Chapter Text
Monday
There is absolutely nothing worse than an early Monday morning in Florida.
The humid air clung to Jax’s arm the second he stepped out of his Jeep. The air conditioning in it broke at the beginning of summer a few months ago, which has made his commute to this god awful job even more soul sucking.
Jax begrudgingly walked over to the front door of his workplace and entered the early access code into the keypad, hoping he could get inside before he started sweating through his collared shirt and work pants.
Declined.
Confused and also aware that he was running on 5 hours of sleep max, Jax punched it in again.
Declined.
“What the fuck?” Jax muttered under his breath. He could’ve sworn that the frosted glass reading “Caine & Abel: Attorneys at Law” on the door was mocking him. After two more failed attempts, he opened up Slack on his phone to see if anyone else was here or if he totally missed something.
A message from Caine was posted in the intern channel about an hour ago. “Hello my lovely hardworking law lovers! After recent staff departures, we changed the early access code! The new code is 247287. See you at 8am!” Caine’s annoying chipper voice translated perfectly over text. There was no escaping his irritating voice even after hours.
He punched in the new code and pulled the door open the second it beeped as if it were saying “Welcome back to hell Jax!” The clock above the door read 7:45am. As much as he hated this internship, he was never late. If Caine’s wrath wasn’t enough to scare him from showing up even 2 minutes late, he actually cared about this job. It sucks, but the opportunities it offers outweigh the early mornings and insane workload.
Jax reluctantly shuffled towards the elevator and once inside hit floor 3. As the door closed, he had the quick opportunity to make sure his dark wavy hair didn’t frizz up in the humidity. Because of his height, he had to back up fully against the back wall of the elevator in order to see his hair in the elevator door reflection. Lucky for him, his hair was all good. The grey reflection didn’t show the deep tan complexion of his skin, but it was good enough for him to make sure his work clothes weren’t drenched in sweat from the heat outside.
As the door opened, Jax did a quick scan of the small room to see which colleagues were already here. The bullpen office had six desks, consisting of two rows with three on each side, all pressed together like sardines. The fluorescent lights were on and humming softly, meaning someone beat him to getting here first.
People rotate in and out of this job pretty frequently. It's not for the weak. The constantly legal brief editing and research assistance was intense, and on top of that, Caine’s strict rules, inability to handle feedback, and his polarizing attitude from over excited to cruel made it almost impossible to work with him. The pay was mediocre at best, but most of his coworkers were broke college students who would take what they could get anyways.
Jax has been here the longest out of his coworkers. Well all except one. Because of his seniority, he has strategically moved his desk to the perfect spot in the bullpen. Whenever someone quit, he relocated. He never asked anyone whether they cared or not, he just did it. Survival of the fittest, and for him, that meant securing a spot right next to the kitchenette in the corner of the room.
Jax placed his briefcase and phone down at his desk, and turned around to start making his coffee for the day. He checked his watch just to make sure he wasn’t going to be late to the morning briefing in the conference room. 7:48am. Perfect. He grabbed a mug from the only cabinet in the kitchen corner. Everyone who worked here has contributed a mug to the collection. His was a mug he got for free at college orientation freshman year. The orange and blue ceramic mug was nice and fully branded with the Florida Gators logo across the front.
Using his own mug isn’t fun though, it’s so much more entertaining to snatch someone else’s to mess with them. He smiled slightly as he grabbed the blue and green flowery mug that was right next to his. His normal mug victims were Kaufmo or Ragatha. Kaufmo because they’re close friends and Jax knows that Kaufmo would find it funny, and Ragatha because she’s fun to piss off. Kaufmo’s mug was gone today, probably meaning that Kaufmo was already in the conference room. Ragatha it is.
Jax closed the cabinet and looked through the coffee laid out behind the machine. The counter is small and only has a sink, a microwave, and a coffee machine. As Jax put his mug down, two horrific realizations came over him at once. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to suppress the slow emotional bubbles of angry annoyance building up.
First, someone used the rest of his coffee. Jax can’t stand shitty American coffee. It doesn’t hit the same, and they didn’t have it on the island he grew up on. He almost exclusively used Puerto Rican coffee. Jax doesn’t mind sharing the blessing that is Cafe Yaucono, but no coffee on a Monday morning while having to sit and listen to Caine’s weekly monologue is going to be significantly more unbearable without caffeine.
Even if he did settle for colonizer coffee, the coffee machine had a post-it note that was slowly losing its stick with sloppy handwriting on it that read “out of order” with parenthesis under it “(sorry Jax and Zooble)”.
Fuck, Jax thought to himself. Who knows how long the machine is going to be broken, meaning he’s going to start having to resort to rushing in the morning before work to make it at home.
He put Ragatha’s mug back, annoyed that he wouldn’t be able to piss off Ragatha on what he assumed is probably her favorite day of the week: Caine day.
Jax pulled his laptop out of his briefcase and a pen out of the small penholder on his desk, and headed over to the conference room. The walls of the office are a hospital white color, and the conference room sits right next to the elevator door behind a big glass wall with the Caine & Abel logo frosted on it. The door to the room was already open, and he saw Zooble sitting in their spot closest to the huge window in the back wall of the room at the center of the table. Jax put his laptop down to the left of them and sat down.
The conference room has eight swivel chairs with four on each side, and each of his colleagues had unspoken rules of who sat where. Jax and Zooble sat in the center on the window side. Kaufmo is team leader, so he sits to the left of Jax closest to where Caine will be standing when he comes to torture their morning.
Jax tiredly stared at his reflection in the glass wall in front of him and watched as a short girl walked into the bullpen and put her stuff down.
“Did you see the coffee machine?” Zooble asks grumbly. Jax turned his head to see Zooble’s tired eyes staring at the pen in front of them.
“Mhm” Jax responded quietly. “Some sadist decided to directly call us out after breaking the damn machine too.”
Zooble slightly chuckled under their breath. Normally Zooble is quick to be annoyed with Jax’s bullshit, but Jax could tell that Zooble was too caffeine deprived to care to defend anyone. Zooble was arguably the most androgynous person he had ever met. Their dark tight curly hair was short, which matched perfectly with their dark skin. Zooble grabbed the pen in front of them and started fidgeting, and Jax watched as they spun it around with their pink painted nails. Their defined biceps imprinted through their long sleeved collared shirt.
Gangle was next to walk in. The sight of her immediately woke up Zooble.
“How’s your morning going, Gangle?” They asked. Everyone in the office knew something was up between Zooble and Gangle, but no one dared to ask or say anything, especially with Caine’s strict HR rules.
“It’s going really well” she said softly with a little smile on her face. She sat directly in front of Zooble and placed her things down. Gangle is small in size, and her blonde hair was pushed back into a ponytail that wraps around and lays on her shoulder. Her hair was wrapped in red ribbons, which was paired nicely with the black collared blouse she had on. Zooble smiled at her response, which Jax found nauseating.
Jax glanced up at the clock on the wall. 7:54am. He laid his head back on the swivel chair and closed his eyes. It was weird to him that Kaufmo still wasn’t here yet. The briefing starts at 8am, but most of them get here at least five minutes before, as Caine walks in exactly at 8am every Monday without fail.
Jax was startled awake by an energetic “Good morning guys!” and the sound of a container plopping down in front of him.
“Good morning Ragatha” Gangle said in her sweet soft voice. “What did you make for us this week?”
“I have blueberry pie squares and honey maple biscuits” she said excitedly as she opened the container in front of them. The sweet smell filled the air as Gangle and Zooble both immediately sat up to grab treats.
There is something about Ragatha’s 24/7 cheer and happy attitude that makes every nerve in his body recoil. It’s not even 8am, there is absolutely no need for her to be this excited about life at this awful job this early in the morning. Every Monday she brings baked goods she made the night before to share with the office. Jax is convinced she does it to kiss up to Caine, and it works every single time.
Ragatha took her seat at the front of the table diagonally left to Jax and turned on her laptop. Her wavy silky red hair fell down both of her shoulders.The morning sunlight that came in through the window behind him landed on Ragatha perfectly, highlighting her blue eyes as she opened up the computer. The sun accentuated the freckles on her face and the small scar just under her right eye on her cheek, and her gold earrings glimmered. As annoying as she was, Jax would be lying if he said she wasn’t beautiful. The irksome positivity was a big dealbreaker though, he could never imagine hanging out with her outside of this job in any capacity, and even here that patience is limited.
“Are you okay?” Ragatha asked, slightly concerned.
Jax realized he had been staring in her direction. Or at her. He was too tired to figure out the difference. She kept looking at him, waiting for an answer.
“I just hate blueberries,” he responded, half snarky, half exhausted, “you really couldn’t have gone with, I don't know, cherry?”
Ragatha took a breath before responding. He could tell he got to her. It's a small payback for every time she’s gone out of her way to be little miss perfect and little miss cares-for-everyone.
“The world doesn’t revolve around you Jax,” she responded coldly. “Besides, Caine mentioned he liked blueberries last week so I thought he’d appreciate it.” She turned her head back to her computer and started typing.
“Ah, of course it's about Caine” he muttered as he laid his head back against the chair again, hoping maybe he could fall asleep for the two-ish minutes they had before Caine walked in.
“What is that supposed to mean Jax?” she asked defensively, snapping her head in his direction.
Now Jax was awake. Pissing of Ragatha is almost as good as any caffeine. There’s an addictive adrenaline to it, a high Jax chases every time Ragatha slips out of her perfect demeanor. It’s like a game: Jax pokes, Ragatha tries to not let it get to her but it inevitably does, and when it does, Jax wins.
Jax’s attitude changed from tired to playful. “I’m just commenting on your little crush. Sorry to break it to you Rags, but I just don’t think he likes you the same way.” He cocked his eyebrows at her and then rested his head back in his chair.
Silence.
Ragatha shifted in her seat, trying to hide her cheeks turning red. Jax couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment.
“Jax cut it out,” Zooble said flatly, “You’re taking it too far and it's too early for this.”
“Ugh you guys are no fun,” Jax sighed as he spun his chair back and forth with his feet. If Kaufmo were here on time he would’ve found it funny.
“I like you better when you’re tired,” Ragatha said quietly while staring at her computer screen.
Jax didn’t acknowledge the comment, but it resonated with him regardless. At least he has a personality and can have fun. All she can ever do is point out flaws and bend over backwards for other people.
He glanced up at the clock. 7:59am. Kaufmo is screwed if he doesn’t get his ass in here in the next thirty seconds. A part of him wondered why Kaufmo was late. Hopefully something like car trouble or a missed alarm, not something serious.
Just as the clock hit 8am, Caine barged in holding a stack of yellow folders filled with papers. His short figure was swallowed by the bright red suit he was fitted in. He had short slicked back black hair and extremely blue eyes, the type of blue that can stare into your soul, and not in a good way. Behind him was a new face. Another small girl, maybe even shorter than Gangle. She’s Asian, and had short black hair cut into a bob.
Everyone sat up, trying their best to look alive and well.
“Good morning my hard working research ants!” Caine exclaimed in a way that was way too loud given the time of day.
What the fuck does that even mean? Jax thought to himself.
“Good news and bad news,” Caine immediately began, not waiting for a good morning back or any acknowledgement from the interns. “Bad news: Kaufmo quit, so now we don't have an intern team leader anymore.”
The room went still. Almost everyone’s head immediately turns towards Jax.
This can’t be happening. Kaufmo was the one person left in this job that made it exciting and somewhat bearable to come back to every shift. Jax knew Kaufmo hated the job, especially since he was responsible for managing all of them. Sure Jax had noticed the pressure was slowly getting to Kaufmo, but in no world did he think Kaufmo would actually quit, let alone quit without telling him. Jax felt his chest get tight and his vision zoned out, making everything slightly shaky. He kept himself still, forcing a stone face, trying not to show any emotion.
Jax worked up the courage to glance around at everyone, and when his eyes met theirs they each quickly looked back at Caine. When Jax finally looked at Ragatha, she was looking at Caine and she was smiling. Or at least trying to suppress a smile. Jax’s body turned hot. What the fuck. What could possibly be so amusing about any of this? The sight of her finding joy in his friend’s sudden absence made his blood boil. She darted her eyes towards Jax and when she realized he was looking right at her, she immediately dropped any happiness from her face. If there was any ounce of sympathy for Ragatha left in him, it was completely gone now.
Caine immediately moved on, giving everyone no time to process what just happened. “Good news: meet Pomni! The newest member of our team!”
Pomni gave an awkward wave to them, which was reciprocated by Zooble and Gangle.
“Zooble, you’re assigned to train Pomni for the next week to show her the ropes. She can help you with your briefs for the week.” Zooble smiled and nodded their head towards Pomni. When hearing this, Jax noticed a look of disappointment washed over Ragatha’s face.
“Ragatha, can you do me a favor?” Caine asked chipperly. Ragatha perked up and eagerly nodded. She always does this. Waiting for a favor or job to do from Caine, and it's exhausting. “Can you move to the chair next to you? I want Pomni at the front for now while she learns how everything works around here.”
The smile on Ragatha’s face faltered as she agreed. She got up and shifted her stuff to the chair in front of Jax. She paused before sitting down and looked at him.
No one has sat in that chair in months. It was never discussed, but everyone knew the chair was off limits, ever since Ribbit left. To see Ragatha sit down in it was the final nail in the coffin for making this day the second worst day Jax has ever had at this job, the first being the day that seat in front of him became empty. Jax couldn’t read whether Ragatha’s look was one of pity or secret enjoyment, but it made him feel defeated none the less.
Such a small request made the entire energy in the room shift. An awkward tension filled the air around everyone, one Caine clearly couldn’t pick up on. Caine started handing out the yellow folders to each of them except Pomni. The team didn’t have time to unpack anything, as Caine quickly started giving the details on each case they were assigned and what research needed to be done by the end of the week. Each of them got to work typing quickly, making note of every detail Caine mentioned. One flaw in a brief or one misunderstanding was enough to get asked to Caine’s office on Friday, which was never good. While Jax took notes, he could feel himself disassociating, slowly zoning in and out of his laptop screen.
When Caine was done explaining, the team slowly started collecting their folders.
“Oh one last thing!” Although no one did it aloud, Jax could sense everyone groaning at the fact they needed to keep listening to Caine speak. “The file room is a total disaster! I’m dividing you guys into teams on Wednesday to tackle the two rooms in the basement. I want everything sorted within the next two weeks.”
Everyone stared at Caine, a few of them nodded in understanding.
“See you guys next week!” He chimed. “Keep making me proud, my intellectual interns!” Just like that Caine was off to his office on a different floor, going to do the big lawyer stuff, not the menial tasks pushed onto the rest of them.
No one got up. Everyone sat in silence, each of them processing the events of the past fifteen minutes. The silence was broken by Zooble.
“Jax” they paused, giving Jax time to slowly turn his head from the random spot his brain chose to dissociate to and towards Zooble. “Are you okay?” they asked hesitantly.
The last thing Jax wanted was everyone’s pity. “Never better” he said flatly, in a way that was convincing to no one.