"Help me get him on the couch." Felicity instructed.
Foggy was frozen, shell shocked. He twitched slightly, then knelt down. Matt was heavy, but together they managed to move him to the couch. Felicity reached for his shirt.
"What are you doing?" Foggy had finally found his voice.
"I need to see his –" Felicity's breath caught as she lifted the shirt, revealing the extent of the injuries. She hissed. Matt shifted slightly, letting out a groan.
"It's okay." Felicity said, unsure who she was trying to convince. "I can…I can fix this." She looked at Foggy. "I'm going to need towels, hot water, any type of disinfectant, Neosporin, rubbing alcohol, whatever you can find, and a needle and thread."
"What?" Foggy looked at her in horror.
"FOG." She said. "If we don't help him, he's going to die."
Foggy rushed around the apartment, looking for the things Felicity had asked for.
"Hold on, Matty." Felicity whispered. "You'll be okay, just…just hold on."
Foggy came back, holding out what he'd found. "What are you going to do?" he asked as Felicity dabbed Matt's forehead and began disinfecting the needle.
"I need to sew these up." She said. "In fact this big wound probably needs to be cauterized."
"We should…we should call 911." Foggy reached for his phone.
"No." Felicity turned in surprise to see Matt, his eyes wide open, looking straight at Foggy. "No…hospital."
"He's right." Felicity said.
"WHAT?' Foggy cried. "No, he's practically dead we can't just…"
"Fog, if we take him to a hospital, then they'll be an official record and whoever did this will know exactly where to go to finish him off." Felicity explained.
Fog glared. "You can't possibly fix…" he motioned towards the ruins of Matt's chest. "You're not a doctor."
Felicity ignored him, grabbing a needle and thread.
"I'm going to stabilize him, then we can take him to the Tower medical facilities."
"Can you even…" Foggy watched in horror as Felicity began cleaning and sewing up some of the smaller wounds. "Oh god." He retched. "How…when?"
"Call….Claire." Matt groaned.
"Who?" Felicity said.
"Claire." He gasped. "You need to call her…" he tried to sit up.
"Okay…okay." Felicity gently pushed him down. "I'll call Claire."
"Phone….pocket." Matt murmured.
Felicity pulled out a burner phone which only had one contact. She called the number.
"Hi this is a friend of….the man in the mask….he's in really bad shape and he needs your help." The woman on the other end cursed in Spanish and assured Felicity she'd be there as soon as possible. Felicity turned her attention back to Matt. She fought her tears. Matt needed her focused. Once he was okay, she could cry.
"Lis." He groaned.
"Matty, you need to stop talking." Felicity said, pushing he hair out of his face.
"Lis, you can't move me." He said. "Don't…don't take me to the tower."
"Matt, you'll be safe there." Felicity said.
"Promise..,me." he said, gripping her hand.
"If Claire clears you to stay, then I will, but otherwise, you're staying at the Tower." Felicity said. "and good luck trying to stop me."
Matt coughed, squeezing her fingers.
"Now, please lie still." She whispered.
"You can cry," he said, attempting to touch her cheek.
"Stop moving." Felicity pleaded. "If you keep moving, you'll bleed out…and if you die I swear I will kill you."
The next 30 minutes were heartbreaking. Felicity and Foggy sat in silence listening to Matt's rasping breaths as Felicity worked on the smaller wounds. Finally there was a knock on the door. Foggy went to open it. A woman walked in. She stopped when she caught sight of Matt.
"Mierda." She cursed. "What did you do this time?"
"We found him here." Foggy tried to explain "He won't go to a hospital and he said to call you."
Claire put down her bag. "I suppose this is better than a dumpster." She muttered as she put on a pair of gloves. She looked over Felicity's stitching and nodded her approval.
"I cleaned the bigger ones, but I wasn't sure what exactly to do…" Felicity explained looking helplessly down at the large wounds.
"You did a good job." Claire, put a hand on Felicity's shoulder. "Do you have a medical degree?"
"No." Felicity admitted. Claire raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if you're up for it, I could use your help."
Felicity nodded grabbing an extra pair of gloves. "Just tell me what to do."
Everything burned. Matt felt as though his entire body was in flames. He tried to get his bearings. Where was he? Focusing, he took a shuddering breath. He slowly remembered the previous night. He'd been hunting Fisk and he'd found him and fallen right into his trap. There'd been a fight with a man named Nobu. He felt the surface beneath him; it was his couch. He'd somehow made it back to his apartment.
Running his hands down his chest, he noted the stitches; Claire, she'd been here too. But some of the stitches were different. Someone else had helped her. He turned his attention to the rest of the apartment. Foggy was there and from the smell, he was definitely hungover and there was a 3rd person there too. They were in the next room, but Matt's senses were dulled because of the pain and he couldn't tell who it was.
"You might not want to move too much." Foggy's voice interrupted his train of thought "Your friend Claire said moving might make you tear your stitches. At least I'm guessing she's your friend. What the hell do I know?" His voice was bitter, hurt. Matt could tell that he was bursting with anger.
"Fog." The pain seared through Matt's chest as he tried to speak.
"She said you shouldn't move for at least a week." Foggy continued. "Felicity was upset because it meant she couldn't take you to the Tower."
"Lis?" Matt's heart leapt. He concentrated and sure enough the breathing in the other room, the pulse, the slight noises of someone moving in their sleep, and the smell of her shampoo. It was Felicity. She was there, asleep.
"She was drained after she helped Claire sew you up." Foggy growled. "Apparently she's a doctor now. Everyone has secrets."
"Foggy." Matt said.
"Felicity's some kind of mad scientist who can sew human bodies and you're a murderer."
"I'm not." Matt said. He could hear Felicity stirring in the other room, she was waking up.
"Then who killed those cops?" Foggy asked.
"Fisk." Matt said. "He's paying people on the force. He had those cops killed to frame me."
"Why should I believe anything you're saying?" Foggy growled. "You've been lying to me. Are…are you even blind?"
"Yes." Matt said. He could hear Foggy's raging pulse and the pain in his voice. He wished he hadn't found out this way. He wished he hadn't found out at all.
"So you and Felicity have been having a great time laughing at me behind my back." Foggy said. "Who else knows?"
"I didn't tell Lis." Matt said.
"Well she knew." Foggy's voice was rising. "She wasn't even surprised when we found you broken and bleeding."
Matt closed his eyes. In the other room he heard Felicity's intake of breath. She was awake and she was listening. He grit his teeth and focused on trying to explain to Foggy.
Felicity heard voices. Stretching, she was surprised when she slid on silk sheets. She snuggled against the pillow. Blinking in confusion she opened her eyes. She looked around, remembering a conversation with Matt from a few years back. He'd admitted to her that his heightened senses made it difficult for him to sleep on cotton sheets because the itch drove him crazy. She'd made fun of him saying that it must have made him really popular with the ladies. Sitting up she remembered where she was. She was in Matt's bed. Looking down, she felt nauseas. There was blood on her clothes. Matt's blood. She closed her eyes as she remembered helping Claire the night before.
She listened as Matt and Foggy argued in the next room. Matt was explaining his abilities to him. Foggy was understandably furious, but it didn't take super senses to hear that Matt wasn't up to arguing with him. He was tiring fast and it probably hurt to exert the energy to argue with Foggy. But if she knew Matt, he wouldn't let that stop him from trying to explain. He'd burst through his stitches rather than back down. She had to intervene.
"Stop." She said, going out into Matt's living room. "Please."
Foggy and Matt turned towards her. Foggy's eyes were red rimmed and it was obvious he'd been crying. Matt was staring straight at her, his eyes wide.
"How could you keep this from me?" Foggy asked.
"I'm sorry." Felicity said. "I…it wasn't my place to tell."
Foggy crossed his arms and glared back at Matt. "So if it was some big secret then why did she know?"
"The Chitauri attack." Felicity began explaining, before Matt could speak. She didn't want him to strain himself and she needed to direct as much of Foggy's anger at her as she could. Matt couldn't handle this amount of stress. "We were outside when the attack started and…" She shuddered at the memory. "One of them tried to kill us. Matt saved me and we managed to make it back here to lock ourselves here for the rest of the attack. That's how I found out."
"And the fact that he's…" Foggy motioned to the mask which was lying on the floor where Felicity had left it after pulling it off of Matt the previous night.
"I figured that one out on my own." Felicity said, softly. "Matt didn't tell me, Fog. He wouldn't have told me about the super powers either if I hadn't seen them during the invasion."
Foggy's jaw clenched. "That still doesn't explain how you got to be so handy with a needle."
Felicity hung her head. "I…" She didn't know how to respond, didn't know how much she could tell Foggy without compromising Oliver's secret.
"Her father's an Avenger." Matt murmured. "She's probably had to deal with –"
"Matt." She interrupted. She couldn't have him lying to Foggy for her. She was touched that he was willing to cover for her, but it would be better in the long run if they were honest with him. Foggy would never trust them again if they kept lying to him.
"I…I work with the Arrow." She held up a hand as if to shield herself from the onslaught of angry curses Foggy let out. "I can't tell you more than that, but it's the reason I was able to help Claire save Matt." She looked down at the floor, her face burning with shame.
Foggy looked from one to the other. "FUCK." He shouted.
"Fog." Felicity moved to put her hand on his shoulder, but he pushed her away. "Don't touch me." he growled.
"Foggy, please."
He moved towards the door. "The two of you are supposed to be my friends." he said, betrayed.
"We are." Felicity said.
"No." Foggy said. "Because friends don't keep things like this from each other." He looked at them, angry, but mostly sad. "I don't know what I ever did to the two of you to make you think you couldn't trust me." He shook his head and turned to leave.
"Foggy." Felicity moved forward, but Foggy slammed the door in her face. A silence fell. Felicity stood rooted to the spot, facing the closed door.
"Your heart is pounding." Matt said, softly. "You're mad at me too, aren't you?"
Felicity bit her lip. "I can't decide whether I'm madder that you didn't come clean with me or that you almost got yourself killed." She turned to look at him. "I'm going to wait until you're not half dead before I express my feelings though."
"Lis." He reached out a hand to her. "I'm so sorry."
She shook her head, backing away slowly.
"Lis, I…I was so worried about you." Matt said. "I thought you were dead."
Felicity bit her lip. "Why didn't you call me back?" She asked.
"I was…busy." Matt hung his head. "There's no excuse…please." He extended his hand. "I need to know you're okay. Can I see you?" He asked softly.
Felicity stepped forward slowly and slid her hand into his. He let out a sigh of relief. Pulling her hand into both of his, he began tracing over her fingers, her palm, her wrist. "It's really you." He whispered.
Felicity was unable to hold in the storm of emotions any longer. She broke down into sobs, falling to her knees next to the couch. She buried her head into Matt's shoulder.
"I could have lost you." She cried.
"I'm right here." Matt said. Slipping his arm around her, her ran his fingers up and down her spine and leaned his head against hers.
"I want to hug you, but I'm scared I'm going to hurt you." She whispered. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
"I'm sorry." Matt murmured. "I'm so sorry."