A/N: thank you guys so much for your response to this story so far! :D I am so incredibly excited and happy that you guys are liking this, and I hope you all continue to like it :D After looking it over again, this story's gonna end up being five chapters, not four lol, and since this was originally intended to be a oneshot, keep that in mind as you read since time passes pretty briskly in the story. But anyway, I hope you guys like this next part! Please review and let me know! :D

Three days passed. Siobhan went back to work with a taser and a can of mace hidden in her lab coat at all times, and when Louise would ask why she was so twitchy these days, she'd play it off and act like she was fine. Louise didn't believe her but, being the friend that she was, she gave her space and didn't press the issue.

When her shifts would end, she'd head to Matt and Foggy's office and they would talk about new leads or developments that had come to light that day, and then Matt would take her back to his place to sleep. It was the new routine, and one thing was for sure - it could have been a lot worse.

Karen took in Oreo herself, offering to care for the kitty until Siobhan could go back to her own apartment. She had to hide the cat as her building didn't allow pets, and that made Siobhan all the more grateful for the effort that she was putting into helping her.

Over those three days, they learned several new facts related to her case. Firstly, they did identify the cop, but they also found out that he had taken a personal leave of absence from the force the day that he'd killed the homeless man, so his whereabouts were unknown. Secondly, they found out that there had been a decapitation days before, and that the victim had been a leader of the Russian mob. Siobhan had nearly thrown up when Matt had told her that, as it meant that she'd unwittingly gotten herself into something even worse than she'd originally thought. The fact that a vigilante making headlines in Hell's Kitchen was the one apparently suspected of cutting off the mobster's head was just the icing on the horrible cake.

After evening had fallen that third day, Siobhan was becoming increasingly convinced of something that none of the three people helping her would hear a word of. She was convinced that she needed to just drop the case, drop all of it, and leave town before she got herself or the others killed. With cops and mobsters and vigilantes at the center of it all, it was clearly more than a doctor and a couple of very green lawyers could realistically handle.

But none of them were willing for her to sacrifice her life and career in the city to ensure their safety. In fact, they all seemed to be willing to jump through ridiculous hoops to keep her there and keep her safe, and it touched her as much as terrified her.

She still wasn't even convinced that staying with Matt was a smart idea. When she walked into their office that third day to find a cut above his eye and hear his explanation of apparently taking a tumble earlier that day, all she could imagine was how much she would hate herself if he got really hurt because of her.

Still, she went home with him again that night regardless. He gave her little choice in the matter, and his presence over the last three days had been the most constant source of comfort that she had. He had a way of getting her mind off of things when they'd go home at night, and she always felt a little better when he was around. It made her remember why they'd been friends way back when, although then their interactions hadn't been tainted by her fear of getting them both killed.

Nonetheless, that night she felt as close to at ease as she got anymore as they made their way up to his apartment, a bag of Chinese food dangling from her fingers as she noted, "You know, we could have been home like an hour ago if you hadn't turned down the first place I suggested. I mean, you walked in and like immediately decided that the place was unacceptable and then left. I still don't get it."

He smiled, shrugging slightly. "It smelled weird."

"It smelled like every other Chinese place in the city," she chuckled.

"Well, the place I picked was cheaper," he pointed out. "Cheaper's always better."

She laughed and eyed him incredulously. "Man, you must not have ever had food poisoning before."

"It's been awhile," he admitted.

Nearing the top of the building, something that Siobhan had been wondering occasionally over the last few days floated to the surface, and she couldn't help but ask, "So, there isn't some girl somewhere who's gonna be pissed because I'm staying with you and she doesn't know, right?"

"If there was, that would be news to me," he quipped, fishing in his pocket for his keys once they got to his door.

She smiled at his response, following him inside when the door was opened. "Nobody special? Kinda hard to believe."

He scoffed quietly, closing the door behind her. "Is it?"

"Little bit," she replied, heading for the living room and setting down the food on the table.

"I'm too busy anyway," he said, and she was glad that he couldn't see the incredulity on her face as she sat down on the couch.

"Really? Because I'm your only client right now," she pointed out as he made his way towards her and the food. "I'm pretty sure you could find time for a date."

"Maybe," he conceded, sitting down next to her. After she handed him his box of food, along with a handful of sauce packets that she identified for him without him asking first, he said, "I could also ask if there's a guy somewhere who won't be happy when he finds out that you've been staying here."

That made her scoff. "God, no. I haven't had a real date in... yeah. I'm just not even going to say how long it's been."

"Too busy?" he guessed.

"Too busy and not interested in what I've encountered," she replied. "There was one guy I liked. Radiologist at the hospital. Really nice, good looking, asked me to lunch a couple times."

"What happened?"

"He turned out to be married with three kids," she sighed.

"Ouch."

"Yeah. It's kind of a recurring theme," she said between shoveling mouthfuls of food. "I like someone and they end up having this major flaw that makes me run the other way. It's usually a lot more subtle than being married, though. At least with him I found out right away, before I had a chance to really care."

"That's a very... cynical way of looking at the positives," he remarked, and she couldn't argue.

"Yeah, but everybody's got secrets, you know? I'd rather know them up front and skip all the drama down the road, save myself the trouble."

He didn't reply to that one, and his silence made her glance up at him just to check that she hadn't said something wrong. His expression was unreadable for a moment, and she was pretty sure that he was about to say something. But then he stopped and turned his head towards the front door and froze.

She furrowed her brows and paused as well, watching him as he appeared to be listening carefully for something. His eyes were unmoving behind his glasses, so very serious all of a sudden, barely blinking as she stared and tried to figure out what was wrong.

"Is... something wrong, or..."

"Siobhan," he said, voice low but even as he turned her way. "Go in my room and close the door. Take your bag and keep your taser close. Don't come out until I come get you."

That quickly, her heart dropped into a pit of terror. "What? What's - Matt, what the hell are you -"

In a flash, he had pulled them both to their feet and seized her shoulders. "Do you trust me?"

"I... yes, but -"

"Then you need to do what I said," he told her sincerely, giving her a nudge towards his room. "Go, and no matter what you hear, don't come out."

Eyes wide and heart racing, she was one breath away from arguing but then a loud pounding at the front door and a deep bellowing of NYPD made her clam up and stare at Matt with even wider eyes.

"Go," he said, one more time, and then she was doing the unthinkable - leaving a blind man to go very possibly deal with a man who was there to kill her.

She ran to his room on the verge of sudden hysterical tears. This was it, it was over, and she wasn't the only one who was going to pay the price. What was she thinking?

She wasn't thinking. She slammed his door shut and fumbled with violently trembling hands through her purse, grabbing the taser and clutching it to her chest as she pressed her forehead to the door and tried to listen. She heard another pounding and another demand to open the door, and then after that, for a few moments, nothing.

She decided in those moments that if death came, at least it would save her from the crushing, paralyzing guilt that would haunt her forever if any harm came to Matt because of her.

She listened and waited. And when she heard a gunshot, she gasped and covered her mouth with a shaking hand, feeling herself break at the thought of what that sound might have meant.


He'd heard them coming from the first moment they stepped inside his building. There was two of them, and he knew why they were there. This had been inevitable. He was confident in what the outcome would be, but he wished that the circumstances would have been a bit different.

Nonetheless, he went to the door and opened it after the second impatient pounding that rang out through it. Playing the part of an average tenant who most certainly could not smell the pizza the men had gorged on before tracking their target to his apartment, he smiled and said, "Can I help you, officers?"

"We've got a warrant for the arrest of a woman, Siobhan O'Donoghue," the man closest to the door said. He was tall, broad, like Siobhan's description of the man who had killed her patient. His heart rate was off the charts, while that of his partner was calm and steady. "We know she's in there with you."

"Can I see the warrant?" Matt asked, apparently to the amusement of the second officer.

"Doesn't look like you can see much of anything," the second guy said, bypassing the first as he rushed closer to the door. "Step aside, sir."

"Call your chief on the phone," Matt said calmly, not even flinching and standing his ground. "When he tells me the warrant's real, then I'll let you in."

"No," the second officer said, going for the gun at his hip. "You'll let us in now."

The sound of the gun's safety clicking off and the bullets sliding into the chamber was as loud to Matt's ears as a gunshot itself would have been. It was also the end of his inaction, as he let go of the door and went for the second officer's arm instead, forcing it aside and aiming the gun at the wall just inside his apartment. The gun went off, loud and jarring, but the bullet embedded itself uselessly into the drywall.

The gun hit the floor when Matt dislocated the man's arm and then kicked him hard in the stomach. The other officer sprang forward when that one staggered back with a cry of pain, but he was nervous and conflicted and bewildered, making him almost too easy for Matt to incapacitate.

Only the second, less nervous officer managed to land a hit, and it was square in the eye. The glasses still on Matt's face shattered and the frames hit the floor, cutting him right underneath his eye along the way. It didn't matter. He had faced much worse than what was before him now, and it was only a short matter of time before both men were unconscious - one in the hallway, and one in the doorway of his apartment.

Breathing hard with adrenaline and exertion, he stood over the men and listened to their heartbeats to confirm that they were truly out. Once he was satisfied, his focus drifted to another presence behind him - this one familiar, with a heartbeat sounding like a butterfly's rapidly flapping wings.

He turned Siobhan's way, wishing that she'd stayed inside his room like he'd said. "It's okay," he assured her. "It's over."

"I heard a gun, and I... oh my God, Matt, did they... are they..."

He went to her and stopped her before she could get any closer to the men, or to the guns laying on the floor. His hands gently on her upper arms, he said, "They're alive. Just knocked out. The bullet went into the wall. I'm fine."

"You're bleeding," she said, touching trembling fingertips to his face just once, for a fraction of a second. He blinked a few times, having not expected that.

"I'm fine," he said again, this time a little more quietly.

Her heart was still pounding and her breathing was still hard and fast. "But how did you do all of that? I opened the door when I heard the gun, and I saw you fight them."

He clenched his jaw, knowing there was only a few ways in which a conversation like this one could end. But now wasn't the right time. "I'll explain later. I will. But right now I have to get these guys out of here. Can you tell me if that's the same guy you saw in the hospital?"

"Yeah," she said quietly, and he let go of her as she stepped around him and slowly walked towards the men.

She didn't go far before she stopped and said quietly, "Yeah, that's him. The big one. I don't know who the other one is."

"Okay. Go back in my room and try to calm down. This won't take me long."

He heard the alarm in her voice as she asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to make sure they face justice," he replied simply. "And that they never try to hurt you again."

She fell silent, and he couldn't blame her. He could only imagine the questions running through her head at that point. He also knew that she was far from stupid, and that when he came back and faced the inevitable barrage of questions, he would either have to lie to a degree high for even a lawyer or be entirely truthful - there was no in between.

"Okay," she finally said. "Be careful."

She sounded confused. He nodded and then turned away from her, focusing on one task at a time. First he had to deal with the men, and then after that, he could give her his full and undivided attention.

And though he would have liked to have pretended otherwise, for some reason, there was never a question in his mind of how he would answer her questions. He should lie, for both of their sakes, but he knew that he wouldn't.

He also knew why he wouldn't, but he really didn't have time to deal with that.


True to his word, he really didn't take long, and by the time that he was back, Siobhan had taken the liberty of downing just one shot of his liquor to steady her nerves. She was even more frazzled than she'd been that day at the hospital, due mostly to that damn gunshot and her immediate assumption that Matt had been on the receiving end of it. As bad as she had felt for the homeless guy, he hadn't been her friend nor a man who had been putting himself at risk by giving her shelter. This had been so much worse.

She just hadn't expected to open the bedroom door and find out that that same friend was basically some kind of master ninja in his spare time.

She was sitting on the couch, in front of which their now very cold dinner still sat on the small table, and he didn't say a word as he made his way to sit next to her. She watched him as he walked and didn't take her eyes off of him as he sat down, all of her questions swirling together in her mind and bursting to get out.

"Are you okay?" he asked, angling his head towards her, eyes cast down between them. She was glad that his glasses were still off, though he could have put spares on. She always preferred him like that.

"Yes and no," she replied quietly and honestly. "You're still bleeding."

Rather than wait for him to answer, she got up and left him on the couch as she retrieved a first aid kit that she'd seen in his bathroom before, under the sink. It looked suspiciously new, maybe like he went through them a little too often, but that didn't seem too surprising now.

Upon getting back to the couch, she set the supplies down on the table and sat back down, closer to him this time. He didn't move, eyes somewhere south of her neck as she gently instructed him, "Lean your head back a little so I clean that cut."

He nodded and did as she said, not saying a word as she got started. She did this a lot in the ER, and the routine of it all was oddly comforting as she slowly gathered her thoughts and decided on her first question.

"How did you know they were coming way before they even knocked?"

He blinked when she asked the question. She was still disinfecting the cut when he replied, "I heard them."

"You heard them," she repeated. "How? How did you know they were coming for me?"

He stayed silent. She frowned, reaching for a small butterfly bandage. When he remained mum, she switched to a different line of questioning. "How... and why... can you fight like that?"

"I was trained," he replied simply, as she pressed the bandage down.

"Just for the hell of it?" she asked in disbelief. "That wasn't like... basic self defense. That was... that was something out of the movies. A good movie."

His lips gave a slight quirk but he said nothing. The cut taken care of, she leaned back and muttered, "If you're just going to sit there and say nothing..."

"I don't want to lie to you," he said, taking her by surprise. "But you're safer if you don't know."

"Safe? I'm sorry, but I'm feeling pretty damn unsafe right now," she admitted, "so why not just tell me the truth?"

He looked away, eyes moving deliberately away from her and towards nothing. "Because I don't know what you'll think of me if I do."

It was such a simple, almost innocent answer. She decided to go the same route with her response. "Remember what I said about secrets and how I like to get them out from the start, so there's no surprises later? I wasn't just saying that."

"I didn't think that applied to me," he replied.

She paused, recalling that she had mentioned that in regard to potential lovers.

Well...

"Let's say it does," she said, deciding to just get to the point for now. "How did you know they were coming?"

"I heard them," he replied, exactly as he had before. "And I smelled them."

Her eyes widened. "You... smelled them."

"Yeah."

"So you have... super hearing and smelling?" she deduced.

"You remember the story I told you back in school, of how I went blind?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied, remembering every detail over five years later.

"I didn't just lose my sight," he explained, tone quiet and body language unsure, like telling this story was by no means easy for him. "My other senses... improved."

"... That's normal, right?"

"It is," he nodded, "but not the way mine did."

"... Okay," she said, still lost.

"I heard those men coming the same way I heard your heart pounding across the room when it was over," he added.

"You can hear my heart beat?" she asked with wide eyes.

He nodded. "Only if I concentrate. I can also hear the traffic outside, people talking, neighbors arguing."

She stared at him in bewilderment, caught between wondering if he was pulling her leg or if he was serious. But how could this be a joke, especially when she'd seen evidence of what he was saying? "So... all of your other senses are like this, too?" When he nodded, she paused and asked, "Is that why you didn't want eat at the first Chinese place we tried?"

"Their chicken was bad," he explained. "I could smell it, but I didn't think you would believe me if I told you."

She definitely wouldn't have. "Wow... okay. So you have super-senses thanks to your accident. That's... wow. But... that doesn't explain the ninja stuff."

He sighed quietly. "No, it doesn't."

For the next half an hour, Siobhan sat and soaked up every word that Matt said, some of it shocking her and some of it making her laugh, but most of it leaving her in quiet awe of him. He didn't tell her everything, and she didn't push him to tell her more than what he was willing to. She did, however, piece together something in her head that had been slowly coming together ever since she had watched him fight those two cops earlier that night.

He was a man with secrets. He had skills and talents that he admitted to her that only one or two others knew of, and those people did not include his own best friend. He was a fighter, a good one, and taking on those men had seemed like it was something of a routine for him, like nothing new, merely more of what he was used to.

But how could that be true if he was a lawyer by day and kept this entire side of himself under wraps from the people he was closest to? What was the point of keeping it a secret, unless he had to?

And with that last thought, Siobhan figured it out.

"You're the vigilante. The guy in the mask," she said quietly, after his stories had drawn down and the realization had come to her.

His silence was louder than any yes could have been.

"You are," she marveled. "My God, Matt..."

"What they say isn't true," he said, not even trying to deny what she found to be glaringly obvious now that she had seen it. "I didn't do what they think I did."

"You mean you didn't cut off the Russian guy's head?" she asked, feeling herself start to get worked up all over again. "That's... comforting."

"Look, just... try to calm down," he said, hand briefly reaching out for her before he seemed to think better of it and pulled it back.

"I am calm," she insisted, clearly lying.

"No, you're not. You're heart's racing and you're trembling again."

She looked at him with narrowed eyes and then turned away, muttering, "Well, guess I'm screwed if I ever try to lie to you about anything."

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "Comes in handy with work."

She shook her head, trying to process one thing at a time. "I just... this is... literally the last thing I think I ever expected to hear. I don't even know how all of this is possible. And you're this... vigilante. You could die out there, you know."

"I've made it so far," he said with a tiny smile, maybe trying to help put her at ease.

"But you might not forever," she pointed out. "Even if you're like... really good at beating people up."

"You sound like you're very impressed," he grinned, and she rolled her eyes.

"And you keep trying to change the subject, or... deflect," she replied. "And yes I'm impressed, but I'm also confused and still pretty shocked and... worried about you."

Her last few words were quiet. He shook his head. "Don't worry about me."

She laughed a small scoff. "I think I'd be a pretty bad friend if I wasn't worried about you. And it's not because you're blind, since obviously you can take care of yourself and kick ass anyway, but..."

"I know," he said. "I never wanted to put any of this on you. I just wanted to keep you safe."

"You have," she replied quietly, looking into his eyes and wishing that he could see how sincere she was. "I owe you my life."

"You don't owe me anything," he assured her.

She strongly disagreed, but she kept her mouth shut and a short, comfortable silence fell upon them over the next few moments. Eventually, something broke through the lingering shock and bewilderment in her head, and she asked, "Is it over?"

"I hope so," he replied, turning his eyes back in her direction.

"Do you think I could go home now?"

"I think you should find a new place first," he replied. "Just in case."

"Oh. Yeah, you're right." Then she paused and added, "You might be stuck with me for a little longer, then."

He smiled a little. "I don't mind the company."

"Yeah, but you must miss your bed," she teased, starting to feel like she was finally on her way back to being calm since before the evening had gone to crap. "And after that fight tonight, you shouldn't have to sleep on a couch."

"I'll be fine," he said, brushing her off. "They barely touched me."

She sighed, shaking her head and looking him over, still in disbelief that such a vicious fighter laid underneath such an unassuming exterior. "I still can't believe all of this. I've never seen anything like that in person before. I wish I could fight like that. Bad cops trying to kill me wouldn't scare me nearly as bad if I could."

She stared somewhat wistfully off into nothingness, just at the living room wall, until Matt said something that made her head snap up so fast she nearly hurt herself. "I could teach you."

She stared at him for several seconds before she managed to reply, "You would? Really?"

"You said it yourself," he explained. "You wouldn't be as scared if you knew how to defend yourself."

"Yeah, but... I don't know the first thing about self defense," she replied.

He shrugged. "We all have to start somewhere."

"Are you sure?" she squinted. "I don't want to take up all your free time or... waste it."

"You won't," he replied sincerely. "I'll teach you the basics. And I'll be a lot nicer to you than my teacher was to me." He paused and quirked his lips. "It'll be fun."

She laughed. "Fun? Really? Well, if you say so..."

His smile was genuine, and it helped to thaw some of the iciness that she'd felt inside since the terrifying moments of earlier. "I'll go easy on you."

"I'm gonna hold you to that," she chuckled, and he nodded as one more comfortable silence fell.

She would need a few days to fully comprehend everything that she had learned and experienced over the last three days, but she was alive and things were possibly, maybe, starting to look up. It felt like her life had irrevocably changed over an incredibly short amount of time, and maybe it had. Now it was just time to keep moving.

But first, sleep was calling them both. She cleaned up the remains of their earlier, interrupted dinner while he got ready for bed. Something began to nag at the back of her mind and wouldn't let up no matter what she did, and once his living room was clean and he was walking back into it, dressed for sleep and heading straight for the couch, she decided to hell with it and gave in to the annoying voice in her head.

"Um..." she began eloquently, slowly walking his way once he had reached the couch and was standing in front of it. "Thank you again, for... not just today, but for everything."

His eyes were cast in her direction as she came closer, almost like he was really seeing her. "You're welcome, Siobhan."

"And thank you for not lying to me," she added, standing close to him now.

He nodded, then quipped dryly, "I probably should have."

She smiled. "Yeah, maybe. But I'm glad you didn't."

He didn't reply, but he stayed where he was, facing her and making no effort to turn away. She stared at him for just a few seconds too long before she took one more step and closed the short distance between them, giving him a hug that felt incredibly necessary after everything that he had done for her.

She also just needed a hug herself after the ordeal she'd been through.

He only hesitated for a moment before he hugged her back, and she sunk into the embrace like it was exactly what she had been waiting for all night. Standing on the tips of her toes with her arms wrapped around his neck and her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes and soaked up the comfort and the familiarity of him. He'd been nothing but a distant memory only days ago, but traumatic events had a way of making things change rather quickly.

She didn't want it to end, but when she knew that she had been clinging to him just a little too long, she pulled away. Letting her hands linger on his shoulders and keeping her eyes cast down between them, she muttered, "When I heard that gunshot I thought you were dead. I thought they killed you and that it was my fault."

He hadn't let go of her entirely, either. His arms were still around her, hands on her back and grazing her sides. When he didn't say anything in reply, she looked up and felt her heart briefly stutter at how close they were, how close he was, and how his eyes were cast down right upon her. She hadn't expected the sudden flip that her stomach did, nor the way that her blood started pumping faster, and she forgot that he could hear her heartbeat giving away how affected she was by his proximity.

Her eyes dropped down to his lips, and to stop herself from leaning forward and doing something she hadn't even known that she wanted to do until she suddenly had the chance, she licked her lips and said, "I'm sorry that I dragged you into all of this. And for the bullet that's in your wall."

He smiled, one hand softly rubbing her back in a soothing gesture that didn't go unappreciated. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

She nodded, disagreeing a bit but not currently capable of fully coherent thought, as close as they were. Recognizing where they were headed if one of them didn't pull away soon, she took it upon herself to let her hands drop from his shoulders and step out of his arms, back into the safety of her own personal space. But she found herself immediately a little bit colder, and wishing that she had stayed where she was.

"Well... goodnight," she said finally, taking one more step back towards his room.

"Goodnight," he replied quietly, just the smallest hint of a smile on his lips before he turned away, towards the blanket that he then picked up and began to spread out on the couch.

And despite everything that had happened that day, Siobhan then went to bed with a smile on her face. But, that smile faded once she was underneath the inviting silk sheets and suddenly remembered Matt's super-hearing and that he had undoubtedly been listening to her heart thud loudly in her chest almost the entire them they'd been close. She closed her eyes and groaned, even though she knew full well she couldn't have done a thing about it. Besides, her reaction had caught even her by surprise.

But then again, maybe it was just the leftover adrenaline, or an exaggerated response to the embrace of a man that she had thought she'd gotten killed earlier. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was something. But maybe, most of all, it simply didn't matter.

Whatever it was or wasn't, she'd deal with it in the morning.