Chapter 3
To whom ever thinks that giving a bath to a child, especially a toddler, is a walk in the park, Matt would like to say go fuck yourself. It’s the exact opposite of a walk in the park, in fact, it can be more described as a walk through a war zone.
The typical bath time routine for Matt includes, having to dodge bath toys left and right with lightning fast reflexes, as well keeping a certain little escape artist from making a run for it for the door.
Then there is also the fact that Matt is more soaked than dry most of the time.
In his almost 5 years of experience with being a parent, he can safely say that 70% of the time, when baths have been involved, he has ended up soaking wet. Even when Jackie was a baby, and when Foggy had to help with giving her a bath in the sink, *he* was the one who had to go and change into dry clothes when it was all over.
So, there he was, kneeling down beside the tub, his shirt soaked and sleeves rolled up, trying to clean Jackie’s face with a washcloth. Matt could hear Jackie’s face scrunching up in distaste and trying to move away from the offending washcloth.
“Come on, hold still for me Jackie,” Matt tried again, as he attempted to wipe her face again,“It’s almost over.”
Finally he succeeded, without much help from Jackie, and it was onto the next task of drying off and the clothing his toddler, and then trying to brush her teeth.
This luckily didn’t take too long and before he knew it he was tucking Jackie into bed and giving her a kiss on the head.
“Can you read me a story, daddy?”Jackie asked sleepily giving a little yawn.
Matt smiled and said softly, “Of course sweetheart.”
He got up and walked to where the books were neatly sat on top of the dresser. Running his fingers over the braille bumps, he read the titles, he stopped at a familiar name and picked it up.
‘The elephant and the mice.’
Matt slid next to Jackie onto the bed and opened the book. He trailed his fingers over the bumps he began to read. Jackie shifted, tucking herself into the crook of his arm, listening to the story and soon she was drifting off to sleep.
——
Matt closed the door to Jackie bedroom quietly. For a moment, he listened to Jackie’s steady heartbeat and quiet breathing, then he walked towards the couch and flopped down giving an exhausted sigh.
Matt let his senses comb out over the apartment, he could smell the scent of Jackie’s children’s shampoo and there was the faint smell of the leftover pasta that was sitting in the fridge.
He listened to the soft hum of electricity moving through the wiring. Matt found it all kind of peaceful, but then that peacefulness was interrupted when he heard the down stairs neighbours getting into another argument about something trivial. Matt had the urge to roll is eyes at what ever petty fight they had gotten into, but thought it was better for his mental health to just ignore them.
Matt then stretched his senses out to the blocks surrounding them. There was the usual noise of people and cars, an airplane flying overhead and—, then something caught his attention.
In the distance Matt could hear a *thwip* sound, there was another, this one was closer and he could faintly hear the oh-so familiar racing heartbeat, that told him exactly who it was.
Spider-Man
Or as Matt knew him, Peter Parker.
(Matt actually met the teen, when they crossed paths as vigilantes one night on patrol. They decided to team up and one drug bust gone south, a gunshot to the shoulder and an identity reveal later, they now knew each other as civilians too and Matt became something of a mentor for Peter.
Matt still didn’t think it was the best idea to let a 15 year old run around as a vigilante, but he couldn’t exactly stop him. The kid could stop a runaway train with his bare hands and walk away without so much as a scratch.
Peter was a good kid, he did good in school and sometimes he would babysit Jackie when Matt and Foggy were in court for most of the day.)
Matt waited for about 5-ish minutes, then he heard the *thump* of someone landing on the roof.
Matt dragged his hand over his face and sighed when he heard the teen stumble and fall over his own feet, letting out a startled yelp in the process. Matt wondered how someone with superhuman reflexes was so accident prone, then he decided that now would be a good time to make his way to the rooftop access, before Peter hurt himself more.
The door opened and Matt could hear the teen getting up and dusting himself off. Peter didn’t seem to notice Matt as he walked towards where he could have the teen’s shuffling.
“Isn’t it a school night?” Matt questioned, startling the teen. Matt just simply folded his arms over his chest, and gave him his best unimpressed dad look.
“Uh, yes…,” Peter answered sounding sheepish and Matt lifted an eyebrow at him, “But, I won’t be out that long and I told aunt May I was just checking up on something, which I was and then I overheard two guys talking about a weapons deal that was going down and I thought I should go and investigate. So, there I was, listening to them talk about this deal and then one of them say something about high tech weapons being able to blast a hole through a steel door and first I thought that was super cool and—“
The mention of high tech weapons, caught Matt’s attention and he interrupted Peter’s rambling, “Where and when?”
“Oh-uh, tomorrow night down by the docks, 12:30 sharp,” the teen recited.
Matt gave a nod and said, “I’ll be there.”
“Great, see you then DD,” and with that the teen swung away, hopefully towards his apartment to go and get some sleep, but Matt knew better than to assume that Peter would actually be doing so.
Matt just hoped that the weapons deal had at least something to do with the new gang that had popped up.
——