Cats and Mice

Fleur was ready. More than that, she’d learned everything to perfection. Days working on her official hearing with William. They’d spent days coming up with explanations for everything that had gone wrong, in the hopes of saving both of their jobs, instead of watching over Edward’s comatose body. He was breathing, they’d been here the whole time to make sure he didn’t wake up alone, that had to have been enough. When she’d gotten back to her place, Fleur had been practicing what they’d come up with during the day. 

With William’s impeccable knowledge of protocol and Fleur’s mastery in the art of lying, they were sure to be reinstated in no time. Their plan had no flaws. They didn’t deserve to be fired when no one had died. The loss of a prisoner could never be blamed on them only. They knew that Marianne wouldn’t throw them into the lion’s den without getting herself into some kind of trouble. 

Needless to say, Fleur walked inside the hospital’s conference room without feeling any kind of stress outside of the one she’d been purposely feeling. Her father was still in a coma, after all. 

She politely nodded at the people already sitting around the table. Marianne, of course, was there. General Loeb had come all the way from the Raft, surely to blame the poor gestion of the undercover agents as usual. He’d been promised a prisoner that was currently lost at sea. Two men she’d never met before were there, too. Ranking too high, she thought, and she’d never see them again after that session. One more woman she’d met a long time ago, when she was still in training. Oma Hadid. She used to be a legend among the few select ones who’d been lucky enough to be chosen to go undercover. Before Fleur Penquist came along, she’d had the best results at fooling the lie detectors tests. They’d surely asked her to come to remind Fleur that she’d never be the next Oma Hadid after the shitshow she’d been involved in. 

That wasn’t Fleur’s goal anymore. She just wanted to keep her job. She waited for the man sitting in the middle to speak, as she was standing next to her designed chair. 

“Miss Penquist, I’ll be in charge of reviewing your case today,” he said, letting her know that she wouldn’t even get a name from him. He’d forever be ‘The Supervisor’ to her. She wondered what government he’d been sent to work with, but simply nodded at him. “Please, sit.” 

As soon as she was seated, the door she’d just walked through opened again and two technicians entered, rolling a lie detector with them. That wasn’t a problem. Not only Fleur had always been friends with these machines, but that was something she’d expected. She smiled at the technicians, handed them her hand, and waited for the wires to be in place. She knew the drill. One of them left, but the other one sat around the table and turned everything on. 

“State your name, please,” he formally said. 

“Fleur Penquist.”

No facial expression from him. That wasn’t a surprise either. She’d been through these tests more times than anyone could count, and Nick was very good at his job. “Please lie to the following question. Were you born on the 7th of September, 1965 ?”

“Yes.”

She’d lied. He’d seen it, and she saw the repressed smirk on his lips. That would be the only lie Nicholas Fermont would get from Fleur for the whole session. A small gift, she thought. She looked back at the people in front of her and waited. 

The Supervisor looked at Nick and waited. As soon as Nick nodded at him, the Supervisor turned the recording on. “Miss Penquist, we’re here today to review your official report on the 763TT320 case, regarding the identity of the enhanced individual referred to as ‘Daredevil’. Do you have any questions before we proceed ?”

“I do,” she carefully said. “Why are we doing this here ?” She had no problem doing it anywhere, but it was one thing William and her had been unable to figure out. There was no reason they asked to meet her at the hospital. They had a few offices. 

He nodded at her. “Your father’s condition is still critical,” he replied. Stable, she thought. “We didn’t want to fly you away from him, and taking care of this urgent business was also a priority.”

“It was convenient,” Marianne added. 

Fleur smiled. “Very thoughtful.” She didn’t believe a word of it. It didn’t matter in the end, she still found it very thoughtful of them. “No other question, Sir.”

He allowed himself a slight smile and opened the file in front of him. Fleur’s report. She’d spent days working on it. Telling the truth when it suited her, omitting certain details when they could’ve ruined her career. “Our goal is to understand how two enhanced individuals as well as four civilians came to learn about us during the course of the investigation you led.”

“Four,” she corrected. They all stared at her. That wasn’t a comfortable position, but the whole thing lied in her being truthful enough. “I believe that as long as we haven't confirmed that Benjamin Poindexter is dead, we need to consider him still breathing. As for the fourth one, I’m pretty sure Karen Page has been in contact with Frank Castle. Am I in danger ? Should I hide or prepare to die ? If he thinks I put her in danger, I’m pretty sure I’m-”

“Don’t worry about Mr Castle,” the Supervisor cut her after a quick look at Nick. Fear. The easiest one to fake. “We’ve offered Mr Castle to cooperate with us in catching Mr Poindexter.”

“I thought working with them was prohibited ?”

“And yet, you’ve taken it upon yourself to ignore protocol regarding that issue,” Marianne replied, still pissed at her. They hadn’t talked in days, clearly she wasn’t feeling any better. “Mr Castle will lead the next collecting team we’re sending. We have hopes of him prevailing.”

That wasn’t even a bad plan. Fleur had never been Castle’s biggest fan, but if someone was able to take down the man who’d threatened her parents’ lives, it was him. She had nothing to say against it, and it wasn’t her place to do so. It simply seemed like the proper reaction to have, and Marianne’s reaction to her own reaction proved her right. 

Everything was going great, and the disaster of her 32nd undercover mission would soon be a thing of the past. 

***

William checked Edward’s vitals for the hundredth time and walked away from his room. He’d be ready to be awoken soon, but for now they still had to wait. He was simply hoping that the rumors of comatose patients being able to hear what happened around them were false and that his mentor would never know how he’d plotted against their bosses to keep his monthly paycheck. 

In the hallways, he met with a few nurses, more doctors than he would’ve liked, but no visitors. There was an official hearing happening in the same building, none of it was surprising. He walked to the nearest coffee machine and got himself a double espresso, and then had another one poured inside the same cup. He quickly went outside, feeling like having some fresh air. 

As he was casually sipping on his coffee, wondering how Fleur’s questioning was going, a nurse stopped next to him. 

“Mr Hunt,” she said with a warm smile as she was trying to light her cigarette, “it’s good to see you here. Did you schedule your appointment for your monthly donation ?”

William checked around him, looking at the almost empty parking lot, and briefly shook his head. “Not yet,” he replied. “I think I’ll wait until Ed’s daughter is gone. Maybe when he wakes up ?” Or when we’re not trying to save our asses, he thought. 

The nurse nodded and took a step forward, looking at the windows a few floors up. “I heard they got some pretty big names to come. Not everyday they have official meetings here,” she added with a chuckle. 

“At least it’s quiet.”

She shrugged. “We never have many visitors anyway, and we still have to hide everything on the 4th floor.”

Nelson. William hadn’t checked on him after learning that the corneal transplant had been successful, which wasn’t a surprise to him, but he was apparently still here. Probably why they were so eager to have his appointment scheduled. They just had to ask, he thought. “Bed rest, you should be able to move around freely.”

“With all his friends walking around ?” she laughed. “I don’t think so.”

The coffee cup didn’t touch William’s lips. “Not today, though.”

“They’re all here,” she insisted. 

As far as William knew, only the fiancée had been granted visitation rights. He had no idea how that happened since no civilian was ever allowed to visit another civilian in that hospital, but she’d managed to do that. And now, on the exact day only medical personnel were allowed in the building, all of the lawyer’s friends had been granted access too. 

He thanked the nurse for the company, even if he hadn’t asked for it, and walked back inside. He quickly entered the elevator and pressed the ‘4’ button on the wall. 

***

“Would you say you committed a mistake in the way you set up your cover ?” Oma Hadid asked.

Fleur shook her head at her. “No. Everything was done according to protocol.”

“Protocol never states to be that close to the target,” she argued. “For your own safety.”

“With all due respect,” Fleur insisted, “Mr Murdock was never on anyone’s radar. How many pairs of eyes went through that file before I asked for it ?

Oma nodded. “Why did you ask for that particular case, Miss Penquist ?”

That was how low they were ready to get to prove that she’d made a mistake, Fleur thought. She glanced at Marianne, still deeply absorbed by her reading of a file she surely knew by heart by now. There was no point in lying here, Marianne herself had probably told them everything already. “I wanted a good case after the previous one.

“Good ?” General Loeb immediately said, furrowing his brows. 

“Someone that wouldn’t end up with you, General,” she replied, holding up his gaze. 

“Undercover agents are supposed to be impartial,” he insisted. 

“What was your previous case ?” Oma asked, ignoring the man sitting two chairs away from her. 

“Everett Carmichael,” Fleur replied, pushing away the shivers the mere mention of that man’s name was sending down her spine. “Tampa. He-”

“I’m familiar with that case,” Oma stopped her. “That was a very good job you did there, by the way.” She leaned forward and finally acknowledged Loeb. “Being impartial doesn’t mean that we have to risk our lives every single time. That’s why we’re entitled to choose our own cases.”

On any other day, Fleur would’ve been delighted to have a woman like Oma Hadid take her defense like that. But they were about to step on very dangerous ground. What if Loeb brought up the mandatory therapy sessions designed to make sure undercover agents were ready to go back to work ? The same therapy sessions all undercover agents were lying to in order to be sent back to work ? 

Fleur had always thought that everyone knew about this, and that it was the reason why undercover agents were allowed to choose their cases. Since they couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth, they were trusted to at least know what was best for them and their mental state. 

Choosing a good one could’ve been Fleur’s first mistake. It was proof that she hadn’t dealt correctly with the implications of her previous case. 

“Look,” she said, stopping Loeb’s argument about the constant bias of undercover agents. “After the Carmichael case, I went to visit my father. My therapist suggested that I take a few weeks off to reconnect with the real world, so I did it,” she explained. “I stopped by the New York office to say hello to Mrs Ballister who’s always been a friend of my family, and I saw that file on her desk. I just thought that it would be a good way to get back to it. That’s what the shrinks always tell us to do, right ?”

The Supervisor simply turned towards Marianne. “Is that how it happened ?” She quietly nodded. Fleur was starting to think that she was surprisingly quiet. The Supervisor turned back to Fleur. “Walk us through your discovery of the target’s identity.”

She sat straight on her chair and cleared her throat. “I made sure to befriend Miss Page. Mr Murdock is a close friend of hers, and I’ve been able to spend some time with him as well. During a review of evidence and collected data, I found a number of coincidences that led me to think that he could’ve been the target. I decided to conduct a quick experiment, which produced conclusive results.”

“I’d like to know more about that… ‘experiment’,” Loeb said. He wasn’t even trying to hide the satisfied grin on his face. Fleur was quite confused, since it was all standard procedure and nothing unusual happened. “You asked Mr Hunt to attack a civilian, is that correct ?”

“It is.”

“It’s all in the report,” Marianne intervened. 

The Supervisor raised a hand in her direction, sending her back to silence. He turned back to Loeb and nodded, much to Fleur’s surprise. If they wanted to talk about William that much, they should’ve asked him to come. He wasn’t able to lie his way through a meeting like she was. 

Loeb’s smirk only grew wider now that he’d had official approval for his line of questioning. “And before that experiment, you asked him to attack you.”

“To lure Daredevil out, yes.”

“He accepted, both times.”

“Clearly. He’s also been injured both times,” she quickly added, “and was still able to start the investigation regarding my father’s disappearance."

“Where he physically attacked a prisoner who had already been collected, resulting in the injury of a civilian,” he finished. 

***

Despite the amount of visitors in Foggy’s room, everyone was rather silent. Foggy had been asleep for almost an hour now, Marci was trying to find a clue about that mysterious place they’d been brought to in every single document available to her, Karen was quietly working on her computer, and Matt’s head rested on the palm of his hand, seemingly falling asleep. 

Karen looked up from her screen and waved at Marci. She looked up. “What are they giving him ?” she whispered. 

Marci checked on Matt and handed her the document holding all of Foggy’s prescriptions so far. She’d made sure to have them all on hand, and no one complained after she’d threatened to expose that place for illegal practice of medicine. She wasn’t sure it would work, but they were all so obsessed with staying in the shadows that she’d played her best card. 

Nothing in what Karen was reading explained Foggy’s great recovery. She'd called a few people, and even if they all agreed that corneal transplant wasn't a long and painful process, it still required about a year to get the patient's sight to normal. Foggy had already passed most of the tests in that mysterious hospital and was scheduled to leave in a matter of days. She had to say that she was relieved to see him doing so well after almost losing an eye in order to save her life, but the kind of medicine they had here was on another level. And of course they wouldn't put any of these names on a piece of paper for civilians like them to see. 

She sighed and threw her friend's medical file away. They'd never know. They weren't even supposed to be there. They'd asked, they'd tried everything, every legal action Matt had thought about had been pointless. Everything, until they called back. They needed his help with something. They had ways to force him to agree, Karen was sure of it, but they chose to make a deal. They'd be granted authorization to visit Foggy, and Matt would do whatever they wanted from him. 

Which, now that they were waiting for Foggy to wake up after yet another nap, didn't seem like a great deal. Matt was getting visibly frustrated with his mission. She left her seat and walked away from the room. Maybe coffee would cheer him up a bit. 

Matt's deal never mentioned that anyone had to be civil towards them. It happened when they got here in the first place in a car with black windows. The driver didn't say a word to them. When they arrived, no one said a word either. A nurse came to lead them to Foggy's room, refused to answer any of their questions, and left. According to Marci, who'd been here for a week, it was worse today. She'd seen a few people on that floor being evacuated. Karen wondered if Rose's father was one of these people. Maybe not, since she was supposed to have a big meeting today. Did they evacuate all these people because of Matt ? He'd said something about not being able to hear anyone out of the ordinary. Sick people, but nothing else. 

The elevator stopped next to the coffee machine. Most to Karen's surprise, William walked out of it, a concerned look on his face. He wasn't pissed, because that seemed to be his default appearance from what she'd heard. 

"Hi," she said with a smile. "Foggy's sleeping, if that's why you're here."

He stopped and furrowed his brows. Now he was pissed. Chances were he didn't know about what Matt was doing here, and he was too busy to listen to her if she was warning him of an unwanted visitor. 

William finally relaxed and forced himself to smile. "How's he doing ?"

"Good. Better than what's normally supposed to happen."

"Ah," he huffed. "Don't go looking into it, you'll end up in a very dark cell again."

"Why ?"

"Yeah," he said. "That's what I was coming to ask. Why are you here ?"

Karen crossed her arms over her chest. They wouldn't be able to send them away if Matt didn't provide what he came here to do, but there was no say in what the consequences might be for all of them. They could stop treating Foggy. "Matt is a very competent lawyer."

He smirked. "That'd be a good excuse if we followed any laws he's learned in school. No civilians today, and you two are here."

"Marci's been here for days," she replied, trying to come up with something against someone who knew the rules better than her. "We've been brought here, I don't see- Wait," she shouted as he was walking past her. 

William didn't stop. He walked straight to Foggy's room but waited outside. Karen grabbed his arm. He turned to look at her and she let go immediately. She wasn't easily scared, but there was something properly dangerous in his eyes right now. He turned back to the door, without a word, and stared at Matt through the window. 

Then, still silently, he looked at the ceiling. He frowned, and turned back to look at her. He wasn't as scary anymore, but Karen still decided to keep her distance as long as he didn't try to get in. Even if he did, she doubted that he wanted to have his arm broken for the third time in a month. 

"There's something I didn't get from Fleur's reports," he calmly said. "She did everything right, and you still doubted her. Why ?"

She shrugged. "I get we have a sense for not trusting people."

"But you did trust her," he insisted. "So did Nelson. He kept asking me if we were good people. Everything he said… The lawyer was the one who had doubts. Not all of you, him. You would've come with him to the print shop." He wasn't talking to her anymore. He was coming up with theories, trying to connect the dots. His eyes were going back and forth between the ceiling, Matt sitting in the back of Foggy's room, and her. "What's he doing ?"

Karen took a look inside and frowned. "Sleeping ? I mean, there's not much to do."

He calmly nodded, still watching Matt. He hadn't been moving much, and he could've very well been sleeping. "Good," William said in a quiet voice. "Then he won't hear me when I throw you out the window. We're on the… what floor is this already ? I don't-" Matt lifted his head up. William turned to look at Karen with a satisfied smile. "Sleeping. How far can he listen to people ?"

"I don't… Please," she sighed. "We just want to visit our friend. We're not looking for trouble. Your bosses made a deal with us and-"

"A deal ?"

He didn't know, that was for sure. And now they were all in trouble. She tried to beg him to stay, but he was far gone before she could even run after him. She hurried back to Foggy's room and locked the door behind her. 

"What's his problem now ?" Matt asked. 

"What if he knows why you're here ?"

"I think the deal we made was coming from way above his head," he calmly replied. "Not that it matters, I got nothing for them."

She grabbed her chair and sat next to him. "You can't hear them ?"

"I can," he laughed, "but I have nothing. I can tell if something is shaking her, but I guess anyone would be shaken when talking about their father almost dying. I can tell everything, but not when she's lying."

"You did it once."

"Because I already knew she was lying. When she's calm and she shouldn't be, it's easy to tell," Matt explained. "But what I can't tell is when she's calm because she's actually in a calm state or because she's lying to their machines." He listened back to the floor above them and briefly shook his head. "She's good."

***

This was getting ridiculous, Fleur thought as she was answering another set of questions. They let go of William rather fast, and she was starting to think that she would've liked to be granted the same privilege. Even Nick, the lie detector technician, seemed to be bored by now. 

When they were finally done covering the last part of her official mission, Fleur began to see the end of this meeting. She couldn't wait for it to be over. They knew everything, and they had more than enough reasons to send her back to work. She'd be fine with a few weeks off anyway, but she had to get back to her life. Pretending to be someone else was a part of that life that Fleur had made for herself, and she enjoyed it. 

"Something isn't clear," Oma said right when they were closing their files. Fleur refrained herself from rolling her eyes. "Mr Hunt's report says that he called you in the evening to confirm the identity of your target." She looked up and arched a brow at Fleur. "You joined the investigation regarding your father in the morning."

That was bad. "Yes," Fleur calmly replied. "After Mr Poindexter destroyed my apartment, Mr Murdock offered to have me stay at his place. I couldn't leave without raising suspicions."

"Of course. What was the nature of your relationship with Mr Murdock ?"

"I, uh…" Very bad, indeed. Oma Hadid had been doing that job for a very long time, and there was no hiding anything like that to her. "We were dating." Fleur expected them to say something, but they simply looked at her, waiting for more information. She had to find something fast. "I knew they had some kind of trust issues," she started explaining. "From the recordings of Ms Page's apartment, I gathered some information. That Mr Murdock might have been interested in me and-"

"Rose Parsons," the Supervisor corrected. 

Fleur nodded. "Yes, sorry. I thought that dating him would be the right course of action at that time. It was, since it got me to confirm his identity. If I hadn't been there, I would've left New York after finding out about my parents' disappearance and we wouldn't have been able to find the hostages."

"And that was only a matter of keeping your cover ?" Oma asked. 

"Yes."

Oma glanced at Nick. He shrugged. They all knew that Fleur was able to lie. There was no way for them to know if that was the truth. No way to shelf her for good. She was clear, and she was even ready to let out a relieved sigh. She'd just won the game. The last of their doubts were now gone for good. 

"Well, then-"

Someone knocked on the door. All eyes turned to the other side of the room. No one was ever supposed to stop a meeting of that importance. A nurse entered, looking on the verge of passing out. The Supervisor lifted a brow at her. 

"I'm so sorry, Sir," the nurse said. "I just- It's, uh…" She pointed at Fleur. "Your father just woke up."

Fleur jumped from her chair, tearing away the cables linking her to the machines. She couldn't care less about this meeting. Her father was awake. It wasn't supposed to happen for another few days, but he did it by himself. That was good. No one tried to stop her when she ran away from the big heads of their organization. 

She ignored the elevator down the hall and pushed the doors of the staircase. She ran as fast as she could, jumping down the stairs, bumping into a couple nurses on their way back from their coffee break. Third floor. She pushed the doors and followed the horde of doctors and nurses all converging to Edward's room. A few of them noticed her and let her through. 

It was nothing like she'd expected. People in the movies were doing much better when they were waking up from a coma. Edward wasn't looking any better. He looked just as bad as he did when she'd left him just over an hour ago, only more awake. His eyes were barely open, and he was mumbling things Fleur couldn't hear over the voices of the doctors checking up on him. She took a few steps in his direction, only to be stopped by a nurse rolling a cart inside the room. 

Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She tried to free herself, but noticed it was only William. "What happened ?" she asked. "Were you there ?"

He nodded. "I woke him up."

"Wh-"

"Shut up," he firmly said, pressing on her forearm. "We have bigger problems, I needed your meeting to stop." 

It didn't make sense. Waking Edward sooner than what the doctors had in mind was probably dangerous, Fleur couldn't imagine the type of trouble William was in if he'd thought that waking him up was a good idea. She didn't even know how he'd done it. "What did you do ?"

"Nothing," he casually replied. "But they know you're lying."

"No, they don't," she scoffed. "That's kind of the point of being me, Wi-"

"They got the lawyer here," he stopped her. "I think he's better than a fucking lie detector test. They let him in to see his friend on the exact day of your meeting, you don't think it's a little suspicious ? I talked to Page, and she said something about a deal he's made."

Fleur rubbed her hands over her face. That was why Nick had been so bored. He probably knew that he was only here for show. They'd asked Matt to check up on her lies. He'd listened to the whole thing. Confidential information, as well as personal ones.

"Fuck," she breathed out. She looked back at her father and frowned. "Is he going to be okay ?"

"Yeah, but we-"

"Gotta go. I'll be back in five," she said, already running out of the room she'd wanted to go to so bad. 

She ran back to the stairs. There was only one place Matt would have agreed to stay in. She didn't need to ask anyone. She'd stopped by the fourth floor a few times already, mostly in the middle of the night, to check up on Foggy's recovery. It wouldn't have been a good idea to talk to him directly, so she simply asked around. The nurses were nice, and they weren't going to tell anyone. 

They were gone. There was no reason for William to lie, but Foggy's room didn't have any visitors outside of Marci. Foggy was asleep, as he'd seemed to be a lot lately, and there was no trace of either Matt or Karen. Through the glass door, her eyes crossed Marci's gaze. Fleur took a deep breath and walked inside. 

"Hi," she whispered. "How-"

"They're gone," Marci stopped her. "That's why you're here, don't pretend that you care. Someone came and told them it was time to leave."

That was harsh, but deserved. Fleur knew that she deserved every bit of their anger, but she didn't have time to talk. If they were just gone, she could still make it before their car left. She'd find something to tell the Supervisor. She'd say that she didn't like being monitored like that and that it was all a blatant lack of trust on their part. That she didn't deserve this treatment. She already knew everything she was going to tell them, if only she made it to the car in time. 

Four floors wasn't that much. Fleur's knees were starting to hurt from jumping from too many steps at once, but she didn't care either. She got out on the first floor and ran across the lobby all the way to the front door. A few nurses were having either a coffee or a cigarette. Fleur briefly said hi and kept running towards the parking lot. 

Right on time, she thought. She yelled at the driver to wait and finished her run right next to Matt and Karen as they were about to get in the car. "Hi," she said, panting from her run in the hospital. "I, uh… I know why you were here."

Karen nodded at her. "You've seen Foggy ?"

"I… Not in person, but I asked the nurses about him a few times," she replied. "They said he was okay."

"Do you know what they're giving him ?"

"What ?"

Karen closed the door and crossed her arms. "He's recovering faster than he should be," she said.

Fleur knew nothing about medicine, but it seemed to be going around a lot in that place. "Yeah, well… My father just woke up, sooner than what they wanted. So I…" She let go and turned to Matt, who'd been doing a good job at ignoring her. She didn't need to be a genius to know why. "Can I talk to you ?" she asked him. 

"I don't think we have anything to talk about." 

She stared at him, mouth wide open. She hadn't expected him to be that cold. She apparently didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. She would've understood, if she'd been the one standing in front of a master liar. Fleur waited for Karen to get inside the car and stopped Matt from following her. "About what you heard…"

He freed himself from her grip and sighed. "You won't lose your job," he said. "I'll tell them that they can either choose to trust you or not. I think you've either been lying the whole time or telling the truth. I don't know, and I don't want to know. Good luck, they seem like a lot."

"It's more complicated than that," she defended herself. "It's-"

"Not my problem."

And with that, he got inside the car and left. Fleur didn't move and simply waited for the car to leave, standing in the middle of a now almost empty parking lot. She didn't even get to explain herself. She'd planned the whole meeting to save herself, and she'd just thrown the last bits of Rose Parsons' life to the trash. It shouldn't have bothered her that much, but she couldn't shake that feeling that she'd messed up a lot.