A.N. Sorry for the wait on this, the last AN will explain all.
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"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" Frank asked. I smiled lightly as that was what he said when he first met me.
"You did kinda ask for me." I told him. I saw a seat next to the bed so took it.
"It was a big ask. But here you are." He wanted to move his hand to take mine, but his cuffs were restricting him.
"Here I am. Why did you ask for me?" I asked, leaning back in the chair. I saw that Karen was listening intently and occasionally taking notes when we talked.
"You know the blind guy. Blind guy wants to help me. So I ask for you. I haven't seen you in a long time, Ashley. I wanted to take the chance of seeing you again." He explained to me. "Even if you are engaged to someone else." He nodded to the ring on my finger. "He make you happy?"
"The happiest." I answered. Frank nodded at that, content that I was happy. "Okay, enough of the bullshit. They told me why you're in here and it's pretty damn stupid." I started to lecture. "I mean did you even think of your wife and kids in this, Frank?" He seemed annoyed I mentioned his family, but I had to. He wasn't thinking about the important people in his life. "Did you even think what this would do to them? What it would do to you?"
He didn't answer. Instead he looked to Karen, who was still sat taking notes and listening, before turning back to me.
"Tell the lady to leave." He whispered to me. I knew he was talking about Karen. She didn't hear him though.
"Why?" I asked quietly, making sure Karen couldn't hear us.
"There's things you don't know, Ashley. Tell her to leave. She can't hear it." His eyes pleaded with me, and he squeezed my hand which he managed to hold in his.
"If I do, the people outside will make me leave too. I'm only in cause she's in." I explained to him. I saw in his eyes that something bad had happened. "What have you done, Frank?" I started to think the worst. What had he done that got him into so much trouble? I had to listen to him and find out. "Karen?" I smiled ever so sweetly at her.
"Yeah?" She looked up at me, her face like a puppy in headlights.
"Can you leave the room for a minute? We need to talk about very personal stuff I'd rather you not hear." I hoped she fell for that.
"But Reye's said...."
"I don't care what she said. If you want answers, give me time alone and I'll get them. Please." I used the sweetest face I could muster in order for her to do as I say and leave.
"Fine. But Reye's won't be happy about this." She gathered her stuff and warned me.
"Honestly don't care." I told her. She sighed defeated and left the room. I got up quick after her and put a chair in front of the door so the other's couldn't get in. I could hear that women from before, Reye's, argue with Karen but Karen protested with the words I told her. They tried to open the door but couldn't. I rushed back to Frank to listen to what was so important he had to tell me by ourselves. "What happened? Tell me." I rushed, hearing more arguments outside.
"They're dead, Ashley." He whispered ever so quietly. I could hear him, but only just. I stared at him as those words left his mouth. "My family are dead. Those bastards I killed, they did it. Came into our house, shot all of us. Only I made it out alive. That's why I'm in here, cause those bastards needed telling off." His eyes were filled with anger, his hand tightened around mine. This wasn't the Frank I knew. The Frank I used to love. He was murderous, lead by his anger.
"I'm sorry about your family, Frank. But doing what you did, got you into much bigger trouble than you needed to be." I informed him, knowing the cost of going after someone for revenge.
"They killed my family, I don't care about what happens to me. As long as they're dead in the ground, I couldn't give a rats ass." I could see Frank starting to relive the memory of that night, how the anger kept rising in him. "And don't you tell me you've never gone after someone who killed someone you loved. You get out of it because of who you are. People like me don't get that option. It all boils down to me not caring about what happens to me. My family is dead, I got nothing to try for." I watched him intently as he talked. He talked so passionately, he really didn't care.
"You think your kids would want this for you?" I asked hoping to get through to him. He scoffed at me.
"What a card to play. They're dead, they don't want anything anymore." He spat.
"Well I'm sure they wouldn't want this."
"Oh and you think you know my kids? You don't know jack shit. You didn't talk to me for twenty years and yet you're here trying to tell me about what my kids would want? No, you don't get to do that. Why are even here? To laugh in my face that my life has gone to shit but yours is perfect?" He was getting irate now. Picking anything in his brain that he could thrown at me. I wasn't having it.
"Perfect? You think my life is perfect? Well, you don't know anything about me." I was starting to get angry now. My life was never the perfect one. I've lost so much.
"I don't know you? I know that after this you're gonna go back to your happily families with Captain America and save the world again. I know everyone's gonna love you no matter what you do because you're Ashley Gomez. America's perfect little soldier. And I know you ain't gonna care about me." He growled, getting angrier with every sentence.
"I will care, Frank. I dropped wedding dress shopping to come here to see you, I still care!" I informed him, but he didn't seem moved by that.
"But you're gonna go back home, look at that beautiful wedding dress and think about your life ahead with him. The man who get's to kiss you, love you, sleep next to you, see the look on your face when he compliments you. He doesn't know how lucky he is. You sit there in your ivory towers and never look down to see how we do. Well this is what I did. Cause what I did have was taken away from me. I had a family ripped away from me for what? Points? I can't bring them back but I can sure as hell paint the walls with their killers blood. You know I loved you, a lot more than I should have. And you let me do that, you let me fall for you all because you needed to partially fill the void your man left you, only for him to come back and fill it right back up. You may have lost a lot, but you're one bad day away from being me."
"Frank I-" I was cut off as the door to the room suddenly burst open, officers and Reye's entering the room. Reye's looked at me with the eyes of death. Not knowing the outburst that Frank just had.
"What a stunt to pull, Miss Gomez. You're 15 minutes are up. You can leave now. And you're not aloud to come back." She crossed at arms at me and nodded to the door. I didn't look back at Frank as it hurt too much to do so. The way he talked about me and Steve, like he was jealous of all those things Steve got to do. Frank is Frank and Steve is Steve, I wouldn't change what happened. But was it because of me and the way I was that sent Frank here? If I wasn't how I was, would Frank be okay? Would his family be okay? I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts before I walked out the room passing Matt, Foggy and Karen.
"Ashley! Wait up!" Matt shouted as the three of them walked to catch me up.
"What did he say?" Karen walked next to me, pen ready to hit paper.
"Nothing that's of use to you." I stopped walking and turned to the group. "I'm sorry, looks like he just wanted me to talk about us." I lied to them. I didn't want to lie to them, and of course Matt would know I was lying, but I still did it anyway. I couldn't tell them about his family. He may not care what happens to him but I still do. Karen's face fell and she started crossing stuff off her notepad.
"Well what a wonderful waste of time. Sorry you had to come down here for that." Foggy apologised, seeming to out what happened between us last time behind him.
"It's okay, I've had my fair share of wasted times with suspects." I told him, smiling. "I'm sorry, If that's all you wanted me to do then I guess I can go now? I kinda lied to everyone about where I am."
"Yeah, sure. Again, sorry you wasted your time on this." Matt stepped foreword.
"Again, it's okay. I'll see you guys some other time, for drinks maybe." I lightened up trying to get back to good old Ashley.
"For sure. On us of course." Karen smiled, bringing in me in for a hug. I hugged her figure before moving onto Foggy.
"Nice to see you again." He wrapped his arms around me. "By the way, last time is forgiven." He whispered in my ear, allowing me to become more calm with Foggy.
"You guys stay with Frank, I'll see Ashley out." Matt announced, making me link arms with him.
"Dude, you're blind, you can't see anything so how are you gonna see her out?" Foggy joked, putting a smile on my face. Oh Foggy, please don't change.
"Shut up, Foggy." Matt sent a knowing nod to Foggy, telling him it was a friend goodbye.
"Just be quick, Reye's may actually be out for blood." Foggy warned.
"Bye Ashley." Karen waved to me as me and Matt made our way downstairs and back to his office building, where my bike was parked outside.
"So, anymore exes I should know about or is it just Frank?" Matt asked as we stopped next to my bike.
"Just Frank. Don't worry, I didn't always date crazy men." I told him, making sure my bike was ready to go. He smiled at my joke.
"Did he say anything to you? I heard a lot of talking from Frank."
"They were personal matters, you don't need to know." I told him, twiddling my fingers in a circle. I didn't want to tell anybody about what Frank said to me. It cut deep what he said and I feel like all of this is my fault, for leading him somewhere I couldn't fully follow.
"Of course. If anything happens to him, do you want to me tell you?" He asked, hands in his pockets. I thought about it for a second.
"Tell me how long he's sentenced for and if he dies. The rest? I'm sure what you do as Nelson and Murdock will be right. Maybe even Daredevil can see to him." I nudged his arm, letting him know I read the papers. He smiled down at his feet, probably still unsure of the name the city came up for him. "It's a good name."
"It's really not." We laughed together. "It was nice to see you again, Ashley. I never got to say but congratulation on your engagement. I hope you and Mr Rogers have a happy married life. Don't let Frank ruin what you've waited so long for." I shook my head at how cute Matt was still. I smiled at him and hugged him tightly.
"Laters devil." I winked at him, joking with him name. He laughed as I put my helmet on. "You should call that Claire again. She seemed nice. Hot too." I only met Claire once, but she seemed nice and willing to help.
"Alright." He looked down at his feet, obviously not wanting to talk about it. "Laters Warrior." I rolled my eyes at him using the name the city came up for me. I didn't like it still but it was warming up to me. I waved to him one last time before before starting my bike and whizzing off.
Frank was a big part of my life, but now I have Steve, I have everything I've ever wanted. Frank is my past. I need to forget about my past to make way for my future. I still care for Frank. But the way he talked to me in there, the way he talked of my life. It seemed he cared little too much about me. I exited his life so long ago, why do I still care?
As I rode through Hell Kitchen I remembered my other friend that lived here. I heard about her ordeal with Kilgrave and how she snapped his neck to save Trish and others. I constantly texted Trish to know how Jess was. She kept me updated with her and she should be doing fine at the moment. I should really see them, say hi.
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A.N. I'm sorry this chapter took a while to come out. If you didn't see, I had three or four weeks where I needed to chill as I was dipping back into my depression. I was crying about my troubles to my boyfriend almost every day and hated waking up in the morning. I couldn't get any inspiration for any stories so I took a break.
But I feel much better now and obviously getting my inspiration back. I'm glad to be back writing and can't wait to get onto Civil War. I loved the movie so can't wait to write it.
Btw, Doctor Strange is very very good. The visuals are amazing and Benedict is a wonderful Stephen Strange. I gotta say, Tilda Swinton did really well in her role. Wonderful acting by her. You gotta go see it. The fact it too the third highest gross on an opening weekend by a Marvel movie should sway you to go see it.
Should I add a little Jessica Jones? Just a tiny bit?
-Emma x