Look East | A Hozier Fanfiction |

20

Molly spun around in her desk chair in the room she and Oscar shared as an office. It was more of a glorified closet, but ever since they'd worked on a large case as co-counsel, they had shared a work space. In many ways they worked better this way.

Their desks faced each other in the center of the room and a tall wall of bookcases packed to the brim with files, reference texts, and other important volumes stood behind hers. A small arm chair occupied a corner next to the door. Otherwise, there wasn't much more floor space to fill.

She'd had two full days of court with three different cases each day and her brain matter was severely lacking. A stack of cases sat on one side of her desk and a large cup of coffee sat on the other side. Oscar sat at his desk, writing notes for a cross examination. A knock on the open door drew her gaze.

"So this is what my donation pays for?" Andrew asked, grinning. "You staring at the ceiling all day?"

Molly stood and greeted him with a hug. "I thought you were going to text me when you got here." He pressed a kiss against her cheek. "Come in. Have a seat."

She gestured to the armchair but he walked to the bookshelf and perused the volumes. "You actually use these?" he asked.

"For case law, yeah," Oscar said.

"Sorry I've been quiet the last two days," she said. "I was in court both days."

"Molly you don't have to apologize," Andrew said. "I know you're busy. I agreed to be okay with it, remember?"

Molly glanced at Oscar, who was doing his best to act busy. When she told him about her arrangement with Andrew, his first response was that it was a terrible idea. But fortunately he was choosing to keep his opinions to himself.

"Oscar, good to see you again," Andrew added, nodding to him.

"Looking for some afternoon delight?" he joked.

"Oscar!" Molly hissed in embarrassment.

"Actually I'm here in an observational capacity only," Andrew chuckled. "I'm just really curious what your days look like. I only really know musicians and performers. I don't know anyone with a serious job like yours."

Oscar opened his arms and gestured to his desk, as if to show off the paperwork in front of him. "You're looking at it," he said glumly. "Court is about the most excitement we get around here."

Andrew picked up one of the files from Molly's desk. She took it back hastily. "That's confidential," she said with a smile. "You can't look at it."

He nodded, looking slightly dejected. "Right, of course. Sorry."

"If you have a seat, we can grab lunch in a few minutes," she told him.

So he sat down and fixed his eyes on her. "So how does a case progress for you?" he asked after a second.

She looked up and inhaled sharply. "Generally, a defendent will contact us after the initial arrest or charge. We'll decide if its a case worthy of ys takimg on. Then we go through evidence and stuff from the police or we collect things ourselves - witness statements, additional documents, all of that. Usually during discovery we get access to all the evidence against a client."

"Discovery?" Andrew asked.

"The period of time when we obtain evidence before a trial," Oscar explained. "Here," he flipped through the stack of files in front of him before settling on one. "This is an old case, already ruled on." He opened it and flicked through several sheets of paper until he reached multiple photos. "These were taken by a private investigator," he handed one to Andrew. "We hired him on to follow a client's ex-husband. He wasn't paying child support and claimed he couldn't afford it. Turns out, he was working for cash to deliberately avoid having to pay her."