Survivor

Chapter Eight

A week later, Quinn paces the living room of Meredith's house, mumbling to herself. Jo is at the hospital working, Meredith sitting in her own chair, leg propped up with a couple of pillows, watching her lawyer intently. She had been to three therapy sessions so far. Well, two. She had flat out refused to go to the first one and it took a lot of convincing from Cristina, Alex, and Derek to get her to go to the next two. Even then, she sat in the room in complete silence, neither she nor Dr. Wyatt saying anything.

Now though, Alex and Cristina are in the kitchen, Derek leaning against the doorway of the living room. 

"...which proves that William Dunn is guilty and deserves to be put on death row before he can hurt anyone else." Quinn finishes, stopping her pacing and taking a deep breath. The front door opens, Meredith's gaze snapping to the doorway as she tenses, relaxing when Olivia Prenton walks in.

"Sorry," She says, hanging up her jacket and snapping off her gun holster and setting it on the coffee table next to Derek's, within arm's reach, then sitting comfortably on the couch. "Where are we, Quinn?"

"Glad you finally decided to show up." Quinn retorts, and everyone from the kitchen comes to the living room. "I think I've gotten through everything Annalise could possibly bring upon any of you and found ways to get around it. I talked to our expert witness, Dr. Jennifer Stanley, she is possibly the most boring woman I've ever met and has done absolutely nothing in her life that could be used to discredit her in court. But just in case, I've contacted a second ME. I sent Vanessa digging on William Dunn and Matthew and Mary Trahkcol. I've gotten some stuff here and there, but I'm still waiting on more."

"So in other words, you feel confident?" Olivia asks.

"I do, but not overconfident. The law is a game of chess, figure out your moves, and play your opponent by their strengths and weaknesses. Use loopholes, bend the rules to get what you need. If you say one wrong thing you could lose your entire case."  This speech only gets confused looks from the people in the room, so Quinn sighs.  "Yes, I feel confident. I've researched Annalise and her coworkers and am figuring out how they like to play, so I can use it to my advantage." 

These words get smiles from everyone, a flicker of hope lighting in Meredith's darkness. 

"But this is going to last days, isn't it?" Meredith says, more of a statement than a question.

"Yes, I would estimate four, maybe more. Shouldn't go over six though." The lawyer replies. Meredith's face falls and she closes her eyes, imagining the hell it's going to be. "I'm sorry," Quinn apologizes quietly. The blonde only shakes her head in response.

"Um, I've only ever seen the court shows on TV, is this going to be anything like that?" Cristina cuts in.

"You've never been to court?" Derek laughs.

"No! I've never had a malpractice suit and my job isn't to chase down lunatics then sit in court for them all day." The surgeon snaps back.

"Okay, if that's what you think my FBI team does you have got a whole other thing coming."

"Yes, you should be thanking us, if we hadn't caught all the serial killers we have-" Olivia joins in, siding with her boss.

"Thanking you? You seem to have forgotten the time Mer and I saved your ass when you got shot." Cristina spits at Derek.

"Got shot trying to catch a psychopath!" Derek defends himself.

"Keyword: trying." The wild-haired woman snorts.

"Okay, you listen here-" Derek stands from the couch.

"Enough, you all are children." Meredith puts an end to the conversation, for the first time in weeks having a smile on her face. Despite her voice being soft and not commanding whatsoever, all the people in the room fall quiet. "Both jobs save lives every day. How about that?"