what they wouldn't do | DAREDEVIL

chapter twelve: complications

                 THE WAIT BETWEEN MATT'S exit and his phone call was long and tense. Sarah found herself constantly trying to calculate how much time it would take him to get to her dads and check out what was happening, then to get to Ronan's and do whatever he was going to do there. Had it been long enough? Had something gone wrong at her dad's? Or did it seem like more time had passed than it really had?

         When the phone did finally ring, she answered immediately.

         "Hey. What's going on?" she asked, her voice slightly raspy from exhaustion. 

         She knew immediately that the news wasn't good when Matt responded with an agitated sigh before answering. "Ronan's not here."

         Sarah didn't respond for a minute, trying to understand what he meant.

         "As in, he's not home yet?" she asked slowly.

         "No. As in, he packed some of his stuff up quick and split. Recently, too. I don't know if he's trying to avoid me, or Orion, or the police...but I don't think he's planning on coming back to his apartment any time soon. He might have left town."

         "He didn't," she responded immediately. That much she knew for sure.

         "How do you know?"

         "Because he's obsessive. He's obsessed with me and he's obsessed with you, and...we're both right here in Hell's Kitchen. So that's where he'll be, too."

         Matt was quiet on the other end of the line, which she took as acknowledgement that she was right, and that Ronan was still in the city somewhere.

         "I'll keep looking," he said. "I know this city, I know its hiding places."

         "Yeah," she responded, trying to sound convinced. "Okay. That's...that's good."

         "Sarah, listen—"

         "Did you get a chance to stop by my dad's place?" she interrupted him nervously. "Is he okay?"

         "Yeah, I did. He's fine. All of his doors and windows are locked. I didn't pick up on any signs that anyone has been lingering around for extended periods of time, so I don't think he's being watched."

         Sarah was relieved to hear that no one was stationed outside her father's home, but the news also shook her conviction that something was off about the men who had visited him. "So...what, I'm just being crazy and paranoid?"

         "Not necessarily," Matt replied. "Just because he's not being watched right now doesn't mean that something's not up. I'll keep checking. When are you going to see him next?"

         "I was supposed to go tomorrow, but I don't know if—I mean, I just—I don't really want him to see me...like this. But I'll go soon. I'll try to ask him if anything's been weird."

         "Good. Let me know what he says."

         "Yeah," she said tiredly. Her brain was so tired from the day that she felt like it was just shutting down, completely incapable of absorbing any more information today. "I think I'm going to try and—and get some sleep now."

         "Alright. You should be fine tonight. He's not going to do anything right now, not when everything is still so up in the air. Is your deadlock on?"

         Sarah almost laughed at his segue from You're completely safe to Barricade yourself in your apartment.

         "Yeah. It's on."