Connie closed the last file and pushed it away, lowering her head down onto her desk. For the past week, she had been swamped with cases, and it was beginning to take a toll. With a sigh, Connie closed her eyes. She wasn't going to go to sleep at work, she told herself. She just needed five minutes -

"We have a new case."

Connie groaned and looked up at Mike. "We do?"

He raised his eyebrows at her. "You know what? Never mind. Far be it from me to let justice get in the way of your beauty sleep..."

"I know this is asking a lot, Mike," Connie began, "but do you think you could at least try to stop being a jerk for two seconds?"

"I'll take it on serious consideration and get back to you on that one," he replied, plopping himself down on the chair in front of her desk. "Now, do you wanna hear about the case or should I find myself a better ADA?"

Connie sighed. "Do I have a choice?"

"Not really, no. It's not gonna be an easy one, let me tell you." Mike said, carefully placing a manila folder on Connie's desk. "15-year-old Angel Sterling got hit with a brick on her way home from school. No witnesses, but she heard the guy who did it - Jesse Woodson."

Connie frowned. "Why isn't it an easy case, then?"

Mike smiled and stood up. "Read the file."

Connie rolled her eyes and threw a paper clip at him. Hands up in an overly-innocent gesture, Mike slowly backed out the door.

As soon as he was gone, Connie flipped open the file. As she began to read the evidence gathered by Detectives Lupo and Bernard, a slight smile began to form on her face. This promised to be a very interesting case, indeed.

"Can I handle the arraignment?" Mike turned away from his whiteboard to see Connie leaning on the doorway, arms crossed over her pink sweater.

He shrugged. "Well, I just don't know if I can trust you with this Connie. As I recall, you didn't even want to take the case in the first place. How can I know you won't try to sabotage it?"

"You can't. That's the beauty of it." Connie nodded earnestly. "You'll just have to take a leap of faith."

Mike shook his head. "I see your point, counselor, but I'm starting to feel that we are at a point in our relationship when trust is no longer an option."

Connie gasped dramatically. "But - but - but - I don't understand."

"It's really quite simple, my dear." Mike walked over to her and whispered in her ear. "I know you too well to trust you."

Connie gave up trying to contain herself and burst out laughing. "Seriously, Mike, can I handle the arraignment? Please?"

"Sure." He gave her a slow grin. "And to think you didn't want another case."

"This one's different." Connie shook her head. "That poor girl. Did you read the comments on that Facebook page?"

"What page?"

Connie sat down in Mike's chair and turned on his computer. She quickly logged onto her Facebook and pulled up a page titled Clip Angel's Wings. Mike bent over and looked at the screen from behind her. "Oh, God."

The page was brutal. Created by Jesse Woodson, an 18-year-old working as an intern at Angel's school's computer lab, it was full of comments calling Angel Sterling everything from a chubby nerd to a pimple faced freak.

"See this girl, Madison Jackson?" Connie pointed at one of the comments and turned to look at Mike. "She's the one who posted the most comments about Angel. The detectives talked to the principal at the school, and he mentioned that she used to push her into lockers and throw her books down. All these kids are friends from school, and they all bullied Angel - physically and online."

Mike took out a marker and began furiously scribbling on his whiteboard. "What do we know about this Jackson girl?"

Connie flipped through some pages on the file. "Well, we know Angel reported her and her friends to the principal for bullying, but the school let them off with a slap on the wrist. That's where it gets interesting..." Connie hmm'ed pensively.

Mike stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at her. "What?"

"Well, the kids all live in more or less the same neighborhood - Dunbar Academy is the closest private school to their houses." Connie cocked her head to the side and bit one of her fingernails. "I think I remember reading something about a string of burglaries in that part of town. There were always two robbers who came in and took prescription medicines from bathrooms."

"Just like what happened at Angel Sterling's house," Michael exclaimed, taking the file from Connie's hands. "Let's see - her mother reported it on November 22nd, the day after the fact. It says here that Angel actually saw the robbers."

Connie picked up the phone on Mike's desk. "You think maybe they told her something?"

"Maybe this attack wasn't so much about hate as a warning to keep quiet," Mike mused. "Call the detectives. Tell them to go talk to Angel Sterling again and find out if she's hiding something. We've got our work cut out for us."

Connie nodded. As she quickly informed Detective Lupo of their new theory of the case, Mike turned back to his whiteboard, erased some of what he'd written, and began scribbling furiously once more.

Thoughts?