[Trigger Warning: Description of blood and wounds. If you are triggered by any of these subjects please proceed with caution]

Songs for this chapter: 

Your teeth in my neck- Kali Uchis

You know I'm no good- Amy Winehouse (Seriously love this song because it reminds me of our main character) 

Lost- Frank Ocean (Just gives off some good innocent vibes)

Snap out of it- Arctic Monkeys

My alarm went off, forcing my arm over to turn it off as I laid on my back staring at the celling as my body ached in pain. 

To say last night had been rough would be an understatement. Surprisingly enough I hadn't gotten the shit beaten out of me while fighting, but on my way back home I fell off a building into a dumpster truck after getting a bit too excited about my victory.

Stupid, I know. 

My entire left side of my body was red and swollen, adding hues purple and black as time went on. Every time I moved I felt as if my body was going to combust and fall apart completely. Still, I knew I had to force myself up to start the wonderful journey of my job hunt. 

I walked into the living room, clutching my left side until I saw Lily who was pouring herself a cup of coffee. 

"Well good morning sunshine." Lily said, walking over and placing a cup of coffee on the island counter. She was dressed for work in a white pencil skirt with a light purple blouse. 

Lily and I had been best friends since we where 7. After trading her peanut butter and jelly for my ham sandwich at recess we instantly clicked. Ever since then we had been inseparable. We went into high school with each other, graduated together, and started college together. Even after we graduated, here we were living with each other in a shitty ass apartment in Hells Kitchen.

I gave her a nod, pointing down at the mug. "This for me?" I questioned, making sure I didn't clutch my side near her in fear she would ask questions. 

"Well now it is." She shrugged, going back to the cabinets and grabbing another mug to pour coffee in.  

I took a sip of the coffee, slowly sitting down on the bar stool in front of me. Lily turned her head a bit and squinted her eyes. 

"I know I look like shit." I stated, my mouth in the mug about to take a sip.

"You just seem...tired." 

I scoffed, "I haven't slept in months and I got fired from my job last night. Tired is an understatement." 

"Oh Jesus Jess I'm so sorry. If it makes you feel any better your boss was an ass, I was hoping you would get yourself out of that hellhole sometime soon." She said, walking over to the couch and grabbing her bag, flinging it over her shoulder. "Well at least today you can rest, right?"

"Not really. Michael is dropping off my stuff from work in the next hour or so, then I start the wonderful search for a job." 

"Hm..Michael huh?" She smirked. 

"Don't." I pointed a finger at her.

"Oh come on, Jess! He's hot, a lawyer, and on top of that he is incredibly nice. Plus hes British." She snapped her fingers. "Just give him a chance. He's practically your boyfriend with how much shit he does for you." 

"Hes just being nice." 

Lily scoffed, "I thought you weren't so stupid, Jessie. No man is voluntarily that nice to someone, especially a babe like you." She walked towards the door, grabbing her coat and turning back. "I gotta work late today so if you happen to be home before me, just order something in." 

"You know, you talk about my boss being an ass but here you are working for a short ginger man. I mean really Lily, he looks like Ed Sheeran and he treats you like his slave." 

"Which one of us is still employed?" She questioned, earning an eyeroll and silence from me. "Exactly." She pointed, walking out the door. "See you later, Jess!" 

"Bye." I yelled, waiting until she left to take a deep breath out as I lifted my shirt up, looking on my left side of my body. My ribs where getting more and more swollen and the skin around them was purple and brown. 

"Happy Monday to me." 

~

I had my headphones in, walking down the street to one of my favorite coffee shops. I had visited three law firms so far, all of them giving me no sign of hope that I would be getting a job. 

My eye lids felt like weights as I made my way inside the shop, waiting in line and ordering myself a hot coffee to bust the winter chills. I stood on my phone, looking at other law firms near me that I could possibly apply too until I felt a tap on my heel, making me turn back. 

Matt was standing behind me, flashing a million dollar smile at my face. 

"Sorry, I just need to grab my drink." He said apologetically, moving past me. 

"Oh uh no worries, here." I said, grabbing his coffee and handing it to him. "Thanks." He said, his eyebrows furrowing. "Jess?" 

"Thats me." 

He grinned even more, "I knew your voice sounded familiar. How've you been? I mean its only been one night but you know." He shrugged. 

"Its uh..going." I laughed, "Just looking around for jobs which so far has been a dead-ass road."

He looked down, laughing, "I get that. Job hunting isn't always the best." He reached over behind me, grabbing my coffee and handing it to be as he motioned for me to follow him to a table, "You know I am offended by the fact you haven't bothered checking with the Nelson and Murdock."  

"I kinda figured you wouldn't want me on your team considering I gave you a hard loss the other day." I said, smiling. 

"Oh? I see. Don't get to cocky now, I know your tricks now Ms. Grace-Phillips." He smirked, taking a sip from his coffee. 

"Do you now?" I questioned, sitting down 

We both laughed, as we sat in silence for a moment. "But in all seriousness we are hiring. We could use someone with arguing skills like yours." He looked down smiling once again, "Foggy was quite impressed with your skills. I think he's willing to get rid of me if it means you'd be on the team." 

I laughed, "That would be nice but I'm not a defense attorney. I'm a prosecution attorney." 

"Doesn't mean I can't teach you."

I thought about it for a moment. This would be a good opportunity, and who says its forever? This could just be my bluff until I got back up there. 

"Know what, screw it. I'm in." I said optimistically. 

He flashed one of his million dollar grins, "Great. If you want you can meet me at the office tonight, maybe around 7? We could go over your resume which I assume won't be an issue." 

"Yeah sure, that works." I said, standing up as he did too. 

"It was nice talking to you, Jess." He said, walking past me towards the door as he left me in the coffee shop. 

~

"And that's when I stood up in the middle of the court room and screamed at lady for being a bitch." 

Matt, Foggy, and Karen where laughing incredibly hard as Karen poured me more bourbon. We all managed to calm ourselves down before Foggy began speaking. 

"From what I heard you seem like an absolute great asset to our team." Foggy laughed, "Do you have any experience in defense?"

"I already assured her that I would help her. I figured for the first month or so she could work with me so I could help her." Matt said, facing Foggy and Karen. 

Foggy turned his head slightly, standing up and scratching the back of his head. "Matt can I speak to you in my office?" He asked, walking towards his office as Matt and his cane followed. The door shut behind them and Karen began speaking to me, telling stories of all of them working together.

In the office, Foggy closed the blinds facing Matt and crossing his arms. 

"Are you doing something?" Matt asked.

"Yes, I am. I'm giving you a look that says what the hell and I'm crossing my arms." 

"Oh so I guessed right." 

"Matt, are you serious?" Foggy asked. 

"What?" He said putting his arms out to his side and whispering, "She said she wanted me to teach her." 

Foggy pointed his finger, "Your just doing this to get laid and you know it!" Foggy whisper screamed. 

"I would never." 

Foggy scoffed, "Oh you would, you so would you smug bastard." 

"Nothing is going to happen, Foggy." Matt tried to reassure him. Truly the issue was Matt didn't know if nothing would happen. Jess was nice, smart, had a great personality, and was apparently beautiful. He just had to give Foggy a bit of reassurance to get him off his ass about this. 

"If I find out you do anything, I mean anything, to make a move your a dead man."

"I promise you sir nothing will happen. I'll have your daughter home by 9 sharp." Matt joked, earning nothing from Foggy besides a head shake. "Oh come on that was funny." Matt said as Foggy opened the door into the main office.

"Your hired!" Foggy said, smiling wide. 

"Oh my, thank you guys so much! Really, I can't tell you how much of a relief it is I don't have to go around asking for a job anymore." I said light-heartedly. 

"Don't thank us just yet..." Karen said, facing her laptop and turning it towards me and Foggy. A news report about Bret James escaping was plastered on the screen, showing a picture of an alleyway with two dead bodies and police tape surrounding it. "Bret escaped." She said, placing her left hand on her hip,  and the right hand on her forehead. 

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"How the hell did he escape?" Foggy exclaimed, placing his hand on his face. 

I stood in shock, remembering the words that he said before he was dragged out of the court room. 

I'm coming for you.

I rushed towards the chair, grabbing my coat and putting it on. 

"I gotta go." I said, quickly making my way to the door. A pair of hands landed on my arm, pulling me back. 

Matt was towering over me, looking down at me. "Maybe you should stay here. That murder was only a mile away from us." Matt looked rather serious, and was covering the handle. 

"Matt I appreciate the concern, but I need to get home to my roommate." I said, looking back up at him, softly taking his hand off of my arm. "Matt." I said, quietly as he moved from the door. 

I rushed out the door, looking in my bag at my dark red shirt, pants, and mask. I could hear Foggy yelling at Matt to come get me, and the door opening, making me rush down the stairs faster. I made my way into the alleyway near the building, throwing the shirt, pants, and mask on and rushing up the fire escape to the roof. 

I looked from the roof, noticing a pair of flashing blue and red lights in the distance. I quickly rushed from building to building, almost falling plenty of times in the process. When I finally made it to the crime scene I tried to listen for any bit of information about where Bret may be. 

"We're getting reports he's on 5th and Roswell. I'm gonna head over. Stay here and keep the press away from whatever the hell this is," One of the officers said to another. Him and another officer got in the car, driving to the location. 

When I turned back, the man in the black mask was hovering over me, causing me to stumble back. A pair of hands caught me, placing their hands on my hips and pulling me back up. 

"Jesus Christ dude." I said nervously trying to get his hands off, "You could have said something rather then just stand there like a creep." 

"Someone's on edge tonight. You okay?" He asked, for once actually seeming concerned. 

"I'm not on edge..I'm just...tired. Besides what do you care?" I said turning back and watching the police car leave. 

"I'm just asking if your okay." He said putting his hands up defensively, "You just seem distracted and personally I would rather not have your death on my hands." 

"I'm fine. I just..." I paused, feeling my body shutter at what I was about to say, "I need your help." 

"Your asking me for help?" He pointed to himself, smirking once again. "You must be scared." 

"I'm gonna kill you." I said, pointing at him and walking off towards the door on the roof. "And you know what-"

My words where cut off by me being tackled to the floor by the man in the black mask. Before I knew it a bullet had hit a pipe near us, sending a ping sound throughout the air. 

I was on my back and the man in the black mask was on top of me, staring straight forward. Sounds of bullets flew over us as he clutched his head into the crook of my neck, covering my head with his arms.

"At least buy me a drink first." I said irritated, looking straight up at him and catching his attention. His hand went over my mouth, keeping me from speaking anymore. 

"Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit." 

He quickly got up, pulling my arm up so I was standing in front of him. Bullets where coming from in front of us, and we where both behind an electrical box.

"I'm gonna need you to trust me for what I'm about to do." 

I tilted my head, confused by his manor. 

"Uh yeah I trust you." I said, watching him pull out his Billy Club as he faced the building door, making sure nobody was coming.

"As soon as I say so, run." He said, facing me.

 "Run where?" I asked before realizing what he wanted. "Oh hell no! I am not jumping off this building black mask!" I yelled.

The building we where on was about 30 stories high, and to be frankly honest I didn't trust him with my life whatsoever.

"Would you just please not be a bitch and do this?! I am trying to save your damn life here." He pleaded irritated, putting his hand into a praying stance. 

"I am not-"

"One."

"I swear to God-"

"Two."

"You mother f-"

"Three." 

With that the door opened and he ran toward me as I rushed to the edge of the building, jumping off and turning mid air. I was facing the sky as I watched the man in the black mask grab onto a rope provided by his Billy Club. He grabbed onto my hand, swinging us both through a window of a dark office. Both of us landed on the floor next to each other, making the same noise of our bones aching. 

I sat up on my elbows, holding onto my stomach. I groaned as I looked down, noticing a patch of something dark and wet on my stomach. I lifted my shirt, seeing that my stomach had a piece of glass going straight through it, slicing through my lower stomach.

"You okay?" I mumbled, still in absolute pain. I groaned as I tried to move over, finding my attempt useless. 

"Yeah I'm fine." He grunted, sitting on his knees and looking over. "Shit." He mumbled, rushing over when he heard the sound of blood hitting the carpet. The man was limping as he walked over, he grabbed my lower back and legs with one simple motion.

"One, two, three." 

With that he picked me up, covering my mouth as I screamed with absolute terror and pain in my stomach.

"Oh my God...okay..alright." He paused, panicking as he tried to get me to quiet down. "Listen, I can't get that out here so I need you to just be patient with me okay?" He looked up, listening. "There's a group of 5 guys coming in here so we need to get out of here now. I'll bring you to a friend of mine. She's good with this kinda- " he lifted my shirt, noticing the wound. "-stuff."

I nodded along, squinting my eyes. 

He rushed down the stairs of the building, occasionally stopping to listen to make sure nobody else was coming. When we finally made it outside, he rushed us out of the block. 

~

"Claire!" The man yelled, banging on the door with his left hand. "Come on I know your in there!" He yelled.

The door opened swiftly by a woman in a pair of light blue scrubs. 

"What the hell is this? " she asked rather aggressively motioning to me. "I told you to stop coming to my apartment banged up so you bring me another one of your friends to fix?" 

"As much as I would love for you to judge me, I have someone who's bleeding out in my hands." He said, nodding down to me. "Can you just please help me?"

She looked down at me, then back up at the man before grunting and throwing her head back. 

"Give her to me." She said, putting her hands out as the man placed me down on the floor and the woman helped me inside, lying me down on the couch.  

The woman quickly ran into the bathroom, grabbing a first aid kit and making her way into the living room again. 

"Okay, first off how the hell did this happen? Second of all, Who are you?" She said, speaking with me as she opened the kit up, putting latex gloves on. 

"This idiot had the bright idea to fling me through a window." I grunted, holding onto my stomach. 

"It was that or you got shot, which one do you prefer?" 

"There was definitely another option besides dropping me off the side of the building and tossing me through a window, there had to be." 

"I saved your-" 

"Ok now is not the time for bickering." The woman said, placing her hands up in the air. "Answer my second question now, who the hell are you?" 

"I'm another vigilante as they call us-"

"I need your real name."

"Yeah uh, kinda can't do that." I paused, "whole secret identity thing." I waved my hands around.

"So you have the same policy as him I see." She opened the bottle of alcohol and proceeded to dump it on my wound. The feeling of my insides fizzing and burning combined together, creating a haze in my vision from the pain. I arched my back, groaning at the pain.

"Jesus- you couldn't give me a warning." 

"If I gave you a warning it would have hurt more because you where prepared for it." She said, closing the bottle as she put her hands on the glass in my stomach. "For example," she paused, ripping the glass slowly from my stomach as I screeched in pain. "If I gave you a warning for that,  you would have pulled away." 

"Your good at your job." I mumbled, aching from the wound.

"Well I deal with people like you and the masked man on a daily so," she shrugged, "kinda have to be." 

She began to wrap up my wound, and the man behind me came closer, standing next to my shoulder and looking down. 

"I swear if I see you out there tomorrow, I'm killing you myself." 

"I have to stop them." I argued, looking up at him. "You can't expect me to just let him go." 

"Considering what happened tonight, yeah, I'm counting on it."

I rolled my eyes, "your the reason I'm in this shit of a situation." I pointed down at my stomach. "I would have been perfectly fine if it wasn't for you." 

"You would have gotten shot and killed."

"If I'm being honest I would take that over any moment with you." 

"Oh my God would you both shut it with the bickering, your fighting like a married couple." The woman said, wrapping my stomach up with bandages and gauze after stitching me up. "How did you guys even meet? I'm guessing this isn't the first encounter you've had with one another." 

"He's been stalking me." I said quickly.

"I have not been stalking you." He argued, "I hear there's something wrong and you just happen to be at every place that I go." 

"Sure." I mumbled.

He scoffed, "you know maybe I should have just let you bleed out, maybe you would stop being such a bitch."

"Oh darling we both know there's nothing to do to stop this." I motioned to myself. "Tell me, Claire was it? Is he always this big of a dick to people? Or is it just when he's around me."

Claire laughed, failing at holding it in. "He's more needy usually." 

"Oh how lovely." 

"I am not needy." The man argued, being met with silence in the room.

"All done." Claire said, standing up and taking her gloves off. 

I looked down, my stomach completely wrapped up from the middle to the bottom. 

"Thank you, really." I said, looking up at Claire. "I should get home, my roommate is gonna think I'm dead." I stated, getting up slowly as the man in the mask gave me his arm to help me up. I quickly pulled away once I was fully up, not wanting to acknowledge the simple motion. 

"You can't walk like this, you'll get killed out there." The man said.

"Not to be rude or anything but I'm kinda sick of your advice for the night." I said, walking towards the door. "I can make it home, I'm only a block or two away and I'll take the short way." 

"Your stubborn." 

"Yeah but it's comical to you." I opened the door turning back, "thank you once again, Claire." Pausing I looked over at the man, "and to you, thank you for an eventful night." I said sarcastically before walking out and closing the door.

Claire looked over at Matt who was still watching the door with an amused smile. 

"She's definitely something ."Claire said, "I like her."

"Don't let her fool you, she's a terror." He said, looking back at the direction of Claire's voice. 

"Say what you want Matt." She said walking towards him and patting her hand on his shoulder, "but we both know you've had a little pep in your step ever since you met her ." 

Matt rolled his eyes, walking towards the door and opening it.

"I have not."

"Oh yes you have. Last week you wouldn't shut up about her when you came in here."

Matt scoffed, closing the door behind him. Not denying a single word. 

A/N-

Ah! I hope you guys liked this chapter as much as I did. Please be patient with the process! I have a whole story line planned out and this is just the beginning stages. 

How do we like the change in tone when they are speaking with each other? I love the fact that when they are with each other they don't have to pretend to be someone their not (well kinda, you know what I mean), which is why I love the tension between the two of them.

The next chapter will be out by next Wednesday. I know you guys probably hate me for making you wait that long but, I just started writing it and I can already tell it's gonna be a good one. Tbh, knowing me I'll have it out by Monday if I'm being completely honest.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your days and stay safe! Also, if you have any song recommendations that you feel go with this book or a specific scene or chapter, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I seriously will appreciate any recommendations. 

Anyway, have a wonderful day and see you next week!

EDIT- Hi everyone! After reading through this chapter again idk what the heck happened but I'm convinced I was drunk while writing this lol. The writing made absolutely no sense so I made some adjustments to it! Hope you enjoy it better. This will definitely help the story play out better. Thank you for your understanding!