Eli made his way to the conference room after stopping to make get some coffee to wake himself up as if the vision had just daydream.
He slipped and stood behind Maggie just before the meeting began. Marci Klein didn't seem too happy about his presence, but Eli ignored her and looked at the elder Wethersby. However, he couldn't help noticing Maggie out of the corner of his eye: her soft-looking hair, her amazing eyes, and her flawless skin. He knew if he asked her out now he'd seem like he had been waiting for her and Scott to break up.
"Now, if you don't mind starting, then we have the matter of the Carter case. Any takers?" Jordan looked around the room, but his gaze settled on Eli, "Mr. Stone, because your case load is so very light due to your recent return why don't you take the case?" Eli just nodded; he hadn't really been paying attention, though he wondered why Jordan had immediately given him the case. "Good, now who would like to second chair?" Maggie slowly raised her hand. "Very well, Miss Dekker. The job is yours." Another immediate decision; this confused Eli even more. The rest of the meeting went basically the same way, except Wethersby took more time assigning cases.
After the meeting, Maggie and Eli made their way to his office/library, "So, the Carter case." Eli looked up to see her organizing all of files and a notepad. Her hair would get in face, but she'd casually push it behind her where all but one strand would stay.
She eventually caught him staring, "What?"
Eli blushed and tried to hide it, but failed. "Nothing, I'm just amazed by how much junk you carry around for a case."
"Shut up."
"That's not very nice."
"Oh well," She frowned while sifting through papers. "Let's get to the case."
"What is the case?"
"Dean Carter is the owner of a small time bakery that runs directly out of LA and is suing his financial manager for embezzling funds. Danny Tobart, the financial manager, is, of course, denying the claim," The fact that Carter was a small time business owner made Eli see how much the firm had changed in the time between his leave and his return.
"So what's our evidence?"
"There isn't any."
"What?"
"All of Tobart's records went missing. There is no evidence."
"That's evidence," said Eli.
"What?" Maggie put on a confused face.
"The fact that the records are gone; that's evidence that would suggest Tobart is hiding something," He looked at Maggie to see if she understood, which she signified my nodding. "What about witnesses?"
"We've got Mrs. Carter, who's in charge of the bakery's bread and grain area; whereas Mr. Carter bakes the cookies, cakes, and pies. She said that they received a check from a customer who was buying a lot of bakery for a party. The check was worth 250."
"And?"
"The check disappeared. Dean Carter put it into the cash register, and never saw it again."
"Hmm," Eli paused to think for a moment, "So the next person to see it would be?"
"Tobart, at the end of each week he empties the register."
Eli paused to think about a traditional cash register, while trying to distract himself from thinking about the amazing woman sitting across from him. You have to hit a button and it opens. "Does the register have a lock on it?" He asked.
"Yes, but the Carters only lock it at the end of the day."
"Is there any security in the shop? Video cameras or listening devices?"
"There is one camera. Hold on let me look it up," Maggie shuffled through more of her papers. "Found it. The video camera was under evidence-"
"You said we didn't have any evidence."
"Not against Tobart we don't. The video shows 'the cash register opens that night at noon, while the Carters and Tobart are on their lunch break. No one is seen any near the register."
"That's very strange. How could the register open if no one is there?"
Maggie shrugged, while Eli, who was on edge due to all the time he was spending all this time with Maggie, looked at the time. It was noon; time for lunch. "Lunchtime. I'm gonna get something from somewhere wanna come? We could order pizza."
Maggie smiled. "Sure. Pizza sounds good."
Eli tried to quiet his emotions and found a phone and asked, "What do you want on it?"
"Pepperoni?"
"One half mushroom, half pepperoni pizza coming up." He dialed and ordered, "Can I have a small half pepperoni half mushroom pizza. Deliver it to Wethersby, Posener, and Klein." Eli gave directions to the firm. "Thanks," He looked at Maggie, "Twenty minutes or it's free."
They cleaned off the table, so they had room to eat and Maggie then went to fetch some plates and napkins from the break room.
"Patti?" Eli called.
"Yes?" She asked as she walked into the room. She had just been talking to Nate, who had called to check in on Eli, but Eli didn't need to know that his brother was keeping tabs on him.
"We ordered pizza, do you want any?"
"What kind? I hope it's not your usual mushroom pizza," Patti hates mushrooms on anything and was always annoyed when Eli would order mushrooms.
"Half pepperoni half mushroom."
"Maggie has good tastes, I'll have just a slice of pepperoni." Eli rolled his eyes. Taylor had liked mushrooms as well. Patti was still happy about their separation.
"I'm back." Maggie appeared in the doorway with three paper plates and two mugs of coffee. "Thought you'd like some coffee. I didn't know how you like it so I brought some cream and sugar with me as well."
"Thanks," Eli took the mugs and set them down; Maggie handed out the plates and Patti left with the promise of returning when the pizza arrived. The pair sat down, "You never told me what cases you worked on while I was on medical leave."
"I didn't have many cases. I worked on a restraining order or two."
This caused Eli to think about the time when he had tried jokingly to get Maggie to petition a restraining order against herself, and soon became lost in thought.
Maggie snapped her fingers in front of his face as he comes back to reality. "Eli? Is it another vision?"
"No," Not this time. "I was just remembering the time I asked you to draft a restraining order against yourself. He smirked and once again Maggie glared at him.
"Ha ha."
"Sorry, you brought up restraining orders, keep going."
"No that's it."
"You drafted restraining orders while I was gone? And that's it." Maybe no one really would work with her. He couldn't see why; Maggie could be annoying, but she was smart and beautiful.
"Taylor did work on a case with me, but I think Marci Klein has something against me since the Earthquake case. "She was pretty mad that you convinced the mayor to shut down the bridge. I saw her glare at Taylor multiple times while we were on the case."
Eli exclaimed. "She's at you because of me."
"Don't worry. We had Wethersby's support all throughout the case. I once caught him glaring at Klein during the staff meeting.
Eli calmed himself down and then asked, "What was the case about?"
"You would've liked it. A woman, Mrs. Florence Downey, works late into the night and comes home around midnight. She goes to bed after checking on her three sons; the oldest is fourteen and he babysits his little brothers while his mom works to pay off the rent in the trailer park. There was a piece of machinery that starts digging at four AM and ends at nine at night. The woman gets up to go to her second job at 6 in the morning, so the noise from the machine woke her up two hours earlier and only let her get 4 hours of sleep, so she sued the city for sending out the machine so early. We settled on one million dollars because of the testimony of neighbors from the trailer park and public nuisance. It was a pro-bono (I don't know if I spelled that right) case."
"That's great Maggie!" Eli exclaimed.
"But that was the only case I was able to work on while you were gone."
"What?"
"No one wanted to work with me and Taylor was busy with other cases."
"That's not fair to you, you're an excellent lawyer," Eli rubbed his temples, "I bet it's because of me. Marci Klein caused this."
"Relax Eli," She touched Eli's arm and his senses were instantly alert. "It's your first day back." She looked at me with concern.
Suddenly there was music playing:
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're
beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I
don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll always be with you.
Maggie stood up and pulled Eli up with her and she continued singing the chorus. Eli wanted to let go, let it happen as they danced around the room, but she was probably still a little sore from breaking up with Scott.
La la la la la la la la la You're beautiful. You're
beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel
with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be
with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with
you.
"Eli?" Maggie snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Eli?"
"Sorry, I spaced out again," Eli shook his head.
"It's alright," Her blue eyes sparkled with concern, "The pizza's here."
"Good, I'm hungry," He grabbed his wallet and motioned to go and get it from the delivery guy.
They walked to the doors of the Firm and paid the man. The pizza was hot and Eli rushed to the library to put it down before he burned his hand off. Patti immediately stole a piece and left to spend her lunch break talking to a friend over the phone; once again Eli and Maggie were alone.
They ate their pizza in silence and were about to start working again when Eli said, "You've got some pizza sauce on your face."
Maggie had a napkin in her hand before Eli could blink, "Where?"
"On your cheek."
"Which one?"
"My left, your right," he said, while watching her struggle with wiping the sauce off. She missed constantly; it was such a small dab.
"Here," said Eli as he grabbed another napkin, "I'll get it." He leaned across the table and wiped the smudge from her face, then realized how close they were.
Eli could feel Maggie's breathing and he was tempted to kiss her. 'Not now! She just broke up with her boyfriend.' He blushed profusely and could've sworn he saw sadness in Maggie's eyes, but dismissed this as her thinking of Scott.
"We should get back to work, we've got court tomorrow," He quickly sat back down and began working. It was going to be a long night.
A/N Sorry it took so long! Thanks to my beta Broedy for checking this over. Tell me what you think.
AirDragon717