A/N: Sorry this story came a little late. With my daughter going to her first day of school, last week, it occupied more of my time than I would have liked. This is a bridging chapter to the conclusion of Brilliant Disguise which is why it is such a short one (in fact likely to be the shortest chapter in this story). Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. Please keep them coming. Many thanks to my beta, Tripp3235. Major spoilers for Brilliant Disguise, obviously. :)
Disclaimer: Not mine. All Law and Order characters belong to Dick Wolf and NBC. I'm just playing with them.
Apartment of Consuela Rubirosa, Across from Morgan's Market, Wednesday, February 17
Mike manages to get to the office early enough to change into a different suit and a new shirt for the day despite having spent the night at Connie's and having not just one but two heated encounters overnight. Connie spends all of Wednesday tracking down Carrie Newton and manages to finally get a hold of her to schedule a meeting for the following day. She also manages to schedule a meeting with the judge regarding Pinter for Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Mike spends his time gathering his thoughts on how he wants to handle Conway on the stand on Friday morning.
When 6:30 rolls around, Mike and Connie pack up and relocate to Connie's to practice her interview skills, picking up some take out on the way there. After they had eaten, Mike pulls out his Blackberry and says, "Did you want to pretend it's a regular greet and meet? I have some standard questions here."
Putting the last of the dishes in the dishwasher, Connie says, "Sure. That would be a good place to start. Then you can give me some pointers before we quit for the night. I'm hoping to go to bed by 9:30. I have to leave here at 6:30 and I want to be fresh for the breakfast."
"Alright," says Mike as he stands up and gesturing at Connie's kitchen table as if it was the table at the restaurant. Connie stands as well, walks to the entrance of the kitchen and enters again as if approaching the table for the breakfast interview. Looking at Connie, he extends his hand out and says, "Good Morning, Miss Rubirosa. I'm David Greenberg. Great to meet you. Please sit down."
Looking at Mike straight on, Connie takes his hand, shakes it and says "Good Morning, Mr Greenberg," before sitting down.
"Your resume is quite impressive," says Mike as David. "How long have you been at the District Attorney's office?"
"Since 2004, five years," says Connie. "I started there right after clerking for Judge Misner."
"Have you always been interested in criminal law?" asks Mike.
"Yes, I find trials invigorating. Putting a criminal behind bars shows a justice system at work."
This back and forth continues between Mike and Connie for about 45 minutes before Mike ends it with a "It was delightful to meet you. It would seem there may be a mutual interest after all. We'll be in touch."
Glad it was over, Connie says, "So, how did I do?"
"Pretty good, though you might not want to tell a defense attorney that putting a criminal behind bars shows a justice system at work," says Mike with a smile.
Connie rubs her left eye and says, "Oh, I need to remember that I'm interviewing for the other side of the fence."
"Also, you seem a tad eager when you said that you've pulled 70 hour work weeks on a regular basis," says Mike. "If your plan is to continue at this position after the children arrive, you might want to consider leaving that out or lowering the number significantly. You don't want them to think that it's your standard hours and that you would need to pull 90 hour work weeks at busy times."
"Good point," says Connie.
"Other than that you did great," says Mike proudly. "You projected yourself well, showed significant interest without sounding desperate. I would hire you."
"Would you now?" says Connie with a mischievous grin.
"Yes, I would," Mike countered with a grin of his own.
"OK. I think I'm ready," says Connie as she gets up from the table holding out her hand for Mike to take. "Did you want to watch a little TV with me before you go?"
"Sure," says Mike before he takes her hand and walks into the living room with her.
On the couch, Mike is sitting on one end with his arms around Connie, while she is snuggled against him. Only watching the TV with a passing interest, Connie's hands starts to wander under Mike's shirt and starts to kiss him. Soon the show is forgotten and they are making out on the couch. Eventually, Mike is hovering over Connie on the couch with her arms around his neck. His shirt unbuttoned and his pants rather tight.
Looking straight up at Mike with her adoring eyes, Connie says, "Make love to me," before pulling him down for a kiss.
After pulling away from that kiss, Mike says, "I'm not suppose to stay here tonight, right?"
"No, because I need to get my rest but I sleep better after sex," says Connie with a grin.
Mike smiles back and says, "Let me be of service then." He then proceeds to kiss Connie hungrily.
As they are kissing, Connie takes the opportunity to loosen his belt and his pants, boxers and socks are quickly removed. Next, Mike works on relieving Connie of her blouse, camisole and bra, which takes a little work since she is lying under him. Connie then works on removing Mike's shirt and t-shirt while he works on her pants, panties and stockings.
After they are both naked, Connie gets up and leads Mike to her bedroom. Once there, Connie turns on the bedside lamp, pulls Mike onto the bed and into a kiss. A passionate, satisfying round of lovemaking ensues. Once their breathing returns to normal, Mike on his elbows, uses his hand to take the hair out of Connie's eyes. He looks at her with utter adoration and says, "You are so beautiful. I love you so much."
"I love you, too, Mike," says Connie as she looks straight back at him.
"I should go and clean up. I'll come and say good night after I get dressed."
Connie nods as she can't think of anything to say that won't come out as a plea for him to stay. He gives her a quick kiss and gets up.
Feeling empty without Mike in her arms, Connie rolls to her side and covers up. Pretending that Mike is coming back to her bed, Connie settles down, ready to fall asleep.
A little while later, Mike comes into the room only illuminated by the streetlights below. He's dressed and he puts Connie's clothes on the foot of the bed. Kneeling down, Mike kisses her on the cheek and says, "Good Luck. See you in Judge Barclay's chambers at 9:30. Good night, sweetheart."
Connie awakens enough to mumble, "Good night, Mike."
Before he goes, Mike checks that Connie's alarm clock is on and set to 5:00am.
Mike is outside of Judge Barclay's chambers by 9:20 and soon he hears the familiar clicking of Connie's heels coming down the hallway. Looking up, he smiles at her and she smiles back looking like someone who just nailed a breakfast interview.
When she is next to him, he asks quietly, "How did it go? You look like you just did a great interview."
Connie smiles and says in the same quiet tones, "It went really well. He said that he'll have his assistant set up a more formal interview when one of the partners is free from their trial, likely in three weeks."
"That's terrific," says Mike. "I told you you'd do fine."
"Thanks to all your help," says Connie.
Just then, Backlund arrives so they stop talking about the interview and start to joust with Conway's lawyer while they wait for the judge's assistant to call them in.
They manage to convince the judge that Pinter needs to be off the jury, but they aren't able to get a mistrial, so they get ready for their meeting with Carrie Newton at 2:00.
The meeting with Carrie Newton doesn't go well. She is convinced that Conway is in the right and they are in the wrong even pointing out that she never told Pinter how to vote so there's nothing that they can do to her.
They also find out that afternoon that the judge spoke to all the jurors and that Pinter hadn't spoke to any of them. When Jack happened by on his way back from a meeting with the mayor, they start to discuss the situation and Mike is convinced that she was going to wait until deliberations started before the tampering would start. Jack thinks the case is a shambles but Mike refuses to offer Conway another plea. Jack reminds him that Conway isn't the only one who does cost-benefit analysis of behavior. Mike counters that he isn't a bean counter and he would go out on the ledge with Conway if he has to. When Jack walks away unconvinced, both Connie and Mike are worried about the whole trial.
They spend the rest of the afternoon working on strategies to handle Conway. They come up with three possible routes that Mike won't know which to take until he's questioning Conway tomorrow.
At 6:30, Connie suggests that they call it a day. "Let me take you out to dinner," she says in hopes of
getting Mike to cheer up a little. Her interview this morning had gone so well, that even the trial can't put a complete damper on it.
"Sure," says Mike absentmindedly as he's checking something on his laptop. "I'll be there in a minute."
They get to Natalie's Cafe and the conversation is a little stilted though Connie does try her best. Mike is distracted by having to cross Conway tomorrow and at the end of the evening, Mike says, "I'm sorry, I'm not good company right now. Do you mind if we both go back to our own apartments tonight?"
"Sure," says Connie a little disappointed at Mike's suggestion. "I have some stuff to get done anyway. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow to work out?"
"Sure. I'll come by around 5:30."
Mike walks Connie to the subway station and sees her off to her train before he heads over to his.
A/N2: I hope I captured their dour moods by the fourth day of the trial. I found that by the Thursday, Jack was very unhappy with what had gone on thus far and then Mike pulls a rabbit out of a hat for the trial, but puts a huge dent into his relationship with Connie with how he went about it. The next chapter will go over the aftermath of all that because we see in the Innocence trial that they are working together again. So it looks like Connie is doing extremely well with her job interview. Will she change jobs or will Jack be able to have Connie report to him while remaining Mike's second chair?