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DDBA S2 filming has wrapped and now I will be counting down the months until I get Matt Murdock looking hot in this outfit 😁


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Masterlist
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness?
Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and I’m trying something new - posting on Wattpad
Reference pics and stuff
Fancasting
PART I: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19. COMPLETE!
PART II: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21 COMPLETE!
PART III: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23 COMPLETE!
PART IV: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25,
#matt murdock#matt murdock x oc#matt murdock x original character#matt murdock x original female character#daredevil x original female character#daredevil fanfic#daredevil fanfiction#marvels daredevil#daredevil x ofc
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Part 4, Chapter 23
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness? Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action/violence and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and Wattpad
Masterlist
Reference pics
————–
PART 4
Chapter 23
Matt woke slowly, rising from a dreamless sleep, feeling rested and more content than he had in a long time.
He could put it down to the solid eight hours of sleep he'd just had, or the comfort of the mattress he lay on, or the fact that he was on vacation and doing little more than relaxing all day and all night...
But he suspected it was mostly thanks to the woman next to him.
He never slept better than when Calina was by his side.
She reached out and rubbed her thumb over his dimple, matched the smile he only just realised was stretching across his face. "You look happy," she commented.
Matt shrugged. "It's Christmas morning. Aren't I allowed to be happy?"
"Even though we have no tree, no presents and—" he sensed her glance over her shoulder and out the window "—no snow to play in?"
He kissed her shoulder and stroked his hand over her hip. "I have you naked in bed. Who needs snow and presents?"
"You're insatiable, Matt Murdock."
He smiled against her skin as he kissed his way up her neck. "Just making up for lost time."
She arched her head back, giving him more room. "That should be my line."
"Hmmm, you're right." He flicked his tongue against the skin behind her ear, tasting her tattoo. Then he took her earlobe between his teeth, biting down gently. She was right - he was insatiable. He couldn't seem to get enough of her. Kissing her. Touching her. Being inside her. Making her come. They'd just never really had the chance to be like this before. In New York, they'd had stolen moments together, snatched from the city that vied for his attention, from his work, from her responsibilities to the Widows, from the dangers that followed them both...
Out here, nothing needed to be stolen. They'd been gifted instead, with endless hours of uninterrupted time.
And they were making the most of it.
"So how about lady's choice this time around," he continued, kissing along her jaw. He swept his hand up her body to cup her breast, and she gasped as he teased her nipple into a hard point.
"Huh?"
He smiled at her distracted tone. "We'll do whatever you want. Make one of your fantasies come true."
"I- I don't have any fantasies."
He pulled back from her in surprise. "Really? None?"
"Well, I mean, nothing specific. Like, uh, role play, or with, you know...toys..or anything." The word 'toys' was uttered in an embarrassed whisper, and Matt could feel the heat of her blush radiating off her cheeks. "I never thought of sex as something fun like that, before we got together," she continued. "And when we were together, I was happy just being with you. I know that's boring, but—"
"Hey, it's not boring. Sex between us is never boring, Callie. I was just saying that if there was something more you wanted, something different, I'd give it to you."
"What about you?"
"Me? Well..." Matt ran his hands slowly down her arms, and closed them around her slender wrists. Then he yanked her arms up and over her head, pinning them in place, wrenching a shocked gasp from her throat. "I've always liked the idea of you cuffed to my bed frame, stretched out, and at my mercy."
Calina licked her lips. He scented a pulse of arousal at her core as she clenched her thighs together. "That- that sounds good," she said, her voice low and husky. "But we don't have any handcuffs here."
"We also have nowhere to attach them." He rapped his knuckles against the solid wood headboard.
Calina tipped her head back to look at it. "Oh."
There was a world of disappointment in that little sound, and it made Matt smile. "Something to explore at a later date," he said. "In the meantime...lady's choice."
"Um, okay," she said. She seemed to think about it for a few seconds, before sliding her hand into his hair. "Kiss me."
"As you wish," he murmured, bending down to capture her lips.
He kissed her like it was a mission. Like his only purpose in life was to worship at her lips. For long minutes he devoted himself to the task, until she pulled away with a gasp. "That was good," she panted. "Now lie on your back."
He smiled at the commanding tone, and obeyed, settling back on the mattress next to her, his hands tucked beneath his head.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Stay just like that."
Matt kept smiling as Calina touched him. She traced over his scars, glided fingers over muscles, licked trails along his bones. She painted his body with her touch like it was a canvas, slowly but surely ratcheting up his desire until he was hard and throbbing for her.
"Is this your fantasy?" he panted. "To have me at your mercy - begging and desperate?"
"Maybe," she said, sliding down his body, inching closer and closer to where he was desperate for relief. "Or maybe I just want to touch you."
"I'm not complaining."
"Hmmm, but if you're still capable of using three-syllable words, I'm not doing my job right."
He groaned as she dipped her head, her hair lightly brushing against the sensitive tip of his shaft. He felt her breath, the warm air caressing him, as she hovered in place. Teasing him. Drawing out the anticipation...
His hips bucked at the first touch of her tongue. "Sorry."
He felt her smile as she backed away and kissed his hip. "Don't be. I like you a little out of control."
Matt laughed, but the noise was choked off as her tongue returned. And when she took him in her mouth he had to grip the top of the headboard to stop from grabbing fistfuls of her hair and thrusting into that wet heat.
Calina might like him a little out of control, but he was at risk of losing it completely. And he wasn't sure she was up for that right now. In the past, sex had sometimes gotten a little wild and rough between them. But the last few days - since they'd reconnected - he'd sensed a tentativeness about her. A hesitancy - almost a shyness - when it came to sex.
Maybe it was just that she'd gone without it so long; or maybe she was worried that her emotions would go haywire; whatever the reason, she'd seemed content to let him take the lead and set the pace.
Until now.
Now she was in charge. She was leading this little dance of theirs...and she seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as he was.
"Fuck," he hissed, as she took him deep. "Feels so good."
Her lips tightened around him and she bobbed her head, the suction driving him crazy. He felt his orgasm build, his muscles tensing. He tossed his head back, mouth open, gulping down air. He was almost there—
She stopped.
The warmth of her mouth was suddenly gone as she sat back on her heels. "Wha-?" he gasped, no longer capable of one-syllable words, let alone three. The cooler air of the room hit the wet skin of his shaft, and the sensation nearly pushed him over the edge. But then she fit her hand around his cock and squeezed, just below the head. The pressure cut off his climax, and he panted as his body gradually came down from the peak.
"I want you inside me," she said, releasing him slowly. Her voice was firm and calm, but he could hear how fast her heart was beating. He could scent her arousal - it filled the room, thick and heady. And when she straddled his waist, he could feel the trembling of her thighs.
She was just as turned on as he was.
He released his hold on the headboard and brought his arms down, his hands landing on her waist, wanting to hold her as she rode him.
"Uh-uh," she chastised, grabbing him by the wrists. She lifted his hands off her, leaned over and pressed them to the pillow either side of his head. "Keep them there."
He felt her strength as she pinned him in place - so different from the Calina of before. It made him want to spar with her. Made him want to wrestle with her, and feel the strength of her in other ways.
But not as much as he wanted to be inside her right now.
So he relaxed...and submitted.
"Good," she said, moving one hand to his chest. She braced herself there as she lifted her lower body and used her free hand to guide him inside. She took him in slowly. So slowly, until it felt like an eternity passed before she was seated to the hilt.
She paused there, unmoving, and let out a shuddering breath. Then she shifted her pelvis, adjusting to him. That small twisting motion made Matt's eyes roll back. "God, sweetheart," he groaned. "Please move."
She waited another few moments before granting his wish. She lifted off him slowly...and came down, equally as slowly. She set an excruciatingly deliberate pace, each gradual - almost lazy - descent against him capped by that little swivel of her hips.
It drove him crazy. His fists clenched, nails digging into his palms, as he fought the urge to grab her hips and thrust up into her. "Please, Callie," he begged.
"What do you need?" she replied, her voice breathy and strained, as if she was torturing herself as much as him.
"More. Faster, harder, something."
She made him wait a little longer...but then she gave him both. Her tempo increased, and she came down on him harder, squeezing around him every time she did that goddam, maddening twist of her hips. She leaned back, sitting upright, as she moved on him. One of her hands trailed down her body towards where they were joined. He sensed the movement of that hand, then felt her knuckles brush against him as she started touching herself.
"Let me," he said, desperate to get his hands on her. He brought one down, reaching for her again, but she grabbed it instead, lacing their fingers together. She used the hold for leverage, increasing the strength of her movements as she rode him.
Matt's climax built again, stronger than before. He clenched Calina's hand in his, and couldn't stop his hips from tilting up to meet her every time she bottomed out. He groaned at the increased sensation...but even through the haze of his lust, he started to realise something was wrong with Calina.
Her rhythm...faltered. The hand between her legs moved faster, but he could sense she wasn't close to where she wanted to be. She started to move on him with an air of desperation, her forehead creased and her jaw clenched...and through it all she was silent. The little noises from before - the whimpers in the back of her throat, the guttural moans - they were all gone.
And then...a hint of that foreign, intrusive scent emerged from beneath her arousal and the heady fragrance of her skin. The scent that heralded a shift in her emotions.
"Callie, baby, you still with me?" he panted.
The response was more silence. He squeezed her hand...but she didn't squeeze back. Instead, she used the handhold to rotate their arms over, and wrench his wrist at a painful angle. And he knew then that she was losing herself to whatever malignant emotion was trying to take her over. She was losing control...
So he took it back.
He bucked his hips and twisted, flipping them over so he was on top. The sudden move broke her hold on his arm, and he quickly took advantage, capturing both her wrists in one hand and pinning them above her head. He thrust into her sharply as he called out to her. "Callie!"
The only response was a growl under her breath. She writhed beneath him, still caught up in the anger or the frustration, or whatever the hell it was that she was experiencing.
He needed to snap her out of it. To remind her of where she was. Who she was, and what she was meant to be feeling in this moment. So he hitched her leg over his waist and brought his hand down against the side of her ass. Hard.
The sharp crack rang out in the room. Calina froze beneath him, and for a moment Matt thought he'd made a terrible miscalculation. But then she gasped. "Matt?"
"Yeah," he breathed. "You back with me?"
"I- I think so."
"Where are we, sweetheart?" he asked, his hand massaging the area he'd just spanked.
"In bed. In the chalet."
"Good," he said. He released his grip on her wrists and she immediately wound her arms around his neck, as if needing to hold onto him. He turned his head to kiss the soft skin of her inner elbow. "What are we doing?"
"We're making love."
"Yeah?" He rocked his hips against hers gently. "Can you feel me inside you?"
She tightened her leg around his waist. "Yes."
He pulled back and thrust into her harder. "You feel me filling you up?"
"Uh-huh," she groaned.
"Does it feel good?"
"Yeah."
"Good. That's my girl. Just feel that. Nothing else. There's nothing else in the world right now. Just me, inside you."
He hooked his arm beneath her leg and moved it from his waist to his shoulder. He hitched her other leg onto his other shoulder, and leaned over her, bending her almost in two. He thrust again and she moaned, a deep, throaty, wonderful noise. He knew she loved this position - how deep he could go, how every slide in and out rubbed against that sensitive spot inside her. How all she need was that stimulation, and the pressure of his pelvis against her clit, to find her release.
He kept up a fast, hard pace, ramping up her desire. And all the while he talked to her, grounding her, reminding her. "Just you and me, Callie. It's just you and me, here, in this moment. Nothing else matters. It's just us. You and me. And I love you."
"Love you, too," she gasped, arching her head back.
"Good. Good girl. Are you gonna come now? While I'm fucking you like this?"
She nodded her head.
"I need to hear you, sweetheart. Talk to me."
"Yes. I'm close. I'm so close—" she choked the words out, barely finishing before he felt her shatter around him. She dug her nails into his back and gasped, her every muscle going rigid as she came.
And he couldn't hold his own climax back. He groaned as he followed her, his orgasm intense and powerful after being denied for so long. He had the presence of mind to lift her legs from his shoulders, then he collapsed on top of her. "I'll move in a sec," he slurred, knowing he was too heavy, knowing he'd have to clean them both up. But he just wanted to feel her flushed, slick skin against his for a moment.
She seemed to want that too. Her arms closed around him, holding him tight. "No," she protested. "Stay for a bit. I wanna feel your weight."
Unable to resist, he relaxed against her, one leg between hers, his head tucked against her neck. He inhaled her scent, and sensed nothing but the pure and intoxicating fragrance of Calina, with no worrying base notes, no hints of an impending mood shift.
If anything, she seemed blissfully content, humming under her breath as she lazily sifted her fingers through his hair.
Matt smiled, and closed his eyes, feeling pretty damn content himself.
———
The contentment didn't last.
In fact, Matt's discontent grew over the course of the day - along with his guilt. As he and Calina showered together, as they ate lunch, as they walked along the lakeshore with Nika, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened while they'd been having sex.
And what he'd done.
As they curled up on the sofa in front of the fire, he knew he had to say something. "Calina?"
"Hmm?" she replied, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.
"We need to talk about what happened this morning."
She stilled. "Do we? It all turned out okay."
"I need to know that I did the right thing."
She lifted her head, and he could feel her studying his profile. One of her hands came up to cup his cheek and turn his head towards her. "Of course you did. You managed to snap me out of one of my episodes - no one's been able to do that before."
"Yeah, but I did it by...hitting you, essentially."
She laughed. "You smacked my ass during sex. It's not like you punched me in the face."
When he didn't join in her laughter, she sat up and shifted on the couch until she faced him. "Have you been worrying about this all day?"
He nodded.
"I wish I had your abilities," she sighed. "You always seem to know what I'm thinking and feeling. I wish I could do the same for you, and stop you from beating yourself up when you did nothing wrong. I should be the one apologising for almost ruining the moment."
"It wasn't your fault, Calina. You didn't have control over your actions - but I did. And it's not just the fact that I slapped you—"
"Smacked," she corrected. "Spanked, even."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to argue semantics with a lawyer?"
"I think the terminology is pertinent to this discussion, Counsellor."
He gave her a small smile. "Regardless of the terminology, it's not really about that. It's the fact that I was still inside you at the time. Were you even capable of consenting to sex in that moment—"
She sat up quickly and slapped her hand over his mouth, cutting him off. "Don't even go there, Matt. The emotions might not feel like they belong to me, but it's still me. And I consented to everything."
"But you weren't in control of yourself!" he repeated. He pulled away from her and got to his feet, pacing the small strip of floor between the sofa and the fireplace.
Calina's voice was maddeningly calm as she responded. "We've fought each other before, Matt. In practice, and for real. Remember?"
"Of course I do."
"Was I fighting you this morning?"
Matt pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "No."
"Do you think if I didn't want to be in that bed - at any point - you'd have been able to keep me there with just your hand around my wrists and your dick inside me?"
He flinched at the crude wording - not used to hearing that from Calina - but he knew she was just trying to make a point.
And it was a good one. "No," he conceded.
"As for the smack on the ass," she continued, in that same reasonable tone. "It didn't even hurt. It was just...unexpected. It jolted me out of my head, the same way a bucket of cold water to the face would. Then you grounded me - letting me know what was real and true, instead of what my fucked-up brain was telling me. It was exactly what I needed, Matt."
Matt frowned. "What was your brain telling you?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I just remember feeling a little frustrated. Then I started to spiral into anger. It doesn't always make sense, why I feel certain things. There's not always an obvious trigger or an explanation."
"You weren't feeling pressured? I know I kind of forced you into the fantasy thing—"
"There was no forcing, Matt! It was fun!" She shook her head as she stared up at him. "God, that catholic guilt complex is no joke."
Matt stopped his pacing and huffed out a laugh. "You don't say."
"Come here." She reached out her hand and he took it. She tried to tug him back onto the couch, but he kneeled between her legs instead, sitting back on his heels and resting his arms on her legs.
It was fitting that she'd brought up his religion, because he was feeling in a penitent mood. "Do you know anything about the Sacrament of Reconciliation?" he asked.
She frowned at his seemingly random change of subject. "I can't say that was ever part of the Red Room curriculum."
"It's confession, basically. It reconciles you with the church after wounding it with your sins. It lets you receive God's forgiveness."
"Am I God in this scenario?" she asked, gesturing to their positions.
He laughed. "No, you're not nearly capricious enough."
"Okay..."
"So, there are five steps to a good confession," he explained. "Number one, examine your conscience." He marked off the first point with a tap on her thigh. "Be sincerely sorry for your sins." Another tap. "Confess your sins to a priest." Tap. "Resolve to amend your life." Tap. "And do your penance." Tap. "Do you know what the most important step is, at least to me?"
He sensed her frown. "I don't know. The penance?"
"No, the confessing. In order to receive absolution, we have to admit to our shortcomings out loud."
"That sounds like therapy."
Matt laughed again. "Maybe it is, in a way. It's certainly meant to make you really own what you've done."
"Why are you telling me this? I told you that you did nothing wrong this morning. You don't need absolution. There's no penance to pay."
"I know. But I think the act of saying it all out loud just now made me realise what's really going on."
"And what's that?"
"I'm terrified, Callie."
She leaned forward and stroked her hand through his hair. "Of what?"
"Of messing this up. Of doing something wrong, or say something wrong. I meant everything I've said since I got here - I want us to work. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. But I just...I feel like I'm always bracing for the inevitable."
"What's the inevitable?"
"You, leaving," he shrugged.
"Matt—"
"I'm scared I'm going to screw up so badly that you leave me for good. And I know that's just my past speaking—"
"But it's not just in the past though, is it?" she said, her fingers trailing down his cheek, and brushing her thumb over his lips. "I have left you. I've ran from you - from us - when things have gotten difficult. What can I do to convince you that I'll never do that again?"
He covered her hand with his, and turned his head to kiss her palm. "I honestly don't know."
"Would...," she started, before biting her lip, cutting off the rest of the sentence.
"What? What were you going to say?"
She took a deep breath. "That question you didn't quite ask the other day. The, um, topic you raised, about our future..."
Matt smiled at her awkwardness. "You can say the word, Calina. 'Marriage'."
"Yeah, that. Would that help?"
Matt frowned. "That's not why I want to marry you. A ring on your finger...it wouldn't be like a shackle, keeping you with me."
"So why do you want it?"
Matt frowned, and tilted his head, searching for the answer. Marriage felt like the logical next step for them - but he didn't know if that was just societal expectations, or if there was more to it. "I'm not sure," he admitted, taking her hand in both of his, and playing with her fingers. "It's not like I had an example of marriage growing up - either good or bad. But it was always something celebrated and cherished by the church. The 'Sanctity of Marriage' isn't just lazy political speech - it actually means something. The love between a married couple is literally sacred. It's a holy covenant. And I guess..."
"What?"
"To me, getting married, it's an expression - a declaration - that our love is sacred. That it's more important than anything that came before."
As he spoke, Matt realised that he'd been wrong the other day. Getting married wasn't just a technicality. He did, in fact, want to stand in God's house in front of a priest and witnesses and affirm his love for Calina. He wanted to do it properly. Him in a tux, her in a white dress...the whole nine yards.
Calina smiled. "That's a pretty convincing argument, even to an atheist."
Matt smiled at her joke, but wished he knew if there was any truth beneath her light, teasing tone. Was she actually swayed by his reasoning? Or did she just want to break the tension of the moment? He'd promised not to pressure her, but he'd just laid all his cards on the table, and she still held hers maddeningly close to her chest. "Any, uh, rebuttal statements from opposing counsel?"
She let out a shaky laugh. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm opposing counsel..."
"On the jury, then. Weighing up the arguments."
"Yeah. I just need a little more time to deliberate. If that's okay."
He kissed her hand. "Of course it's okay."
He rose up on his knees and made a move to stand, but she grabbed the front of his t-shirt, holding him in place. "I, um, did think about it. Before. From time to time."
He cocked his head, a genuine smile tipping up the corner of his mouth. "You did?"
"Yeah. Just silly daydreams."
"Not silly, Calina."
"It felt like it at the time."
"And now?"
"Now...?" She bit her lip, and smoothed out the creases she'd made in his shirt. "Now, it still feels kind of new between us. Too new to be thinking about that yet. I know that's not really fair to you, but it's been six years for me, Matt. I need some time to get used to this again."
"Hey, I get it. We're on different timelines."
Her brow creased. "That makes it sound like we're running parallel to each other, destined to never converge."
He leaned towards her, wedging himself firmly between her thighs. He tilted his head to kiss her neck. "Oh, there'll be plenty of converging," he smirked.
Her breath hitched when he kissed her again, but then she put her hand back on his chest, holding him at bay. "I was being serious. We need a better analogy."
"Okay, how about we're on the same track, but I'm a little ahead of you. I'll just have to slow down, let you catch up."
Her hand moved around to the back of his neck, and she played with ends of his hair. "What if my engine's a little damaged?" she asked. "And it needs some work in the shop first? You don't mind waiting?"
"I'll wait as long as it takes. I've got nowhere else to be." He cupped her face in both hands, and kissed her softly. Gently. "You're my destination, Callie." He kissed her cheek. "My last stop." The angle of her jaw. "My only port of call." Her lips again. "My safe harbour."
"You're mixing your transportation metaphors," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice as he kissed his way down her neck.
"Sweetheart?" he murmured against her skin.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Okay," she giggled, a light breathy sound that he felt beneath his lips. She was still laughing when he pushed her back on the couch and covered her body with his.
It was the best sound in the world.
-------
Chapter 24 coming soon
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#matt murdock x original character#daredevil fandom#matt murdock fic#matt murdock x original female character#marvels daredevil#daredevil x ofc#daredevil x oc#matt murdock x ofc
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Masterlist
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness?
Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and I’m trying something new - posting on Wattpad
Reference pics and stuff
Fancasting
PART I: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19. COMPLETE!
PART II: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21 COMPLETE!
PART III: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23 COMPLETE!
PART IV: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25,
#daredevil#daredevil fic#tabula rasa#marvel's daredevil#matt murdock fanfic#daredevil fandom#matt murdock fic
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Part 4, Chapter 23
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness? Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action/violence and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and Wattpad
Masterlist
Reference pics
————–
PART 4
Chapter 23
Matt woke slowly, rising from a dreamless sleep, feeling rested and more content than he had in a long time.
He could put it down to the solid eight hours of sleep he'd just had, or the comfort of the mattress he lay on, or the fact that he was on vacation and doing little more than relaxing all day and all night...
But he suspected it was mostly thanks to the woman next to him.
He never slept better than when Calina was by his side.
She reached out and rubbed her thumb over his dimple, matched the smile he only just realised was stretching across his face. "You look happy," she commented.
Matt shrugged. "It's Christmas morning. Aren't I allowed to be happy?"
"Even though we have no tree, no presents and—" he sensed her glance over her shoulder and out the window "—no snow to play in?"
He kissed her shoulder and stroked his hand over her hip. "I have you naked in bed. Who needs snow and presents?"
"You're insatiable, Matt Murdock."
He smiled against her skin as he kissed his way up her neck. "Just making up for lost time."
She arched her head back, giving him more room. "That should be my line."
"Hmmm, you're right." He flicked his tongue against the skin behind her ear, tasting her tattoo. Then he took her earlobe between his teeth, biting down gently. She was right - he was insatiable. He couldn't seem to get enough of her. Kissing her. Touching her. Being inside her. Making her come. They'd just never really had the chance to be like this before. In New York, they'd had stolen moments together, snatched from the city that vied for his attention, from his work, from her responsibilities to the Widows, from the dangers that followed them both...
Out here, nothing needed to be stolen. They'd been gifted instead, with endless hours of uninterrupted time.
And they were making the most of it.
"So how about lady's choice this time around," he continued, kissing along her jaw. He swept his hand up her body to cup her breast, and she gasped as he teased her nipple into a hard point.
"Huh?"
He smiled at her distracted tone. "We'll do whatever you want. Make one of your fantasies come true."
"I- I don't have any fantasies."
He pulled back from her in surprise. "Really? None?"
"Well, I mean, nothing specific. Like, uh, role play, or with, you know...toys..or anything." The word 'toys' was uttered in an embarrassed whisper, and Matt could feel the heat of her blush radiating off her cheeks. "I never thought of sex as something fun like that, before we got together," she continued. "And when we were together, I was happy just being with you. I know that's boring, but—"
"Hey, it's not boring. Sex between us is never boring, Callie. I was just saying that if there was something more you wanted, something different, I'd give it to you."
"What about you?"
"Me? Well..." Matt ran his hands slowly down her arms, and closed them around her slender wrists. Then he yanked her arms up and over her head, pinning them in place, wrenching a shocked gasp from her throat. "I've always liked the idea of you cuffed to my bed frame, stretched out, and at my mercy."
Calina licked her lips. He scented a pulse of arousal at her core as she clenched her thighs together. "That- that sounds good," she said, her voice low and husky. "But we don't have any handcuffs here."
"We also have nowhere to attach them." He rapped his knuckles against the solid wood headboard.
Calina tipped her head back to look at it. "Oh."
There was a world of disappointment in that little sound, and it made Matt smile. "Something to explore at a later date," he said. "In the meantime...lady's choice."
"Um, okay," she said. She seemed to think about it for a few seconds, before sliding her hand into his hair. "Kiss me."
"As you wish," he murmured, bending down to capture her lips.
He kissed her like it was a mission. Like his only purpose in life was to worship at her lips. For long minutes he devoted himself to the task, until she pulled away with a gasp. "That was good," she panted. "Now lie on your back."
He smiled at the commanding tone, and obeyed, settling back on the mattress next to her, his hands tucked beneath his head.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Stay just like that."
Matt kept smiling as Calina touched him. She traced over his scars, glided fingers over muscles, licked trails along his bones. She painted his body with her touch like it was a canvas, slowly but surely ratcheting up his desire until he was hard and throbbing for her.
"Is this your fantasy?" he panted. "To have me at your mercy - begging and desperate?"
"Maybe," she said, sliding down his body, inching closer and closer to where he was desperate for relief. "Or maybe I just want to touch you."
"I'm not complaining."
"Hmmm, but if you're still capable of using three-syllable words, I'm not doing my job right."
He groaned as she dipped her head, her hair lightly brushing against the sensitive tip of his shaft. He felt her breath, the warm air caressing him, as she hovered in place. Teasing him. Drawing out the anticipation...
His hips bucked at the first touch of her tongue. "Sorry."
He felt her smile as she backed away and kissed his hip. "Don't be. I like you a little out of control."
Matt laughed, but the noise was choked off as her tongue returned. And when she took him in her mouth he had to grip the top of the headboard to stop from grabbing fistfuls of her hair and thrusting into that wet heat.
Calina might like him a little out of control, but he was at risk of losing it completely. And he wasn't sure she was up for that right now. In the past, sex had sometimes gotten a little wild and rough between them. But the last few days - since they'd reconnected - he'd sensed a tentativeness about her. A hesitancy - almost a shyness - when it came to sex.
Maybe it was just that she'd gone without it so long; or maybe she was worried that her emotions would go haywire; whatever the reason, she'd seemed content to let him take the lead and set the pace.
Until now.
Now she was in charge. She was leading this little dance of theirs...and she seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as he was.
"Fuck," he hissed, as she took him deep. "Feels so good."
Her lips tightened around him and she bobbed her head, the suction driving him crazy. He felt his orgasm build, his muscles tensing. He tossed his head back, mouth open, gulping down air. He was almost there—
She stopped.
The warmth of her mouth was suddenly gone as she sat back on her heels. "Wha-?" he gasped, no longer capable of one-syllable words, let alone three. The cooler air of the room hit the wet skin of his shaft, and the sensation nearly pushed him over the edge. But then she fit her hand around his cock and squeezed, just below the head. The pressure cut off his climax, and he panted as his body gradually came down from the peak.
"I want you inside me," she said, releasing him slowly. Her voice was firm and calm, but he could hear how fast her heart was beating. He could scent her arousal - it filled the room, thick and heady. And when she straddled his waist, he could feel the trembling of her thighs.
She was just as turned on as he was.
He released his hold on the headboard and brought his arms down, his hands landing on her waist, wanting to hold her as she rode him.
"Uh-uh," she chastised, grabbing him by the wrists. She lifted his hands off her, leaned over and pressed them to the pillow either side of his head. "Keep them there."
He felt her strength as she pinned him in place - so different from the Calina of before. It made him want to spar with her. Made him want to wrestle with her, and feel the strength of her in other ways.
But not as much as he wanted to be inside her right now.
So he relaxed...and submitted.
"Good," she said, moving one hand to his chest. She braced herself there as she lifted her lower body and used her free hand to guide him inside. She took him in slowly. So slowly, until it felt like an eternity passed before she was seated to the hilt.
She paused there, unmoving, and let out a shuddering breath. Then she shifted her pelvis, adjusting to him. That small twisting motion made Matt's eyes roll back. "God, sweetheart," he groaned. "Please move."
She waited another few moments before granting his wish. She lifted off him slowly...and came down, equally as slowly. She set an excruciatingly deliberate pace, each gradual - almost lazy - descent against him capped by that little swivel of her hips.
It drove him crazy. His fists clenched, nails digging into his palms, as he fought the urge to grab her hips and thrust up into her. "Please, Callie," he begged.
"What do you need?" she replied, her voice breathy and strained, as if she was torturing herself as much as him.
"More. Faster, harder, something."
She made him wait a little longer...but then she gave him both. Her tempo increased, and she came down on him harder, squeezing around him every time she did that goddam, maddening twist of her hips. She leaned back, sitting upright, as she moved on him. One of her hands trailed down her body towards where they were joined. He sensed the movement of that hand, then felt her knuckles brush against him as she started touching herself.
"Let me," he said, desperate to get his hands on her. He brought one down, reaching for her again, but she grabbed it instead, lacing their fingers together. She used the hold for leverage, increasing the strength of her movements as she rode him.
Matt's climax built again, stronger than before. He clenched Calina's hand in his, and couldn't stop his hips from tilting up to meet her every time she bottomed out. He groaned at the increased sensation...but even through the haze of his lust, he started to realise something was wrong with Calina.
Her rhythm...faltered. The hand between her legs moved faster, but he could sense she wasn't close to where she wanted to be. She started to move on him with an air of desperation, her forehead creased and her jaw clenched...and through it all she was silent. The little noises from before - the whimpers in the back of her throat, the guttural moans - they were all gone.
And then...a hint of that foreign, intrusive scent emerged from beneath her arousal and the heady fragrance of her skin. The scent that heralded a shift in her emotions.
"Callie, baby, you still with me?" he panted.
The response was more silence. He squeezed her hand...but she didn't squeeze back. Instead, she used the handhold to rotate their arms over, and wrench his wrist at a painful angle. And he knew then that she was losing herself to whatever malignant emotion was trying to take her over. She was losing control...
So he took it back.
He bucked his hips and twisted, flipping them over so he was on top. The sudden move broke her hold on his arm, and he quickly took advantage, capturing both her wrists in one hand and pinning them above her head. He thrust into her sharply as he called out to her. "Callie!"
The only response was a growl under her breath. She writhed beneath him, still caught up in the anger or the frustration, or whatever the hell it was that she was experiencing.
He needed to snap her out of it. To remind her of where she was. Who she was, and what she was meant to be feeling in this moment. So he hitched her leg over his waist and brought his hand down against the side of her ass. Hard.
The sharp crack rang out in the room. Calina froze beneath him, and for a moment Matt thought he'd made a terrible miscalculation. But then she gasped. "Matt?"
"Yeah," he breathed. "You back with me?"
"I- I think so."
"Where are we, sweetheart?" he asked, his hand massaging the area he'd just spanked.
"In bed. In the chalet."
"Good," he said. He released his grip on her wrists and she immediately wound her arms around his neck, as if needing to hold onto him. He turned his head to kiss the soft skin of her inner elbow. "What are we doing?"
"We're making love."
"Yeah?" He rocked his hips against hers gently. "Can you feel me inside you?"
She tightened her leg around his waist. "Yes."
He pulled back and thrust into her harder. "You feel me filling you up?"
"Uh-huh," she groaned.
"Does it feel good?"
"Yeah."
"Good. That's my girl. Just feel that. Nothing else. There's nothing else in the world right now. Just me, inside you."
He hooked his arm beneath her leg and moved it from his waist to his shoulder. He hitched her other leg onto his other shoulder, and leaned over her, bending her almost in two. He thrust again and she moaned, a deep, throaty, wonderful noise. He knew she loved this position - how deep he could go, how every slide in and out rubbed against that sensitive spot inside her. How all she need was that stimulation, and the pressure of his pelvis against her clit, to find her release.
He kept up a fast, hard pace, ramping up her desire. And all the while he talked to her, grounding her, reminding her. "Just you and me, Callie. It's just you and me, here, in this moment. Nothing else matters. It's just us. You and me. And I love you."
"Love you, too," she gasped, arching her head back.
"Good. Good girl. Are you gonna come now? While I'm fucking you like this?"
She nodded her head.
"I need to hear you, sweetheart. Talk to me."
"Yes. I'm close. I'm so close—" she choked the words out, barely finishing before he felt her shatter around him. She dug her nails into his back and gasped, her every muscle going rigid as she came.
And he couldn't hold his own climax back. He groaned as he followed her, his orgasm intense and powerful after being denied for so long. He had the presence of mind to lift her legs from his shoulders, then he collapsed on top of her. "I'll move in a sec," he slurred, knowing he was too heavy, knowing he'd have to clean them both up. But he just wanted to feel her flushed, slick skin against his for a moment.
She seemed to want that too. Her arms closed around him, holding him tight. "No," she protested. "Stay for a bit. I wanna feel your weight."
Unable to resist, he relaxed against her, one leg between hers, his head tucked against her neck. He inhaled her scent, and sensed nothing but the pure and intoxicating fragrance of Calina, with no worrying base notes, no hints of an impending mood shift.
If anything, she seemed blissfully content, humming under her breath as she lazily sifted her fingers through his hair.
Matt smiled, and closed his eyes, feeling pretty damn content himself.
———
The contentment didn't last.
In fact, Matt's discontent grew over the course of the day - along with his guilt. As he and Calina showered together, as they ate lunch, as they walked along the lakeshore with Nika, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened while they'd been having sex.
And what he'd done.
As they curled up on the sofa in front of the fire, he knew he had to say something. "Calina?"
"Hmm?" she replied, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.
"We need to talk about what happened this morning."
She stilled. "Do we? It all turned out okay."
"I need to know that I did the right thing."
She lifted her head, and he could feel her studying his profile. One of her hands came up to cup his cheek and turn his head towards her. "Of course you did. You managed to snap me out of one of my episodes - no one's been able to do that before."
"Yeah, but I did it by...hitting you, essentially."
She laughed. "You smacked my ass during sex. It's not like you punched me in the face."
When he didn't join in her laughter, she sat up and shifted on the couch until she faced him. "Have you been worrying about this all day?"
He nodded.
"I wish I had your abilities," she sighed. "You always seem to know what I'm thinking and feeling. I wish I could do the same for you, and stop you from beating yourself up when you did nothing wrong. I should be the one apologising for almost ruining the moment."
"It wasn't your fault, Calina. You didn't have control over your actions - but I did. And it's not just the fact that I slapped you—"
"Smacked," she corrected. "Spanked, even."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to argue semantics with a lawyer?"
"I think the terminology is pertinent to this discussion, Counsellor."
He gave her a small smile. "Regardless of the terminology, it's not really about that. It's the fact that I was still inside you at the time. Were you even capable of consenting to sex in that moment—"
She sat up quickly and slapped her hand over his mouth, cutting him off. "Don't even go there, Matt. The emotions might not feel like they belong to me, but it's still me. And I consented to everything."
"But you weren't in control of yourself!" he repeated. He pulled away from her and got to his feet, pacing the small strip of floor between the sofa and the fireplace.
Calina's voice was maddeningly calm as she responded. "We've fought each other before, Matt. In practice, and for real. Remember?"
"Of course I do."
"Was I fighting you this morning?"
Matt pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "No."
"Do you think if I didn't want to be in that bed - at any point - you'd have been able to keep me there with just your hand around my wrists and your dick inside me?"
He flinched at the crude wording - not used to hearing that from Calina - but he knew she was just trying to make a point.
And it was a good one. "No," he conceded.
"As for the smack on the ass," she continued, in that same reasonable tone. "It didn't even hurt. It was just...unexpected. It jolted me out of my head, the same way a bucket of cold water to the face would. Then you grounded me - letting me know what was real and true, instead of what my fucked-up brain was telling me. It was exactly what I needed, Matt."
Matt frowned. "What was your brain telling you?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I just remember feeling a little frustrated. Then I started to spiral into anger. It doesn't always make sense, why I feel certain things. There's not always an obvious trigger or an explanation."
"You weren't feeling pressured? I know I kind of forced you into the fantasy thing—"
"There was no forcing, Matt! It was fun!" She shook her head as she stared up at him. "God, that catholic guilt complex is no joke."
Matt stopped his pacing and huffed out a laugh. "You don't say."
"Come here." She reached out her hand and he took it. She tried to tug him back onto the couch, but he kneeled between her legs instead, sitting back on his heels and resting his arms on her legs.
It was fitting that she'd brought up his religion, because he was feeling in a penitent mood. "Do you know anything about the Sacrament of Reconciliation?" he asked.
She frowned at his seemingly random change of subject. "I can't say that was ever part of the Red Room curriculum."
"It's confession, basically. It reconciles you with the church after wounding it with your sins. It lets you receive God's forgiveness."
"Am I God in this scenario?" she asked, gesturing to their positions.
He laughed. "No, you're not nearly capricious enough."
"Okay..."
"So, there are five steps to a good confession," he explained. "Number one, examine your conscience." He marked off the first point with a tap on her thigh. "Be sincerely sorry for your sins." Another tap. "Confess your sins to a priest." Tap. "Resolve to amend your life." Tap. "And do your penance." Tap. "Do you know what the most important step is, at least to me?"
He sensed her frown. "I don't know. The penance?"
"No, the confessing. In order to receive absolution, we have to admit to our shortcomings out loud."
"That sounds like therapy."
Matt laughed again. "Maybe it is, in a way. It's certainly meant to make you really own what you've done."
"Why are you telling me this? I told you that you did nothing wrong this morning. You don't need absolution. There's no penance to pay."
"I know. But I think the act of saying it all out loud just now made me realise what's really going on."
"And what's that?"
"I'm terrified, Callie."
She leaned forward and stroked her hand through his hair. "Of what?"
"Of messing this up. Of doing something wrong, or say something wrong. I meant everything I've said since I got here - I want us to work. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. But I just...I feel like I'm always bracing for the inevitable."
"What's the inevitable?"
"You, leaving," he shrugged.
"Matt—"
"I'm scared I'm going to screw up so badly that you leave me for good. And I know that's just my past speaking—"
"But it's not just in the past though, is it?" she said, her fingers trailing down his cheek, and brushing her thumb over his lips. "I have left you. I've ran from you - from us - when things have gotten difficult. What can I do to convince you that I'll never do that again?"
He covered her hand with his, and turned his head to kiss her palm. "I honestly don't know."
"Would...," she started, before biting her lip, cutting off the rest of the sentence.
"What? What were you going to say?"
She took a deep breath. "That question you didn't quite ask the other day. The, um, topic you raised, about our future..."
Matt smiled at her awkwardness. "You can say the word, Calina. 'Marriage'."
"Yeah, that. Would that help?"
Matt frowned. "That's not why I want to marry you. A ring on your finger...it wouldn't be like a shackle, keeping you with me."
"So why do you want it?"
Matt frowned, and tilted his head, searching for the answer. Marriage felt like the logical next step for them - but he didn't know if that was just societal expectations, or if there was more to it. "I'm not sure," he admitted, taking her hand in both of his, and playing with her fingers. "It's not like I had an example of marriage growing up - either good or bad. But it was always something celebrated and cherished by the church. The 'Sanctity of Marriage' isn't just lazy political speech - it actually means something. The love between a married couple is literally sacred. It's a holy covenant. And I guess..."
"What?"
"To me, getting married, it's an expression - a declaration - that our love is sacred. That it's more important than anything that came before."
As he spoke, Matt realised that he'd been wrong the other day. Getting married wasn't just a technicality. He did, in fact, want to stand in God's house in front of a priest and witnesses and affirm his love for Calina. He wanted to do it properly. Him in a tux, her in a white dress...the whole nine yards.
Calina smiled. "That's a pretty convincing argument, even to an atheist."
Matt smiled at her joke, but wished he knew if there was any truth beneath her light, teasing tone. Was she actually swayed by his reasoning? Or did she just want to break the tension of the moment? He'd promised not to pressure her, but he'd just laid all his cards on the table, and she still held hers maddeningly close to her chest. "Any, uh, rebuttal statements from opposing counsel?"
She let out a shaky laugh. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm opposing counsel..."
"On the jury, then. Weighing up the arguments."
"Yeah. I just need a little more time to deliberate. If that's okay."
He kissed her hand. "Of course it's okay."
He rose up on his knees and made a move to stand, but she grabbed the front of his t-shirt, holding him in place. "I, um, did think about it. Before. From time to time."
He cocked his head, a genuine smile tipping up the corner of his mouth. "You did?"
"Yeah. Just silly daydreams."
"Not silly, Calina."
"It felt like it at the time."
"And now?"
"Now...?" She bit her lip, and smoothed out the creases she'd made in his shirt. "Now, it still feels kind of new between us. Too new to be thinking about that yet. I know that's not really fair to you, but it's been six years for me, Matt. I need some time to get used to this again."
"Hey, I get it. We're on different timelines."
Her brow creased. "That makes it sound like we're running parallel to each other, destined to never converge."
He leaned towards her, wedging himself firmly between her thighs. He tilted his head to kiss her neck. "Oh, there'll be plenty of converging," he smirked.
Her breath hitched when he kissed her again, but then she put her hand back on his chest, holding him at bay. "I was being serious. We need a better analogy."
"Okay, how about we're on the same track, but I'm a little ahead of you. I'll just have to slow down, let you catch up."
Her hand moved around to the back of his neck, and she played with ends of his hair. "What if my engine's a little damaged?" she asked. "And it needs some work in the shop first? You don't mind waiting?"
"I'll wait as long as it takes. I've got nowhere else to be." He cupped her face in both hands, and kissed her softly. Gently. "You're my destination, Callie." He kissed her cheek. "My last stop." The angle of her jaw. "My only port of call." Her lips again. "My safe harbour."
"You're mixing your transportation metaphors," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice as he kissed his way down her neck.
"Sweetheart?" he murmured against her skin.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Okay," she giggled, a light breathy sound that he felt beneath his lips. She was still laughing when he pushed her back on the couch and covered her body with his.
It was the best sound in the world.
-------
Chapter 24 coming soon
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Part 4, Chapter 23
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness? Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action/violence and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and Wattpad
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PART 4
Chapter 23
Matt woke slowly, rising from a dreamless sleep, feeling rested and more content than he had in a long time.
He could put it down to the solid eight hours of sleep he'd just had, or the comfort of the mattress he lay on, or the fact that he was on vacation and doing little more than relaxing all day and all night...
But he suspected it was mostly thanks to the woman next to him.
He never slept better than when Calina was by his side.
She reached out and rubbed her thumb over his dimple, matched the smile he only just realised was stretching across his face. "You look happy," she commented.
Matt shrugged. "It's Christmas morning. Aren't I allowed to be happy?"
"Even though we have no tree, no presents and—" he sensed her glance over her shoulder and out the window "—no snow to play in?"
He kissed her shoulder and stroked his hand over her hip. "I have you naked in bed. Who needs snow and presents?"
"You're insatiable, Matt Murdock."
He smiled against her skin as he kissed his way up her neck. "Just making up for lost time."
She arched her head back, giving him more room. "That should be my line."
"Hmmm, you're right." He flicked his tongue against the skin behind her ear, tasting her tattoo. Then he took her earlobe between his teeth, biting down gently. She was right - he was insatiable. He couldn't seem to get enough of her. Kissing her. Touching her. Being inside her. Making her come. They'd just never really had the chance to be like this before. In New York, they'd had stolen moments together, snatched from the city that vied for his attention, from his work, from her responsibilities to the Widows, from the dangers that followed them both...
Out here, nothing needed to be stolen. They'd been gifted instead, with endless hours of uninterrupted time.
And they were making the most of it.
"So how about lady's choice this time around," he continued, kissing along her jaw. He swept his hand up her body to cup her breast, and she gasped as he teased her nipple into a hard point.
"Huh?"
He smiled at her distracted tone. "We'll do whatever you want. Make one of your fantasies come true."
"I- I don't have any fantasies."
He pulled back from her in surprise. "Really? None?"
"Well, I mean, nothing specific. Like, uh, role play, or with, you know...toys..or anything." The word 'toys' was uttered in an embarrassed whisper, and Matt could feel the heat of her blush radiating off her cheeks. "I never thought of sex as something fun like that, before we got together," she continued. "And when we were together, I was happy just being with you. I know that's boring, but—"
"Hey, it's not boring. Sex between us is never boring, Callie. I was just saying that if there was something more you wanted, something different, I'd give it to you."
"What about you?"
"Me? Well..." Matt ran his hands slowly down her arms, and closed them around her slender wrists. Then he yanked her arms up and over her head, pinning them in place, wrenching a shocked gasp from her throat. "I've always liked the idea of you cuffed to my bed frame, stretched out, and at my mercy."
Calina licked her lips. He scented a pulse of arousal at her core as she clenched her thighs together. "That- that sounds good," she said, her voice low and husky. "But we don't have any handcuffs here."
"We also have nowhere to attach them." He rapped his knuckles against the solid wood headboard.
Calina tipped her head back to look at it. "Oh."
There was a world of disappointment in that little sound, and it made Matt smile. "Something to explore at a later date," he said. "In the meantime...lady's choice."
"Um, okay," she said. She seemed to think about it for a few seconds, before sliding her hand into his hair. "Kiss me."
"As you wish," he murmured, bending down to capture her lips.
He kissed her like it was a mission. Like his only purpose in life was to worship at her lips. For long minutes he devoted himself to the task, until she pulled away with a gasp. "That was good," she panted. "Now lie on your back."
He smiled at the commanding tone, and obeyed, settling back on the mattress next to her, his hands tucked beneath his head.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Stay just like that."
Matt kept smiling as Calina touched him. She traced over his scars, glided fingers over muscles, licked trails along his bones. She painted his body with her touch like it was a canvas, slowly but surely ratcheting up his desire until he was hard and throbbing for her.
"Is this your fantasy?" he panted. "To have me at your mercy - begging and desperate?"
"Maybe," she said, sliding down his body, inching closer and closer to where he was desperate for relief. "Or maybe I just want to touch you."
"I'm not complaining."
"Hmmm, but if you're still capable of using three-syllable words, I'm not doing my job right."
He groaned as she dipped her head, her hair lightly brushing against the sensitive tip of his shaft. He felt her breath, the warm air caressing him, as she hovered in place. Teasing him. Drawing out the anticipation...
His hips bucked at the first touch of her tongue. "Sorry."
He felt her smile as she backed away and kissed his hip. "Don't be. I like you a little out of control."
Matt laughed, but the noise was choked off as her tongue returned. And when she took him in her mouth he had to grip the top of the headboard to stop from grabbing fistfuls of her hair and thrusting into that wet heat.
Calina might like him a little out of control, but he was at risk of losing it completely. And he wasn't sure she was up for that right now. In the past, sex had sometimes gotten a little wild and rough between them. But the last few days - since they'd reconnected - he'd sensed a tentativeness about her. A hesitancy - almost a shyness - when it came to sex.
Maybe it was just that she'd gone without it so long; or maybe she was worried that her emotions would go haywire; whatever the reason, she'd seemed content to let him take the lead and set the pace.
Until now.
Now she was in charge. She was leading this little dance of theirs...and she seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as he was.
"Fuck," he hissed, as she took him deep. "Feels so good."
Her lips tightened around him and she bobbed her head, the suction driving him crazy. He felt his orgasm build, his muscles tensing. He tossed his head back, mouth open, gulping down air. He was almost there—
She stopped.
The warmth of her mouth was suddenly gone as she sat back on her heels. "Wha-?" he gasped, no longer capable of one-syllable words, let alone three. The cooler air of the room hit the wet skin of his shaft, and the sensation nearly pushed him over the edge. But then she fit her hand around his cock and squeezed, just below the head. The pressure cut off his climax, and he panted as his body gradually came down from the peak.
"I want you inside me," she said, releasing him slowly. Her voice was firm and calm, but he could hear how fast her heart was beating. He could scent her arousal - it filled the room, thick and heady. And when she straddled his waist, he could feel the trembling of her thighs.
She was just as turned on as he was.
He released his hold on the headboard and brought his arms down, his hands landing on her waist, wanting to hold her as she rode him.
"Uh-uh," she chastised, grabbing him by the wrists. She lifted his hands off her, leaned over and pressed them to the pillow either side of his head. "Keep them there."
He felt her strength as she pinned him in place - so different from the Calina of before. It made him want to spar with her. Made him want to wrestle with her, and feel the strength of her in other ways.
But not as much as he wanted to be inside her right now.
So he relaxed...and submitted.
"Good," she said, moving one hand to his chest. She braced herself there as she lifted her lower body and used her free hand to guide him inside. She took him in slowly. So slowly, until it felt like an eternity passed before she was seated to the hilt.
She paused there, unmoving, and let out a shuddering breath. Then she shifted her pelvis, adjusting to him. That small twisting motion made Matt's eyes roll back. "God, sweetheart," he groaned. "Please move."
She waited another few moments before granting his wish. She lifted off him slowly...and came down, equally as slowly. She set an excruciatingly deliberate pace, each gradual - almost lazy - descent against him capped by that little swivel of her hips.
It drove him crazy. His fists clenched, nails digging into his palms, as he fought the urge to grab her hips and thrust up into her. "Please, Callie," he begged.
"What do you need?" she replied, her voice breathy and strained, as if she was torturing herself as much as him.
"More. Faster, harder, something."
She made him wait a little longer...but then she gave him both. Her tempo increased, and she came down on him harder, squeezing around him every time she did that goddam, maddening twist of her hips. She leaned back, sitting upright, as she moved on him. One of her hands trailed down her body towards where they were joined. He sensed the movement of that hand, then felt her knuckles brush against him as she started touching herself.
"Let me," he said, desperate to get his hands on her. He brought one down, reaching for her again, but she grabbed it instead, lacing their fingers together. She used the hold for leverage, increasing the strength of her movements as she rode him.
Matt's climax built again, stronger than before. He clenched Calina's hand in his, and couldn't stop his hips from tilting up to meet her every time she bottomed out. He groaned at the increased sensation...but even through the haze of his lust, he started to realise something was wrong with Calina.
Her rhythm...faltered. The hand between her legs moved faster, but he could sense she wasn't close to where she wanted to be. She started to move on him with an air of desperation, her forehead creased and her jaw clenched...and through it all she was silent. The little noises from before - the whimpers in the back of her throat, the guttural moans - they were all gone.
And then...a hint of that foreign, intrusive scent emerged from beneath her arousal and the heady fragrance of her skin. The scent that heralded a shift in her emotions.
"Callie, baby, you still with me?" he panted.
The response was more silence. He squeezed her hand...but she didn't squeeze back. Instead, she used the handhold to rotate their arms over, and wrench his wrist at a painful angle. And he knew then that she was losing herself to whatever malignant emotion was trying to take her over. She was losing control...
So he took it back.
He bucked his hips and twisted, flipping them over so he was on top. The sudden move broke her hold on his arm, and he quickly took advantage, capturing both her wrists in one hand and pinning them above her head. He thrust into her sharply as he called out to her. "Callie!"
The only response was a growl under her breath. She writhed beneath him, still caught up in the anger or the frustration, or whatever the hell it was that she was experiencing.
He needed to snap her out of it. To remind her of where she was. Who she was, and what she was meant to be feeling in this moment. So he hitched her leg over his waist and brought his hand down against the side of her ass. Hard.
The sharp crack rang out in the room. Calina froze beneath him, and for a moment Matt thought he'd made a terrible miscalculation. But then she gasped. "Matt?"
"Yeah," he breathed. "You back with me?"
"I- I think so."
"Where are we, sweetheart?" he asked, his hand massaging the area he'd just spanked.
"In bed. In the chalet."
"Good," he said. He released his grip on her wrists and she immediately wound her arms around his neck, as if needing to hold onto him. He turned his head to kiss the soft skin of her inner elbow. "What are we doing?"
"We're making love."
"Yeah?" He rocked his hips against hers gently. "Can you feel me inside you?"
She tightened her leg around his waist. "Yes."
He pulled back and thrust into her harder. "You feel me filling you up?"
"Uh-huh," she groaned.
"Does it feel good?"
"Yeah."
"Good. That's my girl. Just feel that. Nothing else. There's nothing else in the world right now. Just me, inside you."
He hooked his arm beneath her leg and moved it from his waist to his shoulder. He hitched her other leg onto his other shoulder, and leaned over her, bending her almost in two. He thrust again and she moaned, a deep, throaty, wonderful noise. He knew she loved this position - how deep he could go, how every slide in and out rubbed against that sensitive spot inside her. How all she need was that stimulation, and the pressure of his pelvis against her clit, to find her release.
He kept up a fast, hard pace, ramping up her desire. And all the while he talked to her, grounding her, reminding her. "Just you and me, Callie. It's just you and me, here, in this moment. Nothing else matters. It's just us. You and me. And I love you."
"Love you, too," she gasped, arching her head back.
"Good. Good girl. Are you gonna come now? While I'm fucking you like this?"
She nodded her head.
"I need to hear you, sweetheart. Talk to me."
"Yes. I'm close. I'm so close—" she choked the words out, barely finishing before he felt her shatter around him. She dug her nails into his back and gasped, her every muscle going rigid as she came.
And he couldn't hold his own climax back. He groaned as he followed her, his orgasm intense and powerful after being denied for so long. He had the presence of mind to lift her legs from his shoulders, then he collapsed on top of her. "I'll move in a sec," he slurred, knowing he was too heavy, knowing he'd have to clean them both up. But he just wanted to feel her flushed, slick skin against his for a moment.
She seemed to want that too. Her arms closed around him, holding him tight. "No," she protested. "Stay for a bit. I wanna feel your weight."
Unable to resist, he relaxed against her, one leg between hers, his head tucked against her neck. He inhaled her scent, and sensed nothing but the pure and intoxicating fragrance of Calina, with no worrying base notes, no hints of an impending mood shift.
If anything, she seemed blissfully content, humming under her breath as she lazily sifted her fingers through his hair.
Matt smiled, and closed his eyes, feeling pretty damn content himself.
———
The contentment didn't last.
In fact, Matt's discontent grew over the course of the day - along with his guilt. As he and Calina showered together, as they ate lunch, as they walked along the lakeshore with Nika, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened while they'd been having sex.
And what he'd done.
As they curled up on the sofa in front of the fire, he knew he had to say something. "Calina?"
"Hmm?" she replied, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.
"We need to talk about what happened this morning."
She stilled. "Do we? It all turned out okay."
"I need to know that I did the right thing."
She lifted her head, and he could feel her studying his profile. One of her hands came up to cup his cheek and turn his head towards her. "Of course you did. You managed to snap me out of one of my episodes - no one's been able to do that before."
"Yeah, but I did it by...hitting you, essentially."
She laughed. "You smacked my ass during sex. It's not like you punched me in the face."
When he didn't join in her laughter, she sat up and shifted on the couch until she faced him. "Have you been worrying about this all day?"
He nodded.
"I wish I had your abilities," she sighed. "You always seem to know what I'm thinking and feeling. I wish I could do the same for you, and stop you from beating yourself up when you did nothing wrong. I should be the one apologising for almost ruining the moment."
"It wasn't your fault, Calina. You didn't have control over your actions - but I did. And it's not just the fact that I slapped you—"
"Smacked," she corrected. "Spanked, even."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to argue semantics with a lawyer?"
"I think the terminology is pertinent to this discussion, Counsellor."
He gave her a small smile. "Regardless of the terminology, it's not really about that. It's the fact that I was still inside you at the time. Were you even capable of consenting to sex in that moment—"
She sat up quickly and slapped her hand over his mouth, cutting him off. "Don't even go there, Matt. The emotions might not feel like they belong to me, but it's still me. And I consented to everything."
"But you weren't in control of yourself!" he repeated. He pulled away from her and got to his feet, pacing the small strip of floor between the sofa and the fireplace.
Calina's voice was maddeningly calm as she responded. "We've fought each other before, Matt. In practice, and for real. Remember?"
"Of course I do."
"Was I fighting you this morning?"
Matt pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "No."
"Do you think if I didn't want to be in that bed - at any point - you'd have been able to keep me there with just your hand around my wrists and your dick inside me?"
He flinched at the crude wording - not used to hearing that from Calina - but he knew she was just trying to make a point.
And it was a good one. "No," he conceded.
"As for the smack on the ass," she continued, in that same reasonable tone. "It didn't even hurt. It was just...unexpected. It jolted me out of my head, the same way a bucket of cold water to the face would. Then you grounded me - letting me know what was real and true, instead of what my fucked-up brain was telling me. It was exactly what I needed, Matt."
Matt frowned. "What was your brain telling you?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I just remember feeling a little frustrated. Then I started to spiral into anger. It doesn't always make sense, why I feel certain things. There's not always an obvious trigger or an explanation."
"You weren't feeling pressured? I know I kind of forced you into the fantasy thing—"
"There was no forcing, Matt! It was fun!" She shook her head as she stared up at him. "God, that catholic guilt complex is no joke."
Matt stopped his pacing and huffed out a laugh. "You don't say."
"Come here." She reached out her hand and he took it. She tried to tug him back onto the couch, but he kneeled between her legs instead, sitting back on his heels and resting his arms on her legs.
It was fitting that she'd brought up his religion, because he was feeling in a penitent mood. "Do you know anything about the Sacrament of Reconciliation?" he asked.
She frowned at his seemingly random change of subject. "I can't say that was ever part of the Red Room curriculum."
"It's confession, basically. It reconciles you with the church after wounding it with your sins. It lets you receive God's forgiveness."
"Am I God in this scenario?" she asked, gesturing to their positions.
He laughed. "No, you're not nearly capricious enough."
"Okay..."
"So, there are five steps to a good confession," he explained. "Number one, examine your conscience." He marked off the first point with a tap on her thigh. "Be sincerely sorry for your sins." Another tap. "Confess your sins to a priest." Tap. "Resolve to amend your life." Tap. "And do your penance." Tap. "Do you know what the most important step is, at least to me?"
He sensed her frown. "I don't know. The penance?"
"No, the confessing. In order to receive absolution, we have to admit to our shortcomings out loud."
"That sounds like therapy."
Matt laughed again. "Maybe it is, in a way. It's certainly meant to make you really own what you've done."
"Why are you telling me this? I told you that you did nothing wrong this morning. You don't need absolution. There's no penance to pay."
"I know. But I think the act of saying it all out loud just now made me realise what's really going on."
"And what's that?"
"I'm terrified, Callie."
She leaned forward and stroked her hand through his hair. "Of what?"
"Of messing this up. Of doing something wrong, or say something wrong. I meant everything I've said since I got here - I want us to work. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. But I just...I feel like I'm always bracing for the inevitable."
"What's the inevitable?"
"You, leaving," he shrugged.
"Matt—"
"I'm scared I'm going to screw up so badly that you leave me for good. And I know that's just my past speaking—"
"But it's not just in the past though, is it?" she said, her fingers trailing down his cheek, and brushing her thumb over his lips. "I have left you. I've ran from you - from us - when things have gotten difficult. What can I do to convince you that I'll never do that again?"
He covered her hand with his, and turned his head to kiss her palm. "I honestly don't know."
"Would...," she started, before biting her lip, cutting off the rest of the sentence.
"What? What were you going to say?"
She took a deep breath. "That question you didn't quite ask the other day. The, um, topic you raised, about our future..."
Matt smiled at her awkwardness. "You can say the word, Calina. 'Marriage'."
"Yeah, that. Would that help?"
Matt frowned. "That's not why I want to marry you. A ring on your finger...it wouldn't be like a shackle, keeping you with me."
"So why do you want it?"
Matt frowned, and tilted his head, searching for the answer. Marriage felt like the logical next step for them - but he didn't know if that was just societal expectations, or if there was more to it. "I'm not sure," he admitted, taking her hand in both of his, and playing with her fingers. "It's not like I had an example of marriage growing up - either good or bad. But it was always something celebrated and cherished by the church. The 'Sanctity of Marriage' isn't just lazy political speech - it actually means something. The love between a married couple is literally sacred. It's a holy covenant. And I guess..."
"What?"
"To me, getting married, it's an expression - a declaration - that our love is sacred. That it's more important than anything that came before."
As he spoke, Matt realised that he'd been wrong the other day. Getting married wasn't just a technicality. He did, in fact, want to stand in God's house in front of a priest and witnesses and affirm his love for Calina. He wanted to do it properly. Him in a tux, her in a white dress...the whole nine yards.
Calina smiled. "That's a pretty convincing argument, even to an atheist."
Matt smiled at her joke, but wished he knew if there was any truth beneath her light, teasing tone. Was she actually swayed by his reasoning? Or did she just want to break the tension of the moment? He'd promised not to pressure her, but he'd just laid all his cards on the table, and she still held hers maddeningly close to her chest. "Any, uh, rebuttal statements from opposing counsel?"
She let out a shaky laugh. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm opposing counsel..."
"On the jury, then. Weighing up the arguments."
"Yeah. I just need a little more time to deliberate. If that's okay."
He kissed her hand. "Of course it's okay."
He rose up on his knees and made a move to stand, but she grabbed the front of his t-shirt, holding him in place. "I, um, did think about it. Before. From time to time."
He cocked his head, a genuine smile tipping up the corner of his mouth. "You did?"
"Yeah. Just silly daydreams."
"Not silly, Calina."
"It felt like it at the time."
"And now?"
"Now...?" She bit her lip, and smoothed out the creases she'd made in his shirt. "Now, it still feels kind of new between us. Too new to be thinking about that yet. I know that's not really fair to you, but it's been six years for me, Matt. I need some time to get used to this again."
"Hey, I get it. We're on different timelines."
Her brow creased. "That makes it sound like we're running parallel to each other, destined to never converge."
He leaned towards her, wedging himself firmly between her thighs. He tilted his head to kiss her neck. "Oh, there'll be plenty of converging," he smirked.
Her breath hitched when he kissed her again, but then she put her hand back on his chest, holding him at bay. "I was being serious. We need a better analogy."
"Okay, how about we're on the same track, but I'm a little ahead of you. I'll just have to slow down, let you catch up."
Her hand moved around to the back of his neck, and she played with ends of his hair. "What if my engine's a little damaged?" she asked. "And it needs some work in the shop first? You don't mind waiting?"
"I'll wait as long as it takes. I've got nowhere else to be." He cupped her face in both hands, and kissed her softly. Gently. "You're my destination, Callie." He kissed her cheek. "My last stop." The angle of her jaw. "My only port of call." Her lips again. "My safe harbour."
"You're mixing your transportation metaphors," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice as he kissed his way down her neck.
"Sweetheart?" he murmured against her skin.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Okay," she giggled, a light breathy sound that he felt beneath his lips. She was still laughing when he pushed her back on the couch and covered her body with his.
It was the best sound in the world.
-------
Chapter 24 coming soon
Tag list: @hollandorks @stilldreaming666 @sio-ina-bottle @tearoseart-blog @acharliecoxedfan @freckledbabyyy @chezagnes @ricearoni84 @brittbratt4567
If you’d like to be added - let me know!
#daredevil#daredevil fic#tabula rasa#daredevil fanfic#daredevil fanfiction#matt murdock#daredevil x original female character#marvel's daredevil#matt murdock fanfic#matt murdock x oc
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I will find you in any lifetime
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⛧°. ⋆༺☾𖤓༻⋆. °⛧
𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕𝕓𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕔𝕜𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥
If you're anything like me when it comes to writing a story or a fanfiction or anything, you'll find it difficult to build the world. to set the scene. I put together a little checklist of stuff that I find really helpful to create a world! I hope this helps! Happy writing!!
.• ° * જ⁀➴ Economy: How does it operate? Do people pay taxes? Is it paid with money or something else? What is the currency? Any faults? Who rules the land?
.• ° * જ⁀➴ The Land: What does it look like? Physically and Historically. The population? Is it a small town or a big city? Do people know it exists or is it a quiet unknown place? Make a map to get the lay of the land.
.• ° * જ⁀➴ History: What is the backstory to your world? How was it created? How long has it existed? Is there a mythology or a lore behind the world? Are there fairy tales or bedtime stories that foreshadow something in the future? What if the people that lived there knew something wasn't right about the world, just they didn't know what?
.• ° * જ⁀➴ Biology: What forms of life live here? Are your characters the only ones there or are there creatures lurking? Are the civilians human? A God/Goddess? Mermaids? Vampires? Are they creatures? What kind of biomes inhabit this place? Can certain characters only survive certain climates? Are there poisonous plants? Vicious monsters?
.• ° * જ⁀➴ Magic: If you're writing something fantasy related this part is crucial!! Is it a magical world? Is this a world where you want certain races? Vampires, Werewolves, Mermaid etc.... What kind of magic system is it? What does it rely on? What fuels it? Are there certain rules to the magic? Do you have to do something as a sacrifice in order to use the magic?
.• ° * જ⁀➴ Belief: Is it a word with a spiritual belief? Are there gods? Do people worship someone? Do they prey to a higher power? If its important to the story plot it out.
I have plenty more I can add. Let me know if you want a part 2!!
#saving for later#because I have an idea for a super ambitious fic set on an alien world#and it’s beyond anything I’ve written before…#my fic
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This genuinely ruined my whole damn week
youtube
this gotta be the saddest way i've ever seen a show announce they've been cancelled
#never heard of Tiny Chef until 3 days ago#then I saw this video#and it broke my damn stupid heart#LOOK AT HIM!!#tiny chef
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Part 4, Chapter 22
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness? Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action/violence and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and Wattpad
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PART 4
Chapter 22
Like with all vacations, time passed slowly, and all too quickly. But Matt and Calina made the most of it, spending hours talking and making love; cooking together, and walking by the lakeshore; playing with Nika, and hiking in the woods.
Though it wasn’t all plain sailing. Matt woke one night to find Calina gone, her side of the bed empty and the chalet devoid of her heartbeat. His own heart suddenly in his throat, he followed her scent through the living room, out the front door, and down the stairs. The grass crunched beneath his bare feet as he rounded the cabin, each blade coated in a layer of frost. “Calina?” he called, his whisper loud in the near-silence of the night.
He heard a hitched breath, a pounding heartbeat. And then he found her, huddled on the ground, clutching at Nika, her head buried in the dog’s fur.
He ran to her and fell to his knees by her side. “Hey. Hey, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
He put a hand on her arm, and felt the tremors racing through her. And he knew they had nothing to do with the temperature in the air, and everything to do with the scent of adrenaline on her skin, and how fast she was breathing.
She was having a panic attack.
He rubbed her back, trying to soothe her. “You’re okay, Callie. I’m here. You’re okay. You’re safe. Just breathe. Breathe with me, baby, nice and slow.” He felt goosebumps beneath his fingers, her skin like ice, and he knew the cold had to be making things worse. So he gathered her in his arms and stood up, cradling her with one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back. He carried her to the front of the chalet and up the stairs, with Nika following at his heels. The dog whined the whole way, sounding just as distressed as Matt felt.
Christ, he hated seeing Calina like this. But he hated more the fact that she’d tried to hide it from him.
He carried her into the bathroom and straight into the large walk-in shower. He set her gently on her feet, and reached one arm behind her to turn on the tap. The spray cascaded over them, the warm water drawing the chill from Calina’s body. He held her against his chest, stroking his hands over her back as she clutched at his waist, her fingers digging into the skin above his sweats.
By the time her breathing evened out and she relaxed her death-grip on him, the room was filled with steam and both of them were soaked through. “You back with me?” he asked.
She nodded, but he wasn’t convinced. There was still a tightness in her frame, as if she hadn’t completely shook off the anxiety - or whatever had triggered it.
He grasped the bottom of her t-shirt - the one he’d been wearing earlier that day - and pulled the sodden fabric over her head. He removed her underwear next, and quickly shucked his own sweats until they were both naked beneath the waterfall of the shower. He grabbed the shampoo bottle from the ledge and poured some of the liquid onto Calina’s hair.
He took his time, working up a lather and massaging her scalp as he washed the strands. She hummed and tipped her head back as he increased the pressure. He walked her back a step until she was fully under the spray, then rinsed out the suds, enjoying the feel of the thick silken mass sliding between his fingers.
The tension in her body had almost dissipated by the time her hair was clean, but Matt continued his ministrations. He grabbed the soap next and started gliding his hands over her body in long firm strokes. He paid attention to her shoulders and neck, kneading at her muscles until she slumped against him, her arms loosely wrapped around his waist.
“You feeling okay?” he asked.
She nodded, the gesture more convincing this time.
“You want to get out?”
“Yeah, ‘m tired.”
Matt smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Okay.” He shut off the water, and dried them both off. Then he lifted her into his arms again.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she protested weakly, even as her arms wound around his neck and her head dropped onto his shoulder.
“I want to.”
It was true. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to show her that he was there for her. Prove to her that she could rely on him - and that he would never judge her or think less of her during her moments of need.
He set her down on the bed gently, tucked them both under the covers, and pulled her warm, soft body against his. He wanted to talk with her - to ask her why she’d gone outside instead of waking him; to find out what had caused her panic attack - but he could sense her exhaustion.
Sure enough, within minutes, she was fast asleep.
Matt stayed awake for much, much longer.
———
“What happened last night?” he asked over breakfast the next morning. They were seated at the small kitchen island, perched on bar stools as they nibbled on slices of toast - neither of them seeming to have much of an appetite.
Calina sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Matt cocked his head. “What exactly are you sorry for?” he asked, sensing she was apologising for the wrong thing.
He was right.
“For having a panic attack. For worrying you.”
It was Matt’s turn to sigh. “Calina the only thing you need to be sorry for is not waking me up in the first place.”
She wiped her hands on her napkin, and played with the scrap of linen, twisting and pulling it with her fingers. He placed his hand over hers, stilling the anxious movements. “Talk to me. What happened?”
“I had a nightmare - not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately. I went outside to get some air. I was only planning to be gone for a few minutes, but the nightmare lingered, and it, uh, triggered a panic attack.”
“You should have woken me up.”
“You were sleeping so deeply, I didn’t want to disturb—”
“Disturb me, Calina! Shove me, kick me awake, I don’t care. I can catch up on sleep. I just don’t want you to have to deal with this on your own.”
“You shouldn’t have to deal with this!” she snapped, pulling her hand away. “God, I hate being this weak. This…fragile.”
“You’re not fragile. I don’t see you that way, and you shouldn’t either. You had a nightmare, Calina. Millions of people have them. I have them.”
“Yeah, but you don’t end up outside on your ass in the freezing cold at 3am struggling to breathe because of them.”
“And would you think less of me if I did? If our situation was reversed, would you be happy sleeping soundly while I was ‘outside on my ass’ dealing with that?”
“No,” she conceded. “No, of course not.”
“So wake me the fuck up next time, okay?”
She sighed. “Okay.”
“I mean it, Callie. This isn’t something you’re going through alone. I’m here - in sickness and in health - and I’m not going anywhere.”
“‘In sickness and in health’?” she parroted, her voice high and thready. “Did I, uh, forget the part where we got married?”
“No. But it feels like a technicality at this point, don’t you think?” Matt replied. He was surprised his voice sounded so calm and rational, given the enormity of the topic he’d just inadvertently raised. But while the ‘sickness and health’ comment had just kind of slipped out, the sentiment behind it was nothing new.
He remembered the moment on the lakeshore the other day, when it felt like they were exchanging vows. Pledging themselves to one another.
And every conversation since had just affirmed that feeling.
They loved each other. They wanted to be with each other. They’d promised to keep the memory of the other alive if the worst happened. There was no one else for either of them.
Matt didn’t think it was possible to feel more committed to another person.
He didn’t need a piece of paper. He didn’t even need to stand in God’s house in front of a priest and witnesses.
He was all in.
So yeah. Marriage felt like a technicality at this point. But he could tell the idea was freaking Calina out.
“Well that’s romantic,” she laughed, the sound strained and unconvincing. She scooted off her chair and took her plate to the sink. He could hear her heart rate kick up a gear, and she kept her back to him as she picked up a sponge and started cleaning the countertop that in no way needed cleaning.
“When the time comes, Calina, there will be romance,” he said, his voice soft but adamant. “I promise.”
She froze, the hand clutching the sponge hovering in the air. “‘When’?”
“When.”
She turned to face him. “Matt…I…”
“I’m just putting it out there, Calina. No pressure. No timescale. I’m just…telling you where I’m at.”
She blew out a shaky breath. Licked her lips. “Okay.”
Matt tried not to read too much into her response. To gauge whether it was a tacit ‘yes’ to his tacit proposal…or she was just agreeing to shelve this conversation for later. So he changed the subject instead. “Can I ask what the nightmare was about?”
She sighed and boosted herself onto the counter behind her, legs crossed at the ankle and hands gripping the edge of the wooden surface. “It was a- a mission that went wrong. One of our first. And one of the worst.” She explained about a cult in the mountains. A group of young girls held captive. Being five minutes too late to save them. “Afterwards, I saw the blood everywhere. In my nightmares, during the day, every time I closed my eyes. I just kept seeing it, and the way it dripped onto the floor, warm and liquid…”
Matt left his chair and came around the island to stand in front of her. He squeezed her thighs as he pressed a kiss to her bent head. “I’m so sorry you went through that. It sounds horrific.”
“I- I couldn’t get it out of my head,” she admitted, unhooking her ankles to loosely wrap her legs around his. “I still can’t, obviously, and Gossard thinks it’s because—” She cut off the sentence. Bit her lip, and looked away.
“What? What does she think?”
Calina sighed and scrubbed her forehead. “The little girl that I found. The one that I see…she, um, looked a lot like I did, when I was young. And Gossard thinks I’m projecting myself onto her.”
“That makes sense, given what you went through when you were that age.”
“Well, she also thinks I might be projecting my own child onto her - the one I’ll never get to carry myself.” She huffed out a laugh - a sharp, bitter sound. “Because why be tormented with just one trauma, when you can have three?”
Matt heard the immense pain lacing Calina’s sarcastic words, and his heart ached for her. “We, uh, we’ve never really talked about that.”
“What’s there to talk about? I can’t get pregnant. And it’s not like our lives are really conducive to being parents, anyway.”
“I know, but—”
She pushed him away and hopped off the counter. “Can we drop it, Matt? Please? I really don’t want to have another episode right now.”
“Okay,” he replied, respecting her wishes.
For now.
But he knew it was something they needed to talk about in the future. It was obviously such a raw wound to Calina, and he…
Well, he didn’t really know how he felt about.
When she’d first told him of her infertility - when she’d blurted it out in the middle of one of their biggest fights - he’d been stunned. And too angry and heartbroken about what they’d done to her, to think about how it impacted him.
He’d shoved the knowledge aside, packed it away down deep. He hadn’t felt the need to confront it, because children were such an abstract construct to him. So alien and out of place in the life he lived.
Until he met Izzy. Until she climbed onto his lap, and into his heart.
And suddenly the abstract construct took form. It had soft, wispy hair that smelled like coconuts. Pudgy limbs and grasping, curious fingers. A sweet piping laugh that tugged at that buried knowledge, wanted to pull it out in the open and imagine a world where he was a father, and where the child in his arms was his own.
His and Calina’s.
It was the loss of a dream he’d never really had - not until these past few weeks anyway - so it was hard to know how to feel about it. How to cope with it. And how to talk about it.
But he would wait until Calina was ready.
And maybe then he’d figure out how he felt.
———
Calina was quiet the rest of the morning.
She didn’t eat much at lunch, and afterwards, when they took Nika out for a run, there was no shared laughter or playful racing as they made their way through the woods. Instead they jogged in silence. And at the end of the trail, Calina sat on the old wooden bench and stared out to the valley below, one hand absentmindedly stroking through Nika’s fur.
Matt took the seat next to her. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.
“Hmmm?”
“You seem…not yourself.”
“I feel…,” she tilted her head, and paused, as if trying to identify the emotion. “Sad, I think. And guilty.”
“Guilty? Why?”
“I’m still thinking about the nightmare. About that little girl - and all the other ones in the compound that we couldn’t save.” She twisted to face him, one leg coming up on the bench between them.“How do I move past it, Matt?”
Matt shook his head. “I don’t think I’m the right person to give you advice on that. Isn’t that what Gossard is supposed to help you with?”
“I want your perspective, Matt. Your first-hand experience. I know you feel guilty when people get hurt on your watch, I know you do. But you don’t seem to let it cripple you. You’re not…haunted…by it. At least not that you let me see. So how do you cope?”
Matt leaned forward, his hands dangling between his knees, as he tried to find a response. One that would comfort Calina, one that would bring her some sort of peace. But it was a topic he’d struggled with for years - and he didn’t know if he had an answer for her.
So, instead, he borrowed some wisdom from an old friend. “I remember talking to Father Lantom about this once,” he said. “He’d just given the sermon at the funeral for one of my clients - someone I’d failed to protect. I tried everything to stop him being killed - everything - but I failed. And I felt guilty because of that.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That guilt can be a good thing. That it’s a soul’s call to action. And the only way to rid your heart of it, is to correct your mistakes, and keep going until amends are made.”
“How?” Calina said, her voice pained. “How do I make amends to that little girl - and all the other little girls? What about all the other people we failed over the last five years? What about before that? I spent a lifetime hurting people, Matt. How do I make amends for that?”
She sounded so distraught, so tortured, and Matt cursed himself for sharing that story. Father Lantom’s words had been meant for him - a man who’d been steeped in the Catholic doctrine of atonement and making amends and praying for salvation for decades.
They weren’t meant for Calina - a woman who’d been raised under a completely different system. “Hey, hey,” he said, capturing her hands and holding them tight. “Those sins were not yours. Anything and everything you did for the Red Room was on them.”
“What about all my other sins? Just because I don’t believe in the judgement of a higher power, doesn’t mean I don’t feel the weight of those failures.”
“But if you failed, it meant that you tried. And that is a hell of a lot more than most people do. So give yourself credit for that. And concentrate on the people that you’ve helped. There must be so many, Calina.”
She ducked her head, staring down at their clasped hands. “I guess.”
“No, don’t just guess. Tell me. Tell me about someone you saved.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I’m not sure you have the security clearance.”
He squeezed her hands. “Fuck clearance. It’s just you, me, the trees and the sky out here. So tell me a story, sweetheart. Tell me something good.”
She bit her lip as she thought for a moment. Then she spoke, her voice stilted at first, but soon relaxing into the lilting cadence she used to adopted when telling him tales of her past.
God, she was always so good at this, Matt thought, listening to her talk. She’d always had a talent for setting a scene and immersing him in the midst of the action. He could almost feel the hot sand beneath his feet and the scorching sun overhead as she described a mission in the desert of Botswana.
“Thanos’ snap destabilised the region,” she explained. “Too many good men disappeared, allowing the leader of one of the paramilitary groups to amass power. He became a warlord, subjugating a large part of the Ghanzi district. At first, the UN wasn’t going to intervene - this all happened right at the beginning of The Vanishing and there were so many other conflicts around the world to deal with. But then the Okavango delta flooded, and Moseki - the warlord - prevented humanitarian aid from reaching the area. He kidnapped a group of UNICEF volunteers for ransom, so we were sent in.”
“What happened?”
“We rescued the hostages.”
She said it with a shrug, so matter-of-fact, that Matt couldn’t help but smile. “You’re leaving out a lot of detail there, sweetheart.”
She shrugged again. “The detail was bloody and messy - Moseki’s gang didn’t go down without a fight. But all the hostages got out alive and unharmed. And we stayed in the region for a couple of months afterwards, helping those affected by the flood, and making sure a proper district council was elected and secure in power before we left.”
“Sounds like you saved a lot of people.” He let go of her hands, and tipped up her face with a finger beneath her chin. “You should be proud of that, Callie. I am.” He pressed a soft kiss to her mouth, trying to convey to her how amazing, and brave, and capable he thought she was.
She sighed against his lips. Then she stood up from the bench, taking a few steps forward to the edge of the clearing. “I am proud of that,” she said, her back to him. “And if I’m looking at things objectively, I know we did more good than not - our successes far outweighed our failures. But despite all that we accomplished, it feels like the world is as screwed up now as it was five years ago - just in a different way. Can I really walk away from that?”
“Do you want to?”
“I don’t know.” She turned to face him again, her arms crossed over her chest. “It’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I woke up in Wakanda and found out the world had changed again. It’s the question I’ve been asking ever since I was grounded from the team. And it’s the one I’ve been asking ever since you came back into my life. I just…I don’t know the answer.”
“What does your gut say?” Matt asked.
“It turns out my gut is a coward - it wants to keep being a Widow.”
“Why is that cowardly?”
“Because it’s the easy option. I know how to be a Widow. I mean, it was an adjustment at first, going from spy to soldier, but it’s all just fighting in the end. And I know how to do that. I’ve been doing it my entire life.”
“And you’re good at it,” Matt added. “You made a difference in the world - for those people in Botswana, and for all the others. Wasn’t that something you were always striving for? A way to make a difference?”
“I suppose,” Calina shrugged, kicking at the ground with the toe of her sneaker. “But it’s not like it was a conscious plan. I wasn’t looking for my purpose in life five years ago - I was just looking for something to force myself out of bed in the morning, when all I wanted to do was hide away from the world. I latched onto being a Widow when I had nothing else. It’s like I told you the other day - it was comforting, the familiarity of it.”
“Is it still comforting?”
She scoffed. “No. Definitely not. There’s too much responsibility now. For my team, for the people we’re trying to help…I never had to deal with that before, back in the Red Room. The weight of that responsibility, the guilt that comes with failing...it’s so hard.”
“I know it is.”
“But that brings me back to my original point. Can I really walk away from it all, when the world is still so messed up?”
“Yes,” Matt said.
She looked at him in surprise. “I wouldn’t expect that answer from you.”
Matt shrugged. “Like you said, you’ve been fighting your entire life. And you were forced into that life against your will. You’re allowed to stop when you’ve had enough - no one will blame you for that. You’re allowed to choose a different path.”
“Does that apply to you too?”
———
Matt froze. She could see every muscle in his body tense as her question took him by surprise.
It had taken her by surprise, too. She hadn’t meant to turn the conversation around on him, but now that the question was out there, she was more than curious about his answer.
“That’s different,” Matt responded, deflecting the issue.
“Is it?” Calina pushed. “You told me about Stick training you when you were just a child. How he wanted you to be part of…what was it called, again?”
“The Chaste.”
Calina nodded, the details of the conversation becoming clearer in her memory. They’d been in Fogwell’s, lying on the canvas of the boxing ring, both of them catching their breath after one of their sparring sessions. She’d asked Matt about a particular move, and he’d told her about the older blind man who’d taught him it as a boy. How Stick had shown Matt how to use his heightened senses to fight. She’d listened in disbelief as he’d gone on to explain about ancient warring factions - the Hand and the Chaste - and immortals, and resurrections, and dragon bones…
“You told me your life had gotten strange for a while,” she’d commented at the time. “But Matt…that all sounds…”
“Crazy?” he’d laughed. “Yeah, I know. But is it any crazier than a God of Thunder or aliens invading New York?”
“No, but that’s Avengers stuff. You’re just a lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen.”
But he’d never been ‘just a lawyer’ to her, had he? Even from the first moment she’d met him, she’d sensed something more beneath the surface. Secrets that spoke to her. A hidden darkness that echoed her own. And it turned out he had a past that resonated with hers as well - two children, on different continents, half a world apart, both trained to fight in order to serve someone else’s agenda. Used, and beaten and damaged, at a time in their lives when they should have been cared for and nurtured and loved.
But even three months - and six years - on from that conversation, Matt still had difficulty accepting what had been done to him. “You were forced into a life of fighting as well, Matt,” she said.
Matt shook his head, a frown marring his forehead. “I wasn’t forced. I needed it. Stick taught me how to survive in a world that only the two of us could sense. He taught me the difference between anger and rage. He helped me channel those feelings, gave me an outlet.”
“He was recruiting you into his war.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that he helped me. Our situations weren’t the same, Calina.”
“What about now? Our situations are the same now. We’ve both chosen to fight, of our own free will. We’ve bled and suffered and risked our lives to help those around us. You’re telling me I can choose to stop that at any time. That I can say when it’s enough. Do you think there’ll ever be a time when it’s enough for you?”
“I imagine it’ll get a little hard jumping off rooftops when I’m pushing 70,” Matt joked.
“I’m serious, Matt.”
Matt got to his feet and braced his hands on his hips. “Do you want me to stop? Is that what you’re asking?”
His red lenses hid his eyes from her, concealing the emotion behind his question. His body language spoke of his unease, but she couldn’t read the tone of his voice. He didn’t sound angry or belligerent. Just…guarded, maybe. As if he was worried she was about to make him choose.
But she’d never do that. “No,” she answered forcefully, taking a step towards him. “I’ve always known that Daredevil is a part of you. I’m just trying to understand why I’m allowed to stop, but you can’t.”
“It’s like you said. It’s a part of me. I- I need it. I’ve tried to stop in the past, but I’ve always gone back to the suit. To that life. Because it’s who I am.” He gave her a close-lipped smile, one that was rueful and a little sad.
And she knew what that expression meant. She knew there would always be a part of Matt that was ashamed of that need. A part of him that thought it reflected some corrupted, sinful aspect of his soul.
No matter how often she tried to convince him otherwise.
She closed the distance between them and reached up to caress the edges of that sad smile with her thumb. “I guess that’s what I need to figure out, then,” she said. “Am I a Widow, down to my core? Is that who I am? Or is it just a role I was forced into playing?”
Matt turned his head to kiss the pad of her thumb. “Whatever the answer is, we’ll make it work. I promise.” He took her hand and gave it a gentle tug. “Come on. Let’s head back. It’s too cold out here for all this introspection.”
She laughed and let him lead her back down the path towards the chalet.
She hoped that Matt was right.
She hoped they could find a way to figure it all out - the geography that separated them; the uncertainty about her place with the Widows; her damaged psyche…
She watched him as they made their way back home, admiring his confident stride as he navigated through the woods. She smiled at the way the sunlight teased out the red in his hair, and her grin widened when he reached down to grab a stick and throw it for Nika.
And suddenly, she knew that Matt was right.
Hope - that nebulous, tormenting, fickle concept - had no place between them.
They had faith instead.
And they had love.
They would make it work.
No matter what.
————–
Chapter 23 coming soon
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Part 4, Chapter 22
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness? Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action/violence and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and Wattpad
Masterlist
Reference pics
————–
PART 4
Chapter 22
Like with all vacations, time passed slowly, and all too quickly. But Matt and Calina made the most of it, spending hours talking and making love; cooking together, and walking by the lakeshore; playing with Nika, and hiking in the woods.
Though it wasn’t all plain sailing. Matt woke one night to find Calina gone, her side of the bed empty and the chalet devoid of her heartbeat. His own heart suddenly in his throat, he followed her scent through the living room, out the front door, and down the stairs. The grass crunched beneath his bare feet as he rounded the cabin, each blade coated in a layer of frost. “Calina?” he called, his whisper loud in the near-silence of the night.
He heard a hitched breath, a pounding heartbeat. And then he found her, huddled on the ground, clutching at Nika, her head buried in the dog’s fur.
He ran to her and fell to his knees by her side. “Hey. Hey, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
He put a hand on her arm, and felt the tremors racing through her. And he knew they had nothing to do with the temperature in the air, and everything to do with the scent of adrenaline on her skin, and how fast she was breathing.
She was having a panic attack.
He rubbed her back, trying to soothe her. “You’re okay, Callie. I’m here. You’re okay. You’re safe. Just breathe. Breathe with me, baby, nice and slow.” He felt goosebumps beneath his fingers, her skin like ice, and he knew the cold had to be making things worse. So he gathered her in his arms and stood up, cradling her with one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back. He carried her to the front of the chalet and up the stairs, with Nika following at his heels. The dog whined the whole way, sounding just as distressed as Matt felt.
Christ, he hated seeing Calina like this. But he hated more the fact that she’d tried to hide it from him.
He carried her into the bathroom and straight into the large walk-in shower. He set her gently on her feet, and reached one arm behind her to turn on the tap. The spray cascaded over them, the warm water drawing the chill from Calina’s body. He held her against his chest, stroking his hands over her back as she clutched at his waist, her fingers digging into the skin above his sweats.
By the time her breathing evened out and she relaxed her death-grip on him, the room was filled with steam and both of them were soaked through. “You back with me?” he asked.
She nodded, but he wasn’t convinced. There was still a tightness in her frame, as if she hadn’t completely shook off the anxiety - or whatever had triggered it.
He grasped the bottom of her t-shirt - the one he’d been wearing earlier that day - and pulled the sodden fabric over her head. He removed her underwear next, and quickly shucked his own sweats until they were both naked beneath the waterfall of the shower. He grabbed the shampoo bottle from the ledge and poured some of the liquid onto Calina’s hair.
He took his time, working up a lather and massaging her scalp as he washed the strands. She hummed and tipped her head back as he increased the pressure. He walked her back a step until she was fully under the spray, then rinsed out the suds, enjoying the feel of the thick silken mass sliding between his fingers.
The tension in her body had almost dissipated by the time her hair was clean, but Matt continued his ministrations. He grabbed the soap next and started gliding his hands over her body in long firm strokes. He paid attention to her shoulders and neck, kneading at her muscles until she slumped against him, her arms loosely wrapped around his waist.
“You feeling okay?” he asked.
She nodded, the gesture more convincing this time.
“You want to get out?”
“Yeah, ‘m tired.”
Matt smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Okay.” He shut off the water, and dried them both off. Then he lifted her into his arms again.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she protested weakly, even as her arms wound around his neck and her head dropped onto his shoulder.
“I want to.”
It was true. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to show her that he was there for her. Prove to her that she could rely on him - and that he would never judge her or think less of her during her moments of need.
He set her down on the bed gently, tucked them both under the covers, and pulled her warm, soft body against his. He wanted to talk with her - to ask her why she’d gone outside instead of waking him; to find out what had caused her panic attack - but he could sense her exhaustion.
Sure enough, within minutes, she was fast asleep.
Matt stayed awake for much, much longer.
———
“What happened last night?” he asked over breakfast the next morning. They were seated at the small kitchen island, perched on bar stools as they nibbled on slices of toast - neither of them seeming to have much of an appetite.
Calina sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Matt cocked his head. “What exactly are you sorry for?” he asked, sensing she was apologising for the wrong thing.
He was right.
“For having a panic attack. For worrying you.”
It was Matt’s turn to sigh. “Calina the only thing you need to be sorry for is not waking me up in the first place.”
She wiped her hands on her napkin, and played with the scrap of linen, twisting and pulling it with her fingers. He placed his hand over hers, stilling the anxious movements. “Talk to me. What happened?”
“I had a nightmare - not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately. I went outside to get some air. I was only planning to be gone for a few minutes, but the nightmare lingered, and it, uh, triggered a panic attack.”
“You should have woken me up.”
“You were sleeping so deeply, I didn’t want to disturb—”
“Disturb me, Calina! Shove me, kick me awake, I don’t care. I can catch up on sleep. I just don’t want you to have to deal with this on your own.”
“You shouldn’t have to deal with this!” she snapped, pulling her hand away. “God, I hate being this weak. This…fragile.”
“You’re not fragile. I don’t see you that way, and you shouldn’t either. You had a nightmare, Calina. Millions of people have them. I have them.”
“Yeah, but you don’t end up outside on your ass in the freezing cold at 3am struggling to breathe because of them.”
“And would you think less of me if I did? If our situation was reversed, would you be happy sleeping soundly while I was ‘outside on my ass’ dealing with that?”
“No,” she conceded. “No, of course not.”
“So wake me the fuck up next time, okay?”
She sighed. “Okay.”
“I mean it, Callie. This isn’t something you’re going through alone. I’m here - in sickness and in health - and I’m not going anywhere.”
“‘In sickness and in health’?” she parroted, her voice high and thready. “Did I, uh, forget the part where we got married?”
“No. But it feels like a technicality at this point, don’t you think?” Matt replied. He was surprised his voice sounded so calm and rational, given the enormity of the topic he’d just inadvertently raised. But while the ‘sickness and health’ comment had just kind of slipped out, the sentiment behind it was nothing new.
He remembered the moment on the lakeshore the other day, when it felt like they were exchanging vows. Pledging themselves to one another.
And every conversation since had just affirmed that feeling.
They loved each other. They wanted to be with each other. They’d promised to keep the memory of the other alive if the worst happened. There was no one else for either of them.
Matt didn’t think it was possible to feel more committed to another person.
He didn’t need a piece of paper. He didn’t even need to stand in God’s house in front of a priest and witnesses.
He was all in.
So yeah. Marriage felt like a technicality at this point. But he could tell the idea was freaking Calina out.
“Well that’s romantic,” she laughed, the sound strained and unconvincing. She scooted off her chair and took her plate to the sink. He could hear her heart rate kick up a gear, and she kept her back to him as she picked up a sponge and started cleaning the countertop that in no way needed cleaning.
“When the time comes, Calina, there will be romance,” he said, his voice soft but adamant. “I promise.”
She froze, the hand clutching the sponge hovering in the air. “‘When’?”
“When.”
She turned to face him. “Matt…I…”
“I’m just putting it out there, Calina. No pressure. No timescale. I’m just…telling you where I’m at.”
She blew out a shaky breath. Licked her lips. “Okay.”
Matt tried not to read too much into her response. To gauge whether it was a tacit ‘yes’ to his tacit proposal…or she was just agreeing to shelve this conversation for later. So he changed the subject instead. “Can I ask what the nightmare was about?”
She sighed and boosted herself onto the counter behind her, legs crossed at the ankle and hands gripping the edge of the wooden surface. “It was a- a mission that went wrong. One of our first. And one of the worst.” She explained about a cult in the mountains. A group of young girls held captive. Being five minutes too late to save them. “Afterwards, I saw the blood everywhere. In my nightmares, during the day, every time I closed my eyes. I just kept seeing it, and the way it dripped onto the floor, warm and liquid…”
Matt left his chair and came around the island to stand in front of her. He squeezed her thighs as he pressed a kiss to her bent head. “I’m so sorry you went through that. It sounds horrific.”
“I- I couldn’t get it out of my head,” she admitted, unhooking her ankles to loosely wrap her legs around his. “I still can’t, obviously, and Gossard thinks it’s because—” She cut off the sentence. Bit her lip, and looked away.
“What? What does she think?”
Calina sighed and scrubbed her forehead. “The little girl that I found. The one that I see…she, um, looked a lot like I did, when I was young. And Gossard thinks I’m projecting myself onto her.”
“That makes sense, given what you went through when you were that age.”
“Well, she also thinks I might be projecting my own child onto her - the one I’ll never get to carry myself.” She huffed out a laugh - a sharp, bitter sound. “Because why be tormented with just one trauma, when you can have three?”
Matt heard the immense pain lacing Calina’s sarcastic words, and his heart ached for her. “We, uh, we’ve never really talked about that.”
“What’s there to talk about? I can’t get pregnant. And it’s not like our lives are really conducive to being parents, anyway.”
“I know, but—”
She pushed him away and hopped off the counter. “Can we drop it, Matt? Please? I really don’t want to have another episode right now.”
“Okay,” he replied, respecting her wishes.
For now.
But he knew it was something they needed to talk about in the future. It was obviously such a raw wound to Calina, and he…
Well, he didn’t really know how he felt about.
When she’d first told him of her infertility - when she’d blurted it out in the middle of one of their biggest fights - he’d been stunned. And too angry and heartbroken about what they’d done to her, to think about how it impacted him.
He’d shoved the knowledge aside, packed it away down deep. He hadn’t felt the need to confront it, because children were such an abstract construct to him. So alien and out of place in the life he lived.
Until he met Izzy. Until she climbed onto his lap, and into his heart.
And suddenly the abstract construct took form. It had soft, wispy hair that smelled like coconuts. Pudgy limbs and grasping, curious fingers. A sweet piping laugh that tugged at that buried knowledge, wanted to pull it out in the open and imagine a world where he was a father, and where the child in his arms was his own.
His and Calina’s.
It was the loss of a dream he’d never really had - not until these past few weeks anyway - so it was hard to know how to feel about it. How to cope with it. And how to talk about it.
But he would wait until Calina was ready.
And maybe then he’d figure out how he felt.
———
Calina was quiet the rest of the morning.
She didn’t eat much at lunch, and afterwards, when they took Nika out for a run, there was no shared laughter or playful racing as they made their way through the woods. Instead they jogged in silence. And at the end of the trail, Calina sat on the old wooden bench and stared out to the valley below, one hand absentmindedly stroking through Nika’s fur.
Matt took the seat next to her. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.
“Hmmm?”
“You seem…not yourself.”
“I feel…,” she tilted her head, and paused, as if trying to identify the emotion. “Sad, I think. And guilty.”
“Guilty? Why?”
“I’m still thinking about the nightmare. About that little girl - and all the other ones in the compound that we couldn’t save.” She twisted to face him, one leg coming up on the bench between them.“How do I move past it, Matt?”
Matt shook his head. “I don’t think I’m the right person to give you advice on that. Isn’t that what Gossard is supposed to help you with?”
“I want your perspective, Matt. Your first-hand experience. I know you feel guilty when people get hurt on your watch, I know you do. But you don’t seem to let it cripple you. You’re not…haunted…by it. At least not that you let me see. So how do you cope?”
Matt leaned forward, his hands dangling between his knees, as he tried to find a response. One that would comfort Calina, one that would bring her some sort of peace. But it was a topic he’d struggled with for years - and he didn’t know if he had an answer for her.
So, instead, he borrowed some wisdom from an old friend. “I remember talking to Father Lantom about this once,” he said. “He’d just given the sermon at the funeral for one of my clients - someone I’d failed to protect. I tried everything to stop him being killed - everything - but I failed. And I felt guilty because of that.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That guilt can be a good thing. That it’s a soul’s call to action. And the only way to rid your heart of it, is to correct your mistakes, and keep going until amends are made.”
“How?” Calina said, her voice pained. “How do I make amends to that little girl - and all the other little girls? What about all the other people we failed over the last five years? What about before that? I spent a lifetime hurting people, Matt. How do I make amends for that?”
She sounded so distraught, so tortured, and Matt cursed himself for sharing that story. Father Lantom’s words had been meant for him - a man who’d been steeped in the Catholic doctrine of atonement and making amends and praying for salvation for decades.
They weren’t meant for Calina - a woman who’d been raised under a completely different system. “Hey, hey,” he said, capturing her hands and holding them tight. “Those sins were not yours. Anything and everything you did for the Red Room was on them.”
“What about all my other sins? Just because I don’t believe in the judgement of a higher power, doesn’t mean I don’t feel the weight of those failures.”
“But if you failed, it meant that you tried. And that is a hell of a lot more than most people do. So give yourself credit for that. And concentrate on the people that you’ve helped. There must be so many, Calina.”
She ducked her head, staring down at their clasped hands. “I guess.”
“No, don’t just guess. Tell me. Tell me about someone you saved.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I’m not sure you have the security clearance.”
He squeezed her hands. “Fuck clearance. It’s just you, me, the trees and the sky out here. So tell me a story, sweetheart. Tell me something good.”
She bit her lip as she thought for a moment. Then she spoke, her voice stilted at first, but soon relaxing into the lilting cadence she used to adopted when telling him tales of her past.
God, she was always so good at this, Matt thought, listening to her talk. She’d always had a talent for setting a scene and immersing him in the midst of the action. He could almost feel the hot sand beneath his feet and the scorching sun overhead as she described a mission in the desert of Botswana.
“Thanos’ snap destabilised the region,” she explained. “Too many good men disappeared, allowing the leader of one of the paramilitary groups to amass power. He became a warlord, subjugating a large part of the Ghanzi district. At first, the UN wasn’t going to intervene - this all happened right at the beginning of The Vanishing and there were so many other conflicts around the world to deal with. But then the Okavango delta flooded, and Moseki - the warlord - prevented humanitarian aid from reaching the area. He kidnapped a group of UNICEF volunteers for ransom, so we were sent in.”
“What happened?”
“We rescued the hostages.”
She said it with a shrug, so matter-of-fact, that Matt couldn’t help but smile. “You’re leaving out a lot of detail there, sweetheart.”
She shrugged again. “The detail was bloody and messy - Moseki’s gang didn’t go down without a fight. But all the hostages got out alive and unharmed. And we stayed in the region for a couple of months afterwards, helping those affected by the flood, and making sure a proper district council was elected and secure in power before we left.”
“Sounds like you saved a lot of people.” He let go of her hands, and tipped up her face with a finger beneath her chin. “You should be proud of that, Callie. I am.” He pressed a soft kiss to her mouth, trying to convey to her how amazing, and brave, and capable he thought she was.
She sighed against his lips. Then she stood up from the bench, taking a few steps forward to the edge of the clearing. “I am proud of that,” she said, her back to him. “And if I’m looking at things objectively, I know we did more good than not - our successes far outweighed our failures. But despite all that we accomplished, it feels like the world is as screwed up now as it was five years ago - just in a different way. Can I really walk away from that?”
“Do you want to?”
“I don’t know.” She turned to face him again, her arms crossed over her chest. “It’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I woke up in Wakanda and found out the world had changed again. It’s the question I’ve been asking ever since I was grounded from the team. And it’s the one I’ve been asking ever since you came back into my life. I just…I don’t know the answer.”
“What does your gut say?” Matt asked.
“It turns out my gut is a coward - it wants to keep being a Widow.”
“Why is that cowardly?”
“Because it’s the easy option. I know how to be a Widow. I mean, it was an adjustment at first, going from spy to soldier, but it’s all just fighting in the end. And I know how to do that. I’ve been doing it my entire life.”
“And you’re good at it,” Matt added. “You made a difference in the world - for those people in Botswana, and for all the others. Wasn’t that something you were always striving for? A way to make a difference?”
“I suppose,” Calina shrugged, kicking at the ground with the toe of her sneaker. “But it’s not like it was a conscious plan. I wasn’t looking for my purpose in life five years ago - I was just looking for something to force myself out of bed in the morning, when all I wanted to do was hide away from the world. I latched onto being a Widow when I had nothing else. It’s like I told you the other day - it was comforting, the familiarity of it.”
“Is it still comforting?”
She scoffed. “No. Definitely not. There’s too much responsibility now. For my team, for the people we’re trying to help…I never had to deal with that before, back in the Red Room. The weight of that responsibility, the guilt that comes with failing...it’s so hard.”
“I know it is.”
“But that brings me back to my original point. Can I really walk away from it all, when the world is still so messed up?”
“Yes,” Matt said.
She looked at him in surprise. “I wouldn’t expect that answer from you.”
Matt shrugged. “Like you said, you’ve been fighting your entire life. And you were forced into that life against your will. You’re allowed to stop when you’ve had enough - no one will blame you for that. You’re allowed to choose a different path.”
“Does that apply to you too?”
———
Matt froze. She could see every muscle in his body tense as her question took him by surprise.
It had taken her by surprise, too. She hadn’t meant to turn the conversation around on him, but now that the question was out there, she was more than curious about his answer.
“That’s different,” Matt responded, deflecting the issue.
“Is it?” Calina pushed. “You told me about Stick training you when you were just a child. How he wanted you to be part of…what was it called, again?”
“The Chaste.”
Calina nodded, the details of the conversation becoming clearer in her memory. They’d been in Fogwell’s, lying on the canvas of the boxing ring, both of them catching their breath after one of their sparring sessions. She’d asked Matt about a particular move, and he’d told her about the older blind man who’d taught him it as a boy. How Stick had shown Matt how to use his heightened senses to fight. She’d listened in disbelief as he’d gone on to explain about ancient warring factions - the Hand and the Chaste - and immortals, and resurrections, and dragon bones…
“You told me your life had gotten strange for a while,” she’d commented at the time. “But Matt…that all sounds…”
“Crazy?” he’d laughed. “Yeah, I know. But is it any crazier than a God of Thunder or aliens invading New York?”
“No, but that’s Avengers stuff. You’re just a lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen.”
But he’d never been ‘just a lawyer’ to her, had he? Even from the first moment she’d met him, she’d sensed something more beneath the surface. Secrets that spoke to her. A hidden darkness that echoed her own. And it turned out he had a past that resonated with hers as well - two children, on different continents, half a world apart, both trained to fight in order to serve someone else’s agenda. Used, and beaten and damaged, at a time in their lives when they should have been cared for and nurtured and loved.
But even three months - and six years - on from that conversation, Matt still had difficulty accepting what had been done to him. “You were forced into a life of fighting as well, Matt,” she said.
Matt shook his head, a frown marring his forehead. “I wasn’t forced. I needed it. Stick taught me how to survive in a world that only the two of us could sense. He taught me the difference between anger and rage. He helped me channel those feelings, gave me an outlet.”
“He was recruiting you into his war.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that he helped me. Our situations weren’t the same, Calina.”
“What about now? Our situations are the same now. We’ve both chosen to fight, of our own free will. We’ve bled and suffered and risked our lives to help those around us. You’re telling me I can choose to stop that at any time. That I can say when it’s enough. Do you think there’ll ever be a time when it’s enough for you?”
“I imagine it’ll get a little hard jumping off rooftops when I’m pushing 70,” Matt joked.
“I’m serious, Matt.”
Matt got to his feet and braced his hands on his hips. “Do you want me to stop? Is that what you’re asking?”
His red lenses hid his eyes from her, concealing the emotion behind his question. His body language spoke of his unease, but she couldn’t read the tone of his voice. He didn’t sound angry or belligerent. Just…guarded, maybe. As if he was worried she was about to make him choose.
But she’d never do that. “No,” she answered forcefully, taking a step towards him. “I’ve always known that Daredevil is a part of you. I’m just trying to understand why I’m allowed to stop, but you can’t.”
“It’s like you said. It’s a part of me. I- I need it. I’ve tried to stop in the past, but I’ve always gone back to the suit. To that life. Because it’s who I am.” He gave her a close-lipped smile, one that was rueful and a little sad.
And she knew what that expression meant. She knew there would always be a part of Matt that was ashamed of that need. A part of him that thought it reflected some corrupted, sinful aspect of his soul.
No matter how often she tried to convince him otherwise.
She closed the distance between them and reached up to caress the edges of that sad smile with her thumb. “I guess that’s what I need to figure out, then,” she said. “Am I a Widow, down to my core? Is that who I am? Or is it just a role I was forced into playing?”
Matt turned his head to kiss the pad of her thumb. “Whatever the answer is, we’ll make it work. I promise.” He took her hand and gave it a gentle tug. “Come on. Let’s head back. It’s too cold out here for all this introspection.”
She laughed and let him lead her back down the path towards the chalet.
She hoped that Matt was right.
She hoped they could find a way to figure it all out - the geography that separated them; the uncertainty about her place with the Widows; her damaged psyche…
She watched him as they made their way back home, admiring his confident stride as he navigated through the woods. She smiled at the way the sunlight teased out the red in his hair, and her grin widened when he reached down to grab a stick and throw it for Nika.
And suddenly, she knew that Matt was right.
Hope - that nebulous, tormenting, fickle concept - had no place between them.
They had faith instead.
And they had love.
They would make it work.
No matter what.
————–
Chapter 23 coming soon
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#daredevil#daredevil fic#tabula rasa#daredevil fanfic#daredevil fanfiction#matt murdock#daredevil x original female character#marvel's daredevil#matt murdock fanfic#matt murdock x oc
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Another chapter posted!
We're still in Geneva, still having important™️ conversations, still reconnecting
but don't worry - the PLOT will return with a vengeance.
Masterlist
Summary: After the events of S3, Matt Murdock is trying to once again balance life as a lawyer and a vigilante. But he’s been scarred by loss and betrayal - will a mysterious new neighbour help him heal? Or will her secrets drag him back into the darkness?
Notes: This is a slow burn romance with an original female character, told in 4 parts. There is mystery, intrigue, action and angst - all the good stuff!
Also available on AO3 and I’m trying something new - posting on Wattpad
Reference pics and stuff
Fancasting
PART I: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19. COMPLETE!
PART II: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21 COMPLETE!
PART III: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23 COMPLETE!
PART IV: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24,
#Daredevil#Daredevil fic#matt murdock#matt murdock x oc#matt murdock x original character#matt murdock x original female character#daredevil x original female character#Tabula rasa#daredevil fanfic#daredevil fanfiction
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