Work Text:
Long before the Daredevil ever set foot into their hospital, the nurses and doctors of Hell's Kitchen loved him. Even the bombings hadn't shaken (most) of their belief in him because it simply hadn't fit with the man they'd come to love.
No way could the man who carried a terrified child out of a burning home be a bomber. No way could the monster who shot a police officer from a rooftop be the same man who'd single-handedly rescued a dozen officers from a gun man. And there was no way the man who put those who killed, injured or raped into the hospital would do that himself.
Frankly they were all relieved when Fisk was accused of the bombings. It made worshiping the Devil of Hell's Kitchen (the Daredevil really but something about the imagery of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, rising up against the actual monsters to destroy them... well it spoke to a lot of the nurses and no one argues with the nurses. No one.) so much easier.
They went back to listening to frightened victims explain how he'd saved them and angry criminals curse him and resolved to offer gratitude if they ever could.
Then he came in. If only he'd been in one piece.
********
Shirley Benson is not having a great day. To be fair, running a hospital in Hell's Kitchen is never a prelude to having a brilliant day but it's usually much better than this. Firstly, she's three nurses short including Claire Temple, one of the more reliable, and secondly a frankly ridiculous number of police were hanging around and making a nuisance of themselves looking for Daredevil. Like he would come here.
She's just about to tell another officer to get lost when one of her nurses, Jaime Schwab, comes up to her. 'I've a phone call you might want to take.'
Shirley nods a dismissal at the officer and follows Schwab to their break room, where Schwab hands over her personal phone. Shirley looks down at it in confusion.
'She didn't want to talk to you but I think she needs to.' Schwab explains and leaves.
'Hello?' Shirley hears the surprised huff on the other side of the line.
'I told her not to tell you.' Claire Temple says and Shirley is suddenly very very angry.
'And where are you?'
There's a long pause on the other side of the line then, 'I'm with Daredevil. I'm watching him bleed to death from a bullet wound and I’m just not going to be able to fix this one myself.' She has that note in her voice, exactly like a worried relative when a patient first comes in. Oh damn it. 'I need help or he's going to die.'
Shirley Benson's day is about to get both a whole lot more complicated and a whole lot better. 'Bring him in then-'
'I can't... I promised him I'd keep his identity a secret and it was the police that shot him an-'
'And we will. I'm not having Daredevil die on my watch. Bring. Him. In.'
She hangs up but Shirley knows she's going to bring him in. Time for a battle plan.
********
Step One: Distraction.
Nurse Schwab recruits as many of the young and attractive nurses that are free enough to be recruited and leads them in talking to the prowling officers. With all the handsome and beautiful people around the waiting room, no one notices when Claire Temple pulls in a bleeding young man and delivers him to a waiting team of doctors and surgeons- the more senior available as they've all pulled rank to be here.
'Pupils nonreactive,' Doctor Martinez says and all the present doctors exchange worried glances.
Only Temple is unfazed. 'Normal. Not going to change.' Shirley, present only because of her position, is suddenly much more admiring of Daredevil's actions.
'No shit?' The young Australian nurse Dan Goldman says and everyone rolls their eyes.
'Yes, his eyes don't respond to light at all. Move on!' Temple snaps.
'Damn that's cool.' Goldman shakes his head then meets Shirley's eyes. 'And I'm going to go now-'
'No you're not. Come with me.'
Shirley leaves the doctors to it. Time for the next step.
********
Step Two: Obstruction
It takes an entire hour for an officer to overhear a single sentence that might indicate Daredevil is in the hospital right now. Shirley's never been so proud of her nurses.
The attractive nurses vanish and suddenly Shirley's wisest, smartest and most foul tempered nurses are the ones staffing the waiting rooms and information desks. These women are the sorts that have seen everything and will tell you exactly what you are allowed to know, no more, no less. You can't trick them because they know all the tricks and you can't sneak around them because they see everything.
And the one staffing the emergency waiting room, nurse Von Ryan, knows the laws regarding patient privacy a thousand times better than the rookie cop trying to get Daredevil's name out of her. Watching them talk is like watching a shark eat a seal - horrifying but so fascinating that you can't look away and by the end of it you have a vaguely satisfied feeling for some reason.
'But we need to talk to him now.'
'And I'm telling you, there's no one by the name of Daredevil in this hospital. And if there was I couldn't tell you without either legal confirmation he's wanted to discuss a crime or a listing as next of kin.'
The cop frowns. 'I'm fairly sure we don't need that.'
'Really? Only fairly sure? Well then. Why don't you go check until you are sure and then we'll see if he's turned up on our records.'
Temple walks up to Shirley then, pulling her aside. 'He's out of surgery, they think he's going to be okay. But we need a bed for him.'
Shirley nods. 'Follow me. Goldman!' The nurse practically bounces to her side. 'Everything ready?'
He nods. 'Let's go play musical patients.'
********
Step Three: The ‘Royal’ Run Around
It's not quite musical patients. But it is a lot of bed shuffling. Shirley and her nurses would have hated the amount of work this is taking if it was any other patient. But it's Daredevil (Matt, Temple tells her and he's down as Matt Smart, not a John Doe because that's what the police will be looking for when they finally get past Ryan.) so no one seems to mind at all.
Quite simply, Matt's in every department. Emergency has records of a man with his injuries, so does Cardiology. The ICU could swear up and down he's with them and so could every other ward bar the children's ward (though a Matt Smart is in there, he's just 7 instead of 27).
In reality, he's shuffled from department to department on a non-regular schedule. It's a lot of work making sure he gets the care he needs, and probably more stress than he needs but it's worth it when the officers finally track what they think is the only man matching the description of his injuries down to the ICU to find an elderly, Hispanic woman in the bed he's supposed to be in.
Not that the injuries he's listed as having match their description. They have to report the gunshot but Ryan is in charge of that and she's a champion at making sure paperwork goes 'missing' until it's needed again. His scars have been left off, as has the minor bruising. Add to that his blindness and the only Matt in the building on paper unlikely to be Daredevil is the one that actually is.
Shirley's never been prouder.
********
Step Four: Physical Intervention
It's Schwab and Temple who come up with the final, ingenious, deception. The five remaining officers are rounded up, by now all frustrated and moments away from just physically searching every bed in the place. Temple, after a few minutes of being shouted at, directs them to a private room where a patient is being held securely.
She neglects to mention it's because it's the isolation room that's currently in quarantine until they're all in there. Schwab, heroically, goes in after them to prevent them from leaving until the period has passed and to look after them should something happen.
Temple and Shirley only manage to get around the corner before sharing a quick laugh.
'How much longer do you need?' Shirley asks one they have themselves under control.
'He's already trying to escape his bed so I figure another hour or so will get him to a point I can get him home alive and keep him like that.'
Shirley raises an eyebrow, impressed. 'An hour? Does he have super-healing?'
Temple shakes her head. 'He's only human, funnily enough. But he's been nearly as bad as he is today and still gone out. It was just the bullet that really had me worried.'
'I can give you two hours.'
'We'll take them.'
********
Step Five: Confusion
'What do you mean Daredevil was in my hospital?' Shirley gives the man in front of her the blandest smile she possesses. 'Surely I would have known that?'
Detective Penter sighs while the sergeant that had accompanied him just looks away, probably to hide his smile.
'Ms Benson, please. We know for a fact he was in here.'
Shirley tilts her head and looks as confused as she can. 'You do? Based on what?'
Penter sighs again. 'My officers heard your staff saying he was here.'
'So based on gossip?'
The sergeant -Sergeant Brett was it?- has to hide another smile. 'And your hospital was uncooperative on the night in question.'
'Because your officers were rude and invading my patients' confidentiality. You had no right to demand access to every single male patients' records on the sole basis of rumour and gossip.'
The look on his face tells her that he's aware of how close both of them are to the line. 'You failed to report a gunshot wound until the man had checked out.'
She glares at him, secure in the knowledge she's got him on this point. 'We did report it as soon as possible. Any delay in your response is not our fault.'
'It took you nearly ten hours by which time he was gone.' He grits his teeth and continues, 'you then claim he checked out against medical advice without giving any personal information.'
'And if you check the report, that’s exactly what it says. He never gave us a name, nor any other details and he left when no one was looking.'
Sergeant Brett has a serious look on his face, the kind you wear when you're seconds from laughing.
'And no one can give us a description of this mysterious patient, because?'
Shirley lines up her knockout punch. 'Because your officers were all over my hospital last night, distracting, terrifying and upsetting all my staff. How, with all that confusion, is my staff expected to remember a single, very quiet and disappearing patient?'
The look on Penter's face is a victory to Shirley.
But so is the short note, in Temple's handwriting, thanking her and the hospital for everything and promising to repay them somehow.
Temple is going to pass on the message that the work the Devil of Hell's Kitchen does is repayment enough.