I thought it would be nice for their story to end at the same place it began.
Mike and Connie's lives intersect once more.
Chapter 10
It was 9 o'clock at night and Mike was back at the DA's office in New York City.
He had come to pack his things up and give his office a once over before departing permanently for Boston. It had been a long night's drive from Boston, but he knew the DA's office would be empty of employees at this hour.
He loved his office. The EADA's office was a conglomerate of wood paneled desks, bulletin boards, and blinds. Books and files filled every tabletop. Props from various cases were displayed on file cabinets and boxes. A picture on one wall showcased an artist's rendition of him prosecuting a case. His strategy board still had notes from his last case. It was a working office.
Looking around, he felt his office looked exactly the same as when he left, except there was a pile of completed files from Connie.
Mike took a deep breath, put his hands in his pockets and turned around to view New York City from his office window. The quietness of the darkened city below only heightened his feeling of loneliness.
He knew he had to get over her. She had her own life and now he needed to create a separate life from her.
Her smile and warmth would be the qualities he will miss most about her. She added a human compassion to this office.
Just knowing she was sitting outside his office made his day better.
But she had created a life with someone else.
He again pictured her on that day at Yankee stadium, totally enmeshed with the daisies. She looked stunningly happy. It will be the image he will always cherish.
He sat down in his chair for one last time.
How many hours had he spent in here strategizing motions for indictments, grand juries, allocutions and plea bargains? How many hours had he spent to insure truth and justice prevailed? Enough of this nostalgia, he thought.
He will look towards the future.
Now it will be his job to introduce law, not practice it. But he will use that same fierce determination he had towards prosecuting criminals to teach law. The world of academia awaits him.
He stood up. It was time to move forward. Right now he needed to get the packing boxes from the mailroom downstairs.
Afterwards, he will type up his resignation letter to leave on Jack's desk. Even leave him a bottle of scotch.
Perhaps in a week, he may work up the nerve to call Connie to say goodbye. He just couldn't do that now.
With this plan in his head, he walked into the hallway and pushed the elevator button to go downstairs to the mailroom to get the cardboard boxes.
As his elevator door shut to go down, the elevator door adjacent to it 'dinged' up and stopped on the very floor Mike had just left.
The elevator door opened and Connie walked past the hallway to her desk. She had some last minute things to do before she left on her long drive to Boston.
The entire floor of the DA's office was dark and quiet. Except one office.
The janitors must have forgotten to shut Mike's office lights off, Connie thought, glancing at Mike's office from her desk. She placed her files down. Mike's baseball was still on her desk.
The knowledge that she would never again see Mike pacing with this baseball in his office filled her heart with a sad emptiness.
But she must learn how to carry on her own. Without him.
She carried the Henderson file and Mike's baseball into his office to put on his desk.
When she stepped behind his desk, Connie noticed Mike's chair had been pulled out. Strange.
She placed the baseball down in its original site on his desk and sat down in his desk chair.
Rocking in his chair back and forth with her arms on the armrest, she recalled so many cases, so many circumstances she had experienced in his office.
Mike was the one who shared each frustration, each revelation, and each victory of her working life.
She now realized that it was not just the challenge of the job that kept her motivated everyday. It was breathing, working, and being next to Mike everyday.
Will she be able to convince him to come back? What will she say to him?
Still seated, Connie pulled the chair directly under his desk. She hunched over Mike's desk, rubbing her temples. The uncertainty of the future was giving her a slight headache.
As she pondered various scenarios of what she might say when she sees him in Boston, she heard some noise in the main area of the DA's office.
It sounded like boxes being moved about. The janitors were probably coming back to finish the job, she half-internalized. She should be leaving soon anyway. She sighed.
What reason could she give him to get him to stay?
Perhaps she could present a case to him that only he, with his expertise, could prosecute. That could keep him here a little longer.
Or that everyone in the office was overwhelmed with work and the office needed him because they were shorthanded. Again, that could buy her some time.
Or perhaps she will tell him that Jack said-
"Connie."
That voice. Connie stopped rubbing her temples. She had heard that voice a thousands times in her thoughts. But this time she wasn't imagining it in her mind.
She felt a quiver running up and down her back. She haltingly looked up.
She was looking right into a pair of intense blue eyes.
It was Mike.
Next chapter will be the final chapter!
Let me know what you think.