Note: I draw from both the comics and the TV show. Matt's dad died when Matt was about to graduate in this timeline and he went blind at fifteen.

This story is dedicated to Shadowhuntingdauntlessdemigod because she is an amazing fan fiction writer and even better friend.

The screeching of tires, the smell of some sort of toxic waste- For a moment, Matt was a scared fifteen-year old. But this time, he wasn't the one on the street.

A second too long to change, that was all it took. One second to shrug off his shirt, to have to rip off a stubborn button, to not be there in time. He cursed himself in his head, jumping down from the roof with such anger he almost missed the flag post, his senses clouded. He took a breath, cutting through the anger, his radar scoping out the scene. The truck, a child, people standing around. So familiar. But this time, he hadn't saved anyone.

"Tell me what happened," he said, running to the prone figure in the street. A girl. Couldn't be more than nine. She was sprawled on the ground, still. Matt could smell blood.

"She tripped, I think." The woman sounded shaky. "Crossing the street. She was carrying a grocery bag, and-" Matt let her talk, focusing on the little girl's heartbeat, her pulse. She seemed to be unconscious. There were no broken bones, but a possible concussion, and something that smelled incredibly wrong.

"I think that something got in her eyes," someone else interrupted. Matt felt nausea rise in his throat and stood.

"Has someone called an ambulance?" Matt said, almost yelling. The woman who'd told him what had happened said yes, she had, and now Matt could hear it in the distance, coming closer. Matt felt colossally useless, pointless, like a failure.

"Daredevil, we've got it," A paramedic said, and Matt stepped out of the way. The girl could use the paramedics more than she could use him. "Did you see what happened?"

"I-" Matt swallowed. "I came late." Admitting it brought up the bile in his throat. He could arrive in time to save businessmen from muggers who'd barely take their watches, but he couldn't save the little girl's future.

You don't know that she's blind... Maybe it won't be the same...

But he did know.

Matt decided to call Foggy while he waited in the emergency room. As Daredevil, he'd let the hospital know that he knew a lawyer who'd be arriving shortly, and Matt had waited five minutes before returning as himself.

Foggy picked up on the first ring.

"Why are you late? Are you all right? Oh, no, you're-"

"Foggy, I'm fine." Matt's mouth crooked a bit. "There was an accident, I want to lend my services."

"Your services, or-" Foggy lowered his voice, a dramatic gesture that wasn't entirely necessary at the office. "Daredevil's?"

"Mine. Ours. Yours and mine." Matt sighed and hung up before Foggy could protest. Matt planned on doing it for free. It was doubtful a nine-year-old girl could pay for a lawyer. Matt put his phone back in his pocket and listened to the sounds. He hated hospitals, with their smells of blood and vomit masked by sharp chemical cleaners and the sounds of people crying and in pain.

Apparently the girl was in the foster care system, as evidenced by the social worker who showed up soon after her foster parents. Matt listened the the social worker berate the parents for letting the girl go out alone. He heard her name, Audrey, and quite a bit of the argument before stepping in.

"Excuse me," He said, stepping smoothly into a lull in the conversation, a skill honed by plenty of parties he attended out of business practicality, "My name is Matthew Murdock. I'm a lawyer. A friend of mine was at the scene of the accident and suggested I come here."

"We have lawyers," The social worker said, just as the girl's father said, "Thank God."

"Who are you planning on representing?" The mother asked, not so quick to assume. Her arms were clearly crossed over her chest, and from her heartbeat, she wasn't nearly as agitated as the social worker or her husband. "Us or her?"

"The girl, actually." Matt put both his hands on the handle of his white cane, a relaxed position he'd perfected for use in the courtroom.

"For what? Why would she need a lawyer?" The father sounded suspicious.

"In a lawsuit against the truck company. Or anything else." Matt didn't want to antagonize the parents, but the girl was nine and walking alone in the middle of New York City. When his own accident had happened, he returning home from a library a few blocks away. Audrey was in the middle of a street with no housing of any kind for a long way.

"Drakon Trucking is being investigated," The social worker said. "And until then, there's no need for a lawyer."

Matt nodded. Sometimes it was frustrating, being Matt Murdock, blind lawyer. Daredevil could force his way in, go places Matt had to take more slowly. "Just take my card, and call me if you need anything." He took three business cards out of his pocket, held them out. Maybe the other three people took them because they thought they might need him, maybe out of politeness, or maybe out of pity for the blind guy so desperate for work he'd talk to a bunch of people in a hospital waiting room, but they took the cards and he turned and left.

Sometimes, galavanting along the rooftops as Daredevil helped Matt think, but not today. He couldn't get his mind off of Audrey, probably scared, possibly alone. The office wasn't too far, and Matt was going faster than usual from anger and guilt.

He dropped into the alley behind the office. He kept clothes there in case he forgot where he'd hidden his clothes when he changed into his costume. He entered the building normally, taking the stairs three at a time. He couldn't hear any heartbeats, no people to catch a blind guy going up stairs faster than most sighted people.

When he walked into the office, Karen looked up.

"Matt," she said, relief evident in her voice, "What happened?"

"There was an accident," he said. Hearing her sharp intake of breath, he amended, "not me in an accident. Someone else. I thought I could help." Matt trailed his hand along the wall, found a chair.

"Wha-what happened?"

"Yeah, what happened?" Foggy came in, leaned on the wall across from Matt. "You didn't say on the phone."

"There was a girl. A little girl," Matt said, the words feeling odd and twisted in his chest. "And a speeding truck."

Foggy knew enough about how Matt himself had gone blind to put the pieces together. "Oh."

"Yeah." Matt balled up a fist. "And her parents seemed pretty detached. Foster parents." If Matt hadn't had his dad after his accident, there was no telling what would have happened.

No one said anything. Foggy's and Karen's heartbeats, the computer's hum, the traffic out the window filled the silence for Matt.

"I have work to do," Matt said, finally. How he'd focus, he didn't know, but he'd be alone.

Foggy walked Matt out of the office building that night, out of Karen's earshot. "Do you want to get in to see her?" Foggy asked. HIs heartbeat betrayed his excitement.

"The girl?" Matt nodded. "But I doubt they'd let me. I want to see if she's all right, walk her through anything-"

"Maybe they won't let you in," Foggy said, "but they might let Daredevil in."

Matt's brow furrowed. "You mean I fight my way in? I can't do that."

"No!" Foggy laughed, short and quiet. "You go in as Daredevil to talk to the kids. I think Captain America does that a lot, and I'd bet that they'd let you in."

Hearing Daredevil compared to Captain America made Matt smile, his first real smile all day. "That's actually a really good idea."

"Actually?" Foggy shook his head. "Come on, Matt, give me more credit than that."

"Thanks, Foggy."