Work Text:
Foggy was not having the best of days. Spilled coffee, fighting with his new neighbors, arguing with Jeri Hogarth, and now booking it from the office to Metro General. This was not his favorite thing to do on a cold winter’s day in Hell’s Kitchen.
But it was his job.
A client, who he hadn’t met yet but Jeri insisted on him representing, was currently at Metro General with her husband who was in an accident. The couple wanted to sue the construction company for the accident (how it was caused, Foggy doesn’t know because fuck if Jeri Hogarth would give him a file on a surprise client), so Foggy was meeting them for their initial consultation.
He made it into the hospital just as he felt the ground tremble. He gripped the security desk closest to him and looked around wildly.
And then fire alarms were sounding throughout the hospital.
Instead of trying to exit, like the fleeing occupants of the waiting room, Foggy fought the crowd and made it to the welcome desk. “Hi. I’m Foggy Nelson, I’m a lawyer, and I am very familiar with this hospital and the surrounding area. What do you need me to do?”
And just like that, Foggy was swept up into the evacuation and rescue operations at Metro General Hospital.
Foggy was sweating through his suit jacket which was surprising considering the damn near negative temperature outside, so he tore it off and tossed it over a chair before making his way outside.
Everyone in the hospital excluding six child patients, two doctors, and three nurses were evacuated. They were waiting for the last three ambulances to arrive to take the children to a safer hospital outside of the wreckage that was once Hell’s Kitchen.
Aliens or robots or something was attacking Hell’s Kitchen. Before the TV’s lost signal, CNN and local stations were reporting conflicting stories; all Foggy knew was that it sounded like bombs were going off all around. Debris and smoke was heavy in the air and he had a mask on as he ventured outside.
He figured he could be the lookout since the doctors and nurses in charge of the children were the ones that really needed to stay safe and most importantly—alive.
Foggy looked to his left and then swung his head slowly to the right, squinting and listening, trying to find signs of the ambulances.
All of a sudden he heard screeching metal. He took a hesitant step back, and another and another when he realized it was someone running, followed by…growling? Snarling? He was about to turn back and run inside, because he left a door propped open with his shoe a la Jurassic Park, which Foggy was cursing himself for doing, when Daredevil literally skidded past him.
“Matt?!” Foggy yelped, because he hasn’t seen Matt or Daredevil in person for months. Not since the end of Nelson and Murdock.
“Foggy?” Foggy would have laughed at how comically Matt spun around to face him. And then Matt was running at him, gasping, “Run, run, run!”
Foggy ran back into the hospital, Matt hot on his heels, and he slammed open the propped door and Matt followed behind, both throwing their weight against the locked door.
Daredevil tore off his mask with trembling hands as Foggy ripped off his own. Foggy pressed a hand against his chest, trying to slow his racing heart as he looked at Matt. His hair was plastered to his head and his cheeks were red from running and his hands were trembling as he tore at his gloves.
“Foggy, Foggy…are you okay? Are you hurt? Can I—can I please?” And his hands were on Foggy’s face before Foggy could accept or deny his request, and he didn’t even flinch.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. What the hell is out there?”
“A robot dog? I don’t know. Robots and people are destroying the Kitchen and I am no match to their machines. I went to Karen’s, but she was out visiting Doris and she’s safe and then I went by your place but it was barricaded by the police and half destroyed and I can’t remember where your apartment was and I couldn’t hear you or smell you and I kept choking on the dust and then the robot dog thing came and I led it away from the police and was running and running and now—” he stopped and gasped for breath before he dropped his head against the door. “I’m here.”
“Matt, listen to me,” Foggy said softly, gently touching his cheek to ground his friend who was still breathing heavily and was sort of having a panic attack? “Your senses are probably overstimulated. What can you hear right now?”
“Everything. All of it. Screaming and crying and—”
“Are we safe here?”
“I don’t know!” he gasped.
Foggy slid his hand into his hair and then forced his head down against his chest, pressing his ear right against his heart. He wasn’t sure if this was going to work considering that his heart was racing, but Matt needed grounding, and this he knew how to do.
“Listen and breathe.”
It took several long minutes, Matt resting his ear rigidly against Foggy’s chest before he relaxed. Foggy gently combed his fingers through Matt’s sweaty hair, flattening the parts that were starting to stick up. “There are children here. Six of them. And five adults? Two floors above us.”
“The rest of the hospital was evacuated, including their parents. We were waiting on three more ambulances, but I don’t think they’re coming. Are we safe here?”
“The fighting is being contained south of here. Four blocks. I think I hear…” he tilted his head left then right, reminding Foggy of a confused puppy which brought a little bit of humor to this entirely fucked situation. “Iron Man? And the Hulk.”
“Okay. So the Avengers are on the scene. Great. That means this should be over…soon?”
“Maybe.”
They lapsed into silence for a few moments, and then Foggy heaved himself to his feet. “Well these doctors and nurses have been on call for about forty-eight hours now, and they need some relief. Want to help me entertain some children?”
After scrubbing down thoroughly before entering the pediatric ward, Foggy introduced Matt as Daredevil to the doctors in charge, Doctor Jay and Deborah, and the three nurses, Jackie, Jamal, and Nancy. Jamal and Jackie were trying to console the children as they cried and begged to be reunited with their parents.
Foggy could barely stand it. Sick kids separated from their parents when they need them most? He would be inconsolable too if he was five years old! Doctor Jay explained that medicating the children would be the last resort, because of medical and evacuation reasons; all six of the children have recently been diagnosed with diabetes, so medication could affect their glucose levels, and if they needed to leave the hospital quickly, the children needed to be alert.
Foggy took this all in, trying to think of a way to both cheer the children up and give these hardworking doctors and nurses a break. “My first serious relationship in undergrad was with a music education major, and she taught me a ton of stuff, singing games, songs, the works! And with several of my youthful summers at camp, I have an arsenal of activities to keep these kids entertained for weeks! Now who here has a guitar?!”
Nancy and Doctor Deborah and Jay exchanged glances before shrugging and pointing Foggy in the direction of a storage room used to keep instruments, props, toys, and crafting supplies for when the children had regular and “Famous” visitors. Foggy swept out of the ward with determination and a slowly forming plan for his mission.
Operation Children Cheer-Up/Doctor and Nurse relief.
He hesitated outside of a door marked “Authorized Personnel Only”, and wiggled the doorknob, relieved that it was unlocked. He opened the door and flipped on the switch, blinking at the brightness before returning to his mission. The first thing his eyes zeroed in on was a crate of coloring books, crayons, blank white paper, and paint. He took the paint out because now was not the time to create a mess, and set them on a shelf. He picked up the crate and took a few steps backwards to place it in the hallway.
Then he stepped back into the room and with only little bit of searching, he found a guitar snug in a hard black case.
“Do you need help, Mr. Nelson?”
Foggy jumped and spun around to glare at Matt—Daredevil. “Uh sure, Daredevil. Can you carry that crate and follow me? It’s two steps to your right.”
They walked into an almost comfortable silence as they made their way back to the ward. “The doctors don’t know whether I’m a threat or not, so I’m going to stay by the windows and keep watch.”
“Okay,” Foggy said, pausing outside the door. “Thanks Matt. For staying.”
“I would never—”
“Don’t finish that sentence, buddy. You and I both know the truth.” Foggy hadn’t meant to sound so…hurt? but what was done was done. He opened the door to the ward and Matt followed behind him, placing the crate of coloring supplies on an empty bed before retreating back to the window.
The six boys and girls were still clustered around Jamal and Jackie, crying just as hard as they had been before Foggy left on his mission. Foggy was sure Jamal and Jackie were close to giving up consoling as a lost cause. They looked exhausted, and Foggy wanted to do as much as he could to relieve them.
He knelt down beside the children and set his guitar to the side. One little girl with dark skin and long braids looked at him and wiped at her eyes. “Hi, what’s your name?” he asked softly, smiling as genuinely as he could manage.
“Miriam,” she said just as softly, her voice heavy with an African accent.
“Hi Miriam. I’m Foggy.”
“Foggy? Like the weather?” She wiped at her eyes and sent him a watery smile.
“Just like the weather!” She giggled, and that made some of the upset children pause and peer at Foggy too. Then Jamal heaved a giant sigh of relief as the crying began to quiet and the children loosened their grip on each other and huddled around Foggy. “I have a very silly story to tell. Would you all like to hear it?”
“Okay,” Miriam said, before she gently introduced her friends to Foggy; Emily, Jessica, Jose, Jeffrey, and Jason.
“Do you think we can move to the carpet for a little bit?” The children looked at each other and then Miriam, who looked like their unspoken leader, said,
“We can move to the carpet.” She took a hesitant step towards the carpet and turned to her friends. “C’mon! It’ll be fun!” They moved as a unit, holding hands, and walked to the colorful carpet in the middle of the room. Foggy followed and joined their little circle.
As he was attempting to tune the guitar, he asked the children questions about their favorite stories, songs, and things they liked to do in school. The more they talked, the lighter the atmosphere got in the room, until the music of children’s laughter drowned out everything else.
The silly story, which was one Foggy learned when he was in first grade, was called Super Turkey. It was a Thanksgiving favorite, and everyone in his family knew it. His guitar skills were rusty, but the children either didn’t notice or didn’t care because they were having so much fun laughing and being silly with him. Next he sang a counting song called Three Little Ducks, about three baby ducks going out to play, but every day one less returned. His favorite part was when Momma duck cried more dramatically each time, “Quack, quack, quaaack, quaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!” It had Miriam in tears and the children begging to hear it two more times.
Foggy used everything in his arsenal, singing games, stories, and when he felt like he couldn’t sing anymore, he pulled out the coloring supplies and they spent nearly an hour in silence coloring and drawing. While the children were working on their artwork, Foggy glanced around the room and saw the doctors and nurses slumped in chairs, taking a break for the first time in what must have been hours. He glanced behind him and saw Matt with one ear tilted towards the window, brow furrowed.
“Look Mr. Foggy! I drawed a frog and I used all the colors!”
Foggy turned his attention to Emily, quickly putting Daredevil to the back of his mind.
Eventually, the children were tired of coloring, so Foggy abandoned the guitar and art supplies to play a few rounds of Duck, Duck, Goose, until everyone had a chance to run around the small circle. By this time it was dark out, and the five and six year olds were beginning to get sleepy.
One by one, Jamal, Nancy, and Jackie began pulling the children aside to check their blood glucose levels. Unsurprisingly, their levels were high, so after a dosage of insulin from Doctor Jay and Doctor Deborah, they began getting ready for bed.
“Can we hear one more story?” Emily asked around a big yawn.
“Yeah, I think I can tell one more story,” Foggy said, picking up his abandoned guitar and settling in a chair. The beds were moved to form a semi-circle around Foggy so the kids could see him. “I learned this one in college. It’s called, “Over in the Meadow”.”
He cleared his throat a few times, causing all six of them to giggle, and then Foggy strummed the guitar and sang,
“Over in the meadow,
in the sand, in the sun,
lived an old mother turtle,
and her little turtle one.
“Dig!” said the mother,
“I dig!” said the one, and
he dug all day,
in the sand in the sun…”
As he played and sang through the second verse, Jamal dimmed the lights, and just like that, the kids began drifting off. By the time Foggy got to the tenth verse, Miriam was the only one awake, and just barely.
“Thank you Mr. Foggy.”
“You’re very welcome, Miriam,” Foggy whispered from his chair, trying not to move or make a noise that could wake the sleepy girl. Her little eyes were blinking and she was fighting sleep. “Sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.”
It took almost a minute, but then Matt gently touched his shoulder and whispered, “They’re all asleep.”
Foggy sighed, suddenly exhausted. He hung his head for a moment, and then he stood up, careful to keep the guitar from making a sound. He placed the instrument on one of the beds furthest away from the children and made his way over to the doctors and nurses.
“Thank you so much,” Doctor Jay said, clapping a firm hand on Foggy’s shoulder. “It’s a lot of work keeping kids engaged and distracted when something like this happens, and you gave us a break when you didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s what I do best!” Foggy whispered. “Now how is this whole night thing working? Are their shifts? Who’s sleeping when? Is there anything we can do?” He pointed to himself and then Matt, who didn’t return to his perch at the window but followed Foggy back to where the doctors and nurses were stationed on the other side of the room, sipping coffee.
“In about two hours we’re going to wake them up again one by one to check their glucose levels and administer insulin or a snack if they need it,” Doctor Deborah said. “And then again around three. Since they’ve all been recently diagnosed with diabetes, we check them during the night.”
“And with all the excitement, stress, and anxiety from the day, we’re anticipating their levels to really fluctuate tonight.”
“It’s not safe to leave the hospital, right?” Foggy asked, turning to look at Matt. He nodded his head in agreement. “Right. So this is the plan. Daredevil and I will venture down to the cafeteria and get you guys food and water. Then we’ll come back here, feed you, then tuck you into your own beds for a cat nap and stand guard at the doors and windows.” And just like that, Foggy was back to volunteering himself, even though he was exhausted and needed rest just as much as his new friends.
A little after four o’clock in the morning, Foggy nearly jumped out of his skin when Matt tapped him on the shoulder. “Sorry,” he whispered.
“It’s fine,” Foggy said, yawning. He wasn’t supposed to be sleeping and the scare actually woke him up a little.
“Three ambulances are on their way here. ETA is no more than twenty minutes with all the barricades and debris in the streets. We should wake up Deborah and Jay and see what they want to do about this evacuation.”
“Are you sure they’re coming here?”
“Positive. I can hear them.”
It didn’t take long for Foggy to wake Deborah and Jay. And the two, despite the little sleep they got, jumped into action and began gathering medicine and supplies. Foggy woke the nurses next, and Jamal went straight to the nurses’ station and began gathering files, phone numbers, and paperwork on the children. In no time at all the doctors and nurses were ready, and they began rousing the children.
They were easier to maneuver and once they had their shoes on, Matt escorted the entire group to the elevator and rode it down with them. When the ambulances arrived not two minutes after they made it to the lobby, hugs were exchanged between Foggy and the children and the doctors and nurses, and firm handshakes from Matt.
Then they were alone in the abandoned hospital.
“You said my apartment building was in the middle of this war zone?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. Exhausted and now homeless.”
“You can stay with me. Just for tonight. I can take the couch. I promise I won’t…I won’t try to force friendship when we’re both feeling pretty crummy.”
Foggy rolled his eyes and then said, “I just rolled my eyes at you. If you listened to me play guitar and sing for hours and hours with your super bat ears, then you are not the one forcing friendship. It is I, the great Franklin P. Nelson, who has forced friendship.” Foggy bumped shoulders with Matt and said, “Lead me to your casa, Daredevil.”
“Hey Foggy,” Matt whispered, stepping into his own bedroom. Foggy looked up, briefly, embarrassed that Matt probably heard his fumbling with the buttons on his shirt, his heart beating ridiculously fast, and his tear ducts producing tears faster than he could keep up with.
With a lump in his throat, Foggy croaked, “Yeah, buddy?” He gave up his shirt as a lost cause.
“You are amazing.”
“You’re just now realizing that?” Foggy said, wiping at his eyes. The day took a toll on him, and he was rapidly crumbling. To think that when he left his office that morning, he thought the most stressful part of the day was going to be arguing with Jeri Hogarth, again.
Matt stalked across his bedroom and Foggy saw the second Matt heard his heartbeat ratcheting up because he froze and tilted his head. The he closed the distance between them and cupped Foggy’s cheek with a warm palm and Foggy leaned into the touch. “I’ve always known you were an amazing lawyer from the second I heard you absolutely destroy someone in a debate…but Foggy, what you did today? Children are really hard to handle in stressful situations, especially when they’re separated from their parents. And these kids were sick. Foggy, you took to them and gave them exactly what they needed.” He placed his free hand over Foggy’s thudding heart. “You gave them all your love when they felt like no one was left for them.” He took a tiny step forward and he tilted his head to the left, his lips hovering over Foggy’s. “You have such a big heart, and you’re amazing and I’m sorry that I took advantage of your friendship and if you have any room left in your heart, I would like to beg for forgiveness.” He pressed his lips sweetly to his for the briefest of moments, just long enough for Foggy to feel how chapped and warm his lips were, before he pulled away.
Foggy swallowed thickly, his throat making this weird clicking sound as he tried very hard not to cry. “Matty?” he whispered, and Matt honest to God rubbed his nose against Foggy, and he laughed wetly even as his throat, cheeks, and ears flushed red. “Ca-can you say that again? It’s just that, no one has said anything that nice to me in a really long time and—and—”
“You are amazing,” Matt whispered, punctuating with a kiss. “You have the kindest, biggest heart,” another kiss. “I am a fool for ever taking advantage of you.” Kiss, kiss, kiss. “And, I love you.”
It seemed like Matt was anticipating Foggy completely losing the ability to stand, because he easily gathered him up and moved to his bed. Foggy clung to Matt and accepted all of his kisses, only stopping him for a moment to say, “We gotta talk when I’m not all discombobulated, okay? Promise?”
“Promise.”
Fin.