It was meeting Claire that prompted him to finally do it. She had called him up for help - a fairly rare occurrence. Rare enough for him to actually jump up in alarm before realizing she needed his day-job services. For a... friend. Oh, who was he kidding, one look was enough to know that wasn't a "just friends" relationship. He had felt a twinge of... something, although he wasn't exactly sure what it was. The work was pretty easy, Luke Cage had done enough to get into the good books of everyone around, and he himself was impressed. Unbreakable skin must be really useful and a lot less messy. Maybe that was one of the reasons why Claire...
No.
His love life was complicated enough without having to wonder why Claire would go out with another "gifted" human.
But, of course, Claire being Claire would not let him leave without trying to also drill some sense into him and she sensed, as she somehow always did, that while he hadn't completely lost touch with Foggy, he hadn't behaved that well either.
And so here he was, outside Hogarth, Chao, and Benowitz, waiting for Foggy to leave work, so he could at least start to make up for being a terrible friend and an even worse business partner.
Maybe it was because he was so wrapped up in his own gloomy thoughts, but it took him a lot longer to realize that Foggy was on his way out, and that he was not alone.
"...as I was saying, Ms Hogarth has-"
"I honestly don't need any of this bullshit right now. She owes me, and she knows it, and passing me on to the new kid on the block isn't gonna work."
"Okay, I'm hardly the new kid on the --"
"Yeah, I don't care, just tell her that avoiding me is a stupid move."
"Miss Jones, as I was saying ---"
"Oh for--, just call me Jessica, will you?!"
"Uh, right, so Jessica, like I said, I've actually had quite a bit of experience dealing with cases like these, but since I can't take on this case right now, I actually have some contacts who would do an excellent work at a much cheaper rate, because uh, frankly -- Matt?”
Foggy and Jessica Jones had just stepped out, and right, he might have forgotten to call ahead and let Foggy know he’d be dropping by.
“Uh, hi… Umm so I was passing by and thought I’d see how you were doing… Uh… bad time?”
“Uh no… oh actually, it’s great, right Jessica, this is Matt Murdock, fellow lawyer from Columbia, and Matt this is Jessica Jones, she’s a –“
“PI,” she interrupted sharply.
“Right, Alias Investigations, and she needs a lawyer for a young man who’s in trouble – I think it’s something you’d like.”
Jessica, who seemed to drink a lot judging from the strength of the cheap alcohol odour, huffed, clearly annoyed. But more than the smell of beer, there was something there, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but all his senses seemed to agree – while there was nothing obviously out-of-place (an extra-fast heart rate, for example), there was definitely something off.
“Look -” she began.
“I swear, Jessica, he’ll be in good hands. Matt’s a good lawyer.”
Sensing Foggy needed help here, and very touched by those last words since it was something he really didn’t deserve after the whole Frank Castle trial fiasco, he extended his hand and said, “Uh, sure, I’d be happy to take the case.”
“Without knowing what it’s about?” And Matt didn’t need his heightened senses to know she had an eyebrow raised and a very sceptical expression. He had a feeling Claire would get along well with this woman.
“Oh, I trust Foggy.”
“Foggy?”
“Uh, yeah, that’s me.”
“Your name’s Foggy?”
“Well yeah, it’s actually Franklin Nelson, but you know, everyone calls me Foggy, so -”
“Right. Fine.”
And after agreeing to show up at the office at nine the next day, she left.
There was an awkward silence after she’d gone. And Matt hated it, because this had never been the case with him and Foggy before. And it seemed he couldn’t stand it either because he broke the silence.
“So, how’re you doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine, you know, the usual.”
“Crime-fighting at night and lawyer-ing by day?”
“Yeah, sort of.”
Another awkward pause, and Matt decided he’d dawdled enough.
“Look, Foggy, I, uh, I just wanted to apologize. Things didn’t end well between us and that was completely my fault, and well, yeah, I just wanted to say I’m sorry about that. And I’ve missed you, and I hope we can, you know, be friends again.”
“Took you long enough,” Foggy snickered. “And of course we’re friends, Matt. Maybe we should go to Josie’s.”
Matt smiled. “What, you’re still going to drink there? I’m pretty sure HCB’s lawyers don’t -”
“Hey, I’ll have you know…”
And they slipped back into their easy banter, and things may not be what they used to, they probably never would, but it was something. Stick wouldn't approve, he knew, but Matt was glad that he had, for once, listened to Claire.