Larry Cranston was a bit of a nightmare boss, demanding past what any reasonable person or even a few unreasonable people might expect, and getting clearly irritated whenever Matt's blindness caused even the slightest bit of inconvenience. Also paranoid, which made sense, since he was hiding an association with Hydra, but also meant he told Matt no more than he absolutely had to, and to get his trust seemed impossible. By the time the week was out, Matt felt relieved to officially rule out any attempts to do so. His good opinion and friendship he had given up on before that.
He wouldn't have even minded in the past, since eavesdropping on Cranston would've been easy. But now he knew better, and he even had the exact distance to which Matt's hearing had been measured during his first months under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s care. He would spend at least a few hours each day just a little further from the office than that, and he always made sure Matt had so much to do that he couldn't really go after him, not without Cranston knowing he'd been doing something other than his assigned tasks.
Parish Landman was doing the same, having possibly paid enough attention to the firm's hirings to have noticed him. Larkin Zack was not doing so. Maybe some of the other lawyers were doing the same; Matt hadn't yet tried to track the behavior of anyone else. He'd spent some hours trying to listen in on Zack while he worked. So far that had mostly revealed how little the man cared about anything besides money and his reputation as someone who won cases. And that he was cheating on his wife, which Matt supposed might or might not prove useful information.
Living out in the world was something he still had to get used to. The ableism was trouble, of course. But he couldn't say he'd escaped that entirely at S.H.I.E.L.D. either, although it had tended more in the direction of demanding he do things when it wasn't possible and not wanting to make accommodations, which he'd greatly preferred to the kind of assumptions people made now about his supposed inability to do things. And while, as he'd told Foggy, they had sometimes viewed him as a freak even there, that was far worse here, and being treated both like a freak and like he was made of glass was a whole new level of aggravation.
But there was Foggy. He was rapidly becoming the highlight of Matt's life, and, much more crazily, Matt seemed to have somehow become his own favorite person as well. He soon made it clear he not only didn't mind Matt's using the senses to deliberately bump into him whenever convenient during the day, he actually expected him to. "We both need the respite, right?" he said. At other times of the day, he told jokes under his breath obviously meant for Matt's ears. They met for lunch most days, and sometimes for dinner again, and always had stories to tell each other about their hectic days and the people they were working for.
A week and a half in, Matt took Foggy back to his apartment. Foggy was currently living with his parents, though he talked about maybe getting a place if it became feasible in a few months. For now, he made good use of Matt's kitchen to make them a beef stew he claimed to be a family recipe, though he was sure to ask Matt about the various seasonings he used, and if there were any he should leave out.
That was the kind of matter of fact consideration that he got from Karen sometimes, and very rarely from anybody else; maybe Coulson and his mother when he'd been younger. But it didn't surprise Matt at all, coming from Foggy. He'd also heard him ask his fellow interns multiple times if they were feeling tired, or if anyone would give them hell if they fulfilled one of the other interns' requests, or if anyone wanted the leftover bagels he'd seen on the other room. He didn't even seem to think about being considerate; he just was.
Although he was maybe a little less considerate when he commented about how bare the apartment was. Even then, he quickly added, "I suppose it doesn't make much difference to you, of course, so maybe you shouldn't have to fix it, but, well, it is kind of disconcerting is all."
"I don't know if I'll have many visitors," said Matt, because he wouldn't. He was a little worried as it was about hiding evidence from Foggy once there was substantial amount of it to hide in the place. "I've never been that good at making friends."
"You sure that's your fault? Were you bad at it even during your childhood, before you went and joined a paramilitary organization that probably went to all the more efforts to keep its members from getting too close to each other or grouping together, so they didn't start putting together that there was something weird going on?"
"It wasn't like that." Matt knew he was acting defensive. But this had been bad enough coming from Evelyn and her friends, who of course wouldn't have done any research, and Foggy should know better.
"You sure?" Foggy sounded sympathetic, but very skeptical. "Did you have any friends in S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Matt had already decided to answer this question as truthfully as was practical, if anyone asked it. "I did have one very close friend, and she had others. We're still in touch a little, though we made very different choices after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell; hers aren't for me to tell other people about."
Foggy wanted to object to those last words. Matt could read that much off his reaction. It was maybe a little unsettling, how quickly he'd taught himself to read his new friend. Or how easy it was for him to remind Foggy, "Lawyers aren't the only ones who might want to keep confidences, and sometimes you don't even need professional excuses for that," which did have some effect on him.
"Is that why you haven't mentioned her before now, though?" Foggy asked. "I'm afraid this is still reminding me of way too many stories I've heard from...well, a startling amount of them were from my ex-girlfriend, but she didn't tend to lie about these things, at least not back then. She'd done a summer internship at Hogarth, Chao, and Benowitz, working closely with one of the partners, Linda Chao, and just about everything she did that Marci found fishy-which was a surprisingly large amount of things, she'd insist she couldn't talk about to to anyone else, not even other members of her legal team."
Matt would've thought up a better response to that, except at that moment, he heard the murmur, just outside the building, of, "I'm here, Matt," and instantly he was listening to those familiar footsteps come in and start their way up the stairs.
They had set up a plan in case this happened. Matt was looking for a way to start on it when Foggy said, "And anyway, buddy, the fact remains you're no longer living a life where you're traveling all the time and have to keep it professional with pretty much everyone you meet. It'll be easier to make friends now than it was; you can't dispute that."
"I do admit," said Matt, "being here has helped with that a little already. There's been you, for one thing."
"Glad to have been of service," said Foggy, and bowed slightly. "Can you tell I'm bowing?"
"Only just. But one thing I haven't even told anyone else yet, not even my adopted family, is I actually managed to even make contact with an old cousin of my original dad's. She's been threatening to come over herself."
"Wow, I'd like to meet her," Foggy said, and as if on cue, there came the knock on the door.
"You know," said Matt, "I wouldn't be surprised if that was her. Is that you, Gloriana?"
"Yes," she called back, recognizing the chosen name. "Is this a bad time?" The most prudent, and expected, answer, was of course yes, but Matt found himself reluctant to give it.
And before he did, Foggy instead called out, "Not at all, we're just cooking some stew, and there's probably enough for three here."
There was, and it was nearly ready. Matt had just enough time to introduce his new friend Foggy Nelson and his new cousin Gloriana O'Brien to each other before they were all sitting down to lunch. Of course Foggy wanted to know everything about Gloriana and her life, and Matt thought Karen held up pretty well, considering she was being interrogated by an inquisitive lawyer who knew the neighborhood she was supposed to have lived her entire life in very well. Hopefully he wouldn't think to notice that all the knowledge she showed of it was the kind one got from doing a general survey of the area. Though Gloriana also currently lived and worked in Queens, which Foggy knew less about.
Nor had she lost her skill at eliciting information, and there, Foggy was an easy target. She asked about he himself first, and it obviously helped that her interest in him as Matt's friend was very genuine. Most of what he told her there Matt had heard about already, but he did get a bit more into his childhood and his own cousins. He told one story about his exploits with a certain cousin during the weekend he'd spent with her parents that had both his companions laughing so hard they nearly fell out of their seats.
By the time she smoothly directed the conversation towards Foggy's biomom, he was completely at ease around her. He didn't even appear to think, at least initially, about whether he should start ranting about his family issues to a relative of his host whom he'd only just met. He even went into what she'd said to his younger brother when he'd only been fourteen that had made him cry; that might have been the thing he'd forgiven her for the least.
Ironically, it was just as he was finally starting to get to the mysterious client of hers, who had sneered at his less than expensive suit and satchel, that he stopped and said, "Wait, wait, I shouldn't be unloading on you like this, I'm really sorry."
"Oh, it's fine," Karen grinned at him, and she even dropped a giggle, as she added, "I'm always ready to hear about probably evil people. Unless you really don't want to talk about it, of course."
"No, I got no problem talking about this asshole. Well, except I don't know his exact kind of evil, because a lot of it was protected by attorney-client privilege. Except he had loud enough a voice that if she'd wanted to keep their conversations completely private, biomom would've had to invest in soundproofing much stronger than what she went for."
And he actually leaned in as he said to her, "I don't often snoop on these things, really I don't. Honestly, a lot of the time I prefer not to know. But it was a month or so ago when I had to be there because between dad and me, I drew the short straw to ask if her sister had come through with some stuff with the deli, and she kept me waiting while she met with him, and he started yelling about Alexander Pierce, of all people, and how he wished he hadn't given his name to someone called Channing."
"And who was this Channing?" Karen's voice was turning playful, an odd contrast to her hammering heart. "I don't suppose he even mentioned his first name."
"Nah, just said he was someone from London he didn't want to deal with. At least he seemed to know his name. Who knows how many evil powerful Hydra people Pierce has been talking to where we'll never know who they were and what he told them. Probably noone ever will."
From what Matt understood, S.H.I.E.L.D. was now tracking down some of those names. The most secretive top people still at large were unfortunately known largely by monikers, but they'd had underlings, and they were looking into all the ones they knew about who were unaccounted for.
Foggy was still talking. "He also asked her about someone called Wesley-I don't even know if that was his first or last name. And then things got kind of weird, because she claimed to have no idea who he was talking about, but honestly, she said so way too fast, and there was *that* kind of tone to it, you know? I'm sure he didn't believe her either. Though their voices dropped down after that; I didn't even hear how much more they talked."
That was almost certainly as much as Foggy had to tell them, so Karen again changed the topic. Lunch was then over, and Matt did the dishes as Foggy and Karen continued to talk. He'd talked a good deal about Foggy in his emails to her, and how nice he was, but even so, it surprised him how relaxed she was around him. Even aside from the obvious anxiety of their current situation, she typically took a lot longer to get comfortable around new people. But by the time the three of them moved to the couch, it was as if she'd known him for years. He was doing most of the talking, now, but she'd probably done enough.
It wasn't until the hour approached two, when Foggy had already said he'd have to leave, that Matt again began to hear signs of tension in Karen. Not that she showed it to their companion, he hoped; her tone was light as ever when she pointed out the time. "Wow," Foggy said when she did, "already? Seems like we only just sat down. Listen, I really hope I see you again," and he did not keep his tone as casual as he'd been trying for there. "Matt and I have been talking about doing a bar crawl one of these nights; do you think you'd be interested in coming with us?"
"Well..." Karen paused, then said, "I don't know if I'll be able to do it, the way my schedule's been going lately. But I would like to, if I can."
Her heartbeat had been steady throughout that. Matt had to hide his surprise.
"I think we can probably figure something out then," said Foggy, and he had to be grinning so wide.
Matt managed to keep the act up as they said their goodbyes, and he even lingered at the door as Foggy headed down the stairs. It wasn't until he reach the floor below them that he closed it, then turned to Karen, who had also lingered near it, and asked, "You're seriously thinking of going with us?"
"I know," said Karen, "but honestly? I'm probably going to be here often enough that it'll be better if I'm established as just another person in your life, who does more than just appear in your apartment sometimes. If your cousin is making the trek all the way from Queens just to see you, you should probably take her out sometimes."
It was a fair point. Yet Matt couldn't help but think that sooner or later, Foggy would look into Gloriana O'Brien, and while they could put out fake records for him to find, he feared they might not fool him. Still, "If you think so, then maybe it would make sense that I'd take you out around now. You can always get bored of that later."
"I can," Karen confirmed. "We may have to figure this one out as we go along; right now, I don't know how often I'm going to be here. Speaking of which, I actually came here with some new information to give you. Ended up carrying it on a standard flash drive, believe it or not."
"How low we've sunk," Matt laughed as he took it, although it was true that back in the day, they would've used something more secure. "Related to the firm?"
"To your boss, specifically. Mostly who he's been in contact with, and in quick succession, though unfortunately we haven't gotten our hands on what they said yet."
Ultimately, of course, Cranston wasn't a highly trained Hydra agent. Nor was he a man used to dealing even with trained spies, let alone ones with superpowers. His associates could put all the fear of God in him as they liked, and that would make him good for a while, but sooner or later, he was always going to slip up.
They were, at the moment, right in the thick of a couple of cases, long-winded ones features corporations trying to avoid giving up money they ought to give up by drowning their foes in stacks of mind-breaking paperwork-which their lawyers, of course, were also obliged to read, and study hard. It gave Matt some comfort, to think the more evil of lawyers at least had to endure that punishment. But Cranston and everyone else involved were also proving terrible at providing braille copies, and he was stuck listening through most of it, which took much longer. If Cranston demanded he be more productive, he might point out being able to read through more things would help, but he doubted he'd listen.
So neither of them were as sharp as usual by lunchtime, and Cranston must not have eaten much for breakfast, because the growling of his stomach kept distracting Matt. After one particularly loud sound, he sighed, "Murdock, could you go down to Tirro's and get me a BLT and yourself something?" He handed him what might or might not have been enough money for the first. Matt would have to ask whoever was at the counter again, but he thought it might be smarter not to bother him over it today.
Certainly not when Tirro's was close to the limit of his hearing range, so much so that Cranston could easily convince himself he wouldn't find it worth the effort to eavesdrop, especially when trying to order two sandwiches in a no doubt crowded place. And according to the information Karen had provided Matt with, he'd been in constant touch with both Katrina Castillo and Jasper Channing lately.
There was a long line at Tirro's. Matt got in the back of it, did a quick listen of the people around him to see if anyone recognized him, got the very strong impression noone was even glancing at him long enough to, and started stretching his hearing back to the office.
It was indeed difficult to listen. The only sounds he could pick up from this distance the occasional slap of Cranston's hand against the desk, or when he typed loud enough. At one point he got caught on Foggy's voice, from where he was telling one of the other interns something about his brother's love life. But when he was about halfway through the line, he finally heard an angry mutter from Cranston, him scooping his phone up loud enough to be heard, and, a minute later, him loudly demanding to speak to Mrs. Castillo herself.
It took him maybe half a minute of berating whoever had answered the phone; Matt couldn't quite hear their responses. But they must have given in, then, because he gave them a very sarcastic, "Thank you," and, after another minute, he heard him say, "Mrs. Castillo? You listen up, now. If it's true they're going to be landing in Kennedy in less than a week, then you are at least going to tell me how many of them there are and the name of whoever's in charge of them. I'm even going to be nice and not demand arrival times yet; I know how that might be going."
Of course, Matt was too far away to catch any of her response. All he could hear was Cranston's eventual, sarcastic "Thank you very much. m'am." Followed quickly by, "You're seriously going to hang up on me-", followed by the faint sound of the dial tone. It was just as well, since by then he was getting near the front of the line.
By the time he was carrying the two sandwiches out of Tirro's, Cranston had returned to the paperwork, and Matt thought the afternoon might be a dull one indeed. He texted Karen as he walked, but got no response before he got back into the office. He turned his phone off, then. Karen was in his phone as Gloriana, and both his text and her response would be coded, but he'd still rather not pique Cranston's curiosity by the phone chiming in his presence.
The call had left Cranston in a very bad mood. He didn't even acknowledge Matt's placing of his sandwich in front of him, which was worse than usual for him. He himself put his earpiece back on and resumed listening, though now it was even harder to concentrate enough to comprehend the legalese.
They had both finished eating, Matt had disposed of the trash, and nearly another hour had passed when Cranston said, "I'm expecting a new client in from England this weekend. One who very much wants to meet with me alone in complete privacy, so we probably won't meet here. I don't know exactly which day we're meeting or how long it's going to take, so there's a chance you'll be minding this office for much of Monday. I would assume you can handle that."
"Shouldn't be a problem," Matt said, and the actual minding part wouldn't be. That would mean, however, that he wouldn't be in position to listen in on said meeting, especially since his being in Manhattan was information Hydra could get very easily. They might even know he was working for Cranston, and Mrs. Castillo's agent might demand in the meeting happen in another borough, just to be safe. There were other people or devices that could do that instead, but they wouldn't be able to read Cranston like he'd developed the ability to.
Still he was sorry for it, when it meant he had to turn down going out for drinks with Foggy that evening. It wasn't hard to find a reason, at least; they were both exhausted. "But we are going out Monday night," Foggy insisted to him. "At least if you boss does go off to be super-secret the way you used to be. Handling everything on your own for a day deserves to be celebrated."
"Fair enough," Matt smiled, carefully concealing his real reaction to what Foggy no doubt meant as a joke.
He recognized Karen's heartbeat long before he opened the door, and could also tell from her breathing that she was asleep. By the time he had closed the door behind him, as quietly as possible, he could also tell she was laid out across the couch. He could only keep from waking her for so long, of course, what with her training, but he might give her a few more minutes. Instead of heading into the bedroom, since that would've required walking past her, he walked into his kitchenette, still taking off his tie and suit jacket, but he could leave them on the counter for now.
Hoping to be able to tell if she'd eaten yet or not, Matt leaned towards her as he took the rooms scents in, focusing on the familiar one of Karen. And was promptly hit hard by the strong smell of Agent Triplett intertwined with it.
It wasn't even surprising. It more or less made sense. Especially considering the stress and strain every agent in the Playground suffered from day in and day out, the way they never had under the old S.H.I.E.L.D. He'd known Karen was attracted to Triplett, and he also had now heard enough to know he was the exact kind of man she should have comforting her, one whome could be trusted to always respect her and her boundaries.
In fact, he was probably doing a better job of it than Matt was right now. He had to retreat further into the kitchenette, and ball his hands up, to make sure he didn't immediately go over there and make his jealousy all too clear. His breath came short and load for too long; it took him nearly a minute to get that back under control. Thankfully it wasn't loud enough to wake her up, but Matt suddenly felt very trapped, afraid to take another step or touch anything, for fear she would hear it, and know.
She hadn't eaten yet. He'd manage to catch that, too. Furiously he set to work, barely reminding himself to open and close the cabinets as silently as possible, though ultimately he barely managed three more minutes before he heard her breathing change and her body start to stir.
She proved a little slow getting up, walking over just as Matt was starting to feel his normal equilibrium returned. He feared she'd sensed something off, and maybe even guessed what it was, though she said nothing about it.