Screws and nails

by Lazydaily

peter and matt before Civil war. For TTS

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 9: Years

Summary:

And, for three more weeks, Matt really did have everything under control, right up until the moment it all went to shit.

I'll clear my head

These thoughts I dread

You'll never see

The ghosts of me

Notes:

Years by Mr. Kitty

This is going to be the first chapter with a trigger warning: Panic attack and dissociation after the panic attack.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Getting to follow after Matt and do a real patrol was awesome. Even if the first one was just a practice one followed by sitting around on a building across the street and listening into another one, it was awesome. Peter had already admired Daredevil before, but seeing the man confidently jump and travel across buildings was something else. It had gotten even better when Peter tried to execute a jump and roll like Matt had, only for Matt to immediately whip back around and tell Peter exactly what he was doing wrong.

Ned was going to die when Peter told him about it.

While the first patrol had been awesome, the second one was where Peter realized they had a little bit of an issue. True to Matt's word, they were tackling some bruisers connected to the Irish. Incapacitate them and find out information was the plan. Bursting through a window behind Matt was probably going to be the highlight of Peter's week.

Once in the building, Peter was ready for a fight, already squaring up on the first one when Matt threw a stick and smacked it into the guy's forehead. While the guy was disoriented, Peter moved to fight one of the other guys. Except, as soon as Peter geared up to through a punch, a certain someone just happened to launch himself across the room and kick the guy away from Peter. Peter got the feeling there was a pattern here.

Honestly, Peter would have been more annoyed by Matt's antics if he weren't so amused that Matt was being so careful to make sure he didn't get hurt.

A part of Peter wanted to wait until Matt was distracted by someone before fighting someone himself. The undercurrent of worry about distracting Matt kept Peter's thoughts at bay. Instead, he made sure the people Matt disoriented or knocked down weren't getting back up anytime soon. Especially with the handy dandy zip ties one of the men had on him. Nice and wrapped up for the police.

Once the fight was done and Matt had the information he wanted, both of them made their way back to a different roof.

Sitting up there, Peter debated how to address what happened. After all, this was normally when Matt would give him critique or feedback, but none was coming. Had Peter been more devious, he might have giving Matt shit for it. The other's hunched shoulders told Peter that Matt was aware and embarrassed about it.

"That was pretty impressive fighting four people while keeping me from throwing a single punch. Kinda reminds me of the first few times we met." Okay, well, maybe Peter would give Matt a little shit about it. In Peter's defense, Matt deserved it.

A petulant look came across Matt's face. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know you can't see me, but I'm staring at you with full disappointment in my face because you're a terrible liar. You shouldn't have taught me that heartbeat thing if you didn't want me to know when you're lying."

"Okay, I got a little aggressive."

"Is this why Mr. Nelson kept calling you a mother hen? Because I totally get it now," Peter remarked good-naturedly. At least Matt knew it was a problem. If the other was acting like Peter had gotten in the way or something, Peter would've been upset. Instead, it felt like catching a kid with his hand in the cookie jar and trying not to laugh at how hard the kid was pretending he knew nothing about how his hand got there.

"The two of you meeting was a mistake."

Peter laughed a little. "You can regret that later. What're we gonna do about this? Cause the hands-on experience thing doesn't work if I can't get hands-on about any of it."

As Matt paused, Peter worried for a moment that the other would tell him it wasn't working out. Going back to the gym seemed like such a waste now. Peter's fears were assuaged when Matt finally said, "I can't guarantee I won't do it again, but I'll try to stop preventing you from fighting at all."

It wasn't ideal because Peter did want to help fight. He knew Matt trying to fight both their battles would end with someone getting hurt, but he also knew Matt would genuinely get better about it. "Alright. In case it helps, I do have a danger sense, so I can dodge most things even you wouldn't see coming."

"I don't see many things," Matt replied with a smirk before saying, "I hear something else across city, let's go." He hopped to his feet and immediately started leading Peter elsewhere.

Peter took a deep breath before leaping after Matt, wondering how he got lucky enough for a mentor like Matt.

Opening the door to the office, Matt heard the rustling of papers as both Karen and Foggy stopped talking. From the smell, Matt guessed the paper in Karen's hands was actually a newspaper. The awkward silence drew out, and Matt could only assume whatever the news was reporting had to do with him. Foggy and Karen had never been shy about mentioning seeing Daredevil in the news before, so the cause of the silence was easy to understand. Daredevil and Spider-Man had only been out on the streets together twice, but after they stopped a hit, leaving witnesses behind, Matt had expected someone to finally point out that the Queens hero was in Hell's Kitchen.

"You guys really aren't subtle. Stopping talking as soon as I walk in and rustling around a newspaper really just makes you guys seem like gossiping retirees." Matt pointed out before making his way to his little desk and setting his cane beside it.

"We weren't gossiping! Just, uh… happy to see you, buddy." Foggy made an attempt to save face.

When Matt turned to Karen, curious on how she would follow that up, she shrugged. "I shrugged. We were talking about you cause your alter ego is in the news. You didn't tell us Daredevil and Spider-Man are hitting the streets together."

"It's a new thing. It didn't seem important." Well, the truth was Matt didn't want to hear their opinions on it. Karen and Foggy were great friends, the best friends Matt could ask for, but they had a habit of pointing out things he didn't want to hear or drawing their own conclusions and making a fuss of it. Training Peter, taking him out into Hell's Kitchen was a new thing. It was still uncertain. He wanted a bit more certainty to it before telling others. Matt had wrestled with the idea of it being an excellent experience for Peter and just how dangerous Hell's Kitchen could get. However, Matt felt confident in his decision.

"Not important? The only time Daredevil has worked with someone has been the Midland Circle thing or the like three other times with Jessica and Jessica only." Karen was using her accursed 'I've worked in news and know what I'm talking about' voice. "Daredevil and Spider-Man have very different public images."

"I already know that. Peter agreed that he's okay with the negativity that might come from associating with Daredevil. It's not like I just randomly sprang this on him without talking about boundaries and rules."

"Buddy," Foggy said in that voice. That voice, the one that made Matt scowl because Foggy was about to explain something he assumed Matt hadn't realized. Something that was obvious for most people. The 'Oh, you poor fool' voice. "I know it's hard for you to keep up with the news if it's not on radio or more accessible, but when Karen says they have different public images, she means people look to Spider-Man as people in a small village would look to a folk hero. His toughest crime he typically handles are muggings or property theft. Not your kind of muggings and property theft, either. The kind where he jumps in, says some lighthearted quips, and then webs everyone up and waits for the cops. I'd even argue the cops in Queens like Spider-Man and not in the begrudging way Brett kind of tolerates you."

"So?"

Karen chimed in, "The point is, Spider-Man's more known for getting cats out of trees, helping people cross the street, and doing flips for people than he is for his actual crime fighting. He might be a vigilante, but he is not at all like you or any of the others. Him associating with Daredevil will make cops and bad guys alike pay more attention to him."

"Not to mention, people in Queens might start trusting him less since he's friends with someone known for…," Foggy clearly struggled to find a softer way to put Daredevil's methods, "known for his anger issues."

Matt took personal offense at the anger issues jab but elected to ignore it because no such issues existed. He shrugged. "Yeah, like I said, Peter and I talked about it. If he's willing to deal with the consequences, I'm not going to stop him. He'll learn more shadowing me around Hell's Kitchen than staying in a gym."

Foggy rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you really want him to learn what you do around Hell's Kitchen?" When Matt made a noise, Foggy put his hands up. "You do a lot of good things for the neighborhood, and there's a reason you use the methods you do, but Peter's 15. Most of his vigilante-ing is near non-violent, but he's out with you two, three, maybe four times and you're stopping a hit together?"

"You're the one who told me to mentor him, and it's only been twice. He's helping me with a thing. You're also always telling me to get back up for things." Matt didn't mention that he was doing everything he could to keep his more violent tendencies with criminals out of Peter's sphere of knowledge. So far it had worked. They worked together to gather information, fought some of the Irish who didn't even have guns, and Matt would go back another night to extract information in a harsher way if needed. Stopping the hit had been an exception to what Matt had planned, but it was an emergency.

"Well, I didn't tell you to do anything, and I think Foggy's right." Karen knew letting the two fight it out wouldn't accomplish anything.

"I don't know what you want from me then. I gave him the choice of moving on from our thing, asking Danny to train him, or going out into Hell's Kitchen with me. I'm keeping him safe, and I'm refraining from breaking people's bones in front of him. Stopping that hit wasn't even that dangerous." Matt hated the insinuation that he didn't have the best for Peter in mind.

"I'm not saying you're messing up or trying to hurt Peter." Sometimes it was scary how well Foggy knew him. "I guess I just want you to remember that you can't predict everything. I'm sure you'll keep Peter safe, and I know you know what to do if he does get hurt, but what happens if you get hurt or if you get separated and can't keep him safe? I know he has my phone number, but what about Claire or telling him how to get to Sister Maggie?" Foggy worried about the endless possibilities of what could happen with this. When Matt worked with Jessica, there was a mutual understanding that they could take care of themselves. With Peter, Matt's attention would always be divided.

"He won't need any of that. I'm keeping him safe, and if it gets too serious, I'll send him on his way and see if someone else can help me. Now, how's Mr. Jefferson's case going?" Matt knew nothing would happen. He knew he had everything under control.

And, for three more weeks, Matt really did have everything under control, right up until the moment it all went to shit.

"Yeah, boss said they're moving the cargo in eight hours. Putting 'em in a truck to get moved to the lab."

"We're just supposed to wait for them?"

"Once the cargo's moved, we can go out and get more people for it. They don't want us causing a ruckus and getting the police antsy while they're moving things around. Plus, there're contracts and shit here that gotta get shredded before we move on."

"We should go scout out one of the parks nearby. They pay extra for kids and tourists are idiots."

"Good idea. I'm sure we can find some that won't be missed until it's too late. Kids are so stupid these days."

Matt stopped listening into the building he and Peter stood next too. While Matt had certainly been looking for these people, he only wanted to locate and listen in. Hearing that the "cargo" was getting moved meant Matt couldn't wait.

For the last week, Matt had been searching for the newcomers to the human trafficking game. Normally, Matt could find them quickly. The sound of scared men, women, and children in a group was hard to miss. However, wherever the captives were being held, Matt couldn't hear them. Probably somewhere underground, hence needing information. The two men talking clued Matt in.

Getting the information out of the four upstairs in the building wouldn't be hard, but this was precisely the kind of thing Matt wanted to avoid with Peter. Getting that information would take some… rougher tactics. They were also more dangerous. Police who had gone after these new human traffickers had ended up dead. Both factors made Matt want to send Peter away, but the group was large. Reportedly having a large number of members working together. Taking out the people in this building alone would be difficult. Finding, tracking, and rescuing the 'cargo' would be even worse without some kind of back-up.

"So, did you hear anything? I can tell there are four people up there, but I can't quite tell what they're saying so I'm guessing they're near the top," Peter interrupted Matt's thoughts. "I could climb up on the outside of the building while you walk in and ambush them! Like a uh pincer maneuver!"

"No. This isn't something I want you involved with." Matt pulled out his burner phone and held it out to Peter. "Call number three on that and tell Jessica Jones I need her to come to this address as soon as she can."

"What? Why can't I be involved in it? You said I'm good enough to be out on my own in Queens! Three people has to be better than two."

"Peter, remember rule one. Listen to what I tell you to do. These people are nasty, and there are only a few here, but talking to them is going to lead to finding a whole lot more of them. Call Jessica and stay here." Matt pushed his phone into Peter's hand at that.

As Matt slid open the nearest window, Peter asked, "Why aren't you waiting for her to show up?"

Matt didn't give an answer as he ducked into the building. He paused for a moment, just outside the view of the window, listening for what Peter would do. Peter was normally good at following his directions, but Matt knew that willingness to listen would be thrown out in favor of helping if Peter thought Matt was doing something really dangerous.

Luckily, it seemed Peter was erring on the side of listening. He heard Peter grumble under his breath about being benched but could also hear the dial tone of the phone ringing. Knowing that Peter was calling Jessica lifted a weight from his shoulders. Though, Matt needed to focus on other things at that point, namely the seven people up the stairs.

Peter's hearing was better, or he was getting better at focusing on it, but the kid still made mistakes. Matt assumed Peter had heard the four on the top story of the building and stopped listening for more. By Matt's count there were four on the highest floor and three on the roof. If Matt could manage things quietly, it wouldn't be a problem. Even with all of them being armed and trained, Matt knew nothing would compare to fighting the Hand. His scars still ached on cold mornings.

Tilting his head, Matt could hear the whirring of an elevator and headed to it. Pressing the up button, Matt slipped inside once the doors opened. He pressed the button for the second and top floor and slipped back out of the elevator. Heading into the stairwell, Matt raced the elevator up to the fourth floor. He hoped using the elevator as a distraction would let him slip into the room and kill the lights before anyone realized he was there.

At the entrance to the fourth floor, Matt took a moment to catch his breath. Peter was still outside, trying to call Jessica. Apparently, she hadn't picked up, but that could be dealt with later. The elevator had just 'dinged' on this floor.

Easing the door open, Matt slipped into the room. From the way sound echoed, Matt assumed the entire floor was open with a couple offices in the corner. Matt would ask Jessica to look for any important papers when she got there. For now, he groped the wall until he found the light switch and flipped them off.

As the buzzing of the lights quieted, Matt gave a vicious grin, hearing the four shout in confusion before one finally made the connection.

"It's the Devil!"

From behind a desk, Matt threw one of his batons, listening with glee as it cracked against one of the men's heads and bounced around to land back in his hand. All four of them had guns, and their shouting likely alerted the three up stairs to his presence. It would be better to drop them as fast as possible.

Matt stood up straight and threw one of his sticks before jumping over the desk and throwing the second one, knocking the guns from two of the men's hands. He quickly closed the distance between himself and the one he hit in the head, sweeping the man's legs out from under him before bringing a heel down on the guy's head.

The satisfaction of knowing that guy wasn't getting up anytime soon was cut short when Matt dodged back from the swing of a knife. Taking stock of the room, Matt heard the fourth person running upstairs to the roof. The one coming at him with a knife had abandoned his gun when he dropped it, but the other had picked up his gun again. Well, Matt didn't think the gun was much a threat with the guy with the knife right on him.

The knife swiped through the air twice more before Matt struck again. As the man took a step forward to stab at him again, Matt kicked one of the guy's ankles, knocking him off balance. Matt grabbed the arm with the knife and wrenched it around behind the guy before grabbing the man's opposite shoulder. If the guy didn't know how to break the hold and tried to get out of it, he'd end with an extremely painful break. Matt took care to keep this guy in between him and the guy with a gun, appreciative of his human shield.

Growling, Matt snapped, "Tell me where the people are being held, drop the knife, and I won't snap your arm."

Before the man could respond, Matt heard the one left on this floor holding up his gun. Matt pulled the man in his hold up to keep the other man from shooting at him. What Matt failed to consider, was these people not caring if they hurt or killed each other. The loud bang and blood splattering across him was enough to make Matt retch.

The first gun shot took down the person in Matt's hold. The second narrowly missed as Matt dove behind a desk. There was movement on the roof, the four up there making their way down a fire escape to run off on foot. Matt distantly heard them saying something about letting boss know they needed to move faster and coming back later for the papers. There was movement from below, and Matt could only assume the footsteps thundering up the stairs were Peter. The third shot shook Matt from his thoughts and drew his attention back to the fight at hand. If the four got away that was okay. There was still an unconscious one on the ground here along with the man with the gun. Matt could get information from them. He just needed to not get shot and take this guy down before Peter got there.

Groping for something to throw other than the scattered papers around him, Matt's hand landed on a group pens. They would work well enough. Listening for the man to come around the corner of the desk, Matt breathed in and out, carefully narrowing his focus to just this room, just the man with the gun. He knew where his sticks had fallen. He knew where the two bodies on the ground were. He knew where he could jump and move around.

The moment the man stepped within a clear line to shoot Matt, Matt threw his handful of pens at the man's face and vaulted over the desk. A wild shot narrowly missed him, but Matt didn't let that stop him from closing the distance and jumping up to kick the gun out of the guy's hands.

Matt's kick failed to land. The man backed up and took aim again. Matt was reminded of fighting with Frank. As the man's trigger finger tightened, Matt shifted his weight to throw his body to the side and dodge out of the way. A door slammed open, and a too fast heartbeat suddenly became all too loud for Matt. His focus wavered, but the momentum of shifting his weight carried him out of the way of the shot… almost.

Matt felt like someone hammered him in the shoulder before a fiery pain flashed through his chest. The sudden pain and force made Matt fumble and fall off balance. He couldn't quite catch himself before the back of his head cracked against the nearby desk. Instantly, his sense swarmed, out of control. Distantly, Matt thought, Concussion. Fucking concussion. Gotta get up.

As soon as Matt fell, Peter shouted, "Daredevil!"

Trying to put his arms underneath him to get up, Matt crumpled back down as the weight on his right arm caused searing pain. On the ground, Matt put his left hand on the gun wound and tried to sort out his senses before he ended up passing out.

Peter threw out a web and ripped the gun away from the man. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat but focusing on Matt wouldn't help either of them. With the gun out of the equation and Peter's adrenaline running high, it was easy for him to web the man to a wall and punch him hard enough he fell unconscious.

With the danger eliminated, Peter immediately dropped to his knees beside Matt. His hands trembled as he tried to get a look at the wound on Matt's shoulder. He knew what to do for wounds like this. He knew that blood loss was the most immediate danger, but Peter felt like he was seeing someone else laying there bleeding out from a gun wound.

"Web it. Put," Matt grimaced and fought the upturning of his stomach. "Put your shirt or something on my shoulder and use your webs… and call-" Ah, the pounding headache, the sensory overload, oh that wasn't good. Consciousness swimming in and out of focus, Matt tried to speak, "Fuck, call-"

When Matt's body went slack, Peter felt like he was going to puke. There wasn't that much blood, not as much as there should have been for Matt to pass out, but, but Peter didn't know. All he could see was the blood. The warmth, the stick, slickness of the blood on his fingers where Peter moved Matt's hand, it made him want to puke. Pulling his trembling hands away, Peter pulled the shirt over his costume off and balled it up onto Matt's shoulder, pushing hard. Using his webs, Peter tightly secured the shirt. Pressure was good for wounds like that, right? Right?

Matt still wasn't moving, though. Matt hadn't said any more.

"Not again, please, not again. Matt, you- I don't know what to do. You didn't tell me." Peter felt like he was choking on his own breath. He needed to call… call who? Matt hadn't said. Peter didn't know. They hadn't made a plan for this. Matt had twenty different things Peter was supposed to do if he got hurt while they were out, but Matt hadn't given a single instruction on what might happen if Matt was the one to get hurt. Why hadn't they talked about it?

Pulling out his own phone, Peter's naturally sticky hand was the only reason he didn't drop it as he called contact number 2. As the phone rang, Peter kept a hand on the webbed mess that was Matt's shoulder.

"Come on, come on, I don't know what to do. Matt, get up. You didn't tell me what to do, and I can't take you to a hospital."

The phone beeped and went to voicemail, but Peter just slammed the redial button.

On the second ring a sleep addled voice picked up. "Pete?"

"Matt's hurt, and I don't know what to do. He- he's not moving, and I can't- not again, I don't know what to do."

Foggy sounded much more awake when he replied, "Hey, hey it'll be okay. Where are you guys? What happened?"

Peter spat out what he thought was an address before continuing, "Matt got," Peter swallowed, "shot, and there's a lot of blood, and he's not moving anymore- what if- what if he's- Not again- okay- I can't do this again. If he's-" Peter's breath caught in his throat, unable to slow the racing beat of his heart.

"Okay okay, it's okay." Foggy's panicked tone didn't make him feel any better. "Listen for his heartbeat. He said you can do that. Listen for it."

Thump thump, thump thump.

Peter gasped, sucking in a deeper breath. He hadn't realized he was holding it. "I can hear it. It's- It's steady."

"Good. You have super strength, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"You need to get him to a church. It's a block north of you, head towards Clinton Street. Keep pressure on the shot anyway you can, but you have to move him. There's no bullet in him and it didn't go fully through him, right?"

"Right, yeah, there's no bullet in him. I webbed up the wound with my shirt, but if it's just a graze or something, why did he pass out? I mean… I think he hit his head on one of the desks here, but…"

"He might have a concussion. They do weird things to his sense and he blacks out sometimes just- that's not important right now. No one can come to him and not in a way to deal with a gun wound or without risking someone seeing him. Get to the church with Matt, go around the back, and knock on the basement door. Ask for Sister Maggie."

Peter's chest clenched at the idea. "I don't- Mr. Nelson, he- I don't want him to die, not like-" Peter cut himself off.

"He won't. Peter, I know you're scared, and I'm on my way, but you're the one with super strength. It's going to suck, but you can do it. Matt's a stubborn asshole, and he trusts you. Take a deep breath and move."

Peter nodded to himself and took in the deep breath. Suddenly it felt like the world turned a little grey, a little dull. Sounds felt like someone else was hearing them and then telling Peter about them. His body didn't feel quite real, but a wave of cold calm washed over him. He shoved his phone in his pocket and slid his arms under Matt, one in the crook of his legs and the other firmly under his torso. His tongue felt heavy and he heard someone say, "This is going to hurt, sorry."

The weight of Matt in his arms felt lighter than it should have. The awkwardness of carrying someone bigger than him, the slick blood near his hand didn't feel as cumbersome. Peter felt like he was breathing deeply and fully, but also holding his breath at the same time.

Peter cradled Matt's head against his chest as best as he could as he carefully, but quickly made his way to the bottom floor. The city felt still and quiet, like it was finally asleep after a long day, but Peter didn't stop to wonder at this strange feeling. He jogged as steadily as he could, following the directions Foggy gave him before stopping in front of the church.

The little gravel path to the back of the church was easy to find, but Peter was careful walking along it. He didn't want to slip and hurt Matt more. At the wooden door, Peter fumbled for a second, unsure how to knock before settling for kicking the door.

There was shuffling on the other side of the door after a moment of kicking. Peter vaguely wondered what time it was. Probably around midnight based on when he and Matt started. He should apologize for disrupting their sleep.

A nun suddenly appeared where the door once was, and Peter found himself stuck, trying to remember who Foggy said to ask for. Luckily, the nun knew exactly what Peter was there for.

"Follow me," The nun said before turning to another nun and saying, "Call for Sister Maggie."

Distantly, Peter wondered why all these nuns didn't blink an eye at two vigilantes showing up in the middle of the night but thinking about it too much would ruin the weird numb feeling that was keeping Peter calm. He'd rather ask later.

Once Peter laid Matt down where they directed, Peter stepped back a little. The nun who led him in, asked, "What happened and what's this stuff on his shoulder?"

Peter fished a little vial out of his pocket and held it out. "He got shot. The webs are holding the shirt in place to cover it up. This stuff will get rid of the webs. His heart is still beating. It seems fine."

"How long has he been unconscious?"

"I don't know. However long it took me to walk a block here." Peter couldn't tell if it had taken two seconds or 2 hours. "I think he hit his head too."

The nun nodded and started working on getting the webbing off Matt's shoulder. Another nun came in and was greeted as "Sister Maggie" before being given a run down of the situation.

With it all seemingly handled, Peter backed up to keep watch. After a quick conversation, Sister Maggie left Matt in the hands of the other nun and walked over to Peter.

"Here," the Sister held out a cloth. "There's a bathroom over there. You can clean up in there without worrying about any secret identity nonsense."

"Oh… thank you, uh, Sister Maggie." Peter tried to smile, but with the mask on, it was hard to see. The Sister turned away from Peter after that and went back to Matt. While Peter didn't want to just leave Matt, it seemed like the other was in good hands.

Walking into the bathroom, Peter shut and locked the door and pulled off his mask. Looking in the mirror, Peter touched his tear-stained cheeks and tried not to let out a sob. The detached feeling that had taken over Peter felt like a better choice than continuing to panic. He could give that numbness a direction. He could complete the mission and make sure Matt stayed safe. Yeah, yeah. That was a better idea. He could panic later. He could cry and sob all he wanted when the sun came up.

Peter used the cloth he was given to wiped off his face and attempt scrubbing the blood off his gloves. It wasn't a complete success but being covered in blood would help make him more threatening. Peter rinsed the cloth as best as he could and left it hanging on the side of the sink.

Exiting the bathroom, none of the nuns seemed to pay him any mind, and Peter could still hear Matt's heartbeat loud and clear.

Peter left without saying anything and started back towards the building where two unconscious men and a slew of incriminating papers waited for him. Pulling out Matt's phone, Peter called number three.

This time there was finally an answer. "Jesus Murdock. Some of us actually try to sleep. This better be damn important."

Peter was silent for a moment, realizing he didn't know what to say. "Uh, hi! This is actually Spider-Man. Double-D and I were looking into a human trafficking thing-"

"Fuck. I heard he was running around with you. Why do you need me if you've already got the two of you?"

"He got hurt- just like a complete whammy of getting hurt, and I can't deal with it on my own so I'm calling you." Peter didn't know how he was keeping his tone so normally chipper with the heavy feeling in his chest, but at least he was keeping up appearances. "I'm going to talk to some people and figure out where people are being held, but from the look I got, I think they're planning on human experimentation with the trafficking victims."

"Give me an address Spider-Boy. I'll be there once I hail a taxi."

Peter gave her the address and said a soft, "I'll see you soon, Ms. Jones."

Notes:

Dun dun duuuuuuun- This chapter was really fun to write a while ago because my heart belongs to angst and other sad things. We finally have a defender showing up! Which, brings me to why this fic is suddenly part of a series. The short story is, all the defenders meeting Peter and helping him will be posted as side stories within the series rather than in this fic. Jones was the only one I could make fit into this fic as I had imagined so I decided to just make all of them side stories. The upside to that is, next Wednesday the first one will come out featuring Jessica and Peter teaming up. There will be four in total because I love the Punisher.

Once again, thanks for reading, commenting, kudo-ing, and bookmarking this work!

Chapter 10: Pain

Summary:

In which Matt has a Tony Stark moment.

"I'm not going to apologize, Foggy. I'm right. What he did was dangerous."

"And somehow he's not the one with a bullet hole. You're an asshole."

Notes:

If you'd like to see what happened with Jessica and Peter teaming up, there's a side story in this series that is what that chapter would have been if I included it.

Pain by Hollywood Undead

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Matt wished he could say things came back slowly, but it would be a lie. It hadn't happened since he was a kid, before his senses were dialed up to eleven. He could remember times as kid, getting hurt, or knocked down and just shutting down. Like passing out, but not really. After Stick's training, it never happened until he became Daredevil. Something about the combination of getting a concussion and shot just dialed those senses back up and made him black out. It was kind of like falling asleep, but really more of his body hitting the reset button. Matt never figured out why it did it, or how bad the sensory overload had to be for it to happen. Even still, Matt normally staved off any blacking out until leaving a situation. A part of him wondered if some instinct decided since Peter was there, it would be okay to black out like that.

Either way, as Matt became aware of his surroundings again, he felt paralyzed at the sudden input of information. There were three heartbeats in the room. Scratchy gauze covered his shoulder, and the tape holding it pinched his skin. It smelled like… it smelled like… Huh. Even though Matt was getting the usual painful input from waking up like this, everything felt like it had a blanket of snow over top once he focused.

Pain killers. Wherever Matt was, whoever had fixed him up this time had given him painkillers. They probably coaxed him into taking them when he was too disoriented to realize what was going on. He hated pain killers.

Though, that explained why his shoulder didn't hurt as much as it should have.

Groaning, Matt used his uninjured arm to try pushing himself into a sitting position. Hands immediate grabbed onto him, but thankfully helping him up, not trying to keep him down. Tilting his head, Matt tried to focus and figure out who had grabbed him. Familiar smell of mint and lavender, a worried heartbeat, and gentle, but calloused hands.

"Foggy?"

"Yeah, it's me buddy. They gave you pain killers so be careful moving around." When Matt made a grumbling noise, Foggy frowned. "They had to, Matty. You kept moving around and trying to cover up your ears or trying to get away from Sister Maggie. You nearly punched one of the nuns helping her. She dug a bullet out of you. You're lucky what's left of the armor in your suit protected you as much as it did."

Matt grabbed onto Foggy's arm with his uninjured arm. "Where's P- Spider-Man?" That rapid heartbeat echoed in Matt's head, but with the pain killers, Matt assumed it was the memory of hearing Peter around.

"I don't know. Sister Maggie said he dropped you off here and took back off. I tried calling, but he hung up on me after the first ring. He sent me a text that was just the word 'busy' and another like twenty minutes ago that said 'done.' I wanted to call when you were awake again, so he could talk to you too."

Knowing that Peter was, at least, alive made Matt breathe easier. "What time is it?"

"It's just before dawn, Matthew. Here, some water," Sister Maggie said, holding a glass out.

Matt had to take a moment to really focus, but eventually he grabbed the glass and took a few drinks. "Thank you… Sister. We should get out of your hair before things start to get busy."

"It's no trouble to let you or both of you stay until you've recovered, but I know you're too stubborn to listen. You're well enough to move, though I'd advise against walking all the way home. Don't lift anything heavy with your right side and try to avoid straining it. If you pop your stitches, you'll have to handle them yourself." Sister Maggie took the glass of water back from Matt. "Also, come by more often than Sunday mornings."

The 'to see me' went unspoken between them, and Matt just nodded along.

"I'll do my best." Matt didn't specify on what he would do his best on. Turning in Foggy's direction, Matt addressed him again. "Do you mind helping me back to my apartment? Everything's… fuzzy."

Matt didn't know how to explain to someone with normal senses how sounds and smells washed in and out like waves or how he felt like if he stuck his tongue out, he'd be able to taste the foods stored in the church but wouldn't be able to taste something in his mouth without concentrating. It was why he hated taking pain killers. It was why he hated head injuries. It was like he could still "see" but everything was skewed three degrees to the left.

Foggy let out a huff of air in frustration. "If you think I'd let you stumble your way back to your apartment, you hit your head harder than we thought. See if you can drape this jacket over your shoulders and stand up. I'll call a taxi for us."

As Foggy walked away to make the call, Matt moved slowly and swung his legs over the edge of the bed he was on. He grabbed onto the jacket offered to him and pulled the hood over his head before positioning the sleeves over his shoulders. It didn't do much to cover anything up, but the familiar smell of Foggy's laundry detergent reminded him of living with the other.

Matt made a mental note to call Peter as soon as they got back to his apartment. Hopefully, the kid was just at home sleeping things off, but it felt out of character for Peter to not be there waiting for Matt to get back up. Distantly, Matt remembered Peter panicking when he got shot, but everything was so blurry, Matt didn't know if it was regular panic or "I'm going to do something stupid" panic.

Suddenly, the urge to get back home to make the call got all the stronger. Matt pushed himself to his feet, feeling steady standing still. He was sure he could walk around if he took it slow. It was just, sensing where things were precisely would be difficult with his head swimming the way it was.

Foggy returned quickly enough and held his arm out to Matt. "Taxi's waiting for us on the street. My arm's on your left about elbow height to your arm. There's not a lot in our way to the door outside, but the gravel outside is kind of slick so be careful."

Foggy's friendship continued to be a blessing in Matt's life. He took the offered arm, gripping it lightly. When Foggy moved, Matt followed easily. He trusted Foggy to let him know if there was anything in the way.

They made their way outside and into a taxi. Matt heard Foggy giving the cabbie directions but stopped listening to them in favor of finding a rapid heartbeat nearby. While Matt couldn't be absolutely certain in his current state, he was pretty sure Peter was on the rooftop of a building across the street. Maybe it was wistful thinking, but as the taxi started down the street, Matt was certain that heartbeat was following them, leaping from roof to roof as Matt had taught.

Foggy was talking about something, probably food and getting Matt cleaned up, but Matt leaned his head against the glass of the cab and listened to the quick beating drum following them. Peter had to be okay if he was following them. Maybe the kid had just perched himself across the street of the church and had been waiting for them to come out. Maybe the kid was going to follow them all the way to Matt's apartment. Maybe Matt should have worried about the kid finding out where he lived, but the point seemed ludicrous considering the kid had gotten Matt's blood on his hands.

Matt continued to listen to the following heartbeat until the taxi came to a stop. He slid out of the car behind Foggy and took the offered elbow again. His senses were starting to get a little better the longer he was awake and moving around. The heartbeat was definitely on top of his building. Matt could feel eyes on him.

Foggy helped Matt into the building and got him upstairs into his apartment. Depositing Matt on the couch, Foggy turned to the kitchen, planning on making Matt something to eat.

The plan was halted when Matt asked, "Can you go up to the roof and tell Peter to come down in here?"

"He's on the roof?"

"Yeah. His heartbeat's hard for me to miss. He followed us from the church. I'd get up, but I don't want to make whatever lecture you're going to give me worse."

"That just means the lectures are working. Stay there," Foggy commanded before making his way onto the roof.

It wasn't long before Foggy walked back into the apartment with Peter at his heels. Peter was still wearing the Spider-Man costume, but with a black hoodie covering his torso. He'd taken off the mask when Foggy got him and shoved it into the pocket of the hoodie, leaving the actual hood up.

The fuzziness of Matt's brain made it hard to tell, but certain parts of Peter had a weird heat to him. While not as precise as it could be, Matt could tell the kid had new bruises.

Before Matt could address it, though, Peter was grinning and said, "Matt! You're okay… I'm-" Peter wasn't quite sure how to express what he was feeling without coming off as a needy kid, so he settled for, "I'm really happy that you're okay."

"Yeah." That was probably where Matt should have apologized for scaring Peter, but Matt wasn't thinking about it. Instead, he stated, "You're hurt. The Sisters didn't say you were hurt when they saw you."

Peter shifted and laughed a little nervously. "I don't know what you're talking about, Matt, I'm fine. I'm not the one with a hole in my chest anyway."

"I might be blind, but I'm not stupid." Matt felt like his pulse was getting faster, just a little adrenaline pumping through him. Or, maybe that was anger. Why was Peter lying about being hurt? "I'm sure if Foggy looked at your face, you'd have a black eye, and your knuckles are bruised up."

Matt could hear Foggy leaning in to get a good look at Peter. By the way Foggy's breath caught, Matt knew he was correct and continued, "Your healing factor should've taken care of both of those if they happened when you were with me, so either you got into a fight recently or your healing is slowing."

Peter threw his hands up in the air and kept a jovial tone when he said, "Well, you've ruined the surprise already, but after I knew you'd be safe I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So, I called Ms. Jones and asked for her help. That's what you were going to do, but you were really hurt, and I saw some of the papers in the building looked like shipping manifests. I figured if you wanted to call Ms. Jones originally, then it was bigger than just the people in the building." Peter picked up speed and confidence as he continued, "Ms. Jones got there when I was done looking through the papers, and we figured out about the people who were kidnapped!"

"You shouldn't have done that," Matt growled. The idea of Peter, even with back up, going after those people made Matt's chest feel tight. Anger crawled up his throat at the idea of Peter getting hurt or killed because of going after things too big for him.

"No, wait, it's okay! We were fine and- and we saved all the people before they got taken away from the city! No one got hurt except the bad guys. I mean one of them got a lucky swing on me, but me and Ms. Jones took care of it. I came up with a plan, so neither of us were in real danger the entire time. And I kept all the papers I found that will help put the people away and, well, some of the people got away, but I wrote down names and possible locations, plus the way they sounded and any smells I remembered to help you find them so- so we can get the whole trafficking ring taken down and save the people who are being taken!"

Foggy said a soft, "Peter," and braced himself for the explosion he knew was coming.

Matt lurched to his feet, standing his ground despite the way he swayed upon standing. "No, not okay!" Matt's face twisted in anger, his teeth showing. "I got shot and your first thought is to go back in there and keep poking at it! I told you to stay outside, and you didn't listen to me! Even with Jessica you could've died. You're inexperienced and way in over your head! What part of 'listen to what I tell you to do' is so fucking hard to understand? I knew it was insane trusting a kid to listen to basic rules. You got lucky, but if this is the way you act, if you've got some kind of death wish taking you out with me, hell, even training you has been nothing but a waste of time."

Matt's chest heaved as he tried to breath, as everything he'd said just hit him. He was scared. He'd gotten shot, and that wasn't even a blip in his mind, but the idea of Peter chasing after human traffickers like that alone (Jessica's back-up be damned) scared him. He didn't know what he would've done if Peter had gotten hurt because it would have been his fault. His fault. This was why Matt had pushed Foggy and Karen away. He didn't want them to get hurt because of his shit, but there he was dragging a kid down into his hell.

The stunned silence from Peter gave Matt a second to regret, to wish he could rewind by just the few seconds it'd taken for him to speak. Peter didn't deserve to get yelled at like that. Peter was just trying to help. But the raging devil on Matt's shoulder said he was right. Peter wasn't ready for any of this if he was going to be reckless.

Had Peter been reckless, though?

It didn't matter because Peter broke the silence by tossing a packet of papers onto the coffee table.

Peter tamped down any tears as a familiar cold numbness took over his chest before speaking with a tone caught between robotic and false cheer. "I'm sorry, I didn't listen to you. You're right, I'm not ready for this kind of stuff, but there's the information I got. I didn't have time to translate it to braille, sorry. I'm… yeah, I'm sorry you got shot. I'm sorry I got you shot."

Matt didn't move as Peter quickly turned tail and ran off.

The anger coming from Foggy was almost palpable as he snapped at Matt, "don't move," before following after Peter and calling the teenager's name.

Matt practically fell back against his couch, listening to Foggy chasing after Peter. He wondered if he'd heard Peter right when the kid apologized for him getting shot.

Peter almost jumped off the roof to swing away. He almost ignored Foggy, ignored not having his mask on, ignored the rising sun, in favor of running away. Something made him stop and stand still. Head hung in shame, Peter couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice as he said, "I really don't want to get yelled at a second time."

"I promise I'm not here to yell at you. I just wanted to talk before you leave, is that okay?" Foggy kept his voice gentle, setting aside any anger he felt at Matt. He didn't want Peter to think Foggy was also angry at him. "I'm not going to try and stop you if you want to leave."

Looking up, Peter kept his face neutral, sliding happily into any numbness that would keep himself from crying anymore. "Yeah, sure, but I need to get home before my Aunt gets worried. You don't have to worry about me coming around for a while. I've stuff in Queens, and I'm gonna be out of town soon, so don't worry about me bothering Matt or anything."

"I can't speak for Matt. He's got his head up his ass, and that's not your fault or problem. I," Foggy stepped closer to Peter, "wanted to say thank you."

When Peter's head whipped up to look at Foggy, Foggy couldn't stop the tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "Thank you so much. No matter what he says, you probably saved his life last night. As stupid as he is, I don't know what I would do without him. You save his life by being there, and I will never be able to repay you for that."

Peter didn't know why, but it felt like the easiest thing in the world to step forward and hug Foggy. "I'm so sorry. I- I'm the reason he got shot. I came into the room, and it distracted him, and he got shot. It's my fault."

Foggy shook his head and hugged Peter tighter. "It's not. I know it's not. If he got distracted by something as small as someone coming into a room, he'd get shot every time he goes out. You didn't do anything wrong. He would've gone into that alone and died if you weren't there. It's not your fault. I promise, Peter, it's not your fault."

Stepping away from the hug, Foggy pulled out his wallet and grabbed a business card before pulling a pen from his other pocket and scrawling a number on the back of it before holding it out to Peter. "That's my number. My actual real person phone number. Call if you need anything, and I mean anything." Foggy let out a wet laugh, trying to lighten to mood. "I can get you a great discount on meats in Hell's Kitchen. But, really, I understand if you want to avoid this place for a little bit. Just, if you don't mind, text me when you get home and text me, I don't know, pictures of dogs you meet, and I'll rate them. You don't have to talk to or about Matt, but I care about you a lot, Peter, and I want to make sure you're safe."

Peter ran his thumb over the number and slid it into a pocket. "I'll try to remember."

"That's all I ask."

Peter nodded and darted in to give Foggy another quick hug before making his way to the edge of the roof and slipping his mask back on. "I'll see you around."

"See you around, Spider-Man." Foggy waved as the kid took off. Standing there, Foggy didn't move until Peter got far enough away that he couldn't see the kid anymore. While Foggy didn't really want to, he knew he had to go back into the apartment and deal with the real child of this situation.

With a sigh, Foggy headed back into Matt's apartment.

As soon as Foggy could see Matt, the other said, "Foggy, I-"

"No, Matt, you really need to take a minute to think of what you're going to say because I think I'm a damn saint for not just walking out the door and letting you lick your wounds." Foggy stomped his way to Matt's kitchen.

Matt listened to Foggy shuffle around the kitchen and wondered if his cabinets were going to survive all the slamming. When it seemed like Foggy wasn't going to lose steam, Matt asked, "Can you stop abusing my kitchen and just say what you want to say?"

"You've got your head up your ass."

"Yeah, I heard you say that to the kid, but I'm right. What he did was-"

Foggy's hands stilled, and he snapped, "No, Matt, you don't get to have an opinion on what he did. Officially, I do not give a shit what you think about that because you didn't have to talk a 15-year-old having a panic attack, so he could save the person who was supposed to be protecting him. I told you this would happen. I told you, you needed a plan for it, but instead I get a call in the middle of the night from a teenager hyper-ventilating so hard, I'm shocked he didn't pass out."

When Matt stayed silent, letting Foggy continue on, Foggy started moving around the kitchen again. "You want to know what he kept saying? I don't think he even realized he was saying it, but he kept saying things like 'not again.' Which is just great, especially after hearing him blaming you getting shot on himself."

In a quiet voice, Matt said, "He's probably seen someone he knows get shot before."

"Yup. Exactly what I'm assuming. I mean, tragic vigilante backstories are just so much fun, and since I've only ever heard him mention his aunt, I have to assume whatever happened to his parents wasn't pretty. That would explain why he practically imprinted on you when you started training him. So, good move, great fantastic Murdock move, telling him you've been wasting your time training him."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Nothing. Nothing you could say would make me less angry right now. I wouldn't blame him, you know, if he never spoke to you again, but I also have no doubts that he'd forgive you for being like this without a second thought. He might need a week or two, but I'm sure he'd forgive you as easily as breathing air because he's a good kid."

"I'm not going to apologize, Foggy. I'm right. What he did was dangerous."

"And somehow he's not the one with a bullet hole. You're an asshole."

"I know."

"I'm going to make you some food, and then I'm going to find your most expensive bottle of alcohol and go home and drink the whole thing. Then I'll probably drunk dial Marci or Karen or Brett. It'll be a great time, and you can be alone having a pissing contest with yourself."

"Whiskey, in the most left cabinet." That was, unfortunately, as close a thanks as Foggy was going to get.

It wasn't enough. It wasn't at all enough, but it was better than nothing.

Notes:

This chapter was really fun for me to write because I think Matt and Tony share a lot of character traits, so I wanted to draw a parallel to Tony's mentoring in Homecoming and Matt's mentoring here. Matt's got anger issues, you know. But don't worry, he'll get his shit together soon. Next update will be Friday, as usual, but in the series on Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll be posting the Iron Fist & Peter side story.

Once again, thank you to everyone reading this!

Chapter 11: Hey Brother

Summary:

"You can call me Foggy, Peter."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Nelson," Peter chirped with a cheeky grin.

"Why am I Matt, but he's Mr. Nelson?" Matt wanted to know the logic behind this decision.

"Respect," Peter replied simply.

Notes:

This is, I believe, the longest chapter of this fic with it being about 6000 words. Hope you enjoy.

Hey Brother by Avicii

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

If not for the distinct lack of Spider-Man mentions, Karen would have assumed Foggy stumbled on a deep dark secret of Matt's for a second time. The weird stand-off they were having reminded her all too much of the first time the partnership almost fell apart. It had ultimately led to the firm falling apart. Karen would call this the calm before the storm, but it felt anything but calm. They left last Friday completely normal and returned to the office on Monday with this funk. They were still getting work done. Karen would even argue that Matt was getting far more work done than usual.

Clicking her pen, Karen looked from Matt to Foggy. Normally whenever the two friends had issues, Foggy would look at Matt with a weird, disappointed parent mixed with concern look. Instead, Matt was keeping his head low, and Foggy just looked angry. He hardly glanced in Matt's direction most of the time, and Karen saw the way Foggy's fist clenched half the time he spoke to Matt. It disturbed her a bit to see Matt just taking the anger and not rising to or fighting it.

Karen needed to intervene. She wanted to help them move past whatever issues they were having, but she didn't even know what had happened. It obviously had something to do with Peter. Matt went from casually mentioning him like a proud parent to acting like he'd never heard of the kid. Foggy went from pestering Matt about how the kid was to sullenly checking his phone ten times in an hour.

If she wanted to help them fix whatever happened, Karen needed information. Or she could tell them to stop acting like children, but information would help knowing which one of them to scold. (She was beginning to wonder when she became their babysitter.) Foggy was always the easiest to get things out of, and when his face lit up in delight as his phone buzzing, Karen had the perfect opportunity to strike.

"Did you get some good news?" A calm and neutral enough question.

Foggy looked up to Karen, not realizing she'd been looking at him. "What?"

"You got all happy when you looked at your phone. I was wondering if you got good news for something."

"Oh! No, it's just," Foggy hesitated, casting a glance in Matt's direction before continuing, "Peter. He must be having some connection issues, my phone says the message was sent yesterday, but he sent me a picture of a dog." Foggy held out his phone to show Karen.

Karen took the phone and looked at a goofy border collie mix. Two messages back, there was another picture of a dog with Foggy's reply being a ranking and an explanation for the ranking. It was kind of sweet. "First cookies, now dog pictures. I didn't know you two talked outside of Spider-Devil stuff. How long has he been sending them?"

"Not long, just since Tuesday. He sent a lot recently cause he's in DC for a school thing and they've been to a lot of parks. I can text him your number and tell him you'd like dog pictures too, so long as you help me rank this one. I'm running out of reasons to not give them all 10 out of 10."

Out of the corner of her eye, Karen could see that Matt had stopped moving his hands across his papers. His mouth was set in a frown, like he wanted to join their conversation, but couldn't.

The second Foggy said Peter's name, Matt had started listening in. He wanted to ask why Foggy was so invested in texting Peter. He kind of wanted to ask Foggy to describe the dog Peter had sent. Matt was good at coming up with random reasons and judgements. He still hadn't even tried to talk to Peter. Not that he was planning on talking to Peter.

Matt decided working himself into an early grave was more appealing than listening into the conversation. At least, until Karen asked, "Did you see the news for Spider-Man stopping an ATM robbery two weeks ago?"

Foggy set his phone aside, eyebrows scrunching together. "No, what happened?"

"Apparently some guys tried robbing some ATMs, and Spider-Man swooped in to fight them. They were using some crazy alien tech left over from the Incident. One of the weapons malfunctioned or something because they destroyed a bodega across the street and nearly killed a man. Spider-Man stopped it though and saved the guy in the bodega and his cat. Did Peter really not mention it to you?" Time to drag Murdock into the conversation, so he would stop moping in the corner. "Not to you, Matt?"

Foggy's concern about Peter dealing with that outweighed whatever anger he still felt towards Matt. "He didn't say anything to me, but surely he said something to you, Matt…"

Gritting his teeth, Matt shook his head. "He didn't say anything to me. I stopped using that Spider-Man alert thing you set up when I started meeting with him every week. He tells me everything that goes on with his patrols in Queens."

Matt's "at least, I thought he did" went unsaid.

Well, making both of them worried wasn't part of Karen's plan, but at least they talked to each other without looking like they were gearing up for a screaming match.

"I have an alert like that for all the vigilantes in New York. I can tell you when I get them if you guys want," Karen offered.

"I'm sure Matt doesn't want to be bothered by that stuff anymore," Foggy smoothly took a shot at Matt, "but I'll probably set an alert on my phone if he's getting into stuff like that."

Karen waited for Matt to fire back, rise to the challenge in Foggy's voice, but the man just said, "Thank you for the offer, Karen."

Karen was ready to go for a more direct approach when her own phone buzzed with an alert that Spider-Man was on the news. "Oh, there's a news report going on right now that pinged the alert."

Karen quickly pulled the live video up and tilted it to show Foggy. She turned the volume up for Matt in time for the reporter to say, "That was Flash Thompson, saying New York vigilante Spider-Man saved him and three of his classmates from an elevator malfunction. Spider-Man is assumed to be the blue and red figure we saw just minutes ago climbing the Washington Monument."

"Oh my god," Karen covered her mouth with one of her hands.

"What's it showing?" Matt asked.

"Uh, it's Peter climbing the monument. It's tall, taller than a lot of the buildings in Hell's Kitchen. He's in the suit, but it's just the webs and him sticking to the side." Karen didn't need to explain what a single slip up would do.

"We're replaying the earlier footage now. You can see the masked man free climbing 555 feet up towards a window. You can tell in this footage; the police were bewildered and unable to deal with someone climbing a monument like that. We can't hear what they're saying, but Spider-Man moves suddenly and even re-watching the tape I can't believe my eyes. An acrobatic feat such as that before swinging straight through reinforced glass and rescuing four people from an elevator. I just can't believe it."

Foggy felt like something was stuck in his throat as he explained, "He got towards the top, and there was a police helicopter near him. Probably telling him to get down, so he got to the very top of the monument and then jumped back, over the helicopter blades and swung down into the building."

The news report continued on but didn't say much more regarding Spider-Man. Matt quickly commanded, "Call him. This is reporting on something that already happened, call him."

Foggy scrambled to grab his phone and dialed Peter's number, but it didn't even ring. He tried a second, third time, but there wasn't any answer. On the third try, Foggy shakily left a voicemail, "Hey, Pete. We saw the news and text me please. We just want to know you're okay."

Once Foggy lowered the phone, he tried to look on the brighter side of things. "I'm sure his phone just ran out of power, or he turned it off for something else. The news would have reported if Spider-Man had been hurt."

Karen nodded. "Of course." Though, she didn't know what they were supposed to after that. Continuing with work felt silly in light of things. She hadn't even truly met Peter, yet, and she knew it was worse for Foggy and Matt. Foggy could pretend to look on the bright side all he wanted, but Karen knew better. Matt was harder to tell because he was already brooding, but the white knuckles gripping his cane gave him away.

Before Karen had a chance to suggest anything, Matt spoke, "Let's leave early. We don't have anymore clients scheduled for today, and it's already four." Matt's hands relaxed a little. "Let's go get some cheap food somewhere and then go to Josie's or something."

"Yeah, good idea. That way if I get a text or call back, you guys are already there," Foggy agreed.

"I vote we go to Josie's. This feels like a drinking kind of thing," Karen suggested.

As Karen got her stuff around, she glanced over to Foggy and Matt.

Matt held his hand out to Foggy and simply asked, "Truce?"

Foggy grasped Matt's hand. "Truce."

Three hours later when Foggy finally got a text back from Peter, even if he was still pissed at Matt and still worried as hell, it felt a little easier to breathe with his best friends there.

It had taken a lot of thought, a lot of waffling back and forth, but after hearing Matt's soft request, Foggy had no reason to say no, no matter how pissed he still was. Foggy thought it was a bad idea. He didn't know what Matt was going to say, and Foggy worried Peter would stop talking to any of them if Matt pushed more. Matt promised he just wanted to talk to Peter, no yelling, no blaming, just making sure Peter was okay.

Foggy could get behind convincing Peter that he didn't need to avoid Hell's Kitchen. Foggy could get behind letting Peter know that he could and should tell them about things like an ATM robbery with alien weapons.

So, Foggy sent a text that Saturday afternoon, a simple, 'Hey, Peter! I'm glad you're okay after the Washington ordeal. Matt was wondering if you could meet up somewhere, in Hell's Kitchen or Queens as your usual selves. I can come with if you want. He swears he just wants to talk to you. Tomorrow if it works for you.'

It wasn't until that evening that Foggy got a reply of, 'Hi, Foggy! DC was insane, but I swear I'm okay. I'd be down to meet you and Matt sometime tomorrow. There's this really good Thai place my aunt and I go to all the time if you want to meet there. Or we could go to that place with the chai hot chocolate!'

After a little more back and forth, Foggy narrowed down a time and an agreement to meet Peter for food. Foggy assumed Matt paying for Peter's lunch would be a nice peace offering. Once the plan was all set, Foggy called Matt to inform his friend that he was coming by at ten in the morning, and that they were heading to Queens almost immediately after to meet Peter for lunch. Matt would go to the restaurant Peter picked and like it. (Though, Foggy already knew Matt liked Thai food.)

That Sunday, Foggy was feeling confident. He and Matt were quietly riding the subway and walking along the city. Matt wasn't talking a lot, but it seemed like he was thinking about things. Not in a 'the rage is barely contained' thinking way. It reminded Foggy of the way Matt got quiet when he was deciding how to address a jury.

While Foggy still thought Matt was the biggest ass for the way he treated Peter, Foggy wanted them to move past it. Of course, the training and mentoring was helping Peter. That was its goal. Matt constantly went on and on before about how quickly Peter picked up new techniques and absorbed information. The whole thing helped Peter, but Foggy also saw how it helped Matt.

After their training sessions started, Foggy noticed a weight was eased from Matt's shoulders. Sure, his best friend was still wired more often than not, but when he was talking about Peter, about his plans for the kid, it felt like the room lightened. It felt like Matt breathed easier. Maybe that was just the effect Peter had on people. Foggy felt more at ease the few times he'd spoken to Peter. Whether it was Matt working through trauma by teaching Peter or just Peter being himself that made the mentorship a symbiotic connection, Foggy didn't care. He cared about getting it back. He cared about Matt facing his mistake and finding a way to move forward.

He cared about the fact that he still had yet to get that cookie recipe from Peter.

Somehow things like that just kept slipping Foggy's mind.

Opening the door to the restaurant, Foggy led Matt in, searching for Peter. They were a little earlier than Foggy anticipated, but the subways hadn't been horrifically slow as they usually were. Foggy told the hostess they had three people and led Matt to their table. Even if Matt didn't need to be led, it kept people from staring at Foggy like he was a monster for not helping the obvious blind person he was with. That, and keeping up Matt's secret. That was also important. Probably more important than Foggy's wounded pride.

Once they both sat down and the waitress left to get them water, Foggy tapped against the table. He'd refrained from questioning Matt on his plan for talking to Peter. He wanted to let Matt sort through those ideas on his own. However, now at the table, Foggy's brain conjured the worst-case scenarios.

That was what led Foggy to asking, "What's your plan once Peter gets here?"

It took a second for Matt to respond as he was listening for Peter's heartbeat. "What do you mean?"

Foggy couldn't tell if Matt was serious or being obtuse. "I was assuming you had some kind of plan on what to say to him after your spectacular meltdown that made even me shocked Peter agreed to talk to you again only a week after. If you go at him the way you did then, Peter might not give you a third chance."

Matt hummed, actually considering what Foggy was saying. Matt had formulated something to say to Peter, but it was more of an outline than anything concrete. Despite what Foggy might think, Matt didn't want to force Peter to stop talking to him. The main goal of asking Foggy to arrange meeting with Peter was so Peter wouldn't be pressured to say yes. The main goal of actually coming to Peter's home territory and give him food would be to get on Peter's good side before a serious discussion. The main goal of the whole thing was to let Peter know Matt didn't mean to say their training wasn't useless, to tell Peter that Matt was really worried about what might happen to Peter, and to figure out why Peter thought Matt getting shot was on him.

There were a lot of goals floating around in Matt's head, but none of them had concrete solutions or answers. Part of Matt wanted to give Foggy an answer that would make his friend feel better. Foggy asking if Matt had a plan reminded Matt that he wasn't just trying to smooth things over with Peter, but also Foggy.

Foggy cared about Peter a lot. Matt knew that. He actually appreciated it more than anything. Matt could also see the analogy between him losing his temper with Peter and when Foggy found out about him being Daredevil. A lot of what Foggy was saying, a lot of that tension felt so familiar.

So, Matt was left trying to figure out what to say to Foggy that would make the man feel better, but also not sound like pandering. A straightforward response would be best.

"I've got an opener in my head, but the rest is flexible. Just like court." Matt gave Foggy his most charming smile. One that Matt knew Foggy knew exactly what he was doing with it, but Foggy also knew that Matt knew that Foggy knew about the smile, so it somehow still ended up working most of the time.

Foggy shook his head but picked up the menu in front of him. "Do you want me to read things out to you or wait for Peter? He'll probably have actual recommendations outside me just reading it out loud to you."

"He's less than a block away, so we might as well wait."

"Can you tell how close or far I am like that?" Foggy wasn't sure he liked the idea.

"No. Well, I could if I wanted to. After living with you and seeing you on a near daily basis, it wouldn't be hard to pick you out of all the other noises and smells. Peter, though, I can hear whether I'm trying to or not. His heartbeat is unnaturally fast and loud." Matt debated continuing, but did it anyway, "I try to not do things like sensing how far or close you are, so I don't invade your privacy."

Foggy remembered how that was such a point of contention for so long and smiled. "Thanks, buddy. Oh- there's Peter."

Peter spotted Foggy and Matt after greeting the hostess by name. Once he got to the table, he dug a couple papers out of his bag and held them to Matt. "Here, take these."

Sliding into a seat, Peter stole the menu sitting near Matt, so Matt had a flat surface to set the papers down if he wanted.

Foggy could see the raised bumps of the paper, but Matt asked, "You know I can't read, right?"

"Duh, it's in braille. I figured since I chose the restaurant and I knew they didn't have braille menus or anything like that, I would go to this place and get the menu printed out. Didn't know if you guys eat Thai food a lot, and it's gotta get annoying having someone read out ingredients and dish names and the likes. I can recommend stuff if you need, but uh…" When neither Foggy nor Matt seemed to really react, Peter scratched at his arm. "Is it weird that I did that?"

Matt set the papers down and ran his fingers across the top. Sure enough, across the top it read the restaurant's name and menu. "No, it's- thank you, Peter. It was very thoughtful of you."

So very thoughtful, but how was Matt supposed to react? Peter had gone out of his way and likely spent money on getting this for Matt. Even with all his senses, Matt still got frustrated at times that he couldn't do things as simple as read something written on paper without it being raised. Foggy was great about reading things like menus out to Matt, but it still felt weird.

Not to mention, any anger seemed to be gone from Peter. It was like Matt was being given a pass. He could just move on and ignore what happened. Peter was probably nice enough to do that, but as Peter started talking to Foggy about what he might like to eat, Matt could hear the tension in Peter's voice. He sounded strained. He didn't sound hurt though.

Remembering the way Foggy and Karen's breath had caught watching the video from Washington, Matt was glad to know that Peter wasn't hurt.

Instead of interrupting the conversation, Matt ran his hands over the menu, quickly reading through his options. Hearing Peter mention the Pad Thai being good, Matt figured that would be good enough after running his hands over the menu description.

With that decision made, Matt was satisfied with listening to Peter trying to convince Foggy that Drunken Noodles were much better super spicy.

"No, seriously, Mr. Nelson, you have to get them at least medium spice level. What's the point of getting them if they're not going to be spicy?" Peter argued before pausing. Suddenly, he remembered that he was being rude. "My aunt gets their fried rice when she's not in the mood for spicy stuff. If you like sweet things, they have some with pineapple."

"Now that sounds like my kind of party," Foggy replied happily before addressing Matt. "What are you going to get, chuckles?"

Foggy's comment didn't diminish Matt's smile. "Pad Thai, I think. Peter made it sound good."

After they ordered the conversation turned towards Peter's school, Foggy deciding to ask about what he wanted to talk about. If Matt wanted to apologize, he could start that conversation on his own.

"How's school been, Pete?"

"It's been alright. I've got an 'A' in everything right now, but I'm having a hard time with an English essay. In chemistry, we've been getting free lab time to work on personal projects for our final project and to display at school in a science fair. Me and Ned are gonna make something similar to glue and to my webs, but as a medical tool."

"Yeah?"

"Well, the webs dissolve after about two hours and when they dissolve, they leave a byproduct that essentially disappears into the air, leaving no real trace of them, which is cool cause less clean up after. They're in little canisters until ejected, so completely sterile. It's stronger than glue and less invasive than stitches. However, most things that need stitches or stronger bandages won't heal in two hours, plus the byproduct they do produce could be harmful getting released inside you. So, we're trying to come up with a formula that retains that stickiness and is degraded by the body's natural chemicals during the healing process. Basically, if you got a big cut on your arm, it would act as a glue holding the skin together and slowly breaking down as you naturally heal and dissolving without a trace, or even better, helping to accelerate the healing process."

Foggy didn't respond, clearing trying to sort through and puzzle out what Peter was talking about.

Matt chuckled and said, "I think you broke him."

Glaring at Matt, Foggy said, "It did not. I was just trying to wrap my head around it more. You can't convince me that you understood that more than I did." Looking to Peter, Foggy continued, "That sounds really interesting, and super important if you can get it to work. Science is definitely not my strong suit though, so good luck to the both of you."

The conversation trialed off for a bit until their food finally got there. Eating was only broken up by Foggy still trying to engage with what Peter's school was like and Peter's enthusiastic answers. Foggy and Matt learned a lot more about Peter's friends that way too. Once they were done, Matt was quick to pay the bill, and they all tumbled outside, following Peter's lead towards a park.

Silence fell over their trio, and Matt could feel Foggy looking at him. Letting out a soft sigh, Matt stopped and let go of Foggy before calling, "Hey, Peter. Hold on a second."

Peter stopped walking and turned to look at Matt. "Yeah? What's up?" While he was trying to keep his tone light, Peter couldn't help tensing up. He wasn't sure how much he wanted to have whatever conversation was coming. He knew if it didn't go well, he would just walk away.

Matt gripped his cane tightly. He knew what he wanted to open with. He'd known what he wanted to say only moments after Peter ran off. Still, dragging those words out felt like exposing himself in a way he didn't really want to. A faint voice in head blamed it on a mix of toxic masculinity and never learning how to properly deal with emotions as a kid.

Now or never. "The last time we spoke… What I wish I had said was how relieved I was that you were okay and safe."

The words hung in the air, but suddenly Peter was grinning wide. "Okay. I forgive you."

"Excuse me?" Matt asked at the same time as Foggy said, "What?"

Peter laughed nervously and shrugged. "Neither one of us were in a great frame of mind to talk, and looking back on it, I understood why you flipped out even if it was a crappy move. I figured if you came here and didn't acknowledge what happened or tried to double down on what you said, I'd just ignore whatever you told me like I did when you were being a jerk back when we first met. It also takes waaaay more effort to hold a grudge than I'm willing to spend. My aunt always says, 'once is chance, twice is coincidence, and thrice is a pattern.'"

"So, I'm on two?"

"Yu-p!" Peter popped the 'p.' "Plus, this way I can ask you for advice about my weapons ring instead of trying to deal with it by myself."

Foggy cut-in. "I'm sorry, you were going to deal with a weapons ring by yourself? Is that what Washington was about?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, I was going to follow in my mentor's footsteps of being too arrogant to accept help from someone of a different age." Okay, Peter really only wanted to get that one shot at Matt, but he hoped both of them could tell he wasn't being too serious as he grinned and kept his voice light.

"Oh god, there's two of them," Foggy said to the sky.

"Tell me about this weapons ring then," Matt said, all business.

Peter launched into his story, explaining what happened with the ATM robbery and breaking up a weapons deal. He explained that he got the core out of one of the weapons to find a weakness for it. He confirmed that all of the weapons were made from alien technology. He explained how he went to Washington specifically to look for more clues, and that Ned had the core in his bag which destabilized and almost killed his classmates. He talked about saving his classmates, especially Liz, mentioning how cool Liz was.

After all that, Peter finally got to the part he wanted help with. "I know there's another weapons deal going on soon, like really soon, on one of the ferries while tourists and everyone are there at the same time."

Matt hmm'd in response. "So, you're trying to figure out a way to take them down without civilians getting hurt?"

"Yeah… It's gonna be in broad daylight too, and I don't want to ask any of the other vigilantes to get involved cause it would be really public, but I can't just let the deal happen. Those weapons can and will kill so many people."

Both Matt and Peter fell quiet, Matt trying to think of what to do and Peter trying to calm himself down some.

It was Foggy who had a solution. "Why don't you leave a tip with the police or FBI? I bet after that ATM robbery, they've already opened a case for it. I've got a contact with the FBI, so I can even give it to her. She knows I work for some vigilantes, so it won't be hard to pass off as information I was given by someone who doesn't want to get dragged into it."

"You have an FBI contact?" Matt asked.

"After all that stuff with Fisk, I thought it would be a nice connection to have. Passing her information like this will make it stronger too, so it's a win-win all around." Looking to Peter, "They will take it seriously, and you can stay away from it."

Peter made a face at the idea of just doing nothing, but Foggy was ready to counter any ideas he might have. "No offense, but your costume isn't subtle, and those ferries are crowded. Someone would see you if you tried to change bad guy or not. I know you guys hate the idea of leaving things alone and letting actual authorities take care of it, but sometimes that's the best thing to do. I promise, Peter, I promise the FBI will take it seriously and do everything they can to catch these guys."

"Alright. Yeah, uh, I can text you all the details I have." Peter felt more confident about the idea as he spoke. "It'll be short notice though, it's happening a couple days from now."

"If you can text me the details now, I'll make sure my contact knows about it tonight." Foggy hoped Peter would trust him. The idea of weapons like that on a ferry with dozens of witnesses and an unknown number of assailants, it made Foggy's skin crawl. He wanted Peter to stay safe just as much as Matt did.

Peter pulled out his phone with a quick 'on it.' They walked in silence until Foggy's phone buzzed from the text message.

Breaking the silence, Matt braved asking, "Peter, you don't have to answer, but why did you blame me getting shot on yourself?"

Peter's footsteps stumbled, but he quietly answered, "If I hadn't walked into the room, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"We both know that's bullshit." Matt stated.

Foggy muttered, "Way to ease into that."

"Wha-"

Matt interrupted Peter's question to ask, "What happened? Did someone you know get hurt?"

Foggy was ready to ask Matt what the hell he was thinking asking that, but Matt knew what he was doing. He knew Peter responded better to direct questions. He knew Peter wouldn't have an issue telling him to stop asking about it. In fact, Matt was betting so long as he kept any pity out of his voice, Peter would answer.

Instead, Peter took a deep breath before speaking, "A little after I got my powers, I did something stupid, really, really stupid and," Peter's voice was strained, "my uncle Ben was shot, and I was there. Just me and my aunt May now." He didn't voice how seeing Matt hurt like that reminded him of his uncle dying.

Neither Foggy nor Matt really knew what to say. Peter scratched at his arm and kept his head turned away from both of them. It felt weird. It was the first time Peter actually voiced those thoughts. He'd wanted to tell May it was his fault for so long but was terrified she'd hate him because of it. He'd never told Ned for fear of his friend looking at him different. Telling Foggy and Matt, hoping they wouldn't press for details, it eased the burden of the secret.

Matt was the first to find words. Foggy already knew the story, but Matt still felt antsy putting it out there. However, Matt wanted Peter to understand something, so he said, "My dad was a boxer. Battlin' Jack Murdock. He wasn't the best boxer ever, but he was good. When I was a kid, bills were pretty tight, so he accepted this offer. He'd throw fights for extra cash thrown his way. I didn't know that was what was going on, so one day I told him I wanted to hear him win a fight just once. My dad was a good dad, so he actually fought the match. He won." Matt could hear his cane creaking in protest with how hard he'd clenched his fist. "He was killed before he made it home that night. It was an innocent request, but if I hadn't made it, my dad might still be alive."

"That's not your fault," Peter protested softly.

A sad smile crossed Matt's face. After all this time, rationally, Matt knew it wasn't his fault. His dad shouldn't have taken the bribes in the first place. The asshole who was bribing his dad shouldn't have even tried it. The hit put on his dad wasn't Matt's doing. It was hard to connect the rational thoughts to the emotional ones, but he knew Peter had a good heart. Matt knew Peter would be quick to try comforting Matt. Setting traps like that was why he was a lawyer after all.

"Yeah, it's not my fault. Just like I'm sure whatever happened to your uncle isn't your fault, and just like I know for certain that me getting hurt last week wasn't your fault either." Before Peter had a chance to argue, Matt pat Peter's shoulder. "Bad people do bad things. They aren't your fault."

Peter didn't say anything for a good second before saying, "Thanks, Matt."

It definitely didn't sound like Peter was convinced, but Matt would take it.

Foggy decided it was time for comfort food after such serious talk and suggested, "Let's go get ice cream or something. This feels like an ice cream moment."

"That sounds awesome, Mr. Nelson!" Peter was happy to take the distraction from the conversation. "There's a great place right near the park."

"You can call me Foggy, Peter."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Nelson," Peter chirped with a cheeky grin.

"Why am I Matt, but he's Mr. Nelson?" Matt wanted to know the logic behind this decision.

"Respect," Peter replied simply.

Neither Foggy nor Matt knew how to take that response.

Peter decided to explain, "Mr. Nelson has never talked to me like I'm a twelve-year-old and treats me like a normal person. When I first met you," Peter pointed to Matt, "you acted like I didn't know not to run with scissors, so Mr. Nelson gets his full title, and you're Matt. Well, to be fair, you were Mike and then you were Matt and then I found out your full name. Switching seemed weird."

Matt could already tell by the way Foggy was breathing, that he was letting this go to his head. Then, instead of lording it over Matt, Foggy said something even worse.

"You need to meet our friend, Karen. She'd love you."

"Over my dead body," Matt protested. "I don't need her ganging up on me too. I mean, how could you be so mean to me? Don't you know I'm blind?"

Foggy rolled his eyes and said, "Sure, buddy, you keep acting like that matters to us."

Peter laughed before his phone buzzed. He gasped, looking at the message and the time. "Oh no, oh man, I gotta go, I'm so sorry. I forgot I promised to help Ned with building this like distress button thing and, well, it's complicated. I am so late. I gotta go, really. Thanks for the food and meeting up with me today. Uh, I'll call you Matt about this Friday. Bye!"

Both men were left after the whirlwind that was Peter's goodbye and subsequent speed walking away. There was a beat of silence before Matt asked, "Do you want to head back to Hell's Kitchen or are we still getting ice cream?"

Foggy shrugged. "Let's get ice cream. You seem like you could use some after finding out Peter likes me more than you."

Matt responded by whapping Foggy with his cane and saying an all too not sorry "sorry."

The tension had left Peter by the time they got outside. The kid seemed more relaxed after Matt shared some of his history. Matt was already planning on how to involve Peter more in his life, just to give the kid some semblance of normal outside vigilantism. Maybe he could meet Peter's aunt at some point under the guise of Peter being a part time employee of sorts.

Any way Matt looked at it, though, he had a good feeling about the future.

Notes:

We're finally getting into the events of Homecoming! I got to write a bit of sassy/cheeky Peter in this chapter which was pretty fun. Plus, writing from Karen's POV for a bit was pretty great. Rip her for having to deal with Foggy and Matt having arguments and not talking it out like they should. Though, I never planned on having them stay mad at each other for very long. I'm finally getting to justify that 'bonding through trauma' tag.

I'm applying for a visa cause in a couple of months I'm going to be moving to a different country for work, and because I edit each chapter before posting it, there's a chance next week's might be late if I'm busy. I know the next update for the series going along with this fic likely won't be updated until the week after next.

Anyway, thank you so much to everyone reading! All the comments, kudos, bookmarks, and hits really keep me going.

Chapter 12: Veni Vidi Vici

Summary:

It was a surprise when someone came to the door, and even more surprising when Matt's head snapped up. As the person entered, Matt asked, "Why aren't you in school?" with all the fury of a disappointed parent.

Karen muttered to herself, "What a dad move."

Notes:

I made a lot of you very paranoid after the last line of the last chapter. It was funny. :) Hope you enjoy.

By Black Lips

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Tapping his way onto the ferry, Matt cocked his head for a second. The way sound bounced off water made things harder to sort out, but after a moment of orienting himself, Matt was able to follow that fast heartbeat.

Walking over that way, Matt "accidentally" thumped Peter with his cane. "Oh sorry. Is the seat next to you taken?"

Peter jumped when the cane hit him and stared up at Matt. He felt eyes on him as if people were wondering what kind of person wouldn't immediately offer help to the very obviously blind man, which duh this was New York, a lot of people would just brush off anyone asking them a question. Peter apparently took long enough to respond because someone near him helpfully informed Matt that the seat was free and even helped guide Matt to it.

Once people stopped staring at them, Peter kept his voice so quiet that only Matt would be able to pick it up and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Matt smiled and kept his voice equally as low. "Would you believe me if I said I was here for the view?"

Matt could feel the glare boring into his head and smiled all the wider. He gave a real answer this time. "I'm here for the same reason you are. I know Foggy's contact got people here to make arrests, but no one's infallible. I can't do anything if something happens, but I can get information to deal with it later." Matt shrugged. "And I wanted to make sure you wouldn't do anything reckless without backup. You're wearing the suit under your clothes, aren't you?"

Peter's cheeks flushed. He hadn't thought he was so predictable. Though, he'd been told by a lot of people he sucked at lying. Something in his text to Foggy when the man confirmed that the FBI was handling it must have tipped him off.

"Did Mr. Nelson tell you I was going to be here?"

"He didn't know for sure, but he was worried. You're the one who found all this information and having it directly effect your life. It makes sense you would want to at least watch things happen. Plus, if something does happen, a blind man nearly falling out of the boat will give you a chance to change if things go too poorly."

"I'll feel better when it's all handled. Those weapons could hurt so many people in the wrong hands." Peter played with his hands, remembering what happened to Delmar's.

Matt nudged Peter's shoulder. "I understand. That's why I didn't keep you from getting on this ferry entirely. You're doing the right thing, and if any of them get away somehow, you're here to see them and go catch them later."

It was hard to stay so nervous when Daredevil of all people was telling him he was doing the right thing. "Thanks for helping."

"Hey, you helped with Hell's Kitchen for weeks even if it was supposed to be training. I can help you with your stuff too."

"Would you have done this too?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you found out something that you've worked on, could be done better or safer by actual officers handling it, would you have let them?" Peter wanted to know if his decision was really the right one.

"No," Matt said simply. He didn't want to lie or sugarcoat the truth. "I would have either called Jessica or someone else or would have tried to handle it completely on my own, but that's not a good thing. I'm glad you chose this, Peter because I don't want you to be like me. I didn't start helping you in the hopes of Daredevil Jr. I want you to be you, and I want you to be better than me because I know you are."

Peter didn't know what to say to that, but he sat with a warm feeling in his chest and newfound confidence growing.

The FBI operation went well for the most part. Knowing that they had it handled and with Matt there, Peter resisted the urge to jump up and try to help. Peter made sure to memorize everything he could about the Vulture as the man got away. Part of Peter wanted to snap up a web at the guy and follow along, but Matt's hand on his arm reminded him that it wasn't a do or die situation. Looking at the other people on the ferry, Peter remembered why going after people with the alien weapons like that would hurt more than it helped.

When Peter asked Matt if there was something he could do as thanks for coming with him on the ferry, Matt informed Peter that Foggy would be in mortal danger if he didn't get the recipe for those cookies.

Despite what someone might think, Thursday afternoon was a pretty quiet time for a law office. Typically, it was spent with Foggy and Matt running through defense ideas, opening and closing statements, or research on precedents. Karen spent the time either helping with research or work on her own projects.

So, it was a surprise when someone came to the door, and even more surprising, when Matt's head snapped up. As the person entered, Matt asked, "Why aren't you in school?" with all the fury of a disappointed parent.

Karen muttered to herself, "What a dad move."

Peter stopped in the doorway and glared at Matt as if asking why it was Matt's business if he was skipping class before explaining, "We had a half day today. The fire alarms kept malfunctioning and since it'd be a hazard to keep people in school with no working alarms and the homecoming dance is tomorrow, we got to go early. I was already planning on coming to drop off thank you cookies for help with the ferry thing, plus the recipe since you said Mr. Nelson would die a family shame if he didn't get it."

Sure enough, in Peter's hand was a Tupperware with cookies and a note on top. Peter stayed awkwardly in the doorway for a moment before taking a few steps in and setting the cookies on the front desk.

"Oh, and your brother says hi, Foggy. The discounted meats thing makes more sense now. I didn't realize he was your brother. If you guys are busy, I can totally leave. I really did just want to drop these off, though the life and death cookie situation would be cool to understand, I don't want to disrupt important lawyer things. It's nice to see you again, Ms. Page."

Foggy finally interrupted Peter's nervous rambling. "Do you breathe in between sentences?"

Peter just laughed.

Karen was kind enough to say, "You can come in. Come sit at the table here, and I'll get you some water. It's pretty quiet right now."

Smiling at Karen, Peter picked up his box of cookies again and brought them over to the table where Foggy and Matt sat.

"I hope Theo didn't hassle you too much," Foggy joked lightly.

"Well, he did ask who I was and why I was bringing you cookies. I told him 'lawyer stuff' and that I was told you'd die if I didn't give you my cookie recipe."

"That I would, so thank you for bringing it to me. Beatrice better be ready because I'm going to make her maple oatmeal cookies look like garbage."

Peter reminded Foggy of a confused puppy as he asked, "What?"

Matt cut-in to explain, "The Nelsons are big on family gatherings and one of them is a cookie party or something and Foggy's cousin Beatrice always beats everyone else. She's not a very gracious winner, so it'll be nice for her to lose for once."

Peter looked to Matt. "Do you go to Foggy's family's stuff?"

Setting a cup in front of Peter, Karen answered that one. "All three of us do. Once you get accepted into their group by being roommates or long enough coworkers, you get a standing invitation to their things. Run away now or else you'll be adopted into the family, and you'll never escape."

"Stop making my family sound like a cult!" Foggy protested. "But, yes Peter, now that Theo's met you and I've made the mistake of mentioning you to my mom- well after you met Brett, Brett told his mom, who told my mom, who asked me why I knew a teenager well enough to come pick him up from a police station and when I said you're friends with Matt and that Matt's been 'tutoring' you, she told me to invite you to a Christmas party we have every year despite it being months away. If you're busy, it's really not a big deal. Karen just likes being dramatic."

"They'll send assassins in the night to kidnap you if you don't come," Karen deadpanned.

Matt, the best friend that he was, said, "It's true. They heard 'doesn't have anywhere to go for Christmas' and suddenly I was a member of their cult."

"Well, my aunt and I don't have any big traditions for the holidays, so…"

Karen shook her head solemnly. "The induction has already begun."

"Karen, we're supposed to be using the child to bully Matt, not me!"

"Oh, right, Peter what would it take for you to 'accidentally' call Matt dad or some variation of Daredevil and dad combined?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Science," was all Karen said.

After a moment of internal argument, Peter just shook his head and held a piece of paper out to Foggy. "Here's the recipe for the cookies. Let me know if you have any questions."

Before Karen or Foggy could get started on anything else, Matt asked, "You mentioned a dance at your school, is that why you can't meet tomorrow night?"

Peter's cheeks got a hint of red dusting them. "Yeah. I probably could come after the dance, but I figured I'd just… you know?"

Karen immediately latched onto the embarrassment and asked, "Are you going with anyone?"

"A girl named Liz. She's captain of my decathlon team. I was, uh, kind of surprised she said yes." Peter laughed a little nervously. "She's really nice and insanely smart."

Foggy said, "Well, if you need any girl tips, ask Matt."

Matt shook his head at Foggy, smiling all the while, before telling Peter, "Be yourself. She already said yes to you, so obviously whatever you're doing was working."

"Wow, that is some sound advice coming from you, Murdock," Karen commented, remembering their failed attempts at a relationship.

Foggy, talking over Matt, said, "I know. When it comes to Peter, he's actually good at giving top level advice. If only he would listen to it himself."

Seeing a need to change the subject, Matt asked, "Any luck on finding the Vulture?"

Peter happily took the out given how much May had already gotten involved in his date. "No. It seems like he went underground or is trying to figure out what to do next. I know what he looks like now and have an idea of what to look for if he tries something. I just didn't want to wear myself down trying to find him. You said it's better to just wait if you can, so you don't exhaust yourself before you do find who you're looking for."

Karen stage whispered to Foggy, "Is Matt secretly a functioning adult?"

Foggy shook his head and said, "No, I think around Peter his dad instincts override his human disaster instincts."

Karen hummed in thought after that before suddenly remembering a burning question. "Peter!"

"Uh, yes?"

"How would you feel about a vigilante potluck?"

Smiling, Peter explained, "I was told that if I was offered to help start a potluck, I was legally obligated to say no on the basis that Matt would die. It sounds really fun, but having met Ms. Jones now, I think it would end in a fight instead of a meal."

"Not if you can bribe the right people."

Foggy groaned. "Not with the bribery thing again."

Now it was time for Matt and Karen to team up again, teasing Foggy about bribing people and extortion between friends not really counting. Peter stayed and watched for a while before looking at the time and realizing he needed to get home for dinner with May. Waving goodbye, Peter made a mental note to try and stop by again sometime.

Notes:

Yeah so nothing bad actually happened! This chapter was all about Matt trying to grow and stop treating Peter like he was going to fly off the handle at any second. I did enjoy parodying Tony Stark's "I wanted you to be better than me" speech into something more positive or really just Matt actually talking about his feelings with Peter. Next chapter's both the dive into homecoming and the last chapter of the fic. Thank you so much to those who have read this far and don't forget to check out the rest of the series if you want little side stories of Peter interacting with the other Defenders. (Probably) next Wednesday there'll be one out with the Punisher and next Friday will be the last chapter of this fic. As always, thanks for reading!

Chapter 13: Arrow

Summary:

Run fast, and I'll end up exhausted,

out of breath, thinking where I went wrong.

This heart is afraid to beat slowly,

miss a chance at what I could become.

Notes:

Well, this is it, the final chapter. I hope you enjoy.

Arrow by Half Alive

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Peter was nervous. Of course, he was nervous. He'd never been on a date before and, really, was still reeling from the fact that Liz had said yes. People kept telling him to just be himself, but he was constantly pulled in so many directions being himself ranged from Spider-Man to super nerd. Liz had never seen the Spider-Man part (at least not associated with Peter), so normal nerdy Peter it was.

As May kept reminding him, she had already said yes to nerdy, normal Peter.

Knocking on the door, Peter waited for the door to open. Liz's dad swung the door open and smiled at Peter. Distantly, Peter was aware of introducing himself to her dad and being led into the house, but he was distracted by a weird noise coming from within the house. If he wasn't mistaken, it sounded kind of like…

Resurfacing into the conversation, Peter smiled at Liz's mom and introduced himself again. He waved once she left to help Liz get ready and turned to stare at one Adrian Toomes. Staring at the man, Peter hoped he was just being paranoid. Lots of things made weird mechanical sounds. It didn't have to be anything weird. Except for the fact that it sounded exactly like the thing that almost blew up the Washington Monument.

"Do you want a drink, Pete? Burbon, Whiskey…?"

Peter jumped. The offer shook Peter out of his thoughts. He silently cursed himself for not being better at listening farther away and nearby at the same time. He'd ask Matt about it later. For now, once Peter shook off the confusion, he gave a half smile. "I'm not old enough to drink, sir."

"That's the right answer."

Nodding, Peter tried to tell himself he was being paranoid. There couldn't be any alien tech in this house. Not Liz's house. Still, unable to shake the weird feeling, Peter quickly asked, "Can I use your bathroom?"

The man gave Peter a weird look before pointing down the hall. "Second door on the right." He chuckled as he joked, "If you get to the basement, you've gone too far."

Peter laughed along with the joke, but even to his own ears it sounded stilted. Thinking about the party held here what felt like years ago, Peter didn't remember anyone mentioning a basement in the house. No, wait, he did. The door was lock, and there was a sign on it. Someone asked, and Liz said it was her dad's workshop.

As Peter bypassed the bathroom, he followed the weird mechanical noise. A part of him begged to just ignore the tingling of his spider sense, to just walk away and have a nice night. Peter quietly opened the door to the basement and made his way downstairs.

Looking around, Peter let out a relieved sigh, tension leaving his body. It was just a normal workshop with tools and some metal. He could go back upstairs and enjoy his dance.

Except, the noise was coming from behind a wall. The basement was smaller than it should've been.

Moving further into the basement, Peter kept an ear out for upstairs. He didn't know how long being in the 'bathroom' would get suspicious. If Liz's dad had anything to do with the Vulture or illegal alien tech, getting discovered would be dangerous, but anything Peter found could lead him to taking down the Vulture. Peter hoped Mr. Toomes wasn't too involved in it all. That way, Peter wouldn't have to fight him or put him in jail. Putting her dad in jail would probably really ruin any friendship he had with Liz.

Running his fingers along the wall, Peter tried to focus on how things felt until he found a draft in the panel that had all the tools hanging there. Pushing and prodding, Peter's heart sunk when he heard a click and was able to push a hidden door open. Peter peered into the room, feeling a chill of his spider sense running down his spine. Well, he found where the noise was coming from, and he found out exactly how Liz's dad had a connection to the Vulture.

Surely, someone who had what looked like prototypes to pieces of the Vulture suit was only mildly involved in his crimes. Definitely. Totally.

It sounded like someone asked where Peter had wandered off to.

Peter quickly shut the secret door and raced up the stairs to shut the basement door. There wasn't anyone looking this into the hall, so Peter made sure to audibly shut the bathroom door before walking out of the hall. He adjusted his tie a little before looking up at Liz. "Wow."

Heat rose to his cheeks, but Peter was saved from having to follow up his 'wow' when Liz's mom declared she wanted pictures. Peter did his best to pose and smile, but his mind was racing. Before he knew it, they were off to the dance.

Friday nights without Peter were fine. They just felt a little boring at times. Sure, Matt could get into the dirtier or harsher things without Peter around, but it was kind of fun having someone around working with him. Hell, he was even considering calling Jessica to see if she wanted to get drunk together and knock some heads in.

The only reason why he resisted was last time they did that, Foggy ended up having to come get him because he was too drunk to walk. Most of what he remembered from that night was kicking a mugger's ass, kissing Jessica's head, kissing Foggy's head, and refusing to get up from Foggy's floor when they got to his apartment. The news reporting a drunken Daredevil being spotted and recorded was plenty enough for Matt to never want to recreate that night. Drinking with Jessica was to be kept indoors and indoors only.

Instead, Matt was waiting to hear something interesting going on. For a Friday, things were quieter than usual. Hopping across a gap, Matt started towards Foggy's building. Matt hadn't remembered his friend having plans, so maybe they could do something. The joy of startling his friend at the window would be enough to sate his boredom for at least a few minutes. Plus, maybe Peter would text Foggy about his dance. That would be entertaining until he did find some crime to bust.

Two rooves away, Matt's phone started ringing. It looked like someone was going to be kind enough to give him something to do.

Answering the phone with his usual growl, "What?"

"Um hey- uh Mr. Daredevil," An unfamiliar voice answered. The voice sounded young, Peter's age, young.

"Who is this?"

"It's Spider-Man's guy in the chair. He uh he gave me this number to call in case something happened, and I couldn't help."

Guy in the chair. Guy in the chair. Peter had mentioned him before with a name, but it took a moment for Matt to place it. "Ned." That was it. "What happened? Where is he?"

Ned took in a deep breath before explaining in a rush, "He realized his date's dad is the Vulture and figured out the guy's plan cause he left his legit phone in the Vulture's car and called his burner with it so he could listen into the call. Then he asked me to go to the computer lab and track his phone and used his burner to keep in touch with me to find the Vulture. He didn't really say what the Vulture was saying about plans. I got caught in the computer lab so I had to hang up, but after what happened with you getting hurt, he was really freaked out so together we made this little device that would monitor a couple vitals and stuff and send a ping with his location to my phone if something happened and I called him back a bunch of times, but he hasn't responded. He said you're really good at finding him."

Matt's hand not holding the phone clenched tight to stop any trembling to it. Panic with an undercurrent of anger gripped his chest, but there wasn't any time for either of those emotions.

"Text me the location he was at, I'm on my way now," Matt said before hanging up.

Pressing a couple buttons, Matt listened to the phone ringing until Foggy answered, "Are you okay, buddy?"

"Foggy I'm about to be on your roof. I need a car and you to drive it. Peter's in trouble."

"What? Yeah- I'm not home though. I'm Nelson's Meats with Theo. Wait, hold on."

Matt could hear Foggy shuffling around and asking Theo something, but Matt had already redirected and started jumping rooves to get to there instead. It wouldn't take long.

Foggy, clearer, said, "I've got a car for us. Theo's letting me use the van again. I told him a friend of ours was having an emergency."

"I'll explain more when I get there," Matt said before hanging up and shoving his phone in his pocket. He felt it buzz from a text but ignore it for the time being.

Hopping onto the roof that contained Nelson's Meats, Matt listened for a van. Hearing only one heartbeat inside the running van, Matt scaled his way down the building and slipped into the back.

Fumbling with his phone, Matt held it out to Foggy, "Drive there."

Glancing over the text, Foggy gave the phone back and started driving before asking, "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Peter's date's dad is the guy he's been going after, and he followed the man to take him down. Peter and his friend made a thing to send a signal if Peter was in trouble. It went off, and the kid hasn't gotten a call back from Peter, but that's where the device last gave its location."

Matt shifted around, trying to figure out a way to get all the energy out before slamming his fist into the back of the passenger seat.

"Breaking your hand or this car over it isn't going to help. Keep trying to call him."

"Drive faster," was all Foggy got in response while Matt redialed Peter's number.

No matter how many times Matt dialed, Peter never answered. Instead, the car slowed to a stop, and Matt heard Foggy's breath catch and his body tense. Something was wrong.

Tumbling back out of the van, Matt expanded his senses, but didn't hear Peter's heartbeat. No, instead it felt like… like a collapsed building or rubble was in front of them. Suddenly, Matt knew exactly why Foggy had reacted the way he did.

Quietly, Foggy asked, "Do you… Can you hear him?"

Focused on listening for a heartbeat, the silence echoed in Matt's mind. This was where Peter was. Memories of Midland Circle swam in Matt's head. The roaring of the building coming down. The inherent fear that came from being trapped under it all. The knowledge that no one was going to find him, that no one should have found him. Peter would have been here all alone. There weren't any other buildings around. No reason for anyone to be here on a Friday night.

"No. I can't-" Matt moved without thinking about it, trying to move some of the rubble on his own.

Foggy quickly caught Matt's arm. "Hey, hey, you can't just-" Foggy took a breath. "Your senses are amazing, you can't just jump to the worst-case scenario right now, okay? You can't hear his heartbeat so listen or smell for… something." Foggy couldn't bring himself to tell Matt to try and sense blood. "Some sign. Then we can call Luke and Jessica if we need rubble moved"

Matt nodded and pulled away from Foggy's hand. Later, he would wonder how Foggy managed to stay calm enough for this. Filtering out the sounds around him, focusing on finding the sickening smell of blood, Matt searched for signs that Peter could possibly be there. He didn't think about what it meant to have no heartbeat but finding someone trapped under the rubble. He tried to avoid focusing on the unsteadiness of his hands.

Shaking his head and pacing back and forth, Matt snapped, "He's not here. No one's under all that shit. But if he's not here, where is he? There's blood somewhere, but not much, just like scrapped hands and knees. Someone got hurt here, but not horrifically. I don't know where he is. There isn't a trail- I don't even know if it's his blood. There are too many distractions. He might not even be in this part of the city anymore!" Matt kicked a piece of concrete, welcoming the pain arcing up his foot and leg from it.

"Fuck," Foggy mumbled. He suddenly gasped and held out his hand. "Give me your phone. We need to call his friend."

"Here." Matt didn't know what Foggy was going to do or why calling a teenager would help, but he trusted Foggy. He trusted that Foggy had a plan.

The phone rang for a bit before connecting. "Did you find him?"

"No, he wasn't where you texted," Foggy answered.

Ned's confusion was easy to hear over the phone. "You're not Daredevil."

"No, I'm Foggy, and I have an idea on how to find Peter." Foggy waited a second to make sure Ned was paying attention. All his tech knowledge unrelated to his job came from movies, so hopefully his assumption was right. "You sent the location because something on Peter sent you his location. Is that a one-time sending or could you track his location right now using it?"

"Oh, oh shit- you're right! It'll take a minute, but you should head towards Brooklyn. I looked at tracking his phone again and it stopped at where you guys are before heading towards south Brooklyn and then suddenly stopped moving."

"Just tell us where to go." Foggy jerked his thumb towards the van. "Get back in. We're driving again."

Matt just nodded and slid back into his seat. As Foggy drove, as Ned's typing continued, as time moved on, Matt kept fidgeting and twitching. The worst-case was all he could think about. Yeah, there wasn't a lot of blood at the collapsed building, but that didn't mean Peter was unharmed. If Peter was in the building when it went down, he had to have broken bones. Moving on any of them could kill him even if the actual collapse didn't. If the Vulture was still out there, Peter was after him.

The urge to yell at both Foggy and Ned to work faster grew stronger every second.

Finally, Ned spoke, "He's, well, I don't know exactly. He's moving fast, really fast, like he's on a plane or something, going towards Coney Island. His pulse is going really fast too, like he's in a fight or really scared."

"Can you get into any flight plans? Look up anything leaving in the area heading south," Matt said, leaning over to talk in the phone.

"Yeah, totally, piece of cake," Ned replied before whispering to himself, "So cool."

Foggy glanced at Matt and tried to reassure his friend, "We'll find him and then you can yell at him all you want and ground him for taking ten years off our lives."

"I just want to find him in one piece and kick the shit out of this Vulture guy."

"I normally want to stay away from your Daredevil stuff, but that sounds like something I can get behind."

"I'll hold him, and you punch," Matt quoted without thinking about it.

"Aw, you do remember watching Mulan together." Foggy hoped that if Matt was quoting movies they'd watched, it was helping calm him down a little.

"I don't remember watching shit."

"You know what I meant."

"Oh shit!" Ned's interjection cut through whatever distractions Matt and Foggy had managed. "He stopped in Coney Island and his pulse is insanely fast. I don't know what's going on, but I think he's in trouble."

Matt snatched the phone from Foggy. "Open up news channels. Coney Island's a big deal, if there's anything going on the news will report on it."

"Got it," Ned replied. There was some typing before, "There's been some kind of crash on the beach there. There's fire everywhere, but no one knows what's going on. Someone saw a plane crash on the beach. Oh- someone just reported a fight going on there. Mechanical winged man and Spider-Man. They're there."

"Thanks, Ned," Matt said before hanging up. He opened his mouth to tell Foggy to speed up, but his friend was already doing it.

As they got closer, Matt could hear Peter's heartbeat. It was fast, faster than usual. Whatever fight was going on was rough. Peter's breathing was labored. Fire roared all over the beach. Matt knew he would have trouble navigating it.

The second Foggy slowed enough for Matt to get out, he practically sprinted towards the beach. Breath catching, Matt's head tilted this way and that, hearing Peter getting slammed down by some whirring mechanical suit. Slammed again and again. Peter's bones creaking and grinding together. There was blood.

Matt wasn't going to wait for this to finish. It was Peter's fight. It was Peter's villain. But that was his kid. From what Matt could tell, the Vulture still had Peter in his claws and was getting ready to slam the kid back down. Well, whatever the Vulture planned on doing was swiftly interrupted when Daredevil came out of nowhere and tackled him.

The Vulture released Peter in favor of trying to get Matt off. The guy got in a lucky shot, starting to fly up to shake Matt loose. Matt kept a death grip on the front of the man and slammed his fist into the guy's face over and over. He was ready to keep punching until the man dropped, but his senses distracted him when he heard Peter try to get up, to fight, only to stumble back to the ground. It was all the distraction for the Vulture to knock Matt to the ground. Landing on his back, Matt gasped as his breath was knocked out of him.

Distantly, Matt could hear the Vulture lording his victory over them. He stumbled to his feet, ready to go for round two, three, four, whatever it took, but Peter was standing near him already.

Peter cried out, "Your wing- your wingsuit! It's gonna explode!"

The Vulture obviously didn't here Peter and tried to knock the kid back when he attached a web to the wingsuit. Matt was ready to grab Peter and force him back down, to force the kid to let it go, to let the Vulture be destroyed by his own hand, but he couldn't do that.

Matt grabbed onto the web with Peter, trying to keep it connected and to help keep the Vulture from flying away.

"I'm trying to save you!" Peter shouted again, trying, wishing that he could convince the Vulture.

Jumping at the explosion happening all too close to them, Matt clenched his fists around the web even as it went slack. The fire and noise of the explosion made Matt's senses go haywire. He almost grabbed onto Peter when the kid went walking towards all the fire, but his hand slipped. He could hear Peter heaving up a piece of metal and tossing it to the side. The way Peter's bones practically creaked made Matt sick to his stomach.

Peter picked the Vulture up, muttering to himself, "I tried to warn you."

As his senses recovered, Matt moved forward and took the Vulture from Peter, doing his best to sling the guy over his shoulder. He wasn't going to be gentle, but anything to get Peter to stop hurting himself even more. Once Matt set the Vulture down, away from anything potentially explosive, Peter webbed the man up. Matt waited while the kid scribbled down a note and stuck it on the villain.

Peter just stood there, not moving for a second before Matt gently steered him away from the villain, away from potential prying eyes. He would get Peter away from any reporters and then call Foggy. Foggy could pick them up to go back to Matt's and give Peter a chance to heal. Matt put his arm under Peter's arm and helped support the kid's weight. He wanted to ask Peter what the hell he was thinking, what the absolute fuck could have been going through his mind deciding to crash a plane like that.

Before Matt could break the silence, Peter did. "I did it." It was soft spoken, like Peter wasn't sure he had actually done it.

A sigh left Matt. He tightened his grip on Peter and said, "Yeah, you did. You did good." The kid had done a good job. No one died, nothing was stolen. It was all good. Matt continued, "Foggy's gonna pick us up a little way from here, and then you can sleep and heal. Sound good?"

Peter smiled softly and nodded. "Yeah, sounds good."

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Foggy asked, "Am I heading towards Claire's? We should call her before just showing up."

That made Peter stumble as he said, "No- no, just no doctors or anything, please. I'll be okay, I swear. I just need to eat food and sleep. I don't want…"

Matt grabbed Peter's hand to try and stop the kid from flailing. "Come on, Peter, listen to my heartbeat and calm down, okay? We're not taking you anywhere you don't want to go." To Foggy, Matt said, "We're going to mine. We'll basically pass it going towards Claire's anyway, and I can listen to Peter and make sure he's healing."

Matt was already keeping an ear on Peter's bones and bruises. He could already hear, with strange fascination, the slow way Peter's body was already repairing damage. The kid had broken or cracked ribs. His ankle was probably broken. He had cuts, bruises, and burns all over. Even with all that damage, Peter wasn't actively bleeding. Any scent of blood was what clung to Peter's skin. Based on the way Peter walked, Matt was willing to bet the ankle was starting to heal.

If Matt were a scientist, he would want to record and test how Peter's healing worked, but he would settle for being a lawyer that was relieved Peter would be okay.

"Alright, but if he needs food to help him heal, one of us will have to go get food because there's like three eggs in your fridge and that's it," Foggy said, turned back towards the road.

Peter took in a deep breath before letting it out, listening to the steady thumps coming from Matt's heart. He knew he should contribute, but knowing he was going somewhere safe and being acutely aware of the safety that was Matt being there, Peter was starting to feel sleepy.

Foggy and Matt went back and forth for a bit before things fell silent again. Occasionally Foggy or Matt would ask Peter questions to make sure he was still alert, but they mostly settled into silence.

Once they got to Matt's, it was a bit of a struggle getting Peter into the building and into Matt's apartment. The only way Peter didn't get spotted was Matt listening for where everyone in the building was and telling Peter and Foggy when it was all clear. In Matt's apartment, after getting Matt and Peter set up with the first aid kit and water, Foggy left to retrieve a mountain of food.

Peter took a quick shower to get all of the grime off and assured Matt that he really didn't need any bandages or burn creams or anything. Peter knew all the minor stuff would be healed by morning and the internal damage by the end of the week at the latest. Instead, Peter regaled Matt with the full tale of what happened that night. He called Ned to let his friend know he'd won and was also not dead. He called May to ask if he could spend the night at Ned's house and promised to be home by lunch time.

Foggy got back in time for all three of them to sit on the couch and eat at the table. Foggy and Matt got to watch and listen in horror at how much food Peter managed to scarf down before he fell asleep, leaning against Matt's shoulder.

Once they were both sufficiently certain that Peter was really out, Foggy quietly asked, "So, still think you don't know how to be a good mentor? Cause I'm pretty happy with how it's worked out."

Matt smiled. "Sometimes I feel like I learned more from him than he did from me, but… thank you for pushing me to actually help him."

"What are friends for?"

Matt heard a shuffling sound and then the click of a camera. Shifting, Matt asked, "What are you doing?"

"Either taking blackmail photos or making Karen like me more than you by showing her how adorable you are. Don't move too much or you'll wake him up," Foggy said grinning all the while.

Matt huffed and leaned back into the couch, letting Peter lean against him even more. He couldn't keep the soft smile off his lips as he said, "I take it back, you're the worst."

"Whatever you say, buddy."

Peter left in the morning, sufficiently embarrassed that he'd fallen asleep on Matt. The rest of the weekend passed uneventfully aside from Matt and Foggy demanding updates from Peter on how he was healing. Those texts came along with various other random texts. The next weekend, Matt and Peter went out around Hell's Kitchen for a bit together before discussing the possibility of teaming up with one of the Defenders for something bigger brewing in the area.

All in all, everything was working out. Of course, it was exactly when Matt started to think that way that something had to go wrong.

As they were all packing up for the day, Matt was talking with Foggy and Karen about maybe getting dinner together that night. It'd been a while since they'd spent time together as a trio and not just two of them at a time.

Just as Matt finished gathering his things, his phone said, "Peter Peter… Voicemail from… Peter."

Matt's eyebrows scrunched up as he paused. Karen noticed Matt's hesitancy and asked, "What's up, Matt?"

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Matt shifted it between his two hands, a feeling of unease spreading in his stomach. "It didn't ring all the way. He sent it to voicemail instead of waiting for me to answer." Matt knew Peter hated leaving voice messages. He always preferred talking to the person if not talking in person.

"He's fine. He probably pocket dialed you or something," Foggy suggested.

Nodding, Matt clicked to listen to his voicemail with practiced ease, not caring if Foggy and Karen could hear the message as well.

Peter's quick, frantic voice came through the phone.

"Tony freaking Stark is in my living room. He knows who I am! What do I do?"