Note: This story follows previous fic titled August 26th.

CHAPTER ONE: A meeting with Maggie

"I'm not concerned. Consider this the call BEFORE I get concerned," Brett says, his tone serious. "I sent one of my officers for remedial training on use of force last week. He had two incidences in the course of a month that caused about as much damage as Daredevil does before midnight any given night lately."

"Yikes," Foggy says, shifting the phone to his other ear.

"Its easier to get a statement from a perp when he's just had a few teeth knocked out rather than his jaw broken. You understand what I'm saying?"

"You're saying its escalating?" Foggy asks, dreading the possible answer. He's always been worried about this happening one day. He's afraid to even ask the next question. "Please tell me nobody has died."

"No. But there's some pretty serious injuries that are going to be lifelong problems."

Yeah, this is bad, Foggy admits to himself.

"Get your client under control Foggy," Brett says in no uncertain terms.

"Daredevil isn't-"

Brett cuts him off before Foggy has a chance to explain.

"I need him to dial it back a couple notches. I'm sure you don't want him to lose all police support."

"You aside I'm not sure how much he has now," Foggy says quietly.

"More than you'd think. A LOT of people believe in what he does. Not always the WAY he does it but …" Brett trails off before starting again more confidently. "His job is going to get a lot harder if he riles the force against him. I don't even need to mention public perception as well do I?"

"Okay," Foggy says, trying to keep his tone neutral.

"Talk to your CLIENT," Brett says. The way he emphasizes the word tells Foggy that Brett is very much aware that any connection Daredevil has to Nelson, Murdock and Page is not actually of the attorney/client variety. "You don't want to get a call from me when I really am concerned." His tone certainly makes it sound like he means it.

"Thanks Brett, I will."

"See that you do," Brett says, hanging up.

….

"You remember me mentioning Brett before?"

"Your childhood friend? " Maggie confirms.

"Uh, friend, yeah, I guess," Foggy says, not entirely sure that how he'd define their relationship these days. "I think he might know who Matt is," he admits. He's explained the earlier phone conversation to Maggie. They're walking a winding path around the church grounds, her arm linked in his. He's been by to talk to her countless times in the past few months but can't actually remember when she started taking his arm like that. It reminds Foggy of his own mom cause she liked to do that too and while he's happy for her to enjoy retirement in Florida, he misses her dearly. This isn't the same. Talking with Maggie is a minefield compared to easy chats with his own mom. Still, this really helps in so many ways and he likes that she easily links her arm in his.

"Is that going to be a problem?" she asks.

"I don't THINK so. I mean, he seems like he wants to not acknowledge it. Kept calling Daredevil my client."

"So what are you worried about?"

"How am I supposed to tell Matt to stop hurting people? I mean, I know he's not going to stop no matter what I say. But how do I tell him he needs to do less damage? I'm pretty sure whatever I say he's either going to freak out and get worse or tell me I don't have any say in this."

"Possibly," Maggie agrees.

"Or he's gonna end up feeling so guilty and conflicted it'll make him nuts." 'MORE nuts,' Foggy adds silently.

"As his friend you do owe it to him to point out what he's doing wrong. This could cause a lot of problems for him, for the both of you. He may well not even be aware there's a problem here and Brett has explained why there is."

"Yeah," Foggy says with a sigh, already dreading the conversation with Matt.

"But you are not responsible for what he does with that." Maggie stops, takes Foggy's hands in her own. "You can talk to him, you can support him, but there's nothing you can do to stop him, you understand that, right?"

Foggy is actually quite aware that nothing can stop hurricane Matt.

"I don't know how to bring this up with him. You know how sometimes he's so open, so receptive and ready to talk over hard stuff. He's come so far but…"

And its true. Foggy is amazed how much less closed off Matt has been since he returned from the dead. Its like he left behind a part of himself under Midland Circle that was so use to putting up walls and blocks and avoiding every difficult conversation. Unfortunately, in some strange exchange, he's also become far less predictable and controlled. Maggie knows all this. She might not have a basis for comparison since by in large she's known Matt as an adult only after these changes occured, but they've talked at length about his more recent Jekyll and Hyde tendencies. She knows it's a crapshoot whether Matt's going to be open, honest and communicative or he's going to snap and explode. They've talked at some length about Matt's increased volatility. Not that either of them has come to any kind of solution.

"He's just so much less…" Foggy struggles to put it in the right words despite how much they've talked about it. "Stable?" it comes out like a question, like even now he's struggling to explain it.

Maggie sighs, nodding sadly as they resume walking. "Then you better time your conversation very carefully."

She doesn't volunteer to discuss it with Matt herself. Foggy is just a little disappointed she's not jumping in to save him, not that he really expected her to. "He's so tense lately. Like pretty much all the time. I know he's invested in work and, well, everything else. I just wish he'd relax a bit, act like he's not waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"Maybe he just needs to get laid," Maggie says, tone light and joking.

"That might actually be exactly what he needs," Foggy admits. "AHH jeez, sorry, I shouldn't be talking about stuff like that with you."

"Because I'm a nun or because Matthew is my son?" Maggie asks. She seems thoroughly amused by Foggy's sudden discomfort. Foggy thinks she enjoys making people squirm just a bit.

"Yes!" Foggy says, can't help himself from smiling.

"I brought it up," Maggie points out. "I assume he's not seeing anyone?"

"I don't think so. He'd probably tell me if he was. You know when he and Electra broke up that first time, when we were in school, it just about killed him. I was so scared he wouldn't bounce back. You have no idea how depressed he got."

"I can imagine," Maggie says darkly. While she was not big on details, she had told Foggy in general terms how despondent Matt had become staying at the church after his accident. And Foggy is aware the level of depression and inability to function Maggie herself had experienced when Matt was a baby. Foggy realizes that yes, she probably can imagine the type of screwed up Electra had left Matt. "Do you think he's depressed now?"

"No. That's not what I meant. I just think he's stuck," Foggy says. Matt can't let Electra go, can't deal with losing Stick. Again. Can't completely dig himself out of that metaphorical grave under tonnes of concrete.

"Then keep throwing him a rope so he can haul himself out of this if he chooses," Maggie advises and Foggy is somehow impressed that her imagery fits well with his. "Now, tell me what happened with Marci and the whole new sofa debacle?"

Extremely thankful for the escape into lighter topics, Foggy gleefully launches into the continuing epic story about his girlfriend.

...

Note: Story is complete, 8 chapters total. Just cleaning up the rest prior to posting, subsequent chapters will be uploaded soon.