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"What do you mean the wedding is on hold?" Beryl Patmore hollered down the phone. She had phoned almost as soon as they had arrived in the office to discuss wedding plans and Elsie had been forced to tell her that it was regrettably on hold once again.

"Issues at work have come up and Charles and I are going to be absolutely swamped." Elsie explained, glaring at her regrettably empty tea-cup. Beryl had phoned before she'd had a chance to make it and Anna never made it quite like Charles could.

"But this is the third time Elsie, what could possibly be so important?" The fiery red-head demanded from the telephone, loudly enough that Charles could hear from his end of the office. He shot Elsie a sympathetic glance when she held the phone slightly away from her ear with a wince

"Beryl listen, I am just as disappointed that its being put on hold but neither of us can afford to lose our jobs." Elsie explained patiently . Charles's phone pinged and he glanced at it before catching Elsie's eye and tapping his watch, indicating that it was time for their meeting with Gregson and Bryant. She rolled her eyes and indicated that he should go ahead and that she would catch him up as soon as she got her very annoying friend off the phone. He grinned at her as he grabbed both their cases and marched out of the door

"Thomas, make sure Anna gets her off the phone within the next five minutes. You have my full permission to unplug the thing." Charles informed him as he strode past "and no country music while we're away. You're on phone duty."

"Ah Charles, I wonder if I might have a word." Robert Crawley said as he fell into stride with his friend "We're having a party next week and I was wondering if you would be attending?"

"As this is the first I've heard about it, no I'm not." he replied "and why are we throwing a party? I thought we were bankrupt?"

"Well, we're not paying for it. Gregson is, in order to meet all our clients. I would really appreciate it if you and Elsie would be able to attend." Robert said when they paused outside of the conference room

"We had planned to go away that weekend." Charles said heavily "I've been promising to take her to the ballet in London."

"But surely you can delay it?" Robert asked with a pout "you're my best lawyers, you're the ones who have brought half these clients in."

"I already have delayed it in order to handle this merger for you as well as put our wedding plans on halt" Charles explained

"But-"

"what's going on?" Elsie asked as she finally caught up to him and relieved him of her case.

"Ah Mrs Hughes, hopefully you can change his mind" Robert Crawley said, giving her his most charming smile "Gregson is throwing a party next weekend to celebrate the merger and I really need you and ole Charles to be there."

"Next weekend?" she queried "We had hoped to go away then."

"But think about how much help it would be to the merger if this was successful." Robert argued in a pleading tone.

"Oh very well!" huffed Elsie "but we want a raise." and with that she strode into the conference room leaving the two men standing there

"what did I say?" Robert asked but Charles just gave him an exasperated look and followed her.

She glanced up as he walked in before continuing to unpack her case and neatly stack her various files

"I swear if it wasn't for us this company would fall into a pile of dust. Can he do nothing by himself?" she grumbled

"Hopefully Gregson will be able to take over some of his issues when all of this is sorted out." Charles reasoned "what did Beryl say?"

"She was complaining about the wedding being hold and threatened to call Isobel and have her talk to Robert, as if he'd listen to her" Elsie replied "she then went into a tirade about god knows what so I left Anna to deal with her."

"But she phoned to complain to you not Anna." Charles pointed out with a grin as he sat down

"Anna is surprisingly good at doing my accent. That girl should be on stage." Elsie quipped with a grin. "We are a strange firm. The owner has no idea how to handle money, his daughter is dating the driver and the other one is dating our biggest opposition. Our two assistants clearly should be in show business"

"And the two top lawyers are engaged to one another." Charles finished "Gregson is late."

"We're five minutes early" Elsie countered with a glance at her watch

"To be early is considered on time, on time is considered late and late is totally unacceptable" he quoted "and its now four minutes"

Elsie rolled her eyes at him but before she could answer they were interrupted by Gregson's representative walking through the door. She had long dark brown hair that she had left in curls over her shoulder, long legs that she had accentuated with three inch heels and dark brown eyes that seemed to miss nothing.

"You must be Mrs Hughes." the woman said, completely ignoring Charles and reaching over and shaking her hand.

"Ms" corrected Elsie "its nice to meet you."

"Oh, I am sorry, I saw your wedding ring and I assumed..." the woman apologized

"Its quite alright." Elsie assured her "and its an engagement ring actually so you weren't far off base."

"Well he is a very lucky man." the woman said with a smile

"He is." Elsie assured her with a smirk. She didn't completely trust this woman but seeing as they were going to be working together there was no point in being nasty

"Charlie!" The woman said turning to Charles and beaming

"Ally!" he responded sarcastically "how lovely to see you again." Elsie looked from one to the other, both of them were eyeing the other with calculated gazes

"Wait, you two know one another?" She inquired, looking bewildered

"He never mentioned me?" the woman asked "Alice Neal. Charlie and I went to law school together. He was fifth in the class and I was, oh I forget what was it?

"Married to the library?" asked Charles coldly

"Thats right, number one." She confirmed with a smirk.

"Tell me Alice, whats my success rate against you in the real world where we practise real law?" Charles countered, leaving Elsie feeling more confused than ever. She had never seen him look so hostile and they'd worked together for years

"Oh Charlie, there are no winners or losers in a merger, just a happy new couple." Alice chided, sitting down and unpacking her case.

"That's right. Three no." he answered stonily, making her roll her eyes. "Do you have the proposal?"

"No I just flew in from the USA completely unprepared" Alice said sarcastically, pulling out two files and sliding them across the table. Charles slid their proposal over to her

"Try not to be intimidated, I used some big words"

"Over compensation is not a big word"

EHCC

"Would you like to explain to me what the hell that was all about it?" Elsie muttered as they left the room together. He had been extremely hostile during the meeting and he was now glaring at everything in sight.

"Thomas, please make sure Ms Neal leaves the building. I don't want her left unattended." Charles barked, completely ignoring her question

"Actually, I wanted a word alone with you Charlie." Alice said, coming up behind them and taking them by surprise. "Am I permitted into your office?"

"Okay, first off his name is Charles." Elsie snapped, losing her cool and whirling round on the woman. "second of all its OUR office."

"Our office?" repeated Alice "wow, Crawley must be more broke than I originally thought if its two best lawyers have to share an office."

Elsie opened her mouth to retort but Thomas grabbed her arm and pulled her away

"why don't you and I go and fetch some coffee hmm?" He said while marching her out the door.

"What do you want Alice?" Charles asked striding into their office and closing the door behind Alice.

"Just to do this." she answered before grabbing him and pulling him towards her. "I've missed you" she murmured before kissing him

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demanded, shoving her away from him.

"You can't tell me you haven't missed me?" she pouted, advancing on him once again

"No actually I haven't." he snapped. Suddenly realization dawned on her

"Oh I see" she said, her gaze suddenly turning as hard as nails "The pretty Scottish partner. Tell me Charlie, is it the accent that drives you wild? I can't imagine what else it could be."

"Get out." he ordered sharply

"You love her." she stated coldly "ah, the engagement ring comes from you doesn't it? Are you aware that the by-laws clearly state that there are no relationships permitted within the firm?"

"This may come as a surprise to you Alice, but when you've won as many cases as we have working as a team, our boss doesn't really care what we do out of the office." he snapped

"Crawley might not" she agreed "but I can assure you that Gregson will."

I feel I should point out that Gregson isn't a very nice character in this story. I hope you guys don't mind but I'm not buying his disappearance in Downton. Also, I borrowed a lot from suits here. Review and let me know!