Alright, I'm a little late on my deadline. The long weekend threw off my schedule a little, but...still better than six months, right?

Some more good news, some more bad news. I had some small changes I wanted to make to the second half of this chapter, and considering it was well over 30,000 words altogether, I had to (surprise, surprise) split it into two smaller chapters. Again! But that means the second half is ready to go—give or take a few small changes—and should be ready to post soon! Again, I'm going to estimate sometime next week-ish.

Bad news is that much like the last chapter, the one after this one—Chapter 48—will also end on a cliffhanger. A pretty bad one too—maybe my worst? But it's a scene I've had in mind for literal years while writing this, and I've waited so long to use it, so I can't give it up now! If it helps, this chapter doesn't end on a cliffhanger, although...I don't know if I would say it ends happily.

My only other note is a small glimpse behind the writing process. I've cut so many scenes from this story because the chapters get so long, but I keep all those cut scenes in a separate document. Sometimes I alter them and fit them in later on, sometimes I can't make it work. But as I get close to the end of this story there are so many scenes I wish I had kept in. So I'm throwing one in here as a flashback, set right around the time Matt was recovering from his poison arrow. It would have worked better if I'd included it back when I'd originally intended to, but that happens when you write something over such a long period of time. Anyway, just a little behind the scenes insight for people who may be wondering why I'm including this random flashback.

I'm still getting around to replying to some of the comments and messages, so if you haven't gotten a reply yet I promise I'm not ignoring you!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! Thanks to everyone who has stuck around for so long with this story; I hope these last few chapters live up to 8 years of expectations that have built up.

---

A summer night not too far in the past...

It had been two days since Matt had gotten his hearing back after his disastrous mission with Stick. Two days during which he hadn't gone out as Daredevil, thanks to his promise to Sarah that he would rest as he recovered from the poison in his system. He was feeling nearly one hundred percent now—or as close as he ever got to it—and if it had been up to him he'd have been out there already, making up for the missed nights. Scratch that, if it had been up to him he wouldn't have taken any time off at all.

But Sarah had been so insistent in pleading that he not go out, almost panicked as she asked him to show some sort of concern for his own recovery. It had dug into him deeper than he'd expected, and he'd found himself wanting to say yes to whatever she was asking him.

However, she hadn't specified that he had to stay inside altogether. Which was how he and Sarah had ended up navigating a complicated series of alleyways and rooftops across Hell's Kitchen just after the sun went down. He wasn't in costume, but they stuck to the shadows anyway as they reached their destination: the roof of a tall building just a few blocks north of where their neighborhood ended.

"When I said you should take a few days off from knocking people around on rooftops, I didn't mean drag me around on rooftops instead," Sarah complained, slightly out of breath from the tall fire escape they'd had to scale to get up there.

"Gotta be more specific," he told her.

"Matt."

Matt grinned. "It will be worth it. You'll see."

He hadn't told her why they were coming here, just that she would enjoy it. He liked the way she brightened with instant curiosity, the way she got slightly frustrated when she couldn't get any hints out of him.

They got to the far side of the roof, and he stopped.

"This is it," he said.

"Oh," Sarah said in surprise as she took in the scene around them. He knew it couldn't be a very appealing sight; a gravel rooftop with a few central air conditioning units sticking out of it, and some old construction debris piled in the corner. "Um…I know your senses have been out of whack, but do you know this is just an ugly roof?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't mean to bring me to, like, a nice garden, or…?"

"No," he said with a grin. "This is it."

"Okay, great," she said uncertainly. "It's...nice."

Matt laughed as he leaned against the low wall that encircled the rooftop. "Just wait. Maybe…five, ten minutes."

"Alright," Sarah murmured doubtfully. She moved to stand next to him at the wall, then leaned over to get a better view of where they were. "Are we off 64th?"

Matt nodded.

"You know this is outside of your jurisdiction, right?" she asked him teasingly. "Your border ended about five blocks back that way."

"Good thing someone threatened me into taking the night off."

"I think I bribed you, actually," she corrected him. "Threats were coming next. And anyway, I was just going to point out that about…half a block that way? Is this playground I used to go to all the time as a kid. I can see it from up here."

Matt cocked his head. Sarah's father's house was a good twenty blocks from here.

"Seems like a long ways to come for a playground."

"Well, there used to be this Italian restaurant across the street. And on Thursdays and Fridays in the summer, they'd run a these big card games out of their second floor," she explained. "My dad would go there for a few hours sometimes, but he didn't want me around a bunch of illegal gambling or something I guess. So I'd hang out at the park and read on the swings."

"By yourself?" Matt asked, eyebrows quirking up.

"Well yeah, but it was daytime out," Sarah said with a shrug. "When I was really little, he and my mom would take turns watching me while the other went inside. Then later on it was just me, but he could always see me from the window. And he'd always get me, like…a truly ridiculous amount of Italian food afterwards. And now I get that the whole restaurant part was just a front for the gambling part, but the food was actually really good."

"Are they still in business?"

"The gambling ring? Probably, out of some sketchy place or another," she said thoughtfully. "Not the restaurant, though. Last time my mom came to New York a few years ago, I tried to go pick up food from there for her, but they'd closed. I was kind of bummed, but…she acted like she barely even remembered the place I was talking about. And it turns out she was on some kind of low-carb diet or something, so she didn't eat any of the food I got anyway."

Sarah was being remarkably forthcoming about her mom compared to usual, and Matt suspected it was because he'd told her about Stick and his childhood at the orphanage. This was an offer of some similar insight into her childhood after he'd struggled to reveal the smallest bit of his own.

"I didn't realize you still saw your mom after she left," he said.

"I don't, really. I talked to her more right after she left, but over time…she just called less and less until we only talked a few times a year, and then once every few years. And then not much at all. Now she lives in...Arizona, I think?" Sarah hazarded. Matt was slightly surprised by how unbothered she sounded. "She's married to some guy who…I don't know, does something in insurance and doesn't drink. Kicked all her bad habits a long time ago."

A question suddenly occurred to Matt, and he cocked his head.

"Do you have half-siblings?" he asked her curiously.

"God, no," she said with a short, not entirely amused laugh. "It only took her one kid to figure out she wasn't mom-material. But I think they have a few dogs."

Matt frowned.

"Do you ever wish you got to see her more?" he asked quietly.

"No," Sarah said firmly. "It's less stressful with her gone. Having two addicts for parents means a lot of keeping secrets from one or the other. Or one asking you to lie to the other. It was a lot easier after she left. And I know she's clean now, but...when she shows up, things tend to get crazy."

They were both quiet for a few moments, but the silence was more thoughtful than anything else. This wasn't exactly the kind of conversation Matt had thought they'd get into when he brought her here tonight, but it wasn't as though their discussions tended to trend light and breezy anyway. After a moment's hesitation, he spoke up.

"My mother also left," Matt offered haltingly. "When I was a baby."

Sarah turned her head to look at him in surprise.

"Oh. I don't know why I thought she was…"

"Dead?" he finished for her after she trailed off. "I don't know. For all I know, she might be."

"You've just never mentioned her," she noted.

"I don't have much to say," he said truthfully. "My dad never told me anything about her, good or bad."

"So…you might have a half-sibling out there somewhere," she speculated.

"I guess I could," he admitted. It was something he'd thought about often as a child. There were other kids at the orphanage who had come there with their siblings, and part of him had been jealous of that built-in safety net, a family to fall back on instead of depending on one person who could get taken away at any moment.

"What do you think they'd be like?" she asked. "Similar to you, or opposite?"

Matt tilted his head, considering the question. "Opposite, I'd say."

"Interesting. So…never been in a fight," she ventured. "Staunch atheist."

"Twenty-twenty vision."

Sarah laughed. "Never got close to law school, though. Failed right out of tenth grade."

Matt shook his head with a faint grin as Sarah's laughter faded into something more serious.

"Your dad really never told you anything about her?" she asked.

"Nothing," Matt said simply. "I think maybe he was waiting until I was older, but..."

Sarah just slipped her hand into his and squeezed. He could feel her watching him, studying his face. It still took effort sometimes, to just let her watch him without trying to hide all the things he was so used to concealing from everyone else: with his mask, or his glasses, or just a carefully school expression.

"Well…maybe the whole stable family thing is overrated," she offered. "You and I both turned out really normal."

Matt snorted, and Sarah laughed again, squeezing his hand again as she turned her head to look back out across the city.

Then a noise in the building across from them caught Matt's attention, and he tilted his head to listen closer.

"Alright. I think it's starting," he said.

The wind caught Sarah's hair as she turned to look at him, then craned her head to search around them, down at the street and up at the sky.

"What's starting?" she asked.

Then as clear as if they were standing in the room, the sounds of musical instruments filled the air as the notes of the New York Philharmonic floated towards them, light and vibrant. It was the only sound around them as Sarah listened, keeping so still she was holding her breath.

"This…is across from the Lincoln Center," she said slowly, and Matt nodded.

"I cut across this rooftop one night and heard music," he explained. "Turns out they go pretty late practicing some nights. You can't hear it on the street below, but something about the acoustics between the two buildings makes right here the perfect spot."

Sarah was quiet for a long moment, and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe this wasn't the good idea he'd thought it was, that maybe another reminder of her past was just going to make her sad.

Then she shifted around so her back was leaning against the wall, and he heard her breathing change in the way it did when she was smiling at him.

"Alright. You win," she said with a shake of her head. "This is a very nice surprise."

"I was hoping you'd find some kind of…inspiration in it," he said. "With your big performance coming up soon."

Sarah let out a low, nervous hum. "I don't know if inspiration is what I'll need. A Xanax, maybe. Especially now that..."

Matt frowned and nodded, tensing slightly as he recalled the information she'd just learned recently: that Vanessa herself would be at the fundraiser. And that Jason was now aware it was happening.

"Now that Jason and Vanessa are involved," he finished for her.

"Yeah. Although to be honest, they're just another item on a long, long list of worries," she admitted. "I've had so many dreams about everything that could go wrong."

"What do you dream about happening?" he asked.

"Um…well first off, I forget how to play all the songs I've been practicing. Actually, I forget how to play the piano altogether," she explained. "So I humiliate myself in front of everyone, and then deal with it by getting embarrassingly drunk. And I get banned from ever playing music in public again. And somehow Vanessa is allowed to bring her husband along as a date. And then Jason shows up and burns the whole place down and we all die horribly."

There was a pause.

"Jesus, Sarah."

"And also—the aliens come back," she added. "I really didn't like that, so…sometimes they're there, too."

Matt shook his head as he tugged at her hand, pulling her a few steps over so she was between the low wall and him. His arms loosely bracketed her in as he tilted his head curiously.

"Is this what it's like inside your head all the time?" he asked.

"You have so many questions tonight. Is this what it's like hanging out with me all the time?"

"Yes," Matt said frankly.

"Fine. Yeah, it kind of is. Almost all of the time," she corrected, leaning back against the low wall and tugging lightly at the strings of his hoodie until he moved closer. "Every once in a while it quiets down."

Matt gave her a small, crooked grin as he swept her hair away from where the breeze had blown into her face, pushing it to the side and winding his fingers in. "Like when?"

"Not so much a 'when' as a 'who'," Sarah said, leaning into his touch.

He took a moment to wonder at that, at the idea that he could have any kind of quieting effect for Sarah's mind like the one she had on him for…everything around them. The cars driving by below, the conversations on the sidewalk, the far away sirens—it all dialed back when he was up here, with her.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he promised her seriously.

He felt her fingertips against his temple, then she brushed them down to his jaw.

"I know," she said simply.

She leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss him. Matt kissed her back, slow and unhurried, and even the music they'd come up there to hear faded into the background.

---

Present Day

The sudden appearance of Sarah's mother in Hell's Kitchen was jarring, to say the least, and the three of them—Sarah, Matt, and Anna—all stood there in shocked silence for a moment.

"Sarah. I've been trying to get in touch with you," Anna said, looking surprised and relieved to see her standing there on the sidewalk.

"I…um…" Sarah was at a loss for words, so shocked to see the woman in front of her.

"Are you…busy?" Anna asked uncertainly, her questioning eyes moving from Sarah to Matt and then back again.

"What? No. Uh, this is Matt, my…" Sarah glanced over at Matt, who was just a couple feet from her but felt a million miles away. She looked away from him. "…my lawyer. Matt…this is my mother, Anna."

Her mom strolling through the lobby door had thrown everything off enough to breach even Matt's impenetrable façade of detachment, and she saw his eyebrows go up a fraction in surprise.

"It's nice to meet you," Anna said slowly, giving them both a confused look. The tension that hung between Sarah and Matt was so clear that even she could see she had interrupted something other than a legal meeting.

"Likewise," Matt said with a nod.

"Matt was just leaving," Sarah said quietly.

Matt started a bit as he seemed to remember that he had, in fact, been just about to leave. He extended the duffel bag out to her again, and Sarah took it.

"Thanks," she murmured. Then, before he could say anything she turned quickly to her mom. "Come on. Let's go inside."

Once they were in the elevator, Sarah felt her mother's eyes on her face, studying the bruised and broken skin across her cheekbone, the cut along her lip. She'd at least covered them up a little with makeup today, since she'd known she was going to visit her father. And she'd worn a high necked shirt despite the heat, to conceal the bruises left her on her throat from the faux man in black.

"You don't look good," Anna noted, in the same quiet voice Sarah spoke in. "Is all this from that awful attack?"

Sarah gave her mom a startled look. "You know about that?"

"It was all over the news when I got to town. Everyone talking about that masked psycho that runs around this place. I hadn't paid much attention to it because we've been busy with a lot of things since I've been here. I had no idea you were even involved. I'd tried calling you and stopping by your place a few days ago, but I didn't know you were in the hospital," Anna said, her blue eyes distressed as she explained. "Then today I was in our hotel room and I turned on the TV and there you were."

"I was on TV?" Sarah asked in confusion.

"Yeah. They were talking about the attack, interviewing people who had been there. Then they mentioned that one of the people who got injured was the pianist who had performed that night, and…it was you. They showed a clip of you playing. I called every hospital in the city looking for you, and finally got one that said you'd been discharged. So I came here to try your apartment again."

"I…" Sarah closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight. "How long have you been in New York?"

"For the past week, just about."

The elevator dinged as they reached Sarah's floor and got off. Sarah was lost in her own head as she unlocked the door to her apartment and opened it. The note her mom had left for her was still taped to the door, and Anna plucked it off as she followed Sarah inside.

Then they were standing in her living room, facing each other, and Sarah didn't know where to start.

"Why are you here?" she asked slowly. "You…came all the way from Arizona just to visit me?"

"New Mexico," Anna corrected her. "Charlie got a promotion, so we moved. And no, not exactly just to visit. I got your message about Mitch."

"Which one? I've been leaving you messages for over a year," Sarah said.

Anna winced a little at that, and Sarah felt that old twinge of guilt. It always popped up when she spoke with her mother, anytime she felt like she might be pushing her even farther away than she'd chosen to go herself.

"The last one. About you putting him into a home somewhere," Anna said. Sarah thought she heard a flicker of disapproval in her tone, and it made that hint of guilt she'd felt disappear.

"He's in a care facility," Sarah corrected her. "A really nice one. I just went to see him today. I've met all the nurses, they're taking good care of him."

Anna nodded as she lowered herself onto the couch. It was jarring to see her sitting there among all of the furniture and decorations Sarah saw every day.

"I guess I was just surprised to hear that you went that direction," Anna said hesitantly, dancing around the uncomfortable topic in the same way Sarah knew she always did, too. "Mitch still lived in our old house, didn't he? Why didn't you just move back home?"

Sarah had asked herself the same question about her mom for years: Why didn't you move back home? But she wasn't going to get into that. Not today. Today she was too tired, and that exhaustion swept through her as she followed her mother's suit and took a seat on the chair across from her, dropping the heavy duffel bag at her feet.

"I have a full-time job, and it's…long, stressful hours. I can't take care of him the way he needs," Sarah explained, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I thought with your performance schedule, maybe you could make it work. Pass on some shows and take others so the schedule works better, or…"

"I don't play piano for a living anymore, Mom," Sarah said flatly.

Anna blinked. "What? What do you mean? You just played at the—the party where you got hurt."

"That was a favor to a friend. I work in an office now," Sarah said, forcing herself to give a casual shrug. "I really can't pull Dad out of his facility. I wish I could, but if—if that's the reason you came all the way to New York, then…I'm sorry."

"It's not. I wanted to see Mitch, see how…how he's doing," Anna said hesitantly.

Sarah stared at her. "…why?"

Anna raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What do you mean, why? He's my ex-husband. Your father. We were a family. He's not dead to me just because we aren't married anymore."

"Mom…it's not that I'm not happy to see you, but y-you can't just show up like this without even calling," Sarah said, scrubbing her hands over her face.

"I tried to call," Anna countered. "Several times since I got here. There was never any answer, so I thought you must have gotten a new number since the last time we spoke."

Right. That would have been when her phone was buried in a bowl of rice.

"I—yeah, I…lost my phone," Sarah admitted. "I have it back now. But still. If you weren't able to get in touch with me that means it's not a good time to come. You can't just go see Dad, you'll confuse him. It'll upset him."

"If you didn't want me to see him, why did you reach out to tell me what was going on?" Anna asked slowly.

Sarah bit the inside of her cheek in frustration. She wasn't sure if it was just her shitty mood from the last week, or if she'd changed so much as a person over the last year that she'd lost patience for these kinds of conversations with her mother.

"Because it seemed like something you should know. I figured we'd have a conversation about it, and maybe I could…I don't know, talk to his doctors and see what the best way is to handle something like that. I need time to plan it out, you can't just—just pop up out of nowhere like this. Not right now."

"Well, it has to be now."

"Why?"

"Charlie's cousin is getting married this week, so we're in New York for the wedding. We're making a vacation out of it. And it makes more sense to go see Mitch now, while we're here. If I wait until we're all the way back in Albuquerque then Charlie will have all sorts of questions about where I'm going, and…" Anna trailed off uncomfortably. "We just don't really talk about that time in my life."

Sarah knew she was talking about the drinking and the drugs, but she couldn't help being painfully aware that the life Anna so desperately tried to forget was also the one where she had been her daughter.

"Are you saying…your current husband doesn't know you're sneaking off to visit your ex-husband?" Sarah clarified.

"I'm not sneaking, don't be that way," Anna protested. "I just don't feel like getting into a big discussion about all this if I don't have to. I don't want Charlie to be upset with me if he doesn't understand. And I don't want you to be upset with me, either."

And suddenly Sarah recognized so much of herself in her mother that she could have cried. The desperate need to keep everything separate and under control, to never make anyone mad at her. To view the lies and the sneaking around as necessary to keep the peace, instead of the avoidance that it truly was. It made her want to reach out and push her mother's back straight, tell her that she knew better than anyone that sometimes you had to tell the truth, even if it was painful.

"I'm not upset with you, but…I still can't take you to see Dad right now," Sarah said gently. The guilt flooded through her now, but she knew it was the right choice. Her father was finally adjusting to living in an entirely new environment, and the one thing that was sure to ruin all of his progress was Anna. "You…you know that seeing you makes him spiral, Mom. Even before he was like this. And now? It'll just upset him and confuse him about…where he is. When it is."

"But how can you even know that? I haven't been here since his diagnosis."

"I know that," Sarah said, her voice sharper than she intended. "But I have been. I've spent hours with his doctors, figuring about what his triggers are."

"Look, I understand you don't want to upset your father, but…I don't want to miss this chance to see him, and then something happens and we never get any closure—"

"Something happens?" Sarah repeated faintly. She didn't want to think about that scenario, still somewhere far down the path. "He's nowhere near that point yet. But if he started to get there, of course I would call you. And if you actually answer—"

"So I have to wait until he's dying to come see him?" Anna demanded, her blue eyes shining with distress.

"That's not what I'm saying at all! I'm saying not right now. Go to your wedding with Charlie. And…maybe in a couple months, we can try then. But I have a lot going on right now, and I can't also be trying to fix the damage with Dad if—if seeing you goes badly. I'm s—" Sarah caught herself before apologizing again. She took a deep breath. "I'm the only person he has looking out for him, and I need to make sure I'm doing the right thing for him."

A long silence followed her words, and Sarah had to resist the urge to fill the silence with more explanations and justifications.

"Alright," Anna said finally. "That's…not what I was hoping for. But I understand."

Sarah swallowed, wishing this wasn't how her mother's first visit in years had gone.

"You can still see me," Sarah offered hopefully. "We could…have dinner or something, while you're in town."

Anna gave her a weak smile and nodded.

"Of course. I'd love that. I…don't know any of the good places here anymore," she said.

"Where are you staying? We could go somewhere near there."

"We're at the Park Hyatt."

"Wow," Sarah said, surprised by the pricy hotel but relieved to have something else to talk about. "Five star hotel. Charlie's promotion must have been really good."

"It was. And he has some investment properties that have been doing well," Anna said. "And you know, New Mexico is still pretty affordable, and we don't have too many expenses. The house and cars are paid off, no kids."

Sarah nodded, her mouth shut tight. Her mother noticed her expression and winced.

"No, honey, you know what I mean," Anna said, but the endearment sounded stilted rolling off her tongue. "No…no young kids running around. School costs, and all that."

"Right."

Anna looked around the apartment, seemingly searching for some other conversational float to cling to.

"Who was that man you were with?" she asked.

No. Sarah could deal with thinking about her mother or thinking about Matt, but not both painful subjects at once.

"Um…I told you. That was my lawyer, Matt. We…just had some things we had to discuss. Nothing important."

With a sympathetic look, Anna nodded towards the duffel bag at Sarah's feet. It was open slightly, and a few shirts were visible inside.

"Your lawyer was bringing you back a bag full of your clothes?" she asked gently. A flash of pain crossed Sarah's face before she could stop it; her mom caught it immediately. "I'm sorry. Did you just break up recently?"

The phrase 'break up' just didn't seem right for what had happened. It sounded like what normal people did, in normal relationships. Not the total destruction that had just gone down with her and Matt, the uncertain grey area they now found themselves in.

"I, um…I don't know," Sarah admitted.

"That's…a difficult spot to be in," Anna offered. "I've been there myself. When you're not certain where you stand."

Sarah wasn't sure what relationship Anna was talking about. Certainly not the one with her father. There was no clearer way to finalize a breakup than to cut off contact and move across the country. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, then stood up abruptly.

"Is Thursday okay? For dinner?" she asked. "I just have a lot to do this week."

"Uh…yes," Anna said, watching her uncertainly as she got to her feet as well. "Thursday is fine."

"I'll, um…I'll text you some options we could go to. Now that my phone is working."

"Okay."

They looked at each other for a moment, and Anna shifted as though she might embrace her. But once again her gaze took in the cuts and bruises on Sarah's skin, and she seemed to reconsider. Like she wasn't sure if Sarah would break into pieces if she hugged her.

And after the last few days, Sarah couldn't be sure either.

---

From the moment Matt managed to pull himself out of bed the next morning, tired muscles screaming from hours on patrol the night before, the city seemed…louder than normal. More intense. Sirens screamed by as he navigated the crowded sidewalks to the office, heat-baked garbage hung thick in the air, even the vibrations of the subway underneath his feet felt shakier than normal.

Once at the office, Matt tried to focus on his work and not on the increasingly grating stimulation around him. But his thoughts didn't turn to work. They turned to the night before.

Meeting Sarah's mother had thrown him off. Sarah only spoke about Anna occasionally, but he knew she'd been unsuccessfully trying to get in touch with her since her father had gotten diagnosed. To pick now of all times to show up completely unannounced…

Foggy's voice in his doorway was what ultimately pulled him from his thoughts.

"You have Sarah face," his friend greeted him.

Matt sighed, his brow creasing into a deep frown.

"Yep, that face exactly," Foggy confirmed as he dropped into the chair across Matt's desk. "Well, since she's apparently already on your mind, I have a crazy question: Sarah hasn't punched a guy in an elevator lately, has she?"

That wasn't what Matt had been expecting, and he tilted his head uncomprehendingly. "What?"

"I just got off the phone with Anderson from over at Landman and Zack."

Anderson had been an intern at Landman and Zack at the same time they had, and he'd made himself a very lucrative career there. He was friendly enough, although Foggy had gotten to know him better than Matt had. He knew Foggy kept in touch with him, and that they occasionally gave each other a heads up about potential clients. Clients a bit too unscrupulous for Nelson and Murdock, or a bit too broke for Landman and Zack.

"What did he say?"

"He said one of his clients is planning to sue one of our clients—one Miss Sarah Corrigan— for damages. I guess his client is…Todd something? Claims she punched him in the face? Does that sound right?"

Matt sighed and put his head in his hands. "Yeah. It does."

"And he's claiming that now he's having blurry vision in his left eye, and since he's a photographer he wants to sue her for the monetary losses of any jobs he can't do."

"Sounds like bullshit. Anderson's really taking that case?"

"Apparently their fathers both go to the same country club or something, so he's doing it as a favor. He already talked this guy out of pressing assault charges, which is good. Is this a hobby she picked up from you, by the way? Going around punching people? Did she miss the memo about wearing a mask to avoid the whole getting sued and/or arrested thing?"

"If she hit him, he did something to deserve it," Matt said darkly, recalling the night he'd had to go find her on a dark street in a bad area of town because Todd had left her there.

"Well, Anderson seems to think so, too. The whole reason he called is because he doesn't think the case will hold up in court, and he doesn't want to scuff his shiny reputation by going through the entire process just to lose. He thinks he can convince Todd to have a sit down with us in a few days to see if anything can be mediated out of court first."

Matt drummed his fingers on the desk as he took that in. If Todd's lawyer didn't think the case would hold up in court, he must be concerned Todd had done something that would also come out.

"So…do you want to let her know, or should I?" Foggy asked. "She'll get notified by Landman and Zack either way, but…you know how intense their legal notices are. They want people to be scared as soon as they get the letter."

"I…think it'd be better if you told her," Matt said, knowing even as he spoke that he'd get pushback on it.

"Right. So, will I be handling this mediation…solo style, then?" Foggy asked.

Matt sighed.

"You've always been the better lawyer out of the two of us, Fog. You don't need me for a mediation. I'll help you prepare, but…"

Foggy paused. "So…you two still aren't any closer to speaking again, I guess."

Matt was quiet for a long moment, trying to figure out how to explain to his friend why this felt different.

"You know, when I tell her I'll keep her safe, she never questions it. She just believes it, like…I told her the sky is blue," Matt said quietly.

Apparently the abrupt change in direction wasn't what Foggy had expected him to respond with.

"…okay. You do realize you're describing the concept of 'trust' right now, right?" Foggy asked slowly. "You don't have to sound so upset about it."

"Because it meant neither of us was prepared for any of this. It never even crossed my mind that she would give up my identity on purpose. But she did. And I don't think it ever occurred to her that I would let her get hurt. But I did. I nearly let her die at that charity ball, Foggy. We built all that trust on promises that neither of us kept."

"But she didn't die, and you didn't go to jail," Foggy pointed out. "I get that they were close calls and that's a scary thing, but you're both still alive and walking free and…not together. Which just…doesn't feel right. I don't think cutting her out is really going to lead to a utopia of safety and happiness for either of you."

Matt scrubbed his hands over his tired face. Foggy didn't get it. It wasn't the result of the close calls that was the problem, it was what had gotten them there. Getting involved so deeply in each other's lives that they lost sight of the danger around them. He couldn't stop thinking about those few moments they'd spent out on the balcony at the party. Slow dancing and laughing and completely ignoring the danger that was right inside. That had been unbelievably reckless of both of them, and neither of them had noticed as they'd taken every step to get to that point. He'd put being with her ahead of protecting her…and ahead of protecting the rest of his loved ones.

"I'm not cutting her out of my life, Foggy, I'm just—I need time to think about things," he said tiredly. "I don't think that's such an insane thing to ask for. This wasn't some small mistake."

"I know. I agree, she screwed up big time," Foggy said. He didn't say anything about Matt screwing up, too; Matt wished he would. "I just hope that when you're done thinking, you two find your way back to each other. After everything you two have gone through…it just feels like such a waste."

Matt just pressed his lips together tightly and nodded.

Foggy left his office a few moments later, and the noise of the city began to press in on him again.

---

On the other side of Hell's Kitchen, Sarah had been up for several hours. She'd barely slept at all, between replaying her conversation with her mother and nervously anticipating dealing with Jason after having witnessed yet another one of his ordered kills. Giving up on getting any sleep, she'd finally gotten up and slowly started doing some of the chores she'd been too tired to do all week: washing a few dishes, wiping her counters. Nothing too taxing, although she could feel her energy returning to her the tiniest bit.

She had just gotten dressed for work and was about to run her recycling downstairs before leaving when her phone rang. She set the bin down and picked up her phone, then started at the name on the screen: Nelson and Murdock.

"Hello?" she answered quickly.

"Hey, Sarah."

Sarah bit down hard on her lip to keep the wave of disappointment from surging through her as she heard Foggy's voice.

"Foggy. Hi. What's up?"

"Uh, well…I wish I could say it was something good."

Her chest tightened as she thought of the only bad news she could picture Foggy reaching out to her with.

"Is Matt hurt?"

"No, no, nothing like that. It's you, actually. I got a call from a friend of mine; he's a lawyer over at Landman and Zack. And he has a client who wants to take legal action against you," Foggy said. "For…punching him in an elevator? Is that…ringing a bell?"

Sarah closed her eyes. Of course. Things were just too easy lately. She needed something else to pile on her plate.

Their conversation wasn't long. Foggy took a few minutes to run her through the situation: she could potentially avoid having to go to court, but they'd have to meet with Todd and his lawyer. She rolled her eyes when Foggy mentioned Todd's claim that he was having vision problems that were affecting his job. She'd bet a million dollars he was making that up. But she didn't roll her eyes when Foggy informed her that depending on the veracity of his claims, she might end up paying quite a bit of money—money that she didn't have.

It also didn't escape her attention that Foggy was the one handling this. He never mentioned Matt, never used 'we' when talking about representing her. Apparently she'd lost her right to the 'Murdock' half of the firm's legal protection. But at least the 'Nelson' half didn't seem to hate her, or at least not enough to leave her to fend for herself against Todd and his almost certainly expensive lawyer.

"…so we'll meet up and go over exactly what happened, just to make sure I have a good picture of everything. Is tomorrow alright?"

"Tomorrow is fine," Sarah said. She hesitated, then added, "And Foggy, um…I meant to tell you that I'm sorry. I know that all of this with me and Matt and Lauren…if it had gone wrong, you would have been in a lot of danger."

There was a pause, then static as Foggy let out a long sigh.

"It's okay. I signed up for some potential danger when I decided to stick things out with Matt. I should have anticipated that someday that warranty would have to extend to a danger-magnet girlfriend as well."

Sarah didn't bother pointing out that she probably wasn't Matt's girlfriend anymore, even if he wouldn't officially say it to her.

Once she hung up the phone with Foggy and no longer had his friendly voice in her ear, the situation began to fully sink in.

"Shit," she mumbled into her hands, then pulled them away and repeated louder, "Shit."

She tried to push the agitation from her mind as she angrily grabbed the bin of recyclables and yanked her front door open—

Only to find Jason standing on the other side, his eyebrows raised at her sudden and aggressive appearance.

"Good morning, Sarah," Jason said pleasantly. "Happy Monday. May I come in?"

Sarah was frozen in place for a beat. Then she reluctantly took a jerky step back, her mind unwillingly flashing to every vampire movie Lauren had forced her to watch where the creature had to be invited in before attacking its prey.

Jason gazed around her living room as she shut the door behind them and set down the recycling bin. Clearly he hadn't been satisfied with whatever details Tracksuit had reported back to him about her home, and had decided to come inspect things himself. What exactly was he hoping to find?

"Um, what…what brings you over here?" she asked.

"Oh, it was on my way to the office," he said, lying to her so cheerfully that her stomach turned. She couldn't think of anyplace he'd be coming from that would take him along her street. He walked slowly around her living room, his hands clasped calmly behind his back. "My car was passing by and I thought…I've never properly paid Sarah Corrigan a visit. It's awfully rude of me."

"It's fine," she said nervously. "My place is tiny, so…I don't really host a lot."

"Nonsense, it's not fine for a boss to know so little about his employee's life," Jason said, his gaze wandering around, slinking over the trinkets on her shelves, the muted show on the television, the pile of bills on her kitchen table. "So you'll forgive me for interrupting your morning routine in order to rectify my mistake."

Sarah didn't say anything, just watched him closely as he moved around the space. She made a mental catalogue of the things she wouldn't want him to see—Vanessa and Cecilia's cell phones being top of the list—and where they were. Luckily everything was out of sight.

"You didn't update me on Friday," Jason noted casually. "On what happened at our new friend Gregory's home when you went there."

Right. Sarah had nearly forgotten that as far as Jason knew, she'd been waiting at Greg's apartment for Jason's instructions if the original attack at the office failed.

"Well, I—I didn't really have anything to report. I just waited nearby, and then…I saw the attack on the news, and I figured everything went according to plan," Sarah said. "So I went home."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "Then it's very lucky for you that things did go according to plan. We got the cell phone."

"That's…good. You destroyed it?" she asked neutrally.

"No. I was going to, and then I thought…maybe there's something useful on that footage. Maybe it gives some insight into how that journalist knew our Daredevil was a fake. Maybe…she knew who the real Daredevil is," Jason said, his voice light but his eyes boring into her.

"Oh. I mean, I think that's probably something she would have published," Sarah suggested.

"Perhaps. But there's one way to find out, and it's on that phone. Unfortunately our friend in the mask is taking some time off," Jason said. Sarah noted with some apprehension that he seemingly wasn't planning to share with her that his hired imposter was dead. "So it will fall on you to go find the phone's owner again and get him to unlock that phone. Through whatever means you feel necessary."

Sarah paused as she understood two things simultaneously:

If Jason sent her on that mission he'd be handing the phone right over to her, with all the footage she so desperately needed.

And if that footage appeared on the news right after he gave her that phone, there was zero chance he wouldn't know she had done it.

Her conflicted thoughts must have shown in her expression, because Jason tilted his head curiously.

"What's wrong? You take issue with the plan?"

Her mind was still forming an excuse as she answered.

"No. It's just…when I went to his home, I noticed it was in a nice area," Sarah offered, trying to keep her nerves out of her voice. "He has money, so—so he's probably hired security since the attack at the office. Or at least gotten some extra police presence around. It just…seems like it might draw a lot of attention if we try attacking him again."

"And what alternative do you suggest?" Jason asked calmly.

She opened her mouth as she desperately tried to think of one, any alternative to get Jason's focus off of Greg and Lauren again.

"You have one of the tech people coming to work on your laptop on Thursday," she said suddenly. "To—to do your quarterly security upgrade. I have it on your calendar. Don't they know how to just...break into those things?"

They probably didn't. But she didn't want them to actually break into the phone; they just needed to give Jason a reason to bring it into the office.

Jason watched her thoughtfully.

"I admit, I forget about the technological skills some of our employees have," he acknowledged. "They never come out of their offices. But…it could be a cleaner way to get into the phone. Avoid the risk of more attention."

As Sarah nervously pushed her hair behind her ear, she saw Jason's gaze lingering on her cheekbone.

"It's interested how every time I see you, you seem to have injured yourself even more," he noted.

"I think everyone at the fundraiser got at least a few cuts and scrapes," she said.

He tapped his cheek, mirroring hers as his eyes shone. "You didn't have that one just a few days ago. What exactly do you do in your time off that's so dangerous?"

Sarah opened her mouth, trying to decide how to respond when out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tiny flurry of movement across the floor. She realized it was the mouse a split second before Jason saw it too, and in flash he slammed his foot down onto it. She bit back a strangled yelp, her hands automatically flying to her mouth.

To her relief, Jason had only caught very end of the mouse's tail, effectively pinning it in place under his shoe. The tiny mouse was squirming around in a desperate attempt to free itself, but the heavy weight on its tail prevented its escape.

"You have a rodent problem," he noted idly. His face was devoid of expression as he observed the struggling creature trapped under his foot. "If you hand me something heavy, I can take care of it for you."

"No," Sarah burst out. She tried to lower her voice and keep it more even. "It—it's fine. Don't worry about it."

Jason's pale eyes raised from the mouse to meet her own. When he spoke, his voice was very calm, and the sound of it gave her chills.

"I've always been of the belief that there's no point in allowing a rat to continue breathing once you've learned of its existence."

Sarah met his eyes, keeping her expression neutral. She knew he was trying to test her, that he liked saying things just to see if she would react with guilt. The frantic squeaking sounds coming from the mouse was starting to make her feel vaguely ill.

"He's not a rat; he's just a harmless mouse. And I'll figure something out later," she said tightly. "You can just...let it go."

Jason watched her for another beat as Sarah prayed that he wouldn't stomp the poor thing to death. He finally seemed satisfied that she'd passed whatever stress test he was giving her.

"Very well," he said finally, and lifted his shoe and allowed the mouse to scurry away to safety under the refrigerator. "Let's go then. Grab your things."

Sarah sucked in a deep, shaky breath as Jason swept out of the apartment. A strange feeling of helplessness washed over her. Her days of fooling Jason were clearly running out, and quickly. She didn't know if it was his paranoia or her own missteps that were bringing everything down. Maybe it was both. But either way…she didn't know what to do about it but keep playing along.

Once Jason was out of sight, Sarah knelt down and squinted under the fridge. At the very back, she could see the mouse's beady eyes watching her warily from the safety of the shadows.

Poor guy, she thought. First his home gets doused in gasoline and then someone tries to squash him.

"I'm sorry, buddy," she whispered to him.

She leaned up and grabbed a couple chips from the bag on the counter, setting them on the ground at the edge of the fridge for the mouse as a peace offering.

And then, despite all of the alarm bells going off inside her head, she went to work…because what else could she do?

---

As the week slowly passed, Matt got the space from Sarah that he'd requested—and then some. They'd both agreed on that rooftop that she would reach out to him with any updates on the situation at Orion. So it was starting to concern him that it had been complete radio silence since the last time he'd seen her, because he was certain things weren't so calm at Orion that there was nothing worth reporting.

He stopped by the roof across from hers every night—just for a few moments. He didn't want to listen in on her, didn't want to hear her ridiculous soap opera on the television or catch the hint of her shampoo and lotion in the air when she passed by her window. Not just because it would piss her off to know he was up there—which it would—but because it made everything inside him itch to knock on her window. And he wasn't ready to do that yet.

But his nights as Daredevil were difficult—much more so now that half the city wanted to see him dead. So for his own sanity he lingered for just moments each night, listening to her heartbeat—reassuring himself she was okay, that her heart was steady and her breathing was normal.

And then he moved on to the next rooftop.

When Matt arrived at the office on Wednesday that week, he was caught off guard to find that Karen was there but Foggy wasn't yet. It was unusual these days for the two of them to be in the office without Foggy there to act as a buffer between them.

Karen didn't seem to actively hate him anymore, but they still hung in this awkward limbo they'd been in since she'd found out about him. It was better than it had been, by far. But there was still a barrier between them when they spoke—like coworkers, not like friends. Surface level conversations, but never moving beyond that.

That particular morning, Karen had a newspaper spread out across her desk, and barely seemed to notice him come in as she let out a disapproving huff at whatever she was reading.

"Something upsetting in the news?" he asked, leaning for a moment against the door frame.

Karen looked up from her newspaper.

"Uh…you, actually."

Matt nodded slowly. "A less than glowing review, I'm guessing?"

"It's insane how all of these people just…believe you orchestrated those attacks," she said, folding up the newspaper with frustrated force. "With no proof."

"Well, I think the video and the dozens of eyewitnesses are being taken as proof," he said dryly.

"You'd think out of all the people you've saved in this city, at least some of them would think twice before believing the worst."

He paused.

"Did you?" he asked. "Believe the worst? Before I called you and Foggy, I mean."

"No," Karen said simply. Her heartbeat was steady.

This was about the limit of how long their friendly interactions had gotten lately, and Matt didn't want to push it. He gave a short nod and turned to enter his office.

"Matt," Karen said suddenly, and Matt stopped. "I, um…"

She got up from her desk and came around to stand in front of him. Matt tilted his head curiously.

"Look, I know things haven't been great between us," she said, and his eyebrows went up at the understatement. "When I found out about who you are…I felt like I'd been tricked this whole time. Like I never knew you at all. But…seeing all of that news coverage about things I knew you would never do…it made me realize I do still know you. Because I know who you're not."

"I'm glad," Matt said. He hesitated. "I…I get why you've been angry, Karen."

"But I haven't. Not really, not for a while. But I don't know, I guess I've been avoiding actually forgiving you because…sometimes I think if the situation were reversed, you won't forgive me," Karen said, her tone quiet and serious. "Neither of you will. Maybe it's some kind of…preemptive strike, you know?"

And there was something in her voice again, something he'd heard before but still couldn't identify. Guilt, but…underneath that, something else.

"Forgive you for what?" he asked carefully.

"That's the best part," Karen said with a shaky laugh. "There's more than one thing. And…I don't think I'm brave enough to tell you and Foggy about any of it. Not yet."

Despite himself, Matt's memory jumped to an argument he'd had with Sarah a long time ago, to some of the things she'd suggested about Karen that he'd refused to believe. And maybe if he wasn't already so broken down from everything happening with Sarah, he'd have pressed Karen more on it. But right now, he wasn't sure he could take another huge shift in the dynamics of his life. Right now, he just wanted some small relief of starting to fix a friendship he'd missed.

"When you're ready," he said. "I'll listen. So will Foggy."

He felt her watching him for a long moment, and he wondered if he was thinking about the situation he was in now, the way he was so clearly struggling to forgive Sarah. No wonder she worried about him doing the same with her.

"Okay," she said finally. "I hope so."

---

While the week crawled by for Matt, it did the same if not worse for Sarah.

The hours spent at work weren't that bad, surprisingly. Since his ominous visit to her home, Jason had actually kept fairly busy with his own work during the week, allowing Sarah a chance to breathe freely for once. Of course, she was fairly certain the task he was working so hard at was finding another person to dress as the Devil and attack innocent people, so…it wasn't entirely stress-free.

It was the hours spent at home that were hard. Sarah couldn't stop herself from thinking about everything: Jason and the imposter, her mother, the upcoming meeting with Todd...and about Matt. She tried not to think about him, but despite herself she found herself wondering each night if he was nearby or if he was truly keeping his distance.

To make things even more gloomy, there had been a steady downpour of rain all week. Sarah had heard on the radio that it was one of the rainiest weeks on record for the city, and she believed it.

The tranquilizer had finally faded from her system, and to her relief she could feel the gradual improvement in her strength each day. By Thursday, she estimated she was at maybe eighty percent, which was a good seventy percent higher than she'd felt before. Her dinner with her mother was scheduled for that night, and Sarah was relieved she'd be able to show up looking significantly less bruised and tired than before.

It was still raining when she went into work that day. The street drains were backed up with trash and debris, causing the streets to flood. Block after block consisted of standstill traffic as cars were forced to take turns driving down the narrow strips of drivable space flanked by wide stretches of deep dirty water on both sides of the street. In the few spots where the sewer drains were working properly, the water rushed through the street to the only available outlets, creating tiny rivers along the curbs.

On a normal day, Sarah would have found this to be an irritating situation all around. But today, it was exactly what she needed.

It was shortly after noon, and she was sitting across from Jason in the back a company car on their way back from an offsite meeting. Jason was busy typing away on his phone, replying to what Sarah assumed were some kind of evil emails. His mood had been even more intense than usual all day, and she wondered if he was getting close to finding the masked replacement he'd been searching for.

But if everything went how she hoped, another fake Daredevil wouldn't be an issue. Because today was the day someone from the tech department was coming to upgrade Jason's computer—and as far as Jason was expecting, to successfully break into Greg's phone.

Greg's phone which was currently in Sarah's sight, tucked neatly into the outside pocket of Jason's sleek leather briefcase, which sat on the floor beside his feet. It was the first time she'd seen him bring it into the office with him.

An interesting thing that Sarah had once noticed about Cecilia was that she and Greg were the only people Sarah knew who didn't put a case on their phones. For Greg, it was mostly a matter of absent-mindedness: eternally forgetting to order things like a case or screen protector, and by the time he might think about it, a new phone was already out. After all, he and Lauren could always afford them. Technically Cecilia could have had the same reasoning, but Sarah assumed hers was more intentional: a signal to the world that she was successful and had money, and didn't need to worry about things like replacing an expensive phone if it broke.

But regardless of the 'why', it meant they both had the same nice, generic phone: the newest model from that year, with no bright cases or stickers. When turned off they were identical—except for the water damage on Cecilia's. And that was what gave her the idea.

The actual switching of the two phones wasn't difficult.

"I'm sorry sir, I'll need to let you out in front of the building," the driver up front had called back as they approached Orion's block. "It's too flooded to get into the parking garage. Might stall out."

Jason was in the reverse-facing seat, and he had craned around in his seat to speak in low tones with the driver, discussing something about a route he was supposed to take to a meeting later. It only took a moment to lean down, slip Greg's phone out of the briefcase pocket, and replace it with Cecilia's ruined one.

The complication was that Jason would undoubtedly notice when he pulled the phone out for the tech person to work on and found that it was suddenly a water-damaged, non-functioning phone when just a few hours previously it had been working just fine.

The car pulled up in front of Orion; the rain was coming down sideways, drumming hard against the car windows.

"Go up and get the conference room prepared for my one o'clock meeting," Jason ordered Sarah, not taking his eyes off whatever he was typing on his phone. "I need to make a phone call. I'll be up shortly."

Sarah's stomach twisted nervously as she looked at Jason, then at the briefcase by his feet.

"Okay," she said with short nod.

As she climbed out of the car, putting one foot down in the flooded street, she let her other foot catch on the handle of Jason's briefcase. A minor stumble, but she made a show of losing her balance, grabbing onto the car door and tripping forward so that the briefcase was yanked along with her, and then—

The briefcase fell out of the car and into the flooded street, where it was quickly covered by the dirty water that flowed over it. The phone was knocked out of the side pocket on impact, and rested on the pavement a few inches away, barely visible beneath the inches of rushing water.

"Oh, my god," Sarah exclaimed. "I'm so sorry—

"Grab it, you imbecile!" Jason snapped as he shoved his phone into his inside jacket pocket and began to climb from the vehicle. "The phone, too!"

Sarah leaned down and grabbed the briefcase, then squinted at the ground for a few moments before pretending like she had finally just spotted the phone. She bent down and snatched that from the dirty water as well. As quickly as she picked the items up, Jason seized them from her hands and strode towards the entrance of the building. Sarah quickly ran her fingers over her own pocket to reassure herself Greg's real phone was still in there. And then she followed Jason inside.

Inside, there was an exceptionally deranged glint in Jason's eye as he inspected the soaking wet briefcase and phone.

"I'm really sorry," Sarah said again. "I was trying to avoid the deeper water when I stepped out, and I just tripped—"

"I don't want to hear about it, you clumsy fool," Jason said icily. "For your sake, our technician better be able to fix it when we meet with him later."

On some level, she knew she should have been more nervous about the anger in his tone. But something had shifted inside of her lately—not even since her fallout with Matt. Before that. Maybe since she woke up after slipping so close to death. Maybe since she sat back down at the piano in front of a crowd. Whenever it had happened, it suddenly felt like if she didn't accelerate things somehow, her chance to escape this place would slip through her fingers. And if that meant taking risks...then she would.

The tech person who was scheduled for 2:15 was late, and Jason was in exactly the kind of mood where he might quite literally take someone's head off for such an offense. Jason was infamous throughout the company, where rumors were constantly circulating about his unpredictable temperament, the unnerving scars that crisscrossed his face, the violent acts he so casually ordered. So it was unusual and surprising for anyone to be late to a meeting with him.

Shortly after 2:40, Sarah was focused on her screen when she heard footsteps quickly approaching her desk, and when she looked up she was surprised to see a short, thin young woman, maybe twenty-two at the oldest. She had dark skin and hair cropped close to her scalp, and bright teal glasses that matched her earrings.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I'm late for an appointment. It was supposed to be my coworker, and I didn't know until the last minute that he called in sick so it would be me," the girl said, blurting out her explanation so quickly her words were tripping over themselves. "And then I—I got lost down the wrong hallway. I don't ever come up to this floor. I don't really ever come out of the tech department."

"Okay," Sarah said slowly, taking her nervous countenance. "It's alright. What's your name?"

"Brianna. I really wouldn't have been late if I'd known I was getting the assignment sooner," she insisted.

"It's okay," Sarah repeated in what she hoped was a calming voice. "I'll let him know you're here."

"Okay," Brianna breathed out, smoothing down the front of her skirt. "Okay. Is he mad? Will he—? I've just—I've never actually met him."

"You'll be fine; it's just an appointment. Just take a deep breath. And…try not to let him see you're nervous," Sarah suggested gently.

Brianna nodded, wide-eyed as she followed Sarah to Jason's door. Sarah knocked, and Jason's voice was sharp when he called out the command for them to enter.

"Your appointment from the tech department is here," Sarah said once she opened the door. Brianna stepped inside behind her, shifting uncomfortably. Sarah remembered all too well how nerve-wracking the first time actually being in Jason's presence was.

"You're very late," Jason said calmly, his gaze pinned to Brianna with disquieting intensity. "Is this an indication of the value you and your team place on my time? You want to frivolously waste it while collecting a paycheck?"

"N-no," Brianna stammered. "No, I'm sorry, I—"

"It's my fault," Sarah cut in. "I put 2:15 on your calendar, but I just realized I scheduled it at 2:45 on their end."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Brianna whip her head to look at her, but she didn't turn to make eye contact. She just kept watching Jason.

Jason's cool eyes moved from Brianna to Sarah, where he watched her for a moment before turning his attention back to Brianna. He stood up, then nodded to his computer chair.

"Sit," he ordered. "How long will the security updates take?"

"Not long," Brianna said quickly as she moved behind the desk to sit down, her nervous eyes darting to Jason every few seconds.

"Good. Because I have another task for you in addition to that one," Jason said. He reached into his briefcase pocket and pulled out the cellphone that he thought was Greg's, and set it down in front of her. "I have a cell phone that I don't have the passcode for, and I need to get into it. I assume that's something you can do."

Brianna's eyes widened at the request, and her hand shook as she reached for the cell phone. Sarah suddenly felt a stab of guilt that part of her plan had involved promising something she knew the tech department probably couldn't do. She didn't want Jason to take it out on this poor girl.

"I—I can perform a factory reset. But it will erase all of the data on the phone," she said.

"That's not an option," Jason said. "I need the data."

Brianna looked up him, lost for words and unable to offer him a solution.

"The other issue is that an idiot dropped it on the flooded street earlier today," Jason continued, pinning Sarah with cold eyes for a moment. "It was submerged in the water for maybe thirty seconds. How do we fix it?"

Brianna shook her head and squinted at the phone with a puzzled look on her face, and Sarah's heart dropped. She'd spotted the extensive water damage, had clocked that never would have set in that quickly.

"Thirty seconds? But this level of water damage isn't—" Brianna began, then as she looked up from the phone she glanced at Sarah, who watched her with wide, panicked eyes. Her words died out as the two terrified women made eye contact.

"Isn't what?" Jason asked sharply.

"Isn't…isn't fixable," she said finally as she tore her gaze away from Sarah. "It…already got into the electrical circuit. That's why the screen looks like that. It won't turn on again."

Relief flooded through Sarah, mixed with gratitude for this stranger helping her.

"What do you mean? It was just working fine," Jason said through gritted teeth. "A little water broke it permanently?"

Visibly swallowing, the poor tech girl tried to explain. "If it was dropped at all before this, it might have already had some damage to the circuit that just—"

Brianna flinched as Jason snatched the phone from her as violently as he had from Sarah. He pressed the buttons on the side, tapped the screen, shook it…before finally seeming to accept that it really wouldn't turn on.

Suddenly, Jason hurled the phone across the room with such force that the screen shattered as it hit the wall. Alarm bells went off in Sarah's head as he slowly turned fully towards her.

"Are you playing games with me?" he asked her, the deadly calm in his voice incongruous with his murderous expression.

"What? N-no," Sarah said. "It was an accident—"

Then, like de ja vu, Jason grabbed her by the front of her jacket and wrenched her a step forward, throwing her off balance, then slammed her back again, causing her to gasp out in pain as her left side crashed against the edge of the bookshelf behind her.

It was almost like the day he'd thrown her into the bar cart—but with one difference. Today, something deep inside Sarah's mind—or maybe inside her soul, for all she knew—couldn't take this one more time. Couldn't take one more man putting his hands on her, one more person leaving a bruise on her body.

Without thinking, her left hand scrambled for the razor sharp letter opener Jason kept on his bookshelf. Her fingers closed around it and she drove it as hard as she could into Jason's shoulder, right where he was currently extending his arm to pin her in place.

His eyes widened in surprise…but then hers did as well as the knife-like object failed to go through his jacket. It should have gone through, would have torn right through any normal fabric—

But before she could waste time thinking about it, she tightened her grip on the letter opener and switched tactics, jerking her fist up from Jason's shoulder and directly against his nose. It didn't land as hard as it would have with her right hand, but at least this time he let go as she heard a faint crunch at the impact. She swung again, this time with her right hand, hitting him in the throat with enough force that he stumbled back a step.

Jason's breath rattled, but he kept his pale eyes pinned to Sarah. He was still between her and the door.

Still sitting at Jason's computer, Brianna seemed frozen in place as she watched the two of them.

"Get out," Jason spat at Brianna, and she was gone almost before he finished his words.

Sarah grasped the letter opener in her hand so tightly it hurt, breathing heavily as she watched Jason for any indication he was about to lunge at her again.

"Tell me, Sarah…what was it that finally managed to turn you against me?" Jason asked. Blood dripped from his nose, and he did nothing to stop it as he ran down his face. "Money? Naked ambition? Spite?"

"I haven't turned against you," she said, surprised at how calm her voice sounded considering the panic raging inside her. "But I won't let you touch me like that again. I won't let anyone."

Maybe it was a waste of time to try to talk her way out of this, to cling to any part of her lies that might still be intact, but she didn't see any other option that gave her a chance of getting out of here.

"No. No, I think you've gone rotten. I suspected before, but now…" Jason narrowed his eyes at her. "Was it Vanessa that put you up to this?"

"No one put me up to anything," Sarah said, the lies coming nearly on autopilot as she kept all her attention on Jason's body language: on the way his weight shifted, where his feet were placed, how his hands hung at his sides. If she was very, very lucky, she thought she could probably throw him off balance if he came at her, knock him to the ground long enough to get out of the office.

"I'm sure she's offered you protection, and you better cling to that protection like a child, Sarah Corrigan," Jason said, her name venomous on his tongue. "Because the only reason you and your father aren't dead yet is that it would cause contention with her, and I cannot afford that right now. But that protection won't last forever. When Vanessa figures out what you really are, it will be me she comes to for a solution. And rest assured I will be eagerly helping her figure you out. You're working with just her from now on; I don't want to see your face in this building again."

Sarah was silent as the two of them stared at each other. The ribs on her left side were throbbing in pain, and her hand that held the letter opener was curled into such a tight fist that she was starting to lose feeling.

Jason gave her one final too-wide smile, so fierce it looked like he was baring each of his bright white teeth at her. And then he turned on his heel and calmly left the office, leaving her standing there alone in the corner, trying to catch her breath as everything that had just happened began to sink in.

---

Sarah hurriedly grabbed her things and left the building before Jason could return to his office. He'd ordered her not to show her face in Orion again, and she didn't need to be told twice. As she stepped outside, she saw that the torrential rain had actually stopped for once, but the sky still hung low and dark above the buildings.

At home, she barely set her bag down before she was already pulling Greg's phone out and typing in Noah's birthday to unlock it. She scrolled to the last few videos in his library until she recognized the ballroom in several of the thumbnails.

The first few videos were the ones Sarah had seen Cecilia filming: short interviews with people who ranged from breathlessly giving minute-by-minute accounts of their ordeal to people who looked as though they'd rather be anywhere other than on camera.

Then the location changed: it looked like she was on the second floor, filming the destruction below. The camera panned the ruined ballroom, zooming in on the rubble, the crumbling walls, the groups of injured people huddling together. Squinting, Sarah spotted herself in the crowd, standing next to Lauren, and she watched as Matt was led over to the group. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sarah's heart twisted at the sight of Matt in his tuxedo, and her mind flashed to that one brief, perfect moment the two of them had shared on the balcony. On the video, Lauren greeted Matt with a relieved hug.

In present time, Sarah raised her eyebrows, wondering how Lauren would react to the sight of herself unknowingly embracing the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

In the next video Cecilia was up higher, on the third floor. She was taking a similar panning shot of the third floor, where the destruction wasn't as great but still noticeable. The sound of the crowd below was quieter at this height, which was probably why the sound of footsteps behind the camera was so clear.

Cecilia spun, and from the camera angle Sarah could tell she'd lowered the phone, but she could still clearly see the fake Daredevil. He had the same broad shoulders and tapered waist as Matt, but the mouth under the mask was harsh and wrong.

"Get away from me," Cecilia's harsh voice snapped from behind the camera.

"I don't think I will," the imposter replied in a mocking tone.

"What do you want?"

"I want lots of money," he said with a careless shrug. "And that means you dead."

"I know you're not really Daredevil," Cecilia said, and Sarah bit the inside of her cheek in frustration. She should have been spending those moments screaming for help, not trying to dig for a story.

"You got me."

"So who are you?" she demanded.

"What do you care?"

"When I tell everyone who really attacked this party, I'd like to be able to give a name."

"Oh, I don't think you'll be telling anyone anything. Ever."

"Who wants me dead?" Cecilia asked, and the camera shook as she started to take a step back, then another. "Why?"

"Can't tell you that," the fake Daredevil said as he calmly matched each of her retreating steps with one towards her. Sarah's heart dropped as she realized he was backing her closer to the balcony. "But you seem pretty annoying; I bet you could come up with a list."

"You just said you're going to kill me anyway. You can at least tell me who ordered it."

Despite how incredibly stupid it was, Sarah couldn't help but feel a tiny glimmer of respect for the lack of any shake or tremor in Cecilia's voice. Only anger.

"Sure. Why not. Does the name Jason ring a bell?" he asked with a sharp grin.

Cecilia was silent behind the phone, but her expression must have been one of confusion, because the fake Daredevil let out a laugh. Then he lunged for her, his hands finding her throat, and the camera lurching as Cecilia let out a strangled scream.

The fake Daredevil said something in a harsh tone, but Sarah couldn't make it out over the chaos on the screen. The balcony loomed closer in the background as the two of them struggled, and Sarah's stomach turned as she thought about how terrifying it must have been to be dragged closer and closer to it. The picture blurred as the camera in Cecilia's hand thrashed back and forth, then clattered to the floor, and the picture went black.

Sarah sat very still as the clip ended.

So the video did show what she'd hoped it would, what Jason had feared. It was unambiguous that the man in it wasn't really Daredevil. He even said Jason's name—something the general public wouldn't care about, but Vanessa certainly would.

She didn't waste any time before calling Lauren, who answered on the first ring.

"I got Greg's phone," Sarah said without any preamble. "It does have the video on it."

In the background she could hear Greg's voice asking something.

"Hang on, I'm putting you on speaker—" Lauren said, then her voice was a little tinnier and farther away. "You got the phone? How?"

"I switched it out for Cecilia's broken one."

"And that worked? Your boss didn't notice the switch?" Greg asked.

Sarah paused, very aware of the throbbing pain in her bruised ribcage.

"It's a long story," she said. "I, um…I won't be going back to Orion again. I'm just working for Vanessa now."

"Oh. Is that…good? Bad?" Lauren asked.

"I don't know," Sarah said honestly. "But I watched the video, and…I want to give it to Matt. He'll know how to get it in the right hands to get it in the news. But I….I know it's a risk for you guys."

There was a long silence on the other end.

"Will it help make things better?" Greg asked finally. "Releasing the video?"

"Yes," she said emphatically. "It makes it super clear that Jason hired a fake Daredevil, and once everyone knows that...he won't be able to hire another one to go hurt more people. And…and it will clear Matt's name."

Another silence. Sarah assumed Lauren and Greg were having one of their silent conversations they were so practiced at.

"Alright. Give him the footage," Lauren said.

"Have you thought about what I asked you? About leaving town?" Sarah asked.

Lauren's voice was resigned on the other end of the line. "We did. We already made our choice. We'll go."

Relief washed over her, so strong her head spun. "You will? Really?"

"If we thought for a second we could offer you any help by being here, we would stay," Greg added. "But…if you really think your boss might try to get to you through us, then I don't see that working out well for any of us."

"Thank you. I know it's not what you wanted to be doing right now, but…you'll be safe. And Noah will be safe."

Tiny Noah, who had no idea of the dangerous situations swirling all around him. She hoped he would never have to know.

"Listen, you have a key to our place if you need someplace to stay, or—or hide out. I'm leaving cash in the desk drawer in our living room, okay? Take it if you need it," Lauren said.

"Take it if you don't need it," Greg added.

"And there's a gun in the cupboard to the left of the fridge. I know you didn't want to get one, but—"

"Take the gun with you," Sarah said.

"Why? We'll be in some nice house upstate. You'll be in Hell's Kitchen with crazies coming from every direction. You need it more than we do."

"Take it with you, "she repeated. "I know you won't need it, but it makes me feel better to know you have it."

Static rushed through the line as Lauren sighed.

"You'll be careful, right?" she asked Sarah.

Sarah swallowed hard. "Yeah. Of course."

"Is there anything else we can do to help? I feel like we're abandoning you."

"You're helping me by leaving, I promise," Sarah said. She was quiet for a second, then continued. "But…there's a small thing you can do on your way out of town."

"Just name it," Lauren said.

---

At Nelson and Murdock, the break in the rain was a small bright spot in an otherwise miserable week.

When Foggy and Karen had arrived at the office Thursday morning—a good hour before Matt, who had stayed out so late the last few nights bruising up his knuckles that he'd slept straight through his alarm—they'd found that the roof had started leaking in a few places; one spot next to Karen's desk, and two more spots a few feet beyond the front door. Grumbling, Foggy had put a few bowls down with towels underneath to catch the dripping water until someone could come fix it.

Overall it was a bad look for clients, and Karen had spent most of the day greeting each person who walked in by reassuring them they were, in fact, open and operational. Now the rain had stopped, but there was still a steady, maddening drip drip of water into the bowls.

Now it was nearly time to go home, and Matt was at his desk reading a precedent he and Foggy thought they might be able to use in an upcoming case, running his fingers over the same few sentences again and again as his exhausted brain tried to absorb the information.

On his second attempt at running through a particularly convoluted definition, he heard Karen greet another client with apologies for the leaking roof.

"Good evening," he heard her say brightly. "Watch your step with the bowls. Sorry about the mess, we're just waiting on a roof repair."

"No worries. Uh…I'm looking for Matthew Murdock," a slightly hesitant female voice said—and to Matt's surprise, he recognized it.

For some reason, Lauren was standing in the waiting room of Nelson and Murdock.

What could she be here to talk about that they hadn't already covered? After the way they'd left things, she hadn't exactly seemed eager to ever see him again.

Matt moved the papers he'd been reading aside and got up from his desk.

"Oh, uh—I didn't think he had any appointments right now?" Karen asked, her fingertips clicking against her keyboard as she brought up the office schedule.

"No, I don't have one. It's not a business thing. I was just looking to talk to him for like…five minutes."

"Okay, let me just check—"

"It's fine, Karen. Thank you," Matt interjected as he reached the doorway of his office, his fingertips lingering on either side of the wooden doorframe. He tilted his head towards Lauren. "You can come in."

He stood back to let Lauren enter the office, then shut the door behind her, blocking out Karen's curious gaze.

There was a silent beat as Matt lingered by the door and waited for her to say why she was here. Lauren stood in the middle of the office with her arms tightly folded, her head swiveling slowly as she looked around his office. Her gaze seemed to linger in the direction of where his law school diploma and bar certification hung on the wall.

"I didn't bring any weapons this time," she said finally. A statement that, based on the contents of her bag, wasn't entirely true. At the doubtful raise of Matt's raised eyebrows, she elaborated. "I mean…I brought my pepper spray. And my stun gun. And this little…stabby thingy on my keyring. But…other than that."

"You didn't bring a handgun to my law office, you mean."

"…yeah."

"Thanks," he said dryly. "But if you're here for legal advice, we're all booked up."

Lauren snorted. "I already have pretty good lawyers. The kind with working roofs and everything."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I needed to talk to you. And as comfortable as you were just popping up at my house, I wasn't crazy about the idea of doing the same to you," she said.

Despite the pointed comments, he could have sworn she seemed less chilly than she had the last time they'd met.

"I came to give you this," she said, holding something out to him.

Matt took it and ran his fingers over it. It was small and rectangular, with metal on one end. A flash drive.

"What's on it?" he asked.

"Cell phone footage. From Greg's phone," Lauren said.

Caught by surprise, Matt fingers tightened on the flash drive. He'd dismissed the possibility of getting that footage, not just because they weren't even certain it actually existed, but because last time he'd checked it had been in Jason's possession.

"Sarah…stole the phone back," he surmised, a deep, panicked feeling of dread growing in his stomach. What had she done to get that phone? Yet again, he thought about the radio silence that had been coming from her end.

"Yeah."

"How?"

"I guess she switched it out with Cecilia's phone. She didn't want to say much about it beyond that," Lauren said tiredly. "Maybe you'll have better luck."

He doubted it, given their status right now, but he would certainly try.

His misgivings must have shown on his face, because when Lauren spoke again her tone was slightly gentler.

"She didn't look hurt. When I went to pick up the phone. I mean, not any more than she was before, at least," she added. "She was pretty adamant that whatever she did was worth the risk if it meant Jason couldn't just find another masked crazy guy to sic on innocent people. And also to get your name off the whole 'shoot to kill' list that half of Hell's Kitchen has you on."

Matt's jaw ticked. He was an idiot for thinking she would listen to him when he told her to forget the phone, to focus on being careful around Jason.

"Have you watched the footage?" he asked.

"Yeah. It starts right before Cecilia was attacked. She's talking to the guy who was impersonating you, and…he pretty much admits it on camera," Lauren said. "Sarah said you would know how to get it out there. To someone who won't let it disappear."

Matt nodded and slowly turned the flash drive over in his fingers. "Yeah. I can get it into the right hands."

"There's another clip on there, too. One Sarah wanted to include. It's Cecilia telling Sarah how…even though she knows there's an imposter, she's not going to publish it yet. Even if people could get hurt. Just so she could get a better story," Lauren said, a faint trace of bitterness in her voice.

"If Sarah's in the video, we can't publish it," Matt said immediately. "It'll put her in danger."

There was an odd pause where he couldn't decipher what Lauren's reaction was.

"She's not. There's no video of that part, just audio. I don't even know why Cecilia was recording it; maybe she just hit the button. But we cut the part where you hear Sarah respond, so the only voice you hear is Cecilia's. I know all the articles she wrote about you were a pain in your ass, so…that should help some people see she wasn't always writing the truth."

Lauren's tone was conflicted, and it was no mystery to Matt why. For all of Cecilia's flaws, she was Lauren's family, and they seemed to care about each other. And here she was helping torpedo Cecilia's reputation to help a man who—until recently—she had believed was the one who attacked her.

"Why are you giving this to me?" he asked.

"Um…America's Funniest Home Videos wasn't interested," Lauren said with an evasive half-shrug.

"Sarah gave this to you. You could have just deleted it."

"Oh, I wanted to," Lauren said bluntly. "At first. I mean…someone just tried to straight up murder my husband for this footage, so yeah, my first instinct was to delete it and pretend we never had it. The last thing I want is for Sarah's psycho boss to come looking for revenge on us for sharing it."

"But here you are."

Lauren blew out a low exhale. "Yeah. Here I am. Because…I can't throw away something Sarah risked that much for. And…you did save Greg's life, and Sarah's," she added begrudgingly. "So I can't exactly turn around and throw you under the bus. So here I am. On my way to leave town with Greg and Noah. Like Sarah asked us to."

Matt frowned. "You're leaving town?"

"You and Sarah really haven't talked at all, huh?" Lauren said, then sighed. "Yeah. Sarah doesn't seem to think Jason will come after us for the footage, but…I guess she's worried that he might figure something out and try to use us to hurt her. And to be honest, after everything that's happened lately…I believe her. So we're going. And she'll be all alone."

The accusation that slipped into her tone at the end was clear.

"She won't be alone," he said quietly.

"Of course. Because you'll be up hiding in the rafters like a bat somewhere making sure she doesn't get hurt, right? You know that's not what she needs."

Matt swallowed hard; this was not a conversation he could have right now.

"You keep your family safe," he said, reaching for the door handle. "I'll keep Sarah safe."

"I'm serious. If you were trying to make a point, you've made it," Lauren pressed, ignoring his words. "I don't know if it was your goal to tear her into shreds as punishment for what she did, but…good job. You succeeded."

The world was getting loud again as something sharp twisted in Matt's chest. The constant drip of water in the bowls, the cars on the street outside. The smell of Lauren's perfume, expensive and chemical. It all felt like it was pressing in on him.

"Thanks for the footage," he said, turning the knob and holding the door open for her to exit.

With a sigh, she started to walk out, then stopped just in front of him.

"Look, when she made that choice…she wasn't thinking about me, or about her. She was only thinking about you," Lauren said simply.

Then she brushed past him and out of the law office. Karen and Foggy—who had emerged from his own office to lean on the edge of Karen's desk and chat with her—both watched Lauren leave, then looked back to Matt standing in his doorway, and he could practically feel the questions radiating off of them. Questions he wasn't sure he had the answers to yet.

With a short nod to both of them, he closed the door to his office again without a word.

---

Hope you enjoyed it! See y'all soon.