Fallen

It had been six months. The longest six months of his life. Jezzie was as smart as he had thought. She was quite to call any of his bluffs that she could catch. And she had caught quite a few of them. Not all of them though which continued to give him hope in his own abilities. He had one problem though. It wasn't a little problem, it was a big problem. The worst of all he seemed to face with Jezzie Yale: she wouldn't let go of that pedophile boyfriend of hers. She had said she had, but Henry knew better. She was lying to him and there honestly wasn't much he could do about it which made it all that much worse.

His co-workers weren't making it any better. After all, they were just waiting for him to fail. They had continuous bets running as to when he would throw in the towel. He refused to let Jezzie go down like that though. After all, someone had once stood up for him and it was the least that he could do to do it for someone else. Now if that someone else would make his life easier, then that would be another story entirely....

Henry shook his head and flicked off the little lamp at his cubicle. It was already almost eleven o'clock on a Friday night. While most of his co-workers were likely either asleep or having fun, he wasn't allowed that kind of luxury. For one thing, he had to hunt down his little case file before she got herself into trouble. Then again, considering Jezzie, she likely already was in trouble so he actually had to bail her out.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out groaning internally at the number he saw painted across the screen before he finally yielded and answered it. "Maddox," his accent was as crisp as ever.

"Heya Henry, It's Cullen down at the lock-up. Your girlfriend's here and causing hell. You wanna come pick her up?"

Henry sighed heavily clearly weighing his options. If it was anyone else, leaving her there might teach her a lesson. Unfortunately, Henry had learned quickly that Jezzie didn't just know the judges by name, she knew most of the police force as well. And she had pet names for every single one of them. "I'll be there in a few minutes," Henry promised before snapping his phone shut. He scrubbed his hands over his face and stood up before slipping the black box on his desk into his pocket.

He didn't feel, at the moment, as if he should give Jezzie what he had bought for her a few days ago. Then again, it was her sweet sixteen. Everyone deserved a gift for their birthday and Jezzie probably hadn't had anything that wasn't for crime or sex given to her in all of her life. He knew because she tended to try to make him uncomfortable by talking about it. Luckily she had yet to realize how well she succeeded at it.

His beat up car sat in the parking structure next to the state building his office resided in. He told the janitor good-bye as he slipped into the large, now open area. It would have unnerved most people to walk across all the vast emptyness that made up the parking garage while everyone else was gone, but Henry had been through far worse to show any real concern over the matter.

As he walked past one of the pillars though, he felt his old instincts kick in and started to duck away from the floor-to-ceiling concert beam a moment too late. Something hard hit the back of his head missing where his temple had been a moment before. The throbbing pain and force of the blow brought him to his knees as darkness clouded his vision.

"Damn, lawyer pig's fast," he heard someone say as he shook his head. It only made things worse.

"Hit him again," a second voice commanded. That one he recognized. He didn't have more time to think on it as he pitched forward and was forced to surrender to the darkness.