For what seemed to be the millionth time Jack noticed Bryan's absence. It had been a number of weeks since his now ex-assistant had left the DA's office to join one of the more prominent firms in the city and his presence was still missed.
Probably because I haven't bothered to get myself another assistant, Jack thought. He'd been used to having someone extremely competent aiding him on his cases and there was no one in the current pool of possible assistants that struck him as being up to the job. He knew he was going to have to break down sometime and just grab one of the newer attorneys that seemed to be doing well and train them up from scratch but . . .
He'd been hoping to get Claire somehow. She was exactly what he liked in his assistants. She was young, pretty, smart and, apparently, prone to getting involved with bosses.
It was well known around the office that Jack had gotten involved with all of his female assistants. His reasons for wanting Claire to assist him were no different than anyone would expect.
Despite his abstract hope of sleeping with the lovely Claire, he actually hadn't pursued her much. Not in any real sense anyway. With Bryan gone he'd had too much work to get done to worry about trivial things like his personal life. Work always had and always would come first. That was one of the reasons he tended to date assistants and other coworkers. It was convenient. It was true that he liked smart women but work was his life. He needed someone who shared his work with him, even if they were handling cases different than his own.
He took a long look at the files and papers piling on his desk. I really need that new assistant. This is just too much, he thought wearily, rubbing his eyes. Whenever he really needed someone to help he could always borrow someone from another office but he couldn't do that all the time. It was frustrating to be without the kind of help he was used to.
He threw down his pencil and exited his office. He would take a few minutes to walk around the office and clear his head. Then he'd get back to work. No problems.
He passed by a group of cubicles and a number of voices floated toward him. He paused to listen. Paying attention to what the grapevine was saying was usually quite beneficial.
". . . Right after some witness got killed."
"He'd been at this a long time, you'd think he would have gotten used to the idea."
"I heard his conscience just couldn't handle it."
"Do you know what's happening to his cases?"
"All being reassigned, I guess."
"What about that good-looking chick working with him?"
"Kincaid? I dunno. I hope she gets transferred here. She's sure got a pair of legs on her."
It hadn't taken too much for Jack to figure out what was going on. Ben had quit. Ben Stone had quit.
And Claire was without a boss. She was totally free and that meant that he could get exactly what he wanted.
Jack turned around and began hurrying toward Adam's office. Claire was a good attorney and he wanted to make sure that he was the first to put in a request.
He made it to Adam's office in record time. He rapped quickly on the door and heard Adam's voice answer the knock from inside.
"Come in."
Jack opened the door and walked in.
Adam looked up from whatever he was doing to see who'd come in his office.
Jack wasn't about to start screwing around. He knew what he wanted and he intended to get it. This was only step one.
"I'll make this quick, Adam," he said, sitting down in a chair right in front of Adam's desk. "I want to request Claire Kincaid. I've needed a new assistant for a couple weeks now and she seems up to the job."
Adam wasn't stupid. Jack never changed. He always wanted the best looking and smartest girl he could find working with him--for reasons other than the job.
"I see."
Adam wasn't buying it. What had he expected? Jack waited for Adam to give him more of a reaction.
"I'll think about it," Adam said after a couple of minutes.
"This isn't what you think it is, Adam."
"Sure," Adam responded. "After all the others, I believe that."
Jack sighed. Unfortunately Adam wasn't proof that anyone could be elected for anything. He'd forgotten the hard time he was going to be getting for this.
"I need someone competent, and she's got experience."
"Like I said, I'll think about it. Now don't you have anything better to do than pester me about Miss Kincaid?"
Jack got up and went back to his office.
Claire made her way to Adam Schiff's office. His secretary had called her a couple minutes ago to tell her that the DA had asked for her to meet him in his office. She'd left right away. No one with an ounce of sense kept the DA waiting.
She knocked on Adam's door.
"Come in."
She opened the door and stepped into the office. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yes I did," he answered. "Take a seat." He made a rather broad motion toward the couch sitting near the window.
She moved forward and sat down, then fixed Adam with her gaze. She had no idea why she was here. The only clue she had was Adam's serious tone. Gee, that was something entirely different.
"What do you know about Jack McCoy?"
As in good-looking EADA Jack McCoy? The one she hadn't recognized, but should have, when he acknowledged her in the hallway about ten months back? The one Ben had introduced her to at the office Christmas party? That Jack McCoy?
"Just what most people know. He's an EADA. He's good at finding creative interpretations of the law and he's supposed to be a wonderful speaker."
Adam nodded. "Anything else?"
Claire nodded slowly and sucked a breath. She knew other things but she hated repeating office gossip. It didn't seem professional. "He's supposed to have dated a number of his coworkers, some of which being his assistants," she answered slowly.
Adam nodded again, confirming the rumor. "Yes, Jack has quite a reputation."
Well she could see that.
He continued. "He's a damn fine attorney, though, as you've already heard. You could learn a lot from him."
Whoa. Wait a minute. Does he mean I'm gonna be working with Jack McCoy?
He certainly seemed to be saying that. Of course, she could be wrong.
"He's put in a request for you to be his assistant."
Yeah, he's definitely saying I'm going to be working with Jack McCoy.
"How would you feel about working with him?"
Her first reaction to the question was to be a bit surprised. She didn't think DAs normally asked inexperienced ADAs such as herself about things like this. She supposed McCoy's reputation had a lot to do with it.
How did she feel about it?
Honestly, she was a little apprehensive about the motives of a man with a reputation like that but she had to admit Adam was right. She would really learn a lot from McCoy. Ben had left too soon for her to learn everything she should from him.
Past the reputation, though, she was thrilled about the idea. She wasn't about to make the same mistake as she had with Joel Thayer and she had a lot to gain from this. Besides, she was curious about what McCoy was really like. Rumors never truly portrayed what a person, especially one as apparently complex as McCoy, was really like.
Her answer was immediate. "I'd like it."
Adam seemed a bit surprised but he said nothing about it. She waited to see what he said. He was still likely to tell her to just go back to her desk. Tell her that he was denying McCoy's request. She wouldn't blame him. This was a sticky situation. From his point of view some sort of personal involvement had to look likely, and after all the trouble her last affair had caused the DA's office . . .
Well, it probably would be smart to deny the request. Too bad.
"I'm going to honor his request then. Move your things into the desk across from Jack's office and then go see him."
She couldn't believe it. He'd decided to do it. Apparently he'd decided to trust her and her judgment. He realized that her affair with Joel was just a byproduct of her age and naivety.
She left his office with a small smile on her face.
Adam, himself though . . . He could only hope he'd made the right decision when he let Jack have her as his assistant.
It didn't look as though there wouldn't be a problem on her end, though. There had been that thing with Joel Thayer but it seemed to him that she learned her lesson that time around. He didn't think he had to worry about her to much. It was Jack that was going to be the problem.
Unlike Miss Kincaid, Jack had never had one of his little office affairs blow up on him. His marriage had ended in flames but since his ex-wife was no longer working at the time it really didn't count. He was still just as into the idea as he had ever been--despite what he'd told Adam when he'd made his request. Jack could be a very easy read at times. Even under that poker face of his.
Jack wanted Kincaid for reasons that began south of the border and Adam knew he would be very focused on his goal. It was Jack's intensity that made him both a great prosecutor and an office menace.
Adam worried about what kind of resilience Miss Kincaid would have against such intensity. He didn't know her very well at all. She seemed to no be too much of a push-over--she and Adam had actually exchanged a few heated words over the course of time--but he knew so very little about her that he really couldn't say. Would she be able to stay so focused on work that she would take no notice of his advances? Would she resist them?
Or would she fall prey to his charms like the women before her?
He'd let her have the job for a reason though. While she did have the history he felt it would more likely detour her than be a predictor of her future behavior. She had more reason than anyone else Jack might request to keep her distance.
It was a gamble and Adam knew it. He was planning on keeping as close an eye as he could on them but he did have other things to do. A lot of them. He was the District Attorney of Manhattan County and there were a lot of more pressing things to do than watching to see if his top EADA and that EADA's assistant were playing footsy behind his back.
He would do his best, though, to keep an eye out for a problem. He liked to run a tight ship. He didn't want anything gumming up the works and he didn't want the media to find out and crucify him because of a problem it caused.
If those two did end up sharing a bed they sure as hell better hope he didn't find out by a lapse in their work. If he did they'd both be looking for new jobs. Even Jack. Adam wasn't going to tolerate any of that no matter how good of a prosecutor Jack was. It hadn't been a problem in the past but if it became one now it would be dealt with.