Title: The Devil to Pay
Fandom: Daredevil
Author: gaelicspirit
Characters: Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Claire Temple, cameos by Karen Page and Father Lantom, OC bad guys - GEN
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. Including the odd movie line.

It was a muggy evening; the rain from the day hadn't quite vacated the sidewalks and the air hung thick with it. Foggy made his way to his apartment from the subway, cell phone pressed against his ear as he listened to Karen read the message she had just found caught in the mail slot of their office door.

"…only one man who knew both you and your father. If you're half as smart as they say, you'll figure it out and find him before he finishes his calling and heads on home."

Foggy huffed, shaking his head. "Told you she was a psycho bitch."

"This is about that priest, right? The one Matt saved last week?"

"His priest, yeah. She'd mentioned a message."

"Well, she should have maybe taped it to the door or something. I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't dropped my keys."

"Do me a favor and put it in Matt's office, will you?"

"Want me to put a note on it or something?"

"Yeah, just…tell him what you told me. About how you found it." Foggy heard a siren scream past him and followed the flashing lights with his eyes. "Hey, Karen…you got plans tonight?"

"Haagen-Dazs and Jimmy Fallon. Why?"

"Feel like maybe meeting me for a drink?"

"Josie's?"

"Maybe something a little more…uptown?"

"You got a client you want to impress?" Karen teased him.

"Nah," Foggy shook his head. "Just kind of wanted to be with a friend."

Karen was quiet for a moment. He heard her take a breath. "Tell me where and when."

After relaying the location, he called Matt, knowing before he hit the 'send' button that he'd get his friend's voicemail. But something in him needed to make sure Matt knew there were still real people in his life. People who saw him. Who missed him. Who needed him to be simply Matt Murdock, and no one else.

"Hey, buddy," he greeted when Matt's voicemail beeped. "Taking Karen over to Gotham for a few drinks. Thought maybe you'd join us? Wanted something different than Josie's tonight…that deposition was…well, kinda brutal. No worries if not, just…would be good to see you."

It took him two subway stops to get to the Gotham Bar and Grill. He had always scoffed at the name of the bar, knowing they thought themselves clever with the way they named it after a superhero's stomping grounds. Now he felt the true irony: Hell's Kitchen had a real superhero in their midst and didn't even know it. Not all of them, anyway.

He found a table near the front of the bar, toward where the wide windows were opened to the street, pulling in fresh air and traffic noise. When Karen stepped through the doors, Foggy waved her over, a drink already ordered.

"You okay?" Karen asked as she shrugged out of her raincoat. "You sounded decidedly un-Foggy-like on the phone."

"We deposed Megan Sweeney today," Foggy told her. "And we had to cover…y'know…when they took me."

Karen's blue eyes softened. "I'm sorry, Foggy."

"The thing was, I was okay," Foggy said. "I was, honest. Until we started talking about…Daredevil."

"He saved you, right?" Karen nodded, taking a sip of her drink, her eyes level on his.

"He didn't just save me," Foggy said. "He bled for me. He kicked ass, yeah, but…he also got his ass kicked. For me."

"But…he's been seen out," Karen argued. "He must not have been hurt that bad if he's out there, stopping the bad guys."

Foggy huffed slightly and stared into the dancing amber hues of his drink. "He doesn't have magical powers, you know. He's just a regular guy. He bleeds."

"I know," Karen said, downing her drink in one gulp and setting the empty glass on the bar top. "That night…all those months ago…when he saved my life? I saw him bleed. And…it didn't stop him."

"Nothing much seems to," Foggy sighed, signaling the bar tender for more. "He just…he's like the friggin' energizer bunny. He keeps going."

"What's this really about, Foggy?" Karen asked, resting her arm on the bar and leaning close to him.

Foggy turned the wide-mouthed shot glass around with his fingertips. "I'm just…it worries me that a regular guy is out there, doing all this shit, getting his ass beat, and…no one seems to care."

"We care," Karen reminded him, a hand resting on his forearm. "I'm sure there are a lot more like us."

Foggy was suddenly, fiercely reminded of the four people who appeared from the shadows and helped them carry Matt to Claire's apartment.

"Yeah, you're right," Foggy nodded. "I guess I was just…rattled."

"It's understandable," Karen said, rubbing his arm consolingly. "You went through a lot because of that woman."

"Matt went through more," Foggy sighed. "Can you believe she actually tried to blame him for her dad losing fifty grand? Like killing Matt's dad was nothing."

"People are complicated creatures, Foggy," Karen sighed, sipping her drink. "Where is Matt tonight? Maybe we could get him to come out with us this time."

Foggy started to open his mouth and dish out an excuse when the TV behind the bar started to report a story from earlier in the evening.

"Hey," he called to the bartender. "Can you turn this up?"

The bartender obliged and Foggy and Karen both focused on the report of a human trafficking ring thwarted and the perpetrators being arrested by Sargent Brett Mahoney of the 32nd precinct.

"Reports are coming in that the vigilante dubbed Daredevil was responsible for subduing the criminals and alerting the police. Preliminary reports show the masked man escaping police detection by scaling the buildings in a movement called parkour, enabling him to evade the police yet again."

"Huh," Foggy huffed, supping his drink. "Human trafficking."

"And you thought the man in black was a bad guy," Karen teased him.

Foggy tilted his head. "Greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

"What, so you don't think Daredevil is real?" Karen laughed, pointing to the television.

"I just think we shouldn't make assumptions where Daredevil is concerned," Foggy shrugged. "That's all."

"You gonna call Matt?" Karen asked.

"Nah," Foggy smiled. "I think he's busy."

"He have a girlfriend or something," Karen asked, and Foggy didn't miss the forced casualness of her tone.

"No," he shook his head. "No girlfriend. I just think he has some things to take care of tonight."

A few shouts from the street level caught his attention and he looked out through the opened portion of the bar front. Following the gazes of the people at street level, Foggy looked up, realizing that Karen had followed his gaze. He could see a blur of red as Daredevil leapt from the building where the Gotham bar was housed to the adjoining building.

"There he goes," Foggy said softly, his eyes still up. "Chasing down the bad guys."

He couldn't help but think about the fact that a week hadn't been long enough to heal Matt's ribs and just yesterday his friend was still holding his left arm carefully against his side, the bullet wound not even close to repaired.

Karen patted his shoulder. "He does it his way," she said quietly. "You, me, and Matt? We do it ours."

Foggy smiled softly. "You're right."

"We may not be superheroes, Foggy," Karen said, a confident smile at home on her pretty face. "But we can be heroes."

"You gonna start singing David Bowie songs on me now?" Foggy teased.

Karen smirked. "I thought a Pirates of Penzance fan like yourself would have picked Moulin Rouge."

"Okay, that was one Pirate's song," Foggy protested. "And it happens to be kind of awesome."

"Like your singing," Karen teased.

"I have an excellent singing voice," Foggy protested, grinning at her. "In my shower."

"Hey," came a voice behind them, one Foggy did not expect to hear for at least another twelve hours. He turned, shocked, to see Matt standing behind them, hands gripping the top of his cane until his knuckles were white, tie gone, hair disheveled, and lip bleeding a bit, but…there.

"Hey!" Foggy greeted, stopping just short of clapping his left shoulder. "I thought you had…stuff… tonight!"

Matt smiled at him and Foggy felt knots throughout his body loosen at the sight. "I got done early," he said. "Got your message…thought maybe I'd join you."

Foggy saw in his friend's face, in the lines of tension masked by the dark glasses, in the way he held his body tense and careful, the unspoken words: …like a normal person. He slid one stool over and carefully guided Matt forward until he friend was seated between himself and Karen.

"I'm glad you're here, Matt," Karen said, smiling. "Feels more like…family, when you're around."

"Thanks," Matt smiled, shyly, as Foggy signaled the bartender.

"Your lip's bleeding, though," Karen said, reaching out with a napkin to dab at his lip. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just…wasn't watching where I was going."

Foggy smiled at him, so relieved to have him close by, safe, he didn't mind the way Karen stared at him as though Matt hung the moon.

"Looks like we're going to be putting away the last of the creeps responsible for your dad's murder," Foggy said, sliding Matt's drink within his reach when it was delivered.

Matt nodded. "Feels kind of weird."

"How so?" Karen asked.

"I haven't thought about them in…years," Matt confessed. "And in the space of a weekend, they managed to threaten every one close to me."

"Kind of makes you wonder who else is lying in wait, huh?" Foggy muttered, thinking of Fisk, and of all the other people Matt had helped put way.

"Kind of," Matt agreed, face down toward his drink.

The news report played a repeat of their earlier footage of Daredevil impossibly scaling walls to slip free of detection while the cops cuffed the traffickers.

"At least he's still in play," Karen said, nodding toward the TV. "I think we'd be in a lot more trouble if Daredevil wasn't out there, keeping an eye on Hell's Kitchen."

Foggy looked at Matt, watching as his friend's mouth tipped up in an involuntary, grateful grin.

"I'll drink to that," Foggy lifted his tumbler, waiting until Matt and Karen clicked their glasses against his. "To Daredevil," he declared. "May he be swift, bulletproof, find the bad guys, and most of all, stay alive."

"To Daredevil," Karen echoed.

Matt just smiled, but Foggy felt as though he were caught up in the secrecy of that smile. His friend may be sitting next to him for the moment, but tomorrow night there would be someone else, something else. And as long as there was breath in Matt's body, he would find it, fight it, and do his best to stop it.

Foggy found himself having to swallow the instant panic that thought triggered.

"And to the avocados," Matt spoke up before anyone could drink. "Who make sure that anything Daredevil does actually sticks and who put the bad guys away."

"To putting the bad guys away," Foggy echoed, then swallowed his drink.

Matt Murdock was his best friend. Matt Murdock was Daredevil. And as long as Foggy Nelson had breath in his body, he was going to do his level best to make sure Matt Murdock stayed both.

Because the city might need Matt in that mask, but Foggy Nelson needed his friend.

FIN

a/n: Thank you for reading; I truly hope you enjoyed. It was fun delving into this new world. If I didn't crash and burn, there may be more. You guys will decide. Regardless, I appreciate your time.

In the meantime, I'm returning to my favorite swashbuckling heroes in a new Musketeer fic. Once that's done, depending on how Supernatural S10 ends, there may be another SPN fic. Hope to see you there!