Lady Mary Crawley (ladycontrary) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-09-10 21:29:00 |
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With the sudden disappearance of Harvey, Mary felt like her world had been turned upside down. Sure the two of them mostly had an employer/employee relationship, but Mary had been fond of him. They had flirted a bit and she had hoped that they might eventually date one day. Now it was all for naught. She was depressed, but she agreed to help Matt go over the case that Harvey was supposed to try in the morning. It took hours to transcribe everything, but she finally left around 9, locking the office after her. Mary walked down the deserted alleyway that led to the main street where she could catch her bus. She didn’t even notice the man until he had grabbed her. After she let out a scream, the man pulled her back into the alleyway and pulled a gun at her. “I want your purse,” he said, his voice low. “Now.” Mary felt like her heart was going to explode, she was so nervous. How she hated living here sometimes. With a shaky hand, she gave the man her purse, but before he had a chance to run, Mary grabbed the small can of mace that was attached to her keys in her other hand and sprayed him in the face. As her attacker cried out and dropped the gun in response to the burning sensation, Mary took off at a run, only to be stopped by another man with a knife at the end of the alleyway. She froze, staring at him. “You’re going to pay for that,” he said. Matt had his reservations about Mary going to the bus stop alone. One of their firm’s cases was going on trial in the morning, and since it was a tricky one, Matt had asked Mary to stay late to help him prepare. As she was leaving, he asked if she wanted him to accompany her, but when she said no, Matt didn’t want to push the issue. Mary came from an era where women were restricted, and she was just learning her independence. The area where their office was located didn’t have a high crime report, so he told her good night, and that he’d see her early in the morning. At the curb, standing his cane in one hand and his briefcase in the other, he waited for his Uber driver to arrive, when his enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of terror like an explosion in his ear: a woman’s scream - Mary. He broke out into a dash in the direction of the scream, loosening his necktie and listening to the events as they unfolded. A man’s cry in pain meant Mary had defended herself, and the sudden scent of mace told him how she’d done it. But an accomplice was there, threatening her. Upon reaching the alley, Matt quickly slung his briefcase aside, causing it to slide across pavement and under a dumpster. The sound attracted the mugger’s attention; he grabbed Mary, spun her around and held the knife up to her throat as his hostage, but before he could even say anything, Matt had already twisted his cane and detached the pieces to create a pair of clubs. With uncanny accuracy, Matt threw the club straight at the mugger and it hit him in the head, knocking him to the ground. He then rushed over to Mary. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned for her wellbeing. “Are you hurt?” He didn’t smell blood on her, so that was good. The whole thing happened so quickly that Mary felt like she wasn’t even sure what had just occurred. She had screamed again when the other man grabbed her and she saw Matt coming towards them. Her fear had spiked, worried that he was going to get hurt too, but then the club hit her attacker and he dropped the knife. Mary took in a huge gasp of air as she tried to process everything. She grabbed Matt’s hand, trembling and panting wildly. It felt like she couldn’t breathe. “N-No,” she managed, then noticed in horror over his shoulder that the second man had stood up again. Even though his head was bleeding, he had grabbed the knife again. “Mr. Murdock!” Matt’s had been solely focused upon Mary, so he hadn’t noticed the mugger rising until she called his attention to him. The smell and taste of blood was in air, and he heard the scrape of the blade on the ground as he bent over to pick it up. Matt twisted his neck and inclined his head in such a way to listen better, but otherwise made no other movement until his attacker came close enough for him to suddenly swing around and strike him in the face using his open palm. Blood spattered as the man stumbled back with a broken nose. Matt followed through with a roundhouse kick, again to the face, which took him down, unconscious. The other mugger who had been maced, had managed to clear his vision enough to see what was going on, and he stumbled away, trying to escape. Matt’s first instinct was not to let this happen, and he sprung forward to grab him from behind by the collar. He spun him around and began ruthlessly punching him in the face, again, and again, and again, until the man became limp in Matt’s grasp. Heart racing, adrenaline pumping, Matt felt alive. The last time he felt so great was winning the Fight Club over a month ago. He released the mugger, then flexed his fist, which was covered in blood. These men were nothing compared to some other opponents he went against, but it still gave him a thrill. But he didn’t waste time by enjoying it for too long. He wasn’t facing in Mary’s direction when he told her, “We need to leave.” Before the witnesses arrived, or the police. But then his head curiously tilted in Mary’s direction. Something was still wrong. Mary stood back when the other mugger got up. It was clear that Matt could more than handle himself. He was on the offensive now, which scared Mary just a bit. She would never have imagined that the mild-mannered man she worked for could be so violent. At one point, she almost told him to stop because she thought he was killing the man. When he went limp in Matt’s arms, Mary feared the worst. She was too dumbfounded to speak until he did though. “I-Is your taxi coming?” she asked. Mary saw the blood on his fist and wondered how that would be explained away. Then she noticed how he was cocking his head, apparently listening for something. “What is it?” Slipping into the mindset of Daredevil was far too easy. Gone were Matt’s cheerful smiles and friendly demeanor - he was now darkly serious and gruff. He’d been listening to Mary’s accelerated heartbeat - between that and the unsteadiness in her voice, he could tell she was still frightened. He then inclined his head again toward the street to listen. “My ride is waiting for me, the driver is pissed off that I’m not around, but I really can’t go like this.” He realized what a frightful mess he must look like, with blood on his fist and spatter on his suit. He marched over to where his cane piece had fallen and picked it up while informing her, “Also, your bus is a three blocks away, it’ll be here soon.” He was now closer to Mary, and he paused for a moment. “Are you okay?” He’d asked her that before, but this time he was more concerned about her mental state. Mary wanted to ask how he knew all that with such certainty, but she was still too distracted to dwell on it, much less remember how he had said that his other senses were enhanced with his blindness. She knew that to be true, but she didn’t realize they were that enhanced. Still shaking, she moved closer to him. Was it easier for her to cry in front of a man who couldn’t see her? Mary took a shaky breath as the tears flowed down her face. “No,” she replied honestly. She had never been assaulted like that before in her life. “D-Don’t we need to call the police?” Call the police? Matt turned his face toward her, curiously. Back home, when he fought criminals, he was always leaving the scene so he wouldn’t be seen or caught, and it hadn’t occurred to him until now that doing the same thing here would not only be absurd, but would get him into a lot of trouble. A great deal of the Displaced knew his identity of Daredevil, they knew his modus operandi, so if a pair of muggers were found beaten unconscious in an alleyway not far from Matt Murdock’s law office, they would easily figure out who was responsible. Matt remained silent for several silent moments before coming to terms with doing the right thing. “I’ll give them a call,” he said, reaching into his pocket for his cell phone - he didn’t think Mary was capable of doing it herself right now. “We’ll need to stick around to give the police our statements. It might take a while, and we’ll probably be asked to go to the station to fill out a report.” Mary nodded, even though he couldn’t see it, and leaned back against the wall. Her heart was still pounding and her arm was sore from where the man had grabbed her. Both of the men seemed to be out cold, but Mary was still terrified that they’d wake up again and come after her. “Please,” she sobbed. At this point, she didn’t care if Matt knew how upset she was. This had truly been one of her worst days ever in Tumbleweed. “Please, can we go back inside the office? I-I don’t want to stand out here with them.” Matt was blind, but his heightened senses told him how Mary began to lean upon the wall, and her elevated heartbeat and the way she breathed told him that she was starting to cry even before he heard it in her voice. It was a perfectly normal reaction, one which Matt couldn’t fault her for, and he hung his head momentarily before gently taking her by the crook of her arm and nudging her in the direction of the street. “I’ve got a bottle of whiskey in my office,” he softly told her. “We can have a drink while we wait for the police to arrive.” “A-Alright,” she murmured as she allowed herself to be led back to the office. Mary hoped that the men in the alley wouldn’t come to and escape in the meantime, but for now she just wanted to be away. Once she and Matt were inside, she allowed herself to cry more openly, standing in the middle of the office by her desk and burying her face in her hands. She really thought that she might have died that night if it hadn’t been for him. Matt didn’t like the idea of leaving the criminals behind, but Mary was in such a state, her care was more important. Besides, he could tell from their breathing that they were out cold, and the way he hit them, it was unlikely they’d be waking up any time soon. If anything, it was more likely that somebody else would come across them. On their way out of the alley, Matt retrieved his briefcase from under the dumpster where he slid it, and walked with his arm upon Mary’s shoulder the rest of the way. In the office, Matt began to leave her side, first to get the bottle of whiskey, but also to call the police, but then she started weeping. He stood facing her direction for several moments, debating on what to do before deciding - he bridged the distance between themselves in order to engulf her in his arms, holding her close to his chest in a comforting embrace, expressing in action what was difficult to do in words. Mary hugged him back, in a display of emotion that was unusual for her. She trembled with sobs as she buried her face in his chest. Everything from the past few days seemed to be coming to a head here there in that moment. After the police came and took their statements, she would go back to her big house and be alone, again. With no family here and her friends randomly leaving, Mary had never felt so lonely in her life. She didn’t want to unload all of that on Matt though. Just being held made her feel better, at least. |