Chapter Text
As Karen walked into the new office of Nelson, Murdock, and Page, she had trouble thinking of it as their office. After all, it was the cluttered back office of Theo's shop and didn't really feel much like a law office at all.
Well, not yet, at least, Karen thought. They would get it to look like their office soon enough, and then, hopefully a real office of their own wouldn't be too far off.
Looking around at the boxes brought back memories of moving into their first office. After all, Karen had been there at the beginning of Nelson and Murdock as well. And now, whenever they finally got an official sign, it would read Nelson, Murdock, and Page.
Karen smiled. As much as she enjoyed working at the Bulletin, she was really looking forward to working with Matt and Foggy again. There was something special about working with close friends. She still remembered all the crazy conversations they had and all those nights hanging out at Josie's.
Of course, she remembered the way it all fell apart, too. There was no reason to think that would happen now, though. Now that everyone was being honest (well, Matt and Karen, since it wasn't like Foggy had a problem with honesty in the first place), lies wouldn't tear them apart again. Karen wouldn't have to wonder where Matt's bruises came from, and Foggy wouldn't have to come up with excuses for Matt anymore. Karen still felt terrible that Foggy had to spend so much time lying to her.
And Karen wouldn’t have to feel guilty anymore about hiding what she had done to Wesley and what had happened to her brother. Matt and Foggy knew the truth now. However, Karen wasn’t sure her guilt over killing Wesley and causing the accident that killed Kevin would ever go away. And she wasn’t sure it should.
"Hi Karen," Foggy said as he walked into the office, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Ready for your first official day at Nelson, Murdock, and Page? Or really, a day of unpacking, I guess. Reminds me of the old office. I didn't think we would ever get all those boxes unpacked, and we didn't have nearly this much stuff."
Karen smiled. "Yeah, I was just thinking about that. You guys were so lucky to have me there to help you unpack."
Foggy laughed. "Yeah, but you claimed you were going to work for free and then insisted on getting paid."
"I'm not going to make any claims about working for free this time," Karen said. "I'm fully planning to collect a paycheck."
"Yeah, hopefully we will actually get clients and be able to pay ourselves soon," Foggy said.
"Foggy, are you sure about this?" Karen asked. "Hogarth might still take you back if you've changed your mind. Those paychecks are going to be a lot smaller here, at least for awhile."
"Yeah, I feel like this is the right thing to do," Foggy said. "And it will be really nice working with you guys again. There's just something special about working with your best friends."
Karen smiled. "I was just thinking the same thing."
"I agree. There's nothing like working with friends." Matt was standing in the doorway as if they needed to invite him in.
"So, Matt, are you going to help us unpack or what?" Foggy said.
Matt smiled, and Karen felt a familiar swirl of feelings rise up. It made sense for those old feelings to resurface, she thought. After all, they were back to working together again, and that would naturally bring back familiar feelings. It didn't mean anything, though. That was in the past, and it was time to look to the future. Which was, of course, just being friends.
"I suppose I could help unpack," Matt said, setting his cane to the side and starting to go through one of the boxes.
Despite having all that time of barely talking to each other after Nelson and Murdock fell apart and especially after Matt's "death", they were oddly silent as they all worked on unpacking the many boxes. It was almost as if they were afraid that if they talked too much, they would discover that they didn't want to do this after all. That everything could fall apart again just by saying the wrong things.
The silence was starting to get to Karen, so she tried to come up with something to say. "So, I was thinking that we should make a website."
"A website?" Foggy said. "We haven't even unpacked yet."
“Yes, but we need to find a way to bring in new clients beyond just word of mouth," Karen said. "I figure that I could just make us a free basic site and then social media accounts so that we can spread the word more about our new office."
"Social media, too?" Matt said.
"It took us days just to have a working phone last time," Foggy said. "Now we're going to be on Facebook? Speaking of which, I need to get us a separate phone line from the shop. Theo would probably prefer not to have to field all of our calls once we have lots of clients."
"That would probably be a good idea," Matt agreed.
"Well, the site and the social media don't have to be ready right away, but I think it would be a good idea to start promoting the firm sooner rather than later," Karen said. "And that's an easy way to do it."
"I don't know the first thing about social media, though," Foggy said. "My mom is still annoyed that I refuse to get on Facebook. I told her that I see Uncle Jim enough. I don't need to see a picture of every single thing he orders at the deli. She was telling me that he posted a really great picture of a ham sandwich. Why would I need to give all of my information to Facebook so that I can look at photos of ham sandwiches?"
Matt laughed. That was a nice sound, Karen thought. She wondered how long Matt went without laughing at all.
Karen smiled. "Well, we're not going to post any photos of sandwiches. Actually, we probably won't post that much at first. I just want to get it set up. I got used to being on Facebook and Twitter while I was working at the Bulletin."
"You have a Twitter account?" Matt said. "I didn't know that."
"I didn't either," Foggy said. "What are you posting on there?"
"Just news article links, mostly," Karen said. "And it's a pain sometimes, with all the trolls. I don't think we will have that many trolls, though."
Matt frowned. "Have you had many trolls bothering you?"
Karen shrugged. "Sometimes. Some people don't like my opinion, and they let me know by calling me names online."
"And you still want to make us a Twitter account?" Foggy said.
"Yes, because it would be Nelson, Murdock, and Page, not my personal account," Karen said. "Anyway, it's just an idea."
"Well, I don't have a problem with it if you want to do it," Matt said. "Do you, Foggy?"
"No, I think it's fine if you want to battle with the dastardly trolls of Twitter for us," Foggy said.
Karen laughed. "It's not that bad. Anyway, I'll get those set up later this week. I figure that now is a good time to do that since we won't have many clients yet."
"Yeah, we should probably get some clients," Foggy said. "I figure that we can start contacting some of our old ones first to let them know that we are open for business. Though I should probably mention that we won't be able to accept apple pies or brownies for payment. Sadly, those don't pay bills."
"At least we won't have to worry about our electricity being turned off," Matt said. "It was nice of your brother to let us use this office."
"Yeah, it was," Karen said. "Won't Theo miss it at all?"
Foggy shrugged. "He was just using it as storage. He found a storage space instead, so we can stay here as long as we need to. Which hopefully won't be too long. I'm hoping for a nicer office this time around."
"It probably still won't be as nice as Hogarth's," Karen said. "You had some fancy furniture over there."
"And bagels?" Matt said with a smile.
Foggy laughed. "Yeah, not every day, though."
Karen frowned. "Bagels?"
Now Foggy and Matt both laughed.
"Landman and Zack had bagels every morning," Matt said. "That was what Foggy missed the most about working there."
"Hey, you can't tell me you didn't miss the bagels, too," Foggy said.
"They did have good bagels," Matt said. "They got them from that bakery on the corner. Is that place still open?"
Foggy shook his head. "No, sadly, we will never have those bagels again."
"Well, they just would have reminded us of Landman and Zack," Matt said.
"Yeah, that was why I never stopped to get them on the way to our old office," Foggy said. "Well, and they were ridiculously expensive. Which is probably why that place went out of business."
"We'll have to find ourselves a new bagel place," Karen said.
"There's that bakery about a block down that just opened," Foggy said.
"Well, tomorrow's mission can be checking out the new bakery," Matt said.
"We deserve it after all of the hard work unpacking today," Foggy said. "We're almost through, and we had way more stuff than last time."
Foggy gestured to the now-empty boxes. They had been impressively productive.
"We definitely deserve it," Karen agreed. "And maybe we can even start getting out the word about Nelson, Murdock, and Page."
"You're such a go-getter," Foggy said. "And, obviously, this evening we have to go to Josie's."
"Oh, Josie's," Matt said. "It's been such a long time since I've been there."
"Yeah, it's been awhile for me, too," Foggy said.
Karen smiled. It was so nice to be standing here chatting with Matt and Foggy again. There was no doubt in her mind that working with them was the right thing to do.
"Yes, I think we definitely need to go to Josie's."