Por Siempre Y Para Siempre: A Sequel to Take Your Time

Ch. 2 - You're a Man of Your Word

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TW: pedophilia and sexual assault/r*pe mention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rafael, Olivia, and Noah are sitting at the table in silence as they eat their breakfast. It's been two weeks since Rafael took Wilson on as a client and the exhaustion is showing in his face, his eyes are bloodshot and puffy with dark circles underneath them. He's been staying up late to catch up and plan for the trial starting in a week. He wasn't entirely prepared to juggle his job alongside this case. Jake was handling things when he wasn't in the office, but that didn't make him worry any less about it.

"So, what're your plans for today?" Olivia tries to break the tension in the room with small talk.

"Meeting with Mike since the trial starts in a week," Rafael says dryly as he pushes scrambled eggs around his plate. Things between the two of them had been rather strained since he took on the new client. Olivia is trying to separate work and home as best as she can, but it is hard when Rafael is working from home for the case. Along with these factors, Peter Stone is facing pressure from the DA's office to take this to trial as quickly as he can.

"Oh, got it," she responds quietly, "so, no office work today? How long has it been since you stopped by there?"

"It's been about a week and a half. But I can't really afford to be wasting my time in the office," he looks up from his plate at her, clearly annoyed, "you know, since the trial is being moved along so quickly." Olivia sighs and turns to look away from him as he was staring daggers at her. She gathers herself and her thoughts before her rebuttal.

"Rafa, you know that's the DA's call," she sighs once more and glances over at Noah who is quietly observing the conversation with a confused expression on his face, "Stone can't even make the process slow down at this point. He's being pushed to make this happen as fast as possible." Her and Rafael lock eyes and Olivia tilts her head subtly in their son's direction.

"I know, I know," Rafael ruffles the curls on his son's head as he concedes and lets go of his frustration, "I've been in those shoes. I just never realized how stressful it makes everything on the defense's side of things." He stands up from the table, grabbing his half-finished breakfast and empty coffee mug before heading into the kitchen, "I have to get moving, I'm supposed to meet him there at ten. We can talk more about this later, I'll see you when you get home from work. I love you." She nods at him as if to say she loves him too. He quickly rinses his dishes and places them in the dishwasher before he fills his travel mug with more coffee.

Rafael walks into the café he and Wilson arranged to meet at and sees him sitting at a table in the far corner. He rushes over to drop off his coat, messenger bag, and his already empty travel mug before heading up to the counter where he orders his usual redeye. When he gets back to his seat, Wilson leans onto the table and rests his chin in his hands, "Hey there, big shot," he says with a coy smile, hoping to get a reaction out of his attorney.

"Uh, hello," Rafael says, visibly uncomfortable with his client's behavior. He decides to cut to the chase and jump right into the trial ahead of them, "let's get into this. We have a lot of ground to cover today. The trial is slated to start next week." He reaches into his bag and pulls out a legal pad, the case file, and his favorite pen - a black and gold Montblanc pen personalized with his initials and the date he graduated from Harvard, a gift from his mother. He opens the file and hands a binder clipped stack of pages over to Wilson, "This is your internet history from the past six months, now I have taken the time and energy to sift through all of it and highlight the really bad ones." Wilson looks down at the thick stack of pages in front of him before he removes the binder clip. The majority of each page is highlighted in a bright yellow and there are notes such as ??? and explain this! scrawled in the margins with arrows pointed toward certain entries.