Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee
Santana Lopez's short career as an attorney is finished, the lawyers from across America (and the world, thank you very much to the world wide web) concur.
She lasted exactly five hours.
She's an instant media sensation. For all the wrong reasons, sadly. They hammer her from all sides: radio and television reporters and newspaper people.
/
It happened a few hours ago, during a heavily-covered trial case that saw the famous New York District Attorney William Schuester pitted against the defendant: Charles Rudd Jr., the charming son of New York Senior Senator Charles Rudd. Young Rudd is accused of money laundering and having connections to the Mafia.
With the media publicity Schuester and the case was getting, the district attorney was a shoo-in to be nominated and elected as Governor in next year's election. The word in the political world was this: Nail Rudd Jr., Schuester will be Governor.
And Will was not about to let this chance pass by.
Really, it's in the bag. He took no chances.
He prepared the case thoroughly and meticulously - putting all his assistants to work gathering evidences and cleaning up all the loose ends. Like, everything. All the loopholes have been sealed. He made sure that the jurors were locked every night where no one could touch them. He knew he was going against a powerful clan with impressive connections.
He won't take any chances.
And most important of all, he had the game's ace - Jacob Andrews - his star witness who was heavily protected. He's Charles Jr.'s right hand (and once bestfriend) who decided his conscience couldn't take it anymore, so he sang like a bird.
/
Santana Lopez came from a small town in Ohio - Lima.
Her father was a non hot-shot lawyer, her mother, a housewife. Before graduating high school, her father died of heart attack, leaving them with money just enough to cover her college expenses.
When he was still alive, Mr. Lopez never pushed her daughter to become a lawyer like him. But she was fascinated by law and justice. She had found her calling even before she stepped foot in middle school after all the time she spent watching her father in action (instead of playing with her classmates, she would rush from school to watch her father in action at the courtroom).
Gifted with high intellect, she was accelerated twice, allowing her to graduate high school at age 16.
She attended Harvard, upon her mother's encouragement. She moved into the dormitory and got a job at the university library. She took up Economics (she was eyeing corporate law practice) at the said university before moving to Yale to get her Law degree.
She was 23 when she finished law school, and earned the second highest academic award of her graduating class. She immediately took the review (bearing in mind that she needed to find a job real soon because her money's almost gone) after graduation.
She passed the Bar on the first try. As a bonus, she placed second (again, but she wasn't complaining), only behind the bar topnotcher by 0.02% (the number two, she thought, would forever haunt her).
Her professor recommended her to the District Attorney, who was impressed. A rare feat considering Schuester was a man only impressed with himself.
The day she took her oath was also her first day working under DA Schuester.
It was also the first day of the trial against Charles Rudd Jr.
She sat at the prosecutor's table, and watched Will Schuester at work. He was ruthless, that's for sure. He would not stop until he gets the answers he needed, even if that meant playing mind tricks with the opposition until he broke down their defenses.
Finally, the much publicized Jacob Andrews took the stand. Schuester made sure that he destroyed Rudd Jr. with every word that came out of his prized witness' mouth.
The defense team obviously were in deep shit. The defense attorney, Finn Hudson, asked for a recess seeing as it was almost lunch time so his cross examination would be uninterrupted. Judge Sylvester conceded, rapped her gravel on the bench and adjourned the court until two in the afternoon.
If Atty. Santana Lopez would look back, she would have to point at this time as the moment her career crumbled.
/
Santana Lopez continued to sit on her spot, and watched DA Schuester answered the reporters' questions. She internally sneered at how the District Attorney was obviously reveling at the attention. Soon, questions were directed to his staff. Santana sighed. She longed to be in that position. But what can she do? She only took her oath a little over three hours ago. She would have to wait for her turn.
She watched as a man in a fancy suit said something to DA Schuester before walking away from the group. He was carrying an envelope.
"Miss Lopez?" Her eyes widened in surprise. How could this man know her?
"Yes?"
"DA Schuester asked me give this to you. Please hand it to Jacob Andrews. The DA wants him to refresh his memory with everything that's in here because the defense team will go at him aggressively in a few hours. Make sure he gets this, okay?"
"Sure."
"Please go now. We can't waste any time."
"Yes Sir." Santana excitedly went to see Andrews, too eager to be part of the action. She requested permission from Andrews' guards, handed the envelope to the witness and told him the DA's instructions. She then left with a fellow new lawyer for lunch.
She wasn't far away when she heard a commotion. They rushed to the scene and saw that it there was pandemonium. They saw DA Schuester shouting instructions to the policemen. As she came closer, one of Andrews' guards pointed at her and the next thing she knew, she was being grabbed and placed under arrest.
"What's happening?!" She asked as she was being moved to the judge's chamber.
Inside Sue Sylvester's chamber, DA Schuester was ready to kill Santana.
"Who paid you to give the envelope to Andrews?!" He screamed.
"What? I don't know what you're talking about."
"So you just walk up to my witness, and delivered this?" He opened the envelope, revealing digitally altered photos of the witness' wife and children, brutally 'mutilated'. Santana stared at the photos, mortified.
She told them what happened but DA Schuester wouldn't hear a word. All he said was he didn't order anyone to give Lopez any envelope.
Finn Hudson smirked. "If I can't cross examine Andrews, I'm moving for a mistrial your honor."
Translation? Charles Rudd Jr. would be walking out, a free man.
"Schuester? Did you tell your witness that he can be held in contempt?"
"Yes, your honor. But he's more scared of them than of us. He thinks we can't protect him anymore." He gave Santana a venomous look.
"You know what this means. I'm afraid this court has no choice but to grant Hudson's request. I'm declaring a mistrial."
DA Schuester was quiet. Before him, all his plans, his dreams were wiped out.
"If there's nothing else -." Judge Sylvester trailed on.
"There is, Your Honor! I want this woman to be held for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and tampering with the witness!" He spat at the new lawyer.
"They're not true! I am innocent!" Santana defended.
"Right. Your Honor, I request that an Appellate Court do an investigation and begin a disbarment procedure against this woman." William said in rage.
"Noted. Miss Lopez, you're dismissed. You may go. Someone will get in touch with you soon." Judge Sylvester left the room followed by a smug Hudson.
"I'm going to destroy you, Lopez. I'm going to make sure of that." Will said without a trace of remorse.
/
Santana Lopez is all over the news. Many feel bad for her, saying she' s innocent and just made a stupid, rookie mistake.
Some mocked her, laughing at how absurd she was. Still, some believe she was paid by the Rudds to deliver the envelope.
/
At a posh restaurant, the Rudds are celebrating. Charles Jr. raises his glass while watching Santana Lopez on the screen. He tips his glass and toasts in her honor.
/
At a Manhattan apartment, a blonde is watching the news after her colleague told her about what happened. The mention of the name was all it took for her to open her television. As soon as she saw that familiar, yet visibly more matured Latina, her heart ached.
Santana has always been a tough girl.
But one of her weaknesses is her trusting nature. There were many times in the past when she got hurt because of her wide-eyed eagerness to help others or make them feel better.
Santana's strength is also her greatest weakness: she trusts so easily.
Brittany Pierce would know. In fact, she was one of those who hurt the girl many years ago.
Brittany sighed. She waited so long for the chance to make it up to the Latina.
Maybe this is it?
/
Brittany had been born and raised in New York to a pretty affluent family. Her parents worked so hard to get to where they were. She attended private schools and went to Columbia University for college where she earned a business degree. It was in the university that she met Frannie Fabray, a small town girl wanting to make it big. Frannie took up Finance and Economics and aced her classes. They met during a school event and had been bestfriends since then.
On one occasion, Frannie invited the taller blonde (and a couple more of her friends) to Lima for her sister's birthday party. Without anything to do, she relented.
It was there that Brittany met Santana. She was young, just 14 (when Frannie's baby sister, Quinn and most of their friends were 16). Brittany was 21.
Against Frannie's wishes, they forged a relationship that was definitely more than friendship. With Santana being her baby sister's bestfriend, Frannie was protective of the brunette. She treated Santana like a baby sister too.
But Brittany didn't listen. She was smitten.
She pursued Santana and even made it a point to fly to Lima (and one occasion, drove for over nine hours) to see the younger girl.
Everything was going great until Brittany finished her courses. On a pre-graduation party, drunk, and high from the emotions of surpassing a challenging college life, she cheated on Santana. She kept it to her, even to Frannie. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that Frannie overheard the guy she slept with spilled the beans. To say that Frannie was furious would be an understatement.
She threatened to be the one to tell Santana if Britt won't do it soon.
Faced with no other option, Brittany came clean.
Santana was devastated. But what hurt her the most were the lies Brittany told her. She did ask the older girl where she was that night. Brittany said she was with her parents, having dinner with their relatives.
Santana only had one rule in their relationship: Don't lie to me.
Brittany lied and she broke San's only rule. The same rule that her father lived with and obviously passed on to his only child. His only rule with his clients was: "Tell me everything. But if you lie to me about one thing, I'm dropping you. I won't represent you anymore."
Despite the devastation, Santana took it gracefully. Instead of whining and falling into depression, she joined her father more in his work. She was there in his study, in the courtroom; and they talked and talked and talked about the criminal justice system, his cases, and her dreams.
Brittany took it worse than expected. She wallowed in sadness (her relationship with Frannie was strained). It took her a while to make up her mind about the thing she wanted to do with her life. She dabbled into businesses after resigning from a number of corporate jobs.
After a friend's mother disappeared (she ran off with a younger man) and said friend asked for her help to trace her mom, she knew she found what she wanted to do in life. Again, despite her parents' furious disapproval, she went on to put up her own private investigation firm. She knew people best. She knew tendencies. She's got connections (she's naturally friendly) and she loved discovering things. Business was a boom a year since its inception.
But despite immersing herself to her work, she was genuinely empty. She never really recovered from the breakup. She kept tabs on the Latina. She knew Santana went to Harvard. She knew that she was doing well in college and in law school. She knew that she passed the Bar on the first try and placed second. She did send flowers to Santana's tiny Manhattan apartment anonymously after learning of this feat.
/
Santana went out of her way to find jobs.
The results are always the same. Nobody is interested in hiring her.
Or when they are, it is just out of curiosity. She knows she's extremely good-looking (a news channel dedicated a 30-minute 'special' about her, allocating 17 minutes of it analyzing her physical appearance, five minutes on her credentials and the remaining eight minutes have been used to give her suggestions on the possible career she could have in the show business after she gets disbarred).
She has offers from agents and producers left and right to appear on television shows, and even commercials since they are all so sure that her career as a lawyer is over. So really, it didn't come as a surprise when some of these 'curios' firms propositioned her, offering their help. She would internally roll her eyes before standing up and thanking the men politely.
Now, she's back in her small and cheap apartment, defeated. After showering, she plops down on the couch, eating some cup noodles. She's halfway through her cup when there are knocks on the door. With a sigh, she lazily opened the door.
"Yes?" She's face to face with a tall, attractive woman in her early 30's wearing a power suit.
"Miss Lopez?"
"What can I do for you?"
"Hi. I'm Georgia Smith, a member of the Disciplinary Committee of New York Bar Association. I'm here to begin the disbarment proceedings against you upon the request of DA William Schuester."
/
Just giving you an overview/introduction of the main characters in this story :)
Brittana meeting next chapter. Clue: They'll forge a professional partnership.
Plot picks up next chapter. More drama ensues (professional and a little bit of personal drama).
Let me know what you think!