Author's Note: Well folks, its sequel time. Are you excited? Come on, I know you are. Okay so as I'm pretty sure you already know, this is the follow-up to my earlier story The Return. I suppose you don't really have to read that one to understand what's going on here, but I strongly suggest that you do. And if you have read that one but haven't reviewed it, please do so. (Yes, I have no shame, but it's my story so I can beg for reviews if I want.) Anyways, read, enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing (unfortunately) and I'm still making absolutely no profit from this. And for the sake of my own sanity, this is the only place you'll be seeing this, so please don't sue me. Also, due to my continuing inability to come up with decent titles, I stole this one from the song by 3 Doors Down, which I (unfortunately) did not write, so please don't sue me for that either.

Love Me When I'm Gone

Chapter One

There were times; many in fact, when having insomnia could be a real pain in the ass. This, Elektra decided, definitely qualified as one of those times.

Moving silently through the darkened apartment she shared with Matt Murdock, Elektra slipped into the kitchen, not realizing until after she flicked on the light that she wasn't the only one awake.

Abby was sitting on the couch, gazing listlessly at a TV that wasn't actually turned on. On closer inspection, Elektra noticed the teen was shivering, despite the fact that the room was more then adequately heated. Instantly forgetting the glass of water she'd come out here for, Elektra redirected herself to the living room.

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked mildly, though the question seemed almost redundant. Why else would Abby be sitting here at close to two in the morning?

Rather then answering verbally, the girl simply shrugged, refusing to make eye contact.

Uh oh, this was bad. If she was reverting back to that guarded, ineffectual way of communication she'd used shortly after Mark's death, then something had to be very, very wrong. Taking a seat next to her on the couch, Elektra kept an air of forced casualness as she asked her next question.

"Another nightmare?"

The slight tensing of her shoulders was all the answer Elektra needed. Frowning in concern, she rested a hand on the girl's arm, squeezing lightly.

"Abby, look at me."

The tone was both gentle and firm and Abby obeyed without thinking, knowing that the end result would be the same no matter how long she tried to avoid it.

The tear tracks she saw on the girl's face only served to compound Elektra's worry. "Abby," she murmured quietly, "we've been through this before. Whatever's going on, you know I'm going to find out sooner or later."

This was true enough, but Abby saw no reason why sooner or later had to be tonight. "It was nothing, just the usual stuff. Missing Dad, you know how it is."

It wasn't a total lie anyway, simply a half truth which, Abby hoped, would satisfy her guardian at least temporarily.

But Elektra shook her head in the negative, dashing any hopes of a quick escape. "No Abbs, it's not going to work this time. You've been having these things for months and I know that not all of them are about your father. So tell me what's really going on."

Feeling as though she'd been boxed into a corner, Abby said the only thing she could think of that might be able to get her off the hook. "Is Matt okay?"

"Don't try to change the subject."

"I'm not, it's a serious question. He's been acting very un-Mattlike."

Raising an eyebrow, Elektra let her curiosity get the better of her. "What does that mean?"

"Oh come on, you saw how he was with that pizza guy the other day. I seriously thought he was going to throttle the kid."

Elektra found it rather odd that Abby would refer to him as a kid when the pizza delivery man had looked several years older then Abby herself, but she had to admit the girl had a point.

Despite Matt's assertions that he was quite capable of cooking a decent meal, the three of them quickly realized that his work at the law offices as well as his night job rarely permitted him to actually do so. This combined with Elektra's lack of culinary skills (which Matt blamed on too many years of being served by a private chef) meant that they probably consumed more takeout food then was strictly healthy. Of course this was more then made up for by the fact that they were all in better then excellent health, but that wasn't the point.

On the night in question, they had ordered from a local pizza joint. When the deliveryman showed up, Elektra knew immediately that he must be new. She knew this not only because of her excellent memory, but also because only the new guys were stupid enough to try and steal from Matt.

People being as they were, she soon learned that it was borderline impossible to find a delivery person who didn't attempt to take advantage of Matt's condition. Every time they saw a blind man, they'd try to convince him that he'd given them a five instead of a ten or a ten instead of a twenty and so on. This usually resulted in a long speech from Matt about the illegality of such behavior and a threat to call their manager. (There had been one instance where Elektra, growing fed up with the ritual, had interrupted her training session long enough to come out with both sais in hand, doing casual figure eights while giving the poor fool an extremely detailed description of what she would do to him if he ever tried such behavior again. Matt made a good try at being angry about this afterward, but the effect was ruined by the grin that had played across his face.)

As it was this, particular individual had been new, and proceeded to prove what Foggy Nelson had said long ago: some people had no compassion for the handicapped. When the boy tried to make an extra ten bucks, something had come over Matt for the briefest of moments. His body had tensed and he'd given the young man the kind of murderous glare he usually reserved for the scum he dealt with on a nightly basis.

There was no violence involved, he hadn't thrown the younger man against a wall or anything of the like, but Elektra, who'd walked in just in time to witness the whole thing, couldn't deny how disturbed she was by it.

There had been other things too. He seemed to have grown distant the last few days, though he'd blamed it on too much casework and too little sleep.

"And last night I asked him if I could get a nose ring."

Elektra blinked rapidly, Abby's words bringing her back to the present. "A nose ring?"

"Yup, I asked if I could have one and he said yes."

"You're not getting a nose ring." Then, with a mixture of confusion and anger, "Why in the hell would he okay you getting a nose ring?"

Abby shrugged, unable to offer up any sort of explanation. "He seemed really distracted when he said it. I probably could've told him I was pregnant and gotten the same answer."

"Somehow I doubt that," Elektra said thoughtfully, picturing Matt's reaction to such news, "you're not are you?"

Abby actually laughed at that, the noise seeming overly loud in the otherwise silent apartment. "God no! Are you kidding?"

"Just making sure." Suddenly remembering what had started this discussion to begin with, she turned back to the more pressing of the two issues.

"Okay, point for you for distracting me, but we're not here to talk about Matt. So I'll ask again, what's going on with these nightmares?"

Abby didn't say anything, prompting Elektra to tighten her grip on the young girl's arm. "Abby, you'd tell me if there was something really, really wrong?"

Abby stood from the couch without answering, grateful that Elektra hadn't yet resorted to physical restraint to get the information she wanted.

"Matt's back," she stated simply before retreating to what had been her room for going on six months now.

Elektra was about to follow, but a grunt of pain coming from her bedroom derailed those plans. Sighing in defeat, she changed course and moved toward the sound. Abby had managed to evade her for now, but she had every intention of getting to the bottom of this, whether the girl wanted her to or not.

---

She found Matt in the bathroom, clad in his Daredevil costume except for the mask, which he'd thrown on the floor. There was a nasty cut on his face which didn't look very deep, but must have been painful nonetheless. He paused in the act of cleaning it to give her a tired smile. "Hey, sorry I'm late."

Waving the apology off, Elektra moved to stand in front of him, examining both the wound and his less then stellar attempt at treating it.

"Sit down," she ordered firmly. "This is going to scar if you don't take care of it properly."

"I thought you found my battle scars sexy?" He responded, though he did take a seat on the edge of the counter.

"That doesn't mean you need to go out of your way to make new ones," she replied, gathering up the necessary supplies from the medicine cabinet.

"You saying you wouldn't love me if my face was scarred?" He wondered in a tone of mock hurt.

Turning to face him, Elektra pressed a tender kiss to his lips, her worries of earlier momentarily forgotten. "You know the answer to that question."

Matt nodded that yes, he did know, both of them growing silent for the next few minutes as Elektra worked on patching him up.

As she worked, Elektra took the opportunity to study his face more closely. There were definite signs of strain, dark circles under the eyes that she wasn't used to seeing on him, more cuts and bruises then usual. The eyes themselves were closed now, the head drooping slightly as if he were so tired that keeping it up had become too difficult. She also noticed that despite his earlier attempts at humor, he seemed more weary then usual, his whole being somehow different.

When Elektra was done, Matt slid off the counter and began digging through the medicine cabinet. She didn't miss the way his shoulders sagged, or the way he held the countertop with his free hand, as if to steady himself. Unable to stand it any longer, she went for the direct approach.

"What's going on with you?"

Matt froze for a split second before regaining his composure. "Nothing why?"

"You've been acting weird the last couple days."

"Have I?"

Elektra nodded, watching his face in the mirror.. "Abby said you told her she could get a nose ring."

"What? I never-"Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before starting again. "I might have told her she could, but I've been so stressed lately..."

"And why is that?"

Shaking his head, he pulled out several little orange bottles and began unscrewing the caps. "Just the usual, nothing for you to worry about."

"Really?"

Matt paused again, his hand midway to his mouth. "You don't believe me."

"No, I don't actually, and I don't think run of the mill stress would have you acting like this."

"Acting like what? I'm fine."

Tilting his head back, he downed a handful of pills without water and began chewing on them a bit too loudly. It was a strange habit of his, one that Elektra was in no mood to put up with tonight. Feeling an uncharacteristic bout of anger toward him, she decided that a small dose of revenge was in order.

"Abby's pregnant."

The effect was better then she could've imagined. The normally unflappable lawyer/vigilante's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, his features taking on a deer in the headlights look. He also spit out the painkillers he'd been gnawing on, coughing for almost a full minute before he was able to regain control.

"You're not serious?" He gasped out.

"You tell me," she replied, getting more enjoyment out of this then she probably should have.

Matt concentrated on her heartbeat for a few seconds before finally turning to face her. "Jesus….. Not funny, not even remotely humorous. Were you trying to give me a heart attack? Because I would think there are easier ways of getting rid of me."

"Shut up. And for your information, I found it very funny, the look on your face-"

"Okay, just stop, please, for God's sake-"

"Then give me an honest answer, unless you want me to beat it out of you."

He seemed to consider this for a moment. "Actually…"

"Okay, forget I said that, because I can see you're getting ideas, none of which I'm going to like. Now, my patience isn't what it should be, not with you and Abby both hiding things from me, so spit it out."

"What do you mean hiding things? Did she have another nightmare?

"Yes, and stop avoiding the question. God, have you been giving her lessons?"

"Don't be ridiculous-"

"Then tell me the truth!"

Hearing the anger in her voice and knowing how determined she was about getting what she wanted, Matt finally conceded defeat.

"Fine," he said tiredly, "there is something I haven't told you."