Peter did not trust the ramshackle elevator, and was immensely grateful when its doors slowly slid open. The hallway, though, wasn't much better. It looked like no one had cleaned it since before the Blip, with dirt coloring the floor all different shades of brown and black. There were some garbage cans and stacks of old newspapers thrown around all the different offices. He looked at one of the newspapers that was spilled open next to the elevator.
LOOKING BACK: It's Been 2 Years Since Thanos Halved Our Population. Here's the Good and the Bad of Everything That Happened.
Wow, so this floor actually hadn't been cleaned since before the Blip.
Mr. Murdock walked past the mess with ease. Peter supposed the fact that he couldn't see it helped. He followed, trying and failing to get his spider sense to back off. He was sure he'd bomb this interview if he had a migraine from a weird super power.
Mr. Murdock walked to the office at the center of the floor. He stepped aside, opening the door for Peter to go in. He thanked him, walking into the small but clean (compared to the outside) office.
"Karen, you can't be serious."
"And you can't stop me, Foggy!"
"No, Karen! This is ridiculous. Can you please just hand me the-"
"I will not!"
There was a small thunk, and a beat of silence.
"Karen, you did not just-"
"Everything okay, guys?" Mr. Murdock said casually, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Mr. Murdock stepped into what must've been Mr. Nelson's office, where he and Ms. Page had been yelling. It was a mess, with files and papers strewn about the place, alongside the half-eaten bags of chips and used dishes. It looked kind of like a dump, even compared to that hallway. The only semi-clean space was the desk, which had an open box of bagels on his desk. Ms. Page stood by the desk with a hand on her hip and a small wire garbage can in her other hand.
"Everything's fine, Matt." Ms. Page stated diplomatically, smoothing out her skirt and raising her chin. "Just taking out the trash," She half smirked as she unceremoniously dropped the trash on the floor.
Mr. Nelson's face was red with anger. "Seriously, Karen? One time, I decide to splurge on something nice for us, and you just had to go and throw my bagel out?"
"There's still plenty in the box, Foggy. Besides," Ms. Page picked up a stack of files from the desk and began sorting through it. "A garlic onion bagel is an abomination, and the fact that you bought one makes me seriously question your judgment."
"I told you I'd brush my teeth after, Karen! All I wanted was a good breakfast!" Mr. Nelson collapsed dramatically into his chair.
"And all I wanted was clean air and peace of mind, Foggy." She stepped around Mr. Murdock, looking at the papers in her hands. "Now, I think we need to go over this file before Peter Parker gets here."
"Actually, Karen," Mr. Murdock grabbed her arm. When she looked up at him, he gestured toward Peter. "It may be a little late for that."
Ms. Page looked at him with wide eyes, obviously surprised. Behind her, Mr. Nelson burst out of his chair, almost falling over. Mr. Murdock covered his mouth with his hand, obviously stifling a laugh.
Peter cleared his throat. "Um, hi, I'm Peter Parker," He tried to sound professional, putting his hand out toward Ms. Page.
That seemed to jumpstart her. She began shuffling the things in her arms so she could return the handshake. "Peter, hi! It's great to meet you! I'm Karen Page, obviously you've met Matt, and this-" Mr. Nelson walked out of his office, fully recovered from his tumble. "-is Foggy Nelson."
Mr. Nelson also shook Peter's hand. With Mr. Stark gone for so long, Peter nearly forgot how much hand shaking there was in business stuff. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Peter," he said with a warm smile.
"It's great to meet all of you, too," Peter grinned back. He dug around inside his suit jacket for a moment. "I brought a couple more copies of my resume, just to be safe. One in English, one in braille." He hoped to God it was worth the $24 he took out of his savings. Getting braille printed was expensive.
Mr. Nelson looked at the documents, and breathed a sigh of relief when he looked impressed. He passed them both to Ms. Page, who also looked intrigued. "Peter, why don't you follow us into Matt's office? We'll get this interview started," she said as she looked at the pages.
Peter nodded, letting the three of them go first before following them in. His spider sense was starting to ease off its persistent buzzing, but it was still there. For what, Peter didn't know. These people didn't seem all that dangerous.
This office was a lot cleaner than Mr. Nelson's. At the very least, more organized. There were two desks in here; one for Mr. Murdock, and the other probably belonged to Ms. Page, if the pictures of her were any indication. The shelves and filing cabinets were filled with well-kept succulents and small knick-knacks. Some of them looked like typical office things; fancy paperweights, a letter opener, books. There was also a Spanish-style vase, a brass menorah, a well loved stuffed bunny, an old fruit bowl.
Mr. Nelson must've been watching him, because he clapped his hand on Peter's shoulder. "A lot of these are gifts from some of our less fortunate clients," He beamed, his gaze distant as he looked at the shelves. "We'd help them out in court, pro-bono, but they still insisted on giving us something in the end."
"That's the power of our community," Mr. Murdock stated, sitting in one of the three chairs Ms. Page had put behind his desk. He folded up his cane and put it in a drawer. "We work for the people of Hell's Kitchen, regardless of whether or not they can pay us. I'd rather help these people than make a buck off of them."
"That's amazing," Peter said. He already knew that, of course. Mr. Murdock had actually reached out to him during the whole Mysterio mess, offering to represent him pro-bono. Peter and May accepted his help, but Happy made sure Mr. Murdock received a decent amount of money for his help.
"Are you from New York, Peter?" Ms. Page asked as she and Mr. Nelson took their seats next to Mr. Murdock.
"Born and raised in Queens," Peter followed their lead, sitting down in the chair on the other side of the desk. "Though right now I've got an apartment in Midtown."
"Midtown? Isn't that a long commute out here?" Mr. Nelson furrowed his brow.
Not when you're webswinging. "It's not bad. Just 25 minutes on the subway. I've had to sit through worse," Peter shrugged.
"Oh?" Ms. Page pulled a notebook from somewhere in the desk. "What do you mean?"
"Before the Blip, when I was in high school, I had to travel between Queens and my school in Midtown, which was probably 40 minutes,"
"Which school was it?" Mr. Murdock asked, moving his hand over the braille copy of his resume. "I thought your resume said you don't have a high school degree."
"I don't. Before the Blip, I was in my senior year at Midtown School of Science and Tech, but when I came back, I had to drop out. I had no more family, no money, so I needed to find a way to survive. I couldn't afford the tuition on my own, and I didn't have the time to go to school if I wanted to eat, so I had to leave," This was close enough to the truth, right? He's just setting back the timeline a little bit. It's fine. "I guess high school wasn't in the cards for me, thanks to the whole… thing. I'm working on my GED now so I can try to go to ESU."
If Mr. Murdock could see, he'd probably be glaring at Peter. Something about his expression made Peter think he knew he was lying, but he wasn't exactly sure how. He did not want to be caught in a lie right now, cause he definitely couldn't explain anything.
Ms. Page and Mr. Nelson didn't seem to share his skepticism. "Oh, Peter, I'm so sorry. It must've been rough," Ms. Page frowned, setting her hand on the desk in front of Peter. He gently put his on top, and she squeezed. "But I'm glad to see you got through it okay. I'm sure if your family was still around, they'd be proud of you."
"I hope so," He muttered.
"Back to the interview," Mr. Murdock interjected, brows furrowed. Not a great sign. Ms. Page put her hand back in her lap. "What can you tell us about your previous work experience?"
Luckily Peter prepared how he would answer these sorts of questions. He may not have actually been in the workforce for a long time, but it was easy enough to manipulate the records to make it look like he had. So Peter tried to calm his heartbeat and answered the basic interview questions they threw at him. As he went on, Mr. Murdock's face would shift from skeptical to mellow way too often. Peter had no idea what that meant, but he still had hope. After all, the other two looked impressed enough.
"So, Peter, our work environment is, to put it mildly, high stress," Mr. Nelson stood up, stretching his back out. "We deal with a lot of emotional clients, as well as those in poor conditions, and even with a few enemies. Any law office you may work for will have these sorts of things, but we tend to have them more than most. How would you deal with this sort of space?"
"Well, the most important part is trying to keep calm and have a level head," Peter explained. "You need to make sure everyone who needs it is taken care of. It's important to help the little guy. But you also can't let yourself freak out," Not too much, at least. "So you have to focus on keeping yourself contained to make sure that the environment can be dealt with how it needs to."
Mr. Nelson nodded, Ms. Page smiled. And Mr. Murdock had that 'I think you're lying' look on his face again. Why? This is probably the one answer Peter hadn't lied about.
"Mr. Parker, we're enjoying speaking with you, but I have to ask, why Nelson, Murdock and Page?" Mr. Murdock asked, folding his hands on his desk. Ms. Page and Mr. Nelson shot each other strange glances before turning their attention back on Peter.
He could pratically feel the blood draining out of him. "What do you mean by that, sir?"
"Well, your work experience is quite varied. You come with a lot of good experience as a Stark intern, a freelance photographer, a FEAST volunteer, a delivery driver. Exceptional, frankly, but varied. You've never worked in law before, nor public service, nor reception. You also live pretty far from here. What inspired you to apply for this position at our firm?"
Peter was a little taken aback, but he probably should've expected this. He looked down at his hands, thinking. Sure, they're good people, but it may have been easier to keep his cover if he had just applied somewhere in Midtown. Still…
He felt the attention of the three professionals right on him. Peter took a deep breath and sat back up. "It's true, I've never really worked in this field or this area before. But what drew me out here was the firm itself. You guys have done some amazing, impossible things. You put yourself on the line to help the people around you, and judging by what I've seen of you in the headlines, you're amazing at your jobs," Mr. Nelson preened at the compliment, but Mr. Murdock didn't react. "Taking down Fisk? Clearing Spider-Man of murder? The things you've done for the Kitchen - hell, the things you've done for the city - they're inspiring. You do just as much good here as FEAST, or the Avengers. When I saw that you guys needed an extra pair of hands in here, an extra pair of hands to help out, I wanted to apply. I had to."
That was probably the only thing he was completely truthful about this whole interview. Plus or minus a few vigilante-related details.
They were silent, all staring at him. Each had a different but equally unreadable expression. Peter coughed. "Plus, I mean, I'm a poor kid from Queens. Why not help out the people that also pay well?" He cautiously smiled.
Ms. Page snorted at his last statement. Mr. Murdock and Mr. Nelson both turned to her. She was still chuckling, but she managed a quiet "Sorry." and composed herself.
To his credit, Mr. Murdock didn't look as skeptical anymore. He still didn't look wholly satisfied with Peter, but he looked interested enough. Hopefully he hadn't blown his chance at this job.
"Wait, Spider-Man?" Mr. Nelson blurted out as he looked at Peter's resume again. "Didn't you do some freelance for the Bugle? I thought everyone there hated Spider-Man."
Peter sighed. "Well, most of them. Jameson certainly does. But they were offering good money for my shots, so what the hell?" He pulled out a couple photos that he stuffed in his jacket just in case and put them on the desk, relieved he had the forethought to take them out of their frames. Two of them were Spider-Man shots that had been posted on the Daily Bugle's front page, one was of Times Square during Christmas, and the last was a contrasting shot of the city and the Hudson. "I never hated Spider-Man. I actually worked with him a bit back in my Stark days. He's a nice guy. But liking Spider-Man never paid the bills, so…"
Mr. Nelson picked up one of the photos, examining it closely. "These are really good. I'm surprised Jameson didn't want to hire you full-time,"
"He did, but he didn't want to pay much."
Mr. Murdock finally smiled, looking a lot more positive than he had during the rest of the interview. "So it's about money, is it, Mr. Parker?" He asked, his tone almost teasing.
Peter shifted in his chair. "Not entirely. Helping people is super important; my aunt raised me to do just that. But… money helps me help."
Ms. Page was looking over the photos now. She was enamored with them. She grabbed them all and shuffled through them. "Is there any chance I can get a copy of these?" She had an excited twinkle in her eye.
"Keep these ones, I've got plenty back at home," Not really true, but he does have the digital files, so it's no massive loss.
"Actually, if you have digital versions, I'd love for you to send those over instead," Mr. Murdock interjected.
Peter was about to ask about the difference, and why it mattered to the blind guy, but Ms. Page was already speaking. "Oh! That might actually be better!" She stacked the photos neatly and handed them back to Peter. "I'd love to see any more pictures, if you have them."
Peter put them back in his jacket, a little confused. "Do you want some with or without superheroes?"
"Whichever ones you think are your best."
"Of course, then," He decided it was best to let this one go. "I'll send them over as soon as I get home today." Ms. Page smiled gratefully before standing.
Mr. Murdock stood as well. "Thank you for you time, Mr. Parker. We'll call you later today." He put his hand out.
Peter shook it gratefully. "No, thank you guys. I really appreciate the interview, and I hope," He switched to Ms. Page's hand. "I hope I can work with you guys." Finally, Mr. Nelson's hand. Peter wrote his phone number for them, and Ms. Page scribbled her email on a sticky note for the pictures.
He quickly made his exit. Peter didn't want to take up any more of their time, plus he was starting to get a nasty headache from his spider sense. All he wanted to do was get back home as quickly as possible so he could email Ms. Page his meager portfolio and spend the rest of the day trying to sleep. Though, he really should study for his GED course.
Almost as soon as he stepped outside, Peter heard someone across the street calling for help. He sighed, searching for an alley where he could hide his clothes quickly. No rest for the wicked.