Work Text:
Matt fell and broke his wrist.
He kept slipping on that slippery ice step on the front porch of his apartment whenever the temperature dropped low enough into the freezing zone. Matt was always so careful but somehow, the icy step has won today.
He didn’t think it was that bad, maybe he’d sprain his wrist but when he use his other hand to examine the damage that has been done, he changed his mind. Matt was pretty sure he could feel his bone sticking out a little through the skin but he wasn’t really sure because it was freezing outside and he couldn’t really feel the tip of his fingers anymore besides a throbbing pain.
After a minute or two of standing still cradling his right arm in his hand, it started to hurt…like to the point where Matt was feeling light headed. Should he call an ambulance? Probably not, they didn’t have enough people working today. It was fine, Matt could take himself to the nearest hospital.
That was how Matthew Murdock ended up at a hospital on Christmas Eve.
---
Jen cut her thumb really badly before dinner.
Her boss sent her to work in New York last week. The case was suppose to be quick and easy so she could make it back in time to her parents’ place in LA two days ago. Somehow the case turned out to be more complicated which was why she had to spend Christmas Eve all by herself in a decent enough apartment that her company paid for.
Jen wasn’t a really good cook, okay, scratch that, she didn’t know how to cook at all. She ended up buying her dinner at Wholes Food from a couple of blocks from where she temporarily lived. It was fine, until she cut her thumb open with a kitchen knife when she wanted to open a packet of pumpkin pie she’d bought.
Jen didn’t think it was that bad but she felt light headed, her vision was getting fuzzy, and the blood wouldn’t stop pouring out of the cut. She thought about calling 911 but was sure this minor accident wasn’t worth for an ambulance. So she wrapped her thumb up as tightly as possible and left for a hospital.
Somehow she’d managed to take herself to the nearest ER in under 10 minutes according to google on Christmas Eve.
---
The receptionist told Jen that she had to wait because they were short staffed. She couldn’t blame them, it was Christmas Eve after all.
She found her way to the chairs lined up against the wall of a sterilized hospital room. There were quite a lot of people despite the holiday, people didn’t stop hurting themselves on a day off after all. Luckily there was an empty spot in the back corner next to a guy with red glasses.
*Who wears sun glasses at night?*
Jen sat down with a grunt and held her left thumb in her lap and didn’t pay attention to a man next to her. The blood seemed to slow down at some point when she got to the hospital. Now she just had to wait for her name to be called. She balanced the clipboard that the nurse handed to her on her thighs and started filling out her information. When she was done she noticed that the guy on her left was just sitting there with an empty form, that was when she noticed he had a white cane leaning against a nearby wall.
*Oh*
*Does he need help filling out the form? Should she ask? Would that be rude?*
*Should she just ignore him?*
“I can kinda feel you staring you know,” he said without turning to look at Jen.
“Sorry,” Jen replied feeling her face heat up from embarrassment. “I was just wondering if you needed help with those forms?”
Jen wince, *good job dumb ass!* Now he was going to think you were this nosy weird girl. What a way to make new friends and wasn’t that something that Jen could use right now on a lonely Christmas Eve.
“As a matter of fact, that would be great actually,” the man turned his face and replied with a small smile. “They said they were gonna have someone help me but I guess they forgot so…” he trailed off with a shrug.
“Okay, here, I already finished mine so let me take yours,” Jen said and grabbed a clipboard from the man’s lap.
“Let’s see, what’s your full name?” She asked.
“Matthew Michael Murdock.” He replied with a curt nod.
“Alright Matthew, what’s your date of birth?”
“Matt’s fine. It’s October 25th, 1985.”
They kept at it, Jen asking question after question and Matt didn’t fail to answer any of them. He explained how he fell and broke his wrist so Jen wrote it down, she couldn’t help but wince when Matt finished his story.
“What about you? How did you end up here?” Matt asked while Jen was writing on the clipboard.
“Oh it was really embarrassing, I um…I kinda cut my thumb trying to open a box of pie that I got from Whole Foods?” Jen could feel her face flushed with shame when she realized how stupid that sounded.
Matt chuckled and Jen could see the wrinkles around his eyes. That was the first time she realized that he kinda looked handsome despite the harsh lighting of the hospital ER waiting room.
“Matthew Murdock,” a nurse announced his name and looked around the room from the counter. It was Matt’s cue to stand up and let them know it was him. They escorted him behind one of the curtains as Jen went back to sitting in silence in a busy ER room.
---
Matt sat on an uncomfortable hospital bed while they patched him up. They reset his bones and put him in a cast. One of the nurses told him that it was a plain white cast, not that he cared what color it was as long as it was professional, he was a lawyer after all.
Matt ran his left hand over his right arm that’d just been fixed. He could feel the texture of the cast and smelled the sterilized gauze, it wasn’t that bad per se but still kind of overwhelming for his senses nonetheless. They gave him a painkiller not that long ago and he guessed it started to kick in because he didn’t feel the painful throbs anymore. Those drugs were really wonderful.
The nurses left him alone behind the curtains while he waited to be discharged. His mind started wandering back to the woman who helped him out with his forms earlier and couldn’t help but smile. She had this ball of positive energy around her that he really liked, her voice was very lovely, and never mentioned her smell. He caught a whiff of citrus with a hint of green apple every time she turned her head.
Then he realized he didn’t even get her name. Well, that wouldn’t do.
---
“Hey Matt, what are you still doing here?” Jen asked surprised when she walked out to the waiting area and found Matt standing there with a cane in his left hand. She noticed his right arm was in a cast with a sling that ran over his shoulder.
“Um…waiting for you actually. I never caught your name,” Matt replied sheepishly.
“Oh, that was very rude of me. I’m so sorry, I’m Jennifer but you can call me Jen,” She replied hurriedly with a flushed cheeks.
“Well, nice to meet you Jen. I was wondering if you wanna, I don’t know, let me take your out to dinner some time as a thank you for earlier?” Matt shuffled his feet. Jen could spot a tint of pink on his cheeks and couldn’t suppress a smile.
“Sure, why not. It’s not like I know anyone in the city anyway,” Jen shrugged.
“You’re not from here?” Matt asked, curious.
“Uh yeah, I’m here for work actually. I’m a lawyer, they sent me out here for a case that was suppose to end two days ago.” Jen let out a frustrated sigh.
“Oh that’s great, I’m a lawyer too,” Matt was smiling even wider now when he told her what he did for a living.
They ended up exchanging numbers while making small talk headed out of the hospital. But before they could go their separate ways, Jen realized that it was well past midnight.
“Merry Christmas Matt,” Jen said when they stepped out onto the street.
“Merry Christmas Jen,” Matt replied and walked back to his apartment with a smile that wouldn’t go away until the next morning.