Bound by Law (Matt Murdock x Reader)

32. Better If You Do

Stick slightly nudges Matt with his foot, "Are you gonna lie there all night or get up off your ass? Jesus, kid. I'm gone five minutes, you turn this place into a shit show."

Matt grunts, still on the ground, and scoffs loudly. "You've been gone 20 years. What are you doing back in my city?"

"Your city? Hell's Kitchen hates your guts. They have you pegged as a cop killer and some kind of mad bomber."

Matt internally scoffs again, knowing that Stick is aware of it, "Yeah, I'm taking care of it."

"An old guy just lit you up. You ain't taking care of shit."

"Why are you here?" Matt finally stands up, touching the tazed place.

"To save you and everyone in the Kitchen from a horrible death." Stick scoffs to himself, "More or less."

***

Karen sighs, looking at Ben sitting next to her at the dock. "Paper trail on Union Allied's a bust. Whoever's pulling the strings busted up the one big corporation into a bunch of little ones."

"It's an old game. Spread the records far and wide, discourage investigation." Ben replies dryly.

"God. I mean, it's like... It's like trying to straighten out a bowl of spaghetti." Karen sighs once more.

"Well, you could always let it go." He takes a sip of the already lukewarm coffee.

Karen throws him a glance, "Not gonna happen. I already told you that."

"Stop complaining. This is the job. Researching, gathering facts. It's long and boring and complicated, and half the time you still come up empty."

"Well, you're just a little ray of sunshine." Karen scoffs. "What'd you find?"

"Bits and pieces. Yakuza."

"Wait, the Japanese mafia?" Karen looks taken back for a while.

"Triads, too. Drugs, I think. Then there's the bombings that took out the Russians." Ben looks out of the window in thought.

"And you think it's all connected to Union Allied?"

"Doesn't matter what I think. Only matters what I can prove."

"Wait, what about the cops that got shot? I mean, you really think that was the guy in the mask?"

"I was standing right next to one of them when it happened. Detective named Blake. Didn't like each other very much. Did what I could. If he comes out of a coma, maybe maybe he'll thank me, tell me what really happened out there. Till then the man in the mask pops up do me a favor, run the other way."

"He saved my life, Ben." Karen says strongly, as if believing the Devil of Hell's Kitchen would solve all of the city's problems.

"How do you know he wasn't there just to, um hurt somebody else?"

"I... I never never thought about it like that." Karen knits her eyebrows in deep thought.

"My experience there are no heroes, no villains. Just people with different agendas." Ben looks at her almost apologetically.

"So... if we can connect the tenements, and the shootings, and Union Allied that something you'd take to your editor?"

Ben chuckles, "Yeah. But, uh, I think it's a long shot."

"Well, I was a mean three-point shooter on my high school basketball team. I like the long shots." Karen smiles, but doesn't receive the same reaction from Urich.

"This isn't a game, Karen."

"I... I know that." She stutters a bit.

"Anything happens to you it's gonna be on me, and, uh I don't want to be responsible for that. I can't."