"You were brilliant!", the Doctor beams at Martha.
"So were you. The way you just waltzed in there and offered them to leave without taking a beating… You made a pretty good case for it. I think in most places it actually would have worked." It is like a magic trick, really. Even men with guns think you're dangerous if you just act confident enough. They think you must have an ace up your sleeve. Well, until they realize that you're mostly just insane and someone is sneakily stealing their hostage.
"I guess, it was a good enough distraction for you and Matt to find the boy, while we locked the doors, so they couldn't all follow you…" He is glancing at Trish then who looks like she's thinking about something else entirely while she's leading them to her apartment to have a little Christmas Dinner and celebrate. She says it's a lot cozier there than it is at Matt's.
"And Trish, ... thank you." Martha can see the woman who tried to kill him just a few hours ago release a sigh. "At first I thought you were attacking me, but then I saw that one of the criminals had pulled a gun on me and I realised you tackled me to the ground to save me."
She also made sure they got away safely. Martha didn't really trust her before, but the Doctor insisted on working with Hellcat during their rescue mission, while she teamed up with Daredevil. He was obviously hellbend on winning her over. And to some extent he must have achieved that. When Martha hugged the Doctor in relief as they met again after saving the boy she even saw a small smile appear below the vigilante's mask. She almost couldn't believe it and then Trish even invited them over and to her huge surprise the Doctor actually agreed. He was even pretty excited about it, while she expected him to want to get away from them as fast as possible.
"Well, after you mended Matt's broken bone I already felt a bit bad about my behaviour, but watching you was still unsettling." Trish swallows and even without seeing her eyes Martha knows that she still feels that way. "Even seeing you confront those criminals as if they couldn't really harm you felt extremely eery. It was just like Kilgrave."
From the expression the Doctor wears Martha can tell that it truly disturbs him what his appearance does to that woman. "Only the fact that they didn't follow your orders broke the spell finally. And just in time, I might add." Martha isn't sure what a bullet from a gun whould do to the Doctor, but she's glad they didn't find out this time. "And I'm not sure we would have found the boy in time without your help. So, thank you."
The Doctor smiles at her, but he still looks a bit haunted, like he's somehow responsible for whatever this creep who looked like him did. Just typical, the whole weight of the world on his shoulders again.
Martha thinks she is gonna have to distract them from that topic. "But it was also cool to see you guys in action a little. That was quite a show..." She isn't really used to having the kind of backup that can actually fight off a group of five attackers single handedly. That was quite a luxury for this little trip.
Taking the boy by the hand Martha ran as fast as she could, but it's never that easy, is it? The kidnappers tried to cut off their escape route and that's where the Devil of Hell's Kitchen came in to kick and flip their way free. He even held the door open for her with a big smile like a gentleman and not a guy in a weird getup. Then to both their surprise the boy threw his arms around his hero thanking him and making him blush awkwardly. That's when Martha decided that Matt should bring the boy home instead of her.
"Was he showing off again? He always does that, can't help it really." Trish smirks. "When he fights, he lets go of everything that holds him back in his everyday life. It's like he's fighting his own demons sometimes."
Knowing now what he was like in real life Martha has an idea what Trish wants to say with that, but they are both still a mystery to her. She still doesn't really understand whatever makes them do all this.
"But you also make a good team," the Doctor points out.
"We do. Wasn't always like this, though. I had to force him to train me. He didn't want to put me in danger, yadda yadda… He was going to get killed sooner rather than later doing all this alone, so I kept pushing."
"It's always better to have good company." The Doctor grins at Martha and she returns it easily, still feeling privileged that he asked her out of all people to come with him on his adventures. Although she didn't know what she was getting herself into and he doesn't even return her feelings the same way. Maybe he never will. He had told her that he traveled alone before they met, because he lost someone. But doing all this by himself wasn't good for him, or for anyone else really. She knows that he needs someone by his side which is going to make this a lot harder to say goodbye to. At some point she has to go back to her own life, though. She has to leave him and she just hopes he'll find someone new to take along.
Martha banishes all these thoughts as soon as they arrive at Trish's place and Matt also joins them some time later. When Trish opens the door for him she immediately pulls him into a kiss by his tie, making him almost drop the groceries in surprise. She then cups his face staring into his useless but nice and kind eyes. "Brought the kid to his parents?"
Leaving another peck on her cheek he smiles. "Safe and sound."
Matt walks around the kitchen counter then putting his ingredients for a big festive meal down. He gets to work on it with Trish's help, although from the way they are bickering, she's not much of a cook. But the new groceries don't have braille labels like the rest of Trish's kitchen, so he can use some assistance from her. They also refuse their guests' help which means Martha and the Doctor have to wait at their table uselessly.
That's the moment she realises: "I've never seen you stick around like this. Why here?" Why at a place where he had to feel uncomfortable, especially with Trish still acting a bit strange towards him. Martha even has the suspicion that the woman could try to poison him this way after all. But why save him then?
The Doctor also makes all her worries disappear waggling his eyebrows like he's really not concerned anymore. "Who says this meal isn't going to be adventurous?"
Then they just watch them cook for a bit. Trish now just sticks to giving Matt the ingredients and it looks like he has a very precise idea what amount he needs. Martha is also stunned again when his girlfriend addresses him as counselor. "Is he a lawyer...? How does that work with breaking the law all the time?"
"You find that harder to accept than the way he fights despite being blind?"
"Well... maybe. I'm good with weird. Complete contradictions, though..."
The Doctor chuckles. "To me you humans are all full of contradictions. I spend most of my life pointing them out to you."
"Do you know why they do it? Trish and Matt, I mean...?" Maybe the Doctor has an answer to it. He knows who they are after all. And he's quite good at reading people.
"Did you see the cross in his apartment? Matt's very Catholic I think and we've seen how far he's ready to go in his fight for justice." Going by the dark look on his face he still hasn't forgotten about the torture part. "He feels guilty about it, though. And I have this theory that his hearing is far better than mine. He knows when people lie, can probably tell by their heartbeat. My guess is, he kept hearing the crimes happening around the city and decided to do something about it one day..."
Martha looks at Matt and catches his little nod with Trish being unaware of their conversation. "And what about her...?"
"All signs of an abusive childhood. She was a victim and that's why there's no reluctance to use extreme violence against certain type of criminals." Okay, that's what Martha was thinking, too.
"Kilgrave?"
The Doctor considers that for a second. "I don't think so. I think that's more about Jessica..."
He's probably right about that. Just like he is right about the meal, of course. Sure, they had more exotic food on other planets, but Matt Murdock is one amazing chef. A man with maybe similarly enhanced senses would know that he would be good at that, of course. The Doctor even makes the Devil of Hell's Kitchen blush with all the praise of his culinary skills.
But somehow he still sticks to telling them stories without mentioning time travel or aliens and it can't be because he thinks they can't handle it, especially after Matt mentions his zombie ex-girlfriend who apparently died for him. It kills the mood for a couple of minutes, until Trish starts talking about Matt's best friend Foggy who sounds like he'd be the life of any party while his buddy apparently rather enjoys them quietly, if at all. Well, they would have to be very loud to him.
Martha also gets the opportunity to ask Trish about some celebrities she has met, most of which the Doctor has never heard of. They end up making a game out of it that Martha calls "creep or no creep", which Matt finds slightly offensive, so instead they start playing "prince or no prince" to the Doctor's annoyance. "Come on, there's so much to see and explore in the world for you guys. Why does it always get back to fairy tales and princes…?"
"You think lords are better, Doctor?" Martha winks and the ancient time lord pouts like a nine year old.
And finally, Trish - who's still a bit nervous around the man who looks like Kilgrave - asks the question that must have been bothering her all day, the one Martha also didn't get an answer to yet: "Doctor, how do you know our names…?"
He buys a little time using a napkin. "We share an… acquaintance. But I'm sorry, I just can't tell you who it is."
Matt frowns. "Is it secret agency stuff?"
"Yeah, exactly. That's it." Martha however knows that face the time traveler makes. It has something to do with their future and he can't tell them, because of his stupid rules. Don't interfere with established events, don't change the past. That's usually not a good sign.
"I'm just glad to see you're all well."
Suddenly Matt tilts his head like he's hearing something or someone. Then he looks alarmed and jumps up from his chair. "Jessica is outside."
The Doctor looks amazed at that. "How far exactly can you hear?"
"Doc, you've got to hide!" Trish then grabs his arm and pulls him away from the table to shove him into her room and then a cupboard with Martha's help.
But the alien doesn't want to hide. "Are you sure, this is really necessary? Can't you just tell her that I'm not-"
"NO, she'd think you ordered us to have dinner with you." Trish tries to push him in roughly. "You really don't understand how this looks and she'll want to kill you or she'd get a major PTSD attack. Both things, we're trying to avoid here."
Reluctantly, the Doctor obeys. When Martha and Trish step out of her room again, Jessica is already standing there asking Matt why there are more plates on the table than people they know. "And who are you?"
"I'm…" Martha is a bit surprised, to say the least. After everything she heard about Jessica and the way these people wanted to shield her from some emotional trauma, the angry black haired woman with a leather jacket is so not what she had expected to see.
"Can someone explain?"
Trish hurries to make something up. "Jessica, this is Martha. We've just had a talk on the radio about travel tips and we got along really well…."
"Bullshit. Who else is here?"
"There's nobody else, Jessica. The last plate is for you. Come on, have something." Matt pulls the chair back for her to sit, but Jessica still fixes him with a death glare.
"For a fucking lie detector you're a pathetic liar, Matt." Jessica growls and points at Trish: "You didn't even invite me. And you just came out of your room hiding someone in there."
"No, I was just showing Martha some clothes. She wanted to borrow something for an event…"
Martha nods slowly. "Right, I forgot to pack something fancy and-"
Jessica just storms into Trish's room opening one cupboard after the other - and she really has a lot of those, but that shouldn't be her concern right now. Trish did mention that Jessica does have special strength. If she punches someone with full force...
As she quickly gets to the door the Doctor is hiding behind Martha hopes that he was somehow able to pull one of his tricks. But, to her horror the door opens to a smiling Doctor who waves at the angry woman in front of him like she's not about to kill him.
"You!"
