“I am not going to sue the Federal Government. Especially not pro bono.”
It had now been almost twenty four hours since Jamie had been shot, and the sun was high in the sky, shining down with all its remarkable intensity on the glass and steel building that was the home of Gibson Dunn. Jenna had come to work several hours ago, and Jamie had awkwardly clung to her all day as she had desperately tried to focus on her work despite the distractions that clearly were racing constantly through her mind. It wasn’t as though there was anywhere else he could go. He certainly wasn’t going to return to Laurel, not after the unexpected disaster that had arisen from her somehow being able to see him, and he certainly wasn’t going to stay with that strange, broken, bag of meat that was now his body.
"But..."
"Virginia, you've got to get your heart out of it, and look at it from the firm's perspective. Pro bono cases are supposed to raise goodwill for the company, but nothing good is going to come of it for us. All it will look like is us bullying the agent, especially of she is genuinely apologetic for what she did."
"I get that, but..."
"Do you? Do you really."
Jenna was silent for a moment. "Yes, I do."
"Then you won't ask me to do it."
Jamie could almost see the internal battle going on within her. Ian Taul had been Jenna's closest associate in the firm for quite a while now, despite the fact that he was a junior attorney, and she was only a paralegal. She had helped him get the information he needed to win some very high profile cases, and he had in turn gotten her as high of a position as it was possible to get within the company while she worked on finding a way to complete the bar. There was a quiet, mutual respect between them that was foreign to most law firms, and Jenna clearly did not want to enrage him. All the same, she had made a promise, both to Derek, that there would be someone to follow up on the second half of his plan, and to Jamie, that he would be vindicated for what had been done to him. Even if Jamie would rather her just let the matter go to rest, he knew she would never willingly let it go. The question was simply whether Ian would be able to get her to stop.
Ian looked back up from the paperwork on his desk, to see Jenna still sitting in front of him, white knuckled from her grip on the armchair.
"Are we done, Thompson?"
"What if she made another mistake?"
"What?"
"What if the agent did something else? Something obviously incompetent?" Jenna's voice was rushed, lacking its usual sweet smoothness. She was anxious, playing the last card she had.
"She'll be watching every move she makes at this point, as will everyone in her office. The chances of that are so slim..."
"But not impossible! If it was about more than one man, if you made it look like you were doing a public service for the good of all, would you take the case?"
Ian was silent for a while clearly thinking. "...I might."
"Thank you, Ian." Jenna said, letting out a relieved breath.
"Virginia," Ian cut off, his voice intense. "Don't do anything stupid. Don't forget that, if there's any sign that you tampered with anything, we may wind up paying the agent, not the other way around."
Jenna smiled. She had caught the fact that Ian hadn't told her not to do anything, only that she couldn't get caught. "Don't worry, Ian. _I_ Won't do anything."
Jamie felt something uneasy race through him. There was a strange, secretive smile on Jenna's face, and he was starting to worry about what exactly was going to happen to Agent Shaw if Derek and Jenna got their way.
A tingle of panic touched his heart. To be able to stop whatever his two friends had in mind, Jamie was going to have to go back to Laurel.