The moot court was over and Billy watched as Nick and Niamh left the building. Now was his turn and he knew there was probably going to be fireworks. It was never going to be the right time to deliver this news and he might as well do it now when the future of Shoe Lane's tenants was being decided. Calling John from the clerks room he strode into the room interrupting the vote on the current pupils.

"Excuse me sir, sorry," Billy said.

"What?" Asked Alan who was leading the vote and a bit surprised his senior clerk was intruding at such a vital time.

"Hold the vote. Something's come up," Billy explained.

"Well what is it?".

"I have the silk results," he announced, unfolding the letter from his suit pocket. "Martha Costello...Q.C. Clive Reader...Q.C," he revealed, not very enthusiastically regarding the latter. Billy couldn't believe it. Even informing Judge Crannitch that Mr Reader had been sleeping with his daughter and abusing his position as her pupil master hadn't been able to persuade the board not to award him with silk.

This was extremely bad news. Big changes were coming to Shoe Lane with this result- Billy could feel it in his bones. The one glimmer of hope was that Mr Reader had asked Billy if he could stay at Shoe Lane when Billy had found out about his role in the coup Kate was organising. He just hoped the male barrister could be trusted although it wasn't quite in his character.

The only other thing that might keep him at Shoe Lane was Miss Costello. The two had been friends for nearly twenty years- surely that must count for something? There was also the small matter that Miss Costello had just miscarried their baby the previous day. Clive wouldn't do anything to upset her even more would he?

A great round of applause filled the room as all their colleagues congratulated them. Alan beamed with pride as well, extremely proud of his two ex pupils. It was very rare that chambers gained two silks in one sitting.

Kate cast a quick glance at Clive and each gave a slight nod. They would be leaving Shoe Lane that evening. Although Clive had told Billy he wanted to stay in chambers, it was before Kate had told him about the empty building in Fountain Street and her plans to create a break away set and put Clive in charge as their new head. It was an offer too great to pass up. He was a highly ambitious man, always had been, and he would become one of the youngest if not the youngest head of chambers in London. He would go down in history.

He only hoped that Martha would understand what he was about to do.


"Marth!" Clive shouted after her as she left Shoe Lane later that evening. He had been waiting outside for her for a little while. It had all kicked off once he and Kate had stood up and revealed their plans after the silk results had been announced and then it had turned really nasty.

Clive had never seen Alan as angry as he had been as he literally threw Clive, Kate and all the other deserters out of chambers in disgrace. He cast a look at Martha who was sat in her chair, silent, with a melancholy look on her face. "Come with us," he pleaded.

"No," she had replied, resolutely, trying desperately not to let the tears that were gathering in her eyes to fall. That had been the last he had seen as he was roughly manhandled out the building.

"I haven't changed my mind, Clive!" Martha replied over her shoulder without turning round.

"I'm sorry," Clive uttered.

Martha stopped and turned around. "You're sorry?!" She echoed in disbelief. "Have you any idea what you have just done? How could you do that? To Alan? Billy? Me?". Clive didn't have an answer. "I've worked my whole life for this day and you've completely ruined it!".

"Marth..," Clive said attempting to justify his actions, but Martha wasn't interested.

"You would still have left even if yesterday had never happened and I was still pregnant, wouldn't you? All that talk of supporting me was complete and utter bullshit. You just said it because it was what you thought I wanted to hear. And I was stupid enough to almost fall for it," Martha berated herself. "Maybe the miscarriage was for the best,".

"I'm really sorry...,".

"Just go!" She ordered. "I don't want to hear it Clive. I don't think I'd believe it anyway. I'm not going to trust anything you have to say anymore," she finished before turning around again and started to walk away.

Clive watched her go helplessly. He'd just thrown the best friendship he'd ever had away because of his selfishness.


Three years later

Martha stood looking out over the Thames, wondering what she was going to do from here. She had just followed her gut and walked out of the head of chambers competition, knowing it wasn't for her. Now came the decision about whether to follow Mickey Joy's advice and leave the world of justice and the law behind.

If she was being honest, she hadn't been enjoying work at all recently, especially her last case- Sean McBride. All the infighting at Shoe Lane at the moment wasn't helping matters either. The competition for whether it would become a defence or prosecution set and everything going on with Billy and Amy was meaning chambers was not her usual place of sanctuary out of court that it once was. She no longer felt she belonged there.

Nothing was keeping her in London either. She had no ties there. She was free and single. Home was calling quite strongly, something clear in all the confusion in her life right now. She would go there and think about where her future lay. Thinking about it a bit more it seemed the best thing to do and she made her mind up.

Turning around she took a last glance at Middle Temple, her world for the last twenty years. Taking a deep breath to gather her confidence, she took her first step towards home...and straight into a broad muscular chest.

"I'm so sorry," the chest said as arms grabbed her around the waist to stop her falling over.

"No it's my fault. Wasn't looking where I was going," Martha replied looking up to find herself staring into the face of an old acquaintance. "Clive," she uttered. It had been three years since she had seen him last, not since that fateful night when he had been thrown out of chambers. In a strange sort of way it seemed fitting that she was seeing him again tonight. A chance to say good bye to someone who had been an important part of her life in London before she left for good.

"Martha. Hi!" Clive answered when he saw who had literally bumped into him. "How are you?" He asked. He could see in her eyes that she looked quite lost and vulnerable which was very unlike her. At least it was when he had known her and was able to call her a friend.

"Been better," Martha admitted before her phone started ringing.

"I know what you mean," Clive said, but Martha wasn't really paying attention to him. Her focus was on her phone as she pulled out the offending device from her coat pocket.

It was Billy trying to contact her. No doubt he wanted to know what the hell had just happened and why she had pulled out of the vote. Unfortunately she didn't have any answers to those questions just yet and so terminated the call without answering it.

Clive couldn't help but notice who was calling Martha, his name visible on the phone screen. He was a little surprised that the call went unanswered, after all the clerk had had quite a soft spot for Martha throughout his time at Shoe Lane. Martha had always been the favourite out of the two of them. "Avoiding him?" Clive asked. Martha nodded.

"Definitely now," Martha said. "I'll be excommunicated if he sees me talking to you. He still hasn't forgiven you for what you did!" She replied, attempting to tease, but with her mood, it fell flat.

"How about a trip to one of our old hiding spots then?" He continued. "For old times sake and you can tell me what's going on. A problem shared is a problem halved," he added when he saw the look of hesitance in her eyes. He and Martha had found a few pubs to visit in London that Billy didn't know existed during their pupillage to hide out in whenever the clerk was after them.

Martha was hesitant. This was her ex best friend who had betrayed her so badly because of his ambition- a shallow charmer who said exactly what people wanted to hear to aid his own ambition. Was he doing it again now?

"Please allow that I'm three years older and wiser," Clive begged, getting the impression she was going to turn him down. "I'm a changed man,".

"Ok," Martha agreed eventually. Hearing Jake and Billy shouting out her name as they approached the embankment looking for her helped her make up her mind. One chat surely couldn't hurt and together they set off for a place of refuge, completely instep with one another.


"Wow. You've had an eventful couple of days," Clive said, once Martha had finished her story of everything that had been happening to her. "And you're really considering leaving all of it behind?". They were sat in a quiet corner of a pub they hadn't frequented in a long time, tucked away from prying eyes.

"What would you do if you were me?" Martha asked. It had been quite cathartic offloading all her troubles onto Clive and things were perhaps not quite as dire as she had thought they were earlier in the evening.

"You're asking me for advice?" Clive asked. Martha nodded. "But you've never listened to me before,".

"I did!" Martha retorted.

"Didn't," Clive argued. "You always asked... or I volunteered my opinion on something...and then you ignored it completely and carried on doing what you wanted,". He finished with a smile which caused Martha to smile as well. Deep down she knew he was right.

"Wasn't that bad," Martha groused.

"Ok," Clive said letting the subject drop. "For what it's worth I don't think you should leave like this. You'll be letting this Harriet person win, not to mention Mickey Joy. You don't know who won the vote, so you might still have a place at Shoe Lane,".

"But if Darren did win and Shoe Lane is now a prosecution set, I can't stay,".

"Well then resign, work out your notice and leave with your head held high. Not in the middle of the night with your tail between your legs,".

"And do what?" Martha asked getting exasperated. She wasn't getting anywhere with her work problem.

"Come and work for me," Clive suggested impulsively. Martha was stunned into silence. "Just a suggestion and I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by,".

"God I'm sorry, Clive. We've spent all night taking about me and I vaguely remember you saying things could be better as well. Want to talk about it? A wise person recently told me a problem shared is a problem halved,".

"It's my own stupid fault and I should have seen it coming really. Kate..,"

"Brockman?" Martha asked, interrupting.

"Yes," Clive answered before continuing on with his narrative. "Well she has done to me what she did to Alan and Shoe Lane. Didn't like the way I was running chambers and has upped sticks and left, taking with her several of my senior barristers. It has severely affected the money coming in. John is trying his best but is still only really a junior clerk and not able to get us any really meaty cases either. I think we're going to have to close down because no accountant is going to let us continue the way things are going. You did the right thing walking out of that vote, Martha. Being head of chambers is not everything it's cracked up to be, I can tell you," he finished, quite despondently.

"I'm sorry," Martha replied, reaching across the table to give his hand a small squeeze, hoping she was conveying that she really did mean it. She had hated him at the time for what he had done to her beloved Shoe Lane, but that was water under the bridge now and he didn't deserve to fail.

The bell rang behind the bar for last orders and Martha couldn't believe the evening had completely disappeared. "I better go," she said, standing and putting her coat on. "I've a bit more thinking to do before tomorrow morning," she said.

"Sure," said Clive getting to his feet as well. "I enjoyed literally bumping into you again and I wish you well in your big decision," he continued, sad their evening was at an end.

The two old friends stood facing each other, not quite sure how to say good bye. Clive opted to play it safe and offered his hand for a shake. "Come here," Martha said, taking charge and gathering him in for a hug. "Thank you," she said into his ear before giving him a quick kiss to his cheek and releasing him. Picking up her bag she started to leave.

"Marth!" Clive called out, her old nickname tripping off his tongue easily. He didn't think she would mind if he used it again after her good bye. She turned back to face him. "My card," he said offering her one of his business cards. "Let me know how it goes,". Now he had met with her again he didn't want to lose contact.

"I will," she answered, taking the card before disappearing out into the night.