Post by webdevil on Dec 24, 2021 22:35:35 GMT -7
The Christmas season was always busy. Frantic shopping, countless overtime hours, not enough sleep, and fretting over more relatives than you would normally put up with at any point in the year. Disguised in a red, green, and golden light of cheer, the Christmas Spirit was not what was on a lot of New Yorkers' minds.
And no place had less Holiday spirit than a New York City hospital. On the front steps of the hospital was a woman roughly in her late-thirties wearing the scrubs of a Nurse underneath her jacket and arguing with a security guard.
"Oh so make me and the entire ward work 75 hour work weeks for MONTHS and now all of a sudden, on Christmas Eve, you want to shut down the ward!?" she cried on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry ma'am but you are not allowed on premises. I've got orders," said the security guard mechanically.
"Oh so it was ok for me to be here when I'm knee deep in some jackoff's blood cause he took a knife in the neck not even twelve hours ago, but now it's not ok!? On Christmas Eve!?" said the Nurse.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but- -"
"Hey, get off me!"
Behind the Nurse came another one of the guards who grabbed her, which gave the guard she was talking to a green light to help out and haul her towards the door violently. Despite being surrounded on all sides but witnesses, the shrieks and screams continued with nobody stepping in to help; just content to watch and record the incident on their phones. The guards were each the size of football players, manhandling a woman weighing roughly one-hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet. They were acting as if there was no humanity behind their eyes.
As they got outside the automatic doors and got ready to hurl the woman like a violent frisbee down the steps and onto solid black ice and concrete, something solid connected with the lead guard's forehead that made him let go of the woman and stagger back. His partner, still holding the Nurse, looked up in shock at the man then looked on the ground to see a crimson etched baton. Upon seeing this, his eyes widened in fear and turned around to see perched on the railing awning a large man clad in red.
The Red Man spoke in a snarl.
"Let. Her. Go," his voice came across the icy wind like harsh glass being shattered. The guard did as instructed as if he suffered an electric shock and after grabbing his partner, retreated back inside.
Once, and only when, the guards were well out of reach, did the Red Man move to retrieve his Billy Club and sheathe it at his hip. That was when the cameras all shifted in his direction. It was not uncommon for his kind to be mobbed by rubberneckers and livestreamers, but their timing of doing so given the circumstances made his blood curdle.
The Nurse sniffed and sharply kneeled down on the steps, unable to contain the tears any longer. Or the wails. The Red Man turned sharply as people began to call his name out.
DAREDEVIL!
YO, DAREDEVIL!
WHATCHU DOIN, DAREDEVIL!?
JUST DOIN' THEIR JOBS DAREDEVIL!
WAY TO GO, DAREDEVIL!
For a moment, the man beneath the cowl of Daredevil, blind attorney Matt Murdock, was transported back to a different place in Hell's Kitchen. A different time, even. In a schoolyard where bullies acted only as bullies ever did.
DARRRRRRREDEVIL.
DAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRREEEEDEVIL!
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRREEEEEEEEDEVIL!
Daredevil whirled on the people in the entrance with their cameras.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" he roared, which caused them all to cower and flee. At last.
He turned to the woman and sat down next to her.
"It's okay," he said softly, and felt her hug him tightly, sobs muffled against his crimson costume.
"It's okay..."
A few minutes passed, more onlookers stopping to look as they passed, and Daredevil's Radar Sense tracked Spider-Man passing by twenty stories up (which distracted passersby to his relief), before she had calmed enough to speak.
"Eighteen years. I worked at that hospital for eighteen years and - - and - -,"
"And?" asked Daredevil, allowing her to let out what was on her mind. He heard the commotion for several blocks before he went to investigate. He also had a pretty good idea why said commotion occured in the first place, but he had to be sure...
"- - and now because I don't want to sign off on the new liability forms, I'm not "fit" for healthcare duty even tho not even yesterday I had to pull shards of shattered Christmas ornaments out of a lady's body as if she was a Christmas tree! It was okay for my shift to end but oh no four hours later I suddenly am a liability!?"
Daredevil heard about this. All Emergency services and even some local corporate businesses across New York were trying to implement Superhuman Liability forms in the event the workers developed a mutation or walked into an accident that caused them to develop superpowers similar to his own. For this to work, they had to also disclose any medical history that could be tracked in case they COULD potentially develop powers.
He recalled when the company responsible for the radioactive waste that took his sight strongarmed his father into signing release of liability forms so Jack Murdock could not sue them. But back then, superpowers were almost entirely unknown, and Matt never revealed he had even developed any sort of abilities that compensated for his newfound disability. But in reality, these new policies were designed to increase corporate insurance premiums (which were already absurdly high given New York's superhuman population) that they could use it to create astronomical windfalls far beyond what companies or public servants were even worth in the event even their worst worker suddenly could fly or shoot fire from their eyes.
It disgusted the lawyer in him as much as the non-chalant attitude even security guards had to such an edict. No humanity. An extension of the SRA gone too far. It sickened him. It angered him. Worse was public reception and acceptance of it. Figure if they don't have any powers, do their part, right? But what about those that did? Did they not deserve the right to privacy?
The Nurse took Daredevil's silence as a cue to let out a fresh wave of sobs.
"You will find a way. Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong,"
The Nurse stopped sobbing abruptly to look up.
"You're religious? Right. The costume," she said, the embarrassment mingled with her confusion.
"Something like that," said Daredevil with a small smile.
"I-I mean... I didn't expect you longjohn types to go to Church. I mean I do but..."
She shook her head and got to her feet, sighing heavily.
"I don't know what I'm going to do..." she said absently. "I wasn't recording so I dunno if I can charge them, the hospital, if the NYPD would take me seriously..."
Daredevil got to his feet, dusting himself off. It had begun to snow in the intervening minutes.
"Do you have any family you can go to? It's Christmas afterall, Miss..." said Daredevil.
"Allan. Kristen. And no. I - uh - well it's been kind of rough lately with my family. Husband, kid, parents. I just... I have a good life in New York but so few here have that luxury. I don't think it's fair that I can do gift exchange and Santa Claus when someone is bleeding out from a mugging or - -"
"When someone like me breaks said mugger's arm or leg?" asked Daredevil grimly.
"Y-yeah," replied Kristen, arms up. "I mean I'm glad you guys are out there but I became a healthcare professional to heal and give life. That was my gift to people. A better day. One not spent alone..."
"And now... I can't even do that..."
Daredevil tensed as a familiar voice and shape lit up his Radar Sense like a proverbial Christmas tree.
"I would not be so quick to judge," came an older woman's voice.
They both turned on a dime to see a woman in her early fifties approach them. Blond hair slightly going silver, a thin face, and huge eyes. Matt's eyes before they were blinded.
"Sister Maggie!?" both Kristen and Daredevil exclaimed together. The two then exchanged glances as they realized one another knew the Nun. Sister Maggie, for her part, smiled warmly.
"Hello Kristen. I see you have met the hero of Hell's Kitchen," she said. Sister Maggie was not dressed in her more conventional Nun attire in the cold night air, but rather a more warm, business like coat, long tights and skirt, and a warm jumper.
"What are you doing here?" asked Daredevil. Unbeknownst to most, Daredevil and Sister Maggie shared a unique bond, for once upon a time, Sister Maggie had gone by the name of Mary Grace Murdock, and was Matt Murdock's mother who left Matt and his father shortly after he was born. She only re-entered his life in the last few years, but she was determined to make up for all those lost years.
"Every year on Christmas I come to all the hospitals to collect the donations for the Church. Clothes, toys, food, so on. I've worked with Kristen before. But it appears that will no longer be the case?"
Kristen explained to Maggie the situation, to which the Nun closed her eyes in disappointment.
"I am sorry to hear. Well I'm not one to tell anybody to go home if they want to help, but- -"
That was when a gunshot rung out in Daredevil's senses. He sensed them both face him.
"Gunshot. Two blocks. Excuse me," he said and with that, hopped onto the rail and sliding down it as if it was a snowboard, used the momentum to spring into the air and fire a grapple line, swinging off. In a patter of snow covered footfalls he could sense the two women following in his wake.
- THE END -
