So...about two-thirds of the way through. How are we feeling?
Matt blinks up at the ceiling of the courtroom. It must be dusty up there, he thinks vaguely. Someone should float up there and clean it. He would if he could.
But right now he feels like he's sinking into the ground, limbs impossibly heavy, chest weighed down by pressure, head fuzzy.
"Drop the gun!" someone says. Oh. That's Officer Garza. He should be standing outside the courthouse. What's he doing here?
He coughs. Warm liquid bubbles out.
Well, that's not good.
"Shit, Foggy. What are we gonna do?" Karen hisses, one of her hands brushing Matt's hair before returning to his chest and pressing down. Hard. He groans. She doesn't apologize.
"I don't know," Foggy breathes, squeezing Matt's shoulder, and there's Tammy by his side, squeezing his hand in her own. Right, they'd been in court, they're still in court, though the proceedings have definitely been stalled. His dad had been dying until he wasn't, and now Matt is following in his footsteps, bleeding out in a courtroom surrounded by his friends.
Fingers at his neck, taking his pulse. "Shit."
"Hang in there, Matt," Foggy says, voice wavering. This case was supposed to have been safe for them, with no Fisk in sight. Matt supposes he should have known better, with his track record and lack of luck.
"I'm sure we can come to an arrangement," Judge Ali says in a placating tone. Huh. She's usually pretty tough and scary in court. This is weird.
And Tammy's still shaking and shivering by his side.
He searches wildly for Foggy's arm, and when he finally manages to snag onto it, he gasps out, "Gotta stop them. People hurt."
"You're hurt!" Foggy whispers furiously, then sighs. Matt knows that sigh. It's when he's actually considering Matt's suggestions.
"Whatever you're planning, do it fast," Karen mutters, pressing onto Matt's wound further and causing him to grimace.
Foggy squeezes Matt's hand, sets it down on Matt's stomach, ignores Matt's frown, and stands up, his warmth traveling away from Matt. "Hey, assholes!" he says, and Matt winces. Okay. Not the greatest start. Maybe this is why Matt does all the opening statements. Please don't get shot please don't get shot please don't get shot.
"Shut up!" the guy with the gun says. "He ruined everything!"
"What'd he do?" Judge Ali asks.
"He wasn't supposed to get caught. The girl was supposed to go to jail and he'd be free to pay his debt!"
"To who?"
"To me! Now my buddies are gonna come back and kill me for losing their stash."
"I fucking tried my best," Ramirez says, still at the witness stand, or at least Matt thinks so. Ramirez also doesn't sound too repentant. A small part of Matt thinks he deserves what's coming, but then Foggy talks.
"How many priors you got?" he asks.
"Who, me?" the shooter asks.
"Yeah, you," Foggy says. "How many?"
"What's it matter to you?"
"Well, I got a hunch you've got more mug shots than baby pictures back home."
"If you keep talking, you're gonna end up bleeding out like your partner on the floor right there."
"Woah, woah, hey there," Officer Garza says. "This doesn't have to get any worse than it already is."
"It's already worse!" the guy screams.
"You're right," Foggy says, "and when you go down for this, not even my soft-hearted partner"—How dare you? Matt thinks—"will take your case, 'cause he's kinda dying right now, but neither will any other self-respecting attorney in Hell's Kitchen, not because you're so badass, but because you're just that stupid."
"Foggy," Matt mutters, but ends up coughing some more, blood dribbling down his chin. His eyelids are growing heavy.
"What the fuck," Karen whispers.
"Mr. Nelson you're freaking insane," Tammy says in awe.
"You got a big mouth on you," the shooter snaps, at Foggy. Matt wants to stand up and shield Foggy and fistfight the guy, but he doubts it would go too well for him right about now.
"You forget I do this for a living," Foggy says dryly, despite the gun surely pointed at him. He's so brave, Matt thinks. "I could ask you to look at the faces of everyone here, scared to death because the two of you can't keep it in your pants."
"Hey, I'm not the one who brought a gun to court! That's all on Caldwell here!" Ramirez protests.
"Yeah, buddy? Well you started it!" the guy apparently named Caldwell says.
"As I was saying," Foggy continues, "I'm guessing that neither one of you could give a collective shit 'bout any of us, so I'm gonna do what attorneys do best and appeal to your selfish natures." He's so brave. Matt could never.
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Ramirez asks.
"Oh, don't get me started 'bout your selfish ass," Caldwell says. "You framed your own kid for murder and drug possession—"
"It was your idea!" Well. There's a confession. Guess they technically won the case.
"Simply put," Foggy says, voice like acid, and of course he's extremely annoyed at continually being interrupted, even when there's a gun pointed at him, "if you shoot anyone else or try to strangle each other, which it looks like you're very close to doing, in front of all of us witnesses with cops in here and more right outside, you're screwed." His voice is frank, truthful. Matt loves this about Foggy.
Unfortunately, he's a bit too busy bleeding out to say so.
"That's nice, Matt, but hang on," Karen says quietly. Oh. Maybe he's more out of it than he'd thought.
"Please be okay," Tammy whispers next to him, still holding onto his hand.
"I can't just walk away, man," Caldwell says, voice wavering just a little. That's it. He's hooked onto the argument. You're almost there, Foggy.
"I'm not asking you to lose the oh so serious stink eye, just don't fight, or shoot anyone else here, and at least let my partner go to a hospital. You don't want a murder charge on top of everything else."
"Open your eyes, Matt, stay with me," Karen says. Oh. When had he closed them? It's not like opening them would make a difference.
"Fine," Caldwell says. He drops the gun, or so Matt assumes. There's the sound of cuffs clicking, and people being dragged away, and ambulance sirens, coming closer and closer.
But most of all, there's Foggy, dropping down by his side with all his warmth and saying, "Matt." Just his name, just like that. Matt's never heard anyone sound so devastated just saying his name.
He tries to stay awake, to stay with them, he really does, but eventually he must float away into the darkness, to the ceiling of his mind and the cobwebs framing his memories.
You'll recognize a bunch of Foggy's lines from the episode where he talks down some guys from stabbing each other in a hospital. One of my favorite moments of his, couldn't not put it into this AU because he's still the same Foggy we know from the show, and Matt's still the same Matt we know from the show, despite his lack of supernatural powers. Anyways, Foggy is amazing and deserves the world.
