A few days had passed since that unforgettable day, the case had been closed after quite a twisted and unexpected discovery and days returned back to their uneventful nature. Business was slow, slower than usual. Yet all staff made an effort to turn up everyday despite the lack of apathy. Benny made the greatest effort of all, attempting to act as normal as possible.
He struggled daily with his morning sickness but refused to give in. Nobody was to be any the wiser. His fatigue was bearable, sleeping as soon as he got through the door and all the way until morning - skipping dinner routinely. It wasn't healthy and he knew it but starving himself was the only sure way that he wouldn't be violently ill the next day. The only problem with his plan was that having eaten nothing he no energy. It led to a never ending cycle.
Today was set to be like every other this week, that is, until Chunk brought the team a case straight to their doorstep. A young primary school teacher by the name of Erin Howland, was scammed by a boiler room pump and dump, stock market scheme endorsed by Brannigan Trust.
"Okay Erin, this is the team; Marrisa, Cable, Danny and our in-house council, Benny." Bull introduced his entourage one by one, each of them giving Erin a firm hand-shake.
"It's nice to meet you all." She noted politely whilst making intense eye contact with Benny. Oddly enough, Benny also couldn't take his eyes off of the young lady.
"Now, I'll see if I can have a word with their CEO. Maybe we could try and keep this out of court." Bull suggested, having known the CEO Griffin Fuller for more than a decade, it would be inappropriate to ignore any influence he had.
"That would be great, since I don't even have any money to pay for your services." Erin sighed with relief, she wasn't looking to go to court, when she had asked Chunk for help it was strictly advisory. It would only be a burden if TAC took her case on and lost money as a result.
Bull went to see the CEO of Brannagin Trust to find out exactly what the company had to say about Erin's accusation. The meeting did not go well at all. When questioned about the stock broker division he denied any connection, shifting liability to an alternative investment project which had since been disbanded. Bull had defended Erin to all measures and quite simply asked for her money back. To such request, the CEO refused claiming that it would be illogical to refund all losses to those who have invested in the market, since that's how stocks work; they rise and very suddenly crash.
Bull had a plan, a very expensive and unpredictable plan; but a plan nonetheless.
"Right." Bull strode through the doors to the TAC office full of confidence, "that was a total bust." Faced dropped all-round. "The good news is, we will be taking your case."
"But I don't have any money." Erin reinstated, full of confusion.
"Pro-bono, everything on us." Marrisa raised a concerned brow, wondering if Bull had even been listening to her recent speeches about how the company needed to take on more clients as they we're losing money - and quickly at that. "If my plan all goes swimmingly, you won't have to worry about your savings. The payout will be extortionate."
"And what exactly is this master plan of yours?" Marrisa asked skeptically.
"Erin, you're going to take the bank to court. You and whomever else has been scammed. Gang, we've got a class action lawsuit on our hands." Bull clapped his hands together triumphantly, feeling more allured. The room was silent, nobody seemed to share Bull's enthusiasm, not even Erin.
"Bull, we could be looking at thousands of people here." Benny called out.
"Then we'd better get a move on. I want the names and faces of everybody who's lost their money at the grips of Brannagin Trust." He left his people to get on with the work, after all, there was a lot of it to be done.
"He's finally cracked." Cable said mockingly before getting to work.
"I suppose I'll order us a couple of pizzas, this is going to be a busy night." Danny suggested, instantly lightening the mood. A long night of sleuthing would be sure to work up an appetite, what better than a sloppy New York pizza, to fill that hole?
"You know it!" Cable swivelled on her chair playfully. A pizza was just what everybody needed at 7PM with the dreadful prospects of an all-nighter ahead.
One phone call and 45 minutes later, the group had 6 fresh pizzas; one of each from the menu. The smell of hot dough and mozzarella cheese was unmistakable and drifted all around the building. Benny sat himself away from the others, the smell of pizza was nauseating and tempting all at the same time. He refrained and continued to look through the case material.
"Here it's your favorite." Danny brought Benny over three slices of the chicken and BBQ base.
"No thanks...I'm on a diet." He lied, had he a dollar for every time he'd lied to his friends recently, he'd be rich enough to stuff his job. In actuality, all of this deception made him feel incredibly guilty.
"You? On a diet?" She scoffed.
"It gets harder to lose weight when you get old, doesn't it?" Cable yelled from across the room, as cheeky as ever.
"Hey, I'm not old!" Benny retaliated.
"We'll whatever you're doing, it's sure working. You look a lot thinner in the face." Danny reported honestly with a smile. Benny hadn't expected a response, nor did he think his weight loss or gain -for that matter - was apparent.
"Thanks..." He replied groggily.
"You do seem a little more tired than usual, what regime are you using? High card dieting really takes a toll on your body." She gave solid advice. Not only had Benny not been eating much, what he did eat was all carbs.
"I'll keep that in mind." He forced an awkward fake smile at his friend's forewarning.
"You can have one cheat day every once in a while." Danny did seem a little concerned, everybody did, Benny new that but stuck to it regardless. His co-workers were just too nosey but he loved them. If they showed no worry about his health he'd be pretty tipped off too.
"I'll pass." Benny said firmly.
"I'll let you get back to it." Danny left the pizza sitting on the desk in front of Benny, if he was as strong willed as he thought he was, he would have thrown the pizza into the trash. Instead he watched it like a hawk whilst his stomach groaned with starvation. He knew he couldn't continue on this path for much longer before he collapsed.
Instead of focusing his energy on scouring through legislation and case law, all he could do was stare at the food in his wake. It took all of his willpower to turn his nose up at the invitation. Benny couldn't stand much more of this, he had to leave, his co-workers were murmuring and he was in no mood to pretend all was okay.
He closed his books and stacked them one by one, grabbed his bag and tucked in his chair. "Where are you going?" Marrisa called as Benny began to walk away.
"Home, I'll see you guys in the morning." He left a trail of gaping mouths.
"Do you guys think that there's more than what Benny's telling us?" Cable asked, inquisitively. Her coworkers shrugged, they too were not insensible to the very apparent changes in Benny's demeanor; his tiredness, his sickness, his unpredictable abrasiveness and most of all the apparent secrecy.
"Why would Benny hide anything from us?" Danny replied, although she had a lot more trust in Benny than Cable, even she had to admit that things were becoming suspicious.
"Guys, this is Benny we're talking about." Chunk stepped in at Benny's defence, "if something is wrong then he'd tell us." Chunk had successfully made his friends feel incredibly remorseful. Wishful thinking had him hoping Benny would soon come out to the rest of the group and end his charade of cover-ups.
"You're right." Menacingly, she gave a sly smile. Chunk noticed but decided not to further the matter. If Cable was as curious as he knew she was, even if he told her not to dive into an investigation, she would do it anyway.
3AM, Danny and Marrisa had fallen asleep some time ago and Cable was still up, scouring the dark web for information and dirt on Brannigan Trust and it's stock brokers. She'd been waiting for a chance to conduct her own research. At least he considered Cable extremely trustworthy.
Not only did she not believe Benny and his 'I'm fine' mantra, she was also growing paranoid that she had been left out of some kind of important secret that everybody but her seemed to already know. It was that growing urge for knowledge that fueled her dark side. Starting with illegally obtaining Benny's medical records.
Starting from childhood, his record was several pages long.
At two months old: Benny was diagnosed with eczema.
At 4 years old: Benny was diagnosed with asthma.
At 6 years old: Benny fell from a tree and broke his radius and fractured his femur.
At 7 years old: Benny developed pneumonia and spent two months in hospital.
At 16 years old: Benny got a hernia in his stomach on the first day of training in the force.
At 24 years old: Benny was in a car collision.
She scrolled through the many pages that made up Benny's entire life, with a fair few pages left, she decided to skip to the end.
The last page documented urine tests for HCG levels. With the results coming back as observing abnormally high HCG levels. The page also read, that the proceeding day a followup examination took place where a blood sample was taken and an ultrasound.
Cable frowned, all of this information seemed rather strange. With no background in science, the information made little sense. She carried on reading through the medical jargan, not having much of a foot to stand on or any answers to her questions. That is until she found a further attached file at the foot of the page. The link took her directly to a photo album containing several ultrasound pictures.
She picked apart the pictures, what they were of was rather ambiguous. So in order to understand them she dug deeper into the physical tests, including the HCG. Results flagged immediately even after a short Google search, all related to pregnancy.
Her brain went into overdrive, with clarity setting in, she flipped straight back to the pictures. She realised, each were ultrasound pictures of a baby. Whilst small and barely discernable, still visible. Benny's name at the top made it unquestionably obvious that these were his and not some sort of filing error. Benny was 7 weeks pregnant at the time, and she now distinguished that he must be at least 8 weeks along.
It all made perfect sense. The nausea, the fatigue, the cramps and the mood swings; all symptoms of pregnancy.
Quite frankly astounded, she sat back in her chair. She was far from annoyed with Benny for keeping secrets, she was sure that she had to be the only one who knew. What she would do with the information was beyond her; would she tell Benny that she knew, would she pretend to be ignorant on the matter? More importantly, how would Benny react if she knew, would be be angry or relieved? Such an invasion of privacy was bound to break his trust. Thus she faced the moral dilemma of what exactly to do.
Eventually the sun came back up and the TAC team all naturally awoke with the smell of fresh coffee. Bull strode in with several large cups of coffee and a box of doughnuts to reward his hard working fairies who had slaved the night away on his behalf.
"Wow, this place is a mess." He observed, with files and paperwork scattered across every surface -including the floor.
"This is all of the paperwork for all 4118 victims of Brannigan Trust." Marrisa replied, taking a gesturing twirl to the magnitude of their workload.
"4000? You've got to be kidding me. Estimate loss?" Bull had seriously underestimated the scale of the scandal. It would appear he entrapped himself in bad fortune by even stating the possibility of a class action lawsuit.
"Brannagin Trust conned these people out of nearly 3 million dollars. Some clients even losing up to 60 thousand."
"What an extortionate fi...gure..." Bull scoured the room, "where's Benny?"
"He went home. I suppose he's still not feeling well." Cable replied nonchalantly.
"Oh. Didn't he know that we have an early meeting?" Bull had begun to expect this level of tardiness from Benny. It was rare now days that he showed up before 9AM, even on important cases. It seemed this was no different.
"He's probably on his way." Cable shot in.
"I'll give him a call." Bull needed Benny to be here for the meeting, an estimate about his whereabouts was not good enough. So he took out his phone and proceeded to ring his junior's mobile. It rang and rang before going through to voicemail, 'You've reached the mobile of Benjamin Colón...' Bull cut the line. "Mnn he's not answering."
It was only 6AM after all and Benny hadn't gotten home until 1AM. At this time of the morning, he was still dead to the world, as Bull had expected. Today would make the 4th day without any food, the first week was over. He had only one week left to think about his procedure. This morning he woke with that very factor pounding through his mind.
He swung his legs round the side of the bed and sighed heavily, having only a week left made him incredibly nervous which had consequently given him quite vigorous heart palpitations. Again today he woke more fatigued than before he went to bed, as if he hadn't slept at all. He took some small nibbles out of some bran crackers he kept by the bed to give himself some substance, knowing it would be hard to keep focused on an ghostly bare stomach.
Slowly, he got up from the bed and to the bathroom, looking himself in the mirror like he usually did. Still he saw dark grey rings under his eyes, he pulled at them gently, his skin was very elastic. Being massively dehydrated from violent morning sickness will do that to a man. As pale as ever. He frustratingly opened his bathroom cabinet and retrieved his toothbrush and toothpaste. Aggressively, he brushed his teeth, so hard his gums bled.
Today tallied day 3, being constipated, he blamed it on his abstinence from food and coffee. It didn't make him feel any better as it only added to how bloated he already felt. He brushed and slicked his hair before getting dressed. He tied his tie in the living room using the mirror above the fireplace as a guide.
The statue of Mary sat focal on the mantle piece, it was sharp reminder that he hadn't even gone to church and that he'd missed his service on Sunday. For that he felt incredibly guilty. With five minutes left before he needed to leave, he decided to recite a preyer.
Reciting the holy trinity on his chest, then bowing his head in front of the porcelain idol, he began.
"I'm sorry Mother Mary for missing mass this Sunday. I'm also sorry for not preying lately. As I'm sure you know, this condition is taking its toll on me and I've felt I have little to be thankful for. I understand that God may have a plan for me and that this baby could possibly be interpreted as a miracle, who am I to question God's plan? I can't help but feel betrayed, almost as like God doesn't know the harm that's coming from this. I'm sure that there are plenty out there more deserving of this baby than me, so why me? What makes me special enough for this blessing? A blessing in disguise as a nightmare...Amen."
He finished again with a holy trinity and somewhat felt better. He now wait in hopes that, like before, God would come to his aid and grace him with another sign. Since his upcoming life choices were too damnning to make on his own.
TAC hadn't waited for Benny to arrive before holding the meeting, it was too important to postpone and waste time. Bull figured he'd fill Benny in when he arrived. It was lucky that he already knew about Benny being pregnant so he was able to cut him some slack, otherwise he'd probably be furious.
Benny's taxi turned up at the curb outside of the TAC building, he paid the driver and made an extraordinary effort to exit the car. Even opening the door and hoisting himself from the seat was proving to be quite the task this morning. Nevertheless he straightened his tie and marched proudly into the office.
And who should he meet in the elevator to his office, the very person he did not want to see. Still bitter and in a foul mood, the possibility of choking his boss to death in this lift was a very real possibility.
"Missed you at this morning's meeting." Bull gave Benny the 3rd degree, as a boss he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, he didn't want to intimidate Benny or implement discipline irrespective of troubled times.
"I wasn't aware there was a meeting." Benny had known, yet his lack of control over his own body meant that he was trapped in a sleep coma, so far gone he took no notice of the several alarms he placed on both his phone and the bedside radio.
"I'm sure." Bull directly avoided Benny's insulted expression, looking at the door with his hands in his pocket, rocking on his heels.
"What? If you have something to say, say it." Benny burst out.
"You need to pull it together Benny. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but we need you. Not showing up to meetings this often would be a problem for anybody else."
"Huh..." Benny scoffed. He found it quite outrageous that Bull would even bring up his lateness, much less tell him to get over it, like he knew anything about his daily battles. The 'nicest possible' thing to do would be to keep his mouth shut. Or so Benny thought, dare he open his mouth. "So what are you saying?"
"I know you have less than a week left, I get that you're tired, but you need to pull yourself together."
"Alright. Sure." He need not argue, there was no arguing with Bull. As his boss, Benny knew there had to be boundaries over professional masters as opposed to personal subjects.
"Thank you." Of course he felt like an ass, but sometimes being in a position of power came with unwanted responsibilities. The two went their separate ways, speaking no more of the matter.
"Morning all." Benny threw his briefcase onto the table in the bullpen and began taking the case files out from last night. He hadn't worked on them for too long after he had gotten home as he was far too tired, but at least he did something.
"Benny, how you feeling?" Cable asked sympathetically. Benny raised a brow, highly suspicious of Cable's sudden humanity.
"I'm fine. Everything's chipper." He replied sarcastically.
"Has Dr Bull filled you in on today's schedule?" Marrisa also seemed peeved, Benny having missed the meeting was a huge inconvenience, having lost two hours of valuable time and even more trying to relay important information. Yet, she couldn't place guilt, she knew Benny was going through something, even if he wasn't prepared to tell.
"No...he hasn't." He put flatly.
"Oh brother. Don't tell me you and he aren't talking again?" Danny folded her arms and closed off her posture, disappointed with two of the most important men in her life.
"What? What would make you say that?" He overtly denied.
"His face, your face...that whole thick cloud of tension that wafted into the office when the elevator doors opened." Cable illustrated, it seems Danny wasn't the only one to have caught that awkward display.
"It's nothing." Benny insisted.
"Has it got something to do with what happened on the plane." Danny interrogated.
"No..." Benny sighed, "Can we just forget about what happened?" In the office a sum of 5 minutes and already he was beginning to get a migraine.
"Sure..." Danny backed off.
"We'll, moving on..." Marrisa swiftly broke the tension in the room, "So far we've made contact with about 3,000 of the 4,000, about 70% say that they are willing to travel to our office for a hearing tomorrow." A flash of faces appeared onto her computer monitors.
"And Erin?" He hadn't been able to forget Erin's name or get her face out his mind, almost like her silhouette was etched into the back of his eyes. He hadn't felt like this in quite some time and didn't exactly know what to make of it.
"She's on her way. We're going to walk her through the plan and the data we've managed to gather, rather, Bull wants you to talk to her." Benny tried to control himself from smiling like a teenage girl.
"I can do that." He said confidently and as emotionally mature as he could. Even still, he fell victim to a crowed of sly grins and raised brows. "What?" He noted.
"Tomorrow we'll begin with statements and mock court, if you're ready? We don't have all that much time." Marrisa winced nervously. This case had her permanently stressed out of her mind, with budgets and time against them, the pressure was on.
"How much time have we got?" In no way was he prepared, the sheer workload would take at least a week to process. Let alone start thinking about preparing arguments.
"Jury selection begins on Wednesday." Marrisa spoke hesitantly, discomfort written into her face.
"The day after tomorrow? Jeez." Benny almost choked on his own saliva. Understandably, he was filled with an immediate sense of urgency.
"We've got a lot of writing on this. Figures are almost double my previous estimate. If we lose this case, it could spell trouble." Marrisa hadn't meant to create anxiety, but the truth had to be known. Perhaps it would insensitivise the team to double their efforts, in the most cruel but good intentioned way.
"No pressure." Cable laughed sarcastically.
"I'll get right on it then. If you just email me the files, I'll be in my office." Benny clapped his hands together, the game was afoot! His raging nausea was pushed aside and hard work prioritised. Pregnancy was not going to get in his way; if he could help it.