I haven't really been replying to reviews so I'll say here, Gil Shalos1, EnforcerAndAccuserFan, mccoylover, Haldir's Heart and Soul, and locisvu82, thank you for the great reviews.

I don't own Law & Order.

Abbie didn't wake up until eleven the next morning, but it didn't really matter, she didn't have to be anywhere. She thought she should probably call her office and find out exactly what her employment status was, but she didn't want to deal with it.

She was supposed to be out of the house by noon for the crime scene clean up, so after she'd gotten dressed and eaten breakfast, she left, purposely walking right over the brownish stain in front of her door.

It took her a moment after steeping out of the door to realize that the crowd of people surrounding her were reporters. She froze, resisted the temptation to give them the middle finger, and ignored them, despite their shouted questions, as she locked her door, then pushed past them.

"Is it true that you're a murderer?"

"What is your opinion of the charges against you?"

"What can you tell us about what happened?"

"Do you feel that you've been unfairly accused?"

"Do you plan to fight the charges to trial?"

"How do you feel about…"

"No comment!" Abbie told them repeatedly as she pushed through the crowd. She wasn't sure where to go, she had planned to walk around for a while to make up for her cowardice the previous night, but she wasn't going to with the reporters following her.

"What is your relationship with Jack McCoy? Why did he quit the district attorney's office to represent you?" She heard one of the reporters shout out from the crowd.

"No comment."

She saw a taxi, and despite not knowing where she was going, she got in to escape the reporters.

………………………………...

"Did you see this man the night before last?" Michael Cutter asked the woman at the Chinese restaurant, showing her a photo of Matt Bergstrom on his PDA.

"No. No, I would have remembered him. He looks… evil."

Mike inwardly groaned. This woman, who knew nothing about their victim, thought he looked evil; a jury, after hearing about him, would feel the same.

He held up his picture of Abbie Carmichael again. "You said this woman looks familiar, can you remember the last time you saw her?"

"Uh, she's right there," the woman told him, pointing behind him.

Mike spun around. The woman who had just come through the door of the restaurant was indeed the woman in the picture he was showing- Abbie Carmichael, former A.D.A., and a murderer.

She noticed him staring at her, and glared briefly, then ignored him, turned to the woman he had been talking to, and said, "Excuse me, my name is Abbie Carmichael, do you remember seeing me here the night before last?"

"Um, I don't remember. This man here was just asking about you," the now very confused woman told her.

She turned back to Mike and demanded, "Who are you?"

"Michael Cutter. I'm the new Executive Assistant District Attorney."

She did not appear impressed. "So you're the one who'll be prosecuting me. Nice meeting you." She turned and left before he could get in another word, or find out why she was there.

………………………………...

Abbie had been planning to look for witnesses who had seen her around the time when she'd seen Matt Bergstrom and testified that she had seemed scared, and had not seemed to be plotting murder, that he was the one following her, that she had not tried to lure him into her house or have any conversation with him or whatever the prosecution was going to claim.

But she would do that later, when the man who was going to be prosecuting her was not there. If that's Jack's replacement, he has no chance, she thought. But although she doubted that Michael Cutter was as good of a lawyer as Jack, or her, or especially both of them together, it didn't make her any less afraid. If anything, running into Cutter had reinforced the reality of her situation. And he was certainly looking for prosecution witnesses. Would he find any? She hadn't been planning to kill Matt Bergstrom, hadn't done anything suspicious, but still…

Abbie was not intimidated by Mike Cutter. He had no chance against a team made up of the two best lawyers ever to work for the D.A.'s office. She was innocent. They had to win.

But somehow, she wasn't sure they would.

TBC

Anyway, this chapter was sort-of short and pretty transitional. I don't know if Abbie meeting Mike Cutter seemed too random, I didn't plan it, it just happened. I don't think this chapter is as good as ost of this story, but I'm getting stuck and I want to get to the good parts already, so as I said, this one was pretty uch transition, and then Mike Cutter jumped in. Please review. :-)