Chapter Text
For the most part, Danny did not like to do pro bono cases. They were a necessary evil to him, work for free but get good PR in return. The problem was that most cases had to be interesting for a firm to get good PR. Interesting could possibly be the worst way to describe this case.
Danny knocked on the decrepit apartment door. The whole building seemed a little sketchy to him, with trash over the hallway floors and electrical components that hadn’t been upgraded since the 70s. It’s not like he was living in Versailles, but his place is still leagues ahead of this place. Danny shifted his weight from side to side, waiting for the door to open. Impatiently, he knocked on the door again. It was already 7:00 at night and Danny wanted to just go home, but Michael (Danny’s boss and sort of mentor) told him the client would only be able to meet with him after the regular work day had ended. Truthfully, he had no clue why he was even here. Michael gave him the most basic debrief on the case before Michael got caught in a meeting. All he knew was that there was a car crash and their clients couldn’t afford lawyers. Were they even really their clients? He was a corporate lawyer just doing a pro bono case.
After thinking about knocking for a third time, the door finally opened…to a small child on the other side.
Well, not small exactly. Small to Danny who hasn’t interacted with any kids since he moved out to New York. Even then the last one was his niece, and she was only about six years old when he got accepted to Harvard Law, and subsequently hired at Armstrong & Morris. He’s only a second year associate and law school freaked him out enough that he never went home for breaks, instead locking himself in the library or finding some internship for the summer. So being met with a short, scrawny kid with a mop of dark blond hair on his head at the door was a little surprising to him. If he had to guess the kid was nine or ten at the most, though it also wouldn’t surprise Danny if he was a really developed seven year old.
“Who the fuck are you?” the kid asked.
If Danny wasn’t the king of poker, his jaw would have been on the floor. His business smile spread across his face. “My name’s Daniel Walsh, is this the Ross household?” Michael really should have told him that there would be a kid involved in the case. They always made things a little harder because they never could fully comprehend a case like adults could. A lot of the time, kids can’t have the whole truth, back to that whole not comprehending thing.
It was easy to tell a kid their parents were bad people. It’s a hell of a lot harder to tell a kid their mom or dad is a bad person because they killed someone or abused them and they didn’t even know. Someone can know something is bad but knowing what happens because they are bad is a lot different. Don’t even get him started on how it is to explain that to someone.
Looking closely at the kid, Danny could tell something was off about him. His eyes were red and puffy along with dark circles under them, his hair was more disheveled than a kid normally was, and, most noticeably, there were fresh stitches across his forehead along with a few other scratches and bruises.
“So what if it is?”
Danny looked past the kid; there had to be someone else in the house with him. Otherwise there would have been no point for him to show up as late as he did. “Kid can you just please go get your mom or da-”
A woman's voice came from inside the apartment. “Michael, who are you talking to?”
The kid’s, well Michael’s face hardened. Tears welled to the corners of his eyes but he turned away and stormed off before they fell. An elderly woman came and replaced Michael at the door. “Hello, Ma’am, I’m Daniel Walsh. I work at Armstrong & Morris, you should have gotten a letter in the mail from us recently, we’re taking on your case free of charge.” He paused. “Unless we win, then there would be financial compensation.”
The woman took a good look at him up and down. “Come in, we’re not talkin’ in the hallway. The neighbors are too noisy.” She led him into the apartment. The apartment itself was nicer than the building.
Photos of what must have been a younger Michael with his parents lined the hallway plus others of what must have been other family and friends. A mess of books and half done homework assignments were strewn across the coffee table. Plush blankets were bunched at the end of the couch, forming a little nest for whoever had it last. Further past him, he could see the fridge had even more pictures and a collection stuck to it. It had a cozy feeling that he didn’t have in his own home, even growing up.
“My name’s Mary Ross by the way,” she offered. Danny was glad it seemed he wouldn’t need to pry any information out of her. “And I’m sorry about Michael. I swear, he doesn’t know what trouble is even if it looked him in the eye. Besides, ever since the accident he’s been…”
Well so much for easy information. “Don’t worry, I understand.” No the fuck you don’t, he thought. Children or any actual information on this case.
Mary led him over to the dining room table. “Sit please. Is there anything I can get you? Water, soda?”
He sat down at the old table, scratches and crayon lines litter the table with somes random bills. “No, thank you. All I need from you right now is your perspective on what happened in the accident. I know it may be hard up but I need every single detail you have. If you think it may relate to the case even in the smallest way, I want to know.” He’d need every single detail just to know what is going on.
In a moment of silence between the two, a small sob could be heard. Mary’s face fell as she took a seat in front of Danny. “Yeah, that’s…I’ll try.” She took a deep sigh before continuing. “I don’t even know where to start. This has all just been so…”
Many clients acted like this the first time they got questioned. Danny felt, well he didn’t really know how he felt, bad was probably the most basic way to describe it. He wasn’t usually the one who had to deal with this type of thing. Michael, his big boss Michael, had told him before that he was a lot more valuable with a book in his hands than he was holding someone else's. “I-I’m going to be honest Mrs. Ross. I don’t know what your case is about. The office has been incredibly busy so I haven’t gotten a chance to look over this case. I need you to tell me everything, so how about you just start with your relationship to crash victims. Antonia and James Ross, correct?”
She nodded her head before speaking. “Yeah, James is…well was, my son. Nina, Antonia, was my daughter-in-law…she was always so sweet. I remember meeting her for the first time and all I could see in my son's eyes was love.”
Oh fuck this is going to be hard.
“And Michael? Is he their son?” Danny asked carefully. He was already uncomfortable with all the emotions in this situation; the only thing that could make this harder would be if Mary started crying.
“Yes, looks so much like his mother too. Always has.” Mary’s gaze shifted away from Danny and onto the table in front of them.
Danny had to agree with that. From the photos on the wall he could tell the boy did look a lot like the woman in them. “I am sorry for your loss. I presume that you’re now becoming Michael’s guardian?” Mary just gave a little nod in agreement. “Okay, I can help you with that once the trial is over.”
A long pause stretched between the two. Danny needed to ask another question. Mary was getting caught up in her own head. He'd seen it before and knew if she got stuck then she wasn't going to answer any more questions. “Do you know anything about the night the crash occurred?”
“It was Michael’s eleventh birthday. They went out to dinner to celebrate. I wasn’t able to go because I needed to work. That’s it.”
“Do you think I could ask Michael about his parents? I just need to know all about you guys so I can do my job to the fullest extent.”
Without saying a word, Mary got up. She never told him to follow but he got up anyway. On one hand, he might get to Michael and learn about the crash from him, on the other, he could get kicked out and have to tell Adult-Michael about how he fucked up.
She led him to a door that had a hand-drawn sign reading MICHAEL in red and blue marker taped to the door with dinosaur and race car stickers sprinkled around it. Thank God, she wasn’t going to kick him out. Danny didn’t know how he would tell Adult-Michael he didn’t get any information out of Mary or Kid-Michael. He could be terrifying if he was mad and considering how stressful their week had been so far(and it was only Thursday), Danny was careful around Adult-Michael to make sure he wasn’t the one who set him off.
Mary knocked on the door. “Michael, can Mr. Walsh come in to talk to you?” A mumbled I guess came from inside. Mary gave a nod and that was Danny’s cue to open the door.
It was only when he entered the dark room that he remembered the fact he hasn’t interacted with anyone under the age of twenty for almost five years. “Michael?”
The dark lump laying in the twin bed sat up in bed, head turning in a very owl-like way.
Maybe it was a good thing I haven’t talked to any kids in half a decade. Kids are creepy as shit.
“Michael?” he asked again.
A lamp turned on and the big blob turned into the kid he’d seen earlier. “It’s just Mike,” he said.
“Mike, then.” Danny walked farther into the room. It was small, he thinks Michael’s office is bigger than this. “I need to ask you a bit about your parents.” Mike just stared at the forward at the wall. “Come on kid, I’m gonna help you out but I’ve got to know about you and your family.” Mike continued to stay silent.
Danny sighed. Right now, he was trying really hard not to get mad at this poor kid and his grandmother for not talking about a very traumatic incident but he couldn’t help it. It was late, he’s tired, and fucking hungry. He’s really got to stop skipping lunch. And he’s going to resort to something that he doesn’t like to do, but he wants to go home and if this doesn’t work then he’s leaving. Michaels rath be damned. “All right, listen kid. Your parents, James and Antonia, died in that crash right?”
No answer.
Now, Danny may not know much about this case but he knew a few facts for certain. “Head on collision. They both died on impact. Bu-”
“No, they didn’t.”
Danny blinked. He finally got an answer but…What is he talking about? “I’m sorry, I’m going to need a little more of an explanation. What do you mean they weren’t killed?”
Mike continued to stare at the wall. “They were killed, but not on impact.”
After a moment the realization hit Danny like a semi-truck. “You…You were in the car when they, you all, were hit.”
Now, reasonably, Danny knew that Mike was in the car at the time of the accident. The family was going out for a birthday dinner, Mike’s birthday dinner, and for fucks sake Mike had a stitches on his fucking forehead. He had to have gotten them from somewhere. Why not a car crash that got two people killed?
“Yeah, I was,” Mike mumbled. “I heard them.”
Danny didn’t need clarification on what Mike meant by that.
“I’m sorry.” Danny didn’t know what else to say to him. What do you say to someone who heard their parents die?
Mike finally looked at Danny. Tears were streaming down his face. His voice cracked as he said, “Th-Thank you.”
Danny walked over to Mike, awkwardly patting him on the back. Is that how you comforted someone? Did Mike even like to be touched? Danny’s brother never liked it, he’d always push someone away if they even got too close to him. One time, Danny was being an ass and getting into his brother's space even after he was told to stop. He ended up getting punched by his brother square in the nose. It never did set properly, his parents said it was his own fault and that it wasn’t broken. Turns out it was broken and now Danny has to breathe with his mouth open most of the time. But Mike didn’t break his nose, instead he leaned into Danny’s hand. This was weird, he knew he should have comforted this poor kid. Especially considering the fact that the only other person who would be able to comfort this severely traumatized kid was also trying to mourn her son.
“Can I sit down?” he asked.
Mike nodded, sniffling and wiping away his tears. They sat in silence. Danny was thinking incredibly hard about what to say. He didn’t want to make this situation any worse but he also didn’t know how to make it better. “Okay, here’s the deal, I’ve been up for too long and you look like you haven’t slept in three days. I still need to get to know about you and your family but not tonight. Are you going back to school yet?” Danny asked.
Mike shook his head. “No, the doctor doesn't want me back until Monday. I got a pretty bad concussion and the doctor won’t let me go back until Monday. Something about me needing proper rest or other bullshit.”
“Better listen, doctors go through so much more schooling than us lawyers. If you ever want to hear some real bullshit, go find out how many years it takes for a doctor to finish school. And on top of that they still have to keep learning once they enter a hospital. Years of schooling to not even be considered a real doctor. At least once I pass the Bar exam I can officially call myself a lawyer.” That got a little chuckle out of Mike. He had calmed down for the most part, only a slight sniffle every now and again.
Silence once again spread between the two. You’d think how part of his job it is literally just talking Danny would be able to hold a conversation with Mike but that turned out to be the opposite. He’d gotten so used to talking to people decades older than him that it was now really awkward when he had to talk to someone younger than him. Especially one that didn’t have the technical knowledge that he does.
That’s the one part he hates about his job, trying to explain the legal side of things in a way normal people without a law degree could understand. The old guys who’ve run their businesses for years are great. Businesses can’t do much without consulting a lawyer first. Whether it’s a contract, patient, merger, or a business decision that’s on the sketchier side there will be a lawyer at the table helping the owners along the way. That means they all have a decent extent of understanding about the law, unlike many pro bono cases.
“Concussion, though? How do you feel?”
Mike shrugged. “Not great. Can’t do much without it feeling like my head is splitting in half. Not like I can do anything though. No TV, no video games, no reading. At this point I’d willingly do my homework but I can’t do that either.” He interrupted himself with a big yawn. “I also just don’t feel good, nauseous a lot of the time. My memory isn’t great either, which is not normal for me.”
The latter statement probably needed to be explained but at this point, Danny didn’t care. He checked his watch, half past eight. Yeah, way too late for him to really care. “How about this, I’ll come back tomorrow and we continue this conversation, okay? It’s obvious we’re both tired and you need to sleep so that your brain can repair itself.”
“Okay,” Mike said quietly. He yawned again.
“Just to let you know, I will need to ask a lot more questions tomorrow. So just…Prepare yourself,” Danny said. Mike just nodded, though Danny couldn’t tell if it was because he was too emotional or too tired to do anything else.
Danny stood up as Mike slid back underneath his covers. The kid seemed like he already fell asleep, his breathing more even than it had been all night. Danny reached over and turned off the lamp, plunging the room into dark again. Except, it wasn’t completely dark. A light green glow came from above him. He looked up to see glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to Mike's ceiling. There were a few basic constellations up there, the Leo and Big Dipper are the only two Danny is able to name though the others looked familiar.
It hits him suddenly that Mike is a kid. A little kid who’d just lost his mom and dad. Danny never had the best relationship with his own parents but still he couldn’t imagine them dying. He knew something like this could mess someone up for life. It would be all too easy for Mike to fall into bad habits when he’s older due to literally watching his parents die. Maybe Danny would be able to get enough compensation set aside so Mike could afford some therapy. He didn’t know what Mary’s health insurance coverage was but considering how the majority of people denounce it (even though half of those people could use it in Danny’s opinion) he doubted it would be a part of it. Hopefully, if he got some professional help, Mike would be able to go through life without this incident hanging over him.
Danny left the room as quietly as he could. Concussions sucked ass, at least he thought they did. Ed thought he’d gotten one in college after he took a tumble off a table. So what if light hurts a little? That didn’t mean he had been concussed.
When he got into the living room, he found Mary staring at some photos. They seemed to be a younger version of the man in the photos hung in the hallway.
Mike’s father.
He walked up to her, making sure she could hear his footsteps. It was never a good idea to walk up on someone stuck in their own mind, trust him. She looked up at him, “You look like him.”
Uh, what?
“Um, I just…I’ll be back tomorrow morning, okay? At some point I also need you to come into our office in order to run over the case and what will happen during the trial,” he said. She just nodded. Danny took this as his cue to leave.
He practically ran down the stairs and out of the building, only slowing down to hail a cab. The ride home seemed to go by a lot quicker than usual, even though he was definitely further away. Though maybe he just dozed off and that’s why it seemed shorter.
Making his way up and into his silent apartment, Danny thought about Mike and his situation. It was undeniably really shity and Danny knew close to nothing about it, at least for right now. But he knew one thing: he needed to help him. Something in Danny said that he needed to help him. Because if he didn’t, he was uncertain anyone else would.
Though maybe that was because nobody helped him when he needed it.