BIRDIE JUST WANTED TO SLEEP. She sighed as she rubbed her eyes, looking over the files in front of her, cursing as she realized just how many holes the defense could poke into what she had hoped would be an airtight case; that was what she got for trusting a pathological liar. Reaching for her phone, she called up her client, hoping that, this time, she'd tell her the truth.

"I didn't think it mattered," the young woman drawled into the phone, sounding as if Birdie was gnawing at her throat over nothing, "What should it matter?"

"Selina," she sighed, forcing herself to stay calm, "You-you tweeted extensively about how rape victims are just crying for attention, the defense is going to see this and use it against you, you should have told me."

"Why? It's not like I'm going to take it back," she replied, and Birdie massaged her temples, biting her lip, wondering why she had decided to take this case; why it had even been brought to her.

"Selina," she whispered, "I want to help you. I really do. But you need to help yourself. I need you to come down here and tell me everything that happened that day. No more lies. No more stories. Talk to me like a person, not a personality. Please."

The girl sighed long sufferingly, but agreed, hanging up without so much as a goodbye. At the sound of dead air, Birdie fell back into her seat, groaning loudly, head pounding as she realized just how hopeless this case was. The jury was going to take one look at this girl and laugh; but she deserved to get justice, even if she didn't think anyone else did.

"You look like you need a massage."

Raising her head, Birdie caught sight of Tony peering into her office, holding up some takeout and, smiling tightly as he glanced towards the empty seat in front of her desk.

"Hi, did something happen?" she asked, standing and motioning for him to sit, frowning in worry as she watched him drop the bag and hand her a coffee.

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, uh, Remy broke his arm."

She choked on the coffee, nearly spitting out all over her files. "What?"

"Kidding, kidding," he said, raising his hands, motioning for her to sit down, "Wow, you're really strung up about this."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. "Was there a reason why you dropped by, I have a lot of work."

For all Tony never wanted Birdie upset with him, he was still as stubborn as he always was, and he merely propped one ankle up onto his other leg, shrugging easily. "I was bored and brought you lunch, you'd think you'd be more excited to see me."

She raised her head from her hands, giving him an withering look. "Thank you for the lunch and your delightful prescence, Tony, it was just what I needed today."

He smiled, holding up his palms. "See? That wasn't so hard."

She fell back into her seat, shaking her head and glancing up towards the ceiling. "This case is such a mess, you have no idea."

"Oh? Do tell," Tony said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a burger, taking a bite and waiting expectantly.

She scoffed in disbelief, raising an eyebrow, but when he just raised his own in return, she shrugged, leaning forward and propping her elbows onto the desk.

"You told me you heard it on the news, I'm representing Selina Madsen, the TV personality?" she began, and Tony nodded, widening his eyes as a reaction. She sighed, nodding. "Yeah. So, you can imagine the frustration I'm having considering the things she has tweeted and posted and DM'ed and whatnot, not to mention the numerous times she's changed her story to both me and the police..."

"So why not just drop her?" Tony asked, "This whole thing isn't even about the crime anymore, it's turned into a political debate, everyone's just talking about the election and democrats and republicans, I've barely heard about the actual crime."

Birdie frowned. "This woman was violated, Tony, and as much as I abhor everything she stands for, she deserves her day in court, and I'm going to do my best to make sure whoever hurt her gets put away."

He nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry."

"Thank you," she whispered, reaching into the bag and pulling out the other burger, taking a bite, "And, you know, I think I'm doing a lot more here than I was when I was a nurse."

"Oh?" he hummed, perking up at the mention of her previous career, "How's that, didn't you work at a hospital?"

"Yeah, but I didn't have enough control there," she explained, taking a sip of her coffee, "At the hospital, I could only help so much, the person was already sick, I could only hope I administered the right amount of one thing and filled the charts out correctly and gave help to the doctor when I could, but here I have the ability to bring someone justice or keep an innocent person out of jail."

Tony paused. "But at the hospital, you could have saved a person's life."

Her eyes darkened in a way he had never thought was possible. "I've lost more lives than I've saved and there was nothing any of us could have done about it. I'm doing more good here than I ever was there."

Tony watched with concern as Birdie shook her head and cleared her throat, seeming to break out of some kind of spell, continuing to eat her burger like nothing had happened, glancing back towards her files idly.

"Can you pick up Remy today, I'm going to have to stay late here tonight," she asked as she finished off her burger a few minutes later, tossing her wrapper into the trash can.

"You didn't hear?" he asked, glancing up from where he was texting someone under the table, "He's sleeping over at Ethan's tonight."

She frowned. "Really? Remy hasn't slept over at Ethan's in a while. He was never able to stay the full night, Wilma'd always have to call me because he wanted to come home..." she trailed off, realizing just what that had meant, groaning softly.

"I heard it was the kids' idea, so I wouldn't worry too much about it," he said, finishing his text to Wilma.

"Okay," she hummed, clearly struggling to believe him, turning back to her work, "Well, it was nice seeing you, actually it was, but I've got to get back to my work, so I can't really entertain you anymore."

He shrugged. "Would you mind if I stayed?"

She paused for a moment, weighing his question. "No? I mean...are you going to demand attention from me every few minutes?"

He shook his head, looking rather affronted by her disbelieving look. "I won't, I promise! I'll just sit quietly, you won't even know I'm here."

"I find that hard to believe," she sighed, but nevertheless, she just picked up her notes and her files and went back to work, sending emails and making calls, desperately contacting the police lieutenant after Selina failed to answer her eighth call.

"We have her down at the station, don't worry, she's talking to one of my people now," the woman soothed, nearly sending Birdie slamming her head onto her desk in exasperation and bone-deep relief.

Tony, who had been entertaining himself by going through all the books in her office and fiddling with the various stationary she had lying about, looked up when he heard her head fall, unable to help a snort. "I can't tell if that was good or bad."

"It was something," she replied, rubbing her eyes and raising her head, "You still entertained?"

"No," he said, placing her paperweight back onto her bookcase and making his way back into the seat across from her, leaning forward onto the desk, "Please take a break, I want to go do something."

"Well, go do something, I have to work," she laughed, shooing him off of her files.

"But I wanna do something with you," he whined, pouting at her, "Please? Go for a walk and maybe you'll figure something out."

"Or maybe I'll be wasting my time," she countered, unable to hide her smile as he groaned and fell back into his seat, shouting as he nearly toppled over, arms flailing wildly.

"How's this," she offered, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the man; he had been sitting quietly for the past six hours, and she had gotten a lot more work done since she was able to talk to him and work out her frustration verbally, "Give me half an hour more and, even if I'm not finished, I'll save the rest of my work for tonight and we can go eat dinner at Hop Kee."

"I don't know what a Hop Kee is, but that sounds like a plan," he agreed, and as he went off to find new ways to entertain himself, Birdie couldn't help but glance at the clock every few moments while she worked, willing it to move faster.

º º º

"I like the speakeasy feel of it," was the first thing Tony said.

They had taken her car, searching for an ungodly amount of time for parking, Tony talking the entire way about everything he saw, making a surprised sound when she grabbed is arm, tugging him down the stairs he had completely missed.

"It's nothing like a speakeasy," she had replied as she ordered a table for two, being led towards the back room, mirrors lining the walls, "It's just underground."

That was twenty minutes ago, and the two were now chatting over their food, ignoring the stares they were receiving from the staff and the other patrons, Tony fending them all off easily, turning to look at cameras aimed in their direction, and agreeing to take photos with the staff and people, so long as they were selfies and not more paparazzi-esque.

"You know, you're gonna do fine," Tony said, taking a bite of his chicken, "Because you're more worried about the case than that other guy is, all he wants to do is talk politics. You'll be fine."

"It's still nerve-wracking, there's a lot at stake here," she sighed, rubbing her eyes before continuing to eat, "But I appreciate that. And you staying the entire day, I'm sure you had much better things to do."

"Like I said, I was bored," he replied, shrugging, "I had fun watching you. That sounded bad."

She laughed, just shy of choking on her water, setting down her glass and covering her mouth as she continued to laugh, her shoulders shaking. It was a quiet, soft laugh, barely audible, and Tony wished he could make her laugh out loud, the uninhibited laugh that filled a room before winding into the one that couldn't even be heard, sending her near into tears.

He wanted to make her happy.

Birdie sighed, smiling at him with a loose, dopey smile, and he couldn't help but be surprised by it; he had seen her polite smiles, her sad smiles, and even her bright, joyful smiles, but he had never seen her just look at him. Look at him with a smile that didn't seem to have any other reason to exist.

"What?" she asked, still smiling, but furrowing her eyebrows, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Looking at you like what?" he asked, still just staring at her, unsure of what he could possibly be doing that had her laughing at him.

"You-you're staring at me," she explained, motioning towards his face, "Why?"

He opened and closed his mouth, trying to come up with a witty response to hide his feelings, but in the end, there was no other response to give.

"I like to see you happy."

She paused, glancing down at her lap, clearly taken aback. Composing herself, she nodded to him, picking up her utensils, but her words still held as much truth as his had. 

"I like seeing you happy too."

They liked seeing each other happy, but had yet to realize that, while still slow coming, they were at their happiest when they were together.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This was kind of a filler except we learned a bit more about Birdie's backstory and personality, so it was short, but we're getting into more of the juicy stuff, there's just a lot to unpack, you know? So this wasn't really anything, but I liked it so...yeah!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!