"It's been a while since I've been here." Ella sighed in remembrance as she looked at the prison ward through the harsh glare of the sunlight.
"It's time to put to the test that theory of yours." Damien agreed, rounding his vehicle to join Ella on the sidewalk.
"I guess so." Ella nodded, her heart heavy and her head racing.
She wanted to believe that Jamie was innocent, that the women really was as defenseless as she seemed, but Ella was practically an expert when it came to reading people and reading up on cases like these. There was something about the Jamie Parker case that had Ella feeling very unsettled. She just needed to find out what it was.
"Trust yourself, Ella. You're going to do just fine." Damien reached to grab Ella's hand and squeeze it endearingly before letting go. They were at work, and despite his urge to treat her as his girlfriend, they were on the job at the moment. It would be better for everyone if they kept their cool and focused on their individual jobs rather than each other.
Ella took a deep breath and entered the room where Jamie was already in.
Jamie Parker looked bad. She had deep and dark bags under her bleak and dull eyes now. Her cheeks seemed more sunken in, and so was the skin on her wrist, Ella noted. Jamie's hair also seemed more frazzled and oily, as if she had run her hands through it multiple times since the oil was concentrated in the front strands where people were constantly fidgeting.
"Hey, Jamie." Ella approached with caution. "How is everything?"
"I would like to know from you guys." Jamie coughed, seeming overworked.
Ella looked at Damien, waiting for him to explain the situation to the inmate. As far as Ella's awareness went, while she had learned quite a lot by working alongside Damien during these past five months, it still wasn't enough to be able to explain the situation in detail to Jamie.
"Investigating?!" Jamie's voice cracked, and she paused to drink some water. "Why? Can they not just declare me innocent or guilty already?! He's dead. I don't understand why this is taking so long. He's gone. David isn't coming back anymore." Jamie seemed to be in the middle of a breakdown. She was grabbing at her hair, panting to get enough air into her lungs as she cried, stomping her feet. "Huh?! Don't you get it? He's dead! I... I didn't meant to! He... He's never... I think I scared..." Jamie breathed even harder, cussing as she fought to reign in her emotions.
Ella saw how quickly the situation was escalating, and while she hated taking advantage of a vulnerable person, she needed to if she wanted to get the truth out.
"Who's dead, Jamie?" Ella looked carefully at Jamie, ignoring Damien's frown and curious look he threw at Ella. "Please, Jamie?"
"I can't... I saw him... David said... I'm sorry. I killed him... I killed him... I killed him!" Jamie was sobbing loudly, and Ella's heart broke.
While Jamie had committed murder, and she was a criminal, Ella couldn't really stand to see another person falling apart right in front of her and not feel the urge to help them, so she stood up and walked around to try to soothe Jamie.
"We're going to fix this, Jamie. I promise, I will fix this, okay?" Ella sniffed, feeling her own tears well in her eyes seeing how Jamie was falling apart. Ella placed a hand on Jamie's back, rubbing gently as Jamie shook, shaking her head as she wailed how she was done for.
After a few minutes that passed by very slowly, Jamie slowly regained some strength and calmed down. Ella's words and motions had helped to soothe her anxiety and desperation a tad bit. As Ella had told her, just hold on a little bit more until they gather more information to help her.
"Are you alright?" Damien pondered as soon as the couple exited the retention center. He had seen Ella wipe a couple of tears as they were leaving the facility but decided against asking her in front of other people in fear that it was just make her more uncomfortable.
Ella nodded, hiding her face as she remembered Jamie's words and face.
"I'm sorry." Ella sighed shakily, turning around before covering her face with her hands, breathing in deeply to calm her emotions. Her mother had always told her that Ella was too soft-hearted for such an emotional job as a psychologist.
"Ella," Damien set his briefcase down as he gently grabbed her arm, turning her around to get a better look at her. "What's wrong? What happened?" He scoured her figure to see if there was perhaps an injury that was pestering her. "Hmm?" He hummed deeply to encourage her to answer.
Ella simply kept her face covered as she practiced deep breathing. She feared that if she answered, then her lack of composure would surely crack and she'd also have a meltdown in the middle of the parking lot.
"I've heard that hugs are good for you." Damien murmured before taking her body into his, wrapping his arms around her smaller figure completely and securely.
Ella nodded, accepting his comfort gladly. She had always been a sucker for all of those affections to help her feel better. Hugs, kisses, whispers, touches, she basked in the warmth of it all.
"If you feel like you don't want to continue on with this case, please let me know." Damien soothed her as he ran a hand down her soft hair, running his fingers through her silky strands. "There's no need for you to stress yourself over this."
"I'm okay." Ella promised, sniffing as she still clutched onto the back of his shirt. "It just hurts to see someone break apart like that."
Damien kissed her hair, just trying to make her feel better. He wasn't too sure how he had gone from running in the opposite direction the first time he had seen Ella crying to now, where he was holding and reassuring her, but this certainly made him feel like a better person.
After breaking apart and getting back on track with their schedule, Ella still wasn't telling Damien what exactly she was suspecting, but she first wanted to set up an appointment with the coroner in order to come to a more concrete answer to her theories.
"Ella!" Mr. Kim yelled as soon as Ella stepped into the main lobby with Damien by her side.
"He's been searching for you for a while now; told us to let him know when you stepped foot out of the elevator." Hope blew on her freshly brewed coffee by her desk.
"Oh, got it." Ella thanked her for the information before handing the bag that held their lunches to Damien. From all of the work that they had left to do, they both concluded it would be best to eat and work rather than eating out like how they had been doing lately. "I'll be right back."
Damien nodded a bit tersely. He knew that Ella had had a hard time today with Jamie, and she also hadn't eaten. While it would have been ideal if Kim could wait until Ella ate, Damien knew that his boss probably had something urgent to tell to the young girl.
Setting their food on the center table, Damien moved to his desk to email the coroner. Ella hadn't wanted to reveal too much about what she was thinking, not because she didn't trust him but because she wanted to have evidence before making the accusation she was thinking of.
"Damien! Crazy hearing from you again." The coroner, Jake Stewart, teased the lawyer. They heard from each other all the time, especially working in this closely-related field for the two.
"Mr. Stewart. I read that you did David Parker's autopsy." Damien cut straight to the chase. There was so much time that was already being wasted on this case.
"Yes, that's correct. I heard you were taking this case on." Jake sighed heavily. He knew how much spotlight this case had. He himself had gotten his fair share of hate from the public due to his autopsy coming out in favor of Jamie Parker, but he didn't care. He was doing his job fairly, that's all that really mattered to him.
"I need to schedule an appointment with you over it. I have a psychologist that is helping me on it; she needs to check a couple of things."
Jake agreed. It wouldn't be the first time Damien had asked something like this before. They set a date and a time in two weeks time, which was farther than Damien would've liked, but it seemed like Jake was very busy.
"Finished?" Ella quietly entered the room. Truth was, she was about to enter, but she noticed he was on the phone through the windows, so she stayed put until she saw that he was finished.
Damien agreed, moving to sit at the center with Ella. "It was the coroner. We have a meeting in two weeks now." Damien accepted the food that Ella was handing him, spreading it out on the coffee table while she nodded and pulled out her laptop.
"I read about a fire and a car crash this morning that resulted in fatalities. Maybe he's working those two incidents." Ella offered, to which Damien nodded, agreeing that it was a possibility.
"Is everything okay with Kim?" Damien didn't want to seem like he was prodding or asking for the details even though he was curious. He'd be alright so long as he knew things were okay for Ella.
Ella nodded avidly, smiling as she opened up the container of her salad. "It seems like the hold on my practice is being lifted due to the incident last month." Ella explained, taking a bite of her food. "Oliver has been working hard with this, so I'm really thankful."
"That's pretty soon." Damien admitted. Usually those cases lasted a couple of months, more than a year almost.
"That's what Jihye was explaining. It seems like the connection of the man that was in the basement and Vanders is pretty self-explanatory, so he's beginning to lose his credibility." Ella pointed out, feeling odd about the whole situation.
She still couldn't understand why Vanders had gone to the extreme and closed her business as well as file a lawsuit. His connections to powerful people were strong, but Ella had a lot of trust and faith in Jihye and Oliver. They had done nothing but worked hard for these past couple of months, and it was showing.
"When are you going to reopen?" Damien needed to be aware of when he could expect her gone. There were still many things he wanted to take care of with her, but if she was leaving, he was not going to be the one to hold her back.
"Probably next week. I have a few patients that I really need to see." Ella's eyes were misty.
She was just so happy that she was going to be able to go back to her own passion. She had missed her career in her own office terribly. While it had been super nice for Kim to allow her here, nothing could compare to her own space.
"Here I go again." Ella sniffed, her small nose scrunching up as she frowned before grabbing a napkin to pat her eyes. Damien chuckled, knowing those tears were out of joy and not despair like earlier.
"Let's finish early so you can go home and rest." Damien focused back onto his own files as Ella firmly agreed.
Bye the end of that week, Damien had managed to catch up on a lot of things thanks to Ella. The whole department had also heard of Ella officially leaving them now, so most of them were quite sad about the news. Everyone had already grown accustomed to having that young, bright, and kind, little lady around the office.
"We're going to miss you a bunch." Hope whined as she gave Ella one of the tightest hugs she could muster.
"I know I'm responsible for you going back to work, but I really wish it didn't have to be soon." Oliver sighed as he also wrapped Ella in a hug.
"We still have to go shopping. Don't forget." Katherine playfully scolded Ella. The two had really bonded over fashion for the past couple of months.
Ella kindly said goodbye to the rest of the group, promising that she would return for company dinners or just to show up once in a while.
"I'll walk her down!" Oliver quickly offered once Ella was heading towards the elevator.
"You," Kim pointedly glared at the man, yanking on the back of his shirt to drag him back, "have a lot of work to do."
"I still need the copies, too, Ollie!" Katherine called after her boss and coworker, following them.
"Oh, crap!" Barnes remembered that Oliver had left her in charge of those. "The copies!" She scurried off.
"Copies? The paper is stuck though. Joselyn!" Hope rushed to inform the older secretary before she broke the printing machine.
Ella sighed, chuckling as she watched the office go back to regular schedule.
"They really are falling apart without you, already." Damien couldn't help but to laugh at everyone there. How they had managed to be one of the top firms in the country, he had no clue.
"I'm going to miss this place." Ella pursed her lips, shaking her head as she felt herself getting emotional. "I have to go now."
"I'll walk you down." Damien agreed, taking her hand once they were in the elevator and no one was watching.
"I'll still help you with the Parker case, you know." Ella leaned towards him once the elevator arrived at the basement and they were walking to her car. "I can also help with other cases if you need me to."
The couple stopped at her car, Ella leaning against her car door as Damien smiled while shaking his head at her offer. "I know you can, but just focus on your patients. Believe it or not, we were actually functioning before you, so we'll just have to readjust." He leaned beside her, watching as she turned her body to face him.
"I did ask Kim to consider hiring a secretary for you personally. You work a lot, so I thought it was only fair."
"Thank you." Damien leaned forward, kissing her forehead for a prolonged moment.
"I'll miss all of you guys." Ella took his hand, moving caress his knuckles. Damien chuckled, not understanding how she could honestly say that about the whacky people upstairs.
"You'll still see them." Damien promised, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear in order to face better. "We still have dates to go on."
Ella smiled warmly, agreeing.
The space that had once existed between them was no longer there. They both could feel the sizzling intensity and attraction that both had for one another, so as farewell, Damien gathered up enough courage to kiss her lips, which she responded positively to.
His hand cupped her jaw, pulling her even closer. She also moved her hand to his neck, sinking her fingers into his dark strands as they gently and sweetly tested the waters of their first kiss.
They slowly pulled away, and a little out of breath, Ella kept her eyes closed as Damien lifted his face to kiss her forehead again, pulling her into a warm hug.
He definitely had many more dates to go on with her.