Authors Note: The name of Maddie's friend ended up being Thomas to honor Billy Thomas, but also because I always liked that name due to personal reasons.
DISCALIMER: I don't own any of the characters in Ally McBeal and i don't make any money from it
Back in Boston.
Allison McBeal was standing looking out the window in her new office in Boston New York, it was snowing as it was a cold night in the middle of December and it was snowing.
Up in the sky the stars were shining and down in the streets people were hurrying by, everyone but two children, a boy and a girl. In fact the young girl was her daughter and the young boy was her friend Thomas.
Her daughter wasn't that young, in fact she was eighteen, but Ally would always look at her as her little girl and from this distance they looked like children.
How she had ended back in Boston was another story, but the main reason was that she had missed the city, the cold and the heath of the city.
She had also missed her old friends; she had kept in touch with Georgia, John, Richard, Elaine, Nelle and even Ling after she left. She and Rene was still the best of friends and they spoke to each other almost every night like back in the days and visited each other frequently.
Down in the streets Maddie and Thomas were chasing each other to the nearest pub, they reminded her so much of herself and Billy when they were young.
Billy, her once Billy, or maybe he always had been her Billy, even after he and Georgia had been married. There was something about the chemistry between them that never faded, they had been playing around like cat and mouse, or maybe like two lovesick teenagers, she wasn't quite sure. What she was sure about was that she missed him and a lot after he had passed on.
She heard a knock on the door and Richard's voice broke the silence asking, "Ally, are you okay?"
"Yes, fine, was just thinking about Billy for a short second," she replied looking at her friend, he was still happily married to Lisa and they had a young son, she smiled by the thought of it, but he was actually a great father.
He nodded and said, "Seems like yesterday that he…."
She nodded and said, "So hall we?"
He nodded and took her arm and headed down to the bar where the others were waiting.
It was late night and Ally were crying, why she didn't quite know, but she suspected that being back had brought back some old memories she thought had been gone by now. Sadly it wasn't true.
"Mom, are you okay?" she heard Maddie ask from the door, looking at her with concerned green eyes.
"Just fine," Ally whimpered sadly as flashes of the past swept pass her still closed eyes, before opening them.
"You're not, sure it was a good to come back?" she asked.
"You were the one that wanted to enroll on Harvard law," Ally answered.
"You said it was a great school and we both know you belong in Boston as well," said the young girl.
"I dunno, I think this may be too much of a change after all these years," Ally answered.
"Oh come on, wasn't opening your own practice what you wanted," said Maddie truthfully.
"It was, but it doesn't make being back here less hard," she said.
"You still miss Billy," she said with a sigh sitting down next to hear stroking her hair. Her mother had told her stories about him over the years.
"I do," her mother answered.
"Well something else would be weird, he was, I mean is a big part of your life," said Maddie.
"He was," said Ally getting herself together as she could see Billy from the corner of her eyes.
Her daughter nodded and said, "Even so, I think it's time to move on and look forward."
"I agree, I'm sorry I woke you, you have a big day tomorrow," she said.
"To be honest I wasn't really a sleep," said Maddie.
"Midnight chatting with Thomas again I assume," said Ally with a giggle.
"Mhm, but we'll finish in a moment, I just had to check on you, I after all do need sleep," she said with a huge yawn.
"That you do," her mother agreed, letting a hand reach out and remove some of her blonde hair that had fallen down in her face.
"You will come with tomorrow, right?" she asked a tad worried.
"Of course I will, now go to bed and tell Thomas the same," said Ally in a firm tone.
"I will, good night mom," she said and gave her mother a swift peck on the cheek before she left her and Ally slowly drifted off.
"They grow up to fast, don't they?" Billy asked. They were sitting at the bench outside Harvard.
"Too fast, but then again I was not there from the start," Ally answered with a sigh.
"I know, but you didn't know," he said.
"No, I still wish I could have, the last eight years have been amazing," she said.
"And challenging," he said with a smile.
"They have, raising a teenager can be hard at times, but in the end it's all worth it," she said as Maddie had turned out to be a very good young woman.
"Remember when we started here?" he asked her pointing over the Harvard grounds.
"Yes, I do, we were so young and full of hope," she answered.
"We sure had a lot of fun back in those days," he said as she leaned a bit closer on him.
"Yes, but also a few tears," she said thinking back.
"A lot have changed since then," he said.
"Yes, but one thing remains," she said.
"Which is?" he wondered.
"You will always be my Billy," she said and slowly closed her eyes and drifted of as he wrapped his arm tighter around her.
When she again opened her eyes it was back in her bed and Billy was gone. She did this sometimes, dream of him, meeting him in her dreams. But those days were gone and now she was back home, she knew she was. She had missed Boston ever since she left eight years ago. She had wanted to go back so many times, not just for visits, but for everything this city meant to her. She in addition to her friends had missed Cage, Fish and McBeal, she would have gone back, but she had also dream of opening her own firm so that was what she now had done.
"Cage, Fish and McBeal," she thought, that was probably the happiest days of her past, before her daughter that was, which now were following in her footsteps wanting to become a lawyer.
She thought back on John Cage as well leaving him behind was probably the hardest thing she ever had to do. She had really loved him in a lot of ways and with all heart and that and she knew she always would, but that time has passed.
Maybe they would have worked out, maybe they wouldn't, she never would have known as he had actually ended up with going back with Nelle and they were both very happy.
She looked at the digital watch on her nightstand 5 AM. One hour until she had to get up and get ready. She snuggled further down in the bed wondering why she in the last eight years or the ones before never had gotten married, but she didn't quite know. Maybe it was just a case of bad timing. Not that she had a bad time without a husband. With Maddie she had never been lonely, but still now that she would be at Harvard it would be a little bit empty.
On the other hand she would be too busy running her new firm and be with her old friends, this was a good change and she knew it.
Hugging a ragged, old teddy bear her father gave her when she was young she slowly drifted off into the place with memories of her past.
"Mom, why are you still sleeping, we're gonna be late," Maddie said a little over an hour later.
"Uhhh," Ally let out still far gone.
"Mom!" Maddie yelled.
"Oh, sorry, what's the clock, shit," she said discovering that she must have managed to turn it off still sleeping.
"I thought you set it last night," said Maddie frowning a bit.
"Did, but…. just give me a couple of seconds," said the tired McBeal while she hurried into the bathroom while her daughter rolled her eyes after her. At times her mother could be totally hopeless, at least in her eyes.
"So you got everything?" Ally asked as the two of them were standing outside the walls of Harvard.
"Mhm, so I'll be coming home this weekend," she said looking a bit insecure.
"Don't worry sweetheart, you will be fine," said Ally in a calm tone feeling a bit insecure herself.
"I know, it's just…new…. And big," she answered looking at the gates to the University.
"I know, but as I said you will be fine, you better go before you'll be late," said Ally with a little smile.
"Mhm, thank you for driving and I love you," she said.
"You are welcome and I love you too, now run along," she said as her daughter wrapped her arms around her to give her a big hug before walking into campus. Ally saw as she slowly caught up with Thomas thinking "Just like the old days," before heading back to her car to not be late for a breakfast appointment she had with Georgia before work.
Feedback always welcome and very much appreciated :o)