"Are you ready for another slice or should I have the just have the waitress box up a chocolate torte to go?"
Jack McCoy meant Danielle Melnick's humble gaze with a satisfied grin a kin to that of Cheshire cat.
"A to go box will be acceptable," he said simply, as he savored his last bite of his dessert.
"Your wish is my command," Melnick replied, as she signaled for the waitress.
It had been almost two weeks since last time her last encounter with the DA. The scene in front of the Four Seasons after the bar association dinner had left her with more than one relationship to mend.
When her lover had turned on his heel and strode off in one direction and her friend of more than twenty years stormed off in the opposite direction, it didn't take Melnick more than a fraction of a second to decide which man to go after first. McCoy and Melnick's relationship was already littered with battles, usually smoothed over in less than a month after a obligatory lunch that included conciliatory words and a menu including the injured party's dessert of choice.
Mending fences with McCoy could wait.
It had taken Melnick almost a week to track Prescott down. When she drove out to the house in Inslip he was nowhere to be found. His cell phone was off. When she tried his office at Amnesty International, she was told he had given notice and would not be in the rest of the week.
It wasn't until the following Thursday night that Melnick ran into the former prosecutor by chance, after dropping a friend at Kennedy airport. Prescott was standing outside the United Airlines terminal; overnight bag and briefcase in hand. After nearly getting cited by an airport security officer for stopping traffic, Melnick was able to persuade him to let her drive him into the city to catch a train back to Islip.
"I assume you'd like me to drop you at Penn station," she asked carefully while she pulled onto the expressway leading back in to the city.
"I've been out of town all week. I need to run by the office and pick up a few things, before I catch the train."
Melnick nodded. Although there a million things she wanted to say, somehow the gifted attorney couldn't quite decide where to begin.
She still remembered the horror she felt when Jack McCoy had told her of the death of DA Mark Featherstone. Even before McCoy verbalized the details, Melnick instantly knew the how and why it had happened.
Learning the late prosecutor had also been a friend of her current lover's, made the weight of the responsibility she felt about the man's death almost unbearable.
"It wasn't you fault."
The sound of Prescott's voice breaking the long and heavy silence made Melnick jump. She gave Prescott a wary glance, unsure as to whether he had truly spoken or whether she had just imaged the reassuring sound of his voice.
"Danielle, Mark's death wasn't your fault," he said with a little more force.
"That's not how his widow feels," she replied softly. "After Jack pulled my bacon out of the fire, Mrs. Featherstone came up from Florida to try to file charges with the state bar against me. I would have lost my license if Jack hadn't convinced Arthur Branch to put in a good word for me with the Chair of the Disciplinary Committee."
Melnick ran a quick hand over her eyes as she muttered more to herself than to her companion, "As if losing my license could begin to make up for her losing her husband."
Prescott placed a hand gently over hers.
"I just came from seeing Joan Featherstone down in Florida. Things change Danielle. Maybe if you pull over at that rest stop, we could talk about that."
After pulling off of the highway and into the tree covered rest stop, the couple spent the next few hours revisiting, not only the Featherstone murder, but their relationship as well.
Melnick was uncharacteristically quiet, as Prescott told her of his visit to the south. He revealed the results of his emotional reunions with Featherstone's widow and well as another woman from his past.
"… long story short darlin', it's clear from the transcripts of your conversations in Rikers that you had no idea what you were doing. I now that, so does Joan."
"I can't believe you, Sam," Melnick whispered, eyes wide and shiny. "This man was your friend. If I had just followed the law..."
Prescott reached an arm across the seat back. It was obvious from the tortured look on his lovers face, that the person that blamed Danielle Melnick most for Feathestone's death, was Danielle Melnick.
"Yes, Danielle, Mark was my friend," he said as he handed he his handkerchief."Let me tell you something about my friend, Mark Featherstone. He was man that not only fought like hell to keep criminals behinds bars, he was a man that fought like hell to preserve the Constitution. You two have more in common than you know, Danielle. Truth be told, he'd have been appalled by those restrictions the court placed on your client. Remember, Mark was a good friend of your good friend, Vance Brody."
Melnick reached to unfastened her seat belt before throwing her arms around him. Prescott did the same, closing his eyes as he ran a comforting hand through her hair, resting his face between her neck and the soft dark locks. He smiled to himself as he inhaled the scent of her perfume, savoring the warmth of her embrace that he had begun to miss almost immediately after leaving her.
After a series of murmured apologies and increasingly passionate exchanges, the pair continued towards the city. By the time Melnick exited of the Brooklyn Bridge at Centre Street, she had learned that after Prescott had spent a few days expressing belated condolences to Mark Featherstone's widow in Florida, he had taken a short detour to Atlanta.
His visit with the former Felicity Fairchild had helped to alleviate the jumble of anger, guilt, and regret he had felt about his own role in the prosecution of his half brother, as well as his concern and worry for his dearest childhood friend.
By the time she woke up beside him the next morning, Melnick had learned that he had made the decision to return to the States Attorney's office. Much to her relief, the position he had previous been offered in Albany had been filled by a Manhattan prosecutor, leaving a vacancy he could fill a mere twenty minutes across town.
Melnick snuggled closer to her sleeping lover. As she carefully ran her hands over the warmth of his bare chest she was reminded once again of how grateful she was to have Sam Prescott in her life.
The softness of her body against his back caused Prescott to smile lazily, as he rolled over to face her. His smile grew wider as he opened his eyes to find Melnick smiling back at him.
"Well now, I can't think of a more pleasant sight to wake up to," he murmured before drawing her to him.
Prescott could feel Melnick respond to his kiss. Her body moved closer, as her arms went around his neck. As much as he wanted to let his hands wander and discover new ways of pleasuring his lover, he reluctantly broke their embrace as he felt Melnick's hands travel passed his hips.
"Darlin' maybe you forgot you have court in a few hours. I'm sure you don't want to let that nasty old prosecutor from Suffolk County get a jump on you, by not havin' time to prepare."
"I can hold my own with your ex-wife," Melnick said in a tone that told Prescott she wasn't just referring to keeping up with his ex in the courtroom.
"I never doubted you could," he countered as he wrapped an arm around her, as he laid back beside her."Although there is somethin' I've been wonderin' about since I left for Florida."
Melnick sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. She had no doubt as to what had peaked Prescott's interest. As much as she wanted to savor the last few precious minutes of their reunion, she knew she owned him an explanation. Especially after indirectly involving him in her conflict between Jack McCoy and Brooke Malinowski.
"I know Brooke thinks I sent that report to the 1 6 as a cheap ploy to maneuver her office into a better plea on the Crawford case ..."
"I have a pretty good idea what Brooke thinks," he replied as he leaned over her. "I want to know what you were thinkin'. I don't doubt for a minute you'd like an ADA handlin' that case that is more more likely to buck Michael Jackowski's recommendations on that case. But I like to think I know you well enough to know there's more to you riskin', not only your professional reputation if such an extreme stunt were to back fire, but for you to risk a twenty year friendship."
"Part of it was to wake up the powers that be on the other side of the aisle. You know how I feel about Roberta Crawford pleading to anything more than man one, minimum time," she responded as she propped herself up against the headboard. "It would truly be a miscarriage of justice for that woman..."
Prescott chuckled as he raised a hand.
"Tell me somethin' I don't already know darlin.'"
"Maybe I went too far this time," she said quietly.
In the time she had known Jack McCoy, Melnick had seen more shades of the fiery prosecutor than there were colors in a kaleidoscope. The well rehearsed show of a driven, unstoppable force for justice, McCoy showed himself to be in the courtroom was balanced by the compassion she'd seen him show when dealing with a victim or a victim's family. She knew McCoy to be a patient and loving father. He was a man capable of amazing charm and wit. He was also a man whose mood swung like a metronome gone mad in times of extreme stress.
"Just between us... you and me Danielle. Did you honestly think Jack deliberately hurt Mal?"
A series of events flashed through Melnick's mind's eye as she pondered the question: The night after Alex Borgia had been murdered, the afternoon of Claire Kincaid's wake, the afternoon after a teenage client of Melnick's was acquitted on charges of murdering a father who had long abused the boy and his mother.
"No," she said at last. "Not that it isn't possible...Jack went through hell as a child and he's never really dealt with it. He rarely talks about it. Almost makes it a matter of pride not to let the fact he and his family lived in terror for years because of that lunatic he called a father effect his professional judgment."
"Go on."
"Part of it does have to do with the case…I can't go into too many specifics…but if Jack stops and thinks about it and some of the other little clues I left him before he stopped speaking to me, he might put it together and pass the information on to Brooke. It's a long shot, but it's the only way I could think of to try to save my client, given the way Roberta has tied my hands."
Prescott mulled over Melnick's puzzling comments as he sat up as well. While the pieces weren't easily falling into place, he knew if she had enough confidence in McCoy to piece the puzzle together, eventually he could do so as well.
"What's the other part?"
"The other part is it's high time Jack McCoy came to terms with his past. Especially if he has any hope in hell of making a new marriage work."
