Chapter 4: What Now?

They went back to the precinct after that. Foggy and Karen were long gone. Colleen leaned against Danny as they took the seats in exhaustion. Luke stood in the corner watching as Trish walked forward to embrace Jessica and she accepted without protest. He saw Malcolm raise a hand in greeting and nodded back in reply. Then Danny looked up with his face thick with emotion. "So what now?"

Luke looked at him. Danny wasn't much older than twenty three or twenty four. End of college or maybe a little older. He had so much responsibility and had been through so much. Luke felt the urge to take the kid under his wing. And looking at Jessica he didn't want to leave her either. But it was necessary to leave them both for now. He met Danny's eyes. "Now we go home."

"But-" Danny started.

"I need to go pick up Claire. I can check on Misty and Matt that way. But then we all need some rest."

"He's right," Coleen agreed sitting up and gripping Danny's hand tighter. "We both need sleep."

"I'll have Claire text you when I get there so you can know if everything's alright," Luke said to Colleen. Then he tried to catch Jessica's eye but Trish and Malcolm were trying to convince her she couldn't go get a drink right now because she needed to sleep. Luke sighed and walked out.

When he found Claire at Metro-General a half-hour later she was waiting outside Matt's door. She turned as he put his arms around her. "He's going to be fine. Somehow he's already healing."

Luke nodded. "They let us go for now. Some top boss lawyer Jessica and Danny know came and argued for us."

Foggy walked out just then. He looked at Luke surprised. "I thought I heard Claire talking to someone out here. You got released? Let me guess, Hogarth?"

"How'd you know?" Luke asked.

"I work for her firm," Foggy said. "Specifically Vigilante law. I'll have her hand over the case to me. I'm your lawyer after all."

"I thought Matt was now," Luke said.

Foggy chuckled sadly. "Soon enough you'll realize if you've go Matt you've got me."

"Thanks," Luke said. "I'm sorry we let him do this."

"There's no stopping Matt when his mind is made up," Foggy said. "I'll see you soon."

"Get some rest Foggy," Claire said hugging him.

"I will," he promised but they could both tell he wouldn't leave Matt's side. He disappeared inside the room with Karen and Matt again leaving Luke alone with Claire.

"What happened to Misty?" he asked.

"Getting some rest, and some blood after how much she lost. Her arm… well she'll learn to work without it."

Luke nodded taking a deep breath. "Let's go home."

Jessica woke the next morning still exhausted. Though Malcolm and Trish had convinced her not to drink last nigh she had made no such promise for this morning. She got a shot in her coffee and brought some to Trish who was just finishing her show for that morning.

She walked out of the soundbooth and Trish grabbed the coffee from her and asked if she was sure that Jessica didn't want the world to know what they did. And though Trish knew her well enough to understand her reply was sincere she also knew her well enough to know Jessica was still upset.

"Are you at least going to visit him?"

"What?"

"Matt Murdock," Trish said. "You're upset about it. Why don't you go?"

"He's not awake yet," Jessica said. "His friend called me to say the NYPD didn't file a complaint so I don't have to go to jail."

"So you asked?" Trish's eyes widend.

"Of course I asked," Jessica said. "But I'm not going to visit unconscious guy. He might actually be mad we saved him."

"What?"

"Danny thinks Matt must have known the bombs were about to go off. That he heard them ticking. He told us to leave him behind. He knew he would probably die down there."

"You don't want to face that. So fine, don't visit him just yet. But you're going to have to talk to the guy sometime. Seems like he could be a good friend to you. Same with the other too."

"He's weird," Jessica said. Trish gave her a look and Jess rolled her eyes in response. "Fine. Maybe I'll find a way to ask him for legal advice on a case or two."

"And the others?"

"Danny's with his girlfriend. Same with Luke. They both have things going on."

Trish just nodded. "Have fun thinking that. I don't think you'll be allowed to be antisocial anymore with these people around."

"Shut up," Jessica told her allowing Trish to give her a hug goodbye before she left.

"Claire who?" Foggy finished two days later with a grin. "Hogarth, Benowitz and Chao at your service."

Claire thanked him while Luke spoke up. "How's Matt?"

"He's healing well," Foggy said. "They want to stop drugging him today so he'll be up soon. Come visit. He'd be happy to see you. Both of you."

"We will," Luke responded. Foggy picked up his stuff and headed to the door when suddenly Claire ran after him.

"About our mutual friend…." She and Foggy talked for a few minutes about why both blamed themselves. Foggy make her promise not to blame herself either and to be happy with Luke. In that moment Claire made up her mind. She'd give it a few days but then it'd be over.

Colleen looked at Danny. She'd given him nearly a week but he'd barely talked to her. He was meditating now and she came and sat across from him. She watched him take a final deep breath and open his eyes.

"Danny this isn't healthy. You're out every night and training all day."

"Because I failed again," Danny said. "I failed to fight the Hand. I didn't defeat them and I let them trick me into using the fist to open the doorway for them."

"You were tricked. And you did defeat the Hand's leaders. No one ever said you had to do it alone. Did they?"

"It's the responsibility of the Iron Fist!"

"Danny you forget everything the monks taught you for a second and listen to me. You defeated the Hand. They might have other people working for them but they won't have orders from their five leaders. You made mistakes but so did everyone else involved in this," Colleen reminded him.

"It's still all my fault," Danny said. "They were here for me. To get back into Kun Lun."

"Shut up and listen. None of this is your fault. You don't have to do anything alone. What you do have to do is decide what's going to happen next. You don't live in a mystical realm anymore and you own shares in a company. One that you can't run with a fifth grade educations."

"But I can't just give up being the Iron Fist! Or chasing down the rest of the people who worked for the Hand."

"I'm not asking you too," Colleen soothed. "But I am asking you to make a plan. Any ideas?"

"Well I have to keep my promise to Matt," Danny said after a moment. "So I'll keep going out at night until he's okay to do it on his own. But then I should probably start taking classes during the day like you suggested."

"That sounds good," Colleen agreed. "So now that you're going to stop moping I can finally start giving classes here again. And then join you later on when you start to hunt down the remaining parts of the Hand." She kissed him and grabbed her jacket and purse.

"Where are you going?"

"To visit Misty."

"Again?'

"Yeah. I am," she turned to him for a minute with a worried look. "Are you sure everything's okay now? You're still thinking about something."

"Just that this city…..it's starting to feel like home," Danny grinned up at her. She grinned back before giving him a kiss and running out.

Matt kept his eyes closed. There was no use in opening them. But he did need to get his surroundings oriented first. His mouth tasted like blood. There was something in his nose. An oxygen cannula and a feeding tube in his mouth. As soon as he became conscious of it he started to cough it up attracting attention.

Someone pulled it out of his mouth and instructed him to sip slowly. A cup was pressed to his lips. He couldn't recognize the scent or the voice. It was too distorted but he was sure he was in the hospital (judging by the scratchy sheets, smell and noise) then this was a doctor. He felt dizzy as he focused on his senses and it got worse the longer he did it. He managed to catch one more scent. And a voice. "Foggy?" he croaked.

"Yeah," he heard Foggy sob. "It's me buddy."

And then Matt let himself drift off again.