Legal Prejudice 2 - Weather The Storms

Chapter 53

The break in Florida had done everyone some good. Robyn, Jeremy and the baby left the day before the others. Whilst he was waiting for Robyn to finish getting ready to leave, Jeremy sat at the kitchen island and Allie made them drinks. Max was on the phone back to the office with Daniel sorting some work that couldn't wait on one of Max's clients, and Susan and Margie had taken the girls out grocery shopping. Allie brought the cups over and jumped up on the stool next to Jeremy who said, "Thanks Allie." She smiled and took a drink from hers before saying, "I'm so glad you guys could come, this has been so lovely. I feel I see less of you than anyone because you work weekends." He smiled, "I know, goes with the territory." He drank some coffee and looked at her, "I got a shock when I came down to your offices you know." Allie looked confused, "In what way?" Jeremy looked at her directly, "Just saw you in a different light I guess. I suppose I've never seen you in full on lawyer mode before. You seemed taller, sort of powerful" Allie laughed, "It's the heels. You should see me in court." Jeremy smiled, "I'd actually really like to see you in action, maybe I'll sneak in at the back one day." Allie pulled a face, "You'd probably fall asleep Jem." He laughed, "Maybe. Let's at least grab lunch Allie. I miss hanging out with you at the hospital." Allie nudged him, "I'd love that, and I can annoy Tom while I'm there."

They heard the front door open and Rose bawling loudly. Susan brought her into the kitchen holding her hand and explained, "She tripped coming up the drive when she got out of the car, grazed her knee." Jeremy lifted her to sit on the breakfast bar saying, "Good job you've a doctor in the house Rosie." Allie wet a paper towel and brought a dry one which she used to wipe Rose's tears. Emmie came in with Margie and they brought a few groceries in and began to unpack them. Allie grabbed her bag and pulled out a box of Band-Aids and passed them to Jeremy. Rose's wails had subsided and she said in a wobbly voice, "Are you going to stitch it up Uncle Jemmy." He dabbed with the paper towel and then dried it with the dry one he took out of Allie's hand, "I think we'll get away without stitches Rose." He winked at her and put a Band-Aid over the small graze and opened his arms to lift her down, giving her a hug on the way. She reached up to Allie and she picked her up kissing her and said, "What do you say to Uncle Jemmy?" Rose said thank you and Allie put her down as Daniel and Max came back in.

Daniel lifted Rose up and said "What happened Rosie Posie?" Max grinned at Allie, "We were talking to Carly and she was like who's being murdered?" Allie laughed as Jeremy said, "I think I'm deaf in my right ear." Rose held her Daddy tightly around his neck then wriggled down as Robyn came in with Jack. Jeremy went to load the car and everyone had Jack for a cuddle before they left. Allie hugged Robyn and said she'd see her for lunch when they got home.

Everyone else left early on Sunday, heading to the airport for the flight home. Monday morning brought a return to normal routines with Allie heading to drop Rose whilst Daniel took Emmie to school. They reached the office at virtually the same time, but Allie had an early client call so they had no chance to speak. Straight after her call they had the staff meeting. Allie was late and slipped into the last seat next to Amanda. Daniel caught her eye and winked. After that she had to rush to meet a client who was coming in to discuss progress on a contract dispute. Max had called an extra partner meeting after lunch and by twelve Daniel was loitering by the paralegal area. He spotted her coming through checking her phone and she looked up and saw him, walking to meet her at her office door. He followed her in and Amanda watched them saying to Carly and Liam, "Awww they're so cute, look he couldn't wait to get in there." Liam laughed as Carly rolled her eyes.

Allie dropped onto a chair next to her meeting table mirrored by Daniel and said, "That's the trouble with holidays, have to work twice as hard when you get back to catch up." Daniel grinned and reached out to touch her fingers, "Got time for lunch before this meeting Max's put in?" She looked into his eyes and smiled, "Probably not, but I can never resist you." He stood up and pulled her to her feet, "Good answer." He drew her towards him and whispered in her ear "I really hope that elevator is empty because I need to kiss you so badly right now." She moved her lips lightly along his jaw in response and Daniel moaned "Jesus Allie, they'll be no hiding what I want to do to you if we don't leave right now." Allie smirked knowingly, grabbed her bag and they walked to reception. A sour-looking Wendy was waiting for the elevator and Allie had to bite her lip at Daniel's dismayed face.

They went into the grill since they didn't have a lot of time and it was so near. They ordered food and Daniel glanced around before leaning in to steal a kiss, saying quietly "I can't wait to get you home tonight, I've hardly seen you this morning and it's driving me wild. Allie stroked his hair slowly and sighed "I'm tied up with all this small medium enterprise stuff at the moment. Is the Aquatech deal likely to go forward? I want to work on that with you." He took the hand she'd used on his hair and kissed it, "Yeah, looks as if they'll be a kick off meeting next week. We'll have to speak to Max about the other stuff, you'll have to offload at least some of it, you'll end up making yourself sick if you try and do it all.

Their food arrived and Daniel released her hand. They had to eat quickly and get back to the office so they could make the partner meeting. There was just enough time to get coffee and take seats in the boardroom before Max came in looking like he meant business. He didn't beat about the bush saying, "I wanted to get you all together to let you know I've been working on a restructure with Hane. I've decided to make Daniel our new lead on M&A cases and he'll maintain his role as relationship lead. Allie is going to lead on any UK or European work, and since this is a growth area, especially on the M&A side, to free Allie up we're going to bring in a new junior partner to take most of the SME work Allie's been handling. The new partner is called Christopher Walsh, he starts Monday. Any questions?" Max paused and looked around. No-one had anything to say and he called the meeting to a close but said, "Dan, Allie, I need to run through some stuff with you two, let's take it to my office.

The headed for Max's office and settled around his meeting table. He glanced at them both and said, "What do you think?" Allie smiled "We were only talking about the SME stuff at lunch. I was worried you'd push the Aquatech work to London because I didn't have the bandwidth, so I'm a happy camper Max." Daniel grinned and said, "And I'm relieved I don't have to deal with the London guys and can have my resident British expert right with me. When they did the work for the deal that fell through for these guys, it was a pain in the ass getting them to prioritise it. Where's the new guy from?" Max shrugged, "Stafford and Rogers, he's looking to join a bigger firm. Those guys have some solid clients but all pretty small. Suits us though because I think he'll be fairly independent. I'll need you to do a handover and some supervision Allie." She nodded and Max continued, "Aquatech are looking to start work on the US acquisition next week so you'll have to fly solo Dan while Allie hands off to our new guy. But they've mentioned a meeting in New York next month to discuss the UK acquisition. They're bringing a couple of the directors over for preliminary discussions. I'm sorry guys, they've asked for Nigel Wallace to attend because that's who they dealt with when you were out sick Allie."

Allie gave an involuntary shudder and Daniel reached for her hand without thinking. Max leaned forward, "Allie, don't worry about him. He's on your patch this time, Dan and I will be right there, and trust me the consequences of the last time he didn't treat you right should make sure there's no repeat." Allie stared, "Max, what did you do?" Her boss smiled enigmatically, "I had Hane crawl all over his HR function and Finance pick through his numbers and uncover some dubious use of the entertaining budget which he had to reimburse." Allie shook her head and rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but laugh. Max's phone rang and he swivelled 'round to grab it from his desk. Allie heard Everley telling him her next client had arrived in reception. She got up, draping her arms briefly on Daniel's shoulders before leaving. Daniel got up too, "Need anything else Max?" He shook his head, "Nope, that's it for today. Happy Dan?" Daniel had reached the door and he turned unable to supress a grin, "You know I am." Max laughed, "Yeah, but you and her make business sense too Dan. And don't worry about the trip to New York. Margie and Susan have said they'll sort the kids between them and you'll only be gone a couple of days."