Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bucky could list off about one thousand things he’d rather be doing than this.

Scoping out a drug cartel in the New Jersey heat with the rest of his team was one of them.
He genuinely did not understand how he managed to survive all of these political events and galas when he was a congressman.

And still, he smiled politely, shook hands, said his hellos to everyone who came in.
They all thanked him for the party and he did his best fake laugh at their boring jokes.

This wasn’t his party after all. It was Valentina’s.

Another stupid publicity stunt to try and get the ‘New Avengers’ in the world’s good graces.
The New Avengers; a team that he was for some reason the one deemed the leader of.

Which was exactly why he was here, at the tower in New York in a fancy suit, instead of reloading a gun whilst keeping an eye out for Carmon Rowe, the newest asshole trying to sell super soldier serum.

Their hopes were to catch him in the act, or well, to just catch him in general. The guy was freakishly good at evading arrest and it was getting on all of their nerves.

The last sting they’d set up in hopes of catching him didn’t go very well. They’d caught wind of his team picking up a new shipment at a dock in Hell’s Kitchen.
It seemed simple enough. Unfortunately, none of them were the ‘techy’ type. Bob was working on learning how to use some of the old computers they’d found is Stark’s storage but until then, they’d been going into mission blind.

They paid the price for that this time.

The mission was going smoothly. Rowe wasn’t there, which wasn’t ideal, but his number two, a woman that went by Agent A, was.

Getting her into custody could’ve been their ticket to finding Rowe and figuring out who he was getting his shipments from.

And they were close too.
Right up until they had Agent A and her team cornered. Suddenly she went from angrily glaring at all of them, to looking at something just above them, in fear.

Bucky had turned around in confusing, his eyes widening when he saw what she’d been staring at.

Two figures, standing above them on a shipping crate. It was too dark to make out any defining features but Agent A seemed to know who they were immediately, ordering her men to fire at them.

That’s when everything fell into chaos.
The figures jumped down and attacked, fighting with incredible speed and precision. Two clearly different fighting styles that somehow managed to work together perfectly. Bucky was slightly concerned, these two knew what they were doing, how come he’s never heard of them before?

What was worse, was that it ruined their entire mission. In the end, Agent A and the two figures were gone before any of them could stop them.

Bucky was 99% sure Valentina making him stay behind at the gala tonight was his punishment for messing that mission up.

When he had a second away from all of the guests, he quickly darted into a hall he knew the security cameras couldn’t see him in and pulled out his phone.

“Hey, just checking in, you find anything?” Bucky whispered.

“Oh hey! How’s the gala going? Have you found an excuse to leave yet?” Bob asked after picking up the phone.

Lucky for him, he didn’t have to go to any of the fancy parties. They all agreed it’d be a little risky.

“No not even close. Party’s just starting.”

“Oh I’m sorry. I know you wanted to go with Yelena and the others to Jersey to find Rowe-“

“Bob, focus please. Did you find anything?”

“Oh on the vigilantes from the other night? Yeah actually, a little bit, the footage you sent me wasn’t much but I was able to break down the feed enough to clear a few of the frames. It’s actually pretty cool what some of these computers can do once you understand all the fancy sciencey words…”

Bucky wanted so badly to ask Bob to stay on topic, but he also didn’t want to deter the kid from something he was clearly growing an interest in. As he listened to Bob start explaining how he was able to focused on the two vigilante’s in different parts of the video where the lighting managed to hit them just enough to catch some more defining details, he walked to the end of the hall where there was a railing overlooking the gala below.

As he people watched, he couldn’t help but notice a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He looked over just in time to see a man wearing sunglasses run right into one of the waiters, causing champagne glasses to fly everywhere.

“Crap.” He muttered, loud enough for Bob to hear over the phone.

“Everything okay?” Bob asked nervously.

Bucky turned and started heading towards the stairs, “Yeah, someone just made a mess, I’ll call you back, keep digging.” He hung up before Bob could respond. Already feeling a little annoyed as he forced his face to look concerned, heading over the accident.

“-Oh I’m so sorry, please I insist you let me pay for the dry cleaning, really- I’m so sorry!” Bucky rolled his eyes as he listened to the clumsy guest, his back to Bucky, apologize profusely to the waiter.

“Is everyone okay over here?” He did his best to sound as polite as possible. The waiter smiled nervously before leaving with the now empty champagne glasses. The man turned around and instantly Bucky felt guilty for being so annoyed.

“Oh yes everything’s okay! I’m so sorry for the disruption!” The man said with a smile as he rested his hands on top of a white cane.

‘Wow okay, I’m an asshole.’ Bucky thought to himself.

“Just wasn’t paying enough attention is all,” the man, the blind  man, let out a sheepish laugh, adjusting his glasses.

“It’s alright, I’m just glad no one got hurt.” Bucky responded with a polite smile, fully aware of the dozens of people watching them, “James Barnes, it’s nice to meet you Mrrr.”

“Murdock! Matt’s fine though, it’s a pleasure to meet you in person Sergeant Barnes,”

The man, Matt, extended his hand which Bucky took, “I thought I recognized your voice from the news.”

Bucky laughed, “Well I’m honored, and please, Bucky,” he tried to ignore the quiet cameras clicking as he shook the man’s hand, “Now, I insist I buy you a drink to make up for the champagne Matt.” 

Murdock smiled, his eyebrows raised slightly over his glasses, “Oh no, please let me, after the mess I made it’s the least I can do.”

They walked slowly over the bar, Bucky growing less and less tense the farther they got away from the cameras,

“I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with the work you and your team have been doing.” Matt said casually as they waited at the bar.

Bucky smiled, then felt a little embarrassed after he remembered Murdock wouldn’t be able to see it, “Well we just wanna try and help people as much as we can.”

Matt nodded understandingly, “Can’t agree more,”

When Bucky didn’t respond right away Matt let out an apologetic laugh, “Sorry, I’m a lawyer, helping the people who can’t help themselves is kind of our thing.”

Bucky couldn’t help but be a little surprised, and skeptical at that, “Can’t say I’ve met a lawyer with that ideology before.”

Matt laughed, “Unfortunately we’re a rare breed.”

Bucky smiled, something about Murdock’s demeanor just seemed so different. In all honesty, he looked a little out of place. Like a huge gala like this wasn’t all that familiar of a scene for him. It made Bucky feel a little at ease in a strange way.

“Funny enough, I could actually use a lawyer like you.” Valentina was probably going to kill him for trying to hire a lawyer to help them with the whole Avengers lawsuit without her permission, but maybe this was just a bit of payback for making him go to this gala in the first place.

Matt tilted his head, “Well in that case, please feel free to give me a call.” He pulled out a small white business card from his jacket pocket.
As he took it, he could feel the small indents in the card under his fingertips, braille.

Bucky was about to respond when suddenly a loud bang rang through the room.
Then, gunshots and screaming.

Instinctively, Bucky ducked down moments before something whizzed past him, shattering the glass mirror behind the bar.

When he looked back up, Matt was gone. He turned, trying to make out the lawyer amongst everyone in the crowd but was unsuccessful.
He did however, notice the several masked men dressed in dark tactical gear aiming their guns at innocent guests, forcing them to sit against the walls and give them their phones.

He let out a small sigh as several of those men surrounded him, guns trained on his head,

‘Well, at least I’m not bored anymore.’ he thought to himself.

—

Sitting against the cold wall of the banquet room with a bunch of scared guests around him wasn’t exactly what Matt had in mind for the night.

His plan had been simple, and it worked, well, it was working at least.
He needed to figure out why the new Avengers were in Hells Kitchen and what they had to do with the new drug cartel.

Talking with Agent A after he and Frank kidnapped borrowed her the other night wasn’t very helpful.
She gave them nothing, clearly preferring Frank kill her than saying a word, much to Matts displeasure and Franks enjoyment.

So, option B; break into the New Avengers gala and chat with one of them as Matt Murdock.

That part had worked. Getting Bucky’s attention was pretty easy when he was already clearly bored and looking for something to do. Unfortunately they just had to be interrupted right before Matt could even begin trying to pry out any details.

“No phone calls!” One of the men, the one Matt guessed was in charge, yelled out,

“Anybody steps out of line they die, understand?” He lifted up his gun dramatically. Matt rolled his eyes behind his glasses.

He was more focused on trying to figure out how he could get across the room to the circuit box hidden in the corner so he could shut off the lights. Once the lights were out he’d be able to actually do something.

Apparently though, Matt’s ability to attract problems was particularly potent tonight.

He was so distracted with trying to gauge whether or not the same bathroom excuse he used last time he got held hostage would work that he didn’t realize the same man who’d been making threats earlier, was now standing right in front of him.

“Hey! I’m talking to you asshole!” The man yelled, Matt cringed as angry spit flew out of his mouth.

“Oh, I’m sorry I-“ He did his best to sound calm but was interrupted.

“I said, do you have a fucking problem??” The man was looming over him, gun pointed at his face clearly trying to be as intimidating as possible. Matt fought back a laugh.

“No, I don’t-“

“Then what the fuck are you looking at asshole??” It occurred to Matt then that his cane was neatly folded up in his suit jacket pocket, and that it was likely he’d been facing the man without meaning too.

“Oh,” Matt let out a small laugh, “I apologize if I gave you that impression. I’m blind,” as he spoke he went to take his cane out of his pocket.

Turns out that was not the right move.

In seconds the man was pulling him up by his jacket with two other men at his side, both aiming their guns at Matt. Around him he heard several guests gasp but he ignored them.

“You trying to be a hero asshole??” This guy was really starting to get on his nerves.

“No- I’m sorry, I was just reaching for my cane-“

The man pushed him back and motioned for one of the other men to search him. Sure enough, he pulled out Matt’s folded up cane.

Matt smiled, “See, nothing to worry about.”

The man scoffed, shoving the cane into Matt’s chest, “Okay smart ass,”

To his side, Matt noticed a majority of the men who’d broken into the gala were surrounding the bar, in the middle of them was Bucky who’s heartbeat escalated the moment the man started interrogating Matt.

“Y’know, whatever it is you’re after, you really don’t need to put this many people’s lives at stake for it.” Matt spoke calmly, if Frank was there with him he’d probably be pissed, he may be blind, but he was fully aware there was still two guns trained on him right now. 

The man simply laughed, seemingly almost impressed by Matt’s comment, “Oh really? How about I kill everyone and just leave you as my hostage then eh? That sounds more to your liking?”

Matt grit his teeth, “I just want to make sure you’re thinking this through. You’ve just attacked the Avengers Tower. I’m sure police are already waiting outside and in case you didn’t notice, only one of these new Avengers is actually present tonight, which means the others are likely on their way.”

Matt tilted his head to the side, “You really think you and your men are going to be able to take them on when they arrive?”

The man did not seem too happy with Matt’s observation, he stepped forward, angrily jabbing his pointer finger into Matt’s chest, “You got a death wish smart ass?”

Matt gave him a small smile, “I’m just saying if you want to get whatever you came for without hurting anyone, you might want to start making your demands soon.”

The man shook his head, letting out a disbelieving laugh, “Well, if you insist.”

With that, one of the other men grabbed Matt by the upper arm as they started walking towards the bar, dragging him with.

As they walked, Matt heard the sounds of a clock ticking behind on one of the far walls.

Shit. He’d complete forgot he promised Frank he’d meet him at a nearby bar to discuss what he got from Bucky. If he didn’t show up soon, Frank will figure out something’s up.

The idea of the Punisher showing up to the Avengers Tower and making an even bigger scene was less than ideal.

“Okay Barnes. Tell us where Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is. Now.”

Bucky let out an annoyed scoff, “Val? She probably got escorted out of the building the second you started shooting. What the hell do you want with her?”

“She screwed me and my gang over years ago. Messed up everything, I got ten years in prison because of that bitch. And her? She thinks she gets to be apart of the New Avengers? After everything she’s done? I don’t think so.”

Under his breath, Matt heard Bucky mumble, “Believe me, we don’t want her here either.” He forced his face to remain neutral.

“I want her in front of me in thirty minutes. Every minute that passes after that, I start shooting.”

He walked over to Matt and pushed him forward slightly, “Starting with him.”

Matt let out a huff. Oh Frank is going to be so mad at him. He had to hold back a laugh. Unfortunately, Bucky saw nothing funny about this, which, y’know, makes sense.

“Look, I can try and get her back here but I can’t guarantee she’ll actually listen to me, I don’t know how well you knew her, but she’s not exactly the self sacrificing type.”

Bucky shifted and Matt listened as every single gunman’s heart skipped a beat. All of them were still scared of him, even if they were doing their best not to show it.

“Just let Murdock go, I’m sure we can come to another arrangement.”

That didn’t seem to change the man’s mind, instead, it only seemed to strengthen his threat,

“‘Murdock’?” He repeated, “So you know this blind asshole personally?”

He heard Bucky’s fists clench, “No. We met tonight, he’s basically a stranger to me and killing him won’t help you.”

But the man only smiled, “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that then.”

With that, he tossed a phone to Bucky, “I want Valentina. Thirty minutes.”

—

Bucky wanted nothing more than to beat the ever loving crap out of every single one of these assholes.

The only thing stopping him was knowing how many innocent people were sitting out in the galas main banquet room right now.

He cursed quietly as he got off the phone. Valentina, like he suspected, was refusing to go inside until the others showed up and according to her, Yelena said they were still about forty five minutes away.

They only had about ten left.

“It’s alright Barnes, we’ll figure something out.” Matt said calmly from his spot in the room.

The men had brought them to a separate room, away from the other hostages. If Bucky had to guess it was an old storage room, or maybe a slightly oversized broom closest.

Matt had made himself comfortable on a large bucket he’d turned over to sit on. Under the door, Bucky could make out the shadows of two guards. Which meant there were at least a dozen men still unaccounted for and likely with the other hostages.

“You seem awfully calm for the situation we’re in right now.” Bucky remarked, leaning his shoulders against the wall and crossing his arms.

Matt simply shrugged, “Would you believe me if I said this isn’t the first time I’ve been taken hostage?”

Bucky raised an eyebrow, “Well if you spoke to those guys the same way you’re talking to these ones, I’m a little surprised you’re still alive to tell the tale.”

Matt laughed, “Yeah I’ve been told I have a bad habit of getting into unneeded trouble,”

He tilted his head to the side, “How much longer do we have?”

Bucky glanced down at the phone the man had given him, “nine minutes.” He looked back up at Matt, trying to read his reaction.

“You still don’t seem too worried.” In fact, Matt didn’t seem to really be paying attention at all.

He was turned slightly to the side, it almost looked like he was listening to something, but even with Bucky’s slightly enhanced hearing, he didn’t pick up on anything that’d be useful to them right now.

Matt let out a resigned sounding sigh, “Oh I am worried,” He responded, standing up suddenly, “Just now about what you think.”

Before Bucky could question him, the sounds of arguing caught his attention. More shadows of men appeared from under the door, he could hear yelling faintly and then-

More gunshots.

Before Bucky could react, the lights flickered, and then went out completely.

“What the hell?” His eyes weren’t adjusted to the lack of light. As he blinked, trying to make out the shapes in the room, he heard the sound of the door opening in front of him.

“Matt?” He questioned, no response. Shit.

Suddenly, Bucky could hear more screaming coming from the gala room. He took off running, deciding to try and find Matt along the way.

He couldn’t see shit. Every single light was off and amongst the chaos of people running around, gunshots, yelling and screaming, it was impossible to make out what was happening.

He realized quickly that the hostages were making their way to the exit but were being blocked off by two of the men. Bucky decided to handle that first.

He got the first guy down easy using the element of surprise. The second guy whipped his gun around but not fast enough. Bucky ripped it out of the man’s hand and used the hilt of the gun to knock the man unconscious. He wasted no time ripped the locked door open with his metal arm and yelling for everyone to leave.

As the hostages left, he ran out with them, the street lights made it much easier to make out the details of everyone outside.

Like Matt had guessed, the police were already here and immediately started tending to the guests. However, Bucky couldn’t see Matt anywhere in the crowd.

He turned around, the sounds of gunshots and yelling were growing quieter, as he quietly walked back inside, Bucky quickly figured out why.

Bodies. Unconscious bodies littered the debris and blood ridden ground.
Faintly he could make out the silhouette of three men fighting, one was clearly much more skilled than the other two. He took both men down rather easily. The moment they were on the ground, he pulled out a gun, aiming it at their heads-

“Don’t.” A voice said from somewhere behind the man that Bucky couldn’t see in the dark.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” The man with the gun responded.

“Frank. We talked about this. Don’t.” Bucky recognized that voice. Matt.

For a moment, Bucky didn’t think the man, Frank, was going to listen, but then he reluctantly lowered the gun and instead of shooting the men in the heads, shot them both in their legs.

Immediately the room was filled with pained screams before the man swiftly walked forward and knocked them both out with one kick each.

A beat of silence, and then, “That was unnecessary.” Matt said casually, coming up beside the man.

The man scoffed, “You’re a real piece of work y’know that?”

Now seemed like about the right time to make himself known, “Matt?” He called out.

Both men froze. Then, the man beside Matt raised his gun, pointing it at Bucky. Shit, he was still too far away to get to Matt.

“Hey, let him go asshole-“ Bucky began, at the same time as Matt began to speak,

“Frank- Jesus put it down-“

“You sure you’re allowed to say that Alter Boy?” If Bucky wasn’t so preoccupied he could’ve sworn the man almost sounded amused.

Before Bucky could speak again, the silence was interrupted by a loud ringing coming from his pocket. He glanced down to grab the ringing phone. When he looked back up, both men were gone.

“Shit” he muttered, running forward and trying to look around in the darkness to no avail.

Reluctantly, he picked up the phone, “Bucky?? Oh my god is that you? Are you okay??”

“Bob?” Bucky questioned, a little surprised,

“Yes! I’m so glad you’re okay! My computer alerted me that there were some gunshots in the gala and they immediately put my floor on lockdown. I tried to call but you wouldn’t pick up. Val sent me this number and I just thought I’d try and see if you still had the phone-“

Bob continues to ramble about how worried he was. Bucky let him, not really paying attention.

Instead, he began walking back towards the exit only to be stopped by his foot bumping into something.
He bent down to pick the object up.

A folded up white cane.
He remembered the card Matt had given him earlier that night and he pulled it out, feeling the raised indents with his thumb.

Something told him he’d be seeing Mr. Murdock again pretty soon.

Chapter Text

“Well that went poorly.” Matt said, flopping down on the couch the moment they entered their apartment. 

He could practically feel Frank’s eye roll, “Well I sure hope it was worth it. Did you at least get a chance to talk to Barnes? It seemed like he knew who you were.” He walked over to the kitchen, heading over to the fridge for a beer.

Matt sighed, “No not really, we only just started talking when those guys came in.”

He turned his head so his face was ‘looking’ at Frank, “I gave him my card though, he mentioned that he might be needing a lawyer so hopefully he’ll call.” 

Frank was quiet and Matt could tell he was thinking about something, his trigger finger twitched nervously as he popped open his beer bottle.

Matt stood up and made his way over to Franks side, “I can read your body, not your mind sweetheart.” He prompted gently. 

Frank let out a small huff, “You think that’s a good idea? Potentially working with them?”

Matt tilted his head, “Well if I was their lawyer technically I’d be working for them.” 

“Red.” 

“Frank.” 

Frank rolled his eyes, pushing himself away from the kitchen island and leaning against the counter across from Matt, “Don’t be stubborn. You know what I mean. They don’t exactly have the best track record Red.” 

Matt shrugged, “Well I try not to judge people based on appearances,”

He smirked, “Mostly because I can’t see them.” 

Frank scoffed but there was no heat to it, Matt could sense the small smile forming in his lips, “You think you’re funny huh Red?”

He took a few steps forward, blocking Matt from moving away, not that he had any intention of doing so. 

“Well I got you smiling,” he took the beer from Frank’s hand and took a sip. 

Frank shook his head, letting out a small laugh. His hands moved up and comfortably rested on Matt’s hips, “I just don’t like that I won’t be able to have your back all the time. I can when we’re out at night but,” He hesitated and Matt’s expression softened. 

“Tonight you got lucky Red. But if I wasn’t there? Did you really have any idea what you were gonna do if I didn’t show up?” 

Matt softly rested his hand on Frank’s chest, “I would’ve figured it out, like I always do,”

He paused for a moment, “I’ll be fine Frank. Barnes is a good guy, he was genuinely worried about me back there, that kind of person doesn’t turn out to be someone you have to watch your back around.” 

“I’m not just talking about him y’know.” 

Matt nodded, he did know. Though none of the new Avengers had the best track record, at least Barnes had a good reason behind his. Being the Winter Soldier wasn’t his choice, Matt believed that. But he also understood Franks wariness towards the rest of the team. 

“Let’s get some rest okay? We can stress about this in the morning.” 

—

“Wow, that guy is either really smart, or really…reallyyyy stupid.” Ava commented as they watched the security feed from the gala on Bob’s computer. 

Bucky let out a laugh, “Yeah he’s definitely a lot braver than most.” 

“You said you wanna hire him?” Yelena asked, she didn’t look away from the screen as she spoke. 

Bucky nodded, “This lawsuit is going to be a lot, clearly Murdock can handle pressure.” 

“Does Val know you wanna hire him?” John asked skeptically, leaning against the top of the chair Bob was seated in. 

Bucky laughed, “Are you kidding? Fuck no. I’m not gonna tell her till after I hire him.” 

“That is, if he agrees to take the case.” Bob points out, “He might not want to after all of this.” He gestured towards his screen, coincidentally right as the leader of the gunmen finished explaining that Matt was going to be the first hostage they shoot.

“We should just offer him lots of money! And fame!” Alexei pronounced,

“This man had my respect, he shows no fear to enemy.” All of them collectively rolled their eyes. 

“Well I’m planning on calling him in the morning so I guess we just have to wait and see.” Bucky replied,

“In the meantime, you wanna tell us what you found on our masked figures from the other night Bob?” 

Ava leaned forward slightly as Bob switched screens, “Did you figure out who they are?” 

Bob shrugged, “Kind of,” The screen displayed the security feed Yelena had sent him, it was of two separate frames that Bob had paused on, he had clearly edited them to get rid of some of the static and haziness of the camera quality. 

“I couldn’t get any super clear shots of them, but the ones I did were enough to get IDs. I didn’t recognize either of them so I downloading a photo scanning software in hopes that it’d be able to cross reference the frames with anything on the internet.” 

“And?” John prompted. 

“This guy,” Bob pointed to one of the frames, all that could be seen was a faint silhouette of the man, a bit of red, and some sort of helmet concealing his face,

“goes by the name ‘Daredevil’ he’s a vigilante from Hell’s Kitchen that’s been operating for years now.”

Bucky nods along, “Now that you mention it, that name does sound familiar. No wonder he showed up when we did, docks are his territory.” 

“Dare-Devil?” Alexei repeated, overly annunciating the name.

“The other guy,” Bob continued, “Is Frank Castle, also knows as The Punisher.” 

“Jesus I’ve heard of him.” John said, leaning forward to look at the screen, “He was hell of a marine, then he got home and started a killing spree.” 

“This article from the Bulletin says he started killing after his entire family was murdered.” Bob corrected,

“He killed everyone involved in their deaths and then went on to just killing any criminal he crossed paths with.”

Bucky thought back to the gala, “Wait, I think that’s the man I saw, the one Murdock knew.” 

The others looked at him, “You sure? He’s been spotted mostly working in Hell’s Kitchen with Daredevil for a while now.”

Bucky nodded, “Matt said his name, Frank. I couldn’t get that good of a look at the guy but he was the same build, similar height, he knew how to fight pretty well too.” 

“And he knew Murdock?” Ava questioned. 

“Well, that would actually make sense,” Bob interjected, “I did a little digging on him, coincidentally he’s one of Nelson, Murdock and Page’s earliest clients. It was a huge case a few years back.” 

“So that’s how he must’ve known Murdock,” Yelena observed, “You think he’d know where Castle and Daredevil are now?”

Bucky shrugged, “Maybe, if he does, I doubt he’d be willing to tell us, he doesn’t exactly have any reason to trust us.” 

“Well if he’s willing to take our case, we’d be able to try and fish out some information on them. You think Daredevil and Castle know anything about Rowe?” John asked.

Yelena shrugged, “They might. Wouldn’t hurt to ask. After tonight being a bust in Jersey, those two are our only real leads.”

“Well then, we can try the Murdock angle, see what we can get out of him. And we can also go back to Hell’s Kitchen and see if we can find either of them ourselves.” Ava commented. 

Alexei nodded enthusiastically, “The Devil on Earth! How exciting! You think he makes deals? Like in the movies?” 

Yelena rolled her eyes and she walked off towards the kitchen, “He’s not the actual devil dad.” 

Alexei followed behind her, “You don’t know!”

—

The next morning went by slowly. Matt made it to the office early for once, bringing in three coffees with him.
Both Karen and Foggy were delightfully surprised, though a bit skeptical. 

“Okay spit it out Matt, what did you do?” Foggy asked taking a sip of his coffee. His favorite, from the fancy cafe a couple blocks away. Yeah somethings up. 

Matt’s eyebrows raised above his glasses, pulling fake surprised look he does whenever someone catches him doing something he’s not supposed to, “What? I didn’t do anything? Can’t I just get my two best friends coffee?” 

“Coffee yes. Always. But showing up early? No visible signs of Daredeviling? I agree with Foggy, that’s suspicious.” Karen commented, Matt could sense the amused grin on her face. 

Matt huffed, “Well that’s cause I didn’t go out ‘daredeviling’ last night.” He said, putting air quotes around the new verb they were apparently using now. 

“Well that’s just means whatever you did that you’re trying to prevent us from being mad at you for, you did as Matt Murdock, not Daredevil.” Foggy noted. He leaned back in his chair. 

They were sitting in their conference room; a couple months ago they were able to upgrade Nelson, Murdock and Page from the cramped office space above Foggy’s family meat shop, to an actual office space right on the boarder of Hell’s Kitchen. 

All of them were still getting used to having so much space. All three of them go their own offices, the space also included a nice conference room and a kitchen area. 

Matt crossed his arms, “What makes you think I didn’t just spend the night at home?” 

“Did you?”

“…no.” 

Karen laughed and Matt could hear Foggy chuckling. 

Matt forced himself not to smile, letting out a sigh, “Okay fine. I was at that gala last night. The one for the New Avengers.” 

He could feel both of them staring at him, “You meant the one that got turned into a hostage situation?” 

“Possibly…” Matt said whilst taking another sip of his coffee. 

There was a beat of silence, Matt could tell both of them were trying to refrain from yelling. 

“How did you…get an invite? That gala was exclusive?” Foggy asked, voice strained. 

“I uh,” Matt let out a small laugh, “I didn’t.” 

“So you broke into an Avengers gala?” Karen questioned. 

Matt nodded, staying quiet. 

“Why?” 

“Remember how I told you guys we ran into them a couple nights ago by the docks? We wanted to try and figure out how they’re connected to that new drug cartel but obviously Frank couldn’t go, so…I did.” 

Foggy sighed, “Well, points for honesty. But something tells me you’re leaving something out.” 

Matt let a small smile slip onto his face, “I was able to chat with Barnes for a little, he mentioned he might be needing a lawyer so,” he could hear both of their heartbeats escalate. 

“You offered to help??” Karen finished for him. 

“I just gave him my card. I’m letting you guys know so that you won’t be surprised if he calls.” Matt responded calmly. 

Foggy set down his coffee cup, “You think we’d be able to trust them?” 

Matt shrugged, “I’m not sure, he didn’t go into specifics but I’m guessing they need a lawyer because of that lawsuit Sam Wilson started. Either way, I just gave him my card, there’s no guarantee anything will actually come of it.” 

Karen sighed, “Well, I guess there’s no harm in at least hearing them out if he does call.” 

Foggy was quiet for a moment, thinking about something, “I’m not opposed to helping them, I’m just worried about the risks, especially since helping them clearly isn’t your only motive Matt.”

Matt tilted his head, prompting for Foggy to continue, “Whenever you mix your two lives together it goes poorly, I’m just worried about what could happen if the Daredevil side starts getting dangerous. We don’t know these people, but Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was rumored to be conducting human experiments Matt. What if they find out you’re Daredevil? What if she finds out and then tries to turn you into some lab rat and-“

“Foggy,” Matt interrupted gently, he leaned forward, taking Foggy’s hand in his, “I promise you, if I think I’m in over my head, I’ll tell you guys. We can back out at any point.” 

“Promise?” Karen asked, Matt could hear the worry in her tone. 

Matt smiled, “I promise.” 

—

Turns out, they wouldn’t be waiting for a call. 
Around noon Matt was in his office going over an old file when he sensed a familiar heartbeat heading up the stairs.

He’d been so focused he didn’t even notice Bucky was in the area. 

Matt listened anxiously as Bucky came in, asking their office assistant if he was here. Quickly, he stepped out of his office and heard towards the front.

“-I’m sorry but you need to call ahead and book an appointment if you wish to speak to one of our lawyers.” 

Matt smiled, sensing Bucky noticing his presence, “That’s okay Peter, I have time now.” Matt sensed the young man looking up at him as if to ask if he was sure. Matt simply rested a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. 

“I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.” Bucky said with a smile, 

Matt laughed, “Not at all, I’m glad you did.” 

Matt noticed he had something in his hands, “I just wanted to give this back to you, you must’ve dropped it last night.” Matt tilted his head to the side, he sensed the air shift as Bucky went to hand him the object. 

After a beat of silence, Peter leaned to the side, “He’s uh, he’s handing you one of your canes Mr. Murdock.” 

Immediately Bucky’s face heated up in embarrassment, Matt simply smiled before extending his hand, letting Bucky drop his folded up cane into it, “My apologies.” Bucky said sheepishly. 

“No need, and thank you, I was wondering where this went.” 

After another moment of silence, “Is it alright if we finish our discussion from yesterday? I meant it when I said I could use a lawyer.” Bucky said with a laugh, before glancing over at Peter,

“Unless you’re busy, I don’t want to mess up your schedule.” 

Matt chuckled, “Not at all, Peter, will you let Foggy and Karen know I’ll be in my office with a client?” Peter nodded.

Matt couldn’t help but notice the way the boy kept sneaking glances at Bucky. Or the way his heart picked up when Bucky had first come in. Peter probably just recognized him from TV.

“This way.” Matt gestured with a smile. 

—

The office of Nelson, Murdock and Page was actually very nice, it had a simplistic but welcoming feel to it.

Professional, but Bucky could see the small details in the decor that made the space still feel loved and lived in. 

Earlier that morning, Bucky did a little more research on the firm, turns out they’d been standing up for the little guys since they first started out.

A majority of their cases were pro bono, with the occasional big case to help cover the bills. It made Bucky feel a little better knowing people like them were (maybe) going to help in this lawsuit.

The stress of all of the legal challenges the new Avengers were facing was starting to get to him, and every single lawyer Val brought in was just as snobby and money driven as the last. 

It didn’t help that Sam was going to be against him in this. 
Bucky wanted nothing more than to just talk this out with him, reach an understanding. But he also understood why it couldn’t be that simple. Sam has every right to be angry, Bucky just wished there was another way to fix this. 

“I understand this case is very personal for you,” Matt spoke calmly as Bucky finished explaining the finer details of the lawsuit.

Bucky nodded, “It is. Val wants to fight it, but if we can avoid that, I’d like to. I just want to come to some sort of agreement with Sam, having a lawyer there that doesn’t immediately go for the kill might help.” 

Matt smiled, he closed the file Bucky had brought with him (thank god Yelena reminded him to get it printed in braille)

“Well I’d like to confer with my colleagues first but I think it’s safe to say we’d be happy to take your case Bucky.” 

Bucky felt himself smile too, “I can’t thank you enough, please let Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Page know we’re truly grateful for your help,”

He let out an awkward laugh, “Especially given the mess of last night, I appreciate that you’re still willing to trust us.” 

Matt laughed too, “Oh don’t worry, we’ve been in worse situations due to our choice in clientele, we can handle a few men with guns.” 

Bucky briefly thought back to Castle. How casual and almost, comfortable, they seemed around each other. 

“Speaking of, last night, that man who showed up,” He took note of the way Matt seemed to stiffen slightly, “We successfully ID’d him as Frank Castle, though I’m guessing you already knew that.” 

Matt cleared his throat, “Yes I did, he was an old client.” 

“A dangerous one at that, if I hadn’t seen the way you were talking to those gunmen, I would’ve been shocked by how calm you were around him.” He was still shocked, but he also didn’t want to accuse Murdock of anything. 

Matt smiled in a way Bucky felt was a little forced, “Mr. Castle had always been polite when we worked with him, I figured I’d take my chances if it meant stopping him from murdering those men.” 

Still, that didn’t explain just how casually they spoke with each other, like they were friends, “I only bring him up because the police have been looking for him and well, when you disappeared the other night, he was with you.” Bucky lied easily, none of them told the police about Frank.

In fact, they didn’t even tell Valentina, deciding they didn’t want to risk causing Matt any trouble. 

Matt stood up, slowly making his way to the office door, “Mr. Castle was just making sure I got out safely. But to answer your question, I haven’t heard from him since.”

Something about Matt’s kind tone and professional smile made Bucky feel a little uneasy, like he was slowly treading into dangerous territory if he didn’t back away now. He stood up as well when Matt opened the door. 

“Fair enough, just figured I’d ask.” Bucky said, forcing his voice to sound lighthearted. 

Matt laughed, “Of course I understand. After I talk with my partners I’ll have Peter give you a call to schedule a proper meeting with our teams.” And just like that, that uneasy feeling dissipated. 

Bucky smiled, “That would be perfect, I look forward to working with you guys.” They shook hands and Bucky made his way out, focusing on the positives of their meeting. 

—

Matt walked into his apartment to the smell of fresh Thai takeout still warm on the kitchen table.

He smiled, taking off his suit jacket and heading towards the bedroom. Frank appeared in the hall at the sound of the front door opening. 

“Good day at work sunshine?” He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, relaxed. 

“Yes it was,” Matt moved into Franks space, relishing in the heat his body emitted. He leaned forward and kissed him, feeling Franks hands move to rest on his waist and lower back.

“Barnes payed me a visit.” Matt added when their lips parted, “He wants to hire us,” 

Franks heart skipped a beat, “Karen and Nelson on board?” 

Matt traced the side of Franks arm, keeping his touch light, “Yeah, they had the same concerns as you but they’re willing to give them a chance,”

He hesitated, not sure if bringing up the other part of their conversation was worth the stress it might bring, “He asked about you too.” 

He sensed Frank tense, eyebrow raised, “Me? Why?”

Matt moved away, opting to set his jacket on the couch and head towards the Thai that was currently making is stomach growl,

“They were able to ID you from the security feed at the gala. Barnes connected you to me. He asked if I knew where you went afterwards.” 

Frank followed him to the kitchen area, “You think he knows it was us at the docks too?” 

Matt shrugged, “He didn’t mention it, but I wouldn’t be surprised, I’m sure they have a bunch of fancy tech helping them.”

He pulled out the food, opening each container and doing his best not to start drooling. He may or may not had forgotten to eat lunch. 

“What worries me more is he lied about why he wanted to know. He said the police were asking but he wasn’t telling the truth.” 

Frank came up beside him, pulling out the plastic forks from the bag, “Maybe they do know we were there then,”

Matt could tell there was something else Frank wanted to say. He waited patiently, continuing to pull out the food and let them sit so they weren’t so hot. 

“You don’t think he wanted to hire you to try and get to me do you?” 

Matt paused, honestly he didn’t consider that. If Barnes wanted to find Frank and him, or well, Daredevil, because of what happened at the docks, Matt would really be his only lead at the moment. 

“I don’t know…” Matt said softly, deep in thought, he blinked, listening to the way Frank seemed to grow more and more uneasy,

“And if that ends up being the case, I’ll shut it down.” He said firmly but softly.

He turned, taking Frank’s hand and forcing him to look at him, “It’ll be okay Frank, I’ll be careful.” 

Frank snorted, “No you won’t.” 

Matt laughed, “Okay, I’ll keep an ear out and if things go sideways, I promise I’ll call you.” 

Frank was quiet for a moment, “Promise me you wont be your normal stubborn self and you’ll admit it if you need help Red.” 

Matt smiled, “I promise.” 

Chapter Text

It was a pretty nice night out, a light breeze that washed away the heat of the sun as the moon took over the sky. 
Matt loves nights like this.

His senses are so picky when it comes to temperature, Foggy had made fun of him once, he called him Goldilocks. It was a fond memory he still thought about on these type of nights. Nights where the warm air came as a comfort and the breeze felt like diving into a pool, cooling down every inch of him. 

He especially loves going out as Daredevil on these nights. Running over the rooftops, using his billy clubs to swing from one fire escape to the next. Jumping off the sides of buildings just to catch himself right before hitting the ground. It’s exhilarating.

The wind is just right, the air is perfect and the night always seems just a little bit more vast.

Sometimes Matt will catch Frank watching him, sense him staring with a faint smile on his face, observing him as he fly through the sky like he had the power to manipulate gravity. 

“What?” Matt had asked him once. 

“Nothin Red,” Frank had lied, when Matt gave him a look, he laughed,

“It’s just nice seeing you look so, free. So happy.”

Which is why, three nights before Nelson, Murdock and Page were scheduled to meet with the new Avengers, Matt wasted no time rushing himself and Frank out to the roof to patrol.

Which is also why he was disappointed when not even an hour into patrolling he heard some familiar heartbeats nearby. 

“What is it Red?” Frank asked him, watching as he cocked his head to the side, like a bloodhound smelling a hare.

“Barnes and his team, they’re a few blocks north of us.” 

Frank raised an eyebrow, “Avengers? What the hell are they doing back here?” 

Matt shrugged, jumping down from the ledge, closer to Frank, “Not sure, let’s get a little closer and find out.” He smirked. 

Frank let out a huff, “Your self preservation skills are outstanding.” He said sarcastically. 

Matt laughed, “Hey! Checking to see what they’re doing here is me being ‘self preserving’!” 

Matt could practically hear the eye roll, but Frank just chuckled, “Lead the way.”

—

It had been three days since his meeting with Matt Murdock. 

It had also been three nights of absolutely no luck finding Daredevil or Frank Castle. 

“They have to be avoiding us.” Ava said, sounding annoyed. 

They’d decided to stop on an old warehouse rooftop, taking a break from their search. 

Ava sat, leaning against the ledge with Yelena above her lazily dangling one foot over the edge,

“Bob said they were spotted taking down an arms deal last night, while we were out here searching for them.” John grumbled.

“It’s starting to seem like our best bet is Murdock.” Yelena spoke, looking out at the city around them. 

Bucky let out a sigh, “Well we have our meeting with him and his team tomorrow, let’s just stay out here for another hour and see what happens.”

Truth be told, he was starting to get annoyed too. Every night Bob found a new sighting of the two vigilantes. It was starting to feel like every one was spotting Daredevil and Castle except them.

“I do not understand! Why won’t the Devil reveal himself to us!” Alexei questioned dramatically, Bucky could hear Yelena muttering curse words in Russian under her breath. 

“Maybe because we don’t want to talk.” 

All of them jumped at the sound of an unfamiliar voice coming from above them.

Immediately every single one of them had a gun out and pointing at the figure standing on the large AC unit, looking down at them without an ounce of fear in his stance. 

“Speak his name and the Devil shall appear aye?” Alexei said with a smile growing quickly on his face. 

Bucky ignored him, ‘How the hell did none of us hear him coming?’ 

Daredevil turned to him, expression cold, “You’ve been trying to track us for the last three days. I’ve come to tell you to get out of my city.” 

Yelena raised an eyebrow, peeking out slightly from behind the two guns she’d pulled out, “If you knew we were looking for you, why were you avoiding us?” 

It was slightly unnerving how unreadable Daredevil’s face was, his mask covered half of his face down to the tip of his nose, giving his out-of-view eyes a creepy emotionless effect. The part of his face they could see, remained in an angry frown, boarding on a snarl. 

“Because I have no interest in conversing with any of you. Now, leave. This city is under our protection, Avengers only bring destruction.” 

“We’re not the old Avengers.” John yelled out, clearly puffing out his chest, trying to appear less threatened than he really felt by Daredevil’s presence. 

“Yesss, we are better! Grander!” Alexei pronounced proudly.

“New or old, doesn’t matter. You’re not welcome here.” Daredevil spoke coldly, sparing a glare at Alexei.

Silence for a moment, though the tension in the air made it feel like an eternity. 

“Okay okay,” Bucky said finally, putting his hands up, “Let’s start over.”

He turned the others and motioned for them to put their weapons down too. 

“We just want to talk,” Yelena said, speaking calmly, “It’s about the-“

“Drug cartel. At the docks.” Daredevil finished for her, then, Yelena swore she could’ve saw the flash of a smirk, “I know.” 

Alexei gasped dramatically as if Daredevil had just shown him his card in a magic trick. 

“We want to know what you know about it, we’ve been trying to stop them for a while now but they cover their tracks well.” 

Daredevil tilted his head, he was quiet for a moment, “They’ve been getting their shipments from the docks in Hell’s Kitchen for a while now.”

It felt like he was choosing his words carefully, debating what he should give away and what he shouldn’t. 

“Well if Hell’s Kitchen is the base of their operations we’re going to be spending a lot more time here.” John commented, crossing his arms. 

That seemed to piss Daredevil off, with scary grace and speed, he leapt down from the AC, getting in front of John in seconds,

“No. you won’t be.” 

Immediately, Bucky, Ava and Alexei had their guns back out and pointed at Daredevil. 

“Shit.” Yelena muttered, she took a cautious step forward,

“Look, Daredevil, I understand this is your territory, but we can’t ignore this cartel. Maybe we can work together, the faster we stop them, the faster we’ll get out of your hair.” 

“We don’t need your help.” Daredevil turned and glared at them, seemingly unbothered by the barrels aimed at his head. 

Bucky blinked, wait a minute, “‘we’? Where’s Castle?” 

Daredevil smirked, he tilted his head towards a much taller building across the street from them, “He’s patiently watching all of you through a sniper rifle.” 

Bucky felt his heart drop when he saw the faint flicker of light come from one of the dark windows of the building. Clearly Castle proving that Daredevil wasn’t kidding. 

Alexei began to laugh, waving at the building, “Oh ho ho! They got us good! Very impressive!” 

“Don’t worry. He won’t shoot to kill any of you.” 

Ava turned and glared at Daredevil, “Is that supposed to be comforting?” 

Daredevil shrugged, “No, just the truth.” 

He turned back to face John, “We can handle the drug cartel fine on our own. I don’t want to ask again, leave.” 

“Do you know what they’re selling?” Bucky asked finally, he could feel Yelena glaring daggers at him right now but he didn’t care. They’d agreed not to give away anything they knew right away.

Daredevil stayed silent, which was answer enough.

“They’re selling super soldier serum, but at a lethal dosage. They aren’t creating super soldiers, they’re just killing people.” 

Anyone who didn’t live under a rock would understand why James Buchanan Barnes would feel so strongly about a group of people illegally selling super soldier serum. 

Daredevil remained silent for a moment, his empty expression staring at Bucky,

“Tomorrow night.” He said finally, walking past John and making is way towards the edge of the building. 

“What?” Ava asked. 

“Come back to Hell’s Kitchen tomorrow night.” Daredevil repeated.

“Wait, how’re we supposed to contact you?” John said, throwing his hands up dramatically. 

Daredevil stood calmly on the ledge before glancing behind him, “You won’t.”

With that, he leapt off the side before any of them could argue. 

After a beat of silence, Alexei rushed to the ledge, looking over, “He vanished!” 

—

“That was dramatic.”

Was the first thing Frank said as he watched Matt jump down to the building they agreed to meet at just a few blocks away. 

Matt smiled, walking up to Frank, who was leaning his back against the side of a roof access door, “Well I got a reputation to uphold, I’m pretty sure that one guy thinks I’m actually the Devil.” 

“The one who tried to wave at me?” 

Matt laughed, such a contrast to the intimidating vigilante Frank had just witnessed, “Yeah that one.” 

Sometimes it was still jarring, even for Frank, to see how quickly Matt could switch from the dark and ruthless Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, to the charming and quick witted Matt Murdock.

For him, there was no different between ‘Frank Castle’ and ‘The Punisher’ they were one and the same.

But Matt? It was like watching two completely different people. Frank still gets chills whenever a bit of the devil peaks out of Matt when he’s not wearing the mask. He can see it every now and then, when he’s frustrated or stressed. Frank would never admit it, but it’s a mix of scary and intriguing. 

“So you’re gonna be working with them as Daredevil and as Matt?” Frank questioned, a smile forming on his face as well. 

Matt shrugged, “It was clear they weren’t gonna back down. I’d rather be working with them than against them.” 

Frank nodded, he didn’t like the idea of working with them, but he also didn’t like the idea of a drug cartel selling super soldier serum running around. They could use people like them, who had more knowledge on the serum, to stop those assholes.

“Just know I won’t hesitate to blow any of their heads off if they try anything,” 

Matt let out an exasperated huff, “Frank-“ 

“I’m serious Red.” He hoped Matt was listening to his heart, because he was serious, no amount of arguing was going to change that. 

Matt sighed, nodding. It was something they’d grown to understand about each other.
Frank would refrain from kill shots when unnecessary, but Matt also understood he would put someone down in a second if it was needed.

He’d never put a criminals life before Matt’s. Even if they were Avengers now.

—

The next morning Foggy, Matt and Karen hopped into the back of a taxi and headed to the Avengers Tower.

The ride was quiet but buzzing with anticipation. All of the anxious to see what the day has in store for them.

The moment they got to the tower, they were greeted by a young women approaching them. 

“Good morning, My name is Mel, I’m Valentina’s assistant, It’s so nice to meet you all.” She spoke with a smile in her tone but Matt could sense the underlying anxiousness she carried with her. 

Foggy was the first to speak up, “It’s so good to meet you too Mel, I’m Foggy, these are my associates Matt and Karen.” 

After shaking hands Mel led them to the elevators, “As I’m sure you know, you’ll be meeting the rest of the new Avengers today, Valentina has a very busy schedule but she’s going to try and stop by at some point as well,” 

She seemed to hesitate for a moment before adding, speaking much more casually than before, “Fair warning, Valentina didn’t get a say in your hiring. Bucky went behind her back so she’s still a little butt hurt about it.” 

Matt sensed Foggy and Karen exchange glances before the elevator stopped with a quiet ‘ding’ 

Mel led them to a large conference room with floor to ceiling windows on the far wall. Already waiting for them was Bucky and another woman. 

When the door to the conference room opened Bucky stood up, “Matt, it’s nice to see you again,” He said politely,

“You must be Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Page.” As he spoke he extended his hand out to them. 

“Please, it’s Foggy.” Foggy responded in his normal happy tone, taking Bucky’s hand after Karen.

Bucky smiled before turned back to the woman, “This is Yelena Belova,” Matt could sense her wave from her relaxed position on the rolley chair.

She turned, facing Matt. He could tell she was staring intently at him for a moment, “We saw the security footage from the gala Mr. Murdock, your lack of fear was impressive.” 

Matt heard both Karen and Foggy’s heartbeats escalate. He simply flashed a smile, forcing his stance to remain relaxed, “Well, panicking wouldn’t have helped much.” 

He could tell Yelena was still looking at him before hearing her chair push out as she stood, “Well we did a bit of research on your firm, you guys have a very impressive track record.” 

Foggy’s turn to jump in, “Thank you!” He said with a smile, “We just want to help the people of our city in any way we can!” 

Yelena began to walk towards another door on the other side of the conference room, Matt could hear people on the other side.

Bucky clasped Foggy’s shoulder, “That’s all we want to do too, this way.” He gestured towards the door that Yelena had already begun opening. 

—

Their introduction with the new Avengers was a bit awkward at first.

Especially since it became clear pretty quickly that Bucky seemed to be the only one who trusted them so far. 

They were in a much more relaxed room. Bigger, open floor plan, a few couches and other comfortable chairs. 

Ava, who’d stayed mostly quiet when they entered, was comfortably lounging on one of the couches, leaning against John, who has been watching Matt like a hawk. 

Matt could feel the unique energy radiating off the two of them.

John’s heartbeat was much stronger than most people’s, it matched Bucky’s, and another man, who introduced himself as the Red Guardian before his actual name, Alexei.

Ava had a much different energy, when Matt focused on her, he could sense the small shifts in her body, like pieces of her were disappearing and then reappearing milliseconds later over and over again. Her suit seemed to keep her body from shifting around too much, but Matt could still sense it. 
Not that he was really paying attention to them, who really got his attention was the much quieter man who Yelena had immediately sat next to when she walked them in. 

Bob, he was kind if not a bit timid around them, waving nervously when they’d introduced themselves. Nothing outwardly pointed to him being anything other than ordinary.

Even when Matt had briefly scanned over all of them with his senses he didn’t pick up on anything strange about the man at first. 

But as time went on and Foggy and Karen talked with all of them, attempting to seem nonthreatening and trustworthy, Matt noticed something was off about Bob. 

It was faint, if Matt wasn’t so good at using and understanding his senses, he probably would’ve just brushed it off, but the air seemed to shift around the man.

His core seemed to suck in oxygen and radiate an iceyness in return that only Matt could pick up on, strangely, the longer Matt focused on him, the more ‘caved in’ he felt, like the walls were slowly shrinking inwards.

It was an unusual contrast to his polite and friendly demeanor. Still, Matt didn’t jump to conclusions, he heard about the mystery man who was seen with the new Avengers on their ‘debut’ after saving the city from The Void.

That’s what they called the creature (as Foggy described him) that floated above New York and coated the city in shadows. 

“-Right Matt?” Karen’s voice brought him out of his thoughts, he blinked, turning his head to face her. 

“Yes,” He said, recovering quickly, “We’re going to be here to help explain all of the legal matters that come with this lawsuit, our end goal is to come to a reasonable agreement with Mr. Wilson and avoid taking the lawsuit to court.” 

Foggy continued for him, “We know this is more personal to you all so we’re also going to help keep this case away from public and media eyes until it’s over. Though nobody likes to admit it, public opinion and perception can play a major roll in how a case plays out,”

Foggy smiled sheepishly, “And since you guys haven’t really been in the public’s favor as of recently, we’re going to try and keep this private for as long as possible.” 

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to try and steer media in our direction? Try and get them to actually like us?” Ava asked.

Matt noted as she spoke that John was still staring at him, it was becoming a little unnerving, but there wasn’t much he could do except ignore him. 

Karen nodded, “That could help, but it’s risky, you won’t know if something has worked until you’ve already done it. If people end up disliking it, there’s no taking it back.” 

Bucky sat up from his chair, leaning his elbows on his knees, “Right now the media is bashing us for our poor security at the gala, it’s difficult to change people’s perspectives when they’re not exactly wrong.” Matt could tell Bucky still seemed to feel guilty for the other night. 

Suddenly an idea came to him, “Well, people are probably hating on you guys for the gala simply because they don’t have any of the details,” 

Air shifted as the others turned to look at him, he continued, “When I was there I wasn’t thinking about ‘poor security’, I was focused on the fact that Bucky was trying to get everyone out safely. I was focused on how after he made sure everyone was out, he noticed that I wasn’t there and went back in to find me, risking his own life.”

Sure, he was completely fine because Frank had already taken out all the gunmen, but it’s not like anybody aside from the people in this room knows that. 

“What I’m saying is, public perception is exactly that, their perception. If we change what they see, what they know, we’ll change how they feel.”

“So what, we just gotta start saving kittens from trees? Walk a few old ladies across the street?” John asked, crossing his arms, Yelena glared at him for his rude tone.

“Yes! People love the sweet fluffy kittens! They will be hypnotized by their cuteness!” Alexei interjected.

Foggy shook his head, laughing a bit awkwardly at Alexei’s comment, “Well, we can start with something subtle, Hell’s Kitchen isn’t big but they’re fiercely loyal to their own. We have a pretty positive relationship with the people there and if a certain news outlet, like the Bulletin,” He said eyeing Karen, “Were to mention that we were proudly representing the new Avengers after they saved one of our partners at the gala, then that could slowly start to sway the public eye.” 

Karen smiled, “I still have some contacts there, I’m sure someone would love to write a story about Barnes protecting one of Hells Kitchen’s born and raised local heroes.” She playfully nudged Matt’s arm as he laughed sheepishly. 

All of them had a pretty good reputation in Hells Kitchen, Matt was just brought into the public eye much earlier than the others, right after he lost his sight saving an old man’s life. 

“Well that’s a start,” Bucky said with a nervous smile, clearly a little anxious at the idea of becoming the center of their small plan,

“We’d like to start negotiating with Sam as soon as possible, do you think you could be prepared for a meeting with him in say, a week?” 

Matt could sense Karen and Foggy’s heartbeats pick up, a week to prepare wasn’t much. Especially for a case this big, luckily, all of them hid their nerves easily, “I think we can make that work!” Foggy said. 

Just as the three stood up to leave, the door to the conference room opened. A woman confidently walked in with Mel following close behind her.

“-I want all the names of the new candidates and their resumes, we are not going to be hiring anyone without at least a few years of military experience to be in our new security unit, I also want to fully update all of our cameras and sensors throughout the building and in the area around it-“

As the woman continued to list off all of her ‘to do’s’ Mel nodded along, furiously typing and tapping away on her iPad. 

Finally the woman turned to everyone in the room, immediately Matt could feel her eyes train on them, she shifted her stance before walking towards them with her arm extended out,

“You must be the little firm Bucky so generously hired,” Every word in her tone dripped with condensation,

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet all of you.” Though her smile seemed tight and forced. 

“It’s nice to meet you too Mrs. Allegra de Fontaine, Matthew Murdock.” Matt stepped forward to introduce himself, flashing a smile and extending his hand as well, close to hers, but just far enough to keep up appearances. 

Valentina observed him for a moment before moving her hand to clasp his, “I’m surprised you knew who I was, and please, call me Valentina. No need for such formalities.” 

Matt let out a polite laugh, “Well you have quite an impressionable voice, I’ve heard it a few times on the news.” 

That seemed to catch her off guard, she stared at him skeptically, “Impressionable?” She repeated, sounding a bit intrigued, “I wasn’t aware I had that effect.” 

Ugh. Matt hates cocky rich politicians, fortunately, he’s very good at hiding that fact, “Of course, I don’t think I could’ve forgotten a voice as beautiful as yours even if I tried.” 

He sensed her eyebrows raise, a smile growing on her face, “Well I can see why you’re so good at your job Mr. Murdock,”

She released his hand and pulled out her phone, “Unfortunately I can’t stay long, I have a meeting I need to get to, I’ll be seeing you three soon though. Barnes, a word.” 

She smiled again at Foggy and Karen before motioning for Bucky to follow her back into the conference room with Mel trailing behind her. 

All of the new Avengers stood in shock for a moment, as Bucky closed the door behind them,

“Did she just- did you-“ John stuttered out before Yelena started to laugh. 

“I think you might’ve actually just got Val to like you Murdock.” She said between chuckles. 

               “Okay, small town firm might actually be a good idea Barnes.” 

Matt’s ears perked up a bit at the sound of Valentina’s voice in the conference room. 

               “They’ll look great for our optics, especially the blind one-“

               “Matt.” Bucky corrected. 

               “-Yeah whatever. He’s got this disarming charm to him, I like it. We’ll use him later if needed. I’m going to have a team do a deep dive on the firm, I wanna know everything about them so if we do use them in a more public manner, we don’t get screwed over.” 

“-We’ve got another conference room set up for you guys in the private area of the tower, you’ll be able to go over our case and do any research you need there.” Matt focused back in on the conversation he was actually apart of. 

“That’s perfect, thank you so much.” Foggy said kindly. 

Yelena smiled, “Since Bucky is a little preoccupied, I’ll bring you up there.” She began heading towards the elevator, Matt took Foggy’s elbow and they followed. 

Quietly, he whispered, “You good? You keep getting distracted.” 

Matt nodded discreetly, “I’ll explain later.” 

When they got to the next floor, Yelena led them to the conference room, which already had some computers and a couple boxes of files on the table,

“We wanted to give you a space close by so that you can ask us any questions you might have in person. Please feel free to use the kitchen on the floor too,” 

She turned, pointing in the general direction of the kitchen,

“Though be wary, John’s an amazing cook and Alexei is very protective of his food.” 

Chapter Text

“So what the fuck is up your ass today Walker?” Ava asked as the elevator with Yelena, Foggy, Matt and Karen closed.

John leaned back on the couch, not bothering to shrug Ava off of him, “I don’t trust him.”

“You don’t trust them? Why? They seemed so friendly.” Bob asked, confused.

He’d been hesitant to be there to meet them today. Yelena said he didn’t have to if he didn’t want to. But he felt like if he didn’t, he’d be letting them down in some way, like he wasn’t capable of being apart of the team.

Thankfully, meeting Nelson, Murdock and Page wasn’t actually that bad, they were kind and even a bit funny.

“I didn’t say ‘them’ I said ‘him’” John corrected,

“I don’t trust Murdock.”

Alexei looked over at him, a puzzled expression on his face, “The fearless blind man? What’s not to trust!”

John shook his head, “I don’t know, there’s just something off about him.”

Ava rolled her eyes, “Seriously John? He’s a sweet guy, bit of a flirt, but sweet.”

John let out a huff, standing up and pacing the room, “It’s just- it felt- fake. Like he was putting on an act. I don’t know how to explain it, I just don’t trust him.”

Bob started to bounce his knee, messing with the hem of his shirt, “You think he’s dangerous? Or someone we can’t trust?”

“Oh for fuck sake,” Ava said, standing up with John, “He’s blind you idiot, how dangerous could he be?”

She walked over to John, grabbing him by the shoulder to stop him from pacing, she lowered her tone so that only he could hear her, “Stop whatever it is you think you’re doing. You’re making Bob anxious.”

John blinked, throwing a glance towards Bob before sighing, “Fine, sorry. I just have a weird feeling, that’s all.”

Ava rolled her eyes, “Well get over it, he’s just a lawyer, Walker.”

—

“You think they’ll show?” Ava asked aloud as they arrived at the same rooftop they’d met Daredevil on the night before.

Bucky shrugged, “I hope so, we’ve got work to do.”

“Yes. We do.”

Yet again, the sound of Daredevil’s voice made all of them jump.

Bucky had been paying attention this time, how did he still manage to sneak up on them?

“The Devil has arrived!” Alexei let out a hardy laugh before taking a few steps closer to the man, he was standing silently on the ledge of the building,

“So tell me, how much it cost for more fame and fortune aye? Is it like movies? You want my soul?”

Daredevil stared at him silently for a moment, “I don’t do that kind of stuff.” He deadpanned.

Yelena coughed to cover her laugh, “You wanted to meet us here, what’s the plan?”

Daredevil turned to her, stepping off the ledge of the building, not making a sound as his feet hit the roof, as he did he turned to the side, towards something out of view of the rest of them.

The sound of gravel crunching made them realize Daredevil wasn’t alone.

Frank Castle appeared beside Daredevil a few seconds later, he had on a thick coat despite the warm weather, concealing what John guessed was probably dozens of weapons. The open zipper exposed his signature skull vest, white tainted slightly crimson and brown, probably from attempting to scrub the blood out of it.

“Got word of a meeting between our cartel and a man named Viktor, a notorious head of the Five Families, a gang leader in Hells Kitchen.” Frank wasted no time getting straight to the point,

“It’s happening tonight.” Daredevil finished.

“What would Rowe want with a gang leader from Hells Kitchen?” John asked without thinking.

Daredevil cocked his head to the side, “Rowe?”

John felt his heart drop, crap. He wasn’t supposed to say that.

Bucky let out a sigh before mumbling ‘shit.’ under his breath, “Carmon Rowe. He’s the leader of the drug cartel.”

“When were you planning on tell us that?” Frank asked, crossing his arms.

“We just wanted to make sure we could trust you guys first.” Yelena said, speaking calmly.

Daredevil let out a huff, “That’s a two way street y’know.”

“We’re more than capable handling the meeting ourselves.” Frank added,

“You guys would probably just get in the way anyways.”

John scoffed, “What makes you think we wouldn’t just follow you?”

Daredevil smiled. This scary smirk that made his entire demeanor appear just a little bit more intimidating, “What makes you think you’d be able to catch us?”

“-Okay!” Bucky interrupted, stepping forward, “Look, we should’ve told you guys what we knew. That’s on us. We’re sorry, please, let’s just try and work together on this?”

Frank rolled his eyes, “Fine.” He turned, beginning to walk towards the ledge, Daredevil threw a glance at the others,

“Try and keep up.”

—

Yelena was starting to regret not doing more research on the two vigilantes as they followed them to the meeting.

Castle was faster than they thought, especially given the amount of weight in weapons he was likely carrying, but Daredevil? It felt like watching a gymnast perform an Olympic world record routine.

He moved through the sky like he had invisible wings carrying him. Like the wind itself moved in whatever way was most convenient for him. Every move he made looked perfectly timed and planned, he knew every step, every jump, every flip he made would land exactly how he wanted it to.

Yelena had only seen that amount of precision, speed and skill in Widows, and even then, only the best of the best.

By the looks of her teammates as they watched Daredevil silently soar from one building to the next, she knew she wasn’t the only one is awe.

It made her wonder more about Daredevil’s background, someone who can do things like that have trainings and usually have some sort of enhancements.

By the time they’d caught up to him, both Daredevil and Castle were already waiting on the rooftop of an apartment complex.

“The meeting is on the fourth floor of the parking garage across from us, there’s guards on each floor watching the exits.” Daredevil said as they made their way over to them.

“Viktor is already there with a few of his men,”

Bucky noticed the way Daredevil stared down at the garage, cocking his head to the side as if he was scanning over the building,

“Agent A is there already too, five men with her. No mention of a Carmon Rowe.”

Ava looked over at the garage, it was across the street, too far away to see the inside of, “How the hell do you know that?”

Daredevil didn’t respond right away, “I just do,”

He turned towards all of them, “We need to figure out how Viktor’s gang is involved with Rowe and Agent A, after that we can ambush them, see if Agent A will tell us where Rowe is.”

“Yeah, just like she did last time.” They heard Frank grumble sarcastically under his breath.

Daredevil turned his head, glaring at him, “You’re not going to kill her Frank.”

Frank rolled his eyes, “Cause keepin her alive is really helping right Red?”

“We’ve been over this. We don’t get to choose who lives and who dies.” Daredevil responded, voice rising a bit.

“Why don’t you tell them that Red” Frank cocked his thumb toward the garage, “Maybe then they’ll stop killing people too.”

Yelena exchanged a quick glance with Bucky, who was looking just as confused as she was.

“Don’t they work together like, regularly?” Ava whispered to the others.

John crossed his arms, looking slightly amused at the two vigilantes, “How the hell does that work if one of them doesn’t kill?”

Daredevil scoffed, “Oh fuck off Frank! No one deserves to die just because you’re incapable of managing your anger.”

Frank moved forward fast, grabbing Daredevil by the collar of his suit, “You wanna say that again Red?”
His voice was rising dangerously, both men looked about ready to fight.

“Go ahead Frank. You’d just be showing exactly what I’m talking about.” Daredevil bit back, almost leaning into Frank’s grip.

Frank snarled, “Oh you’d like that huh? Always gotta be right.” 

Right before Bucky was about to attempted to break of their argument, Alexei beat him to it,

“As much as I would love to see how this plays out,” He walked forward confidently, gesturing to the two of them with his hands,

“This meeting will not last forever and I’ve been really looking forward to seeing this man with five heads!”

Yelena huffed, “five families dad.” She corrected,

“Where the hell did you get five heads??”

Alexei looked back at her in surprise before turning back around, “Well that’s a bit disappointing,” he said quietly before returning to his normal volume level,

“But! Nonetheless we must move onward! For the glory!”

Both Daredevil and Frank looked at Alexei in surprise before Frank finally released his grip on his suit.

“Fine. Let’s go.” Daredevil finally said coldly.

—

They came up with a simple plan.

They’d split into two groups. The first group: Daredevil, Bucky and Ava, would go in from the top entrance, take out the men guarding the top floor and listen in on the meeting.

The second group: Frank, John, Yelena and Alexei, would enter from bottom of the parking garage, they’d take out the men on the first three floors silently so the first group could get as much intel as possible. Then they’d join them and help take out the last few men on the floor of the meeting.

John didn’t really like the idea of splitting up the groups, he especially didn’t like being stuck in the group with the Punisher.

Though, he wasn’t sure he’d like to be in Daredevil’s group either.

The hardest part of taking out the men on the first three floors was doing it as quietly as possible.

Yelena didn’t struggle with this at all, she moved silently, coming up behind the men and knocking them out with her widow tasers.

John did his best to follow her lead, they decided against using guns because they’d be too loud, especially since everything seemed to echo in the parking garage. Instead, John stuck with grabbing them and punching them out with his taco shield.

He also kept an eye on the other two men in their group. He thought for sure Castle was going to take issue with having to go in silently, after they’d discovered who the two vigilantes they’d met at the docks were, John went out of his way to do a little more research on Castle.

He’d heard about him, of course. Everyone in the military knew the name Frank Castle.

The best marine there was, flying off the handle and using his skills to take revenge on the ones who took his family away.

Every report John found on him described him as a one man army, a man with a mission stopping at nothing, leaving nobody alive. Those who witnessed his attacks, from a distance, described hearing him before seeing him.

Hearing the gunfire, the yelling, the pain, the violence.

He was a man who wasn’t scared of making an entrance. A man who took orders from no one. A man who walked out of a fight covered in blood and left behind corpses.

Frankly, he scared the shit out of John, more than Daredevil did.

They didn’t know much about Daredevil, which, sure, that’s not super comforting, but it meant that there could still be an explanation for his skills, for the things he can do that he shouldn’t be able to do.

Not knowing much about him meant there was still an answer to their questions.

But Frank, he’s pretty much an open book. He’s not afraid to hide and that terrifies John because, he’s just a man.

Frank Castle is just a man who’s lost too much to care anymore. No enhancements, no powers, no secret abilities. Just a man.

To John’s surprise, Castle moved quietly with ease. For such a large man he hardly made any noise. Opting for a knife to take out the men unfortunate enough to catch his eye.

Though John did note, each wound he inflicted wasn’t life threatening, dangerously close to it, but not enough to kill them immediately.

Every man he left bleeding out unconscious, still had a fighting chance to live, a stark contrast to everything John thought he knew about Castle.

“The Devil scare you that bad?” John asked him as they marched to the third floor. 

Frank let out an annoyed, slightly exasperated, huff, “Just don’t want him to give me more shit.”

“What you think we’d tell if you killed a few of them?” John questioned jokingly with quiet laugh.

Frank shook his head, “No. He’d just know.”

John exchanged a glance with Yelena, he thought back to how Daredevil just seems to ‘know’ about the layout of the building. How he just ‘knew’ where the men were, where the meeting was.

Okay, maybe not knowing much about Daredevil was a little bit scarier than he wanted to admit.

John also didn’t really like the idea of Frank Castle, the Punisher, willingly listening to someone and changing his fundamental beliefs about criminals for that someone. For Daredevil.

Yeah. There’s more to Daredevil than they know. Something very scary.

There were more men on the third floor than they thought. It wouldn’t have taken them too long if they didn’t have to be so quiet, but because they were trying to prevent a gunfight, they didn’t take out the last man till later than expected.

“Alright. We got everyone, first through third is clear. Heading up to fourth now, is fifth clear?” Yelena said to both them, and to the comm she had in her ear. They’d given them out to everyone before going in.

After another second passed, “Fifths clear. We’re on fourth now, be careful.” Bucky.

They were in the stairwell when the sounds of gunfire erupted from the floor above them.

They froze, confused and surprised. Immediately, Yelena turned on her comm, “Barnes? What’s going on up there?”

No response.

“Bucky??”

Frank didn’t wait any longer, he shoved past them and began running on the stairs, gun already in hand.

The others followed behind him, they opened the door to chaos. As they stepped out of the stairwell, Yelena noticed a black car screeching down the ramp.

Bucky was fighting two men twice his size, both wielding knives. Ava was handling three slightly smaller men all of whom were trying and failing to shoot her.

The second they were spotted, more men rushed to attack.
Frank, unlike before, didn’t hesitate to start shooting, aiming for their heads and hearts.

“Where the hell is Red?!” He yelled over the noise.

Bucky, who’d just finished taking down one of the two men glanced his way, “He went after Agent A and Viktor!”

“Where’d they go??” Yelena asked next, already joining the fight.

“They tried to get away in a car! Daredevil jumped on top of it!” Ava responded, angrily knocking out one of the men.

“Jesus fucking Christ of course he did-“ Frank cursed, shooting another man before running to the nearest car and shooting the window, “I’m going after him!”

Yelena threw open the passenger side of the car, “I’m going with.”

He looked at her for a moment before getting in, they didn’t have time to argue about it. It only took a few seconds for Frank to hot wire the car.

As fast as he could, Frank drove down the levels of the garage, following the dark tire streaks that imbedded themselves in the concrete, likely from the other car making sharp, fast turns.

Yelena cringed when they drove past a busted up car door thrown to the side.

Thankfully, Frank didn’t have to drive far. As he drove out of the garage, Yelena saw something odd on the sidewalk.

“Stop!” She yelled and immediately Frank slammed on the breaks, he turned, following her gaze to the object,

“That’s Red’s billy club”

He jumped out of the car, rushing towards it and picking it up. He stood back up, looking around.

“Red!?” He called out.

Yelena looked around too, she noticed a few yards away, right outside of an alleyway, two legs were sticking out of a pile of trash bags.

“Castle!” She yelled before taking off. Frank followed behind her.

They rushed over and just like she’d suspected, Daredevil was lying on top of the garbage, looking like he’d just been thrown out of the car.

His nose was bleeding and he had a pained expression on his face. But the moment Frank knelt down beside him, grabbing his forearm, the pain dissipated and he smiled.

“Oh hey Frank.” He had this shit eating grin on his face that made him look a lot less scary than he did before.

Yelena glanced at Frank, noticing for the first time just how anxious he looked,

“What the hell were you thinking Red??” There was anger in his tone, but under that, to Yelena’s surprise, there was a bit of worry too.

She didn’t miss the way Frank hadn’t let go of Daredevils arm since finding him, or the way Daredevil seemed to lean into his touch, relaxing more and more every second Frank was there.

Daredevil lifted up his hand, between his thumb and index finger was a small flash drive, “This is what their meeting was about.”

Yelena looked at the man in shock, “You jumped on top of a moving car, for that?”

His smile stayed as he let out a shrug, “Technically I got thrown out of a moving car for this,”

Neither Yelena nor Frank missed the way he winced in pain as he did so,

“It seemed important. Once they’d spotted us I figured I’d might as well try and get something to make this mission worth it.”

Frank was quiet for a moment, glaring at Daredevil. For a second, Yelena thought he was going to yell at him again before his expression softened ever so slightly,

“You’re an asshole y’know that?” But there was no heat behind it, instead, he sounded fond.

Yelena looked at the two of them, she couldn’t see Daredevil’s eyes, but she could see Frank’s.

It clicked for her then and she did an internal ‘ohhhhh’ as a small smile formed on her face.

The eyes were always the biggest giveaway.

Daredevil smiled, “Yeah yeah”

Frank stood up, extending a hand for him to take.
He took it, allowing Frank to help pull him out of the garbage he’d landed on.

He kept one hand on Daredevil’s arm, the other lightly holding his waist as if he was afraid the man would fall over.

Daredevil held back up the flash drive, “Agent A was meeting with Viktor to give him this. Neither of them said what’s on it, just that it was something valuable.”

Yelena stepped forward, “We could take a look at it, see what’s on it.”

Immediately she watched Daredevil’s grip tightened on the drive, she let out a sigh,

“We’ll tell you guys what’s on it, but whatever it is, I can’t risk it being somewhere where someone could potentially find it, it’ll be safe with us.”

Daredevil still seemed hesitant, Frank stepped forward, “We can keep the drive safe. I know a guy who can go through everything on it without risking any of the information falling into the wrong hands.”

“We can let you guys know what’s on the drive once we know.”

Yelena wanted to argue, but she could see the way Daredevil tried to hide a pained expression every time he moved his shoulder, and the way Frank was slowly moving his body to block Daredevils, almost protectively. Like he was waiting for a fight, expecting one.

And even though Yelena was hesitant to believe them, she wanted them to trust her, to trust them, and Daredevil wasn’t wrong earlier, trust is a two way street.

She sighed, glancing behind her at the parking garage, the gunfire had ceased a few moments ago, which means the others would be down there any second, and she knew they’d be a lot less okay with them leaving with the drive.

Quickly, she pulled out a scrap piece of paper and wrote down a number,

“Call when you find out what’s on it,” She said, handing it to Frank, and finally, against her better judgment,

“Go before the others get down here.”

God, she was getting soft. 

Frank nodded, grabbing Daredevil’s arm and steering them towards the nearest fire escape.

Before they fled though, Daredevil looked back at her, she still couldn’t make out much of his expression, but something about it told her it was his silent way of saying ‘thank you’.

She nodded to him before turning around and walking back into the garage.

Chapter Text

The next morning Matt felt like he had a hangover.

He hit his head pretty hard when one of Viktor’s men threw him out of the car. 

Not that Matt was showing it, thankfully he didn’t retain any visible injuries from the night before.

Was he slightly concussed and had most definitely dislocated his shoulder? Oh absolutely, but that’s something Matt could handle hiding pretty easily. 

They’d arrived at the tower pretty early in the morning. Going over the files slowly to insure they didn’t miss anything. Matt tried his best to focus on the files under his fingertips but his thoughts kept drifting to the night before. 

Frank was bringing the flash drive to David Lieberman today. They’d know what’s on it soon enough, but that’s not the only thing that was on his mind. 

Matt kept thinking about Viktor. A notorious gang leader but notably, and much more concerningly, one of the heads of the Five Families, a group controlled by Vanessa Fisk.

He didn’t want to think it, didn’t even want to consider it, but if Fisk could potentially be involved in this, then they were in a lot more trouble than they thought. There are no coincidences when it comes to the Fisks.

A light knock at the door pulled him out of his spiral.

“Come in!” Matt called out, clearing his throat. He could hear Bob on the other side of the door. He seemed a little nervous. 

“Hi- uh, sorry for bothering you guys,” 

Matt smiled, he could tell the man was anxious around them, shy, but clearly trying to not show it,

“You’re not bothering us at all Mr. Reynolds, what can we do for you?” He asked softly. 

“Bob.” He corrected almost immediately, his cheeks grew red with embarrassment before adding, “Please, just call me Bob.” 

Matt folded his hands together, “My apologies, what can we do for you Bob?” 

Bob scratched the back of his neck, fiddling with the hem of his sleeve, “I just uh- I know you guys have been here for awhile and John’s making some food so I uh, I figured I’d ask if you wanted anything? We have coffee and tea too if you’re not hungry?” 

Foggy and Karen began to smile as well, it was sweet honestly, Bob seemed like the only one who genuinely wanted to talk to them (minus Bucky) the others still made it clear they didn’t trust them just yet. 

Even Valentina, who’d stopped by for a few minutes that morning, though intrigued by them, still seemed skeptical. Like a kid seeing a new animal at the zoo for the first time, trying to decide whether or not they liked it.

“I think I can speak for all of us when I say coffee would be lovely Bob, thank you.” Karen replied kindly. 

Bob smiled, “Three coffees it is then!” 

Matt listened as Bob happily walked into the kitchen while John was cooking at the stove. 

               “Three mugs?” John questioned when he noticed Bob to his side.

               “Coffee’s for the lawyers, they got here early this morning.” 

               John scoffed, “You’re not their secretary Bob, you don’t need to get them coffee.” 

               “I offered. I’m just trying to be polite, they’re helping us remember?” 

               “We’re paying them. Don’t act like they’re doing a charity service.” John said sarcastically.

               “Don’t act like you’re not making a big deal out of this because you don’t like Murdock.” Bob shot back, though he didn’t sound mad, more like he was tired of having the same conversation.

Matt could imagine John’s eye roll,

               “I just think you guys are being too quick to trust him. I don’t believe the harmless blind guy act, he’s hiding something.”

                “It’s not an act John. He’s is blind.” 

“Huh.” Matt said aloud. Karen and Foggy looked up from their papers, prompting Matt to continue.

“Walker doesn’t like me.” 

Foggy furrowed his brow, “What? Why?” 

Matt shrugged, ignoring the twitch in his shoulder, “I’m not sure, he said he doesn’t trust me.” 

“Just you?” Karen asked incredulously, “He doesn’t even know us, why would he only not trust you?” 

Matt laughed a little, “He said he thinks I’m hiding something.”

Which, to be fair, he kinda is. It’s just funny that John’s the only one who’s picked up on that from seemingly nothing. Matt would be worried if it wasn’t for the fact that clearly nobody else was taking John’s concerns seriously. 

Matt stood up, apparently deciding he hasn’t met his ‘do something stupid and reckless’ quota for the morning,

“I’ll be right back.” 

“Matt.” Foggy said warningly, though he didn’t bother getting up, “Don’t be an asshole.” 

Matt did a mock salute before grabbing his cane and walking towards the smell of brewing coffee and pancakes. Listening as Karen and Foggy grumbled about him giving them grey hairs as he went.

He decided to be a nice and tap his cane loud enough for John and Bob to hear him coming. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” Matt began when their conversation ceased at his presence,

“I just wanted to know if you needed any help bringing the mugs back to the conference room?” He smiled innocently, like he hadn’t been eavesdropping,

“I didn’t want you to burn your hands trying to bring back all three of them at once!” 

Bob smiled then turned his face towards John, Matt could only imagine the ‘see? I told you so.’ expression Bob had on. 

“That’d actually be great thank you Matt, the coffees almost done brewing.”

Bob replied, he sounded a lot more relaxed, probably because they were in a more comfortable and familiar environment. Matt took note that despite John’s seemingly unfriendly demeanor, Bob still gravitated towards him, clearly trusting him. 

Matt made a show of sniffing the air before turning towards John, “Wow, something smells amazing!” 

He felt John looking at him for a long moment, spatula in hand, “Thanks. I’m making pancakes.” He responded flatly. 

“Not just any pancakes, is that- chocolate I smell?” Matt asked, cocking his head to the side. He sensed John’s heartbeat jump a bit.

Bobs eyebrows raised, “Wow your sense of smell is amazing!” 

Matt smiled, “Well when you can’t see, your mind starts to notice the other things going on around you.”

He walked towards the counter, a little closer to Bob, putting his hand out in front of him till he reached the cool countertop surface,

 “You always been a good cook Walker?” Matt asked casually, knowing the casual small talking was getting under the man’s skin. 

John shrugged, “Learned while in the military, got better at it when I got home.” 

Briefly Matt thought about Frank and his own talents in the kitchen, “Well you have my respect, I’m sure your team loves your food.” 

John was looking at him now, probably trying to figure out why Matt was talking to him in the first place.

When Matt knew Bob wasn’t looking, he let his ‘devil’ smirk cross his face, just for a second. But long enough that he could tell John saw it. 

Okay, making a highly trained super soldier not like him was definitely not a good idea.

Was that going to stop him? No of course not. That’s what he gets for making assumptions about someone he doesn’t even know.

A small ‘beep’ grabbed Matt’s attention. 

“Ah, coffee’s ready!” Bob said with an oblivious smile.

Matt could tell the moment Bob was about to break one of the mugs.

The pot of coffee got stuck in the machine, he pulled it just a little too hard and Matt knew seconds before it happened that he was going to jerk back too fast and push one of the mugs off the counter. 

Normally, he would’ve let it happen. There’s no way that a blind man should’ve or could’ve known that was going to happen.

But Matt also knew Bob would jerk his hand back reflexively and the very full pot was probably going to spill directly on his arm.

A fresh pot of steaming hot coffee poured onto skin would leave bad burns. That could dangerous.

The clock ticked and Matt realized he only had a second to move, no time to think of how it would look for a blind man to jump in and help, he’d come up with some excuse later for how he knew what would happen. 

Matt stepped forward right as Bob’s hand hit the mug, he ignored it as it fell, more concerned with the pot of hot coffee Bob was instinctively jerking back away and was about to spill.

He quickly grabbed the pot to steady him, his hand resting on Bob’s. 

It only took a few seconds to realize what was happening next.

As his ‘world on fire’ view slowly began to fill with darkness around the edges, he was met with a wave of Deja vu.

As his senses adjusted to the weird new world around him, knowing that it wasn’t real but still being able to hear, taste, touch and smell everything like it was, he thought back to the first time this happened. 

It was over a year ago, though the memory still made him shudder like it was last nights nightmare.

Their day off, he and Frank were home. It was actually a really nice day. They’d slept in, stayed in their sweats and T-shirts as they moved around the apartment.

Deciding to stay home the whole day, just to reset from the mental and physical stress their lives have on them.

One second they were cooking lunch.

A wave of nauseating fear washed over him as heartbeats began disappearing, reminding him of the blip, having no idea this would somehow be worse. 

The next, he was standing in an alleyway, listening to his ten year old self beg for his dad to wake up.

He’d felt the darkness cave him in.

He’d felt the world’s shift and change. 

He listened to his own heartbeat skyrocket as his dad’s stopped entirely.

His younger self’s face wet with tears as his father’s grew slick with cold blood.

The sirens, the pity in the officers voices, the humid air making the smell of death all the more pungent.

It was just like how he remembered it.

And then it started over.

Reset.

Again, and again, and again.

At the time Matt had no idea what was happening.

He thought for sure he had died.

That was the only possible solution for this that had made sense.

He had died and this was hell.

This was his punishment for every bad thing he’d ever done, for every failure, every let down, every broken promise, every mess up.

This was his punishment for not being enough, for every life he didn’t save. This was what he deserved.

He remembered only wishing he could’ve kissed Frank one more time.

And then, all of a sudden, after what felt like an eternity of Matt’s worst memories playing on repeat before him, he was back in the kitchen, narrowly missing a bullet whizzing past him.

Frank had gone through his own personal hell and instinctively pulled out his gun and shot the second they came back. 

The rest of the day was a mess.
Frank broke down when he realized he’d almost shot Matt. Both of them were emotional wrecks after having to witness their worst memories over and over again.

Karen and Foggy came over not long after, both puffy eyed and shaky from their own hellish experiences. Neither of them talked about it, but Foggy refused to let go of Matt’s arm. Karen grew anxious anytime any of them left them room.

Later, the news explained this had happened to everyone.

That a being called ‘The Void’ had sent all of them to well, the void.

Most people called them shame rooms though. Matt found it fitting. A place that forced you to go through your worst moments again and again.

Picking the memories you hated the most.

The painful ones. The ones you felt guiltiest for, most shameful. 

Frank didn’t talk about what he saw either. Not that he had to, Matt knew. 

Just like he knew the second the darkness caved him in again, over a year later.

He knew exactly what was happening as he touched Bob’s hand.

This time, he wasn’t in the alleyway though.

He was still outside but it wasn’t night, he could feel the faint glow of the sun even through the clouds.

He could also smell gasoline. He was outside, in the middle of the road, though all the cars had come to an abrupt stop.

Someone was screaming, people were running around, some were standing in shock, there was a small fire leading up to a truck that was on its side. 

A chemical was oozing out of barrels that had once been attached to the truck. 

It’d been years, but he’d never forget the smell of those chemicals, or the way they burned his eyes. 

“Move…please-“ a voice, unsteady, strained. He knew that voice.

His body recognized it before his mind, he felt himself crack, like the voice was a hammer and his body was glass.

He felt his heart rate skyrocket, his legs grew weak, his hands sweaty.

The voice shoved past the people who were standing, watching the scene in front of them unfold. 

“Matty??” 

He never thought he’d get to hear his dad’s voice again, let alone hear him say his name. It didn’t matter how much fear littered his tone. 

Matt listened to his dad begin to run, sirens rang out in the background but that was barely registered by him.

Every one of his senses was focused on his dad.

The way he moved, the small healing cuts on his knuckles, his cheap long sleeve cotton shirt that Matt remembered being green.

The smell of blood and sweat coating his skin like it was a stain never quite disappearing after years of boxing.

His heart beat speeding up in fear.

His heart, beating. 

Get out of my way! Get out of my way!” His dad began to yell, even though he couldn’t see what happened yet, his dad knew.

His dad always just knew, whatever it was, of course his son would be there.

The man’s frame was shaking as he ran, searching the unharmed crowd for a boy he knew would never stand aside in the face of danger. 

Matt’s felt himself choke down a sob as his father’s breath hitched when he saw Matt.

Not him now, his nine year old self.

Lying on the street ground, another man telling him not to move, feeling something warm trickling down his temple.

All he remembered from that day was seeing his dad, and then nothing.

All he remembered was losing his sight, the pain, the fear. 

Now, it was like he was a fly on the wall in his own memory, and he could feel his dad’s fear. 

How terrifying must that have been, his father, already struggling to raise a kid alone, seeing his son on the asphalt right in front of an accident.

He can’t imagine how much pain he put his dad through. 

“That’s my boy…” and God did his dad sound so broken. So small. So young.

His father, the man who seemed so invincible to Matt at that age, so strong. 

He forgot that his dad was human too, a young man, struggling to carry the weight of Matt’s admiration on his shoulders, struggling to not fail his kid.

“That’s my boy-“ he repeated, racing over, Matt felt the crowd step back, pity washing over all of them.

Like they knew what was going to happen, like they knew what Matt would become because of this moment. 

Someone he wouldn’t be proud of.

Matt walked over, his father was on the ground now, kneeling over his past self. 

“Matty!” So fearful. So human. So real. So alive. 

Matt was so close to them. Standing just in front of the crowd, close to the truck, just listening in shock.

The pain of reliving losing his sight almost forgotten by the fact that his father was here. Alive.

“Matty- Don’t- don’t move okay??”

Matt could almost feel his father’s strong hand on his chest, his own much smaller hand gripping onto his like a lifeline.

Like his touch would save him from the consequences of his own actions. His dad sounded so unsure, so scared, he had no idea what to do. 

“No no, just don’t move okay?”

Matt closed his eyes, letting his own tears burn his skin as his dad yelled out for help, knowing none would come in time. 

“Dad what happened?” His own voice sounded so small, so naive, so lost, like his sight was already gone and he was already in a sea of unknown and uncertainty, of pain and fire.

Matt absorbed every word his father uttered.

Memorizing every syllable, every stutter, everything.

It didn’t matter that when his father told him it would be all right, his heart wavered.

He knew.

Matt let his senses follow his father’s gaze, one man pulling another out of a destroyed car. Barrels with the word ‘hazardous’ knocked over and leaking. An old man on the ground, people pulling him up to his feet. 

“Your boy…”

The old man said, “He pushed me out of the way-“

The man’s voice stuttered, “He saved my life-“ 

His younger self’s weak coughs brought him and his dad’s attention back. 

“Dad- it burns-“ His voice was so hoarse.

He scratched at his eyes, digging the palms of his hands into the sockets, trying to stop what he didn’t know was inevitable. 

He sensed the moment his dad realized why his son’s eyes were burning.

The moment his fear turned to dread and horror. 

“Oh Jesus-“ His father muttered, voice wet. Matt didn’t recall any prayer higher power saving him then. 

“Close your eyes Matty-“ his father’s scratchy cotton sleeve desperately wiping at his eyes. 

“Dad-“ 

“Close your eyes.” 

Matt felt another sob escape him, this was where it started, the real pain, the real loss.

His dad died a year later, but his death was marked in this very moment.

It was all his fault and this was what led them there. 
 
“I-I can’t see-“ Repeated over and over again. 

His father went silent then, his heartbeat hammering like a war drum. His hands were shaking as he picked Matt’s tiny body up, cradling his panicking child in his arms.

Matt could sense his father’s feeling of uselessness.

Knowing he couldn’t save his son, knowing the sirens were too late.

Knowing he couldn’t save his kid. 

“It wasn’t your fault.” Matt whispered, so quietly even he barely heard it, the sound of his voice tickling his lips. 

“It wasn’t your fault, it- it was mine.” His voice broke. 

“I’m so sorry.” 

I’m so sorry I made your life so hard. 
I’m so sorry I failed you. 
I’m so sorry I use my fists now. That I fight. 
I’m so sorry I disappointed you. 
I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. 

It took every fiber of his being not to race over there, not to hug him, hold him, tell his father that he’d be okay. That he’d survive, even without sight, he’d manage on his own. 

But this isn’t real. That horrific realization crashed over him as the memory reset.

He reminded himself this isn’t real, just a taste of hell on Earth. 

A new heartbeat appeared. One he recognized, but not from this day. He turned, cocking his head towards the sound. 

“Bob?” He called out, realizing a second too late he shouldn’t have known Bob was there too. 

Bob’s gaze shifted up, looking away from his past self lying on the ground, tears spilling from his eyes,

“I’m sorry.” He said quietly, barely above a desperate whisper. 

And suddenly the sounds of sirens, the people, his younger self, his dad- all gone. 

Suddenly they were back in the kitchen, the coffee pot was still in Bobs hand, and Matt’s was rested on his. 

Matt listened as the clock ticked again, barely a second had passed.

Matt stepped back, pulling his hand away.

He could smell salt water in the air, his eyes still stung with cold drying tears, but he wasn’t the only one, Bob’s continued to flow freely.

John’s heart beat skipped and he watched two of them, then-

“It happened again- didn’t it?” He asked sullenly. 

Bob was looking at Matt, ignoring John, eyes wide and blurry,

“I- Matt- I’m so sorry I-“ He sounded so desperate, his need to make sure Matt knew just how sorry he was so clear in his tone.

Matt swallowed the lump in his throat, forcing words to come out of his mouth though his voice felt foreign, “Excuse me-“

They were barely audible, mumbled painfully as he quickly rushed out of the room, opting for the stairwell instead of the elevator. 

As soon as the heavy door to the stairwell shut Matt all but collapsed against the concrete wall, his hands were shaking so bad his cane slipped from his fingers, rolling down the first flight of stairs. He didn’t care. 

All he could think about was the sirens.

The overwhelming stench of the chemicals.

The fear.

His dad. His dad’s breathing. His dad being alive. Scared, panicking, but alive.

Matt couldn’t breath, he desperately tugged at the knot of his tie until it loosened but even that didn’t help, he pulled his knees up, resting his elbows on them and digging his hands into his hair, letting his head fall down and carelessly tossing his glasses to the side. 

               “Bob? What happened? C’mon hey it’s okay, just tell me what happened.” John’s soft voice was a stark contrast to how cold he’d acted towards Matt. 

               “I didn’t mean to- I- I did it again- I’m so sorry- I’m so stupid I don’t- I can’t believe I- I thought- I thought I was getting better-“ Bob was panicking, words were spilling over one another.

               “Hey, hey breathe Bob, just like we practiced c’mon, in- there you go, out- good good.” It was almost sweet how careful John was with him. 

              “I fucked up. Oh my god I messed this up so bad- he’s- Matt’s not gonna wanna work with us now and it’s all my fault I- I can’t believe I’m still so out of control I-“ 

Matt truly wished he was in the right headspace to go back out there and tell Bob this clearly wasn’t his fault.

It was obvious how little control he had over these abilities, which is likely why the new Avengers had been working so hard to keep him out of public eye. 

But he still couldn’t even stand up let alone speak sincerely enough to convince Bob he wasn’t mad, that he wasn’t going to drop their case over this. 

He tried to ignore the selfish part of himself that actually was mad, that grew angry with the realization that Bob is the Void.

The selfish part of him that hated Bob for making him not only relive losing his dad, but also hear his voice again, as if a taunt of what he’d never hear again, a voice he’d never hear outside of painful memories.

And the even worse part of himself that wanted Bob to take him back there.

Because even if that memory will forever haunt him, all Matt cared about was hearing his dad’s voice one more time, even if it was him begging Matt to close his eyes.

Slowly, he took out his phone, barely able to work the device properly. 

Thankfully, he didn’t have to call twice, Frank answered on the second ring. 

“Hey Red, Micro just finished decoding the drive-” He spoke lightly, casually, he was in a good mood. Great. Matt was about to ruin that. 

“Frank-“ Matt interrupted, voice breathy and wet. He forced himself to stop for a moment, already feeling his voice quivering with fresh tears. 

Frank picked up on it immediately, “Red? What’s going on are you okay?” His voice grew sharper, more urgent; the voice of a marine ready to act. 

“I- I need you.” He felt childish, but it was the only words he could mutter out before another sob shook his body. 

Frank heard his cry too, “Okay, can you tell me where you are sweetheart?” His voice didn’t completely lose that marine edge, still not sure if Matt was in physical danger or not, but it grew a little softer. 

Matt swallowed, “The tower.” 

He heard Frank inhale sharply, “How far away from there can you get?” 

Matt thought, for once he didn’t try and lie, “A block, maybe two?” 

“Okay, start heading towards Hell’s Kitchen, I’ll find you Red.” 

As Matt got back up on shaky feet, he felt slightly better knowing Frank was telling the truth, he’d find him, he always would. 

Chapter Text

Frank felt his heart drop when Matt gasped out his name over the phone, he sounded terrified. 

He’d spent the morning at the Lieberman’s, helping make breakfast for Sarah and the kids whilst David typed away at his computer, trying to slowly hack into the flash drive Matt had stolen from Viktor and Agent A. 
He was laughing at something Sarah had said to Leo when Matt called, Frank was a little surprised since he knew he’d be working the whole day. 

His tone shifted immediately when he heard Matt’s quiet sob over the phone, a wave of nauseating fear washing over him.

The pain of watching his family die overtook him as the realization that he could experience that all over again came over him. No- he couldn’t lose Matt. He couldn’t do that again-

Matt didn’t cry very often, something was very, very wrong.

“Okay, start heading towards Hell’s Kitchen, I’ll find you Red.” When Matt agreed he hung up. 

Leo, the observant girl she is, noticed Frank’s worry first. 

“Frank? Everything okay?” She still had her fork in hand, ready to strike down on the waffles he’d just finished making. 

Frank only paused for a moment, letting his world crash down for a second before pulling his shit together. He couldn’t freak out now, not yet, Red needs him. 

“Micro, you can track phones right?” He knew David didn’t have much of his high end tech anymore. 

David looked up from his computer in surprise, throwing a glance at Sarah, “Uh well, I mean I can but I’m not supposed too-“ 

“Good. I need you to find Matt.” He interrupted, walking over to the table. Purposefully avoiding anyone else’s eye, he’d already felt bad enough asking David for help with the flash drive.

His eyebrows raised, “Frank, what’s going on?” 

Frank hesitated, aware that both of the kids were listening. David knew Matt’s secret identity, they didn’t. 

“I just need you to find him.” He tried to keep the plea out of his tone but he knew David could see right through him. 

His eyes widened, silently asking what the hell Matt had managed to get himself into at eleven in the morning, Frank wished he knew. 

“Give me five minutes.” He found him in two. 

—

Frank stopped his truck in front of the alleyway David said Matt’s phone was in. He walked in cautiously, he kept his hand in his coat pocket, gun at the ready just in case. He ignored his sweaty palms and growing anxiety, unsure of what situation he was walking into.

God just please let him be okay. Please don’t be hurt.

“Red?” He called out. His eyes darted to the side when he heard shuffling.

He took a few more steps forward walking around a dumpster, leaning against the building wall, hiding just out of view was Matt. 

“Frank?” He sounded so small it made Frank want to kill whoever hurt his Red. 

He knelt down carefully, not seeing any blood yet but then again, Matt was curled in on himself so tightly it looked painful, it’s not like he could see much, “Hey Red, I’m here, your alright,” 

He reached his hand out, softly taking hold of Matt’s hand that currently had a death grip on his suit jacket sleeve, “It’s okay, are you hurt?” 

Matt shook his head, hands shaking, “I want to go home.”

And God did that voice remind Frank of the hold Matt had on him.

If that man asked him to burn the world to the ground he’d waste no time grabbing the matches. He’s grateful Matt’s too kind hearted to make such wishes. 

“Okay- let’s go home sweetheart,” He took a step back, giving Matt space to stand,

“C’mere, I got you.” He left his hands out and Matt didn’t hesitate to fall into him, holding his arm tightly as they walked back to his truck. 

—

Matt didn’t speak on the car ride home.

He didn’t speak when he changed into sweatpants and hoodie.

Didn’t speak when he laid down in their bed, burying himself in their blankets and sheets.

He wasn’t physically injured, much to Frank’s relief. But that just left so many questions. He wanted to wait, until Matt would tell him himself what happened, but the anxiety of not knowing was eating Frank alive. 

He gave in, and called Karen. 

The first words out of her mouth were, “Is Matt with you??” She sounded out of breath, worried.

Frank could imagine her holding her hair back with her hand, pacing back and forth as she held the phone to her ear. 

Frank glanced at their bedroom, Matt was in the bed, back to him, “Yeah he’s here.”

He didn’t say Matt was okay because he wasn’t, not really. And by the sound of Karen’s voice, she knew it too. 

“What the fuck happened?” Frank asked her, voice cold, he knew she wouldn’t read it as accusatory, she knew him better than that.

He could hear other voices talking on her end, “I-“ she stopped, clearly trying to find the right words,

“Remember the shame rooms?” 

What kind of question is that? Of course he did. He watched his babies die all over again, watched his wife get shot through the heart, only solace being that she died before she had to watch her kids follow behind her. 

“What happened Karen?” He responded with instead, he didn’t tell any of them what he’d seen in his shame room, they already knew. 

She hesitated again, “It’s a long story but that happened again, I think?”

She didn’t sound too sure of herself, more voices came from her end, inaudible to him,

“He relived something, they didn’t tell me what, then he took off before anyone could stop him.” 

Frank didn’t know what to say, mixed emotions flew through him, ones he didn’t like very much.

He decided to let his anger take over, it was much easier than the overwhelming sadness that wanted to walk into their bedroom and hold Matt until his pain disappeared forever (it never will). 

“Who the hell is ‘they’ Karen? Did those fuckers at the tower do this to him? I thought they said they didn’t know who the Void was?” 

She sighed, “Well obviously they lied.” 

He began pacing, trigger finger twitching, “I swear I’m gonna kill whoever-“ 

“-it was an accident Frank.” Karen interrupted,

“Foggy and I were in the other room, we didn’t see what happened, but- it was an accident. I know it was.” She sounded much more sure this time, it made Frank’s anger diminish, just a bit. 

“Accident? He hasn’t spoken since I found him huddled up in an alleyway. You really wanna tell me this was an accident?” 

“Yes. Yes I do Frank because it was. I can promise you the guy who did this is beating the crap out of himself, he feels awful about it. Please don’t get angry.” 

Little late for that. 

“I knew him taking this case was a bad idea. These pieces of shit are no good.”

“Frank. Can you please just ignore your anger for a few hours and focus on Matt? Like I said, they didn’t tell me what he saw but whatever it was not only messed Matt up, it shook up B- the guy who did it too.”

Well that didn’t really narrow it down all that much. Both of their lives were fill with pain, guilt, anger, regret and shame. 

He let out a shaky sigh, “You know I will Karen. Thanks I gotta go.”

“Foggy and I will stop by tonight with dinner.” She didn’t sound like she was asking,

“Keep me updated please.” 

They hung up and Frank glanced back at Matt, his back was to the door and he was curled in on himself. 

Slowly, Frank walked over, taking a seat on the bed and placing a gentle hand on Matt’s leg, rubbing little circles through the silk sheet with his thumb. 

Matt’s eyes were open, they ‘stared’ blankly at the wall across from him, his eyelids hung lazily, dark bags seemed much more prominent now. Frank waited, between the two of them, he was the more patient one. 

“I’m sorry.” He said eventually, his voice a mere whisper, if Frank hadn’t seen his lips move, he would’ve guessed the noise was just the old apartment creaking. 

“Don’t do that Red.” He whispered in return, voice gentle but firm. 

Matt stayed facing away from Frank, shoulders tense, fingers digging into his shoulders.

Carefully, Frank pulled them away, curling them into his own hands instead. 

“It wasn’t his fault.” The way he said it made Franks chest hurt.

It was weak, and sad, and desperate. He was trying to convince himself just as much as he was Frank. 

“He doesn’t know how to control it.” Frank knew what the other thing Matt was trying to say was:

Don’t hurt him- Please. Please don’t kill him. 

“It’s okay,” Frank said instead, because he refused to even attempt at lying and agree with Matt’s statement.

He decided just trying to calm him down was a better idea, “It’s okay Matty.” 

Unfortunately that seemed to do the exact opposite of what he wanted.

Frank watched Matt trying and fight the silent tears. Wrinkling his eyebrows together as his eyes got red.

He failed, and the tears fell. 

Frank felt his own heart skip a beat. “Shit, I’m sorry I-“ he didn’t know what he did, but clearly it had upset Matt. 

Matt shook his head, “No- no it’s- I’m sorry- you didn’t do anything-“ he sat up, pulling his knees up to his chest,

“I’m sorry.” Frank hated how small those words made Matt seem. 

They were silent for a bit, Frank took Matt’s hand, a quiet reassurance that he was there when Matt was ready to talk.

“The shame room…” He said quietly, hesitantly, trying to find the right words, “It was the day I went blind.” 

Frank felt his heart break, the only words he could think of were ones of anger directed at whoever did this to him, so he stayed silent, opting to squeeze his hand gently instead, prompting him to continue. 

“But it wasn’t just me going blind- I- my dad was there…I got to hear his voice- his, his heart…”

Frank felt his own heart being ripped out of his chest as Matt hiccuped, fighting back more tears, chest heaving, voice wet.

The worst thing is, Frank knew exactly what Matt was saying. 

Sure, it was one of the worst moments of my life, but I got to be with him again…

Be with them again...

They didn’t talk about what they’d seen in the first shame rooms. He knew what all of them assumed his was, which, they’d be correct. 

He lost them again.

Blood stained his wife’s floral dress crimson.

A bullet ripped through his son’s heart.

Meat replaced his daughter’s eyes, her smile, her face.

But, just before the first shot was fired, Frank got to hear their laughter again.

He got to see their smiles. 

He watched Maria’s thick hair blow in the wind, landing perfectly on her shoulders. 

He listened to little Frankie Jr giggle through a toothy smile. 

He saw Lisa’s big curious eyes glow with life. 

One more time…

It was the worst moment of his life, this day. 
Reliving it was hell. 
But at least he got to see them again, one more time. 

“I know you miss him” Frank said finally, because that was how he’d felt when they came back, he forced his own sob out of his tone. 

That seemed to break Matt more, he moved over, happily taking Frank’s silent offer of a hug and falling into his chest. 

Frank wrapped his arms around Matt’s frame, doing his best to shield him from a world that would never stop hurting him. 

“I don’t know why it still hurts so much-“ Matt quietly sobbed out. 

Frank pulled Matt closer, “It’s okay, there’s no time limit of grief sweetheart.” 

He knew that better than anyone.

—

Foggy nervously wrapped his knuckle against Matt’s apartment door as Karen stood next to him, take out in hand.

They still didn’t really know what was going on.

Frank had texted Karen to let her know Matt was okay but aside from that and the bits they were able to get out of a near hysterical Bob, they knew nothing. 

It actually took a lot out of Foggy to refrain from yelling when he realized what had happened at the tower. 

After Matt took off John had burst into the conference room, telling them Matt had left and they needed to find him. 

They’d rushed into the kitchen to find Bob curled up in a ball with tears running down his face.

“I’m so- I’m sorry! I’m so sorry-“ he kept mumbling profusely. 

For the briefest moment fear washed over Foggy when he thought that Matt had done something until Bob saw them standing in the kitchen doorway. 

“I didn’t meant to! I- I swear! Please tell Matt I’m sorry! Please I- I’m so sorry-“ 

John was at his side, whispering things neither Foggy nor Karen could hear.

“What happened?” Karen asked.

“And where’s Matt?” Foggy added.

John looked up at them, “I don’t know, he ran off!” He sounded a mix of frustrated and overwhelmed.

Bob looked back up at them, “Please tell him I’m sorry!”

Whatever John kept whispering to him didn’t seem to even register, though Foggy did catch John mutter ‘Bob don’t-‘ before he continued,

“I didn’t mean to hurt him! I- I thought I had it under control I don’t know what happened! But I didn’t mean to I swear!” 

“Hurt him??” Foggy repeated, his confusion temporarily turning back to fear. 

Matt, hurt. Gone somewhere.

He remembered finding Matt in his suit with a bullet in his helmet on a rooftop.

He remembered finding Matt for the first time in his apartment, cut to shreds and beaten by Nobu and Fisk. 

He remembered every ‘sick day’

Every, ‘slipped and fell’

Every, ‘accident’

Matt rarely ran off. He rarely ran from a fight. The idea of him running off now was terrifying. 

And somehow, the sweet and shy young man that’d offered to get them coffee had done this?

Logic and reason went out the window, replaced by anger.

“What the hell did you do to him??” Anger dripping from his tone, which he immediately felt guilty for when he saw Bobs face. 

The poor man was a wreck, dread, guilt, panic and fear over took him so drastically Foggy thought for a moment they were in a cartoon and his face was being over emphasized.  

Bob didn’t get a chance to respond before John had stood up, “Hey back off asshole! It was an accident!” 

“John please don’t-“ Bob said weakly before turning back to them,

“I’m so sorry-“ 

They didn’t get much out of him, but they did manage to put together that Bob was somehow the Void. 

Foggy still had trouble picturing the two of them as the same thing. 

“Hey it’s us!” Foggy called out. 

Frank answered the door, he looked anxious, and sad, which only made Foggy and Karen’s anxiety grow. 

“Don’t ask too much,” Frank whispered, “He just wants to be with you guys.” 

Foggy felt his heart break a little when he saw Matt curled up on the couch.

He always looked so much smaller in Frank’s hoodies. 

“Tomorrow.” He thought to himself,

“We can deal with the real world tomorrow.” 

With that, he sat by Matt’s side, wrapping his arms around his huddled frame. 

Chapter Text

The next morning was filled with tension and anxiety. 

John had told the others what happened. 
He’d told them about Matt offering to help with the coffees, their hands touching and then the shift in the air, the fear and pain that so suddenly filled the room, the Deja vu of knowing exactly what happened. 

Bob refused to tell any of them what happened in Matt’s shame room, they didn’t push, it wasn’t their place to know. 

Bucky called the firm a few times to no avail, their office assistant claimed he didn’t know where any of them were. 

He even tried calling Matt on his personal cell, the one he’d given to him at the gala. No luck on that end either. 

Bob didn’t say too much, just that he was sorry, which they knew. 
He stayed by Yelena’s side most of the rest of the night and the following morning.

They had no idea if they’d even show up, Bucky couldn’t exactly blame them if they didn’t. 

Bucky and John were in the kitchen, anxiously glancing at the elevator every few minutes. 

The others opted to wait in the private sitting area on the other side of the floor. 
Yelena made the suggestion, though it was obvious her concern was how they’d react to seeing Bob again so soon. 

To their shock, at nine am on the dot, just after Bucky finished his coffee, the elevator dinged open. 
Foggy, Karen and Matt walked out. 

Foggy and Karen walked straight to the conference room, sparing one last unsure glance at Matt. 

Bucky stood up, walking over and meeting Matt halfway from the elevator to the kitchen,

“Mr. Murdock, how are you today?” Bucky asked, forcing the nerves out of his tone. 

Matt was dressed how he usually was, well put together in a simple but stylish black suit and tie. Dark red sunglasses, hair combed to a style that was between bedhead and professional.

He was resting both of his hands on his white cane, though Bucky didn’t miss how tight his grip was. 

“I’m quite alright thank you.” A tight but professional smile on his face. Bucky couldn’t get a read on him.

‘A shield.’ He thought to himself,

‘He’s shielding his emotions, closing off.’

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to speak with Bob,” Matt asked casually, “In private.” 

John immediately stood up, joining them, “Absolutely not.” Bucky elbowed him, throwing a glare his direction.

“I’m not angry with him. I just wish to talk about what happened.” Matt responded, tone calm and smooth. 

John crossed his arms, “Bob is in a very fragile state right now. Very few people know who he really is, his identity is extremely important.” 

Matt raised an eyebrow, looking not the least bit impressed by John’s warning tone, “Bob isn’t a child, it’s rude of you to treat him as such and try and speak on his behalf. Besides, I’m a lawyer. Are you suggesting I don’t know how to keep a secret? It’s quite literally my job Mr. Walker.” 

“Captain.” John corrected through gritted teeth. 

Matt smiled, “Sure.”

Bucky fought back a laugh. 

He turned back to Bucky, ignoring John entirely, “You are my clients, with that comes attorney-client confidentiality. I have no plans to tell anyone who Bob is, neither do my colleagues.” 

Bucky felt his heart skip, “You’re still willing to represent us?” 

Matt smiled, “Yes I am. Much to Foggy and Karen’s dismay. They believed we should back out but I convinced them not too. I understand Bob didn’t mean for any of that to happen, which is exactly why I want to talk to him alone.” 

Matt shifted his weight, “He didn’t see a particularly good memory of mine, I want him to know I’m not angry with him.” 

Bucky thought back to just how distraught Bob was when they’d asked what he saw. The man had shook his head so fast. 

‘No. I’m- it’s not my memory to tell- Matt wouldn’t want me to talk about it- I- I already screwed up enough!’  

“I’ll ask Bob if he’s okay with that.” Bucky said softly, grabbing John arm and pulling the other man away before he could argue. 

Matt nodded, “Thank you Bucky, I’ll wait in the kitchen.” 

John looked about ready to kill Bucky by the time they’d gotten out of earshot. 

“Are you fucking kidding Barnes? Why the hell do you think it’s a good idea for him and Bob to talk alone?” He asked angrily.

Bucky rolled his eyes, “Because they’re gonna need to talk it out eventually anyways John. We can’t be walking on eggshells around them. Matt doesn’t even seem mad, and besides, he’s our lawyer-” 

Exactly!” John interrupted, throwing his hands up, “He’s a goddamn lawyer! Of course he’s not gonna seem mad, he lies for a fucking living!!”

Bucky let out an exasperated sigh, “For fuck sake John, when are you gonna start trusting him? He’s given you no reason not to.” 

John let out a huff, “I’m telling you Bucky, there’s something off about him, I can just feel it.” 

Bucky scoffed, reaching for the handle to the private sitting area, “Well until you get actual proof, I’m not believing a word you say.” He pulled the door open, leaving John standing in the hallway. 

“Oh I’ll get proof.” John muttered before following him in.

—

“I really appreciate you being so willing to chat with me Bob.” Matt said with a soft smile, folding his hands together and resting them on the wooden table.

They were in a smaller conference room, Matt was already in there when Bob walked in, he stood uncomfortably at the doorway, looking down at the seemingly perfectly put together man at the table. 

All Bob could see was the little boy lying in the street with chemicals in his eyes. 

He was so little, no kid deserves that pain, Bob can understand that.

“Ma- Mr. Murdock- I- I’m so sorry- I didn’t mean to-“ 

“Please sit,” Matt interrupted gently, “And shut the door behind you.” 

Bob shut his still open mouth, turning around and shutting the door, ignoring John’s not so subtle gaze from the kitchen as he watched him do so. 

He took a seat across from Matt, keeping his hands in his lap, ready to jump away if needed. He didn’t want to hurt Matt more than he already did.

Matt sighed, “I’m not mad at you Bob.” 

Bob’s eyes widened with surprised, “You’re not? But I-“

“I know.” Matt said quickly, “But it was an accident, right?” 

Bob nodded before quickly answering out loud, “Yeah but-“ 

“Then I’m not mad.” Matt leaned forward a bit,

“What I’m more concerned about is my friends.” 

Bob tilted his head in confusion, “Foggy and Karen?”

Matt nodded, “I don’t want them to be at risk of going into the shame rooms too. Or anyone else for that matter. I want to know you’re working to get your powers under control.” 

Bob swallowed, “I- of course I have been but- it’s- it’s hard, the Void- it’s difficult to control. I don’t even remember half of what happened to New York the first time- I just- I don’t want to lose control again.” 

Matt nodded, “I understand. How have your friends been helping you with this?” 

Bob shrugged, leaning back a bit, “They’ve been supportive, but I know they have the same concerns as me.” 

Matt seemed to think for a moment, “And Valentina?” 

Bob tensed, “Valentina is the reason I am like this in the first place. She’s still angry I survived the kill switch she put in my head.” 

He didn’t miss the way Matt’s hands tightened, jaw clenching,

“I didn’t know that…” he paused, “Is there anything else you feel I should be made aware of Bob?” 

Before hiring them, Yelena had talked to Bob about the importance of keeping as much of himself a secret as possible. Even from lawyers hired to keep their secrets.

But something about Matt’s demeanor made Bob want to tell him everything. 

He’d heard the screams, seen his dad holding Matt’s little frame.

He’d seen the pain and the fear.

He witnessed one of Matt’s worst moments.

Bob had made Matt relive that and he wasn’t angry. 

Matt isn’t mad, he’s still here. 

“Valentina made project Sentry with the hope of creating a godlike being she could control. I wasn’t supposed to be the one who got the powers. I was supposed to be just a test subject,”

He looked down at his hands, “Yelena didn’t want me to know that part, but I found the files. I know I wasn’t supposed to survive the trials.” 

“But you did.” Matt reminded softly, reassuringly.

Bob nodded, “Yeah. And once Val realized that she took me away from them. Made me feel like she was the only one who cared. She turned me into Sentry and I hated it.” 

Bob hesitated, backtracking, “I liked the power at first,” He corrected,

“The confidence- but- when I saw them for the first time- when they saw me in the suit- when I saw Yelena’s face, how scared she was- I didn’t like it anymore.” 

“Did you tell Valentina that?” 

He nodded again, looking back up at Matt, “She tried to tell me what to do, she wanted me to kill them. But I knew I was stronger than her, she didn’t like that and tried to kill me.” 

“What happened after that?”

Bob shrugged, “What you heard about on the news. I don’t remember any of it, just waking up in the street with the others.” 

Matt nodded, absorbing the information, “Thank you for telling me Bob. I’m glad we could talk about this,”

His smile was warm and seemed so genuine, it made Bob feel a little better about not listening to Yelena. 

“I want you to know you can always come to me if you need help okay? Your powers may feel scary but you don’t have to deal with it alone.” 

Bob smiled, “Don’t worry, my team has always been there for me,”

Matt hesitated for a moment before adding one more thing, “And Bob, if Valentina ever tries to pull something like that again, I want you to tell me, okay? I promise you I’ll handle it.” 

Bob’s eyes widened slightly at the sincerity in his tone, “Okay, I will,” 

He shifted in his seat, thinking back to the original purpose of their meeting, “I know you’re not mad but- I am sorry Matt… that memory, hearing it again must’ve-“

“It wasn’t a big deal.” Matt interrupted, standing up abruptly,

“I should get back to Foggy and Karen, we still have quite a bit of paperwork to go through, thank you so much for talking with me,” 

Bob turned and Matt made his way to the door, stopping as his hand rested on the handle, “Oh, and Bob?” 

Bob looked at him, “Yeah?” 

Matt’s smile tightened a bit, “Nobody needs to know about what you saw, okay?”

It sounded soft, a hint of warning in his tone. Bob got the message. 

“Oh-! uh- of course” 

Matt’s smile loosened as he opened the door, making his way over to the other conference room. 

—

“How’d their talk go?” Yelena asked casually when Bucky came back. 

He shrugged, “Bob seemed a little better, John’s walking him to the Sentry Pod so he can decompress for a bit, and practice with his powers.”

Yelena cocked up an eyebrow, “He hasn’t done that in a bit.”

Bucky nodded in agreement, “Yeah I know, he seemed a lot more determined to start practicing more consistently when he came back out.” 

Yelena hummed in acknowledgment before Bucky continued, “Any word from Castle yet?”

She cringed inwardly, “No not yet.”

She was starting to regret trusting them with the drive, “I’m sure he’ll call anytime now.” 

Bucky nodded, clearly not believing her, he gave her this slightly condescending, ‘Your about to learn the consequences of your actions’ look. 

She rolled her eyes, “I’ll look for him tonight if he doesn’t call today.” 

—

Matt, Foggy and Karen were deep into their paperwork when a knock came from the door. 

Foggy and Karen glanced at it before turning to Matt. He cocked his head in surprise, 

“It’s Mel.” He whispered. 

Their brows furrowed, equally confused, “Come in.” Karen called out politely. 

She did, her iPad was still in her hand, along with an ear piece, “Valentina has requested to speak with Mr. Murdock.” She said looking up at them with a polite smile, still tapping at the screen in her hands. 

Foggy glanced at Matt, “May we ask why?” 

Mel gave a small shrug, “I’m not sure, she just asked me to come get you.” 

The hand resting in Matt’s lap tightened into a fist.

Being around Valentina after talking to Bob was the last thing he wanted to do. It was already hard enough pulling the ‘charming flirty lawyer’ act with her as it was, but now knowing all the stuff she did to Bob?

He really didn’t want to talk to her.

“We’re kind of in the middle of our work, is this an emergency?” He asked as kindly as he could muster.

Both Foggy and Karen looked at him in surprise, he didn’t tell them about what Bob told him. 

Mel bit her lip, “She’s very adamant about talking to you Mr. Murdock.” 

Matt sighed, standing up. It was obvious if he didn’t go, she’d be the one getting in trouble and that wasn’t fair to her.

He grabbed his cane, making his way over to her, “Of course, I’d be happy to chat with her,” 

He forced a charming smile onto his face, “Lead the way.” 

—

“Ah Mr. Murdock! Welcome, come in!”

Valentina’s office was nice, spacious. It had a modern yet timeless feel to it with floor to ceiling windows illuminating the shelves of books behind her big desk. 

She was standing when Matt came in, putting some papers in a nice filing cabinet, “Please, sit,”

Matt listened as her heels clicked on the floor towards her own seat, “Shut the door behind you Mel.” She said, her tone a lot less friendly than it was only seconds before. 

Matt did as told and took a seat, she sat down as well, pulling her chair forward so she could rest her folded hands and elbows on the desk.

“Not that I don’t love chatting with you Valentina,” Matt forced himself to sound genuine,

“But if you’d like us to be as prepared as possible for our meeting, I really need to be working with my colleagues every second I can.” 

Valentina smiled, “Well, work is actually exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” 

Matt could feel her staring intently at him, he shifted in his seat, doing his best to look relaxed, “You’re a smart guy Matt,” 

He already didn’t like wherever this was going, he cleared his throat, “Oh- uh thank you- ?” 

“In fact, I get the impression you’re a lot smarter than most give you credit for,

There was something dark in her tone that made the hairs on Matt’s arm stand up.

“Which is why I’ve decided to ask this of you specifically,” 

Matt tilted his head, letting out a nervous laugh, suddenly very aware that there were no cameras in her office, and that when Mel shut the door, it locked. 

“Ask what of me?” He kept his tone polite. 

Valentina smiled, standing up and walking around the desk,

“Sam Wilson is…a well respected man,” She began, making her way over to the windows,

“Lots of people value his opinions. Which means, him not liking the new Avengers is rather…distasteful.” 

Matt swallowed the lump in his throat, “I’m well aware of that fact, hence why we’re having a meeting with him-“ 

“It’d be really nice if he was in support of us.” She continued as if Matt hadn’t even spoken,

“Of course, he never would be, not by choice at least.” 

Matt’s brow furrowed in confusion, “What exactly are you getting at Valentina?” He didn’t bother trying to keep his tone light anymore. 

She turned around, looking at him, “Sam is a good man. A…frustratingly good man. So far I’ve been unable to uncover anything that might…change his mind about our team.” 

“Change his mind?” Matt repeated. 

“No man is perfect. A man like Sam has to have some skeletons in his closet.” 

“What does this have to do with me?” Matt asked, grip tightening on his cane. 

Valentina let out a small chuckle, “Oh come on Matthew I know you’re not stupid. We haven’t publicly announced that your firm is representing us yet, and your charming-innocent demeanor is quite endearing,”

She walked closer, leaning against the desk now, “You think I didn’t notice you using that on me? You’re clever Matt, you know how to use what you have to get what you want.” 

She leaned down so her face was level with his, “All I’m asking is that you use that skill to get me what I want.” 

Matt leaned back, already knowing the answer to his question before asking it, “And what exactly do you want?” 

She smiled, “Dirt. Something we can use on Wilson. Anything to get him to shut up.” 

Alright that’s it. Matt pushed his chair back, standing up, “Is Bucky aware of what you’re asking me to do?”

Valentina scoffed, “Take a wild guess.”

He shook his head, “I’m sorry but I will not be doing anything illegal. There are plenty of ways to go about this case the right way and that’s how I intend to do so.”

He turned to leave, praying the door was locked from their side. 

“Oh come on, it’s not like I’m asking you to use any of your other hidden talents.”

Matt felt his heart drop, he was a little glad his face was turned away from her. 

“What?”

Valentina stayed calmly leaning against her desk, “I’m asking you to get close to him, close enough to hear something you shouldn’t.”

She shrugged Matt could practically hear her face contort into something cruel, she was enjoying this, 

“I could’ve asked you to strike the fear of the devil in him. Or whatever it is you do at night.” 

Matt turned around, it was taking everything in him to ignore his instincts and stay put. Running would be bad, showing his fear would be worse,

“I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean.” He forced his voice to sound innocent, hoping Valentina wouldn’t hear the way it cracked. 

This was exactly what Foggy, Frank and Karen had been worried about. Valentina is an extremely dangerous person and he now had proof from Bob that the rumors about her doing human experiments weren’t exactly rumors.

Matt didn’t want to think about what she could do now that she knew who he was. 

She laughed condescendingly, “It wasn’t easy figuring it out, I’ll give you that, you cover your tracks well. But any vigilante whose been operating for as long as you is bound to make mistakes.” 

Matt tightened his grip on his cane, “Vigilante? I’m sorry you have to be mistaken-“ 

Even he knew he was grasping at straws at this point. 

She gave him a pointed look, “You’ve been caught Daredevil, you’re only embarrassing yourself now,”

She took a few steps towards him, “I have to say, I am very impressed though, the whole blind act to cover your identity? I don’t think even I would’ve gone that low.” 

Matt grit his teeth, “It’s not an act.” 

She raised an eyebrow, seemingly genuinely surprised, “No? Huh, well I guess that’s not a total shock, you do seem a little too good to pull something so cruel.” 

Matt cleared his throat, “What do you want Valentina?” He was getting sick of her toying games, 

She smiled, “I told you, I want Sam Wilson to keep his mouth shut. You’re the only one who can do that.” 

Matt didn’t hesitate, “If you think I’d do something like that you really are as crazy as the news says you are.” 

That seemed to strike a bit of a nerve, her heartbeat faltered slightly for the first time since he’d gotten into her office, “Doing what’s necessary to get things done doesn’t make me crazy, it makes me a realist Mr. Murdock.” 

“No, it makes you emotionless,” he took a few steps forward, closing the gap between them,

“I know about Project Sentry. I know what you did.” He didn’t. Not really, not enough to do anything about it, but she didn’t need to know that. 

Her heart skipped again, “You’re bluffing. There’s no way you have anything on Project Sentry.” She’s trying to hide her nerves. 

Matt’s lips curled into a smirk, “You really wanna take that chance? Do you think you’re the only one who looks into people? You said it yourself, I know how to use what I have to get what I want. I knew from the start you weren’t someone I could trust, I knew I might need some sort of insurance in the future,” 

He let his smile drop, glaring at her coldly instead, “Turns out I was right.” 

He took another step forward, letting himself straighten up, shoulders back and confident, moving forward without an ounce of fear, forcing her to back up,

“And if you try and threaten me, or my friends, or if you try to use my identity against me, I promise you Valentina I will make you regret it in every legal and illegal way I can.” His voice grew sharper, meaner with every word, suddenly grateful for the lack of cameras.

Matt let his cane fall to the side, moved smoother, let it be obvious he didn’t need sight to know exactly where she was. 

“You cannot hide anything from me. You cannot hide from me. You try that again and I’ll show you exactly what I’m capable of.” 

Valentina’s jaw shifted, hands clenched together, clearly this wasn’t how she wanted this conversation to go. 

“The only reason I’m not going to drop your case right now is because your team actually deserves the help, they’re actually good people.” 

He backed away, heading towards the door with ease, only pulling his cane in front of him when his hand was in the door handle, 

“They’re good people at heart, if you try and sabotage this case, or hurt them,” He thought back to Bob and the anger boiled in his chest,

“You don’t want to make an enemy of the Devil Valentina.” With that he confidently walked out of the room. 

—

“So, what’d you guys talk about?” John asked as he and Bob made their way towards the elevators.

Bob gave him a slightly annoyed look, “We talked about what happened, which I won’t be going into details about.” 

John put his hands up, “Hey I was just asking,” Bob looked at him expectantly, already sensing John had more he wanted to say. 

John waited till they got into the elevator, “I need your help.” 

Bobs brow furrowed, “With?”

John hesitated, already sensing how this conversation was gonna go, “I need you to help me look into Matt.” 

Bob tilted his head back in annoyance, “You have to be kidding me-“ 

“Please Bob, I just need you to trust me-“ John tried to interrupt. 

The elevator stopped and the door opened, Bob wasted no time walking out, “I mean seriously John there is something wrong with you!”

“Bob please- I know it doesn’t make any sense to you guys but if you just gave me a chance and used your techy skills then-“ 

Bob whipped his head around, glaring at John and catching him by surprise,

“No John. Matt is a good guy, a good guy who’s only been helping us. He’s given you no reason not to trust him and honestly you’re being so unbelievably rude by not giving him a chance!”

He turned back around, “I refuse to be apart of that, Matt hasn’t lied to us and he’s not keeping anything from us so please, leave him be.” 

John watched Bob go as he headed towards his Sentry Pod, fists clenching and unclenching in frustration. 

They needed proof? Fine. He’d give them proof. 

Chapter Text

Matt walked home alone.

Foggy wanted him to take the taxi back with them but he needed the fresh air. He had told them Valentina wanted him to try and talk to Sam Wilson, but he didn’t tell them she knew his identity.

There wasn’t any point it worrying them, especially since he’d made it clear what would happen if she tried to use his identity against him. 

Both of them could tell Matt was feeling off, so even though neither of them particularly liked it, they didn’t argue much when he refused to ride back with them. 

Matt wasn’t all too surprised when Frank showed up about ten minutes into his walk in his truck. 

“Karen called me, said you were in a Matt-mood.” Frank called out from the window. 

Matt scoffed, walking over to the passenger side, “What the hell is a ‘Matt-mood’?”

Frank began driving once Matt was buckled, “Y’know, that mood you get in when somethings wrong but you’re too stubborn to ‘burden’ anyone else with the issue so instead you just sulk.” 

Matt raised his eyebrows in surprise, unsure whether he should be insulted or touched by how well his friends know him.

Frank glanced over at him at laughed, “So, you gonna stay in your Matt-mood or are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

Matt rolled his eyes, “There’s nothing wrong, I’m just stressed about how quickly this case is going.” 

He could tell Frank was giving him a pointed look, “Right sure. This doesn’t have anything to do with that meeting you had with Valentina? Nelson said you started acting weird after that.” 

Matt turned to ‘face’ Frank, “You talked to Foggy??”

“I talked to both of them.” Frank said with a shrug, “It’s the one time Nelson doesn’t mind talking to me, when he’s complaining about you.” Frank was smirking. Matt couldn’t see it, but he knew. 

Matt slumped in his seat, “Did David get back to you on the flash drive?” He didn’t bother hiding the abrupt change in topics. 

Frank was looking at him again, probably debating whether or not to let it slide, for now, then opting to humor him, “Yeah he did.”

A slight shift in energy let Matt know he wasn’t going to like whatever David discovered. 

“It was a formula,” Frank began carefully, 

Matt’s brow furrowed in confusion, “A formula for what?”

Frank hesitated, “The super soldier serum. It was a step by step on how to make it, down to every ingredient and even the recommended injection points.” 

Matt was quiet, letting what Frank said sink in. 

“Agent A was giving Viktor the formula to the super soldier serum.” Frank added. 

“Viktor, who’s in the Fisks’ pocket.” Matt said, fists clenching around his folded up cane,

“Stop the truck.” 

Frank turned to him, “What? Why would I- No I’m not stopping the truck-“

Matt grabbed the handle, attempting to open it but it was locked, “Frank stop the truck.” He tried and failed to keep his voice level. 

“Matt the what the hell-!” Matt pulled up the lock and opened the door as Frank swerved to the side of the road. 

“What the fuck was that asshole??” 

Matt jumped out of the car with ease, they were on a deserted side road in Hell’s Kitchen, Matt did a brief sweep of the block to make sure no one was watching before he expertly got out of the truck.

“You’re acting like I’ve never jumped out of a car before Frank.” Matt said casually as Frank continued to angrily swear and shut off the truck. 

“First off-“ Frank slammed the trucks door, “You got thrown, out last time.”

He started marching over to Matt, catching up to him as he walked away, voice growing louder with every word,

“And secondly, what the hell are you thinking Red? Why do you always have to act so recklessly?” 

“Well it wasn’t really reckless if I knew I’d be fine-“ 

“You’re being difficult and you know it asshole.” Frank growled,

“I don’t know what pissed you off today but that’s no reason to make my life harder.” 

Matt grit his teeth, “Seriously Frank? How my day was doesn’t matter right now, Fisk could be involved in this, I have every right to be pissed off!” 

Frank scoffed, “Oh don’t act like that’s a reasonable excuse to jump out of a fucking car- and where the fuck are you even going??” He grabbed Matt’s arm and pulled him around, stopping him from walking. 

“We’re only a few blocked from one of the Five Families known meeting spots-“

Franks eyes widened with disbelief, “Don’t you dare tell me you’re actually about to go walk over there, dressed like this-“ He motioned to Matt’s suit, glasses and cane. 

“I know you’re a dumbass but please don’t tell me you’re that irresponsible.” Matt could hear the anger boiling in his tone. 

“I’m not going to go in if they’re in there, but if that’s what they’re after we need all the information we can get, if the place is empty we can search it now, try and figure out what Fisk’s angle is!”

“Or better yet, we could head to the mayors office and I could shoot the bastard through his big bald head.” 

“Frank!” Matt yelled, his own anger trying to get the best of him,

“You are unbelievable, I mean seriously you want to call me reckless??” 

“Damn right I do,” 

“When you want to go out and shoot the goddamn mayor??” 

“You mean a corrupt asshole who made it into office by preying on the idiots dumb enough to vote for him? The piece of shit we both know should’ve never left prison the first fucking time you sent him there?? Hell yeah I do.” 

“Killing him isn’t going to stop this Frank-“

“Oh but letting him live will?! It’s not like I’m askin’ you to pull the trigger Red, I know you can’t get your goddamn hands dirty for shit!“ 

Matt tried to pull away but Frank only tightened his grip, “I’m tellin you to stay the fuck out of my way so I can handle this before it gets worse.” 

“You know I’m not gonna do that Frank.”

The hand not being restrained by Frank’s clenched into a a fist, Frank saw it. 

“Don’t be stupid Matt.” He steadied himself, his own hand balling up as well. 

Matt opened his mouth to speak but stopped suddenly, the anger in his face fading slightly. 

“Wha-“

“Stop.” Normally Frank would be mad but he could recognize the signs of Matt hearing something he couldn’t. 

Suddenly, too fast for Frank to stop, a loud bang rang out right as Matt pushed Frank to the side.

The movement was so slight, he only moved maybe an inch or two, not enough to be obvious to anyone but Frank. 

And then- 

Matt’s shoulder flew back, his breath hitched, his body going rigid before turning painfully limp, right as blood splattered across Frank’s face. 

“MATT!” 

Matt fell backwards onto the sidewalk, Frank barely catching him in time before his head slammed down on the concrete. Blood began to pool around him, staining his white button up.

Immediately Frank ripped off his jacket to start putting pressure on the wound, “Goddammit Red! What did you do?? Why would you do that motherfucker-“

“Frank- Frank calm down-“ his voice was a whisper but it didn’t seem like from the pain. Matt grabbed Frank’s arm to focus him. 

“Bullet wound, it went straight through and didn’t hit anything major, I’m fine. You need to calm down, don’t engage when he gets down here, it was an accident, he misread what was happening.” 

Frank blinked, “What??” 

“Oh my god Matt!!” 

Frank looked behind him, a man with a similar build to his own but with blond hair was rushing over to them. Franks eyes were immediately drawn to the gun the man was tucking back into his holster.

Matt shook Franks arm to get his attention again, “Please don’t shoot him Frank, I promise I’m okay I just have to act like I’m not. Don’t kill him, it was an accident.”

That was all he got before Matt went limp in his grasp again, letting his head fall back, groaning in pain. 

—

Welp it’s safe to say it. Bucky Barnes is going to kill him. 

Only if Yelena and Bob don’t get to him first at least. 

And that’s not even including how likely it’d be for Foggy and Karen to be willing to commit murder. 

How many times had they told John to back off of Matt? More times than he cared to pay attention too. 

He thought for sure he was about to finally get the proof he needed that Matt was lying to them when he finally found him after he’d left the tower, arguing with some man on the street. 

But the situation only got worse when he realized who that man was. 

Frank Castle, Murdock’s ex-client. And he looked pissed. 

Doesn’t that happen a lot? Ex-clients come back to attack their old lawyers? Frank didn’t seem like the type but then again, John didn’t know shit about him. 

He couldn’t hear much of what they were saying from the apartment rooftop he was watching on. He didn’t even feel the need to pull out his gun until he saw Frank grab Matt’s arm. 

He’d hoped not to make his presence known at all, but if Frank was about to beat the crap out of his lawyer, well, it didn’t matter how much John disliked Matt, he needed to intervene. 

The moment he saw Frank’s unused hand clench into a fist he waisted no time aiming at Franks back and pulling the trigger. 

To his horror, right as the bullet exited the barrel, their bodies shifted just enough to miss Frank entirely. 

And instead hit Matt. 

So yeah, Bucky was going to kill him. 

And if he didn’t, Yelena and Bob would probably try to kill him themselves. He truly doubted he’d even have a reason to live after Nelson and Page find out what he did. 
He was done for. 

“Please don’t be dead.” It was all he could think as he ran towards the two men. 

Though in hindsight, he probably should’ve also been focused on the fact that he was currently running towards a dangerous mass murderer, who he’d clearly just tried to kill. 

It also hit him then that Bucky had said Matt and Frank seemed rather cordial that night at the gala, and saving someone from a hostage situation doesn’t really seem like something someone who’s planning on killing their ex-lawyer would do…

“Oh my god Matt!” 

He kept running, “Is he okay?! I’ll call an ambulance now-“ 

Frank had him against a wall in seconds. Slamming him into the cold brick and shoving his elbow against his throat. For a man with no enhancements, it terrified John how easily he could pin him there. 

“You did this.” His voice was cold, barely above a growl. Angry. Blood was splattered around his face only making him look ten times scarier.

Oh he fucked up big time. 

John put his hands up, “I was aiming for you asshole!” Not the smartest thing he could’ve said, but at least it was the truth (?)

A hard punch landed to his rib cage, John instinctively tried to recoil but Frank just used that as an opportunity to pull his head down by the hair and knee him in the face.

He stumbled backwards, holding the wall as sparks flew in his vision and warm liquid poured down his nose.

“F-Frank stop it!” Matt’s breathy voice broke through the tension. He’s alive but oh god did his voice sound so weak-

What had he done? 

As the sparks disappeared John watched Franks entire demeanor change.

He went from a dangerous predator, an ex-marine who knew exactly what to do to inflict the pain he wanted his enemies to feel, ready to kill anyone who stepped in his way. From that to just-
A man. A man whose hands were shaking, whose breath was hitching, a man with worry lines circling fearful eyes. A man who actually looked, scared? A man who looked worried?

Frank rushed back over to Matt, picking him up with a gentleness that reminded John like a slap to the face that this man was once a father, and carefully placed his upper body on his folded knees. 

“Just breathe Matty it’s okay, it’s okay.”  

His voice was so soft, seconds ago if you’d asked John if that kind of softness could come from Frank, he would’ve laughed. 

He wondered if Frank had spoke to his children with that voice. The Punisher felt a lot more human right now than he did seconds ago.

“An ambulance is two minutes out.” John said carefully, voice hollow. He took a step back when Franks eyes darted up to him, a dead look overtaking them. His expression melted away when Matt’s shaky hand rested atop of his.

Wow did he misread this entire situation.

It didn’t take much to see that these two cared for each other deeply. It definitely explained why Frank was at the gala that night. 

“You need to get out of here-“ John attempted, taking a step forward as sirens grew louder in the distance. Frank’s grip tightened on Matt. It looked like he was shielding him, protecting him…from John.

Which, it’s not like he could blame him for but…it still hurt. He’s an Avenger now…he’s not supposed to be feared anymore.

He thought back to that day years ago. Standing over that man’s body, blood on his shield. He was so angry, he didn’t even notice the crowd until he looked up. Seeing their faces, full of fear, it broke him even further. 

People aren’t supposed to be scared of Captain America. And even if he’s since lost that title, he didn’t want anyone to be scared of him still. 

“You can’t be here when the ambulance arrives Castle and you know it.” John tried to reason. 

“He’s right Frank.” Matt coughed out, “You gotta go.”

Frank looked about ready to argue, John cut him off, “I was a marine too, I know how to stabilize a bullet wound. He’ll be okay Castle. You have my word.”

He hoped Frank could tell how serious he was being. Matt Murdock wouldn’t die on his watch. He’d hurt too many good people in the past, Matt couldn’t be one of them. 

Frank glared at him, before taking one more look at Matt, “I’ll call Karen and Nelson okay sweetheart? It’s gonna be okay.” 

Matt nodded, “I know, get out of here Frank.” His voice was soft and loving. It only made John feel worse. How could he have missed this? 

As Frank began to stand, John rushed over, helping Matt’s head back onto the ground and replacing Franks hands on the wound with his own. 

Just before Frank left he grabbed the collar of John’s shirt, “If he dies,” 

The look in Frank’s eyes was enough to tell John that there was no hiding from him.

“I’ll ripe your goddamn head off your neck, got it?”

That look told him it didn’t matter who John is, it didn’t matter that John has enhancements and he doesn’t, nothing John could do mattered.

Frank wouldn’t stop until he kept that promise. 

John didn’t respond, he just looked back at Matt, “Get out of here, they’re almost here.” 

The next time John turned around, Frank was gone.

Chapter Text

John waited anxiously in Matt’s hospital room. 

It didn’t feel like he belonged there, out of everyone, why was he the one sitting there? Waiting for him to wake up?

Foggy and Karen were on their way. He’d called Yelena, told her what happened, but he had to hang up when she started yelling at him in Russian. 

Matt was fine.
That’s what the doctors said.

The bullet didn’t hit anything major and they were able to remove it quickly while Matt was unconscious. Now, they were in a private hospital room, Matt was still asleep on the cot and John was nervously tapping his foot in the chair beside him. 

How could he have missed? He’d aimed straight for Frank. 
And even then, how could he have been stupid enough to shoot at them in the first place? 

“Man do I wish I could see your face right now.” 

John jumped, whipping his head over to look at Matt, who was smiling tiredly.

Without his sunglasses on he looked a lot more vulnerable than John would’ve liked.

How could he have seen this guy as a threat?

“Matt- how-“ he cleared his throat, “How are you feeling?”

He let his head fall to the side so that he was facing John, “Fine. Groggy.” 

“Good- that- that’s good- are you, uh- are you in any pain?”

He stood up suddenly, “Cause I can go get the nurse if you are- I-“ 

“John.” Matt interrupted softly, “Sit.” 

He did, not taking his eyes off Matt, grateful the man couldn’t see him,

“Matt- I’m so sorry, I- I don’t know what I was- I don’t know why I-“

“I know you don’t like me.” Matt interrupted again. He spoke so matter of factly that it threw John off.

Matt laughed, “I’m more observant than you might think Walker, not that you hide it very well.” 

John’s eyebrows raised in surprise, his cheeks went red with embarrassment, “I- it’s not that I don’t- I just don’t know you that well-“ He paused, feeling his heart drop,

“That’s not why I shot you-! I mean, I didn’t shoot you on purpose I-“

“It was an accident.” Matt finished for him,

“I know John, relax, I’m not mad.” 

John tilted his head, “Your not? Why??”

Matt chuckled, “Why? Like I said it was an accident.” 

John’s brow furrowed, “Yeah but I still shot you!”

Matt smiled, turning his head away, “S’not even the first time I’ve been shot John, it’s fine.”

In the back of his mind he remembered that Matt’s currently on a high dosage of pain meds, which were probably making him loopy and were preventing him from thinking clearly. 

John hated himself for it, but that uneasy feeling he kept getting around Matt came back, that feeling like he’s hiding something. John pushed it away.

“I wasn’t aiming for you, I’m sorry.”

Matt stiffened. 

“You were aiming at Frank.” 

John hesitated, realizing if his realization from earlier was correct, then he was admitting to trying to shoot someone Matt cared very deeply for.

“I thought he was trying to hurt you.” 

Matt shook his head, “We were just arguing, Frank would never actually hurt me.” 

He hesitated then turned back to face John, his cloudy eyes ‘looking’ just above his shoulder,

“John. No one can know about Frank and I, the only ones who know are Karen and Foggy, but the others- they can’t know.” 

He was trying to sound firm, confident, but John could hear the pleading in his tone. 

He nodded slowly, it was the least he could do for shooting him after all, “I won’t tell them, I promise.” 

Just then John could hear yelling in the hallway, he looked over at the closed door anxiously. 

“Ah, the calvary has arrived, brace yourself John, I can’t protect you from a cot.” 

John looked at him in confusion but didn’t have time to respond before the door burst open. 

“Matt! Oh my god we were so worried!”

“Are you okay?? We- heard what happened!”

Karen and Foggy rushed over to him, both with worried and panicked expressions on their faces. 

Foggy had Matt’s hand in his in seconds, his scared face darkened to anger when he noticed John.

“What the hell is he doing here?”

Karen, however, didn’t wait for a response, “You piece of shit!”

John’s eyes widened as the angry woman started walking towards him. He jumped up from his chair and backed up.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!? He’s your lawyer for fuck sake and you could’ve killed him!”

“Karen-“ Matt attempted to no avail.

John had both of his hands up and Karen was angrily sticking a finger at his face,

“We should have you arrested for this I-“ she whipped back around at Matt,

“Why hasn’t he been arrested yet??”

“We can’t arrest him Karen.” Matt said with a sigh. 

She turned fully around now, seemingly forgetting about the slightly frightened super soldier behind her. “Why not?! He shot you???”

“Because Karen, he knows about me and Frank.” 

Silence. And then, with eerie stillness, she turned around and glared and John, “Were you following him??”

John swallowed, “maybe…”

“Okayyy!!” Foggy walked over just in time to grab Karen’s shoulder and lightly tug her away. Definitely not looking scared himself as he did so. 

She sat down in what was once John’s seat with an angry huff as Foggy walked back to Matt’s side. 

“Let’s all take a breath okay? I think we’re all a little worked up, right Matt?” Foggy said with a forcefully happy tone. 

“Can you let Frank know everything’s fine?” Matt asked. 

“Already did.” Karen responded, her voice a lot calmer now that it was directed at Matt,

“He’s worried sick.” 

Matt nodded, “I figured, he doesn’t need to be though, you can let him know I’m on my way home now.”

As he spoke he pulled the thin cotton sheets off of himself, attempting to stand up, much to the dismay of everyone in the room.

“Oh absolutely not, this is one of the few times I’ve gotten you in a hospital and we are gonna make the most of it!” Foggy said immediately pushing Matt back down, 

“You are not leaving until you are discharged by a doctor.” 

Matt rolled his eyes, “C’mon, we have so much work to do still and I can’t even feel it anymore!”

“You can’t feel it because of the morphine Matt.” Karen retorted. 

“All the more reason to leave now while I’m not in pain,” Matt pushed Foggy’s hand away and tried to get back up, this time it was John who walked over to stop him. 

“Why don’t we bring him to the tower to recover instead?” He asked. 

All three of the others raised their eyebrows in confusion and shock, “What?” 

John shrugged, “The old Avengers left a lot of their high tech medical gear, we don’t really know how to use most of it yet,” he laughed sheepishly,

“But we have some pretty great doctors on standby 24/7 and a decent amount of medical equipment we do know how to use, besides,”

John wrung his hands together nervously, a habit Matt guessed he picked up from Bob.

“It’s the least I could do.” 

A pause, as all three of them considered John’s offer, finally, Karen let out a small scoff. 

“No, the least you could do is pay for all of the medical bills Matt’s gonna get for this, and give us a bonus.” 

“Karen.” Matt hissed.

But John only laughed, “I think I can convince Val to comply with that.” 

—

“Matthew Micheal Murdock you better not be seriously still considering keeping them as clients.”

Karen scolded the moment they were alone. 

Foggy, Karen and Matt were in a private medical room at the tower.

It didn’t take long for them to be transported and John was doing his best to hold off the rest of the team from talking to them for a bit. 

Though Matt could tell he was currently fighting for his life, the rest of the team was clearly not happy, which definitely didn’t bring Matt any joy. Definitely not. 

Matt sighed, “He wasn’t aiming for me, it was an accident.” 

“Bull fucking shit that guy has disliked like you since we got here and now you wanna tell me he shot you by accident??” Karen retorted folding her arms together. 

“I had everything under control, I knew exactly where the bullet would hit the second I moved Frank out of the way-“

“That’s not the point Matt! Even if he wasn’t aiming for you, he still thought it was a good idea to try and shoot Frank when you two were standing close to each other. He acted irresponsibly and you got hurt because of it.” Foggy spoke softly.

It hurt Matt to hear the sadness and desperation in his voice, he wanted Matt to understand so badly. 

“This could’ve been so much worse…if that bullet was only an inch closer to your heart-“

“But it wasn’t.” Matt responded, not sharply, reassuringly.

He took Foggy’s hand, let him feel the warmth radiating off of him. A silent reminder that he’s still here. 

“Let’s not forget that now he knows about Frank and you. Which is just one step closer to him figuring out what else you’re hiding from them Matt,” Karen broke the silence, 

“Karen-“ Matt tried but she continued,

“And even if he didn’t shoot you, he would’ve killed Frank.” 

Her voice was cold, she was still angry, “He decided to make the call to kill and ask questions later. That decision almost took Frank from us. It- it almost took Frank from you Matt.” 

She took a few steps closer to the cot he was lying on,

“Is that someone you really want to represent Matt? Someone who has no problem shooting a man in broad daylight based simply on a hunch?” 

Matt hesitated, now that the adrenaline from the day was wearing down, it was actually starting to hit him what John had almost done. 

That bullet was aimed for the back of Frank’s neck. 

“No…” Matt answered quietly, “No it’s not…”

They could hurt him a thousand times over and he would’ve fought to continue representing them.

But John almost killed Frank.

He almost took Frank from him because of yet another assumption he made with nothing concrete to back it up.

He couldn’t care less about his own safety, but Frank’s? That’s not something he was comfortable risking. 

Foggy squeezed his hand, “We can let them know when they come in later, shouldn’t take too long to be taken off the case after that.” 

Karen paused for a second before letting out a small “crap…”

The two men turned to her, she elaborated, “I left some of their documents in the office, they’re gonna need them back,”

She walked over to the door, grabbing her purse, “I’ll just go run and get them now-“

“You want me to come with?” Foggy asked, though he didn’t take his hand away from Matt’s. 

A small smile crossed Karen’s face, “I’ll only be an hour tops, you stay here.” With that, she left, the door quickly shutting behind her.

After a moment, Foggy let out a chuckle, “She’s been trying to get me to convince you to get off this case since you told us John didn’t trust you.” 

Matt laughed, “Before what happened with Bob?”

Foggy nodded, “We should learn to trust her gut more often.” 

“Yeah we should” Matt responded with a smile, “It’d definitely save us a lot of time.”

He paused, listening out into the hall for the first time since their conversation had begun, “shit.”

He decided already he was going to blame his lack of awareness on the copious amounts of morphine he was on. 

Foggy’s brow furrowed, “What’s wrong?”

Matt let out a tired sigh, “Karen- can you guys come in here please.” He called out. 

A second later, Karen pushed open the door looking almost as angry as she did earlier…

—

Bob was rushing, he didn’t know all of the details but apparently Matt had gotten hurt, bad. And of course somehow John is involved. 

Of course he is, god forbid he listen to anyone.

So Bob was in a hurry. He likes Matt, trusts him. Very few people have his trust nowadays and he doesn’t want to lose those people. 

He quickly made his way over to where Yelena had told him to meet them.

As he walked down the hall he overheard some familiar voices. 

Now, Bob recognized that eavesdropping on his lawyers conversation was slightly hypocritical, but he couldn’t help it after he heard Karen’s angry words:

“Matthew Micheal Murdock you better not be seriously still considering keeping them as clients.” 

He froze. 
Oh John must’ve fucked up big time if they’re considering leaving- 

‘What did he do-?’ 

“He wasn’t aiming for me, it was an accident.” Matt responded. 

‘WHAT?!’ 
Bob’s mind exploded with all the possible things that John could’ve done, the word ‘aiming’ screamed at him. 

‘Oh God please tell me he didn’t-‘ 

“Bull fucking shit that guy has disliked like you since we got here and now you wanna tell me he shot you by accident??” 

Oh my God he did. 
If Bucky hasn’t killed him by now, Bob just might.

Bob couldn’t believe his ears, how many times had they told John to back off? To leave Matt alone? How many fucking times.  

Bob felt himself getting angrier and angrier by the second.

Matt had already given them a second chance and John just had to blow it.

Right when it was okay again, right when Bob was actually starting to really like them, to trust Matt on a much more personal level.

Why did John have to be so reckless? 
He had no reason not to trust Matt-

“I had everything under control, I knew exactly where the bullet would hit the second I moved Frank out of the way-“

…what?

Bobs brow furrowed in confusion, his brain stuttering to understand what Matt had just said. What his words meant. 

I knew exactly where the bullet would hit the second I moved Frank out of the way?  

What does that mean??

“That’s not the point Matt! Even if he wasn’t aiming for you, he still thought it was a good idea to try and shoot Frank when you two were standing close to each other. He acted irresponsibly and you got hurt because of it.”

Frank? As in Frank Castle?? Why was he with Matt??

“This could’ve been so much worse…if that bullet was only an inch closer to your heart-“

“But it wasn’t.” 

Bob felt his own heart drop at that.
He realized then just how serious this could’ve been. How serious this is now.

John really almost killed Matt. 

But in the back of his mind, questions still flowed, there are so many parts of the story he doesn’t have yet. 

And the things Matt said still stuck out. What did he mean by that?

“Let’s not forget that now he knows about Frank and you. Which is just one step closer to him figuring out what else you’re hiding from them Matt,”

Karen’s words felt like a bucket of ice being poured on top of him.

All of the conversations he’d had with John suddenly emerged from his memory. 

That ‘gut feeling’ that John had that Matt was hiding something. 

It seemed so silly at the time…
Was Matt really hiding something?
Was John really onto something?

“And even if he didn’t shoot you, he would’ve killed Frank.” 

Why was John trying to kill Frank in the first place??

“He decided to make the call to kill and ask questions later. That decision almost took Frank from us. It- it almost took Frank from you Matt.” 

From Matt? What did that-

‘Oh…’ Bob had a small lightbulb moment as the realization hit him. 

“Is that someone you really want to represent Matt? Someone who has no problem shooting a man in broad daylight based simply on a hunch?” 

Bob wanted so badly for Matt to keep arguing with her, to fight back in their defense.
But the more he thought, the more he knew there was no way Matt would. 

This wasn’t about him anymore, this was about Frank.

Frank, who apparently he’s a lot closer with than he’d originally led on. 

“No…” Matt responded, the defeat in his tone was preventing even through the door, “No it’s not…”

“We can let them know when they come in later, shouldn’t take too long to be taken off the case after that.” 

Bob backed away from the door until his back hit the opposing wall. This couldn’t be real. 

On one end, he was pissed at John for doing something so stupidly reckless.

But on the other, the idea that John might actually be on to something with Matt was deeply unsettling. 

Just as Bob pushed himself off the wall the start heading towards the others, the door to Matt’s room unexpectedly opened. 

Bob was suddenly face to face with Karen, feeling like a deer caught in headlights. 

“Oh! Uh hi- I was just- uhm, walking by…” Bob said lamely as the door shut behind her.

Karen didn’t speak right away, her eyes gave away that she was reading Bob like a book. There was no doubt in his mind she knew immediately he was eavesdropping. 

“How much did you hear?” She asked bluntly. 

Bob felt himself beginning to sweat, “N-not all of it!! I think…I didn’t- I’m sorry! I just was so worried about Matt and nobody told me what had happened and when I heard you say you didn’t want to represent us anymore-“

“You been listening since then?!” Anger suddenly riddled her tone, Bob shrunk in on himself which Karen noticed immediately and seemed to back off a bit. 

Suddenly Matt’s voice caught both of their attentions, muffled through the door,

“Karen- can you guys come in here please?”

All Bob could think about as Karen opened the door was how the hell Matt knew they were there.

Chapter Text

“Okay I think we all need a moment to just think this through a bit-“

“No. We’ve thought plenty Barnes, we’re done.” 

Bob sat in the back of the room, legs pulled up to his chest, looking forward at the floor. 
He wondered absently what type of material it was made of. 

“Please! I know you’ve all been through a lot but-“

“Been through a lot?! Walker shot Matt! You’re lucky we’re not suing!”

It felt like ice under his toes whenever he forgot to wear socks, but it’s definitely not concrete. The surface is nice and shiny, if you looked close enough you could see the reflection of the people standing on it, like a puddle. 

“Your team has been unprofessional from the start, you hired us to help you and we’ve done our best to do so-”

“Karen let’s just calm down a bit-“ 

“No Matt! You never know when enough is enough and quite frankly I’ve had it with staying quiet about this!”

It was almost like glass, or a mirror, or maybe both. It felt much too sturdy to be glass though, Valentina’s high heels never left a scratch, and Alexei has dropped countless things on the floor and it’s never shattered. 

“We can double your original pay, triple it even-!”

“This isn’t about money. You put Matt’s life at risk. Hell, you withheld information that could’ve put all of our lives at risk. I understand why you didn’t tell anyone about Bob but Matt and I are lawyers, this isn’t something you should’ve kept from us.” 

Maybe it’s a type of crystal? Ava likes crystals. She has a spacey black one that looks like the floor on a shelf in her room.

What did she say it was called again? 

“We were just trying to keep him safe.”

“And that’s exactly what I’m doing as well, Bucky. Matt may not fully agree but I’m putting my foot down this time. We’re done.”

Obsidian. That’s what it’s called.

The floor looks like obsidian. Like deep dark space. There’s also these small white flecks just below the surface that look like stars. He liked looking at them, counting them, trying to find little constellations with them.

“Matt- please- I- I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking I-“ 

“I don’t know what you were thinking either Walker. Franks’ told me about your mission, he said you worked relatively well together. It’s disheartening to know now how quickly you’d be willing to turn on a teammate.”

“I misread the situation I-“ 

“Have you all signed the non-disclosure agreement yet?”

“Matt-“ 

“Yes or no?” 

His favorite constellation is the Little Dipper. It’s a simple one really, but his mom liked that one too.

She used to say she would’ve been an astronaut if she’d never gotten pregnant. 

“Yes. Everyone signed it. Not that any of us would’ve told anyone about you and Frank anyways…”

“Well that’s not really a chance we could take. We appreciate the cooperation.”

Matt wasn’t angry with him for eavesdropping.

Bob wondered if Matt was capable of being angry. He’s messed up a lot and Matt’s never gotten mad. Maybe he’s a pacifist? 
No, that didn’t seem right. Matt’s kindhearted sure, but Bob had a hunch he could be a shark if he wanted.

Karen and Foggy on the other hand looked like they were trying their best to have to same calm composure that Matt had. They weren’t doing very well though. 

Matt did most of the talking. He explained the importance of discretion when it came to him and Frank, which of course was something Bob could understand.

He then explained that they would be leaving and that’s when everything got a little fuzzy. 

He heard a ringing in his ear and after what felt like years, though it was probably only seconds, he couldn’t take it anymore.

He ran off, like a child. Yelena found him eventually. He’s not sure what she knew but he guessed everything since by the time she’d gotten him off of the roof, everyone was already waiting in the conference room. 

Even Matt, who was wearing a zip up jacket and his dress pants, an IV trailing down from his sleeve. 

“Well I believe that’s everything, we’ll have our office assistant send you the last of the paperwork tomorrow.” 

And that was it.

They were leaving, heading towards the elevator. More words were being spoken but Bobs entire focus was on Matt. Foggy had his elbow out for him to hold onto. Karen had a hand on his back. 

He was across the room from them, but when Bob opened his mouth, he didn’t yell.

“please don’t go.” He whispered, letting his voice crack into something pathetic.

He spoke so quietly he doubted even Alexei, who’d been sitting by his side, likely by Yelena’s orders, the entire time. 

Bob didn’t blink. He stayed laser focused on Matt, not letting his attention drift anywhere else as those words left his mouth. 

So, when Matt shifted, when his head turned back just the smallest bit. When he stopped walking for half a second, unused hand twitching in his direction, that slight hesitation, Bob saw it.

He heard him. Matt heard him. How?

—

“Thank you for meeting me. I gotta admit, I’m a little surprised you actually showed.” 

Yelena spoke calmly across the rooftop towards the man who’d just appeared on the opposing side.

It was daytime, she could see Frank’s thick coat flowing ever so slightly in the wind, every now and then, she caught a glimpse of metal hidden within it. Somehow Frank still looked just as intimidating in the daylight as he did at night.

In a strange way, he reminded Yelena of Natasha. Despite always having some sort of weapon on her, she never needed a single one to still be considered a deadly threat. She never needed a gun or a knife to radiate danger. 
Yelena’s heart ached and she ignored the sting, she hated how such dark thoughts like this were things could so easily remind her of her sister. 

“I considered not. Wasn’t sure if I was walkin into a trap.” His hands were in his pockets making it pretty clear he was ready in case this was a setup. 

She sighed, brushing off her thoughts of the past and focusing on the now,

“I’m sorry about Walker. I hope you know his actions don’t speak for the rest of us. I don’t know what he was thinking, I’m sorry he almost shot you.”

Though, in the back of her mind, she knew exactly what he was thinking.

He told them what had happened, at least, what he thought was happening. And though she never would’ve shot Frank so quickly, she understood John’s concern. 

“They were yelling an- and Castle grabbed Matt so harshly it threw even me off! I mean seriously, he whipped Matt around like the guy was a ragdoll! I just- when I saw his hand ball up I thought he was gonna hurt him and I- I panicked! Castle’s a dangerous guy and I didn’t want him to kill Matt-“ 

“I’m not mad he almost shot me,” Frank took a few steps closer, his combat boots crunching against the gravel ground,

“I’m fucking livid he shot Matt.” And his voice proved he wasn’t kidding. Yelena understood then why people feared the vigilantes that roamed Hell’s Kitchen. The tone Frank had was nothing short of lethal. Cold. Angry. Gravely and animalistic.

Yelena felt herself stiffen as Frank got closer, she did her best to hide the instincts telling her to back up, she didn’t need Frank getting even more mad and she knew showing any fear wouldn’t help.

“That wasn’t Walkers intention and Matt’s okay. Karen said she told you.” 

“She did. But I want you to know, the only reason Walkers’ still breathin is because Matt practically begged me not to kill ‘im while he was bleeding out on the sidewalk.” 

Yelena inhaled sharply, she truly would never understand Matt.

She never would’ve blamed him if he’d been angry with John, but that begging the punisher for someone else’s life? How the hell could Matt be so selfless? To beg for the safety of the man who’d almost killed him as he lay there dying? 

But there was something else on her mind that she couldn’t quite shake. 

Matt very clearly was in love with Frank. They’d watched the security footage of John shooting them. Even from the fuzzy recording they could see the way Frank and Matt clung to each other, the way he helplessly reached out at air until his fingers connected with Frank. The way touch so clearly became his sight. 

She watched Frank’s anxiety and worry turn into pure rage and revenge at the sight of John.

But she’d also seen the fear Frank had when Ava told him Daredevil had gone after Viktor and Agent A.

She’d seen with her own eyes the panic and dread that took over Frank’s face when they’d seen Daredevil’s legs sticking out of the garbage, it was a look of someone who’d experienced a special kind of loss and lived everyday praying they’d never experienced that loss again.

She knew that look, she’d worn it herself, she also knew that look coincided with love.

Did Matt know about Daredevil and Frank?
Did Daredevil know about Matt and Frank?

“Look,” Yelena spoke calmly, “I just wanna know what’s on the flash drive.” 

Frank scoffed, “And why the hell would I trust any of you with that?”

“So you figured out what’s on it?”

“Course I did. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna tell you. We didn’t want your help in the first place.” 

Yelena huffed, “Hey I let you take that drive willingly to show the trust I had for you. John fucked up, I didn’t.” 

She took a step forward, “Look, Matt already quit. He’s as far from us as he can get. We have no leads and all of us are already stressed enough as it is with our case. I took a chance giving you that drive, I’m asking you to do the same for me.”

Frank looked at her for a moment, something about his expression confused Yelena, in a weird way it reminded her of a look she’d catch Alexei giving her sometimes.

She’d never know that in that moment, she had reminded Frank of Amy, that reckless kid who he still thought about frequently, a kid who he took a chance on, a kid who was probably around Yelena’s age now.

“Fine. But if any of you ‘fuck up’ again, Matt won’t be able to convince me to spare any of you.” 

—

As Foggy and Karen dropped Matt off at his apartment, one of the first things he noticed was that Frank wasn’t home. 

The second thing was that even though he wasn’t home, their apartment was not empty. 

He walked up the steps slowly, both from caution and soreness. And maybe he was  just trying to take as long as possible so he didn’t have to deal with the inevitable mess that he was about to walk into.

Unfortunately for him, he eventually made it to the door, unlocking it slowly he opened it and made no effort to hide that he already knew exactly who was leaning against his counter.

“Why are you here Valentina?” He called out lazily. He reallyyyy wasn’t in the mood for this. 

Valentina was comfortably resting her elbows against his kitchen counter, a bottle of beer open at her side, still full, “Your beer tastes like shit.” 

Matt scoffed, “Didn’t exactly ask you to drink it,” He slumped down onto one of his chairs that was facing the kitchen, “Come to beg for my services? I’m sure you only just found out we quit.” 

She stepped forward, gritting her teeth together, “Mel informed me.” 

Matt laughed, “You must hate being so unaware of the decisions your team is making without you.”

Valentina shrugged, walking around the counter and observing different objects throughout his apartment.

Matt suddenly became very aware of the multitude of things in his home that most blind people wouldn’t own. 
As she calmly browsed over the non-braille books on the bookshelf Frank had bought months ago, she responded,

“Not as much as you might think. Those idiots have no idea just how little control they have over themselves. It’s cute really, if not a bit pathetic.”

She turned around to look at him, “I came here to apologize.” It was a bit jarring how soft she spoke those words, almost like she meant them.

This really did throw Matt off, he coughed, a mix of a laugh and just pure confusion, “Apologize?” He repeated. 

Valentina nodded, “For John’s behavior, and my own.” She said the last bit with slight hesitation. 

“When I’d first discovered who you really were I must admit, I was excited. I got ahead of myself and went about asking for your help very unprofessionally, for that, I’m sorry.” 

She took a seat on the couch across from Matt, “And I’m here to try and fix my past mistakes.” 

Matt’s brow was furrowed in confusion. He genuinely had no idea where this was going and it made him uneasy. Her words were spoken in a tone that mimicked sincerity, but Matt still felt like he was being approached by a wolf.

Valentina leaned forward, “I’d like to offer you a job. Not as Matt Murdock, but as Daredevil- and before you refuse-!” She put her hand up, stopping Matt as he immediately opened his mouth to say no. 

“Please just hear me out,” she added.

Matt gritted his teeth, “I don’t need to hear you out. I will never work for someone like you.”

Valentina paused for a moment, “Not even to save the life of a friend?” 

The way she said those words didn’t seem like a threat. It seemed like she was really curious, if not a bit toying, clearly withholding information to force Matt’s interest. 

It worked. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I’m pretty familiar with a lot of New York’s top political figures, obviously.”

Valentina began, “And much to your shock I’m sure, I’ve been using that for the good of the New Avengers, and their well beings.” 

Matt scoffed, “Yeah you’re right, that is shocking.”

Valentina rolled her eyes, “Listen, they are a lot of things, but smart ain’t one of them. Especially when it comes to their ow health.” 

Matt frowned, “Their health?” 

She nodded, “All of them are required to check in with our doctors and medical team regularly, especially Ava and Bob, given their- abnormalities.”

Matt felt himself grow a little angry, he didn’t know much about Ava’s powers or how she’d gotten them, but he knew about Bob. “Where are you going with this?”

“What I’m saying is, Bob’s recent results in the past few months have been a bit concerning.”

“Concerning how?”

Valentina sighed, “the easiest way to explain it is that the ‘Void’ is destroying Bob’s body from the inside, and since he was never meant to make it past the testing stages, his ‘Sentry’ body isn’t equipped to fight a disease that’s as strong as him.” 

Matt blinked, Valentina’s heart didn’t waver once, which meant-

“You’re serious-“

“Yes I am.” She said with a nod, “I haven’t told the others yet because there’s nothing they can do for him-“ she paused, “Well, at least there wasn’t.”

“Is there a way to save him?” Matt asked immediately, Valentina put her hand up,

“When I got word of some cartel selling the super soldier serum it peaked my interest. Obviously it’s formula as it is would do nothing for Bob- but!” 

She stood back up, starting to pace slowly, “If we could figure out how to replicate the formula on a much larger and more powerful scale, it could potentially heal him and even make him stronger than the Void.”

Matt let all of that sink in, “So that’s why they’ve been going after these guys so hard. Because Bob’s life depends on it.”

“Not that they know that. I still haven’t told them.” She answered.

“Why not?” Matt asked angrily, “Does Bob even know??”

Valentina shook her head, “I didn’t want to tell them until I was sure we could save him.”

“And are you sure now?” 

She shook her head again, “I won’t be sure until I get the formula to the doctors. Which is why I’m here,”

Matt couldn’t see her, but he knew she was staring at him very intensely, 

“Bucky and Yelena have refused to tell me what happened when they teamed up with you and Castle, but I learned from some friends of mine that the meet up you interrupted was an exchange.”

Matt stayed quiet, he knew where she was going with this. 

“Fisk doesn’t have the drive.” Valentina continued, she spoke his name so casually it made Matt’s skin crawl realizing they must know each other well, he didn’t like the idea of that very much, “Where is it Matt?”

He forced himself to stay appearing calm, “I don’t know. I tried to steal it from Viktor but he threw me out of the car before I had the chance.” 

“I’m trying to save Bob’s life Matt. This drive might be the key so if you’re withholding that from me-“

“-I don’t have it.” Not a complete lie. Frank took it to David, as far as he knew, David still has it. 

Suddenly Matt’s focus was stolen by a new sound. Two new sounds actually. 

The first one, was the sound of Frank about a block away walking towards the apartment. His steady and calm heartbeat letting Matt know he wasn't aware of the imminent threat that was clearly only meant for Matt to know about.

The second one, was on the rooftop across the street from his apartment. A man with a rifle, aimed down at the sidewalk, had just turned off the safety.

Valentina must've seen the moment realization had crossed over Matt's face,

"Look I don't wanna do this the hard way, I'd so much rather us have a cordial relationship."

Her voice had stayed light until she added,

But I need that serum.” In a cold tone that reminded Matt Valentina had no qualms with human experimentation and would have no issue with taking Frank's life in broad daylight just to prove her point.

Matt’s phone was sitting on the table between them, but there was no way he could warn Frank in time. 

His jaw tightened as his heart hammered in his chest,

 “I wasn’t lying, I don’t have the drive,” he hesitated, his breath hitching as the man aimed for Frank as he got closer,

“But I can get it to you, by tonight.”

Valentina smiled, “Good boy.”

She walked over to the door, “Come by the tower to drop it off.”

Before she left entirely, she spoke one more time and this time, Matt could hear just how much joy this was bringing her,

“See you soon.”

—

Frank knew something was wrong with Matt.

The man’s one hell of an actor, he’d give him that.

But there were small things that Frank picked up on that made him stay alert. 

For starters, Matt seemed skittish from the moment he got home. Matt is annoyingly aware, he always seemed to have this cool and collected demeanor. So when the tiny est sounds began to make him jump, it caught Frank’s attention.

He was startled when Frank opened the door, which normally meant he was spacing out or trapped in a sensory overload. 

But the moment he realized it was Frank, it was like restarting an engine. Matt sprung up and immediately turned into his normal self, though it came off a bit forced. 

Later, he told Matt about his meeting with Yelena and that seemed to throw him off too.
He kept asking vague questions, clearly trying to sound innocent but just something about them seemed off, like Matt was fishing for something else with each question. 

It was even stranger when Matt seemed to relax when Frank told him he was planning on meeting with Yelena later to tell her what was on the drive. 

Throughout the night Matt still seemed off, he’d asked him a few times what was wrong but Matt brushed him off with the practiced ease of a man who evaded questions about the bruises on his face his entire career. 

But Frank noticed the little things. The bouncing knee, tapping finger, head twitches. Matt felt distant despite being right in front of him.

At first he’d thought it was maybe from the painkillers he’d been prescribed but that was quickly dismissed when Matt casually mentioned he’d forgotten them at the tower.

“Are you fucking kidding me Matt?” 

Matt only rolled his eyes, “I don’t need them anyways Frank. They make me feel weird, and besides, it’s not like I haven’t been shot before.” 

His anger almost distracted him from realizing that if it wasn’t from the pain meds, Matt’s weird attitude was being caused by something else.

That night Frank had to fight Matt to not go out on patrol. Which was normal for the days after an injury. Something about tonight felt a little off, like Matt’s protests were a performance. 

But as they drifted off together already a tangled mess of limbs and sheets, Frank decided maybe he was just overthinking. 

That is, until he woke up four hours later, Matt’s side of the bed, cold and empty.

—

After Matt didn’t pick up the phone for the fifth time, and Frank double checked to make sure his daredevil suit and his black suit were still in the apartment, he decided to call Foggy. If anyone else was gonna know where Matt could’ve gone, it’d be him.

Foggy answered the second time Frank called. He sounded annoyed and exhausted, “Hello?”

”Nelson, it’s Castle.” That seemed to wake Foggy up fast.

”What did Matt do? Is he okay?”

Frank looked around, “I was hoping you could tell me. He’s not here.”

”What the hell do you mean he’s not there??”

”I mean I woke up and he was gone. His suits are still here so I was holding you’d know where he went.” Frank responded, doing his best to calm his growing frustration. 

“He’s been acting weird since I got back today and now he’s gone-“

”Wait, weird how?” Foggy interrupted.

Frank explained how Matt had been acting since he’d arrived back at their apartment. The fidgeting, the skittishness, the evading.

He stopped when Foggy started laughing. 

“What? What the hells so funny Nelson??”

Foggy let out a sigh that made it clear despite laughing, he didn’t at all find anything funny, in fact, he sounded the kind of tired that had nothing to do with sleep, “I forgot you haven’t been around for this yet.”

”Frank blinked, “What the fuck does that mean? Around for what?”

”First time Matt acted like that was in college when he’d met Elektra for the first time. He didn’t want to tell me about her because he knew she was bad news. He’d come back to the dorms looking like shit, covered in bruises that he’d blame on uneven flooring.”

Foggy let out a sigh, clearly these weren’t memories he liked reminiscing on.

Frank felt his chest tighten, he didn’t know much about Elektra. Just that she was toxic and manipulative and the reason Matt almost died in Midland Circle.
He had no idea they’d met in college. 

“Second time was soon after we opened our firm. Those bruises started coming back and Matt started acting a lot like he did back then, and a lot like how it sounds now. Back then I thought he was hiding another abusive relationship or something, obviously now I know differently.” 

Frank rubbed his forehead with his hand, “So what’re you saying?”

”I’m saying he’s hiding something Frank. Something bad that he knows is bad and that he knows will upset you. Probably something dangerous that he feels like he has to handle alone too.” Foggy added begrudgingly.

They hung up soon after. Frank didn’t even know where to begin looking for Matt.

Lucky for him, just as he’d finished lacing his boots, his phone lit up, David was calling. 

—

Bob felt exhausted. He hadn’t stayed up like this since his last bender before he quit completely. 

He’d spent the whole night researching one person:

Matt Murdock.

And the more he did, the more he felt guilty for being so dismissive of John. 

Bob wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Matt if he’s being honest.

From an outside perspective, the guy was relatively normal.

But when he dug a little deeper, it revealed police reports, being involved with the FBI before the charges were dropped, going missing for months then popping back up out of nowhere, multiple incidents of court photos showing Matt with visible injuries.

Something was off. Really off. 

Bobs eyes burned from staring at the screen for too long but he couldn’t get himself to look away. He was so close to figuring it out.

Figuring out what, he didn’t know, but he could feel it, he just had to keep looking.

His fingers typed endlessly and the more he searched the more confused he got.

Over the years Matt had really made a name for himself, but some things just didn’t add up. 

Bob thought back to the first time he’d seen Matt. It was the security feed of him at the gala. He decided to pull the feed up again, Bob rewatched it but this time paid closer attention to Matt’s mannerisms.

For starters, Matt didn’t flinch at all when the men first arrived, at no point did he seem scared or nervous. Not even as they pulled him off the ground and threatened to shoot him first if Valentina didn’t show.

And when the gunshots started and the lights went out, Matt wasted no time leaving the room and heading back towards the main room, back towards the danger. 

The man had an uneasy calmness about him, like gunfire and potential death were everyday nuisances to him. 

Bob replayed the video two more times before he decided to back up the recording a bit. Instead of starting it right as the men broke in, Bob started it about eight minutes earlier, before Bucky and Matt had even met. 

It didn’t take long to find Matt’s signature red sunglasses in the crowd. Bob noticed quickly the man walked like he was on a mission. He traded easy comments and introductions to the other guests but his focused seemed to stay on something else. 

And after Matt, upon closer look, purposefully backed into a server carrying champagne glasses, Bob figured out what:
Bucky. 

He replayed the video again. This time Bob noticed Matt tilted his head in whatever direction Bucky was in several times. And right before he ‘accidentally’ caused a disruption, he tilted his head up towards the balcony that Bucky was on as if making sure Bucky would be close enough to hear the commotion.

Bob sat back in shock, realizing that them meeting was no accident. Matt had orchestrated everything to ensure he met Bucky. 

That got Bob thinking, this event is exclusive, why would Valentina invite a random lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen? 

The answer: she didn’t. 

Bob reviewed the guest list twice before accepting that Matt wasn’t on it, which meant that he’d broken in. 
But how?

He rewound the feed even further, starting with the main entrance but after not seeing Matt there, he decided to look at the security feeds of the side doors. 

It took a bit but after some searching Bob found him. Almost completely out of sight, Matt appeared in the alleyway outside the gala’s kitchen, bending down outside the door, Bob watched in shock and awe as Matt picked the lock with ease.

After he got inside, he moved around the kitchen perfectly. He seemed to know the layout like he’d been there a thousand times before, dodging and ducking away right before anyone noticed him.

He avoided every cook, every server, every staff member and every security guard with the kind of skill that would impress even Yelena. 

This was a lot more than what Bob was expecting. John was right but Bob doubted he realized just how right he was. 

Matt could do things a man with sight would even struggle with. It was clear that Matt had had a plan from the beginning, a mission. Whatever it was, it involved Bucky.
But what could he possibly have wanted? 

“-I’ll admit, Walker being the first one of all of you to notice something’s off wasn’t what I was expecting” 

Bob nearly fell out of his seat at the sound of a voice behind him. He whipped around, standing up and knocking the chair over in the process.

Out from the shadows, Matt stepped forward in his usual nice suit, glasses and cane. He looked unnaturally calm and was resting both of his hands on top of his cane comfortably. 

He let out a soft chuckle, “It was a little embarrassing honestly, him? Out of all of you I mean come on, weren’t like three of you spies before Avengers? And John is the one to figure out I’m hiding something…” 

“How- how did you get in here?” Bob asked dumbly, he didn’t even know where to begin.

Matt motioned to the screen, “Same way as last time. Y’know you guys really need to up your security, it’s a miracle you haven’t had more break ins.” 

 Bob could feel his brain going into overdrive to figure out how to properly process what’s happening right now.

Matt took a step forward and immediately Bob backed away, putting his hand up defensively. 

“No! Don’t- don’t come any closer-!”

Matt didn’t try to take another step, he still seemed calm, “Bob…”

“Who- who are you??”

Matt tilted his head, “You already know the answer to that, my name is Matt Murdock.” 

Bob’s heart was pounding like crazy, “Is that really your name???”

Matt let out a sigh, “I didn’t lie to you guys about my name Bob.” 

“But you lied to us about other things!” He replied, pointing at the screen, unsure if Matt really couldn’t see his hand or not,

“You targeted Bucky from the start!”

Matt nodded slowly, “‘Targeted’ is a strong word but yes-“

“Why?!” Bob interrupted, “Why?? Are you trying to hurt him? To hurt us?? Has this whole thing been apart of your plan?? Were those gunman apart of your plan?? Was any of this real-“

“Bob.” Matt said sternly, but not angrily, he noted. 

“First of all, I had nothing to do with those men. I went to the gala originally to figure out why you guys were in Hell’s Kitchen. Things kind of escalated from there when Bucky asked for my help.” 

He let out a small sigh, “And secondly, if we’re really being honest, I never lied to you guys. My personal life is really none of your business.”

He tilted his head, “Well, at least it wasn’t…”

Bob swallowed the lump forming in his throat, he took a few deep breaths until the dark spots forming on the walls around him went away, “How- I mean- How did you…do that-“

He motioned towards the video feed again, “Wait- you are blind right?” 

Matt let out another sigh, “Yes, I am blind.” He took a small step forward, pointedly keeping his hands visible and not making any movements too quickly,

“And look, I’d love to talk more in depth about how I so easily infiltrated the tower but that’s not why I’m here, can we sit?” He gestured to the chairs at the desk. 

Bob glanced at them, then back at Matt skeptically,

“I don’t bite Bob.” Matt said softly, he walked slowly over to one of the chairs and pulled it back away from Bob. Purposefully putting space between the two of them. 

“Why are you here?” Bob said as he slowly sat in his own seat. 

Matt casually folded up his cane the same way Bob had seen him do dozens of times before.

Only now it seemed so off, the same man who used that cane could also break into buildings, sneak around areas without being seen by anyone, lie and spy on Avengers (mostly) without being detected. 

“Valentina. She’s been keeping things from you.”

Bob blinked, then laughed quietly, “When is she not? It’s Valentina.” 

Matt shook his head, “This is more than that Bob. Bigger than that. She’s more involved in what the team is doing than you realize and now she’s roped me into it too.”

He leaned forward, Bob could’ve sworn if the glasses were off, he’d be looking at him directly in the eyes, “And it all involves you.” 

Bob felt himself wanting to shrink away. He brought his knees up to his chest, feeling the same way he did when he’d woken up to Valentina at his bedside all those months ago, 

“what did she do to me now?” Bob asked in a small voice. 

Matt pursed his lips and Bob knew his words were on point, “According to her, your body is having trouble keeping up with your powers. Your abilities are putting too much stress on your body and-“

Matt hesitated, “-it’s causing your body to shut down.” 

Bob thought for a moment, feeling his heart skip a beat, as it clicked in his head what Matt was really telling him,

 “I’m dying.” Not a question. It felt weird to say out loud. 

It’s not the first time he’s said those words.

He’d been addicted to more drugs than he could remember, it’s not like those things were exactly good for him.

The amount of times he’d woken up in a place he didn’t recognize, not even knowing what day it was feeling like he’d escaped death purely by accident- 

Those words are familiar. Those words used to be normal for someone like him. A druggie, an addict. 

But- he’s not those things anymore. He’s better now. He’s good now. He doesn’t hurt people anymore, at least, not on purpose.

So those words, while not foreign, hurt more than he’d expected. 

Now? He’s really dying now? Just when he’s actually starting to get better? The thing that made him better is killing him now too? 

“That’s not fair-“ he didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it was the only thing he could think to say. 

Matt shook his head, “No. It’s not.” 

“But Valentina claims she knows how to save you.”

Bob blinked, “You don’t believe her?” He guessed based off his tone. 

Matt hesitated, “I’m not sure. Usually I can tell when people are lying but some things aren’t adding up. I don’t really know what to believe.”

Bob nodded slowly, “So- why are you telling me this?”

“Because Valentina wants the super soldier serum. That’s why the team has been going after it so much, not that they know that. She told me to get it to her by tonight.”

Bob thought for a moment, “She wants the serum? But we don’t have it? Yelena said Frank and Daredevil do-“ he stopped.

Bob looked at Matt, really looked at him. He thought back to the security feed, the unsettling calmness Matt had. The ‘dangerous’ vibe John had seemed to get from him since day one. 

“Wait-“

Matt nodded, from his suit jacket, he pulled out a flash drive, “This is a copy of the flash drive I stole from Agent and Viktor. The other drive I already gave to Valentina.” 

Bobs eyes widened in surprise, “you already gave her the drive? Why?! You just said you don’t know if she’s actually telling the truth or not??”

A small, sad smile crossed Matt’s face, “I had too Bob. If there’s even a chance she’s telling the truth and this is the key to saving you I need to take it. That and- she has a few dangerous connections, she’s threatened to kill Frank already if I don’t do as she says and I can’t risk her hurting anyone I care about.” 

It made Bob a little sad to see how much this was clearly hurting Matt.
Valentina was using his like a puppet, the same way she had already done with all of them and in all honesty, the same way she still is.

It hurt to see Matt falling into the same trap they all did, knowing there’s nothing Bon could do to help him now. 

Valentina is a lot of things, but someone who lets go when she finds something, or someone, she wants, is not one of them.