Chapter 24

"So, Wes finally got on a flight. He's headed for England now." Jezebel peered into the dark room, wishing Liam wasn't such a damn moody Irishman and would actually turn on lights. "What the hell are you doing in here, anyway?"

Liam sighed, thinking wistfully of his ability to go without breathing. Sighs could be very dramatic, and then sometimes you just sighed because you hadn't been breathing deeply enough to talk. "I'm taking stock of my life, and figuring out what to do next."

She took a deep breath, wondering again how Lorne had talked her into this. She was fairly certain that whatever skills she had in cheering people up were highly conditional on her actually knowing them and caring about them. "Okay, and how's that going for you? Have you made any new friends? Spoken to your team about what they want going forward and how you might help them out? Maybe tried to put a resume together, or asked me what we might need help for at the school? Because I'm pretty sure we have an opening for an art teacher and you haven't applied for it." Not that Jez thought having Liam O'Connor around a bunch of teenage girls was necessarily the best idea, but she was willing to try it if he was interested. If nothing else it would allow the Slayers to keep an eye on him.

"Maybe I don't want to be a high school art teacher for a bunch of kids who have no real interest in art." He was fully aware that he sounded sour, but he just couldn't picture himself in such a situation. The closest he'd ever come to a modern high school experience was Buffy's time at Sunnydale High, and he'd been completely unable to relate to the students there. Not even Buffy, really. He certainly hadn't understood Cordelia until after she'd been in LA for a while.

"Right, so what are you interested in doing?" Jezebel was trying to act as though she were at a cocktail party, talking to someone she was supposed to be charming for some reason. Hopefully that would keep her from hitting him.

Yeah, that was his question. Liam glared at the Slayer through the gloom, resenting the inquisition and his inability to respond to it. "Why so interested, anyway? Do you not have anything better to do?"

Jezzie snorted. "Actually it's the opposite. I'm completely overwhelmed, and Wes was one of the people I was counting on being able to take some things off my plate. Since he'll be in England for a while, I was hoping we could find some way for you to help out around here more, you know?"

"I'll help you out, sure, but I don't know why that means you need my life story."

She just barely refrained from rolling her eyes. "Because, if I know what you want to do, we can find you work that's compatible with whatever plans you have for your future. We've all been assuming you're sticking around, we've been building you an apartment, but I have no idea what your plans are."

Liam felt frustrated that he had no answers for her, or himself. "Don't worry about that." He said defensively. "Concentrate on what you actually need to do, and let me know what you want my help with."

Jezzie sighed, realizing that was probably the best she was going to get out of him. "Okay. How about we start with the construction management. There's a fuck-ton to do aroun' here, and I can't be everywhere at once. Recruiting and communicating with the Council is a more effective use of my time. Chaz has been helping, but the bulk of the work was on Wes. I'm gonna need you to take over."

He snorted. "Oh, is that all? Wes already asked me to help out with that stuff."

"Well, you're certainly not taking that seriously, they've already interrupted my work three times this morning because Wes wasn't there to answer questions. Is your phone charged and on you? Did you introduce yourself to the foreman and tell him you're covering for Wes?" She arched an eyebrow at him and tried hard not to start fighting with him again. It seemed like all they did was bicker sometimes, and she was really supposed to be better than that.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't think about that. I assumed Wes would tell them where to find me." Liam frowned, trying to remember if Wesley had said anything about him calling the foreman before he left, or if he'd suggested finding the foreman this morning. "I don't think Wesley did a particularly good job of preparing to leave. It seems like he should have told me more about what I needed to do, or told the foreman something, or maybe just stayed until this morning to walk me through things."

Deep breath, Jez. "I think he was a little too worried about his mother to stick around another 8 hours to ease you into helping out with something you've been watching him and Chaz do for a few weeks now. If you'd been downstairs, or been anywhere people could find you, I'm sure someone would have grabbed you and I wouldn't have had to make the trip up here, or deal with the contractor." Finally unable to stand it any longer, she leaned over and flicked on a light switch, then headed for a heavily-draped window.

"Hey, knock it off!" Liam barked, and Jezzie was so surprised he'd expressed an emotion other than contempt, she stopped before opening the drapes and turned to him.

"It's not like the light is gonna hurt you, ya know?" Then she looked at his face. Liam was generally stoic, hiding any emotions he had. It had seemed lately like he was coming out of his shell a bit, especially with Connor and Wes, but Jezzie rarely saw him anything but collected and stone faced. At the moment, though, he looked extremely uneasy. He also looked ruffled, his hair messy and dark circles under his eyes. He also needed to shave, although that was usually the case, he seemed to forget about shaving for days at a time then suddenly remember he didn't want a beard. Jezzie blinked at him. "Are you okay? You look…"

Liam shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair, combing it back. "Yeah, I know," He groaned. "I probably look like complete shit. I haven't been sleeping well anyway, and then when Wes called to say he had to go to England…" He tugged on his hair again, making the part he'd just flattened out stick straight up again. "Probably pretty scary, right?"

Jezebel smiled despite herself. "Actually, I was going to say you're starting to look human. It's kind of the opposite of scary." Liam gave her a skeptical look, and she continued. "So, you know how I keep saying I know about what you were like as Angelus? I've been watching you since the battle, trying to figure out if you were going to be a psychopath again once you lost the curse on your soul. I've actually been kind of worried because you were showing classic antisocial behaviors. It's good to know that you're not being social because you're having some trouble dealing, and not because you're completely unable to relate to people."

"You really thought I wasn't having any trouble dealing with my brand new heartbeat and lack of mission, and I was just hiding out in here because I didn't know how to deal with people?" He frowned at her, then looked down at the hands clenched in his lap. "Having to blend into a crowd so you can eat means that even if you're bad at it as a human you learn to pass in social situations. Gotta be able to lure someone off to get your fangs into 'em, you know?" He sighed. "My old team, I think we're all having trouble dealing. Gunn and Wes both seem off to me, and I barely see Lorne. At least Illyria isn't here anymore. I don't think any of us could have dealt long term with seeing her every day."

"In my defense, you seem very resilient, and kind of detached from your emotions." Jezzie blushed. "Anyway, not that it's really my business, and I'm sure Wes has already told you this, but getting some fresh air and being around people will make you feel better. For starters, how about you shower then come help me with the contractors, okay?"

Liam dragged himself off the couch and to his feet, then stretched when he realized his muscles felt stiff. He kept forgetting about having circulation. As he lowered his arms he caught Jezebel's eyes on his torso, and smirked. "You know, the shower up here's big enough for two."

She snorted. "Nice try, O'Connor. Flirtin's not gonna make me leave ya alone. Now, move yer ass."

"Oh, I don't think my ass is the part you'll be interested in, lassie." He'd heard her accent thicken as she spoke, and allowed his own to deepen. "Have you ever considered what hundreds of years of experience with women would teach a man?"

"Liam. Shower. Now." Jezebel turned and threw the drapes wide, startling a flinch out of the former vampire and sending him fleeing.

"Could'a just said no, lass." He called, forcing a chuckle. He really needed to get used to being in the sun, that was embarrassing.

Gunn shook Douglas Granger's hand somewhat nervously. They'd met while Gunn worked for Wolfram & Hart, but the older man didn't remember him now. Either ending the magics that made him an attorney, or unwinding all of Vail's spells had removed the memory of his participation from everyone he'd dealt with while representing Big Evil. He'd talked himself into this meeting by saying he was interested in becoming an attorney and wanted to learn more about the cases Granger handled.

"I was very glad to hear from you, Mr. Gunn." Granger smiled at him across the desk. "Generally when young people want to go into law, you hear 'my dad is a lawyer', or 'I want to protect protestors', or 'I want to help bring criminals to justice'. You don't often hear someone asking what a lawyer really does on a daily basis and what types of clients they deal with before they even go to law school. It'd probably save hundreds of kids a year the cost of tuition if they bothered doing what you're doing today."

Gunn smiled back, focusing on making a good impression. He needed to act as if this was a serious inquiry about going into law, and not just picking the man's brain about lawsuits. "Well, I grew up poor, so I'm definitely thinking about how to get the most bang for my buck. Maybe I can make a difference for all the little guys fighting big corporations by being a paralegal, and save myself some tuition money. Or, maybe going to law school and getting to be lead on a case like that is the only thing that'll satisfy me. I'd really love to hear your thoughts."

For the next 20 minutes Granger gave an overview of what he really did for clients, and what a typical day was like for him. Some of it was familiar from Wolfram & Hart, some was very different. Gunn assumed most of the differences came from not having spells that helped you learn or remember things, and not having supernatural clients. It wasn't until they started discussing Class Action suits and some of Granger's past case work that Gunn managed to learn anything useful.

"So, as you may or may not know, today's Class Action lawsuit evolved from a British common law concept called 'representative action'." Granger said, taking a sip of water. "It creates an exception to the rule that all interested or necessary parties in a suit must be individually named. This allows a small number of people to claim injuries on behalf of a larger group. In its more modern version, it allows a small group to create a supposition of a class of others similarly affected, and allows anyone who wishes to be considered part of the class to be bound to the judgement at a later date."

"Is there any restriction on how large or small a group can be a class, or can claim to be part of a class?" That was a large part of what Gunn needed to know. If there were no other former Wolfram & Hart clients willing to be part of the Class, would that stop the whole suit?

"That determination will be made in the first part of the suit, when it goes before the District Court. The plaintiffs will have to prove that enough people were injured that they can be considered a class. Usually that's because a) there are so many of them it's impracticable for all of them to be named plaintiffs, b) all of the claims share common points of law and/or fact among the named and unnamed members of the class, and c) the representative members of the class (the named plaintiffs) will protect the interests of the other members of the class."

Gunn shook his head, trying to figure out how this fit with Angel…Liam's case. "So, for example, if a bunch of customers at the A&P all decided to sue because the store was selling bad meat, could they be a class? I mean, that could be hundreds of people, right? And they'd all have claims for some sort of injury due to the store making them ill."

Granger shook his head, "I can't think of an attorney who'd take on that lawsuit, not just because the size of the group of victims wouldn't be large enough, but because the injury isn't large enough. I could see a suit where only twenty people were members of the class, like with a wage suit. For a consumer claim or a product injury claim it would have to be a few hundred at least, and any injuries would have to be truly compelling. Multiple deaths, or money lost based on the company doing something backhanded as policy. The stakes would have to be high enough to make it worthwhile for the class representatives to jump through all the hoops necessary to get a case put together, and the expense of having it tried. Class action suits can take years, and run to millions of dollars in legal fees."

"Damn." Millions in legal bills didn't sound promising. "So, what happens if a potential class action is brought before the District Court and the judge says it's not enough people to be a class, or the injury isn't large enough. Maybe there isn't even an injury. Does the defendant get anything?"

"Other than their name dragged through the mud?" Granger shook his head. "Not even the satisfaction of being cleared. If the judge rejects the suit because it doesn't form a class for whatever reason, that doesn't mean individuals can't bring suit for the same issues. And, then they may very well be defendants in multiple suits for the same issues or entirely new ones the initial representatives of the class didn't claim."

Gunn really tried not to groan, because these were supposed to just be theoretical questions. It wasn't like he could get any useful legal advice without explaining all the details of the situation, and he was pretty sure once he brought up Wolfram & Hart Granger's friendliness would disappear.

His dissatisfaction with the answer must have showed his face, though, because Granger looked skeptical. "Doesn't seem like that answer pleased you. Was there a specific case you were thinking of?"

Gunn sighed. "Not so much a case, sir, as something a friend asked me. He knows I'm interested in the law, and possibly pursuing a legal career. His…Father…Was accused of doing something wrong at work, and they heard that a group of the business' clients might form a class action suit, claiming they were injured by what he did. Like, he created business practices that caused clients to lose money. I've never heard of a class action suit like that, but the more I talk to you the more it sounds possible."

"I have to agree with your assessment. I've never heard of a case like that, but depending on the business, and how what he did affected the rest of the company, I could see it happening. Hopefully he's got someone talking to the possible members of the class to see what they think. If the defendant can get some of the members of the class to say that they weren't victimized, or were even helped, and then some of them opt out of participation, that might just be enough to get the class thrown out. Of course, as I said, that isn't a guarantee against individuals bringing suit."

Gunn nodded. "Yeah, that sounds fair." It also sounded like he and the team were going to be devoting some time to hunting down former Wolfram & Hart clients. "As the lead attorney on a case like this, say a medical claim class action, what would you be responsible for as the lead attorney?"

After a few more questions, they ran out of time, and Gunn was heading for the door. As they walked out, Granger clapped him on the shoulder. "I just wanted to say, again, that I'm really pleased you came in today. I'm always eager to help another black man looking to get ahead, but I don't often meet young people I genuinely believe have a talent for the work and good intentions. I also think you have your eyes wide open, and you're doing your due diligence on what shape your career will take, and I find that really admirable. I think you'll go far, no matter what you decide to do." He handed Gunn his business card. "If you want to have another chat, or you decide to take the leap into law school and you want a character reference, just call. I'm happy to help." He smiled. "And who knows, if you get the grades and you're still interested, maybe there's an internship in your future."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Granger." Gunn walked away from the meeting not just thinking about what they'd need to do to get Liam out of the lawsuit, but wondering if Granger was right, and there was a chance he could become a lawyer for real. Thing was, that before law school he'd have to go to college, which meant getting a GED. He was really far behind the curve, and he had a lot of other things to do with his time. Still, it was something to think about.