"In retrospect," Foggy says with a sigh, "I should have known something weird was up the second we found an actual paying client." Considering that he can hear the frantic hammering of Foggy's heart beneath the faux-relaxed tone of voice, and also that someone's holding a gun to his head, Matt can only offer a half smirk at the joke.
'Something weird', in this case, meant a casual visit to their client's workplace leading to Matt sensing far too many raised heartbeats for a supposedly innocuous paper company, which then lead to him not-so-casually eavesdropping on several suspicious conversations, which then lead to the discovery that said innocuous paper company was actually the front for a Hydra base. And of course when they'd tried to leave as unobstrusively as possible, their collective stammering and stuttering set off enough alarms to get them both dragged to the roof of the building at gunpoint, because evidently all of Foggy's and Matt's individual and rather impressive skills at lying go down the drain when they're forced to do it together. When they get out of this, Matt is signing them both up for acting classes.
At the moment, however, he's more preoccupied with figuring how to get them both out of here alive. There's only three Hydra soldiers up here with them - presumably, they didn't think they'd need any more to deal with a couple of small-name lawyers - but while Matt's gone up against far worse odds before, he's never had to do it with Foggy's life at stake before. And they're being smart about it too; Hydra Asshole #3 has Foggy all the way out to the edge of the rooftop while Assholes #1 and #2 have Matt trapped firmly between them on the opposite edge with an iron grip on each of his arms. Not that it'd be difficult breaking out of their grip (and also their bones), but he can hear the steady breathing of professionals at work here. These weren't the kind of thugs who'd start firing randomly at the first sign of trouble. By the time he takes out the two next to him and makes it across to the third, Hydra Asshole #3 might have already put a bullet into Foggy's head. Which -- no. There were some things that even the devil didn't dare risk. Better to wait for a distraction, for them to let down their guards just enough to get Foggy to safety first.
"Listen, you don't want to do anything rash here," Foggy is saying as Matt tunes back into the conversation. "We're lawyers, all right? You think people don't know where we are right now? We turn up dead, the first thing the cops are going to look into is the case we were working on, and that'll lead them straight back here where they'll bust your little hideout anyway." His voice goes wheedling as his heartbeat rachets up into the cadence of lie lie lie. "Look man, I don't even care about our client, I'm just in this for the money, and trust me when I say the amount we're getting paid is not worth dying over. You let us go, we'll make the entire case go away and keep our mouths shut about everything that's happening here, I swear," and if this were under completely different circumstances, Matt might actually be a little turned on right now by Foggy's ability to bluff with absolutely no cards in his hand.
Still, it says Nelson and Murdock on their sign for a reason, he's not about to let Foggy do all the work here. Matt clears his throat. "What my partner said. I can even sweeten the pot as - as a sign we're dealing in good faith. There's a USB drive in my suit pocket full of confidential information on this case that'll be invaluable in helping you track down any other leaks you might have. You can fish it out for yourself if you want, I won't move an inch." It's a lie, of course - there's no such drive and the most they'll find in his pocket is a handful of lint - but all he needs is for Hydra Asshole #3 to come a little closer into kicking distance, or for either of Hydra Assholes #1 and #2 to loosen their grip just enough that he can lunge across the gap between him and Foggy. He holds his breath as they think it over, muscles tense and poised to react at the slightest shift in movement.
"Hmm...I think not," Hydra Asshole #3 finally says. "I'd rather have a guarantee that neither of you will be able to ever reveal anything at all." He thrusts out his arm and there's a shocked inhale before the sound of rushing wind currents like something plummeting through the air --
-- like Foggy plummeting through the air because he's just been pushed off the roof --
-- the roof of a fifty-story tall building --
Matt can't remember what excatly happens in the next few moments, just a blur of sound and movement. The sharp crack of gunfire. The crunch of bones breaking beneath his hand. The smell of blood. And throughout it all, a horrible screaming, broken and raw, like the sound of something dying. He only comes back to himself after all three Hydra Assholes are down, rushing to the edge where Foggy had been and staring down as if his sight would miraculously come back just in time to see the cor - to see him hanging from a window ledge or danging from a fire escape, because the only other option is no option at all. He hadn't heard the meaty thud of a body impacting with the ground, so Foggy must still be alive. And since he's still alive, it's Matt's job to make sure he stays that way, even if it means scaling down all fifty stories himself. He can manage it somehow, and if Foggy is -- if he's -- he can manage it. There's no other choice. He crouches by the edge, palms gripping the corner of the roof, ready to leap --
"Matt, what the hell," a voice cuts through the buzzing in his head, followed by a different one drawling, "Fair warning, Murdock, I've already reached my rescue quota of the day so you're on your own if you're crazy enough to jump." Somehow through the blood rushing through his ears, the haze clears enough for him to finally notices the unique roar of a jetpack, the smell of smoke, the clink of steel feathers shifting against each other. Falcon. And overpowering even that, the thud of a heartbeat as familiar as his own above him and a body being gently set down onto the ground.
"Foggy," he manages to choke out, his throat raw and aching for some reason. He stumbles a few steps forward, gripping the other man's arms so tightly that he can feel them trembling beneath his palms- or maybe that's his own hands trembling. "You - are you all right?"
"I should be asking you that," Foggy says, a note of hysteria in his voice. "Are you all right in the head or were you seriously planning on jumping after me like - like a Shakespearian tragedy or some shit--"
"I was thinking more like Superman," Matt mumbles and feels Foggy shake with suppressed laughter. The heady cocktail of adrenaline and relief is still singing through his veins, and all of a sudden he wants - he wants - he wants to run his hands over every inch of Foggy's body to make sure he's still there, he wants to wrap himself around it like an anchor and never let go, he wants to drag Foggy into a corner and cover him with his own body so he'll be safe and protected and no one will ever touch him again--
It's only a pointed cough behind him and the reminder that they have an audience here that prevents Matt from doing something truly regrettable on that rooftop. By some miracle, he manages to unlatch his fingers from Foggy's arms and turn around. "Falcon," he says, trying to imbue his voice with the cool confidence of a man who was not about two seconds away from breaking down into tears over his best friend's shoulder. "I owe you one."
"Seriously dude," Foggy adds fervently. "You ever need someone to defend you in court, it's on the house."
"Nah, don't worry about it," Sam says easily. "Foggy Nelson, right? I've heard a lot about you from DD over here. You do good work. I don't mind swooping in to save a guy like that when I can. It's one of the perks of the job, actually."
"Deedee?" repeats Foggy with a note of glee while Matt sends his deadliest glare in Sam's general direction, because even undying gratitude can only excuse so much.
If Sam notices the glare, he ignores it cheerfully as he bends down to inspect the fallen Hydra soldiers. "Hell of a job you did on these three. They still alive?" He keep his tone light and casual, with only the sudden increase in heartbeat belying the loaded meaning behind the question. Behind him, Foggy tenses and Matt tries to quash the sudden hurt that rises up within him. It's not like he'd been paying that much attention in making sure his blows were non-lethal. Something else to add to this week's confession.
"They're still alive," he says shortly and pretends it's relief and not bitterness that's bleeding through his voice.
"Cool. Cap and Widow are already on the way." Sam rolls his shoulders back as his wings snap open, metal singing through the air. "I can give you two a ride back down, then I'll go join them clearing out the rest of the base."
"Hang on," Matt protests. "This is my city, I'm coming with you--"
"Uh, unless you're hiding your uniform under that three-piece suit there, I think people might be a little confused as to why a blind civilian lawyer is in there kicking names and taking ass with us," Sam says pointedly. "Besides, we might be in Hell's Kitchen right now, but Hydra's still our territory."
Matt grits his teeth but swallows his retort, knowing he was right. Still, it rankled, partly because the three of them had a tendency to leave a trail of corpses in their wake - and while he's not about to mourn the loss of a few dozen Nazis too much, the principle of the thing still matters. And partly because - well, because Matt is well aware he's not a perfect person and has a list of sins a mile long, and topping that list right underneath wrath is pride. As grateful as he is to Falcon for saving Foggy's life, his stomach twists and burns at the reminder that he'd been completely powerless, that he'd needed someone else to rescue his own best friend, that even now he still can't do anything to prove himself and make up for his failure. Sam must notice his grimace, because he adds "I'll tell them to leave as many alive as possible so the two of you can have someone left to sue."
"Awesome," Foggy cheers. "I knew there was a reason why you've always been my favorite Avenger. Beyond the hotness factor, that is."
There's the frozen silence of three people trying to process whether those words really came out of someone's mouth before Foggy starts frantically backpedaling. "Uh, I-I mean, you must have mad game with all the ladies you rescue," and whoa, what the hell, Matt thought panicked reassurances of heterosexuality right after horrifically awkward assessments of a person's attractiveness was supposed to be their thing. He's so caught up in his indignation over their first meeting being used as a line that he almost misses Sam breaking out into delighted laughter.
"I do all right with the ladies, but right now I'm more interested if my game works on cute lawyer boys too," he says, his voice playful and amused, and that's when Matt's day goes from bad to worse.
i got those jetpack blues 1/?
'Something weird', in this case, meant a casual visit to their client's workplace leading to Matt sensing far too many raised heartbeats for a supposedly innocuous paper company, which then lead to him not-so-casually eavesdropping on several suspicious conversations, which then lead to the discovery that said innocuous paper company was actually the front for a Hydra base. And of course when they'd tried to leave as unobstrusively as possible, their collective stammering and stuttering set off enough alarms to get them both dragged to the roof of the building at gunpoint, because evidently all of Foggy's and Matt's individual and rather impressive skills at lying go down the drain when they're forced to do it together. When they get out of this, Matt is signing them both up for acting classes.
At the moment, however, he's more preoccupied with figuring how to get them both out of here alive. There's only three Hydra soldiers up here with them - presumably, they didn't think they'd need any more to deal with a couple of small-name lawyers - but while Matt's gone up against far worse odds before, he's never had to do it with Foggy's life at stake before. And they're being smart about it too; Hydra Asshole #3 has Foggy all the way out to the edge of the rooftop while Assholes #1 and #2 have Matt trapped firmly between them on the opposite edge with an iron grip on each of his arms. Not that it'd be difficult breaking out of their grip (and also their bones), but he can hear the steady breathing of professionals at work here. These weren't the kind of thugs who'd start firing randomly at the first sign of trouble. By the time he takes out the two next to him and makes it across to the third, Hydra Asshole #3 might have already put a bullet into Foggy's head. Which -- no. There were some things that even the devil didn't dare risk. Better to wait for a distraction, for them to let down their guards just enough to get Foggy to safety first.
"Listen, you don't want to do anything rash here," Foggy is saying as Matt tunes back into the conversation. "We're lawyers, all right? You think people don't know where we are right now? We turn up dead, the first thing the cops are going to look into is the case we were working on, and that'll lead them straight back here where they'll bust your little hideout anyway." His voice goes wheedling as his heartbeat rachets up into the cadence of lie lie lie. "Look man, I don't even care about our client, I'm just in this for the money, and trust me when I say the amount we're getting paid is not worth dying over. You let us go, we'll make the entire case go away and keep our mouths shut about everything that's happening here, I swear," and if this were under completely different circumstances, Matt might actually be a little turned on right now by Foggy's ability to bluff with absolutely no cards in his hand.
Still, it says Nelson and Murdock on their sign for a reason, he's not about to let Foggy do all the work here. Matt clears his throat. "What my partner said. I can even sweeten the pot as - as a sign we're dealing in good faith. There's a USB drive in my suit pocket full of confidential information on this case that'll be invaluable in helping you track down any other leaks you might have. You can fish it out for yourself if you want, I won't move an inch." It's a lie, of course - there's no such drive and the most they'll find in his pocket is a handful of lint - but all he needs is for Hydra Asshole #3 to come a little closer into kicking distance, or for either of Hydra Assholes #1 and #2 to loosen their grip just enough that he can lunge across the gap between him and Foggy. He holds his breath as they think it over, muscles tense and poised to react at the slightest shift in movement.
"Hmm...I think not," Hydra Asshole #3 finally says. "I'd rather have a guarantee that neither of you will be able to ever reveal anything at all." He thrusts out his arm and there's a shocked inhale before the sound of rushing wind currents like something plummeting through the air --
-- like Foggy plummeting through the air because he's just been pushed off the roof --
-- the roof of a fifty-story tall building --
Matt can't remember what excatly happens in the next few moments, just a blur of sound and movement. The sharp crack of gunfire. The crunch of bones breaking beneath his hand. The smell of blood. And throughout it all, a horrible screaming, broken and raw, like the sound of something dying. He only comes back to himself after all three Hydra Assholes are down, rushing to the edge where Foggy had been and staring down as if his sight would miraculously come back just in time to see the cor - to see him hanging from a window ledge or danging from a fire escape, because the only other option is no option at all. He hadn't heard the meaty thud of a body impacting with the ground, so Foggy must still be alive. And since he's still alive, it's Matt's job to make sure he stays that way, even if it means scaling down all fifty stories himself. He can manage it somehow, and if Foggy is -- if he's -- he can manage it. There's no other choice. He crouches by the edge, palms gripping the corner of the roof, ready to leap --
"Matt, what the hell," a voice cuts through the buzzing in his head, followed by a different one drawling, "Fair warning, Murdock, I've already reached my rescue quota of the day so you're on your own if you're crazy enough to jump." Somehow through the blood rushing through his ears, the haze clears enough for him to finally notices the unique roar of a jetpack, the smell of smoke, the clink of steel feathers shifting against each other. Falcon. And overpowering even that, the thud of a heartbeat as familiar as his own above him and a body being gently set down onto the ground.
"Foggy," he manages to choke out, his throat raw and aching for some reason. He stumbles a few steps forward, gripping the other man's arms so tightly that he can feel them trembling beneath his palms- or maybe that's his own hands trembling. "You - are you all right?"
"I should be asking you that," Foggy says, a note of hysteria in his voice. "Are you all right in the head or were you seriously planning on jumping after me like - like a Shakespearian tragedy or some shit--"
"I was thinking more like Superman," Matt mumbles and feels Foggy shake with suppressed laughter. The heady cocktail of adrenaline and relief is still singing through his veins, and all of a sudden he wants - he wants - he wants to run his hands over every inch of Foggy's body to make sure he's still there, he wants to wrap himself around it like an anchor and never let go, he wants to drag Foggy into a corner and cover him with his own body so he'll be safe and protected and no one will ever touch him again--
It's only a pointed cough behind him and the reminder that they have an audience here that prevents Matt from doing something truly regrettable on that rooftop. By some miracle, he manages to unlatch his fingers from Foggy's arms and turn around. "Falcon," he says, trying to imbue his voice with the cool confidence of a man who was not about two seconds away from breaking down into tears over his best friend's shoulder. "I owe you one."
"Seriously dude," Foggy adds fervently. "You ever need someone to defend you in court, it's on the house."
"Nah, don't worry about it," Sam says easily. "Foggy Nelson, right? I've heard a lot about you from DD over here. You do good work. I don't mind swooping in to save a guy like that when I can. It's one of the perks of the job, actually."
"Deedee?" repeats Foggy with a note of glee while Matt sends his deadliest glare in Sam's general direction, because even undying gratitude can only excuse so much.
If Sam notices the glare, he ignores it cheerfully as he bends down to inspect the fallen Hydra soldiers. "Hell of a job you did on these three. They still alive?" He keep his tone light and casual, with only the sudden increase in heartbeat belying the loaded meaning behind the question. Behind him, Foggy tenses and Matt tries to quash the sudden hurt that rises up within him. It's not like he'd been paying that much attention in making sure his blows were non-lethal. Something else to add to this week's confession.
"They're still alive," he says shortly and pretends it's relief and not bitterness that's bleeding through his voice.
"Cool. Cap and Widow are already on the way." Sam rolls his shoulders back as his wings snap open, metal singing through the air. "I can give you two a ride back down, then I'll go join them clearing out the rest of the base."
"Hang on," Matt protests. "This is my city, I'm coming with you--"
"Uh, unless you're hiding your uniform under that three-piece suit there, I think people might be a little confused as to why a blind civilian lawyer is in there kicking names and taking ass with us," Sam says pointedly. "Besides, we might be in Hell's Kitchen right now, but Hydra's still our territory."
Matt grits his teeth but swallows his retort, knowing he was right. Still, it rankled, partly because the three of them had a tendency to leave a trail of corpses in their wake - and while he's not about to mourn the loss of a few dozen Nazis too much, the principle of the thing still matters. And partly because - well, because Matt is well aware he's not a perfect person and has a list of sins a mile long, and topping that list right underneath wrath is pride. As grateful as he is to Falcon for saving Foggy's life, his stomach twists and burns at the reminder that he'd been completely powerless, that he'd needed someone else to rescue his own best friend, that even now he still can't do anything to prove himself and make up for his failure. Sam must notice his grimace, because he adds "I'll tell them to leave as many alive as possible so the two of you can have someone left to sue."
"Awesome," Foggy cheers. "I knew there was a reason why you've always been my favorite Avenger. Beyond the hotness factor, that is."
There's the frozen silence of three people trying to process whether those words really came out of someone's mouth before Foggy starts frantically backpedaling. "Uh, I-I mean, you must have mad game with all the ladies you rescue," and whoa, what the hell, Matt thought panicked reassurances of heterosexuality right after horrifically awkward assessments of a person's attractiveness was supposed to be their thing. He's so caught up in his indignation over their first meeting being used as a line that he almost misses Sam breaking out into delighted laughter.
"I do all right with the ladies, but right now I'm more interested if my game works on cute lawyer boys too," he says, his voice playful and amused, and that's when Matt's day goes from bad to worse.