Entry tags:

!complete, deirdre barimen, matt murdock (daredevil)

Who: Matt Murdock daredevil & Deirdre of Amber deirdreofamber
What: Rehab's a Bitch
When: February
Where: St. Joseph's Physical Rehabilitation Center
Rating: Audience Discretion is Advised
Warnings: Deirdre is a wild thing. Matt Murdock is a man without fear.
Status: Closed/Complete Upon Posting

~*~

Physical rehabilitation was something Matt Murdock had endured since early childhood. Being born blind meant he had to learn how to do things differently from others. He had no excuses left to him to hide behind. There had been people teaching him, training him, preparing him to live a 'full life' rather than that of a victim of circumstances since before he could walk. Matt had learned how to walk with the proper training, in fact, and his first steps had not been the wavering ones of an unbalanced toddler.

Matt had been running when most children had been learning to crawl.

He'd recently dislocated his shoulder going down a fire escape which had brought him back to St. Joseph's Rehab.

Again.

"Rehab's a bitch," Matt offered conversationally to the woman in the elevator with him, "What's your poison? Knees? Hips? Ankles? I'm not thinking a spinal from the sound of your steps. This go around I'm doing arms. Lucky me, right?"

~*~

“Rehab is always a bitch” Deirdre laughed a little. “Spine's good, just keeping up on a knee that seems to enjoy getting injured more often than not.” Deidre was feeling much better, even going back to work, but they made her keep it up so she didn’t injure it again.

She leaned on the wall and canted her head at the man. “What did you do to your arms?” she looked him over as she puzzled him out, but smiled to herself. “Sounds like you are a regular here then?” she laughed a little, shaking her head a little.

“I’m used to rehab, myself.”

***

Smiling in the direction of her voice, Matt tried to put a picture of her together in his head. She was older than he'd expected from the maturity in her tone; she was taller, too. He had a feeling she would be harder than the average woman if he put his hands on her. It'd been a long time since he'd had his hands on a woman in any way other than purely business---or the OC trying to make him completely insane by having him kissing complete strangers who were entirely too young for him.

"I'm used to it as well. They call me a frequent flyer here. Matt Murdock, attorney at law, but don't hold that against me. I dislocated my shoulder going down a fire escape. What about your knee? You have a grudge against it?"

Some people were naturally self-destructive. Matt was someone who could be considered that way. Depending on who was doing the considering.

~*~

Deirdre was tall, strong, compact and capable of a lot. She was used to hurting herself, first in gymnastics then later as a stunt woman. She liked working hard, pushing herself. Even if it ended with her in pain. She didn’t mind that much.

“What's a lawyer doing going down fire escapes? I get a feeling it wasn’t because of a fire.” She grinned a bit. “Work is tough on my joints. Usually I don’t hurt myself but..” she trailed off and shrugged. “Between old gymnastics injuries and work, my knees love protesting whenever they can.”

Deirdre was good at being self-destructive too.

***

"I didn't want to take the stairs since there were people sleeping in them and the elevators were broken."

Matt admitted it as if he was offering up a perfectly reasonable explanation.

"I typically do corporate law. International. Mergers and acquisitions actually which pretty much means I'm a paper-pusher and also implies sometimes I work with people who are not exactly the most straight-forward. I get sent to places you wouldn't typically have a business meeting. This time? It was a tenement building with a focus on the illegal tenancy. I'd taken the fire escape before. I just didn't realize the lowest ladder had rusted into place since the last time I'd done it. Pulled my shoulder out. Again. It happens."

He shrugged, ignoring the pain in his joints, torn muscles and bruises as he did it. They'd gotten him out of the shoulder holster. That was something Matt had been insistent upon. Being blind didn't bother him as much as some would think, but being blind and bound? That was terrifying in a way he couldn't fully express in words.

"What about you? What kind of work are you in that keeps your knees protesting?"

~*~

Deirdre smirked. “Well aren’t you an interesting lawyer then. Not many I’d know of willing to that kind of work and climb down fire escapes to help people out. Careful, you’re dangerously close to ruining my idea of lawyers being soulless people.”

She rolled her shoulders and shifted her weight onto her happy knee. “I’m a stunt woman, actually. I do the hard stuff so the prissy stars don't get a bruise.” she laughed a bit. “I wasn’t a big fan of living a boring life so the career appealed to me. Though my knees do take the brunt of the abuse.” She shrugged a bit. “I would much rather beat myself up than sitting around at some desk job though.”

Which is why half her injuries came from outside work. Jump off a cliff? Sure! Jump out a plane in a wingsuit? Win.

***

Souls were a concept Matt wasn't certain he believed in. Religion was fine in theory. Matt didn't have much more than theory to go on where faith was concerned. He had been raised by parents whose love had been wonderfully affirming, but it hadn't been the kind which came from being a part of a church. Their family spent time talking about business, not about the Good Book. There were so many other things which were more important to their family than faith. It struck Matt he might want to look into faith the older he got.

"I'm not entirely sure I'm not soulless. Faith and I aren't friends. I don't work a traditional desk job in spite of being a paper pusher. What kind of stunts do you do? Car chases or things like jumping out of windows?"

Matt had jumped out of more than one window growing up. He had no fear of heights and his balance was impeccable. It came from having a detailed sense of equilibrium courtesy of his sight impairment.

"I've never driven a car, but I have jumped out of a few windows. Never a plane, but I've been wanting to try it."

~*~

She smiled a bit. “Windows, roof tops, out of planes. I love motorcycles and snowboarding, but I'm not licensed to stunt drive cars. Motorcycles yes, cars no. I don't really like cars much anyways.” She shrugged a bit.

“I much prefer the physical stunts, where I have to rely on me and not some vehicle. I have more trust in myself than technology I guess. “ she spent a lot of her life getting to know how her body worked, after all.

“How'd you get interested in being a lawyer any ways?”

**

"I understand that kind of faith. I believe in what my body can do. I don't know that I believe in machines."

Matt had learned to trust his instincts continuously. They were going to work with him to get him back to the top of his game again at the center. That was what he paid them for after all. His family had gotten him interested in the law. There were few things he could compete with on a way which wasn't legal. Matt could throw a punch more accurately than any blind man had any right to be able to lay claim to, but he was still limited by his physicality. This woman sounded as if she had never had to deal with a real disability.

Rubbing his eye underneath his dark glasses, Matt forced a smile, "I grew up knowing there would always be those who couldn't fight for themselves. People who needed someone to fight for them. Me? I can't swing everything for them, but I can fight in a courtroom. That's something. It's my way to keep everything on the level."

~*~

She had never been truly disabled but that was okay too. She respected those that were, she knew she had good fortune to be healthy.

“Fair enough. Good reason to choose that career path.” She shook her head a bit. “I've always defended myself, but there are those who can't. You seem like a good person. I'm glad there are those like you who can help."

***

"Fair," Matt repeated, "I try to be that too."

They would bump into one another in the rehab center if she was a regular face around the place. Matt knew as well as anyone else how often he'd have to show up for his therapy. It was such a familiar pattern for him, he should have gotten a degree in physical therapy instead of law. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to learn massage. His hands were rougher than people expected due to how often he used them. Would he be better at it than someone else? A sighted person? It was something to think about.

"What's your name? I doubt I'll ever get the chance to find out if I don't ask since you've as much as admitted you've never been a damsel in distress."

~*~

“I'm Deirdre, and you're right, I'm rarely a damsel in distress. I save myself usually.” They would run into each other a lot here. This was becoming her go to rehab center.

“I do hope your healing goes well. I don't mind rehab, but we should probably not make this habitual.” She was smiling while she said it.

**

"A pleasure to meet you, Deirdre the Stuntwoman. You can try not to land yourself meeting me, Matt the Lawyer, here too much. It's probably safer that way."

He wasn't the best guy to keep around.

Matt stepped off the elevator when it stopped on his floor, navigating his way out purely by instinct and memory which was all he had, all he would ever have.

Might as well get used to it.