Matt tried to hold on to his positivity over the next 24 hours. But it became increasingly difficult as the doubts started to multiply inside him.

It all started with a text message.

Or rather, with an ignored text message.

I'm sorry I wasn't here when you left. Can you let me know you arrived okay? I'll be safe out there, if you promise to do the same. Matt.

He sent it straight after he listened to Calina's voicemail. But he didn't get a reply.

He figured she must be tired from her journey to...wherever it was the Widows called home. He figured she would respond in a few hours when she'd gotten some rest. But by mid morning, there was still nothing. So he sent another message.

Hey, please text when you get the chance, to let me know you got there okay. I'm in the office all day, so I'll have my phone with me.

Nothing.

And after several more hours of compulsively checking his messages, unease started to grow. Was she safe? Had she made it back to the Widow's base? Had she gotten in trouble en route?

Or was something else going on?

He replayed her voicemail again, hunting for any clues that might explain the doubts he was now experiencing. Doubts about whether she was telling the truth when she said she'd be home soon.

But her voice sounded...fine. Completely normal. There was no hint of anger, or evidence that she was upset or hurt.

She sounded fine.

But she'd been trained her whole life to pretend, hadn't she? She'd been trained to lie. To create a false persona, and manipulate people with words. And he'd seen first hand how easily she was able to deceive him...

So maybe he couldn't trust her words, or the calm tone of voice she spoke them in.

He listened again, even more carefully.

"I'm sorry to leave like this, but Yelena called. The Widows found something - about what happened to me - and they need my help with it. So I'm headed back to the base for a few days.

I 'll keep in touch - as much as I can.

I ...um... ....

Nevermind.

Take care, Matt. Be safe out there."

That pause...She'd brushed it away with a murmured 'Nevermind', but there'd been a distinct pause. And the more he listened, the more he convinced himself that that pause was in fact filled with everything she wanted to say, but couldn't.

Or wouldn't.

That pause was the real message. The rest was fake. She was just pretending that her sudden departure was all about Widows' stuff and had nothing to do with his rejection of her.

Just like he pretended last night that he hadn't rejected her at all.

Shit!

He needed to drop his pretence, so that she'd drop hers. He needed to be honest, so that she would be honest in return.

He still didn't know what to say about what happened between them. But it was starting to feel imperative that he say something. So after getting home from work, he dialled her number.

But it just rang and rang and rang.

His nerves taut with unease, he hung up and typed out another message:

I'm sorry for last night. At the gym. And I'm sorry for afterwards, for pretending it didn't happen. Please call me when you get the chance, Calina. We need to talk. I want to fix this between us. Please.

After another few hours of silence, he sent a final message before heading out for the night as Daredevil.

Please call. I miss you.

It was the truth. But that fucking wall around his heart fought him on even that measly amount of honesty. His gloved finger hovered over the send button for a long time before he finally found the courage to push it.

Then he switched off his phone, unable to bear the silence emanating from it any longer.

When he turned it back on in the morning - after a brutal night on the streets and a restless night alone in their bed - he was greeted with more of that damning silence. And by the time he got to work, his unease had turned into full blown panic. He paced his office, his phone pressed against his ear as he listened to Calina's phone ring out.

The moment Foggy and Karen arrived, he marched into the front office and ambushed them. "Did Calina say anything the other night?"

"Good morning to you too, Matt," Foggy teased as he shrugged out of his coat.

"This is important, Fog. Did she say anything?"

Karen answered instead. "She said she had a headache, so she left early. We never really got a chance to talk to her."

"I offered to walk her home, but she said she was fine by herself," Foggy added. "Why? What's going on?"

"She left," Matt replied. "She left me."

"What? What do you mean?"

"She wasn't there when I got home. She left me a voicemail saying the Widows had a lead on what happened to her so she needed to go back to them for a few days. But I haven't heard from her since and I've been calling and texting..."

He waited for their reassurances. For an 'I'm sure she's okay' or 'its probably nothing'. But there was just a heavy silence. And he sensed the two of them looking at each other, concern radiating from them.

As well as...guilt?

"What is it?" he asked. "What aren't you telling me?"

"When she came back from the bathroom that night, she looked upset," Karen said. "And just before that, Foggy and I had been talking about...We were worried that she might have overheard us, because she left straight after."

Matt got a sinking feeling in his gut. "What were you talking about?"

Karen twisted her clasped hands and Foggy shifted on his feet.

"What the hell were you talking about?" Matt repeated, his voice louder now.

"We were talking about you and Elektra," Karen replied, her voice unsteady.

"I was talking about you and Elektra," Foggy clarified, stepping in front of her. "Karen was just listening to my theory."

"Your theory?" Matt bit out. "What exactly is your theory?"

"That because you're still in love with Elektra, you're maybe - subconsciously - using Calina as a way to make up for not saving her."

"Jesus, Foggy! What the fuck?" Matt turned on his heel and raced back into his office.

"She might not have heard!" Foggy called from behind him.

But Matt knew the truth.

She heard.

It explained why she'd suddenly left and why she wasn't taking his calls.

Fuck!

This was a nightmare.

He grabbed his phone off his desk and mashed the redial button. He needed to speak with her. He needed to tell her that Foggy's theory was complete and total bullshit. He needed to beg her forgiveness and plead with her to come home.

He needed to hear her voice and know that he hadn't lost her forever.

He listened to her phone ring and ring, but this time he didn't hang up.

He wouldn't.

He would keep calling until she finally answered.

———

"Will you answer that thing, or fucking chuck it out the window or something?" Yelena growled.

Calina had already muted the ringtone, but the sound of the phone vibrating in her pocket was audible in the room. It had been ringing on and off for what felt like hours - and every time she declined the call, another one would come through minutes later.

Matt wasn't taking the hint.

He'd texted her again a couple of hours ago, so at least she knew why he was being so insistent.

I know you heard what Foggy said at the bar. It's not true, Calina. Please answer the phone so I can explain. Please.

She'd read that message a million times, but couldn't bring herself to believe his words. He was just feeling guilty, that was all. He was a good man - a good, Catholic man - it was natural for him to feel guilty about hurting her.

"You know I can't answer it," Calina sighed. "And I can't turn it off or 'chuck it out the window' - I'm still waiting to hear back from Melina."

Yelena typed a quick message on her own phone then held it up. "Problem solved. Melina will text me with the dosage, so can you please do something about that phone?"

Calina nodded and powered off the device. Everyone in the room groaned in relief, causing Calina to duck her head in embarrassment.

Inessa, one of the youngest members of the group raised her hand. "I must have missed something - why exactly are you ignoring Matt?"

To Calina's surprise - and consternation - every single Widow now knew about Matt.

Anya couldn't keep her mouth shut about him being Daredevil - which they all thought was pretty cool - and then Yelena told them all Calina was living with him - which they found even cooler.

She was the first of them to try to make a life for herself. The first to get a job. The first to get her own apartment.

And the first to live with a man.

They were all fascinated.

And it completely unnerved Calina. It was as if they were all looking to her to set an example. To show them the way. To show them it was possible to leave the life of a Widow behind. It was a big responsibility - with a hell of a lot of pressure attached.

And she felt like she was failing.

"Yeah," Sofia chimed in. She was another Widow from Calina's cohort, but they'd never spoken much growing up. Sofia came across as very...intense. "What happened between you two?

Calina looked around the room. The Widows were camped out in the main living space as they waited to hear back from Melina. The older Widow had developed her own version of a truth serum and they were going to try it out on the man downstairs. But she needed to calibrate the dosage first - apparently there was a fine line between getting answers and causing a cardiac arrest.

The mission was going smoothly so far. Calina had ridden her motorcycle through the night and had arrived at the Widow's temporary operational base outside Washington just before sunrise. She'd managed to grab five hours of - restless - sleep on one of the empty cots, then she'd joined the other Widows for the strategy session.

That night, she'd suited up, and joined the team to infiltrate Volkov's residence.

And it had been easy as hell. Almost too easy.

Volkov was either supremely arrogant or extremely stupid, because he was living alone, with no bodyguards or security personnel. Which meant the eight-strong Widow strike team that extracted him seemed like massive overkill.

They'd transported him blindfolded and sedated to the mansion in South Carolina, and now he was tied up in a fortified room in the basement, guarded by Anya and another Widow named Alyona. The rest of them were taking a break while they waited for the next step in the plan.

They made a strange sight, lounging around the cream-coloured mansion in their Black Widow suits. Combat boots were resting on the antique oak coffee table in the centre of the room, and various guns and weapons were stowed on the mantle over the ornate fireplace, battling for space with chintzy knicknacks and floral-scented candles.

It was a stark juxtaposition - one the other Widows didn't seem to find as jarring as Calina did. But she'd had the benefit of living in the 'real' world for the past few months, where people didn't dress in black neoprene jumpsuits while relaxing around the house.

She looked down at her own jumpsuit, and grimaced. She'd reverted right back to the Widow's mindset the moment she'd left New York. She even had her hair in braids.

A lifelong habit was hard to break.

"Calina?" Inessa said, interrupting her thoughts. "Do you not want to talk about it?"

Inessa was a relatively shy girl, and so petite and slender. She must have had skills - there was no way she'd have gotten through the Red Room otherwise - but she always looked so fragile and delicate to Calina. She brought out all of Calina's protective instincts.

And, unfortunately, Calina could never resist indulging her questions. Maybe that was Inessa's hidden skill.

"There's not much to tell," Calina replied, trying to downplay the hurt and humiliation she was feeling. "I misunderstood what was between us, that's all."

It was the same line she'd given Yelena and Anya when they'd met her in Washington yesterday. They'd accepted it with a nod, but Inessa wasn't put off so easily. "What do you mean?"

"I...," Calina was spared from answering when Yelena's phone pinged and everyone sprang back into action-mode.

"It's from Melina." Yelena confirmed, reading the message. "Sofia and Kira, you take this and start prepping the drug, we'll follow you down." She handed them her phone, and they took off running for the basement. The rest of the team filtered out of the room, leaving Calina alone with Yelena and Katya.

Yelena marched ahead, intent on starting the interrogation, but Katya stopped Calina with a gentle hand on her arm. "I know there something more going on between you and Matt than a mere misunderstanding," Katya said softly. "You can talk to me if you want."

She took Calina's hand and gave it a supportive squeeze. The move took Calina by surprise - the Widows weren't demonstrative people and usually only touched each other during sparring sessions. But she was learning that - away from the Red Room, and out from under the control of the serum - Katya was a very caring and empathetic person. The simple, kind touch made her feel like they were becoming true friends.

And it made her want to open up. She just wasn't sure where to start. "I...we...," she faltered.

"What is it? What happened?"

"I...I fell in love," she whispered. "And he didn't. He barely even saw me as a friend." Saying the words aloud hurt. They wrenched something deep in her chest, and caused tears to gather at the back of her eyes.

"Oh, Calina. Are you sure?"

She let out a bitter laugh. "That I love him? Yes, unfortunately."

"No, I meant that he doesn't love you back. We saw the two of you together, remember? It was clear that he cared about you very much."

"No offence, but what do you know about reading other people's feelings? What do any of us know? We never grew up seeing love and care and affection. We don't know what it looks like. I know what it feels like, but I don't know what it looks like. And I made the mistake with Matt of misinterpreting his basic sense of compassion and responsibility for something much more. I was a fool, Katya."

"Don't say that."

Calina pulled away from the other Widow. "I know you guys want me to trail-blaze some path for you all, but I'm floundering out there. It's so hard. Nothing in our training prepared us for it. I can play a role and pretend to be someone else in my sleep, but I have no idea how to be me. I have no idea how to deal with all these...feelings...I keep having."

Katya frowned. "I'm so sorry. We all just assumed you were happy out there. That you were thriving away from all...this."

"I was happy. For a while." She crossed her arms over her chest and kicked at the ground. "You know that proverb, 'After a storm comes fair weather; after sorrow comes joy'? I think it should be the other way around, 'After joy comes sorrow'."

"I'm sorry," Katya said again. She shrugged, and gave Calina a sad smile. "I don't know what else to say."

"That's okay. Thanks for listening."

"That's what sisters are for." Katya hooked an arm through Calina's and the two of them started walking towards the basement. After a few moments of silence, Katya spoke again. "What is it like?" she asked shyly.

"What?"

"Being in love?"

Calina thought back to that moment in the gym - the moment of realisation, before she'd leaned towards Matt and ruined everything - when her feelings had finally crystallised. Then she tried to put it into words.. "It's...it's like that sensation you get when you jump out of an airplane - that weightless, exhilarating, heart-pumping thrill. You feel like you're on top of the world and can do anything. But when its unrequited love, its like your parachute never opened and you collided with the ground at a million miles an hour."

"Oh," Katya said quietly. "So it's wonderful, but it also kind of sucks."

"Yeah. It really, really sucks."

———

Never had a man suited his name better than Maxim Volkov.

In English, it translated to Great Wolf, and he embodied that moniker completely. He was a big man, with a wild, predatory look to his eyes. Even strapped to a chair, with several guns trained on him, he looked calm and in control as he sized up the Widows surrounding him.

He barely spared a glance as Sofia prepped his arm and administered the truth serum. She was the medic of the group - trained from a young age in combat surgery to assist in missions. She had a terrible bed-side manner, but a steady pair of hands and an encyclopaedic knowledge of medicine.

"How long until it takes affect?" Yelena asked. She was sitting cross-legged on the counter that ran along the wall directly in front of Volkov. The basement had originally been used as a laundry room, but the Widows had removed all the washers and dryers, and embedded hooks for restraints in the ceiling and the tiled floor. It looked exactly like what it was - an interrogation chamber.

No, a torture chamber.

Because that's what they were about to do - torture this man. Not using violence, but by cracking open his mind against his will. And no one knew how torturous that was than the Widows in this room.

Yelena relished the idea - she was dying to turn the tables on the men of the Red Room - but Calina felt uncomfortable.

She kept wondering what Matt would think of all this.

She knew he wasn't averse to using brutal tactics to get answers - she'd seen him beat people for information on the streets. But there was something...honest about that method. This felt too underhanded. Too close to the Red Room tactics.

And she wanted to be better than that.

But at heart, she was a pragmatist, and she knew that taking the high road had never gotten anyone, anywhere. The Widows needed answers. They needed to know how much of a threat they faced - their survival depended on it - and this was the best method available to them. A member of the Red Room would be able to withstand threats of violence and physical pain. But no one could withstand this serum - at least, according to its creator.

"Melina said it would be fairly instantaneous," Sofia answered.

"Melina Vostokoff?" Volkov asked, his Russian accent thick with distain. "That traitorous bitch? I used to jerk off when I thought about her back in the day - she filled out her suit like no other Widow. Now I just want to put a bullet through her conniving brain."

The Widows looked at each other, surprised by the candid revelation.

"I guess its working," Katya remarked.

"Good," Yelena said. "Let's see what he knows."

It turned out, he knew a lot. And none of it was good.

"How many Red Room personnel are still alive?" Yelena asked at one point.

Volkov smiled. "Enough."

"Be more specific," Yelena bit out.

"Dreykov had a secret faction of Red Room operatives that worked just for him - off the books and away from the prying eyes of the Kremlin. They survived your little purge after Dreykov's fall because you had no idea they existed - very few did."

"But you did."

"Yes. I've always been privy to Dreykov's secrets. He treated me like a younger brother. And now that he's gone, I intend to continue the family business."

"But you were just a handler. You weren't upper management."

"Just a handler? Or a man of many talents who went where Dreykov needed, and did what needed to be done?"

"So what was the plan in South Korea? Why was that mission important enough to need your oversight?"

"The Japanese Ambassador was embezzling billions of won from the South Koreans. Dreykov wanted me to steal it from him. After the Red Room fell, I continued the mission, in an attempt to get the money for myself and my faction." He leered at Katya as he continued answering Yelena's question. "But you stole my little Widow from me, and I had to come up with a plan B."

"You had to come up with the plan? So you're the man in charge of this new faction?"

"Yes. Congratulation, ladies. You won the jackpot." He leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out as far as his restraints would allow. He looked like he was relaxing in front of the television after a hard day at work, and it started to give Calina a bad feeling. He was too at ease. He didn't seem to care that he was revealing all this information. He didn't seem bothered by their questions or the fact that he was answering them against his will. She wondered if there was a sedative effect to the truth serum...but even before it had been administered, he'd been eerily calm.

What did he know that made him so confident?

Yelena continued with her questioning. If she was unnerved by Volkov's manner, she didn't show it. "Did that 'plan B' have something to do with what happened to Calina?"

Volkov sighed. "No. Aminev went rogue with that. He was nothing but a common thief. He stole some serum and some tech and decided to go it alone. He betrayed the ideology."

"How did Aminev find her?"

Volkov's smile turned feral. "We never lost her. We never lost any of you."

Calina's bad feeling exploded into outright panic. And she could feel it rippling through the other Widows in the room.

Even Yelena sounded shaken. "What do you mean?"

"Did you think those microchips in your thighs were our only way of tracking you?" He shook his head, as if disappointed. "You little fools. You've been on the grid this entire time. You only had the illusion of freedom. And once we finish manufacturing enough serum to get you all back under control, we're going to round you up and shatter that illusion."

He shrugged, and spread his hands. "Or maybe it'll happen sooner. They'll be coming for me, you know. Once I miss my check in, the rest of my team will figure out what happened. Then they'll come for me. And all they'll have to do is follow the little dots on their screens...all the way to the South Carolina coast."