Her pen tapped against the stack of papers on her desk, beating out an inconsistent rhythm between each sip of her coffee. Sip, tap, tuck hair back, repeat. The faint hum of traffic outside the window was driving her mad and paired with the flickering light up in the corner of the newly leased office space, she wanted scream. She could all but feel the anxiety rushing through her system. They hadn't had a case in, how long had it been? Weeks? Maybe even months? If they didn't get a case soon she was going to sn-

"Will you stop that?" Annabeth Chase, wannabe-hotshot lawyer, was pulled from her internal torment by an annoyed shout from her long time best friend, Piper McLean, daughter of the acclaimed actor Tristan McLean. She was leaning up against the spare desk shoved up into the corner, nest to the brand new coffee pot they had spoiled themselves on after the relocation. Her legs were crossed at the ankles and her mug dangled loosely from three long fingers, the coffee sloshing out with each lazy gesture she made. "You're making me get anxious just looking at you," she said with a faint huff before taking a sip from her mug, on the side of which were the words 'She's Beauty, She's Grace, She'll Punch You In The Face.' a gift from her fiancé after he found out about her beauty queen past.

Annabeth sighed and dropped her pen, pushing back from her desk, chair squeakily rolling across the hardwood floors until it hit the wall behind her. "We haven't had a single case in months, Pipes. Months. I am getting stir crazy." She sunk her elbows into the arm rests of her chair and let her head fall into her hands, a bit dramatically. Piper snorted and pushed herself up to her feet. She walked over to her own desk and swiped up the small remote that worked the little flat screen television mounted up on the wall in the small space. After throwing herself down into her own chair, she clicked on the TV, kicking her feet up onto the desk. Annabeth glanced up when she heard the familiar static of the television being turned on. A scowl briefly crossed her face when she saw them. Those old, beaten up combat boots Piper insisted on wearing to work, seven days a week. They were easily not the most professional law firm in the Manhattan area, but what did that matter? It was hardly like Chase and McLean Law had clients just busting down their doors.

She sighed again and ran her hands through her loose blonde curls. "Piper, this isn't something we can just brush off. We're hemorrhaging money at this point. We need to find a case soon or even renting this damned office will have been pointless-" her biweekly tirade was cut short when Piper lifted up a hand, effectively silencing her as she turned up the volume on the television.

"At approximately 7:36 Wednesday morning, the skeletal remains of an unidentified corpse were pulled out of the Hudson River by a local fisherman after they became tangled in his nets. These remains have now been identified as those of one Gabriel Ugliano." The woman on the television's voice was small and tinny, seemingly far away, as she recounted the details of the most recent breaking news case. Annabeth sat up a bit straighter, her lips pursing as she listened, intrigued.

"Ugliano disappeared twelve years ago from his Manhattan apartment, leaving behind his wife Sally Jackson and a delinquent stepson, Perseus Jackson, who was the main suspect in his disappearance, but due to a lack of evidence and no body, his case went cold without any sort of conviction. With the identification of the remains, Jackson is currently being taken into custody for questioning as I speak," as the woman finished talking, remaining peppy the entire time, the image on the screen switched over from the newsroom to a shaky live feed outside a rundown apartment building where a struggling young man in grease covered jeans and a well-worn blue shirt was being dragged from the front steps by two burly looking policemen. Over the sirens and yelling of the press, a few of his shouts and outcries could be heard.

"Let me go! I didn't do anything!" He hollered loudly, pulling against both the officers and the silver cuffs clamped tightly around his wrists. The camera panned around, following his movements as he was shoved into the backseat of a cruiser, Piper let out a low whistle, causing the blonde to tear her eyes away from the screen to look at her.

She quirked an eyebrow as she glanced over at Piper. She shrugged and absently began braiding a few strands of her hair. "He's pretty damn easy on the eyes, don't you think?" She drawled and wiggled her eyebrows in Annabeth's direction. Annabeth let out a groan, hitting a few buttons on the remote to put on captions.

"Are you trying to set me up with a potential murderer?" She never seemed to give up. Piper had a nasty tendency to try and set her up with literally any available man she saw, and apparently she had reached the bottom of the barrel. She gave an innocent little shrug and spun around in her chair.

"He's cute. You're single," she gestured as she spoke as if it made perfect sense. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"He's going to be behind bars for the rest of his life, " she cut Piper off with a pointed glare, turning her gaze back to the television screen, only to see that the coverage of the story had disappeared and instead something about a new exhibit at the aquarium was filling the screen. She sighed and turned off the TV. "I remember hearing about his case when his stepfather went missing twelve years ago; it got national coverage. The reason he wasn't arrested fell down to the prosecution misfiling evidence against him and the fact that the body was never found. The case was deemed impossible," she said with a sigh, resting her elbow on her desk and her chin in her hand. Whoever managed to prosecute him would have one hell of a reputation. Business as far as the eye could see… She let her head fall down onto the desk. A certifiable pipe dream.

Not too long after she dropped her head down, she heard the familiar sound of wheels rolling across hardwood and felt Piper's arms flopping onto her desk. She peeked up over her arms and raised an eyebrow, only to see Piper grinning her usual wicked grin. The last time she had seen that grin it had ended in a mugshot. "Impossible, you say? That sounds like a fabulous case to take on…" She continued to grin as she looked at Annabeth.

She snorted and sat up, pushing her hair back once again. "They don't need any more lawyers to try and persecute him. He all but confessed on numerous separate occasions! It's all but sealed and delivered to the local electric chair." She shook her head. Piper snorted and stood up, kicking her chair back into the general vicinity of her desk.

"But, does he have any lawyers trying to defend him? I mean, imagine if we successfully convinced the jury that Perseus Jackson was innocent! We would have business until the day we died." She waved her hands a bit wildly as she spoke, some mad idea forming in her head.

Annabeth shook her head. "No. We are not going to take on this case. We do not need to start up our new business with a failure on our hands." She needed to nip that damned idea in the bud before Piper ran down to the police station herself.

She frowned and walked around the desk to grab ahold of Annabeth's chair, hovering down over her, pouting. She covered her eyes and began shaking her head. Those goddamn puppy dog eyes. Piper was the most convincing person she had ever been around and it was rather obnoxious at times. She heard Piper sigh and felt the weight of her hands leave her armrests.

"Well, if you think you can't win… Who am I to try and persuade you otherwise…" She spoke with an easy drawl, almost wistfully. She knew what she was doing, she knew she was trying to coax her into it, but the publicity could be great. And if they did win, well, maybe they would start off with a great reputation. Annabeth stood up suddenly, her chair rolling back into the wall.

"You know what, McLean, fine, I'll defend Mr. Perseus Jackson, and I'm going to win," she declared triumphantly while slamming closed her open laptop. She smoothed out her skirt before pulling her curls back into a sloppy ponytail high up on her head, a few curls falling loosely around her face. "I need to get a move on if I want to beat the media shitstorm that is no doubt already swarming the station," Annabeth muttered and shrugged on the smart blazer over her green blouse. "I trust you can manage things here without me?" She pointlessly asked Piper as she walked towards the frosted glass door. Piper looked up from fiddling with her engagement ring. Ever since Jason had proposed, she could hardly tear her eyes away from the ring that adorned her left hand. Hell, sometimes even Annabeth had trouble looking away, the stone was gorgeous.

"You know I can hold down the fort, don't worry," she assured the blonde, waving at her as she hurried out of the office. Annabeth's heels clicked against the sidewalk as she hurried down the street, her blonde ponytail swaying rhythmically with each step. The firm was only a few mere blocks from the police station, which apparently made impromptu pro bono cases much easier.

The closer she got to the station, the louder the buzz of the press became. They were such pests sometimes, like vultures feeding on any scrap of information they could get their hands on. People always said lawyers were heartless bottom feeders, but clearly they had never met a reporter. Media vans were making traffic impossible. Reporters, lookie-loos, and police officers crowded the steps leading up to the station. Annabeth sighed and braced herself before trying to squeeze her way past the crowd and up into the police station itself.

The crowd was hardly any better inside. She actually recognized quite a few of the faces in the room, many of them being other lawyers. Of course they would be there as well; she could never seem to catch a break. Amongst the crowd, she was able to pick out the face of Clarisse LaRue. The two had shared many of the same classes while still in law school and needless to say, they did not get along.

"Excuse me, pardon me, sorry, move!" The agitated woman said as she squeezed her way up to the receptionist's desk with an absurd amount of difficulty. She opened her mouth to speak but the woman behind the desk held up her hand to silence her before she could so much as breathe.

"Press or lawyer? If the former, scram, if the latter, get in line," the woman snapped at Annabeth exasperatedly, not so much as looking up from her paperwork, as though she had already asked that very same question numerous times that morning. Annabeth offered a slight prayer of thanks to whoever was up in the sky looking down on her.

"Mellie, it's me, Annabeth Chase," she said lowly, offering the frazzled looking woman a smile. The petite woman's brown eyes softened when she saw who she was speaking too. The pair had a history that continuously proved useful.

Mellie, at one time, had been the assistant to the eccentric weatherman Adam Gale. After he had a mental breakdown on the air, the station had to hire a lawyer to legally be able to fire him due to contractual obligations. Thanks to Piper and Annabeth, the station had won the lawsuit and even gave Mellie a rather large sum of money for dealing with Adam. She had found a new job at the police station and tended to help out the two young lawyers whenever she was able, which wasn't often, but she really did try. Plus, she had a bit of a crush on the great Tristan McLean. An autograph here, photograph there, and the batting of Piper's long lashes and they had a permanent fixture aiding them at the police station.

"You should have said that from the start," Mellie said with a soft laugh, smiling at Annabeth. "I take it you're here to see our newest arrival?" She asked, though she already knew the answer. It appeared everyone was there to see Perseus Jackson. Annabeth nodded, a sheepish smile on her face. "Annie, you know that technically I shouldn't let you through to see him, he hasn't asked for a lawyer yet," her face fell as she listened to Mellie, "But, considering you're already here, and I am simply assuming you are taking the case pro bono-" she looked up at Annabeth once again, who quickly nodded, "then I see no problem with letting you speak to your client before he has the chance to incriminate himself."

Annabeth grinned viciously, "Mel, I could kiss you right now." The receptionist let out a tinkling laugh as she stood up slowly, her pregnant belly looking as if it was about to pop. Upon seeing her heave herself up, Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Mellie, sit down this second. Just tell me where he is and I can go find him, I am not going to make you walk," she scolded her lightly. The receptionist laughed and shook her head softly as Annabeth berated her.

"Third interrogation room on the left, here's your badge, don't tell anyone I let you sneak past," she added with a conspiratorial wink as Annabeth darted off, the blonde calling over her shoulder to invite her to the baby shower as she hurried away.

It was astounding, stepping from the crowd of people into the relatively empty hallway. Annabeth felt like she could breathe freely, how Mellie handled it all day she had no idea. The woman hung the visitor badge around her neck as she counted the doors on the left, though she assumed it was the one with an officer stationed outside it. One, two, three… Smiling thinly, she walked over to the door.

"Hello, I'm Annabeth Chase, Mr. Jackson's lawyer, I would like a moment alone with my client." The officer outside the door, a behemoth of a man with a…was that a rainbow tattoo, on his left bicep, looked at her presumptuously. Annabeth flashed him the badge with another smile. He sighed and hauled himself up from the chair, only to step inside the room. He came back out a moment later with two officers following him- one looked particularly disgruntled officer had a swollen eye.

"Go ahead in," the officer with the rainbow tattoo said gruffly, "we will be on the other side of the mirror." She took a moment to straighten her skirt and make sure her blouse was properly tucked in, fixing her hair and lipstick. With another deep breath, she put on her poker face, void of any emotion, as she swung open the heavy door and stepped into the steel plated interrogation room.

"Who the hell are you?"