Abbie Carmichael's Townhouse

8 pm Saturday May 12th 2007

The doorbell rang, a long sustained peal, followed by another before Abbie had even got up from the dining room table.

"Someone's in a hurry," Sally observed, looking up from her chicken kung-pao as Abbie's exit was accompanied by a series of short pulses of the bell that indicated the jabbing of an impatient finger.

"Probably – " Danielle started, but before she could finish speculating there were hurried footsteps in the hall and Serena Southerlyn burst into the room.

"You are not going to believe this," she said triumphantly, waving a folder. Regan couldn't remember ever seeing the self-possessed attorney this animated. "You are absolutely not going to believe this."

She tossed the folder onto the table amidst the detritus of take-away dinner.

"Wait," Nora cautioned, as Abbie appeared in the doorway behind Serena. Behind Abbie Regan could see Megan Wheeler.

Abbie took Nora's cue. "Megan, why don't you help me put the coffee on," she said.

Serena made what looked to be a heroic effort of self-control and held her tongue until the kitchen door had closed behind the two women.

"You found Joe Evatt, I take it," Danielle said dryly, picking up the folder.

"Found him, deposed him, got his agreement to testify," Serena said. "He not only saw the cab driver and Keri Dyson carrying Jack into the apartment building, he not only went up in the elevator with Keri and Jack because Jack was, his words, 'out for the count', but after he unlocked Jack's apartment and dumped him on his bed he got worried and – "

"Holy Mary mother of fuck – " Sally said, reading over Danielle's shoulder. "He called Margolis?"

"And stayed until the doctor got there," Serena said. "Which was after Keri left."

"So much for he-said, she-said," Danielle said, smiling. "There's no window of opportunity. Let's see Cut-throat Cutter tap-dance his way out of that."

Serena looked around "So where the hell is Jack?" she asked. "He ought to hear this. And if he gives a waiver, we can ask Dr Margolis – "

"Jack took his bike out," Regan said. She didn't have to say In case he doesn't get another chance. The possibility of conviction had hung over the table all day as they worked.

And despite Serena's good news, Regan could not shake the sense of foreboding. This is fantastic, she told herself. We'll show the jury that Jack couldn't possibly have assaulted Keri – we'll prove it to them –

But she knew all too well that juries could be remarkably resistant to having things proved to them. If juries always recognized the truth when they saw it, plea bargains would have no place in the criminal justice system. Whichever side was in the right – prosecution or defense – would have no incentive to strike a deal.

But deals were made, every day. She herself had struck dozens since starting to work with Jack McCoy last September. Evidence that convinced cops and prosecutors could leave juries indifferent; defendants who looked guilty as sin in a police interview room struck jurors as angelic choirboys; water-tight cases sprang sudden leaks in the courtroom.

Having proof is one thing. Proving it to the jury is quite another.

"I think this deserves some celebration," Serena said. "Do we have any champagne?"

"We have –" Sally said, looking around at the dishes on the table, "Kung pao chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, chow mein, and I think there's some beef left. But no champagne."

The kitchen door opened. "Abbie wants to know if it's safe for her to bring the coffee out," Wheeler said.

Danielle and Sally exchanged glances, and then Danielle nodded, and started gathering together the files and papers scattered among the cardboard boxes of food. "We'll talk more about this in the morning," she said. "We've been on this all day – time to call it a night."

Regan helped Danielle clear the legal papers from the table while Nora carried the remains of dinner into the kitchen and Abbie brought out a tray with coffee, cream and sugar.

"I'm not asking for you to tell me anything that I shouldn't know," Abbie said carefully as she set the tray down, "but – good news?"

"Excellent news," Serena said, and a broad grin broke across Abbie's face.

"Can I offer anyone anything stronger?" she said.

Serena opened her mouth to answer and then Regan saw her glance quickly at Abbie's swollen stomach. "Actually, I'm fine – " she said.

"Please," Abbie said. "Give me a little vicarious pleasure here!"

Serena laughed. "I'd sell a kidney for a drink," she admitted. "It's been a very long day."

Regan went to the living room sideboard and brought a bottle of scotch and six glasses back to the dining room table. Abbie disappeared back into the kitchen and came back with a glass of soda water as Regan poured drinks for the rest of the women.

She raised her own glass for a toast. "To dumb – " she started automatically, and stopped. To dumb defendants and smart jurors, she'd been about to say.

"To justice," Nora said, raising her own glass. "Blind, slow and certain."

They all drank.

Regan wanted to ask Danielle if she thought Evatt's evidence would be strong enough to convince the jury, wanted to ask Serena if he would come across as a credible witness on the stand, but she couldn't broach the topic with Abbie and Megan Wheeler there. "How was the drive?" she asked instead.

"Long," Serena said. "And let's just say that Rey Curtis and I don't have exactly the same taste in music."

Wheeler laughed. "You're the whitest girl in New York City," she said teasingly. "And the drive was scenic."

"You went up with them?" Danielle asked.

"And spent the day sight-seeing while Serena and Rey hunted down Evatt," Wheeler reassured her. "But believe me, if I hadn't gone along, they'd still be on the way to Richmond. They're old ladies behind the wheel, both of them."

"Thank you, Ayrton Senna," Serena said drily.

The bottle went around the table again.

"Jack should be here," Regan said. "He should hear about – he should hear the news."

"Oh, I don't know," Sally said. "If he was here we couldn't talk about him behind his back."

Abbie laughed. "We aren't talking about him behind his back."

"Well, we should start," Sally said. Regan saw that her glass was empty again already and realized that Sally was a little bit tipsy. "This is like the six ages of Jack McCoy around the table. Law school – " she pointed to Danielle. "Junior prosecutor – " she indicated herself. "And a decade as EADA." She gestured to Abbie, Serena and Regan. "We could have around this table the single greatest body of knowledge about John James McCoy every gathered in one place."

"Oh, we're missing a few invaluable sources," Nora said. "Abbie's predecessor – either of Jack's wives – "

"Oh, neither of Jack's wives knew as much about him as anyone of us," Sally said. "You have to work with Jack to understand him. Now Jamie Ross – Jamie, I'll grant you."

"Pulled him out of the bottle, AC" Danielle said, nodding. "She deserves all our thanks for that."

"AC?" Regan asked.

"After Claire," Danielle said. "You can talk about the six ages of Jack McCoy, Sally, but really, it's only two. Before Claire Kincaid – and after."

"When I – " Regan said, hesitated, then plunged on: "I met Jack's neighbor, Mrs. Farr. She said that when Claire died, he took it pretty hard."

"Understatement," Sally said. "Nothing ever got in the way of Jack doing his job, but for a while there, you could smell the eau-de-gin-mill from the defense table. I wondered, for a while, if it was only going to be a matter of time … "

"You know Jack, he doesn't exactly open up at the best of times," Danielle said. "I tried – I know Liz Olivet tried – Adam Schiff did – but the only person he couldn't avoid was Jamie Ross."

"You have to work with Jack," Sally said again. "To know him. Try cases. Then he can't get away from you."

"So here's to Jamie," Danielle said, raising her glass.

"So you're saying that working with Jack is the key to understanding him," Regan said.

"No, no, I don't agree with that," Abbie said, waving her finger. "Sorry, Sally, but I just don't. There's no understanding Jack McCoy, not in the way you mean. You think that once you get past that wall, you'll see the real Jack McCoy. And then you do, and you find you're looking at the back of the wall. And the real Jack McCoy – well, you were looking at him all along."

"He's not a wall," Sally said. "He's an onion."

"Okay," Serena said, laughing. "He's small and round and – "

"You think you can peel away the layers and you'll get to something," Sally interrupted. "But it's like an onion – take off a layer and all you have is a smaller onion. And it makes you cry."

"Sally, if you're going to get maudlin over Jack McCoy I'm taking away your drinking privileges," Danielle said. "For god sake, shed a tear over something worth crying over. That Kleenex commercial with the little ducklings, or something."

Sally laughed, and Regan thought there was a note of bitterness to it. "I shed my last tear over Jack McCoy long ago."

"What's it like to have him work for you, Nora?" Serena asked. "You're the only one of us who can answer that question."

Nora pursed her lips, and then gave a small smile, as inscrutable as the Sphinx. "I'm sure you can imagine," she said, picking up her glass.

"Oh, go on, Nora," Danielle said. "There must be stories you're dying to tell. And when else are you going to have the opportunity to tell them and be covered by attorney-client privilege?"

Nora smiled again, and Regan thought she wasn't going to say anything. Then Nora set her glass down. "Supportive," she said. "Dedicated. Brilliant, at times." She paused. "And at others, stubborn, opinioned, infuriating – "

Whatever else she had been going to say was drowned out by the others' laughter.

"So, Jack is the same as an employee as a boss, is that what you're saying?" Serena said.

"I don't know," Nora said. "I've never worked for him."

Danielle laughed.

"Danielle Melnick, did you just cackle?' Nora demanded.

"No," Danielle said.

"It was a guffaw," Abbie said. "I'm from Texas. We know from guffaws."

"Abbie, are you tipsy?" Serena asked.

"On soda water?" Abbie said.

"Maybe it's a contact high," Sally said, and Danielle laughed again.

"The only thing you need to know about Jack – " she started.

Abbie cut her off. "Is that he's standing behind you."

"Wondering," McCoy said from the doorway with a touch of asperity, "What's so goddamn funny."

Regan looked at Serena, who was looking at Nora, who was carefully looking at her glass with a perfect poker face. Silence stretched a beat, stretched longer as McCoy took a couple of steps into the room and put his motorcycle helmet down on the table.

"Well, you see, Jack," Sally said, "I was just explaining that you're an onion."

McCoy's eyebrows shot up. Regan bit the inside of her cheek hard to keep from laughing, then met Abbie's dancing gaze and gave up, as Serena began to snicker quietly. A second later and they were all helpless with laughter.

McCoy looked from a cackling Danielle to a guffawing Abbie. "I knew it was a mistake to leave you girls in a room together without supervision," he said dryly.

"But not that it was a mistake to call a group of senior legal colleagues 'girls'?" Nora asked.

"A group of senior legal colleagues?" McCoy asked. His voice was dry but Regan thought she could see a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Or a hens night in?"

He grabbed a chair and swung it around to straddle it, arms folded on the back, amused gaze going from one to the other. Sally snorted.

"And the cock-of-the-walk's going to join the hens?"

"I figure I'd better stay to defend myself," McCoy said. "Pass the bottle."

Danielle sent it sliding down the table like she was in an old wild west saloon. "Oh, now you want to defend yourself?" she said. "A week ago when it might have been useful, you had no interest in defending yourself."

McCoy caught the scotch as it shot off the edge of the table and reached out a long arm to snare Serena's glass for himself. For a moment Regan thought Danielle had pushed too far, and then McCoy smiled. "This is a much more important court. Although I'm a little nervous about what I might have been accused of."

"You're just worried we'll compare notes," Sally said.

McCoy sipped his scotch. "I'm worried you'll start playing Truth or Dare again and I'll have to post your bail like I did last time."

"That was years ago, Jack McCoy, and I seem to recall you were on the other side of the bars by good luck rather than good management," Sally said.

"Now that's a story I haven't heard," Nora said.

"And won't hear now," Sally said.

Nora pursed her lips. "No? So you take the dare then?"

"Oh, no," Regan said. "Never play Truth or Dare with lawyers. Last time I did that I ended up walking the balcony rail at SPDHQ bare-ass naked."

"I do not," Sally said with great, if tipsy dignity, "Believe I have a duty to disclose."

"You are a lawyer now, Regan," Danielle pointed out. "Truth or Dare – who would you rather, Arthur Branch or George Bush senior?"

Regan picked up her drink. "Rather what, push off a cliff? Can I hand-cuff them together before I pick?"

Danielle narrowed her eyes. "So you opt for the dare?"

"No, no," Regan said hastily. "Uh, Bush. No, wait, Arthur." She tossed back her drink. "So I could blackmail him after."

She heard what she'd said a second after the word 'blackmail' hit the table and lay there like a rotting toad in the middle of a gourmet dinner. Shit. She didn't dare look at McCoy.

"Wish I'd had some out-of-hours pull with the D.A. in my day," Sally said sourly.

"You were Adam's golden girl," McCoy protested.

"Up to a point, Jack," Sally said. She pushed her glass towards him. "Refill."

He poured. "Up to the point you walked out on him."

Sally snorted, threw back the scotch in one gulp. "Up to the point I walked the plank, you mean." McCoy's eyebrows went up, and she snorted again. "Yeah, I know, Adam Schiff the saint, always tolerant of your foibles, Jack. You never caught on to the price of that tolerance, did you? To other people. To me."

"He pushed you out?" Danielle asked.

"Gave me a choice," Sally said. She waved a finger at McCoy. "Choose, he said. Can't have this sort of thing going on. Up to you, if you want to work with Jack McCoy or sleep with him, but you can't do both, he said."

"He threatened to sack you?" McCoy asked, expression almost neutral.

"Nope," Sally said. She picked up her glass and seemed disappointed to discover it empty. "You."

"Christ, Sally, why didn't you tellme?"

She shrugged. "What would you have done?"

"Told Adam to shove it," McCoy said. "Called his bluff."

"Well, that would have solved everything," Sally said. "He wasn't bluffing."

"So you made a decision on my behalf?"

"I made a decision on my behalf," Sally said. "We couldn't both stay in the DA's Office and stay together. And I thought – well, the office needs you more than it needed me. And I thought maybe we had a chance. But it turned out we didn't. So." She shrugged. "You live and learn, Jack. You live and learn." Her gaze settled on Regan. "Give up what's important to you for somebody else and you lose every which way. Lose what matters. Lose who you gave it up for."

McCoy ran his fingers through his hair. "Christ, Sally," he said again.

Sally laughed. "I've had the pleasure of kicking your ass in court ever since," she said. "So it hasn't been all bad." She reached again for the bottle, overbalanced and slid out of her chair.

Serena grabbed her a second before McCoy did. "Might be time to call it a night," she murmured, and glanced at Regan. "Lead counsel has news to share with our client, anyway."

"That means I'm going to bed," Abbie said, getting to her feet. "And Megan …"

"Is going to drive Serena home," Megan said. "Car's out front. We'll give you a lift, Ms Bell."

"Sally, please," Sally said, listing sideways a bit. "I think we're past honoror- honif – titles."

Abbie started to pick up plates and glasses from the table and Regan got to her feet as well. "I'll get that," she said. "You might need to get the door for …" She glanced meaningfully at Sally as the public defender sagged again and McCoy helped Serena hold her upright. "Night air's going to hit her like a brick wall."

And clearing the table gave her a reason to be busy as the rest of the 'Jack McCoy Defense League' took their leave. Especially Danielle.

You need to think about what's going to happen to you, the older woman had said.

Look at Sally Bell, Regan could imagine her adding.

Regan picked up a double handful of glasses and headed for the kitchen as McCoy and Serena helped Sally towards the door and the rest of the crowd drifted out.

Some conversations it just isn't productive to have.

.oOo.

A/N: I am covered in guilt for the length of time it's taken me to continue this story. Thanks to all of you who are still here!