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1.
Matt’s been at the orphanage for a while now. He’s listened as the kids come and go, stopped trying to learn their names because most of them get adopted fast. He tries not to get attached, remembers what Stick says about attachments.
But it’s hard. He’s lonely, and at least the other kids understand some of what he’s gone through, losing family, ending up here.
The girl is weird, even by orphanage standards. She’s new, and she doesn’t talk to anyone. The nuns call her by a name she doesn’t answer to. There’s a stuffed bunny in her arms all the time, and when the nuns try to take it away she gets mad, and steals it back, even when it’s been locked in the offices.
She steals lots of things. Little things mostly. Matt has known kids who did that before, but not like this girl.
One day she steals Matt’s glasses.
Matt steals her bunny.
That night, the dormitory is very quiet. Three kids were adopted earlier in the week and their beds haven’t been filled up yet.
The girl kicks the foot of his bed after light’s out. “Give Mr. Rabbit back.”
“Give me my glasses back.” Matt snaps. It’s mean, he shouldn’t be mean, that’s not good. He’s going to have to do penance for this, lots of Hail Marys.
“Fine,” the girl tosses the glasses at him, Matt catches them out of the air. She gasps.
“Here you go,” Matt gives her back the bunny.
She hugs it, whimpers slightly.
“I’m sorry,” Matt says. “But you took my glasses. I’m blind.”
“I know. I’m not blind.” the girl says.
“Lucky you,” Matt grumbles.
The girl shifts from foot to foot. Then she sits on the edge of the bed, legs swinging.
Matt doesn’t say anything.
She leans down, the layer of blankets between them, and Mr. Rabbit.
“I don’t share, but Mr. Rabbit wants to hug you tonight,” she says. She pushes Mr. Rabbit towards him.
Matt feels for Mr. Rabbit’s head and pats it.
The girl falls asleep quickly.
2.
He realizes she’s following him, but doesn’t realize who she is.
Matt walks through Central Park a lot. Now that he’s a teenager the nuns let him get around the city on his own, get used to being independent.
Finally, Matt turns around in the direction he can sense her. “I don’t have any money on me!” he snaps in her general direction. “I’d really rather not get mugged again this week!” Blind guys are apparently prime targets, and Matt can’t really use his ninja-training on random muggers.
She shuffles closer. “Hi, Matt,” she says. “I don’t know if you, uh, remember me, or whatever … we were at St. Agnes’s …”
There were a lot of kids he knew at St. Agnes. “Gonna have to be more specific?”
The girl turns to leave, then comes back, then tries to leave again, then comes back. “You stole Mr. Rabbit from me!” she blurts out at last.
Matt smiles. “Yeah, because you took my glasses.”
They walk together, not really talking but not uncomfortable with the silence either. On the way Matt senses her bumping into people, removing wallets from pockets and cellphones from purses. She buys ice cream with the money, hands a cone to Matt. It shouldn’t taste so sweet, it was bought with money she stole, but Matt eats it all and it tastes just fine.
“My name’s Parker,” she says. “It always was, just, the nuns didn’t get it.”
Matt nods.
“Got a home?” Matt asks.
“Sort of.” Parker shrugs.
“Are you … ok?” Matt says it carefully. “Safe, I mean?”
She eats her ice cream. “Yeah, I guess so. How about you?”
Matt thinks about Stick leaving, about his missing mother, about the bullies in school, about how he wants to make a difference in Hell’s Kitchen.
“Yeah. I’m ok.”
They part ways when they finish their ice cream.
That night, it’s raining outside. When Matt goes to bed, Parker is in his room.
“Parker? How did you get in here?”
“How did you know it was me?” she sound genuinely surprised.
Neither reveals that information to the other. Matt lets her stay the night, because despite her insistence that she doesn’t really need to, she does need a place to stay. He tries not to think about how that must mean she’s on the streets, that the rain drove her here to his room.
He tells her she can stop by whenever, and she does, when it rains, or when it’s especially cold in the winter. They keep a blanket layer between each other. They don’t touch if they can help it. The nuns never find out.
Then she just stops visiting.
3.
“Matt, this weird girl just showed up and she says she knows you?” Foggy says the minute Matt enters their room.
“Hi Matt.” Parker says.
“Hi, Parker,” Matt smiles. “Foggy this is … um … Parker. We uh …”
“We were orphans together.” Parker says. “At the orphanage.”
“Okaaaaay,” Foggy picks up his keys. “I’ll let you two uh ‘catch up’ or whatever … where did I put my wallet …”
Matt turns to Parker, frowning. “Parker,” he warns.
Parker sighs heavily and pulls the wallet out while Foggy is searching his bed. “Oh, look, I found your wallet,” she says in the most unconvincing tone ever.
“Thanks!” Foggy takes it back, not a hint of suspicion. As he leaves, he brushes past Matt and mutters, “Of course she’s hot.”
Matt blushes and Foggy leaves them alone.
“How did you find me, Parker?” he asks. “And why did you find me?”
“Easy. Not many blind guys named Matt trying to become a lawyer. And I … I need to lie low for a few days. Until the heat is off.”
“Heat?” Matt asks. “Parker, what did you do?”
“Nothing they can prove, so long as I fence it soon. But my fence is out of town and I gotta wait for him, and the cops found my last place. So can I stay here for a bit?”
Matt knew Parker was a thief. He just hadn’t realized how serious of a thief. “Won’t I be an accessory to this?” he asks, half joking and half serious.
“Nope. I stashed it somewhere. If I get caught, which I won’t, you can just tell them we knew each other at the orphanage and you trusted me and had no idea about the theft. Nobody’s gonna think the blind Catholic lawyer is lying.”
“I won’t lie.” Matt says.
“You won’t have to. Because I’m not gonna get caught.” Parker stretches out on his bed. “I need to sleep.” And then she falls asleep.
She sleeps for a solid ten hours. Foggy comes back during that.
“Wow, Matty. Usually it’s the guy who falls asleep after marathon sex, not the girl.”
“Foggy, we didn’t … it’s not like that,” Matt sighs. “We don’t do sex.”
“So what do you do?”
“We …” Matt struggles to find the right words. “We sleep. We talk. We go way back, ok? But we don’t do sex.”
“Ok, ok, I gotcha,” Foggy is quiet for a while.
“She’s gonna be staying here for a few days, is that ok with you?” Matt stumbles forward before the plan is fully-formed. “Her um, housing situation got complicated, she needs a few days to sort it out.” It’s not a lie, not really.
“Yeah, sure, I’m not gonna complain.” Foggy stretches back on his bed. “So, um … is she seeing anyone right now, or …?”
Matt feels a protective streak flare up inside of him. “Don’t. Just don’t Foggy, ok?” there’s an edge to his voice.
“Whoa, ok, sorry! She’s like a sister to you. Message received.” Foggy opens up his textbooks for the night.
It’s not like that, not really, but Matt doesn’t know how to explain what it is.
Parker stays for two more nights, then leaves. Matt researches the painting she stole, the security system she evaded to get to it.
Parker isn’t just a thief.
Parker is a master thief.
4.
“You need to leave Landman and Zack.”
Matt almost jumps out of his skin. It’s seldom that anyone can sneak up on him, and Parker just managed it.
He’s walking home after a shift, down a crowded street, and all of the sudden Parker is at his side.
“Parker!” Matt yelps, whirling around. “What the … you can’t just … I’m blind!”
“Yeah, duh.” Parker turns Matt back around. “Keep walking, we look suspicious.”
They walk in silence, heading for Matt’s apartment.
“This place is weird.” Parker says when they get inside.
“You’re weird,” Matt would be the first to admit that it’s not the best comeback, but it’s all he has.
“Do you know there’s a giant neon sign streaming in through the window? Very Blade Runner. Hardison would love it.”
“Yeah, it’s why I get the place so cheap.”
“But you’re blind.”
“Lawyer,” Matt grins. “If I bring over guests, it’s apparently annoying enough to justify a discounted lease.”
“You need to leave Landman and Zack. Bye.” Parker heads for the door.
“Parker, wait!”
She waits.
“You haven’t seen me in years, and you just show up, tell me to quit my job, and that’s it?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Parker starts to leave again.
“Parker, please!”
Parker stops. “Right, sorry. Sophie’s been teaching me about this.” She sits down. “Let’s talk. About your feelings.”
Matt sits down across from her, confused. Parker seems different.
“They ruin people’s lives, Matt. All they do is defend their big clients, and crush innocents under their feet.”
Parker goes on and on, and Matt listens. It’s like she can see into his head and pull out every little thought he’s had during his time at Landman and Zack.
“Defending huge corporations against their victims, stealing people’s retirement funds? That’s not the Matt I know.” Parker finishes. “So … yeah. You need to leave them.”
Matt thinks about the man he heard, abusing his daughter every night. That man he beat up, put in the hospital for months. What would Parker think of him for doing that?
“How much do you really know me, Parker? You, you just show up, randomly, and then you disappear, and you act like you know me?”
Parker stands up. “Leave Landman and Zack. Or you’ll get dragged down with them. I came here to warn you, Matt, before it’s too late.”
“Too late … are you going to do something to them? Are you going to hurt people, Parker?” Matt thought she was just a thief.
“No. But a lot of heat is going to come down on Landman and Zack. And I don’t want you to get caught up in it. You’re … you’re … I feel like … I just don’t want you to get hurt Matt, ok?” Parker sounds angry, though at herself or Matt, Matt can’t tell.
“You got somewhere to stay tonight?” Matt asks softly.
“Maybe.” Parker mumbles.
“I think you’re gonna like my new bed. A lot.”
Parker makes a lot of noises as she stretches out on his bed. “Silk, excellent,” she pronounces. “And the mattress is so soft … wow Matt … all that money you save on the apartment go into this bed?”
“Pretty much,” Matt gets into his pajamas. “My old mentor would flip out over this. Tell me I’m getting too comfortable, too attached to things.”
“Things are great,” Parker says. “They’re what make us human.”
“I don’t think he wanted me to be human,” Matt admits. “I think he wanted me to be a weapon. And then he left when I got too attached.”
Parker makes a humming sound. “My mentor was a little like that. He wanted a thief, not a daughter.”
“What happened to him?”
“He realized he made a mistake. I found a family though. They’re … they’re wonderful.” Matt doesn’t have to see Parker to know she’s smiling.
“You still stealing?”
“Yeah, but now I steal for good reasons. To help people who need helping.” Parker rolls around in the bed, getting comfortable. “We do good things now.”
Matt wants to ask, wants to know more, but if Parker doesn’t volunteer the information he won’t be able to pry it out of her.
They drift to sleep. Matt wakes up tangled in the sheets while Parker is getting dressed.
“Leave Landman and Zack, ok? It’s important.” Parker says again.
“I will.” Matt promises.
Parker leaves.
Matt leaves Landman and Zack, and convinces Foggy to leave with him.
A month later, Landman and Zack is rocked by a massive scandal, an entire department is indicted, even the junior lawyers.
Junior lawyers Matt and Foggy would have been, if they hadn’t left when they had.
Matt gets a card in Braille that merely reads “You’re Welcome.” The return address is to “Mr. Rabbit.”
5.
Not long after leaving Landman and Zack, Matt comes home one evening and finds Parker asleep in his bed. There’s a suitcase in the room, a small one, the kind that can double as a backpack if necessary. Parker travels light.
Matt makes breakfast for dinner, and Parker stumbles in, yawning. “Pancakes?”
“Yeah. Here’s your plate,” Matt indicates the left plate he’s been stacking with pancakes.
“How did you know I’d wake up?”
“I didn’t. I hoped.”
They eat.
“Not as good as Eliot’s, but pretty good.” Parker pronounces.
“Who’s Eliot?”
Parker hesitates. “Family,” she says at last. “That’s why I’m here. We’re moving out West. We’ve been in Boston for a while but … it’s time for a change. I won’t be coming around so often anymore.”
Matt bites back his retorts that she hasn’t been coming by much at all, and he worries about her, the world class thief turned Robin Hood figure.
“Are you safe?” he asks at last.
“Yeah. Safest I’ve ever been. I’ve got people to watch my back, and I can watch their backs.”
It’s not a lie. It’s the truth. Matt relaxes.
“Starting your own law firm?”
“If we can find clients,” Matt sighs. “It’s difficult.”
“I can send you some people. People we’ve been keeping an eye on, people we’ve helped who need lawyers now.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Parker leaves after the pancakes, mentions the flight she has to catch. She promises to send him the clients, and sure enough, a half dozen people come knocking on their ramshackle office door within the next few weeks. They in turn refer friends, and family. Soon, while Nelson and Murdock aren’t exactly rich, they’re at least able to pay the electricity bills on time. The clients are honest people, good people, innocents being crushed by big businesses. Defending them is the kind of work Matt has always wanted to do, and now he’s finally able to do it.
+1
Years have passed. Matt has a lot more scars, from his nights donning the mask and suit. Fisk is locked away but who knows how long that will last. Gangs rise and fall, Daredevil fights, Nelson and Murdock struggle along.
A package arrives. Matt feels three plane tickets, a card, and a tape recorder. The card has an address printed inside, with Braille, and a message that reads “play the tape.”
“Hi Matt. This is Parker. I’ve been keeping up with your … ‘nightly walks’ around NYC. You need a break. Come to Portland Oregon. If you don’t, I’ll send Eliot to pick you up.”
Matt raises his eyebrows.
There’s some muffled discussion on the tape, a man saying “If he don’t wanna get taken –” and Parker arguing.
Parker’s voice returns full-force. ”Please come to Portland, Matt. You need a break. Bring your partner, he’s nice. And your secretary. I need to talk to her. And you’d better come.”
And that’s it.
Matt plays it again, frowning. He can’t leave the city. There’s always so much to do, so many people, if Daredevil leaves …
… he hasn’t left New York city in so long. Fisk is locked up. He just took out another gang. Anyone else will take a while to build up the clout to be a threat worthy of Daredevil.
And Foggy’s been after him about a vacation for years.
They go, of course, all three of them.
The brewpub is an odd location. Matt wasn’t expecting something so … mundane? Public? Parker is an international thief after all.
She’s not alone. Two men are with her, introduced as Eliot and Hardison. Matt can smell Parker and Hardison all over each other, sense the heat as they brush against each other. Eliot, when Matt shakes his hand, feels like a fighter. There’s something of a boxer in him, something of the devil too.
“You box?” Eliot asks, after Matt lets go of his hand.
“How did you –?” Matt frowns, suspicious.
“Very distinctive grip.”
Eliot smells like Parker and Hardison too, but he isn’t as public about it, doesn’t brush against them. It’s obvious to Matt, but he doubts the trio show anything they don’t want seen to the rest of the world.
Eliot and Matt end up sparring in a makeshift ring in the back of the building.
On a nearby couch, Foggy and Hardison watch them, and get distracted by discussion of the latest sci-fi shows. Karen and Parker vanish together for a while. When Karen comes back she’s quieter, leans towards Foggy more, but she seems more relaxed than Matt’s felt before. Beers are passed around, Hardison and Karen and Foggy start up a drinking game.
“There’s something different about you,” Eliot says to Matt, after their eighth round. “Who’d you train with?”
“You wouldn’t know him.” Matt says.
“Not many people I don’t know, in our line of work.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Matt knows that Parker knows he’s Daredevil, and now he knows she shared that with her men.
Eliot shrugs. “Helping people the law can’t help.”
“He just shrugged!” Foggy calls out, a delayed response, probably due to the beer.
They drink, Matt slinks off for a shower. By the time he’s clean and in new clothes, Foggy and Karen are asleep on a couch, a blanket draped over them.
“We do have a guest room, upstairs,” Parker says, appearing beside Matt. He didn’t sense her coming, again. He has no idea how she does that, why he can’t sense her.
“Lead the way.”
She does, without touching him, which he continues to appreciate about her.
The room they enter isn’t a guest room though, Matt knows that. It smells of Parker and Hardison and Eliot, it smells lived-in and comfortable. There’s a bed here, silk sheets and a firmer mattress than Matt prefers but still much softer than an average bed.
“This is your room,” he says.
“Our room. Me and Hardison and Eliot.” Parker corrects.
“And where are they?”
“Not here tonight.”
“And they’re ok with this?” Matt doesn’t understand. They smell like each other, all three of them.
“Why wouldn’t they be?”
Matt can’t argue with that. He crawls into the bed. Something soft and ragged brushes against his ear.
“Mr. Rabbit missed you,” Parker says, nudging the toy between them as she slides into the bed as well. “A lot.”
Matt smiles, eyelids heavy. “The feeling is mutual.”