Legal Prejudice 2 - Weather The Storms

Chapter 58

The wedding was fast approaching and Allie collected the girls from their Saturday gymnastics classes and took them over to the Mall as Daniel and Max were off organising their wedding suits. The three of them headed to the food hall first for lunch. After sorting them out with chicken tenders and fries she watched them happily munching, and took a moment to enjoy spending some quality time with her two little girls. The Mall was decorated for the holidays as it was about to turn December, and Allie took them to a couple of children's shops to get them some outfits to cover the festive period.

When they left Allie had a little girl holding each hand, chatting and holding a shopping bag each when she spotted Chris Walsh coming towards them. He did a double take realising it was Allie and stopped to say Hi. Chris realised he'd never seen her outside of work and blurted out, "I almost didn't recognise you. You look different." Allie laughed and pulled a face, "This is my slightly harassed weekend mummy look, we're just on our way back to the car." He crouched down and said, "Let me guess, you must be Emmie and that would make you Rose." Emmie smiled shyly and Chris realised he could see Daniel's features in her face, but Rose was more curious. "Do you work with Mommy and Daddy?" Chris nodded, "I do."

He stood up about to take his leave when an older couple stopped and stared, before the woman shouted, "Emmie! Emmie come here honey, it's Grandma." He saw the colour drain from Allie's face as Emmie looked up to Allie and wrapped her arms around her waist. Rose, always more bold said, "Mommy who's that?" Allie recognised Carrie's parents from the documentary and she tried to stay calm as the woman said dryly to nearly four year old Rose, "That's not your real Mommy sweetie." Looking at Emmie she added bitterly, "And she's certainly not yours Emmie my love. Come here to Grandma." Chris realised what was going on, where he'd seen this woman before and took charge. He picked a surprised Rose up along with the two now discarded shopping bags, stood in front of Emmie blocking the woman's view of her and said in a low voice, "Come on Allie, just walk away." Allie nodded, bent down to kiss Emmie and held her hand tightly as they walked towards the exit. When they were out of sight Chris said, "Let me walk you to your car." She nodded gratefully and said, "I don't think they'll follow though. There's a restraining order so they won't dare. At least I hope so." As they walked out into the winter sunshine towards Allie's car, Chris suddenly realised why Daniel and Max were so protective, and he felt a wave of sympathy that even a trip to the mall with her children could turn out to be so traumatic for Allie. Rose was staring at him as he carried her and she said as they reached the car, "Why did that lady say you're not my Mommy?" Emmie had started to cry as Allie unlocked the car. She shushed her saying, "Don't worry chicken, it's all okay. Jump in the car." She came around to where Chris had opened the other back door, but she could see he had no clue what to do with the car seat so she took Rose from him saying, "We'll have a good talk Rose when we get home yeah." As Allie strapped her in she scrunched up her face and asked, "Is it 'cause I'm 'dopted." Allie smiled at Chris who'd stood back and bent in to kiss her. "Yes my flower, some people just don't understand it's not the people who make us who are the real Mommy and Daddy you know?" Rose nodded partially satisfied and Allie closed the door and said to Chris, "Hey, I'd better get them home, Emmie's really upset, but thank you so much. I really appreciate you helping us. It was such a good job you were there. I'd never have been able to get us out of there so quickly on my own." Chris gave her a half smile, touching her arm in response to the emotion he could hear in her voice. "Drive careful Allie, you still look pretty shaken up. See you at work yeah." Allie nodded and jumped in the car to drive home.

Chris was in his office first thing on Monday already working having brought his own coffee from the drive thru. Daniel knocked his door and seeing him at the desk came in saying, "Hey, morning, got five?" Chris nodded and took the glasses he wore for the screen off. Dan sat opposite him at the desk and said, "Allie's not in today," He grinned, "final wedding dress fitting. I just wanted to come and say thanks for helping her at the Mall on Saturday." Chris shrugged, "Not a problem. I was just glad to help. We'd just said Hi and I was leaving when those folks turned up. Was she okay? She still looked shaken up when she left." Dan nodded, "Yeah, she rang from the car and came over to meet me at Max's. Allie's convinced it wasn't deliberate and they just happened to be in the mall at the same time, so we've gone with a warning rather than go all in on the restraining order. But then yesterday they posted all that shit on social media. Did you see it?" Chris could feel himself going red. He'd pulled out his phone before work and saw the post from Carrie's mother had gone viral accusing Allie of bringing Emmie around yet another guy while her true family were denied access. He nodded and Daniel sighed, "Rose is okay but Emmie's still pretty subdued." He chuckled, "I think Rose was pretty impressed with you." Chris laughed, "She's cute. Emmie looks so much like you." Daniel laughed back, "Poor kid!" He stood up to leave. "Anyway, just wanted to say thanks."

Towards the end of the day Chris had a slot with Max to review his progress on a new case that had come in. Max met him at the office door as he was returning from a meeting out of the office. Max threw his keys on the desk and took his jacket off. They sat at the meeting table and Chris ran through what he was planning to do on the new case. Max asked a couple of questions, made a suggestion then sat back satisfied and said, "You're doing a great job Chris. The Lincoln Tech guy called last week to say he was really pleased with the work you'd done for them and that's the kind of feedback that matters." Chris smiled and muttered, "thanks." Max leaned forward, "More importantly I wanted to say how grateful I am for the help you gave Allie on Saturday." Chris sighed, "I already spoke to Daniel, it was nothing, just glad I happened to be there. I guess it made me realise just how much crap she has to deal with." Max nodded sadly, "Yeah, I worry about her, but like she says, she's got to live her life." Chris was touched at how much his new boss clearly loved Allie and he stood up ready to leave. Max added, "And it wasn't nothing Chris. You could have walked away and left her to it in that mall, but you didn't, and Dan and I are grateful there's one more person out there to look out for her. Trust me, whatever you give Allie she repays a hundredfold. What's not on social media is how she's been there for all of us when we needed someone the most."

The next day Allie was back in work and she beat Dan to the office as she'd dropped Emmie rather than Rose. She saw Max's car and checked with Everley that he was free before calling at his office. He was looking through his window as she came in and he turned around smiling when she came to join him, slipping an arm around his back to lean in. He kissed her head and said, "Margie said you guys had fun yesterday." Allie grinned, "We did. Susan had to go to the office after lunch, but Margie and I got loads done." She moved to sit at his meeting table, "I've just been to Emmie's school to talk to the teacher. She's still really upset about Saturday. She had a nightmare last night so they said they'd keep an eye on her." Max sat next to her and took her hand "That's shit Allie, maybe the wedding'll help." Allie nodded, "Yeah that's what Dan said too, make her feel more secure." She paused and Max arched an eyebrow "What Allie?" She half smiled, "Dan and I were talking last night. We wanted to invite Chris to the wedding. I know he was really weird with me when he started, but Dan went for a coffee with him and he told him he's blown his life up, split with the girlfriend he's had since he was like twenty-two, left her in their apartment, their friends won't speak to him and of course he's changed jobs. He was wandering around the mall on his own and I might be wrong, but I think he was just killing time. What d'you think? Max got up and pulled her to her feet, "I think you and Dan are two of the kindest people I've ever known, and actually he's growing on me, so yeah, tell him to come and we can sit him with Amanda since she's not got a guy to bring." She reached up to hug him and Max held her tight, glancing to see Dan passing through the glass panel by the door before saying, "Go on, your soon to be husband has just arrived and he'll be getting separation anxiety." Allie laughed and kissed him before walking off.