Justice Above Everything

“How soon is too soon to set up your Christmas tree?” A small, wincing, smile creased across her lips, as if she were somewhat embarrassed to even be asking the question in the first place. “Asking for a friend, of course!” she quickly clarified, even though she was most definitely, one hundred percent, the friend.

Bente narrowed her eyes at the question. “I don’t know. I guess October? November? Something like that?” While Christmas had been a fun holiday all throughout her childhood, she wasn’t an avid celebrator. She certainly wasn’t the kind to start playing Christmas music the second November started. “Why? Does it really matter? It’s not as if it’s illegal.”

Putting back the two cans he had picked up, he turned back to her looking past her at the other people that seemed to be less concerned than she was. At least they were planning to go about their dads and Novak could try to get himself to calm down. Most days he had gotten used to the looks, knowing they weren’t meant for ill will and bad intentions. Most days he could convince himself that no one here knew anything about him and it would make it easier to not want to got back to his place, pack all his things and run again. But sometimes the world could be cruel and put him back on high alert. In the grand scheme of things, he had just accidentally knocked over a display but in the small details, he had gotten peoples attention and attention was dangerous when you were hiding secrets. 

Clearing his throat, he nodded slowly, not wanting to keep her waiting any longer. “Uh yeah sure. Im fine. Can’t really say the same for the cans I knocked over but…” He tried to joke but it came up forced and he didnt attempt to try again. Instead he bent back down to grab up another one of the cans. His line of sight shot back up to her as she mentioned his work and he smirked. Of course he knew her, which helped ease some of his growing tension. “Yeah. Yeah. Uh… Whiskey on the rocks, right? Sorry about earlier. I am tired and a bit stressed.” 

The brunette glanced around as she noticed people slowly returning to their own shopping routine. Those that did so rather slowly, she gave a meaningful look to encourage them to move along. While her job had given her some insight into human behaviour, she couldn’t quite comprehend why people felt the need to observe disasters as if they were the day’s entertainment program. Certainly, they wouldn’t want that to happen to them. Surely they’d feel embarrassed if all eyes were on them in the same situation? It felt wrong and terribly rude to do so. And what could they possibly get from it, anyway? Though, perhaps that line of thinking came from her family's tendency to want to mind their own business and maintain as much privacy as was possible in a small town.

She reached down to recover one of the fallen cans. “That’s me,” she chuckled with a nod. “Ah. Don’t worry about it. Looks like you’re having a rather rough day. It happens to the best of us,” she waved off his apology. Growing up in a rather large household, she’d certainly dealt with her fair share of conflicts arising out of stress and exhaustion. “At least you’re physically alright after that little collision you’ve had. Just maybe slow down. Give yourself some space to just get through the day without stressing yourself. Cut yourself some slack, maybe.”

Things were beginning to feel safe here which both comforted and terrified Novak. Getting too comfortable was a bad thing because it meant guards went down and he could be caught but damnit, he deserved at least a little bit of time without feeling on high alert. Still, the easy and basic things to life were welcomed today as he was tired from work. Pushing his cart through the grocery store, he passed for a moment to push up his sleeves a bit. Kingsholm’s weather allowed for him to hide the scars from his past, especially an incomplete LSRN that the staff at the facility in Germany had loving branded into his upper arm but the grocery store was warm. He had already tossed off his jacket and hat but damn it was still uncomfortable in the store.

Rounding the corner, he felt his cart collide with the end display. Cans tumbled from the impact, the noise ringing out into the store as they rolled in all directions. “Fuck it.” Came out before he could stop it as he moved to start picking up the cans he had knocked over. His eyes locking on someone close by. “What? You can stop staring.” 

The brunette had made her way over to the grocery store to buy her dinner when there was a loud crash behind her. Turning towards the sound, she watched a familiar figure trying to pick up the cans that she’d heard crashing to the ground. They looked familiar but she couldn’t quite put a finger on where she knew them from. It certainly wasn’t a family friend or someone she’d met through work. That much she knew. He didn’t have that lawyerly look. Nor did he appear old enough to be a family friend. Besides, surely she would’ve instantly recognized them if that was the case? She would’ve seen them often enough and for long enough periods of time to recognize them in the grocery store. Or at least, that's what she would've expected from herself. She wasn't that terrible at recognizing faces.

“You okay? Do you need help,” she asked with a raise of her eyebrow. She purposefully didn’t respond to his comment about staring. She’d been observing him, sure. Mainly because the collision had drawn her attention to him. But she wouldn’t classify it as staring. Staring was rude and Bente was never rude. Perhaps blunt. Perhaps not the most polite. But rude? That was a word she would never use to describe herself. “You work at Seven Deadly Sins, right?”

“Sure, what kind of stuff do you need me to do? I’m an expert chair arranger.” Adam offered, happy to help with the manual labor, but party-planning was a bit outside his realm of skills. Sure, he knew how to throw a good rager… Or well, he knew how to invite people, supply the fun, and then just expect everyone to have a good time… The food prep, the decorations, function stuff? That wasn’t his forte. Not to mention he was allergic to the L word she’d used. “I don’t know, it’s like eating a water bottle. A weird, rubbery, water bottle and I literally I hate it.” He complained, then sighed.  “Or, well… My brother made me eat one once when we were kids that had shit in it, so I guess you could say I’m a little scarred.”

“Great. Because I’ll need you to help me out with the chairs and tables. Just need the extra pair of hands and eyes.” She’d gotten plenty of help from her brothers and secretary when it came to organizing the event. It had made it a little easier for her to organize the event next to her usual responsibilities at the firm. But her brothers didn’t have any time to help her arrange the venue and her secretary was busy with last minute questions from the guests and caterers. “Huh. I’ve never heard it described that way. Have you eaten any after that incident or is your opinion still based solely on that one experience?”

“Four?!” He scoffed, “Poor you, wedged between all the boys.” Stefan chuckled, not able to relate to the fact. Squinting at her for a moment, he wondered if it was appropriate to ask. If it wasn’t, maybe she wouldn’t have mentioned it. “What kind of decision?”

“It’s not that bad. It’s taught me how to be more assertive,” the brunette shrugged with a laugh. “It’s about the future of our firm. We’ve recently gotten a deal that’ll allow us to expand. But it’ll mean fusing with another law firm which’ll probably mean we have less freedom to make choices.” Being able to grow would be a great thing. But she feared it would make it harder for her to defend the principles on which her great-grandfather had founded the firm.

“Alright, we’re back. So what’s this thing you needed me to do, or go to, or whatever?” He asked as they walked, having told them to put a quick pin in the converation until he was done inside with a client. Of course, he’d kept that little meeting private and brief, and now acted as if he was just carrying on his regular day like anybody else and he hadn’t just made some privilated skeevy kid’s day. “Oh, and my one condition. Next friday, you buy me one of those weird Norwegian tacos, but I’ll kill you if you put cucumber in it. I’m never doing anything for you ever again if there’s cucumber in it, kapiche?”

“Well, I need an extra pair of hands to help me with preparing a hall I’ve rented out of an event for my law firm. Only two of my brothers have time tomorrow. So I’d really appreciate it if you could pitch in.” Even though the firm obviously had its own building, the event required something more than the meeting rooms available in their building. After all, an event hosting 200 people for networking purposes required a larger and more relaxed environment. “What’s your problem with cucumber,” Bente chuckled with a raise of her eyebrows. She then shrugged and added: “But, sure. I promise there won’t be any cucumber in it. I'll owe you, anyway.” 

“Katya Kaminski,” Jade said with a smile. She reached out to shake Bente’s hand as they formally introduced themselves each other. “I don’t think we have, which is funny since I’ve been to your practice’s office so often,” she added with a small laugh. “I see your brothers more often than you, which seems strange and backwards since you are technically the owner.” She headed over towards the bar that they set up and waved the bartender over. “Would you like a drink while we look for your brothers?”

"Ah, well, unfortunately, being the owner doesn’t give me much time for clients and the like,” she chuckled. While it maybe seemed counterintuitive, owning a business often left little time to actually be involved with its clients. Particularly when it was of significant size and reputation. She was already scanning the area when Katya was waving the bartender over towards them. When she asked her if she wanted a drink, she turned back to face her. “Oh. Sure, that’d be nice.”   

Location: Halloween Movie Marathon

Jaro’s track record in attending the town’s social activity was spotty at best and near non existent at worst. He preferred playing ghost but it was all about finding a balance and making his appearance every so often as not to further draw unnecessary attention to himself – the stranger who had taken over a local’s business just a couple of years ago. Small towns and their tight knit community. 

The annual halloween movie night was easy enough – drinks, food and the perfect excuse to not have to talk for a good portion of the evening before he could quietly return to the comfort of his home. 

Jaro’s costume was simple as usual – regular jogging pants and t-shirt with a dumb hat that looked like a knife stuck through his skull – complete with fake blood and a little bit of make up. Stupid if you asked him but he’d say it with a grin. Whenever one of the children would run up to him, he’d go so far as to play the part of a dying man, confused about what had happened to his head. And they would laugh. The rest of the time he was just sucker with a silly hat and felt the part.

Beer in one hand, he lounged against the wall in the far back of the room, waiting for the ‘spectacle’ to begin. He let his gaze wander over the people – some familiar faces amongst them – mingling as one did events like this; on occasion glancing out of the big windows to his side, into the growing darkness as if longing for something distant and unknown.

When considering who to dress up as for Halloween, the brunette had considered dressing up as a fictional lawyer. But, she’d deemed the costume too boring. It wasn’t too different from her usual work attire. Instead, she decided to dress up as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. It was still an obvious relevance to her job and law school education, yet a more interesting costume. 

Bente had been casually strolling through the town hall, looking for her brothers when she saw someone looking rather sad. Out of curiosity, she sauntered over to him. “You look like you’re shooting a sad ‘I miss her’ scene from a romcom. Is everything alright?” She’d always found that humour was often the best way to breach potentially touchy subjects. After all, sometimes it worked disarmingly. It had certainly helped with her brothers.   

Jade recognized Bente immediately. Since taking over Katya’s life and job, she’d been sent to talk to the Nilsson lawyers a couple of times. She also recognized the Nilsson name from Katya’s journals. Apparently, she knew at least one of the Nilsson sons, but Jade couldn’t recall their names. “It’s alright,” she said with a small smile. Katya did know the Nilsson sons, but Jade couldn’t say anything or risk being exposed. At least she knew that they looked similar to Bente and it shouldn’t be too hard to find them. “Oh, yeah, I think I saw them over by the makeshift bar. I was just headed that way if you want to walk over with me.”

As the owner, Bente took on less cases than her brothers did. Which incidentally also met less involvement with the local police force. After all, the responsibilities of keeping the place running took up a great deal of her time. Sometimes she did miss spending a great deal of time with clients. But, she still found satisfaction and enjoyment in her current role. Knowing her father had entrusted it to her specifically made it a real honor for her. It had even briefly appeared to be a possible cause of friction between her and her brothers, who had also wanted the honor for themselves. "Oh, sure. Why not. If you’re walking in the same direction anyway. I’m Bente. Bente Nilsson. I don’t believe we’ve formally met yet, have we?”

“I haven’t, no. To be honest I only watch scary movies when other people want to. They’re not really one of my go to’s.” Again, it’s not that she hates them by any means, it’s just that other types interest her far more. “Oh, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him barking or anything. Unless there’s a dog in the movie, then he might go a little crazy. Other than that, though, I think we’ll be fine. He’s a bit of a wuss, but I think that’s just because he’s so young.”

“Fair enough. They’re not for everyone. What’s your go to genre, then?” Growing up in a house full of boys, she’d watched her fair share of horror. Though, she probably wouldn’t say it was her favourite genre either. While she could understand the joy of the adrenaline rush that came along with watching them, none of them had ever made it close to her list of top 10 favourite movies. “Ah. I always thought they bark a lot more when they’re scared. But I’m no animal expert so I could be very far off,” she chuckled. “I’m Bente, by the way.”

“I didn’t think that Norway was really into Halloween,” Jade said, mostly to herself. She found herself splitting time between two worlds: the Sigunn Centre’s gala for Silvers and the movie marathon. Jade disliked movies, finding them long and difficult to hold her attention, but Katya loved movies. She figured it’d be strange for those who knew her to know she skipped a movie marathon put on by the town. She turned around when someone tapped her on the shoulder. “Yes? Can I help you?”

Bente and her brothers had agreed to meet up at the Halloween movie marathon. It was a rare opportunity for the five of them to spend some recreational time together. Though they all worked for their family law firm, they led relatively separate lives outside of work. In a way, it did mean they had enough time apart not to end up getting on each other’s nerves constantly. But the rather busy town hall proved to complicate the process of finding her brothers. Tapping on the shoulder of who she thought was one of her youngest brother’s childhood friends, she was surprised to find it was someone else. “Oh. My apologies. Sorry. I’m looking for my brothers. I thought you were one of their old friends. But, you haven’t happened to see 4 tall, brunet men who look like they could be quadruplets, have you?”

“Okay, okay,” she held up a hand, letting out a small, albeit, nervous, laugh. “I… will admit, I’m not the biggest fan of scary movies. Not that I don’t like them! ‘Cuase I do. I actually really love them, I just… am very jumpy.” Ian beams, motioning to Atlas at her side, clad in a nearly full body shark costume. “Bit I’m hoping this little dude can help keep me preoccupied through all the jump scars that’re bound to happen. It’s a good plan, right?”

“You mean, you haven’t already seen the movies,” Bente raises an eyebrow in curiosity. “But I’m sure your pet will keep you occupied. As long as he doesn’t get too wrapped up into the movie himself,” she added with a chuckle. “I mean, I’ve seen dogs bark at TV screens like they understand what’s going on. So you may need to comfort him. Or maybe you’ll jump in surprise when he suddenly starts barking.” The brunette had seen the movies so many times the jump scares weren’t as scary any more. Though, perhaps her brothers' pranks had made her immune to jump scares.