Mary Jane pulled open the door, walking into the building. Almost as soon as she entered, nearly everyone's gaze in the store drifted in her direction for a moment, both customers and employees alike almost seeming surprised to see her before quickly returning to whatever they were doing before. She then walked in further as one of her employees, Sarah, came up to her.

"Hey," the woman greeted her. "You okay?"

"I'm guessing everyone was following the news?" Mary Jane questioned.

"Yeah," Sarah replied as if she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have been. "We've all been kind of taking turns being the one checking for updates."

"It's okay, I'm not surprised," M.J. clarified. "I'm fine, just worried about Liz."

"I can't believe the whole thing about what happened with her brother," Sarah said.

"Me neither," M.J. replied before quickly changing the subject. "How have things been here? Have you all had any issues that I should know about?"

"Thankfully, no," Sarah said. "Business has just been very sporadic; basically, we'll get waves of people that I think particularly want to support us during all this, but other than that, it's been a lot quieter than normal."

"Makes sense," Mary Jane replied. "Well, since the trial is over for today, I'll be hanging around here for a while before I go check on our other location, so if anyone has any issues or needs to talk, have them come to me while I'm here."

"Are you sure?" Sarah questioned, quickly adding, "What I mean is that I think we can handle what we've got, if you want to take the rest of the day off?"

"I appreciate your concern, but I'll be alright," Mary Jane assured the woman. "Honestly, I think being here might be a little therapeutic for me right now."

"Of course," Sarah said before walking away. M.J. then went over to a woman who was looking through some stuff with a young child, presumably her daughter or niece.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked.

"Yeah, my niece was looking for a pair of the pajama pants with Spider-Man on them," the woman explained as she gestured to her niece, who was likely around seven or eight years old. "Do you know if you have any in stock?"

"They should be right over here, actually," Mary Jane replied, directing them to another rack just a couple positions to their right. When the girl found them, her eyes lit up as she took them in hand.

"I'm guessing you're a big fan of his?" M.J. questioned.

"Yes ma'am," the girl respectfully replied. "I want to be like him one day, someone who always tries to help people whenever I can."

Mary Jane could feel the proud smile coming over her face. She always loved having these kinds of reminders of the heroic figure her husband was and how he inspired the next generation, both boys and girls.

"Well," she said, squatting down so that she was more face to face with the girl, "you know that you don't need to be a grown up to do that, right? Just look around for someone you can help or stand up for in school, and you'll be just like him."

The girl and her aunt then went to the check-out area, the former looking as happy as can be, prompting M.J.'s heart to momentarily swell with joy. However, her attention was soon drawn to what looked like an intense debate between a couple of her employees, though their voices were still low enough that nothing could be heard. Still, she walked over to them, wanting to check on the situation. As soon as she did, the two immediately ceased their conversation, avoiding eye contact like two school children that had been caught talking in class.

"Everything okay here?" Mary Jane asked. When neither of them answered right away, she pressed them again.

"We were just talking about the trial, that's all," one of them spoke up.

"Oh?" M.J. said, crossing her arms. "Anything you both care to share with the class?"

"She's the one who thinks Liz is guilty, not me!" the one on the left suddenly spoke up, pointing towards the other one.

"I don't..." the other started before letting out a sigh. "I was just saying that, after that whole thing with her brother, I don't know that we can fully discount the possibility is all."

It took everything in Mary Jane not to give the worst death stare she could at the woman as she took a moment to internally compose herself before speaking up.

"She's still innocent until proven guilty."

"You're her best friend, right?" the woman asked. "Did you know about all the trouble he talked about being in?"

M.J. took a step closer to the woman.

"That doesn't matter," she said, looking back and forth between both women. "What Liz needs right now is our support, not to be debating about her guilt or innocence. It's fine if you want to discuss the case, but we don't need to start forming hard opinions until everything has come to light. I'm hoping to be able to see Liz before things resume tomorrow, so can I tell her that you all are behind her when I do?"

"Yes ma'am," both women responded.

"Good," Mary Jane said, finally uncrossing her arms. "Also, I just want to say that I appreciate all of you for holding down things while we're both out right now. Please, keep up the good work."

"Thank you," the woman on the right said, the other one saying the same. M.J. then turned and walked off, eventually positioning herself near the corner of the shopping area, scanning the scenery.

She was going to be so happy once this nightmare was over... assuming it ended the way she hoped.

Matt listened intently to one of the testimonial recordings, searching for anything that he might use. He'd been pouring over both what he already knew as well as everything that had happened that day, searching for just the right angle that he hoped would give him the leverage he needed to save his client from a guilty verdict. He knew her to be innocent, but right now, things were not necessarily looking the brightest for Liz.

Even so, as he tried to listen, it was hard for his mind not to return to the last words Peter said before they'd parted ways:

"...make sure that you know in your soul, beyond any doubt, that he's the reason you quit, and that you didn't do it for yourself."

No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't seem to get those words out of his head. He wasn't even necessarily mad at Peter for saying them; rather, they were making him slowly start to question his recent convictions, something he believed he couldn't afford to deal with right now. After a little while longer of not getting anything though, he shut off the recording, removing his glasses and running his hand over his eyes. He then heard some footsteps heading towards his office, and soon, he could smell Karen's usual perfume as she stood at his door.

"Did you get the info on her brother?" he asked.

He could hear her light sigh before she responded.

"Unfortunately, a lot of what he said tracks, at least about himself. His first arrest was during his sophomore year in college, though only for a minor disturbance of the peace. From there though, there's a lot on him, though nothing serious that he was ever actually convicted of, just a lot of run ins with the law."

Now it was Matt's turn to let out a sigh. He really wished that his client had been more up front with him about her brother's involvement in the situation, even if the truth was likely different from his testimony earlier that day. He could also hear Karen's slightly above average heartbeat as she remained in the doorway.

"Speak your mind," he said.

"You've just been off ever since we came back here," she replied, "and something tells me that it's not just about the case."

Matt couldn't help but shake his head a little. She really did know him that well.

"Just thinking about something a friend said to me."

"Ah," Karen said in reply. "Care to share with the class what that was?"

Matt didn't answer right away, his mind wrestling with an idea that he'd contemplated for a while now, but never had the courage to do. Finally, he took his cane and rose from his seat, his mind made up as he finally put his glasses back on.

"I'll be back soon."

"Where are you going?" Karen asked.

"Somewhere I probably should have gone a long time ago," Matt replied.

Robbie shut off the footage of the trial on his computer, resting his temple against his thumb and pointer finger. The reports on it had been a mess so far, from a detective who'd been taken off the case storming in and demanding to be heard to the defendant's brother seemingly just flat out selling the woman out on the stand. It seemed like the kind of thing one normally only sees on legal dramas, not in an actual courtroom.

Through it all, there was nothing that definitively pointed to Lonnie being involved, but that didn't change Robbie's mind. If anything, all this controversy only fueled the flames in his brain that his old friend's so called "vested interest" was even bigger than he'd previously believed. Despite this, there was no indication that the man himself had even been at the trial, so if he was involved somehow, he was keeping himself as far removed from the situation as possible.

The man was then disturbed by a light knock on the door to his office. He glanced up to find that his wife was there.

"You look like you're still hard at work," she pointed out.

"A little," Robbie replied. "It's just been a long day."

"Well, hopefully that just means that you've worked up a good appetite for tonight," she said.

Robbie glanced up at her, his mind filled with confusion. Martha's face seemed to fall a little.

"Remember? The reservation we've had in place for a month now?"

"Oh, right," Robbie said, his mind suddenly remembering. It was his and Martha's "fancy date night" that they liked to do once a month, and he had had to put in for reservations at the new French restaurant the day after their last one just to make sure they got it.

"Baby, what's going on with you?" Martha questioned. "You've been a little off recently, like your mind is somewhere else."

"I know, and I'm sorry," Robbie said, stepping up from his seat and coming over to his wife, placing his hands gently on her arms. "I've just had a lot going on here recently."

"Robbie, you remember that we told each other that we would always be honest with each other, right?" Martha questioned. "Talk to me; what's bothering you?"

Robbie shut his eyes for a moment, he was hearing his wife's pleas, and they were tugging so hard at his heart that it felt as if it might just come out of his chest. Part of him wanted to tell her, but as he pictured that night, and what happened...

"I'll be fine," he tried to assure her. "It's just been a hard week or so at the office, with some decisions that I've had to make. It'll pass. Come on, let's go to dinner."

"Bless me Father, for I have sinned," Matt said, performing the gestures to his head and the sides of his heart as he sat down. "It's been far too long since my last confession."

The priest to his side said nothing; it was often this way in his experience. They were silent, only asking the occasional prompting questions while mostly listening to whatever the one confessing something had to say before they truly said their part. Matt knew this, and he knew what he had come to say, but he still fumbled his words a couple of times before he finally got going.

"I remember there was a sermon that I heard a long time ago," he began. "If I'm being honest, not as many of them stuck with me as they should have, but this one... I don't know, it just did. It was over a passage in Matthew, where Jesus was teaching on the mountain, and he told them, 'Let your yes be yes, and your no mean no. Anything other than this comes from the evil one.' I think the reason that it stuck with me was that it was so cut and dry, you know? A good man does this, and that's it. It sounded so simple."

Matt paused as he continued to gather his thoughts, quickly licking his upper lip as he continued.

"But when a friend of mine... when I lost him, well, I guess you could say that I broke that, because I made a solemn promise, a vow to him really. I know it probably sounds silly, being upset over a promise made to someone who couldn't even hear me, but I told him that I would give up a piece of my life, a piece that had been something that divided us, tore us apart from each other at times, and that I would dedicate myself to the shared dream we both had of working hard as a lawyer, you know, helping those we could through the letter of the law."

"This part of your life you gave up," the priest spoke up, "what it something sinful?"

Matt hesitated; that was a loaded question and then some.

"Sometimes," he finally replied, nodding lightly. "But there were times where some good came of it too. People got second chances they probably wouldn't have otherwise."

When the priest didn't seem to react too much to it, he took it as his prompt to continue.

"I've kept that promise up until this point. I've been true to my word, doing as much as I could to try and help those who most other people in my profession wouldn't give a second thought about. It felt good, you know, to finally make a difference the way Foggy and I had originally envisioned."

Matt paused again, gathering himself as he knew that he was getting to the hardest part of what he needed to say.

"But recently, I... I've begun questioning things," he said. "There were things that I thought would just naturally happen after that, things that I'd long given up hope on before, that I believed would finally be possible. Instead, I feel stuck, like my feet are entrenched in a mud pit and I can't get out. Then on top of all that, I ran into an old friend recently, one who still does the same kind of thing that I used to do. When we'd last seen each other, he wasn't exactly in the best place, you know? Like me, he'd lost someone close to him, but seeing him now... he's at the place that I expected myself to be."

"What is it that you're getting at, son?" the priest asked. Matt wasn't surprised; he knew that he tended to ramble on in confession, so he figured he should get to the point. Even so, he could feel a tear streaking down his cheek as he spoke up again.

"I'm considering breaking my promise to my friend, Father. I don't want to, but at the same time, part of me believes that, to help someone in the way that they really need, I have to. My friend, the one I told you about seeing again recently, found out about the promise I'd made. He was gracious, but he also told me to make sure that I knew that I really made it for Foggy, and not for myself."

"And have you been able to answer that question?" the priest asked.

Matt shook his head once.

"I don't know."

There was silence between them for a moment, before the priest spoke up again.

"Son, grief hits us all in different ways, but it spares no one. Even Jesus Himself wept at the loss of a friend, even knowing what would come next. Even so, he allowed Himself to feel it. Perhaps you still need to do the same. Once that cloud is no longer over you, only then will you understand what it is that you need to do."

Matt took in a breath through his nostrils, letting it out as the words from the priest soaked into his mind. He then put his glasses back on as he prepared to leave.

"Thank you for your time, Father."

The elevator door opened, allowing Detective Lee to exit. She turned in the direction of her apartment, her mind still swirling even now from her conversation with her captain. On the surface, some of what he talked about made sense, but there were too many red flags in the conversation to make her think that he'd removed her from the case for her own benefit. She wanted so badly to just go back out there, but what if she got caught? She'd just lose her badge, and with it the legal authority to investigate stuff like this. What good would that do?

She approached her door and was just about to take out her keys when she heard her phone ring, taking it out of her purse instead. It was a number that she did not recognize; could it be from whoever had sent the guy after her the other night? She opted to answer it, fighting against her nerves as she did.

"Hello?"

"Detective Lee?" came a woman's voice on the other end.

"Yes?"

"This is District Attorney Anne Weying-Brock," the woman replied. "I need you to come to my office as soon as you can."

Hope you're still enjoying it! Thanks again to everyone who's been so supportive of this series!

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." John 1:1-2