Elsa opened the door to the DA's office. She had seen who was assigned to this case and had barely managed to contain her joy. Her unwinnable case may be far easier than she'd expected. "Hi, I'm here to see Mr. Pan."

The receptionist looked up at her. "Is he expecting you?"

"I'm sure he is. This office, right?" Without waiting for a response, she let herself in, and took a seat across from the short redhead as he chattered into a phone.

His expression began to morph as he slowly became aware of her presence. The mild cheerful look was replaced with one of exasperation, which then fell away to one of utter disdain. Glad to see he remembers me. "I'm going to have to call you back."

He wasted that power play. He should've kept me waiting. It's why I brought all these files. I would've ordered delivery. Well, at least he hasn't gotten any better. "Take your time."

He slammed the phone down. It was a cell phone. That seemed very unnecessary. "Elsa." His words came out in a growl. So he's not happy to see me. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Peter." Fine, we can use first names. I'll live. "I understand you have my case."

He blew out a breath through his teeth. "I should've known they'd give it to you. So, I have to go up against you and that idiot again?"

Her eyebrow raised. Well I wasn't going to call him that this time. I guess I really did hit a sore spot. "Don't let the judge hear you talking about my client that way, Peter."

"I'm sure he'd agree. The jury certainly did last time."

She smirked. "They will this time as well."

Peter shook his head, his hateful eyes never leaving her own. "No they won't, Elsa. Your client is going away for a long time."

I have to shake him up. He's not usually this cocky. "You sure you can manage that? You don't have the best track record going up against me. This will be, what, your fifth loss with zero wins? How about I take it easy on you? Give me a plea deal I can take back to my client, and I'll make sure he accepts it." I don't have another option. I certainly can't fight this on the merits.

His laugh was very disconcerting. Elsa could see immediately that he was calling her bluff. That's new. "I think our record is going to start turning around here. I'm not going to just let you push me around anymore. I don't care who you think you are, or what firm you work for. I'm assistant DA, and I'm not putting up with your bullshit."

I may have made a mistake. "I assume you're planning on calling up his friends as witnesses?" Peter added.

Narrowing her eyes, Elsa considered this. I guess he finally graduated from checkers to chess. "I'd hardly be doing my job if I didn't."

"Well then you may want to find some new witnesses. They're all already witnesses for the prosecution."

Shit. Elsa swallowed, her mind racing. She didn't have anyone else she could call, and she couldn't just put that idiot on the stand. "What deal did you give them? This is hardly going to look good for your case. Buying out everyone else that was there just to target my client? The judge is going to have to hear that you and I have history."

"He wasn't your client when I did it. If anything, it looks like you're going after me."

Elsa managed to not slam her hand into her face. She handled every step of this wrong. She should've known her last case with Pan would come back to bite her in the ass. She'd given him a grudge to bear. "I'll hand the case off. You going after my firm, and showing a particular distaste for my client, is hardly going to help your office. This is the second time in four months that you've gone after Mr. Kuzco. I think the jury would like to hear about that."

"I'll tell them that it's just because he's a two-bit criminal who can't keep himself out of prison." His smile showed too many teeth.

"I'll see you in court." That's the polite way to say 'fuck you.'

"Until then, Elsa."

"Peter." She rose from her seat and turned to leave.

"Next time you decide to show up to attempt to control me, make an appointment." He closed the door behind her, leaving her wide-eyed and alarmed.

Kuzco needs to find another lawyer. I somehow managed to just make his case worse. I didn't even think that was possible. She left the building and headed straight for Oaken's. Sitting down with her chocolate croissant and hot chocolate, she stared into the case files, hoping desperately for any sort of answer.

I want to call Anna. At least she could make me feel like I didn't just screw everything up. She checks the time to find that it wasn't even noon in Portland yet. I'm sure she's at work right now, I can't just call her in the middle of class. It's not that important. I'll call her later. I need to figure out how to handle this myself.

She stared into the affidavits and the police reports, looking for some sort of magic weapon that she could use to bring down Pan. She was not rusty enough to excuse this sort of behavior. First Anya throws her off her game in her last case, now Pan actually manages to get the better of her as soon as she gets back. No. I won't accept this. I can't accept this.

She swooped up the drink and pastry, and dashed back to work. She was going to find something, anything.

Four hours, two berated associates, and a few espressos later, and she was still coming up empty. Fuck me. "I'm not going back to Kuzco with nothing, damn it!" she slammed her head against the back of her high quality leather office chair. There was enough padding that it didn't hurt, and as such didn't greatly make her feel better. As much as he deserves it, I actually kind of care about the kid. Maybe it's just because I've represented him so many times or maybe it's because I sometimes feel like I'm as big of a fuckup as he is. She glanced around her lavishly decorated office, taking it in for the first time since she'd made partner two years before. Almost as big of a fuckup.

It was already almost seven. So much for those reduced hours I told Tiana I'd have. Oh well, not like there's anyone waiting for me at home, anyway. She returned to the mess of wrinkled papers. She wasn't sure what more she could wring from them.

"Knock knock." The familiar voice of Albert Gaston came from her doorway.

"Did you just actually say 'knock knock?"

"My hands were full." He indicated the two cups of coffee he was carrying.

"And here I was expecting scotch."

"They're Irish." He handed her one.

"Yeah, that's pretty appropriate right now." She took a sip. Fuck that's good. "You been holding out on me?"

"It's not like I've let you drain my liquor stash already. I happen to have some very good Irish whiskeys."

"I can tell." She took a larger sip, letting it warm her insides and rejuvenate her. "I think I needed this."

He threw himself into a chair, bringing his leg up over the armrest. "What's bothering you, Elsie? You've been ripping apart that folder all day. Don't you have a beautiful wife to get home to?"

"Girlfriend," she corrected. "No, I think she's in France right now, opening up a little southern place in Rouen." She drained the rest of the cup. "I have no fucking clue what to do with this, Asshole." He smirked at the nickname and reclined in his seat. "I needed to get a plea deal, but of course it's the one assistant DA I've managed to piss off more than any other."

"Hey, if you hadn't pissed off anyone in the DA's office I would've had to fire you ages ago."

She shrugged and stared at the ceiling. "I don't want to see this kid go to prison. I know he deserves it, even more than plenty of people that are already there, but I just don't want to see it happen to him. He's not a bad kid, not really, he's just a spoiled rich idiot."

Gaston laughed. "Kuzco again? How many times have you defended him now?"

She groaned. "This is the fifth. Plus the three times I've represented his father."

"The way I see it, if he goes away, then he's already more than earned it. I mean I'd rather we have the continued paycheck, but he's hardly something worth losing sleep over." He sipped gingerly at his drink.

"I know you're right, and I know that any sane lawyer would realize this case was unwinnable and just do what little they could to lessen the sentence, but I need to win it."

He sat up to meet her eyes and gave an appreciative nod. "I knew there was a reason I hired you. Then win it. What's stopping you?"

"Every single piece of evidence, eyewitness testimony, fingerprints, my client, and anything else you can think of."

She had not expected him to laugh at her. It seemed a bit forced. "What does any of that have to do with a case? Elsie, man, come on. Who cares about evidence? We're lawyers. It's all about emotion. You don't want him to go to prison. You just have to make the jury not want him to either."

Elsa glared at him. I need to stop letting him call me Elsie, but that can wait. I suppose it's still better than his nickname. "Excuse me for wanting something more to argue than jury nullification."

He shrugs. "Hey, if we can have the evidence on our side then that makes our job a little easier, but the jury really doesn't care about that. They're dumb. If they like the client they'll let them go free, no matter how guilty they are. Look at OJ, look at Regina. Make them like your client, or at least make them understand why you like him. That's the first step. From there, it's a homerun. You've already won, no matter what evidence the prosecution has."

Chewing on her lip, Elsa considered this. She'd managed to win the acquittal of a few very guilty people based largely on their charisma, but they were at least intelligent, so she could put them on the stand without worrying. Kuzco didn't have that going for him. What does he have going for him?

"Go home, get some sleep. You've got the whole weekend ahead of you before the trial. I'm sure you can come up with a way to humanize that dumbass by then."

She nodded. "Thanks, Albert."

With a quick pat on her shoulder, Gaston made his way to her door. "Well I'm going to go grab a burger and head home. I'd advise you do the same. Have a good night, Elsa."

She had to admit that a burger did sound good. She decided to follow his example. She'd heat up Tiana's food over the weekend. A burger, half a bottle of wine, and a good night's sleep were almost enough to make her forget that she had an unwinnable case with an impossible client.

Elsa glanced over from her laptop as her phone buzzed on the glass desk. Why is Belle calling me? I'm pretty sure we canceled our plans for today. "Hello?"

"Hi, Elsa." She sounded upset.I hope my fight with Anya didn't cause any issues. I still think it's a bad idea, but I didn't mean to hurt either of them.

"Hey, Belle." Now I'm saying hi again. This is awkward. "Everything okay?'

Elsa can almost hear her shaking her head. "I'm sorry about Anya. I was looking forward to us all hanging out again. She's really overreacting here; even from her version of events you don't sound like you were being that mean."

That was surprising. Elsa stared at the phone. Anya had always been pretty good at seeming like the good guy – though she generally was –so hearing that Anya was in the wrong was strange, especially from her girlfriend. "Would you like to hear mine?"

"I think I know it pretty well. You found out that she hired me and you were worried about her, because being your girlfriend's boss is a terrible idea, then she decided that you just didn't respect her and stormed off without even giving you a chance to explain yourself. That sound about right?"

"More that she's convinced I'm incapable of change than the respect thing, I think, but yeah, that's pretty accurate." She tapped out a staccato on her desk. Had Belle ever called her before? She had only saved her phone number after their little pizza get-together the other month. I'm still having trouble thinking of her as a friend, but I can do it; just be nice. "I'm sorry we had to cancel, I was looking forward to it."

"I could still come over."

Elsa froze. She had not prepared for this. She was convinced it had been a good five minutes before she finally found a response. "Would that be okay? I mean would Anastasia let you hang out with me? I know she can be a little possessive."

"She's at the office anyway. I'll tell her when she cools off. Come on, I haven't had a Saturday off in ages, she's almost as bad of a slave driver as you all were." She audibly sticks her tongue out at the phone, managing a laugh from Elsa. "That's better. So I'll be over in a couple hours?"

She glanced at the time. It was four; that seemed reasonable. "Yeah, six sounds great."

"Perfect, I'll grab pizzas. Motorino's?"

As badly as Elsa wanted to agree to that—Motorino's Margeritta pizza is what she lived for—she had barely touched Tiana's meals. "Actually, how would you like to have dinner prepared by a world famous chef?"

"Oh, Tiana's there?" She sounded way too excited.

"No, she's in France, but she left me a bunch of pre-prepared meals. We could both pick our favorites." Motorino's could wait. At the very least she'd be able to show it to Anna if she visited over the summer. They may be a little too fancy for Olaf. We could grab him a slice someplace on the way back.

"That sounds amazing! Let me go get dressed. I'll see you soon!" She hung up.

Elsa sighed. This was going to be a weird day. She'd developed a bit of a fondness for Belle, but she'd spent so long resenting her, it was weird to think that she was going to come over for dinner. Especially as badly as she always seemed to be crushing on me. I hope she doesn't think this is a date. I mean of course she doesn't, she's with Anya, and she knows I'm with Tiana; even if Anya is being a bitch, she wouldn't cheat on her.

At 5:30, the doorbell rang. I didn't even give her my address. When Elsa opened the door, Belle flung her arms around her. "Hey, Elsa! It's been too long."

Elsa patted her back and gave her a light hug. What have I gotten myself into? "Come on in. I'll show you the options."

A short while later, Elsa sat in front of a plate of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans, while Belle had a bowl of lasagne al forno. "She had such a good variety, I could barely choose," Belle admitted, eyeing Elsa's meal enviously.

"Help yourself." Elsa promptly led by example and stole a forkful of Belle's pasta. She preferred Tiana's baked bacon and breadcrumb mac and cheese if they were going to have one of her oven baked pastas, but she couldn't deny that it was still amazing.

Belle watched as Elsa ate her food and followed suit, enjoying a bit of the steak before she even tasted her lasagne. "This is amazing. Her blend of food has always really interested me. You always either hear about her soul food or some crazy fancy thing like her beef wellington. I didn't even know she could do Italian."

"She can do anything." Everyone gushing about her cooking always makes me feel so bad for taking advantage of the opportunity to have fast food and pizza when she's out of town. Though, as often as she's been gone of late, her home-cooked meals have been growing more and more tempting. "Her thing is just trying every recipe she can get her hands on and learning from it, recreating it, reinventing it, improving it, then finally once she's tested it on me and anyone else she can get her hands on, adding it to her menu at a few places."

Belle tried a bite of her pasta and her eyes lit up. "Can I just move in with you two?"

"I don't think Anastasia would approve. If you get her permission, I'll ask Tiana."

She stared at the pasta as if trying to decide if taking that risk was worth it. Based on the fact that she dropped it, she likely decided that Anya was in no mood for anything involving Elsa, even if it would give her access to world-class food. "Will you at least tell her that she can use me to try out new recipes any time?"

"That, I will do."

Belle's grin was adorable. Elsa couldn't help but feel a bit better just seeing it. She could make a cute girl smile, so clearly she wasn't a total fuckup. Just most of one. She spooned some mashed potatoes and gravy into her mouth as she tried to sort out her situation. Opening statements were on Monday, and she had barely managed to come up with anything. "Something on your mind?"

Elsa shook her head. "It's nothing too important. So, other than her renewed grudge against me, how's living and working with Anya treating you? I know I sure couldn't handle it." You did handle it. For years. If you're going to playfully joke about a friend's partner, maybe don't say something provably false. Are you a lawyer or aren't you?

She shrugged, forking another helping of lasagne into her mouth. "Do you want me to bitch about her or tell you the truth? I don't mind bitching about her, I'm really mad at her right now."

"Just tell me the truth."

With a sigh, Belle replied, "It's honestly amazing. She's the most understanding boss I've ever had, she has a whole bunch of really interesting books at her place, she respects my private time, she's a great cuddler, and she buys me lunch every day at work. Hell, she even managed to match my pay from the firm. I couldn't believe it." I can't believe it either. A private practice being able to match our pay? Even if she has to stretch the budget for it, she's an even better lawyer than I give her credit for. "She's being awful to you, so I hate admitting it, but things between us have been absolutely perfect."

"That's wonderful." Elsa was surprised to find that she wasn't lying. "I want you two to be happy, even if she and I aren't too happy with each other right now." Great, I actually care about Belle as a person and not just as an impressive research machine.

Her smile only grew in intensity. "You mean it? I'm so glad. I'm going to try to convince her to stop being such an ass and apologize to you for how she's been acting. If she has a brain, she knows you weren't doing anything wrong. She and I are making a crazy decision, and she didn't even check with Dimitri first. He was not happy with her."

Elsa gave a vindictive smirk at that. "That sounds like her."

Belle sighed and stabbed a large helping of lasagne before shoving it into her mouth to avoid furthering the conversation. So much for that track. Now what the hell do we talk about. All we had in common was work and Anya, and we don't have work anymore.

Elsa ate some of her beef to dull the silence.

They continued to stare at their plates without further remark for a few minutes. "How about you? Everything good with Tiana?"

Well, she's never here and she seems to want a kid. "Yeah, everything is great."

"And work? I hope you're not having too tough of a time now that I'm gone." Elsa had never seen Belle look so cocky. If I was single and five years younger.

"You're pretty hard to replace. I've had two associates trying to keep up with your normal research and failing, and you weren't even my personal associate."

"Then just grab a third. Maybe then they could manage." What happened to that timid girl from my office?

"The truth is, I'm not sure even a dozen associates could manage to save this case. I may be in over my head."

Her expression softened, the smirk fading into a look of concern. "What's the case? I thought I had left you pretty well prepared."

Shaking her head, Elsa skewered her last bite of steak. "I think I got it about the second you left. It's a new Kuzco case. Maybe if I had a competent client I could manage to get him off, but even Gaston thinks the best I could do for him is jury nullification and I'm not even sure how I could manage that. I need something, even the barest plausible excuse, that the jury could hang their hat on, but he's given me nothing."

Belle took one last bite and shoved her bowl to the side. "I'm going to finish that later. It is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, but let's do this. I never got to work with you, I've been dying for this chance. Let me help!"

"Belle, I can't. We can't hire out Anastasia's firm, and there's no way she would allow it anyway." She's offering you help. You can't do it alone, just fucking take it, Elsa. Consequences be damned.

"I'll do it pro bono, you don't need to put my name anywhere on the case. It'll be our secret, just let me help." She looked up at Elsa, her lower lip protruding as she pleaded. I'm sure that always works on Anya.

Fuck it, it can work on me too. "Fine. Let me catch you up." Elsa shoved the remains of her mashed potatoes into her mouth and moved her plate to the side before scattering the files over the table. She walked Belle through her client's testimony and what Pan had told her.

"So you're telling me you have no witnesses?" She looked like she'd just taken a bite of something far too sour. Hey, I offered you a way out.

"My idiot – sorry, my client," she offered Belle a playful grin, which was promptly returned, "wants to testify, but he'd just perjure himself. I can't have him testify in the narrative, it would either add nothing to my case, or worse, a juror would know why he did it and it would ruin my case's credibility."

"Well the law certainly isn't on your side either, so I'd say expert witnesses are out. There's no one you could use as a character witness?" She flipped through the heavily wrinkled pages, smearing white sauce on a page as she checked over an affidavit.

Elsa shook her head. "The best character witnesses would be either his best friend, who's testifying against him, or the guy whose life he saved, who's testifying against him. I could put his father up on the stand, but what would that do for him? If the only person you can call as a witness is family, you look better just not calling a witness."

She chewed on her lip and pushed her glasses back up as she tried to study the police report. Elsa had spilled some coffee on it earlier, so that was easier said than done, but she seemed to be managing. "Why did you take this case again?"

"Because I'm an idiot." She undid her bun, a bit more violently than necessary, and gestured towards the couch before grabbing a stack of papers and flinging herself into it. "I wanted something interesting for my first big case back, and I guess I found it."

"You're not an idiot. You're the best lawyer I've ever seen, even Anastasia says so. If anyone can win this case, you can. And if you can't, then it means no one could, so you're not allowed to beat yourself up over it."

"You're not the boss of me." Elsa took a sip of beer. It was a microbrew that Tiana had found and was considering using in a local restaurant. It tasted like honey mixed with caramelized hopps. She didn't hate it. "Fuck. This is just ridiculous. I might have to actually put him on the stand. I'm going to have to coach him so much, it's going to sound completely unbelievable, but if I don't then he'll just perjure himself."

Belle grabbed her wine and joined Elsa, taking a seat in the recliner. "I don't know, you might not have to. It sounds like Mr. Pan is trying to make his case all about Kuzco's friends. He doesn't even have any of the security guards that apprehended them on his witness list, let alone the police officers. They're all going to sound pretty biased."

Elsa snapped to her feet, staring into Belle's brown eyes. She needed to kick herself. How the hell did I overlook that? She tore the witness list from Belle's hand. "Let me see that." Christ, did those two weeks in Portland rust over all of my skills? He was calling three witnesses, all of whom were likely to testify more or less the same thing, with no one more competent or respectable to corroborate their story. "Wow, Petey really is an idiot." She tried to consider if there was any way she could use the arresting officer for her own case. She could put a few holes in his testimony, since he certainly didn't witness anything, but it would only allow Pan to question him with an even easier time of it, since he could lead him. "I don't need to have Miguel testify at all. I'm not calling a witness."

Belle stared at her. "You're not?"

She shook her head, ideas filling it at a rate she could scarcely believe. It was still going to come down to a coin toss, but she could do it. Taking a case from a certain loss to an even chance, that's enough of a save for me. "His witnesses aren't exactly the trustworthy type, and they're all pretty incompetent, unless he's coached them perfectly, so their stories are likely to conflict a bit, and I have a few other holes I can poke in their claims. Hell, he's giving all of them reduced sentences, when they should've had the same charges as my client. I can do this. Holy shit, I can really do this. I wish I had been here for jury selection, but if they did a half decent job then I should be able to give enough of a doubt, maybe not quite a reasonable one, but enough that it might just work. Holy shit, Belle, I could kiss you."

She blushed. "Maybe next time," she offered with a quick wink before turning to hide her face.

Anya's a good influence on her. With that confidence she's building, she may make a decent lawyer yet. "I'm gonna go work on my opening." She stopped, just a few steps toward the stairs. "Unless you wanted to hang out more. We could watch a show, I still have all day tomorrow."

Belle waved away her offer. "It's fine. You have a plan right now, I don't want to let that go to waste. Can I take my leftover lasagne?"

"Belle, you can take a whole other box of anything she made."

Her eyes widened as she smiled widely enough that Elsa was worried she'd hurt herself. "Thank you so much!" She dashed to the fridge and grabbed a styrofoam box. "I may have to hide it from Anya, but this is just amazing. Two meals from Tiana in a single night. I need to come over here more often."

"Yeah," Elsa admitted, with a faint smile of her own, "you do."

Elsa sat, her hands folded as she calmly watched Peter explain his case. Kuzco looked like he was about ready to have a heart attack, but he at least appeared somewhat respectable in the four thousand dollar suit his father had provided him. "Not only was he the instigator in the robbery, but he was the one who single-handedly murdered Mr. Coachman. My witnesses will corroborate this, and I assure you, we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Kuzco is an unrepentant killer." He pointed at Kuzco, who shrunk so low that Elsa was worried he'd fall out of the chair. Perfect. Go ahead and demonize him, Petey. He looks more and more innocent the more you try to paint him as some master criminal. "My colleague here will no doubt try to convince you that he's just some," he gesticulated, waving his hand as he searched for the word, "idiot, but it's not his intelligence that's in question. Nor is it even his motive; in a felony murder case, motive is irrelevant." Shit, he really has gotten better. Maybe the three witnesses aren't as big of a slip-up as I thought. "All I need to show, is that he was robbing Mr. Coachman, and Mr. Coachman was killed by his actions, or those of his companions." There we go. "I will show precisely that." He returned to his seat, his eyes lingering on Elsa as he settled in.

Elsa rose, her seafoam green dress sweeping the floor as she rounded the table to face the jury. "Mr. Pan is right." Kuzco's eyes widened and he silently gasped. She could almost see tears forming in his eyes. "Motive isn't important here. It's one of the only times you'll hear that as a member of the jury. He has set a very low bar for himself, and I'll leave it to you to decide if my client is the monster that he is trying to portray him as. He'll make no mention of past crimes," because he can't if Kuzco isn't testifying, "he'll offer no solid evidence, no DNA, no fingerprint, not so much as a single hair sample, but he'll still expect you to convict, on the word of three criminals, who are only here today testifying because he gave them a plea deal. As I'm sure you can see by the way he's glowering at me –" she doesn't even need to look to know that she's right, "Mr. Pan and I have a bit of a history. He knows that Mr. Kuzco is my client, it's why he's gone after him before, time and time again."

"No, it's because he's a criminal!" Peter shouted.

"Sit down or I will hold you in contempt," Judge Frollo snarled.

Elsa managed to hold back her smirk. "The truth is, not even the assistant DA thinks that Kuzco is as bad as he claims he is. Every single one of his witnesses faced the exact same charges as my client, but only one of them was represented by me. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you, please don't let this man's grudge against me cloud your judgement. Don't allow him to paint my client as some sort of criminal mastermind, just because he wants to lash out at me. Consider the evidence before you, consider who you're being asked to put away for life, and consider how little he is able to provide. I've no doubt you'll find his case to be a lacking and shallow endeavor concocted solely to fuel his own desire to one-up the woman he was never able to beat." She turned the smirk into a pained expression, as she turned to look pitifully down upon her opposing counsel as she took her seat.

Peter looked like he was about ready to leap out of his seat and rip her face off. He was certainly lending credence to her testimony.

Frollo checked his watch. "It's getting late. We can pick this up tomorrow morning at eight. I have a roast turkey waiting for me at home, so I'll see you all in the morning." With that, he dismissed them.

I thought we'd at least get to the first witness. It's not even 4:30.

Kuzco fell into tears as an officer marched him out. Fortunately, the jury was still there to see it. This was precisely why she hadn't even tried for bail. Presumably whoever was handling the case while she was away thought the same. It just wasn't worth it. He needed to look as pitiful as possible.

She left the confines of Peter's glare, and made her way home. She didn't feel like stopping back by the office; she would do so tomorrow after winning this case and with a victory croissant and coffee in hand.

Once she made it home, she finished off another one of Tiana's meals and watched one of her shows, unwinding a bit from what had still managed to be a fairly stressful case. That bravado had taken a good deal of work. She still had barely more than scraps of a case, and it was going to take a good deal of luck to win, but at least she had already won the jury. Every single one of them had given Pan some sort of distrustful look, from a sideways glance, to a leer, to a full-on stink-eye. They were eating out of the palm of her hand.

She checked her phone and found that it was a little past seven. Anna's probably home by now. Teachers get out at like three, right? She never had gotten around to calling her. Tiana was hopefully on a flight back from France right now, so tentatively celebrating with her would have to wait. She tried calling her sister. When she only reached her voicemail, she thought maybe she was wrong about her schedule. It has been a long while since I was in high school. Maybe they get out later now? She left a message asking if they could talk the coming weekend. She was going to be busy enough this week that she didn't want to offer plans that she couldn't guarantee.

She hung up and considered calling Anastasia. She really did want to make up with her, but she just wasn't ready to apologize when she wasn't in the wrong. She knew she'd have to suck up her pride eventually if she wanted to keep the friendship, but part of her was still holding out hope that Anya would come around. She decided to call Anya's girlfriend instead.

"Hey, Elsa," Belle whispered on the other end. "Gimme a minute." A few seconds later, Elsa could hear cars passing by over the phone. Okay, Anastasia is definitely still mad at me. "What's up?"

"Opening statements went really well. I didn't get to actually question anyone, because Judge Frollo thinks four o'clock is late, but the jury seemed to be siding with me."

She actually squealed. "That's amazing! I know you can do it, Elsa. I don't care how impossible this case may seem, there's no way Mr. Pan is beating you."

"Thanks, Belle."

"I've got to get back to work though." Her tone was overly apologetic. Guess Anya can be quite the slave driver.

"It's fine, just wanted to let you know. You were a big help with the case."

"Any time, Elsa, just let me know and I'll help again." A car honked. "As long as I'm not at work. I'll talk to you later."

"Have a good night, Belle." Elsa let the phone drop as she sunk back into the couch. It wouldn't hurt to go over her case a few more times before bed. She decided to review each of the witnesses' affidavits as some police procedural played in the background on the TV. She finished off a couple more of Tiana's beers as she played out every line of questioning she could take and how the jury was likely to react. By the time she finally retired for the night, Elsa was ready to kick Pan's ass in the morning.