SUNSHINE [Frank Castle]

CHAPTER ELEVEN - CHANGES

Things were different between Charlotte and Frank. Better. She told him about the men dragged in front of her, whose necks she snapped. She told him how she felt. Like an executioner. Which is exactly what Frank was to Ahmad Zubair.

Things were different between them in a way that was separate from the last time things changed. It was different in a different way than when she told him about her past. Now they were the same, and that seemed to really hit them as she described what she'd done.

Monsters. Murderers.

As she told him, she didn't care that Lieberman was there. Didn't care that he was listening, or that he too would know of this intimate horror in her past. All she cared about was that Frank would know he was not alone.

The two were solid after that, a strong trust and understanding built between them. Frank was no more damaged than she was, and she was certainly not the perfectly-perfect lawyer she was the day they met in the hospital.

They didn't know everything about each other, but if one asked about something they would most likely provide the information.

The day after the two agreed to a rather unlikely partnership with David Lieberman, Frank left to follow up on a lead Lieberman had given him. Charlotte decided to stay with Lieberman. She still didn't trust him.

She was better with tech anyway. If Lieberman tried anything, she would better diffuse it. So while he was out, she was babysitting.

Around twenty minutes after Frank left, her phone rang. She glanced down at it and saw the name on the screen: NATASHA. She answered it, even though he was sitting right there.

"Hey, Nat."

"Hey, Charlotte."

"What's up? Please, please tell me the world isn't ending. Again." Lieberman glanced up to give her an odd look at that.

"No, no. I was just calling to see how you're doing."

"Nat, I'm fine." She lowered her voice before she continued. "God, where are you? You're a goddamn fugitive and you're calling me to see how I am?"

"We're actually somewhere with a phone, so I thought that I should call. I don't know when I'll get to next."

Charlotte sighed and nodded, even though Nat couldn't see it. "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm okay, Nat, really."

"So how's Matt?" Charlotte froze, her answer sticking in her throat. "Charlotte?"

"He's. . . gone."

"Gone?"

"He's dead, Nat. He died."

"Oh god. I wish we had more time."

"It's okay. It's more important that you're safe. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm with Steve and Sam. I think we can stay where we are for a while. Do you. . . do you have anyone?"

"Yeah, I've got a friend staying with me right now. I can't say that he's the most talkative, but, he's good company. I've got some other friends, too. And Foggy, of course. I'm good. You don't need to worry about me."

"You don't need to worry about me, either." There was some rustling in the background, and Charlotte could hear Steve's voice. When Nat spoke again, it was to say a goodbye. "I should go. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Okay," she replied, sadly. "Bye, Nat."

"Bye, Charlotte. I love you." Then she hung up the phone, and Charlotte sighed. She clicked the button to hang up, then stared at the screen for a while.

"I didn't mean to find such awful things, you know." Lieberman's voice made her look up from her phone. He sounded as if he'd been wanting to say it for a while.

"What?"

"When I looked into you, I didn't think I'd find such horrible things. I'm sorry. . . for invading your privacy like that."

"You couldn't even begin to understand how it made me feel. To know that I had to tell another person what a monster I am."

Lieberman took in a deep breath. "I know it probably doesn't count for much, but I don't think you're a monster, Charlotte."

She hated that he was wrong, that it did count for something. Every person that said it counted for something, just as everyone who didn't counted as well.

Reluctantly, she replied: "Thank you."

There was a long silence that followed. Lieberman stared at his screens, and Charlotte squeezed her phone in her hand so hard she thought it might break.

"Why don't you tell them? Your wife and kids," Charlotte asked. "They're in pain without you. I understand the safety risk, but you know that you could find a way to make it work. Why just watch?"

He was quiet for a while, but did eventually answer. "I couldn't bear it. I'm not strong enough to face them, to hear my wife ask why it took me so long. To have her hate me for not coming back. I'm not ready. Not yet."

"Does she love you?"

He forced out a humourless laugh. "I would hope so."

"Then she would do anything, just to have you back." Charlotte knew, from personal experience. She would have done anything to have Matt back, just like she knew Frank would do anything to have Maria again.

"Maybe someday," he replied, and the finality to the words ended their conversation.

Charlotte left Lieberman to go to the bathroom after threatening him to make sure he wouldn't do anything while she was gone. When she returned, Frank had come back and was, as she often found him doing, yelling at Lieberman.

"You want to go up against Agent Orange with a pink Ruger and no ammo? Is that what you want to do, Lieberman?" He was clearly frustrated, but the fact that he was holding a pink gun was enough to make Charlotte burst out laughing as she entered the room.

"I'm sorry, I just— I just think you should make that a permanent part of your look." Frank shot her a look, though not for long. He sat down where she'd been sitting before he arrived. "I guess I can assume your gun hunt was a bust."

"Couldn't get shit," he muttered angrily.

Charlotte sighed. "I have a few guns in my apartment. My 'just in case' guns. I didn't want to use them unless I absolutely had to. It's late, we can go get them tomorrow." Frank nodded in agreement, and she walked up and laid a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get them, Frank. I promise."

He knew that she wasn't talking about the guns.

A/N: Kind of a meh chapter tbh. I've gotta get out of shipping her with Matt after that last one. But, I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for reading :)