The Test
Bruce gives Matt the all-clear to go home the next day. He’s sorting through what he wants to wear with Foggy and Karen when Clint appears in the doorway. His usually steady heartbeat is racing, and Matt gestures for him to follow him into the hallway, leaving Karen and Foggy in the room.
“I was just coming to give you my number,” Clint says to him. “In case, you know, you get any news about anything.”
“As soon as I know, I’ll contact you,” Matt assures him.
“Remember, everything is your choice,” reiterates Clint with a small smile. He places his hand on Matt’s shoulder, something he finds oddly reassuring, and then heads back down the corridor.
Matt returns to Foggy and Karen. Foggy hands him a plain button-down, something brought from Matt’s own closet, and Matt is glad to get into some familiar clothes. He shrugs his T-shirt off and pulls it on, the familiar material hugging his muscles. Instead of bothering to fumble with the buttons, Karen reaches out and does them for him, her delicate fingers working quickly and accurately.
“Let’s get you into some real clothes,” Foggy says, handing Matt what he can only assume is a pair of slacks. Matt smiles in thanks and discards Steve’s sweatpants, tugging on the trousers and zipping up the fly.
“Oh, don’t forget the best bit!” Karen says excitedly, reaching into her handbag. She pulls out something familiar, and reaches up to place Matt’s glasses onto his face. “There – perfect.”
…
Matt wanted to get straight back into work. Karen and Foggy disagreed. Naturally, this meant that Matt won, and they all ended up spending the afternoon at the office. Matt’s desk is littered with cards and chocolates, and when he questions Karen about this she shrugs and says, “We had to tell your clients you were sick. These are all ‘get well soon’ cards.”
He clears the desk of well-wishes, and immediately gets stuck back into work.
After he’s been sat there for three hours, Karen appears by his desk. She has a plastic bag in her hands, the material crinkling under her trembling fingers.
“Is that what I think it is?” Matt asks slowly.
Karen nods. “I bought three different kinds, just in case. I thought we could go to the bathroom and I’ll read you the instructions…or Foggy can if you would prefer.”
Matt reaches over and puts his hand over hers. “You can help me, Karen. Plus, you’ve probably got more experience with pregnancy tests than Foggy, if we’re being honest.”
So that’s how they both end up sitting on the bathroom floor at Nelson, Murdock, and Page. Karen has a timer on her phone, counting the two minutes needed to work the tests, and Matt is simply sat there waiting for the news.
“If it’s negative, I am getting drunk tonight,” he tells her with a smile.
“I’m getting drunk tonight either way,” replies Karen with a chuckle. “Josie’s?”
“Josies,” agrees Matt.
There is a sharp ding of Karen’s phone, declaring that the time was up. Matt gestures to Karen to read the results to him. It’s at times like these that he might prefer it if there was an accessibility feature for pregnancy tests, but alas he has to cope with using someone else’s eyes.
“Mattie,” Karen says, and Matt can hear wetness in her voice.
“Positive?” he asks, leaning back against the cool tiles.
“Yeah,” replies Karen, and Matt hears her checking the other two tests as well. “All of them are.”
…
Matt orders a soda at Josie’s. Foggy didn’t want to drink, however Matt encouraged him and now he’s five bears down and making a fool of himself dancing with Karen.
Matt is sitting in the booth, his fingers wrapped tightly around his cane. He didn’t think he would miss his cane so much, but it brings him great comfort to be able to have it between his fingers again.
“How do you think he’s taking it?” he hears Karen whisper to Foggy, alcohol impairing her judgement of just how good Matt’s hearing is.
“He’s a fighter. He’ll take this like he does anything else,” responds a breathless Foggy, and Matt wishes he could see what sort of dance moves he’s been pulling out tonight. “Anyway, this is a new chapter in our lives. I’ve always wanted kids, haven’t you?”
“Well yeah, but this wasn’t how I imagined it?”
“What? That your boyfriend would get pregnant with an Avenger’s baby? Really Karen, I don’t know how you wouldn’t have been able to predict that!” Foggy whispers with a laugh, and Matt himself can’t help but chuckle at the conversation.
“I mean, how are we going to raise a kid?” Karen asks seriously. “Matt is fucking Daredevil, and people are always after us.”
Foggy considers this for a moment. “The Avengers will help us. Clint definitely will, and he has a family.”
“True,” Karen says. “Anyway, I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. It’s Matt’s decision whether we keep this baby. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be forced to be pregnant. I mean, what happened to him was basically rape, wasn’t it? Will he really want to keep a baby he had no choice in creating?”
Matt freezes. Yes, what happened to him was horrible, but he hadn’t considered the wider implications of it. Forced pregnancy, which is what this is, is an incredibly serious crime. And, if Matt were a female client of his, he would consider the entire situation sexual assault. But when it’s him…well he was just rolling with it being another bad thing that has happened to Matthew Murdock.
Yes, he feels violated. He wants Dr Marsh and his employers to be behind bars for many, many years. But the child…none of this is the child’s fault, and Clint also had no part in the forced insemination. Matt considers this, his fingers tapping slightly on the rubber of his cane as he contemplates his situation. He breathes a sigh, muttering, “I’m keeping this baby.”