Immersion Playground
Book #2: Arena
Chapter 8
Giselle is packing up her personal items for the weekend when the ping from Dick Hittle arrives, asking her to come to his office. She stews. She doesn't want to talk to Hittle in any case, and she especially doesn't want to talk to him now while she's trying to get out of the office early. Today is Rick's birthday, and she wants to get home and get everything ready. She has plans for Mr. Chamfer tonight. She starts to ignore the summons, but then changes her mind. Hittle's an asshole, but he's also a partner. She walks up the flight of steps to the third floor that the partners share with the two conference rooms. She stops in Hittle's door.
"You pinged?"
"Giselle! Come in, come in. And shut the door," Hittle says, his words just slightly slurred.
Giselle starts recording video and sound, storing it in local memory on her chip, just in case.
"Dick, you've been drinking. Just say what you have to say. Remember, the last time we spoke after you'd been drinking, it didn't end well."
"Yeah, about that. I've decided not to press charges for assault."
"Good for you, Dick, considering I'll clean your clock in court. Just tell me what you want so I can go," she says firmly.
"I want you to come in and sit down. We seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot and I want to make it up to you."
She sighs. She's never liked Hittle much, and probably never will now, but if he's really going to try to make things right, at least she can hear him out. She enters the office and sits down, but she doesn't shut the door.
"Okay Dick, just say what you need to say. I have plans this evening and I'd like to get out of here."
He gets up and sits on the corner of his desk. "Plans?"
She grimaces. She doesn't want to sit and chat with him, but being evasive will probably only delay her getting out of the office. "Today is Rick's birthday."
"Oh, his birthday," he says as if that is a surprise to him. "Did you get him something nice?"
"Dick, I don't want to be rude, but can we get on with what it is you want to say so I can go?"
"I bet you're going to fuck him good tonight, aren't you?" he says with a sneer.
She jumps to her feet. "We're done here," she snaps and takes a step to the door.
Hittle may have been drinking, but he isn't falling down drunk, rising quickly off his desk and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her strongly to him.
"We're not done until I fucking say we're done!" he snarls.
Giselle's first instinct is to try to resist his pull, but then she remembers what Rick taught her. Luckily he'd taken her by the left arm, leaving her right hand free to take his wrist. Her fight or flight response becomes fully engaged and time slows to a crawl. Because of the adrenaline flooding her system, she has no problem taking his wrist and pulling it from her left arm, pivoting as Rick showed her, twisting the arm as she turns. With him turned, she places her other hand on his elbow, and because she has no way to throw him down, to use her weight for leverage, she hauls on the arm with all her strength, trying to subdue him before he can begin to struggle. As she bears down on his arm she hears a sickening crack of breaking bone and he goes limp and begins to shriek in agony. She instantly releases him and takes a step back, horrified at what she's done.
"You bitch! You fucking bitch! You broke my arm!" he screams, falling to his knees and cradling his arm, which is hanging at a strange angle.
In moments people are crowding in, trying to determine what's happened, talking excitedly among themselves. Ted Beckel pushes his way through the crowd, looking at Giselle, standing pale and shaking, before kneeling beside Hittle.
"It's alright Dick. We've got help on the way. Just stay calm."
"That bitch broke my arm," Dick says through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill that cunt."
"Dick, I know you're in a lot of pain and don't know what you are saying. I don't know what happened here, but you need to stop talking like that or you're going to make the situation worse. Just hold on until the paramedics get here, okay?"
Hittle takes several gasping breaths, trying to get control of himself. "Okay," he finally grunts out.
By now most of the firm is crowding outside Hittle's office. Ted spots Donald Greene in the crowd. "Don, come in here and stay with Dick. The rest of you, clear out of the way, and get someone downstairs to meet the paramedics," he says, taking charge of the situation. "Dick, Don is going to stay here with you until the paramedics arrive, okay?"
Hittle nods once. "Okay," he grunts.
Ted stands and takes an obviously shaken Giselle by the shoulder. "Come with me," he says, gently guiding her out of the room and down the hall to his office.
She's pale, shaking, and while not crying yet, her eyes are full of tears. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to break his arm," she says, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Turning into his office, he steers her to a chair then sits in one beside her. "Tell me what happened."
She takes a deep calming breath before speaking. "Dick pinged me to his office. He and I have been having some problems lately, and he said he wanted to make it up to me. But he got nasty again and when I tried to leave, he grabbed me. I didn't mean to break his arm," she says with a hitch in her voice.
"Nasty again? What do you mean? Start at the beginning," he says gently.
"Right after the immersion thing broke, Dick started being an asshole," she says, looking at her clenched hands, the fingers twisting and twirling around each other in her lap. "He was making insinuating comments and—"
"Why didn't you bring this to my attention, Giselle?" he interrupts.
"Because it was nothing, just talk, and I could handle it. But then in the restaurant..." Giselle pauses, realizing that he wouldn't know what she's talking about. "A couple of weeks ago Rick and I bumped into Dick and Mary at
The Pea Pod,
and Dick got a little loud and a little too familiar with me. Anyway, things got a little out of hand and Rick ended up escorting him out of the restaurant. I thought that was the end of it because he's left me alone since then. But today he called me into his office and once again..." Giselle stops, realizing she is still recording, and stops it. "Well, I thought he'd been drinking, like at the restaurant, so I recorded it. Would you like to see it?" she asks, sounding miserable.
"As a matter of fact, I would," he says firmly.
"Okay. I forgot to stop the recording until just now, so let me cut out all the extra stuff and then I'll send it. Hold on a second." She cuts the recording just after Ted arrived, and then sends the file to him, waiting quietly while he reviews it.
"Thank you Giselle. I'm sorry for what happened, but I've seen all I need to. Please accept my apology on behalf of the firm and know that we won't tolerate this kind of behavior here. Can I do anything for you?"
"I'd just like to leave, if that's okay," she says, her voice low and full of sorrow. Another wonderful evening ruined.
"Would you like me to have someone drive you home?"
"No, I'm fine. I'm really sorry, Ted. I didn't mean to break Dick's arm," she says again, a few tears crawling down her cheeks.
"Don't worry about Dick. We'll take care of him, and then we'll determine what we'll do about this situation. Just go home, take all the time you need. You don't have to come in on Monday if you don't want to. Are you sure you don't need someone to drive you home?"
"No, thank you Ted, I'm okay. Just a little shaken up about Dick's arm."
"Okay. Don't worry about a thing. I saw the paramedics go by a moment ago, so Dick's going to be okay. You worry about yourself, okay? If I hear anything about Dick, I'll let you know."
She heaves out a ragged breath. "Thank you, Ted," she says, standing to leave. "I'll be back on Monday."
"Take what time you need. There's nothing so important here that it can't wait."
"Once I get home I'm sure I'll be fine. I just keep thinking about the way his arm was bent..."
"I know it's small consolation, but I think he got off pretty light with just a broken arm. I'm glad you did what you did. Not that you broke Dick's arm, but that you defended yourself. I know a woman that was raped, and it changed her forever. I wish more women could, or would, do what you did."
She smiles weakly. "Small consolation indeed. I'm in an office full of people, what could he have done? I just reacted without thinking."
"Giselle, that's exactly what will save you one day," he replies with a fatherly smile. "I don't know if you know this, but I was deployed in the second Arab-Israeli war. Acting on instinct is what separates dead soldiers from live ones. You have nothing to be ashamed of. After this, I don't think you're going to have any trouble, from anyone, but next time, bring stuff like this to me, okay? I appreciate that you don't want one of those that goes running to the boss over every little thing, but you don't have to fight every battle alone." He gives her a broad smile. "I can't have you breaking all my lawyer's arms. I might have to start doing some work again."
She chokes out a sound that is half laugh, half sob, but nods her head. "Okay," she says after a moment. "Hopefully this is really behind me now."
"You can rest assured that Dick won't be bothering you anymore," he says with confidence. He pats her on the shoulder and steers her to the door. "Go home and try to enjoy Rick's birthday."
"How did you—" she began but then remembers the recording. "Yes, of course. I'll try." She walks down the stairs to her office, feeling all eyes upon her. Tom Bibell, her new friend, is waiting at her door.
"Can I do anything?" he asks, his voice quiet and sincere.
"No, Tom, but thank you for asking."
"Okay. If you need anything, you know where I am." Tom turns to go, but then turns back. "I'm not going to ask what happened, but I'm sure that ass-hat Hittle deserved everything he got. I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to punch his lights out." With that, Tom is gone.
She stares after him for a moment, wondering what prompted him to say something like that, but gathers her things and walks out of the office to her car. Once safely in the vehicle, she sits for several long moments while she shakes, weeping softly, seeing again and again the strange angle of Dick's arm and hearing the crack of breaking bone. Finally, the shakes gone, she starts her car and leaves for home.
