Here's the first chapter. I advise you to re-read the first one if you've already read it because I changed a few things. Finally, after many rewrites, I'm finally happy with the plans I have for this story.

Anyway, hopefully you'll like this chapter. Tell me what you think!

Chapter 2

10th January 2015, Nelson & Murdock Law Office – Hell's Kitchen, NYC

Rose sat in a plastic chair in Nelson and Murdock's office, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of leggings that the two lawyers had managed to get for her. She needed a shower, badly.

She knew that they probably expected her to be more freaked out that she was but with the job she did and the life she had led, someone trying to strangle her in her sleep was nothing. The bruises on her neck were already fading anyway.

"Couldn't find any milk," Nelson said, handing her a cup of tea. "I hope it's okay."

Rose smiled at him. "Thank you," she said, before taking a sip.

"We have tea now?" Murdock asked to his friend, while taking off his coat and hanging on the rack in the corner near the door.

"I stole it from the financial office next door." Nelson shrugged, looking unapologetic.

Murdock came to sit in front of her and once again the feeling that she knew him from somewhere grew. She couldn't figure it out and it was driving her crazy.

"How are you holding up?" he asked her.

Rose shrugged, taking another sip of her tea. "Okay. Thanks for getting me out."

"Don't thank us yet," Nelson said, standing next to her chair. "Just because they released you doesn't mean they won't eventually bring charges."

"Which means it's crucial you don't speak to anyone other than the two of us about what happened," Murdock added.

Rose smiled a bitter smile. "I don't have anyone to talk to, anyway." There was only one person she could think to call and she had pushed her away months ago.

"Do you have somewhere you can stay tonight?" Murdock asked, shaking her from her thoughts.

"My apartment's not far."

"You can't go there," Nelson said. "Someone is trying to kill you. They failed once, who's to say they won't try again? And your apartment is the first place they'll look."

"Miss Evans, our immediate priority is to keep you safe. And in order to do that, we're gonna need to have a frank discussion."

This is it. I can't keep the truth hidden anymore. She only hoped she was doing the right thing. "Okay."

"Do you know who's trying to kill you?" Murdock asked.

Rose shook her head. "No."

"Do you know why they're trying to kill you?"

No going back now. "Yes."

They went to seat in the conference room of the office, a recording machine turned on. She had to give her statement.

"I don't even know how to begin."

Murdock smiled at her, charming and kind. "The beginning is usually a good place to start."

"I'm a private investigator."

Nelson widened his eyes in surprise but Murdock barely flinched.

"Am I to assume then that Daniel Fisher was your client?" Murdock asked.

Rose nodded, then remembers who she was talking to and answered verbally instead. "yes, Daniel Fisher was my client. I haven't been a P.I. for long, only a few months. That means that my list of clients is limited. Also, I'm selective in the cases I take. Cheating spouses don't interest me, even though I know I could probably make a generous amount of money with that. No, what I specialize in are much more serious cases; missing people for the most part, but sometimes…sometimes I stumble upon those cases that the police dismissed, like murders that don't seem like murders."

"And which type of case was this? Missing person? Or a murder that doesn't look like a murder?" Murdock asked perceptively.

"The second one. You see, Daniel was sweet on the secretary in the financial department of Union Allied. They were even planning on going on a date. Then, one day, she didn't show up for work. Daniel asked his employers if she had taken a sick day or a personal day but they told her she had been fired. When Daniel asked why, they said they couldn't divulge this information. Daniel tried calling her, texting her, but nothing. And then…the day after her dismissal, she was found in her apartment, a rope around her neck. She was dead. And the police ruled it a suicide and left it at that. But Daniel knew that it wasn't a suicide. Knew there was something fishy about the whole thing. That's when he came to me."

Rose stopped and took a breath, already feeling drained.

"Wow, that's…that's a lot," Nelson commented. Murdock kept silent, but his stance was rigid, like he was keeping himself in check, trying not to show his anger. But the tick in his jaw betrayed him.

"Daniel wanted to prove that Daria Mason – that was her name – hadn't killed herself. That she was murdered instead. But he didn't know where to start. How do you go about proving something like that? How do you prove that the company you're working for killed one of its employees?"

"So, what did you do?" Murdock asked her.

"I started from the obvious. Finding the motive. She had been fired from work and then, not even a day later, she was dead. It wasn't difficult to figure out that whatever had happened at work, it was the reason why she had been killed. So, the first step was to figure out what she had been working on before being fired. And Daniel, who already worked there, was the perfect person to find that out. I, on the other hand, went about trying to convince Daria's family to have an autopsy performed on their daughter's body. They didn't want to, at first, wanting to be left alone in their grief, but when I told them that I thought their daughter's death wasn't a suicide, they couldn't say no. They needed to know."

"What emerged from the autopsy?" Murdock asked.

"Nothing," she answered, bitterness coating her voice.

"Nothing?" Nelson asked.

"Yeah. But, and that's when it becomes even weirder, the doctor who performed the autopsy suddenly resigned from his job and left town."

"He was bribed," Murdock stated.

"Most likely." She hesitated, uncertain whether to reveal this next part or not. In the end, she asked, "would you mind turning the recorder off for a bit?"

Murdock frowned, but it was really difficult to figure out what he was thinking with the red glasses covering his eyes. Still, he did as she asked.

"Thank you. Am I under attorney-client privilege, right? So, everything I say will not leave this room?"

"Yes," both Murdock and Nelson said at the same time.

"Okay, well, this next part falls into a bit of grey area."

"What do you mean?" Murdock asked.

"I mean that, to find out the truth, I had to commit a crime."

"What kind of crime are we talking about?" Nelson asked, looking a little nervous now.

"I might have asked an ex-colleague of mine to perform a second autopsy…in secret."

Nelson cursed in a low tone but Murdock didn't seem bothered. Then Nelson seemed to absorb the first part of the sentence because he asked, "What do you mean, an ex-colleague?"

Rose shrugged. "Like I said, I wasn't always a P.I. In another life, I used to be a doctor…but I never finished my residency."

Neither of them pried on the reasons why she had given up the medical profession and for that, she was grateful. Instead, Murdock returned to the more important point. "What did you find out?"

"My ex-colleague found a narcotic in her system, a heavy dose. That's why there were no signs of struggle on her body."

"She was drugged and then killed, making it look like a suicide," Murdock said.

"Yes, but of course I have no way to prove it. That autopsy would never be admissible in court. And there was no way to perform a second autopsy legally because 1. the police were always convinced it was a suicide and 2. Her parents had the body of their daughter cremated. In fact, when the autopsy revealed nothing, saying that they weren't happy with him would be an understatement."

Murdock nodded, turning the recording machine on once again. "So, what did you do next?"

"Proving the death of Daria wasn't suicide had been a bust. So, the only thing left to do was trying to prove that Union Allied was involved in illegal affairs."

"And that's when Daniel's role comes in," Nelson stated.

Rose nodded, but then, remembering herself, she added 'yes' for good measure.

"What did Daniel find out?" Murdock asked her.

"Union Allied is overseeing the bulk of the government contracts for the West Side reconstruction."

"I've seen their signs all over Hell's Kitchen," Nelson said.

"The last two years have transformed the business," Rose said. "There's new owners, new grants, new contracts."

"Yeah, the world watched half of New York get destroyed," Murdock said. "That's a lot of sympathy."

"And Union Allied benefited from every dollar of it," Rose commented bitterly. "Daria was the secretary for the chief accountant. And one of her jobs was to coordinate the pension claims for the company. Daniel managed to find out that, about a week ago, the day before her death, she was emailed a file called, "Pension Master." It was meant for her boss, obviously, but she had made the mistake of opening it."

"I'm guessing it wasn't the pension fund," Murdock commented.

Rose shook her head. "No. Daniel managed to open the file without raising suspicions. Or, at least, that's what we thought. He told me that it wasn't the size of the pension fund. The numbers were astronomical. And they were constantly adjusted. Money coming in and money going out."

"Going where?" Nelson asked.

"We were unable to find out. It was coded routing numbers, but we are talking a lot of money."

"What did Daniel do with the file?" Murdock asked.

Rose sighed, deciding to lie. It was better this way. Even knowing about the file put them in danger. If they knew where it was…she didn't want to think what would happen. "Daniel was supposed to give it to me. That's why we met at a bar yesterday. We figured we were safe, in a crowded place. Clearly we weren't wrong."

"Did he give you the file?" Nelson asked.

"No." It wasn't a lie but that didn't mean that Daniel hadn't told her where it was. She didn't say that though. "I don't know how they knew. They must have had people watching him. They must have people everywhere. We met at the bar, we ordered drinks and we sat at a table near the back. He started to tell me about the file and what was inside and that he had made of copy of it. And then things got blurry. Like I was drugged. And the next thing I know, I wake up in his apartment, covered in blood. They killed him because of me. And he had a son…a little boy. And now that boy is an orphan. Because of me." She finally broke down, bursting into tears. "I was supposed to help him. I promised that I would help him and I only made things worse. I need to get out of here, I'm sorry." She got up from her chair and made for the door when Nelson stopped her.

"We can't advise that, Miss Evans," he said.

"No, you don't understand," Rose pleaded. "Either you're with them or you're not. And if you're with them, then I'm dead already. And if you are not, then I cannot have anybody else die because of me."

"We can protect ourselves, Miss Evans," Murdock said.

Rose turned to look at him. "No, you can't. Not from them."

"Miss Evans," Nelson said, looking apologetic. "We can't let you go home."

"She can stay with me," Murdock said. "Just for tonight, until we figure something out. I'll keep you safe, Rosalie."

"It's not me I'm worrying about."

"They're not going to do anything to a lawyer. Too risky if they want to keep attention away from themselves."

"You can't know that," Rose protested. "They are capable of anything."

"Perhaps not. But, like I said, I can protect myself," Murdock said, his tone leaving no doubt on the veracity of his statement.

And that was when it clicked in her mind. She knew who he was now. She had never his face before today, but she knew it was him. The man in the mask of a few nights ago.

It's impossible…and yet…I know it's him. It doesn't make sense, but it's him. She was sure of it.

Her heart accelerated in her chest but, other than that, she showed no outward reaction.

Murdock tilted his head, and that familiar motion only confirmed what she already knew.

Matt Murdock and the Man in the Mask were one and the same.