McCoy walked into the room filled with floral arrangements and balloons, a few minutes shy of noon the next day. Jake Cohen was sitting up in his bed. With most of the tubes and machines that had engulfed him days before were gone. Cohen's color had improved. While still weak, McCoy could see the ADA was on the mend.
"How do you like the new room?"
Cohen nodded at the figure in his door way as he pointed to the chair beside the bed.
"Jack, this is an unexpected treat. Have to admit, there was a male nurse in ICU that I'd taken a fancy to, right before they moved me. Thinkin' maybe if I threaten the hospital with a discrimination suite, they'll reassign him to this ward, so it'll look like they have more male nurses on staff. I take it Brooke made it back home yesterday?"
"This morning. She had some last minute business to attend to and missed the train. I put her on the first one out of Grand Central this morning."
"Be honest Jack, she just didn't want to leave you and the benefit of your presence on these cold winter nights," he said with a wink.
McCoy gave Cohen a sheepish grin.
"Was it cold last night?"
"Below freezing."
McCoy widened his eyes.
"Was it? I didn't notice."
Cohen chuckled softly.
"I'm sure you didn't. Taking up with you is the smartest thing that girl's done in a while. If you weren't involved with my best friend, I'd make a play for you myself."
McCoy shifted uneasily. Not at Cohen's playful banter - McCoy usually gave as good as he got with Cohen - but at the opening he'd been give to delve into something necessary but unpleasant.
"Is that how it started with Davenport," McCoy asked as he closed the door. "Harmless flirtation that led to something more? Or not?"
Now Cohen shifted uncomfortably.
"I've never known Brooke to be gutless. To send someone else to do her dirty work..."
"She doesn't deserve that and you know it Jake," McCoy said sharply. "Your Congressmen tells a story any prosecutor would punch holes in. Whatever is going on between you two may have got that night watch man shot. I can't believe you don't feel an obligation to help find that man's killer."
"William doesn't know anything. I told him to go Jack. He could lose everything. Why can't the two of you just accept-"
"Your were laying on the ground bleeding to death. Do you expect me to apologize for doubting the sincerity of a man that would leave you to die? Do you expect that of Brooke, after what she went through herself? You were around when her husband died - could Brooke have left him with a bullet in his chest? Even if he begged her to?"
Cohen opened his mouth to reply and stopped short. He knew the security detail had to literally pick her up and carry her away from Sam Prescott's lifeless corpus that fateful night.
"What neither of you understand," he said finally. "Is that Brooke and Sam were married - a socially acceptable thing for straight couples to do. This isn't the same situation."
McCoy hesitated, and then stuck the dagger in, remembering his promise.
"It's not the same because you weren't lovers, were you Jake?"
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McCoy knew he'd hit a nerve when Cohen pressed is lips together and glared back at the DA.
"Do you really expect anyone to believe someone openly gay would knowingly associate with a man who not only isn't out of the closet, but is heading up a borderline hate group like Return to Basics? There's something you're not telling the police that might help them to find a killer."
"I told Detective Green everything I remembered," he said defensively. "The partial I got on the license plates of the car across the street…the number of shots…how the first two shots missed-"
"Don't play games with me Jake," McCoy snapped.
"You don't understand - you can't understand."
"I understand someone died -"
"Listen Jack, I'm not some ignorant suspect you can bully into submission."
"No, you're an officer of the court, as well as a witness. Suspects have rights that you do not. I don't want to charge you with obstruction, Jake. But I can and I will-"
"Touché counselor," Cohen said undaunted. "When Serena called last night, we made a bet as to how long it would take for you to threaten one of us with jail. She said by the end of the day - I said before noon."
"Well," McCoy said bitterly as he stood. "I'm glad you and Serena find this so entertaining. I have to talk to the night watchman's widow - she's having trouble getting the body released for burial."
"Come on Jack, who are you kidding," Cohen said shrewdly. "You're the District Attorney. One of your many subordinates would be pawned off on the widow of a nameless-"
"His name was Esquardo. Javier Esquardo," McCoy retorted matter of factly. "He left a family of six, including a wife, who is six months pregnant. I'll be sure to tell her you send your condolences."
"Jack, wait!"
McCoy swung around, his gaze softening upon seeing the shame in Cohen's eyes.
"Jake, whether you admit it or not, William Davenport is hiding something. Whether you think his secret is more important than a man's-"
"Obviously a man's life is more important…,"Cohen sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. William and I met several months ago at a congressional hearing on a federal bill proposing legalization of gay marriage. Naturally, we were on opposite ends of the aisle. One night, we both happened to be dining late in the same café. The place was deserted. We ended up sharing a booth and talking…To make a long story short we became friends. Unofficially."
"Friends?"
Cohen nodded as McCoy returned to the chair by the bed.
"Oh, I won't say I wasn't interested from the moment he opened his ignorant mouth at that hearing," Cohen admitted." William is quite a striking man. But, as far as I knew, he was an opponent and nothing more. One that was as straight as an arrow. I looked at William much the way I image you looked at Serena, when she was your assistant. As someone desirable, that I had no chance of having."
"Point taken," McCoy said with an amused nod. "When did things change?"
Cohen hesitated for a moment, seeming to debate something silently.
"You know William has been linked to a variety of women, but no marriages. No live in's…the pattern is dating relationships of less than six months, then an amicable break up. Just enough time for the press to get wind he's seeing a woman. Not enough time for it to go anywhere."
"You're saying he was keeping up appearances?"
"Exactly. The week I was in Manhattan for the that workshop at Rockefeller Center, I stopped in at The Townhouse, late one night. It was the middle of the week - the piano bar was empty - except for William Davenport. I was stunned. Of all places to see him….nevertheless I, being the wiseass that I am, I sat across the room and sent a drink to William and a request to the piano player," Cohen smiled at the memory.
"Let me guess," McCoy interjected. "Strangers in the Night?"
"I knew there was more to you than a pretty face Jack," Cohen said with a grinned, sounded more like himself. "I'll spare you the personal banter. The bottom line is he's struggled with his sexuality for years. He's at a point in his life where he needs to come to terms with it. We started spending time together."
"But you didn't-"
Cohen shook his head.
"There's been intimacy, but not on the level you're suggesting. Jack, you have a reputation that having gotten to know you, I realize is a bit bloated. So does William. As men, we both know there are situations a true man, treats with care. With patience."
McCoy eyed Cohen curiously.
"Patience and gentleness," McCoy said with understanding.
"Exactly," Cohen agreed.
"You told Brooke-"
"I had found the man of my dreams. She assumed we had become lovers. A natural, but erroneous assumption. He's in turmoil. Over his sexuality, over job, over his basic values-"
"Jake, the man is part of the leadership of a ultra conservative-"
"Family pressure," Cohen countered. "Trust me, I am not defending his association with Return to Basics."
"He's a politician. He knows how to manipulate people, Jake."
"He's not what he seems, on any level Jack," Cohen said wearily." He left me that night in tears - I had to beg him to go. He's not responsible for any of this. If you really want justice for the Esquardo family, you'll need to look elsewhere."
