want to give you back

[usattorney]

want to give you back;
Luke reflexively wraps his arm around Janet as they sit together at the back of the courtroom. One could say he shouldn't have done that since she's not his girlfriend anymore. But it's an instinct, like he's protecting her knowing the man who almost killed her is going to be 20 feet away. He would beat Vincent's ass if he came anywhere near Janet, and he's definitely thought about doing it anyway.

They both shouldn't be here. Luke has too much of a temper and Janet is still traumatized from having to relive the First National shooting three weeks ago. But both of them want to show Vincent that he won't stop them. Both of them want to see him suffer the way he made her suffer—assuming that Kevin can use the notes from Holden, the two mock cross-examinations they did, and his 15 years of trial experience to break him down. Luke's got plenty of faith in his best friend, but he also has very high expectations.

"You doing okay?" he asks his ex, who hasn't said a word since they arrived in the courtroom. "I'm fine," she mutters, and he's not sure if she's being truthful or not.

Vincent's testimony makes his blood start to boil again. It's exactly the kind of insufferable bullshit he'd expect from a murder defendant—trying to deflect, saying that no one actually saw him at the crime scene, the gun may have been his but they can't prove he was the one using it, that he knew Jack Ford but so did Richard Whitehouse and a dozen other people. Since the defense's attempt to demonize Jack has failed, canceled out by Janet's testimony that he didn't get her shot, they're looking toward anyone else in his organization.

The problem is it's his organization. And Richard Whitehouse has been in prison for seven months. Luke looks down at Janet as a way of keeping his emotions steady, while Kevin tries to make up for the lack of physical evidence by using every bit of circumstantial proof like a web to circle around Vincent until it couldn't be anyone else but him.

This has to work. They need to break him, because if he's created even a sliver of reasonable doubt, this case is over.

Janet rests her head against Luke's chest and closes her eyes. She doesn't want to see what happens next. He watches Kevin like a hawk, unable to stop his prosecutor instinct from making him think about what he'd do in this situation. What Kevin should be doing. He listens as Kevin shifts from his usual cool demeanor to aggressively pushing Vincent, trying to provoke him into a reaction by playing to his ego. Now it's not about the facts—now it's about raw emotion.

With his alpha personality confronted by Kevin's alpha posturing, Vincent snaps.

"That motherfucker got what was coming to him," he retorts. "You get all up in someone else's business, you deserve to get shot."

"He was quite clearly up in your business," Kevin replies. "So did Jack Ford deserve to get shot?" It's a question he leaves open-ended, to let Vincent and the jury think on that, with a look that just dares the other man to answer. To admit that he wanted Jack dead. But Vincent can't answer as that would be confirming he had motive. The one thing he's claimed he doesn't have.

This goes on for a few more minutes. Luke watches his best friend hammer Vincent on owning the exact same gun as the murder weapon, which conveniently went missing around the same time as the shooting. That someone who claims to be so in control of his organization wouldn't lose track of a weapon like that. How in control is he really? Maybe he's never had that much control if Jack was able to step in and so easily take out a major piece of his business. Maybe he doesn't have the power.

"Fuck you," Vincent tells him. "I'll kill you and I'll come back and finish that bitch."

His defense attorney immediately moves to have the outburst stricken from the record, but Luke's not listening because he's looking at Janet. She's just heard Vincent threaten her life for the second time and she's still against him, taking a deep breath. She straightens and opens her eyes. "Fuck him," Luke urges her. "He's not gonna get to you." But that's not what Janet is concerned about. She wants to make sure Vincent sees her and sees that she's not hiding from him. Even as she's still scared and drained by what he put her through.

I can't remember how it went
You looked like everything I wanted
And as you came along
Slowly everything began to change
I got you now

Court adjourns fairly quickly after that and Luke doesn't wait for the judge to formally call it off before he's escorting his ex-girlfriend out. He wants her outside before anyone can badger her with questions or ask needlessly if she's okay. He knows Bryan Ritter is a few steps behind them but he doesn't want to talk to his colleague right now. Luke wants a moment alone with Janet so she can come up for air. Literally as he watches her take a deep, slow breath that strains her chest.

He can't even say this is for certain if the judge instructs the jury to disregard Vincent's remarks, so he doesn't try to placate her with promising that this will get them a conviction. He just wants to make sure she feels safe again. Something he hasn't always been great with before.

"It's over," he says. "Don't worry about it. You've done everything you could do."

"You think he's going to try to kill me again?" Janet asks.

"You know I don't know that." Luke shakes his head. "But he's going to have to go through me to do it."

Through him, and Bryan, and Holden once the other man hears about this. Janet nods, knowing that he knows just as much as she does about what the future holds.

"I'll take you home," Luke suggests quietly, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they begin a slow walk down the hall. "And if you want me to stay until Holden gets home... I can do that."

Janet doesn't answer him right away. Luke doesn't expect her to. As much as she hates her father, she's just heard someone say he deserves a bullet in the skull (something Luke would say but never to her face). She's just stared at the monster who could have ended her life and heard that he wants to try again. The man who wrecked almost everything she built for herself. Mostly, after months of physical therapy and struggling to feel useful again and even to look at herself in the mirror, she just wants this to be over.

When they're waiting for the elevator he pulls her into a hug. Luke wishes he could give her so much more than he is now. For the first time, faced with losing her the way he lost their daughter, his heart is completely open. But he knows that her home isn't with him anymore. This is all that he can do. "I love you," he whispers into her hair, so she can't hear it.

I want to give you back
I want to give you back
Somewhere out of here