Jack McCoy was in a good mood. Winning always put him in a good mood and he had this case dead to rights. The murderer, a scumbag by the name of Alvin Myers, was going down hard. It was just too bad, in his opinion anyway, that there was no death penalty in the state of New York.

He snapped his brief case shut and exited his office, heading strait for the elevator. He noted with pleasure that his assistant, Bryan Coal, had already left for the courthouse. That boy was going places. He was a damn good attorney--very dedicated and competent. Jack liked working with him. He was always a step ahead of where he needed to be and that was always a good thing when you worked with Jack.

He entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. The metal doors hung open for a minute and then slowly began to ease shut. A second after the doors closed, the elevator jerked and began it's slow descent down the shaft. It reached floor eight and the doors opened again, letting in a group of three men, all of whom carrying brief cases and wearing solemn looks. They were young men, one with jet black hair and the other two with hair that resembled more of a chestnut color. Jack surmised them to be ADAs, just as Bryan was. Not surprising, the majority of the attorneys in the DA's office were ADAs anyway.

The elevator made two more stops at floors seven and three before it reached the first floor, now thoroughly packed with people. Jack exited and started briskly down the hallway toward where the entrance was located. He was still focused on his impending victory. He'd written out his closing statement a few days before and it was a real winner. Top notch. He felt confident and particularly satisfied with himself. It was evident by the bounce in his step.

He turned a corner and spotted Ben Stone walking toward him. There was a tall brunette walking next to and slightly behind him. He considered stopping to talk with the man for a moment but he honestly didn't have the time.

Ben and what Jack assumed to be his new assistant, a rookie who's name he'd been told and couldn't quite remember, neared and he got his first good look at her. She was very good- looking, he noted, with large, expressive chocolate brown eyes and an innocent look about her.

His eyes continued the down her entire body. They lingered for a moment on her legs. He could fantasize about those legs all day. To say nothing of the rest of her.

He found the idea of stopping to talk with Ben suddenly more appealing, only this time it wasn't because he wanted to shoot the breeze with another able EADA. He was curious about Ben's assistant, who's name, he suddenly remembered, was Claire Kincaid. Unfortunately he still couldn't spare the time.

As he passed the two he gave Ben a polite nod before locking eyes with Claire and doing the same. Her eyes widened in surprise and she gave him something of a quizzical look. She was obviously more than used to being ignored by a lot of the more experienced attorneys in the office and his politeness had surprised her. Her gaze followed him as he passed by, her head turning for a couple minutes to watch him disappear.

She turned back to Ben. "Who was that?" She remembered seeing the man on news casts for some high profile case but the details were fuzzy. She knew she'd seem him, though. The intensity he possessed managed to transmit itself even through the television screen and cameras. She was a little surprised that she couldn't place the man though. It seemed that she should know him.

"That was Jack McCoy, Claire."

Well that name certainly rung a bell. McCoy was quite famous in the New York legal circle. He was supposed to be crafty, a tad bit dishonest, arrogant and give better closings than almost any other attorney. He, like Ben and a few others, was a legend of sorts. She felt more than a little embarrassed by her memory lapse.

"Oh," was all she could manage to say.

Ben looked down at her and smiled. He'd known Jack for over two decades and he knew what the man was all about. He knew what it meant when Jack took notice of some green attorney around the office. From the rosy tinge lighting Claire's face, he knew that Claire knew what was going on in Jack's mind too, and from the way she was avoiding his gaze he knew that the feeling was a mutual one. That wasn't a shock. Jack seemed to have that effect on women. They naturally seemed to flock to him. He honestly didn't know how the man did it.

Well, it looked like he was probably going to be talking with Jack more often now. Jack had taken an interest in Claire--that assured that he would. It was okay, though. As long as he kept Claire under his wing, she should be fairly safe from McCoy's influence. He liked Jack but all of his ex-girlfriends ended up resigning from their job at the DA's office soon after the relationship was broken off. Claire had too bright a future here for him to let her fall victim to that.

Even as they entered the elevator, Claire still wouldn't look at him.

These office parties were always really slow in the beginning. They picked up later when a few people got drunk and decided to act like they were Madonna on a table but before then it was a lot of small talk. A bit of dancing too, but it was just polite. Nothing terribly interesting.

It was nice to be able to let your hair down a bit though and Claire welcomed the chance to catch up with some of her friends in other departments. With the long hours she didn't get to see some of them much.

So they laughed and joked and talked about nothing at all. It was fun. There were at least fifteen or twenty of them and they were all a bit tipsy. It was still early though and none of them had gone off the wall yet.

Anna Herbst finished with a joke, a particularly good one about some woman killing her husband. The group roared with laughter and some of the men used the opportunity to brush up against the more attractive ladies in the group. Claire got it from both sides.

Not too long after the party had started Ben walked over to the group. Just as the gentleman he was, he asked Claire for a polite dance, making sure there was enough space between them on the dance floor for it to be friendly and not construed to be what it was not. They had a very father/daughter-like relationship. There was nothing to it and people seemed to know. That was good. After all that Joel Thayer stuff Claire had worried but luckily it had been for nothing.

They talked aimless as they swayed around the dance floor and then went to get a few drinks. Ben introduced her to a number of people. After a while she lost count of how many. That was one of the problems with these things. There were so many people you couldn't keep track of them.

She usually spent an hour or two with Ben before going and mingling some more. There was no reason to do something different today. Ben was pleasant company and meeting some of the people he knew was very smart career-wise.

She spotted a familiar face move toward them. It was McCoy--a man who's name she would never again forget. He ordered a Scotch and then moved casually over to Ben. He seemed quite at ease. Claire couldn't tell whether he'd already had a drink or if he was just always that calm and confident.

"Ben," he said and gave the man a nod.

"It's good to see you, Jack," said Ben amiably. "This is my assistant, Claire Kincaid. Claire, this is Executive ADA Jack McCoy."

"It's very nice to meet you," said Claire, taking the hand he offered.

"How are you doing this evening Jack?" asked Ben.

McCoy gave an amiable nod. "I'm doing okay. I heard about what happened on the Brown case Ben. It's too bad."

"Well you can't win them all. If we did then there'd be no justice."

"And no raises," McCoy joked, with a broad smile.

He had a cute smile, Claire noted.

Ben laughed a bit and nodded.

"I assume you second-chaired that case," McCoy said to Claire, making a gesture with the hand holding the Scotch. "How long have you been Ben's assistant?"

"For a few months now."

"I see."

Another man walked up to Jack. He was a tall, man with what looked like the body of a lifeguard under his clothes. He gave Claire the once over and then proceeded to speak to McCoy.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Jack."

McCoy threw Claire a look that said he was a bit disappointed he had but then it vanished and he turned back to the other man. "Not at Bryan. If you'll excuse me, Ben."

McCoy and the other man, Bryan Coal, walked off into the crowd. Ben looked back at Claire and noticed her eyes following, not Bryan as one would expect, but Jack.

Of course Ben figured he probably shouldn't be too shocked. She'd seemed to like Jack when she'd seen him that time in the hallway too. Now finding out about she and Thayer, that had been a shock.

Ben saw someone else he knew in the crowd and brought Claire over to introduce her. He figured Claire would like this woman--she'd worked hard to pull herself up the ladder and Claire would respect that.

She could talk with the woman and get her mind off Jack.