4
Jessica didn’t give an exact timeframe for how long she’d be gone, but Matt didn’t really care. Time felt both infinite and so, so limited when he was with Peter. Like he could feel Peter wrap tiny fingers around one of his own calloused ones and just sit there forever.
An hour or so after Jessica left Peter was already showing signs of needing a midday nap, so Matt fed him and walked him in slow circles around the apartment until he dozed off. With senses like his Matt didn’t need to familiarize himself with every space he entered, but Jessica’s apartment was quickly becoming somewhere he didn’t have to pull out the superhearing to navigate. His usual put-Peter-to-sleep-path around her office was fully memorized. Her bedroom a little less so, but it was becoming normal the more Matt put Peter to sleep in his crib.
Matt had just gotten Peter definitively asleep when his phone vibrated and spoke from somewhere on the floor. “ Jessica. Jessica. Jessica.”
“Shit, please stop, please,” he mumbled, moving as quickly as he dared with Peter in his arms to stop his cell from waking the baby. Eventually he found the device and pushed the answer button before shoving it between his ear and his shoulder. “Hey, Jessica, everything okay?”
He heard something like paper shuffling. A file cabinet drawer slamming. Yeah, Uh. It’s all good. I just can’t find the connection here and— I don’t know, sometimes I...You know what, nevermind. This is dumb—“
“No, Jessica, wait. Seriously, what’s going on?”
Jessica sighed into the phone. “ For the life of me I can’t find proof that this guy exists. It’s like someone made him up, slapped him on paper as Chief Operating Officer of a shell company owned by a shell company, and then never mentioned him again. I can’t even find the guy’s birth certificate. His place of birth was one thing the file actually gave me, but I can’t prove it.”
Matt situated Peter in his crib and planted himself on the couch in the office. He still wasn’t comfortable enough to sit in the chair behind Jessica’s desk, but at least he didn’t leave his shoes on when he came over anymore. Progress.
“What’s the name?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Okay. What about the name of the shell company?”
“I can’t tell you that either.”
“Seriously, Jessica?”
“God, whatever, sorry. I just...Sometimes it helps to talk this shit out. You’re the first person I thought to call.”
Matt...Didn’t know how to feel about that. “Fine. Then talk it out without the details. Start from the beginning. What’s your goal?”
Matt imagined Jessica standing alone in some dark filing room at city hall, her leather jacket covered in dust. “Find out who hired Hogarth. And why they’re paying her so much.”
“I didn’t think someone like Jeri Hogarth would ever question a paycheck.”
“This one’s worth questioning. It’s an absurd amount of money, all transferred from a variety of different international accounts.”
“Huh. Does seem odd. But it wouldn’t be out of the question for someone with a boatload of money to keep most of their monetary assets in offshore accounts. Rich people love cutting corners, especially when it comes to income tax.”
“I know, but— shit. Come on, seriously?” Matt heard something smack the floor and papers rustling. Jessica must have dropped a folder. “ This is ridiculous.” She started mumbling under her breath, seemingly forgetting Matt was on the line. “ James Wesley my ass. Why bother hiding a guy with such a lame name? Nobody’s gonna bother looking into him anyways. Unless they're me, I guess."
Matt could take a punch. He’d been beaten, sliced, bruised into oblivion in the past. And he took each hit and moved on.
But hearing the name James Wesley pass through Jessica’s lips was equivalent to feeling the way he did after Midland Circle. Battered, drowning. Barely conscious, on the edge of some precipice that could be his salvation or the end of his days.
Talking around the lump in his throat wasn’t easy, but Matt used the urgency of the situation to push past it. “Jessica. I need you to tell me that name again.”
Jessica went quiet. “ Shit. Don’t tell Hogarth I told you.”
“I’m serious, Jess, please. Just say it again.”
Jessica was quiet for a moment, as if she were weighing the angst in Matt’s voice. “ James Wesley. Why, you know it?”
Life was going so good for Matt. He was alive, he was working again. He had a son he loved more than anything. But the ugly stains of his past couldn’t be wiped away, apparently.
“You gotta drop this case. Now.”
“Are you kidding? Hogarth is paying me double for this one. There’s no way I’m going to just—“
“ James Wesley worked for Wilson Fisk.”
Matt was usually pretty good at reigning in his senses, dampening the world around him as to not be constantly overwhelmed. But right now he could hear the water in the pipes lodged in the walls. The person walking around their apartment barefoot two floors up. Peter’s heartbeat. His own heartbeat, blood pounding through his veins.
“A lot of people have worked for Wilson Fisk. Hell, half the city was on his payroll at one point.”
“Wesley is a whole other beast. Please just come home. I’ll tell you everything. But not over the phone.”
“I don’t get why you’re freaking out about one guy that worked for Fisk—“
“Because James Wesley was Fisk’s right hand man. And someone murdered him.”
Jessica barely had time to walk in the front door before Matt was closing and locking it behind her. He ushered her from the entryway to the main room and she chose to ignore the careful hand he had in the middle of her back in favor of trying to decipher why, exactly, he was acting so spastic.
“Did you talk to anyone on the way home?” He asked, coming to stand before her.
She slung her bag off her shoulder and onto her desktop, flinching when Matt shushed her and she remembered Peter was probably down for a nap. “Of course I didn’t. I have common sense, Matt.”
“I mean anyone. Convenience store attendant, someone on the subway platform. Literally any living person.”
“No one but the clerk at the city archives.”
“Good, good. I called Foggy and Karen, they’re on their way over.”
Jessica groaned. “This is why you summoned me? So I could meet your friends?” Matt was mysterious at the best of times, but now he was being downright ominous. Jessica had always been a firm believer in cutting straight to the meat of a conversation; why waste time with fluff when you can just get to the point? But Matt felt the need to establish every principle and condition before delving into something important. Useful in a courtroom, infuriating in everyday conversation.
“No, it’s...I’m killing two birds with one stone here.”
“So you do want me to meet your friends.”
“Yes, but that’s not why they’re coming. I need to talk to you guys about the same thing. It’s easier this way.”
The bone-deep weariness Jessica carried with her recently flared with a vengeance and she took a seat behind her desk to stave it off, ugly waves of it roiling in her gut. Life was supposed to be settling down. Hope wasn’t a familiar concept to her, but she’d dared to hold onto some of it the more weeks passed without a major, life-altering incident. Maybe there was a chance of entering late adulthood with her son and not-dead baby daddy. Living to see Peter graduate high school, her and Matt sat in the bleachers and hollering way too loud when his name is called.
The relative calm of recently daily life made it obvious to Jessica that something would bust through and ruin it in the near future.
Based on the huffy way Matt was breathing, a telltale sign that he was trying to keep his composure in the face of something upsetting, Jessica decided that maybe graduation had been a bit of a stretch.
“And this has to do with Wilson Fisk?”
Matt sighed, fingers scratching at his seemingly permanent five o’clock shadow. “Doesn't it always?”
That near future she was dreading was now, apparently.
“You sounded especially concerned over the phone.”
A tinny whine sounded from the bedroom. Both Matt and Jessica went ramrod straight, waiting to make sure Peter settled before they continued talking. Just as the apartment went quiet again and Matt looked like he was going to keep talking, a curt double knock sounded from the front door. Matt disappeared from view as he went to let his friends in.
“By all means,” Jessica mumbled, “Invite your gang into my home. It’s fine. Hell, might as well get a pool table and some nice armchairs so everyone’s extra comfortable—“
“Jess,” Matt said, appearing from the hall with Karen Paige and Foggy Nelson in tow. He motioned to each of them in turn. “Karen, Foggy. Karen and Foggy, this is Jessica.”
Jessica hadn’t seen either of them since she was pregnant, since that night in the chapel when a reprieve from the rain had turned into a painful trip down memory lane. The reminder stung in a way she didn’t expect. She’d been so alone then. She’d thought Matt was dead. Karen and Foggy thought Matt was dead. They were sitting in those church pews mourning him, and Jessica was too chicken to reveal that a piece of their friend lived on and was quite literally in the same room.
“We’ve, Uh,” Karen said, motioning to Jessica pointlessly, “We’ve met. At the police station after Midland Circle.”
If you could call seeing Jessica’s dejected face after coming back without Matt and immediately breaking into tears a meeting, then sure. They’d met before. Hadn’t said a word, just all stood in the same room as Karen and Foggy's worlds came crashing down. Yeah. A meeting.
Karen looked unsteady, like she didn’t know what to do with herself. Her hands went from fiddling with her purse strap to smoothing her pencil skirt, then to tucking her hair behind her ear. Foggy just surveyed the room with a careful eye and was looking increasingly taken aback the more he took in the details. He focused particularly hard on the bassinet set up next to her desk, though he was polite enough to train his gaze elsewhere when Jessica caught him.
Foggy cleared his throat. “Not that it’s not nice to see you again, Jessica, but why are we here?”
Jessica shrugged. “Beats me. I mentioned James Wesley and Matt got all touchy.”
Karen’s apparent unease crossed quickly into shell-shocked territory. Jessica had never seen someone’s face lose color so quickly. Even Killgrave’s smug mug didn’t look so ghostly after she snapped his neck.
Foggy seemed taken aback but much less at risk of passing out on the office floor. “James Wesley? Fisk’s assistant? I thought someone took him out.”
“Me too,” Matt said, “Considering Fisk and his men came for me after the fact because they thought Daredevil did it. His name popped up in one of Jessica’s investigations.”
Jessica groaned. “That’s supposed to be classified. My clients value discretion, you know.”
Matt ignored her in favor of creating a moment of tense silence. She prayed that Peter wouldn’t end up with his father’s flare for the dramatic. “Either he’s not actually gone or someone’s using the name as a front. We need to know why.”
Foggy looked frustrated. “We need a little more to go off of than this, Matt. You haven’t even explained how the name came up. Is this the secret you swore you wanted to tell us about? Because if it is, super lame, dude.”
“Just sit down,” Jessica said through a sigh. “We’re probably going to be here a while.” Plus Karen looked like she was seconds away from either sobbing or passing the fuck out.
Matt remained standing. Foggy reversed and planted himself on the couch, one arm draped across the backrest. Karen shuffled in her short heels and flinched when her abrupt landing on the cushion sent a stack of folded burp cloths and a dirty bottle onto the floor.
A shrill cry came from the bedroom. This time it didn’t taper off after a few seconds and instead cascaded into pitiful, drawn out wails.
“I’ll get him,” Jessica said. “You’ve got about thirty seconds to prep your friends.”
“Prep us?” Karen asked as Jessica disappeared into her room.
“So as you both know, I’ve been sort of secretive recently.”
“Recently?” Foggy asked. Matt must have given him a look because he said, “Fine, sorry. Continue.”
“I didn’t lie when I said I wasn’t going out as the Devil. Or anyone else, for that matter. And I really have been looking for a job.”
“That’s great, Matt,” Karen said, “But where is this going?”
Peter blinked up at Jessica from the crib with wide, watery eyes. She leaned down and planted a kiss to one of his soft cheeks before whispering, “ This should be good,” and carrying him to the changing pad on top of her dresser.
“I haven’t been around because...Well, I’ve been here.”
No one spoke. Jessica was dying to see their faces, but Peter was wiggling like crazy and wouldn’t let her secure the left side of the diaper.
Karen cleared her throat. “You’ve been here, Matt? At Jessica’s apartment?”
“Yes.”
“So are you guys, like, together, or—“
“God, no,” Jessica said. Despite his earlier observations, Jessica thought Foggy might have blanched when she came back in with Peter in one arm and one of his knitted blankets in the other, wrapping him up as she made her way back to her seat.
Karen blinked a few times. “Okay, um, babysitting then?”
For being a decent journalist, she wasn’t very eloquently spoken.
Foggy leaned forward. “Is this some sort of Catholic guilt thing? I know you grew up in an orphanage Matt but I really don’t think you’re qualified to watch children.”
It was funny, the way Matt’s friends obviously cared about him but were simultaneously painfully aware of his faults. Anyone who thought they knew Matt probably wouldn’t trust him with a kid, and his blindness had nothing to do with it.
Matt, looking frustrated, paced in front of the couch a few times, hands on his hips. “Can you just give me a chance to explain?”
“Okay, this is taking too long. Let me do the honors.” Jessica hoisted Peter up into the air by his armpits, bouncing him a bit on his way toward the sky. A giggle bubbled out of him and he squirmed in his blanket. “May I introduce, Peter Jones.”
Foggy and Karen just stared. Matt sat back with his lips in a tight line. He knew he’d fumbled control of the situation.
“Peter Matthew Jones,” Jessica clarified.
“Oh shit ,” Foggy said.
Jessica pulled Peter to her chest and dramatically covered one of his ears with a hand. His own chubby one came up and tried to grab onto her fingers. “Hey, Mr. Nelson, language.”
“You curse all the time,” Matt pointed out.
“I’m his mother. I’m allowed to ruin him. Uncle Foggy needs to cool it.”
“Oh shit,” Foggy repeated.
Jessica reaped great, great joy from fucking with people, and right now Foggy was her main target. “One more time and you aren’t coming to the baptism–”
“Alright, Jess, give it a rest.”
“C’mon Matty, I was just getting started.”
Maybe Matty was going too far. His demeanor shifted from exasperated to borderline upset and before Jessica could really consider what that meant, Karen was hopping into the conversation.
“So you guys,” Her eyes darted from Jessica, to Matt, then back to Jessica, “Are not together.”
“Nope,” They said simultaneously.
“But you have a baby.”
“Yep,” they said.
Karen scratched at her chin, then pointed toward Peter. “How old is he, exactly?”
“Three months.”
“So when did this even happen?”
Karen likely didn’t mean to sound so put off by Peter’s existence, but her tone made Jessica bristle. “You mean your friend knocking me up? Why don’t you ask him?”
Matt winced, seemingly identifying the edge of annoyance in Jessica’s tone. “Right before Midland Circle. While we were still investigating everything.”
“And how long have you known about him?” That was directed at Matt.
“Two months now.”
Karen went back to grilling Jessica. “You didn’t tell him?
“How was I supposed to? I thought he died. Didn’t know he made it until he showed up on my doorstep a month after Pete was born. You’ll have to forgive me for not trying to reach out to my child’s deceased father.”
“Shit— I mean shoot, I’m sorry, Jessica. This is coming out all wrong. I’m just...Just trying to put the pieces together. I mean, Matt’s a dad.”
Peter started fussing in Jessica's arms, displeased with the new voices and the lack of people paying attention to him. Matt came over and took him wordlessly, holding him so Peter’s back was against his own chest and the baby could have a view of the entire room. Pete immediately calmed and his glossy eyes took in as much information as his soft head could handle.
“Not a bad one, either,” Jessica said, more to herself than anyone else.
Foggy huffed and watched his friend with awe. “Who would have thought?”
Matt frowned. “You guys don’t have to sound so surprised.”
It was true. In every sense of the word Jessica could consider, Matt was a good dad. Except for the part where he wasn’t there for the pregnancy or the birth or for a month after, but that wasn’t entirely his fault.
He never shied away from a dirty diaper. He offered to do laundry. He cooked for him and Jessica and bottle fed Peter so Jessica could have a break. He offered to babysit, he split costs, he showed genuine, invested interest in Peter’s development and wellbeing.
Not to mention Matt melted anytime he was within three feet of the baby. Behind the sometimes seemingly emotionless exterior, behind the Devil that beat the shit out of people in dark warehouses, the guy was a teddy bear.
Karen looked shell shocked, eyes round as dinner plates. She opened and closed her mouth a few times like she couldn’t put together what to say.
“Congratulations,” she eventually said, aimed toward Jessica. “He’s adorable.” She sounded like she meant it. Despite her earlier disbelief, her eyes flicked to Peter and she smiled as Matt quickly spun on his heel, Peter chuckling as they whirled.
Jessica froze. Her desk chair creaked beneath her. It was the first time anyone other than her own sister, Claire, or hospital staff had congratulated her on Peter’s birth. Acted like her hookup baby was something to be celebrated.
Peter was so much more to Jessica than the result of a one night stand, and she knew Matt felt the same. But she saw the way people stared when her and Peter went out alone; mom in a leather jacket and boots and baby in a sock hat with Devil horns, no big strong man at her side to carry the diaper bag. They probably thought Peter got fed at eight o’clock and had delinquency lessons at nine.
None of those people saw how she stayed up in the middle of the night pumping and bottling, doing laundry, working on cases. Rocking him to sleep and lying awake in her own bed, gaze trained on her water stained ceiling, wondering how she’d make it all work.
Granted, Karen hadn’t seen it either. In fact, her congratulations were likely just a courtesy. But it was a courtesy not many people bothered extending to Jessica nowadays, so she took it and held it close.
“Thanks, Karen.”
Matt stepped forward. “Glad we’re all acquainted. Back to James Wesley.”
“Can I hold him?” Karen asked Jessica.
She shrugged. “Fine by me. Just don’t shake him too hard. I hear that’s bad for babies.”
Foggy looked like he couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, but Karen just laughed and walked right up to Matt, who looked moderately accosted by how blatantly she was ignoring him in favor of stealing the child from his arms. She scooped Peter up with a half-assed Thaaaaaank You and walked right back to the couch, where she sat him upright on the tops of her legs so she could watch him beam as she gently bounced her knees.
“James Wesley,” Matt repeated.
Despite his earlier hesitancy, Foggy warmed up to Peter the more he blubbered and cooed and drooled on his onesie. Foggy extended his index finger, which Peter nabbed immediately with that grip that was unusually strong for a baby, and Jessica could basically see Foggy’s face soften. “Hey, Matt, I think he likes me!” Foggy said, excitement evident in his voice.
Peter looked to be having the time of his very short life. A nice lady was bouncing him to his heart's content, a funny man was holding his hand and making silly faces at him, and both his Mom and Dad were within tantrum distance. Peter’s wispy brown hair was still mussed from his short nap, but it just added to the disheveled, adorable, squishy baby look.
Matt waived his hands in a wide arc over his head. “Guys. James Wesley. Still a major problem.”
James Wesley was obviously the darker of the two reveals that occurred in Jessica’s apartment. Karen seemed to remember the gravity of the other situation at hand. She stopped bouncing the baby, who immediately took to whining to show how he felt about that slight.
“H-here, Foggy, you take him for a second.” Karen passed Peter off to Foggy, who looked like he’d just been given a grenade with the pin pulled. But his hands were sure as he situated Peter on his lap. It wasn’t his first time holding a baby. Probably just his first time holding a friend’s secret tryst-baby.
“Is, uh, is that all we know about Wesley? The name in the file?”
Jessica shrugged. “More or less. And that there’s too much money tacked to it, all coming from different offshore accounts.”
“Sounds Fisky to me,” Foggy said. Peter was making uncoordinated grabs at his watch. Foggy pulled his wrist just out of reach. Peter opened and closed his fists and scrunched up his nose like Foggy’s arm had personally affronted him. “But why use the name of a dead associate to hire an attorney on retainer? Hogarth will literally never have to represent him.”
“Be careful,” Jessica said, pointing to Foggy’s watch. “He’ll rip that thing right off. He’s a menace.” She turned back to the room at large. “Maybe so he’ll have a decent attorney on the payroll when he inevitably does something sketchy?”
Matt shook his head. “He already has a decent attorney. Multiple, actually. So why add someone to the payroll he’s never contacted before and probably doesn’t trust?”
Foggy was looking down at Peter, a crease in his brow. “What if we’re giving Matt too much credit?”
“Really, Fog? You’re going to hold my son and insult me at the same time?”
Foggy waved him off. “I’m being serious. You’ve been afraid to really investigate Fisk recently because he might be onto you, right? You think he might know about Daredevil.”
Jessica eyed Matt for a reaction. Matt was borderline annoying about keeping his identity under wraps, so hearing that Fisk might know about Matt’s horned alter-ego was a surprise. Granted the two of them had been at each other’s throats for years now, and Fisk wasn’t an unintelligent man. At some point he was bound to notice that Matt wasn’t just a blind lawyer.
Jessica was overwhelmed. If she was going to keep rehashing this, she was going to need something to occupy her other than Matt’s brooding and the green tint of Karen’s cheeks. She was looking progressively more and more ill the further the conversation progressed.
Matt decided to respond just as Jessica was getting out of her chair and making her way to the kitchen. Did she have any iced tea left? “Yeah. I think he might suspect something," Matt said.
“But you’re not sure,” Foggy clarified.
“No,” Matt said, quietly this time, “I’m not.”
“So other than James Wesley having stepped foot in our office before, and he’s probably stepped foot in a lot of places if he worked for Fisk, Matt Murdock and therefore the rest of us have nothing to do with him.”
“But you have to admit it’s weird!” Matt shot back. “Why use Wesley’s name now? Why hire Hogarth?”
The tea pitcher in the fridge was empty. She must have emptied it when she filled her cup before she went to the archives and not noticed. Jessica cursed her own absentmindedness and went to fill the kettle for a new batch.
“H-He’s right, Matt,” Karen stuttered out. “Just because we know the name and you guys know Hogarth doesn’t mean it’s our problem. This is New York. People know people, right? It’s a coincidence.”
Jessica’s stove only had one fully functioning burner, and she settled the kettle over its blue flame before stepping back out into the office. “I gotta agree with Karen, Matt. I think you’re making this our problem when it doesn’t have to be. None of us have any solid ties to this.”
Karen shuffled in her seat. Visibly swallowed. Tucked her hair behind her ear.
“You have something to say?” Jessica asked.
It took a moment for Karen to realize Jessica had been talking to her. “No, No. I don’t. Why?”
“Because you look like you’re about to throw up.”
“Karen,” Matt said, much more gently than he’d spoken previously, “You’re lying. Your heart’s racing.”
“Matt, you know I hate when you do that. We talked about this, that’s a complete violation of privacy–”
“I know, Karen, and I’m sorry, I am, but forgive me if I take every precaution. I’ve got way more skin in the game now than I used to.” His head tilted toward where Foggy was still holding Peter. “I’m willing to drop all of this. I’ll admit that sometimes I hyperfixate on things I don’t need to. But If you know something that makes Wesley and the Hogarth contract relevant, I’d really like to know.”
Sometimes Jessica forgot that Matt was a human lie detector. It was hard to forget he had powers, especially with the way he navigated any environment perfectly despite his unfocused, unseeing eyes. But she didn’t often think of the intricacies of it all— just how intense and specific those powers were.
Did he ever listen to her heartbeat? Know she was lying when she said Peter hadn’t kept her up all night? That she’d been fine doing it all on her own before he showed up? That she could handle a few days without him coming over?
Karen closed her eyes and breathed slowly through her nose. Her spine was ramrod straight. “It’s relevant. Wesley is relevant.”
Foggy laid an unobtrusive hand on her shoulder. Not pushing, just a solid, steady presence from a friend that recognized her unease. “Why?” Foggy inquired carefully.
She turned to look at him directly. Almost like confessing to Matt would have been too much. “Because I’m the one that killed him.”
The sound of the tea kettle whistling in the kitchen matched pitch with the ringing in Matt’s ears.
And with the screaming suddenly coming from Peter.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Jessica said, hurrying into the kitchen. He subconsciously tuned into her frantic mumbling. He caught Jessica doing that sometimes, talking to Peter as she went about her daily activities. She never seemed to realize she was doing it. “I know, bud, loud noise, I’m sorry.” Metal scraped against metal as she yanked the kettle off the burner. “See? There, all better.”
But Peter was still crying. She rushed back in and took him from Foggy, who sounded genuinely afraid. “Jessica, I swear I don’t know what–”
“Chill out, Foggy, it’s fine. You didn’t do anything. Pete just isn’t a fan of loud noises. Isn’t that right, bud?” Matt heard the pad of Jessica’s thumb make contact with wet skin as she swiped the tears off Peter’s cheek, then readjusted him in her arms to lay against her chest. Peter just sat there and hiccupped.
“You killed James Wesley,” Matt finally managed to choke out.
Karen was quick to defend herself. “I didn’t have a choice! Him and Fisk’s men grabbed me, they–they took me to some warehouse! He said if I didn’t defend Fisk in the press he’d come for you guys, and my family, and–”
“And you killed him!” Matt couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out. He was on a roll, now, all the nervous energy he’d built up over the last few hours about James Wesley and Fisk and the safety of his son congealing into one major outburst. “You killed a man! Fisk’s right-hand man, no less. And you’re just telling us now?”
“Keep your voices down,” Jessica hissed out. He thought maybe the fighting was agitating Peter – it was, the baby’s heart was beating a mile a minute – but he processed somewhere deep in his brain that Jessica was apparently the only one of them level headed enough to realize that screaming about Karen’s admittance to a literal crime wasn’t a great idea. Jessica had thin walls.
Matt took a moment to reign himself in. “Karen. You know you can trust Foggy and I. Why did you keep this from us?”
Karen was crying, now. Matt could smell the salt in her tears. “Because I was afraid. Of getting caught, of Fisk–.”
“We’re attorneys, Karen, we could have helped you–”
“--and of what you’d think of me when you found out.”
The admission brought Matt’s racing thoughts to a standstill.
“That’s your whole schtick, right?” Karen said with a humorless chuckle. “You take the bad guys out, but you don’t kill. Never kill. That’s the line you won’t cross.” She sniffled. “And I crossed it.”
Jessica’s socked feet shuffled quietly across the hardwood. “You were scared,” she said to Karen. The earnest understanding in her voice caught Matt off guard. “You were protecting yourself. And the people you loved.”
“But I killed him. He put his gun on the table between us, and I just…”
“You did what you had to.” Jessica’s tone left no room for argument.
Matt hadn’t known Jessica during the time she was involved with Killgrave. She never talked about it, either. Just made occasional illusions to a time before Peter, a dark period in her life that she said she never wanted to relive. But the news articles were out there. Jessica didn’t have a secret identity to hide behind. Everyone knew it was her that finally took Killgrave out for good and ended his cycle of abuse. She’d killed a man with her own bare hands. The human spinal cord was no match for super strength.
She did it because she had to. Because Killgrave had terrorized and abused her, other women, hundreds of other strangers simply because he could. He was dangerous. He was killing people. To stop a monster you have to act like a monster.
Jessica wasn’t a monster. She was a woman. A broken one, maybe, for a lot of different reasons, but a woman. A mother. The mother to Matt’s child. She’d taken someone’s life, but there was good in her despite it.
So Matt looked at Karen from that same angle, the angle of a woman with a life and friends and family she didn’t want to lose because someone with a god complex was taking advantage of her. It wasn’t her fault she had to make the choice she did.
Foggy’s slacks rubbed against Jessica’s couch cushion as he moved. “Matt? You gonna say something?”
“I don’t…” Matt started, trying to find the right words. “I can’t get behind the killing. I don’t think I ever will.” He heard Karen’s breath hitch. “But I understand why you did it. And I’m sorry you went through it alone.”
Karen wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
For a while, the only sounds in the apartment were Peter’s residual fussing and the patting of Jessica’s hand against his back. The silence wasn’t comfortable, but it was sure. Everyone was feeling the impact of Karen’s admission and trying to figure out what exactly it meant for all of them.
“So. James Wesley showing up now does mean something,” Jessica confirmed.
Matt nodded. “We need to keep an eye on it, if nothing else.”
“What about Hogarth? She hired me to figure out what his deal is. I have to tell her something.”
“See if she knows anything else,” Foggy said. “Literally anything.”
“She told me all she had was the file.”
“Can I see the file?”
Jessica went quiet for a moment before conceding. She pulled the file out of her bag and handed it to Foggy. Paper rustled as he skimmed the slim contents. “Sloan Limited. You find anything on that?”
“Nada. It’s the start of a chain of shell companies.”
“No affiliates or notable business partners? Large transactions that would have required city paperwork?”
“Hold on. My sleep deprived memory isn’t good enough for this.” Jessica used her one free hand to tug her camera out of her bag and plug it into her laptop. She must have taken pictures of files at the city archives. “Bought a random piece of real estate off of Westmeyer-Holt Contracting several years ago. A condemned apartment building in Washington Heights, I think. But they never did anything with it. Otherwise no public activity.”
“Hold on. Westmeyer-Holt Contracting?” Karen asked, interest obviously piqued.
“Why,” Jessica asked, “Does that mean something?”
“Foggy, Matt, you guys remember? Elena Cardenas came to us because Westmeyer-Holt was destroying units in her building.”
“Oh, I remember,” Foggy said, venom lacing his words. Miss Cardenas’s case was a tough one to look back on for all of them, especially considering it ended in Cardenas’s death. An innocent woman caught in the crossfire of greedy men. They’d all been torn up about it since, maybe Foggy most of all.
Matt was mentally putting the pieces together, doing his best to recall all of the details. “Westmeyer-Holt’s CEO. Armand Tully, right? He sold his Hell’s Kitchen properties to Fisk and was never heard from again.”
“So there’s the Fisk connection,” Karen said. “Sloan is just another one of Fisk’s shell companies. One he kept in his back pocket in case his other ones were ever compromised. He’s using Wesley’s name for the same reason.”
“Wouldn’t a buy like that have been flagged when Fisk’s illegal dealings were investigated?” Jessica noted. “And why buy the building in Washington Heights if he was focused on Hell’s Kitchen?”
“It’s possible Armand Tully sold properties to people other than Fisk over the years,” Foggy proposed. “One random sale out of Fisk’s usual territory and before most of his major activity would have been classified as an unrelated transaction and not looked into. Maybe Fisk had plans to expand before realizing it would be easier to just focus on Hell’s Kitchen?”
“Not likely,” Matt said. “Hell’s Kitchen was always the goal. Any effects he had outside the neighborhood were collateral damage. He must have known Tully had property in the Kitchen. If anything, he bought the Heights location to get Tully and Westmeyer-Holt on the payroll. Make Tully more willing to sell the Kitchen property in the future.”
“Dog on a leash,” Karen said. “Dog’s happy and does what it’s trained to do until you tug a little too hard.”
Matt scratched at his chin. “Exactly. Now Tully is out of the country. The only person that’s ever dealt with Sloan on a public level is off the map. Sloan might be one of Fisk’s only corporate holdings with a clean slate. It makes sense that he’d be using it if he’s planning something.”
Jessica left for the kitchen again, apparently put off at not being able to truly follow the conversation. Matt heard cabinets opening and the dumping of an ice tray into an empty pitcher. The ice hissed and cracked as Jessica poured in the hot water from the kettle and dropped several teabags in before shoving the entire thing in the fridge. “I’m too tired for this. If I can’t really drink,” Jessica whispered into the top of Peter’s fuzzy head, “I need something to sip on. Your dad is confusing me.”
It took serious effort for Matt to wipe the smile off his face.
“So,” Karen said, rubbing her hands together, “Here’s what we know. Sloan has a public real estate transaction with Westmeyer-Holt from years ago that wasn’t flagged in the Fisk FBI investigation. He probably used it as a good-grace purchase so Tully would sell him the Hell’s Kitchen real estate down the road. Sloan made no other traceable moves until now, and Fisk chose to use his dead associate’s name to hire Jeri Hogarth on retainer using an obnoxious amount of money and a bunch of sketchy bank accounts.”
There was a headache pulsing at Matt’s temples. The couch was occupied and he wasn’t going to take Jessica’s chair, so he sat himself on Peter’s playmat in the middle of the floor. He crossed his legs beneath him and ignored how it was wrinkling his nicest pair of pants. “That’s the gist of it, yeah.”
Jessica chose that moment to come back from the kitchen. Matt expected her to sit behind her desk, but she breezed past it entirely and planted herself on her stomach on the playmat next to him. She set Peter down on his stomach in the middle of the mat and crossed her arms beneath her chin. Matt felt her warm breath ghost across his knee as she watched Peter wiggle around. “So we know Fisk is really involved. Great. We still don’t know why he hired Hogarth.”
“Oh,” Foggy said, sounding disappointed. “Right. That’s a problem.”
When Matt called Foggy and asked for a meet up, Foggy hadn’t expected it to be at Jessica Jones’s apartment. He definitely hadn’t expected the meeting to include an introduction to Matt’s secret son. It did explain Matt’s recent secrecy, his pleas for Foggy’s patience. He said he wanted to tell Foggy what he was obviously hiding but the timing wasn’t right.
It made sense. If Jessica didn’t want people knowing about Peter, Matt wouldn’t tell anyone. Foggy hadn’t known Matt was a father until literally a half hour ago, but he already knew Matt wouldn’t be the type to purposely put his kid at risk.
It also explained his obsession with tracking Fisk’s movements even though he wasn’t doing anything obviously criminal from his place behind bars. If Matt kept his Daredevil persona a secret for so long because he wanted to keep his friends safe, there’s no way he’d let Fisk out of his sight if there was a chance he could do something that would inadvertently hurt Peter.
“Jessica, who did Hogarth actually speak to when they sealed the deal?” Foggy asked.
Jessica startled a bit at hearing her name. Her chin bobbed up from where she’d been resting it on her forearms. “She didn’t say,” Jessica said, blinking a few too many times, sort of like she was trying to clear her vision. “I can ask her. Is that important?”
“James Wesley himself obviously didn’t call her. We need to know who was representing Sloan Limited during that retainer meeting. They’ll lead us to Fisk.”
Jessica nodded, chin returning to its place on her crossed arms. “I’ll give her a call. Let you guys know after.”
Foggy was readying a Thank You when he watched, somewhat disbelievingly, as Jessica’s eyes slipped closed. Her breathing evened out.
Karen leaned forward. “Is she…Did she just fall asleep? On the floor?”
Matt’s head tilted toward Jessica, doing that bat-like thing he did when he listened to someone’s breathing. “Think so.”
Foggy laughed. “What, this isn’t a pressing enough issue to keep her awake?”
Peter babbled senselessly and Matt reached over to settle a hand on his back, rubbing in small circles to keep him quiet. “Peter’s…Noise sensitive. Jess has rowdy neighbors. I don’t think she gets a lot of sleep.”
Peter’s little head turned toward Foggy, chubby cheeks scrunching up to reveal a gummy grin.
Peter was cute. Cuter than Foggy’s nieces and nephews were as babies, though he’d never admit that to his family or Matt. It would only go to Matt’s head. Peter had Matt’s eyes, green-brown and wide as can be. His nose was as buttony as any baby’s, though the way it was a bit wider on the sides leaned more toward Matt’s features than Jessica’s. But those facial expressions– the way the skin between his eyebrows wrinkled before he started whining, the high roundness of his cheeks when he grinned – that was all Jessica.
“Should we go?” Karen asked, already pulling her purse onto her shoulder. “I don’t want to bother her.”
Matt shrugged. “You don’t have to. She’s out cold.” Jessica didn’t even twitch as Matt used a careful hand to move a stray piece of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. It was an oddly tender gesture. Foggy didn’t know Jessica well, but he knew Jessica would have crucified Matt for it if she were awake.
Karen settled back into the couch cushions, previous uncertainty dissipated. “I can barely process this. You have a kid , Matt.”
“Tell me about it. It still doesn’t feel real sometimes. But then he’ll throw up all over my slacks or rip the zipper off Jessica’s jacket and it all comes rushing back.”
Karen frowned. “He rips the zippers off of her jacket?”
“Like nobody’s business. The kid has a serious grip. Pulled a button off my shirt the other day, too. Tore out the whole knot holding it in place. Left a hole in the fabric.”
“Matt, that’s weird.”
“Are you calling my kid weird, Karen?”
She rolled her eyes, though Matt couldn’t see the show of exasperation. “No. But three-month old babies shouldn’t be able to rip metal zippers off of jackets.”
Matt’s mouth opened and closed a few times like he didn’t quite know what to say. “Uh, they shouldn’t?”
“Definitely not,” Foggy agreed, starting to process Karen’s concern and realizing how strange it actually was. “That’s, like, unusual baby strength.”
“Don’t babies do that, though? Grab at stuff?” If the situation wasn’t so weird, Foggy might have been amused by how confused Matt sounded. He really seemed to have no concerns about the fact that his infant son was strong enough to rip apart clothing with his tiny hands.
Karen slid off the couch and onto the floor so she could get closer to Peter. She wiggled a finger beneath his chin and he giggled with delight. Karen smiled down at him. “Sure, but not at three months old, Matt. Have you told the pediatrician?”
“That my baby might be abnormally muscled for his age? No, Karen, it didn’t come up.”
Foggy gave in and joined his friends on the floor. It was a funny sight; four grown adults in a circle on a baby playmat, one of them in a dead sleep, the baby in question shimmying around on his stomach without a care in the world.
Foggy extended his wrist toward Peter, putting it within arm’s reach. His watch slid out from beneath his sleeve and Peter eyed it with malicious intent. The baby reached for the shiny object with both hands at once, forcing his chest and chin to the playmat. The impact of the drop didn’t stop him from getting his hands on Foggy’s watch and giving a definitive tug.
Foggy heard the ping of snapping metal. The links of Foggy’s watch separated and unlatched, and the watch slipped off his wrist and onto the floor.
Matt’s breath caught. “Did he just–”
“Oh my god ,” Karen said, “Matt, your baby has super strength!”
Jessica flinched in her sleep and turned a little, readjusting so she was on her side instead of her stomach, but she didn’t wake.
Matt held a finger to his lips and motioned to Jessica. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, voice hushed but anxious.
“I’m serious,” Karen hissed through her teeth. “Babies can’t do this stuff, Matt!”
Foggy wholeheartedly agreed. “She’s right, dude, this isn’t normal.”
Matt ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, I guess this would explain it a lot.”
Foggy’s eyebrows rose. “It would?”
“He untucks his swaddle, like, every night. He ripped one of his blankets the other day.”
“And you didn’t question how exactly he did that?” Karen asked incredulously.
“Of course I had suspicions, but.. I don’t know. I was hoping they wouldn’t transfer. The abilities, I mean.”
“You don’t have super strength,” Karen pointed out. “Unless you have something you want to tell me.”
Matt shook his head. “No, I don’t. But Jessica does.”
Foggy and Karen turned to Jessica. She sure didn’t look like she had super strength, especially not sleeping with her mouth partially open and her hands tucked into the sleeves of the sweater under her jacket. But they both knew the truth, had read the articles about her and knew she was at Midland Circle. Whatever gave her that unnatural strength, she’d passed it to her son.
“I just don’t get it,” Matt said. “Jessica wasn’t born with her powers. Acquired traits don’t get passed down like that.”
Foggy didn’t know a lot about biology — his undergrad degree was in Legal Studies, after all – but he knew enough to know Matt was right. “Unless however she got her powers altered her at a genetic level. Then the traits would be free game for any offspring.”
“You’re making my kid sound like a documentary subject on Discovery Channel.”
Karen held up a hand. “Matt, hold on. You said he’s a light sleeper too, right?”
Matt huffed. “To put it simply. Random noises set him off. Getting him to stay asleep for any significant length of time his near impossible.”
“What if he’s like you? What if his senses are enhanced?”
Matt rubbed at his forehead, like if he just pressed hard enough he’d be able to process the fact that he’d managed to give his kid superpowers. “This is, uh, this is a lot to take in.”
“Your kid broke my watch and cries when a pin drops. Time to accept it, Matt. Pete’s got powers. Or something.”
Matt winced. “Yeah, sorry about the watch.”
“Eh, no big deal. That was my cheap one.”
“The Tag Heuer is your cheap watch? Corporate law has changed you, Fog.”
“I bought it used and refurbished— how did you know it was a Tag?”
“The way the gears turn, it has a very distinct–”
“Okay, yeah, whatever. Regardless, it’s fine.”
“Now,” Karen interjected, “You need to tell Jessica.”
Who was still fast asleep on the floor. Peter let loose a little gah, like he was saying, Yeah, dad, you gotta tell mom your guys’ freaky genetics combined and made me a super baby.
“I will when she wakes up. She needs the rest. Even if it comes in the form of a playmat nap.”
The three of them talked idly for a while longer, mostly about Peter and Matt’s new life as a father. It was rare that all three of them could really get together and hang out nowadays, what with Karen’s job at the paper, Foggy’s new gig at Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz, and Matt’s freelance work along with his time spent with Peter (though Foggy didn’t know about that time until today). It was nice and oddly nostalgic to be in the same room as all of them again.
Eventually Karen made the executive decision that her and Foggy would go home so Jessica could get some proper rest and Matt could have his alone time with Peter. Foggy agreed to leave with her, though if given the option he would have stayed to spend more time with the baby.
Like Jessica said, he was Uncle Foggy now, after all.
Jessica woke up in her bed, lying on top of the covers and still in her jacket and jeans.
The light outside her bedroom window was still bright enough to signal daytime, but the shadows it cast into her apartment were longer. She’d been asleep for a while. Last she remembered, she’d been lying on the floor talking about Fisk’s most recent movements and watching Peter try to eat his own hand on the playmat.
Peter. Oh shit, did I leave Peter alone on the playmat?
She hopped out of bed, tripping over a dirty shirt and repressing a curse on the way to the office. She stumbled to a stop when she didn’t see Peter on the playmat, momentarily panicking before realizing there was someone on her couch.
Matt was lying horizontally across the cushions, head propped against one of Peter’s stray nursing pillows. His eyes were closed. Peter was asleep on his chest, a blanket wrapped snugly around him and a cheek pressed firmly into Matt’s sternum. One of Matt’s calloused hands was placed securely on the baby’s back.
Jessica couldn’t help but watch the two of them, steady breaths almost in sync. Peter looked so peaceful tucked up against his dad’s chest. It’s a sight that, just a few months ago, Jessica never thought she’d get.
She managed to snap a picture of the two of them on her phone, but a wrong step on a creaky floorboard had Matt’s eyes shooting open. “Jessica?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s fine.” He tapped his ear with his free hand. “Light sleeper.” He carefully maneuvered himself upright, moving to sit vertically against the back of the couch without loosening his grip on Peter. “You sleep alright?”
Jessica came to sit next to him. She brushed a sleep-messed piece of Peter’s hair down. “I did, actually, though I don’t know how I got to my bed.” She had her suspicions, though. She’d let Matt get away with it this time, considering that she felt more well rested now than she had in months.
Mat smiled sheepishly. “You looked uncomfortable.”
“I’ve slept in worse places. Did your friends go home?”
“Yeah, they bailed a while ago.” Matt sniffed. “Jess, I think we need to talk about something.”
“Oh god. Don’t tell me you have another secret love child.”
Matt groaned. “No, not as far as I know.”
“Great. Then whatever it is, lay it on me.”
“Peter’s got powers.”
Neither one of them spoke. Matt seemed to be waiting for Jessica’s response. Too bad she had no idea what to say to that. “Um, come again?”
Matt laid it out for her, recalled all of the unusual things Peter had done in the last couple months that him and Jessica had both brushed off. Reminded her that the pediatrician said Peter was showing great progress for his age. Told her about how Peter managed to snap Foggy’s ridiculously expensive watch. Explained that Peter’s sensitivity to sound and environments were both things Matt himself struggled with when he got his powers.
“He’s not just a fussy baby, Jessica,” Matt said. “He’s enhanced. Like me. Like both of us. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Jessica and Matt had talked about this, that day Matt showed up at her door and announced that he was very much not lying dead beneath Midland Circle. They discussed whether their powers had altered them fundamentally enough to transfer to their child. Jessica had dismissed the idea. Surely not, right? It couldn’t be that simple to pass on. Jessica endured months of trials and needles and pain to get her powers. Matt got caught in the middle of a chemical spill. There’s no way the results of any of that wormed their way into Peter’s genetic code.
Just as Jessica was beginning to process it all, she felt a tickle deep within her nose. Her eyes watered and she sneezed harshly into her elbow.
Peter woke up immediately, pushed away from Matt’s chest, and started bawling.
“Matt?”
“Yeah?”
“I think we gave our son superpowers.”