the name's jefferson.

             “You were found alone,                bleeding from the stomach.”

She tore head face away from his hand, even hitting it down as well. No, this dude was just crazy. Jefferson had a home with the Fathers. That was her home. They had saved her from being an orphan...hadn’t they?

“Yeah, well… For a super secret agent, you’re not all that great at taking a punch.”Matt pointed out with a small smile, not sure teasing was really his finest idea given the circumstances. “I got you most of the way here, my friend picked us up, she made sure you weren’t about to die on me.” He explained, pointing to the coffee table where a bottle of water sat ready for her to take. “This  is, ah… She patches me up. She’s gone out, I’m not sure its my place  to give you anything more about her than that, Jefferson. Can trust her though, I promise.”

“I took a whole lot more punches  to the head than I normally do, so  excuse me for not being able to take  it as gracefully as you.” She rubbed   at her head with a low sigh, wincing  as she felt the various bumps and  bruises along her scalp. It wasn’t  exactly good. “So, when can I go?  I need to get back to headquarters  and get them the information from   our target. It’ll help us close in on   the main ring leader, which I hope  to take out.” But Jefferson knew  that was a long shot for now, with  her condition and all. “As long as  she doesn’t know my real name  then I don’t give a shit.”

He didn’t bother putting the mask back on.  What was the point now? She had already guessed his identity, denying it now after pulling her from that rooftop seemed a little pointless to Matt. “Where d’you think you’re  going?” he poked his head from where he had been speaking with his on-call nurse,  joking and smiling when he probably should have been a little more concerned about the  well-being of the patient he had dragged back here. “Yeah, yeah, you guessed right. You can  brag about it later, yeah? How’s that head of yours, Jeff? Think you got hit harder than I do  most nights…” 

She turned to look at him, not even a little surprised at the sight of his face not being covered. But it faded as Jefferson discovered she had  indeed been right. How he fought  crime while blind slipped her mind, but she made a note to ask later. “Hurts. Like I was hit by a semi- truck.” Moving over to the couch,  she slowly took a seat with a light sigh. “I’ll be honest, most nights I look like this, but minus the raging concussion. Did you bring me all the way here by yourself? Speaking of which, where are we?”

He knew there was confusion. After all, he had been in her shoes more than once over the past several weeks and months. Confusion seemed to cloud the mind and make it seem almost impossible to understand the truth. For now, he would allow that to slide. Instead, Oliver approached the girl quietly.

It took her mind a moment to actually process what the name meant. Orphan. Exactly what she was before the Founding Fathers, and apparently what she was now. They had no idea where she had run off to, which now meant she was alone. Or, perhaps, not anymore.

How to transport an unconscious woman  from a rooftop while potentially about to be shot at, all while desperately trying to keep her from getting injured even more? Matt  really did know how to get himself into some fucked up situations. “Okay, we…are gonna  have to wing it…” Scooping her up into his  arms, Matt kept as low as he possibly could as he ran towards the fire escape, thankfully  not hearing the telltale click of a firing pin  about to rocket a bullet towards him. They weren’t exactly far from his go-to nurse, and though he doubted she would be impressed  with him showing up with some invalid, what  else could he do? Teased about partners,  denying all allegations made about himself  and Jefferson, Matt relaxed himself on Claire’s couch, settled, mask removed and waiting  for the girl to wake up… 

It took some time for Jefferson to come to. But eventually her eyes fluttered open,  awareness now filling her pupils instead  of the previous confusion. Her gaze slowly adjusted to the surroundings, sending  signal after signal to her brain. The moment it registered that this place was unfamiliar, she shot up. Instantly her head grew dizzy but she fought against this. If this place  was unfamiliar then there was a high chance it could belong to the very people her and Daredevil had tried to target that night. She could hear some woman speaking to her,  telling her to sit down, but Jeff didn’t bother listening. Instead she, very dizzily, made her way to the front of the apartment, pulling on the knob. When it didn’t give she began to fiddle with the latch and chain, trying to get out, to safety, that way she could then find her partner from hours earlier.

When he dropped from the line, Matt had tried to be  fast enough to grab at her, to make sure she didn’t  fall too hard. For the most part, he succeeded…  Unfortunately, having a woman in his arms, he  lost his balance as he fell, grunting as the pair  of them hit the ground hard. He picked up the  metallic tang of blood in the air, but not enough  to worry about. “Guessing you got the same ‘no hospitals rule that I do?”  he asked quietly, making no move to push himself from where he lay on the  ground. He could hear the commotion in the other  building, the panicking from the goons finding their boss unconscious. Matt didn’t want to risk sitting up to meet a bullet. “You alright, Jeff?”

Her body fought to wake up, forcing her eyes to open and gave around. It was clear in her gaze that Jefferson, though awake, was still completely out of it. She stared directly at Daredevil though no response came to his question nor to  seeing a familiar (yet masked) face. In fact all she did was look around, dazed and confused, for several moments until the pain overtook again. Her head had  been hit several times that night and clearly her body wasn’t responding well. Within seconds she was passed out  again on the cement of the roof, just the tiniest pool of blood forming from where she hit her head on the landing.

She was hurt. Bad. Matt was sure they  weren’t going to get this son of a bitch arrested, not tonight, but he could get her out. Already, there were men at the door,  slamming hard against it in an attempt to  get through. “Alright, you’re comin’ up.”  Matt grumbled, hoisting her up to throw her over his shoulder. “You better have  got all you needed, cus I’m not coming  back through that fucking window, Jeff.  Your freaking zipline better support the pair of us.” Matt didn’t have the time to  risk fighting his way through the number of  guards that were hammering at the door. It was either the zipline, or… He didn’t much  want to think about the or. At the window,  holding her up with one arm, Matt jumped  out, grabbing the line with a grunt. The weight unbalanced, he had to let go of Jefferson to  make sure the two didn’t plummet to the ground, hoping that by some miracle she would wake enough to grab onto him, or that she simply  wouldn’t slip as the two glided over to the  first building they’d started on. 

If the zipline was not of the grade it was, she would be sure to fall to her death due to how  slow it moved. But, luckily, it was of the best grade. They passed over onto the opposite roof and that’s when Jefferson fell to the  hard ground. Her head got scrapped and  there were sure to be some bruises later. But she was alive and that was all that mattered. By now the henchmen had gotten into the  room and were helping their target, but they were all too dense to actually realize the people who  had beat him were just across the street.

It was the determination that Oliver liked about her. The way she held herself and wanted to leave. Yet, she couldn’t and she was going to have to learn that the hard way. After a while, the desire would fall away, leaving her to fall into the patterns that everyone else had.

The name is what threw her off. There were so many questions crossing her mind but right now all she could do was focus on that name. This place was just beyond  strange. People in hoods, cryptic speaking, and the slight feeling that death loomed overhead.

“Or what? You just want the information so  you can sneak back to this boss of yours and  probably get me locked up.” Matt’s limited trust  in the girl was fading. Anger was not something  he had ever responded well to, but by the time  he could have acted and taken the mask off, she  had collapsed to the floor, the bastard they had  interrogated standing over her, wielding a lamp  of all things. Before he had a chance to charge at  Matt, he had snatched one of his batons, launching it straight for his forehead. The dull thud of the  baton hitting flesh filled his ears, followed closely by the collapse to the floor he should have seen coming. “You alright, Jefferson?” Matt asked,  quickly rushing to her side, grabbing one of her arms to throw around his shoulders. Their job  was done. They needed to get out of here, fast. “C’mon, don’t pass out… You gotta at least stay conscious long enough to use that fucking zipline..”

For a moment she was  completely unresponsive,  eyes closed and mind blank.  But moments passed and  she was back- sort of. Jeff  was still beyond out of it but  was slightly awake, her head  fading in and out of being alert  as confused eyes gazed around.  Clearly she was far from being  okay but, hey, at least she was  awake in order to get back to the  other roof. Her mouth opened to  speak but no words came out. Instead her head just slumped to  the sigh as parted lips released  a moan of pain.

Before Oliver had time to respond, she was moving. With little effort, Oliver grabbed her arm the moment she started to waver. Setting her back down on the bed, there was a shake of her head.

She stared at him, eyes wide with confusion. This was her new home? The place looked to be made  of rock and dirt. Definitely not something that was homey. Jefferson desperately wanted to rise to her feet and fight her way out, but the pain from the  wound made it practically impossible.