Chapter 7 - Biased

The sound of his fist in a boxing glove hitting the boxing shield had always had that magical power that would give Jack comfort. Well, it used to be the case at least, but not today. Today, no matter how hard he'd hit the shield that Tom was holding, the words would still reverberate in his head. You are gender biased... gender biased... biased...

B - punch - I - punch - A - punch - S - punch - E - punch - D - punch...

"What the hell has gotten into you!" Tom exclaimed, surprised. "Are you trying to fracture my fingers?"

"What?" Jack was pulled out of his alphabet punching reverie.

Back in LA he and Tom had used to practice twice a week. Tom had always said he needed to be fit in order to defend Jack from the bad guys, might they come one day. So far however Tom's fighting skills had only proven useful when it came to teaching Jack how to fight. Of course Jack knew how to throw a punch; he'd done that more than once in college, but what Tom had taught him went far beyond a simple punching the opponent. Tom liked to call it a professional way to neutralise the bad guy.

Luckily, besides Tom pushing aside a few annoying paparazzi, the skills he had and the ones he taught Jack hadn't come in handy yet.

The building in New York which housed Jack's condo had a big gym and training space in the basement that were usually empty. So Tom and Jack were able to go back to their practicing ritual.

"Why are you so pissed, Deschanel!?"

"No idea what you mean..." Jack did not feel like talking about what, or rather who, had made him punch the hell out of that boxing shield. But he had to admit that letting his anger out on the shield had already started taking its toll on his palms as well, despite the thickness of the boxing gloves.

He took them off and threw them in a corner.

"While I spare your poor hands, Tommy boy, you tell me what you learnt in Seattle. And it better be good." Jack grabbed a bottle of water and sat on the floor, resting his back against the gym wall.

Tom had come back from Seattle the evening before and obviously Jack hoped he would have some news that would help him uncover some, if not all, of the secrets Julia Stiles was hiding.

"I think I may say the trip was successful," Tom started, sitting down next to Jack. "I mean, I'm not yet at the end of the road, but I do have some news..."

"Just get to the point, man," Jack butted in impatiently.

"As I told you before, Julia had two people on payroll in Seattle. I met both of them..."

"How did you find them in the first place?"

"Social media, babe!" Tom ginned.

"Forget I asked."

"Anyway, the first girl, Miranda, shut her mouth the moment she heard the name of Julia Stiles. So I was not able to get much out of her, except fear and panic in her eyes. Maybe I did not handle that meeting well, but at least I was sure there was something fishy going on..." Tom sent Jack a side glance, but his boss tried pushing back the annoyance at the thought of how much of a wasted opportunity that meeting had been. "So I prepared better for the next meeting..."

"How exactly did you do that?"

"I proposed..." Tom answered in a nonchalant tone.

"You what?!" Jack turned to his friend shocked, just to see him laugh.

"You should have seen the look on your face, man! Relax, I hired a young actress who portrayed my fiancée. We were pretending to be looking for a wedding organizer. That other former employee of Julia's is working at a small company organizing weddings."

Jack only nodded, but cracked a small smile.

"Anyway, this one, Stacey was her name, was obviously more talkative, not knowing what I was actually after. We asked her for her previous experiences, whether there were any other weddings she organized. My fake fiancée really did her job well; she was asking all those innocent questions and gossiping with Stacey. So I just sat back and waited, listening to their banter."

"And?"

"And at some point Stacey mentioned a 'Nicolas'."

The last sentence earned Tom a full turn of Jack's head. His brow was raised and eyes shining with anticipation.

"Did we get his last name?"

"That we did, my friend. Starr is the name, Nicolas Starr. He was the brother of the bride and paid for the wedding. Apparently he was closely working with Julia and..."

"And?"

"That was the last wedding Julia organized in Seattle... Stacey believes, and I'm telling you a total gossip right now, man, that Nicolas was some kind of a gangster. She thinks Julia left Seattle to live happily ever after with him!"

"No shit!?"

"No shit."

Jack rested his head against the wall and exhaled. This is it. That's the secret Julia was hiding and he was going to find out exactly what that was.

"Now, unless she's hiding the guy in her New York apartment, I would say the 'happily ever after' is definitely nonexistent," Tom continued.

"Definitely nonexistent," Jack concluded, remembering the conversation between Zoey and Julia he'd overheard at his parents house. He was sure Julia had been scared, damn, even his sister had seemed shaken...

"But maybe the part about the guy being a gangster is true?" Tom ventured.

"Find him, Tom."

"On it. I mean, I will first kick your ass in the ring and then will start the search for mister Starr."

Tom got up and Jack followed. They both walked to the boxing ring that was situated in the middle of the gym.

"There will be ass kicking, but the ass will not be mine. That's for sure," Jack added with a grin, patting Tom on the back.

Tom had indeed gotten his ass kicked. At least Jack very much liked to think that he'd beaten Tom, rather than his friend had let him win. Bottom line was that thanks to that morning exercise, and maybe to the shower afterwards a bit too, he felt energized.

As he walked into the office lobby he was ready to face any annoying witch accusing him of being gender biased. Especially that he was meeting Peter Wyatt and Alice Williams in ten minutes.

When he exited the elevator his phone beeped.

"Sorry, man, morning meeting with the client hasn't finished yet." The text from Peter said.

Correction then; especially that he was meeting Alice Williams in ten minutes.

Jack didn't respond to Peter's message. Of course the clients always came first, but that 'morning meeting' sounded fishy. Did he like, what, meet with Global Software at 8 am?

He walked directly to the conference room and was surprised to find quite a crowd there. He recognized Alice among the group, but other faces did not really ring a bell.

"Good morning!" he exclaimed cheerfully, looking around the room. He so hoped that Agnes would have left some coffee around for him. And as always she did not disappoint.

"Jack, good morning." Alice walked over to him with a hesitant smile on her face. "I'm afraid Peter might not..."

"That's OK, Alice. He just texted me."

"Oh," Alice seemed relieved.

Was she about to come up with an excuse for Peter? Jack wondered.

"OK then!" She seemed to be getting back her bearings. "I hope you don't mind. I brought our interns here today. Thought it would be a great learning experience for them and an opportunity to meet the boss."

"Not at all! That's really a great idea." Jack walked over to the group and shook everyone's hand.

He could see they were intimidated by him. This was not surprising to him anymore, not like it had used to be when he had first become the CEO, one that was the talk of the town.

"Guys, I hope you don't mind!" he exclaimed, hoping it would ease the tension at least, "But I need my dose of caffeine before my brain starts absorbing the facts and figures that Alice will for sure share with us." That earned him some smiles and a few chuckles from the interns.

"You'll definitely need that caffeine for what I'm about to show you," Alice added playfully.

"Yes, ma'am!"

He liked her. Jack had been observing Alice throughout the whole meeting. First with the interns over coffee. She knew all of their names and was clearly trying to encourage them to talk to him, to speak their minds. She really cared about those guys. Jack could see the looks that they were giving her in turn; admiration and awe.

Then, when she started to give him an overview of the cooperation between Brand Today and Global Software, Jack could see she was in her element. Alice knew the customer in and out, she had no problem talking about their own challenges or even mistakes. She was presenting some slides, but did not look at them even once.

Alice must have known that this meeting was something of an initial job interview, yet she was not trying to promote herself. She was constantly talking about the team and their efforts. Yep, he liked her.

Five minutes before the end of the meeting, Peter Wyatt showed up. Jack noticed he was not even out of breath. Someone was not in a hurry.

"Sorry for being late, folks!" he exclaimed cheerfully. "Jack, so great to see you again!"

"Peter." Jack sent him a cold smile. Call me a snob, but I would expect at least some remorse for skipping the meeting with the CEO! Jack thought seriously annoyed, but kept on a mask of indifference. He turned back to Alice.

"Please carry on."

"As I was saying, Global Software's quarterly results are great, the forecasts even better, so..."

"Yeah, I talked a lot about these forecasts today at breakfast with them. I'm telling you, Jack, they have ambitious plans. Man, they will grow!" Peter butted in, clearly trying to have his two cents in the meeting.

Just as Jack was wondering whether to shush him, his assistant walked in.

"Jack, sorry to be interrupting, but your ten am has arrived early and is getting impatient." Agnes was gone as soon as she'd spoken the words.

"Sorry, guys, we need to finish a couple of minutes earlier," he said standing up. "Alice, great meeting, very insightful. And it was wonderful meeting all of you guys," he turned to the interns.

Already at the glass door he turned to Peter.

"I will have Agnes book us for lunch, Peter."

"Sure thing, Jack!"

Maybe these were Zoey's words from a couple of weeks back, or the year he'd spent in LA, but Peter Wyatt started to annoy the hell out of Jack.

Jack's feelings did not change during the lunch he had with Peter a few days later. Jack kept wondering what had changed. Was it him or was it Peter? Over a year ago he really liked Peter's company.

As they were eating their steaks Peter kept on talking about parties and girls. Whenever Jack asked about work, or more specifically about Global Software, Peter would answer in short sentences and immediately switch to non work related topics.

Jack had planned to talk about Chicago over lunch, but Peter showed no interest in the topic. Was it because he did not really care for the role, or was he so sure he was going to get it?

Lost in thought Deschanel stopped listening to Peter's banter. Then a familiar figure caught his attention. He turned his head to see Julia Stiles, accompanied by Brady Corp's legal director, crossing the restaurant and sitting by the table at the opposite side of the restaurant.

The restaurant, going for the industrial look, had a huge open space which, together with the light coming in through large windows, allowed Jack to see Julia clearly.

Jack wasn't surprised that she was meeting a representative of Brady Corp, she was after all organizing the 4th of July party for them. What surprised Jack was that Brady Corp appointed William Daniels to be her contact point. Unless she is meeting him for some other reason...

There was one way to find out.

"Peter, excuse me," he said, getting up. "I need to say hello to a friend. Will be back in a sec." And without waiting for Peter's reaction, Jack started towards Julia's table.

Julia was sitting with her back towards him, so she did not notice him approaching, but Daniels did and a wide smile lit his face.

"Jack Deschanel!" he exclaimed. "Long time no see!"

As he walked over to the table, Jack could see Julia getting tensed hearing his name. Good, Jack could not help but think. He liked making her uncomfortable.

"William, great to see you too." He sent Daniels a wide grin. "I see you are with our Julia?"

"Jack," Julia nodded politely, but her eyes were shooting daggers. He wondered what pissed her off more, the fact that he was here or that he said 'our Julia'.

"Ah, yes! Can you believe that Brady Corp asked me to coordinate all the details for the party?!" Daniels asked. Jack could not believe that actually. If a person in his position was asked to take care of something so petty as a party, he must have gotten on the black list for some reason. "But, hey, if I get to work with such a beautiful and charming coordinator, you won't be hearing a word of complaint from me." Having said that Daniels briefly touched Julia's hand, which made her flinch slightly. She quickly grabbed a glass of water to hide her reaction. Daniels did not notice it, but Jack did.

"Will you join us?" William asked.

"No, thank you, I'm here with a colleague and we have some matters to discuss. But I leave you in very professional hands," Jack said, not taking his eyes off Julia. She looked really uncomfortable, but he was not sure anymore whether it was his presence that was causing that, or rather the sleazy behaviour of her companion.

"That you do, Jack, that you do!" Daniels tried touching Julia's hand again, but she made sure to move it away and grabbed the menu.

"Shall we order?" she asked, not looking at Jack.

"The steak is really good," Jack added and walked away.

A couple of days earlier Julia had sent him an update on the Brady Corp party; they had accepted Julia's proposal for the party theme. To her email she'd also attached the final prospect; and, as she'd planned on the plane to Chicago, Julia merged her and Lizzie's idea's into one. Jack really liked it.

He went back to his table, but did not feel like eating anymore. From where he was sitting, he could see Julia's stiff back and Daniels grinning at her constantly. At some point William even moved his chair closer to Julia, surely on the pretext of discussing the party. Jack could see she was trying to keep the distance and stay professional, but the guy was very persistent.

The moment he noticed they finished eating, Jack got up.

"I'll see you at the office, Peter," he just said and quickly walked up to Julia's table. He disliked her, loved to annoy her, but at the same time could not stand the thought that this guy might have been harassing her.

Trying to control his anger, Jack forced a smile on his face.

"Sorry to disturb you again, William, but I've just got a call that there is a situation at the office and Julia is needed."

Daniels shot Jack an outraged look, but immediately covered it up with his charming smile.

"I understand, Jack."

Jack could swear that he saw a look of relief on Julia's face. She also covered it up with a charming smile and turned to Daniels.

"William, thank you so much for today," she said, getting up quickly. "My colleague, Lizzie, will set up another meeting, so that we can discuss the remaining details."

Julia grabbed her purse and moved for the door. Jack wondered whether she wanted to get away from Daniels so fast; he looked like he was planning to give her a goodbye hug, or whether she was running away from him.

Jack nodded to Daniels and followed Julia to the door.

"I could have handled this myself," she hissed as he caught up with her.

"I'm sure you could."

"It's not the first time that..." She did not finish, as if realizing she'd said too much.

"Look, Stiles, I know you would have handled the situation, but I just couldn't sit there and watch the guy... well, touch you when you clearly did not like it."

"Since when do you care?" she bit back and pushed open the restaurant door a bit too hard.

Tom was waiting in front of the exit, resting his back against the car, with his arms crossed. He was watching them amused.

"Get into the car. I'll take you to the office." Jack said, opening the door.

"Thank you very much, but I can walk or take a cab." As proof Julia started looking around, presumably for the taxi.

"For heaven's sake! Get into the car, Julia! I'm just offering you a ride."

"There is no real emergency at the office, we both know it." She crossed her arms. "So why be so persistent? Surely you'd rather ride with Voldemort than with me!" she exclaimed cheekily and added more to herself, but Jack could still hear it, "I know I would."

"Well, maybe because that sleazy bastard is about to get out of the restaurant," Jack lowered his voice. "I'm sure he'd love to accompany you in your walk to the office..."

Julia did not need any more convincing. She got into the car without even looking back.