Chapter Text
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.
Mrs. Page’s voice rang out in Karen’s thoughts, encouraging her as her shaking hands gripped Wesley’s gun. Was he bluffing? Or was it really not loaded? Karen had to admit his poker face was impressive, but you didn’t get to become Fisk’s right hand man without a will of steel.
“Ms Page,” Wesley started, leaning forward ever so slightly and preparing to stand. Take the shot, Karen! Take the shot, take it! Her finger trembled against the trigger, pressing it tighter, lining up her shot. But as she aimed the barrel of the revolver at Wesley’s heart, she hesitated. And in that moment, she missed her shot.
Wesley stood with an almost disappointed sigh. “It’s been less than a pleasure doing business with you, but I trust that you’ll accept our offer. You know what will happen if you don’t.” Wesley rounded the table to where Karen sat and plucked the gun out of her shaky hands. One by one, he shot the bullets into the ceiling, then threw the gun back down on the table in front of her. “There’s one bullet left. Use it how you will.” With that, he stalked towards the exit, a self satisfied smile toying at his lips. Mr. Fisk was going to be very pleased.
“FUCK!” Karen screamed as the door slammed behind Wesley. How had she let herself get cornered like this again? The man in the mask wasn’t there to save her this time, whatever she did, she had to take it into her own hands. Her eyes drifted back down to the gun on the table. One bullet left, Wesley had said. He knew she’d rather die than endorse Fisk’s lies, she’d as much as told him herself. She reached for the gun. Wesley was baiting her, that much was obvious. Either way he’d have eliminated a threat.
Karen grasped the revolver, manicured nails curling around the grip. There was no way to win. If she resisted, Fisk would kill her family, Matt, Foggy. If she complied, she’d be as good as dead to them anyway, just another sellout coward bowing under Fisk’s threats and promises. They’d never take him down. But if she took the gun, used it as Wesley intended to… At least then they’d have a chance. Matt and Foggy and Ben could still work together, could still stop him. She was just one piece of the puzzle, one member of the team. Without her, they could still move on.
Karen lifted the gun. It made sense, didn’t it? The only way to stop Fisk was to play his game. At least if she shot herself, the gun would still have Wesley’s prints on it. They could connect him to the crime scene, connect Fisk to everything that had happened. All those fake suicides, only to be brought down by a real one. It was so ironic that Karen almost smiled. She’d just be finishing what those dirty cops had started the second they came at her in her cell.
Hands much steadier, Karen delicately aimed the gun. She only had one chance to get this right, one chance to use her life to bring Fisk down, once and for all. She had to make it look like Wesley was the one who shot her. Adjusting her hands one last time so that the impact would send the gun firing back into Wesley’s chair, Karen closed her eyes. A tear ran down her cheek, the only sign that she regretted what she was about to do.
“I’m sorry”
Her words rang out in the empty room, dwarfed milliseconds later by the ring of the gunshot. In her last few moments of consciousness, Karen Page smiled. Wilson Fisk was going down.