A/N: You're reviews have been so awesome with my updates that I'm back again! :) Thank you so much!
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Reasonable Doubt – Chapter Nine
Previously
"Hank, what's happened?" He sighs loudly before sticking his hands in his pockets.
"The senior partners have decided to drop Jay Halsteads case. I'm sorry." He offers the last two words in a pathetic attempt to sooth the slap in my face.
"Repeat that?" I growl out standing up to stare Hank down.
"We're not doing this for free."
I feel the floor being ripped out from under me, cursing at the blows being delivered to us today.
Our happiness from last night such a distant memory.
"It's pro bono. It's good for the firm." My voice is trying to contain my emotions, my eyes flashing dangerously at the man before me.
"Maybe if you were defending a victim from a different socio economic background… not someone the media has already crucified as a cold blooded murderer." There's a bitterness in me instantly, linked directly to Hank.
"It's my time, I'll work for free." It takes all my stregth to reign in my anger.
"But the firm is then missing out on billable hours when you're too busy on this loser case." My gaze if full of fire as I stare right through Hank, my mind unable to process a loser outcome.
"What? You want me to pay myself to represent Jay?" I stand up, crossing my arms defensively.
"I want you to drop the case." I raise an eyebrow, no intention to co-operate.
"That's not an option."
"Look Erin, I get this is personal for you now with your crush but-"
"Excuse me?" My voice could slice the tension in the room.
"You know it's not like that… how I feel about him." I'm hurt thinking back to our conversation not too long ago, feeling betrayal.
"But you're setting yourself up to get hurt. Maybe lose your job."
"I don't care, they'd be stupid to let me go."
We're silent a few beats while I weigh up my options.
"I'll take all my personal leave. I have months saved up." Hank lets out a loud sigh, reaching his thumb up to rub his brow.
"You won't be able to use the firms resources."
"I'll make do."
"Erin, you're making a mistake."
"Get out." My eyes have dropped to my desk, unable to stomach his sight another minute.
"Babe, what you doing home so early?" I ignore the swell in my heart when Jay says home, knowing he means nothing of it.
"Things just got harder for us… but please don't worry about it." He's by my side in an instant, his hands cupping my cheek.
"What happened?"
"The firm want me to drop the case… since we aren't getting paid." I shrug, still holding anger.
"Oh."
"So I took my personal leave, I have plenty saved up. We'll be fine, I'm not going anywhere." I'm fierce in my reassuring.
"I can't ask you to do that Erin."
"You didn't ask Jay, and frankly I resent the implication that anyone could ever make me do something I didn't want to do."
"You are certainly strong willed, I love that about you." There's that swell of the heart again.
"You know what you need to be doing?" I lick my lips before pulling away to dump my bag on the dining table.
"Well apart form using those strong muscles over there to help move you case files."
"Are you using me for my body?"
"I'm using you for a hell of a lot." I throw at him with a wink.
"But I'm serious, discovery is being delivered now you've turned down the plea and there's going to be alot."
"My apartment is going to be command central. I'm going to have a lot to go through, and no help."
"I can help."
"No offense babe but you won't know what you're looking for. Besides…" I trail off unsure how to break it to Jay.
"What?"
"The discovery will contain everything to do with Allie's murder…"
"I can do it."
"Alright, you can help by sorting it into the categories I work off."
"What else can I do? You were going to ask me to do something before you mentioned the boxes."
"You'll do it?" I ask completely unsure.
"Anything you tell me to, I'm here to help my defence."
"Solve the murder."
"I'm not a cop Erin."
"You want to be one, the CPD are being useless… you have military experience. Don't tell me you aren't qualified."
"I wouldn't know where to start." I watch Jay shrug stiffly.
"Yes, you do. The night in question. You need to interview everyone there, gather all the facts. Listen to their opinions… to what they saw… to what they think they saw. I'll get you the police file, and then talk to everyone involved in the case. The ones who found the body, the neighbours who live right by that section of the park."
"Damn it, I know you're right." He closes his eyes in defeat.
"I'm always right, haven't your worked that out yet?" He cracks a smile.
Jay POV
"Will." His name gets caught in my throat, I don't miss his shoulder tense before he slowly turns around.
"Not here Jay." His words are seething, his eyes full of shame as he eyes the ED around us.
"Then where? You won't return any of my phone calls."
"I don't know what you want from me."
"You're my brother. How about some damn support?"
"You stopped being my brother the day you got arrested for murder." The words are a punch in the face.
The confirmation my own brother would bring the verdict back as guilty.
Flashback – Four months ago
My eyes are on the cracked linoleum flooring as I shuffle my feet across the room, my body hits the metal chair.
The harsh chill is obvious through my thin orange jump suit, my hands reach up for the phone before my eyes finally look through the thick glass seperating me from the world.
From my freedom.
I watch my brother pause, eyes roaming over me before reaching for the phone too.
"What the hell man? They're saying you killed Allie."
"I didn't do this. I don't know what the hell is going on."
"They say they have evidence." I sit back in my seat, shock filling me to my core.
I expected this from strangers, but not my own flesh and blood. The distrust already in his gaze, the horror shadowing the thoughts of my guilt.
"Will, they're mistaken. I didn't touch Allie. You know me… I wouldn't." Tears fill my eyes, both from the grief and desperation.
"You did leave after she died."
"Murdered. You can say it." I'm hissing through a clenched jaw.
"You left Jay."
"To fight a war!" I resist the urge to bang on the glass, clinging to the small remains of calm within me.
"Dad's organised a lawyer, she's the best in Chicago apparently." I watch my brother's eyes drop to his hands.
"Yeah I heard."
"Just keep your mouth shut until you talk to her okay?"
"Will-"
"Keep it shut." He hangs the phone up and turns to walk away, the gaurds not wasting a minute before dragging me back to my dark cell.
I close my eyes in despair sliding down the wall of the cell, praying for the sassy lawyer whose voice I cannot forget to give me another chance.
This time I won't be hasty, I'll readily accept the help.
I clear my throat before getting up, mindful of the eyes around me, sizing me up and watching my every move.
I promise myself I won't die in here.
I didn't survive a war to die on home soil locked up like a criminal.
Erin POV
"So how'd it go?" I ask distractedly as I type furiously on my laptop, the sound of Jay cooking in the kitchen.
It only takes a few moments to register he doesn't respond before I look up from my place at the kitchen bench to see his tense shoulders facing me.
"Babe?" I question as he doesn't turn to face me.
"I know you need to turn around and grab those vegetables to toss in the pan, preferably before that sauce burns." I raise an eyebrow, peering up at him over my glasses.
He finally turns, head down and goes for the vegetables on the bench not even a foot from me.
"You think you know me so damn well." He mumbles, eyes on the task at hand.
"I'd like to know you a little better, but don't change the subject." I reach over and place my hand on his, stopping him from taking the chopping board and turning again.
"Now whose fault is it if the sauce burns."
"We can have take out. Talk to me." I can't help the pleading tone, wishing I could take the pain away he's drowning in.
"About what Erin?" He snaps harshly.
"It go that bad with your brother?" My voice is soft, his hand slipping from mine as he turns around so he's leaning against the kitchen bench.
"Alright then." I close my laptop when it's clear I won't get an answer to my question.
I slide up from the stool to the bench, pushing the chopping board aside and sliding my ass across the bench.
Sensing Jay can't look me in the eye, his shame choking him, I swing my legs either side of his waist.
He snaps his head to the side, my arms wrapping around his upper body and pulling him close.
My chin rests on his shoulder, forehead agains the side of his face.
"Talk to me." I whisper, my grip like a vice, allowing no escape.
"He said I stopped being his brother the day I got arrested for murder."
"Jay…" I trail off helplessly.
"He won't talk to me. He's been ignoring my phone calls and he made it clear I'm not welcome anywhere near his life. He thinks I'm guilty. That I'm capable of this." I swallow roughly, hearing the tears in Jay's voice.
"That's one theory." I mumble bitterly.
"What?" Jay's voice is sharp and I bite my lip.
"Nothing."
"No, what?"
"Nothing, babe. I'm sorry he's such an ass. You deserve better." I place a kiss on his chin.
"I expected it from dad but not from Will, even after seeing him in jail once… I just…" I feel Jay take a steadying breath, the unease clear as he holds back tears.
"Just what?"
"I can still picture how we were as kids, we were so close… and I just thought that maybe…" I nod against him, his hand coming up to rest over mine.
"Maybe he'd be the brother you remember."
"Yeah." His shoulders move in a shrugging motion.
"I'm so sorry."
"How is this possible?" I feel a tear land on my forearm and I hold him closer.
"What?"
"That my own family think I'm guilty but somehow I have the most important thing." I frown confused, my own tears wetting my eyes.
"What's that?"
"Your trust. You beleive me… it doesn't make sense."
"Maybe it's fate." I whisper softly, wishing I could look into his eyes.
"I don't beleive in fate." I riase my eyes at his dismissal.
"Really? So you think it's just random? The screwed up life I had but I happened to be saved by a lawyer whose footsteps I followed in. That I walked into the jail that day, to be confronted with you. A wrongly convicted ex ranger who by all accounts would never have met me." I'm smiling into his shoulder.
"That after all these years of keeping walls up, distancing myself from forming opinions on a clients guilt… that first meeting I decided you were innocent."
"Well when you put it that way." He turns in my arms, my legs wrapping around his waist and pulling him closer.
"I thought that might shift your view." I smile, bringing his lips to mine briefly.
"What can I say? You're good with your words." He mumbles against my lips.
"I can convince people of anything."
"Good, you have a challenge ahead of you." He drops his forehead to mine, rewarding me with his blue eyes staring into my hazel.
"Most important challenge of my life, I won't let you down Jay."
"You never could, so long as you're right here. With me."
"Always and forever." He finally cracks a hint of a smile, I pull his face to mine and join our lips softly.
"The sauce is burning." I mumble against his lips, cracking open my eye briefly.
"Shit." He moves to pull away, as I giggle.
"Let it burn." I order as I pull his lips back to mine.
A/N: If it wasn't 11pm I'd have written you some smut... but I have an idea for Jays List of Fantasies, so you'll get some more soon enough hahaha
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