Legal Prejudice 2 - Weather The Storms

Chapter 42

Jeremy was due in work the next day, but he made it for the start of breakfast, and since Tom Reynolds was going in with him to get prepared for a complex case they were jointly operating on later in the week, he brought him along. It was Robyn's idea since of all Jeremy's colleagues Tom was the one she liked the best, and now he'd met everyone it seemed logical for him to come.

John took Emmie and Rose on the playground while Daniel and Susan went to collect their order. Allie was sitting with Max and Margie when she spotted them. She got up carefully, still a little sore, ruffled Mia's fur accepting a doggie kiss, and hugged Robyn. Jeremy held her tightly before pushing her back and taking her in. She laughed "Okay, I'm going to get a complex if you keep looking at me like that, I'm fine, promise." He let her go and she reached out to Tom saying, "Hi Tom, I promise I've not lifted anything heavier than a cup of coffee. I must deserve a hug for that." He couldn't help but laugh and held her warmly saying, "Have you been okay since you got home?" She rubbed his arm, "Yeah, I'm pretty much back to normal thanks to you, and these guys won't let me lift a finger. I'll just go tell Dan to add your order. What are you having?" Tom said he only wanted black decaff Americano, but Allie gave him a stern look, "You can't do important doctor stuff on an empty stomach. I'll choose for you, see if I can guess your favourite."

When she'd gone Robyn laughed at Tom's shell-shocked face saying, "Just roll with it Tom." They sat chatting to Max and Margie until Dan, Allie and Susan returned with the orders. Allie brought the coffee and a bag over to Tom handing it over saying, "I reckon you're a chocolate twist kind of guy. Warm from the oven." He couldn't help but smile and took a bite as Allie went back to Dan to get her own. He blurted out, "Wow, okay, you were right, that's really good." Daniel grinned and said, "Hey, Tom. Nice to see you" then kissed Allie, handing over the latte as she smirked at Tom in satisfaction. John brought the girls back and Allie set them up with juice and warm pain au chocolat each, laughing at Rose who managed to get chocolate all over Mia's head within seconds. She took a baby wipe from her bag and used it to clean the dog's head to Jeremy's amusement. Allie sat down between Dan's legs, leaning on his chest for support whilst he periodically kissed her cheek, one arm around her waist and they all chatted.

Jeremy sighed, "Tom and I have to go, duty calls. Can someone walk Robyn back?" Max said "I'll take you home Robyn." Allie grabbed her hand, "Come back with us Robyn, in fact why don't you all come back to our place? I've been stuck in the hospital and I want to catch up properly, and you'll all be in work while I'm home alone this week." Jeremy got up with Tom and kissed Robyn, "You go party and I'll catch you back at home unless you message me to pick you up from their place later." He crouched down to Allie and said, "And you, behave, no shots." Dan kissed her head as Jeremy winked at him and Allie said, "I'll be saintly".

As they made their way to the apartment to drop Mia off and get their cars Tom asked, "So how long has Allie been seeing Dan?" Jeremy shrugged, "Few months. He's brought her back to life. We were all pretty worried about her for a while after Michael died. She was so devastated. It was such a shock and you couldn't not love Michael. He looked like a film star and Robyn said before he got involved with Allie she used to think he was a dick, but he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met." Tom nodded, "Yeah, I saw Dylan last week and said I'd operated on Allie. He said telling her about her husband was like the saddest thing he'd ever had to do. He told me you held her like a baby almost all night." Jeremy shook his head, trying not to hear Allie's scream of grief all over again. "Yeah, it was literally the worst night of my life. She and Dan almost dated when she first came to the US, but his ex saw Allie and I guess she was jealous, gave him problems with access to his daughter, so he decided they couldn't be anything more than friends. Then she met Michael and I think after he died it was probably hard to cross that line you know." He laughed, "But now they have, I'm sure you've noticed there's some pretty serious chemistry going on." Tom raised his eyebrows, "Yeah, pretty hard to miss" and Jeremy added, "All the crap online about them, none of it's true Tom. Allie wasn't having an affair with Dan or threesomes. Reality is it's easier to believe salacious stuff like than the truth, which is that she loved her husband and Daniel was a best friend to both of them. It makes me mad that now they have got together people will say it proves there was always something going on."

Tom nodded, "So who's related to who?" Jeremy shook his head "No-one's related. Susan and John have kids in college, but I guess no-one else really has family, or not close family, and as far as I know Allie has literally no-one, she lost her parents when she wasn't much more than a kid. Dan's worked for Max since he graduated, and obviously Allie and Robyn work for him too. He and Margie have basically adopted them as their grown up kids. Robyn tells me from a work point of view all three of those guys are at the top of their game. They do legal work for these corporate mergers and deals. Allie's qualified to work in the UK and in California which I think is pretty unusual." Tom looked at him, "I never saw the husband, but Daniel's a damn good looking guy and Allie's beautiful, I can imagine if they rock up to a board room instead of a couple of boring old suits it might sweeten the deal." Jeremy laughed, "The accent always throws people too." Tom snorted, "Yeah, I'm still recovering from that, I wasn't expecting her to be British. The only other British person I've come across was a senior guy at my first hospital. He was so uptight and formal he scared the shit out of me."

They were approaching the apartment building and Jeremy laughed, "That's it you know, once Allie's pulled you into her life there's no escape, might as well give into it Tom." Pulling Mia towards the entrance he said in a more serious tone, "When I got to the OR after the shooting, you know that really bad feeling you get when you know that you're probably not going to get this person off the table?" Tom nodded, "She was a mess, I had to do a partial hysterectomy first, but even then she was bleeding out everywhere. I managed to repair the spleen but had to do a bowel resection, repair damage to major vessels and we just seemed to keep pumping pints of blood into her. But saving her was like a turning point in my life, because she kinda saved me too." They reached the apartment door, "Anyway, come on in while I just sort the dog, and we can head on in and get organised for this surgery."