Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He knew he was being followed. But he couldn’t do anything, because right now he wasn’t The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, right now he was just Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer.

Matt was in a rush, he’d lost track of time and stayed late at the office. he was suppose to meet Frank in less than ten minutes and he was still in his normal clothes, a block away from his apartment. Matt was tempted to just jump into an alley and run across the tops of buildings home but he didn’t want to take the risk of being seen.

He was so focused on getting home he didn’t notice that he was being followed till he was only a block or so away.

So he was forced to keep up the helpless blind lawyer act not wanted to reveal is secret identity.

Matt could hear them following him, five maybe six big guys, three with guns and all of them carrying knives and one with something that smelled funny and out of place in their back pocket. Two of them weren’t even hiding and just walking quietly a couple yards behind him, the others were more spread out, two more were across the street, and the last two were in a car that was following him slowly.

He was about to pass and alley when he heard the two behind him heart beats speed up and he knew they were about to attack.

He was right. The two guys behind him grabbed him and pulled him into the alleyway while the other two walked swiftly across the street to join them.

Matt could still hear innocent people nearby, he couldn’t fight back without risking them getting suspicious.

‘Fuck.’

That’s when he heard another sound,

Just after the first punch was thrown and blood started tricking down his nose onto his white button up. A steady heartbeat, followed by the smell of gunpowder, coffee and sweat.

-

He knew Red was going to be mad if he was late. He also new Red would be even more mad when he smelt the fresh blood on his vest. But hey, it wasn’t his fault some asshole low life decided to try and rob two innocent young women just trying to get home, and it’s not like he could just let it happen.

Maybe if he told Red that he only shot them in the legs he wouldn’t get too angry. Him hurrying up before he was late would also probably help.

They had plans to take down a new gang that was forming, apparently Red got some intel from someone that the gang was meeting at midnight at the docks.

As Frank was rushing over to their meeting point he noticed something, a man, being grabbed from behind and dragged into an alleyway. He stopped and watched the scene for a moment to try and see what was happening. After the two grabbed the man, another two people who until now seemed completely harmless, walked across the street and straight into the alleyway one of them flicking open a knife as they made their way over.

Frank ran over till he was standing on the roof above the alley, slowing removing his gun from its holster, it made a small clicking sound as he took off the safety and that’s when the man, who was now bleeding, turned his head up at him, as if he heard the noise of the gun. That when it clicked in Franks mind, even though they had only met a couple of times he would never forget those red circle glasses. His lawyer- Matt Murdock. Was the man being attacked.

‘Wait-‘ Frank thought as another realization came to him,

‘Isn’t Murdock fucking blind?!’

He looked back down at the guys attacking Murdock, one of them was holding his cane off to the side so it was out of his reach.

‘What kind of asshole do you gotta be to attack a blind guy?!’

He was quickly jolted out of his thoughts when Murdock was punched again, this time in the stomach, his knees buckled slightly and the two guys holding him in place started slowly pulling him over to a black car that was conveniently stopped right outside the alley.

‘This isn’t a random attack-’ Frank thought as he realized what was happening. ‘This was planned.’

He was about to shoot but more than one of them had knives out and he could see that some of them had guns, he was too far away to risk shooting Murdock or one of them killing him once they noticed Frank was there. So instead he jumped down the fire escape quickly and just before they got Murdock into the car he hit one of the guys just behind the rest of them in the back of the head. The other three spun around, the two holding Murdock pulling him back slightly, the other two people who were in the car got out, flicking open their knives.

Still not wanting to risk any civilians or Murdock getting shot, he pulled out his KA-BAR instead of his gun.

‘Here we go.’

-

Of course the one night Matt’s late Frank is late too.

Matt can hear them fighting, using his knife instead of his gun. Matt couldn’t tell if he should be relieved or worried that the people trying to kidnap him are skilled enough to give Frank a decent fight. Sure, that meant Frank wouldn’t be able to kill any of these guys, but that also meant they were trained and fast.

And dangerous.

One of the guys holding onto Matt left to join the other three fighting Frank and Matt made a mental note that the one standing next to the guy still holding onto him, also the one who was punching Matt before Frank showed up, seeming to be the one in charge, figuring they were doing nothing but making gestures to the other men for what they should be doing. 

‘His giving them orders.’ He thought to himself. Orders that seemed to be in some form of sign language. 

‘Something a blind man can’t see.’

Now that there was only one guy holding onto him he decided to try and break free. I mean, surely they know his dad was a boxer, they couldn’t have assumed he was entirely defenseless right?

Before putting much thought into it, he elbowed the man and attempted to knock him over while he was still processing what was happening by sweeping his leg, instead, the man stumbled backwards but that was good enough for Matt. He tried his best to act like he didn’t know where they were and quickly turned around to face the general direction of where the man was now standing. He was about the throw a punch when he was distracted by that odd funny smell he noticed earlier. It was now more potent and before Matt could do anything, the smell was inches from his face.

Just before passing out he heard the man who was standing over him,

‘When did I get on the ground??’

holding the object with the smell say, “Get Castle next. We can take him with us too.”

And then the world went quiet.

-

Frank saw Murdock try to escape, and the man who was standing off to the side pull a white cloth out of a ziplock back that was in his pocket and wave it close to his face. Murdock fell to the ground almost immediately, and the other man started dragging him to the car.

Suddenly the three other men he was fighting started trying to grab his arms and keep him in place.

He knew what they were doing but all three of the men were almost bigger than him, they might not be as skilled as him but when it came to just brute strength? Three to one, Frank didn’t really stand a chance. One of the guys had grabbed his knife and gun, and before Frank could even try to fight back the man with the white cloth was standing in front of him and a sweet smell overtook his senses.

‘God I hope Red finds us before this gets worse.’-

Was his last thought before blacking out entirely.

Chapter Text

Matt should have been used to getting sensory overloads.
He’s had a fair share of them, back in collage he had a couple of them due to the insane amount of stress a new environment, ableist classmates and sometimes even teachers, tests and homework would give him.

But back then he had Foggy.

The first time it happened it was clear Foggy didn’t know what to do, but he still tried his best. And after the third one (thanks to a teacher who was refusing to give him the class notes in braille) Foggy had it down. He would first grab a can of ginger ale and pour it into a cup, then put the cup in the fridge to let it still since the fizz was usually to much but the taste wasn’t to bad. After that, he would grab Matt’s ear plugs, silent headphones, and grab one of his own hoodies (Matt told him it was because he liked the fabric but in reality Foggy’s smell became familiar enough to him to be comforting and grounding). Lastly Foggy would sit in their dorm room with him and check in with him every 15 minutes, seeing if he could eat anything (if yes then usually saltine crackers) or drink anything (the ginger ale or water).

Foggy was there for him those times. He wasn’t here now though.

This time felt a lot more like the sensory overloads he had after Frank shot him in the head or the one after midland circle.  Both times weren’t as bad or as long as the ones in collage could sometimes be, but they still sucked. And being alone made it worse.

He was in some sort of old run down building. Very old. The smell of mold was overwhelming, it’s also was what had woken him up. That and the smell of his own blood that was still wet in the cloth of his shirt. He tried to move but he was tied to a chair, the rope was uncomfortably tight and scratchy against his sensitive skin.

There weren’t many cars outside, but the closest ones (closest being almost four blocks away) were currently honking wildly at each other making Matt’s ears ring.

Then another noise caught his attention,

heartbeats.

Five heartbeats, one, the closest to him, was also sitting tied to a chair. He smelt like sweat, gunpowder, coffee and a little bit of blood.

Frank.

Everything from before he blacked out came crashing through his brain.

Right, kidnapped, Frank tried to save him. Clearly failed.

He tried to move around again but the knots in the rope only got tighter, making him wince.

Franks heartbeat sped up, he was waking up.

Just as Franks eyes started fluttering open, two of the heartbeats on the far end of the room started walking towards them.

“About time you woke up. I was beginning to think maybe I’d hit you one to many times.”

Matt recognized that voice. It was the same one that told the others to get Frank, the same one that had been seemingly in charge the whole time.

Matt was about to reply but Frank spoke up first, “Who the hell are you?”

There was a little movement and he guessed the other man was turning to face Frank now,

“That’s not important,” Matt could practically hear the grin on the man’s face grow as he continued, “Who’s important is Joe Ramoza.”

He turned back to Matt expectantly, “Do you recognize that name Mr. Murdock?”

Matt tilted his head ever so slightly while thinking about the name. It was familiar, he tried to think of the names of all of the people he has represented at Nelson, Murdock and Page recently but Joe Ramoza wasn’t one of them.

A hard punch to the gut broke him out of his thought process, along with Frank’s heart rate speeding up, “Hey leave him alone asshole-“ he was cut off by the second guy punching him in the face.

Matt winced as he started to smell copper in the air.

“Are you going to answer me or just sit there?” The man sounded aggravated and he could tell the guy was aching to punch him again so, trying to sound as calm as possible and using his best lawyer voice, he responded, “I’m sorry but the name doesn’t ring a bell.”

The man chuckled dryly and humorlessly, “Of course it doesn’t. My brother wasn’t important enough for a big shot lawyer like you to remembers that it??”

Another swift punch connected with Matt’s jaw.

-

Frank really hated being on the receiving end of torture. As do most people. But most people haven’t actually experienced it before. What’s new about this time was that he wasn’t alone. Which wasn’t really a comfort.

Matt Murdock.

He didn’t remember much about his old lawyer but he did know that he was a good person. He went out of his way to represent him in court even when his partner clearly didn’t want too. And later on, when Frank got to be Pete Castiglione, he did some research on the old firm out of curiosity.

He learned that the firm wasn’t very big, and it represented the people who really needed help, people who couldn’t afford an expensive lawyer, good people.

It was clear that Nelson, Murdock and Page Attorneys at Law, was a true and honest law firm. Maybe even the only one left in New York, and none of them deserved this.

When Frank woke up Murdock was already awake. He looked nervous and in pain. The blood on his face was dry and his glasses were somehow still on but the red tinted lenses were cracked.

Franks head still hurt when he heard people walking over,

“About time you woke up. I was beginning to think maybe I’d hit you one to many times.”

The statement was directed at Murdock, he still seemed slightly out of it. Hopefully Red would figure out what was going on sooner rather than later and he’d be able to help him get Murdock out of here.

Not caring to wait for Murdock to respond first Frank spoke up, “Who the hell are you?” His throat was dry and it hurt to speak.

The man turned to him and bends down slightly so he’s almost eye level with him, “That’s not important.” He sits back up, “Who’s important is Joe Ramoza,”

The man turns back around slowly, “Do you recognize that name Mr. Murdock?”

Murdock tilted his head slightly which reminded Frank of Red.

Apparently Murdock was taking to long to answer. The man balled up his fist and punched him right in the stomach, even in the bad lighting of the old room Frank could see him spitting out blood.

His fists clenched and he could feel anger boiling up inside him, “Hey leave him alone asshole-“ a fist to the face cut him off and his nose started to feel like it was on fire.

“Are you going to answer me or just sit there?” He heard the man say angrily to Murdock, he looked up and saw him swallow hard before finally speaking, “I’m sorry but the name doesn’t ring a bell.” Frank was slightly impressed at his calm composure.

The man however, didn’t seem to care, “Of course it doesn’t. My brother wasn’t important enough for a big shot lawyer like you to remembers that it??” Without waiting for an answer, he swung his fist at Murdock connecting with his jaw and knocking his glasses off his face. Frank was about to yell but the other man next time him seemed to know he was going too and hit him in the stomach.

When Frank sat back up Murdock was spitting out more blood and his nose had started bleeding again, he turned his head to face him, his unfocused eyes ‘looking’ just over Franks left shoulder. For a moment Frank felt another wave of familiarity wash over him but he couldn’t place why.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Murdock speaking again, “I wouldn’t say I’m exactly a big shot lawyer, but I do help a lot of people everyday. Was your brother one of those people?”

The man growled in frustration. “No. You didn’t help him. You put him in jail.” Murdock tilted his head again before it looked as if realization washed over him,

“The Delato Case-“ he turned his head again so it was facing the man’s direction, “-your brother assaulted Shannon Delato and attempted to kill her,” he swallowed again before saying, “Which makes you Mateo Ramoza, you testified again Mrs. Delato, claiming your brother was with you at the bar that whole night.”

The man- Mateo, bent down, leaning closer to Murdock, “You ever find out what happened to him after you sent him to jail for ten years?”

Murdock said nothing so he continue, “He didn’t even make it a full year before some lifer killed him.” Mateo stood back up, “My little brother died alone in a cell because of you.”

Once again Frank was impressed with how calm Murdock remained, even when he clearly heard Mateo flick open a his knife,

“You lied when you said he was with you. Your brother hurt an innocent women, I’m sorry that happened to him, but I couldn’t just let him walk free.”

In one swift motion Mateo sliced Murdocks lower stomach, blood instantly began to pool out and drip down the chair onto the floor.

He yelped in pain and Frank felt his anger rising again, “Hey that’s enough asshole.” Before the other man could punch him again Mateo put his hand up to stop him, he turned to face Frank,

“You gonna stop me?” He sounded amused.

“You hurt him again and I swear I’m gonna kill you.” Frank growled in response, but Mateo only laughed,

“Or, I could just kill you now.” He pointed the knife at his throat, a small sadistic smile crossed his face.

Behind him Murdock shifted in his seat,

“Stop Mateo, no one else has to die.” He gritted out.

‘Something tells me you don’t take breaks.’

The memory hit Frank like a train.

‘You know, no one else has to die.’

He’s heard that before. On a rooftop. The man across from him chained to a chimney.

Daredevil.

Red.

Frank looked back at Murdock and he knew he was right.

Matt Murdock is the Devil of Hells Kitchen.

Chapter Text

“Stop Mateo, no one else has to die.”

Franks heartbeat spiked when he said it and Matt knew why.

He had said something almost identical to Frank once.

Unfortunately Matt didn’t have time to think about his accidental identity reveal for too long, the sharp cut across his left abdomen distracted him.

He could feel the blood pouring out of the deep cut but his arms were still tied behind him. He felt entirely helpless.

Franks heartbeat sped up again as Mateo responded to Matt

“Oh so you care about him now? He’s a criminal too y’know. What? You thought I couldn’t recognize the big bad punisher?” He laughed and Matt heard him turn to face Frank, “I can’t believe I’m going to get to kill Frank Castle and the biggest pain in the ass lawyer in one night.” The heartbeat next to Frank sped up, it wasn’t until now that Matt realized how young the kid was.

He wasn’t one of the men that attacked Matt in the alley, he was much younger, 18 maybe 19? He was tall and had a strong build but he was easily the youngest person in the building.

“Wait- I- I thought you said you were just gonna beat him up??” The boys heart rate was still faster than it should be.

“Shut it Charlie,” Mateo hissed, “Just do what I tell you to do, it’ll be fine.”

But Charlie clearly didn’t find this reassuring. Still he backed up a little, nodding slightly.

Matt focuses on Charlie for a moment, as he moves back he could hear a faint sound of metal tapping against metal. He focused on the location of that sound. Charlie’s belt he realized, with a metal object that smells just like Mateo’s knife before he stabbed Matt with it.

Bingo.

If he could get Charlie alone, even for a moment-

And convince Charlie to cut them free-

“Are you even listening to me?!” Another sharp pain this time on his shoulder, followed by the all to familiar smell of copper.

“Like I was saying, after my brother was killed, I got to see him before they cleaned him up-”

The sound of metal swishing in the air met with more of the all to familiar smell of his own blood formed around him, he gritted his teeth but a small pained noise escaped his throat anyway. Frank was speaking quietly but he couldn’t focus enough to hear him and Mateo was to lost in his own blood lust to notice.

“-I got to see my poor baby brothers cut up body. I got to see where every cut was.” He pressed the knife down on Matt’s thigh a couple inches above his kneecap, “There was one here,”

He sliced and his leg felt like it was caught on fire.

“And one here,” he cut through his bicep and it took everything in Matt to stifle another yelp of pain, not wanting to give Mateo the pleasure.

“And finally, one here.” Matt felt a deep gash form across his stomach and this time he couldn’t hold back the scream. He felt dizzy and suddenly the world started to tilt. His eyelids started to feel heavy and Matt had trouble finding a reason not to close them, he’s blind after all, why would it make a difference??

The metallic sticky smell of blood was overwhelming and it was the only thing his senses seemed to want to focus on.

He knew there was yelling, someone was running, and he could feel hands on him now, shaking him. But the soft voice of unconsciousness was calling him and it was suddenly the only thing he could hear.

-

It was harder than Frank had anticipated to ignore Mateo and Murdock and instead, focus his attention on the kid-Charlie, beside him.

He also noticed the pocket knife on his belt.

Frank wasn’t much of a talker, that had always been Red thing (which, now knowing who he is, kinda makes sense.)

And it was clear that Charlie didn’t want to be apart of this anymore.

“Mateo’s in over his head y’know.” He whispered loud enough for hopefully only him to hear.

He shifted a little and Frank hopes that means he does.

“They’ll figure it out if he dies Charlie,” he tried to keep his voice non-threatening. This kid was scared. Sounding angry wouldn’t help, but sounding calm but firm would hopefully spook the kid enough.

“When they do, you’ll be considered an accomplice to not just murder, but kidnapping and torture too. You’ll go to jail,” he shifted to look and him for the first time sines he started talking, “You might even end up like Mateos brother.”

Charlie didn’t look at him, but his hand brushed against his knife.

“I don’t wanna die.” His voice was shaky and not as deep as he thought it would be.

For a moment, Franks thinks of his own kids. He’s painfully reminded that Lisa would probably only be a year or two younger than Charlie by now if she-

If she was still alive.

“Get me untied and I’ll let you live.” And he hopes Charlie can tell he’s telling the truth.

Chapter Text

Charlie had just finished cutting the ropes off of Franks wrists when a cry of pain made both men jump.

A dark red gash was bleeding through Murdocks once white shirt, turning it crimson.

He looked close to passing out and a mix of anger and fear flowed through Frank.

Charlie saw the deep cut and dropped the knife in shock, causing Mateo to turn around.

He looked at Frank, then the knife, then Charlie, “you dirty bastard-“ he growled and turned the knife towards him and lunged at him, but Frank pushed Mateo back before he had the chance to slit Charlie’s throat.

Charlie ran off but Frank could care less instead focusing on the man in front of him.

Mateo was shorter than him but he was still clearly very strong.

Mateo growled at him and Frank thought he was about to jump at him, but instead he took a quick step back,

Right behind Red.

“You kill him. I kill you.” Frank growled.

They both knew it was the truth, all Mateo was doing was buying himself pointless time.

They seemed to freeze in the moment, Frank leaned forward slowly, ready to grab the knife as quickly as possible.

Red was still barley conscious, his head lulling down before he tilted it back up, trying not to completely black out.

Just as Frank was about to jump for the knife, one of Mateos men who he didn’t see coming up behind him, grabbed him.

Mateo took the opportunity to run.

Frank grabbed the arm of the man behind him and held it close to his body as he tripped the man, flipping him over his shoulder onto the ground, kicking him in the face for good measure.

Grabbing the now unconscious man’s gun he quickly took aim and shot Mateo in the leg, then again in his back, just before he opened the door.

With Mateo down, Frank finally was able to turn to Matt, dropping to his knees behind the man to quickly untie him.

Matt was barely awake at this point, checking his pulse Franks own heart rate sped up as Matts slowed.

Without hesitation he pulled Matt up and wrapped his arm over his shoulder.

Matt lost conscious just before they left the room, him being deadweight now, it took Frank even longer to get him out of the unfamiliar building.

Once they got out he dragged Matt to the nearest car, hot wired it and laid Matt in the back. He was about to start driving when he heard Matt, his eyes were closed but his brows were knitted together in confusion.

“Wh-“ he swallowed, “Where are w’ goin?”

“Hospital.” Frank responded, it was like a switch went off in Matt’s head. He immediately shot up in the back seat and started trying to pull the door open,

“Nn- No hospitals-“

He pulled the door open before Frank had a chance to grab him, “Jesus Red- I- Shit! wait a damn minute!”

Matt was halfway out of the car by the time Frank had made it over to him,

“Red your bleeding out, you need to go to the damn hospital!”

He was pushing on Matt’s shoulders, not hard enough to hurt him but just enough to prevent him from moving more.

He seemed to think for a moment, processing Franks words before mumbling something Frank couldn’t hear, he was losing continuous again.

“What was that Red?” He shook his shoulder lightly,

Matt spoke a little louder this time, “C-call-“ he coughed up a scary amount of blood, “call Cl-“ but whatever he was going to say seemed to fade away as his eyes drifted close.

“Red? No no, you gotta stay awake Red. You hear me?? Red?!”

He was out seconds later.

-

The first thing Matt realized when he woke up again was that he wasn’t in his apartment. He attempted to sit up a little which only resulted in his body screaming in pain. Instead he decided to stay laying down and try to remember what happened before he passed out.

Before he could think to much he heard voices, in the other room. It was more difficult than usual to focus on what they were saying but he he could make out most of it,

“…you wanna tell me what the hell happened to this guy?”

“Some assholes cut ‘em up because he pissed them off.”

“How the hell did a blind man piss of a bunch of assholes that much??”

“He’s a lawyer.”

“….”

“Frank-“

“Yeah?”

“You brought a goddamn lawyer to my house instead of the fucking hospital?!?”

“We’ll first off, he was being a pain in the ass and decided he’d rather jump out of a car and bleed out on the sidewalk then go to the hospital,”

“And secondly?!?”

“….you were closer?”

There was a pause in the conversation, but Matt could hear the man Franks was talking to mumble something like ‘Jesus Christ’ under his breath as he started walking towards where Matt was now laying.

The door opened and he could hear the man’s heartbeat stutter for a moment when he saw that Matt was awake.

“Frank, you buddy here’s up.”

The man walked over to Matt and instinctively he attempted to sit up again, prepared for a fight.

The man must have caught onto what he was doing, “Hey man it’s alright, your safe.” He laid his hand gently on Matt’s shoulder and it was oddly reassuring, “My name’s Curtis, I’m a friend of Franks. He brought you here and I patched you up.”

“T-thanks.” Was all Matt could manage, his head was pounding and his entire body ached, “w-what happened?”

“You were bein a stubborn little bastard and refused to let me take you to the hospital. Kept trying to have me call someone.”

Matt though for a moment before remembering, “Claire. She’s a nurse friend of mine.”

Frank snorted, “Well that makes sense, you didn’t finish saying her name before you passed out so I took you to Curt instead.”

Matt nodded and immediately regretted it as the movement made his head swim. Curtis seemed to read his mind as he pulled something out of a bag, a plastic bottle and shook it slightly, “Ibuprofen?”

Before Matt could say no Frank answered for him, “Yes. The little shit will have some.” He flicked him off but Frank only laughed as he left the room coming back with a glass of water a moment later.

After Matt reluctantly took some of the pain meds and Curtis checked his stitches one more time, Matt thanked him and Frank helped him back to the car he ‘borrowed’ and Matt gave him directions to his apartment.

It took them a moment to get up the stairs with Frank practically carrying Matt all the way up. By the time they finally made it inside the sun was starting to rise through the windows Matt practically fell into bed, cringing at how dirty they were going to be since he was still where his bloody white shirt and dirty pants.

He could hear Franks in the kitchen grabbing another glass of water and start walking over to his room.

He chuckled when he saw Matt laying there and placed the water on his nightstand.

“Thanks.” Matt said softly, he thought for a moment, thinking about the last couple of hours, “For everything” he added.

Frank stood in his doorway for a moment before answering, “Of course Red.” Matt could practically hear his lips curve up as he said, “Now get some sleep, you sure as hell need it.”

Matt smiled too and for once, he decided to actually listen, falling asleep to the sound of Franks steady heartbeat in his apartment.

Hours later, Matt was pleasantly surprised when he awoke to the sound of Franks heartbeat still there, sleeping on his couch.