Here is the end. Just want to Thank everyone again who has taken their precious time to read and review this story. It really has meant a lot to me. So...see what you think and please let me know.

It had all been a trap. A half dozen lynch men had lured Daredevil into an abandoned factory floor. Old metal machine parts were scattered across the vast space and he was pretty sure it was one of those parts that had knocked him unconscious. He had entered the fight determined to save the girl and it must have been something that solid to eventually put a stop to him. He had unleashed Hell in that room and taught them all his family mantra: Murdock's always got back up.

He went on to prove the point by rousing from unconsciousness, dizzy with the taste of copper in his mouth ready to go another round.

"Where's the girl?" he spat out, blood dripping from his lips. His body trying to pull itself off the ground.

The few men still able to stand, backed off and Daredevil heard the click of high heels and the waft of expensive perfume glide through the room. He knew even before he heard the exotic accent who was there.

"Good evening Mr ….Daredevil" Vanessa Marianna greeted.

He steadied himself, swaying slightly and repeated the earlier question. "Where's the girl?"

"There is no girl Mr Daredevil, I needed to see you and Wilson told me if I set a trap you would come.

Daredevil took a number of deep breaths trying to calm a growing rage. Why did people think that imitating violent crimes was a good way of getting his attention? He wiped more blood away from his face and turned to walk away before he did something he would regret.

"Please! I need your help!" Vanessa called out. Daredevil was not about to be a pawn in Fisk's games but the slight note of desperation in her voice made him stop.

"Why do you stand by that man's side? You've seen the things he has done. How do you do it?" Daredevil begged. The memory of meeting the intelligent and very sexy woman at the art gallery coming to the forefront of his mind.

"I stick with Wilson because I believe in him Mr Daredevil. I can see what he wants for this city. Hell's Kitchen is a hole that can not be saved by good men or hero's. It needs someone willing to get the job done no matter the cost."

Daredevil took a step back as those words soaked in. He truly wanted to believe that good men could get the job done but he had doubts that he was one of them. The journey he'd embarked on had taken him to a lot darker places than expected.

"Whatever help you need, find someone else" he announced, once again heading to the door. He was done being played for the night.

"I have tried someone else. I have tried everyone else. Please help me?"

He stopped once more and Vanessa didn't wait for him to turn and face her before starting to explain her situation. Daredevil could sense that she would stop him from leaving until he had heard the story, even if it meant another chunk of metal to the face.

"I have a colleague whose skills made him very useful in organising some of Wilson's business ventures. Over the last couple of months Mr Oxley has become invaluable to Mr Fisk's future."

Daredevil listened, quickly fitting together the pieces of what he was being told with the facts he'd all ready picked up from the street. The key bit of information seem to be the name - Oxley, or more importantly the 'Ox' part.

"Is this Mr Oxley also known as The Box?" he enquired, Vanessa confirmed it to be the case.

"So, when you say organising business ventures. What you mean is he has been supplying guns to the Irish to guarantee they succeed in winning the drug war." Abhorrence was clear in this tone.

"It is more complicated than that"

"If that's what you want to believe" Daredevil spat back

Vanessa ignored the disproval and continued with the story.

"Wilson has been very keen to find the person who killed his friend James Wesley. I learned a while back that the guilty party may well be a young woman with blonde hair. Mr Fisk gave me a list of people who might fit the bill." she paused taking a shaky breath before continuing

"I gave that list to Mr Oxley. To find the killer and bring the woman responsible to me. But I didn't realise that he had been very good friends with Wesley, the task was quite personal for him. Now I can't seem to stop him. Brian has taken matters into his own hands and has gone rogue."

Daredevil's head snapped round. Only one word amongst all the others stood out in that tale.

"Did you say Brian?"

"Yes Brian Oxley. Apparently they met overseas whilst serving in the forces."

Daredevil felt winded. No…No it couldn't be. There must be hundreds of Brian's in the city. It was a fairly common name, right? But regardless he couldn't help but ask his next question.

"Does….Does Brian Oxley happen to have a British Accent?

Karen sat at the restaurant table across from her date. She sipped an after dinner coffee feeling fully sated. The food had been amazing and she made a mental note to drag Foggy there at some point in the future. Brian Wright was sitting opposite, leaning back in his chair watching as she lifted the hot drink to her lips. He had been a great date Karen observed. A natural conversationalist and someone she could happily sit and listen to all night.

"How do you come to be in Hell's Kitchen anyway? It's a long way from home" She enquired effortlessly moving the discussion into a new direction.

Brian idly ran a finger round the rim of his wine glass, for once taking time before answering. It made Karen wonder if the story may not be an easy one to tell. Eventually he looked across the table and answered.

"I came here to work for an old friend. I served along side him a number of years ago in the Navy, then out of the blue I received a call asking me to come out here and give him a hand."

For a moment Karen was a little confused. During the Akhtar case she thought he said he owned a coffee shop. Surely if that was the case then he worked for himself not for someone else.

"Do you still work with him?" she enquired hoping to clarify the situation. Brian looked down at his wine glass and shook his head.

"No, he was killed, not so long ago"

"Was it in the line of duty?"

"No he was murdered, here in Hell's Kitchen."

"Oh God, that's terrible, I'm so sorry" Karen genuinely expressed, placing her hand on top of Brian's for comfort.

"It is terrible, I miss him a great deal." He took hold of the hand Karen had offered in comfort and squeezed it gently.

"You know, you might actually know him. I think he once said he had some dealings with your law firm." his eyes slowly lifted from the table to look at her directly.

"Really, what was his name?"

"His name was James Wesley"

A cold shiver of sickness hit Karen full on as she sat and tried not to show a reaction. It was then she noticed that the twinkling eyes he had used to look upon her all evening had turned to a steely gaze, and it dawned on her that she may have seriously misjudged who Mr Brian Wright was.

Foggy answered the ringing cell phone in his pocket. It was Matt!

"Hey buddy, what's going…"

"We need to find Karen, right now!" Matt blurted down the line. The inflection instantly told Foggy the seriousness of the request.

"Why, what's going on?"

He listened to Matt bullet-point Vanessa Marianna's tale, all the while feeling a bubbling anger growing inside him.

He knew something like this would happen. He knew eventually Matt's vigilante exploits would put one of them in danger. The fact it was Karen suggested something had been going on between his two friends and the bad guys were using her to get to Daredevil. God damn it Matt!

He hung up after organising a plan to find Karen. Matt believed that 'Brian' or 'The Box' wouldn't have taken Karen far. He remembered the girl who worked at the Bulletin with Ben Urich was found dead just across the street, and Claire told him one of the girls who died at the hospital was related to the Russians and was found in the tea-rooms where she worked.

Matt agreed to start at her apartment if Foggy swung by the office. He paced around his own apartment for a minute praying she was safe then grabbed his jacket before opening the door to leave. Then Foggy made a quick detour to the closet to retrieve his trusty baseball bat.

Foggy entered the building and climbed the stairs to reach the office but fell short when a scuffle come from a supposedly empty unit further down the corridor. He gripped the bat a little tighter and held his breath hoping that would aid his hearing.

He promised Matt to stay safe and call if he discovered anything. That plan lasted all of three seconds when he heard a weak scream that had to be the blonde and he barged straight through the door, the bat all ready swinging through the air.

Growing up in Hell's Kitchen made kids fearless. Foggy hadn't thought twice before storming that room but after a few solid contacts with the man in question, Brian easily took control and sent Foggy to the floor with a number of hard punches. The lawyer crouched on his hands and knees dazed from the hits but still functioning. He realised that 'The Box' may not have just been a clever play on the guys name but more his ability to punch like a heavy weight.

He felt Brian pull him to his feet and hold him close to his chest. His arm wrapped around Foggy's throat.

"I'm so glad you're here Mr Nelson, I was just asking Karen a few questions that she's struggling to answer. I'm hoping that your presence will help gee her up"

Foggy looked out in front of him and saw Karen crumpled on the floor, her hands tied to the radiator. For a moment he was envious of Matt. His friend may have the 'world on fire' thing going on, but at least he would still be spared the image of the blondes battered and bruised body.

"All you need to do is admit you are the one who murdered my friend and I will let Mr Nelson go free". Brian ranted across the room while gripping Foggy even tighter as he waited for an answer.

Karen could barely speak as she looked up at the two of them stood there. Foggy struggled to push away not understanding what was happening. What was he shouting about? Karen hadn't killed anyone.

"Don't hurt him, please" Karen managed to whimper

"Then admit what you did"

Karen lifted her head and looked straight at Foggy, her eyes full of regret and sorrow as she spoke.

"Ok, I did it, I killed James Wesley. He was trying to blackmail me so I shot him in the chest repeatedly. Now please let Foggy go" she pleaded, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Foggy was vaguely aware the grip around his neck tightening but his thoughts were working through what he had just heard. Karen had killed Wesley? Could that have really been true? Her remorseful face would suggest it was the case. He realised the situation had nothing to do with Matt. This wasn't someone trying to get to Daredevil, to hurt him. This was a situation Karen had managed to get herself into, and none of them had realised what she had been hiding all this time. God they could have helped her through it. Why hadn't she told them?

He pushed against Brian trying to get free but the man was just too strong and the grip grew tighter still, until his vision faded and there was only darkness.

"Nooo, you said you would let him go" Karen cried out as she watched her friends body crumble to the ground.

She made no attempt to free herself. All the pain was deserved. She had killed a man and you just couldn't get away with that. All this time she had argued the case against Wilson Fisk. He was a bad man because he had killed his father. Karen had never concerned her self with the reasons behind that incident. Never considered that his father may have been a bad man, or that the child - Wilson had done it through fear. Now she done the exact same thing. God! she deserved everything she got.

"I knew the second I said Wesley's name in the restaurant that it was you. I have finally found the right one" a kind of glee in his tone as he spoke, but Karen's body and mind was beyond caring now.

She waited for the final blow when door flew open almost off his hinges with such a bang she thought there had been a gun shot. Daredevil stood in the doorway and his whole body pulsed with a kind of anger Karen had never seen before.

Daredevil slammed into Brian, his baton's flying through the air making contact forcefully with his assailant. Brian Oxley managed to block and few hits and send some of his own back to the masked man. They fought viciously across the room, equally skilled, but Daredevil would not yield this fight. It was personal. The two most important people in his life were in that room and Brian Oxley had hurt them both, and he was going to pay.

A momentarily lack in concentration brought the full force of Brian's fist crash against the side of his head. Daredevil fell to the floor, ringing in his ear growing louder as he fought to stay conscious. He stayed there a moment trying to shake away for the high pitched sound from his ears. It took a minute and then he heard the thud of Foggy's Louisville Slugger scrape across the floor towards him.

Daredevil managed to turn just in time to block the bat coming at him and took a hold, spinning the wood so that it gave a painful blow back to Brian. He hit him a second time with the bat until Brian Oxley was down on the floor. Now Daredevil had the upper hand and that's the way it's stayed.

Kneeling over the guy, Daredevil pulled his gloves off wanting to feel the man's face smack against his knuckles. He hit him hard, then again, and again. Then just didn't stop all the time only vaguely aware of the voice behind him begging him to cease.

"Please Stop" Karen cried out across the room as she watched the sickening act of violence in front of her.

"You have to stop now"

"Matt!", she screamed. "He's unconscious. You have to stop or you'll kill him"

The sound of his name brought him back. It was the first time someone had called him Matt while he was dressed in the suit. It reminded him that as much as he would like to be two separate people that lived by different rules. He wasn't. He was Matt Murdock and want ever he did as Daredevil it was Matt that would have to shoulder the consequences.

Pulling off the mask, Matt took a minute to compose himself then he clambered over to where Karen sat still tied to the radiator. He lifted his hands to help her but she pulled away.

"Foggy, check on Foggy first, I can wait" she insisted and Matt shuffled over to his best friend. He was breathing steadily and nothing seemed broken or crushed. Matt exhaled shakily thanking God his partner was fine. It appeared he was put into a sleeper-hold or something similar.

Moving back to Karen and reassuring her that Foggy was going to be ok, he freed the ties binding her to the radiator. She crumbled into his arms and he felt the weakness of her body curl into his. She trembled as he sat back against the wall and wrapped himself around the girl that had become so important to him.

The scent of her blood and tears filled his senses as he smoothed away hair from her face. What a mess all this had been.

"We'll get through this Karen. I'll help you through his" he said placing a kiss softly on her head. He realised then just how much he loved her. This seemingly sweet beautiful girl was full of secrets and he knew being with her would eventually lead him into more trouble. But that wasn't going to stop him keeping her close.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" he heard Karen whisper against his chest.

The short answer would be No, but if he thought about it, then it was less clear. Tonight he had come very close. He had also tried to kill Fisk but someone had got in the way. There had been others who had died and he had played a part in their inevitable end. There had been Nobu, the Russian, others who worked for Fisk. All dead in part to him.

There had been a moment when Matt thought putting Fisk away would solve all their problems. But he could see now how wrong he had been. Brian Oxley was the first, but others like him would follow. People who would want to deliver their own brand of justice and punishment and Matt would have to be ready to stop them. All the while that line he had not yet crossed forever getting closer.

He pulled Karen tight, kissed her once again and felt her shaky breath against his neck. He couldn't answer her question so chose to stay silent. He wasn't sure where his relationship with Karen would lead or how that would affect his friendship with Foggy. But he knew if they were to survive they needed to stick together and make sure there were no more secrets between them.