Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Cameron

[ the day after this ]

no directory assistance;
"What the fuck is going on here?"

Luke Cameron can't think of anything else to say when he walks into the financial crimes unit to find the room pitch black and Michael Davis standing under a hole in the ceiling. Michael, in the middle of getting undressed, realizes he's forgotten that he scheduled a meeting with Luke for case review. "The power's out on this floor," he explains, while handing Janet Ford his tie. "I'm going to see where all the wires lead."

"Exactly like you guys to not wait for somebody else to fix it," Luke comments.

Standing there holding Michael's jacket and tie, Janet chimes in, "I still say I could do it."

"No." The reaction comes from both Michael and Luke in unison, both of them recalling Janet's brush with the warehouse fire in New Jersey and the fact she fell out of a ceiling there a few years later. They say it so fast they share an amused look at how they're on the same wavelength for once. But everyone knows Janet and heights are a bad combination.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Luke says, putting his bag down because he can tell he's going to be here for a while. "You're going to climb up in there and put everything back together?"

"I don't know. I'm a psychologist, not an electrician." Michael reminds him. But he does remember that before this was ever his office, it was equipment storage space for the FBI, and so there's a fuse box in the back of the room. He doesn't want to push any buttons there without knowing what might happen when he does. And he's not going to ask any of his colleagues to climb up into the ceiling, so here he goes. Luke instinctively moves over beside Janet to spot him as Michael steps up onto one of the desks in order to pull himself up through the ceiling panel and disappears from view.

Luke has every intention of asking why they didn't just leave it alone when Michael comes down. He appreciates that the financial crimes team is proactive, but this is way out of their job description, and the fact that they're even trying tells him that they either have something massive going on that they can't afford to wait on—which is unlikely since Michael hadn't sounded urgent when he called yesterday—or there's some other reason they can't sit still. And he's here, so he's going to help his friends, though his abrasive personality means he's going to tease them about it.

"If you find a million dollars up there, I'm quitting my job," he calls.

"If I find anything up here, Brennan has some explaining to do," Michael retorts. Luke glances over at Janet. "It'd be just like him to hide something up there, though," he concedes and she agrees. Despite working in a whole other organization, Luke has been around long enough to be well versed in Anthony Brennan's unique way of thinking. He leans up against the desk and folds his arms, waiting to see what happens.

Michael takes a few minutes to look around above their heads before he comes down, and it is also exactly like him to be laying in the ceiling yet not get a single smudge on his still pristine white shirt. "I don't see anything out of order," he says once Janet and Luke help him down, taking his clothes back from his partner. "Not that I have more than a reasonable guess what I'm looking at."

"Should we go hit the breaker?" Adam Lydon asks, and Michael shakes his head. "I'll do it. That way if something goes wrong, it's officially my fault." Before Luke can question that phrasing, he adds, "Can you guys replace that ceiling tile? Brennan will notice if it's not perfectly back in place."

Luke pushes up off the desk to allow Adam and Tayshia Grant room to work, and in one fluid motion takes Janet by the shoulder and steers her aside. "What's going on with him?" he asks as Michael walks away. "I know you guys don't just decide to DIY your own office on a Tuesday night."

"We're working through something," she says with a soft sigh. "I'll let him tell you about it."

That only makes Luke's brow furrow in concern. "I'm here if you need me," he replies, putting a hand on her back and rubbing gently. One more step he's taking to be a good friend and not just a great ally. When Michael returns from the hallway—obviously not having managed to turn the power back on—Luke and Janet follow him into Brennan's office. They can have a conversation by flashlight and what's left of the daylight coming through the bullpen's double doors.

"I didn't learn enough electrical engineering," Michael deadpans. He didn't really expect to solve the problem, but he wanted to try. Luke, as usual, decides to immediately push the real issue. "Janet says you're having a rough day," he says and watches the other man nod slowly. "This hasn't been one of my favorite ones, no. You really want to hear about this?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know."

"Tony fucked off and left the two of us in charge. He's testing us to see how we're coming along before his retirement."

"Doesn't he have a couple more years?" Luke replies incredulously. "Three years," Michael clarifies. "He's made clear to me that he sees the handover as a long-term process. But I didn't see him doing something this abrupt, this early and so we've decided to just play along with it."

"But that doesn't mean you know what to do about it." Luke nods, definitely understanding that feeling. He's known for at least four or five years that Bryan Alexander wants him to be the next U.S. Attorney, and unlike these two has said more than once that he doesn't want the promotion. It wasn't until he had his fight with Bryan after the Melissa Wallace case that it seemed to sink in with his boss, and Luke isn't sure that Bryan isn't still hoping he changes his mind. He privately worries that he'll have to say no emphatically and that when he does, it may destroy their relationship. "I'd just keep doing the best you can," he suggests. "Whatever he expects from you, he's going to tell you. And whatever I can do to help, let me know, even if you just want to complain."

"Thanks, Luke." Michael offers up a small smile. "Let me show you what we've got," he continues, not having forgotten why he called the prosecutor over in the first place. That gives Janet a chance to make her exit. "I'll go help clear everything up," she tells her partner, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder to quietly appreciate his offer of support. No matter how difficult Luke has been or things have been between them, he's always been loyal to the whole financial crimes team. And she knows first-hand that he's not that involved with the DEA and other agencies he works with.

He's loyal because they showed themselves to be the kind of people he wanted to align himself with. And they, in turn, recognize that he's given them more than he does anyone else. Such as, an hour later when the files have been slowly gone over with the flashlight on his iPhone, telling Michael that he's buying him a drink for having to spend part of his day in the ceiling.

devil you know, part 15;
Pat Ryden is the first to congratulate Luke when he returns to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Unsurprisingly, the sight of Melissa Wallace being taken out of the Hoover Building in handcuffs has already created a media buzz, and a press conference is being scheduled as they speak. "Way to go," Ryden says, clapping Luke on the back. "Taking down a congressman's ex-wife, that's one hell of a win."

Luke gives him a smile that isn't as bright as it should be. He feels accomplished, but he also knows it's not over yet. "It'll be a win when Kevin gets a conviction," he points out. But it's his best friend's day off so he can't discuss it with him yet. Nor is Luke sure he's got the mental space for that yet. He walks through to his own office, sets his bag down on his desk and allows himself to take a deep breath. He did what he had to do. What he wanted to do. Wexler hadn't been his choice; this was. This was the first time he'd stepped out of his carefully defined boundaries on purpose and while he doesn't know if he'd do it again, he knows he did the right thing. That's what matters.

He's not surprised when he hears someone in his doorway. Bryan Alexander has watched Luke in and out of the office all week, not missing a deadline or a meeting while trying to close a murder case. luke kept his word and didn't put a foot wrong. "Congratulations," he says. "I thought you could pull it off."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

But that's not the only reason his boss is standing there. "You lied to me the other day," Bryan just comes out with it. "When I asked you if there was anything I needed to know. You didn't tell me about the book."

"I didn't have a choice," Luke retorts. "We couldn't let knowledge of that get out into the public. And for all I knew, people you know were in there."

"Are they?"

"I don't know. I didn't read the whole thing. It'll get handed off to the Political Corruption Task Force to see if any of Wallace's allegations are true." Luke sighs. "This is why I don't want your job," he adds. "I can't deal with this. I just want to close cases."

He's said numerous times that he doesn't have any interest in being U.S. Attorney. But this is the first time that he's so explicitly stated what's holding him back. Bryan files that fact about his prodigal son away for another conversation they're not ready to have. "I do my job so you can do yours," he reminds Luke before he pauses. "You've never held anything back in almost twelve years. That's one of the things I've always respected about you. Even when it could have gotten you fired, you said something. I didn't think you'd ever break my trust."

"I'm sorry," Luke says, because he is. "But I'd do it again."

It has nothing to do with Bryan or whether or not he trusts his boss. It was about protecting the integrity of his case and not starting a potentially unwarranted media firestorm. He made a decision based on the facts, not his emotions. But he understands that to Bryan it feels like Luke didn't trust him enough to at least tell him that he couldn't tell him. The two of them exchange a quiet look before Luke walks out of his office. He knows there's nothing else he can say, that his boss just has to get over it, and he has a press conference to be at.

That evening Michael faces the cameras all over again. This time it's Anthony Brennan giving the prepared remarks instead of Patrick Burton, and he's almost a decade older, but the song remains the same as Brennan gives the details of Melissa Wallace and Thomas Marshall's arrests. Michael stares out into the crowd of reporters and tries not to think about how much attention he's going to get. Back then the Wallace case had jumpstarted his career. Now as a senior agent he knows he'll get more points toward making Assistant Director, but he also cares less. He only wants to leave the whole saga behind him.

Michael glances over at Luke as the Assistant U.S. Attorney steps to the microphone. He's gained respect for Luke knowing the other man stepped up for him without having to be asked, even though it meant being out of his depth. And he can admit that having Luke there made this easier so he didn't have to hold everything in. Because he would have. "I want to start by thanking the FBI, Supervisory Special Agent Brennan and Senior Special Agent Davis for completing a detailed and conscientious investigation," Luke begins. "Despite a complicated case and the history of both the victim and the suspect, they maintained a commitment to justice."

The press conference lasts less than thirty minutes. Just like he did nine years earlier, Michael stops in the hallway on the way back to his office. Except this time it's to size Luke up. It seems wrong to leave it like this. "Thank you," he says. "I couldn't have done this without your help."

"You deserved it," Luke replies. "And frankly, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else." As strange as this whole expedition has been, he cares about Michael. And being aware of what Mark Wallace had done and how he never should've been let out of prison, his anger at the situation would have made him want to at least know what was going on. He had at least held his tongue and not criticized the parole board in his remarks. "How are you doing?" he asks now that it's been a few hours.

"I'm fine. I'll be okay. It's just both times I've dealt with them, they've turned me into someone I didn't want to be." Michael sighs.

"Don't second-guess your decisions." The U.S. Attorney shakes his head. He's not in the habit of doing that anyway but he knows what Michael is thinking. If he made a mistake showing Melissa Wallace compassion knowing now she wasn't as innocent as he believed. "If you hadn't done what you did nine years ago," Luke points out, "you wouldn't have been able to do this."

Michael has to concede the point. Melissa's fatal mistake had been thinking she could use him in her plan. Her coming forward had also immediately put her on their radar. Had she not had that blind spot, the case might still have come together, but it would have taken much longer. That idea makes it a little easier to forgive himself. "How are you?" he asks.

"Bryan's pissed off at me for not telling him about the book. He found out about it when I filed the arrest warrants. But I can live with that."

"Can you?"

"I knew what I was doing. The rest of us can't always be the good guy," Luke comments before he turns and walks away. Michael knows that's meant to be a compliment toward him but he can't help but take it as a reminder that Luke is often the bad guy. It's something he thinks on as he heads back to the third floor.

When Michael steps off the elevator, he hears a familiar voice call his name. He'd completely forgotten that Janet was coming home, but he remembers now that she wasn't supposed to be at work until tomorrow. It's clear that she came here for him. He doesn't argue with the sentiment, just catches her when she runs to him and holds her tightly. "I missed you so much," he murmurs into her neck.

"I missed you too," Janet says, kissing his cheek gently. "I'm glad you're okay. I knew you could do it, but I couldn't stop thinking—"

He knows what the rest of that sentence is. "Don't you dare apologize for not being here," he tells her. "I wanted you to be happy. And you were always with me anyway."

Brennan smiles to himself when he arrives a few minutes later. Eleven years later he knows he made the right choice. "Get a room, you two," he laconically quips as he walks by, causing his subordinates to burst into laughter—which is his entire point.

"Do you want to go get a drink?" Janet offers. "Or what can I do to help you?"

"Be here for me tomorrow." Michael would love nothing more than to spend some quality time with his best friend, but there's something else he needs to attend to first. "I've got somewhere to be tonight," he continues.

A half-hour later he's standing in Luke's doorway with another six-pack of soda. "I thought it should be my round," he says by way of explanation. Luke chuckles before letting him in. They've never been that close, and then five and a half years of personal tension had only made their relationship worse. But for the first time, they can see through each other's eyes and the world looks different.

[End.]

devil you know, part 11;
They're running out of time. Both Luke and Michael know that as they look at each other across the desks in the FBI financial crimes bullpen. Tomorrow morning Michael will go head to head with Melissa Wallace and he only gets one shot to prove she had her ex-husband killed. That's why they'll stay here all night reviewing the evidence if they have to.

Luke doesn't even know what to say to Michael, but he doesn't have to. "Usually this is the kind of obsessive behavior I see from you and Janet," Anthony Brennan interrupts as he appears seemingly out of nowhere. Michael snorts. "I didn't plan on this and he's not as good-looking," he retorts and Luke can only chuckle at what's meant to be an insult but is also actually true. "How much do you have?" Brennan asks. "We're sure Melissa was plotting Mark's murder and got Thomas Marshall involved in it," Michael replies. "We can put her at the scene but not that she did anything. We need his records to put him there—but Luke got a DNA sample we can test against the body."

This gets Brennan to turn and give Luke a skeptical glance and the U.S. Attorney shrugs. "He needs to quit smoking," he says by way of explanation before something else occurs to Michael and he slams his hand down on the desk. "We need a second test," he declares. "We have her DNA from when she was booked in nine years ago. We can get results on that right now."

"Call the crime lab." Luke's eyes widen at the clue he hadn't even thought about. Brennan's already picking up the cigarette butt—long since properly transferred to an evidence bag—off the desk and reaching for his keys. "I'll take it down there," he says. "I can get them to rush the tests." No one has any idea how and they know better than to ask. Brennan has a way of getting what he wants. "Just don't do anything else potentially illegal while I'm gone," he adds as he leaves, because he always has to have the last word.

Michael exhales as soon as his boss has left the bullpen. It's all starting to come together in his mind and he feels that adrenaline rush along with another wave of frustration at how the victims in his case became no better than the person who victimized them. Luke can see that look on his face and gestures toward him. "Say it," he says, knowing it needs to come out now while they can still do something about it.

"Mark goes to Melissa trying to restart his career. She finds out he's double-crossing her again and kills his loan chances. He threatens her with blackmail so she decides to put him down. When Marshall calls, that's the perfect opportunity for her to enlist a patsy. She plays on his anger to get him to commit the murder - and thinks she can sell him out to us. After all, even if he tries to implicate her, there's nothing to suggest her involvement except for the phone call. But her DNA under his fingernails is a massive mistake."

"Smart criminals just make smarter mistakes." Luke replies. "He thought he had it all figured out and you got him, too."

"I know." Michael nods, taking a deep breath. "It also means she's not any better than he is."

Luke knows better than to answer that. The retort on his tongue is that Melissa Wallace was married to Mark for over a decade, so Michael was naive to think she didn't know what she was getting into. She simply wasn't as flawed as her ex. But he understands why Michael would feel that way or want to feel that way—he wants to believe there's some good in people. Luke's moral standards are much less forgiving. He drops his eyes to the paperwork in front of him and starts thinking about what they'll need for trial. "What about the address?" he asks again.

"We never cross-checked it with Marshall." Michael relaxes and settles back into his chair. He turns to the nearest computer and starts searching their databases. After a few minutes of coming up empty, he mentally reviews their conversation with the suspect and something else comes to mind. A glance at the middle school's website and he finds what they've been debating for days. "The guy who owns that home is listed as an assistant football coach at Moriarty Middle School. Marshall chose the location for the murder."

"Which means he can't argue that he wasn't a co-conspirator." Luke nods. "We have to establish the chain of communication. Because you noticed she never texted any of this—so nothing we could recover. Establish a timeline and prove there's no way that there wasn't something going on."

Right after the words leave his mouth, he's getting up to do exactly that. There's a reason there's a white board in the bullpen. Now his expertise is coming in handy; this is going to be a circumstantial evidence case, probably always was if he was honest with himself. He needs to build something logically strong enough so that any DNA is just the cherry on top and that a jury overlooks the ongoing question of the murder weapon. He's writing for several long minutes, knowing Michael's watching him but locked into his own mind. He doesn't stop until he has the entire board full with everything they know or think happened in the last month.

"Fuck," Michael says when Luke steps back. Because the totality of evidence amounts to exactly what he's been saying but hoping wasn't true all along. Nothing ever changed. Mark Wallace never learned his lesson and his wife turned out to be just as ruthless. He feels like the conviction he earned nine years ago didn't mean anything at all.

Luke glances at him because he can guess that feeling. He doesn't want Michael to feel that way. Especially now that he has a better idea of what Michael and Janet went through back then, he knows how much they put into that win. But saying that out loud requires emotions that Luke isn't great at tapping into, and he doesn't want them to come out wrong. "You should get out of here," he demurs. "You can't be working all night when you have to interrogate her in the morning. You've got to be at your best."

Michael knows he has a point, but: "Someone has to be here to wait for the DNA results and pull all this together."

"I'll do it," Luke says with a confidence he's surprised he feels.

The look they exchange is loaded with questions in both directions. Luke has been leaning on Michael to tell him what to do and not to do as an investigator and now he has to trust he can get it right without that security blanket. Michael has to trust Luke with the preparation of a case that he can use to make an arrest. By the time he comes to work in the morning, he'll have only a few hours to go over the details before he meets with Melissa and her lawyer. Their only way through is to completely trust each other.

"Go on, get out of here," Luke repeats. "I'll call you if anything major comes up. And you call me if you need me. But your responsibility is tomorrow. This is on me tonight."

Michael nods and gathers his belongings, silently tossing Luke his keys to the office before he walks out. Luke settles back into his chair to stare at the white board and then turns his attention to the paperwork splayed in front of him to start a new page of notes. That's where Brennan finds him two hours later and leaves him an hour after that. Luke is going to stay in that office as long as it takes to make right what should have never been put wrong in the first place.

devil you know, part 7;
Luke Cameron strides back into the U.S. Attorney's Office with a new determination. He always walks around like he owns the place, but today he's particularly purposeful. Having laid everything on the line with Michael last night, he's even more determined to put whoever killed Mark Wallace behind bars. And he knows that he has to lie to his boss, which has lit a fire under him in another way. If he's going to break Bryan's trust it had better damn well be worth it. So everyone notices when he shows up sans jacket or tie and moves through the bullpen without stopping, going directly to his supervisor's office before Bryan can even finish reading his email. "You have got to stop doing that," his boss comments, but that's before he actually turns his head and sees Luke. Even Bryan Alexander knows not to fuck with him when he has that dead-set look in his eyes. That power is one of the reasons Bryan wants him to be U.S. Attorney someday. "What is it?" he asks cautiously.

"You're the one who wanted to be kept in the loop," Luke retorts before he continues, "We've got several suspects. But we've got a problem with Melissa Wallace."

"The first suspect in any murder is always someone's ex or significant other," Bryan points out. "What's the problem?"

"When Metro made the death notification, her lawyer called the FBI," Luke explains. "She's presenting herself as a potential witness."

"That could be a good—" Bryan cuts himself off when he sees Luke's sarcastic look. The younger man is always skeptical of anyone involved in politics and he's never going to be able to convince him otherwise. "Did they say what she's got to talk about?" he says instead.

"No." Luke shakes his head. "Which is where I need your help. Have you heard any gossip about it? Or can you put your ear to the ground and see if you hear anything? Our key witness from the last case wants to swing this one, too, there's got to be something going on here."

"To be fair, we only flipped her nine years ago because she wanted to screw her husband."

"Well, I haven't ruled that out again either." Luke exhales. "Listen, the FBI has the evidentiary part of this under control. What I need to do is get into the circumstantial evidence. There's going to be reasonable doubt hell unless I can untangle Wallace's issues, and you know that world. I'm not asking you to get involved. I'm just asking if you catch any idea of who is."

Bryan nods. "You forget I used to be you before you got here," he comments, glancing out the window of his office. He hasn't prosecuted more than a few cases in the last fifteen years, but before that he had to make the same climb to the top. He knows what Luke is getting at—specifically the pitfalls he's trying to avoid. The most obvious defense will be to point at all the other suspects, which is exactly what happened in the Dexter Vincent trial, and it just takes one to create doubt. Plus, even though Wallace is deceased, if they dig up anything now related to the prior case, that could still prompt a review. At the very least, it'll be terrible PR for the office, and he needs his team looking like they can handle politically-related investigations. They're in Washington, where half of what happens is politically related. "All right, I have a couple of people I can ask," he concedes. "I'll let you know if any of them talk. Did you find anything else I should be aware of?"

"No," Luke lies, keeping an absolutely straight face. "Not yet."

But he doesn't breathe easy until several minutes later, when he's finished going into his office and checking in with Pat Ryden, and is in the hallway outside. Luke isn't like Janet where lying makes her ill; his morals are a little more flexible. But it still doesn't make him feel good. Bryan has put an awful lot of faith in him over the last eleven years and while he never chose to be the U.S. Attorney's golden boy, he understands it's going to hurt when Bryan finds out he lied. Because it's absolutely going to come out. He harbors no illusions about that. He exhales tightly and steps into the elevator.

When he arrives at the financial crimes office, Michael is already briefing the rest of the team. He slept a lot easier after a late-night conversation with Janet about her and Holden's trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, and he's always been incredibly organized. The video board lists all of the details about the murder, followed by a separate screen about the owners of the home at which Wallace was found. "We still have no connection between him and the Barkers," he's explaining before Luke's arrival gets him to turn his attention to the prosecutor. "How many names did you find?" he asks, pulling Luke aside.

"Seven." Luke exhales. "Four that check to the original case, but I'm more worried about the three new ones. And yes, Melissa is one of them."

"Okay, we've got to work those up first." Michael already knows how to handle that workload. "Tayshia, can you guys look into a couple of people for me?" he asks his colleagues. "Luke's going to give you four names from Wallace's original case. I need to know if they connect to the house and what they're doing now. We'll work the other ones."

"Yeah, sure." Tayshia Grant nods, tossing Luke a pen so he can write the names down for her as she continues to study the board. "The key is going to be where his phone puts him, because whoever he was with the night before probably killed him. In that area, I'm not buying a random attacker."

"Me either. We're still waiting on the phone records and then we'll update the board." Michael breaks up the meeting after that and heads for his and Janet's office with Luke right behind him. He's aware that this isn't about who did it as much as why. If they get a few more details they can narrow down their suspects. The heart of the case is understanding whatever controversy prompted the death and being able to connect the two. "How did your conversation go?" he asks, tossing his jacket over the back of his chair while he eyes up the white board he filled before he left the night before. The one that reminds him of everything that happened nine years ago.

"It was fine. I asked him to tell me if he hears any gossip about who or what might be involved," Luke explains, circling around to Janet's desk. He's trying not to move too many of her things but he still stops to water Grogu as a way of buying them both another minute to calm down. "There's one other question we're not asking yet," he says. "Where's the murder weapon? The people we're looking at are not the type to be carrying knives. Unless they planned this out."

"If that was the case, why not bring a gun?" Michael replies. "No. That's the problem we have to overcome. There's an incongruity between the where and the why we have to solve." He thinks about Miami, which didn't make a lot of sense either until he'd seen the actual dimensions of the crime scene. "It's possible for this to be an impulsive attack by someone he had a history with."

"Then who was stupid enough to get involved with him again?" Luke asks. "Knowing the damage he did, and possibly knowing the havoc he was about to wreak a second time? Who knew what they were in for and still took that risk?" The unanswered question hangs in the air between them, Luke not understanding yet that he's just figured out a disturbing truth.

devil you know, part 1;
Luke doesn't think anything about it when he sees Michael's name pop up on his phone while he's on his way into work. The two of them talk on a semi-regular basis given that Luke prosecutes the majority of Michael and Janet's cases. But when he answers the call, he doesn't expect the first sentence out of his mouth to be "Mark Wallace is dead."

"What?" Luke blurts. "Fuck. When? How?"

"Sometime this morning. In the middle of someone's front lawn," Michael explains, balancing out Luke's rush of emotion with his usual calm tone. "Homicide found him and then they called me."

"Obviously." That part doesn't surprise Luke at all. Wallace's release from prison and the circumstances of why he'd been there in the first place had been all over the news again as soon as it was made public. "Okay, text me the address, I'm coming over," he decides, stepping on the brakes before he makes a very sharp and possibly questionable U-turn at the next intersection.

This is not his job. His job is to make it to the office and do some case review before sitting in on some interviews that Pat Ryden is doing later in the afternoon. But in Luke's head, it is his responsibility. With Janet in California it's his turn to back up Michael. There are other FBI agents who will do that officially, but they don't understand the emotional aspects of it the way he does. They won't know the political implications either. So despite not being an investigator and still not liking any time he pretends to be one, he's putting the address into his GPS and then calling Bryan Alexander.

"I'm not coming in this morning," he says as soon as his boss picks up. "They just found Mark Wallace's body on somebody's lawn."

Bryan doesn't need to be told all the reasons why Luke thinks this is his problem. He's the one who caught Luke looking at the original case file a few weeks ago, and while he doesn't remember that Luke is friends with Michael, he understands that Luke isn't going to wait for a situation this big to come to him. He wants to head it off now. It's a smart move in terms of PR (even though he's absolutely certain Luke hasn't even thought about that) and may allow them to build a better case, so he lets this one go. "Let me know what you find out," he replies. "Do you know anything yet?"

"Not other than that somebody killed him. If you hear anything—"

"—I'll tell you. Don't do anything stupid," Bryan warns him and Luke knows better than to argue. He clicks off the phone and can't resist slamming his head back into the seat. "Fuck," he says again, louder now because any way he looks at it, this is going to be a mess. There is no way that Mark Wallace's death a month after he got out of prison will be a simple homicide. Plus the media attention and the emotional complications. He forces himself to stop thinking about it before he gives himself a headache, following Christie's advice to focus in on the one thing that matters in the moment. What matters most is being there for Michael.

When he makes it to the crime scene, the process of getting out of his Lexus and flashing his ID at the uniform guarding the tape gives him time to deal with his confusion. A quiet street in a nice neighborhood is not where he'd expect Wallace to be found. An upscale club, maybe, or an office building, but not this. This would be beneath him, so why the fuck is he here? It's a question he files away as he catches up with Michael. "How are you doing?" he asks, putting a hand on his back in an awkward attempt at support.

"I'm fine," Michael replies. "Still trying to figure out the basics." He can deal with his own feelings about the murder later. There are other more important tasks to be handled at the moment. He shows Luke to the body, still laying on the lawn surrounded by a half-dozen police technicians looking for evidence. One of the officers standing nearby is Lieutenant Blake Frazier, the head of homicide for the Metropolitan Police who works every single crime scene, who watches Luke have the same perplexed reaction to the violent display in front of them. "Jesus Christ," Luke mutters. "Clearly this was personal."

"Medical examiner's counted over a dozen stab wounds so far, including defensive wounds on the arms. But we haven't turned him over yet, so it could be more." Frazier explains. "He suffered."

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer person," Luke replies before he can stop himself. Luckily he's still looking at the corpse so no one can hear him. He turns back to Frazier and Michael. "What's your first reaction?"

"The fight started out there in the street," Frazier explains, pointing behind them toward a section of the asphalt. "My guess is he got into an altercation with someone and it escalated. He's been here for at least a few hours, so we're looking at about four in the morning. No one's home, so that's not going to help us." He exhales. "What do you two think?"

"He had a hell of a reputation and never apologized for it," Michael replies. "If anyone else was holding a grudge, everyone knew that he was back out on the street." Luke doesn't miss the else included in that sentence, a small admission that Michael himself was still bitter. "We'll take this, if you're okay with that," Michael adds to Frazier. "My office handled his original case and I can't imagine any way this isn't connected to it."

"Yeah, sure," Frazier agrees because he was thinking the exact same thing. There's still a slim chance that this was a crime of opportunity—some random criminal seeing a high-profile target—but the odds of that are so miniscule that he'd rather hand the case off to the team more likely to solve it. "We'll finish the canvass and see if we find any video. Let you know if we uncover anything that's not related."

"Thanks." Michael's attention is pulled away when a uniformed officer comes up to Frazier and informs him that the homeowners have arrived. He can imagine explaining to them that someone died in their yard. "I'll let you go handle that," he says, and steps away so the police can finish doing their work. It's probably also good for him to get that moment of utter shock that he's put off since he got here.

Luke watches Michael as he runs his hands over his head and simply tries to process the new reality now that he can stop focusing on being an investigator. They'd talked early on about the possibility that Wallace caused some kind of trouble once he was paroled, but they had assumed he would be the suspect, not the victim. They weren't prepared for this—and that included emotionally. Michael having to get justice for one of the two people he'd admit to hating was a hard pill to swallow.

Despite that, Luke doesn't suggest Michael turn the case over to someone else. From a practical standpoint Michael is the best person to get the job done because of his previous experiences. That may sound heartless, but the U.S. Attorney knows that someone else botching this would be a disaster both for them and for the FBI. And Michael Davis is nothing if not a consummate professional. Plus, even if he said it, Michael will want to do this himself because he's the one who was insistent that something would go wrong. He's the responsible one and he'll do his job to the letter of the law. That's why it's Luke's job to help him with all the shit he won't want to deal with. Even if he ignores his own emotional health most of the time.

"Say what you want to say," he encourages Michael, now that no one can hear them.

"This is fucking unbelievable," Michael replies. "I had almost started to believe he wasn't going to be involved in some shit—and somebody murders him? It's backwards of what I expected."

"I know, but maybe that's a clue in itself. Focus in on what happened and not what was supposed to happen." Luke sighs, not sure how to say the next part. "For what it's worth, I'm here for you on this. Like I told you, I've got your back."

The words prompt an uncomfortable look between them. Luke knows he's not the person Michael would want to confide in nor is he prepared for it. While they're friends the strain on their relationship over the last few years meant they didn't talk about personal issues unless they were directly related to a case. Luke is more than likely going to say the wrong thing at some point and piss Michael off. But since the Wexler case he's been trying, and Michael respects the effort. He also knows he shouldn't go this alone. "I appreciate it," he finally says. "I have to get my head right and then get to work before this hits the news."

"I'll handle this," Luke assures him. "You need to call Janet."

Michael exhales tightly. "I don't know."

The response genuinely throws Luke for a moment, because he's never expected a time when Michael wouldn't tell Janet everything. But once that passes he understands the other man's hesitation. Janet being Janet, she's going to worry and want to get on the next plane back to Washington. While probably blaming herself for leaving in the first place. "She's going to find out one way or another," he points out, knowing that this will be plastered all over the news as soon as Wallace is identified. "It's better she hears it from you."

"And she'll spend the rest of her vacation worrying about me. After I talk her out of coming back to help. I don't want to take that away from her."

"You haven't held anything back from her," Luke retorts. "Don't start now." It's said with a degree of self-loathing, because he knows he kept his mouth shut about a lot of things around Janet and that's the biggest factor in their breakup. But she and Michael have complete transparency and everyone knows how important that is to her. He's the only person who's never hurt her. Him withholding the truth, especially about something this serious, would do far more damage to their friendship than her anxiously wanting to protect him. Luke walks off to give Michael some privacy, and the other man sighs and reaches back into his jacket for his phone.

While Michael makes the call, Luke goes back to the crime scene and starts trying to gather his thoughts. He's not going to stand around and just be emotional ballast for his friend. He needs to get involved, and that means figuring out what he can do that the FBI can't. Luke scrolls through his phone and finds the number he'd previously gotten for Wallace's parole officer. "We need to talk," he says, "because somebody just stabbed your client seventeen times."

one;

The three of them are sitting in Luke's office. Michael looks nervous but Luke isn't focused on him. His eyes are locked on Janet's, at least as much as she'll look him in the eye. "You don't have to do this," he assures her. "We can make it work with just Michael." He knows the jury will love Michael's testimony like always and all he loses by not putting Janet on the stand is a victim impact statement. He can make that up in his closing. But he watches her bite her lip, the slight shift in her jaw: the little tells that she's debating within herself.

"I want to testify," she says.

Neither of them are particularly happy about it. They don't want her to relive getting shot over again or expose her to pointed questions during a cross-examination. But Luke believes that's her decision. She's the one who decides what she can handle and unless it jeopardizes his case he has no right to say otherwise. So despite Michael's look of resignation, he nods, folding his hands in his lap. "Okay," he says. "I'll get you ready."

"I'll be here."

Michael runs a hand through his hair, still looking at the side of Janet's head like he's begging her to change her mind. When she doesn't his eyes shift to Luke and he says, slightly pointedly, "Can I talk to you outside?"

"Even though I know what it's going to be about, yes," Luke replies and stands from the chair.

Michael turns on him as soon as they're out the door. "Are you sure about this?" he asks. "No," Luke admits. "But I'm gonna do what she wants to do. She adds value to the case and maybe it'll be good for her."

"How the hell is it gonna be good for her?" Michael retorts. "If a defense attorney rips her to shreds?"

"Hopefully that won't happen. They'd have to be pretty heartless to do that. They'll be more likely to go after you," Luke says. "But all I can do is prep her and do my best to protect her. If she wants to tell her story... She just wants to be heard."

Michael hasn't thought of it that way. He nods slowly, shoving his hands in his pockets. The most important thing to him will always be what's best for Janet and if she wants to speak her truth then he'll support that, even if it scares him. "Take care of her," he says. "Don't let her be a victim again."

"I won't," Luke promises without hesitation. "Whatever I have to do, I swear I won't." He means that and he needs it. After fucking up before this is his chance to make something right.

He spends the better part of a week in that office after hours with Janet, going over every word of her testimony and cross-examination. Sometimes they're there past midnight. She breaks down in tears more than once. But he stays in that room with her and hears every word.

two;

When court adjourns for the day he finds Janet sitting in the atrium. They've liked to come there as far back as he can remember—to have conversations or to clear their heads. This is both those things. He won't say he's checking on her after her testimony, but he absolutely is. "You did good," he tells her.

"I could hardly stand being in the same room with him."

"That's a natural reaction for most people who've been affected by a crime." Luke replies as he comes to sit beside her. He doesn't want to touch her in case she's upset so he folds his hands in his lap. "It was solid testimony. Between you and Michael and the other witnesses—"

"—You mean the widows of the officers they actually killed."

"Yeah." He nods. "We have more than enough. The physical evidence is a bit more difficult, but that's my job. You did what you had to do and now you leave it with me."

"I know. I just..." She exhales. "I see it and hear about it everywhere. And everyone's looking at me. And I want to punch him in the face, and I shouldn't feel like that."

"That's called being human." But the media coverage he can't do anything about. First National is the biggest case in the district in years and it's been all over the news channels for months. He understands why she'd want to get away from it all. "If you need somewhere to stay," he suggests after a moment. "If the attention's too much or you just want to get away for a while... Do you want to come and stay at my place?"

Janet glances up, the offer taking her by surprise. She'd spent more than a few nights at his apartment when they were dating. But there's something different about this in his tone and the look in his eyes. He wants to protect her and make her feel safe. It makes her smile as much as she can muster. "Thank you," she says. "But I'm going to be miserable company and you need to focus on the trial."

"It doesn't matter." He shakes his head. She's right that when he's mid-trial he prefers to zone in on his case. That was one of the flaws in their relationship before, that he prioritized being on top of his game over paying attention to or even remembering to call her. But he's willing to risk getting distracted this time if Janet doesn't want to be home alone afraid of anyone showing up on her doorstep. It's this trial that will prompt her to move to a different building with a doorman.

"I want you to focus on this trial," Janet says, staring off at the skyline, "and get a conviction." She can't bear to think of her shooter getting away with it. He can't take away the pain. He can't stop her panics. But the one thing she knows he can do, without a doubt, is make sure the person who caused it all is held responsible.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asks. The slightest desperation in his voice because he's wanted to do something to make up for what he failed to do. But Janet just shakes her head. "I don't even know what I'm doing," she says. "I wouldn't know what to tell you. Just... get this guy so I can sleep at night and that'll be enough."

three;

The jury convicts James Holland on all counts. Janet is the first person Luke looks at, even before he registers them or the defendant's reaction. He turns around to watch her in the gallery, her head dropping into her hands while Michael pulls her into his arms. He can only guess at the sense of relief she feels.

As soon as they're dismissed he makes a point of catching up before they can leave the courthouse. "Can you give us a minute?" he asks Michael, who nods and lets go of Janet's waist. He'd expected the prosecutor would want a word. "I'll meet you downstairs," he says and leaves them to it.

Luke sighs as Michael heads for the elevator. He has no idea what to say in this moment; he just knows he should say something and it's not telling her what Holland is likely to get at sentencing. "Are you feeling any better?" he tries. "Are you... What happens from here?"

"I go back to work. I've got cases on my desk." Janet shrugs; she'd been back on the job days after the shooting and she's been working this whole time, not willing to let her moral obligations go to take care of herself. "It's better knowing he'll be behind bars. That neither of them can hurt me ever again."

He nods, but Luke can see there's something she's holding back. "What?" he prompts.

"I don't think I can look at the world the same way anymore." Janet admits with the slightest crack in her voice. "How do I get past that? It feels stupid, because we risk our lives every day, but I... I can't stop seeing it. Seeing everything like it could hurt me or you or Michael and I just wish I could forget..."

Luke doesn't let her finish the sentence. He closes the short distance between them and pulls Janet into a hug. He can't make her feel any better about the world but he doesn't want her to feel worse about herself. His fingers brush her stomach and he can hear her sharp inhale. But that's the point. He wants her to know that even after her injury he still cares about her. Maybe even moreso knowing how he could have lost her and never had a clue until it was too late. "I'm sorry. For not being there," he says quietly against her shoulder. "But I'm here now."

He knows it won't be enough. But at least it's something. At least they've gotten through this and can look toward the future, whatever it may be. Luke doesn't believe their lives will ever be the same again but he won't tell her that. She doesn't deserve to have her heart broken again, certainly not by him when he's already broken it before.

finding the hammer;
Two weeks later, Luke Cameron shows up unannounced and uninvited at the FBI financial crimes office. He's not there for work.

"Don't start with me," Michael Davis warns him. He knows exactly why Luke is waiting outside and he doesn't want to talk about it. He hasn't slept properly since his partner ended up in the hospital and it's wearing on him but the Assistant U.S. Attorney doesn't care about his well-being.

"It's been two weeks," Luke insists, continuing to follow Michael down the hall. "You're telling me you don't have at least one viable suspect?"

"We have lots of suspects. That's the problem," Michael retorts, going through the door into the bullpen and not bothering to hold it for Luke. "Jack Ford has a long list of enemies and they're all the kind of people who'd rather shoot you than be found."

Luke exhales tightly. He shouldn't be sticking his nose into this and he knows it. He's just come off the Whitehouse case nine months ago where he broke off his relationship with Janet because of two different conflicts of interest. Even though they're no longer a couple, his involvement in the search for her shooter could be problematic for Kevin when Peregrine goes to trial. But he's here because someone nearly killed the love of his life and he can't really take it anymore.

"Can you at least narrow it down?" he asks.

"We've got it down to a half-dozen." Michael leans up against one of the desks in the bullpen and now the frustration on his face is particularly clear. "One of them's on the FBI's most wanted list and two have outstanding warrants. It's a hard case to get evidence on, Luke. We're almost certain that somebody was following him and the shooting was their opportunity."

Luke's eyebrows lift at those words. He knows that means things were set in motion much earlier than that particular day. In some ways that makes it worse because if Janet had just listened to everyone she wouldn't have been in danger. She was the one who had made contact with Jack and set up that lunch. "How long?" he prompts, his voice tight.

"We're still trying to figure it out." The other man shakes his head. "Look, I get that you're pissed. But I'm already getting shit from Janet; I don't need it from you, too."

"What's she telling you?"

"She wants me to get a new partner."

He sighs and stares down at the floor for a moment. It doesn't surprise Luke at all that Janet is questioning whether she'll ever be fit for duty. He hasn't spoken to her since going to see her a week ago, but he knows how much pain she's in and how quick she is to dismiss herself. That's also why he's so infuriated by all this. She means the world to him, and even if she didn't, he doesn't stand for this happening on his watch. He wants someone to pay for this and it won't get off his mind until somebody does.

"I'm sorry," he tells Michael, lifting his head. "I just can't. This shouldn't have fucking happened, and whatever asshole shouldn't get away with it, and I want to put my fist into a wall every day they're still out there."

"You don't have to tell me that. Janet's my family." Michael dares to crack a joke simply to talk Luke off the edge of his own emotions. "I can understand why you two dated."

Luke laughs but it's humorless. He knows exactly why he and Janet were together for so long. They both have an all-consuming passion for justice no matter what—something that consumed their whole relationship. Now he wants that for her and he can't have it. Neither of them know how to sit on the sidelines either; Luke is going to pieces, and Michael is the one person whom he's willing to let see that.

"Just call me when you have anything," he finally says. "I need to know."

"I will." Michael nods slightly. As much as his own relationship with Luke has been frosty he'd never deny the other man that closure. "Trust me when I say we're going to bring the hammer down. But we've got to do it the right way."

He's not running any risk that this case gets blown up in court or overturned on appeal. If it even sees the inside of a courtroom. With the people they're looking at, it's possible that this ends in another act of violence. Luke doesn't want to think about that. There's too much anger inside him already. When he's alone in his car again he calls Janet. Something else he probably shouldn't do.

"How are you?"

"I'm trying."

"Good." Luke sighs again, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I just needed to talk to you," he admits, his voice cracking on the words. "I just needed to know you're here."

Janet swallows. "...Did you want to come over?"

"No," he says, hand moving to his forehead as he leans against the door of the Lexus. "You have your own life now, that doesn't involve me."

"Of course it involves you. It just doesn't involve you like that." She's never really had to comfort him before and it shows. "Holden's at work if you want to come by."

He hesitates feeling like it's not his place anymore. Luke knows very well that her roommate doesn't like him and that they've fought over him, and he doesn't want to get Janet in any more trouble. But he also knows that he's hurting, and the idea of seeing her pulls tightly at his heartstrings. He needs her, as much as he doesn't want to.

"Do you want me to bring lunch?" he asks, while wiping at his eyes.