Five. Not A Nurse

Buried in her work, Cassandra barely even noticed the blood being spilled onto the streets of Hell's Kitchen, nor did she notice the bodies of mobsters being piled up. She had holed herself up in one of the school labs, working on her project.

Her phone rang from the desk across the room, and she decided to take a break from her project. Foggy's name flashed across her screen and she picked it up. They had went out once together — just for drinks — after Cassandra's friends harassed her into going, claiming she was working way too hard.

"Hello?" she greeted evenly, running a hand over her forehead to push adds stray strands of hair away of her eyes.

"Hey, Cass," the man sounded slightly out-of-breath, "you've been at school for awhile now to become a doctor—"

"In Robotics, but yeah, go on."

"But I'm sure you've picked up a few things?"

"I don't think I picked up a medical degree in my spare time, Foggy,"

"Right! Of course, but maybe you've taken first aid classes or I don't know..."

As her mother was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and practically an on-call doctor to certain missions, she did know a few things. Add the fact that her father was a doctor — who now taught at a medical school in Florida — she had been put through first aid classes in her youth.

"What's this all about, Foggy? Are you okay?"

"Look, I don't really know who else to call, I was really hoping you maybe had some type of medical experience."

"I mean, something like that." she told Foggy, sitting down on top of the desk.

Foggy sighed on the other end, "Can you do me a big favor, Cass? Like I'll totally owe you one type of favor?"

She pursed her lips, eyes flickering over towards her lab table where she had been working. "Sure, Foggy. How can I help?"

He breathed out in relief, "Matt, I think he fell down the stairs—" a lie, but she didn't need to know that, "—he hit his head really hard, he's unconscious, I didn't know really who to call."

"Why don't you take him to the hospital? Or call someone, I don't know, who's a doctor?"

"I don't happen to know the phone numbers of any doctor, or nurse for that matter, and he hates hospitals."

"I'm sure he'll hate brain damage more, but I'll be right over. Text me his address."

"Thank you so much, Cassandra," Foggy said, fully meaning it. "I really owe you one."

She chuckled, "You really do. I'll see you in a bit."

Cassandra hung up and gathered her things, logging out of the lab and making her exit. Foggy sent over Matt's address, and Cassandra grabbed the first aid kit she kept at her apartment and made her way to the apartment.

She knocked twice before Foggy opened the door, face flushing with relief. He invited her in, and she took quick note that the apartment was very nice. Spacious, something she was not very used to.

Matt was still passed out on his couch when she entered, blood covering part of his face, matting in his hair. He was completely shirtless too, and she wondered briefly how a blind man had gotten so ripped, but she brushed the thoughts away. She was here to help, and although Matt couldn't see to begin with, she didn't want to be rude and stare. She noticed that his body was littered with old injuries and scars. Cassandra frowned, setting her purse down on the coffee table.

"Foggy? Can you get me a wash cloth and a bowl of warm water?"

He didn't answer, instead he just got what she had asked for. His best friend was the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and getting beat up definitely came with the territory. He made sure to hide the costume in Matt's room; even though he really wanted to trash the thing. Maybe he wouldn't be pleased when he woke to find someone who was basically a stranger to him in his apartment. But Foggy needed help and bringing Matt to the hospital wasn't really an option.

Cassandra started simply by cleaning the blood off of the man, looking to find a source. She felt anxious, mostly because she didn't have the adequate training to actually help the man in front of her, but she knew a few things and she was really hoping it was enough. She had dealt with minor injuries from her time in robotics and engineering labs, mostly just people accidentally cutting themselves on mental or some of the equipment. Most of those were patch jobs, occasionally she told whoever it was that they would probably need stitches and to head to the nearest ER.

When Matt stirred, he immediately went to reach for his head — his senses were dulled and he could tell instantly. But the person beside him certainly wasn't Foggy, but he was in his apartment. He took a moment, absorbing any input his senses were picking up — they smelled like metal work, like when someone first lights a match, but underneath they smelled like a lavender body lotion. The same one he had sensed on the waitress.

"Hey, hey, careful, you hit your head pretty hard." she told him gently, kneeling beside him, taking his hand and moving it away from his injury.

"Foggy, did you tell her?"

"Tell me what?"

Foggy turned from the sink to the two in the living room. "That you fell down the stairs? Yeah, I did."

Matt let out a sigh of relief. Cassandra took notice to that, but didn't mention it. It wasn't her business.

She dabbed the washcloth back to his head, using her fingers to try to part his hair away from the gash. It didn't look like anything serious, the blood certainly said differently, but she also could rule out any damage or fracture.

"How do you feel? Do you know who you are? Where you are?" She wanted to double check to see if he had a concussion, even though she was sure he probably had one.

He waved off her questions, "I didn't know you were a doctor."

"I'm not, but I know a few things." She shrugged, "I told Foggy to get you to a hospital, but it seems you hate them."

Matt only nodded in response, trying to concentrate on her heartbeat, the only soothing thing he could find in that moment. His head was throbbing in pain, making his senses dull one moment and slightly too much the next. He tried to appear like he was fine.

"Must've been some fall," Cassandra tried, "and here I thought you were the most well adapted blind person that I've ever met."

Matt chuckled, "You know a lot of blind people?"

"Other than you? Only one." She reached into the first aid kit to grab a butterfly bandage small enough to fit on his wound. "If you start to feel any worse, you really should call an ambulance."

"Why? I've got a perfectly good nurse right here."

Cassandra rolled her eyes with a smile, not noticing how Foggy scoffed in the kitchen.

"Hey, Foggy, do you mind getting me some aspirin?"

"Sure you don't need an x-ray or a psych eval?"

Cassandra raised her eyebrows at the sudden tension in the room, her eyes flickering over to Foggy getting Matt a glass of water to Matt trying to readjust himself on the couch.

"Aspirin's fine, buddy,"

Cassandra moved her hand through Matt's hair again, her focus trained on the wound and making sure none of his hair was sticking to the adhesive. She let out a long sigh.

"Maybe I should go to med school, Foggy," she said, removing her hand. "I have a clumsy blind man who will probably need my help again."

The tension paused briefly when the two men chuckled, Foggy bringing over a glass of water and the aspirin. Matt took both thankfully.

Cassandra stood, "Well, keep an eye on him, Foggy. If he gets worse, please do call an ambulance."

Foggy quirked an eyebrow, "And if I call you?"

Cassandra frowned slightly, "Well, I'm not going to ignore it, but I'm not an MD."

"Could'a fooled me," said Matt from beside her.

Cassandra rolled her eyes again, "I cleaned your wound and patched it — hardly doctor worthy."

Foggy shrugged, "Better than nothing."

She made a face of agreement, before letting out a long sigh, "Well, then pass along my number then. But I'm not on call 24/7, I do have other things to do."

"Sure thing, Cass," Foggy told her with a smile, "Thank you, again, I really do owe you one."

"And I plan on cashing in on that favor eventually." She told him seriously, with a hint of her genuine kind smile.

"Thank you, Cassandra," Matt said from the couch, his eyes staring somewhere off to her left. "I think I'll owe you one, too,"

"Just be more careful, okay?"

He nodded with a smile, "I'll do my best."

"Hope you feel better soon, Matt," she said, moving towards the door, Foggy following after her.

When she turned to give Matt one final look, to try and ease her worrying for his wellbeing, she caught sight of some sort of dark red suit at the edge of the door to what she assumed was Matt's room. Curious, because it was not a normal suit, but it was just another thing she shrugged off.

Foggy thanked her again before she left before bidding her farewell, and then she was heading back towards the university. She still did have work that needed to be done.