"Hey, four stitches and all the girls were lining up to be my girlfriend... right up until Billy busted his leg on a skateboard." He laughs dryly, stroking his fingers over Murdock's good arm.

"I... uh..." It's not exactly something he's discussed, not because it hurts - he got over that a long time ago - just because it tended to make people feel sorry for him. Little Templeton Peck, the orphan boy. "I was placed with another family about a week later."

His laugh takes on a slightly more dour tone; "But if the string of parents between infancy and Saint Catherine's Military Academy was any indication... you're probably right."