Paying Due Diligence

Posted on Fri Nov 8th, 2024 @ 11:26pm by Meilin Jiang & Ethan Hale

2,466 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 5: Days of Fortune Past
Location: Manhattan | Law Offices of Hodge & Associates
Timeline: November 6th, 1990

The hustle of Manhattan’s Flatiron District was in full swing, with the metallic gleam of skyscrapers reflecting the late morning light. Meilin stood outside the imposing building where Hodge & Associates kept its office, waiting for Ethan beneath the height of the tower. The entrance was sleek, modern, with a marble façade and tall glass doors that seemed to swallow people as they entered.

Meilin was dressed in a sharp, tailored suit in eggshell white. Her long black hair, sleek and tied back, barely moved in the breeze as she watched Ethan approach. She exuded professionalism but with an edge of ease.

"Ethan, right?" she asked, offering a firm but quick handshake. Her voice was steady, controlled, but there was a hint of warmth beneath her cool demeanor. "I’m Meilin. Professor Xavier tells me you have an interest in interning with us."

Melin looked, well, human. She also looked quite stunning. If Ethan had been straight, he might have been attracted to her, though that would probably be considered unprofessional, and that was the last thing that he wanted.

Ethan would never be mistaken for a human. Still, he had done his best to look decent. The charcoal gray double-breasted suit, almost fit him, though it looked more than a little peculiar in the back.

"Yes," he nodded, managing to keep his smirk small. "That's me. I really appreciate the chance to do this."

"Good," Meilin said, "because I may have embellished your qualifications in order to get you in the door." She winked at him. "I'm kidding. Your official position is with the paralegals which means you're technically the slave of whoever calls on you. Stay in my shadow, though, and you shouldn't have too much trouble."

"Avoiding trouble hasn't always been easy for me," he candidly replied. "Being buried under a pile of work will probably be good for me. And I'm betting that real life is nothing like that new show Law and Order either."

Meilin rolled her eyes at him. The new show was all the rage around the office and she just didn't have the time.

"So," Ethan began to ask, "aside from staying in your shadow, what's my first step? What do you want me to do?"

"I prefer green tea over coffee, so you could brew me some in the employee lounge," Meilin said as she guided him through the ground floor, "and then while it's steeping, you can go down to Records and see if they have my documents ready." She pointed at the elevator. "It's in the basement." She passed by the elevator and stopped at the Mail Room just off the building's main lobby.

"Can I help ya?" asked the clerk at the service counter. It was the closest to courtesy as one might expect from someone in that role.

"Hodge & Associates, care of Meilin Jiang," she answered. "I'm expecting an important parcel."

"Let me see..." the clerk said as he pushed his glasses down the ridge of his nose and reviewed the log. "Hodge... Hodge... Hodge... no, ma'am, not as of this morning."

"Alright, thank you," Meilin answered with a polite smile. She turned around and let her more honest taciturn expression fall on Ethan. "You can add that to your list as well. Check back here after visiting the Records Department."

"Tea, records, parcel," he repeated. I think I can handle that." He'd been expecting grunt work, especially his first day, so he wasn't disappointed. "You didn't say what kind of tea you prefer. That would be a big help."

"I did say, in fact," Meilin corrected. "Green tea. But any brand will do." They rode the elevator together and it opened on Hodge's floor. "The lounge is to your left, the restrooms are to your right, and my desk is in the central cluster with all the other first-year associates."

"I will go start on those chores you assigned me," Ethan said. "Is there anything else you'd like me to do? Get you a Wall Street Journal or a USA Today perhaps?"

Meilin smirked at that. "No. I'm an attorney, not a stock broker. If you have any questions, feel free to come ask. Otherwise I have a brief to draft."

Ethan gave his mentor a brief nod, then made his way to the break room drawing more than a few stares along the way. He was wearing theGlamor function on the costume he wore beneath his suit, but it didn't hide his wings.

Leaving it on the stove to seep, he made his ways down to records. "Excuse me," he said to the clerk behind the desk, "I'm the new intern here, do you have the documents ready for Melin Jiang ready?"

"Yeah..." The heavyset woman in horn-rimmed glasses pointed at a stack of cardboard boxes full of records. "They're somewhere in there. You can use the hand truck if you want." She pointed at the hand truck. It was lopsided on account of the flat tire. "All yours, kiddo."

Ethan rolled his eyes. The hand truck was virtually useless and he had neither the time nor the talent to fix it. Then again, he didn't really need it. He didn't have the strength of some of his teammates, but he was undoubtedly stronger than an ordinary eighteen year old.

"Could you be more specific?" he queried as the began unstacking boxes.

"Sorry, pumpkin, can't be any more specific than Miss Jiang was," the lady said. "The records she requested are all there. You might want to make multiple trips. Let's just say workman's comp claims are frowned on around here."

"She wants all of these? Ethan asked for clarification. Then with a shrug of his shoulders, he picked up the four boxes, lifted and carried them to Melin's desk space.

"Is this what you want?" he asked.

Impressed that Ethan had lugged all four boxes without any help, Meilin allowed her brow to arch slightly. "Yes, actually. Just put them in front of my desk. Did you check with the mail room again?".

"Not yet," he replied as he sat down the boxes. After giving them a closer scrutiny, he rearranged them.

As he was leaving, he looked over his shoulder and replied, "That's next on my agenda and then I'll bring you, your tea. Unless there is anything else you want me to do?"

"I just put in an order at Panucci's," Meilin said. "If you duck out early, you won't get saddled with anybody else's lunch order."

"I like the sound of that," Ethan said. "When I bring your tea, I'll grab some money from you and leave about 11. Is that early enough?"

Meilin handed him a key without looking away from her stack of briefs. "It's to the petty cash drawer. Sign out whatever you take and leave the receipt when you get back." Realizing how that sounded, she paused long enough to look up at him and smile. "Thank you, Ethan. You're doing great." Her smile faded before she resumed her proofreading.

He slipped the key in his front pants pocket and started to make his way down to the mail room. He turned the corner to head down the stairs when a harried-looking lawyer who appeared to be about ten or fifteen years older than him plowed into him. If he'd been just a bit slower or weaker, he would have been knocked over.

He had the most amazing translucent eyes Ethan had seen. There was something about them that was sexy and predator like at the same time and Ethan didn't know how he should feel.

"Hey," the older man said, irritation growing in his voice until he got a good look at Ethan. After taking his full measure, the man smiled. "You're new around here, eh? Always good to have fresh meat."

Ethan wasn't sure how he should react to that. Was this harmless banter? Some kind of advance? Or something different.

He was tempted, briefly to show his claws, but it was his first day, and he didn't want it to be his last

So, instead, he gave the man a smile that at least had the veneer of innocence. "I am new around here. What gave it away?"

The man just snickered at being right. He was always right.

"I'm Ethan by the way. What's your name?"

"Chad," the man replied with a perfect smile. "Chad Vickers. Pleasure to meet you, Steven. Now that we're friends, why don't you head on down to the corner espresso stand and get me a double shot." His perfect style turned amused. "Two sugars, twist of lemon. Got that, Steven?" He gave Ethan a wink and clicked his tongue against his cheek. "Gotta run! Bring it to my office like a good intern."

The man called Chad pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "Still there, Robbins? Yeah, something came up. Don't worry, we do this all the time. No, nobody looks into what 'entertainment' means. Don't be such a puss! What's a party without hookers and blow? Tell the wife you're working late. Always works for me!"

Harmless banter it had been which both relieved and irritated the new intern. Any allure Ethan had felt stirring dissipated immediately. Pretty eyes and a perfect smile meant nothing when they came from an asshole.

He continued down to the mail room. Chad hadn't exactly told him when he had to pick up the coffee. Ethan could always play dumb if called on it.

After collecting the mail, the petty cash, and lunch, Ethan pushed open the door to the bull pen where Meilin's desk sat, balancing a hefty brown paper bag in one hand and a small stack of envelopes in the other. The unmistakable smell of a stromboli from Panucci’s filled the room, mingling with the usual scent of old paper and coffee. As he placed the bag carefully on her desk and handed over the mail, Meilin's eyes caught sight of a terrible development.

Meilin barely glanced at the bag as her eyes locked on the stark red Return to Sender stamp staring back at her from the top piece of mail. A barely perceptible crease formed between her brows, and she pressed her lips together. Her fingers traced the edge of the envelope, and a slight sigh escaped before she let out a terse, "No..." Her demeanor cracked ever so slightly. "No, no, no!" She smoothed down her pantsuit and forced aplomb back into her demeanor "Not today... today’s the deadline.”

"What's going on?" Ethan asked noticing the shift in her emotions. "Is there something I can help with? What deadline are you talking about?"

"What's going on is that one of my legal cases is teetering on the edge of disaster," Meilin replied calmly if a little stern in her tone. "This was one of my first cases, a rent control dispute in Queens. The defendant's legal team has been using stalling tactics, but this is one of Mr. Hodge's pro bono cases, so there's nothing to bleed dry. It looks like they've resorted to playing dirty pool. See the postmark?" She held up the envelope. "This was mailed three months ago through certified mail. I have the receipt that it was delivered, yet here it is..."

On a hunch, Meilin pulled out her receipt book and verified the information. She flipped to the date in question. A Xerox copy of the delivery confirmation showed a horrifying detail. "It's the wrong address. They don't match. Certified mail delivered it to the wrong address." Shaking her head, Meilin's mind raced with what to do next. "If this notice is not placed in the defendant's hand today, then the whole case could be thrown out."

Meilin's eyes darted toward the wall of windows and the cityscape beyond. "I'm not sure what to do. Sending it by special courier has no guarantee of them getting it by end of business." By now she was just talking to herself, verbalizing her internal frustrations. "Don't worry about it, Ethan. This isn't your responsibility. It's mine. I'll think of something..." Like finding a new job.

Ethan furled his wings. "I'll make you a deal," he spoke up, "I'll fly that to its destination if you handle this asshat named Chad."

"Chad Vickers?" While Meilin didn't rise to a full blown scoff, she still rolled her almond eyes at the mention of him. "He's special counsel to Mr. Hodge. He doesn't even have a desk. He's taken over the secondary conference room until his big case is over. Don't worry about him. Problems like him blown away on their own like chaff in the wind."

Looking down at the envelope in her hand, then at Ethan's unfurled wings, Meilin smirked. "Let's get to the roof."

"Beats running errands," he replied as he exited the room stopping to hold the door open for her.

On the rooftop, Meilin handed over the envelope, giving Ethan a look that was both grateful and determined. “You have no idea how much you’re helping, Ethan. Get it to the Queens address on the certified label, and make sure it’s in the defendant’s hands by five. And remember—this is our last shot.”

"You can count on me," he said, before taking off his jacket and handing it to her. He glanced at the picture to get an idea in his head the direction he needed to go, before turning and taking to the air.

When he returned an hour or more later, Meilin was overjoyed. "You did it. You really did it!" She allowed herself a brief moment of giddy celebration before her taciturn aplomb returned. After filing the receipt of delivery Ethan had given her, she asked, "What do you think about your first day at law?"

"It was a good day. I really enjoyed getting out for a while. And the best part is no one was trying to kill me and I didn't have to deal with any 'Oh my god, you're a mutant' drama. That was nice."

"Well, hopefully moments like that are few and far between," Meilin said. "But being able to react swiftly and put out fires is an important part of the job. Most attorneys don't even see courtrooms. They're busy with all this." She waved a hand at the mountain of documents on her desk. "Still interested?"

"Not exactly LA Law but I guess I didn't really expect it to be," Ethan said. "Yes, I am still interested. I'm at least coming back for Day 2 and finding what it's like."

Meilin allowed herself a small, satisfied smile. “Good answer,” she replied. “See you next week, then—same time. Preferably with green tea in hand.”

RSS Feed