Author's Note:
Ouf, finally finished! I promised myself to get through with this story before 2016 ends and I did it *proud pat on own shoulder* Definitely not one of my better chapters and a short one in addition, but it has to do.
To those of you who reviewed and seemed to be hoping for this to be a longer story: I'm sorry, it was never intended to cover more than 36 hours or something, as it was a drug dampening Matt's senses and they usually wear off pretty fast. There was no room for more Karen or even Brett, it just wouldn't have fit in... My apologies if you had hoped for more!
Once again thanks to guest reviewer Sarah! Always a pity that I can't reply personally :-)
Okay, enough with the talking, have fun reading!
Matt found it hard to admit but it definitely was for the better to be brought home. The day had been exhausting, even more so than he had anticipated and he was glad it was almost over. He hadn't known how much he relied on his world on fire even in every day life. Getting to experience how easily he could be robbed of his senses – of more than half his life, in fact – had shaken him. Sure, he would get used to it eventually but it'd take time and he wasn't prepared to lose so much of what he had accomplished just yet.
He would have liked to talk to Father Lantom but didn't want to bother Foggy any further.
Of course, the other man had teased him all day and had seized almost every opportunity to make fun of Matt's sudden blindness, but it had been obvious that most of it was just his way of making both of them forget what this could mean. Matt had felt his best friend's worry, even without heightened senses and although he didn't like to be pitied, he would try not to add anything to Foggy's concerns.
"So, I'll see you in the morning", Foggy said when they'd reached Matt's doorstep. "Eight thirty right here. Try not to trip over something and break your neck."
There it was again, a teasing underlaid with care. And the undiscussed offer to help when it came to the more important and complicated tasks.
"Eight thirty", Matt confirmed. "I'll give my best to be punctual", he added with a grin.
"You better be", Foggy answered and gave him a slight push towards his flat. "And now go, I can't spend my whole evening chatting with you, I've got better things to do", he teased.
"Bet you do", Matt answered. With a last mocking grin at his friend he stepped inside his flat and closed the door behind him.
He silently shook his head. Marci. He couldn't quite believe it. Her relationship with Foggy seemed to have been ages ago. When they still had worked at Landman and Zach. Before Matt had started to patrol the streets of Hell's Kitchen at night. Before their lives had been in danger because they had poked an already wide awake dragon.
And in addition he could still hear Foggy ranting on and on about her when they had met again over the Fisk investigation. He had been quite explicit as to how arrogant she had become and how he didn't understand how he had ever been able to see a single good thing on her.
Plus, hadn't he shown quite some interest in Karen lately? He could very well remember Foggy's reactions to her. How his heartbeat had picked up its pace whenever they were in the same room and how he had tried to get to know her better whenever possible.
How could that have changed so fast? And without Matt noticing... He knew when Foggy was lying, and he could always tell if his best friend was keeping something from him. Had he been too distracted? Had he missed all the signs on his best friend because he was so occupied with his night time activities? So absent minded that he had overlooked that big a change in the person he spent the better part of every day with?
Matt was already feeling the guilty conscience welling up inside him, telling him he was a bad friend and how Foggy had been right about his accusations when he had first learned about Matt's senses. He raised a hand to his head, suddenly even more exhausted than before, when it dawned on him.
He hadn't missed something. He hadn't been unobservant. Foggy had just pulled another prank on him. And Matt had completely fallen for it...
"You..!" He didn't know whether he should be upset or amused. "Guess I have to find a way to pay you back for that one", he said to the already gone man.
He pulled his hand through his hair and carefully moved down the hallway he was still standing in. His flat felt unfamiliar, just as it had the night before. There were obstacles where he didn't remember being some and empty spaces where he thought should be furniture. It was irritating.
After a quick shower and a slice of bread for dinner, he finally settled down on his living room's floor. He didn't dare to hope, but meditating had always improved his healing, so maybe... Maybe it would increase his senses again.
He sat cross-legged on the cold floor boards, taking in deep breaths and exhaling slowly. He concentrated on the rhythm of his chest's movements until he could feel his mind calm down. When there finally no longer were stray thoughts, he focused on his surroundings.
First, the hard surface he was sitting on. Usually, he could feel every nail and every bumpiness in the wood, even through his trousers but not today. It felt perfectly smooth. He could feel the uneasiness inside him rising again, but he forced it down. No use in dwelling on bitter thoughts.
Second, the air around him. It felt perfectly still although he knew there was a steady current from the door to the not completely isolated window. Besides that he couldn't make out the exact temperature. Something around 63°F, he guessed. Or was it 65?
Smell next. Nothing there.
Last, sound. He could hear the traffic on the street in front of his apartment building. An ongoing stream of cars with an occasional siren piercing through. But there were no voices, no steps on the pavement, no TV in the flat next to his.
On each sense, he dwelled for a while. The quarter of an hour, maybe. He didn't know. There was no clock ticking in his apartment that could have helped him measure the time passing. And to be honest, he didn't care, either.
When he had finished, he started all over again, shorter this time but with more concentration.
The ground was still perfectly even, but he imagined feeling the hem of his sweatpants pressing against his ankles. And it was more like 66 degrees in here, wasn't it? Though he still couldn't smell anything, his ears picked up a door being slammed shut and a dog barking in the distance.
He tried not to hope, tried not to let himself believe this meant, he could, maybe, eventually, get back to his former abilities. He denied himself the luxury of being confident before he could be sure it was really happening. But he wasn't able to fully wipe the smile from his face again that had formed when he had first noticed the small improvements in his perception.
He slowly got up, taking the time to try and orientate in his flat, using his senses. It didn't really work, he still was blind in every sense of the word, but he imagined having at least an idea of knowing where everything was around him without having to touch it.
Falling asleep was difficult. Far more so than last night, when his exhaustion had been complete, being both physical and psychological. Plus, it was hardly 11 pm. Usually, at this time he had barely left for patrol and was still hours away from getting to bed.
He used the time to get his thoughts in order. To recall what their current case was about, to remember all the facts and to start formulate the pleading in his head. It was a good mental exercise he rarely ever found the time to do.
Slowly and without really noticing it, he drifted to sleep.
The sound of his alarm clock almost made him jump out of the bed. The beeping pierced through his sleepy brain and chased away whatever dream had lingered behind. Once he was awake, Matt wondered how he could have slept in the first place, with all the noise that filled his ears.
The noise. It was back! All the sounds he was so used to and that he had missed yesterday, they were back. The talking from the couple three stories below his apartment, the doorbell of the bakery half a block away, the sirens from all over Hell's Kitchen. It was all back. And with it, the smooth feeling of his velvet bedding, the smell of tomato from his dinner of two days ago, the stale taste of the air because he hadn't opened a window in a while and the swirls in the air caused by his breathing.
Matt lay motionlessly for a few minutes, just testing his senses, pushing them to their limits and checking if they were truly fully back. And they were. He once again was able to feel, hear, taste and smell everything.
Once he had gotten up, he was surprised on how easy moving was. 24 hours of being unable to 'see' had been enough to make him forget about his usual possibilities. That his world on fire gave him more knowledge about his surroundings than any normal person got through ordinary vision.
Once again, a smile spread all over his face. He didn't bother wiping it away. He was back to normal so he allowed himself to savor the moment.
Three quarters of an hour later, his doorbell rang. Foggy.
Matt had his stuff ready and was fully dressed, already waiting in his hallway, sunglasses on and cane in hand.
He opened the door and a wave of Foggy washed through his nose.
"Morning!", the other man greeted him. "Have had an uneventful night?"
"Morning", Matt answered. "Yes, indeed. Other than you, I take it?" He questioningly raised an eyebrow although he already knew that Foggy had stayed home alone, eating peanuts, probably in front of his TV. There was not a hint of Marci's odor on him.
"Yeah." He could hear Foggy's heartbeat pick up slightly and sensed him grinning, pleased with himself that he had fooled Matt. "It was great. We went out on a drink and well ... One thing lead to the other, you know."
Now it was Matt's turn to grin maliciously. "If so, why can't I smell either alcohol or her perfume on you?"
Foggy exhaled, obviously disappointed.
"You didn't think you could get away with that, did you?", Matt teased.
A/N: Thanks for reading this short trip into the world of Matt Murdock and my try on testing out what happens when he loses his senses, even for a short time. Would be nice if you'd take the time to review!
Last but not least: I wish all of you a great New Year's Eve and a happy new year! Have a wonderful 2017!