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Chapter Text

Sam was incredibly thankful that he had gotten this internship during spring break. He was glad to be doing something that wasn’t waiting around for his classes to start again and working non-stop like had done on winter break. It was especially nice because with this internship everything was paid for, even the travel. But Sam was also feeling down because everyone else in his Freshman classes went back to their family, while he traveled across the country from Stanford to Harvard for an exclusive internship with no congratulations from anyone except his friends. Dean didn’t even call him because Sam hadn't told him anything.

But he wasn’t going to dwell on that. Sam was at Harvard Law for the week and he wouldn’t be sorry for himself. Sam was going to explore the process of being a lawyer. It was the job that he had been thinking about since he had gotten the Stanford acceptance letter and decided to leave the hunting life behind. This was his chance to explore and get answers from professionals that had experienced the same worries that he had right now about deciding to follow this career path.

Sam had found the room that all the interns were meeting in and made his way to the back of the room after grabbing a pamphlet on the agenda. Sam skimmed the information and noticed that after the initial introduction they were going to get paired off to an alumni that was running the workshop to shadow for the rest of the day. Sam really hoped he would get to help with research and wouldn’t just be stuck as a goffer.

“Is this seat taken?” A voice asked at Sam’s shoulder.

Sam nearly jumped out of his skin. It wasn’t often that someone snuck up on him, but this guy had been unnaturally quiet in his approach. Then Sam noticed the cane and sunglasses and winced. He really didn’t want to come off as rude, but he really hated people covering their eyes because they could be monsters in disguise. Sam knew he was being paranoid, but it was a side effect from being raised by John Winchester. Sam decided if this guy was a monster hiding behind those glasses, then it was best to keep close so he could get rid of him quickly.

“No it isn’t.” Sam gestured toward it, then realizing his mistake if this guy really was blind, cringed at blunder and decided to simply pull out the chair for the guy, “It’s at your twelve o’clock.”

“Thank you.” The guy adjusted his glasses and folded up his cane before he turned to Sam’s general direction and held out a hand that was slightly off center of Sam, “I’m Matt Murdock. I’m a senior at Columbia.”

Sam shook Matt’s hand, “Sam Winchester, I’m a freshman from Stanford.”

Matt’s eyebrows raised in surprise from behind the glasses, “That’s pretty far. I’ve never left New York before this.”

Sam shrugged, “Travel isn’t really a big deal for me. I grew up all around, so I’m used to it. The only difference this time was that the internship paid for the plane ticket.”

Matt nodded, then leaned toward Sam and asked, “Is there anything on the board or something that we had to pick up?”

Sam blinked, then understood the problem, “Uh, no. Nothing on the board, but there was a pamphlet that’s at the front of the room. It’s an agenda for the day. Basically, we’re first getting a rundown of the week then we’re doing something that will get us split into groups to shadow the alumni listed.”

Matt nodded, “Could you read a few of the names of the lawyers?”

Sam scanned the paper and read a few from the alphabetically arranged list, “Sure. Emmet Forest, Vivian Kensington, and Elle Woods. I can read more if you want.”

Matt shook his head, “No, that’s fine.”

Sam hesitated, but then asked his question, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but shouldn’t they have a Braille version of the papers set out for you?”

Matt’s head tilted toward Sam in surprise and he could see the from the expression on Matt’s face that that wasn’t the question he was expecting, “They were going to but the coordinator working with to get what I needed had a last minute family emergency and everyone else is out on spring break, so for right now I’m stuck.”

Sam winced in sympathy, at this point he was pretty sure that Matt was just a normal blind buy, and not a monster, “That sucks dude.”

Matt shrugged, “It’s not too bad. They told me that they were gonna print out the Braille versions and send it with one of the lawyers for me and the coordinator is going to be back this afternoon.”

Sam fidgeted with the hem of his jacket and hunched his shoulder more in his seat before offering, “If you want, I can read anything they put on the board for you until you get the accommodations.”

Matt smiled, “Thank you, I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.” Sam tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

Matt and Sam sat in slightly awkward but companionable silence as more interns and more lawyers filtered into the room. At exactly nine o’clock, a young man in a stereotypical tweed jacket with elbow patches stepped up to the center of the room.

“Hi everyone, I’m Emmet Forest and I’m one of the lead organizers of this internship. So, I’m going to give you a quick run down about how this week is going to look then we are gonna let you ask some questions. After that, you’re all going to be paired with one of us to shadow throughout the day.”

Sam would have been paying closer attention to what Emmet was saying after that, but he noticed then that a young woman walked dressed in a pink skirt and suit jacket. She walked in quietly enough that she did not disturb Emmet, but she also had an aura that made Sam know that she was not someone to mess with. Sam also noticed that she was carrying a packet of papers that none of the other lawyers had.

When Sam tuned back in he realized that Emmet was finished explaining and was now answering questions. Sam paid close attention to what the other interns were asking to make sure he didn’t miss more than he already had. The blonde woman in the pink suit walked over to another woman lawyer, who was also holding papers and they started a small whispered conversation.

“Okay, so that’s all the time we have for questions,” Emmet announced, “So I’m going to start reading off the names and if you could just head toward alumni that steps forward.”

Before Emmet could continue the woman in pink stepped forward and whispered something to him and pointed at something on his sheet of paper. Emmet nodded then made a small note on it and began reading out the groups.

“And finally, Sam Winchester and Matt Murdock are with Elle Woods.”

The woman in pink, who was apparently Elle, stepped forward and waved.

Sam waved back and started to stand up so that he could walk toward her, but he flinched slightly when a hand landed on his arm.

“Sorry.” Matt said, looking apologetic and taking his arm off of Sam, “But there’s just too many people going around right now and I don’t know who Elle Woods is. Could you guide me?”

“Yeah, it’s no problem.” Sam said gently, grabbing Matt’s elbow and guiding him through the mess of interns and lawyers that were around the room, “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

Matt nodded as they made their way to Elle.

Elle waved, “Hi, Mr. Murdock, Mr. Winchester. How are you doing today?”

Sam shrugged, “I’m fine Mrs. Woods.”

Matt nodded in agreement with Sam, “I’m okay ma’am.”

Elle waved the hand not clutching her papers dismissively, “Oh please call me Elle. Ma’am and Ms. Woods makes me feel old. Mr. Murdock, I was given the Braille copy of the pamphlet we had for the other students today and Braille copies of all the notes and research that aren't under attorney/client privilege of my cases that I could use some help with today.”

Elle passed the papers she was holding off to Matt, who looked pleasantly surprised, before she turned to Sam.

“And Mr. Winchester, we can get all the copies for you in my office from the printer. I just had to run to somewhere else that had a Braille embosser to get these copies for Mr. Murdock. Is there anything else you guys need before we go to my office?”

Sam shuffled his feet, “You can just call me Sam you don’t have to call me Mr. Winchester.”

“You can call me Matt.” Matt said while twisting the handle of his cane. “Mr. Murdock was my father.”

Elle smiled, “Okay, let me know if you have any questions about Law school or anything else during the day. I’m here to help you two learn. When we get back to my office you two are going to be helping me research some background for a case that I am working on. Please follow me.”

Elle swept out of the room with authority while Sam trailed behind, still leading Matt forward by his elbow. Sam and Matt listened to Elle as she gave them the barebones of the case. Sam had a very good feeling about interning under Elle Woods. It was clear she knew what she was doing and she very clearly cared about teaching both Matt and Sam. Sam was certain that this week, barr any supernatural creatures attacking, was going to help him step out of the hunting life even more.

Chapter Text

Matt has been hanging around Sam for the past three days and he still can’t pinpoint where that slight sulfur and brimstone smell is coming from. Of course it’s not noticeable to anyone who doesn’t have Matt’s sense and it’s so faint that even Matt had trouble noticing it at first. But it’s still there and Matt doesn’t like having odd sensations around him that he can’t determine where they are originating from. It bothered him so much that he’d barely paid any attention to the opening Q & A session at the beginning of the internship.

But other than that, this week had been going great. For the first time in his life, Matt had left New York and he was doing better than he’d thought. Elle was so kind and always answered any questions that he or Sam had without making them feel stupid. In the few days that Matt had been shadowing Elle in between the other workshops the interns had, it was very clear that she was good at her job. Sam had found a video of Elle’s first case from where she hadn’t even graduated law school and had gotten Brooke Windham out of a murder case without even sharing Brooke’s alibi.

Sam had done even more research on Elle’s more well known cases and shared them with Matt, but that was the one that had stuck with Matt the most because she won the case and not betrayed her clients trust. Those were the kind of cases Matt wanted to take. He desperately wanted to defend those who couldn’t defend themselves. Matt was pretty sure that that was Sam’s end goal as well, but he could also tell that Sam was also hoping to get something else out of it. He didn’t exactly know what, but he guessed that Sam saw being a lawyer as a way out of something. Matt assumed that it was Sam’s way out of a bad family or simply little money, but since he got ridiculously edgy when either Elle or Matt tried to ask simple questions about before college, Matt could tell that it was something more. Matt really hoped that it wasn’t something to do with Stick because there were a few people that Stick took him to meet that smelled very odd. Not like Sam, but odd enough that he had first approached Sam because he was worried he was also trained by Stick.

However, by now Matt knew better. Sam clearly was trained by someone, but it very obviously nowhere close to Matt’s training. It was more of a modge-podge of street fighting and boxing that had a very heavy overtone of Marine training. Of course Matt hadn’t seen Sam fight, but he could tell by the way Sam stood and held himself when he was surprised or when he was confronted.

Another reason that Matt thought that Sam was trying to escape a bad family was the way that Sam only brought up his brother in a positive light. Whenever Elle had started a conversation about family members, in which they found out that she was married to Emmet but had kept her last name, Sam had cringed when he very briefly brought up his father. Matt was very impressed in how the large void in his sense, that was 6’4’’ heavily muscled teenager, managed to compact into such a small space when his father was mentioned. That was the exact moment that Matt decided to do his best to protect Sam. As well as vowing that, if he was ever given the chance he was going to punch John Winchester in the face, hard, with a patented Jack Murdock one hit KO.

Elle very much agreed with him. When Sam had left the two of them alone in the office to go to the bathroom she had clicked her tongue what Matt could tell was the direction of the door.

“If I never meet his father, I am going to show him exactly how Brooke’s “Whipped Into Shape” ™ jump rope can be used as an actual whip.” Elle said sniffing, and Matt choked out a surprised laugh, “Then Emmet will get me off with just a warning.”

Matt cackled, “I’d offer to post bail, but I’m broke.”

Matt could hear Elle turning toward him waving her hand that caused some of her tasteful perfume to waft in his direction, “Don’t worry about that Matt. You could help Emmet with the defense and my parents could post bail.”

Matt frowned, “They would help you out that quickly? Even though they’re back in California?”

Elle giggled and Matt heard the sound of a pen being twirled between fingers, “Yes, my parents love to brag about “their little Button” making it out on the “foreign east coast” with “no sun or film studios.”’

Matt blinked several times behind his glasses, “That’s umm…nice I guess.”

Elle hummed in agreement, “They always supported me, even if they didn’t quite understand why I wanted to be a lawyer at first. My dad originally wanted to have a film career so I think he has an account that was specifically for bail money, just in case.”

Matt huffed out a laugh as he heard the door open and Sam slinked back into the room.

“So what about you, Matt? Do you have any family back in New York?” Elle asked absentmindedly as she rustled the papers at her desk.

Matt paused in his reading to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, “Uh, it was just me and my dad for a little and then he died. I spent the rest of my childhood in an orphanage raised by nuns in Hell’s Kitchen.”

Matt could almost taste the silence from both Sam and Elle staring at him. He hunched his shoulders.

“It wasn't all that bad.” Matt said, trying to defend himself while fidgeting with his papers, “It made paying my way through college easier with the scholarships and donations they take at the church for it.”

Matt heard Elle whisper at what he definitely wasn’t meant to hear, “Oh you sweet summer children.” Then at a louder volume said, “Okay, that’s it. The two of you are having a goodbye dinner with me at the end of this week before you go back home.”

“Oh, you don’t have—” Sam began, but Elle cut him off.

“I am not taking no for an answer Sam! Vivian was already coming over and both she and Emmet have nothing but good things to say about the two of you. You’re both coming and that’s final! I know you two have nothing to do until the next day when your plane and bus are ready, you have no excuses!”

Matt really wanted to protest because Elle had been so kind to him already, but he did realize that her tone held no room for argument.

Elle nodded in satisfaction when there were no other objections, “Now get out of here you too. You’ve both skipped lunch, which means you have to go early. Get some food and rest. Now shoo!”

Matt stood up at the same time Sam and they started to pack their things.

“Bye Elle.” Matt said as he headed to the door.

“See you tomorrow, Elle.”

“Goodbye you two! Take a break! I mean it!” Elle exclaimed as the door shut behind them.

Matt and Sam began walking back to the door where the interns were staying. Matt could tell Sam wanted to ask him something because he could hear Sam fidgeting with the edge of his shirt.

Sam inhaled slightly before asking, “So, if you grew up in a place run by nuns does that mean you’re Catholic?”

Matt was pleasantly surprised he had expected more questions about his dad or if the nuns really were that strict.

“Yes, I am. I was actually going to ask Elle or one of the other coordinators if there’s a church nearby so that I could go this Sunday before I get on the bus to drive back.”

Sam fidgeted more and asked quietly, “Would you mind if I went with you?”

Matt’s eyebrows raised in surprise he wasn’t judging, but it was clear that this was a big deal for Sam, “Of course not. Are you Catholic as well?”

Sam coughed awkwardly, “Uh no, not exactly, but, well…my brother and dad always said that my mom believed that angels were watching over us and I want to see if, well it did anything for me.”

Matt nodded, “I understand. A lot of kids that were in the orphanage with me were practicing, but because of the circumstances of why they came they wanted to stop going to church. Some didn’t feel right in the church and just wanted to pray on their own every day. I just felt more at home in the church because it was so quiet.”

Matt could hear Sam biting his lip before saying, “Thank you, really. My brother wouldn’t understand and my dad definitely doesn’t want to talk about it. I just….with all the horrible things in this world, I really want to believe that there’s something good waiting for us afterward.”

Matt exhaled remembering everything that Stick had put him through and the gunshot that had ended his father’s life and put a hand softly on Sam’s shoulder, “I believe that there is.”

Sam nodded, “Thank you Matt.”

Matt smiled at the kid, who wasn’t really a kid because he was only two year younger than Matt, “It’s not a problem Sam.”

Matt swore to himself once again, that after this internship was over, he was going to keep tabs on Sam and try to help him. Even if he had to stalk him from the other side of the country.

Chapter Text

Elle was more sad than she expected to be as the internship came to a close. Getting the call that she needed to use a Braille embosser for one of the interns was not what she was expecting since she was nowhere near qualified enough to provide the accommodations that someone needed. However, Elle knew that she was a last resort because she was the only lawyer the counselor had the number of that was working the internship. So, Elle had gotten the papers printed and rushed to the internship.

Upon entering the room, Elle had spotted the intern, Matt Murdock, who would be needing the papers in the back of the room. Because Emmett was still answering questions Elle snuck as much as she was able, being in a bright pink suit, over to Vivian.

“Vivian,” Elle whispered, “I need to get these papers to Matt Murdock. Who has him in their group today?”

Vivian scanned the list that she was going to hand to Emmet when he finished the Q & A, “I think…. Oh no, not that asshole.”

Elle saw the name that she was pointing at and winced. Aaron Scholtz was not known for caring much about his interns. Sure he was a decent lawyer, but he only really cared about bringing in money and didn’t have much patience. The only reason that he was volunteering at this internship was to help his PR image after some scandal at his firm that wrote financial software codes.

Elle bit her lip, thinking. Aaron could still help around the internship even if he wasn’t directly involved with any intern. It was probably for the best for him not to have one in the first place

“Vivian, how much trouble would we get in if you transferred Mr. Murdock to shadow me because I have a direct line to his counselor?” Elle asked quietly.

Vivian snorted softly, “None, considering who you're transferring him from. Also because your husband is the one running the program.”

Elle snickered “Don’t make it sound so bad. Now please do it before Emmett finishes.”

Vivian smirked at Elle as she pulled out a pen and scribbled on the roster. Taking Matt Murdock as her intern had been one of the best decisions of her life. Him and her original intern, Sam Winchester got along very well and they were both incredibly earnest in learning and researching. In the past week she had gotten so much of her background research done in record time for her cases that was amazingly thorough. Elle had half a mind to hire them both so that she could spend less time researching and more time planning her defense.

Besides being incredible interns, Elle could also tell that the two young men had hardships in their pasts. Elle knew that there wasn’t anything she could do about Jack Murdock’s murderer, who apparently hadn’t been caught, and that she couldn’t give John Winchester a piece of her mind. But she was determined to provide these two boys with a line of support. She would write whatever letter of recommendation they needed or answer any question they could think of. She could also make sure that both Sam and Matt knew that she wasn’t the only one supporting them. This is what led to Sam and Matt sitting in her living room as Kyle finished cooking.

Elle had not only invited Vivian over for dinner, but she had also extended the invitation to Paulette and Kyle. Elle did this because she was a sucker for Kyle’s cooking. Sam and Matt had been awkwardly sitting on the couch while the adults talked until Bruiser and Rufus had broken the tension by running in from the backyard.

Sam had immediately slid off the couch to pet both Bruiser and Rufus while Matt had been a bit more hesitant until Elle had assured him that both were extremely well trained. Then Matt joined Sam on the floor. There was almost no tension that couldn’t be broken by a dog that wanted to be pet.

Elle laughed as Bruiser, in all of tiny chihuahua enthusiasm climbed into Sam's lap and licked his face while Rufus was content in receiving pets from Matt, “Have either of you had a dog before?”

Matt shook his head, “No, there wouldn’t have been enough room with all of the other kids.”

Sam also shook his head as he tried to move his face away from Bruiser’s doggy kisses, “We were on the road a lot, there was no place to keep a dog, but I really wanted one.”

Paulette smiled at the attention that Rufus was getting as she came in from where she had been helping Kyle with dinner with her daughter, Elle, on her hip, “Dinner’s ready.”

The dog’s perked up at the mention of dinner and scampered after Paulette. Everybody else followed the dog's example and walked to the dining table. After everyone dug in, there was little to talk about because Kyle’s cooking was amazing, apparently he listened to cooking podcasts when he was on his delivery routes.

When everyone had somewhat cleared their plates when Sam asked hesitantly, but politely why Elle was always wearing an outfit with some pink on it. Vivian, Emmett, Paulette, and Elle snickered.

“Well, when I was at law school my professor thought that pink was unprofessional. He also thought that I was only in Harvard because I slept my way to the top.” Elle explained and she saw Sam and Matt wince, “But I wasn’t, I got there through my own hard work with a lot of tutoring from Emmett. So you can imagine the look on his face when I showed up in bright pink at Brooke’s trial as his replacement and won the case even though I was only a student. Since then, pink has been my comfort color that reminds me of what I can achieve.”

Matt nodded his head as a teasing smile spread across his face, “So, if I’m feeling nervous for a case, I should show up to the courthouse dressed in bright pink?”

The whole table burst into laughter, as Elle shook her head and replied, “Oh no, Matt pink is not your color. I think Sam might be able to pull it off, but you’d look much better in red.”

From where Elle was standing it was clear that Matt and Sam probably didn’t have very good plans on what they were doing for the summer. They were probably going to have to live on campus and take summer classes and work themselves to exhaustion. Elle wasn’t going to have that.

“You know what? You both did so well with the internship, I wouldn’t mind hiring you both as paid interns during the summer. My parents also have an apartment that they own out here for when they want to visit. You could live there if you accepted it.” Elle could see the hesitation in both of the boys' faces and sighed slightly before adding, “You would have to pay some rent on the apartment, of course.”

Sam and Matt both relaxed when she added that they would have to pay for the apartment. Elle rolled her eyes. They were both such martyrs that didn’t want any help. If either of them accepted her offer she was going to do her best to nudge them into therapy.

Elle could see Matt clenching his silverware tightly, “I’ll think about it.”

Sam nodded in agreement, “It’s a very generous offer, Elle. Thank you.”

Elle smiled, knowing she had at least gotten them to think about the idea, “Take your time.”

As everyone completed their dinner, Elle knew that even if Sam and Matt weren’t blood or legally bound to each other that they were good friends. Elle was going to make sure to keep in contact with her because she knew that Elle and her friends could give them the support they needed even if they didn’t think they wanted it. Elle would make sure to keep Sam and Matt in good company.