bang.

The world sounded normal when he woke. New York never stopping its endless march forward like a one-man-band with steel drums and dustbin lids. The usual hum of neon and light; the hiss of metal subway doors followed by the clack of the train on the rails; men, drilling, six blocks away, drowning out the endless chatter around them; the whirr of the coffee machines on the ground floor and in the lounge at the end of the hall. He slowly faded it all out, narrowing down to the three heartbeats he could hear around him. He shifted with a groan, hand coming up to clutch at his neck. 

"They gave you a sedative," a rumbling voice just to his left informed him. Frank. "You were screamin'."

Matt swallowed heavily but didn't reply, instead choosing to wriggle his fingers and toes, gauging some sort of time-frame for the drug wearing off. It was still sitting in his bloodstream, making his sleepy and numb. He didn't like the sensation; it made him feel slow and hazy, two things that left a vigilante more than just a little vulnerable. 

"Your friend's an alrigh' lawyer," Frank continued, voice flat. "Told 'em to stick it, that he'd sue, if they didn't leave you in here with me and let us be...roommates. Told 'em they were interferin' with a match. Karen almost fell over at that." He paused. "Then he started on Soulmate laws and Separation-Sickness, an' about the madness it can bring..." he trailed off. "He lied his ass off, Murdock. Said all tha' killin' was 'cos we were apart. Even the DA looked scared the case is goin' to get thrown out." He chuckled. "They even agreed to let me go after 'm healed, release me on bail 'til the hearin'. Apparently, bein' one of the matched marked is a good thing." He paused again, clearly waiting for a response. Matt still didn't reply. "You not talkin' to me, Red?" he asked snidely. Matt's hands gripped the sheets tight, knuckles turning white under the strain, biting back a hundred things he wanted to say. "What, you dumb as well as bli-" he cut himself off. "Well, we both know ya ain't really blind, Murdock," he snorted. "Don't know why you get kicks outta pretendin' not to see." He took a breath in, turning slightly if the creak of the bed was anything. "An' what's with your ears? Ain't never heard of tha' happening?"

"Side effect," Matt finally muttered, unable to hold his silence. 

Frank smirked, "Oh yeah, of wha'? Because there ain't any documented cases of that anywhere."

"Of being shot in the head," he replied, deadpan. 

"Shot in the h-". Frank stopped. The realisation must of crashed over him suddenly, because there were far too many physiological reactions for Matt to keep track off in his compromised state. His heart, his lungs, his muscles - they all responded. 

"I told you there is more than one way to see, Frank. I see with my other senses, my ears being more important of them all. When you shot me, I started getting episodes of deafness. What you saw was one of them."

There was a pregnant pause. "What's my word, Red?"

Matt didn't look over, in fact he didn't even open his eyes. Instead he huffed a laugh that twinged his chest and smiled sadly. "Bang," he said. "Your word is bang."

"...Jesus," he muttered.

"Not quite," Matt replied, before focusing elsewhere. He sensed a shift in Foggy's heart rate and sat up in reply. 

The man hadn't moved in a while, that was clear, and his stomach was rumbling. The shirt, however, was clean, so clearly Marci had been by to drop off clothes. "Hey, Foggy," Matt smiled as his friends eyes flickered open. 

"Matt?" he murmured. "Matt," he said again, lurching forward all of a sudden and disturbing Karen as he went. "Jesus, you look like shit."

The blue-eyed lawyer barked out a laugh. "Hey, what ya gonna do?" he asked. "Thanks for..." he motioned a hand to the room. 

"Don't worry about it Matt, it's going to be alright. They got the best Sickness Doctors in the country to fly in to help. You've been out a couple of days, but they said that with the meds, and proximity, you should make a full recovery."

"Thank you Foggy," he grinned before smiling over at Karen who had sluggishly made her way to his bedside. 

"You scared the hell out of us, Murdock," she said angrily, the worry evident, before she softened and pulled him into a hug. "Don't ever do that again, okay?"

"Pinky swear," Matt replied, happy to feel something warm in his chest after the weeks of cold emptiness. "Now, how's everyone? Everything? Cases, the office?" He needed to be thinking about something else. He didn't want all his attention and focus on Frank. Normalcy - the one thing that had felt like a lump under his skin - was now the one thing he was craving.

"Matt -" Foggy protested. 

"Please Fog."

"Alright," he conceded, noticing the desperation there, before jabbing a finger at him, "but when I say we stop, we stop." Matt held his hands up in surrender. "Okay," he began, pulling the chair closer and grabbing several files from his bag. "Mr and Mrs Hernández," he started. "We've got them a date for the trial against their landlord for next week."

"Bedbugs, right?"  

"Yeah," Karen cut in, perching on the end of his bed by his feet. "They're staying with their daughter and son-in-law at the moment, but having two elderly people sleep on the couch isn't ideal. Luckily we spoke with the other tenants again and they want to join the suit as witnesses."

"How many?"

"At the moment six other families," Foggy replied before smiling. "I don't wanna jinx it, but it's looking good, Matt."

"Great," he sighed. "What about Mr Pachis? Any outcome from the plea?"

"Success!" Foggy grinned. "Judge came back this morning. The charge has gone down from attempted murder to battery," he paused. "I don't know how they even charged him with that in the first place: I mean how is defending yourself from a gang member in a pub using a bottle intent to murder, I don't know." 

"Corrupt cops," Karen chimed in. 

"I know right! But that's why we're here. Nelson and Murdock, righting wrongs!"

Matt huffed out a laugh, tailing it off as he suddenly became hyper aware of Frank's gaze pinned to the side of his head. "Easy there Foggy, one case at a time, alright?" 

"Yeah, yeah, so, Mr Jedynak, he dropped off three boxes of oranges and half a pig yesterday as payment for his case, so we had to put it in your freezer," he coughed, almost bashfully. "And we also put the payment from Miss Helena in your kitchen too. Karen and I don't like tuna steaks."

"Neither do I, Foggy," Matt snorted. 

"I'll head down to the fish market tomorrow morning," Karen interjected, "see what we can get for them."

"Right -" They were cut off by the sound of the door opening and a nurse walking through. 

"You lot better not be working," came the order. 

"Claire?" Matt asked, curious, recognising the familiar smell that invaded his senses. 

"Why is it whenever I see you, Murdock, you're always in need of hospital?" She smiled, no real bite behind the words. "Hey Franklin."

"Hello Claire," Foggy replied, just as happy to see the woman as Matt was. 

"So you've been looking after me?" Matt asked. 

"Only for old times sake," she shot back just as quickly, pulling a snort from his law partner and a gentle smile from himself. 

"Well then I know I'm definitely on the mend," he retorted. 

"I see your flirting is still awful," she laughed. 

"Were ya expectin' it to improve?" came a flat, half-irritated comment from the bed beside him. The room dynamic changed instantly.

After a few moments, Karen excused herself to the bathroom and as soon as she was gone, Claire relaxed and smirked down at Matt. "Really, The Punisher?" she asked. "You trying to make life harder?"

"I figured I might as well give it a shot," he retorted. "Although, at least this way I'll never have to look far for a criminal to punch in the face." 

"...Watch your fuckin' mouth, Murdock," Frank snapped.

"Hey!" Claire snapped, angrily turning on the man. "You watch your mouth. Because Matt's Soulmate or not, I will slap you halfway across the room if you speak to him like that again, do you hear me?" Frank was no doubt alarmed, and surprised, if his heart beat was any indication. "Jesus," Claire continued. "I heard you were a shitty person, I didn't realise how shitty."

"Claire..." Matt pleaded softly. 

"Seriously?" she asked, rounding on him. "You're going to defend this asshole? You know, for a blind ninja who beats people up in back-alleys, you are far too nice sometimes."

"You can stay for as long as you like," Foggy cut in, grinning at Frank smugly as the man tried to recover from the berating. "Its nice to have someone kick The Punisher into touch."

"Isn't that Matt's job?" Claire chuckled, finishing up her notes on their charts. 

"Ugh," the blue eyed lawyer huffed at the same time Frank bit out: "No."

Claire sighed. "Must I bang your heads together, boys? You're both pretty, but you're also both pretty stupid, aren't you? God, between your love of taking down criminals and dressing up like Halloween figures, you're perfect for each other. Not to mention, of course, that if you actually worked together, you could actually make a real, tangible difference in this city. But no, you," she pointed at Frank, "would rather act like a dick and abandon your Soulmate. And you," she turned back to Matt, "would rather let yourself waste away from Sickness than talk some sense into this asshole."

"You know what lady," Frank began teeth gritted, "you ain't got the first fuckin' clue about me or my life, or about what I do, or why, alrigh'? Ya don't know shit."

"Really?" she barked. "Did you ask Matt about his life, maybe about why he does what he does before you left? Huh?" 

Silence. 

"I thought so," she replied, hackles still raised. "Jesus you boys are idiots," she paused, taking in a breath. "I will be back later. And to ensure you do nothing strenuous, no work and generally take it easy, I am going to interject. Alright?" She fished a full syringe from a nearby cabinet and fed the needle into his IV, depressing the plunger swiftly. "Alright?" she repeated.  

"Yes ma'am," he replied, still a little out of sorts from her confrontation with Frank. Claire crossed the floor and left. 

"Do you think Marci would mind if I married Claire?" Foggy asked after a few moments of quiet. 

Matt burst out laughing, chest aching from something slightly different now. "Probably, buddy, yeah."

"Damn," he muttered. 

They laughed until Matt succumbed to sleep.