Thanks once again for all the reviews!

Cynthia, thanks for your thoughts. I always enjoy reading them. I think so far as Ben is concerned, I can't really write him any differently than I have. I believe that he's basically a good, decent man and though he lost his way a bit with the kids in recent years, he's really stepping up now for them. Although he loves Evelyn, she's going to have to face the reality that I'm guessing anyone who gets involved with someone with kids has to face, and that is that the kids have to come first. If things had never escalated with Peter and Pamela then I'm sure he would have been there for Evelyn 100% but I truly believe that he's doing the best that he feels he can for everyone right now.

Whether harmony reigns, of course, is yet to be seen...

Enjoy :)

January 1994

"Mrs Burns, that argument is ludicrous and you know it," Judge Larkin took off her glasses and fixed Evelyn with a distinctly unimpressed look. "Even if your client was under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest, he was perfectly coherent when he was interviewed by the detectives. So coherent, in fact, that he was able to ask for a lawyer. Ms Green was present throughout!"

"I understand that, your honour, but based on the statements made by Mr Wells..."

"Based on the statements made he put himself right in the frame. In fact, he knew details of the crime that only the perpetrator would know." The judge put her glasses back on again. "If Ms Green had been concerned about Mr Wells then she should have asked for the interview to be halted and for him to be seen by a doctor. She did neither of those things. The statements made by Mr Wells are admissible. Now, do you have any further motions or can we set this thing down for trial?"

"I have no further motions, your honour," Evelyn conceded.

"Good. Mr McCoy, are the people ready for trial?"

"Yes your honour."

"Fine, then let's get this show on the road next week and you can tell Ms Green that if she wants to waste the courts time with any more frivolous motions she can argue them herself." Judge Larkin paused. "In any event, it's nice to see you back on the right side of the table, Mrs Burns."

"Thank you, your honour," Evelyn replied, pinking slightly as the judge nodded and then rose from the bench. Gathering up her papers, she let out a long breath knowing that Shambala wasn't going to be pleased when she relayed the news.

"Dropped right in it, huh?" Jack said, coming over to the table. "Another Green special?"

"Something like that," she replied. "She would have come and argued it herself but she's meeting with Nicola Foster at Rikers. You're due to start later this week?"

"Thursday," Jack nodded. "

"Who did you draw?"

"Judge Rodriguez."

"Firm but fair."

"Sympathetic to victims of abuse too." He paused. "Edward's funeral is tomorrow, right?"

Evelyn nodded as they slowly made their way out of the courtroom together. "Ben thinks I shouldn't go."

"Why not?"

She shrugged. "He thinks that I've organised it all, despite everything, and that I'm better off just letting those that want to attend get on with it."

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. Part of me can't think of anything worse than sitting there while the priest gives a eulogy about what a good man he really was and how all sins can be forgiven in heaven and another part of me thinks that, by going, it'll be the final closure that I need to move on." She turned to look at him. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a tough one. Are you expecting a good turn out?"

"Most of the office I would imagine," she replied. "Not to mention my mother." He raised his eyebrows. "Secretly I think she's more upset about it than she's letting on. If I was a betting person, I'd put money on her not really believing that everything that happened between Eddie and I really did happen."

"That's hard," he sympathised.

"Yeah, it is..." she let out a long breath as they ventured back out into the crisp afternoon air. "Anyway, I'd better get back to the office and give Shambala the bad news. What about you?"

"Back to my desk, groaning under the weight of work. It's been good having Ben back but I'm still trying to catch up from when he was away. Speaking of that, how are the kids settling in at their new school?"

"Fine, by all accounts, though it's only been two weeks. I think Peter's finding it easier than Pamela. He's joined the school baseball team already and made friends that way. She's still struggling a bit though she'd never really admit it." Evelyn smiled thinking about her. "It's been easier than I imagined, us all living together."

"Ah, that's cause you're still in the honeymoon phase," Jack opined, holding out his hand for a passing cab. "Long may it continue. You want a ride?"

"No, I'm going the other way."

"Of course. Well, if Shambala comes to her senses and decides she wants to plead Mrs Foster sensibly, tell her to call me."

"I will," Evelyn replied, watching as he disappeared inside the cab and it, in turn, merged into the afternoon traffic. Given that it was dry, albeit cold, she decided to walk part of the way back to her office, primarily to clear her head but also to think about the funeral.

Christmas had come and gone in a flash. The four of them had spent the day together in the new apartment, she and Ben both managing to cobble together something akin to Christmas dinner and, in all honesty, it had been the best Christmas she had had in years. When she thought back to the previous year, when she was still with Edward, it had barely compared. This time she had felt happy. This time she had felt loved. This time she had felt safe.

Laura had called in the morning to wish the kids merry Christmas and though her conversation with them had been initially stilted, after a few minutes both Peter and Pamela had warmed up to her and there had been actual laughter between them before the call had ended, with an agreement that they would travel up to Hartford a few days later to spend some time with her.

The following day she had met Susan for brunch while Ben and the kids sprawled out in front of the television eating leftovers and candy. Evelyn would have preferred to have joined them, but she couldn't help the feeling of guilt that permeated her every time she thought about her mother and how little time she had spent with her of late. Susan's conversation had been all about Christmas with her sister, about how Patricia had been irked because Sarah hadn't called and then she had started on about the funeral arrangements.

"I haven't made any yet," Evelyn had replied as evenly as she could. "He only died a few days ago and it's Christmas. Things don't move as quickly over the holidays. Besides, they haven't released his body yet."

"It's a terrible thing," Susan had shuddered. "Well remember, I want to know the details. I want to pay my respects."

Evelyn had bitten her tongue at that point and quickly changed the subject onto something less controversial. In reality, she had been dreading the call to say that she could have Edward's body and when it had finally come, three days after the New Year, she had felt a sudden pressure to organise everything as quickly as possible and get it over with. A simple church service followed by a burial had seemed the most appropriate course of action but only after Susan had gasped in horror at the fact that she hadn't organised some kind of wake for afterwards, did she book a section of a local restaurant and order food.

"I won't be going to that part," she had told her mother stridently. "If you want to go that's up to you, but I won't be."

"Fair enough," Susan had replied. "You should do what you think is best, after all."

"What's best is that you shouldn't be going at all," Ben had opined when she had told him about the details. "What's the point? The man abused you for your entire marriage! Why would you want to sit there and pretend to mourn him?"

"I don't know," she had replied honestly. "I guess it's just something I feel I need to do. I don't expect you to understand. I don't even expect you to come with me."

He had paused then, reached across and taken her hand. "Of course I'm coming with you if you're going. Do you really think I'd let you go through that on your own?"

As she walked and recalled the conversation, she suddenly felt the icy chill of rain hitting the back of her neck and she quickly hailed a cab before it could get any heavier. By the time it dropped her at her office, the heavens had opened and unleashed a shower the likes of which she hadn't seen in weeks. As she ran inside, she could only be grateful that it wasn't snowing.

"I beat you back," Shambala greeted her, emerging from her office as Evelyn made her way down the hall to her own. "I figured you'd be here long before me."

"I walked some of the way," Evelyn replied, shaking off her coat and hanging it on the coat stand. "You won't be surprised to hear that I lost the motion."

Shambala made a face. "It was worth a shot."

"I'm glad you think so."

"Oh come on, it's our job! Sometimes we have to go above and beyond to defend our clients, you know that!"

Evelyn smiled as she lifted her messages, remembering the look on Ben's face when he had once called her 'the queen of the spurious motion.' "I'm not sure Judge Larkin agreed. Anyway, the statements are in."

"Fine, I'll call McCoy and see if we can work out a plea," Shambala sighed and leaned against the wall. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

"You've been back at work for two weeks and I doubt you've stopped to draw breath. You were shot, remember?"

Evelyn shot her a look. "I could hardly forget now, could I? I'm fine, really. I'm still taking some painkillers but the doctor wouldn't have signed me fit to work if I wasn't now, would he?"

"I suppose not." Shambala paused. "How are you feeling about tomorrow?"

"Ok."

"I'm sorry I can't be there."

"I didn't expect you to be there," Evelyn sat down behind her desk. "It's not as if you really knew him."

"No, but I would have liked to have been there for you if Judge Bowers hadn't assigned the Mason allocution for eleven thirty. I tried to get his clerk to push it back..."

Evelyn looked up, warmed by the effort that one of her only friends had tried to make. "Honestly, it's fine. It's not as if I'm the grieving widow, at least not really. Besides, Ben's going to be there, and my mother, so it's not as if I'll be on my own."

"Good," Shambala said, seemingly satisfied. "I know that it's a Tuesday night but if you feel you need to tie one on afterwards...I'm available."

"You'll be up to your eyes in trial prep for Thursday. Unless Nicola Foster agreed to a plea?"

"Nope and I wouldn't have encouraged her. Manslaughter two is as high as either of us is prepared to go and if the DA's office can't see the wisdom in that then that's their problem. I fully expect to get her acquitted."

Evelyn smiled, "You know, if I had ever killed Eddie myself...I reckon I would have wanted you to represent me."

"Huh," Shambala opened the office door and winked. "I doubt you could have afforded me."

XXXX

"Did you lodge the motion?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what? It's fairly straightforward isn't it?"

"Well yes, but the calendar is pretty full and still catching up after the holidays. I did say that it was important but..."

Ben sighed, took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It wasn't Claire's fault, he knew that, and yet the wheels of justice seemed to be moving at an increasingly slow speed ever since he had come to the conclusion that there was probable cause for checking Laura's local usage details the night of the shooting. During one conversation that they had had, when the children had gone to visit her over the holidays, he had come right out and asked her how her lawyer had known that Evelyn had visited her husband the night before he was killed.

"I have no idea," she had replied smoothly. "I'm guessing she knows people down in Brooklyn?"

"You didn't tell her?"

"Why would I have told her? I didn't even know about it."

He had been tempted to push further, to ask her if Mark was still involved in her life and if he had been the one to divulge the information, but sense had won out and he had simply left it alone. When Peter and Pamela had returned home, he had quizzed them as unobtrusively as possible about what had happened during their stay and who had been there. They had both emphatically confirmed that there had been no mention, or sight, of Mark.

"Ben..." Claire said carefully. "You know that it isn't really your case, right? I mean, Jack's handling it..."

"Only he isn't, is he?" he replied curtly and then immediately felt bad. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I know he's busy and that he had to catch a lot of my cases while I was on vacation. I'm not blaming him...the Foster case starts this week, right?"

"Thursday."

"How confident is in that he'll get a conviction?"

She made a face, "You know it could go either way, especially if Nicola Foster comes across as sympathetically as we think she will."

"Oh Shambala Green will have the jury weeping before she's even finished her opening argument." He sighed. "Look, thanks for your help with the motion. I'll talk to Adam and maybe he can pull a few strings to get it before a judge before the end of the month."

"Sure, is there anything else I can do?"

"No, you've helped enough, thanks. Apologise to Jack for me for taking you away from him."

Claire smiled ruefully, "Sometimes a little distance isn't always a bad thing." Before he could think about enquiring as to her meaning, she slipped out of the side door, closing it quietly behind her. Lifting the phone, he called through to Adam's secretary to confirm that he was in and then made his way slowly down the hall to his office. As he walked, he couldn't help but think that being back at work really was the best thing for him. The last few weeks prior to Christmas had definitely made him realise that he was not cut out for house husbandry, though he also had to admit that having Evelyn and the children all under the same room had, so far, been pretty blissful.

"I know why you're here," Adam said by way of greeting. "Don't think I don't hear things."

"Hear things about what?" Ben asked.

"About you, sticking your oar in where you shouldn't. Filing motions to have your ex-wife's phone records checked for the night of Evelyn's shooting for one."

"Claire filed the motion. I only..."

"Don't come the cute innocent with me, I've known you too long," Adam tossed down his pen. "You're smart enough to know that you should be a million miles from this case. You're a victim yourself, remember?"

"I know," he said. "I understand what you're saying but Jack is snowed under with work and it's only one motion. It's not as though I was intending to argue it myself, if I can ever get it before a judge."

"Oh, I see," Adam smiled knowingly. "You want me to help you with that."

"The calendar is pretty full and it could take weeks to get a slot. I know it's not an emergency but it is pretty important," Ben cajoled. "If we can prove the link between Mark O'Reilly and O'Reilly Limited and then, in turn, prove the link between that company and the Lucchese family..."

"Then you're still no closer to finding out who shot Evelyn or why."

Ben paused, "I don't agree. Somebody somewhere will be willing to talk. Edward Burns is dead..."

"Yes and they probably killed him to shut him up. You think they won't kill anyone else that they think is getting too close to the truth?"

"You've heard from the Brooklyn DA?"

"No witnesses, no forensics...and the bullet came from a Tenfolio Titan."

"The same gun that shot Evelyn."

"More than likely. Ballistics are in the process of comparing the bullet recovered from Evelyn with that taken out of Burns's skull."

"Then that's good news."

"It still takes us nowhere," Adam said. "Not to mention the fact that both crimes took place in different jurisdictions and given that Burns is dead and Evelyn isn't...the Brooklyn DA wants to take charge of both cases."

"She was shot in Manhattan."

"I'm aware of that." Adam rubbed his forehead. "But I have to think about what's best for the office. We are drowning in cases as it is."

"Yes, but Adam...this is important! I mean, they're all important," Ben checked himself. "But this case..."

"I know..." Adam sighed. "I will find a slot for your motion, but you need to get someone else to argue it. Then, once we get a ruling...we can decide how to take things forwards."

"I know I'm right about this," Ben said, getting to his feet.

"I hope you are," Adam said. "Or we're all going to look pretty damn stupid."

XXXX

"Wow," Evelyn said, looking over Pamela's shoulder as she sat doing her homework at the table. "That's beautiful. I didn't know you were so good at drawing."

Pamela blushed and looked up, "You really think so?"

"I really do. I love how you've blended the colours together."

"Ms Clarke said that I should think about applying to art school."

"Really? Isn't it a little early to be thinking about things like that?" Evelyn stepped back over towards the kitchen where she could see steam rising from the pot of potatoes on the stove.

"She said if it was something I wanted to do then there was harm in thinking about it now."

"And is it something you want to do?"

Pamela shrugged, "Maybe."

"We could both end up world famous, Pam," Peter said, coming through from his room. "You in art, me in baseball."

"I thought you were thinking about law," Evelyn said, coming back into the room wiping her hands on a tea towel.

"I don't know, maybe," he shrugged. "If I don't make it into the big leagues." He paused. "Is Dad going to be late, again?"

"No, he called and said he should be home in about ten minutes. Just in time for dinner."

Peter observed her carefully. "Are you going to your husband's funeral tomorrow?"

Evelyn paused. "Yes, why?"

"Is Dad going with you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I'd like him to be there with me..."

"No, I mean why are you going? Didn't you hate him? Your husband?"

Evelyn fought down a smile at his simplistic way of looking at things and couldn't help feeling slightly surprised that the topic of her attending the funeral seemed to be at the forefront of everyone's minds. "Yes, I hated him...latterly at least. I guess I want to go just to say goodbye, that's all."

"Seems weird," he said.

"Really, why?"

"Well, if you hated him and you're glad he's dead, then why would you need to say goodbye? Why would you want to?"

She couldn't help but think he had a point, beyond his maturity. "You know, you're right," she nodded. "I guess it does seem weird. But I hope that you can just accept that's what I'm doing."

The front door opened before Peter could answer and Ben appeared, causing Pamela to leap off her chair, hurry over to hug him and then drag him back to the table to examine her artwork. Evelyn turned back to the kitchen to put the finishing touches to dinner, smiling as she heard him making all the right noises in the wake of his daughter's excitement over her impending artistic career.

"Thanks for doing dinner," he said, finally joining her in the kitchen and dropping a kiss onto her shoulder. "I tried to get away early but I got caught up."

"It's fine," she turned and kissed him gently. "It was either come home and make dinner or sit pointlessly in my office trying to decide which file to look at next. Coming home definitely seemed like the better option."

"I'm glad you think so," he said, as Peter came bounding into the room declaring that he was starving.

"Oh I do," she replied honestly as family life raged around her. "I really do."