Law and Love

Author’s Note: Thank you so very much for my friend Kathy (kittie8571) who is the Beta of this story!

__________________________________L&L__________________________________________

Chapter Thirteen: It was all about money and power

Jack was sitting on his couch, looking at Elizabeth. He had never seen her in such a state. The small woman looked more shocked than anything else.

“Beth, please, take a deep breath and start telling me everything, this time from the beginning and please remember that I wasn’t there.”

The blond woman opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a groan of frustration. She was obviously still in shock.

“Ok. I’ll help you. When you left the firm this evening, you passed by my office and you told me that you and Mary were going to have dinner together. Frederic was there, working with me so you didn’t say much.” Jack looked at Elizabeth waiting for an answer.

“Well, we did have dinner at the Italian restaurant I told you about. We talked and she said…” Elizabeth sighed. “She said she had been missing me. That all these years in Canada seemed like days now that she was back. She told me that all this time, she liked or desired other women but she only loved me.” Jack swallowed hard at the declaration of love said simply and directly -- Mary Bingley’s style. The woman had no sense of delicacy.

“She told me that I was the reason why she had returned. She wanted to see me, to be with me again. At least as friends, if nothing else.”

“What did you tell her?” Asked Jack, but he couldn’t control the excitement he was feeling. Elizabeth was the only person he knew worse then him at expressing her feelings, but at least now there was still hope. He didn’t think Mary was good enough for Elizabeth, but she was the only one who could make a difference in Elizabeth’s life.

“I told her that four years was a large amount of time;that I was a different person now. I told her that I had thought about myself and my life, and I had made some important decisions, but that there had been no one else after her. I confessed that I still love her, if not more so now.” Elizabeth was almost crying now. “She told me that she wanted to be with me too, but there was something she needed to tell me. Needless to say, my world turned upside down after what I found out.”

“Did you fight?”

“No. I was in complete shock. When I was able to focus again, Mary was taking me to her apartment, showing me this small, beautiful baby. Her egg and some man's sperm is all it took to make that perfection. I just stood there, looking at the baby for a few minutes, completely frozen, until Mary told me to go home and call her when the shock had passed. She said she'd wait for me to think on things.”

“Shewas trying to be understanding, after all.”

“Understanding? I had the shock of my life. She’s a mother!”

“Well, maybe you needed the shock. You can’t live for your work Beth. You have no real family, with the exception of your sister, but she lives miles away. You have very few friends and very little free time.” Jack looked her in the eyes, trying to sound as serious as possible. “Your life is stuck in neutral and you need to think very carefully about this situation. You love her . . . she loves you . . . but there’s the baby.”

“I guess the worst part is this strange feeling of betrayal, like the baby is from some other woman. It’s ridiculous, I know.”

“Beth, she gave you the chance to do that with her. You didn’t feel ready and you gave her absolutely no indication that you ever would be. How could you have expected her to put her life on hold, waiting for you?”

“I know. You’re right.” She said, playing with her fingers nervously.

“In my opinion, you’re lucky she returned, lucky she loves you enough to want to take another chance with you, to get to know her baby. I don’t particularly like her, but she loves you and she’s the only person who can make you happy.”

“Still, it is difficult. Two women and a baby. I need to think about it.”

“Mary did give you time to do so.”

“What would my parents say if they were alive?”

“You want my honest opinion? They’re dead! And parents always want their children’s happiness. She’s your chance of happiness.”

“Thank you, Jack. I think I’m going home now. I have a party to organize.” Elizabeth rose from her spot on the couch and made a move toward the door.

“Yeah, you'd better go and do some serious thinking about all this. And try not to go nuts about the party. Bye, Beth.” Jack opened the door smiling.

“Bye, kid.” Elizabeth said, walking away and leaving Jack with his own thoughts about the matter.

__________________________________L&L__________________________________________
Ennis woke up feeling somehow happy. The previous night's events had lightened his mood. Veronica had been very helpful, giving him a lot of good advice and even sharing with him a couple of personal stories about her love life. Ennis felt they were quickly becoming great friends, the kind of friends you have for a life time.

He opened his eyes slowly, trying to enjoy the music coming from the alarm clock. He briefly wondered why, with all the money he had now, he still liked to buy cheap things in Chinese shops. Old habits die hard, people always say, and it was true. He still felt like it was a waste of money to buy ridiculously expensive things when one could buy it much cheaper from a Chinese shop. And he was becoming familiar with the shops in China town.

He could feel the laziness of facing a particularly hard day and stopped trying to make his muscles obey him. The lamp was intermittent again, and he wondered what phenomenon could explain that this particular lamp was almost always malfunctioning in the mornings. He rubbed his eyes slowly and in one movement rose from his bed. If he stayed any longer, he would never get up.

Neve was already up and impatient for his attention. He was moving to the kitchen when the phone rang. Ennis looked at the DVD player’s clock, it was 7:30 am. Whoever was calling must have a very good reason, he thought. He slowly picked up the phone.

“Ennis Del Mar.”

“Mr. Del Mar, it’s David Spade.” A nervous, young, male voice said. Ennis immediately remembered the face behind the name. David was one of the lawyers that he and Helen had picked for their team.

“Why are you calling me at this ungodly hour? Couldn’t it wait for another hour or two?” He didn’t mean to sound harsh, but he was annoyed.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Del Mar. I got a little too excited by what I’ve just found out.”

“It better be something big, Dave. I hate people calling me about work at this hour of the day.” He said, still annoyed.

“Sorry once again, Mr. Del Mar. I’m going to get straight to the point. Do you remember Mrs. Thurston had sent us a laptop from her husband? She was expecting to find e-mails that will help us prove his relationship with Julian Reyes, her best friend?”

“Of course, I remember. It was a big lead, since the laptop was bought by her and it was in her name, we could manipulate it easily and use it as evidence. Let me guess, you finally got the codes to enter in the data base?” Ennis asked in a bored tone. He knew how exciting it used to be being a young attorney working on a big case.

“Yes, but that’s not why I called.”

“For God's sake, Dave, just get to the point.”

“I found evidence of corruption in the Thurston campaign. Almost 20 phone numbers and bank accounts of businessmen interested in a Thurston victory. They were paying for his campaign, expecting to reap the benefits after Thurston became a senator. Of course, this is not totally unexpected but it gives us a very powerful advantage.”

“Are you sure of the authenticity of this discovery?” Ennis wasn’t really surprised but he knew better than to rush to conclusions.

“The files were encrypted. I was lucky because a friend of mine is a genius at computers, he’s still studying at university, so he picked the files and made a challenge out of them. Last night one of them did it!”

“Ok. How difficult was it to break?”

“Are you kidding? These guys took a whole day to discover how to open them. I would say the program used was a very good one. Some of them know how to enter FBI sites without being traced.”

“What about his relationship with Julian Reyes? Any interesting news?”

“This is the best part. Julian Reyes was also on the list of corrupted sponsors of Mr. Thurston campaign.” This time Ennis raised an eyebrow in surprise. Not that Dave could see.

“Does this mean you found something else?”

“Yes, Mr. Del Mar. It seems Mathew Thurston may not have been unfaithful to his wife for the common reasons. By the e-mails exchanged, it looks like he was actually paying for her financial support with sexual favors.” Ennis could sense the amused tone in the young lawyer’s voice and he, himself, was finding it curious.

“Now that’s unexpected. Listen, where are you making this call from?” Ennis asked remembering the importance of keeping such scandal silenced.

“From your office, Mr. Del Mar. I’m well aware of the secrecy of this information.”

“Good, but I have to ask you, did the guy who broke the codes have access to those e-mails?”

“No, they extract the codes configuration so that they could try to open it on virtually any other PC. Like I told you, this information was locked by the most modern type of software technology. We wereextremely lucky!”

“That’s actually the main reason why this is in our hands now, Dave. Mr. Thurston was clever enough to think this information was safer under our noses, since he figured we should never have been able to unlock it.” Ennis paused trying to absorb the new information. “Good job, David. I guarantee you that I won’t forget it.”

“Thank you sir, see you in a couple of hours.”

“Bye David.”

Ennis ran his right hand through his hair, trying to predict the implication of another crime in the case. He and Helen weren’t expecting this type of surprise. This discovery in the case would send the scandal to a whole other level. Political scandal was the responsibility of the D.A.'s Office and Ennis’s client surely would not be involved. Their discovery will start another investigation. He really needed to discuss this with Helen.

Moving to the bathroom, Ennis wondered if Jack and Frederic could even imagine what their client had been up to.

__________________________________L&L__________________________________________
Jack was a stressed out man. He had an intense argument with his father earlier at breakfast about his partnership with Frederic. Jack was surprised to find out that his father wasn’t really that bothered about Frederic's insinuations about him and Ennis. In fact “you can’t take a man in love seriously” were his exact words. He couldn’t understand how his overprotective father was acting so out of character. Enrique Twist didn’t seem to be himself lately.

Jack walked inside Frederic’s office. They were supposed to have a meeting with the other lawyers of the team this morning. As expected, Frederic Dawson was already reading and reviewing some information related to the case.

Jack and Frederic had worked on the alibis for the dates when the supposed affairs had happened. It had been a difficult job but with the experience of Frederic, it all turned out just perfectly. Julian Reyes was another important part of their plan. The woman was more than ready to help Mathew Thurston get out of this mess and willing to deny any romantic involvement. Jack had a gut feeling about her, he just didn’t know why.

“Good morning, Jack.” Frederic said, finally noticing that Jack had entered his office.

“Good morning, Frederic.” Jack answered coolly and that made the blond man look up from his reading material and take out his reading glasses.

“Look, Jack, I know you’re mad at me. Yesterday I said some things to you and I’m sorry. It’s just, I can’t understand how you could choose someone like Ennis when you could easily have me. We’re perfect for each other… We understand each other professionally, and our families have known each other for years. We would make a wonderful couple and even our last names sound lovely together.”

“Are you finished?” Jack answered annoyed. “Frederic, we’ve been through this. I love Ennis and that's the last I'm going to say on the matter. As for your apologies, they’re accepted. We need to get along in order to work together and I believe when you say you didn’t mean to upset me.”

“I just want the best for you Jack.”

“For God's sake. Not even you can believe that YOU would be best for me! You like to play around, everybody knows that! You would just take me for granted. You didn't honestly thing that one day you would wake up ready for commitment, and I was going to be waiting and willing to be your "wife." Reality check, Frederic. That was never even an option to me.”

“Maybe I would take you for granted. But everything I said is true, Jack.”

“It doesn’t change anything.”

“Jack, I’m not giving up on us. I’m just not stupid enough to ruin all my chances by arguing with you.” At this answer, Jack rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say. Let’s just drop it and go back to work okay?”

“Yes, we'd better.” Frederic said and they both dug in the mounds of papers surrounding them.

__________________________________L&L__________________________________________
At the same time, in a room not far away, Ennis and Helen were having a totally different conversation.

“So, are you stunned?” Ennis asked after having related the latest discoveries to Helen. The brunette looked like she was petrified.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting this. Are you 100 sure?”

“Definitely. You know how difficult it is to prove the reliability of e-mails, but the experts David found were able to trace the IP address of the correspondent and it matched Julian Reyes' personal computer. This one is at her house, so it's doubtful that someone else sent those e-mails.”

“I just wonder why such a rich man would accept being a sex slave for money and support from a woman.”

“First of all, we’re not talking about just any woman. Julian Reyes is at least 20 times richer than any of Mathew’s other supporters and almost 100 times richer than Mathew himself. Second, we can’t exclude the fact that they were probably romantically involved too or at least they could have been in the past. Why would such a rich woman need to pay for sex with a man?” Ennis asked smirking at Helen who laughed silently. “Third, if Mathew Thurston won, can you imagine the kind of power he would have? He must have wanted it desperately enough to do anything for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out other types of crimes too.”

“What are we going to do about this?” Helen asked after a brief moment of silence. She understood these types of actions were Ennis's expertise.

“We’re definitely going to expose this in court. If we send this information to the police right now, we lose all our work. Mathew would be going to jail and not even Mrs. Thurston will give us the credit we deserve.”

“You’re right. The firm can win a lot from this. We just need to do it at the right time.”

“I’m almost sure this divorce is going to be public in a couple of days. From that moment on, we’re going to have almost the entire American press following our every move. It couldn’t get any better than this.”

“Julian Reyes and the others on the list are going down too. It’s going to be a huge shock in North Dakota.”

“Surely. But I guess our client is going to be a little more shocked. What time is she arriving?”

“She should be here any minute. What do you want me to tell her?” Helen said looking at her silver and pink watch.

“That we've found evidence in the laptop that is going to help us. And please, forget about the deal. We want to destroy the hypocrite in court, so don't try to convince her otherwise.”

“The board told us to focus our time on the deal Ennis.” Helen said looking worried.

“Not even Enrique believed we could do it, so he’s not going to be that disappointed about it. Anyway, I’ll assume full responsibility if anything happens.”

“No need for that. We’re a team. Our decisions are made together and we stick to them together.” Helen said looking tremendously serious.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything else from you, Helen.” Ennis said smiling and Helen looked at him surprised at the friendly tone coming from Ennis. They stood for a few seconds looking at each other, trying to understand what was going through each other's minds.

The strange moment was broken when the phone on Ennis’s desk rang and Mrs. Campbell announced from the other side of the line that Mrs. Thurston had just arrived.

__________________________________L&L__________________________________________
Ennis was driving to Jack’s apartment feeling extremely tired. The meeting with Mrs. Thurston was not really what he had expected. Danielle Thurston was surely one of the sweetest, most peaceful women he had ever met. He could finally understand how a woman betrayed by her husband and best friend could keep silent. And Elizabeth's words at that first meeting finally made sense.

Danielle Thurston was a woman in her forties. She still looked quite beautiful, but by now there were already some undeniable wrinkles on her face. With a closer look one could tell she was extremely tired, probably by lack of sleep and many hours of crying. Ennis felt even more determined to get justice. She was a martyr and the lawyer in him was clapping his hands in excitement. No one could resist a betrayed woman.

The black haired woman was happily surprised to know that new evidence was discovered and after she heard their plan, Danielle Thurston was clearly pleased. She cried very little during the meeting and even managed to mention the need of winning custody of her son. Ennis had assured her of their efforts on every topic and reminded her about the upcoming meeting with the other party. Thankfully she didn’t seem to be happy with the prospect of letting her husband off easy. Helen also did a wonderful job. Danielle already trusted her completely. And that was important for them. They needed her full cooperation in the next stages of the case.

Ennis stopped the car and looked up. Jack’s apartment was in one of the most modern and luxurious buildings in New York. A bit too far from the firm but it was all worth it for the amazing view of Central Park. Ennis always felt like this part of the city was from another dimension, completely different from all the rest. Even the people walking on the streets were better dressed.

Ennis looked at his reflection in the mirror of the elevator and silently cursed. After a whole day at the firm, he looked horrible. Dark circles were under his eyes and an exhausted expression was on his face. He had gone straight home after work, ate a quick dinner and drove to Jack’s home without any other concern. Now he wondered if he shouldn’t have at least changed clothes. Arriving at Jack’s door, Ennis knocked twice and after a few seconds, Jack opened the door smiling and looking as tired as him. But as usual, he still looked 100 times better.

“Hi, honey.” Jack said, moving closer to kiss Ennis. The kiss quickly became a little more affectionate as Jack seemed to be oin one of his moods. Remembering that they were still in front of his house, Jack withdrew, still keeping his hand around his boyfriend's neck.

“Hi, baby.” Ennis said, feeling a little out of breath but smiling. He liked the way Jack always showed his affections and he sometimes envied him of that.

“I’ve missed you a lot today. I didn’t see you at all.” Jack said resting his head against his lover's chest.

“Jack, we’re still in front of your door.” Ennis said smiling.

“You’re right. Let’s stop with the peep show.” Jack said moving away from Ennis and pulled the blond into the apartment holding his hand.

“You know, I’ve missed you a lot too.” Ennis said taking off his jacket and putting it in the closet. “Actually, I saw you on lunch break. You were following Frederic to his office and I was going out to buy a few sandwiches for me and Helen.”

“I’m still eating. Do you want some? I wonder if you had dinner at all. It’s a bit earlier than usual.” Jack said pointing to the table where his plate was waiting. Ennis shook his head and sat on the couch near the table watching Jack eat the wonderful food Matilda had made for him.

“I had a quick dinner. I admit, I was quite eager to get here.” Ennis looked away from Jack, a little shy and Jack knew that look well so he decided to change topics.

“So how is it to work with Helen? I've heard some stories about her strong personality. I wondered if you guys would fight much.”

“Good, I guess. And we haven’t fought yet. She’s a very impressive lady, and surely knows what she wants. I was very impressed with her.” Ennis said smiling, but then he noticed the look on Jack’s face. His boyfriend seemed surprised and for a second, there was something else in his face. Ennis could swear it was jealously. “Jack, come on. You’re the one working with the supermodel who wants nothing more than to get into your boxers.”

“I know. But I was still surprised by the tone of admiration in your voice.” Jack said realizing it was stupid to feel jealous of a woman he didn’t even know that well and knowing that Ennis loved him. But Frederic’s words were echoing in his mind.

“I thought I was the one who should be gving those looks and making comments.” Ennis said, trying to lighting the mood. “If you take away my very few lines, I’m going to end up mute.”

“Sorry Ennis, it’s just…” Jack paused and stopped eating to look at Ennis. “Frederic has been a pain in the ass the past couple of days.” Jack could see the way Ennis tensed up in seconds.

“What has he done? I swear, I’ll punch his pretty face one of these days.” Ennis said already feeling his blood boil.

“Calm down. He's just being himself, making nasty remarks about our relationship, questioning your homosexuality, subtly hitting one me…” Jack regretted that last bit as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He wasn’t used to lying to Ennis so the truth just felt natural being said.

“The nerve of that man! I swear I’m going to break his nose next time I lay my eyes on him.” Ennis said furiously.

“Ennis, please, if you keep reacting like this I’ll stop telling you what happens between me and Frederic.” Jack said putting his plate away.

“I'm sorry Jack. I’m trying here but you gotta admit, this may be too much for me. It’s pretty annoying!”

“I’m an adult man and I can deal with guys like Frederic. I’m just tired of having to have this extra pressure.” Jack thought to himself that he was also angry with his dad regarding his latest comments, but because of a suspicion he had been keeping about Ennis and his father, he decided not to say it out loud.

“I understand, baby. I just can’t control myself. Frederic surely know how to push my buttons.”

“If you can’t control your emotions, he’s the one winning, you know?” Jack said sitting next to Ennis on the couch.

“You’re right, and I won’t forget.” Ennis said embracing Jack and kissing him with all the passion he was feeling. He was surprised when a few minutes later, Jack broke the kiss a little too abruptly.

“Humm, honey? You’re not going to believe what I found out yesterday. Elizabeth called me all stressed out. It seems Mary has a child and wants to give their relationship another go.” Jack smiled at the shocked expression on Ennis face.

“I thought as much, but still, it’s quite a shock. How’s Elizabeth?”

“I sincerely don’t know. She seems to be dealing with it better than I would have expected. She’s actually taking some time to sort things out. But she was still clearly in shock when she told me.”

“Does this mean there’s a possible reconciliation down the line? The whole family thing?”

“I was surprised but Beth is considering that possibility. Did I tell you Mary’s baby girl is six months old? Elizabeth saw her and she said she was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen.” Jack said smiling. “I’m suspecting she secretly wants this, she just couldn’t come to terms with herself about it.”

“Maybe this is what Elizabeth needed. A family…”

“Have you ever thought about a family, Ennis?” Jack asked, leaning closer to Ennis.

“I don’t know. I never saw myself as the "dad" type. You know -- being a workaholic and too lonely for my own good. Now that I… that I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m gay, it doesn’t look like it's going to happen.” Ennis said looking at Jack for his opinion. “I guess there was a reason why none of my very few girlfriends had me convinced about it.”

“Yeah, the only thing I slightly regret about being gay is not being able to have kids with my partner the regular way. But you know, I have a couple of friends who decided to ask a female friend to have their child or tried surrogacy.”

“I’ve heard about something like that.” Ennis said lost in thought and Jack decided there was no need to scare Ennis with this talk anymore.

“Do you think Mary is going to be at the party on Friday night?”

“I hope so. That would mean she and Elizabeth have solved all their problems, or at least they would be trying to.” Ennis said, turning the TV on.

“You know what we could do next Saturday?” Jack asked after a few minutes of watching the highlights of the Roland Garros, in Ennis’s arms.

“No.”

“We could go watch the final in Paris. We could take one of the firm's concords or something. Dad'll never know. One of the pilots is a very good friend of mine. I introduced him to his wife at my birthday party a couple of years ago. He’ll be happy to do me a favor.”

“You’re sure he won’t know?” Ennis asked worried.

“Absolutely. And I promise we'll be back on Monday!”

“Then it’s a date.” Ennis said moving his head down to kiss him.

And after a lot of making out on Jack’s couch, they fell asleep in each others arms, both too tired to do anything else.


__________________________________L&L__________________________________________
On the next chapter: Elizabeth's party comes with a surprise that will shock everyone, especially Jack and Ennis.