Claire finds herself wandering the bowels of Midland Circle, lost, confused, and scared. Where the hell did Colleen go? Misty? Even Bakuto… where the hell did everybody go? She sees pipes and bars and white walls and a white ceiling, flickering florescent lights. It's eerily quiet until…

"CLAIRE!" A pained and panicked scream echoes down the hall.

It sounds like Colleen, and hearing the cry makes her adrenaline spike and her stomach drop.

" Colleen?! Where are you?!" She calls out looking around frantically.

It sounded like it was just down the hall, and maybe around the corner. She runs in that direction.

"Colleen!" Claire calls out again, and when she turns the corner and is sure she'll be reunited with her possibly injured friend, she's a bit surprised when she sees nothing but another corridor. She's about to call out again when another scream rings out from further down the hall.

" CLAIRE! HELP ME!" This one sounds like a male voice. Danny's voice.

He sounds in agony.

"Danny. Danny! I'm coming! Colleen?! Where are you guys?!"

She picks up her pace. The fluorescent lights are going out as she passes them. She feels like she's being led by them.
Is this some kind of trap? She wonders.

" Danny! Colleen! Just wait, I'm coming! Just hold on!" She reaches an elevator. It looks janky as hell, but she's almost positive it's were she needs to go. The doors open before she even pushes the button.

"CLAIRE, HELP ME! I NEED YOU!" It's Jessica this time.

Claire has never heard her sound so broken and vulnerable. It's coming from somewhere down below.

" Jessica, just wait! I'm coming everybody, just hold on!"

She goes to push a button to go to… there are no buttons. Claire blinks at where there should be a panel of buttons, but there's nothing. Suddenly she feels very out of control.

" What the hell…" She starts to panic, looking around frantically.

She feels her stomach in her throat as the elevator begins to drop on it's own, way too fast for comfort. She hears all the cries ringing out in some sort of ghastly chorus.

"ClAIRE!"

" HELP ME!"

"CLAIRE, I NEED YOU!"

"PLEASE!"

"IT HURTS! PLEASE CLAIRE, HELP!"

She leans heavily against the back wall of the elevator, still feeling it plummet further into the earth at an alarming rate.

"I'm trying. Please, believe me, I'm trying! Just hold on, I won't leave you! I can help you!" She desperately calls out in response, but they don't seem to hear her. She feels helpless listening to their cries and not being able to get to them, to take away their pain.

To her relief though, the elevator comes to a gradual and surprisingly gentle halt. She pushes off the wall and stands straight, looking at the door expectantly but a little afraid of what's on the other side.

It opens with a slow and unsettling creek.

It's dark, mostly, except for a single red spot light in the distance.

"Guys?" Claire calls out warily.

She steps out of the elevator with hesitation, squinting, trying to see what's in the spot light. She can't make it out for some reason.

"Hey. Colleen? Danny? Are you guys down here?" She comes closer to the object in the spot light, her pace picking up when it begins to take the shape of a person, laying face down.

"Hey, are you ok?" She runs up to them, her heart sinking as the distance closes between them.

It's a man, he's wearing a tight, red suit of armor, and he's in a pool of thick crimson liquid.

"Matt?! Hey, talk to me!" She drops to her knees besidet he body clutches him with both hands, trying to turn him over.

"Matt, please! Please, I tried…" She stops, shocked and confused when the man she has turned over is suddenly not Matt Murdock, but the love of her life.

The glazed and lifeless eyes of Luke Cage gaze back at her and she can feel something inside her crumbling apart.

"Luke, baby…" She mutters, staring uncomprehendingly at the corpse of her lover.

"You can't always save us." A man's voice sounds behind her.

She jumps, turning quickly to face the stranger. No…. not a stranger. It's Daredevil standing behind her in the dim light, blood seemingly dripping from every part of him. She's not sure where it's coming from exactly, maybe everywhere?

" What?" She just watches him from her spot, still kneeling next to Luke with a hand full of his shirt, not wanting to let go.

"You can't keep saving us. We'll all just keep running into the fire, and you'll follow us."

" No. I can help you. It'll be ok. You will all be ok!" She snaps at him and turns back to her seemingly dead boyfriend.

"Luke, please. You're right, you're not Matt. You're not like the rest of them. You can't die too." She shakes him and is a little startled when his eyes actually do fix on her.

"Luke?"

"The thing about Martyrs is the good ones end up dead." Her own voice hisses in her ear.

Claire wakes up with a jolt. Eyes suddenly wide open, she's drenched in sweat and can feel her heart pounding in her chest. A nightmare. It was just a nightmare. She'd fallen asleep on the couch reading a book, waiting up for Luke. Apparently she'd been more worried him going out tonight than she'd thought.

Claire had never considered herself an anxious person and had always prided herself in being thick-skinned and level headed. It's not that she isn't still (for the most part), it's just that this life she's fallen into over the past few years is starting to wear on her, or more like the people in her life are testing her limits. She feels like she needs to get a grip on herself though.

She untangles herself from the throw blanket she'd draped over her legs before and sits up, trying to shake the uneasy feeling that lingered from her nightmare. She runs her fingers through her hair and just sits in the quiet for a moment with her head in her hands, taking a few deep breaths in attempt to calm herself.

"I'm ok. Luke is ok. Everyone and everything is ok." She reassures herself.

Her little mantra of "everything is ok" was enough to help her heart rate slow to a more reasonable pace, so she takes one last deep breath before finally lifting her head up from her hands.

She looks around at the room and takes in the physical space of her mother's apartment. The warm colors, the knickknacks, the plush furniture, the combined smells of various spices and just a hint of Pine-Sol that she'd come to associate with home. She manages to find warmth and peace in that, surrounded by her mother's things. She feels at home, and at home she feels safe. And Luke would be back soon to enjoy that safety and warmth with her, because he was ok.

She sits up straight at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall outside the apartment door.

That's probably him coming now... She thinks to herself with relief.

Claire stands up from the couch as the front door was unlocked and opened, and she smiles as her tall, dark, handsome, and very much alive man walks through the door.

"Hey…" She starts toward him but stops when someone else walks in behind him and it takes a moment to register who.

"Oh… Danny." Claire can't help but feel some of that anxiety seep back in. It's not that she doesn't want to see him, but what good reason could the Iron Fist have to come visit her mom's apartment, with Luke, at 3 o' clock in the morning.

She knows the two men had mostly moved past the issues they had with each other in the beginning, but her attempts to encourage their friendship consistently fell flat in the months following the Midland Circle Incident.

"He hit me again." Danny says flatly as he walks past Luke and plops down on the couch.

"More like shoved you, but you punched me first. Again." Luke clarifies, shutting the door behind him.

Claire scoffs. "Jesus, what are you guys, 10?"

Danny is quiet but Luke chuckles a little as he shrugs off his Carhart jacket and hangs it up on the coat rack by the door. He walks up to Claire, who is standing by the couch still, and pecks her on the cheek.

"Nice to see you too, by the way. What has it been… about a month?" Claire mutters to the younger man as she picks up her blanket from the couch and folds it.

She saw Colleen relatively frequently as she was still taking self-defense lessons from her, and they met for lunch or tea every now and them. Danny, though, she'd seen a lot less of in the past few months. She'd tried regularly to reach out to him, but he seemed to always be busy, either with Rand or god knows what. She and Colleen talked about him from time to time, of course, and occasionally Colleen would express her concern about how he seemed to be stretching himself thin.

Right now, for some reason she couldn't help but feel a little irritated with the man sitting on her mom's couch. Maybe it was the stress having so many people in her life constantly putting themselves in danger. Maybe it was the lingering uneasiness from the nightmare. Maybe it was the fact that, except for Colleen, who had practically become her best friend over the past year, the others so often only came to see her when they needed something.

"Oh… sorry Claire…" Danny looks at her guiltily, then looks down like he's suddenly very interested in the zipper on his hoodie and starts fidgeting with it. "I didn't think about how late it was. Sorry if we woke you. It really is nice to see you though… I guess I've just been caught up in business at Rand and, you know, I'm terrible at that kind of stuff so it's just been kinda crazy trying to figure things out and make the company better…" He stops when he looks back up at her.

Claire is just standing in front of him with flat look on her face.

"How are you?" He asks hesitantly.

"Fine, Danny. I'm fine." She gives him a small smile.

He gave her a tired smile back.

"So… I assume this wasn't planned and you two just ran into each other?" Claire looks back and forth between the two guys expectantly, but the only response she gets is Danny biting his lip and little nod and shrug from Luke.

"Ok…" She sighs and throws up a hand, the other still holding onto the blanket. "So, what's wrong? Who's hurt? What do I need to fix?"
Danny shifts uncomfortably in his spot on the couch and for the first time she notices him clutching his chest. She hadn't really looked at him too closely yet, but now she could see he looked exhausted, a little paler than usual and with dark circles under his eyes. Next to her, Luke gestures toward the younger man.

"Well, long story short, we had a bit of a scuffle and Danny took a hit to the chest."

Danny's face flushes like he's embarrassed by the situation, and when Claire looks to Luke, he averts his eyes.

"It's not that bad. I'm sure it's just a bruise." Danny tries to reassure her, but Claire is so thrown off by the oddness of their behavior and the situation that she doesn't even acknowledge it.

Claire sets the blanket down on the arm of the couch and shakes her head, giving a little cynical laugh. "You know, in the beginning, I really thought you two could benefit from meeting each other." She runs her fingers through her hair. "Now I'm thinking I'll be lucky if you don't kill each other."

Her irritation melts a little when Danny cracks a small smile and in turn looks at Luke, who rolls his eyes but also can't help by smile a little.

Lord knows she loves them, but damn it all if these vigilante types didn't drive her straight into the ground with all the hell they put her through. Never would she turn them away though, when they come to her for help. They save the city, and she saves them. It's what they do, it's what she does. Loving and caring for people is her purpose, and she knows it.

The former nurse goes to the coat closet and pulls out a bag with some of her medical supplies in it. She ruffles through it for just a moment to pull out a stethoscope and moves to sit on the coffee table in front of Danny.

"Alright, loose the hoodie and shirt."

Danny very gingerly removes the clothing, Claire helping him get his undershirt the rest the way over his head, seeing as the he seemed to be having some trouble with it.

"Shit…" Claire winces at the sight of the bruising on his chest that was blossoming over his sternum and from body of his dragon tattoo.

"You said Luke hit you? You did that?" She turns to her boyfriend, who looks mildly guilty, but he puts his hands up in defense.

"Like I said… kung fu kid over there started it." He jabs a finger at Danny, who just sighs in resignation.

Claire isn't sure she wants to know why they were fighting each other, but she's sure Luke wouldn't hurt the kid on purpose, no matter how much he wanted to sometimes.

Luke walks over to the reclining chair and takes a seat.

"It doesn't matter right now, we'll fill you in later." He says to Claire.

"And you." He turns to Danny. "… will fill us in later too. But I suggest we tackle one thing at a time."

Claire nods." Suggestion heeded."

She turns back to Danny and gently prods at his chest. He sucks in a sharp breath and flinches when she touches the bruised area.

"Stop moving." She tells him.

"That hurts." He groans.

"I'm sure."

"Then why are doing that?"

"Does this hurt?"

"Shit!"

Luke chuckles a little in the background and Danny glares at him.

"Is this funny to you?"

The older man's face grows serious. "Hey man, you practically did this to yourself."

Danny's face flushes again, but this time with anger and Claire groans internally.

She grips the younger man's shoulder and gives them both of them a stern look. "Hey, I thought we were past this?"

Both Danny and Luke sit back in their seats, looking like scolded children.

The nurse shakes her head again. Sometimes she feels like everyone's mother. She was always the one that needed to stay calm and be the voice of reason. Always the one that needed to play mediator and deescalator. It was exhausting sometimes.

She leans closer to Danny and places the stethoscope to his chest.

"Take a deep breath for me."

He does so easily, albeit painfully. His breaths sound smooth and unhindered and she's not particularly concerned about his lungs at the time being. She moves the stethoscope around a couple times, listening to his heartbeat as well, which sounds healthy enough. She sits back and removes the earpieces from her ears.

"Well, everything sounds ok, I don't think there's any serious internal damage. It's hard to say if anything is fractured, without an x-ray, but I don't think anything is broken. Maybe just bruised. I suggest you ice it for the night and just take it easy for a while. If anything changes or you start having difficulties breathing, let me know, immediately."

She looks at him sternly and Danny simply nods at her, but after thinking a moment, she adds, "Or go to a hospital. Because that's what hospitals are for."

Danny looks a little taken aback. "This was his idea." He waves to Luke a little accusingly.

Luke scoffs. "Hey, I was just trying to keep you from going back out there and hurting yourself worse, or somebody else, because that's exactly the track you were on, man."

Claire stops that right there. "No, let me clarify. It's not that I don't want to help you Danny, you guys both know I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'm always here for you, no matter what… But …. you guys also know I'm not a doctor, right? And unless I miraculously develop super powers too, like maybe some sort of healing ability or at the very least x-ray vision, I have my limits on what I can do for you."

"Don't sell yourself short Claire." Luke adds.

"Oh no honey, this is not a matter of confidence. I've been through enough to know that I am more than capable of a lot of things, but I'm also very realistic. There are some things a nurse just isn't qualified to do, and this apartment simply does not have the resources that a modern hospital has."

Both men are quiet, and she feels a little guilty for ranting, but it's the truth. She's just scared that one of these days, some one is going to come with her with a problem she just can't fix. Matt is gone now, and while she's well aware there's nothing she could have done about that, she can hardly bare the thought of losing someone else.

"Hey babe, can I talk to you for a moment, in the other room?" Luke's gentle voice carries her away from her thoughts.

"Yeah." She glances at Danny, who gives her a nod.

Claire follows Luke into their bedroom for a little privacy.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to come out so harsh, but I am serious." She crosses her arms and leans against the door frame, just inside the room.

Luke sits on the bed.

"No need to apologize, baby. I understand what you're saying."

"Ok, I appreciate that. But what's up? What did you need to talk about?"

"First of all, are you ok?" He gives her a concerned look.

She's not used to being the subject of concern. It's unsettling, to be honest.

She takes in a deep breath and unfolds her arms.

"I'm always telling everybody else about how theY need to communicate their feelings and deal with their shit, but her I am…" Claire shakes her head, feeling a little dumb, but also recognizing how ridiculous that is.

She sits on the bed next to her boyfriend.

"I'm fine Luke, mostly. I just worry about you guys." She glances outside the room at Danny, who seems to be making himself more comfortable on the couch.

"I know, I'm sorry." Luke says.

She shakes her head. "No, don't be sorry. I asked for this, really. I chose this life, just like you guys chose yours... and I wouldn't change it for anything."

Luke grabs one of her hands and squeezes it.

"I guess what happened to Matt shook me up more than I realized." Claire says and rests her head on his shoulder and the both sit in silence for a moment.

"I know. I think I'm coming to the same realization." Luke agrees.

Claire lifts her head to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah…" He's the one to glance out the door this time, thinking for a moment before elaborating.

"That's the other thing I wanted to talk about." He nods his head in the direction of the living area outside the room. "To be honest, I hadn't thought about the others much lately. I guess I've been so wrapped up in just trying to get back on my feet these past few months, trying to readjust to life on the outside and just enjoying having you around." He looks down at her and gives her a soft smile, but the smile fades a little when he continues. "When I finally realized it was Danny out there tonight, and I saw how much he seemed to be struggling, something kinda dawned on me."

Claire rose a brow in question. "What?"

"What happened to Matt didn't have to happen. He could've walked out of that building with the rest of us. There's no good reason he shouldn't have. We didn't go down there to save one of us, just to lose another. Now I don't know for sure why he felt he needed to stay down there. Maybe he felt he didn't have anything else, or anyone else... but Elektra. I don't know. But what I do know is I'm sure as hell not going to stand by and let something like that happen again. This life and this city is rough enough as it is, we need to watch out for each other. How are we gonna look out for this city if we can't look out for ourselves?"

Claire finds strength in the determination she hears in his voice. She squeezes his hand back and smiles.

"So, does this mean you two are finally going to be friends?" She ribs him.

His seriousness crumbles and he laughs a little.

"Now I don't know if I'd go that far."

"Oh, come on. Face it, tough guy..." Claire bumps him with her shoulder. "…ya'll are gonna be super-pals, you know it."

"Don't push it." He jokingly warns, but she's still smiling at him.

"We should get back out there with Danny." Claire stretches and yawns. "… and tell him to go home to Colleen. I'm sure she's worried and I don't know about you all, but I am tired."

They both stand and head back out into the living area to find Danny fast asleep and snoring softly on the couch. He's still sitting up, mostly, but his head is tipped back and resting on the back of the couch, mouth slightly agape.

Claire and Luke watch him a moment, both internally debating whether to wake him.

Claire reaches over and picks up the blanket she'd folded earlier to drape it over their sleeping friend.

"Or I'll just text Colleen and we can all just call it a night."