Page 54 of For the Love of the Lawyer

He swallowed the lump in his throat. "I think you look lovely, sweetheart. Why don't you and Miss Cece go take a seat. The Asberry's should be here any minute." Jon glanced at his watch to see they were due in the courtroom in fifteen minutes, and the couple was late.

The worry in him ticked up because he hadn't met the husband and wife in person, only judging them based on a phone interview and the documentation and recommendation from Cece, who was also the social worker assigned to Miles.

“They're the perfect couple to take her, Jon. They've worked miracles with Miles, and his challenges are far worse than Megan's." Jon had believed the woman, but the later the Asberry’s were, the more worried he’d become.

The three of them sat in the hallway until a bailiff called their case, along with six others. Jon took his cell from Megan, because she'd been playing a game on it, and led the little girl into the courtroom, placing her in the chair next to him because they were the first up, according to the docket.

"All rise," the bailiff demanded. Jon stood and took Megan's hand to help her stand next to him though she could barely see over the table.

"The Honorable Barry Mattucik presiding.” The judge walked in and took a seat, signaling for everyone to sit down.

"First case," the judge ordered as he pulled glasses onto his large face, glancing around the courtroom before his eyes settled on Jon. The judge then glanced at the little girl with the big brown eyes sitting next to him. The man smiled at Jon and turned back to the bailiff.

"Family Court Case Docket ending in 67734. Custodial Hearing, In Re Megan Doe."

Jon rose from his seat. "Good morning, Your Honor. It seems the potential foster family had an emergency that kept them from appearing this morning. I'd like to ask for this court's indulgence to allow us to appear in the afternoon session regarding the temporary custody of Megan Doe. The family should be able to appear by then.” Jon hoped he was being honest.

"Granted. Mr. Wells. They'd better be here this afternoon, first after the lunch break. Next case.” The judge gave Jon a stern look.

Jon led Megan out of the courtroom, praying the family would show up soon. He hated to think they weren't what he'd been led to believe. "How about we go to the café around the corner and get some hot chocolate and a muffin?" he offered as Cece caught up to them.

"Jon, I've got calls into the Asberry’s, and I've got one of the interns going to their house to see what's going on. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned to have Megan with me for the rest of the day, and I need to go downstairs to the juvenile holding center to pick up my next case for a ten-thirty hearing.

“The boy's thirteen and he's had a hard road, Jon. He's difficult to deal with, and it's made him hard to place. He has a newbie lawyer from the public defender's office, but he needs someone… He needs you, Jon. Will you represent him? He's a graffiti expert right now, but he has the potential to be a very talented artist, trust me. You can change his life.” Jon recognized a seasoned manipulator. He knew several of them, including his own dear mother.

Jon could easily see what she was trying to do, and he knew in his heart she was only looking out for a kid who likely just needed a break. From casual conversation, he knew Cece Wright had two sons who were in grad school, one for his PhD in Psychology, and the other for his master’s in City Planning.

Cece was the type of woman who'd done everything so her sons didn't turn into street kids, just like she did with every kid whose file crossed her desk. Jon admired her tenacity, and he knew in his heart it was a losing battle trying to turn her down.

Jon thought back to the beginning of his career when he had so much to prove to his father and Sherman Langley so as not to be just another spoiled, rich kid sucking off the family teat. He fought every battle as if it was his last, and Jon Wells got results.

He was known as a pit bull among his fellow divorce lawyers, seeing the fear in their eyes when he walked into a courtroom. It was a big boost to Jon’s ego.

The day he began taking cases involving children in need of parents and homes, everything seemed to start changing inside him. Every case seemed to chip away a little more at his determination to be the hard-core fighter he'd been early in his career.

He was convinced the callous and Machiavellian scrapper he'd once been tapped out for good when he met his cowboy, and he was half-pissed about it. The other half was grateful.

When he found himself in love with Mickey and the Moran-Collins family in Holloway, he should have known the ruthless divorce attorney he'd been would be forced to the back of his heart.

Compassion and empathy had taken the place of the joy of brought by collecting large settlements for his clients while putting the screws to the other guy for sport. As far as his divorce practice was concerned, he'd been disgruntled with it for a while, and he had a hard time getting himself torqued up to do battle any longer.

Remembering where he was, Jon looked at Megan, that precious smile let him know he was in deep trouble. He cued up the game she'd been playing earlier and handed her the phone. "You sit here and play while I talk to Miss Cece, Angel." The child giggled and took the phone, not watching as Jon led Cece a few feet away.

"Okay. I'll represent your starving artist if you'll get the judge to let me call Audrey Langley to be the temporary guardian for Megan—just in case we can't get the Asberrys here in time for the hearing. She's the perfect person to take care of that little girl and get her out of that institution, and as it appears right now, we don't seem to have any other choices available, do we?

"Look, Cece, I'm gay. I doubt the judge would grant a gay man temporary custody of a four-year-old girl. I mean, I'd never do anything untoward, but caring for a child, boy or girl, isn't anything in which I have firsthand experience. You understand, right? You recommend temporary custody with Audrey, and we'll search for a permanent situation for that sweet girl, maybe even with Audrey?" Jon certainly hoped the woman would see that he was doing the best thing for the girl.

When Cece Wright laughed, Jon's senses perked up. Clearly, she was going to come at him from another angle. "Okay, so I'll advocate for your friend, who I've never met, to Mattucik, tobe the temporary foster parent for Megan, and you'll represent my graffiti artist in front of Morrison? How about you take temporary custody of the boy to get him out of that hellhole of a group home where he lives after you get him released from detention?

"Those kids are becoming hardened criminals while they should still be playin' baseball and dominoes. That home has at least three boys I know are slingin' for the Disciples. I need to get this boy outta that environment, Jon. How about you take Terrence under your wing for, oh let's say three months, and then we'll revisit things?" The kind, loving social worker was bargaining like a seasoned mafia henchman.

Jon cursed his bad luck regarding the boy's judge when he reviewed the case file. Chandra Morrison was known as a “hangin' judge” in the hallways of the juvenile court system. She was tough as nails, and any kid unlucky enough to draw her to hear their case was already doomed.

Jon had appeared before her once with a shoplifting case—a teen girl from a good family suffering from the loss of a younger brother to leukemia. The judge had sentenced the fifteen-year-old to six months in a detention facility and a year's probation with two-hundred hours of community service at a homeless shelter.

The parents had decided it wasn’t good enough, and they’d appealed the verdict. Their new lawyer told them Jon had gotten the girl the best deal available. There were no appealable issues, so they were stuck with Morrison’s sentence, but the appeal itself wasn’t to Judge Morrison’s liking. It wasn’t to Jon’s either.

Jon glanced at Cece. "How the hell did he end up drawing Morrison? She wants to make an example of every kid that appears in her courtroom.”

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