Chapter Text
The courtroom was too hot; the AC had to be broken. Or maybe it was that his legal team was losing, and that they were losing not because they sucked but because his own company had fucked up. Tony looked across the aisle at the opposing team surrounding Dom Rosario, his former (genderfluid) employee. He’d tried to talk to them, but it hadn’t worked. He’d fired the bigoted asshole who’d pushed Dom out, tried to get them to come back to Stark Industries, but it hadn’t worked. Dom wanted to go to court, make a big splash. Make it A Cause.
Tony agreed, privately, but it was bad publicity and he had to fight back. At least Dom had made a public statement about it being more about pervasive office and lab practices in companies in general, not specifically SI.
Dom’s newborn was fussing a little and Ms. Page cooed at the sprog as Tony watched. Ms. Page reminded him of Pepper a little: fiery hair, her bosses’ boss, and she clearly had put the fear of her disapproval in Nelson’s and Murdock’s souls. Tony liked her already, and as for the two lawyers… he’d like to lure them into his own legal department, but he doubted they’d ever accept. Especially not Murdock.
Tony had read up on them of course; he liked to know his opponents, and it turned out that while Nelson had worked for a high-paying firm for a while, he’d still gone back to work with his law school buddy as soon as he could. They operated out of a dingy little office in Hell’s Kitchen helping those in need, taking a lot of pro bono cases, and getting paid just enough to keep them afloat. And Murdock? Murdock was never going to work for Tony, ever. He knew the kind and he respected it, but boy were they a thorn in his industrialist side. Ah, well. He watched them confer with Dom, and from Murdock’s determined expression he could tell they were going to go for the jugular. Tony braced himself and started to think about what he’d tell the press outside after he inevitably lost.
And lose he did. Murdock delivered a frankly lethal closing statement, subtly reminding everyone that different didn’t mean useless every time his hands fluttered around his cane – that different could, in fact, also be brilliant. He had very white, very sharp-looking teeth that he flashed with every unerringly accurate, challenging smile he sent Tony’s way, and his suit looked off-the-rack and rather cheap but the shirt – the shirt he was filling out rather nicely...? The shirt was silk, and that was something that aroused Tony’s curiosity even more.
Oh, shit. Tony had lost, but he’d also just found he had a new crush. Shit on a stick. Pepper was going to kill him.
So far, she was mocking him.
“Okay, so apart from that guy’s glasses, silk shirts, and shoulders, is there anything else you want to talk about?”
“His ass?” Pepper’s glare made him wish he still had his sunglasses on. “Right. Can we find a way to hire him?”
“No, Tony; we can’t.”
“But he’s really good!”
“I don’t doubt it, but this is not how we’re going to make this better.” He pouted, but Pepper had sadly become immune to his pouts years ago. “No, no hiring hot lawyers.”
“Brilliant lawyers!” She stared at him silently. So judgey, she was. “Okay, and hot.”
“Admitting it is the first step, Tony.”
“Right. But – ” Pepper cleared her throat. “Right. So, regarding the lawsuit, I guess we should go above and beyond after that? On the discrimination issues, I mean.” Not the crushing-on-the-hot-lawyer ones, nope, not at all. That should not go above and beyond.
Pepper nodded and waved a hand in the air. “JARVIS, display the stats about SI employees who reported unmet needs or discriminatory behavior in the workplace.”
“Holy shit,” Tony said as the graphs and charts appeared. “I thought we were doing better than the others.”
“We are,” Pepper said. “That’s what makes it even worse.”
“We need outside help, someone who’s familiar with the issues on both the discriminated side and the legal side.”
“We can get in touch with associations, yes; I’ve drawn a list that…”
“What about a blind lawyer with experience in representing wrongfully fired employees or workers who are pushed out of their jobs?”
“Tony.”
“I bet he could help.”
“Tony.”
“But it makes sense, right?” She narrowed her eyes. “Our own legal team is clearly not the best on that topic. Look, I’ll ask him; it would be good PR too if we can get him on board, right?”
“Well, yes.” Ha. He knew it! “But I doubt he’ll agree.”
“But Pep…” He tried the puppy eyes this time, but it still didn’t work. “Fine. How much time can you give me?”
“You have until Monday to convince him. If not, we do it my way.”
It was Wednesday; Murdock would be on board before the weekend.
Thursday morning, bright and early (well, at 10:30; but he had gone to sleep in an actual bed at one point so it totally counted), Tony Stark was standing in front of a tiny, second- or third-hand desk from behind which Ms. Page’s ice-blue eyes were trying to bore a hole in his skull. Damn. If she ever met Pepper, he was toast.
“You don’t have an appointment,” she said.
“Nope,” he replied. He dialed up his PR smile for good measure.
“Would you like to make one?” She didn’t need to add that it wouldn’t be welcome; her face was loud enough.
But Tony could work tough crowds, right? And he was used to formidable women. And as formidable as she looked, this one surely couldn’t hold a candle to the one and only Ms. Potts. “I will if it helps, certainly. What about, uh, 10:45? If Mr. Nelson and Mr. Murdock are free, of course.” Which they were: the door to one office was ajar and he didn’t even need to strain to hear the typing and humming coming from inside. The other office door was closed and the lights were off inside, but he could hear something like a tape recording or the radio: the blind (hot) lawyer was working on his own.
“I will check with them,” Ms. Page replied. Her tone was freezing, but Tony kept up the smile.
She didn’t call them or get up to talk to them; she only typed something and a ping sound came from one of the offices, then the other. A bit more typing, a couple more pings, and Murdock himself opened his door and leaned against the jamb.
“What do you want?”
Tony was pretty proud of himself for not saying “You,” right away, but it wouldn’t have been a lie. Murdock had taken his jacket off; his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and Tony would be damned – his arms looked really, really good. Guy must be working out in his spare time because holy shit the shoulders, too. Did blind people do Crossfit? Probably. This one had to anyway, he had one seriously hot bod. Not superhuman like Steve’s and probably not as scarred as, say, Clint’s. He also wore those red-tinted glasses that Tony had to approve of. Murdock’s frown deepened the longer Tony didn’t answer, though, so he quickly scrambled a quick, “I have a proposal to make.” Which could lead to brainstorming sessions, and hopefully also a mutually-satisfying sex-ssion. Right?
“A proposal.” Murdock’s nostrils flared a little, but he didn’t add anything else. Tony spotted a mostly-healed cut over his eyebrow. He must have walked into a door or something.
“Yes. SI has already agreed to pay Dom’s lawyer fees and the compensation without appealing the court’s decision, but I want to do better. I used to pride myself on my company’s fairness of treatment, compliance with ADA, and generally on SI being a welcoming place for all our employees; turns out I was wrong. I really do want to do better, and I’m looking for people who could help me with that.”
“Why us?”
“Well, your firm is familiar with the issue; you’ve worked for several clients who were wrongfully dismissed for all kinds of reasons.”
“And we defended Dom Rosario, who was let go from SI because they were pregnant and one of your HR people refused to treat them like any other pregnant employee as long as they refused to be registered as a woman. I understand that would be good PR for you.”
“Well, yes, it would. But working as Dom’s attorneys also means you’ve already read up on SI. It really makes sense, apart from the PR.” Murdock didn’t look like the kind of guy who would appreciate being lied to so Tony went with full honesty, all cards on the table. Well, maybe not one particular card, but that one didn’t matter for now.
“No other reason?”
“I really mean it, Mr. Murdock.”
“Hm.” Then he aimed his face at Nelson’s door – huh, he’d probably been sighted at one point, to do that. Okay, one more thing to read up on – and hollered, “Foggy, what do you think?”
There was the squeak of old chair wheels on cheap linoleum, and Nelson appeared at his own door. “I don’t know, Matt. Do you believe him?”
“He’s not lying.”
“Are we doing this?”
“I mean, think about it, Fogs: telling the great Tony Stark how wrong he is.”
“Okay, I’m in.”
Yay? Tony felt like something more was coming.
“But do you trust him?” Ms. Page asked.
Murdock turned to Tony and grinned. It wasn’t a nice, polite smile. “Nope.”
“Aw, why? You said you don’t think I’m lying.”
“Eat the rich,” Murdock replied.
Okay, the guy was funny. He was joking, right? “I hope you’re not planning on killing me for my flesh. I’m not a young lamb anymore, you know.”
“Well, with a good marinade maybe,” Nelson said. “That would help.”
Ms. Page snickered and poised her hands above her keyboard. “So, do you still want to make an appointment?”
“For the slaughtering? Sure,” Tony answered. If that was what they were calling it now… “Just let me put you in touch with my assistant, and we’ll find a moment to meet at the Tower.”
“Why not here?”
“Well, we’d also be meeting with Ms. Potts, SI’s CEO; and, um.” He tried to put it in nice, non-threatening words. “You need to come in at least once so you can be scanned to create permanent visitor passes, you know? After that, you’d be able to come and go at will, talk to the employees, and so on.”
“Scanned?” Murdock looked like he was sucking on a particularly sour lemon but the pursed lips didn’t make him any less attractive, sadly.
“Uh, just, you know, the usual biometrics; fingerprints, retinal scan, and the like.” Look, Tony took security very seriously, all right? Too many people depended on him to provide a safe and secure space in the tower.
“Would you consider coming here too?”
“Why?” Not that Tony was scared of Hell’s Kitchen, but there were better places, definitely. And their office was… not very bright. Yeah, that was it. Just a bit too dark in there for Tony’s tastes. “I mean, I’m a pretty busy guy, I’m not always free to cross Manhattan during peak hours.” There, that was a perfectly reasonable answer.
“Our time is precious too, Mr. Stark. And we don’t have chauffeurs or a flying suit of armor when traffic is too dense.”
“I didn’t mean to imply…”
“You absolutely meant to imply your time was more important than ours. Unless you find our address unsavory?”
Tony sighed. “Look, I apologize, I didn’t think before speaking and I was insensitive. Pepper says it’s something I have to work on so it’s fine, call me out if you have to.”
“You don’t like it.”
“Well, no one does, right?”
Murdock’s smile softened, and Tony realized he’d never seen him look anything other than combative, pissed off, and/or determined before. “No,” he said. “But we all need it sometimes.”
Uh oh. There was a story there. “Right. Well then, I’ll leave you to it; I’m looking forward to our work meetings.” Tony ever-so-slightly emphasized work, even if he didn’t really need to convince himself that nothing else would happen; he was an adult who now knew better than to act on all of his crushes. Even if – no. He thought of Pepper and her Done-With-Tony’s-Antics face, and decided that he could totally appreciate the hot lawyer’s hotness without wanting to seduce him into his bed for one night.
They shook hands; Nelson’s was warm and firm and overall pleasant but Murdock… his was dry, strong, challenging, and also surprisingly red over the knuckles. “So am I,” he said, but Tony suspected they were not looking forward to quite the same thing.
Pepper was impressed when he reported his success, but she pointed out that they could have accepted only to find more chinks in SI’s legal armor, which was not as iron-clad (yes, that was intentional, and his entire legal team had groaned) as Tony had previously assumed.
“Nah,” he said as he sank a little further into his chair. “I think we got a rapport, a special something; there’s a spark, you know? They’re do-gooders, really; Nelson is the nice one and Murdock is the aggressive one, but they couldn't pass on that opportunity. And I’m going to pay them handsomely; that should help.”
“You seem pretty sure it’s a good idea.”
“Well, yeah? You even agreed, Pep!”
“I didn't think you’d convince them. That they said yes makes it really suspicious, Tony.”
“Suspicious why?”
“There’s more than meets the eye with them two, and you’re blinded by your little crush on the pretty one.”
“See? You can’t deny he’s pretty!” He ignored Pepper’s eyeroll and went on. “But really, that’s not the reason I’m doing this. Yes, he’s attractive, but I’m not going to act on it. I really want to improve SI.”
“I know.” Her face softened. “And having a crush isn’t a bad thing, Tony.”
“But I’m a bit old for them?”
Pepper laughed. “You’ve always been quick, I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.”
“Quick? I’ll have you know my staying power – ”
“I do not want to know about that. I meant that you can fall for someone in about ten seconds, and you usually forget about them right after sleeping with them.”
“Hey, I don’t do one-night stands anymore! Haven’t in years, as you’re well aware. But I’m not blind either! Uh, I mean.”
Pepper guffawed. “Yes, well. Still, be careful, all right? I’m not entirely sure about their motives.”
“Murdock seemed a little freaked out when I mentioned biometrics, so maybe you’re right. Maybe they’re spies from, uh, AIM? Doom? The Soviets?” Pepper threw a pen at his head. “Yeah, no. Still, JARVIS, make a note: only minimal scanning of the guy, he’s a lawyer. If he finds out what you can do, he’ll have your circuits melted.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We definitely don’t want them suing us for a breach of privacy,” Pepper said. “I’ll ask Connie to draft a paper listing precisely what measurements are taken and how often, so he can read and sign it. He won’t be able to say he wasn’t made aware, then.”
“Right.”
This wasn’t going to smooth out their meeting, Tony thought. It would be him telling them all he could know about them, letting them realize he could do more but chose not to, and generally would not start out their conversation on a nice, pleasant note. But he guessed Pepper was right; she usually was, after all.
“I’m going to change and work on Nat’s gear in the workshop; if you need me to sign papers or anything I’ll be around.” It wasn’t something that he’d get engrossed into for days on end, just light work that would keep him available for other stuff; Pepper nodded at him before turning back to the files on her desk.
Tony stood up and tugged on his shirtsleeves; he’d chosen a slightly old Armani suit to visit Nelson and Murdock and maybe that had not been the right move. Slightly old Armani, for most people, was still obvious money and not dressing down. He should just have thrown on comfortable jeans and a well-worn shirt; they didn’t look like the kind of lawyers who only took you seriously if you wore a tie.
Ah, well. He’d do better next time, surely?
Next time didn’t go well right from the start.
Tony had ditched the old Armani for jeans and a jacket over an old band shirt and hoped that would help. It didn’t. Murdock was almost vibrating with anger when he ran his fingers over Connie’s list of what biometric data would be recorded and stored, and it took his partner long minutes of heated whispers to get him down to seething but functional. Tony caught the words money and bills on Nelson’s side, so he pretended to check his phone for as long as it took for the hissing to die down.
After a minute or two, Murdock had an epic frown on his face but let his fingerprints be scanned, his voice imprint stored, as well as his heartbeat recorded – which somehow made him grin like a wolf. However, he refused to let security scan his retina on the grounds that his eyes were damaged and he didn’t want to leave sensitive medical data lying around. Tony wasn’t sure why he drew the line there, but apparently it was take it or leave it so Tony nodded at the security people that it was okay (just that one time). Nelson was much easier to deal with; he let them take what measurements they wanted then followed Tony into the elevator, Murdock on his arm holding his cane in front of him like a weapon or maybe a shield.
“Welcome to the Stark-Avengers Tower,” JARVIS said.
Murdock jumped about a foot in the air and started to raise his fists before Nelson stopped him and pushed them down.
“What the hell?”
“I apologize, Mr. Murdock. I am JARVIS, Mr. Stark’s PA.”
“JARVIS’s an AI; he’s using the speakers to talk to us. If you have any questions or need help navigating the tower, just ask JARVIS to help.”
“I can walk fine.”
Nelson sighed. “Matt, everything here is glass and holograms projected on glass. There’s no Braille anywhere.”
Murdock grunted and lowered his head a little, like a bull about to charge. Tony took a deep breath and hoped that the rest of the meeting would be better. It couldn't be worse anyway, right?
Surprisingly enough, it went okay after that. They started in Pepper’s office, and as soon as they stepped in Murdock suddenly turned on the charm and sent a megawatt smile her way, with just the right dose of self-deprecation and good humor. Nelson rolled his eyes as if it was a common occurrence but Pepper was definitely enjoying it; she kept trying to catch Tony’s eyes to twitch her perfect eyebrows at him. Yes, he was well aware that Murdock, once launched into his topic, was (ironically enough) a sight to behold. He was driven, intense, and way more prepared than Tony had expected for a first work meeting that had only been planned two days ago. Pepper, of course, loved that.
Tony tried to distract himself from Mr. Angry, Hot, yet Competent (or was it Angry, Competent, and therefore Hot?) by focusing on his partner. They looked pretty different, overall: Nelson was softer and broader; his shirt looked like cotton but his suit and his bag looked way more expensive than Murdock's. His hair was blond and it looked like he’d worn it short but was growing it out. Not a common move for lawyers, but maybe now he wasn’t working in a big swanky firm any longer he was free to choose whatever hairstyle he wanted. At first glance, he was the nice one: easy smile, even voice, quick jokes. He didn’t have this aura of… of… banked fury, maybe, his partner had around him. Murdock felt dangerous; smart, pretty, and dangerous.
“Tony, what about you? Tony?”
Oh, shit. He hadn’t been listening. “Yes, yes, of course. Yes!” There, covered.
“You were zoning out, weren’t you.” Pepper shook her head. “Tony.”
“I wasn’t! Okay, I was. Just a little bit! Only since you started talking about our cafeteria.”
“Does your enthusiasm mean you want both coffee and green tea, here and at the cafeteria at the same time?” Murdock was actually – Tony managed not to throw a hand over his heart – smiling in his direction.
“Well,” Tony replied. He looked at Pepper for help, but she was too busy snickering at him. “Coffee of course, and, uh. Where do you want to go?”
“No time like the present,” Nelson said. “Let’s go mingle!”
Tony spent the rest of the morning trying not to stare too obviously but at least he was confident Murdock never caught him ogling his ass. Small mercies – very tiny ones in fact, because both Pepper and Nelson noticed and while he could weather Pepper’s teasing, he hoped Nelson wouldn't tell his partner. Tony really, really wanted to make a good impression, and looking like a lech wasn’t the best way to do that, plus he was self-aware enough to know his reputation preceded him in these matters.
Still, this first meeting ended on a higher note than it had started, and Tony was pretty happy with his scheme overall. He was almost skipping when he left Pepper in her office to go down to his workshop, and he was definitely whistling.
Things took a turn for the bizarre, however, when JARVIS sent him a note with the recording of Murdock’s heartbeat: absolute silence.
“JARVIS?”
“I know, sir. It’s not possible, not for five full seconds. The equipment is fine; it worked well with Mr. Nelson and I had it checked afterward.”
Damn. “Do you think he isn’t human?” Because in that case…
“He is, sir. I took the liberty to track his heart rate during your meeting and it is fine, if slow. He simply had something to stop our regular equipment from working.”
Ah, shit. “Look, I am very, very glad to know he’s human, but if he learns about it… delete those recordings, will you, JARVIS? I don’t want him to sue us for breach of privacy and trust.”
“But sir, the biometrics…”
“We’ll do without.”
“Sir, relying only on fingerprints and voice imprint isn’t safe. Those are easy to steal and fake.”
“It’ll be fine, JARVIS, relax.”
“I cannot relax my circuits, sir.”
“Figure of speech, Jarv.”
“Of course.”
Tony shook his head and prepared for an afternoon of tinkering with an even more miniaturized arc reactor, making a mental note to check the equipment himself. Maybe it had just malfunctioned right as Murdock’s data was being recorded? But Steve’s call to assemble because of the sudden appearance of hostile submarines off the coast of Miami cut his plans off. He had a(nother) job to do.