Alan's Biggest Case

Chapter 1

Alan is sitting at his desk memorizing his big closing for the case he's been working on for the past three weeks when he hears a knock on his door. The door opens and he sees Shirley standing next to a teenager who looks like they have been crying.

"Alan, this is Sam. He requested you, can you talk to him?" Alan observed the boy and had a feeling he needed help. "Yes, of course. Come in." Sam slowly walked in and sat down and Shirley mouthed "thank you" to Alan, which he returned with a nod.

Alan moves his trial bag off the desk and moves the paper with his closing to the side and asks, "How can I help you?"

The teen still looks terrified and mumbles something that Alan couldn't understand.

"Hey, it's okay. Everything you say to me is classified information which means it stays between you and me. I need you to explain what's going on so I can help you."

"It's my dad," Sam said quietly, "he's hurting me."

"How is he hurting you?"

"Emotionally and verbally. I don't know if that's enough to get him arrested or whatever, but the things he's saying to me is hurting me. I can't stay with him."

Alan pulls out his notepad and begins to scribble things down. "When did this happen?" Sam goes quiet and Alan looks up to see he's tearing up.

"Sam, I know this is difficult, but I need to know what's going on. We can't create a case without information."

"Ever since I came out." Sam is crying now, wiping his face with his sleeves. Alan turns around and grabs a box of tissues and reaches over to hand them to him. Sam hesitantly reaches out and grabs some tissues but just crumbles them up.

"So he hasn't done this before? It just started after you told him you were gay?"

"No, not gay - well yeah I guess, but I told him I'm trans... I was born female."

Alan began to write more things down and looked up every now and then to make sure Sam is okay, and he sees the boy just slouched in the chair picking at his nails. Alan sighs and gets out of his chair and sits in the chair next to him and says, "We can contact CPS instead of going to court. It will go faster than a trial."

"No! Don't do that!" Sam begins to cry harder now and Alan sits there trying to figure out what to do.

"Okay, we can go to court. It'll be okay, you'll be okay. We will figure this out, okay?" He reaches out and puts his hand on Sam's shoulder, slightly squeezing it. Sam gives a small nod while hiding his face in his hands. He's shaking his legs, quickly moving them up and down. Alan kept his hand on his shoulder and reassured him until he stopped crying. He looks up at the clock and notices it's six p.m.

"How about we go to dinner? You can choose where we go."

Sam isn't talking and his leg is still shaking with his head resting in his hands. Alan sighs and gets up and walks out of the room. Sam stayed in the room and looked up to see he was gone. "Mr. Shore?" he yells. "Mr. Shore!" Alan quickly walks back in the room with a glass of water and hands it to Sam, and sits back down next to him.

"Genghis Grill," Sam says between gulps. He's chugging the water as if he hasn't had something to drink in days.

"What?" Alan says, caught off guard.

"Dinner. I want to go to Genghis Grill. It's a Mongolian restaurant down by Ridgewood Mall."

Alan quickly catches on and stands up to grab his things and holds the door for Sam. Sam quickly drinks the rest of his water and gets up to walk out the door.