firstmeeting

                                                                                       1995
                    Nora Lewin rushed into the District Attorney's office. She was almost a half-hour late meeting with the E.A.D.A she was supposed to work with on a case. Her morning was going from bad to worse. The alarm clock hadn't gone off, there was no hot water in her building and she was asked by Adam Schiff to cover for another A.D.A. She leaned on the wall of the elevator on the way up to catch her breath. Hopefully Adam wouldn't be to angry, the last time they had worked together she left his office almost in tear's and hadn't spoken to him since. The day before she spent almost an hour begging her boss not to transfer her, but he said that Adam had asked for her help. She got off the elevator and walked to his office. She knocked softly on the door and went in.
   "Nora!" Adam greeted "Thank you for joining us" he said sarcastically from behind his desk.
   "Sorry I'm late," she said. 'Cranky old buzzard' she thought. She shook his hand and sat in a chair across from his desk.
   "Nora, this is Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy, Jack, this is Nora" Adam said.
   "Mrs. Lewin" Jack held out his hand.
"Oh, it's Miss Lewin...just call me Nora" she shook his hand "I'm sorry for being late" she smiled.
   "No problem" Jack smiled back.
   "I'm sure Dean Tate filled you in" Adam started "I'm sorry for having to drag you back here, but the A.D.A who normally works with Jack is on vacation, and I wanted someone with more experience on this case."
   "How nice of you to think of me, I haven't been in a courtroom in a while" she managed a smiled.
   "Yes, well, Jack will fill you in on what's going on...I have another meeting in ten minutes."
Jack stood "We have some witnesses to talk to" he said starting out. Nora followed him to his office.    "Coffee?" he asked.
   "No, thank you" she stood in the doorway.
   "Come in and take a load off. Don't mind Adam, he's been moody all morning. He's meeting with the mayor...that always makes him a little cranky" he joked.
   "I'm sure that my being here doesn't exactly make him cheerful either" she sat in the chair across from his desk. Jack looked over some papers and Nora looked at him. She couldn't help looking at his eyes. He's very sweet, she thought...maybe working here wouldn't be so bad.
"Why's that?" he asked looking up from his file.
   "Well, the last time we worked together, we had a disagreement and I left...we haven't really spoken since."
   "I'm sure he's over it by now. He talks about you often, has the highest respect for you" he smiled.
   "Really" she said not realizing that she was staring at him.
   "Yes" he smiled at her and her heart leapt.
   'Get ahold of yourself Lewin' she thought to herself.

                  The case had been going smoothly. Nora couldn't figure out why Adam had even bothered to ask for her help, Jack handled most of the work him-self. They sat in Jack's office looking over evidence. Nora looked up from a police report and noticed Jack staring at her. "What?" she smiled.
He shook his head "Nothing."
"Do I have something on my face?" she looked in a little hand mirror from her purse.
"No...no you look fine," he said shyly.
"Thank you" she felt herself blush. She went back to reading the police report but couldn't concentrate. Her thoughts drifted off to the man sitting across from her. Does he like me? She wondered. She glanced up quickly at him; he was signing papers.
   Jack finished what he was doing and leaned back in his chair. He stared at Nora; he liked working with her. She was only going to be at Hogan Place for a few more days and he didn't want her to leave. He watched as she flipped through police reports and took notes on the files. Jack cleared his throat "Umm...Nora?"
"Yes?" she asked looking up from her papers.
"Would you like to go to lunch? A restaurant for a change" he smiled nodded to their daily McDonalds takeout food sitting on the corner of his desk.
"Sounds really good" she smiled.
"Good, let's get out of here" he got up and grabbed their coats. He helped her put hers on "Thank you" she said grabbing her purse.
They left Hogan Place and walked to a little outside cafe and found a table. Jack pulled a chair out for her and they sat down. "Thank you" she smiled. She felt like she was blushing and silently prayed that he didn't notice. They ordered coffee and talked a little about their case. Jack told her about his kids and she told him about her late husband who was a cop and died in the line of duty eight-year's before.
"I'm sorry about him" Jack said sadly "my Dad was a cop...not as nice a guy though."
"So was mine. I don't remember much about him. He died when I was five in a car accident."
"You don't have children?" Jack asked.
"Daisy, Hannibal and Shadow" she smiled "Three of the cutest cocker spaniels in the city."
Jack laughed "Hannibal? Lecter fan are you?"
"No, I love the A-Team" she giggled "I named him hannibal because I get him these little treats that are as long as a cigar, and he walks around with it hanging out the side of his mouth...like Hannibal Smith..."
"That's cute" Jack smiled and without realizing it put his hand on hers. He quickly removed it and put it on his lap "sorry" he blushed.
"It's all right" she smiled.
They went on talking about themselves and took a ride in a carriage around Central Park and got off near Hogan Place. Their lunch break was almost up and they were due in court in a few hours. Neither wanted to go back. "This has been fun" Jack smiled "I haven't enjoyed my lunch break in a long time."
"I had fun too" she sighed. "It's been fun being in the courtroom again. I forgot what it was like, I've been teaching for so long."
"Do you like teaching law?" he asked. "I remember all my professors, if they didn't look like they were falling asleep they were ranting about kids these days-"
"It's all right. I had originally started teaching to try and spend more time with Tim, but after he died I just didn't think I could go back to a courtroom. I sat in the back through the trial, I watched the man who was driving the car that killed him sitting there. He didn't even get a prison sentance. The cops that took him in didn't read him his rights, It was his first offence, and his father was a senator a judge... I'm surprised the case even made it to a trial," she shook her head "It's just hard for me to go into a courtroom after that."
"I understand" he patted her back gently "but what made you change your mind to come and work this case?"
"I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Tim wouldn't have wanted me to give up on doing what I love" she smiled.
"I'm glad you didn't give up. We never would have met" Jack said softly.

                Jack had come in early to get some work done before Nora arrived. He wanted to take her to lunch again, so he wanted to be sure that everything was finished. "Hey stranger" Claire said walking in.
"Claire, what are you doing here?"
"I came back a few day's early. Adam said you were close to a conviction on the case. Thought you might need some help."
"I have help," he said nervously, now that Claire was back Adam would probably let Nora go, and Jack wanted more time with her.
Nora walked in with an arm full of papers "Detective Briscoe brought these a few minutes ago...oh, hello" she said noticing Claire.
"Hey, let me help you with that" she took the paper's and put them on Jack's desk.
"Thank you" Nora smiled.
"Nora, this is Claire, Claire, this is Nora Lewin" Jack introduced.
"Hi, thanks for filling in for me" Claire said as they shook hands.
"My pleasure, I enjoyed it" she looked over at Jack.
Claire started to familiarize herself with the case while Jack and Nora took a little walk down the hall. "You can still stay on" Jack said, "we could use you."
"No" Nora smiled "I think you two can handle thing's. You're going to win, Jack."
"I'd like to have you by my side in the courtroom when the Jury comes in...Please Nora. If not for me...for you."
Nora looked at him silently for a long moment "For you" she smiled.

"We the jury find the defendant Mark Sutton guilty of all charges" the head juror said. The courtroom came alive with cheers from friends of the victim.
"Good job councilor" Nora smiled to Jack.
"You weren't to bad yourself" he smiled back.
They arrived back at Hogan Place and Nora started to gather her things from Jack's office. She was sad that she had to leave, yet proud of herself for sticking it out in a courtroom. She never thought she would be able to do it again.
"Leaving so soon?" Jack asked.
"Yeah. I have some papers I need to grade and I have to get up early to tutor some of my students."
"You deserve a break" he sat on the edge of his desk.
"This was a break!" she laughed.
"Thank you again for filling in for Claire" Adam said walking in. "I know you don't like being in the courtroom but you were the best person I could think of."
"Thank you" Nora smiled. "Well, I better get going. Bye Jack" she said softly.
"Bye Nora" he lightly touched her hand as she turned to leave. He watched as she walked out the door and wanted to run after her and tell her 'don't go...don't go, I love you' but he couldn't. He stayed in his office and looked at the empty chair across from him....

                                                                               The End