Unravel

Four days.

It had been four long days of complete and utter silence. Liz had no news pertaining her friendly gang of vigilantes. No information from the FBI. Ewan. Her father. Bucky. No one. And it was slowly driving her insane.

The only positive side to it was that it drove her to practice walking until she wasn’t constantly clenching her teeth and gripping things so hard her knuckles turned white. She also practiced so she could make a quick and quiet getaway if she needed or wanted to. As a result, she was now also able to get to the bathroom and back again without any help, making her finally feel less like an oversized toddler and more like a somewhat handicapped adult.

But her body couldn’t take walking for all of the eighteen or more hours a day she was awake and so she spent most of the time moping around. She was angry with herself for getting shot not only once, but four times by the same person - who was supposed to be someone she could trust. She was upset because she was unable to do anything, a trend which was becoming unsettlingly familiar. The FBI definitely wouldn’t let her near files and cases again anytime soon, and without those she couldn’t be of help to her friends. Said friends wouldn’t involve her while she was recuperating anyway and the general radio silence was making her restless.

This day she had been up and about since four in the morning, busy scaring the nurses on the night shift when she suddenly turned a corner, limping towards a group of them with her awkward zombie-walk. She had gone out for a much-needed bowl of cereal, which she had been munching on since then.

Pouring more of the cereal into the bowl continuously and eating it dry without milk seemed to be the course for this day. At least until she ran out of cereal - which might have been sooner than she would have liked.

Grabbing another handful of cereal, Liz mentally resigned herself to another day of eating and watching TV. Truthfully, she had been watching TV non-stop in the hopes of catching just the shortest news segment to help her piece together a picture of the current state of affairs, but thus far she had been unsuccessful.

Sighing, she changed the channel again, silently cursing everyone and their mother. Letting her eyes wander towards the opened door of her room, she found people walking along the ward as they usually did. But one head of hair seemed to stick out among the sea of brown and occasionally blond hair. Bright red curls.
The hair was dyed, of course, but the tight curls made the colour stand out so much more. Sitting up straight in her bed, Liz squinted in an attempt to validate her suspicion. Her hope was confirmed and her heart rate increased when that person and her distinct head of hair made her way to her door, her delicate fist raised for a knock, her dark eyes wide and insecure.

“Hi,” Liz said, her eyebrows furrowed. “To be honest, you were the last person I thought would show up here.”

The woman smiled nervously and hesitated to step into the room. “I wasn’t sure whether it would be a good idea to come, either.”

Paying attention to her every move, Liz motioned for her to sit down in the chair next to her bed. Liz was confused, to say the least. She had been trying to convince herself that Ewan’s deeds could be traced back to someone threatening him over Karen, or holding Karen hostage, or… But here Karen was, as pretty as the day Liz had first met her, albeit looking a lot more tired. However, that was to be expected.

Karen stepped forward and took a seat, carefully folding her hands in lap and keeping her eyes there.

“So…,” Liz started.

“So… How are you doing?” Karen started, unable to keep her hands still.

Watching her for a moment, Liz had to refrain from straight out telling her to cut the crap. She knew why Karen was here. She also knew that, if she was looking for answers, Liz wouldn’t be able to give them to her.

“Karen…,” Liz sighed. “Please, let’s just- skip this. What the hell is going on? Have you spoken to the FBI yet?”

Softly nodding her head, Karen continued quietly, “They spent the last two days questioning me and every one of our neighbours. I don’t know what’s going on, Liz. They won’t tell me what he’s done, won’t let me see him. Do you know how terrible it is to suddenly find all of your belongings turned upside-down, including your life?”

I do, Liz thought and took a moment to remember her own apartment, turned upside-down and Vito in the midst of it. It still made her blood boil. But there were more important things to get to the bottom of now. Vito was safe, at least she hoped so.
Nodding her head in an attempt to hide her impatience, Liz followed up, “What did you tell the FBI, Karen?”

Biting her lip, Karen seemed to think it over for a moment before answering, “That he was normal. That nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That, maybe, he seemed a little bit more stressed than usual but there was nothing to suggest he’d go and shoot one of his best friends and then make a break for it. I don’t know what to think, Liz,” she concluded and held her head in her hands. Liz heard her sniffle softly.

“He came back, right? To the apartment?” Liz asked carefully and waited for Karen to nod her head. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” she sniffled. “He looked awful and was trying to tell me something but suddenly everything was dark, the lights had went out and I felt someone grab my arms, dragging me away. The next thing I knew the building was burning and people were telling me the FBI had arrested him. I kind of blacked out in the middle of it.”

“And... What didn’t you tell the FBI?” Liz asked tentatively. Karen’s head shot up, her eyes narrowed and blood-shot.

“What?”

“Karen,” Liz warned, trying hard to keep her voice soft and concerned. “I’ve been doing my job long enough to know an interrogation is not all it’s cracked up to be. People lie and some important things are left unsaid. You’re not a criminal, let alone an accessory. I’m not going to rat you out. I just want to know what’s going on and act accordingly. I don’t think Ewan would turn over to the bad guys without a good reason. He wouldn’t return to his apartment and you, if it wasn’t important. He loves you very much, so for him to possibly involve you in anything dangerous means something is off,” Liz clarified and watched Karen nod her head. She continued, “To be honest, at first I thought they were threatening him, that they somehow had gotten to you and he was scared they’d hurt you. But then you walked through that door and I had to throw that theory out of the window. So, please, tell me.”

“He’s been…” Karen started, hoarsely. “He’d… been getting phone calls, late at night. Sometimes he’d be on the phone for an hour or more. At first I asked him about it and he always told me that it was probably work and then he’d take the phone call into another room, so I couldn’t listen in. I stopped asking and started pretending to still be asleep. I wanted to trust him and actually go back to sleep but…,” Karen sniffed. “I never heard what they were talking about, it was just snippets that didn’t make much sense to me. But he was always like a robot for a few days after these calls. Very rigid and emotionless, like he had to force himself to be numb.”

Liz forcefully blew out a breath, thankful that Karen seemed to confirm her gut feeling. “You think he’s innocent?”

Karen nodded. “I don’t know what they, whoever they are, have on him but I do.”

“I’m sorry this is happening, Karen. Where are you staying now?” Liz asked.

“I’ve been staying with a friend, she’s letting me sleep on her sofa,” Karen said with a bitter laugh. “I swear it would be easier and less hurtful to say we split up. I don’t even know what I can tell people because even I don’t know anything.”

Liz watched Karen for a moment and decided then and there that it would be best to not tell her what that organization Ewan was involved with had gotten up to. Taking a breath before starting to speak again, Liz was cut off by someone knocking on the door frame, echoing the sound with her voice, “Knock, knock.”

Liz and Karen’s heads both snapped towards the sounds and while Karen seemed confused at the petite black-haired woman, Liz internally sighed in relief.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but I’ve been dying to see Liz here and don’t have a lot of time,” the woman explained.

“Yeah, uh, alright,” Karen stammered and tried to gather her belongings, ”Uh, get better soon and let me know, if you have any news.”

Liz nodded and added, with a slight smile, “I will. Thanks for stopping by.”

As Karen left the room with one last smile, the woman with the black hair stepped inside, closing the door behind her. The moment they heard the door shut completely, Liz sighed.

“Nice wig,” Liz started off.

“Customized, has seen a lot of good assignments,” Natasha chirped and made her way to the just vacated seat. “Also makes me kind of look very unapproachable, so very usable in this situation.” Looking Liz over, Natasha’s expression changed from emotionless to one of approval. “You’re doing good. Not everyone would be moving around already at that pace this shortly after getting shot.”

“I’m mainly missing my core strength. Sneezing hurts like a bitch, though.”

Laughing slightly, Natasha leaned back in the chair, her fingers absentmindedly tapping on the armrests and her expression changing from content to cold. “This is starting to get difficult.”

“You don’t say.”

“How much do you know?”

“Counting the intel I got from you guys or the FBI? I’ve got literally nothing,” Liz bit back on her snark.. “It’s been hell, Nat. I thought you guys had already skipped the country. What’s going on?”

Taking a deep breath, Natasha seemed to arrange all information she had in her head. “The FBI has got Ewan locked up in one of their off-site interrogation rooms. They’ve got enough evidence to get him locked up, they’re just trying to get the information on why this all happened.”

“Rikers Island?” Liz could remember the island as dreary and dark. Of course, as it was home to New York’s main jail complex.

Natasha nodded. “So getting to him is probably off the table. Too many cameras, too many men, too much potential for collateral damage. As far as we know he has confessed to shooting you, that’s why they’re able to keep him for interrogating. But they have literally zero knowledge about why. We have almost nothing and we’ve still got more than them, Liz.”

Taking everything in, Liz’s mind was still only fixated on one tiny piece of missing information. Searching Natasha’s face for clues, the redhead sighed, reading Liz’s intent.

“He’s back. Came back yesterday. We have no idea where he was and he won’t tell anyone. He’s not hurt and according to him no one new is looking for him. Except the usual, of course.”

Keeping in a sigh of relief, Liz waited for Natasha to continue, “But?”

“But…,” Natasha paused, inspecting her nails closely. Liz knew Natasha had something to say she wouldn’t like.

Looking expectantly at Natasha and whispering a silent plea, the woman finally relented. “He was in Ewan’s building on 74th street, before the fire.”

“And?”

“And we are pretty sure he had contact with your friend.”