Work Text:
I was working late at the office. I wasn't the only one, I could hear Bob, down the hall, prepping a client for her hearing tomorrow.
I just had a motion that needed to be filed tomorrow morning, and I'd been in court all day. I knew that if I went home I wouldn't want to do it. I'd want to play with Allie, and curl up with Mary Anne. So I was here at work, at 7 o'clock.
The client whose case I was working on was the kind that made me hate my job. I worked at a family law practice, which meant that most of the time I was a divorce lawyer. That wasn't all bad, I really liked it when I got to go after some jerk like my father or Claudia's ex, who thought that child support was like a birthday card that they didn't have to send unless they happened to think of it. And I didn't mind cases where the people truly wanted to work things out fairly, sometimes they were even a little happy because everyone knew it was for the best.
But this. This was two people who clearly hated each other, and seemed to hate their children too, if they didn't mind putting them through this. She applied for full custody, just to spite him. He decided he wanted half of the dining room set her grandmother gave her, so she'd either have to sell it or give him the money. She wanted alimony, even though they both made the same big paychecks. He wanted the pets, she wanted the pets. Neither of them wanted the credit card debt, they both claimed they had nothing to do with it. I hoped they were telling the truth, and the kids used the credit cards to run away to Canada or something so they wouldn't have to live with these idiots.
I got through two pages, and decided to take a break. I pulled out the pre-nup I was doing for Janine Kishi. It was easy enough, and it made me happy to think that I'd never have to deal with Janine and Michael fighting over the exact value of the bedroom set.
Then my cellphone rang. I answered it, still working on the pre-nup. “Hello?”
“Hi, Kristy. It's Stacey.”
“Hey, Stace. What's up?”
“Since Claudia and Mary Anne agreed, I've started working on the daycare. I'm crunching some numbers, and I need to know your debt load.”
“Heavy.” I answered. “But our credit is good.”
She was quiet for a moment, then said, “What have you got? A mortgage, and what else? Student loans?”
“No student loans, but a lot of medical bills. We have insurance, but cancer treatments aren't cheap, and I wasn't skimping when it comes to Mary Anne.”
“Kristy, are you sure about this? Starting a business can be expensive, and if it fails you could end up owing a lot of money. If people will even give you a loan.”
“What about Claudia? Does she owe anything?”
“Claudia has no credit. None. The credit reports don't even know she exists.”
“Doesn't that, like, even out or something? We have good credit, but a lot of debt, and Claudia has no credit but no debt? Put together, we're average.”
“That's not how it works. I'll see what I can find for you.”
“Don't worry about it too much. I have a plan.”
She laughed, “Yeah, I know. I'll talk to you later.”
“Seeya.” I said, and hung up. I was just putting away the pre-nup, I had to ask Janine a few more questions, when my work phone rang. That was weird, because no one knew I was working late except for Mary Anne, and she always called my cell.
“Hello?” I said. I could hear very loud music.
“You called me?” Said a man's voice.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Spooner. Who's this?”
I smiled and leaned back in my chair. “Marcus Spooner? This is Kristin Thomas, Claudia Kishi's lawyer. This is in regard to child support for your son.”
When I was a kid, the name Kristin meant I was in trouble. Now it meant that someone else was.
I expected him to hang up on me, but he decided to argue. “I don't have a job, and I don't have a drivers license, they can't get shit from me. That bitch got a lawyer?”
“Yeah, Mr. Spooner. A really, really good lawyer. A lawyer who is just dying to take you to family court, and watch you walk out in hand cuffs. And you know what? Any money you make in prison will come straight to Claudia.”
“Fuck her! I told her she shouldn't have had a kid. It's probably not even mine.”
“Would you like a paternity test? Because your name is on the birth certificate, you signed a paternal agreement, and unless you want a paternity test, the courts think he's yours.”
“Well, look, I don't have anything right now. I couldn't send that bitch anything if I wanted to.”
“Funny, New York family court isn't going to care about that.”
“I don't even see the kid!”
“They don't care about that either. And I can tell you that unless we start seeing some money, we're filing a complaint, and you will end up in jail.”
“I don't give a shit about your court. If that bitch can't take care of her kid, she can-”
“You do know I'm recording this, don't you?” I lied. I love messing with these guys.
“You can't do that! That's violating my rights! You are a god damn cun-”
“I'll see you in court, Mr. Spooner.” I said, dropping the phone in the cradle.
I knew that was just round one. Someday I would meet Spooner in court. If I was lucky, I might get the chance to tell him to his face what an asshole he was and how he didn't deserve for a woman like Claudia to even look at him.
For now, I had a motion to finish. I worked a little while longer, when my phone rang again.
“Hello?”
“It's Stacey. So what's this plan? You're going to need it.”
I sighed, “How much do we need?”
“To do this right, with a rented building and everything, around $15,000. That's on the high side, but I can't see it working with less then $10,000.”
“All right. No problem. Are you free Friday night?”
“Without kids? When John gets home. What's this plan?”
“Stacey, Watson is a millionaire. There's a lot of 15,000 in one million. If we go to him and show him we're serious, he'll lend us the money.”
“Oh. Yeah.” She said. I think she forgot all about Watson in the time we'd been out of contact.
“Call Mary Anne and Claudia, and tell them about Friday. And come up with a good business plan, I don't want to look like we're asking for money to go to the movies.”
“Do you know how to ask things? Like, instead of giving orders.”
“I forget sometimes. Stacey, would you mind calling Claudia and Mary Anne, and working up a business plan?”
“Why no, I wouldn't. Wasn't that nice?”
I laughed a little, and imitated her, “Perfectly pleasant.”
She laughed too. “I'll call them now. Bye.”
“Later.” I hung up. Of course, I hadn't typed another two words, when my phone rang again.
I answered it and got, “Kristy, Cancun.”
“For God's sake Karen, I'm very busy. We can talk later.”
“What are you busy with?”
“Work. I'm trying to write this thing that should only take an hour, and the phone won't stop ringing.”
“Who's calling you?”
“Stacey. You remember Stacey McGill? Well, it's Stacey Dayton now, and we're working on something together, along with Claudia Kishi.”
“Ohmygod! You're kidding! What are you working on?”
“Karen, I'll call you later, I'm busy.”
“You have to tell me.”
I sighed, “A daycare center. Claudia and Mary Anne would run it.”
“That is too cool! But, oh. . . this is likely to affect the Cancun expedition.”
“It's an expedition now? It's months away. I don't know how it might affect it.”
“Kristy, how can I convince you that this is really, really important to me?”
“Right now? You could get off the phone so I can do my job, and I don't end up living in a box. If I'm living in a box, I'm not going to Cancun.”
“Why not? Dad would pay for a hotel room for you while we're there.”
“I'm hanging up now.”
“Okay, love ya, bye!”
I hung up and put my head in my hands. I admit it, I have a tendency to take on more then my share of projects. I have so many ideas, and I'm so good at getting things done, they just pile up. Right now I was about at my limit, and the Cancun thing was a plan I just couldn't commit to. I hated to keep putting Karen off about it, but I just didn't know yet.
I went back to my computer, and got most of the way done. I still had to proofread, and fix the formatting, but that would only take a few minutes.
Then, the phone.
“Hello?” I snapped a little.
“Hey, Kristy, it's David.”
“David, I'm busy. Can you call-”
“Not really. See, it turns out I've got the right to an attorney before any questioning.”
I put my hand to my forehead and cringed, “Where are you?”
“County jail.”
“I'll be there in a half an hour. Do not say a word, do you hear me? Not one sound. Not even if Sam gets there first and beats the crap out of you.”
“Got it.”
I hung up without saying good bye. I backed up my file on a flash drive, threw on my jacket, shoved everything on my desk in my briefcase, and ran out the door.
In the car I stuck on my bluetooth and called Mary Anne.
“Hello?”
“Hi, beautiful. I'll be a while. I have to bail out my brother again.”
“Oh. What is it this time?” Even Mary Anne sounded annoyed.
“Don't know yet. I wasn't going to ask on the police line, in case he decided to run his mouth like the time he was drunk.”
“Did he sound drunk?”
“No, I'm betting on drugs. They probably found some weed on him. Mom is going to kill him. If Sam doesn't first.”
She sighed. “Keep in touch, honey. I'll put Allie to bed.”
“Mary Anne? Tell me I can take care of all of this.”
“Of course you can. You're an amazing woman. You can do anything.” As she said it, I could picture her smiling.
“Thank you. I needed that.” I said, sincerely. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I hung up. I should have called mom, but I didn't. I just tried to figure out what happened to David.
He was a good guy, really. I didn't just think that because I was his sister. He was never mean or violent, he never got in fights. He just didn't care about rules, or the law. He'd been arrested for under aged drinking twice, then for being drunk in public, buying alcohol for minors, and possession of marijuana. He liked to party, and he just didn't think.
I pulled up at the police station, and saw someone leaning against the building. It was Sam, still in uniform. As I walked up to the door, he said “I'm going to kill him.”
“Did you tell him that?”
Sam nodded, “Yup. He said to talk to his lawyer.”
I sighed, “I don't want to be in the middle of this.”
“How do you think I feel? I'm on patrol and I get a call from one of the boys, laughing about my deadbeat brother getting hauled to jail again.” He shook his head, “It's the attention, Kristy. It's like a little kid throwing a tantrum, but he's 23 years old. He does this stuff, and we all jump. You and I rush here, then mom and Watson spend all night lecturing him, then they get him a lawyer and make sure he goes through those programs, and soon as he's out he does it again.”
“One of these days, we won't be able to help him. He's going to end up in jail.”
“I know it. Maybe it's the best place for him.”
I thought about that for a moment. Sam might have been right, but I couldn't let it happen. “He'll miss Christmas. He can't miss Christmas.”
Sam raised his eyebrows at me. He knew my thing with Christmas. Since Charlie first moved out, I'd gotten kind of crazy about it. Everyone had to be home for Christmas day. Karen and Andrew could spend part of the day with their mom, but they had to come to the mansion for at least a little while. I needed my whole family there, just for a few hours one day a year. It didn't seem like too much to ask.
“Kristy,” Sam said, quietly, “He doesn't care about Christmas. And he doesn't care about calling you away from your life to come out here and bail him out. He's using you because he knows you'll do anything for him.”
“He's right.” I said, and I went inside.
In the police station, I took care of things. I got David's statement, gave it to the police, arranged bail and got him out of there. I wasn't a criminal lawyer, so I wouldn't take the case to trial or anything, but I had practice at this part of things at least.
On the way out I saw Sam sitting in his cruiser. He waited until David climbed into my car before he pulled away.
I was seething as we started the drive home. David seemed relaxed and even a little amused.
“So, how's the wife and kid?” He asked.
“Shut up.” It was all I could say without exploding. I was focused on the road, but I kept glancing at him in the shifting light from the streetlights. He was taller then me, and good looking in this kind of easy going way. If he'd shape up just a little he'd have no problem finding a nice girl. Not that he had trouble finding girls anyway, but I had no idea why they'd waste their time with him.
“It was just a little pot. If my headlight hadn't gone out, they would never have-”
“Why don't you tell that one to the judge? You seem to really want to go to jail. . .”
He laughed, “I'm not going to jail. Watson's lawyer will get me off.”
“And what if he can't? Someday a judge is going to look at your record and throw the book at you.”
“You worry too much. If you don't lighten up, I'm skipping Christmas. I'll go skiing or something.” He grinned.
I pulled the car over to the side of the road. I knew it was a joke, but everything Sam said came back to me.
I stopped the car and glared at him. I was too angry for words, but I held that glare for at least two minutes, as cars drove past us and the headlights caught his face.
Finally he closed his eyes and sighed, “God, fine, I'll be at Christmas. Can't you take a joke?”
I didn't say anything and pulled back on the road. I didn't look at him again for the rest of the trip home, I just couldn't stand how much he reminded me of our father.