I've been preoccupied of late

[man_without_fear]

The case is just as they expected it to be, which is to say everything that happens with it is unexpected.

John Healy continues to be an exemplary client, quiet and composed, but every now and again the shark's fin breaks the surface, cutting through the calm like a knife with cruel and dangerous intent.

The witnesses for the prosecution stick to their guns and their lawyers and refuse to give statements.

A juror is dismissed. The cited reason is extenuating personal circumstances. The truth is she was being blackmailed, a problem Matt takes care of while wearing a mask.

And the man who hired Matt and Foggy makes sporadic appearances in the courtroom, never providing more information about his mysterious employer, but present the day of the verdict.

Matt and Foggy do all they can, defending their client within the confines of the law and making a valid case in the process. Foggy opened, and now it's Matt's turn to close.

Standing in front of the jury box he listens to the cadence of the jurors' heartbeats, counting them, hearing them fall in line until…

"Mr. Murdock we're waiting."

The judge's voice breaks the silence and Matt reacts, straightening up, clearing his throat and finally speaking.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury forgive me if I seem distracted. I've been preoccupied of late with questions of morality. Of right and wrong, good and evil. Sometimes the delineation between the two is a sharp line. Sometimes it's a blur."

The speech is toward the defense of his client, but the words carry more meaning for Matt than the men and women before him will ever understand. His life has become the blur, his day and night activities are no longer separate.

John Healy is a client Matt would never have taken on if it wasn't for the ulterior motives of the mask, and Matt would never have known about or found the blackmailer that he cornered and beat in an alley if not for the trial.

Still, his reasons for taking on the case haven't paid off. He's no closer to knowing what's going on in Hell's Kitchen, no nearer to finding out the name of anyone behind it, than when they started, and now he must convince a jury to find innocent a man who's most certainly guilty.

"My client, based purely on the sanctity of the law, which we have all sworn an oath to uphold, must be acquitted of these charges. Now beyond that, beyond these walls, he may well face a judgement of his own making. But here, in this courtroom, the judgement is yours, and yours alone."

Matt speaks and the jury listens. By the end of it there's no real sign if he's swayed them one way or the other.

In all honesty he doesn't know which verdict he hopes they deliver.

When the time comes, the jury doesn't know either.

"They're hung," Matt announces quietly, listening to the trip-hammering heartbeat of the Foreperson of the Jury as the Judge reads her note.

Foggy sounds disappointed but unsurprised when he responds. "Allen charge. She's sending them back in. Still split, DA will retry."

He's wrong, and Matt knows it.

"No they won't, will they, Mr. Healy?"

Healy remains calm and impassive.

"That was a helluva speech you gave, Murdock. A helluva speech."

That night John Healy makes to skip town, and Matt is there to stop him.

The altercation ends with a name given at last, and John Healy's death.



[dialogue taken from Netflix' Daredevil: 1.3 - Rabbit in a Snowstorm]