;; Caveat Lector;; And here we are, moving on to the second chapter. I hope you all enjoy this one. I'm having an absolute ball now that I'm just kind of indulging myself without a care in the world. To those reading, thank you so so so much. I hope you can take even the smallest thing from the stories I post, whether it be food for thought, a happy moment or what have you. Thank you.
To my kind anonymous reviewer, you have no idea how much happier I am with the end result upon choosing to go the direction I've gone with this. I used to really love Sam but I'm discovering lately that maybe she's not my favorite. I don't know whether it's just an overall burn out on her or whether it's just the fact that they keep putting her in the same circumstances over and over and it's just like... Do ya'll not expect the same results by now? I feel like they're not giving me enough reason to continue liking her as of late, so I'm kinda neutral. That being said, thank you! I'm so happy you like this direction. I'm happier with it myself. I'm gonna tell you now, my overall inspiration for Dante and Natalia is just.. Cute and fluffy awkward moments. The whole neighbors / mutual pining trope full force, head on. And there may or may not be some moment's I'm stewing over that I'm chomping at the bits to actually get around to playing out. So I really hope you enjoy and I'm so happy that so far, you have. All of this being said, given that neither of us feel particularly thrilled with Sam atm, I'm thinking that I will most likely only be putting her in this if the muse to do so just kind of repeatedly tugs at my hand while brainstorming. And I'm praying it won't, because my goal is to avoid writing her a whole lot in this story and the other one with Delila that I have going. I hope this is alright with you!
"I can't wait until they find something on this asshole and make it stick, at last." Natalia grumbled from her side of the office. Alexis sighed and glanced over at her daughter. "What's on your mind, sweetie?"
"This case. Just because the asshole my client is trying to leave is some high profile figurehead for some long forgotten Mafia family, he thinks he can stall proceedings. Demand psych evaluations and stuff. Duh my client is traumatized, asshole, you fucking broke her!" Natalia slammed the folder on her desk shut and pushed her chair away from her desk as she took a few deep breaths and stared up at the ceiling tiles.
Counting backwards from ten to one. Just like Alexis taught her to do after her first day in court when she very nearly got herself tossed out.
"This is when you just let it happen."
"But mom.."
"Sweetie. You have to trust the system to fix it. I know everything about this case is stirring up all the old hurt and all the things you suffered at the hands of Vera McCall and her string of lovers. But if you want those kids out of that environment you have to step back and let the guy make his demands. And then you have to meet them. Because we know what those exams will prove."
"And if I can snag the kids as a social worker, I can have just a little more say so in where they wind up."
"Exactly. See? Now you're thinking with your head and your heart." Alexis smiled at her daughter.
Natalia's stomach growled loudly and Alexis snickered, shaking her head. "Am I going to have to personally come over and prepare meals for you?"
"You meal prep too?" Natalia barely hid a soft laugh and gave her mother an amused look.
"Molly does it for TJ, you know he's gone for the week and he comes home on the weekend. She'll prep him an entire week of lunches. She got me into it, actually. Now I spend Saturday nights preparing what your father and I will have for the week. It really makes things easier on us, especially since Julian's in and out with the new location for his pub opening in Bensonhurst."
"Doesn't that take a lot of time though?"
"Not if you actually set aside the time to designate it."
"Ah, yeah. See, I couldn't pull it off because I'd never be able to swing it."
"You could and you should." Alexis gave her daughter a look of motherly concern. "Did you get to go dress shopping with Molly for the Nurses Ball yet? I wanted to meet you two but Julian whisked me away for our anniversary dinner do-over."
"Ya know, he told me that was going to happen. I told him you deserved a quiet weekend in Vermont."
"You two conspired, huh?"
"Just this once."
"I'm not the only one who needs a break now and then, Natalia. And this case you're involved in right now, sweetie.. I'm concerned. It's stirring up a lot of old pain. Are you sure you don't want to step back and let someone help you? Maybe talk to a therapist again for a little while?"
Natalia's gaze settled on a fading child sized bite mark on her inner arm and she grimaced as she felt herself being thrown back into the night she had to hide in the closet because one of the men Vera had been seeing broke in, strung out on whatever and attempted to burn down their house with Vera passed out on the couch, totally unphased.
If it hadn't been for Natalia finally pulling herself together enough to sneak out and call 911, nearly getting herself caught right in the middle of it all and seriously hurt or even possibly killed in the process..
Natalia snapped back to the moment under her mother's gentle coaxing. She sighed and mulled it over. "This woman and her kids are depending on me, Mom.."
"But maybe you can take an assistant?" Alexis offered, gazing at Natalia in concern. She wasn't left in the dark, she knew exactly where her daughter's mind had gone just then. And a shiver crawled down her body as she recounted all the ways Vera McCall failed her daughter as a mother figure over the time Vera had her.
She'd give anything to go back and wave a magic wand, erasing it.
But she could only do her best to help now.
"Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'll let Diane consult with me since she's worked with both sides before and she knows how to skirt around this asshole and his trickery. Do you think Molly still knows the number to that chapter of Bikers Against Abuse she bought in to work with her on the case she caught last year?"
"Let me text her and ask. It couldn't hurt to have extra eyes on the situation. God knows PCPD is stretched wire thin as of late." Alexis mused as she texted Molly. A few minutes later, Molly called in via Zoom.
"I have it right here in my notes, hang on.. Round three of all day sickness." Molly called out as she bolted away from the screen and into the bathroom of the brownstone she and TJ resided in.
"Sweetie! Are you eating the saltines and drinking the ginger ale?" Alexis called out to Molly. Molly emerged from the bathroom and held up the sleeve of crackers and her glass of ginger ale. "I think the fact that my unborn son wanted those disgusting salt and vinegar chips has a lot to do with that round, Mom. Okay, right. Bikers against Abuse." Molly dug around in her file cabinet after moving a half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich off the top of it and out of view of the camera, finally producing the folder for all her contacts as a lawyer.
"Do you have a pen, Talia?"
"Right here, Molly." Natalia held up her trusty black calligraphy pen. She jotted down the number and Molly gazed at her older sister in concern. "Christ. Have you been sleeping at all, Talia?"
"A little."
"It's this case, sweetie. It's stirring up things. I'm trying to talk Natalia into working with Diane."
"Do you need me to come.." Molly was cut off before she even finished by a firm no from both of the Davis women as they gave a soft laugh and shared a look. Natalia continued, "You just stay put. Focus on yourself and my nephew, please? And tell that doofus TJ he needs to hurry and catch a construction job here in town so I can have some more of those ribs."
"He does make some amazing ribs, right?" Molly got a dreamy look in her eyes, smiling softly to herself.
"Okay, sweetie, we're getting off here now. You go rest. And no arguing with Divorce Court. Or getting angry with Forensic Files."
"Mooom…"
"I can hear the theme song to Forensic Files and I know my daughters like the back of my hand. Turn off the television, Molly Lansing Davis. Go outside and take a walk around the block."
"Yes ma'am." Molly answered, blowing kisses at the screen before ending the call.
Alexis fixed her eyes intently on Natalia. "And you.. Get out of here. Take a walk. Kelly's is serving alfredo, maybe you can do your starving mother a favor and go pick us both up some? I mean it, Natalia. Calm down. Do not do something that inadvertently allows this prick to win."
Natalia nodded, taking a deep breath. Her mother was right. She absolutely needed to distance herself from this particular case just a little bit.
"I'll call that therapist at the hospital and set up a session for this afternoon."
"Good girl." Alexis smiled at her daughter.
Natalia stood, gathering her purse and slipping her heels back on. And she stepped back out into the hallway. Right into the firm and muscular body of Detective Dante Falconeri. His hands shot out, gently gripping her waist, guiding her out of the way of an oncoming crowd.
A crowd centering around the antagonist in her current case, no less.
He could literally smell the blood in the water, so he grabbed hold of her arm and guided her down a lesser traveled hallway and out of one of the back exits of the building. Natalia doubled over, catching her breath. Gazing up at him through a curtain of brown hair and managing a weak smile.
"Thank you."
"Not a problem, doll." Dante muttered, having to tear himself out of the depths of her eyes. She looked shell-shocked. Distracted just slightly. Enough that he picked up on it and gazed at her in concern.
"Everything okay?"
Natalia sighed. "Just this case. It's uh.. It's stirring things up in my past. Mom's worried and I don't blame her, but it's like.. Like I have to help this woman get herself and her kids the hell out of there."
Dante hadn't been intending on doing so, but he found himself doing it before he could stop it from happening. Awkwardly slipping an arm around her shoulder. "Yeah, I saw the hearing play out earlier. You looked mad as hell."
"If I could've stabbed that fucking prick McDougal with my pen in broad daylight, I'd have happily done it. The world would be down one abusive, controlling asshole. Is it wrong that I probably wouldn't have felt a shred of remorse either?" Natalia tensed a little, shaking her head at herself. Dante's arm lowered and he shrugged, shaking his head. "Nah. Because between you and me, when Nathan and I had to drag the guy out of court after the scene he made, we toyed with the idea of just opening the garbage chute and kickin the guy down."
Natalia laughed quietly. Gazing up at Dante. "Thank you."
"Like I said, no problem, doll."
"No, thank you for talking to me." Natalia admitted quietly. "I feel a little calmer."
Her stomach growled noisily, prompting Dante to snicker. "Eaten anything yet?"
"Mom was sending me out to cool off and get alfredo from Kelly's, actually."
Dante offered his arm. "C'mon. Maybe if I walk down with ya, that bastard and his idiot defense attorney can't send their army of flyin monkeys to harass ya about the case."
"You.. you don't have to do that."
"Didn't say I had to, doll. Maybe I wanna."
"Okay. I'm too worn down today to argue." Natalia admitted, though the clench of her jaw told Dante that she hated even admitting it out loud.