Fourteen days earlier.

Jody all but ran into the spacious office which also served as a mini library for the law volumes and books in Jordan's and Co. Law Agency. She was early so most of her colleagues hadn't resumed for the day, and somehow she was grateful for that. She was not in the mood to deal with their cat calls and errands which they usually coat with please but sounded like it was her job. She also did the cleaning of books and their stacking, and the ordering of files, like she was a secretary and not an attorney.

One day, two weeks ago, when she'd arrived at her normal 9am, holding her coffee in one hand and her briefcase in the other, she had been hit with the usual:

"Jody there has been a fault in my system could you give the engineer a ring for me? Thanks." and "Could you help me throw this in the bin?" and "Morning girl, I need the book 'Anatomy of a Trial: a Primer for Young Lawyers' from the library, could you perhaps get it for me?" and "Hello, Jody I need these files put in order for submission pronto, I'll appreciate your help!", she'd sighed wearily and knew it was another usual day.

But funny enough, the day hadn't quite turned to be usual when Solomon Fanning, one of the oldest lawyers in the firm had walked up to her and said, "Hey, Jody could you please help me get a cup of coffee? I want it black. Like your skin." He winked.

Jody had seen red at that.

She had meticulously gone to the coffee shop across the street and had gotten him exactly what he wanted: a cup of coffee that was as black as her skin – except it was scalding hot and she didn't consider herself as hot. She'd had to use a coffee holder to carry it because it could burn her palms from the Styrofoam cup. When she got back to him, he was, thankfully where she wanted him to be; standing in the hall where all lawyers had a desk and a table, and was speaking to someone whose face she couldn't see because he had his back turned to her while Solomon was facing her. He spotted her coming towards him with the coffee holder with a big smile on her face and he returned the smile in expectancy.

"Oh thank you Jody, you're such a good girl."

A god girl? Not very wise, king Solomon.

Jody removed the cup from the holder, her phony, stiff smile in place as she handed the coffee holder to whoever it was that Solomon had been talking to. He stretched his hand to receive the cup but she shifted it out of his reach and yanking off the top, dumped the contents on his hair. Solomon let out a pain-filled yell that startled the whole room so much that one of the lawyers knocked his book flying as he turned to the commotion.

"What was that for?!" He bellowed, all the while groaning in pains.

"Listen to me you nitwit, the next time you talk to me like the way you did, the next coffee will be dumped on your," She looked disdainfully at his zipper. "Family jewels."

Jody didn't know what had possessed her that morning but she knew she had been running on adrenaline and must have been very high to work up the courage. Every single employee in the room had witnessed the scene, including –

"Judge Connors!" She had given a startled cry when she had turned to the person Solomon had been talking to in order to collect the coffee holder and saw who it was.

He had smiled, as if impressed – now that Jody thought about it as she stood in front of Jones office trying to work up the courage to knock, and thinking about it again, she realized his smile had been more like "Gotcha, we've been looking for an excuse to wash off your stain from our white garment precinct and you've given us just that."

The judge had handed the coffee holder back to her and had left without saying a word, only his smile in place but she had felt like dying right that moment so she had apologized to Solomon. Throughout that day, shed been given judgmental looks from every corner – not like she hadn't had those before but they had been quadrupled that day.

But the day hadn't been totally terrible because during lunch hour, a red haired guy walked up to her and introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Kilroy. I'm new here." He had an English accent that reminded her of pork ribs and she had no idea why. But she decided she would rather be reminded of food than be reminded of how stupid she'd been that morning, which was no doubt the reason he was here. She had no strength to deal with it but she gave him a polite smile.

"About what happened today –" he started.

Here we go, she thought, groaning.

"I thought you were really cool! You had such fire, such passion and determination than I have ever seen in a woman and I love it. Can we be friends?"

Jody had stared back at him in shock, her mouth hanging open.

"Jody!"

Jody snapped back to the present and realized that she was still standing in front of Jones office and speak of the devil, Kilroy was making his way towards her.

"Good morning." He greeted cheerily, his cheeks looking like cherries.

Instead of returning his compliment, she groaned instead. "What is good about the morning?"

His smile faded and his blue eyes held twin looks of concern. "Is everything alright?"

She took his arm and led him from Jones office. "Jones asked me to come see him first thing this morning."

His facial muscles relaxed. "And?"

"Don't you think its strange?"

He shook his head from side to side in negation.

"Well I do. Jones is someone that has not spoken to me since I was hired and all of a sudden he calls me in the middle of the night – "

"Middle of the night?"

"Well, I kinda exaggerated that but the point is, he called me and said to see him."

Kilroy's red brows furrowed in thought. "Save the calling part, everything seems normal to me."

"You don't think its weird he's calling me into his office barely two weeks after The Incident?"

Kilroy grew more confused. "What incident?"

"The Incident, you know the one where I dumped coffee on Solomon?"

"What are you talking about?"

It was Jody's turn to be confused. She was wondering why Kilroy had forgotten the biggest and most interesting thing that had ever happened to her in this firm when she saw that his eyes were dancing with looks of humor and that the muscles at the corners of his mouth were having a struggle to keep still. She slapped his arm and he laughed.

"You're such a killjoy, Kilroy." They both laughed.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure he cannot fire you. Besides, he has no right to on that account."

She snorted. "Are you new here? Oh, right. You are."

It was his turn to give her a playful nudge and they laughed again. How Kilroy had become a good friend to her within two weeks was something she couldn't fathom. All she knew was that she was grateful to him because he was giving her everything she hadn't had in the firm, from walking together to the bus stop, to getting coffee together, to going for lunch breaks with her; all of a sudden she didn't feel all alone anymore. It was a really huge doze of fresh air to have someone that looked at her and didn't see her skin or gender standing in the way. She looked up at him and saw that his tie was askew.

"Let me help." She reached up to help him adjust the tie. Kilroy was not very taller than she was so it was easy, but to help her younger brother was hard because he was way taller. Besides, he hated wearing tie and that was the hard part. "There you go."

She stood back to admire her work.

"Thank you." He said in gratitude.

A cleared throat jerked them apart. Jones. The blonde man gave them a rude once over as he walked to his door.

"You. In my office. Now." Was the only thing he paused to say, and one he did without looking at her.

Following closely behind him was the unmistakable white haired Judge Connors. Jody's heart skipped in fear.

Jones unlocked his door and held it open for the Judge. "This way sir."

Jody scoffed as Jones shut the office door.

"What is it?"

"I can't believe he's just arriving. Look at the time, he's over an hour late. And here I was thinking he would skin my hide for being late."

"Oh that reminds me, I didn't see your car outside."

"It broke down on the way."

"That's terrible."

"No its not. What's terrible is when the cops came with their towing vehicle to tow it. And they did."

Kilroy laughed and Jody sent him a murderous glare. "Sorry but that car needed towing. It's older than our ages combined."

"Really? so you're saying that my car was used in the war?"

He tried to shrug but he shoulders didn't stay still as they were being racked by fits of laughter. "I don't know, maybe." He sobered when Jody directed a murderous glare at him. "So how did you get here then?"

"You won't believe it."

"Try me."

"Allen!" Jones hollered and Jody jumped, startled, cutting off her reply.

She started making her way towards the door but Kilroy held her back.

"Quick, tell me."

"I – "

"Jody Allen!"

She walked briskly to the door. Kilroy followed her.

"Why are you scared of him?"

"Because I don't want to get fired."

"You won't. Just tell me."

She knocked on the door that bore 'MANAGING PARTNER'. "I hitched a ride with the same cops that came to tow my car." She grinned at him and entered the office. She shut the door gently against his laughing face, slowly taking her time to turn to face her nemesis.

Jones was seated behind his mahogany desk while Judge Connors was seated on one of the chairs facing Jones. He had the same look he had on his face the last time she saw him and for some unknown reason, it gave her the creeps.

"Miss Allen, I'll go straight to the point." Jones began. "You're fired."

Jody felt the air leave her lungs and her heart sank. She had known, she had always known that this was going to happen, she had known, right from the time that her mom told her that a Mr. Jones was on the phone for her, that this was going to be the end product of the very bad chemical reaction called her life.

She was paid peanuts when compared to her worth and to what her colleagues got but the pay was something. It helped pay bills and put food on the table. Without a job, how would she and her family survive? Her mom wasn't working while her brother recently graduated from being an apprentice as an auto mechanic and hadn't started working on any cars on his own. Right now, she was all her family depends on, she couldn't lose her job! She had to say something, even if it was to grovel on her knees and beg for mercy.

"But –"

"You were fired just for one reason Miss Allen," interrupted Judge Connors. "And you know what that is?"

She knew, of course she did. And she also knew it wasn't just one reason. There were myriads of them: Improper misconduct. Libel. Slander. Her skin. Her gender. Amongst others. She knew why she was being fired but she shook her head slowly from side to side.

"It is because you are not fit for an institution such as this." The Judge said.

Wow. That really hurt. Which bridge can I jump off? She asked herself. Would it be too evil if she went to the UK with Kilroy then locate the London Bridge and jump off it? She should be dead in a few seconds as she is a bad swimmer. Or she could serve as food for sharks, they wouldn't discriminate, now would they?

"You are too good to be hid in such a place, Miss Allen." The judge was saying with a huge grin.

What was he saying? She asked herself in confusion.

"You were fired from here so that you could be hired to work directly for the government as a district attorney for Bethel County Law Firm."

It was at that moment she realized that the judge was holding a Jordan and Co. Law Firm file that had her name written in full on it. She looked up at him and saw that he was not joking. She looked at Jones and saw that he looked like the exact opposite of Judge Connors. While Judge Connors was looking happy and excited, Jones was looking angry and bored. His lips were clamped in an angry manner and his eyes were shooting her dead. If anything was indication enough, it was that.

She looked at the judge with blurry eyes as he stood to shake her. The tears rolled down her face when he did. Finally, the Lord heard her prayers. Finally, things were taking a better turnabout.

Finally, she would get a new car, and not just one with automatic doors, but one with wings.

~

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