Bull slammed his office door behind him and sat on his couch, his head in his hands. Hot tears were dripping down his face.

"Bull?" Marissa asked as she stepped into the office and joined him on the couch. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine, Marissa. Don't worry about me."

"The last time you said that, I came to work to find you passed out from alcohol poisoning. All because you refused to accept help with your divorce. Do not put yourself through that again, Jason."

"Everyone knows now. I didn't want anyone to know."

"Why not?"

"It's a part of my past. You know how I feel about advertising my past, Marissa." Bull looked up. "Did you already know about this?"

"No."

Bull nodded. He finally met Marissa's eyes. "Scott was my best friend, my only friend, when I was growing up."

"Your only friend? Really?" Marissa asked incredulously.

"Really."

"You don't have a problem making friends now, Bull. What happened?"

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Bull glanced over to find Chunk standing there. He shook his head, indicating he wasn't interested in talking to him just then.

"I'm sure that they didn't mean to pry, Jason," said Marissa once Chunk had walked off. "We've all noticed how upset you've been, and we know you don't like to talk about things. We all just wanted to help."

"I would have told you eventually, if you had just asked."

"I know that. I'll deal with the team, but you have to remember to trust us and talk to us, okay?"

"Poor Benny must think I don't trust him."

"Why?"

"I told him what Isabella said before she left, but I couldn't bring myself to tell him about Scott."

"So? We all know that you only confide in Chunk, and that Isabella is a topic you only discuss with Benny. He'll understand."

"How are you so sure about that?"

"Because I'm not the one that lost my best friend. I'm not the one that's upset." Marissa gave Bull a sympathetic smile. "Take some deep breaths, compose yourself, and calm down. When you're ready, come and join us so we can work on this case."

Bull nodded. He sat back against the couch and took a deep breath, feeling a little better after having told Marissa what was on his mind. It wasn't everything, but it was a start, and it gave him some confidence.


Marissa had gathered everyone around the conference table and was standing at the head of the table, waiting for them all to give her their full attention. She wasn't angry so much as just being annoyed with them.

"Is Bull okay?" asked Cable. "We weren't trying to pry, we just wanted to know what was wrong so we could help."

"I know that, and Bull does too, deep down. He's hurting, that's all. But it doesn't excuse what you guys did. Cable, you know that we don't pry into each other's lives without the person at least knowing we're doing it..." said Marissa.

"I didn't want to do it. I kept telling everyone that I didn't want to dig, but they insisted."

"It's not Cable's fault, Marissa," said Danny. "I forced her to dig, and I forced her to show us."

"All of you are at fault here. Cable, you shouldn't have dug into Bull's life. Danny, you shouldn't have forced Cable to do something you both knew was wrong. Benny, Chunk, you both knew that they were looking at something to do with Bull. You shouldn't have looked too. It doesn't matter who started this or why, it shouldn't have been done. Bull will be out here soon to work, and nobody is to mention anything you saw. If he chooses to discuss it, that's his decision, but you are not to bring it up ever. Cable, you need to delete everything you found right now," said Marissa.

Cable didn't wait to be told again. She moved straight to her computer and hit the delete key. She double checked the computer to make sure that everything was gone, then returned to the conference table. She sat down just as Bull's office door opened and he stepped out.


Bull took another deep breath to make sure he really had calmed down, then opened his office door. He stepped out to find that Marissa had the team assembled already, and he guessed by the looks on their faces that she had told them off. Bull suppressed a small smile as he realised what Marissa had done. She always backed him up, and she really was the best assistant anybody could ever ask for.

"Alright, what have we learned so far?" Bull asked as he joined everyone.

"Our client has no financial motive," said Danny. "She's got money, lots of it, and she only has the bills that we all have- gas, water, things like that. The father is clear too."

"What about the EPA? Did you get through to them?"

"My friend is sending me information through. She's going to hopefully send it by the end of the day."

"Cable, what happened with the home's finances?"

"They need money. They've fallen behind on bills and have already been shut down once before. But I can't figure it out where the money went. The people that use their services pay ten grand each year, and they have at least forty residents. That's forty grand in a year just from families. Then they have fundraisers that usually bring in a hundred grand in one go. One of their fundraisers brought in five hundred thousand dollars."

"Dig further in, Cable. I want to know what's going on with the money. When Marissa and I visited the home, it was clear that the money didn't get used for maintenance, and it isn't spent on the residents."

"I'm on it." Cable returned to her computer and began typing.

"Danny, get in touch with the coroner and see if he can shed any light on this poison."

Danny nodded and disappeared to make her phone call in private.

"Benny, Chunk, how did you go with the daughter?"

"She's ready for court," said Chunk. "I've got her clothes set out."

"I've gone over her testimony, and she's ready for court. But, she's also asked for some witnesses, so I'm in the middle of prepping them," said Benny.

"Then get back to it. Chunk, if you don't have anything to do, help Benny by pretending to be the defense lawyer. Marissa, can you help Cable please?"

"Of course, Bull." Marissa smiled and headed off to help their youngest team member.

"Actually, Bull, I need to discuss something with you," said Chunk when it was just the two of them.

"Sure. We can talk in the office." Bull gave a strained smile and led Chunk to his office, knowing what he wanted to talk about.