Mrs Jones (GxG)

23.{...and I will regret nothing}

TW: Pregnancy loss/sexual content

Drew's POV

My fingers danced across the keyboard with a staccato rhythm, each keystroke punctuated by a sigh or a muttered curse. The documents on my screen were a jumble of poorly formatted paragraphs, citations that led to nowhere, and arguments that meandered like a stream with no source. I highlighted a particularly egregious section, my cursor hovering over the 'delete' key with a kind of vindictive pleasure before I pressed it and watched the words disappear.

"This is like trying to untangle a ball of yarn after a cat's had its way with it," I grumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose in a vain attempt to stave off the headache that was building behind my eyes.

"Now imagine having to deal with this every single day," My mother said in a tired voice. I didn't want to imagine. I didn't want to imagine at all.

I leaned back in my pillows, the papers strewn across my side of the bed as I tried to put the chaos to order. There were sticky notes plastered around my monitor, each one scrawled with a different issue to address, and stacks of case files on my nightstand that seemed to lean precariously as if they too were exhausted by their own disarray. I reached over and dragged my fingers through Reilly's hair, needing to just feel her skin against mine for a moment, while I responded to my mother's last statement. "No, but Mom, whoever is working that WM larceny case needs to be fired and sent back to law school. I'm honestly believing a team of kindergarteners put this together because there's just no way."

I picked up a page only to find it was part of a different case file altogether. I tossed it aside, where it fluttered down to join the other misfiled pages on the floor. My phone conversation with Mom provided a momentary distraction as I rifled through the papers, each one more frustrating than the last. Mom chuckled at my last statement. "How hard is it to follow a template?" she asked.

"Or to actually proofread?" I suggested. I took a deep breath, trying to centre myself and picked up another page, scanning it quickly before letting out an incredulous laugh. "A case citation from 1892?"

Reilly chuckled next to me. "Were they writing a historical novel?"

I shook my head. "Babe, you would have sworn it was and not a legal brief. I think we need to have a workshop for them or something!" I crumpled the paper in my hand, the physical act of doing so providing a brief catharsis before I smoothed it out again, knowing I'd had to find the correct reference. 

Reilly sighed, but the furrowing of her brows let me know she was giving the idea a serious thought. "I think a workshop could do them some good. Thoughts, Jenny?"

"Would you two be privy in seeing to it?"

"I don't mind," Reilly quickly volunteered. "Babe?"

"I mind but I would not like to be this much stressed out again so anything to prevent that. Yes to the workshop."

"Alright, I'll talk to your father and we'll plan a date and time."

"Sounds good," I glanced at the clock, the minutes ticking away as if to mock my lack of progress. With a determined set to my jaw, I turned back to the screen, my hands poised over the keyboard. "Okay, let's try this again," I whispered, the fight not yet gone from me. "For justice, for sanity, and for the love of all that is organized."

"Maybe you should go to bed and finish this tomorrow?" Reilly suggested. 

I weighed her suggestion for a few silent moments before responding. "Maybe I should. Let me finish this last one?"

"Okay, babe."

I gave her a small smile and leaned over to kiss her on the lips. She smiled but her eyes remained closed the whole time. I returned to sitting back against my pillows, hearing my mother having a faint conversation with someone in the background. Who was that? Was that my dad? I decided to pry. "Mommy, where's Dad?" I asked, my phone tucked between my ear and shoulder as I typed away at my keyboard. My mother had asked me to go over the paperwork for some cases her paralegals were working on. She just wanted to make sure everything was up to standard. They weren't.