by P. S. Power
After he had them Josh had to resist the urge to jump off the phone and call Amy. She was important, and needed someone to talk to, but at that moment, the rest of the situation was just as important. The law firm could vanish overnight if the others lost faith in each other. They had contracts, but they were lawyers, so they'd scramble to protect themselves. As the sole senior partner, Bill leaving meant that people would be without work the next day if he closed the doors. It was as much psychological as not. Honestly they could just all show up to work and keep it going, but if they doubted that...
It meant they all needed to be called and informed that drunken rant aside, they all still had jobs and everything would be working regularly, except that Bill was taking a bit of time off to get his head together. Listening to a list of grievances against Laura, Josh wrote all this out carefully.
Call everyone for me?
The everyone got underlined twice. It was important after all.
They were both confused but Mercy nodded after a while and walked away to start dialing. She was needed to call the partners and employees. No one would be asleep after the scare at least. Possibly drunk and wondering what to do next, but not off in slumber land. The man in his ear was ranting now, the alcohol having hit his system fully. At least he'd stopped drinking for the time being. What they really needed was for the rest of them to do the same.
There was screaming and yelling coming from outside wherever Bill was. Pointing at Joanie he wrote quickly.
Laura. Call her and keep her talking? You can take the opportunity to bond maybe?
She did not seem happy to have the job, but walked to the living room and made the call. Half the screaming stopped at least. The rest was a very drunken Meridith he thought. What she was doing drinking he didn't know, but there it was. Apparently she'd started with the hot chocolate and went from there. At least part of her ranting earlier had been defending him apparently, which was good to know. Amy too from what Bill told him, but she'd left to get out of the picture early on, thank god. Otherwise Banister wouldn't be listening to him at all now.
Bill said he needed to go to the bathroom, and started to take the phone with him. Well, that would be awkward. Josh needed to call Warren back still anyway though, which was a good enough reason to get off the phone.
“I'm going to call someone. I'll be back with you in... ten minutes?”
“Alright. I... Feel stupid hanging on to some kid. I'm supposed to be an adult. I should handle my own disasters.”
“An adult in pain. Don't worry about me, this is my area of expertise. I'm here with you. Be right back.”
He stopped and looked at Joanie, who was talking rapidly, as if trying to get a word in edgewise. That wasn't what was needed, just listening would work better, but as long as Laura stayed occupied it would be fine. Josh had to go back three pages to find Warren Jeffreys' number. He dialed quickly.
“Jeffreys.” The voice said. The same voice, so he didn't bother explaining who it was.
“Alright, about half the situation is calmed for now, the business isn't being shut down and at least Bill is willing to get help, counseling, as long as we can keep it off the record. He's pretty bent on getting a divorce, and I'm not trying to talk him out of it at this point. Oh, I told him that I was hired as a consultant on this, so be ready to write a check to back me on that. I've got someone on the line with Laura too right now, so you're paying for her time as well, and the firm is being set to rights I think. I need an update on that. Did you get in touch with Samantha?”
“Uh... yes. Fine, I'll pay you, full expenses, Samantha is going to call. Or, do you want her number, she said I could give it to you.”
“That would be good. Quickly please, I don't want to leave Bill to his own devices for a while, I'll go over physically in the morning.” Josh sighed, it was going to be a long walk.
And a longer night.
“I thought everyone was snowed in there?” The man said far more conversationally than he'd sounded even a few seconds before.
“I'll hike in. It's only snow. Probably just in time to watch everyone collapse if I can even get in the door.”
Nodding to no one Josh took down the number he might need and dialed Banister again. He was out of the bathroom and debating another drink. A short fifteen minutes later Josh had him talked out of that, but not divorce, which, really, who could blame the man? Josh had kind of assumed that he'd known about everything before, to tell the truth. If Josh knew then a lot of people probably did. Mercy and Joanie hadn't been surprised earlier, had they? So it was pretty much their boss being the last one to know about everything.
God.
Wonderful, now he'd feel like a moron when he figured it out too.
Bill wore down finally, at about four in the morning, and so it seemed, did the others. He was tempted to call Amy, but didn't want to wake her if she'd gotten to sleep at all. Joanie could barely stand up to stagger around, and Mercy had dark circles under her eyes, having talked to everyone at work at least twice in the previous three hours. They were all emotional, scared or angry, so it was draining.
They both sat at the table with him and took a cookie, neither really eating.
“So, um,” Mercy looked at him and grinned a little. “What the fudge was all that? I mean, good job, great job... but... how?”
Right, he hadn't really explained.
“I got hired as a personal consultant to handle the situation. I need to get with Bill's other daughter, Samantha, about some things. It's an ungodly hour to call, but... Well not to be a jerk about it, but this is a privileged conversation and you two really don't want to know what it's about right now.” Because knowing this could have them both fired, but he didn't say that. It could also affect his mom's future job prospects. Best to keep it all low key for now.
Mercy just raised a tired eyebrow.
“That,” she smothered a yawn. “Is not an explanation at all. Who hired you? Amy? Why, I'm pretty sure you'd work for free... for her at least. Besides you don't have a legal standing for client attorney privilege, unless you've missed telling me something? Didn't become a lawyer when I wasn't looking did you?”
It wasn't even a snarky question. She was actually just asking. As if he might have actually done it, but that she could miss him having passed the bar exam.
“No, but I'm not trying to protect just a client here, but the person I was hired to help. You know that I don't have to have any special privilege to do that unless I'm in court. Since I'm sixteen and I don't want you both going all ubber-mom on me, I'll release my client's name, but not the specifics. Will that do for now?” He sounded tired he knew and a bit dry. Cold maybe. They both seemed to think he was playing, based on their smiles.
“Alright. Give us what you've got.” His mother smoothed her died black hair back.
“OK, I was hired, officially, by Warren Jeffreys on behalf of Mr. Banister.”
They both laughed. Until he didn't join in. Then they stopped and stared at him for a while. He answered their looks with a bite of cookie. It had gone cold, and was a little chewy, but not bad. Finally his mother just nodded.
“I see. And what, exactly, have you been hired for?”
It was asking for more information than the initial deal called for, but he gave her a look to tell her he got what she was doing and then yawned himself, rubbing his eyes a bit.
“To try and stop a political suicide, and possibly a murder. If I can. Any kind of murder.”
He looked at the clock and grimaced. Josh hated the phone and the idea of calling a woman he didn't even know at four-something in the morning made him want to just not do it. But like everyone else, she might have been waiting on word of what was going on. If not he'd probably just get voice mail. He decided to hope for that.
“So, I need to make a call, and then I need to get over to the Banisters. Not going to be fun. Can you two handle the work stuff? Right now it's just business as usual. If anything needs to be decid
ed by Mr. Banister, please have people call me first? I'm playing secretary for now. Poorly too. I should have taken a dictation class or learned shorthand. I can just barely type as it is.”
Joanie stood, and stretched, her ample breasts pushing against her shirt. He didn't exactly gape at her, but he didn't look away either. She was cute and had nice curves. The main point was that at the moment looking away would take energy. Mercy wasn't watching him at least, looking off to the side, as if considering something dark and foreboding. He half expected her to say he couldn't trudge for miles in the early morning snow, but instead she grimaced at him.
“Alright. I'd say you should let an adult handle this, but I don't think I know of anyone that could actually do a better job than you have. Not by half. They're lucky to get you. What do you charge for your services anyway?” She was joking which was good, because he hadn't set a fee.
Josh just shrugged, “a lot. But you get what you pay for, you know?”
Then he got up, stretched himself and started a pot of coffee, waiting for the others to get out of the room. Josh could have left, but they both needed to get some sleep before the day started. The coffee smelled good to him, but he'd always liked the smell of it. The taste less so, but he'd manage. He had to stay awake somehow. Starting with drugs. If that didn't work the next step would be diving into a snow bank naked.
Josh hoped the caffeine worked.
The call to Samantha Banister was hard. It was so early and he didn't know what to say to her at all. The ringing didn't stop for a bit, and on the seventh ring he fully expected it to go to voice mail or a machine to pick up. Instead a very tired voice croaked in his ear.
“Sorry, drifted off, did you get in touch with that guy? The one you hired to help dad?” She spoke softly and didn't sound familiar at all. If she'd been at the party he'd gone to he didn't recognize her on the phone.
“Ms. Banister?” He said, his voice low and professional sounding. Who would have known that acting lessons would have paid off this much? “This is Joshua Harding. I believe I'm the “guy” that you mean?” He tried to sound just slightly amused.
“Oh! Um, hi, what's... the situation?” She sounded worried, not scared, but anxious.
Josh thought about what he could say. Not a lot he realized. Not as much as the man's daughter needed to know. He decided to tell her that first. It was easier to hear that there were reasons you couldn't know something than just to not be informed.
“Now what I can tell you is that the law practice will open this morning as scheduled and that at this time that situation is stable there. People are worried, but I believe it can be dealt with. The key here is keeping anything too drastic from happening in the initial anger. The household seems to have fallen asleep but short of calling in emergency services no one can get to the house by vehicle. I'll be heading over as soon as this call is over. Before you ask, I'm hiking in.” Not able to help himself he yawned, but away from the phone.
“After I drink as much of a pot of coffee as I can manage that is. A bit of a long night.”
“OK. Wow. So it sounds like Warren is really pulling out the stops here, he said, but he's also a politician. Is dad... mad about us?” Her voice was scared now. As if her first concern was her stupid affair rather than the meltdown of her father's marriage. Josh got it, but still, priorities were a little skewed there.
“Yes. But that will blow over. Just, you know, stop sleeping with married men. Or at least do it discretely if you have to and not with Warren Jeffreys. Your father still loves you and isn't planning to shoot anyone at all. Not even the married man that defiled his baby.” Though he'd had to talk him out of going after Laura twice. Just venting he hoped. If not... well, he'd get the police in then. No one was going to threaten Amy if he could help it, and bullets didn't care what stopped them in the end, so some nut waving a weapon around had to be stopped. Hopefully a sober, if grumpy, Bill would see the light and realize that he had a lot of options that it hadn't seemed like at first.
“All we need from you right now is support and making sure things stay calm. Maybe over the phone for now? If you could stay in touch with Meridith and Amy that would be good. I didn't get to talk to either one of them last night, except very briefly, it would be nice if someone would be there to let me in, but I'll manage somehow.” Possibly breaking and entry.
A soft sound came from the phone, it was considering, not doubting.
“I can do that, you said it would be hours? I can see if I can rouse Meridith, she's the one I'm closest to there, other than dad.”
Josh tilted his head a little thinking about it.
“Try Amy. I have their emergency cell numbers, do you need those?”
She did need them, because no one had them at all, except Bill and Laura. She was surprised that he had them and that Meridith would possibly be hung over, but it sounded like she was pretty well organized as far as numbers went otherwise. She got his again, just to make sure she could get in touch and thanked him for all his help.
“Not a problem at all. Now we just have to fix all of this without major damage. Hey, is it possible... if it comes to that, could you take the girls for a few days? I don't know what your setup is or if anyone else would think to ask, but family fight or not, they don't deserve to be harmed by any of this.” He sounded like a social worker, but it got a positive reaction.
“Of course. We should visit more anyway. I'll make the offer. I... won't take Laura though. I've never been a fan.” She didn't say why, but Josh could guess. She probably kept luring off boyfriends.
Maybe even recently.
If Warren Jeffreys had slept with Laura... Josh was going to kick him in the balls and destroy his political career. How, he wasn't sure, but there was fodder for it. He was a conservative that had at least one affair after all. And a “mother-daughter” thing like that would make headlines.
The coffee was done and he got off the phone, cooled the pot with water and drank about half of it as fast as he could. It still burned going down and tasted horrible, Kona or not. Then he took a fast shower and cleaned up, shaving again. Bundled up he started walking in the dark, on top of the frozen snow as often as not. It hurt the few times he broke through and the second to last time he twisted his right ankle, but that could be ignored. Amy needed him. If it was broken he'd have crawled. The odd thing in all this was that anyone thought he had another reason at all for doing this. It was like they weren't paying attention at all.
Josh considered it all again as he walked and realized that he wouldn't get to date Amy now, of course. He'd gotten too involved in this thing and too close to what would probably be the wrong side for her. She was Amy Corbie, not Amy Banister. Bill cared for the girls, both of them, but they'd end up leaving with their mother. That was just reality. He could only try and make sure nothing too bad happened to her now and hope that she didn't hate him over it in the end.
Josh felt pretty blameless, all things considered. So far. The day wasn't over yet though.
It wasn't even started.
Josh limped up to the doorway at about nine, the cold and his hurt ankle making him slower than he should have been. When he got to the door he got ready to pound on it for a while, trying to get someone's attention, but it opened up before he did more than tap once.
Amy stood there, still dressed in the same sweats he'd last seen her in, hair pulled back and with no makeup on. It was the first time he'd seen her without any, he thought. She still looked good. Face a little blotchy from crying and puffy around the eyes from... everything imaginable except chemical weapons most likely. She still looked wonderful. Amy didn't even close the door, just leaping directly into his arms.
“God... I... I just did what you said and hid in my room until Sam called and told me to come let you in. Thank you. What are we supposed to do?” She sounded terrified, as if the world was going to be stolen from her right there and then. He smiled and kissed her, realizing that he needed to steal each one he could
, since it could be the last. That was life all over though, wasn't it? Enjoy each moment as if it were all you might get? He tucked her to him and whispered into her ear.
“Right now? We clean up any messes and make breakfast, so that everyone has some food in them before we go into round two. Then... Well, I need to talk with Bill some more and make him believe that I'm not just some average stupid kid, but a brilliant and magical stupid kid that can actually help him, and talk to your mom and see what her take is on all this. Then Meridith and you. Both of you have an invitation to stay with Samantha by the way, if you need it. Me too. I mean, you can both stay with me, but I doubt anyone will let me bring two hot teenage girls home with me. Kind of unfair really. It's just about what every guy wants for Christmas you know...”
She smiled at least. It wasn't a big smile, but it was a try at one.
They got coffee going, and started straightening things. Nothing had been broken except one lamp which had fallen at some point, rather than being thrown. The crash he'd heard the night before? That was good. It made cleaning up a lot easier. They were tidy people apparently, even when they drunkenly brawled. It would make it easier, since no one would be blaming someone else for destroying their favorite nick-nack on top of everything else.
For breakfast they were all going to get scrambled eggs, sausages and pancakes. Mainly because that's what he knew how to make that they had all the ingredients for. Well, he could have made French toast too, but that was kind of a special thing to make. A favorite of his and he didn't want the situation to ruin that for him later.
Amy was helpless in the kitchen.
“Good, marry me then, so at least one of us will be able to make sure we both eat.” It was a throwaway line, but she smiled again, this time a radiant thing.
