after the Snap. Frank had tried to clean it up, in his own way, while he looked for her. Eventually, though, he moved on. He left Amy with Curtis, left New York, and started looking for answers somewhere in the Midwest, but Curtis lost track of him. He, like Karen, thought that if Frank was still around, he would've heard from him by now, but he hadn't.

The consensus was the same: No one had seen or heard from Frank in years. There was every chance he was dead. It wouldn't have been the first time Karen was led to believe such a thing, but the not-knowing– now, just like every other time– ate away at her. She replayed their final moments together: the torment in his eyes; the pain in his voice when he told her to walk away. She wished she could've changed his mind; made him see what he meant to her. Maybe things would've been different. She might've still disappeared, but... maybe he would've been around when she came back. Not that he could've known she'd be coming back. The entire world moved on, afterall. Maybe it was time for her to do the same.

Easier said than done, of course.

Two months and eleven days, and Karen was still fighting to keep her head above water; to make sense of life as she knew it. She'd been working with Foggy a lot. He was pulling every legal string he could to try and get Karen at least some help, financially. Most of the work involved sitting in on court hearings and filling out a lot of paperwork, but it was nice to see Foggy. He was one of the few friends Karen had left in the city.

Matt had been out on the West coast for awhile now. He'd tried to make his way back when he heard about Karen, but California, like much of the U.S., was landlocked. He was forced to check-in from a distance, though he did offer up his apartment for Karen to stay. She wasn't overly keen on the idea– there were a lot of bad memories tied to that place– but staying with Foggy and Marci felt like an imposition, and she couldn't afford a hotel, so she decided to bite the bullet and take Matt up on his offer. She'd yet to sleep in the bed. Memories of a half-naked Elektra were too strong, even after all these years, so she usually crashed on the couch when she was too tired to keep her eyes open. It was the only way sleep would come to her anymore. The only way that didn't involve obscene amounts of alcohol, that is.

When she wasn't fighting for what was hers, Karen was doing her part in attempting to right the wrongs committed to others. She wrote articles to illuminate what was happening to the city and the people who'd called it home five years ago. She attended rallies and protests, and tonight she was standing in the rain taking notes during one such rally in Lenox Hill. People were set up on the Rockefeller University campus, demanding the fair treatment they deserved, only to have smoke blown up their asses by a group called the Global Repatriation Council who assured them they would do better than their predecessors. It wasn't fair, though not a whole lot was anymore.

Stooped beneath a stranger's umbrella to keep her notebook dry, Karen was starting to feel like she'd gotten all the viable info she was going to get here. Conversations had delved into shouting matches that were soon drowned out by the sound of rain and thunder. She was soaked, cold, hungry, and in desperate need of a drink. To make matters worse, a biker gang known as the Serpents rolled into the area, all loud engines and blaring music. They'd been seen at different protests around town, and their presence caused nothing but trouble. They were known for turning peaceful demonstrations into glorified pub brawls. For what reason, Karen didn't know. She usually didn't stick around long enough to find out.

She was just about to wrap things up when she felt... something. She wasn't sure what. That feeling like she was being watched, maybe. A charge in the air, some unseen force telling her to turn around and...

A hand gripped her arm, and a distantly familiar voice slid into her ear. "Hey, stranger."

Heart hammering in her chest, Karen turned to see a face she thought she'd never see again.