InsaneJournal

A Tingle
Technically her superior, Elise had never regarded Rodney Katsnelson with much more than mild disdain. Balding, bumbling and notoriously sweaty palms, the man disgusted her on more than one level. She never did understand just how he had climbed so far up the corporate ladder, though she had heard a rumor or two of the ruthless attitude he'd had in his youth. Middle age had softened the man; it was more likely than not only a matter of time before someone had him for breakfast.

At least a foot shorter, Elise made no expression as she looked up at the man quietly berating her.

"... and while I do appreciate your fervor, it would really be better for all of us if you did refrain from killing people now and again," he finished.

Elise blinked. "But they annoy me," she replied simply.

He sighed. "Yes, I understand that, but ..."

"Mr. Katsnelson," Elise interrupted, putting a small hand on his arm to ebb the flow of his words. "While my methods are not necessarily in line with your personal corporate vision, I imagine that the Senior Partners knew very well what they were doing when they sent me here. If I were you ... I wouldn't get in my way."

She turned then on her designer heels, heading towards her office.

Jill sat in Elise's office, arms folded and an annoyed glare etched onto her pale features. She'd been waiting for five minutes, checking every 30 seconds or so for the charm her superiors gave her. The FBI sequestered a protection spell from the D.C. office, knowing Jill's history, and she was glad to have it as she sat within the walls of the evil corporation she once called home. Even merely sitting in this chair made Jill feel dirty, and she decided to take about five showers upon returning to her apartment.

All that said, though, the agent wasn't nervous. She was annoyed, and none too pleased with the irony of Elise being Dylan Coker's new attorney, but she realized in order for this case to be properly solved, she'd have to set foot in the Chicago offices of Wolfram & Hart and interview someone who she couldn't stand even when she was a lawyer herself. Friends had no place in a building like this, and Jill had no intention of making with the buddy-buddy once that creepy little lawyer finally came back.

Hearing the footsteps behind her, Jill rolled her eyes and stood. Her arms still folded across her chest, Jill made sure her FBI badge was still clipped to her business suit before locking eyes on the doorway, deciding once and for all she would be no shrinking violet. If need be, she'd become a proverbial pit bull.

"I realize things aren't normal around here," she said once the footsteps grew loud enough, "but how about a little punctuality, huh? I'm sure the Senior Partners would really appreciate keeping an appointment every once in a while."

Wait ... why did Jill suddenly smell blood in the office?

"Time wasn't much of an issue when you left my client sitting in an interrogation room for over an hour," Elise replied sharply as she stepped into her office, footsteps suddenly muted by the plush carpet she had insisted be installed. Sure, it was a bitch to clean, though that wasn't really her problem. Besides, it added a certain charm to the room.

"And then masqueraded as counsel, I believe? If the man himself is to be believed," Elise went on, circling the federal agent as she made her way to sit behind her antique desk. "Tsk tsk tsk," she clicked her tongue. "Even a fledgling fed like yourself should really know better than to get involved with someone you had previously represented. The conflict of interest alone should be enough to get the case tossed."

Jill scowled at Elise as she walked in. She may have been right -- okay, she was right -- but the agent wasn't going to let that stop her. And she sure as hell wasn't going to let this -- wait, what the hell was Elise, anyway? -- step all over her. Those days were long past.

"First of all, I didn't know he was the dealer until they brought him in and I saw him in the interrogation room," she shot back. "And secondly? They won't take me off this case because out of everyone over at the FBI, no one understands this stinking little hellhole better than me. You see, the reason you stomp all over everyone in the court room is because no one knows what you're capable of. You prey on ignorance.

"The federal prosecutor won't be behind that particular eight ball. Do all the spells you want -- wear out your Mystical Resources department, for all I care. The beauty of the truth being out now, we've got one of those too. And I bet that just twists the Senior Partners' panties in a way that gives me pleasure. Really, I've got a tingle."

When Jill was first told to interview Dylan's attorney at Wolfram & Hart, she resisted ... until she realized the advantage she had from already having been within the firm's walls. It was two days ago she realized just who Dylan's new lawyer was ... so that line she fed him about the firm no longer having an interest in his dealings was a lie, after all.

"Try all you want to scare me off," Jill added, placing her fists on the surface of Elise's desk. "I'm not going anywhere until your client is rotting in a jail cell and you've been handed your pink slip on the blade of an ax."

"First of all," Elise responded, mimicking the agent's voice with surprising clarity as she repeated her phrase. "Even a dolt like yourself should have known to head for the door as soon as you recognized your suspect. It doesn't matter what the federal prosecutor thinks of your enormous glaring fuck-up. What it comes down to is the judge, and any judge with even half a brain cell will be able to immediately see your infringement on my client's rights."

Now seated behind her desk, Elise leaned back and clasped her hands together atop her knee. "Secondly ... dear girl, I'm not going anywhere. Let the man rot in jail if it comes to it - though I doubt it. Hell, give him the chair - they still do that in this state, you know. But if you think for even half a second that you're going to do a damn thing to my career, you really have another thing coming."

She leaned forward, hands placed on the desk. "If you think for even a moment that you can waltz in here and try to browbeat me with your paltry threats, you're nowhere near as intelligent as some here once thought you. This goes beyond you, beyond your piddly government. The firm has been around for centuries and I will be working here quite happily long after there is nothing left of you but a bit of gristle stuck in someone's teeth. Are we clear?"

Jill could find a way to handle the judge, but she wasn't going to voice that little plan. Elise would be able to use that in the trial, and Jill had to use her knowledge of the firm somehow. If that meant playing a little dirty sometimes, then so be it.

"Your clients' rights," Jill answered with a bemused smirk. "How convenient, if it weren't for the fact that he's dealt with vampires and some of those he's sold drugs to have died as a result of vampire attacks. As I recall, where vampires are involved, a client's rights are up to the judge's discretion."

This would be so much easier if the Supreme Court would get off its nine ancient asses and actually make a decision. Courts were being flooded with cases involving the undead, most of whom were being represented in one way or another by Wolfram & Hart.

"We don't go by the book anymore," Jill added. "In a lot of ways, we can't afford to. Hell, we'll re-write the book, if we have to."

Opening her briefcase, Jill flopped a blue folder on Elise's desk, watching as a couple loose slips of paper slid onto the desk surface. A knowing smile played across her lips, and Jill folded her arms again.

"You don't scare me anymore ... especially when we have a letter of confession signed by him for every person his drugs have killed over the past year."

"Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States. Nardone v. United States," Elise replied simply. "Wong Sun v. United States. This is first year textbook fruit from the poisonous tree. The very moment you stepped into that interrogation room and didn't turn right back around and step out, you tainted your case. Anything that came afterwards is inadmissible, and you know it."

She yawned, stifling the gesture with the back of her hand. "Think what you like, dear. The laws haven't changed and unless you want to unleash absolute bedlam in the court systems, they must be followed. Even if you get this absolute trash of a case past a judge, it'll be overturned on appeal. Are we done here, Agent Andersen?"

At that very moment, Jill wanted to reach across the desk, grab a tuft of Elise's hair and slam her nose-first into the wooden surface. The only reason she didn't was the badge handing off the right breast pocket of business suit; the FBI wouldn't take kindly to Jill roughing up one of her suspect's attorneys. Off the record, they would agree someone who worked for Wolfram & Hart deserved to have their nose snapped in about three different places. But at the end of the day, it was against the law to physically assault an attorney.

So in that regard, this little -- freak -- lucked out.

"For now," she answered with a narrow-eyed glare. "You and I are far from through. I may not be able to bring down the Senior Partners, but if I live long enough to see them devouring your intestines, that'll be plenty for me."

Closing her briefcase, Jill snarled at the lawyer, feeling a twist in her gut for a brief moment. Once it passed, she merely felt a sense of euphoria, thankful to God every second she no longer had to work in this place, facing the stench of death and corruption every day. How she wound up here in the first place was a matter for another time, but given the fulfillment of her current job, it really didn't matter.

"In the meantime, have fun burning in hell."

Elise gave a short, tinkling laugh, watching the agent make her way to the door.

"Oh, no one really eats intestines, dear. They rip them out, mess about, play with them a while. But they taste all bile and bitter."

You would know, wouldn't you?

Leaving Elise's office, Jill scowled at literally everyone she walked by, disgusted with their ignorance -- or their compliance, if they actually knew what this place was. The fact that she used to be one of those people made her hate them even more, though she did feel a twinge of sympathy for the ignorant ones, the ones who honestly thought Wolfram & Hart was just a massive corporation.

Even then, in this day and age, they should've known better.

Finally walking back out into the sunlight, Jill flipped open her phone, pressing it to her ear. "Director," she spoke. "We have a problem. A big problem."