It had suddenly become "Casual Friday" at the offices of Nelson and Murdock.

On a Tuesday.

Which was probably a good thing, since Foggy was so distracted that it was becoming harder and harder for anything or anyone to get his attention. "Foggy?" Matt called in a gentle sing-song, waving a hand in front of his friend's face. "Earth to Foggy..."

Foggy shook his head, his concentration returning to the present with a jolt. "Sorry," he blushed, chuckling nervously. "Guess my head's not in paperwork today."

"I could make the call now," Matt teased, only half-joking. Foggy swallowed nervously, trying and failing to fight off a sudden attack of nerves...and causing Matt to chuckle. The 'blind' man sat down in the 'client chair' across from his partner's desk as he filtered through the signs of his best friend's emotional turmoil. "You know," Matt admitted, "I have no idea what they're going to ask me to do, either..."

"Yeah, but you're already the superhero," Foggy countered. "All I've had to do so far is send you off to kick ass and take names. Now, I'm going to be expected to actually contribute something."

Matt smiled, hoping his friend would find it reassuring. "I'm sure you'll do just fine."

Foggy perked up at his friend's complete confidence. "You think so?"

"Absolutely," Matt insisted. He leaned forward in the chair, completely focused on his friend. "You know, it's not like you squeaked by in law school by cheating off my tests..."

"As if I could have," Foggy agreed with a chuckle.

Matt shared in his friend's laughter for a bit before returning to getting his point across. "Foggy, you are so much smarter than I think you give yourself credit for, sometimes. Whatever they ask you to do, I'm sure you're going to be great."

"You really think so?" asked Foggy.

"I really do," Matt replied.

Foggy drew in a deep breath, then let it all out at once. "All right," he declared. "Call him. Let's do this thing."

Matt pulled the business card out of his pocket and handed it to Foggy. "Uh, you should probably make the call..."

Foggy took the card and reached over for his phone, but pulled his hand back at the last second. "We're going to this place to work on taking your abilities to the next level, right?"

"Yeah..." Matt replied warily.

"Let's start now," Foggy declared.

This should be interesting, thought Matt. "What did you have in mind?"

Foggy handed the business card back to his friend. "You call them."

"How am I supposed to get the number?" asked Matt.

Foggy grinned wickedly. "You're the one with the hyperactive sense of touch. If I can feel the impressions a ball point pen makes on a business card, it should be a cakewalk for you."

Matt took the card, turning it around in his hands as if he was unsure which end was up. Finally making a decision as to a course of action, Matt put the card down on the desk, moving his fingers across the writing as if he were reading braille.

Foggy noticed that Matt's fingers slowed down as they moved across the phone number. "You can feel the difference, right?"

Matt nodded. "Honestly, it's been so long since I've read anything but braille that I'm mostly having trouble making out what some of the numbers are."

"Why don't you describe them to me," Foggy suggested as he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from his desk, "and I'll try to write them down."

"Okay," Matt agreed with a shrug. He turned his focus back to the card. "The first number is a half-heart with a straight line at the bottom."

"That's a two," said Foggy.

Matt felt the curves on the paper that surrounded the number. "Parentheses...area code 212, maybe?"

"212," Foggy repeated.

Matt moved on to the next part of the number. "Okay, the next number is...half a square and half...no...two-thirds of a circle?"

Foggy squiggled a couple of different options on the paper before he found the number that matched Matt's description. "Five," he told Matt.

"555, then," Matt declared.

The last four numbers went by quickly. "So is that it?" Matt asked. "Did I get the number right?"

Foggy didn't give a definitive answer; he simply picked up the receiver of his old desk phone and offered it to Matt. "Call it and see for yourself."

Matt walked around the desk and took the receiver from Foggy's hand, using the buttons to dial the number before placing the handset to his ear...then holding the devices at arms' length as a string of deep, growling curses could be heard by everyone in the room. "I don't think that was the right number, Foggy."

Foggy smirked shamelessly, ruthlessly enjoying his best friend's embarrassment. "I think that last number was a one, not a seven."

Matt glared at Foggy. "You know, you could have just told me."

"Where's the fun in that?" Foggy teased, his smlie growing just a tiny bit wider.

Matt shook his head before bringing the handset back up to his ear and dialing the corrected number. "Matthew Murdock," he told the person on the other end of the line. "I'm calling for Richard Castle."

"One moment, please," the receptionist replied.

Castle appeared in the law office before anyone else came to the phone. "You guys are early," he told them.

Matt and Foggy jumped at the sound, then quickly relaxed, congratulating each other with a fist bump. "Is Doctor Sandburg busy?" asked Matt. "We can go later if he's not ready."

"He's been pacing the training room for an hour," Castle admitted. "Jim thinks he's been looking forward to doing something like this for years. You guys ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Foggy declared, overtaken by a sudden attack of nerves.

Matt nudged his friend. "You just taught a blind guy to use the telephone," he teased. "You can do that, you can do anything."

While Foggy broke down laughing, Castle just stared at the two men, confused by the inside joke. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," Matt replied. "We're ready to go."

"Not yet," Castle argued. He took Matt's cane, resting it beside Foggy's desk, then took Matt's glasses off and set them on Foggy's desk next to the cane. "Now you're ready to go."

The three men disappeared a moment later.

#

The first thing Matt and Foggy noticed was the gravel underneath their feet. Foggy looked up to the sky, drinking in the bright mid-morning sun as he fought to get his bearings. "Where are we?" Foggy asked, not knowing if there was anyone around him who could answer the question.

"You're in the Bronx," Sandburg replied.

The two men turned around to find two men and a woman standing behind them. Matt took care of the introductions. "Foggy, meet Guardian Kate Beckett, Doctor Blair Sandburg and..."

"Jim Ellison," Jim introduced himself. "I'm a Sentinel. Like your friend Matt here."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Ellison," Foggy replied politely, shaking the third hand that had been offered to him in greeting. "Is Doctor Sandburg your doctor, too?"

Jim and Blair looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Matt, wondering what his friend had said that was so amusing.

"I'm an anthropologist," Blair explained. "The doctorate's an academic title."

Matt frowned, his confusion deepening as he thought about everything they had discussed earlier. "So how..."

"I only briefly mentioned Guides in our earlier conversation," Blair replied, "but the reason that I'm an expert on Sentinels is that I'm Jim's Guide."

"You're a Guide?" asked Foggy. "For how long?"

"Past fifteen years," said Blair. "We just retired from the Cascade PD a few months ago."

Matt recalled Blair's earlier casual reference to his old 'double life'. "That's what you were doing as a police consultant. Working with Jim." Blair nodded, so Matt went to the one question that was on his mind. "When Castle dropped me off earlier, he seemed to assume that Foggy was my Guide."

"My husband has been working on being more sensitive to small traces of magic," Beckett explained. "He says that he feels an energy spike when a Sentinel is in close proximity to their Guide. And that he feels that same spike when you're standing next to your friend there."

Matt and Foggy looked at each other, instantly evaluating their relationship in a whole new light. "Really?" both men asked in unison.

Beckett nodded. "I feel it, too."

"You do?" asked Foggy, still trying to wrap his head around the concept.

Blair was bouncing on his heels at Beckett's confirmation of Castle's hunch. "Actually, gentlemen...that spike is what we're here to test."

"And...you've lost me," Matt declared.

Blair began his instructions by turning to Foggy. "Mr. Nelson..."

"Please," Foggy interrupted eagerly, "Mr. Nelson's my dad. Call me Foggy."

"Okay," Blair agreed. "Foggy, I'm about to throw you into the deep end of the pool..."

Feeling brave, Foggy waved off the warning. "Just tell me what you need me to do."

"All right," said Blair before turning to Matt. "Matt, how would you like to see again?"

"WHAT?!" Foggy exclaimed. "You can give him his eyesight back?!"

Blair shook his head. "I can't. But if you're really Matt's Guide, you're about to...at least temporarily."

"ME?!" Foggy replied, still gobsmacked by the idea. "How?!"

"Stand next to each other, side by side," Blair instructed them. When Matt and Foggy were in position, Blair continued. "Close your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths. Focus on a memory that represents you. Not your history, not where you wish things were. Your relationship to each other right now."

Matt and Foggy both thought of the same moment: hanging Karen's "Nelson and Murdock" sign outside of their building while she read from the cover that mentioned the Daredevil for the first time. The experience was so absorbing and so viscerally clear that it seemed to tug at both of their souls...

Beckett gently squeezed Blair's shoulder...the wordless sign that meant she felt an increase in the energy between the two men. "Do you feel it, guys?" Blair asked Matt and Foggy. "Like someone yanking at your brain?" The two men nodded. "That's your connection. Picture it like the entrance to a waterslide."

A second squeeze of Blair's shoulder forced Blair to breathe deeply, forcing himself to keep his heart from racing at a speed that would distract the newly minted Sentinel-Guide team. "Matt, when I tell you guys to go down the slide, I want you to shut down all of your other senses. Focus only on the feeling of that connection. Do you understand me?" Matt nodded. "Then you're ready. Go."

Beckett's pat on his back sent Blair's heart racing out of control. Connection established, he thought. Castle was right. "Okay, Foggy," he told his fellow Guide, "open your eyes."

Foggy opened his eyes...and Matt gasped, suddenly finding himself on unsteady legs. The Sentinel collapsed, speechless, on a nearby pile of wooden pallets.

"Keep your eyes closed, Matt!" Blair warned. "Whatever you do, don't open them!" Matt nodded.

Seeing his best friend in distress sent Foggy rushing to his best friend's side. What is it, Matt?

I'm seeing...myself, I think, Matt thought. If that's me, then I really need a haircut...

Only you would think that with your hair a quarter inch longer than usual...Foggy teased.

The two men chuckled...and the sound painfully shattered the connection between them. Both men scrambled back, holding their heads in their hands as their minds struggled to re-establish a grasp on 'normal'. "What the hell just happened?!" Foggy demanded.

"First things first," Beckett announced. "You two look like you're in a lot of pain, am I right?" Both Matt and Foggy nodded. "Then we can talk about this now, or we can talk about this after you've seen Lanie. Your call."

Foggy opened his mouth to speak, but Matt cut him off before he got the chance. "Lanie," he insisted. "Definitely Lanie first."

When Foggy turned to his friend, Matt gave him an expression that begged for his trust. So Foggy nodded, deferring to his friend. "Okay, let's go see whoever this Lanie person is..."

They were gone a second later.