A/N: Mega chapter this week guys! Thanks so much for the feedback. Also, just an update, Josie is not blind but she is disabled in her legs. I feel like this story is writing itself now and I have no clue what its going to do next. Btw, have you guys seen the teaser for season 2? I adored it!
Matt snarled as his fist tore through the third sandbag of the day. He was drenched in his own sweat and he could feel the salt burning the raw skin on his knuckles. Unhooking the sandbag and putting it in the utility room to dispose of later, Matt set up another bag for himself as he tried to calm the rage burning in his veins.
After receiving the call from Brett, Matt had dressed quickly and gone straight to the police station. The scent of smoke clogged his nostrils from two miles away, and he shouldered his way through the crowd looking for Brett. Standing near the back entrance, Matt found the sergeant speaking with investigators and made his way towards them.
"How much have we lost?" Matt knew he was being curt and hardly sociable but he couldn't control the anger burning in his chest.
"All of it, not just the boat from your human rights case. There was evidence in that locker over 20 years old, it was all incinerated. Gone. We barely have ashes to prove they were there in the first place." Brett ran his hand over his face, taking a deep breath.
"How the hell did this happen, Brett?" Matt clenched his fists around his cane, he felt as if the smoke was surrounding him and fueling the fire in his chest.
"I don't know... Some ridiculous concoction of flammable chemicals? We have no clue, Matt." Another office began to call for Brett's attention, and Brett dismissed Matt as he wearily went back to duty.
And thus, Matt found himself busting punching bags after a trying day of work where his mood had been damn near murderous. Luckily, there had been no casualties at the site of the explosion and it had surprisingly only damaged the evidence locker. The rest of the building was perfectly intact and safe according to regulations. Matt could only come up with one conclusion, one of Andrew's men had broken into the evidence locker and destroyed the evidence to protect themselves.
Matt decided to head home and suit up after he had destroyed the fourth punching bag. He would be sure to make it up to Fogwell's by donating to their boxing lesson program next month. Just as Matt was about to slip his key into the lock of his front door, it flew open in front of him to reveal a small, familiar figure.
"Josie?" She stood with one hand on the knob and another on the doorway, blocking his entrance.
"Don't be mad," Josie's voice was nervous and Matt stepped into her personal space to enter his apartment cocking his head as she jumped behind the door.
"About?..." Matt paused before he stepped in his living room, he could sense another person in the room. In his home, and this person was not familiar or welcome. "Josie, who is in my living room?" He ground out through clenched teeth. He could hear her titter as she edged around him and nearly ran to the other person in the room, the other male.
"Uh... Matt, this is Ian. Ian, this is Matt..." Dead silence filled the room, neither man intent on speaking. "Ian is a very old and good friend of mine. We met five years ago, which for me is kind of an accomplishment. I mean keeping contact for longer than a month after I leave, thats... a... miracle..." The tension only grew in the room, and Josie looked as if she were about to hyperventilate any minute.
"IAN WAS THE ONE WHO DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE LOCKER." Josie blurted out in a half-shout. The tension seemed to break immediately and Matt found himself taken aback and could hear Ian berate Josie.
"Thanks, why don't you go tell Fox News, or better yet, NYPD while you're at it. For fuck's sake An-" Matt realized Ian had a slight Italian accent and was probably around the same age as Josie.
"Holy crap, I can finally breathe. You guys and your testosterone thing need to calm the fuck down. I literally thought a showdown was about to happen. Let's not do that again guys, my heart can't take it." Josie sat herself down in Matt's arm chair, while Matt tossed his gym bag on the table and got himself and 'Ian' a beer. As Matt neared Ian he realized that the figure reflexively turned its face away from him as if hiding.
"What heart? Last I checked you're still a heartless bitch," Josie huffed out a laugh and Matt felt his eyebrows rescind in to his hairline.
"Oh, calm down, Ian. There are worse ways to live," Matt nearly choked on his beer listening to the flippant air Josie put on.
"Worse ways to live? You brought me into another mess, you brought me to this city. And, you know what this city did to me... I told you once before, An- Josie, I will not sacrifice myself for you." Ian threw his bottle out the window before stomping to Matt's door and leaving with a flourish of his trenchcoat.
"He's... uh..." Matt trailed off.
"Dramatic?" Matt nodded sharply. "Yeah, he'll get over it. He just loves being a diva." Josie twisted her body to hang her legs off the arm rest of his chair and rested her head against the backing. Matt settled down on the sofa slipping off his glasses and gave Josie a questioning look.
"What was that you were saying about him blowing up the evidence locker?" Matt heard Josie sigh softly.
"Ian didn't really mean to blow the place up, I mean... technically... it wasn't really his fault." Matt merely cocked an eyebrow at Josie before urging her to explain further. "I called him in and asked him to steal some files from the evidence locker. When he got there he found one of Singh's men setting up explosives through out the room. He tried to disable as many as he could but he couldn't get them all."
"So... Even though he hates you, he still risked his life for you?" Matt questioned, disbelief colouring his voice.
"I think we can both agree that its impossible for anyone to say no to me."
After running some recon with Josie and trying to figure out Singh's next plan, Matt suited up and patrolled the streets. He had just found a young father being cornered in an alleyway by muggers when another figure joined him. Matt debated whether the figure was helping the muggers or him when he recognized the scent that still lingered in his living room. Ian stood to his left, still clothed in his heavy trench coat.
"You handle the others, and I take the knife guy?" Ian's voice was muffled and Matt assumed he was wearing some kind of face mask to hide hisidentity. Matt nodded curtly before charging at the burliest mugger.
The mugger attempted to kick Matt in the stomach, but Matt braced himself against the brick wall and rebounded against the mugger. His fist knocked the mugger down in seconds, he felt the second one flee. Just as he made to go after him, Ian grabbed the shorter mugger by the neck and slammed his skull against the wall. Matt turned to search for the victim, and began to make his way out of the alley.
"Wait, I wanted to talk to you." Matt paused in his path and turned to face the source of Ian's voice. "You don't know her, you know that right? She'll destroy you to get the job done, and she'll feel nothing inside while she does it. She used to care, she used to have a conscience, but now she's as dead as her father and she refuses to see it. Matt, don't get in too deep with her, she's self-destructive... and the shrapnel will scar you."
"You know all of this how?" Matt all but snarled at Ian, everything he was saying was the exact opposite of the girl he knew.
"Because 92% of my body is severely damaged from third degree burns! She had to make a sacrifice to her father three years ago, that sacrifice was me! She's an empty shell of a person, Matt, trust her with your life and she will snatch it from you while she smiles." With that Ian spun on his heels and left Matt in stunned silence.
