Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Cameron

burning like ash in the wind;
Luke Cameron remembers the exact moment he pissed off his boss. He and his predecessor had plenty of back and forth from his first month on the job as Luke never held his tongue, but they generally were able to resolve things. On the Carla Hammel case, though, Tanner Benton was unequivocally pissed off. Enough to pull him into Bryan Alexander's office and give him the third degree for refusing to drop it.

"You don't get to decide which cases we prosecute," Benton tells him.

"Well, maybe I should," Luke shoots back.

"It's a loser of a case—"

"—Do we do this to win or to do the right thing?" Luke snaps automatically, not realizing the volume of his voice until the words have left his mouth. He clears his throat awkwardly and mutters an apology that the U.S. Attorney waves off.

"It's okay," Bryan says. "I appreciate you caring that strongly about something." He glances out the window for an incredibly awkward moment before he decides. "Luke's right. This isn't something we should ignore. We may not win," he adds pointedly to them both, "but I'm willing to take the fall if he is."

"Yes, sir." Luke's response is automatic about that too.

He hates to lose. He judges his self-worth by his success in the courtroom and loathes it when a case slips through his fingers. He takes everything very personally. But he's willing to swallow his pride and his obsessiveness to make a scared young woman feel like she's been heard. To stand up when somebody fucking ought to. It might not win him any friends, and his boss might be pissed off at him for a bit, but the only opinion that matters is Carla Hammel's.

Bryan looks between the two of them. Benton still looks frustrated but Luke has an idealism in his eyes. More than his usual determination—a belief that he's doing something he has to do. He'll never forget that look. "Reassign the case to Luke," he tells Benton before glancing at Luke. "If we don't win this, you're going to be the one to explain it to her. And everyone else."

That kind of public embarrassment could destroy the reputation he's already worked so hard to build. Having to tell a hate crime victim that the man who terrorized her gets to go free would be worse. But the idea that they wouldn't even try to hold him accountable galls Luke even more. "I understand that," he says. "Are we done here?"

It goes on to become one of the defining moments of his career. Not only is he able to build a circumstantial evidence case, but Carla insists on putting herself on the stand. He works with her for days to prepare and her testimony is damning. Luke wins a conviction that gets him praise from social justice groups but he's only concerned with Carla, tells him she's changed her mind about leaving Washington because she's seen there are still good people. He doesn't know any of that when he leaves Alexander's office, though. He just knows he might have martyred himself in his third year, and if he did, it was for a good reason.

That night Luke calls Janet and asks her to meet him for a nightcap. "I don't know," he ruminates over his beer. "I just wanted to do the right thing. Not try to go to sleep knowing that someone else couldn't."

"You did the right thing," Janet corrects, reaching across the tabletop to cover his hand with her own. Luke glances down at it, surprised by the gesture of affection. "And you're going to do it again when you get a conviction."

"That part I'm not sure of." He can admit that to her. "But I'm sure as hell gonna try."

He takes another drink to finish off his beer before he pulls his hand back. "Thanks for coming out with me," he adds. "I just needed to get that off my chest. And hopefully I didn't just shoot my chances of making chief..."

A few years later when Benton retires and Bryan promotes Luke to bureau chief in charge of financial and property crimes, Janet will remind him of this conversation.