Elle
Elle was more sad than she expected to be as the internship came to a close. Getting the call that she needed to use a Braille embosser for one of the interns was not what she was expecting since she was nowhere near qualified enough to provide the accommodations that someone needed. However, Elle knew that she was a last resort because she was the only lawyer the counselor had the number of that was working the internship. So, Elle had gotten the papers printed and rushed to the internship.
Upon entering the room, Elle had spotted the intern, Matt Murdock, who would be needing the papers in the back of the room. Because Emmett was still answering questions Elle snuck as much as she was able, being in a bright pink suit, over to Vivian.
“Vivian,” Elle whispered, “I need to get these papers to Matt Murdock. Who has him in their group today?”
Vivian scanned the list that she was going to hand to Emmet when he finished the Q & A, “I think…. Oh no, not that asshole.”
Elle saw the name that she was pointing at and winced. Aaron Scholtz was not known for caring much about his interns. Sure he was a decent lawyer, but he only really cared about bringing in money and didn’t have much patience. The only reason that he was volunteering at this internship was to help his PR image after some scandal at his firm that wrote financial software codes.
Elle bit her lip, thinking. Aaron could still help around the internship even if he wasn’t directly involved with any intern. It was probably for the best for him not to have one in the first place
“Vivian, how much trouble would we get in if you transferred Mr. Murdock to shadow me because I have a direct line to his counselor?” Elle asked quietly.
Vivian snorted softly, “None, considering who you're transferring him from. Also because your husband is the one running the program.”
Elle snickered “Don’t make it sound so bad. Now please do it before Emmett finishes.”
Vivian smirked at Elle as she pulled out a pen and scribbled on the roster. Taking Matt Murdock as her intern had been one of the best decisions of her life. Him and her original intern, Sam Winchester got along very well and they were both incredibly earnest in learning and researching. In the past week she had gotten so much of her background research done in record time for her cases that was amazingly thorough. Elle had half a mind to hire them both so that she could spend less time researching and more time planning her defense.
Besides being incredible interns, Elle could also tell that the two young men had hardships in their pasts. Elle knew that there wasn’t anything she could do about Jack Murdock’s murderer, who apparently hadn’t been caught, and that she couldn’t give John Winchester a piece of her mind. But she was determined to provide these two boys with a line of support. She would write whatever letter of recommendation they needed or answer any question they could think of. She could also make sure that both Sam and Matt knew that she wasn’t the only one supporting them. This is what led to Sam and Matt sitting in her living room as Kyle finished cooking.
Elle had not only invited Vivian over for dinner, but she had also extended the invitation to Paulette and Kyle. Elle did this because she was a sucker for Kyle’s cooking. Sam and Matt had been awkwardly sitting on the couch while the adults talked until Bruiser and Rufus had broken the tension by running in from the backyard.
Sam had immediately slid off the couch to pet both Bruiser and Rufus while Matt had been a bit more hesitant until Elle had assured him that both were extremely well trained. Then Matt joined Sam on the floor. There was almost no tension that couldn’t be broken by a dog that wanted to be pet.
Elle laughed as Bruiser, in all of tiny chihuahua enthusiasm climbed into Sam's lap and licked his face while Rufus was content in receiving pets from Matt, “Have either of you had a dog before?”
Matt shook his head, “No, there wouldn’t have been enough room with all of the other kids.”
Sam also shook his head as he tried to move his face away from Bruiser’s doggy kisses, “We were on the road a lot, there was no place to keep a dog, but I really wanted one.”
Paulette smiled at the attention that Rufus was getting as she came in from where she had been helping Kyle with dinner with her daughter, Elle, on her hip, “Dinner’s ready.”
The dog’s perked up at the mention of dinner and scampered after Paulette. Everybody else followed the dog's example and walked to the dining table. After everyone dug in, there was little to talk about because Kyle’s cooking was amazing, apparently he listened to cooking podcasts when he was on his delivery routes.
When everyone had somewhat cleared their plates when Sam asked hesitantly, but politely why Elle was always wearing an outfit with some pink on it. Vivian, Emmett, Paulette, and Elle snickered.
“Well, when I was at law school my professor thought that pink was unprofessional. He also thought that I was only in Harvard because I slept my way to the top.” Elle explained and she saw Sam and Matt wince, “But I wasn’t, I got there through my own hard work with a lot of tutoring from Emmett. So you can imagine the look on his face when I showed up in bright pink at Brooke’s trial as his replacement and won the case even though I was only a student. Since then, pink has been my comfort color that reminds me of what I can achieve.”
Matt nodded his head as a teasing smile spread across his face, “So, if I’m feeling nervous for a case, I should show up to the courthouse dressed in bright pink?”
The whole table burst into laughter, as Elle shook her head and replied, “Oh no, Matt pink is not your color. I think Sam might be able to pull it off, but you’d look much better in red.”
From where Elle was standing it was clear that Matt and Sam probably didn’t have very good plans on what they were doing for the summer. They were probably going to have to live on campus and take summer classes and work themselves to exhaustion. Elle wasn’t going to have that.
“You know what? You both did so well with the internship, I wouldn’t mind hiring you both as paid interns during the summer. My parents also have an apartment that they own out here for when they want to visit. You could live there if you accepted it.” Elle could see the hesitation in both of the boys' faces and sighed slightly before adding, “You would have to pay some rent on the apartment, of course.”
Sam and Matt both relaxed when she added that they would have to pay for the apartment. Elle rolled her eyes. They were both such martyrs that didn’t want any help. If either of them accepted her offer she was going to do her best to nudge them into therapy.
Elle could see Matt clenching his silverware tightly, “I’ll think about it.”
Sam nodded in agreement, “It’s a very generous offer, Elle. Thank you.”
Elle smiled, knowing she had at least gotten them to think about the idea, “Take your time.”
As everyone completed their dinner, Elle knew that even if Sam and Matt weren’t blood or legally bound to each other that they were good friends. Elle was going to make sure to keep in contact with her because she knew that Elle and her friends could give them the support they needed even if they didn’t think they wanted it. Elle would make sure to keep Sam and Matt in good company.