It took 2 days for Felicity to convince her father to let her out of the tower by herself. Well not so much convince, as team up with JARVIS to distract him before bolting. She'd made it a block before she had a feeling someone was following her.
"Darcy's not going to like you stalking another woman." Felicity turned to glare at Steve. "A baseball hat and hipster glasses? Really?"
Steve looked at his shoes. "I wanted to apologize." He said, embarrassed. "For calling in your dad."
"It's okay."
"Queen's plan was reckless." Steve continued. "I was worried and I know I usually take your side in any argument with Tony, but you're one of the closest things to family I have and…I couldn't lose you.."
Felicity felt a lump form in her throat. "Thanks." She murmured. "But it…it wasn't Oliver's plan, it was mine."
Steve's eyes popped out of his head. "What?" He growled. "Do you have a death wish we need to talk about?"
"This coming from the man who specializes in throwing out one liners before jumping from airplanes." Felicity glared. "It's amazing that everyone's yelling at me for being irresponsible when really I'm just following your examples."
"That's unfair." Steve said. "You've got a lot of people who really care about you and we just don't want to see you hurt." He gave her a grimace. "You know how protective we are." He shook his head. "Plus I'm pretty sure Howard would kick my ass if he found out I let his granddaughter get near a serial killer."
Felicity gave him a hug. "Does this…make you my honorary grandfather?"
Steve groaned. "Seriously? You know if you only count the years that I've been awake we're practically the same age."
"I know." Felicity grinned, pulling back. "And I'm sorry by the way."
"For what?" Steve looked down at her in confusion.
"This."
Felicity cleared her throat.
"OMG IS THAT CAPTAIN AMERICA?"
"No, wait." Steve's expression turned to one of panic as all the passerby spun to look at him. "LIS" he shouted.
Felicity backed away and mouthed "sorry", before ducking into the nearest subway station.
About 45 minutes later she was walking to the address of Nelson and Murdock: Attorneys at Law. She'd been hoping to surprise them, but the door was locked and the lights were off. She checked Matt's apartment, then Foggy's but both were empty. Checking the time she decided to go to Josie's to see if they were there having an after work drink.
She knew something was wrong the second she walked into the bar. Foggy had his head on the table and there were multiple empty bottles and glasses around him. He was sitting with a tall strawberry blonde who Felicity supposed was Karen. Matt was nowhere to be seen.
She walked cautiously up to him. "Fog?"
Foggy's head shot up, knocking over the glasses next to him. He blinked at her in surprise then threw his arms around her.
"Lissss." He sobbed. "You're alive, which is good. Being alive is good."
Felicity put an arm around him and attempted to soothe him. Holding out her other hand to Karen, she introduced herself. "I'm Felicity, you must be Karen."
The woman nodded, shaking her hand. "Karen Page, I'm glad you're okay. Fog and Matt were…well they were worried about you." She gave her a sad smile.
"What's wrong?" Felicity asked.
"Elena's dead." Foggy sniffed
Guessing that Foggy was in no shape to talk coherently, Felicity turned to Karen and asked. "Who's Elena?"
"A client." Karen said. "Well our only client really. Mrs. Cardenas was this amazingly kind woman and the boys were handling a tenement case for her." Tears formed in Karen's eyes and she swallowed nervously before continuing. "Her landlord wanted to get rid of the people living there, but Elena didn't want to give up her home. A junkie broke into her apartment and…they say he was looking for money and she got in the way."
Felicity felt her heart lurch.
"Wasn't a junkie." Foggy growled into Felicity's shoulder his arms tightening around her. "Was Fisk." He glared around him. "He's a fucking monster."
"Fisk?" Felicity asked. The name seemed familiar to her somehow. "Wait, Wilson Fisk?" The man's face had dominated every news cycle. He'd been decrying the actions of the man in the mask, fueling public hatred of him. Everyone saw him as the savior of Hell's Kitchen, the antithesis to the Devil. There was something about him Felicity didn't trust. She knew he claimed to want to save the city, but he reminded her too much of Sebastian Blood and Blood had been working as a pawn for Slade. She also didn't like the way he used the fear around the man in the mask to generate panic. She knew Matt wasn't the devil the papers were painting him as.
"Fisk is…well it's going to sound crazy, but he's kind of like an evil mastermind." Karen said.
"He controls evrrrything." Foggy slurred. "He had 'er killed. I know it."
It took about an hour, but eventually Karen and Foggy got the entire story out. How Fisk had been behind an attempt on Karen's life which brought her to Nelson and Murdock. How Mrs. Cardenas' case had come to their attention. How Karen had launched an investigation into union Allied, one of Fisk's fronts with the help of a reporter helped Ben Urich. How they discovered that the center of most of the criminal activity in Hell's Kitchen was linked to Wilson Fisk.
"This…this is horrible." Felicity said when they finished. "Why didn't any of you call me?"
"What could you have done?" Karen said, mournfully. "Fisk owns practically the whole city."
"He might own Hell's Kitchen." Felicity said. "But there's much more to New York."
"Matt didn't want you involved." Foggy said. "Hell, he didn't even want us involved."
"Why?" Felicity asked.
"Too dangerous." Foggy said.
Felicity glared at the table. "I'm getting really tired of everyone deciding things for me for my own safety." She muttered. "My dad could have helped."
"Your dad?" Karen asked.
"It's a secret." Foggy said, putting a finger to his lips and shushed Karen loudly. "We're not supposed to tell."
Felicity rolled her eyes. "Fog, I'm cutting you off." She grabbed the bottle of tequila that was in front of him.
"Nooooo." Foggy whimpered, reaching for the bottle, but grasping only empty air.
"My dad is…" Felicity swatted his hand away. "I use my mom's name because my dad kept my id a secret…ironically for my own safety.
"Is…your dad a mob boss or something?" Karen asked slowly.
"No…why is that the first thing everyone assumes?" Felicity smiled, shaking her head. "My name is Felicity Stark. My dad is- "
"IRON MAN." Foggy shouted.
Karen's eyes widened.
"And I promise I'll get you guys all the help you need. No matter what Mr. Matt, Felicity can't take care of herself, Murdock thinks." Felicity looked around. "Where is Matty, anyways?"
Foggy shrugged. "He left about an hour before…he's always leaving…he disappears…poof."
Felicity pulled out her phone. "Don't bother," Foggy grumbled. "He won't answer."
The call went straight to voicemail. Felicity frowned. Foggy used her distraction to grab the tequila bottle.
"Foggy." Karen admonished, trying to take it away from him again. "You've had enough."
"Leave me alone." Foggy growled.
Karen was going to retort when Happy walked over to the table and cleared his throat. "Ms. Stark."
"How?" Felicity asked.
Happy raised an eyebrow. "Check your pocket."
Felicity reached into her coat and pulled out a small tracker. She frowned. "Steve…" She growled. "Hanging out with Natasha has corrupted him." She looked over at Karen and Foggy. "This is Happy, he's worked for my family since forever. Happy, this is Karen and Foggy. Can you give them a ride home too?"
Happy nodded.
"NO." Foggy growled. "I need to find Matt." He stood and stumbled towards the door.
Felicity bit her lip. "Okay. Take Karen home. I'll…I'll go with him."
"Your dad…" Happy began.
"Needs to learn that I'm an adult." Felicity said. "Foggy, wait." She rushed after him. She linked her arm through his. "Let's go get Matt."
It took them about twice the time the usual amount of time to get from Josie's to Matt's apartment. Getting Foggy up the stairs proved to be the most challenging part. She had to drag him part of the way. Finally they were standing in front of Matt's door.
"MAAAAAAAATT." Foggy called out. "We can't let Fisk win. That asshole doesn't get to just kill someone and get away with it…MAAAAAAATT. We need to fight for Elena…Matt?" He banged on the door. Felicity looked around her nervously hoping the neighbors wouldn't get angry.
Suddenly there was a crash from inside Matt's apartment.
"Matt?" Foggy asked, panicked. He began trying to break down the door.
"Wait." Felicity said, grabbing a hair pin from her purse she picked the lock.
"Where did you learn that?" Foggy asked when the lock clicked open.
"My friend Sara." Felicity said. They opened the door. Foggy grabbed a bat which was sitting next to the door. There was movement from the corner.
"Whoever you are," Foggy said. "Come out slowly and I won't beat you to a pulp."
Slowly a very bloody and pained man in black stumbled forward and fell to his knees.
"You." Foggy growled, surging forward. "What did you do to Matt, you monster."
"Wait." Felicity grabbed Foggy and pulled him back.
"Lis, get out of here, he's dangerous." Foggy hissed, raising the bat. "He's a killer."
She ripped the bat from his hands. "Wait." She walked slowly over to the man in black and knelt in front of him. She reached forward and slowly put both her hands on his face. He shuddered, leaning into her hands.
"Lis." He breathed.
She closed her eyes. She had been hoping against hope that she'd been wrong. That this broken bleeding man wasn't Matt. That he wasn't hurt. She pulled the mask off. Foggy gasped.
"Matt?"
"Lis." Matt said again, his head slumped forward, leaning on her shoulder.
"I'm here, Matty." She murmured, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm here."
