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daredevilkink2016-04-21 06:34 pm
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Daredevil Prompt Post #11
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Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 22b
(Anonymous) 2018-05-18 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)It isn’t long before he travels again. Things have been so quiet for so long now, he’d almost forgotten what it was like to have his life interrupted like this. It’s frustrating, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. This is his life, after all.
He is surprised when he realizes he’s ended up behind the bushes not far from where he and Foggy shared a dorm room all those years ago.
It’s funny being back here now. He knows it was a long time ago, and he can feel the weight of the intervening years on his body and in his soul, but it feels fresh in his memory still. He almost can’t believe how long it’s been.
He’s changed so much since he was that awkward college kid; he’s grown so much that he suspects he’s a completely different person now.
No, not a different person. Just someone who has grown more into himself. He’s probably still not there yet; probably still has a lot of growing left to do.
He doesn’t really know.
What he does know is how desperately he needs to find cover and get out of the pouring rain.
He tries warming himself by vigorously rubbing his arms and hands, and thinks back to his time here. He’s pretty sure there was a window somewhere nearby that he’d used to use to slip into the building; it leads into one of the administration offices, if he remembered correctly. Then from there he would only have a few hallways and a flight of stairs to contend with.
Sure enough, when he gets to the window, he finds it open a crack, and he’s able to pry it open without much effort. He lands on his injured foot wrong, it bends and rolls awkwardly and his already swollen ankle screams in protest.
He swears under his breath and pushes aside the brief explosion of pain to take in his surroundings. No suspiciously convenient bags of clothes left lying around for him this time around. Which is probably for the best. That’s a puzzle he still hasn’t managed to crack.
Once he’s out in the hallway, he keeps low to the wall, ducking into doorways and hiding around corners whenever he hears anyone approaching.
Thankfully he’s gotten pretty good at being stealthy in his old age, and he makes it to his former dorm room without incident. Well, without much incident. He does manage step wrong on his injured foot, and he ends up colliding into the wall outside the dorm room with a loud thud. Great. Now they both know he’s out here. He steels himself for the mess he’s about to step in and slowly opens the door. It creaks on its hinges and Foggy, feeling put out by the intrusion says, “hey, pal. You’ve got the wrong,” and he trails off when he takes in the full view of a soaking wet Matt slamming the door behind him and pressing his body firmly against it. “Room,” he finishes helplessly.
Matt probably looks like a drown rat, and his ankle is throbbing, and his present self is holding a folded set of clothes out for him.
“I am so sorry,” Matt says as he grabs the proffered clothing, because he would have avoided this whole thing if he could have. But. He pulls the shirt down over his head, and it sticks uncomfortably to his wet body. “I’m cold and wet and--” he’s about to mention his swollen ankle too, when present Matt interrupts him.
“Let me guess. Behind the bushes?”
“Yeah,” he says with a huff through the nose. “Every damn time.”
“What the hell was in that beer,” Foggy mutters. He shakes the empty can around in his hand as if he’ll find the answer floating around in there. Poor Foggy. He sounds absolutely shell shocked.
“You aren’t hallucinating,” Matt says. He’s trying to shimmy into a pair of his old jeans, but he’s having a tough time of it; they bunch up at the thighs and when he finally does manage to pull them over his hips, he can’t seem to zip up the fly. He makes a face because he loved these jeans when he was in school. He practically lived in them. Now it seems he’s outgrown them.
“So how should we do this,” Present Matt says, just as Foggy’s freaking out about the fact that the two Matts sound exactly the same.
“You can do it next time,” he deadpans, slapping his younger self on the arm. You know, when you’re me.
Foggy lets himself fall onto his bed and very slowly says, “you never told me you had a brother.” He’s so desperate for a rational explanation for all this, and Matt feels like a complete asshole. He remembers how hard this was on Foggy. How scared Foggy was of him.
Even recently Foggy had referred to this moment as ‘weird and traumatic.’ Clearly the memory of seeing Matt vanish into thin air that first time never really left him.
His younger self is curled in over himself, bracing himself against the pain right before he travels. It’s gotten better as he’s gotten older, easier. The pain less intense, but he still vividly remembers how awful this was.
“Jesus, now?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” And he really, truly is.
Present Matt is writhing on the floor, trying to hold it together. He’s just making it worse for himself, but he knows he won’t listen to anything he has to say. Matt was a stubborn asshole back then. Still is, if he’s honest with himself.
He isn’t just making it worse for himself, he’s making it worse for Foggy, too. He’s panicking badly and screaming Matt’s name. Over and over and over.
“What the fuck is happening! Matt! Maaaatt!!”
“I am not going anywhere, Foggy, you have to believe me. Just. Let me explain everything, okay? Will you let me do that?” And he’s groaning and sobbing from the pain of it, and Matt wants to say to him, ‘stop talking, you idiot. Just let go. It’s going to be fine.’
“Oh my God, Matt!!” And Foggy’s crying, and both Matts are crying, and then there’s a loud sucking noise like all the air has been let out of the room. A person-shaped arrangement of clothes lies perfectly flat against the floor, as if Matt’s body had been beamed right out of them by some unknown alien force.
Foggy’s down on the carpet in an instant, gathering up Matt’s clothes and holding them tight against his body. “What the fuck did you do to him!”
Foggy radiates nothing but pure anger and fear and overwhelming grief. He jerks his arm back and chucks the clothes at Matt like an angry, pointed accusation. Matt doesn’t try to catch them or otherwise move out of the way. He just stands there, letting them hit him square in the chest. Like an admission of guilt. They slide gracelessly off his body and pool loosely at his bare feet. Matt takes a small step forward, and now both he and the pile of clothes inhabit the space his younger self had just vacated.
Matt puts his hands up, placating. “Foggy,” he tries.
“NO!” Foggy shouts. His voice breaks and his face is worryingly warm and he’s crying so hard he’s hiccuping after every word. “Don’t you dare come near me! You. You killed my friend!”
In another context this might even be funny.
“I didn’t--” He pauses so he can take in a deep breath. So he can ground himself.
“Listen, Foggy. I know watching that was…” he can’t help the sad smile that forms at his lips. “Upsetting. You’ve told me it was, and I didn’t take you seriously enough. I am really sorry for that.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Never mind. Don’t worry about it, I--”
“What happened to Matt?” Foggy’s gulping in breaths again, but at least he’s trying to calm himself. Trying to make sense of the weirdness happening right now in his dorm room.
“I’m. I’m uh. I’m right here. I’m not trying to be funny with you, Foggy. You really did watch me vanish, but. I’m… also here.”
Foggy’s quiet for a long time, but his heart beat is steady, and his breathing has mostly evened out. He’s coming around, Matt thinks.
“You’re staring at me right now, aren’t you.”
“You’re blind,” Foggy blurts out, like he’s just now realizing it.
And Matt can’t help but to laugh at that. “The lack of eye contact gives it away. Or so I’ve been told.”
“You’re really Matt?” Foggy says, just as Matt’s saying, “I’m going to sit down now. My bed’s still over there, right?” He gestures toward his old bed, knowing perfectly well how it’s situated within the room. Though it seems smaller than he remembers. Everything in here does. Not only that, but the walls and the furniture and everything inside the room feels pressed closer together than he would have guessed if he had to go by memory alone. “It has been a long time since I’ve been here.” He feels his way over to his old bed, and Foggy takes that as his cue to do the same.
Foggy feels very far away; there is a wide gulf between the two them, between the two beds.
“So,” he starts. His legs hang over the edge of the bed, and he’s leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’m a time traveler? I’m from... the future. I know that sounds dramatic, and kind of ridiculous, but it’s also the truth.”
Foggy’s breathing goes shallow and panicky again. Tripping all over his words, he says, “Holy shit. Holy shit. The fu-- For real? So Matt is… he really is--? And I just witnessed a paradox?! Because the same atoms can’t exist in the same space at the same time, or whatever, so that’s what caused him to--!”
“No, no,” Matt interrupts. “Foggy, breath. It’s nothing like that, okay? I didn’t… I didn’t annihilate myself. If it worked that way, I would think both versions of me would have been destroyed, don’t you think?”
“Oh my God, that can happen?”
“I don’t think it can? I’ve never actually given it that much thought.”
“You don’t know?”
He shrugs, his shoulders going high around his ears. “I’m a lawyer, Fog, not a theoretical physicist.”
Foggy barks out a high, deranged sounding laugh at that. Like he thinks he’s losing his mind.
“Wait, you actually are a--. No, never mind that. We need to talk about what the hell happened to Matt. I mean, you touched him. You touched him, Dude-Who-Looks-Like-a-Slightly-Older-Matt. Then he was writhing in agony on the friggen floor and then he just evaporated right in front of me!”
“Yeah, but. It’s not because I touched…” Matt coughs. He’s trying not to confuse Foggy with here with his usual pronoun usage. “I can exist in the same space more than once. And I do have my own thoughts on how that’s possible, but. That’s a conversation for another time.
“Just. I am real sorry it played out this way, Foggy. I really am, but it was just… it was just spectacularly bad timing. A coincidence. That’s all.”
“‘Bad timing’? I’m supposed to believe that?”
He wants to throw his hands up and say ‘believe what you want. I don’t care.’ But that wouldn’t be very helpful here. He needs to tread carefully; he has to remind himself that while Foggy is listening calmly as Matt explains the weirdness of the situation, he is still upset. And scared about what might have happened to his friend. His well being. Matt just needs to get through this delicate situation by stepping on as few landmines as he can possibly manage.
“I can tell you about where I went,” he says, gesturing at the pile of clothes on the floor. “If you want.”
“You can do that? That’s not gonna… do anything bad?”
“You watch too many movies, Fog.”
“Hey.”
“No, It’s fine. I can. I tell you stuff all the time, actually.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You know how I told you I’m a lawyer? Well, we both are actually, and we--”
“No, stop!” Foggy says. He sounds panicky suddenly. Scared of what Matt might reveal. “I actually don’t want to know.”
“Okay,” he says. “Yeah, no I get it. That’s… Yeah.” He stands and says, “are my glasses still on the floor?”
“Uh. yeah. Hold a sec.” Foggy goes over to Matt’s pile of clothes and picks up the pair of glasses left behind there. He hesitates before bringing them over to Matt.
“Here you go,” he says, placing them in Matt’s palm. He had grabbed Matt’s wrist before setting them there, and the significance of that is not lost on him.
“Thanks, Fog,” he says as he slips them on. “I’m just. I’m gonna go and get out of your hair.”
“You’re really gonna take Matt’s glasses?”
“Well, they are mine.” He pats at the nightstand next to his bed. Grabs his wallet. Leaves the phone where it is.
“I’m not sure that isn’t theft,” Foggy says.
“Can’t steal from yourself,” he says. Then he walks over to the door to collect his cane. “Right where I left it,” he deadpans.
“Hey, dude,” Foggy says as Matt opens the door. He huffs out a small laugh because Foggy still can’t bring himself to call him by his name. “If you really are Matt, then how did you get so shredded?”
He really does laugh at that. “I’ll talk to you soon, Fog.” And shuts the door behind him.
After that, he decides to head to the library. Maybe if it isn’t too busy, he can put his head down for a little while before he’s sent back to the present.
A young woman behind the check-out desk greets him with a warm hello. Then apologetically she says, “I know you requested a couple books in Braille, but they aren't in yet. Sorry.”
“Oh. No, that’s okay. I'm not looking for them today. Um, maybe you can tell me if there are any seats available?”
“Yeah, of course. There’s a row of empty carrels along the wall to your left. About ten o’clock?”
“Great,” he says. “Thanks.”
He finds a spot easily enough, and folds up his cane before setting it on the table. He pulls the chair out, and the front legs drag something across the thin carpet. He reaches down to the floor and is surprised when his hand lands on soft, cool fabric. He lifts it up to his nose. He doesn’t recognize the perfume, which light and fragrant. It’s a woman’s blouse. Under the desk he also finds a long silk skirt and a pair of high heels. He doesn’t know anything about women’s clothing, but if he had to guess, he would say these were expensive, fashionable pieces. They feel well made and of high-quality material. The shoes especially. They feel stiff. Brand new. Worn once or twice, but no more than that.
Why would anyone…
This is a quiet part of the library, and what other students get up to is none of his business. He gathers up the clothes and heads back to the front desk.
“Lost and Found,” he says to the woman still at the desk.
“Oh,” she says. “A whole outfit. Okay.” Then she’s writing something down on an index card. Probably cataloging the items. “You found these all together?” He nods, so she starts placing the clothes into a stiff paper grocery bag.
Surprised, Matt asks, “what’s with the bag? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“To prevent the spread of bedbugs,” she says with a shrug. “Apparently there was a big outbreak a few years ago, so now we keep any Lost and Found items in bags instead of leaving them all piled in a box somewhere. Makes sense, I guess.”
“Yeah,” he says absently. Then to the woman, “thanks.”
“Sure, no problem,” she says at Matt makes his way back to his carrel, where he rests his head until he gets brought back home.
*
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 23a
(Anonymous) 2018-11-25 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)Matt blinks back into the present late at night and only feet away from his building’s front door.
“God,” he mutters, because his muscles are all still tight and achy, and his stomach feels vaguely queasy. “Blah,” he says, tongue unfurling from his mouth, but thankfully the queasiness passes. At least he won’t be puking his guts out all over the sidewalk.
Anyway, he desperately needs to get inside. Briefly, he considers buzzing up one of his neighbors; Fran in the apartment across from his, maybe. But. It’s late, and the last thing he wants to do is to wake anyone up. Actually, the very last thing he wants to do is to have to explain to another person how he managed to lock himself out while completely naked.
On the street behind him, a car horn blares, loud and aggressive, and he would really rather not have the cops called on him, thank you very much. No matter how well he’d be able to lawyer his way out of it.
He slinks around toward the back of the building, stands underneath the fire escape, and flows into a half-assed stretching routine. He needs to loosen those tired, achy muscles, get his blood flowing again.
He’s still stiff, and a little sore, but he reaches for the lowest rung and hauls himself up with ease. He swings his body up the ladder, legs first, and uses his body’s momentum to carry him to the rooftop above. He moves like an Olympic diver, only in reverse. And he doesn’t make a sound.
Once on the roof, Matt casually hops up on the ledge, stands, and lets his bare toes hang loosely over the lip of the building. Casts his focus out wide, sends it across every seedy street corner and every dark alley below. Breathes in and just lets the city wash over him.
He should probably head inside and get dressed, and he will, eventually, but for now he just wants to stand here and let the weight of his city press itself against his cool, bare skin while he thinks about the last time he stood up here.
It was only a couple of nights ago, but that doesn’t feel right to him for some reason, like much more time had passed than that. Probably just that ol’ temporal jet lag wreaking havoc with his internal clock again.
Karen had mentioned spotting him a few nights ago dashing across the city skyline, and he suspects the two of them have the same night in mind: Matt had some asshole pressed against a grimy brick wall, while said asshole begged and pleaded for the punches to stop, please, dear God just stop punching, at least spare him his teeth, please, Jesus God.
Of course, Matt wasn’t very interested in stopping. Instead, he kept at it until the guy was ready to spill his guts.
Matt loosened his grip enough to give the guy enough room to breathe.
The guy reminded Matt about the human trafficking ring he busted up on his first real night out, then said, “They’re gunning for you, man. Really fucked things up for them interfering in their shit like that.”
Matt clocked him in the mouth once more for good measure.
Guy spat blood at him. “You poor bastard. You really have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, do you? Jesus, what a dumb fuck,” and Matt loaded up another fist. He held it back, though, arm trembling from the restraint. The guy might have been pissing him off, but Matt did have to admire the balls it took to give that much lip to the guy turning your face into so much ground chuck.
So Matt got in the guy’s face, horrible breath be damned, and placidly said, “Tell me.”
Like Matt was someone the guy could trust, like Matt was his new best friend.
“Look. You don’t get to piss off the Russian mob and go home safe and sound afterward, all right?” And with that, Matt released his grip. The guy collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap, and Matt simply walked away from the whole thing.
Whatever. He couldn’t say he put a whole lot of stock in the words of some low life asshole who just wanted to keep his face in one piece.
And as Matt predicted, he hadn’t heard so much as a peep from these alleged Russian boogeymen. So he went on with his life, topsy-turvy as it is.
He’s still standing on his building’s roof bare-assed to the world, so he heads inside and considers his next step.
He really wants to grab a shower. Maybe put in some meditation time; catch up on sleep.
But he also thinks he should probably go and use his time to do something a little more productive than that.
So he stalks across his living room, opens his steamer trunk, and slips into the night.
Back on the roof, Matt perches himself over the city like a sentinel. He stands and waits and listens for where he’s needed, and his fists curl tight when he finally hears the desperate cry of a child as he’s ripped from his father’s arms and dumped in the back of some van. For good measure, the kidnappers beat the ever-loving shit out of the kid’s dad before peeling off; Matt can hear every one of his cries, he can feel them in his bones.
He doesn’t know how much time passes; the night flies past him in a haze of blood and fists and one nameless asshole after another, and by the end of it he’s angry and frustrated because nothing he does is getting him anywhere.
He’s just uselessly bashing heads against the wall—his own included—and he’s screaming impotently into the night before he gives up and slinks back home.
In his living room he stands with his shoulders heavy and hunched forward, arms limp at his sides, with his mask dripping loosely from his fingertips. The weight of his failure presses hard against his chest as the kid’s ear-piercing screams play on a continuous loop inside his brain: Please! Please help me! I just want my dad. I just want to see my dad. And how the hell is anyone supposed to crawl into a nice warm bed for a solid six hours with that on their conscious?
Matt certainly can’t. So instead of trying, he thunders back up the stairs and sprints across the city’s rooftops until he arrives at Fogwell’s gym. He desperately needs to put his fist through something, and the heavy bag he usually favors will do just nicely. It’s not long before he’s channeling all his pent-up rage and pouring it into the thing; he absolutely whales on it, just hits and punches and jabs and kicks and keeps doing it again and again until he can’t anymore, until he has no more sweat or blood or rage to expend. He stands and breathes, and the strange liminality of this place melts away until Fogwell’s gym ceases to exist as a place out of time—now it’s just a regular ol’ boxing gym with regular ol’ regulars, and Matt takes it as his cue to leave.
*
It’s morning, and Matt’s exhausted and angry. Briefly, he considers calling out sick. Give Foggy some bullshit excuse as to why it would be better for everybody if he just stayed home. You know how rough traveling is, he’d say, but the good news is I’m home now, and I could really use some sleep. Not like we have any real clients right now, anyway, right? But maybe give me a call if anything changes. Thanks, Fog, you’re a lifesaver.
Using traveling as his go-to excuse for any flakey behavior is awful, and it’s a habit he really needs to break. The world is not going to stop because he has a weird condition to contend with; no one is going to go out of their way to feel sorry for him.
So he drags his hand through his hair and rubs around his mouth at his stubble. Grabs a quick shower and begrudgingly goes about making himself presentable for the day. Heads into work. Smiles brightly, puts on a good show, and waits for nightfall.
*
Something his dad used to say to him when he was a kid: Whatever you do in life, be smart about it. You understand what I’m saying? You can work with your hands all your life, work real hard and still not get anywhere. But if you’re smart, if you use that noggin of yours, I’ll just bet you’ll be able to accomplish anything.
Well, the only thing he’s managed to accomplish tonight is failure. And pain and “this wasn’t very smart.” It’s the last clear thought in his head before he loses consciousness altogether.
*
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 23b
(Anonymous) 2018-11-25 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)There’s an innocent little kid out there taken from his dad, and Matt knows, he knows how much pain and fear and anger both that kid and his dad must be feeling right now.
So it’s not surprising Matt’s thoughts keep returning to his own father. He doesn’t think Jack wouldn’t have approved of his methods, but Matt strongly believes his old man would’ve at least approved of his mission.
(Bitterly he thinks, But maybe I’ll just ask what he thinks about the whole thing the next time I’m sent back to the car crash.)
When he approaches the abandoned warehouse, Matt thinks he’s finally getting the hang of this whole thing. He’s feeling pretty good about the way everything’s come together. Maybe even a bit cocky. All tonight’s informants and all roads in the Kitchen lead to this warehouse.
Inside he hears men laughing and chatting amiably in what he assumes is Russian. Smells the strong scent of cigarettes and alcohol.
They have no idea what’s coming.
Matt heads inside, and instead of going straight for the drinking, card-playing men ostensibly keeping guard, Matt creeps through the building to find wherever it is they’ve stashed the kid.
He keeps his ears open, his head cocked, and his fists ready.
A terrified little boy’s heartbeat should sound very different from the heavy thump-thump-thumps he hears from the men downstairs, but Matt strains and listens and struggles to find anything resembling the sound he’s looking for. There are rodents in the basement and next to a dumpster outside sits a half-starved dog tied to a chain-link fence, but he doesn’t hear—
A loud crack explodes inside his head and the sharp smell of blood blooms inside his mouth. He’s bitten his tongue.
Did. Has someone managed to sneak up on him? Another crack, this time to his ribs, and he whirls around, lashing out as tries to get his focus under control. So stupid. He’d wasted so much energy looking for the kid, he neglected to keep track of what was going on around him.
A dozen men swarm over him, some of them bludgeoning him with metal pipes while others slash at him with butchers knives and broken beer bottles. He fights with whatever strength he has left and somehow, somehow manages to crawls away. He has no idea how he does it, he only knows the cool night does nothing for him, in fact it saps away any fumes he might have still had in the tank.
He thought he was doing this right, going about it smarter, but no, actually, this wasn’t very smart at all.
*
Matt first met Claire almost a decade ago. He remembers her saying to his older self something along the lines of, “You pretended not to know me, you bastard,” and Matt had envisioned all sorts of scenarios where he had to keep up the pretense. Turns out though, he isn’t so much pretending as he is struggling just to stay alive.
He knows he’s in her apartment and half dead on the same couch she had tended to him that first time.
And at the time she had mentioned pulling him out of the garbage, but he doesn’t remember that now. Not because of any time-related memory gaps, but because she somehow managed to haul him up here while he was still unconscious. (He does smell like garbage, though, so at least he knows she wasn’t just giving him a hard time.)
“Oh no, you don’t,” Claire says. “You are not gonna die in my living room.”
“I am not…” he groans, “going to die in your living room.” He doesn’t plan on staying here long enough for that. He has a little kid to go and get.
A flat palm rests heavy on his chest. “Stay put,” instructs, “because I’m not so sure about your odds here.”
She says it with such authority, it deserves a little cheek. “You a doctor or something?”
“Or something,” she agrees. “Look. This is my one night off. I would much rather take you to the hospital than—”
“No hospitals,” he says, because if those guys were waiting for him at the warehouse, they most certainly would look for him in a hospital.
Claire throws her hands up in frustration when he tells her this, but honestly he’ll take it because for reasons he can’t explain, he’s flooded with relief now that he’s back here.
Claire continues patching him up and says, “You get this torn up a lot?”
“Not really,” he says through another wave of pain. “Still kinda new at this.”
“I can tell. Your outfit is terrible.” Matt laughs at that (Or tries to, anyway.) “Not what I meant, though. Whoever patched you up before did an incredible job. Not to brag, but this looks like a Claire Temple special. That’s me, in case you couldn’t guess.”
“I didn’t want to assume,” he deadpans.
“These have been here a long time, though. If I had to guess? I’d say a decade at least. You sure you weren’t out there getting slashed up by thugs while you were high school or whatever? I’m guessing at your age, by the way.”
“Yeah, no. I wasn’t doing this in high school.”
“Well, that’s good at least,” she says as she fishes a penlight from her first aid kit.
“But it does raise the question—” and Matt grabs her wrist to stop her from checking his pupils.
“Okay, I’ll stop fishing,” she says, but he keeps his fingers wrapped tightly around the delicate bones in her wrist. The penlight drops to floor. “I need to make sure you don’t have a concussion.” She says it slowly, like she thinks he’s stupid. Or concussed.
“I don’t have a concussion.”
“Yeah, see,” she says as she collects the pen from the floor, “I can’t just take your word for it.”
“And I can’t let you aim that in my eyes.”
“Yeah, about that. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve been looking at things.”
“You mean the way I don’t?”
“The way you don’t,” she agrees.
He shifts his weight on the couch and immediately regrets it.
“I just got through stitching that up,” she complains, but she still reaches for the first aid kit to do it all again.
“You know, Mike, you’re oddly trusting.” To punctuate her point, Claire tugs at that last stitch a little tighter than strictly necessary.
“Mike?” he asks.
“Sure. Unlike you, I have no problem with making assumptions, so unless you want to tell me otherwise, Mike it is.”
“Ha,” he says. “Okay, well, I could…. I could say the same about you. After all, I’m a guy you pulled out of the garbage.”
“A blind guy, apparently.”
Matt winced, and not just from the pain of having a needle repeatedly jammed through his skin.
“You mind explaining that one?”
“Maybe next time.”
“Ha. Ha ha. He’s funny. Well, I hate to break it you, buster, but there is no next time. So unless you pay really well, this is strictly a one-time offer.” A beat: “Do you pay well?”
“Sorry.”
Her lips part and she pulls in a breath to speak, but three floors down Matt hears a cop knocking on doors looking for a man fitting Matt’s description.
“They’re coming,” he says, and he tries getting up from off the couch. He doesn’t get very far, in fact he face-plants right in the middle of Claire’s living room.
“Who is. Those guys who did this to you?”
God, he wishes he knew how this plays out. He feels like he’s lost his footing here. Claire helps him back up to his feet and he nods.
“How the hell can you possibly know that?”
“I can hear him,” he says. “He’s searching the building.”
“What so, you’re a blind guy with super-hearing?”
The man is on Claire’s floor now, and Matt closes his eyes and braces himself against a wall. Not now, Claire, he wants to say, but she doesn’t seem to expect a response. Instead, she heads for the kitchen, opens up a cabinet, and pulls out a frying pan.
Matt swallows a small laugh because this isn’t the time for finding things funny, but the frying pan Claire hefts over her shoulder like an extremely heavy baseball bat is in fact the very same pan she threatened his older self with that first night he was here. And he’s thrilled to remember that some things never do change.
Matt smells the guy’s cologne wafting down the hallway, and when he mentions this to Claire, she simply says, “What the fuck.”
“He’s next door,” Matt whispers, as the man masquerading as a New York City cop thanks Claire’s elderly neighbor for her time.
Even though he’s warned her, Claire still jumps clear out of her skin when the knock on her door comes.
He’s got to give her props for how quickly she recovers her composure, though. She answers the door, pulls the “I was sleeping,” routine, and apologizes for not being more helpful.
“Phew,” she says as she shuts the door. She leans heavily against it. “That was a close—”
“He’s not gone,” Matt says. He hears the guy making a phone call. “Oh, no,” he says. “He’s calling for backup.”
He pushes away from the wall from where he was hiding/bracing himself, and moves into action. He’s limping, and he can feel the stitches in his side pull and tear, but he has to move.
He’s not in much fighting shape, but on the stairwell Matt’s able to get a drop on the guy. Literally. He grabs a fire extinguisher from the wall and drops it on the guy’s head as he thunders down the stairs. The guy collapses in a heap, and Claire goes to find a kid she says helped her bring Matt upstairs when Matt suggests they take the guy up to the roof.
*
“I can’t believe I’m condoning this,” Claire says as Matt restrains the unconscious mob guy.
“He has information I need,” Matt says. He checks the binding to make sure they’re secure and grabs the guy by his lapels. “Wake up,” he says. “Tell me where the boy is.”
“Fuck you,” the guy spits.
“Fine,” Matt says and socks him in the face.
As the guy’s head lolls to the side, Claire says, “I'm a nurse, I know my way around the human body. I can show you just how to make it really hurt.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I spent my night stitching up a guy who was ribboned up by assholes trying to keep him from rescuing some kid. This guy’s one of them?”
Matt nods.
“Then yeah. Do what you need to.”
*
Russian asshole’s stubborn though, and tough. Matt follows Claire’s instructions, applies the right pressure to tender and sensitive spots on the body, but the guy’s made of steel, and Matt thinks what he really needs is a stronger incentive.
“All right,” he says and hauls the guy over the edge of the building until he’s mostly dangling over it. “I’m only going to ask once. Tell me what I need to know, and you get to walk away. Do you understand.”
Guy spits in his face again.
“It’s your funeral,” and Matt says and hoists him up, making like he’s going to throw him overboard.
“Okay, okay,” the guy finally says, and he finally, finally gives Matt the name and address of a Russian restaurant where his pals are keeping the kid.
“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it,” Matt says, and despite what he had just told the guy, Matt tosses him into the open and waiting dumpster below.
“Holy shit!” Claire screams as she comes running over. “This has gotten way out of hand—”
“Guy’s fine,” Matt says. “A few broken bones, but unfortunately he’ll live.” He turns to her, fully. “I have to go. You,” he says, “need to find somewhere safe. Do you have a friend, somewhere you can stay? I can’t guarantee these guys won’t come after you. They know you helped me.”
“Yeah, shit. I have a friend I’m cat-sitting for,” and she gives him the address.
“Good,” he says. “I’ll come see you when I’m done.” He turns and heads for the edge of the roof. In the moments before he backflips off of it though, he hears Claire say to herself, “What the hell have I gotten myself into.”
*
Matt jumps, but he doesn’t make it to the ground.
Instead, he lands inside what seems to be a tiny bedroom. There are two twin-sized beds, a pair of desks.
Shit. This is his and Foggy’s dorm room.
No. No no no no no. He can’t be here! This is—
Goddamn it all to hell. Matt’s fist forms into a ball, and it’s all he can do to keep from bashing it into a wall.
On the other side of the door, he hears his own voice. “Hey,” his impossibly young voice says. “I’ll just catch up you later, okay? I just remembered I have… things. I need to do.” And wow is Matt a terrible liar. Even he doesn’t believe the sincerity of that.
“Are you kidding me, Murdock?” Foggy. Matt wants to cry. “Fine, your loss then, you nerd.” And with that his friend’s footsteps retreat down the hallway.
Present Matt’s body language is rigid and angry, but he doesn’t say a word. Just tsks at him disapprovingly, but Matt remembers how freaked out he’d been to encounter an older self who was that beat up.
Young, naive, and in denial.
This is who I am, he wants to say, but he doesn’t. Just picks up some discarded clothes from off the floor, dresses, and shoulders his way out of the room.
*
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 24
(Anonymous) 2019-04-07 03:57 pm (UTC)(link)*
Back when Matt and Foggy still attended school here, sometimes, if the weather permitted, they would pack up whatever they were working on and move their studies outside.
They even had their own spot; a patch of grass under a small shady tree to call their very own. Which is exactly where Matt intends to ride out this stupid little detour. Sit under his and Foggy’s tree, stretch out his legs, feel the warm sun on his face, maybe nap a bit, and wait it out until he’s sent back to the present. Might as well take advantage of a beautiful day while he can. A small respite before he’s thrown back into the fray.
The only hitch in his plan is the presence of a woman already camped out there. It’s strange he hadn’t noticed her right away. Stranger still that someone would violate the tacit understanding amongst the student population not to encroach upon spaces already spoken for.
So either she doesn’t know of the unspoken rules on campus or doesn’t care. He’s not sure which he finds more annoying.
“I see you,” the woman sing-songs. She’s reading a book, or pretending to, and hums to herself as she flips to the next page and continues reading.
Matt needs a new place to camp out, then.
Despite being fully clothed, he feels utterly naked standing outside like this, without the usual trappings of Being Matt Murdock. His cane and glasses are still in the dorm room; Matt had forgotten all about them as he dashed out the door, too concerned with getting out of his own way. Of course, his present self has a more rightful claim to them, but it doesn’t stop him from feeling exposed; it’s not as if he’s some random nobody on campus; he was a student here, and a lot of people knew him then.
So he changes tack; shoves his hands into the pockets of the jeans he’d borrowed from himself and heads in another direction. He’s still bruised and bloodied from the fight with the mob guys, and Claire’s stitches had all been ripped away from his body upon traveling, because of course nothing foreign can survive the trip. It’s just another way in which he stands out here.
Still, he keeps walking. He has no idea how well he’s blending in, but he needs to go somewhere. Maybe he could go back to the dorm room, try to sleep through it in old bed. (He hasn’t done that in years, though. Mostly because it’s awful.) But he strongly suspects Matt’s still there brooding, and he would much rather avoid facing that right now, thank you very much. Matt was an angry kid back then--he knows that now, he understands that about himself--and he doesn’t really want to be put in a position of having to explain himself--to himself. The present version of himself still has a lot of growing up to do, and the days are long but the years are short and he’ll get there… he’ll get here before he knows it.
Part of him thinks it would be funny if he just went back to his apartment. That’d be great, right; he could go and sit on the sidewalk outside his building, or put in some meditation time up on the roof. It’s a nice enough day for it. Or maybe he could wait it out on top of Claire’s building. That would be weirdly fitting, right? But time is the greatest distance between places, not space, and he doesn’t get a say in it.
Keeping his head down, he dodges a small cluster of oncoming kids too busy laughing and goofing off and being, well, kids to notice him.
Which suits him just fine. Gives him the perfect opportunity to quietly duck behind the nearest building to hide there in the shade.
Where he very nearly collides into someone.
“Oh, I didn’t… hmm.”
“How foolish of me,” the woman says by way of apology, and Matt recognizes her. He knows he does. He’s just not sure from where.
You’re the woman from under our tree, but that doesn’t explain the deeper sense of familiarity he’s experiencing. Her body language, her smell. Sure, she’s wearing some kind of perfume, and he doesn't know the first thing about women’s fragrances, but it’s an oil with a light, subtle scent, but underneath that… he’s met her before and for the life of him he cannot place when or where. Which is frustrating, because he’s usually better at this sort of thing.
He coughs, because he can’t possibly be making a good impression by standing here like a weirdo. “I’m uh. Hi. Matthew. Murdock.”
“Hello, Matthew. Elektra Natchios.” She extends her hand for a handshake, and Matt’s not sure how he should play this. Should he continue the incognito routine and accept the handshake as if he were sighted, or should he ignore it as if he weren’t. Well, he did give her his name. If she doesn’t already know who he is, she’s bound find out eventually.
She retracts her hand when he doesn’t respond and hums with an air of skepticism. “I’ve seen you around,” she flatly says, and all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Pre-law, is it?”
He breathes through his nose, because this woman isn’t a threat to him. She’s just another student here. Just like he is. He shakes his head a little; this encounter is so strange, it’s throwing him off kilter. A tiny record skip keeps happening inside his brain; an oscillation between his two usual modes of present and not-present, present and not-present.
Temporal jet lag he can handle. But this. He has no idea what to make of this.
He laughs a little, and her breathing and heart rate remain steady; she gives absolutely nothing away.
“Yeah,” he says. “Maybe one day I’ll even have my own firm,” and he’s aware he sounds a little too knowing, but for now it’s just a harmless little in-joke.
“I don’t doubt it,” she says, and she too sounds a little knowing.
“And you?” he asks, hoping to deflect some of the attention away from himself. He feels scrutinized, under a the glare of a white-hot spotlight. It’s the very last thing he needs right now.
“I,” she says, “am late for class. Another time, perhaps?”
“Hm.” She’s good. He still can’t get a solid read on her, and it isn’t lost on him that he’s learned absolutely nothing.
Under her breath she sing-songs, “Goodbye, Matthew.”
He’s not sure how he hadn’t noticed before, but she’s carrying her sandals by her fingertips and her bare feet slap against the cool pavement. His mouth hangs open and he’s absolutely floored that he’s able to place her now.
“No,” he says aloud, because the idea he’s entertaining--it’s impossible. Impossible. She couldn't possibly be the same barefooted woman he met at his accident that one time; the dates don’t add up, the math doesn’t work. Unless she’s lying about her age, but then, she told him her age, had she.
He’s robbed of the opportunity to dwell on the implications of Elektra Natchios any further however, because he’s hit with a familiar bout of nausea and then he’s doubled over and dry heaving. “Okay,” he mutters and braces himself. Places both hands against the cool facade of the building as his brain splinters into a thousand tiny pieces. He’s convulsing on the ground, and an ocean roars in his head until the world goes deathly quiet, then his ears pop and his time at Columbia University is nothing more than a distant memory. Where it belongs.
“Okay,” he says, and takes stock of his surroundings.
Return trips to the present are never an exact science. You could get dropped off close to when you left, but not always. The gap usually isn’t too wide, though, whether in time or in space. Sometimes, though, he wonders what his experiences with time travel would look like if he were better traveled. If he ever had occasion to leave Manhattan in his normal, everyday present-native live, would he then sometimes find himself traveling outside of the city?
He has no idea, and honestly, he finds the thought vaguely unsettling.
One thing’s for damn sure; he won’t be testing that theory anytime soon. Or ever, if he can possibly help it.
But now’s not the time to worry about that. Now, he knows, is the present, and where is the corner of 11th and 44th; the Troika restaurant.
Which, “Of course.” He’s often complained about not getting a say in where and when he’s picked up and dropped off, and well. Now he gets his wish. This is exactly where he wants to be.
He’s not going into that restaurant naked. That is absolutely not happening.
This kidnapping was a deliberate ploy by the Russian mob to get his attention, specifically, and he cannot afford to allow himself to be vulnerable and distracted by prioritizing a search for clothing. Sure, he’s had success doing exactly that before, and would probably succeed again now, but this is too important. He needs to be focused. Needs to make sure that scared little kid is his top and only priority. Which means going back and collecting his outfit.
It’s either on top of Claire’s roof or somewhere in the alleyway behind her building. Depending on exactly where he was when traveled. He hopes his outfit is still there, still where he left it. He has nothing else to go on but hope, so he vaults onto to the rooftops above, and runs like a bat out of hell, keeping mindful of his bare body as he sprints and flies and tumbles. The air is cold on his skin, and the jumps and landings are rough on his feet and shins, but there’s nothing to be done for that now. He just has to go. He has to.
His clothes are in a heap next to the dumpster. Even his gloves and boots are here. “Thank you,” he whispers in prayer, and dresses for battle.
A memory of his dad bubbles to the surface. “Let’s get to work, Matty,” the phantom voice says, and so he does.
*
“Let’s get you home to your dad, okay?”
“My mom too?”
“God, Jesus, yes. Of course you’re mom too. Of course. And she’ll be. She’ll--They both will, okay? Let’s get you home.”
*
He waits in the shadows long enough to be sure the kid makes it safe inside the house, but he doesn’t stay. Doesn’t wait to hear the house wake up as the front door opens, doesn’t wait to hear his parents’ sobs of worry and confusion and relief that their boy has been found and brought home safe.
That moment isn’t meant for him.
So instead, he goes home, sloughs off his clothes like shed skin, and collapses on his bed, where he jerks and twitches just as he’s falling asleep.
*
“I didn’t expect a full moon this time of day,” someone says.
“Damn,” he mutters, because he was honestly hoping he was experiencing hypnic jerks as he fell asleep instead of the spasming which usually precedes traveling, but of course he should have known better than that.
“No mysterious paper sack for you today, I’m afraid. Though I can’t say I mind the view.”
“What,” he croaks out. He has a faceful of garbage, so he stands and lets his hands drape loosely over his crotch. “You’re the. You’re her,” he says. She’s barefoot, he notices.
“So we have met. That’s helpful, actually.”
“Elektra, was it?” She hums in bored acknowledgement and stalks toward the mouth of the alley. Looking out, presumably. So he uses the opportunity to open up his focus. There has to be something he can use to cover himself with. He just has to find it.
A pizza box; a blanket covered in cat puke; soiled cloth diapers; burnt kitchen towel; a moldy shower curtain. But nothing--
“Here,” she says. She’s holding out a pair of sweats and a thin windbreaker.
“Uh, thanks?” he says, and starts dressing. “Where did you find them?”
“I have my ways,” she says. As if that were answer enough. She heads back out to stand on the sidewalk. “My, but you’re everywhere here. Oh, look. There’s your father, I suppose. Jack.”
“This is what you came to see, right? Something exciting while on vacation?” He doesn’t bother keeping the bitterness from his voice. She gets to see--and he doesn’t, and--
His fists form into tight balls. Makes an effort to relax them once he realizes he’s doing it.
She laughs at ‘vacation’, but it isn’t malicious. She seems genuinely amused by his choice of words. “Yes, I passed you two blocks back. Just how long ago was that for you, anyway.”
Not very. “A while.”
He joins her on the sidewalk. There’s a lot of chaos happening here, but it doesn’t matter. This was a very long time ago.
“You’re like me,” he says after a while.
“More than you could possibly know,” is her cryptic reply.
“We’ve never met in the present, though.”
“Not in yours, at least.”
“And Columbia? Was that--”
“We shared classes. I’m surprised you don’t remember.”
“I guess you weren’t on my radar then.”
“Hmm. I suppose not.” She runs her hands through her long hair, gathers it all up in a ponytail and shakes it out again. Lets it all cascade over her shoulders. “Well, Matthew. I must be off. I have a flight to catch.” She says that last part a little playfully, and Matt knows exactly what she means.
“Yeah, I like to say 'my ride’s almost here.'”
“We’ll run into each again,” she says. “Until then.” Then she walks off, and Matt very quickly loses track of her.
He’s a little disappointed he won’t get to know what it’s like when someone else travels, but maybe he will. Maybe another time.
*
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 24
(Anonymous) 2019-04-11 01:52 am (UTC)(link)Elektra is just like him but knows how to control it and also it looks like Matt's travels are getting more frequent.
Man i thought u were done with this fic. It's really goodf and after the end of the show fics are needed to keep this alive
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 24
(Anonymous) 2019-04-11 04:02 am (UTC)(link)I am definitely not done with this, I've just been... dragging my feet a real lot :( Sorry for that, I'm trying to do better.
I wouldn't say she can control it, but she is soooo much better at it. I'm so excited to write more of her.
But yeah. Thank you so much <3
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 25
(Anonymous) 2020-07-13 01:34 am (UTC)(link)“You have. Five. New messages.”
Matt groans, but not due to the number of unlistened-to voicemail messages waiting for him in his inbox: he’s also rebandaging the wounds he’d sustained when he had that near-death encounter with those kidnapping Russian assholes; the very same wounds Claire had so meticulously stitched up for him a few nights back after she’d pulled his sorry, unconscious ass from that dumpster outside her apartment building. (Actually, he has no idea how many nights ago that was -- time has lost all discernible meaning.)
“Matt!” the voice from the first message barks, and Matt hisses as he tugs another suture through his skin. “Where the hell are you, dude. You should have been here forever ago! Call me.”
Next, he tapes down a bandage over the tight, neat row of stitches. “Delete message,” he says and gets to work sewing up the next tear in his skin.
“Jesus, where the hell are you? I hope to god you have a “medical” reason for not showing up today, pal because I really need you here. Call me when you get in.”
Stitch. Bandage. “Delete message.”
“Matt. Matt. There’s this guy here, right. Says he wants to put us--that is you and me--on retainer for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom. This check has soooo many zeros, dude, you have no idea. But I’m kind of freaking out about this too? I cannot do this alone, buddy, I just can’t; I really, really need you here.”
Matt runs his fingers over his torso. Nods in satisfaction and goes about packing up his first aid kit, wiping blood off the surface of his coffee table, and discarding the mess. As he washes his hands in the kitchen sink, he says, “I’m sure whatever it is, you handled it just fine, Foggy. Delete message.”
“Dear time travel gods, I am on my knees begging--”
He grabs a towel and dries his hands. “Dramatic much? Delete message.”
He’s stiff, but he manages the short trek to his bedroom to deposit the towel in the hamper without much incident.
“Matt, hi. It’s Karen. Obviously. Um. Foggy says you weren’t feeling well, so I was just calling to see how you’re doing? Call me if you need anything, okay? I’ll talk to you soon.”
He emerges from the bedroom and carefully levers himself back down on the couch. “Next message,” he says.
“Well, I guess you’re not home. Or you’re sleeping. I hope you’re sleeping. Foggy won’t say so, but he really does not want to take this case; and frankly, I don’t blame him, the guy was just. I dunno. Scuzzy, I guess? But it looks like we’re obligated now, so I don’t know. Call the office, Matt, he really needs you.”
“What the hell’s going on over there? Delete message.”
“End of messages.”
Matt groans and scrubs at the rough stubble along his jawline. “All right,” he says to his empty apartment. Time to see what fires need putting out.
*
Karen’s alone in the office when Matt arrives.
“Matt,” she says, sounding completely surprised to see him there. She shuffles some papers around and quickly rises from behind the desk. She rushes toward him and starts to say, “How are you feeling,” but cuts herself off. Her hand drifts toward his face, but she never makes contact. “What happened to you?” she asks. Her voice is hushed and spilling over with fear and worry. “Are you hurt? Is everything--”
“I’m fine,” he says, waving away her concern with a dismissive flap of the hand. “It’s nothing. Just. Get me up to speed here. What have I missed.” Foggy’s office is empty, he notices, tilting his head slightly. He doesn’t comment on it.
Exasperated, Karen says, “You’d know if you were here! Where the hell have you been, Matt! I left messages for you! Foggy left messages for you! Did you even listen to any of them?”
“I heard them,” he calmly says. “Just. Tell me what’s going on.”
She nods to herself. “Okay, well, a man was here.”
A scant few molecules of an unfamiliar fragrance lingers in the air here. Black pepper, warm leather, earthy cedarwood. Men’s cologne, likely very expensive. Interesting.
Wanting to know more about the strange visitor to their office today, Matt gestures toward Karen encouragingly. “Okay,” he prompts, “And?”
“I don’t know. He gave me the creeps. And. He knew things, Matt. He knew things about you and Foggy and--” She shudders and wraps her arms around herself protectively.
His eyebrows furrow. Potential clients having done their homework isn’t usually cause for alarm, but obviously, something about the encounter had deeply unsettled her.
“He knew about how I came to work for you guys. He knew about my-- he knew how I was a client of yours and--”
“He was bluffing,” Matt says. “You were never charged. Your… arrest and the details surrounding it were never made public. Whatever his motives, he was trying to rattle you, to get a reaction out of you. He didn’t know anything. Not really.”.
Karen’s vitals spike at that. “You weren’t here, Matt! I’m telling you, the guy was a total sleaze. He knew things about you and Foggy--”
“There’s nothing to know about me.”
“--and if he knew… that. About me, then what if he… what if someone else knows about--” Karen’s breath catches in her throat and then she’s firmly pressing a hand against her mouth. That tell-tale hint of salt hangs in the air and on Karen’s skin: she’s upset and crying and desperately trying not to show it.
“I’m sorry,” she says. She smoothes down her blouse and runs her fingers through her hair. “I just--”
“No, it’s fine, it’s. What else can you tell me? His name, or--?”
“Yeah, see that’s the thing. He never told us his name, just that he works for something called Confederated Global. I mean, doesn't that sketchy to you? Obviously I’m not a lawyer, but Foggy said the check the guy cut was enormous. And for what? What are they really buying here? So I started to do some digging after Foggy left and--”
“Do you know where he is now?”
She sighs. It's a deeply frustrated sound. “To sit in on a case? I guess? Foggy didn’t want to make any decisions without you here, but he didn’t want to wait around forever, either.”
Matt sighed. “Okay,” he says. “I’m gonna. I’ll go and catch up with him and you.” He gestures toward her with the grip of his cane. “You just sit tight. In case anyone calls or--”
“Yeah, of course,” she says, her voice going just a little too high. Her pulse and breathing confirm that she isn’t being completely honest, that she has no intention of ‘sitting tight’ and he responds with a quick nod because he can't exactly call her out on it. “I have things I need to do anyway,” she says, and at least she’s being truthful about that.
“All right,” he says, and Karen sighs a breath of relief to see him go.
*
Almost as soon as Matt exits the building housing the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, a vehicle pulls up beside him.
The window whirrs down and a strong but pleasant scent of black pepper and leather and cedar wafts out along with crisp air-conditioned air.
Matt continues walking. The car rolls on alongside him.
He wants to say, “Are you tailing me?” but that would tip his hand. Matt isn’t supposed to notice he’s being followed.
“Mister Murdock!” the man from the car cheerfully calls.
Matt halts and impatiently taps his cane against the toe of his shoe.
“A moment of your time, if I could,” the man says, keeping that same cheerful tone.
“And you are…?”
“Ah, who I am isn’t important--”
“Then I have no business with you,” Matt says and continues onward.
The car rolls forward at walking speed, keeping pace with Matt as he briskly walks down the center of the sidewalk, swinging his cane wider than strictly necessary.
“Allow me to change your mind,” the man adds, faux-cheerfulness gone altogether. “After all, I have met with your esteemed partner shortly before this. Along with your very lovely office assistant. Karen Page, was it?”
Matt stops walking again and turns to face the car because Karen was right, this guy’s a creep.
“Look,” Matt says. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but I’d appreciate it if you stopped following me.”
“Your partner Franklin Nelson is meeting with a client as we speak. I can offer you a ride there if you’d like.”
“My partner and I have yet to agree to take on any clients, Mister Whoever You Are. And. I can get to where I’m going under my own power, thank you very much.” When he turns to go, his torso twists in just the wrong way causing a sharp pain to lance through his abdomen. The smell of the man’s expensive cologne is immediately overtaken by the coppery odor of his own blood. Damn.
“Self-reliance. I respect that. We’ll be in touch, Mr. Murdock. Oh, and, you appear to be having... ah, minor issues that you might want to have looked at.”
The car quietly pulls away after that and Matt loses track of it very quickly.
He presses his hand against the wet spot spreading through his shirt and alters course for home. It wouldn’t be very professional of him to show up at the jail to meet with Foggy and possibly a client while actively bleeding. So despite being severely pressed for time, home it is and home it has to be.
*
He’s already inside his apartment and reaching for the first aid kit before he notices anything unusual. His couch shushes and squeaks under someone’s weight and all of a sudden he’s acutely aware of a stranger’s heartbeat, of their body heat.
“Yeah, just make yourself right at home,” Matt grumbles, because the intruder is fellow time-traveler Elektra Natchios, and she’s in his spot.
“I borrowed some of your clothes,” she says. “Hope you don’t mind.” She’s wearing one of his dress shirts, half-buttoned, with a pair of boxer briefs underneath.
“So this is what the other foot feels like,” he says and she very generously chuckles at that. It’s a novel experience being able to share these sorts of in-jokes with someone. He never expected he’d ever have the chance to talk to another person who understood, first-hand, what it meant to live a life as a person unstuck in time.
She makes room for him as he sits on the couch. But not much, his couch isn’t that big.
He can feel her steady gaze on his bare torso as he stitches himself up for the second time today.
“I’m a steady hand,” Elektra offers.
“I’m sure you are,” he says with a hiss as he pulls the thread through hot, angry skin. Fortunately, this is the only wound to have torn open, which makes his job that much easier.
When he’s done, he cleans up his mess, then heads to the bathroom to make himself at least somewhat presentable for the rest of the day.
He’s tying his tie when he emerges from the bathroom.
“You can stay as long as you need. Just. Don’t take anything.” He says that last part with a smirk because they both know you can’t take anything with you when you travel. Just whatever you were born with.
She makes a show of craning her head and looking at every corner of Matt’s admittedly sparse apartment. “Oh, yes, you and your many valuable possessions,” she teases right back.
He nods in farewell and catches a cab so he can find out from Foggy just what the hell’s been going on.
*
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 26
(Anonymous) 2020-12-06 06:33 am (UTC)(link)Matt’s collapsed cane rests across his lap as he sits in the back seat of a stale-smelling taxicab while his fingers absently worry at the strap.
All of his attention is focused on zeroing in on Foggy, who Matt knows is currently at the police station meeting with a potential client Matt knows nothing about.
They’re a team, he and Foggy, and Matt desperately needs to reunite with his law partner. He should be there with Foggy now. Hell, he should have been at the office when the man with the seemingly deep pockets and suspect motives visited their tiny firm and waved around a check which apparently had a number with a very long string of zeros trailing behind it. Karen had called the guy sleazy, and after his own unsettling encounter with the man, Matt can’t say he disagrees with that assessment.
The man was pushy and arrogant, and how can anyone be expected to trust someone who refused to give you their name. How is anyone expected to trust someone like that? Well. It occurs to Matt that maybe offering trust was not the man’s main motivation.
What was it that Karen said? What are they really buying here?. What indeed. Something else is going on here, and for once, Matt has absolutely no idea what it is. He sighs. He wishes he had some insight about this whole thing. Wishes he’d been dropped off here traveling or maybe even encounter a future version of himself who had. (And when Matt is left to fill in the gaps, he tends to make a lot of assumptions about how things will unfold. Foggy once pointed out to him that not knowing how events play out in advance gives Matt a sense of discomfort. And well, whether he wants to admit it or not, his friend is absolutely correct.)
Car horns blare, impatient drivers angrily curse at other angry drivers, soft R&B plays over the driver’s radio, and Matt’s fingers continue to twitch and pick at the grip of his cane.
Matt knows where the jail is, knows its layout, so he should be able to find Foggy and Foggy’s heartbeat without much difficulty.
He deepens his focus, pushes aside the soft music on the radio, the noises of the city and--
--and right near Matt’s ear, the cab driver barks out an agitated, “Asshole!” while he leans on the horn. Matt drops his head. His focus has collapsed entirely.
Irritated, Mat leans forward in his seat. “Hey,” he says. “Think you can maybe step on it?” because he does not have time for this. He’s already lost way too much of it. He should be there already, he should have been there from the start. He’s too far out of the loop here, and he hates it. He hates not knowing how things go.
“Yeah, yeah,” the cabbie grumbles. “We all got somewhere to be.”
For the next twenty minutes or so, traffic continues to move at a snail’s pace. And through all the distractions, Matt continues his auditory search for Foggy.
Ah. There. Right there. He’s got it. Loud and clear.
Yeah, boy, his friend certainly is distressed if the vitals Matt’s picking up on are anything to go by. The stress and strain come through so clearly in his friend’s voice now that he can hear it.
Matt presses his lips together.
“I’m not sure Nelson and Murdock is a good fit for you, Mr. Healy. I can recommend another attorney who--” Car horns blare and Matt wills the traffic to part.
“Not an option, counselor.” This must be the client. Healy. “You’ve been hired to represent me. So you’re gonna do just that.”
Matt raises his eyebrows. The balls on this guy, Jesus.
“Where is your partner, anyway. Murdock.I want to talk to him.”
They’re about a block away from the station now. Close enough. Matt needs to get going. Now. He reaches for his wallet and pulls out what should be enough to cover the fare, including a generous tip. “Hey,” Matt says to the driver. He offers the man the cash. “Don’t worry about finding a spot. I wanna get out here.”
“What? In the middle of the street?”
Matt waits until the next red light and makes a break for it.
Now all the car horn blasts and bursts of profanity are directed squarely at him as he bolts across the busy intersection. Though to be fair, there isn’t a New Yorker alive who hasn’t experienced exactly that at least once in their life.
He doesn’t care how he looks as he hustles it toward the station. He barely remembers to use his cane, but people part around him all the same.
Once inside the building, Matt pauses to take a breath and smiles blandly as he approaches security. Don’t worry about how all this all looks, I am completely harmless. See? He even begins emptying his pockets for the metal detector before being prompted to do so. Nice and cooperative. Nothing to worry about. “Afternoon, Mr. Murdock,” the officer checking his ID says. She says it cautiously, like he might be a little feral. Well. Maybe she isn’t wrong. “Get into a fight or something?” She chuckles to herself. Almost as if she’s thinking to herself, “Man, what an absurd thought that is.”
“Or something,” he says with a smile he hopes comes across as charming as opposed to maybe slightly deranged. He realizes he must look like a human car crash after all the rushing to get over here, and the lack of sleep, not to mention the ugly array of cuts and scrapes and bruises splattered across his face, but there isn’t anything he can do about that. So. Fake smiles it is.
“Well, try not to get into too many more,” she adds. She sounds as if she’s only half-joking.
“I’ll do my best,” he says. “And. Thanks.” And with that, he passes through the metal detector.
“Matt!” It’s Foggy, coming from the other direction, straight towards Matt. He frowns in disapproval at meeting Foggy out here near the building’s entrance instead of in the interrogation room, but Matt quickly changes it into a happy smile once Foggy’s near enough to notice.
Matt immediately grabs his friend’s arm and presses him into walking in the direction from which he just came. Foggy doesn’t offer any resistance. He does comment on Matt’s appearance, though, which Matt was sort of expecting. “Jesus Christ,” Foggy says. “You are an absolute mess.”
“No, I’m. It’s fine,” Matt says. He tries for a warm smile. “I mean, you know how it goes.” Which isn’tentirely a lie.
“Jesus.”
Matt knows his smile doesn’t come across as genuine, but he tries again anyway. “Don’t worry about it. It’s, you know. It’s fine.”
Foggy exhales. Unhappy but unable to do anything about it. And not wanting to start an argument out in the open like this. After all, Foggy knows how it goes. They continue walking.
Eventually Foggy says, “You got my message.” He shrugs. “Messages.”
“Yeah,” Matt says. “I got your messages. Karen’s too. That’s why I got here as fast as I could. I-- On the way here, I met the man you guys were concerned about.”
“Glasses? Kind of shifty?”
“I don’t know about glasses, but his cologne sure was expensive.”
“Yup, that’d be our guy. What’d he say to you?”
“Eh. Not so much what he said as how he said it. What I want to know though is why us? Someone who has the deep pockets and fancy connections our new friend seems to have must surely have access to bigger, more prestigious established firms.” Matt gestures at Foggy. “L&Z, for instance.”
“Not that Nelson and Murdock is any less prestigious.”
Matt laughs at that. “Oh, no, of course not! Didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.”
Foggy sighs. “Well, if the big guys want it, they can have it. I turned down the case.”
Yeah, Matt figured. Explains why Foggy is here walking through the precinct with Matt instead of sitting in the interrogation room. The fact that they’re still headed in that direction without so much as a peep from Foggy in protest is interesting. He has no idea what his friend is thinking.
“I just hope we get there before they put him back in his cell.”
“I dunno,” Foggy says. “I’ll bet he’s still sitting there. Insisted on speaking to you.”
“Okay,” Matt says. “Why did you leave, then?” They were heading right back there, and Foggy wasn’t resisting, so what was the point?
“Because that’s not a client in there, it’s a wolf in a man-suit. You should’ve heard him, Matt. The guy’s been in and out of the system so often he practically has his own law degree”
“Isn’t that all the more reason to take the case? Everyone deserves representation. It’s why we’re here.”
They were still walking, at least. Which means Foggy doesn’t actually need convincing.
“Mystery man hired us, that is Nelson and Murdock to represent John Healy. So, Mr. Healy wants to see you,” Foggy says. (Yeah, and Matt wants to know why.)
“Okay…?”
“Well, I figured if you agree to meet him now, then that means there’s a you who’s met him already.”
“Foggy,” Matt warns, because, Jesus Christ. Foggy cannot start making his own assumptions about the future now, too. Especially not on second-hand information.
Matt scrubs a hand over his stubble. They turn a corner and approach the room. Foggy opens the door, and Matt’s the first to enter.
He wants to ask Foggy if that’s happened, if he’s had a conversation about the ins and outs of this particular case with a future version of Matt. But Matt knows himself. He has a hard time imagining a scenario where he’d sit down with Foggy and have a casual chat about cases or even events that haven’t happened yet. While Matt isn’t opposed to talking about the things he learns while time traveling--it’s not like he’s superstitious about the whole thing or anything, it is his life, after all--he just knows himself. He doesn’t tend to volunteer stuff. And well, this isn’t exactly the time to worry about it. So instead he leans in and quietly says to Foggy, “Let’s finish this another time.”
Then Matt sits down across from the man handcuffed at the table.
“Murdock,” the man greets, and something about the familiarity of his tone grates on Matt’s nerves. But showing personal irritation is not exactly professional behavior, so he ignores it for the time being and focuses on who and what is in front of him right now.
He gestures to the man seated across from him. “Mister Healy,” Matt says
“You get mugged on the way over here or something?” Healy says with a scoff.
Well, Matt can tell this will be easy sailing. He exhales and clears his throat. Tries again. “Mr. Healy. Mr. Nelson and I--”
“‘Cause I’m not so sure if I want a lawyer who looks like he spends his time being somebody else’s punching bag.”
Foggy’s still standing by the door with his arms folded across his belly and radiating equal parts wariness and annoyance. Matt turns toward him and simply says, “I see what you mean.” A wolf in human form.
Foggy sighs in resignation, unfolds his arms, and takes his seat next to Matt. Matt then asks his partner to bring him up to speed.
Mister Healy here murdered a man.
This fact is not in dispute. This man is guilty. And Nelson and Murdock is going to represent him.
*
As Matt and Foggy leave the station, Matt swears he picks up the faintest hint of warm leather, black pepper, and earthy cedar wood.
*
An older Matt is sitting naked on the couch, drinking a beer when Matt gets in.
He wants to ask himself what he and Foggy should expect with all of this. What should they know, how does this all play out? But he doesn’t. Instead, he settles himself down on the couch, next to himself. Wordlessly, he reaches for the bottle resting on Older Matt’s bare chest, and Matt obliges.
The bottle is mostly empty, and what’s left is warm, but not unpleasantly so. Matt’s been here for a while, it would seem.
Well, he lives here too.
Matt tips the bottle to his lips and finishes the bottle. Other Matt gets up to fish another one from the fridge and they share that too.
Matt wishes his other self would say something.
He wishes he could just ask.
But he doesn’t.
So he doesn’t.
Re: Always Crashing in the Same Car part 25
(Anonymous) 2025-06-19 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)https://archiveofourown.org/series/991884
Thank-you!!