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Adam Schiff turned the corner of his house to see a lanky 20-something with wild black hair painting the side of his house.

"Make sure you don't miss a spot." he said quietly.

The tall young man spun around to observe a middle aged man with a receding hair line. He hastily wiped his hands on his trousers while stepping off his ladder and moving to extend his hand to the slight, but imposing figure before him.

"You must be Mr. Schiff. A pleasure to finally meet you."

Adam was surprised by the young man's apparent manners. "Yes, Bea told me she was planning on hiring a man to do some much needed yard work." The young man nodded his acknowledgment and turned back to his work. Adam paused before going on. "She also told me that you're a lawyer."

The house painter scoffed.

"Not quite." He glanced back at the older man's inquisitive look before deciding to elaborate. "I'm going to be graduating from law school in two weeks and then I'll be taking the bar hopefully at some point over the summer. As for now I'm just a paralegal at Summer, Troy and Brown. Though I still find time to be a weekend laborer." He added with a smirk.

Adam nodded his head slightly. "Are you concerned?"

"Huh?"

Adam sighed, "Are you worried about taking the bar?"

"Oh," There was a small laugh, "No, not really. I've always been a decent test taker and I figure if i don't know what I need to by now then I really have no business being a lawyer."

The older man smiled. "Well how well do you do in school?"

"Alright." was the clipped answer.

"Alright? Young man if you plan on being a productive attorney you must be more specific. Now, how well do you do in school?"

At that the young man bit his lip but responded quietly and respectively in the manner requested, "I am first in my class at NYU Law."

Adam had caught the look of consternation on the man's face. "Well I don't suspect you'll be having a problem then."

There was silence between the two when Bea stuck her head out the window and jokingly chastised her husband with a wide smile. "Adam, you had better not be giving that boy any trouble, he is nice young man who does good work and doesn't deserve your harassment."

While Adam walked to the window to flirt with his wife the young man pause what he was doing and stared at seemingly nothing while whispering to himself, "Adam?...Adam Schiff?...Adam Schiff! Of course damn it...I'm such an idiot..."

"Sorry about that. Ever since my daughters started dating my wife seems to think I'm out to run every male off the property." Adam was walking back, dutifully carrying a pitcher of lemonade.

The young man hastily stepped back down from his post. "Sir, you're Adam Schiff, as in the EADA Adam Schiff."

Slightly taken aback and confused the older man slowly replied, "Yes, that would be me."

The young man bit his lip. "Sir, I must say I am ashamed of myself for not recognizing you immediately, I did my final thesis on your Treson Case and I must say knowing what I know about your history, I am very much impressed by you."

Adam smiled broadly. "Well thank you. Its rare to get any outside compliments in my line of work. At least in the private sector I was always somebody's advocate. Now I'm always everybody's enemy it seems."

The painter smirked, "I'm sure that its not all bad. I was thinking of maybe joining the DA's office someday."

"You should." Was the reply. After a pause and a bite of his tuna fish sandwich Adam prodded, "So what was your thesis?"

The young man averted his gaze while he thought of how to respond. Then, as if he had made up his mind about something he squared his shoulders and looked Adam straight in the eye and with a quiet, confident voice he said, "I wrote it on how your case was a miscarriage of justice designed as a political ploy to impress the high ranking politico's and the majority of the voting public."

Adam was struck by the young man's honesty, and insight. The truth was Adam really had not wanted to prosecute the case for much the same reason this young graduate had just expostulated, but the DA did have some pull on Schiff so he had tried the case. This house painter hadn't been privy to that fact though. Adam smirked and helped hold the ladder as the you man climbed.

"Tell me why."

"Pardon?"

"Support your thesis to me. I want to know what made you think that."

The rest of the afternoon went by similarly with Adam proposing questions to the young man and then ensuing in minor debate while the man continued to paint. As the time wore on the young man felt more and more comfortable and the debates grew longer, more in depth, controversial, and honest.

At 6:30 the painting was done and the two scholars of law were reclining on lawn chairs sucking on what was left of the ice cubes in the lemonade. Bea called Adam in for dinner and offered for the young man to stay. He politely declined, citing that he had a night job to go to and started to head off.

"Good night Mr. Schiff, it was the highlight of my day to meet and talk with you."

"Good night my boy. It was a pleasure for me as well. When you pass the bar come see me at One Hogan Place and maybe we can see about getting you a real job."

"We'll see." With that he smiled and tipped his cap. Adam stood on his front porch and watched Jack McCoy walk steadily away against the setting sun.