Another New Start with a side of Karma

Working at the United Nations was like walking from the darkness into the light as far as Nick was concerned. Jeff had left not long after the judge had done, to get home to make Wes his lunch, and so in the time before his own, Nick had started to sift through his E-mail. He had barely begun though when there was a tap at his door, and one of his colleagues walked in; she asked him how he was settling in, explaining she was in the room next door. She then invited him to join her and a couple of the other younger members of staff for an early lunch. "I know that you probably think that you should start work, but the way I see it is this; if you have lunch now, then you will have a longer uninterrupted period to work this afternoon," she said, and Nick could not fault that logic.

He accepted her invitation, and soon found his way to the staff restaurant, whose food was on a par with the best that Dalton had offered daily. His new colleague, Helga Schmidt, was from Austria, and was in her late twenties. At the restaurant he met the two other members of the team that were under thirty; Daanish Swaraj, who hailed from India, and Jose Cortez, who was from Brazil. Having selected food, they sat together and made more thorough introductions; Jose was the only single one at the table, and until Nick had arrived, had been the youngest on the team. As for Daanish, he was married with two young children, so he had every sympathy for Nick. Introductions over, they moved on to a lively discussion on the rights of migrants, with particular reference to the ongoing saga of the group known as the Dreamers in the United States, and how politicians in general failed in most cases to observe the realities of the world in trying to satisfy small groups of their own supporters.

"The sad fact is that we are now seeing those that were invited to the West to work in the aftermath of the Second World War being hounded out of those very nations. They helped to rebuild and sustain those economies of those nations, and now they are being kicked out. I mean, just look at what happened to the Windrush generation in the UK…" said Nick, and was pleased as he three colleagues smiled and agreed with him.

That smile was still on his face as he returned to his office to start work. For the first time since he had left Colombia, he felt a strong connection to those people that he worked with. He had met minds that felt the same way as he did on a number of key issues, and who had the same deep seated passion and desire to seem that everyone in the world had the right to live as they had in the relatively free United States, although it was no longer the liberal nation that it had once been, given the current President and his policy of more or less governing by Tweet and decree…

As he sat down at his desk, he noticed that there was a small pile of reports in his in tray, with a note attached from Miss Worthington, asking him to read through them, collate the information in one easy to read and understand summary, and then give his own thought on what was contained within them. He recognised the names of two of the authors, people he had studied at school and held in relatively high regard. He settled down to read, making notes and asking questions; it was very much the kind of work he had always dreamed of doing. He noted as he did so that there were contradictions between the quoted evidence and a disagreement between two of the authors that left him to wonder who was in the right on this one. He started to do his own research online, and found to his delight that he now had access to the resources of the United Nation's own library, which meant he had much more information at his fingertips. In that, he found that neither of the respected authors had actually interpreted the actual data very well, or indeed the situation on the ground…

Just before 6pm there was a knock on the door of his office, and Nick glanced up from his work to say Miss Worthington standing there, regarding him with a smile. "You do know what time it is, Nick? At the moment I would suggest that you and I are the only staff members still on this floor, more or less…"

Nick looked at his watch for the first time in a while, and wondered where the afternoon had gone. "I am so sorry, I just got engrossed in these reports, and I guess that is because I think I might have discovered a major flaw in them. The data that they are using to justify their arguments does not seem to correlate at all with the stuff we have in our own records for the same period…"

Miss Worthington walked over to his desk, her attention grabbed. "Interesting - and you are the first person to have noticed that. Could you show me exactly what is concerning you?" Nick quickly pointed out to her the issues that he had found, and then postulated what he believed was the correct solution to the problem. "I have to say that on looking at your findings, I have to concur with your opinion; there is a major problem there. The figures in both reports have been, I suspect, massaged to give the results that the authors wanted, which is unethical in the extreme. There have been issues with rights in the area of study for decades now, and we thought that some progress was finally being made, but it would appear that such progress has been exaggerated for whatever reason. We will need to make further investigations into this, but that is for tomorrow. We at the United Nations have a particularly strict policy on family time, and you do have a husband and a son to get home to; though I am guessing that won't stop you being in here a little early tomorrow?"

"I probably will be, yes," replied Nick with a smile. "I want to check a few other things out, just to back up my findings, and make some more comparisons with other sources of past data."

"Excellent. Tomorrow we also have a conference meeting scheduled on the issue of rights for the LGBTQ community in Russia and the former Soviet Union. I would like you to come and sit in on the meeting, and then do some research for us to make our case. I have a list of contacts, and I would like you to talk to them and get eyewitness statements from them."

"That will not be a problem, unless of course it involves me flying to Russia…"

"Not at all; it will simply be done through Skype and other video links. Well so far Mr Sterling-Duval, you are really impressing me with your can do attitude. Sometimes things can be awkward with new hires, but you are really throwing yourself into things and getting on with the important stuff; safeguarding people's rights. Now, you live in the West Village, don't you? I have a presentation to give to a group of bankers in Wall Street tonight, and there is a car waiting to take me. It will be no issue to drop you off near home en route…"

To find himself walking back along the street towards home at 6.30pm was an unusual state affairs for Nick since he had joined the world of work. It had often been closer to 9pm when he worked in big law, and that would be followed more often than not by a departure just after 6am. Now he had been told that he should not come in before 8am at the earliest and that 5.30pm was the customary time for everyone to have left by. For the first time ever he did not feel dead on his feet after a day at work, instead having a positive spring in his step. He had stopped on his way home from the point he had been dropped off at a drug store, where he had purchased chocolate and red vines. His heart had felt so light that he suddenly craved the sugary snacks that he had used to share with Jeff in the quiet of Room 36 at Dalton. Those innocent days were now far behind him of course; life had taught him and everyone else he knew some very hard lessons - and no doubt it would do so again someday.

Tonight though things felt different; in fact, he might even have time to cook dinner if Jeff had not already started to do so. If he had, then he would prepare a casserole that they could heat up and eat the following day whilst Jeff worked on that evening's food. He entered the house to hear the sound of his husband singing softly to their son as he began to assemble all the ingredients that he would require to make the chicken pasta dish he had planned for that night. "I can do that if you like," Nick said as he entered the kitchen, startling Jeff a little at first, before he looked at the clock in wonderment. "Get used to this, my love; this will be my usual finishing time now, if not earlier. So, if you have been doing things behind my back, you will need to ensure they are completed much sooner than now."

"As if I ever would!" said Jeff with a grin. "I have to say that I like this new regime very much already; it means all the more time for me to spend with my handsome husband, and getting you back on the cooking rota more often will be good too. I do miss all of your experimental tastes…"

"Well, you won't be getting them every night…" said Nick happily.

"So apart from the fact that you finished at a humane time, is there anything else I need to know about your first day?"

"Well, I did have lunch with the other younger folk in my department today, and I have been invited to come and have dinner with them by two of them - and that includes you and little Wes naturally. That means that at some point we will have to host a dinner party; a proper one with place settings and sophisticated adult conversation."

"I have no doubt that you could easily rise to such an occasion with your culinary skills, my love. To be honest, having people here would be easier with managing little Wes…"

"I guess, but then again, one of them has two young kids of their own, so it would probably be polite of us to go there, and maybe even consider getting a sitter…"

Jeff suddenly burst out laughing, and Nick regarded him with curiosity. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking how grown up we have suddenly become. We have parental responsibilities, and the prospect of dinner parties with colleagues. We will have to start acting all mature…"

"Only in company, Jeffie," Nick said, and produced the chocolate and red vines. He smiled as he saw his husband's eyes light up at the sight of the latter. "You know, deep down, I think that when we are alone together, we will always just be two loved up prep school boys…"

Nick's new job was just the start of the good news in the month of September. A week after he started his new job, Grace arrived at work to be greeted by a security guard before she entered the elevator. He handed her a letter, sighed by Lionel Vallent which informed her that she was no longer an employee of the firm, due to issues of behaviour, vandalism of company notice boards, and suspicions that she was acting in cahoots with her brother in undermining the organisation. Grace smiled to herself at that last one, knowing full well that he had no proof whatsoever of that, and that as a result, the claim she would make against the company for victimisation would undoubtedly be successful. She was escorted up to her office, and then given ten minutes to clear her desk. As she did so, she immediately noticed that there was a letter inserted into one of her law books, but she did nothing about it until she had been escorted from the building, stripped of her staff pass, and left to make her way home again.

She walked only to the little garden nearby, and then pulled out the letter. It was from the head of their little plot to leave; a note of sympathy was inside, along with an official document that authorised her to collect the keys for their new premises. Grace smiled, and after a visit to the lettings agent, she made her way to those offices. She let herself in, turning off the alarm as she did so. Then she took a look round, before choosing herself a new office; not the largest of them by any means, but one that was conveniently located and comfortable. She arranged her books on the shelves, glad that the place was already furnished. Then she sat and waited, before the others all arrived at lunchtime, quickly followed by the contractors that would switch on the phone and internet connections. There was silence for a moment, then the lady that had written the letter spoke.

"Firstly, can I say how good it was of you not to select the largest room for yourself, though we all would have understood and accepted it if you had done so. We have all composed our letters of resignation this morning, and we will be submitting them tonight, stating that we are doing so in protest at the way you have been treated. As we speak, the mailing to our loyal clients has gone out, explaining what has happened, why we are leaving, and where they can find us. As a result, you might get a few calls on that this afternoon, once the phones are on. Miss Pitman resigned this morning, but told them it was effective immediately, and so she will be joining you here tomorrow morning. Ladies, this is the first day of our new collective future. We should drink a toast, but we must act with decorum at work later; although I am looking forward to seeing Lionel's face when he receives so many resignation letters, and even more so the moment he realises that his loyal, long serving and suffering P.A. has left already…"

Grace was glad that she would not be alone the following day, as having had nothing to do that morning had been so very dull. She had ended up spending time on the phone with Cooper, who had been sympathetic in the extreme; indeed, had he not been performing that afternoon, he would have headed downtown at once to keep her company. She had then called her mom, who on hearing the news had informed her that she would add employment law reform to the list of issues that she would have Sue campaign on. She had then called Nick, who had nearly burst into tears, thinking it was all his fault; she had calmed him, told him where she was and what was going on, then pointed out that the story of her life had just ended a chapter, and that the best parts were yet to come…

The ladies were still present in the offices when there was a loud knock at the front door, which startled them all a little. Grace was elected to go and find out who it was, the others all taking refuge in her room, just in case Lionel Vallent had discovered what was going on already and wanted revenge. On opening it, Grace smiled broadly to see it was Jeff that stood on the threshold, her nephew strapped to him in his papoose, and a bag containing lunch and a tin of cookies in one hand.

"Nick called me up and told me what had happened, and that you were here all alone, so Wes and I decided that Aunt Grace might like to have a picnic lunch with us," said Jeff with a smile. "He would have come and joined us himself, but he is meeting the German and Austrian representatives at the U.N. to discuss the issues raised by the return of the far right in their nations."

"It is a lovely thought, Jeff, but I actually have company in the form of my fellow conspirators, so to speak, at the moment," Grace began.

"It is okay Grace, we should be getting back to the office anyway," came a voice, and the ladies began to walk back out, relieved that it was only her brother-in-law at the door. After a few minutes when they all fussed over little Wes, they took their leave, and Jeff and Grace settled down to eat their lunch in the relative silence of the new firm's offices.

"They all seem like nice people," remarked Jeff as he brought out the sandwiches that he had made, along with a couple of slices of quiche, some fruit, and a bottle full of homemade cranberry lemonade.

"They are, and better yet we are all committed to the same goals. The legal scene in this city will be talking about all of us very soon and nothing else. After all, it will be quite the thing for almost the entire family law department of a major firm like my erstwhile employer to just walk out en masse. The publicity about all of that will do us no harm at all as we try to build up the business. Anyway, enough talk about me; how are you Jeff? Is your own work more or less back on track now that Nick is working again?"

"Yes, it is all getting back to normal, which is just as well, as my children's author has a new book in his series coming out next year, and as a result I have 50 illustrations to do in the next six weeks. At least our little boy is as good as gold just now, but then teething will come along soon enough, and that will all change…"

"I can imagine; I have a faint memory of being about six years old, and wondering why my little brother couldn't be quiet for five minutes… I am not looking forward to that process when I become a mother myself…. And before you ask, no, I am not pregnant. Just be aware that Cooper and I will be starting to seriously try very soon…"

"It would be nice for Wes to have a cousin," mused Jeff, "And of course, it goes without saying that they will have two doting uncles in me and Nick. Not to mention the fact that there will also be an extremely overexcited angelic one…"

Grace laughed as she immediately pictured the look on Blaine's face when he found out that she was pregnant. She was also pretty certain that if they had a boy, he might well be a namesake of his angelic uncle. If it was a girl, well that could be a little more complex, but she imagined that Elizabeth or Pamela would make it onto the list somewhere. That was of course a long way off yet; her first priority had to be the bedding in of the new business. That didn't stop her feeling broody every time that she looked at her little nephew, and that was a feeling she had never really had until he had come along…

After they had finished lunch, Jeff headed home again, and he was no sooner out of the door than the phone began to ring. Grace shook her head, and then answered it, remembering to use the company name they had all agreed on before her own. It was one of her own clients, who had been informed of her dismissal that morning in a brusque phone call from one of the male partners. Her initial reaction had been distress and disbelieve, until the E-Mail had arrived in her inbox; it gave her the new number to call if she wished the same lawyers to handle her case. As Grace had broken the rules and made a copy of all the documents for her clients on a portable flash drive, she was able to immediately accept the case again. This done, she moved on to listening as her client discussed the new issues that had arisen in her complex divorce.

When she rang off, having arranged to come and see Grace face to face the following day, Grace made a quick call to one of her colleagues, who promised that she would remove the actual paper files from the relevant cabinet, and give them to Miss Pittman to bring with her the following morning. She had no sooner done that than the phone began to ring again… The rest of Grace's afternoon was spent fielding calls, and she quickly filled her appointment book for the next few days. As she did so, she began to think that if things carried on this way, then leaving her previous job and moving to the new one would be the best thing she had ever done…

By the time that Friday came, Grace was relieved that all of her colleagues would be joining her at the start of the next week. She had been at full stretch since the second day, and even had a full appointment book for Saturday. Such was the level of demand for the firm that two of her colleagues had agreed to come in on a Saturday to take appointments. Miss Pittman had arrived on the second day and had the entire office set up correctly by lunchtime; the stationary cupboard was full, the management structure in place, and she had even found time to recruit the two secretarial assistants that their budget allowed for, poaching the best legal secretaries that she was aware of. The signage outside was in place, and the business cards printed.

Lionel Vallent had finally discovered what was going on on Thursday afternoon, and the four letter word filled rant that he had promptly had down his mobile phone was the talk of the legal community in the city in just an hour. Some were of the opinion that the ladies had acted badly in the situation, but the majority felt that they were to be supported and indeed congratulated. After all, it was a long time since anyone had successfully crossed Lionel Vallent, and it had been a long time in coming. It was also widely known that the managing board of the firm were not best pleased, and when in a meeting on Thursday night he had tried to blame everyone but himself for it all, they had just scoffed. Their opinion might of course have been coloured by the legal suit for victimisation filed on Grace's behalf; they could all see at once that she would win it with no contest whatsoever. That, combined with the exodus of senior staff and their lucrative clientele gave them a lot to hold against the man…

That would all pale into insignificance on Friday afternoon. The jury in the trial that Nick's actions had delayed gave a unanimous guilty verdict against Lionel's client in less than an hour. That result would be the sole topic of conversation across the legal community before half an hour had elapsed. Several people had called Grace at her office to let her know the good news; at the U.N., Miss Worthington had come to Nick's office to let him know what had happened. Nick had to admit that he had mixed emotions about the whole thing. He was ecstatic that the victims had received the justice that they had deserved from the start, and glad that Lionel had not won, but at the same time he felt heartily sorry for the young man that had been drafted in in his place. He was not a close friend, but he did not deserve the treatment that he would no doubt get because his boss had lost; treatment that would probably mean dismissal from his job in hours…

What no-one had been expecting was the next piece of news, that crashed over the legal circles of the city like a tsunami just minutes later. As he had left the court buildings, raging and fuming at the system and the world around him in general, already plotting the appeal, he was stopped and detained by two members of the FBI, over rumours that he had taken bribes and had attempted to buy juries, not just in this trial, but in several others in the past. He did not go quietly, and that had attracted the attention of a local news team that had just been finishing up a report on another case in front of the court buildings. The general consensus was that the young man that had been drafted in to take Nick's place was as smart as him; aware of his likely fate, he had been the one to gather the evidence against Mr Vallent and then hand it straight to the Feds…

So it was that by the time that October came, Lionel Vallent was no longer the ruler of the legal world in New York city, if indeed he ever really had been. The revelations had come in thick and fast after the initial exposé, and it was no great shock to anyone that he soon found himself backing up a box of personal items in his office whilst two senior board members supervised. This had occurred just two days after his initial arrest; he had been unable to obtain bail, as though it was high, he had the cash to pay. His big problem now was finding a lawyer that would be willing to defend him in court; all of those that had supported him strongly before were nowhere to be seen, as they had distanced themselves in case they too found themselves coming under close scrutiny.

His office had initially been sealed just minutes after his arrest on the Friday, and was systematically stripped of all legal paperwork by the feds over the weekend. On Monday morning, the firm found itself under siege, with all normal function on the floor on which Lionel had been based closed down. The former boss of Grace's floor, who was in his final days, was summoned to the board room, and offered a full apology; they then begged him to stay with them, offering a large increase in salary and multiple new benefits, but he turned them down flat. As he pointed out to them, as of this morning, the key former members of his team had also left the building, and that was down to the actions of the man now under so much suspicion. Instead he left the building himself, and went to pay a visit to the ladies in question. He joined them in a toast to the success of their new venture, something which seemed assured if the appointment book was anything to go by.

Whilst he was there, the telephone rang, and the ever efficient Miss Pittman answered it; a few moments later, she announced that Mrs Vallent was on the line, and would like to speak to someone in connection to the divorce proceedings she was about to take against her husband. This came as a bit of a surprise to them all, as they had npt even known that she existed until that moment, as she was never mentioned by her husband, nor had she been seen at any social function held by the firm. They all did agree on one thing; tempting as it was, it would be unethical of them to accept her business. In any case, her husband could use the fact they were acting for his wife against her, given the way they had left the business. Instead, the senior partner spoke to her, and recommended another firm, whilst apologising for the fact that they could not serve her as they might have wished.

That shock however paled into insignificance compared to the one that Nick received in the first week of October. He came into work one morning to discover a letter in his in tray; on opening it, he discovered that it was from his erstwhile employer, requesting that he represent him as his defence lawyer in his forthcoming trial. Had it been April, Nick would have dismissed it as being a prank in extremely bad taste, but the fact was he recognised the writing and knew it was completely genuine. In the letter, his nemesis begged him to be the lawyer that he had always claimed to be; the one that thought everyone was entitled to justice. The temptation to send back a barbed reply, attacking the man and stating that he had to have mental health issues if he even thought there was the tiniest chance of that happening after all he had done was strong…

In the end, he wrote a reply in which he stated that as he was now an employee of the U.N. he was unable to act in a private case of that nature, although he had to admit that even if that had not been the case, he could not have taken the job in all good conscience. Before he sent it, he decided to go and consult Miss Worthington. Her eyebrows raised as she read the letter he had received, and then she read his response. She smiled at that, then smiled. "We don't need to worry about sending you away for a course on diplomacy," she said. "This letter tells me that you will be a natural in Geneva… I was going to talk to you about that this afternoon; there is a conference there on the rights of victims of sexual assaults in mid November, which Dr Schultz will be attending. Given the paper that you researched and produced at college, you are the obvious candidate to accompany him there…" Nick nodded, then headed back to work; the confirmation E-mail was already on his computer when he got back to his office. He knew that tonight he would have to break the news to Jeff that he would be away for almost a week next month. They had known that this would happen, but it was still not going to be a pleasant conversation….