He gets out of bed and makes his way out of his bedroom, but something is different. The air doesn't smell like Kirsten's perfume anymore, the place feels... empty, as if no one calls it home except him. He doesn't even worry about to possibility of tripping over a toy on his way to the front door. He can hear something on the other side– a familiar voice calling to him, a heartbeat far too familiar, slowly fading. He's far too familiar with this moment, and he doesn't want to live through it again, but he can't help it.
He opens the door and takes Elektra in his arms as if it's all part of a nightmarish routine he couldn't fight his way out of. All he can do is hold her in his arms as he hears her heart slowly give in and come to a stop. Only then Matt notices the crowd that has gathered around him, and only then he notices the man watching them. He isn't acting like the others. He isn't shocked or scared to see a woman die right in front of his eyes. Matt hadn't done anything back then– too risky with so many people around.
He doesn't care about it this time. He leaves Elektra, determined to get to him, to not let him get away this time, to put an end to this once and for all before he can cause any more damage.
Before he can do anything, the man chucks something at him, with deadly force and precision– Matt's billy club, heading straight to his chest. Karen, out of seemingly nowhere, jumps in front of him, stopping the billy club from hitting him, and it pierces through her chest instead. She falls into his arms. He can hear the blood rushing its way out of her chest through the hole.
"I can't believe it," The man says as he walks away. "I missed."
Karen is trying to say something. Matt barely even registers it, too busy trying to find a way to stop the blood, to save her, though he knows full well it's too late for that. He has to at least try.
The scene changes again. He's back home, but it isn't the safe, happy place he's grown used to. The ground is covered in blood, and Skye and Jackie are lying right in front of him, it's Kirsten's turn to lay in his arms, as he hears their heartbeats slowly fade away too.
It's what he gets for allowing himself to be happy, to get too comfortable. Maybe it's what he deserves for getting his family involved in his life, knowing the risks that come with it better than anyone.
"Gotta admit, it's pretty impressive," Bullseye says, admiring his work as he walks around the room. "That's three for three." He starts laughing, and Matt jolts awake.
He's in bed. Kirsten is entangled in his arms, as she often does every night, especially when he starts tossing and turning too much in his sleep, even without fully being awake. She knows well enough her presence is enough to chase away bad dreams on the best nights, and, at the very least, give him some comfort on the bad ones.
He tries to let her presence soothe him back to sleep, taking a moment to catch his breath, but it's clear enough that tonight is definitely one of the bad ones. It's impressive he's managed to not wake her up– though, with how loud he can hear his own heart beating in his chest, he'd say it's impressive he didn't wake up the entire block.
Matt isn't a stranger to nightmares– with how much he's been through, it's almost expected. Still, the best few months have been especially rough, which, technically, doesn't even make sense.
Ever since Skye was born, he has significantly decreased his outings as Daredevil– and after Jackie, they became practically non-existent aside from a few emergencies. No one even remembers he's the masked superhero anymore. Thanks to the Purple Children, the only people who know are his family and another handful of other superheroes he knows he can trust. In theory, there's no way Kirsten and the kids are in any immediate danger. And that's exactly what terrifies him.
It would make perfect sense that, just as he finally starts to relax and actually be happy for once, it's all yanked away from him. And it isn't even that unlikely– even if his identity is a secret to his biggest enemies now, it hadn't always been. And they could figure out the truth again easily enough.
It's with that happy thought that he realizes he isn't going back to sleep any time soon. Slowly, so he doesn't wake Kirsten up, Matt presses a kiss to her forehead and carefully untangles himself from her arms as he gets out of bed. There's no point in waking her up just to worry her, so he makes his way to the living room.
He can hear Skye and Jackie in their rooms, their breathing and heartbeats are as calm and steady as their mother's. Perhaps the paranoia will seem pointless in the morning, but for now, he'll feel better with his billy clubs in hand and positioned by the window as he listens to the sounds from outside.
He pays attention to every car driving by, every whisper of conversation he catches from the neighbors, and every person who walks by. Almost as if daring something– or someone to even try and disturb that peace.
He isn't sure how long he's been standing there when he finally hears Kirsten's footsteps approaching him. "I'm okay," he greets her, tilting his head slightly in her direction. He knows that's the first thing on her mind right now. "Just... couldn't sleep. So, you know, the usual," He offers her a weak smile. He's never told her the specifics of his recurring nightmares from the past few months, though he's sure she's worked out the general idea long ago. "Everything okay?"
It's far from the first time that this has happened. When Kirsten wakes alone, she immediately seeks out her husband on autopilot. After all, he relishes time with her as much as she does with him, so his being absent from their bed usually means he has too much on his mind to stay still. She knows that there are corners of that mind that are a little too steeped in danger to ever settle down, but she also knows that her presence helps.
So she seeks him out, as she always does. Her arms wrap around him as she drops a kiss on his lips — chaste and reassuring — before nodding. "Everything is fine. You're out here worrying about hypothetical scenarios and I'm over here worrying about you. Nothing new."
Except Kirsten can tell that words aren't enough to ease Matt's mind. She squeezes him tighter and then lets go so that she can trace her fingers down his face. "Do you want to talk about it? Whatever it is that you're so scared of? I don't like seeing you like this, Matt..." Then she hurriedly adds, "And that's not an invitation to hide it from me. I want to help, not to have you pretend everything is okay when it clearly isn't."