Hello and happy Monday! Thank you all so much for the reviews and support. I'm sorry I haven't updated in months, I was trying to finish up some others stories. But, now that those are done, I'll be able to update more, if you guys still like this story!

KarateGirl77: Aw, thank you so much! And, she really is! Haha, I think I can do that!

Guest: Thank you so much and me too. They're both strong and stubborn.

Kickfeaver: Thank you and here you go!

XxFictionXXxWriterxXXx1212xX: Yeah, but don't worry. As, we go along, the chapter and such will be longer. Thank you for the criticism, I'll try to work on that. And, I see your point but Austin's just Austin. Just, hang tight. But, thank you.

NoName: Thank you so much!

Therossylover188: Thanks!

Fishelle: No worries and thank you! Hehe, you're good!

Guest: I'm sorry to hear but thank you. And yeah, that's probably why.

causemydarlingyoudrivemecrazy: Aw, thank you so much!

Enjoy!


The meeting lasted for about an hour, each lawyer laying out their propositions in defending their clients and surprisingly, this was one of the most civil meetings Austin and the judge have had in a while. After closing statements, both Austin and Ally felt a small sort of tension as they were trying not to stare at one another. "Okay then, I think we have everything on the table. I want the both of you to talk everything through with your clients and we'll meet back here next week," the judge finalized, giving Ally and Austin a small smile and hand shake.

Both lawyers nodded in agreement and before Austin had a chance to say something to Ally, she was already out the door. Saddened and slightly annoyed, Austin picks up his fills, shoving them in his briefcase and exits the room, steadily making his way to his car, keen on some alone time. He drives to his favorite spot, the meadow, right outside the downtown area as it was the perfect place to think. It was shockingly quiet, relaxing and allowed Austin's mind to drift back to Ally's change of behavior. Frist, she's polite and personable. Next, she's nervous and embarrassed to be seen with him. And lastly, she now just straight up ignores him altogether.

He doesn't know why it bothers him so much or why he's so intrigued by her. She's been nothing but hot and cold towards him and frankly, he doesn't have the time to deal with her. After a few more minutes of contentment, he makes his way back to his car and drives to the office, needing to get some work done.

OoOoOoOo

Quickly running through the crowd and cramming into the already packed elevator, Austin makes his way up to the third floor. As soon as the door chimes and opens, he jumps out and is greeted by Kira who just stares at him, making him feel uncomfortable. "Kira," he nods, trying to walk past her.

"Austin, where the hell have you been? Your meeting ended an hour ago?" she demands, right on Austin's heels.

"Out Kira. I needed some fresh air, okay," Austin replies, glaring at her.

"Mmhmm," Kira hums, not believing Austin but, deciding not to push it further at the moment due to the emotionless expression on his face. "Anyways, my father wants to see you and Dez called about fifteen minutes ago, reminding you about your plans for tonight."

"Alright, thanks," Austin mumbles, picking up his pace and sliding into his office.

After dropping off his briefcase and jacket, he swiftly made his way to Jimmy's office. With a few light knocks, the muffled sound of "Come in," was heard as Austin opens the door and makes his way inside. "Jimmy, you want to see me?" he questions calmly and taking a seat in front of the desk.

"Yes I did, Austin. I hear you got another case with Miss. Dawson; Wilmer versus Brookman, yes?" Jimmy clarifies.

"Yes, sir," Austin nods.

"So, what's it looking like?" Jimmy wonders curiously.

"Well, um, it's small case and Miss. Dawson wants to settle. The judge agrees with her terms and we're meeting next week for a final decision," Austin answers truthfully.

"And, what do you think about it?" Jimmy probes with the raised eyebrow.

"Honestly, I agree with Miss. Dawson. The case is over a small fine; less than a thousand dollars and no judge will call a jury for this. I have a meeting with Mrs. Wilmer Friday morning," Austin responds.

"Yes, I see your point. This case does sound minimal, very well," Jimmy gives in. "And, just curious, how are things going with Miss. Dawson?"

"Um, okay," Austin shrugs. "She's still pretty reclusive. We've talked, but just about work. It seems to me she's just trying to get comfortable here and keep a low profile."

Jimmy lets out a deep breath before nodding and countering, "Yes, I guess I understand. But, don't forget the plan. If you need extra help, I'll put Kira in on this."

"You're going to tell Kira the plan?" Austin coughs off out in shock.

"God no," Jimmy immediately retorts. "She won't know anything about this. But, I may suggest her helping Miss. Dawson get familiar with the town. Maybe having a female 'friend' will help with Miss. Dawson open up."

"Don't worry Jimmy. I got this," Austin promises.

"Good. I'm counting on you Austin," Jimmy finishes with the curt nod.

Austin returns the gesture and then quickly gets up to exit the office, needing to get started on his 'list' of assignments

OoOoOoOo

At the sound of the bell, a black haired woman looks up from her desk only to be greeted by her friend and partner. "What's wrong Ally?" She wonders worriedly, seeing the exhausted and unpleasant expression on her face.

"Nothing Trish. Everything's fine," Ally sarcastically replies, throwing her jacket and purse on her desk.

"Yeah, I'm calling bull on that. Was the meeting that bad?" Trish questions.

"No, the meeting was fine," Ally snaps, running her fingers through her hair.

"Okay then. What's gotten you so bent out of shape?" Trish sighs. "You never been this upset with work. Well, except when that incident happened with-."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Ally cuts her off with a warning glare.

"Sorry, sorry," Trish quickly apologizes, putting her hands up and surrender. "Can you just please tell me what's wrong. I am your best friend after all."

"I'm going up against him again," Ally grumbles.

"Him? Him, as in the mysterious blonde in the paper I read about?" Trish clarifies.

"Yes, him," Ally hisses. "And hold up, you read about it? It was in the paper?"

"Um, yeah. I got nothing better to do," Trish replies, rolling her eyes. "And yes it was in the paper. I was listed under daily gossip for the day. But I don't know what the big deal is?"

"The big deal is I know people like him. This was supposed to be a fresh start, my fresh start. But, how can I make my mark here when I am always with him," Ally sneers.

Trish gives Ally a sympathetic smile and responds, "Not everyone is going to screw you over Als. Maybe he's actually a decent guy. I mean, since you guys are working together again; you may want to give him a chance. I'm sure things will be smoother if you do," Trish suggests.

Ally takes it into consideration as Trish did have a point. Not every guy was a conniving, selfish douche, but she still had to keep her guard up to prevent any further drama from happening here. "You're right Trish, thank you," Ally nods, giving her small smile. "I'll think about it."

"Good. And, you're welcome. You know I always got your back," Trish reassures her. "Now, if you'll excuse me; I have some work to finish up. But, don't forget about our plans tonight."

"Okay and I won't," Ally promises, taking a seat at her desk and pulling out her files.

The rest of the day consisted of Ally reviewing the case and doing some research of her own. Not only on the people she was representing, but on the people she has met so far, trying to get a better understanding of how things work down here. By the time six o'clock rolled around, Ally gathered her belongings and headed home to change into something more comfortable as she only had an hour before meeting Trish.

OoOoOoOo

Right at seven, Ally enters the small café on the corner of Front Street and saw Trish already seated and scanning over the menu. Quickly weaving through some tables, Ally slides into the booth and starts apologizing. "Sorry I'm late Trish. I hope you weren't waiting too long."

"Damn Ally, you scared the shit out me," Trish yelps, dropping the menu and holding her chest.

"Sorry," Ally laughs with a grin.

"Whatever," Trish grunts. "It's fine. I only got here a few minutes ago. And, I got to say that I'm impressed to see you're actually on time."

"Yeah, yeah," Ally waves off and rolling her eye, knowing exactly what Trish meant as being punctual was never an easy thing for her. "So, have you decided on anything yet?"

"No, not really. I was looking at the jalapeño poppers for an appetizer and the grilled chicken sandwich for the entree."

"Those sound good," Ally agrees as a light conversation takes over.

An hour later, the two exit the café and head down the street to the local bar, needing a little relaxer. After finding a booth in the back, Trish drops off her purse and makes her way to the bar, needing to get her drink on. A few minutes later, Trish returns with two drinks and hands one to Ally, "here."

"What is it? You know I don't drink much," Ally asked skeptically.

"Chill Ally, it's just a cranberry martini," Trish tells her. "You definitely need it. You're too stressed out."

"No, I'm not stressed," Ally fires back weakly.

"Mmhmm, just drink it," Trish moves on, sliding into the booth and enjoying her margarita.

The two enjoyed the scene as it was nice, low-key, calm and the perfect way to end the night. They ended up reminiscing about the good old days and being back in New York when two people entered the bar. Ally caught sight of them and noticed one almost immediately. Quickly dropping her head to the table with a loud 'thud', her good night just turned into a bad one. Curse her life. "Ally, what the fuck are you doing?" Trish hisses, leaning over the table to try to lift up Ally's head.

After a few failed attempts, Trish let's Ally hide or sulk, whatever she's doing and uses this time to try to figure out what caused the sudden change. She sees nothing out of the ordinary, but as her eyes make their way to the bar, she sees two gentleman sitting there and drinking beers. Curiosity takes over as she sizes them up. Both gentlemen are wearing jeans, but the redhead is more preppy with a polo shirt on while the blonde just has a simple T-shirt and suddenly the pieces started coming together. "Ally, is that him?" Trish questions with a smirk.

"Sshhh...We're not talking about it," Ally mutters darkly, lifting hitting her head off the table and shaking her head profusely.

"Okay, fine," Trish fake sighs. "But, I got say girl, the blonde is good-looking."

"Trish," Ally whines, slumping even further into the booth as Trish couldn't help but laugh.

While the two girls were having their conversation, the two guys were enjoying their beers and fairly silent; well, at least one was. Austin spotted Ally the second they made their way to the bar and tried to ignore her presence. He tried to listen to whatever story Dez was telling him, but he couldn't shake the little voice in his head saying, "This is your chance. Make your move," and was now debating on what to do. "So then, George asked me to edit this-dude, are you even listening to me?" Dez stopped, eyeing Austin with a semi pissed expression.

"Sorry Dez, I don't mean to be ignoring you. But, my mind's elsewhere right now," Austin admits, chugging the rest of his beer and signaling the bartender for another.

"What's going on bro?" Dez questions, now intrigued by Austin's problem.

"Don't make a big deal out of this but, she's here," Austin whispers cautiously.

"She's here? Who is she?" Dez asks in confusion.

"Her, the girl," Austin emphasizes, his eyes widening, trying to get his point across.

"The girl?" Dez repeats, tilting his head towards the ceiling, trying to remember as seconds later his eyes too widened as he casually turns around to see her sitting in the booth with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "Well, excluding the frown on her face, she's pretty," he adds.

"Dez, not helping," Austin groans, running his forehead.

"Sorry, sorry," Dez smiles, excitement building. "Well, why don't you just walk over there and say a courteous hello.

"Yeah, no. That's just creepy," Austin hisses. "I'm just going to wait and see how the night plays out. Maybe luck will be on my side for once.

"Lame," Dez coughs out. "But, I wish you the best."

"I'm sure you do," Austin

And luckily for Austin, luck was on his side tonight as his chance fell into his lap, literally. Forty minutes later and after constant pleading with her friend that they needed to leave, right now, Trish finally gave in and decided to call it a night. Ally hastily thanked her and grabbed her purse, practically running towards the door, trying to go unnoticed by Austin, but luck, and Trish had other plans. Right as the two were by the two gentlemen, Trish gave her friend a not so gentle nudge that sent her tripping right into Austin's lap.

Embarrassed and at a loss of words, Ally hurriedly picks herself up, knowing this just got awkward. Her face was beet red as Trish quickly apologized on behalf of her friend, "I'm so sorry. I slipped."

"It's quite alright," Austin smiles at Trish before focusing on the blushing and flustered brunette. "It's nice to see toy again, Ally."

"You too, Austin," Ally nods politely as silence takes over the four.

Dez stares at the scene in front of him for a few seconds before extending his hand to Ally and introduces, "I'm Dez, Dez Wade. And, Austin Moon's best friend."

"It's nice to meet you Dez. As you have already heard, I'm Ally, Ally Dawson. And, this is my best friend, Trish DeLaRosa," Ally responds.

"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you," Dez smiles, shaking hands with Trish as well.

"So, how do the two of you know each other?" Trish plays off curiously, looking between the two.

"Work," both Ally and Austin answer at the same time as Austin adds softly, "Which reminds me, Ally, do you have a second?"

Ally studies Austin's face for a second, seeing the seriousness in his eyes and agrees, "Sure."

Austin nods, taking Ally's hand in his and walks them outside. "So, first off, I wanted to apologize for all the gossip going around and the target put on your back; inadvertently I might add. It was never my intention to make you feel uncomfortable. I honestly was just trying to be welcoming and get to know you," Austin starts off, telling Ally half the truth.

"Austin, you don't have to apologize. I was out of line when I said those things. I didn't mean them and I'm sorry. It's just, being in a new town, I wanted a clean slate. And somehow, being associated with you made me feel like nothing's changed and I was back at square one," Ally confesses.

"I understand. Really, I do. And, I don't want to pressure you into thinking we have to be friends but, I would like to have a friendlier relationship since it seems like we'll be working a lot with one another," Austin suggests honestly because in truth, even though he's doing this for Jimmy, he's realized that Ally is actually a pretty amazing person and wouldn't mind getting to know the real her.

"Yeah, I think we can do that," Ally grins, extending a hand to shake on it.

"Okay then," Austin smirks. "So now, I can finally call you, Ally Dawson a friend?"

"Yes, yes you can," Ally giggles. "And I'm now, officially a friend of Austin Moon's too."

Laughter fills the air around them as for once, there was nothing but easiness between the two. And, even though this friendship was new, the feeling was comfortable and they liked it, a lot. Austin signals back to the bar as Ally nods, the two of them reentering with smiles on their faces and though this was a very small baby step, it was still a step in the right direction. Point one for Austin; finally.


And, there you go folks. Please R&R and let me know what you think.

The next chapter should be up by next week.

Thanks and until next time,

Missy xx