AN: 90% of my inner commentary while watching this show: 'Matty, dear, ABSOLUTELY NOT'. Other 10%: 'Foggy, take him home before he hurts himself. Again.'


Eight Hours Earlier...

"No, really, you can't go-"

The door swings open and two big, kinda scary-looking creatures enter. Foggy's pretty sure they're men, but really...yeah. Big-big. And he's pretty sure that one of them is carrying nunchucks on his belt.

"Down, boys." A woman comes in, all long leather coat and gloves and money, black curls framing her face and making her look like a china doll, with those big blue eyes and long lashes. She looks familiar. Where has he...oh. Oh, shit.

"Uh, Matt, we have a mob boss in our office."

"Buisness woman, darling." Big One draws the nunchucks and Foggy prepars to duck for cover when he...makes them into a coat hanger. The woman removes her coat and hangs it, along with her scarf. The gloves she just hands to him. Somehow, being used as a coat rack does not make Big One look any less...murdery. "Misters Nelson and Murdock, I presume. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"Did you have an appointment?"

Shut your goddamn mouth, Matt, what part of MOB BOSS did you not understand?

"I don't need one. I won't be long." She sits down and just...looks at them. Foggy doesn't think he likes it. Scratch that-he knows he doesn't like it. "A little bird told me that you two can get me in touch with our very own neighborhood devil."

"Sorry, can't help you."

Matt. SHUT. UP.

"I thought lawyers were good at lying."

"I'm telling the truth."

Do you even know what self-preservation is?*

"Aw, you're cute." She leans forward, arms resting on Matt's desk. "Take your glasses off for me, please?"

"Why."

"I'm curious to see if the curtains match the windows."

Foggy swallows a snicker. Is this serious? Yes. Is it bad? Probably. But if they live, he's never letting Matt forget this. Never.

"Um-"

"Don't make me take them off."

Matt shrugs and takes his glasses off, sets them on his desk. Angelique du Maurier grins broadly and reaches one manicured finger over to lift his chin and guide his face towards her. O-kay, that's not...creepy, or anything. He's about to step in, bodygaurds be damned, when she pats his cheek and draws her hand back to her lap.

"Oh, I like that. If you ever need a new job, you come straight to me. Work's minimal-sit by my desk and look nice."

"He does that already."

She turns that grin on him with a delighted, almost girlish laugh.

"You can come too, sit on the other side and make little quips. Sound fun?"

"I'm good."

"Shame." she sighs, settling back in the chair. "Now, don't be coy. I need to speak with your roof-jumping friend about a little matter of child trafficking."

"What do you mean."

"Exactly that. It's one thing when people want to go horseback riding**, but I do draw the line at...that."

"Tell the police."

"It's complicated. If you...were to see him, send him by. I'm sure he knows my address." She rises, snaps her fingers. Big One steps over and helps her on with her coat. "Think about it. For the sake of the children."

Before Foggy can prepare himself, she's leaned over, gripped his tie, and tugged him forward into a kiss. Never mind, they are never speaking of this again.

"Not bad. You can always tell how good a man is if you catch him by surprise." She winks at him and saunters towards the door. "Come along, boys, we're leaving."

Once he hears the door close, he turns to Matt and says, "Help me."

"What?"

"You know what, I know you heard that, you hear everything!"

"I must have tuned it out."

His best friend is a real asshole sometimes, he really is.

"Come on, you know!"

"Really, Foggy, I have no idea what you're talking about. A...questionable...businesswoman came in with a ridiculous proposal and then left. It wasn't that bad."

"She. Kissed. Me. The Angel of Death kissed me, does that mean I'm marked for a mugging gone wrong or something? Should I skip town-stop smirking, you jerk, this is a catastrophe!"

Matt laughs at him-of course he laughs at him, he's not the one that got kissed-and gets up to pour himself a cup of tea.

"I'm pretty sure she was just messing with you."

"If I turn up dead in the river, I'll haunt you. I'll haunt you so bad, you'll never sleep again."

"Sure, sure. I'll keep that in mind." He sits back down. "Think I should go?"

"Dude, it's probably a trap."

"Yeah, maybe. She was telling the truth, though, at least partly."

Foggy knows that tone. That's the tone of 'I'm going anyway'. Because if there's anything that draws the Daredevil into a trap, it's imperiled children.

"Just...be careful. Don't do anything stupid."

"Who, me?"

One day, hopefully soon, they're going sit down and have a little talk about this thing called 'denial'.

"Yes. You. Because you picked a fight with knife-wielding maniacs-"

"I did not pick a fight, I rescued a woman from an alley-"

"-needed stitches, went back out an hour later to pick another fight-"

"-I don't pick fights, I help people-"

"-ripped the stitches, and nearly bled out on my carpet. Again."

Matt pauses mid-sip and gives him a hurt look.

"You make it sound so much worse than it was."

"What part of 'nearly bled out on my carpet' did you not understand?"

"Head wounds always bleed..."

"This was a chest wound."

"Erm. Yes. But that was an off night, you know that-"

"She's made her money screwing over more self-protective people than you. Don't do anything stupid."

"Yes, Mother."

Foggy flips him off and knows full well that he knows that, if nothing else because what else is Foggy supposed to do in this situation?

"I just flipped you off, by the way."

"I love you too, darling."

And Foggy really, really hopes that Angelique du Maurier doesn't kill him, because he wants to be the one to do it, as punishment for giving him premature grey hairs.


*No. Clearly. Because people who are rescued from a dumpster and stitched back together on a stranger's sofa and then try to kick ass DESPITE NEARLY DYING LIKE HALF AN HOUR AGO aren't into that. Dumbass.

**Heroin. I don't think this is actually a term, but maybe it'll catch on.