Hey guys and girls. I'm so sorry this took so long. I've had it finished for about a month, but I wasn't really that happy with the end, and then I was put on new medication that wiped me out and had concerning reactions to it, so I was put on new meds. I've hardly done anything for about 3-4 weeks.

Anyway, I'm hoping that I'm back to normal so I can start working on my fics. I'm still not entirely happy with the ending, but now that I've looked at it again after a month of leaving it, I like it a bit more then I did.

This chapter is set between about June 2006 and December 2007. There will be a time jump between this chapter and the next, just to be warned.

On with the story. Please R&R/comment if you want to.

T.C

~oOo~

Chapter 2

All I've Ever Needed

When Foggy Nelson was getting ready to go out on a date with his girlfriend, he wasn't expecting to be interrupted by a frantic banging on the door. Matt was out getting a take away, saying that he didn't need or want to listen to him talking to himself while getting ready. This is why Foggy was alone, with a potentially dangerous situation brewing outside.

The thought that it might be Matt flashed through his mind, but Foggy had seen him put his keys in his pocket before he left, and he couldn't think of anybody that lived around them that might be knocking like somebody was trying to kill them. So, with bated breath, Foggy opened the door; prepared for anything that might be waiting outside… Mostly prepared.

But what he wasn't expecting, however, was a crying woman, with a suitcase, duffle bag, and a red hand print mark on the left side of her face. Foggy didn't even think twice before leading her into the apartment, and sitting her down on the couch, and getting her a glass of water. All common sense about leaving a stranger alone went out the window when he saw the state she was in. And she wasn't a complete stranger.

He recognized her from the magazines at his girlfriends place and at the supermarket. And then that begged the question, what the hell was somebody like Annabelle Stark doing at the dingy apartment of Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson? She could probably buy their whole building and convert it into some unaffordable, upscale place that only the rich people could think about renting. Or she could turn it into more offices for the company that literally had her name plastered on the side.

Before he could ask any of those questions though, Matt burst through the still open door; almost tripping over the bags that Foggy had yet to move. In fact, in his haste to get upstairs, Matt had almost dropped his dinner to get up faster.

"Belle?" Matt was careful as he moved towards where her sobs were coming from. She didn't seem to acknowledge him until he crouched down in front of her, and placed a hand on her cheek. She almost flinched when his hand touched the mark her father had left, and Matt could feel the heat coming from it, "You're hurt. Who did it?"

"It doesn't matter." She mumbled, but Matt could still hear her.

"Lying won't work, you know that, sweet heart." He gently ran his thumb over the mark he couldn't see, "Who did it?"

Her voice broke when she told him, "Howard."

Foggy watched as his best friend almost change colour as his anger began to rise. He'd seen Matt like this, and he doubted that he'd ever see it again. Normally Matt was smiling and laughing.

"I'll kill him." Matt went to stand up, but Annabelle grabbed his arm, stopping him from going out and doing what he wanted to. She knew it would be no good, and he wouldn't even make it past the reception area of the building.

"He's not worth it, Matt. I made my choice, and there's no going back. He made me choose between my family and you. And I choose you, and I would do so again, because I love you."

"Well, you can stay here with us." Foggy spoke up, watching Matt stroke the cheek of his crying girlfriend, "You don't have to worry about being on your own, cause you have us."

Annabelle smiled at that. She'd heard a lot about Foggy, through Matt, and she felt like she already knew the kind of person that he was. She was pleased to see that everything she'd been told was true, having been lied to so many times over the previous nineteen years.

"Thank you." She smiled up at him, "Some mail will come through the post for me. I've been creating a new identity for myself over the past few months, and put here as the mailing address. Once it comes through, I'll be able to help with the food and bills and school supplies, if you need them. I could even help with your exams. I've already passed the Bar exam, and while I may not want to be a lawyer, I know all the material."

"Think you could take the exam for me?" Foggy joked, and Matt turned to face him, raising an eyebrow, "I'm joking about that, of course, but any help I can get is always appreciated."

When Annabelle started laughing, Matt gave Foggy a subtle perfect hand sign without his girlfriend seeing it. They didn't want her to be sad, so they were going to do everything in their power to make sure she would never be sad while living with them.

"So what's your new identity going to be?"

"Abigail. Abigail Sommers."

~oOo~

The week seemed to pass quite quickly after Annabelle - now going by Abigail - started living with them. She helped clean up their apartment, made sure food was on the table for when they got back from classes, helped with course work at night, and just made sure that they were looked after in general. Matt loved that she was now living with them, and was relieved that Foggy liked her as well.

But it was on one of these days, when Abigail was making breakfast for them before they went to classes for that day, that she saw the news. It was just playing in the background, but it was one of the stories that made her drop the plate she was holding, and it smashed on the floor.

"And breaking news, a spokesperson for the Stark family have released a statement, announcing the death of Annabelle the youngest and only daughter of Howard and his late wife, Maria. She was only nineteen years old." The news anchor was saying, "The family has asked for privacy in this time of mourning."

"Well screw you too, Howard." She shouted at the TV, waving around the spatula she was holding. Matt and Foggy came into the room as her picture appeared, while the news anchor said her name again, and the year she was born and died – 1987 to 2006.

Foggy helped pick up the pieces of plate that had broken when it hit the floor, while Abigail continued to hurl abuse at her father through the TV. Some of what she was saying was not nice, but neither Matt nor Foggy said anything about it. It was a dick move to announce that your only daughter had died, when you knew full well that she was alive and well. And to do it so publicly made sure that she knew she was no longer welcome to be part of the family.

"You've still got us." Matt brought her in for a hug when she started to cry, "It doesn't matter what he says. You don't need him to have an amazing life, and there'll be a day when you can stick two fingers up at him and tell him that you won."

Both the boys took the day off. They worked on what they could from inside their apartment, while Abigail sketched angrily on a pad of paper and muttered under her breath. Matt found it funny, and he shook his head as she continued to mutter about how she wanted to shove his big head up his arse. Foggy was a little perturbed when he saw that she was drawing her fathers body, with his head cut clean off, but he didn't say anything.

For the next few days, the papers and news had her 'death' splashed all over them. They couldn't get enough details of how the family felt, the exact cause of death, or what had pushed her to kill herself. She had everything she could ever ask for, but Abigail, Matt and Foggy knew the truth.

Howard even made a teary appearance on TV, saying he didn't know why she'd kill herself, and how he'd found the body. Abigail scoffed when she watched it; knowing that everything he was saying was fake, but everybody who saw and heard it believed every word that came out of his mouth. Her father was a fantastic performer, she'd give him that.

At the end of the following week, her funeral took place. Tony cried as he stood by her coffin, with Rhodey standing beside him. Her father was stoic; crocodile tears in his eyes, but the public still lapped it up, saying how brave they were to continue going after such a tragedy. Abigail just sat on the couch, eating ice cream, and watched as the empty coffin was lowered into the ground.

When Matt and Foggy got back from classes for that day, they found that Abigail had baked a cake and had bought beer from a local corner shop. If everybody believed her to be dead, then she was going to celebrate her death, and she was going to do it with the people she cared about.

~oOo~

About a year after Abigail had moved in, the three of them had been out drinking. Matt and Foggy were just about to take their last exams before graduating, and they were celebrating. Foggy had taken Matt's cane, and was weaving across the walkway, while his best friend was trying to stop Abigail from falling onto the grass on either side and walk in a straight line at the same time.

"Watch out, everybody! I'm Blind Matt Murdock! Whoa!" Foggy was joking as he almost tripped over. Abigail was laughing hysterically as she almost tripped over her own feet again.

"Most… Most people just say, 'Matt Murdock.'" Matt finally had a good grip on his girlfriend, and took Foggy's elbow in his other hand so that they could all keep together. The last thing they needed was to get separated.

"I look like most people?"

"I don't know, I can't see you."

Abigail continued to laugh, just not as loudly or hysterically as she had been before. "Well, at the moment, that may be a blessing." She joked, earning a playful glare from her now best friend.

"Oh, God, we should be studying." Throwing his head back and groaning.

Foggy scoffed at the statement. "You're gonna graduate Summa Cum Laude, you can take a night off, you nerd!"

"Yup, you'd be…" They all started laughing again, "You'd be graduating with that, too, if you took a few less nights off." Foggy handed Matt his cane back and started walking backwards.

"Point being, we are both one day gonna be fine, upstanding members of the legal profession." He took this time to turn around again, waving his hand in the air, and looking back at Matt and Abigail, "El grande… How do you say 'lawyers' in Spanish?"

"Lawyers? A… Abogados."

"El grande avocados!"

This statement made all of them start laughing again. "That's not Spanish, that's fruit. That's fruit." Abigail's coordination was getting better the more they walked, but she was still weaving slightly.

"It's a vegetable at best."

"See, that's what you get for taking Punjabi instead of Spanish with me, just to chase a girl." Matt used his cane to try and trip Foggy up, which he partially succeeded in doing as he stumbled slightly while trying to deny that he'd only taken the language to get close to the girl, "I'm sorry."

"I'll have you know that Punjabi is the future language of the future…" Foggy defended while Matt and Abigail continued to laugh, "Of business. Couple years, we'll all be speaking it. And she was so hot. She was so hot!" He put his head on Matt's shoulder and hugged him.

Matt threw his arm around his best friends shoulder, while grabbing his girlfriends hand as she started to drift again. "Yeah, say that in Punjabi."

Foggy stammered for a few seconds, trying to find the right words before he gave up, which caused Matt to started jumping up and down slightly while he laughed. "God. Shut up! Kiss my ass."

"You can't speak…:

"No! No, no, no, no. Are you trying to tell me that you didn't take Spanish to snuggle up to what's-her-name…" Matt acted confused at the statement, "The Greek girl?"

"Well, I… Surely I would take Greek."

"No, because she was taking Spanish. She already spoke Greek." Foggy looked at his best friend, "Whatever happened to her? She was smoking'."

"She went back home, and she was only ever my friend. I have my girl, right here." Matt put his arm around Abigail's shoulder as he said this, "And she also happens to speak Spanish, and I love listening to her voice, which is an important factor. Where are this stairs?"

It was a silent decision between the three of them to take a little break. They were all too drunk to do much else, and with all the movement, they weren't sure which direction they were going in. So Foggy pointed out where the stairs were, and they all sat down on the top step.

"Yes… We sit! And then we forage for hamburgers and more libations!" Foggy fell backwards after he said this, deciding that this would be the best time to lay down.

"How about just the burgers?"

"Lightweight." Foggy sat back up again, and that was a bad thing, "Hey, do you get the spins? Can you get those if you can't see?"

Matt thought about it for a few seconds, waiting for Foggy to finish asking the question, and for Abigail to get comfy as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, I get the spins."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's…" He stammered slightly, trying to think of the word he wanted to use, "It's an equilibrium thing, it's not your eyes. Liquid in your inner ear get disturbed, has trouble leveling off or something."

"Pilots get that. They call it Spatial Disorientation." Abigail came out with, her eyes still closed as she scooted closer to Matt.

Foggy looked thoughtful as he took him the information. "Huh. That sucks. I thought you might get a pass on that one."

"No, it's even worse for me, I think. 'Cause my senses are so strong."

"Well that sucks even more." Foggy chuckled, "Hey, how old were you when you had your first drink?"

Again, Matt thought about his answer before answering. "Nine." And Foggy repeated the number back before they all laughed at his reaction, "My dad gave me a sip from this bottle of Scotch. He didn't want my hands shaking while I stitched him up. He got cut pretty bad over his eye. Boxing match."

"He win?"

"No." Matt shook his head slightly.

Abigail patted his arm at the same time as Foggy did. "He'd be proud of you, buddy."

"Thanks, man." And he kissed the top of Abigail's head, "All he ever wanted was for me to use my head, not my fists. Not like him."

"My mom wanted me to be a butcher. I think she liked the idea of free ham." They laughed.

"Hey, they coming to graduation? Your family?"

"The whole extended brood." Foggy said proudly, "It's not every day a… Nelson breaks front he ranks of hardware and cured meats."

Matt put his other arm round Foggy's shoulders again. "Franklin Nelson for the defense, Your Honor."

"Defense! I like that. There's money in that."

"Oh, come on. Is that all you care about?"

"No… No. Truth and justice and all of that." Matt and Abigail looked over at him curiously, both wondering if that was the complete truth, "Couple of bucks?" Foggy smiled, and Matt smiled and shook his head, "Me and you, pal. We're gonna have big, fancy offices one day, with steel and glass and chairs you don't even know how to sit in. Murdock and Nelson, attorneys at law!"

"Nelson and Murdock. Sounds better."

"You think?"

"Yeah, trust me." Matt took a deep breath, "I can't see worth shit, but my hearing's spectacular."

Foggy hit Matt's arm. "Me and you, pal… We're gonna do this. We're gonna be the best damn avocados this city has ever seen." Which set off another round of laughter front he three friends.

"Best damn avocados."

"Let's get the hell out of here, come on." Foggy stood up first before he helped Matt and an almost asleep Abigail from their spots on the top step. He commented on how he worked out when Matt told him he was strong.

As they continued their walk back to their apartment – Foggy and Matt practically dragging Abigail along – she decided to speak. "We should get tattoos of avocados, where the stones are wearing suits and ties… And it should say 'Avocados at Law' somewhere next to it."

"Well, if you do the design, then we'll see about doing it. Don't take that as a promise though." Matt told his girlfriend as she played with Foggy's long hair, and he used his cane to help him stay on the walkway.

~oOo~

Christmas had come round again. Matt and Foggy had graduated and had started working at Landman and Zach as interns, Abigail had started at college again for an art course which she was loving, and she was loving being the person she wanted to be, not the one she was forced to be.

True to their word, Matt, Foggy and Abigail went to get tattoos. When she'd woken up the morning after, she was covered in paint, and had some weird green painting in front of her. She went and refined the abomination of a painting, and ended up with a final design. They'd been tattooed right after the graduation ceremony, almost as soon as Matt and Foggy had been handed their diplomas. Abigail had hers tattooed on her left wrist, while the boys had theirs done on their shoulders.

This Christmas would be the second one that Abigail had spent with the Nelson's. She'd also spent two Thanksgivings with them as well. Last year, they'd taken her in like one of their own, and it had been the best Christmas she'd ever had. They might not have a lot of money, but they had a big heart, and lots of love to go around.

She'd loved joking around with Foggy's siblings, helping his parents, and playing with the kids who'd been opening their presents. Abigail had also gone to church with Matt, and met Father Lantom after Mass. He seemed to know who she really was, but he never said anything. Just shook her hand and told her that everything was going to be fine.

The first anniversary of her 'death' had been fun. There's been pictures of Tony leaving flowers on her grave appearing in the magazines, but Howard was a no show, not that she was surprised by that fact. But he got away with it, just by saying that he couldn't face going to her grave; sniffling in all the right places, and even had tears roll down his face.

However, his fake crying, and the publics sympathy, made for some 'emotional' artwork, and her teacher was very impressed with the sketchbook she'd handed in as part of her portfolio, commenting on her choice of colours, and proudly displaying the book and her final piece of the year in the gallery for other people to see.

Matt and Foggy had been keeping secrets, but Abigail wasn't too worried. They'd just started a new job, in an office, with other lawyers, working cases. It was a lot to get used to, with the hours and working weekends. And Abigail had been really busy with her course, so she didn't really notice anyway.

They'd gone to Mass again and made it back to the Nelson's before anybody else was awake. Matt had talked more to Father Lantom, while Abigail had wished some of the other people there a Merry Christmas as they walked past her. Some nice old lady had commented on how much she was reminded of her granddaughter when looking at the young brunette. She just smiled at the statement.

When Mrs. Nelson had woken up, Abigail helped with preparing the food before everybody else descended into the room for presents and food. She spent some of the time dancing around while doing some of the tasks that needed to be completed before everything was ready.

"What has you in such a good mood?" Abigail almost screamed when Foggy's voice came from behind her; his hair sticking up in all directions. She could hear Matt laughing in the background, as she put a hand on her chest and took a couple deep breaths.

"Ass." She muttered under her breath before she spoke up, "And am I not allowed to be happy for no reason? I'm surrounded by people I love and who love me in return. What's not to be happy about?"

"Nothing." Foggy held up his hands in surrender.

Dinner was a lively affair. When you have as much family as Foggy does, Christmas is never going to be quiet, but at least it meant that it was never going to be boring, not when somebody tried to start a food fight. Matt got more nervous as the day went on, but he didn't say anything.

As the night drew to a close, nearly everybody went up to bed. Matt and Abigail were sat on the couch watching movies with Foggy, and eating the left over food that was on the table. It was finally quiet, which is just what they needed at the end of a busy day. Some time to just relax.

"Abby, I have something else for you. Just wait here, and I'll go get it." Matt said, placing her between the dining room and the living room, before going off to Foggy's room. And Abigail just stood there, waiting for him to come back, and when he did, he came to stand in front of her.

"You know, you didn't have to get me anything else."

"But I wanted to." He told her, making sure she was in the right place for his plan, "Now, you know I'm not very good with words, especially when it comes to you, so here goes." And then he got down on one knee, right under the mistletoe that he made Foggy put up earlier in the day, "Abigail Sommers… Will you marry me?"

She stood there in shock for a couple seconds, her hands at her mouth and tears in her eyes as she admired the ring. While it was intricate, it was also simple, and Abigail loved it. She didn't need much time to think of her answer.

"Yes." She whispered, and Matt put it on her finger.