Cats and Mice

Rose took the man’s card and politely thanked him for the interest he was showing her before quickly walking back to the large window of Foggy’s apartment. She would’ve never imagined him living somewhere like that. She’d first thought that most of it was his fancée’s lifestyle, but Foggy clearly enjoyed the good life too. Rose didn’t mind. There was no shame in that, and she had to say that it was all decorated with taste and wouldn’t have hated living here either, even if it was all lacking in the color department. Karen didn’t lie when she mentioned beige being the main part of the color scheme. 

She’d decided to bring them a white orchid, praying that they’d keep it alive thanks to the little card with instructions on how not to kill a plant she’d joined. According to Karen, the card had been a great addition to her terrarium, which she was happy to report as thriving. Rose hadn’t had the heart to tell her that after only over a week of having it, the real accomplishment would’ve been to have killed a few succulents that fast. Instead, she told her friend that she may have had a green hand after all. 

In Rose’s mind, it was harder to keep a plant alive than a pet. A dog would just make itself known if it was hungry or needed a walk. A plant would just fade and die. Rose would even, on a bad day, go as far as thinking that caring for a plant was just as hard as caring for a child. She would never tell anyone however, since they all already thought that her passion for flowers was a bit weird. 

“If you’re looking for a way out,” Matt said, joining her by the window, “Karen’s keeping them busy.”

Rose looked behind her, wondering who they were trying to get her to sue. “My father used to say something,” she said in a quiet voice. “That the only difference between lawyers and accountants is that accountants know they’re boring.”

“Oh, so your father doesn’t like lawyers.”

“No,” she corrected. “He’s an accountant.” She laughed and took a step closer. “They tried to convince me to sue,” she whispered. 

“Who ?”

“Daredevil.”

Matt briefly turned back to the army of lawyers on the other side of the room. “Are you ?”

“Of course,” she replied. “Thanks for saving my life, Mr Devil, but you could’ve brought the guy to the police or called them to collect him instead of, you know, saving my life. How rude,” she finished with a smile. 

“With the right jury, it might work,” he said. “I heard you looked bad, is it getting any better ?”

“Well,” she said with a shrug, “I love colors, but maybe not all over my face. And then there’s everything no one can see. The headaches, the swelling inside my nose and mouth, all that good stuff. Anyway,” she quickly added, “you’re lucky you can’t see. I scared a child at the shop this morning.”

“It’ll get better.”

“Getting better every day already,” she said with a smile. “In the meantime, I’m collecting the business cards of all of Foggy’s friends.” 

“I hope you’ll remember your good friends from upstairs when that happens,” Foggy said, joining them. He turned to Matt and said : “I think Karen needs saving.”

Matt walked away, leaving Rose to think about how weird it was that this was the first time they’d talked since they’d met at church. Karen was basically her assistant now, always asking Rose about ways to help her, Foggy was stopping by every single morning to ask her if she needed anything, but Matt never came to check up on her. Not that she’d ever admit to have been disappointed or anything, she thought, but she still found it a bit strange that her injuries managed to draw more customers to her shop, but not a guy who was working 10 seconds away from her and who was supposed to be her friend. 

“So,” Foggy started when they were alone, “how much of a torture is it for you ?”

“I’m really enjoying the view,” she replied, turning back to the window. 

He laughed. “Deflecting already ? You’re a fast learner, Ms Parsons.”

Rose winked, as much as her eye let her. “That’s a really nice place. Why would you ever get lost in Hell’s Kitchen ? I’ve heard you’re kind of famous.”

“Matt calls it helping the helpless, I call it investing in the future elite clientele of Hell’s Kitchen,” he replied. 

“Nice to see that I’ve stumbled upon another capitalist,” she said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. 

“I like helping the helpless, too,” he tried to defend himself. “But man, does it feel great to come back to an expensive couch every night.”

Rose smiled. She knew that feeling. Coming back to her own place after being gone on a mission for a while had always been her favorite moments. She’d been in New York for over two months now, and she hadn’t missed her apartment as much as she would’ve thought. The one she had here was miserably lacking any of the comfort Foggy had here, and the electricity seemed to have a will of its own, getting on and off at the weirdest times, no matter if the bill was paid or not, but it felt nice. Not like home, but rather good. Enough for her not to mind if her case took longer than anticipated, right as she was about to reach the usual timestamp where she’d start to feel homesick for a few days.

At least that time she’d had a good reason to bring her plants with her. She was still not over the fact that her father had killed her begonia after telling her that getting so many plants to Tampa didn’t make sense. He’d bought her a new one, but she was still pretty pissed. She would’ve never let his dog die. 

“When do you think would be a good time for me to ask your fiancée if she needs help with the floral arrangements ?” she asked as Marci was laughing with a few of their friends. 

Foggy looked at them and frowned. “As your lawyer,” he started, “I’d tell you to use your face to reach her well-hidden heart. Then to never mention any discount, she thinks that if a service is of quality then the price tag will follow. If you can show her some pictures of what you’ve put up in your shop, she’ll be all ears,” he added with a smile. “I know nothing about flowers, but I always think about how nice it looks.”

“Thanks,” she said, deeply flattered by his compliment. “By the way, and since you’re now my official lawyer, maybe you could tell me something,” she quietly added. “I’ve had a talk with a detective about two men who delivered flowers to the shop, and he asked about the CCTV.”

“What about it ?”

“Turns out I didn’t need a license at all, apparently.”

Foggy immediately turned his gaze to Matt. When he looked back at Rose, he cleared his throat and tried not to look too embarrassed. Not a great liar, Rose thought. “So you know,” he sighed. “Okay, promise me you won’t get too angry.”

“As long as you didn’t involve me in anything illegal, you should be fine. Is it illegal ?”

“No,” he almost shouted. He made sure that no one bothered to listen and looked back at her. “I knew Matt made a mistake,” he admitted. “He’s been getting back to law after a break, and that law changed while he was out.” Rose nodded, already knowing that this part of the law hadn’t been changed for years, when Matt and Foggy were both teenagers. “I didn’t want to make him look bad, so I covered for him. Who did you talk to ?”

“Mahoney, I think.”

He let out a relieved sigh. “Great. I’ll tell him that it wasn’t your fault.”

“No need,” she replied. “I covered for you.”

“Why ?”

“I didn’t want you to look bad.” She nudged at him and smiled. “But now you’ll have to put a good word in for me with Marci.”

“Done,” he immediately agreed, probably relieved that she bought his excuse. “And again, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Foggy was however too embarrassed to stay and excused himself, leaving his place to the other sharks in the room. Rose pretended to listen carefully to what they had to say, and only stopped listening altogether when she heard that the money she’d invested in her shop could’ve been better spent, in a better degree for example. Not all of them were assholes, some had been very nice to her and had been able to talk about things outside of law, but for the rest… she wondered how someone like Foggy could’ve ever been friends with them. But again, Rose had friends who were very different from her, like William. They shared nothing, except from her father and a painful face. 

As she was scanning the room for an excuse to leave that conversation, her eyes landed on Matt. Foggy reminded her that the camera advice actually came from him. And since the law hadn’t changed, that wasn’t the reason why he’d lied to her that day. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something seemed off with that man. 

By the end of the evening, Rose promised herself never to tell her father that his cover as an accountant was boring. She’d been invited to many of their dinners when she was still living with him, and she’d never suffered that much. Of course her headaches had a part to play in all that suffering, but everyone talked so much, it had been unbearable. She was pretty sure she’d overdose on Advil since she’d popped so many pills all evening, and considered that they’d all suspect that she was either incontinent or a drug addict because of her many bathroom breaks. She wondered which one was worse. 

On a brighter note, Marci had been much nicer than Rose had first anticipated. She left with a promise to come back to only talk about flowers. Needless to say, Rose was overjoyed. They exchanged numbers, Marci already telling her that she’d be sending her pictures of the aesthetic she was thinking about for the wedding, and Rose agreed. She was only forgetting that she hadn’t started her work at church yet, and that this job wasn’t exactly a real one. 

If any of her superiors had known about how much of her fake work Rose was putting on her shoulders, they would’ve called to remind her that it was all only temporary. But they didn’t know, since Rose had made sure that these ‘tasks’ were never mentioned in any of the daily reports she had to send to the supervisor, proof that she was well aware that she was breaking the first rule she’d ever learned : not getting too involved. 

***

While Rose was still driving back to her place, Matt followed Karen inside her apartment and sat behind her kitchen counter as she was pouring them one last drink. 

“I’m so glad you’re back in Foggy’s life,” she sighed. “Some of his other friends… don’t tell him I said that,” she added with a laugh. 

He raised his glass to that, took a sip from it and scoffed. “One of them advised Rose to sue Daredevil.”

Karen burst out laughing. “What for ?”

“Interfering with police work.”

“Well, not everyone can be a fan of vigilantes.”

“I don’t like that word,” he mumbled. 

She sat next to him and shrugged. “I don’t like when people belittle me because I’m a woman, or because I’m pretty, but I survived the night,” she said. “Foggy almost had a heart attack when you left to talk to her. You agreed, Matt.”

“I know,” he replied, knowing that he’d be getting the same talk from Foggy the next morning. 

He did agree to stay away from Rose for her own safety. But in his defense, that was when they thought that he was the target of her attack, and they had now a new theory that didn’t involve him at all. He’d kept his distance for 3 full days, and that was most likely enough. 

“He’d understand,” she kept saying, “if you just admitted that you like her. For now, it looks like you’re playing a weird game with her. She’s his friend,” Karen calmly explained. “He doesn’t want her to get hurt.”

Matt scoffed. “You think I could do worse than what she’s already been through ?”

“Yes,” she instantly replied, without the shadow of a doubt in her voice. “Maybe if you don’t want anything serious, and that’s okay too, just stay away from her. I don’t think we’d like taking sides during the breakup. You know, she just looks so nice and innocent, what if we ended up firing you for misconduct ?”

“Ouch,” he laughed. 

“She can have very sad eyes,” she said, trying to remain serious.

“And I’m blind.”

“And she makes very good coffee. If you don’t get the coffee machine in the divorce, you might be out of Nelson and Page,” she replied, finally laughing along. 

***

Rose parked her car in the back of her shop and took her earbuds out. She stayed in the car, wondering if listening to Karen’s place on her way back had really been a good idea. She’d just gotten more information than she would’ve liked. 

She’d liked the way it started, however. She wanted to know about that Daredevil lawsuit, she wanted Karen to call the guy and warn him, she wanted them to at least call him by his name. Instead, they did their best to make her increasingly uncomfortable. She’d almost run a red light because of these two. 

Rose shouldn’t have had any reason to be uncomfortable. There were at least a dozen undercover rules explicitly stating that any kind of romantic relationship during a mission was forbidden. These rules didn’t apply when it was the exact content of the mission, but that wasn’t the case here. She should’ve dismissed their conversation with a sigh, maybe an eye roll, a laugh, and moved on to something else. 

But she thought about it twice, and then one more time for good measure. On a professional level, if Matt had had any interest in her at all, it would’ve explained Foggy’s lies about the cameras. It would’ve also written them off the list of suspects in the bugging of her apartment. She’d understood that much on the first thought, though. 

The personal layers only came up after. She was finally given an explanation as to why Matt didn’t show up after she’d been attacked. It all actually explained most of his questionable behavior, apart from the blindness. It didn’t explain it, but Rose was now convinced that Matt wasn’t faking it. Karen would’ve known, and he wouldn’t have talked about it as being a fact. The idea that he had, in fact, nothing to hide was settling in her mind. 

As she was finally considering leaving her car, Rose almost admitted to herself that she was rather happy with what she’d heard. She couldn’t remember the last time a decent man had been interested in her. Granted, she was always pretending to be someone else, but it was the same in her actual life. Her most significant relationship had been with a man who left her to join a collecting squad on the other side of the world and hadn’t called her for a year. He came back without his legs and dumped her because she could still work and he couldn’t. She’d sworn never to date a coworker after that. She’d always attracted the violent and quite unstable ones. 

That was why now, against all the rules she’d learned, Rose was actually considering breaking a few of them if the opportunity presented itself. She tried to convince herself that it would be for the best of her mission. 

As she was walking to her apartment, she started thinking about how Foggy cared enough about her to want to spare her a heartbreak. She’d rarely met people like him, and she was now only hoping that he wouldn’t hate her too much the day she’d disappear from their lives. 

Her hand froze. The lock on her door had been broken. 

Rose instantly looked for the gun in her purse and checked the red light on the backdoor camera. Still running, she thought. She slowly pushed the door open and quietly slid inside her apartment. Her back still turned to the wall, she carefully moved to the left and turned the lights on. 

“Shit,” she loudly gasped when she saw, sitting on her couch with a beer probably stolen from her fridge, none other than the famous Jessica Jones. “Wh-”

She stopped herself. Whatever was going on here, it couldn’t happen inside of her apartment. She pressed a finger onto her lips and pointed at the door on the other side of the living room, leading to the flower shop, praying that Jessica wouldn’t say a word either. The woman seemed to be confused, and frankly annoyed, but she still left the couch and walked away from the room without forgetting the beer she’d stolen. 

As soon as they were safe from the unwanted ears in her bathroom, Rose put her gun down and locked the door behind them while Jessica was getting comfortable on the counter. 

Rose turned back to her, a million questions ready. She had to remain calm. Her presence here might have been about the delivery men’s disappearances, in which case Rose had just been very suspicious for no reason. “Wh-”

“Before you try and bullshit me,” Jessica started, “just tell me how I’m supposed to call you.”

So that had nothing to do with the delivery men’s disappearances, and Rose’s cover was blown. She had no idea how that happened, but a PI knew about her now. “How did you find out ?” she simply asked. 

“I lucked out,” Jessica replied. “What’s with your face ? Looks like a train ran you over.”

Rose grabbed a stool and sat in front of her unexpected visitor. “Something like that. Who sent you after me ?”

“If I tell you, will you tell your friends that I really didn’t mean to find you ?” Jessica asked back. “We have a deal that I’d like to keep.”

Rose frowned. One of them made a deal with her. She hadn’t been informed, and paperwork seemed to be a real problem these days. “Why did they come to you ?”

“Because I’m that good. Look,” Jessica kept saying, “I’m not stupid, I’m 97 percent sure I know why you’re here. Can I stop that ?”

“No.”

“Do you want to hurt him ?”

“No.”

She nodded. “Your mother’s looking for you.”

Rose’s heart stopped for a second. She wasn’t sure she’d heard that right. Her mother, Eva Duchamp, was now looking for her. After all these years, she’d decided to reach out and chose the worst possible time. A million more questions were now popping up in Rose’s mind, but she knew that Fleur Penquist’s mother had to wait. As hard as it was not to ask about her, Rose wasn’t that woman at the moment, and Jessica Jones wasn’t in Fleur’s apartment. 

“Okay,” she calmly said. “But my mother doesn’t know about that shop.”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then how do you ?”

“Luck, I’ve just told you,” Jessica replied. Rose arched a brow at her and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you going to tell them or not ?”

She slightly shook her head. “Whatever deal you made, it was over the second you broke into my place.” She glanced at Jessica’s hand on the edge of the counter. “Don’t break that, it’s expensive.”

“Did you pay for it ?”

“No, but it doesn’t change its value. Do you want to damage something bought with taxpayer’s money ?”

Jessica sighed. “I didn’t mean to keep looking for you.”

“These things don’t happen by accident,” Rose scoffed. Sadly, she didn’t know much about Jessica Jones. She’d never read her entire file, only what interested her at the time, but watching her here, almost begging her for help with a deal Rose knew nothing about, seemed quite extraordinary. It also was a real opportunity. She spent a moment silently connecting a few dots, until one question remained. “Who sent you after Rose Parsons, then ?”

“No one.”

Rose smiled. “I can never mention that you came here, you know. Your deal would stand, but you have to give me something.” Jessica rolled her eyes at her before looking at the ceiling. Rose followed her gaze, until her own eyes widened. “What ? How do you know them ? Did they ask you to bug my apartment ?”

“They’re my competition,” Jessica replied. “We met a while back, and they kept my number for their tough cases. They don’t want to admit it, but I’m a much better-” She stopped and glanced at the apartment’s door behind Rose. “They didn’t bug your place.”

“Are you sure ?”

“Yeah, they asked me to come after you to protect your privacy and shit.” Rose frowned, trying to understand how sending a PI after someone was in any way protecting their privacy. “I know,” Jessica agreed. “But they’re weird.”

The whole thing was pretty messed up. They probably hired her out of concern, but now Rose would have to deal with someone else’s case. That meant a lot more paperwork. “Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do.”

“I’m not working for you,” Jessica said with a wince. “You get yourself out of your own shit, I only came for my deal.”

“What did they offer you ?” Rose took the document Jessica handed her. She briefly read through the main points and smiled. “Wow. A flight to the Raft, you must’ve been a real problem.”

“My specialty.” She leaned forward and squinted. “Can they do that ?”

“Yeah, so if you want to see your friend, you’re going to help me.” Before Jessica could try and argue her way out, Rose raised a finger. “I lied. They already know you’re here,” she lied, for real this time. “You have two options. First one, you tell me who Daredevil is, and I’ll be gone before the sun rises. Second one, you tell the competition exactly what I want you to.”

Jessica stared at her, quietly, for a few seconds. “Okay,” she finally replied. “What do I tell them ?”

Rose rolled her eyes at her. “You know I’m gonna find out eventually, right ?”

“Not from me.”

She smiled. She gave her a choice, and she chose loyalty. Rose respected that, and decided not to push her luck. Instead, they spent the next few minutes coming up with the story Jessica would tell Foggy about Rose Parsons. She was very clearly unhappy with this, but Jessica didn’t change her mind about letting go of that name. 

As soon as they were done, Jessica jumped from the counter and threw the empty beer bottle in the trash before looking back at Rose. “You hurt them, and I’ll come back.”

Rose smiled. “You’re a good friend, but it’s not in my intentions to hurt anyone.” Jessica walked away, but Rose quickly followed her and grabbed her arm. “You’ve seen my mother.”

“Yeah.”

“How… how is she ? I mean, after 16 years… Is she sick or something ?”

Jessica scoffed. “She just misses her daughter.” She vaguely moved her hand around Rose’s face. “Maybe wait until that’s gone to see her, it’s ugly.”

“She’s in New York ?” Jessica nodded. “Shit.”

She was about to leave for good this time, but Jessica let out a heavy sigh and turned back to Rose. “Okay, I have to ask. Why do you do this ?” she indeed asked. “You have flower degrees and shit, why are you doing this ?”

“Because I believe in people like you, Miss Jones,” Rose replied with a smile. “And as strong as you all think you are, there are people way more powerful than you. Not all of them are on your side, and we’re what stands between you and them,” she explained. “You take care of people, we take care of you.”

As soon as she was alone, Rose dropped herself onto her couch. The law firm would be dealt with soon enough. She’d have to adjust her behavior a bit, but nothing she was concerned about. 

What concerned her more was that her mother was in town. Had been for a while, if Rose was right about the timing of these security notifications she’d received almost three weeks ago. She hadn’t thought about seeing her mother in years. Her mother didn’t really matter, since Rose was now certain that it had been the reason why her father showed up to New York. It had been too fast to be about Santos’ squad, but especially on time to deal with a troublesome PI and her client. He’d known about this when he came to visit her, and he said nothing. 

***

From the opposite roof, Dex watched as the flower girl was angrily replacing the lock of her door. Whoever she was working for, he thought, was ruining her job. He’d learned more about her from others’ mistakes than she’d let go herself. 

He’d recognized the woman the other day as her mother. They looked too much alike not to be related. The man was most likely her father, and was without a doubt working for the same people. He knew he was being followed. 

And now, Jessica Jones showed up and stayed inside with the flower girl. They’d talked for a while and he’d heard nothing, and that was what frustrated him the most. Not only did the flower girl know that she was being recorded, but Dex had told Vanessa countless times to also bug the shop and she never listened. Now, he’d missed on one important conversation because of it. 

***

Vanessa had, in fact, listened. Not only to Dex’s advice, but also to Rose and Jessica Jones’ very intriguing conversation. 

After they’d talked on the phone, she’d decided to send someone to visit the flower shop and made sure she wouldn’t miss anything from it. And now, it seemed that Rose Parsons, or whoever she really was, was looking for Daredevil. 

Vanessa knew that it was something she could’ve helped with, if needed ever be, but for now she didn’t want anyone else to join his side and make sure he’d get out of every minor inconvenience untouched. Even less when they seemed to have real power. At the moment, Vanessa wanted that woman very far away from New York and she’d been given the perfect way to achieve that on a silver platter. The only thing that had seemed to move the flower girl had been to hear about her long lost mother. Who better than an expecting mother to convince her to let go of everything and reconnect with her ? 

Glad to have found some use for Dex’s constant blabbering, Vanesa took her earbuds out and laid in bed, a hand softly caressing her stomach as her son was moving around, dangerously close to her bladder. 

***

When Matt stopped in front of Rose’s shop the next morning, he wasn’t sure why he was even here yet. He’d listened to Karen’s words, he’d listened to Foggy’s voicemail in the morning. Still here he was, waiting for Rose to open, long before his day at the office was supposed to start. 

She had secrets, that wasn’t in question anymore, but so did he. But she was also a very nice person. It was engraved in her voice, calm but always joyful. She was going out of her way for charity, knowing that none of it would get her any money back. She offered Marci help for her wedding when she didn’t know her. She was holding the door for her older customers, even after she’d been badly injured, and was always listening to their grandchildren stories. Rose Parsons was a good person. She had a questionable sense of humor but was aware of it; still never tried to correct it to please anyone. She was hardworking, patient, caring and yes, a rather beautiful woman from what Matt had managed to form. 

“You better be here to buy flowers,” Rose said, managing the exploit of startling him as he was still wondering if he should’ve knocked or waited a bit more, “because that’s a bit creepy standing here like that.”

Matt stepped aside to let her roll her cart out and scoffed. “I still can’t see them.” He turned back to the cart and frowned. “It smells different.”

“Sunflower season is finally upon us,” she joyfully replied. “Doesn’t smell much, though.” She stopped and crossed her arms. “It’s pretty early. You fell out of bed ?”

“I wanted to make sure last night wasn’t too hard on you,” he said. “Karen mentioned that you left for the bathroom a lot.”

Rose sighed. “And now you know about my cocaine addiction. I have a hard time hiding it some- I’m joking,” she quickly added. “Only Advil for the headaches. As for Foggy’s friends, I’m not sensitive enough to be hurt by what a bunch of rich kids think about flowers. Most of them were pretty nice, by the way. It’s just that the others were louder.”

“Have you been to the hospital ?” Matt asked, his suspicions about a possible concussion being confirmed. “It’s been four days, you need to have your head checked.”

“I googled it,” she scoffed, arranging the flowers on the outside. “I either have a brain tumor and I’ll be dead in 5 to 10 business days, or it’s a concussion and I need to make sure I don’t hit my head again in the coming weeks, which I’m not planning to.” She went back inside to get another cart, leaving Matt quite confused as to how someone could have so little care about their own health. “Come on in,” she said as she was coming back out. “I’ll get you some coffee.”

Matt walked in and went to sit behind the counter, where he was sure to smell a familiar scent. Surrounded by the plants in the shop, he couldn’t quite put his finger on who it was and simply assumed that it was a client from the office who stopped by to get flowers. 

Rose quickly came back from her apartment with two cups of freshly brewed coffee and sat next to him. “So you jumped out of bed two hours early just to ask about my trips to the bathroom.”

“Something like that.”

“A bit extreme,” she said, “but very nice. As you can see, I survived.”

Matt put his cup down and took a deep breath. He knew he had to mention it, and he’d thought about it all the way to the shop. “Foggy told me that you learned about the cameras.”

“Hmh, yeah,” she replied, swallowing a sip of coffee. “All good. I’m not in trouble so I guess it’s fine. I know I’m scary, but I’ve never punched a blind man before and I’m not thinking of starting today. Surely not over an honest mistake.”

He nodded at her. “I still need to apologize. How about a drink ?”

“We’re drinking now,” she said. “All is forgiven.”

Matt smiled. Her heart was beating faster, her face was a little warmer. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” she laughed. “I was trying to perfect my deflecting techniques.” She finished her drink and cleared her throat. “I’d like that, but I’m just so busy. I think I’ve given myself work for at least 6 months, and I may need to sleep from time to time.”

“No one has ever told you that you might be a little too enthusiastic about flowers ?”

“No, why ?” she asked before bursting out laughing. “All the time. I’m just passionate, even when I try not to help people with flowers, I just end up doing it anyway because it’s not just my job, it’s my only hobby. And I know it’s pretty sad, but I never get tired of it.”

“I get it,” he said with a smile. “Flowers are a part of who you are.”

“Exactly,” she replied. “So I guess it’s not really work if I enjoy it, right ?” She left her seat but quickly sat back down. “Actually,” she said, “I could use some uh… company, for something. See, I’m supposed to start working at the church tonight, but I don’t want to bother Father Bryant with that.”

“With what ?” 

“Company,” she simply replied. She leaned forward and whispered : “I’m scared. I haven’t been back there since uh… you know. Anyway, maybe if I’m not alone people will stay away from my face ?”

Matt quietly nodded. That was far from what he had in mind, but Foggy would find nothing to argue about here. She was scared, and there was no way she’d stay out late on her own. “When do you need to get there ?”

“Father Bryant and I need to discuss a few things and he offered to give me something to eat, so maybe after dinner ? Whenever you feel like it, really. You don’t even have to-”

“I’ll be there at 9.”

She let out a relieved sigh. “Thanks. Don’t tell anyone that I can’t be left alone, okay ?”

As she was walking him back to the door, he stopped and turned to face her. “There’s no shame in being scared, Rose. Just ask when you need help.”

She smiled and he walked away, wondering how he’d kill time now that he was indeed two hours early for work. 

***

“Right, yes. Hold on a sec,” Foggy said, putting his phone down. He rushed out of his office, containing his joy from the time being. As soon as Karen looked up, he pointed in the direction of his office. “Matt,” he shouted, “my office, now!” They ran to join him and waited as he was sitting back behind his desk. He put the speaker on and cleared his throat. “Go ahead, you’re on speaker.”

“And ?” Jessica replied, instantly getting all of Karen and Matt’s attention. 

“The last part, can you say it again ?”

“Sure,” she sighed. “I have nothing else to do. So, flower girl is clean. The worst she’s ever done was to try and appeal a traffic ticket 3 years ago. Terrible taste in men, but we already knew that,” she added. “She’s boring.”

Karen breathed out in relief. “No one who would want to hurt her now, then ?”

“Boring,” Jessica insisted. “Anything else you want to know ? I have a whole-”

“Thank you, Jessica,” Matt quickly stopped her. “Thanks for the help.”

“Yeah,” she replied before hanging up. 

Foggy did the same and looked at his friends, victorious. “You have the honor of saying it first,” he said. “With passion, please.”

Matt laughed. “Alright. You were right.”

“Yes, I was.”

“We should’ve listened to you,” Karen added. 

“Yes, you should have.”

“We’re dropping it,” Matt concluded. 

“Yes. We. Are. That’ll be all for now, go back to work,” Foggy replied, repressing a smile. 

He laid back in his chair, relieved to have been right all along. Not because he’d ever had any doubts that Rose was a good person, but because they’d finally let go and let her live her life in peace as she deserved. He’d also be able to focus on work and not on Matt’s weird obsession with her. 

He hadn’t been very supportive of that pretended ‘not date’ they were about to have, but he didn’t find anything to say when Matt mentioned that it was because Rose was scared to be on her own at night, outside of her apartment. He’d let them do whatever they were planning on doing, and be ready to give his friend a lecture every step of the way. 

Instead of going back to his current case file, Foggy took his phone back. 

“Murdock,” Matt said on the other end. 

“I was right,” Foggy replied with a smile. 

“You were right.”

“Thanks for reminding me, buddy.” He hung up and peacefully reopened the file he’d been trying to work on for days.