disclaimer: although most of her background is still the same (of course i'm cherry picking) i'm stealing some canon from the guardian devil and what if.. karen page had lived? runs, setting her return in daredevil vol. 9 (but can be adapted to different runs if wanted); also in this verse karen page never outed matt murdock, asked him to give up his secret identity, or stop being daredevil to be with her, as she was in love with his duality, and understood what he was fighting for.
after learning she was hiv positive, karen decided to go back to new york and confess to matt about her diagnosis. at that time, she was visited by nicholas macabes (who was mysterio), telling her that there was an infant left in daredevil's care, which was the reason all the people close to him have bad luck, and that it was responsible for her and others' ailments. as she went to visit matt at church and asked him to allow her to take care of the baby, which he hadn't talked about to her, he recriminated for blaming the baby for her actions. karen then left the church, but after a minute of reflection, she decided to return to the church and help him in any way she could.
at the same time, bullseye was sent to the church by mysterio and have ordered to kill everyone in the church except daredevil. as bullseye obeyed, he killed nuns and witnesses, but failed to find the baby which started a fight between them; meanwhile karen asked sister maggie to take the baby out and she would trick bullseye with a figure of the holy child, exchanging it for matt's life. he was initially tricked, but soon realized what really happened, and he hit karen, which made her reach for his gun and point it at him, but the gun had no bullets, so he wasn't intimidated by her tactic. bullseye managed to leave with the baby, but before that, he threw daredevil's own billy club at him, which prompted karen to stand between him and the weapon; the weapon had indeed hit her, but missed her heart by mere centimeters.
as she was now in the hospital, daredevil learned that the kingpin was behind all of this, and in a rage fit, he sneaked into his home and killed him with the same weapon that was used against karen. he decided to confess his crime and accept the consequences. instead of being able to do it, he was intercepted by the police, as wilson fisk had prepared all the information he had about matt's double life in case of his death. to everyone, he was a guilty man, and even though he had a lot of witnesses that cleared him, and foggy was doing his best to convince the jury to get a verdict of not guilty, he was instead sentenced to 40 years in prison.
as they took matt away from her, and the looming of her hiv results, her drug addiction also caused by fisk, and all her past life, karen decided to leave new york; all the tragedies that had happened, big and small, had taken a toll on her, she couldn't keep being near matt if all she caused was pain to him, and it seemed that it would be more than all the love they could have to each other. so she didn't say goodbye to anyone, just packed her stuff and left. she didn't step back on new york for a long time; the guilt ate her alive each day that passed. of course, she hated to have left matt there to his own luck, locked because of her; she felt like an albatross, a constant inescapable burden on matt's life, someone who wasn't able to bring him permanent happiness, no matter if he claimed otherwise.
instead, karen page did well in his honor; she interned herself into rehabilitation, making sure that she wouldn't feel the need to fall into that horrible path again. there she learned that she had never contracted hiv and that took some weight off her shoulders. afterwards, she opened another clinic like the one she had opened with matt in new york. she helped everyone she could with the money she had inherited from her father, and for fifteen years, she had just managed to lay low, help people, and think about him. she never remarried, or even attempted to build another relationship with the intent to date or marry.
but life has its funny ways to reunite what's meant to be; karen went back to new york to settle some unfinished business without knowing that matt had been liberated after 15 years and was now a law professor at ESU. if only they would meet again..
