"All right, Tally." Holden nodded his head as he walked into the office, which he felt was still ridiculously oversized for only having two people in it. "Hello." The other man, Kian, definitely looked familiar and he knew who he was from Tally's stories, but obviously he was a professional.
Kian nodded his head and finally opened up his salad. This might be the distraction he needed. "Nice to meet you. Have a seat." Whatever would keep Tally occupied.
"I don't want to interrupt your lunch break," Holden said, awkwardly hovering in the door, "I can-- Is that what you're eating?" He looked at Tally's desk and, more precisely, the bag there. Which was a brown paper bag that had gotten translucent from all the grease. "Fucking hell, mate, I look at that and my arteries blow up!"
"Careful, yelling about blowing up with that accent," Kian pointed out, amused more than anything. Holden did close the door. Point, he supposed.
"It's not that bad, It's healthy grease. Besides, it's egg, that's protein, and bacon, also protein. And I already ate my doctor's special lunch thing, it's handled, now I can have fun." He sat back in his seat and took a large bite out of his sandwich, not letting these two get to him. He ate whatever the doctor said, he just ate other things too. "As much as I love our alone time together, I'm at work. If this is chasing me up about Friday, I already told you - I was wrecked."
And to him, that was a perfectly acceptable excuse. He pulled some bacon off his sandwich and flicked it at Kian's meal. "Eat something proper. Dickhead."
With a roll of his eyes, he looked back at Holden, expectant. "Well?"
Kian moved his bowl aside to avoid the bacon and made a face, but said nothing. Getting bacon flung in his direction was becoming a common occurrence. Also, there were tears in Holden's eyes, so bickering about healthy food choices seemed a bit lower in priority.
"They want to take Gideon away from me." Holden was trying to keep it together. Today had been stressful, however. Emotionally taxing. And he had never felt quite as negatively gay and Irish before. "I-- I'm just trying to find a lawyer, really. I know I can't afford you."
"You don't deserve him either," Kian said helpfully. He felt Holden could do better.
"Do you know anyone?" Holden asked Tally, taking a deep breath. "I've got money. Just not that much."
"Why do they want to take the pip from you?" He could work it out, based off who he was and all but they let him get this far with the kid, all to take it back? How the hell did they do that? Seemed cruel. Holden never should have had the kid to begin with, just wasn't fair to tease a fag with a real life.
He used his foot to push a chair out for Holden and then set his sandwich aside. Yes, he paused eating for this.
Since he had a heart attack, the only person he could talk to was Holden and he was always a good lad. He was nice, even tempered and wasn't afraid to tell him off. And his kid was cute too, even if he thought Tally was a scary yeti man. "You were playing house and now you ain't - what changed?"
"They released the father from jail and they want the kid back." It had been months and, really, that homophobic bastard deserved years for what he'd done, but that wasn't how the system worked. Holden sat down in the chair, running his fingers through his hair and trying to calm down enough to even begin a semblance of order here. "Gideon doesn't want to leave me. He's-- He's so scared of them. His parents. They ain't treating him right. Never have."
How was this fair?
Kian set his salad aside, already a pen in his hand and some paper in front of him. "Why was the father in prison?"
"...assault. Grievous bodily harm." Holden sighed and folded his arms on the table.
"How long was he in for?"
"I don't know, it's... Bit over half a year?" Did that add up? Holden had been in hospital for part of it, quite the chunk. Hard to keep track.
"If he's been in jail for assault, he wouldn't have a claim on the kid unless he did it in self defence. So stop bullshitting me - what happened?" He looked at Holden, reading his body language before he frowned at him. "What did the fucker do?"
It was personal. Holden knew what he'd done. He didn't hurt his son or they'd have no case so what was it that got him out of jail so fast for assault that severe and still entitled him to his son.
There he saw it in Holden's eyes.
Fuck. "Fucking fuck. You fucking -- it was you, wasn't it? Jesus." He slammed his hand on the table. "You should always lead with the most important facts! Don't waste fucking time!"
"Maybe we don't slam things around in front of the assault victim," Kian suggested mildly, while Holden had flinched a little. Still, he was used to Tally, he just didn't exactly love the story.
"Him and three others, yes. A gay bashing some months back. It made the papers, we are all very proud." Holden sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "They came at me. Now they're claiming I hit on them and they panicked. So they had to defend themselves."
"...against you?" Kian didn't want to be insulting here, but Holden was short and on the scrawny side.
"Yes. I'm terrifying." Holden dead-panned, then looked at Tally. "I can't let them take Gideon. He keeps crying over it."
"Yeah, well, kids don't understand all of this adult shit, do they? It's tough. Sometimes you're unlucky and your dad is a piece of shit. Hopefully his mom is better." Well, what else did Holden want from him? This was a case that was hard to win. Especially right now. AIDS and protecting the kids, all of that rhetoric was not easy to beat down in a court room.
He felt bad for Holden, it was wrong that someone that gentle should be hurt like that but what was there he could do?
"Your on and off boyfriend, the ginger cunt, can't he help you out with the cash?"
Was that lazy fucker even working or was he just coasting around. Yeah, he hated him, he had just decided it. It wasn't like Felix had done anything but once saying hello to him while entering the property. Fucker.
"Felix got laid off at work recently. I don't know if he'll be able to find another job." Holden said it very matter of fact, because sticking to the facts made this a lot easier. His life was crashing down around him and he was losing hope fast. Tally's dismissive attitude wasn't different than what he'd encountered elsewhere. Holden blinked and then rubbed an eye. "Fuck."
At least Kian could fill in the blanks there. He leaned closer to Tally, keeping his voice low. "Felix is positive." That had to be it. "HIV." He had heard too many others talk about losing their job in such ways. It was common now.
"Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, he is." Holden got up, shaking his head. It was getting hard to breathe. "Sorry. I gotta..." He gestured vaguely in the direction of the door. "See you later."
"He's got--" Fuck. The ginger bastard was positive? Fucking hell, this was like an unwinnable case. Two gay men, one with HIV, wanted to keep a kid of a guy who claimed self defence from his slutty, wicked ways. He was about to explain to Holden how unlikely it was and how it was time to make peace but when he saw him look like that, he couldn't say it.
The only person who had any empathy for him. And he was crying, on the verge of losing his whole life, miserable and ... it was unfair.
"No, sit the fuck back down. You're not allowed to walk out in the middle of a session. If I'm your lawyer, you can't start getting emotional and storm off or you'll never win the case. Though the tears can stay, a jury fucking loves them." Taliesin explained as he leaned back in his chair. "An unwinnable case? Pfft. I can win anything." This would be piss easy.
"...Taliesin." Kian didn't think that case was winnable. Also not lucrative. Also very much political and taking a stance and a couple other things that might not be the best for either of their careers.
On the other hand, Holden had puppy dog eyes. He really did. He was a sweet bloke with the saddest eyes looking as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Kian supposed there was no way to keep Tally from this. "It's a hard sell. That case." He could at least point that out.
Holden did sit back down, not exactly getting his hopes up yet. "I can pay. I give therapy to corporate wrecks all the time, they pay bogus sums. No offense." Well, he was just saying. "Gideon's scared of his parents. He says they've hit him before. Withheld food. Neglect. There were so many signs of that when I first got him, the social worker had a whole file on it."
The law firm was determined to push him out, his days were numbers and he may as well take a stand before his life is just reduced to a footnote in some textbooks for his handful of noteworthy cases. As far as he was concerned, it didn't fucking matter any more. "It's not that hard if we get the right witnesses and we have the kid to work with. Any kid that can bawl and plead with the jury stands a pretty good chance."
Fighting for adoption rights for a queer and his AIDs riddled boyfriend? Well, that was one way to go out of things.
"Pay me what you think is fair but it's pointless to cripple yourself or you can't have the kid. And then what's the fucking point?" Taliesin sighed and got to his feet, walking across the room to get some gin. "I need to have a statement from your social worker, obviously. And, more pressingly, I need the police report. The cop that was on duty for the assault and the one for the kid. I don't fucking care how we get it, we need it. We have to work on that one early cause cops hate fags. We all know that."
And if they didn't get a cop on their side, it would be even harder. He couldn't imagine how bias the report had to be. Maybe he could pay a cop off to be with them.
"I don't know about the cops. I was unconscious so..." Holden frowned and Kian had his pen poised.
"Tell me the date and place and I'll hunt down the right cop and the report." He thought he would be better suited for that kind of work than Taliesin, so he wrote down the information Holden gave him and tried to figure out what station to go to. "I'll go in person, I'll make sure to butter up whoever it is we need."
"The social worker's name is Charles Gunn. I have his card here." Holden got it out, trying to think what else to say. This was all going really quickly and he wasn't sure what to say. "Gideon's going to a therapist, to work through his trauma. I'm sure she would be willing to release a statement."
He did know her professionally.
"Tally, consider the parents. If it's a thug like that, they'll be easy to provoke and rattle and they are bound to have more skeletons in the closet." Still writing notes, Kian was thinking it over. "Drugs, alcohol, et cetera."
"We'll look into them. I bet there's an angle. If they're gay bashers who can't handle being parents, they've probably pissed a few people off." It shouldn't be too hard to piss them off. He already had several angles to take this in his head. They wanted to accuse his friend of being a pedo? Oh, they'd fucking rue the day.
"Okay, Holden, you're gonna go home and fucking breathe. You're gonna hug your kid, fuck your boyfriend, I don't care. And then tomorrow, you get me confirmation that you can get letters from his therapist, teachers, his fucking priest for all I care. Just letters that reflect that Gideon is doing better, he's less damaged but definitely damaged by those fucks."
And that was the main thing that they needed from Holden. For now. "Kian will get us our cop, I'm going to dig on the parents and start working up some paths to take. This is the easy part. We gather, we plan." The most boring part. "When is the custody hearing?"
"It's end of next month." He got out the file he had in his backpack, fingers shaking a little. This was a lot all at once and he wasn't sure how to deal with it. Was he supposed to get his hopes up? He didn't quite dare. He took a breath and then, quite suddenly, he got up and hugged Taliesin tightly. He hadn't thought he could ever have hope again, not with everything that was going on, so this was such a relief. "Thank you. I-- Thank you."
Being hugged was not something he had much experience with outside of his mam and ... well, that was kind of it. He was awkward for a while, just letting Holden hug him and then he remembered his arms could work and held him in return, patting his back like his dad always used to do.
"Yeah, yeah. Stop getting handsy, gay boy." He gently pushed Holden back and sighed, afraid he was going to get emotional or something. "Leave the file with me and go home, yeah? I'll handle it from here."
"Thank you," Holden said again, then he turned to Kian and nodded. "Thank you too."
"Don't thank me. I'm basically a glorified assistant, I have to do whatever he wants." Within reason. Still, he simply shrugged and got up, holding the door open for their newest client. "Show Mr O'Shea outside, Linda, will you? Call him a cab, it's pissing it down."
With that, Kian closed the door and leaned back against it, smirking at Taliesin. "Damn. What did you do, buy your soul back from the devil?"
"No, no, no. Though it's a nice idea but no. See, it's perfect. Defending faggots and getting political - oh, they're gonna love this. And they're not even going to know until I go to trial cause it's pro-bono. My own masterpiece." He was smirking now, slightly unhinged, as he poured himself a big glass of whiskey with his shaky hands.
"They're gonna fire me sooner or later. May as well leave a lasting mark before I get pushed out of this world." If he was going to have his livelihood taken away, he'd just have to ruin everyone else's too.
"Oh, the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed." Taliesin practically growled as he started pacing around his office like a furious wolf, waiting for the kill. "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Kian laughed, walking back over to his desk and watching the performance, as that was what it was. He sat down and clapped, showing Tally the appreciation he deserved for this. Still. "Devious. Superb. Very inspired."
And, yeah, he was aware that he'd have to be careful here not to get outed. Whatever though, he might have abandoned a lot of principles and have dubious morals, but this case... He did like the idea of justice prevailing here. "Still. You've got a soft spot for the Irish lad. It's sweet."
He lifted his water bottle to toast him. "Cheers. I like it. Hard to not fall for the Celtic boys, I know."
"He's alright, he's a soft thing. I'm just tired of the world stiffing us. And you know what else? I'm tired of shitty dads winning." So yeah, he had a lot of fun reasons for them. Well, maybe he could make a new career out of some kind of political gay lawyer or something. It wasn't what he wanted and way less work but hell, he could make a good fucking show of it.
"If they ask, I made you do it. You can save your skin." He still had a career. Tally did not. He was just playing teacher until he could be dismissed.
"It's fine. Who knows, times are changing. All those closeted assholes I've been fucking might be proud faggots one day yet." He shrugged and finally finished off his lunch, packing it away. "I'll head over to the station then. See what cop I have to handle how."
There were so many different shades of homophobia he could get, it was kind of exciting. "See what kind of jury we could get. Holden's educated, anyone elitist might be swayed by that, plus they all fancy themselves liberal. Anyway, I think he's straight women handsome, might score us some points. Non-threatening handsomeness."
"Good luck with the cops." Tally huffed out a laugh and started lighting up, wondering if he was committing career suicide or just making a wise step towards screwing those assholes over. "Bring me back something nice from the cop den."
With a smirk, he exhaled smoke. "Non-threatening handsome? Someone has a crusssssh." Tally sang playfully as he waved his hand in dismissal. "Fuck off and get out of the clouds. Ponce."
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Kian nodded his head and finally opened up his salad. This might be the distraction he needed. "Nice to meet you. Have a seat." Whatever would keep Tally occupied.
"I don't want to interrupt your lunch break," Holden said, awkwardly hovering in the door, "I can-- Is that what you're eating?" He looked at Tally's desk and, more precisely, the bag there. Which was a brown paper bag that had gotten translucent from all the grease. "Fucking hell, mate, I look at that and my arteries blow up!"
"Careful, yelling about blowing up with that accent," Kian pointed out, amused more than anything. Holden did close the door. Point, he supposed.
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And to him, that was a perfectly acceptable excuse. He pulled some bacon off his sandwich and flicked it at Kian's meal. "Eat something proper. Dickhead."
With a roll of his eyes, he looked back at Holden, expectant. "Well?"
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"They want to take Gideon away from me." Holden was trying to keep it together. Today had been stressful, however. Emotionally taxing. And he had never felt quite as negatively gay and Irish before. "I-- I'm just trying to find a lawyer, really. I know I can't afford you."
"You don't deserve him either," Kian said helpfully. He felt Holden could do better.
"Do you know anyone?" Holden asked Tally, taking a deep breath. "I've got money. Just not that much."
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He used his foot to push a chair out for Holden and then set his sandwich aside. Yes, he paused eating for this.
Since he had a heart attack, the only person he could talk to was Holden and he was always a good lad. He was nice, even tempered and wasn't afraid to tell him off. And his kid was cute too, even if he thought Tally was a scary yeti man. "You were playing house and now you ain't - what changed?"
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How was this fair?
Kian set his salad aside, already a pen in his hand and some paper in front of him. "Why was the father in prison?"
"...assault. Grievous bodily harm." Holden sighed and folded his arms on the table.
"How long was he in for?"
"I don't know, it's... Bit over half a year?" Did that add up? Holden had been in hospital for part of it, quite the chunk. Hard to keep track.
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It was personal. Holden knew what he'd done. He didn't hurt his son or they'd have no case so what was it that got him out of jail so fast for assault that severe and still entitled him to his son.
There he saw it in Holden's eyes.
Fuck. "Fucking fuck. You fucking -- it was you, wasn't it? Jesus." He slammed his hand on the table. "You should always lead with the most important facts! Don't waste fucking time!"
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"Him and three others, yes. A gay bashing some months back. It made the papers, we are all very proud." Holden sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "They came at me. Now they're claiming I hit on them and they panicked. So they had to defend themselves."
"...against you?" Kian didn't want to be insulting here, but Holden was short and on the scrawny side.
"Yes. I'm terrifying." Holden dead-panned, then looked at Tally. "I can't let them take Gideon. He keeps crying over it."
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He felt bad for Holden, it was wrong that someone that gentle should be hurt like that but what was there he could do?
"Your on and off boyfriend, the ginger cunt, can't he help you out with the cash?"
Was that lazy fucker even working or was he just coasting around. Yeah, he hated him, he had just decided it. It wasn't like Felix had done anything but once saying hello to him while entering the property. Fucker.
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At least Kian could fill in the blanks there. He leaned closer to Tally, keeping his voice low. "Felix is positive." That had to be it. "HIV." He had heard too many others talk about losing their job in such ways. It was common now.
"Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, he is." Holden got up, shaking his head. It was getting hard to breathe. "Sorry. I gotta..." He gestured vaguely in the direction of the door. "See you later."
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The only person who had any empathy for him. And he was crying, on the verge of losing his whole life, miserable and ... it was unfair.
"No, sit the fuck back down. You're not allowed to walk out in the middle of a session. If I'm your lawyer, you can't start getting emotional and storm off or you'll never win the case. Though the tears can stay, a jury fucking loves them." Taliesin explained as he leaned back in his chair. "An unwinnable case? Pfft. I can win anything." This would be piss easy.
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On the other hand, Holden had puppy dog eyes. He really did. He was a sweet bloke with the saddest eyes looking as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Kian supposed there was no way to keep Tally from this. "It's a hard sell. That case." He could at least point that out.
Holden did sit back down, not exactly getting his hopes up yet. "I can pay. I give therapy to corporate wrecks all the time, they pay bogus sums. No offense." Well, he was just saying. "Gideon's scared of his parents. He says they've hit him before. Withheld food. Neglect. There were so many signs of that when I first got him, the social worker had a whole file on it."
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Fighting for adoption rights for a queer and his AIDs riddled boyfriend? Well, that was one way to go out of things.
"Pay me what you think is fair but it's pointless to cripple yourself or you can't have the kid. And then what's the fucking point?" Taliesin sighed and got to his feet, walking across the room to get some gin. "I need to have a statement from your social worker, obviously. And, more pressingly, I need the police report. The cop that was on duty for the assault and the one for the kid. I don't fucking care how we get it, we need it. We have to work on that one early cause cops hate fags. We all know that."
And if they didn't get a cop on their side, it would be even harder. He couldn't imagine how bias the report had to be. Maybe he could pay a cop off to be with them.
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"Tell me the date and place and I'll hunt down the right cop and the report." He thought he would be better suited for that kind of work than Taliesin, so he wrote down the information Holden gave him and tried to figure out what station to go to. "I'll go in person, I'll make sure to butter up whoever it is we need."
"The social worker's name is Charles Gunn. I have his card here." Holden got it out, trying to think what else to say. This was all going really quickly and he wasn't sure what to say. "Gideon's going to a therapist, to work through his trauma. I'm sure she would be willing to release a statement."
He did know her professionally.
"Tally, consider the parents. If it's a thug like that, they'll be easy to provoke and rattle and they are bound to have more skeletons in the closet." Still writing notes, Kian was thinking it over. "Drugs, alcohol, et cetera."
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"Okay, Holden, you're gonna go home and fucking breathe. You're gonna hug your kid, fuck your boyfriend, I don't care. And then tomorrow, you get me confirmation that you can get letters from his therapist, teachers, his fucking priest for all I care. Just letters that reflect that Gideon is doing better, he's less damaged but definitely damaged by those fucks."
And that was the main thing that they needed from Holden. For now. "Kian will get us our cop, I'm going to dig on the parents and start working up some paths to take. This is the easy part. We gather, we plan." The most boring part. "When is the custody hearing?"
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Kian watched, smiling a little. Kind of sweet.
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"Yeah, yeah. Stop getting handsy, gay boy." He gently pushed Holden back and sighed, afraid he was going to get emotional or something. "Leave the file with me and go home, yeah? I'll handle it from here."
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"Don't thank me. I'm basically a glorified assistant, I have to do whatever he wants." Within reason. Still, he simply shrugged and got up, holding the door open for their newest client. "Show Mr O'Shea outside, Linda, will you? Call him a cab, it's pissing it down."
With that, Kian closed the door and leaned back against it, smirking at Taliesin. "Damn. What did you do, buy your soul back from the devil?"
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"They're gonna fire me sooner or later. May as well leave a lasting mark before I get pushed out of this world." If he was going to have his livelihood taken away, he'd just have to ruin everyone else's too.
"Oh, the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed." Taliesin practically growled as he started pacing around his office like a furious wolf, waiting for the kill. "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
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And, yeah, he was aware that he'd have to be careful here not to get outed. Whatever though, he might have abandoned a lot of principles and have dubious morals, but this case... He did like the idea of justice prevailing here. "Still. You've got a soft spot for the Irish lad. It's sweet."
He lifted his water bottle to toast him. "Cheers. I like it. Hard to not fall for the Celtic boys, I know."
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"If they ask, I made you do it. You can save your skin." He still had a career. Tally did not. He was just playing teacher until he could be dismissed.
"I won't dob you in, kid."
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There were so many different shades of homophobia he could get, it was kind of exciting. "See what kind of jury we could get. Holden's educated, anyone elitist might be swayed by that, plus they all fancy themselves liberal. Anyway, I think he's straight women handsome, might score us some points. Non-threatening handsomeness."
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With a smirk, he exhaled smoke. "Non-threatening handsome? Someone has a crusssssh." Tally sang playfully as he waved his hand in dismissal. "Fuck off and get out of the clouds. Ponce."