So this is a little bit different from the other chapters of this fic, buuuuttt I am absolutely in love with Claire and I really wanted to hop on the bandwagon and write the missing moment between 'Speak of the Devil' and 'Nelson and Murdock'. So I did. :) I apologise for the angst. Well I kinda do. Bg.97xx
Foggy's breath quickened as he stared at the floor of Matt's apartment, where Matt – the devil of hell's kitchen-lay; blood seeping out of him.
"Matt, what the hell?" Foggy whispered, more for himself than his friend. He knelt down beside him, recovering from the shock enough to remember what he was doing and pick up his phone again.
He went to dial for an ambulance, when an arm flew up, nearly hitting him in the face.
"No hospital."
"Are you fucking crazy? You look like you're dying Matt." The last words of his sentence shrunk into what threatened to be a cry.
Matt's breath was laboured, but he pushed to get the words out. Even then his sentences were only half finished, but after years of knowing each other, Foggy could decipher the meaning. "My burner. Top pocket. Claire."
"Claire?" Foggy asked, trying to remain somewhat calm.
Matt nodded briefly, before slipping back out of consciousness again. Foggy started to panic again, his hands sweating as he unzipped Matt's pocket and pulled out his burner phone. His fingers shaking, he went to the contacts. There was only one name there. Claire.
Foggy took a deep breath before calling the number. Each ring made him more nervous. The ringing suddenly stopped and he heard a deep sigh before a woman's voice came down the line.
"Matt? What is it?"
"No, it's not Matt. But he's hurt, like really really bad. There's a lot of blood and I don't know what to do and he said I couldn't call the hospital and that I had to phone you." Foggy didn't mean to say so much and speak so fast but the words just seemed to come out, desperate for someone to come and fix things.
The woman's voice froze for a moment, before saying in barely a whisper, "Where are you?"
"At his. Do you know where it is?"
"Yeah, I know. I'll be there in about ten minutes. Keep the wound covered, and please try and stay calm."
The phone hung up and Foggy was overwhelmed by the enormity of the silence in the apartment. He lifted up Matt's shirt slowly, to try and find where the wound was, but there was so much blood, and he couldn't quite work out where it was coming from. He held back a sob before pushing the black material back down.
"What the fuck are you doing, Matt?" It was all he said out loud, but was accompanied by a million other questions in his head. How are you doing this? How could you have lied to me for so long? What the hell happened tonight? And all those other nights? Did you kill a cop? How did I believe you all those times you got injuries and you just said you were clumsy? You were never that clumsy at college so why didn't I connect the dots? What does this mean for us?
A strangled broken sound that didn't even sound human broke from his chest. It was interrupted by a groan from the broken man on the floor.
"Foggy?"
"Yeah, it's me." He didn't even bother to stop his crying. Matt probably wouldn't recall this later.
"I'm sorry, Foggy. I'm sorry about… this."
"You better be sorry, Murdock. You better be fucking sorry because I have no idea what is happening or even who you are."
Matt's eyes kept fluttering closed but he forced them open. "Foggy, please."-
He was unable to finish his sentence, because by just moving a tiny bit, Matt erupted into a shriek of pain, which terrified Foggy to his core.
"Claire?" the soft pleading in his face stole Foggy's anger momentarily.
"She's on her way, buddy. Hang in there."
Foggy sat there as he waited for Claire to arrive, though he knew absolutely nothing about her. One hand rested on Matt's side, trying to keep his wound covered by something like Claire had said on the phone, and his other hand covered his mouth trying to stop himself from letting the sobs be heard.
After what felt like forever, Matt's front door burst open, and a woman burst through it, a frantic look on her face. Although it really wasn't the time, Foggy couldn't help but notice that yet again Matt had captured the attention of a woman who was very beautiful, even in her currently flustered state. Foggy stood up straight away to introduce himself.
"I'm Foggy. Are you Claire?"
"Yeah, that's me," she said, acknowledging him quickly before rushing to Matt's side. She muttered a string of curse words as she looked over him.
"Do you know what happened?" Claire asked him, as cut open Matt's top to observe his wounds.
Foggy shook his head. "No. I don't have a clue about any of this. I came over to check he was okay, and he wasn't opening the door, but I heard a bang so I came down the fire escape and the devil of hell's kitchen passes out on the floor, ,which you don't seem shocked by, so I'm guessing you knew?"
Her eyes didn't leave Matt as she nodded. "We're going to have to move him on to the couch. I'm not strong enough to lift him by myself so you'll have to help."
Foggy nodded, immediately moving closer to Matt's body to prepare to move him. Claire counted down from 3, and they lifted the body- Matt letting out a shriek of pain as they put him back down again.
"Shit, they got you good this time, Matt." Claire muttered under her breath.
This time? Foggy tried to not let the implications that she'd seen him in this state before bother him; but of course they did. "What do you mean this time? Have they got him before? Why do you know about this and not me? I'm his best friend."
Claire sighed again as she looked up at the blonde man. "Look, it's not my place to tell you, and this isn't the time for you to get angry with Matt- because if we waste our time arguing about him- he's going to die. So please, just wait an hour or so to be pissed off at him and help me let him live."
Her tone was calm yet commanding, and Foggy felt compelled to listen. He took a deep breath and stood up straight. "What do you need me to do?"
Claire gave Foggy a list of things to take out from her bag as she got to work on getting Matt free of his clothes so she had better access to the wounds.
"Claire?"
"Yeah Matt, it's me."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah well you should be; I've spent nearly all of my nights off on you."
Matt tried to laugh, but the sound got caught in his throat.
Foggy watched the exchange from where he sat rifling through Claire's medical kit, but something about it seemed so intimate that he felt the need to turn away.
The smile faded from Claire's face as her eyes drank in all the cuts that painted Matt's body. She turned back to Foggy; returning to the authoritative tone she had used before as she ordered him to pass her suture kit, and various other things.
After a load of stitches had been done, a good few towels had been covered in Matt's blood, and lot of screaming on Matt's part and crying on Foggy's, Matt had been able to fall asleep peacefully, without there being the fear of him never waking up.
Foggy grabbed a beer from Matt's fridge and sat on the armchair, dwelling on everything that had happened that night as Claire cleaned herself off in the bathroom. The more he reflected, the angrier he got. Now that Matt was safe, his terror was completely gone and it had been replaced by pure rage. Matt had betrayed him. They had been friends for what- 5 years? And this was how he repaid him. All those days that Foggy had given up time to make Matt's life easier, all those times that he followed Matt's instincts and gut feelings without a second thought. Now it seemed as if that may not have been the smartest thing to do. The man was a maniac, clearly- a devil. Foggy swallowed down yet another cry that was about to emerge from his throat when Claire stepped back out into the living room.
"Are you okay?" she asked timidly.
"Nope."
"I get that it's hard to understand- I don't get it either, but if this is what Matt feels he needs to do- I really doubt that any of us will be able to convince him otherwise."
"No you don't get it. You're just some girl- I'm Matt's best friend- we lived together for years. I should have known. I deserved to know." Foggy spat out at her.
Claire remained poised as she went to deliver a response, but Foggy interrupted her with a sigh.
"No, that's not fair. I'm sorry. If it weren't for you, Matt would be dead. And clearly you know more about him than I do. It's just… I can't… I can't believe that he lied to me about everything."
"I'm pretty sure he hasn't lied about everything."
"Well he told me that things didn't work out between you two, for a start." Foggy pointed out, looking Claire straight in the eye.
"See. He didn't lie to you about everything. That's the truth." Claire said, a sad smile falling on her face and reaching her eyes.
Foggy's eyebrows furrowed. "So why did you come?"
Claire laughed humourlessly. "Because I'm a decent fucking human being."
"Huh." Foggy exclaimed, his eyebrows raising.
"What?" she asked, confused by his reaction.
"Matt doesn't usually get those."
Claire heard the depth behind his words, and let the silence hang in the air, before it was broken again by another humourless laugh- this time, Foggy's.
"Typical really: the one time that Matt meets a decent girl and he fucks it up."
"Sounds about right." Claire mumbled. She checked her watch before looking back to Foggy. "Look, I have to go, but I'll give you my number before I do so that you can reach me if he's ever an idiot again- which I'm sure he will be."
Foggy passed his phone for her to put her number in to, before saying his farewells. As she walked out the door, she hesitated for a moment. "When he wakes up… Foggy, please go easy on him."
His eyes darkened. "I can't promise you anything."
And with that Foggy Nelson closed the door on Claire, and withdrew back into the unnerving quiet of Matt's apartment.
Whoa. That was tense. Sorry it took me so long- had a very busy few weeks. Finished my exams and all now, so updates should hopefully be more regular. I know this wasn't fun like my usual stuff, but I hope it was still a good read. Please let me know by reviewing. (: Bg.97 xx