2. $ 11 million
Vera was watching him with her jaw carefully controlled so it wouldn't fall to her lap.
She had a habit of going to the court with him – well, not with him, more like going along to watch him – if the time allowed that. It always left her awed and honestly a little horrified (and maybe a little aroused), because he was good. Really fucking scarily good.
She knew lawyers had to be tough and everything, not showing weakness and stuff, which made the fact she had seen his opponent close to tears once or twice even more terrifying. She thought it was something in his face, maybe the frown, reminding her of a disappointed parent, when he looked at the other lawyer as if he wanted them to rethink their morally questionable life choices.
Nevertheless, Vera almost thought she might get used to seeing Matt at court one day. It probably wouldn't happen, because oh god, he was cut-throat today.
In the beginning, the other lawyer had looked unfazed; gradually, she was losing her shit. Matt was brilliant when it came to wining the favour of the jury. He gleamed with righteous anger, while only showing it occasionally, proving he was perfectly controlled and distanced enough to make people believe that the situation wasn't hurting him as his own person, but him as a human being. As if the attitude of the company was an offense to humanity, as if it was a duty of any decent person to reprobate the people responsible. He was also not afraid of using the victim's name – Aaron James, a young man on a wheelchair, where the actions of the company had put him – to dismiss the feeling of anonymity; not just another victim, but this very young man¸ who had a name and his whole life ahead, suffered through their hands.
And Matt was doing all of this while using fancy lawyer terms and successfully avoiding hackneyed phrases. He was perfect; a little scary, his performance chilling Vera's spine, but pretty much perfect.
The jury apparently agreed with Vera, because of course Matt won the suit. And he won eleven million dollars for the family. Eleven million dollars. And the best part? It was a fucking pro bono case. Matt won eleven million dollars and he didn't get a penny for taking the case in the first place, for doing the digging, for the hours and hours spent on it. He might get something later, maybe, but still. Like what the hell?!
Vera left the courtroom dazed and with a wide smile on her face hidden behind her loosely hanging longish hair. If she was being honest, she was sure it was more of a smirk than a smile; because screw you, justice was served (at least as much as possible) and hell yeah, that's my fiancée. Vera really was proud of him and it was moments like this when she simply couldn't understand why, why on Earth would this man choose to spend the rest of his life with her of all people. She sure wasn't complaining though.
Vera stood by the wall, observing Matt as the mother gave him a quick hug and as he spoke to the boy on the wheelchair. He went to talk with several reporters after, the flashes of cameras leaving him calm, which seemed like a natural thing for a blind man, but Vera was sure he could hear them.
A touch on her forearm disturbed her staring and made her snap her head in the other direction. She met with a pair of smiling blue eyes.
"You still got it bad," Karen teased her and Vera felt a blush creeping up to her cheeks.
"Can you blame me? He slayed them," Vera defended her fascination with him and Karen hummed in agreement, both women sparing another glance in his direction.
"I never said I blamed you."
"You're here to get a statement?" Vera wondered and Karen nodded.
"Yep. And maybe for a late lunch? I don't know. Did you guys have plans? I don't want to intrude— it's just… it feels like ages since we talked."
"Well, he has been busy."
Very busy. Matt was a fucking workaholic. Sure, he always found time for Vera, but he was just taking too many cases and with his night job… no wonder Karen felt like she hadn't talk to him for eternity. She possibly hadn't.
"Neglecting you already? In that that case…"
Vera frowned. Had she sounded wry or whiny when saying Matt had been busy? Had she sounded like she had felt neglected? Dammit.
Well, she should have had a lunch with Matt, because beside their moment when and after he had… uhm, saved her life or something, the last few days had felt like their apartment had been buried under tons of paper, all notes and paperwork for this case, and Matt had disappeared together with the tidiness. Vera was actually impressed he had managed to get all he needed in one bag he had thrown over his shoulder in the morning.
"That's not— it's not like that. Sometimes I think he made the Earth rotate slower just for him, it's like his day has 26 hours instead of 24 or something," Vera admitted, realizing it was the truth. She smiled at the former N&M secretary. "You can have him."
"That's very generous of you, Ms. Machackova."
"And very treasonable. I can't believe you're giving me up so easily," Matt's voice sounded from behind Vera's back, his hand easily sliding into hers in an inconspicuous movement.
Vera turned to him, her heart fluttering in her chest. She knew he wasn't much for PDA (apart from their time in Czechia, but she suspected that had been because he didn't have to deal with the consequences) and in this case, just like in many others, she was actually grateful. Vera was pretty sure that if he had kissed her – even on a cheek – someone would snap a photo, because Matt was the hero of today. And every other day, but most people didn't know that.
The point was, Matt slipped his hand into hers and it was everything; she appreciated the small gestures, barely visible things really, but she was always pleased when he managed to steal a moment to show her his affection. Touching was important for them, always had been. It didn't matter the others might not see it; that was sort of the point.
"I'm sorry, are you complaining about me not being a nag? You are an odd person, Mr. Murdock" Vera stated and Matt's eyebrows shot up. "But you're my odd person. Just not for today's lunch."
She squeezed his hand, resisting the urge to kiss the shit out of him when his lips spread in a tired but a brilliant smile. She bit her lip, forcing herself to let go of him.
"Are you sure? I promised you one."
Vera wasn't kidding anyone; she felt a tiny sting of disappointment, but Matt wasn't just hers. Smile, Veronika. It's for Karen.
"You realize I mostly hoped for that lunch because you were living on food served in boxes or lunch at three p.m. which I had to force you to eat, right? Because you were refusing to leave the apartment unless it was absolutely necessary and eating wasn't on the list of these necessary things… unlike your nocturnal activities."
Matt opened his mouth, but Vera beat him to speaking, dropping her voice even lower.
"And I'm grateful for that. I would probably get shot otherwise, thank you again. You're my hero."
"I'll make it up to you," he offered gently, his body leaning to her space slightly before he stopped himself as if he remembered they were still at the courthouse. Vera's heart jumped at that movement, right before it melted.
She wasn't angry with him, what she had said was just a banter really, teasing, she thought he knew that, but the well-known shadow of guilt fell over his face for a second and she realized he took it seriously. Dammit, Matt. She brushed her fingers against his once more.
"You know there's nothing you should be making up for, Matt. What you're doing is important. I haven't even managed to say congratulation yet. Congratulation, Matt. You were— you were incredible. I know the fabulous win made it clear, but- yeah. Incredible. Amazing. Uhm…. See you later?"
Karen cleared her throat and Vera tore her gaze away from Matt's small smile. "I'm sorry, did I miss the wedding? Because you are so married," she joked and Vera lowered her eyes, unsure if it was a compliment or an insult.
Matt ignored the note for a good measure, kissing Vera's knuckles and then her ring; somehow, no one seemed to notice him doing that.
"Later. Thank you. I love you."
Vera assumed she had changed into a puddle of a lovesick Jell-O. It felt like she had.
"Still hard to believe that sometimes," she whispered, gaining a head tilt from him. "I love you too."
"Aaand, it's gone. There's no way you two are married. You're too love-struck for that," Karen noted and Vera almost jumped at her voice.
She quickly took her leave after that, waving awkwardly at them when taking a turn.
"See you guys later!"
Vera felt almost sorry for having a lesson that day; she knew Matt hadn't plan any meetings for the rest of the day and they really hadn't spent much time together in the past few days, so it would be a perfect opportunity to make up for the lost time. Yeah, not so much. Karen apparently wanted to catch up more than she had admitted and Vera left to Fogwell's before Matt could have arrived.
She soon forgot about it, focusing on the lesson, smiling due to the rush of endorphins into her bloodstream. Claire had done a great job with the stitches and Matt had removed them two days ago, so she didn't have to hold back and she could have her fun. She loved it, she enjoyed the atmosphere, the way her 'students' seemed exhausted but often were smiling like madmen.
"Water break, guys! You deserve it! And so do I…" she murmured after a short cardio sequence, grabbing her bottle of water.
Vera eyed all of the participants, checking on them automatically; it had happened before that a girl had felt dizzy and needed to sit down for a bit. It had happened only once, because people apparently had some sense of self-preservation unlike someone Vera knew, but it had, so she paid attention to the signs.
It didn't escape her that two women (Mia and Catherine… Kate? Cathy?) were giggling at something and Vera wondered if it could be at something she had done or something wrong with her face or whatever. Mia walked to Dinah, whispering something to her ear and the other girl giggled as well. Vera narrowed her eyes, thinking harder. Dinah's gaze flickered to the door of the gym and Vera's followed.
She almost had a heart attack; there he was, leaning onto the wall next the door, arms crossed on his chest, a light smile on his lips. What the hell was he doing here?
Vera raised her index finger in the direction of the giggling women, clearing her throat. "Uhm… just give me a sec to deal with… our guest."
"We'll give you thirty," Dinah teased and Vera rolled her eyes, jogging to Matt.
"Hi," she breathed, astonished. It couldn't be anything too bad if he was smiling, right? "What are you doing here?"
He bounced off the wall, his smile widening.
"I've never seen Vera, the lecturer, in action. I'd like to. I was hoping you wouldn't mind," he offered, shrugging casually.
For some reason, it didn't seem as casual; there was more to it. He wanted to know another side of her, making up for his absence (and his mental absence) in the past few days. It made her uneasy and at the same time, she found it incredibly touching.
"Oh. Okay, I guess?"
"Thirty seconds! Heart rate is dropping, a total waste not to burn calories!"
"Speak for yourself, mine's still racing…" Vera muttered under her breath, earning a laugh from Matt. She turned to Dinah and the others, forcing a wide smile. "Alright! Would you guys mind if we had an audience?"
Matt caught her elbow gently as the vague 'no', 'nope', 'a little' and 'nah, that's okay' sounded from the students.
"I won't see if you're doing it wrong, don't worry," Matt joked lightly and Vera tilted her head back, silently whining as few people laughed hesitantly.
"Thirty seconds, Murdock. You know them for thirty seconds and you're already throwing blind jokes in?"
"What can I say; I need to be charming in the company of so many beautiful women."
Vera turned to him, scandalized. Only then she realized it was also very clever of him, pretending he didn't know she had a man among the participants, because he couldn't see him.
"I'm pretty sure you just offended Jim. Which is not a wise move, all of these people here, including him, could kick your ass, you know?"
Matt raised his hands in a gesture of surrender as Vera seated him on the edge of the ring.
"Sorry, Jim, I'm sure you're a handsome man."
"Okay. So, I gotta warn you – he might not see you, but he can totally hear you if you go too slowly. So please, do your best as always, prove our guest that I haven't completely failed as a lecturer," she pleaded, walking to the stereo to turn up the music again.
"I'm sure they are in the best hands."
Dinah and three other women made a tiny 'aww', causing Vera to hide her embarrassment and stage fright behind a smile. She put on a remix of Call Me Maybe; just because she could.
It was a little weird in the beginning; Vera was trying to imagine that Matt wasn't here and in time, she actually found herself relaxing and falling back to normal, enjoying herself again.
"Freestyle or work-"
"FREESTYLE!" they yelled unison before she could even finish the sentence. Vera grinned, noticing that Matt's eyebrows shot up.
"You know we will have to work-out eventually, right?" she murmured, but switched the songs, smiling. This was her favourite part too; while people seem to enjoy themselves most of the time, this was something that really powered them up. Today was no different.
Stretching followed, a high-five with each of the participants and goodbyes.
"We never got to know if we sounded good," Dinah noted in Matt's direction.
"You sounded pretty great. You must have a great teacher," Matt responded smoothly and the woman shot Vera a look that spoke a thousand words (these being 'that is so sweet' repeated 250 times).
"Right. I'm pretty sure it's just the students being so talented…" Vera offered.
Matt tilted his head, smiling, knowing Vera felt abashed. "Might be both."
Vera was really glad when the students left, discreetly accompanying the last one to the door, waiting few seconds before locking up and leaning onto it with a relieved sigh. Matt was grinning innocently at her.
"How are you making women giggle like teenagers? Is that one of your superpowers?"
Matt ignored her question, beckoning her to come back to him. Vera hesitantly did, letting him to pull her into a hug; if he minded she was sweaty, he didn't complain.
"You are great with them, Vera. They adore you. It almost made me jealous."
"Almost, huh?"
"Well, someone agreed to marry me. So instead, I was proud," he explained gently and Vera slightly retreated, examining his face. He did look proud. She smiled, pecking his lips.
"Thank you."
He caught her lips again, lingering, deepening the kiss, before he chuckled. "Does this mean I can call you? Maybe?"
Vera smacked his bicep, but laughed as well. "You know, I'm glad Jim was here tonight. Usually they bargain for a different song for freestyle when it's girls only."
"I like the idea, they seem to really enjoy that part. What song?"
Vera mentally counted to three and licked her lips before speaking. "Single Ladies."
Matt laughed wholeheartedly, throwing his head back, his body shaking against hers as they still stood in a half hug. He let go of her waist, framing her face instead, crashing their mouths together in an enthusiastic kiss that left her breathless.
When he withdrew, his eyes were twinkling.
"Good thing that I put a ring on it, isn't it?"
"The best."
It took them a while to stop chuckling, but when they got there, Matt made her a generous offer she couldn't decline.
"You want to train a little? You're not too tired?" he asked, examining her in his freaky way. Hell, even if she was too tired, she would agree. She sceptically eyed the suit he was wearing and he patted his bag. "I stopped at home."
"Are you wearing a change of clothes in the bag where you usually wear legal documents?"
"Can't be too careful. What would people think if a blind guy was coming to a gym after hours to work out with you? Can't raise a suspicion."
"I totally wanted to put on some 'hero' song, but then decided it would be too much…" Vera admitted, letting him change. When he lost his top, she couldn't help it and started humming while wrapping her hands again.
"Your stare was holding,
ripped jeans, skin was showin',
hot night, wind was blowin',
where you think you're going baby…"
Matt snorted and put on a t-shirt, shaking his head. "I signed up for a lifetime of dorkiness."
Vera raised an eyebrow. "This coming from you… plus, you love it."
He drew her in for another kiss, using her plait as leverage. "I do."