Kate
Time didn’t lessen the pain. But training and working did. Every blow felt like penance. Penance for sending Eleanor to jail, penance for letting her die, penance for not finding her killer fast enough. But Kate let it hone her. She became faster, stronger, shrewder, more mindful and alert.
Yelena, Natasha, and Maria still wouldn’t let Kate see the evidence they’d gathered. They said they were trying to protect her, to keep her from seeing the images from the prison, but it felt like she was being babied. She knew they wouldn’t stop searching, but they also didn’t seem to be burning with the urgency that Kate felt every day.
Clint had gone home after a week, demanding that Kate keep in touch. Usually that meant that he expected to hear from her once a month or so, but suddenly he seemed on top of his schedule and texted her every day. Once she almost asked him if Laura had set him a reminder, but knew he’d say something snarky about being able to take care of himself. Which was a total lie. He couldn’t find his phone half the time, so Laura must have been helping him. Unless he’d appropriated Nate for the task.
Even though nothing had changed in her everyday life, everything felt awkward to Kate. It was like she wasn’t sure she was doing ‘it’ right. When she said as much to Yelena, Yelena looked confused and asked what ‘it’ was. Kate thought for a minute. “‘It’ is mourning, I guess. It’s like- when my dad died, I was just a kid. I was just sad. But my friends didn’t get it, because most of them had never lost a parent. But now I’m an adult, but my mom has been- had been ignoring me and she was in jail and is supposed to be this bad person. But I still love- loved her, you know?” The tears came again and she tried to choke them back.
“It’s okay, Kate. You are allowed to be sad,” said Yelena, pulling Kate down into a hug.
Kate hiccupped. “I just- I don’t- I don’t want you- I don’t want to-” The thoughts were swirling but the words wouldn’t come out. She couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t stop. What she wanted to say to Yelena was that she didn’t want Yelena to leave, was scared that she was both too much and not enough for Yelena, that she would end up truly alone.
Yelena held her tight, running a hand across Kate’s back, but not speaking, a relief when she expected to be shushed. “I have you, Kate.”
----
It took another week for her to work up the courage to visit Jack. After seeing him at the funeral she felt bad that she hadn’t reached out after Christmas, but it wasn’t like they’d been close at all before that. When he opened the door to her knock a broad grin spread across his face. “Katie!” He pulled her into a hug, before showing her into his apartment. The space was opulent, rich, exactly as she would have expected Jack’s place to look. The living room walls were covered with swords and she resisted the urge to make a snarky comment about it.
“What brings you here, my dear?” He showed Kate to a chair and then walked to the bar cart, even though it was only two o’clock on a Friday afternoon. He held up a glass and she nodded.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing,” she answered honestly, accepting the drink as he sat across from her.
“That’s thoughtful. I must confess that it doesn’t yet feel real. I loved your mother very much. And I cannot reconcile the idea that she actually killed my uncle- I smell a fish in that situation. But, alas, here we are.” He dabbed away a tear with his immaculate handkerchief. Had the man ever heard of lounge clothes? “How are you doing, Katie?”
“I mean- you know. It’s hard. Things were messy and I just wish- I wish we’d had more time. I wish she’d given me a chance.”
Jack grabbed her hand. “She was so proud of you, my dear. Every moment she spoke of you, her face alit. She loved you so much, even when - ahem - even in these last months, she spoke of you often.”
“So you’ve been talking to her since Christmas?”
“Yes, we spoke every week on Friday afternoons.” He glanced at the clock. “At almost this time exactly. She never missed a call. She felt so torn about not speaking with you, but after you two spoke again she called me on a Monday night to tell me how happy it made her! You were her everything.”
Then why did she leave me? “The lawyer said you provided evidence to him in January. Where did you get it?”
“Your mother had it all saved in an account in a cloud, I believe they’re called. She told me it was only a copy and that there were many copies. She said she wanted to protect me. From what, I don’t know. And now she has…” The handkerchief came out again, this time used slightly less gracefully.
“Was there anything else? Maybe she said something in passing, or…”
“No, I’m afraid not. I don’t know what you’re searching for, the case has already swallowed the sword, as they say.”
Swallowed the sword? Was that like ‘bit the bullet’? Did that even make sense? “Has anyone given you any trouble…?”
“Oh, no. Are you talking about that mess your mother was in? She cleared my name. No, I’m afraid it is just my family that is causing me difficulties. Now, enough of that, tell me about yourself. It has been too long!”
Kate filled him in on finishing school and graduating, and spent at least five minutes gushing over Yelena. She didn’t want to tell him everything, especially about being an Avenger, but since she had always been reticent around him, he didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he just didn’t realize that normal people had jobs. Luckily the brief amount of time since the funeral seemed to have given him less of an inclination towards the melancholy recollections that he’d shared after the burial, and they chatted for a little while about fond memories of Eleanor. It still felt raw for Kate - and she could only imagine how it felt for Jack - but he was the only person left who even came close to knowing the real Eleanor the way Kate did.
“After the unfortunate events at Christmas I joined in with many of the New York City LARPers - quite the group! - and indeed it has become a place of refuge for me,” said Jack as they said their goodbyes. “I know you are acquainted with many of the members; if you’d ever like to join me at an event, it would be my honor.”
“You know what, Jack? I think I’d like that. You have my number now, right? Send me a text.”
Kate bit back a chuckle as his eyebrows reached his hairline. “A text? I’m afraid I don’t-”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I can’t wait,” she said with an earnestness that surprised even her.
Kate scanned the area as she stepped onto the street, pulling on sunglasses. Nothing was obviously amiss, but that just meant that Yelena was hiding well enough that Kate wouldn’t harass her about acting like a bodyguard. She pulled out her phone and called her girlfriend, still scanning the crowd.
“Kate Bishop,” was Yelena's predictable greeting.
“I thought you didn’t answer the phone when you were working,” teased Kate.
“But it is you. And I am not working.”
“Oh, really. So if I told you that I was being followed and am scared for my safety you would…”
The call dropped and Kate bit her lip, counting silently to herself. Twelve seconds, and Yelena was standing in front of her, looking only slightly breathless. Kate started laughing.
“What? Are you injured?” Kate laughed harder. “Why are you laughing?! Where is the danger?!”
Kate schooled her face to faux seriousness. “Just testing your response time.”
Yelena frowned and Kate just couldn't help it, she started laughing again. Her girlfriend had the most ridiculous frown. It was utterly adorable. “Kate…”
“This is what you get for following me!”
“I just want to make sure you are okay.”
“Yelena, look at me,” she gestured at herself, “I’m fine. I appreciate your concern, but if you weren’t following me before my mother died, why follow me now? I am fully capable of defending myself. I am armed, and I am a-” she glanced around and leaned forward “-superhero.”
“I just want to keep you safe! You mean so much- too much- a lot- and if something-”
Kate grabbed one of Yelena’s flailing hands and clasped it tightly. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Yelena.”
“You cannot promise that!”
“You can’t always protect me.” Kate kissed the palm of Yelena’s hand, catching on the rough scars there. “But you can let me buy you an ice cream.”
She steered Yelena towards the ice cream place around the corner and hoped that the argument was forgotten.
----
Even though it didn’t seem like there was enough evidence to really go anywhere, Kate refused to give up hope. In stolen moments she looked into every case she could find against Wilson Fisk and his known associates. One law firm popped up repeatedly in her searches: Nelson and Murdock, now doing business as Nelson, Murdock, and Page. If there was any hope of getting formal charges against Fisk, it seemed they were her best bet.
But Yelena and Natasha seemed to think it would be best if they continued to handle things, refusing to let Kate get too close. Which just meant that she would have to dodge her tail, lie about who she was, and cover her tracks if she wanted to continue. No big deal.
Using a meeting at Bishop Security as cover, Kate planned all three carefully. She walked into the building at 8:30 in a crowd of people, and turned to head to the elevator bank. Ducking into the bathroom she pulled off her suit jacket and shoved it in her briefcase, leaving her in just a blouse and slacks, much more feminine than her usual attire. She pulled on the Yankees hat Yelena had gotten for her on their first date. Remembering Natasha’s admonishments that disguise was mostly about posture and attitude, Kate adjusted her stride and bearing and ducked out the side door to hail a cab.
The lawyers’ office was quiet and dim. “Can I help you?” asked someone as the door closed behind Kate. She jumped slightly.
“Oh, yes, hi. I’m looking for Mr. Murdock or Mr. Nelson. About a case- maybe. I’m not sure.”
“I’m Mr. Nelson - you can call me Foggy - won’t you take a seat?” He pulled out a beat-up chair and gestured for Kate to sit. “Matt - Mr. Murdock - is running late. Can we get you a drink?” He glanced over to the only other occupant of the space. Kate shook her head. “This is my associate, Karen Page.”
Kate leaned into the persona she’d accidentally created when she’d walked in and jumped - meek, lost. She’d come up with a pseudonym ahead of time knowing that if she didn’t she’d end up with something like Eleanor Knight, Katie Rook, or Katya Cardinal. She still hadn’t been that creative and - triggered by the name on Yelena’s mailbox - had settled on Nora Rush.
Pulling out the stack of print-off and a memory stick with copies of the files, Kate started explaining what she could. She’d made sure to scrub any mention of her mother from things, and excluded all the files that were the accounts of what the Bishops had owed Kingpin. There was still quite a bit left, even though it had never been enough to build a solid case. Kate just had to hope that Nelson, Murdock, and Page were already working on something that could tie it all together.
As Kate finished telling her story - explaining the situation while trying to keep the secret of how she’d acquired the information - the door opened. “Matt,” called Foggy. “I think we’ve got something.”
Matt Murdock wasn’t exactly what Kate had expected. She was used to corporate lawyers, the kind who were brusk, no-nonsense, mean, sometimes even petty. Mr. Murdock was slightly unkempt, smiling softly. He was clearly visually impaired, using a cane to navigate the space deftly. Foggy filled him in as he made his way over. He stopped in front of Kate and held out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Rush.”
After they’d finished their greetings and were all seated again, Matt - as he’d insisted she call him - asked astute questions about the information she’d brought. If he knew she wasn’t being forthcoming with everything, she couldn’t tell. He was difficult for her to read, and she realized how much she relied on people’s eye movements to read their emotions and intentions. A definite flaw in her training.
They were all honest in their assessment that there didn’t seem to be enough evidence there to start anything, but that they would gladly use it if they could. She gave them an email address she’d create for Nora Rush to use if they wanted to get in touch with her and thanked them all profusely. She tried not to get her hopes up, but it was all she could do with the way Natasha and Yelena had tied her hands.
When she got back to the Bishop Security building she ducked into the bathroom again and changed back into her suit, running a lint roller over her pants and making sure her hair was immaculate. Stepping back out onto Park Ave. she glanced around. Yelena wasn’t in sight, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. She was always there.
----
Things went back to normal at work. Or as normal as it could be when you were a superhero. They’d been slowly chipping away at Yelena and Natasha’s project of freeing all the black widows, and Maria must have decided that Kate was fit enough to go back to it, because she sent them to Cuba to free two women.
On the quinjet Kate tried to focus on what Natasha was saying, quietly absorbing all the information she was given.
“What, no questions?” she joked at Kate’s silence.
Opening her mouth to joke or protest, Kate realized she had nothing to say. Yelena turned from the pilot’s seat to look back at Kate. Their eyes met. Kate straightened and closed her mouth, shaking her head. Natasha just whispered a quiet okay and walked back to the co-pilot’s seat, but Yelena kept glancing at her for the rest of the flight.
Being in Cuba highlighted Kate’s greatest weakness as part of the team - she didn’t speak anything but English. It would be one thing if she were working as the kind of Avenger that battled Chitauri and fought Loki or Thanos, but things were ominously quiet on that front. Instead she was doing the kind of work that Yelena and Natasha were trained for, and learning a lot along the way. So she made a mental note to ask Maria or Natasha about other languages, and conceded that she also really did need to learn to drive.
But her mind wasn’t really in it. She kept thinking about Kingpin. When Natasha and Yelena left to scout the buildings where their target and his widows were, she stayed at their temporary base to provide backup. She listened in on their mostly-silent comms the first night, geared up and ready to go. Nothing happened, and after they’d all slept the sisters again went to scout and Kate once more found herself waiting. Idly, she reread the mission notes.
Once she’d finished she realized she’d gotten the one thing she’d been waiting for: access to the database where the others had likely been storing the evidence from Eleanor’s murder. Taking a chance, she backed out of the documents for their mission and scrolled through the database. While Maria was likely meticulous about keeping things protected, she also probably had no reason to suspect that Kate would get free reign to the database, and there was no reason to protect the data from anyone else in the organization.
Sure enough, it was easy to find in the well-ordered files. Four files sat in the folder. ‘Bishop_Eleanor_Autopsy.pdf’, ‘Bishop_Eleanor_Cell_Photos.pdf’, ‘Bishop_Eleanor_Suspects.pdf’, and ‘Fisk_Wilson_Evidence.pdf’. Yelena must have copied the evidence file from Kate’s computer. If there was only enough time to read one, it had to be the list of suspects, so Kate opened it quickly and started to read. Just like every other jail and prison in the United States it seemed like the Singer Center was running short-staffed. It made the list shorter than it could have been, but it also probably made it easier for Kingpin to get the job done. Running down the list of names, Kate noticed that there were notes for each individual. Natasha and Yelena had been investigating and had eliminated all but five guards.
Kate glanced around. The techs working with them were tapped into the comms, trying to stay on top of what Yelena and Natasha were (or weren’t) doing. Manuel was on her own tablet. Kate walked over to one of the tech’s desks and quickly took a sticky note from the top of their pad. Walking back to her desk she noted the names of the five guards. She put down her tablet and picked up the quiver resting at her feet, waiting for Natasha and Yelena to call her in as backup. Pretending to examine the arrows, she emptied them all from the quiver and peeled up the bottom of the bag before sticking the note underneath. She put the solid bottom back in, then quickly put all of the arrows back into place.
Yelena reported in; all was well. Kate took a deep breath and went back to the tablet. She already knew what was in the evidence file on Kingpin. Did she want to see the evidence from the prison? She tapped her fingers along the back of the tablet. There would be no going back.
Taking a deep breath, Kate clicked on the autopsy file. The first page was all of Eleanor’s basic information. The second and third discussed - in detail - the extent of her injuries. At the bottom it said read ‘Cause of Death: Suicide.’ She kept scrolling. The next page was photographs. Kate thought she could handle it after all of the things she’d seen, but she couldn’t. Bile rose in her throat and she fought the urge to vomit. Quickly closing the file and going back to the mission reports, she slammed the tablet down on the desk. Manuel looked up in concern.
“Sorry, accident,” muttered Kate. She stood quickly and made her way to the door, mumbling something about needing to use the restroom. When she got to the bathroom she sat down on the closed toilet. She closed her eyes and the vision of her mother’s body filled her mind. Scrambling, she dropped to the floor and opened the toilet just in time to empty the contents of her stomach.
It took a few minutes for the heaving to stop and when it did she lay down, letting the cool tiles soothe her face, trying not to think about what might be on a bathroom floor. Through the comms Natasha reported in, telling Manuel and Kate to be on alert. Kate got to her feet. Turning on the faucet, she splashed water on her face. She brushed her teeth quickly, knowing that if she didn’t someone would figure out what she’d been doing.
Kate returned to her post. The night stretched out slowly in front of her. Images of her mother danced in front of her. She thought about the list of guards hidden in her quiver - she was one step closer to punishing everyone who had hurt her mother, one step closer to getting even with Kingpin.