greatexpectations | I know who you pretend I am

It is meant to be a simple end to a terrible second life. Elektra desperately wants it to be done. She thinks on some level Matthew wants it too. Why else stay when everyone else had run to safety? Things with them are never simple. Rocks fall, they fall, and that should be the end, but it very much isn't. She awakens in the dirt and debris with his arm draped over her protectively. Elektra laughs which quickly dissolves into a cough as her lungs demand she clear them. She should have known she wouldn't get off so easy.

That resentment quickly falls into panic. Matthew is still at her side without any of the power she possesses. She vows to stop at nothing to end her existence if he isn't breathing too. Mercifully, his pulse beats against her fingers when she presses it to his throat. He's alive. She just has to make sure he stays that way.

Ultimately their rescue comes in the form of running water. She follows it until it leads to a sewer drain flowing into the river. She swims for both of their lives as Matthew sleeps on. The rest passes by in a blur. She steals a car, loads her beloved in the backseat, and finds the energy to start driving in the direction of a safehouse outside the city she can only hopes still exists.

Perhaps the God Matthew loves so much exists because against all odds she does find it. Aside from a few sprung traps by some would-be squatters, the little vacation house is in good condition even if the yard is wild and overgrown at this point. She gets to work on practical issues even while running on fumes. She gets them both out of their wet clothes. Matthew is settled on a dusty couch, lovingly bandaged, and buried under a mountain of blankets of varying quality with a water bottle settled within reach.

Elektra runs out of energy when it comes time to take care of herself. She passes out cold against the couch, head fallen against Matthew's prone form. A blanket is loosely draped over her shoulders and her first aid kit rests on her lap. She'll get to covering her rapidly healing wounds eventually. For now she desperately needs rest.

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Through it all, Matt swims in and out of consciousness. When he's awake, he's aware of being cold -- so cold, though he's not sure if that's because everything hurts so badly he can barely stand it, or the smell of sewage that makes its way to him beyond the taste of his own blood in his mouth. When he's not, he dreams of gold -- the bracelets Elektra used to wear, sometimes, and the way they'd just barely brush his skin when her hands were on him, leaving a line of gooseflesh behind in their wake.

(He's sure he smells her, too, but that must be the dream. She didn't survive. They didn't survive. Maybe this is what being dead is like.)

In the end, in hindsight, he won't be able to say how long the back and forth persisted, how many minutes, hours, days he was unconscious in the end, but in the end, he finally does surface. Not that he's sure he's entirely awake, after all, for all that he's still sure he can smell her.

His hands reach for her, holding onto a glimmer of hope. "Elektra?"

Time has lost all meaning to her. The only thing that matters is action. Elektra moves until she can't any longer. She must reach her goal of staying with the man she loves. If not in death, she'll settle for the uncertainty and cruelty of life. The sound of her name on his lips instantly jolts her awake. She takes his hands into hers, squeezing firmly to reassure Matthew she is in fact here.

"I'm here, Matthew. How are you?" She asks desperately. Elektra can't pretend she's even in the right headspace to do a patch-up job correctly much less account for Matthew's unique situation. This is different than being cut with a sword. They were buried alive, waded through filth (or in his case carried), and ended up swimming through a cold river. He is going to be worse off than someone who died, rose again, and was altered with abilities no one quite knows the extent of.

Matt makes a small, strained noise as he shifts closer to her -- a testament to just how well he's doing. Still, the fact that he can feel the pain is probably a good sign, even if he's stubbornly refusing to acknowledge it. The fact that that flicker of hope redoubles in his chest helps or doesn't, depending on your perspective.

"What -- " He starts, stops. "Are we -- "

Dead? Alive? In Heaven? In Hell?

He's not sure what he means to ask, to be perfectly honest. He's not sure he wants to know, in any case, for all that it might crush the hope he's so desperately holding onto.

"Alive, I think." A bubble of manic laughter escapes her. It shouldn't be possible. Elektra is torn about whether this is something she wants or not. The one thing clear in that scrambled mind of hers is her desire to be with Matthew. It's been a successful mission to that end.

The mania dies down. Elektra feels the hollowness he once described to her at the thought of losing her. "You were breathing when I woke up. I couldn't..." She shakes her head, ducking beneath her long hair for a moment. Dying together in an instant is very different from one of them dying a slow, agonizing death under the rubble. Spoilers: it wouldn't be her. "I had to get us out of there so I did." She lifts her head and looks around. This old, glorified cabin isn't worthy of Matthew. "It's not much, but we can rest here. I think this place was mine once." Her mind isn't the most reliable these days. She can only hope that's true because she doesn't need the complication right now.

Matt -- well, he'd say he'd rather be alive, but honestly, at this point it really doesn't matter, as long as he's with her. Alive is just a bonus, now. Maybe they can finally run off and see the world together, like they'd planned a lifetime ago.

"Alive is good," he assures her, squeezing her hand back, finally. He has strength enough for that, if nothing else. It takes him a moment to find the strength for anything else, like continuing that train of thought long enough to offer, "Thank you."

For saving him. For still being her, somewhere in all the mess of what was done to her. For a lot of things that aren't coming to mind, diffused to nothingness by the state he's in.

She finds comfort in that small show of strength. Matthew already survived so much. He'll bounce back from this. He always does.

Elektra presses kiss after kiss flowing with gratitude to the hand holding his. He has forgiven her. He refused to abandon her. It means everything to her. After a few seconds, she pauses to make giddy promises. "I'll take care of you and then we'll go anywhere you like. We'll be anyone you want to be, Matthew. All you have to do is ask."

I know who you pretend I am

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