Family and other surprises by Kakie
Chapter 4
Ally walked her client out and then entered John's office.
"Congratulations are in order, I hear."
John looked up. "Ally, how are you?"
Ally sat down across from his desk. "Cut the pleasantries. The last time I saw you, you decided to forgo Carole's birthday party in favor of a private weekend celebration for two. Your weekend turned into a week and the birthday party turned into an elopement. And you ask me how I am?"
John held his hands up and grinned. "What can I say, I followed your advice."
"My advice? I didn't tell you to elope to Vegas with Carole."
"No, but you told me to follow my heart and jump and so I did."
Ally stood up and walked around to the edge of the desk and leaned against it. "So, Mr. Cage, how does it feel?"
He looked up. "It feels terrific." He stood up and they hugged.
Ally pulled back. "I am thrilled for you and Carole and me."
"You? What are you thrilled about?"
"Larry filed the papers to adopt Maddie."
"Oh, Ally, that is great news. I know Larry must be over the moon."
Ally nodded. "We both are. John, how would you like to be godfather?"
John chuckled. "Isn't Maddie a little old to need a godfather?"
"Not for Maddie, for our latest merger." She patted her stomach.
John gasped. "You mean. are you.. you're pregnant?"
Ally smiled. "I am, I really am."
John once again hugged her. "I thought you were glowing." He pulled away and held Ally's hands. "I have a new marriage, you have the family you always dreamed of. Not bad for two people who thought they were destined to be alone."
"I'm glad we were wrong. Now I'm going to see if I can surprise my husband for an early lunch." She started out the door when John stopped her.
"Does Larry know about your miscarriage?"
Ally slowly turned around. She was rocked to her soul. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.
"How. how. how?"
"Billy told me."
Feeling ill, Ally sat down on the sofa. "Billy didn't know. I never told him," she whispered.
John joined her on the sofa. "I don't know how but he knew."
Ally shook her head. "He couldn't have."
"Do you remember when Georgia thought she might be pregnant?"
Ally nodded. "She wasn't."
"I know. Later that night I found Billy in his office with a fifth of vodka. He was pretty wasted by then and he said something like 'strike two for me'. I asked him what he meant and that's when he told me that you had miscarried his child while at Harvard."
"He knew and he never said anything?"
"He said that you didn't want him to know so he was going to oblige you. I don't know your reasons for not telling him but I can tell you that the man I saw that night was in pain over losing his child."
"John, you don't know what it was like for me back then. But I can tell you that my decision not to tell Billy was not malicious."
John took her hand. "I'm not judging you."
She pulled it away. "It sounds like it to me."
"Ally, I know you aren't malicious. If you were, you have done everything to split up Billy and Georgia. Instead you made friends with both of them and helped them through their problems. I suspect that the choices you made during that time came from careful consideration."
Ally hugged John. "I love you, John. You always know the right thing to say. I need to go clear my head."
As soon as Ally left, John picked up the phone and dialed.
"Larry Paul's office, please."
Ally placed her purse on the ground and sat on the marble bench in front of Billy's grave. The bench had been placed shortly after Billy's funeral. Along the top was inscribed "To our wonderful friend Billy. We will always think of you. Love your family at Cage and Fish." Fish, of course squawked at the cost but for only for a moment. Had it really been only three years?
"Hi."
Ally looked up and saw Larry standing beside her. "Hi, yourself. I would ask how you knew I was here but you always seem to know these things."
Larry sat down beside her. "John called and told me I might find you here. He said you were upset."
"Good old Biscuit."
"Ally, honey, why are you here in a cemetery? This isn't your usual alone spot."
Ally stared at the name on the headstone. "I needed to apologize to Billy."
Larry took her hand. "He's been gone a long time. I think it's time you let it go."
Ally pulled her hand back. "You don't understand, Larry."
He turned to her. "Then tell me."
Ally looked in his eyes and then back to Billy's headstone. "This isn't my first pregnancy. I was pregnant while at Harvard."
Larry stared at the headstone, too. "It was Billy's child."
"Yes. I found out a couple of weeks after he left for Michigan. At first I thought it was because I was so torn up about the break-up but my period was late so I took one of those home tests and it came back positive. I went through every emotion there was during those first few weeks; anger that Billy was gone; thrilled at the idea of being a mother; uncertain about school; terrified I couldn't pull it off."
Larry had a million questions but he kept quiet. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.
"I know other women felt this and I'm ashamed to admit this but for a brief time I considered keeping the news from Billy."
"Ally." "I know, I know. Here I was, still practically a kid, who's boyfriend had just dumped her, alone and pregnant. I admit I thought, well, if he doesn't want me, then I don't want him around my baby. Of course it didn't last long. But before I could decide what to do about Billy, I had to decide what to do about me. I made the decision to finish the semester, take the next one off to have the baby and go back part time using the inheritance my grandmother left me to live on."
"Did your parents know?"
"They did eventually. That was a large dent in my relationship with my mother."
"And Billy?"
"I'm just getting to that. Anyway, we had semester break coming up and I decided the time had come to tell Billy he was going to be a dad. I had all these scenarios running through my head. I wasn't looking to get him back, I had decided to do this on my own but he needed to know. Anyway, I packed my bags and had them sitting by the door. I was in my forth month by then and the initial yuckiness was over. I had my routine doctor's visit that afternoon and when they did my ultrasound, there was silence."
"No heartbeat?"
"None what so ever. My baby was gone." Ally felt her throat go dry and her eyes welled up. "At first I thought it was a mistake, you know, maybe they were listening in at the foot and not the chest. But three doctors concurred and that was it. No more baby."
Larry pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. "Oh, poor baby."
She cleared her throat. "They took care of things and shortly released me. I don't know how long I was in the hospital." She turned to Larry. "I had a boy." She sobbed into his shoulder. She took a deep breath and resumed. "The first few days were a nightmare, all I did was cry. I didn't want to live. But as the end of semester break came closer, I began to see things clearer. I decided to push all of this out of my way and concentrate on being a lawyer. And that's what I did. I hadn't thought about the baby in a long time but when I found out I was pregnant again, it all came flooding back. The night you saw me in the attic, I was crying into a pair of baby booties I had knitted."
Larry felt relief. The last pieces of the puzzle had finally fit into place. "And Billy?"
"I never told anyone about the baby. Not even Renee knew. My parents only found out when the hospital bill arrived. It was not a pretty scene. As for Billy, no, I never told him. I made the decision to put it behind me and that's what I did. I worked with him at Cage and Fish and never said anything."
"But?"
"But somehow he knew. I didn't tell him and my parents didn't either. Since the pregnancy wasn't that obvious at the time, I think someone in my doctor's office got the ball rolling."
"So he knew and never told you."
"Exactly." She recalled to him what John had told her. She turned to Larry. "Why didn't I tell him? We could have consoled each other. Instead he hit the bottle and I hit depression."
"Honey, you made the best decision you could at that time. This may be a cliché but maybe things worked out the way they were suppose to. You could have married Billy, had several more and been a stay at home mom but then we wouldn't have met."
She grinned. "Yeah, I wouldn't have had time to go see a shrink much less mistake a lawyer for one."
"See, things work out for the best." He gave her a kiss. "We need to go. How about I bring lunch to you in a little bit?"
"That sounds like a plan." She kissed her fingertips and placed them over Billy's name. "I'm sorry we weren't there for each other." She stood up and took Larry's outstretched hand and they walked away.
"There's someone in your office," Elaine told her as she returned to her office.
"Just great. Exactly what I need right now. Who is it?" She checked her watch.
"He didn't say. He just wanted to wait for you. Boy is he cute."
"Thank you, Elaine. Larry is meeting me here with lunch. Let me know when he gets here."
She opened her office door and stepped inside. "Hello, I'm Ally McBeal. What can I do for you?" The man turned around and smiled. "Ally-cat."
Stunned, Ally froze. "David? David, is that you?"
David held out his arms. "It's me, Ally-cat."
With some thing sounding like a war cry, Ally threw herself into this man's arms. She pelted his face with kisses. He pulled back so he could see her face. She had tears streaming down her cheeks and she was grinning from ear to ear. "Happy to see me?"
"I ought to clock you right here but I'm so happy to see you."
He looked at her from head to toe. "My little Ally-cat grew up. No longer the gawky teenager I remember."
"Yeah, David, I grew up. I'm not a gawky teenager anymore. I'm a wife and a mother and a partner here at work."
"I know, I saw the sign out front."
Angry, she pushed him away. "Where have you been, David? Where the hell have you been for the last 16 years?"
"Calm down, Ally-cat." He took a step towards her.
She held her arm out. "Don't call me that. Nicknames are not going to help right now. I want to know what happened to you. Where have you been?"
David sat down on the couch. "Can't you just be happy I'm back?"
She sat next to him. "I came home from school to learned that you had taken a job somewhere doing something. All I got was a note, 'I will miss you, kid. Love David.' What you should have written was 'Will miss you, kid. Won't see you again until you're all grown up and don't need me anymore.'"
He stared at the floor. "Believe it or not, I didn't plan to stay gone so long and I especially didn't mean to lose touch. But you did okay without me."
Ally took his hand. "David, I needed you. Do you know how happy I would have been to have you at my graduations cheering me on or dancing with me at my wedding?"
He fingered her wedding ring. "I always knew you'd marry Billy. You two were always joined at the hip."
Ally shook her head. "I didn't marry Billy."
"I'm surprised. What happened?"
Ally shrugged. "We broke up at Harvard, he moved away and married someone else. We worked together here for a while but he died a few years ago."
He put his arm around her. "I'm sorry, baby. I wish I could have been here for you."
"I'm okay. I married the most wonderful man and I can not wait for you to meet him. But let's get back to you, especially the last 16 years."
David sighed. "Ally, please let this drop. Where I've been isn't important. What is important is that I'm back."
"Hey, Ally, I got us a couple of subs." Larry stood in the door watching his wife on the couch with another man's arm around her. "Am I interrupting?"
Ally stood up. "I'm glad you're here. There's someone I want you to meet." She signaled for David to stand. "David, meet Larry Paul, my husband. Larry, meet David McBeal, my brother."
Larry was shaken. "Your brother? You don't have a brother."
Ally laughed. "Of course I do and at one time I also had a sister."
David extended his hand. "She probably hasn't mentioned me because I have been gone for a long time."
Larry took it and sized up the man. "Yes, I see the resemblance."
Ally smiled and squeezed Larry's arm. "Maddie has his nose."
"Who's Maddie?"
"My daughter. She's 11 going on 21. Come for dinner tonight and meet her."
David smiled. "I would love to."
Ally wrote her address on a piece of paper and handed it to him. "I can't wait to tell Mom and Dad you're back."
"You can't." said David. "I'll tell my themselves."
Ally gave her brother an uncertain look. "Have it your way. Be at my house at 7pm. By the way, how long will you be here?"
David shrugged. "I'm not sure."
"I hope it's through the weekend. I want you to meet Larry's son Sam when he visits."
"I can't make any promises." He looked at his watch. "I have to go."
Ally frowned. "I was hoping you would stay and join us for lunch. Larry, as usual, brought too much food."
"The book said you should gain about 30 pounds," pointed Larry.
Ally turned to him. "But not in the first month, sweetheart."
David caught on. "You're pregnant?"
Ally smiled.
He hugged her. "That's terrific. I'll see you tonight, Ally-cat."
Ally closed the door behind him.
"Ally-cat?"
"Don't ask." She peered into the bag. "What else did you bring?"
Chapter 4
Ally walked her client out and then entered John's office.
"Congratulations are in order, I hear."
John looked up. "Ally, how are you?"
Ally sat down across from his desk. "Cut the pleasantries. The last time I saw you, you decided to forgo Carole's birthday party in favor of a private weekend celebration for two. Your weekend turned into a week and the birthday party turned into an elopement. And you ask me how I am?"
John held his hands up and grinned. "What can I say, I followed your advice."
"My advice? I didn't tell you to elope to Vegas with Carole."
"No, but you told me to follow my heart and jump and so I did."
Ally stood up and walked around to the edge of the desk and leaned against it. "So, Mr. Cage, how does it feel?"
He looked up. "It feels terrific." He stood up and they hugged.
Ally pulled back. "I am thrilled for you and Carole and me."
"You? What are you thrilled about?"
"Larry filed the papers to adopt Maddie."
"Oh, Ally, that is great news. I know Larry must be over the moon."
Ally nodded. "We both are. John, how would you like to be godfather?"
John chuckled. "Isn't Maddie a little old to need a godfather?"
"Not for Maddie, for our latest merger." She patted her stomach.
John gasped. "You mean. are you.. you're pregnant?"
Ally smiled. "I am, I really am."
John once again hugged her. "I thought you were glowing." He pulled away and held Ally's hands. "I have a new marriage, you have the family you always dreamed of. Not bad for two people who thought they were destined to be alone."
"I'm glad we were wrong. Now I'm going to see if I can surprise my husband for an early lunch." She started out the door when John stopped her.
"Does Larry know about your miscarriage?"
Ally slowly turned around. She was rocked to her soul. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.
"How. how. how?"
"Billy told me."
Feeling ill, Ally sat down on the sofa. "Billy didn't know. I never told him," she whispered.
John joined her on the sofa. "I don't know how but he knew."
Ally shook her head. "He couldn't have."
"Do you remember when Georgia thought she might be pregnant?"
Ally nodded. "She wasn't."
"I know. Later that night I found Billy in his office with a fifth of vodka. He was pretty wasted by then and he said something like 'strike two for me'. I asked him what he meant and that's when he told me that you had miscarried his child while at Harvard."
"He knew and he never said anything?"
"He said that you didn't want him to know so he was going to oblige you. I don't know your reasons for not telling him but I can tell you that the man I saw that night was in pain over losing his child."
"John, you don't know what it was like for me back then. But I can tell you that my decision not to tell Billy was not malicious."
John took her hand. "I'm not judging you."
She pulled it away. "It sounds like it to me."
"Ally, I know you aren't malicious. If you were, you have done everything to split up Billy and Georgia. Instead you made friends with both of them and helped them through their problems. I suspect that the choices you made during that time came from careful consideration."
Ally hugged John. "I love you, John. You always know the right thing to say. I need to go clear my head."
As soon as Ally left, John picked up the phone and dialed.
"Larry Paul's office, please."
Ally placed her purse on the ground and sat on the marble bench in front of Billy's grave. The bench had been placed shortly after Billy's funeral. Along the top was inscribed "To our wonderful friend Billy. We will always think of you. Love your family at Cage and Fish." Fish, of course squawked at the cost but for only for a moment. Had it really been only three years?
"Hi."
Ally looked up and saw Larry standing beside her. "Hi, yourself. I would ask how you knew I was here but you always seem to know these things."
Larry sat down beside her. "John called and told me I might find you here. He said you were upset."
"Good old Biscuit."
"Ally, honey, why are you here in a cemetery? This isn't your usual alone spot."
Ally stared at the name on the headstone. "I needed to apologize to Billy."
Larry took her hand. "He's been gone a long time. I think it's time you let it go."
Ally pulled her hand back. "You don't understand, Larry."
He turned to her. "Then tell me."
Ally looked in his eyes and then back to Billy's headstone. "This isn't my first pregnancy. I was pregnant while at Harvard."
Larry stared at the headstone, too. "It was Billy's child."
"Yes. I found out a couple of weeks after he left for Michigan. At first I thought it was because I was so torn up about the break-up but my period was late so I took one of those home tests and it came back positive. I went through every emotion there was during those first few weeks; anger that Billy was gone; thrilled at the idea of being a mother; uncertain about school; terrified I couldn't pull it off."
Larry had a million questions but he kept quiet. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.
"I know other women felt this and I'm ashamed to admit this but for a brief time I considered keeping the news from Billy."
"Ally." "I know, I know. Here I was, still practically a kid, who's boyfriend had just dumped her, alone and pregnant. I admit I thought, well, if he doesn't want me, then I don't want him around my baby. Of course it didn't last long. But before I could decide what to do about Billy, I had to decide what to do about me. I made the decision to finish the semester, take the next one off to have the baby and go back part time using the inheritance my grandmother left me to live on."
"Did your parents know?"
"They did eventually. That was a large dent in my relationship with my mother."
"And Billy?"
"I'm just getting to that. Anyway, we had semester break coming up and I decided the time had come to tell Billy he was going to be a dad. I had all these scenarios running through my head. I wasn't looking to get him back, I had decided to do this on my own but he needed to know. Anyway, I packed my bags and had them sitting by the door. I was in my forth month by then and the initial yuckiness was over. I had my routine doctor's visit that afternoon and when they did my ultrasound, there was silence."
"No heartbeat?"
"None what so ever. My baby was gone." Ally felt her throat go dry and her eyes welled up. "At first I thought it was a mistake, you know, maybe they were listening in at the foot and not the chest. But three doctors concurred and that was it. No more baby."
Larry pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. "Oh, poor baby."
She cleared her throat. "They took care of things and shortly released me. I don't know how long I was in the hospital." She turned to Larry. "I had a boy." She sobbed into his shoulder. She took a deep breath and resumed. "The first few days were a nightmare, all I did was cry. I didn't want to live. But as the end of semester break came closer, I began to see things clearer. I decided to push all of this out of my way and concentrate on being a lawyer. And that's what I did. I hadn't thought about the baby in a long time but when I found out I was pregnant again, it all came flooding back. The night you saw me in the attic, I was crying into a pair of baby booties I had knitted."
Larry felt relief. The last pieces of the puzzle had finally fit into place. "And Billy?"
"I never told anyone about the baby. Not even Renee knew. My parents only found out when the hospital bill arrived. It was not a pretty scene. As for Billy, no, I never told him. I made the decision to put it behind me and that's what I did. I worked with him at Cage and Fish and never said anything."
"But?"
"But somehow he knew. I didn't tell him and my parents didn't either. Since the pregnancy wasn't that obvious at the time, I think someone in my doctor's office got the ball rolling."
"So he knew and never told you."
"Exactly." She recalled to him what John had told her. She turned to Larry. "Why didn't I tell him? We could have consoled each other. Instead he hit the bottle and I hit depression."
"Honey, you made the best decision you could at that time. This may be a cliché but maybe things worked out the way they were suppose to. You could have married Billy, had several more and been a stay at home mom but then we wouldn't have met."
She grinned. "Yeah, I wouldn't have had time to go see a shrink much less mistake a lawyer for one."
"See, things work out for the best." He gave her a kiss. "We need to go. How about I bring lunch to you in a little bit?"
"That sounds like a plan." She kissed her fingertips and placed them over Billy's name. "I'm sorry we weren't there for each other." She stood up and took Larry's outstretched hand and they walked away.
"There's someone in your office," Elaine told her as she returned to her office.
"Just great. Exactly what I need right now. Who is it?" She checked her watch.
"He didn't say. He just wanted to wait for you. Boy is he cute."
"Thank you, Elaine. Larry is meeting me here with lunch. Let me know when he gets here."
She opened her office door and stepped inside. "Hello, I'm Ally McBeal. What can I do for you?" The man turned around and smiled. "Ally-cat."
Stunned, Ally froze. "David? David, is that you?"
David held out his arms. "It's me, Ally-cat."
With some thing sounding like a war cry, Ally threw herself into this man's arms. She pelted his face with kisses. He pulled back so he could see her face. She had tears streaming down her cheeks and she was grinning from ear to ear. "Happy to see me?"
"I ought to clock you right here but I'm so happy to see you."
He looked at her from head to toe. "My little Ally-cat grew up. No longer the gawky teenager I remember."
"Yeah, David, I grew up. I'm not a gawky teenager anymore. I'm a wife and a mother and a partner here at work."
"I know, I saw the sign out front."
Angry, she pushed him away. "Where have you been, David? Where the hell have you been for the last 16 years?"
"Calm down, Ally-cat." He took a step towards her.
She held her arm out. "Don't call me that. Nicknames are not going to help right now. I want to know what happened to you. Where have you been?"
David sat down on the couch. "Can't you just be happy I'm back?"
She sat next to him. "I came home from school to learned that you had taken a job somewhere doing something. All I got was a note, 'I will miss you, kid. Love David.' What you should have written was 'Will miss you, kid. Won't see you again until you're all grown up and don't need me anymore.'"
He stared at the floor. "Believe it or not, I didn't plan to stay gone so long and I especially didn't mean to lose touch. But you did okay without me."
Ally took his hand. "David, I needed you. Do you know how happy I would have been to have you at my graduations cheering me on or dancing with me at my wedding?"
He fingered her wedding ring. "I always knew you'd marry Billy. You two were always joined at the hip."
Ally shook her head. "I didn't marry Billy."
"I'm surprised. What happened?"
Ally shrugged. "We broke up at Harvard, he moved away and married someone else. We worked together here for a while but he died a few years ago."
He put his arm around her. "I'm sorry, baby. I wish I could have been here for you."
"I'm okay. I married the most wonderful man and I can not wait for you to meet him. But let's get back to you, especially the last 16 years."
David sighed. "Ally, please let this drop. Where I've been isn't important. What is important is that I'm back."
"Hey, Ally, I got us a couple of subs." Larry stood in the door watching his wife on the couch with another man's arm around her. "Am I interrupting?"
Ally stood up. "I'm glad you're here. There's someone I want you to meet." She signaled for David to stand. "David, meet Larry Paul, my husband. Larry, meet David McBeal, my brother."
Larry was shaken. "Your brother? You don't have a brother."
Ally laughed. "Of course I do and at one time I also had a sister."
David extended his hand. "She probably hasn't mentioned me because I have been gone for a long time."
Larry took it and sized up the man. "Yes, I see the resemblance."
Ally smiled and squeezed Larry's arm. "Maddie has his nose."
"Who's Maddie?"
"My daughter. She's 11 going on 21. Come for dinner tonight and meet her."
David smiled. "I would love to."
Ally wrote her address on a piece of paper and handed it to him. "I can't wait to tell Mom and Dad you're back."
"You can't." said David. "I'll tell my themselves."
Ally gave her brother an uncertain look. "Have it your way. Be at my house at 7pm. By the way, how long will you be here?"
David shrugged. "I'm not sure."
"I hope it's through the weekend. I want you to meet Larry's son Sam when he visits."
"I can't make any promises." He looked at his watch. "I have to go."
Ally frowned. "I was hoping you would stay and join us for lunch. Larry, as usual, brought too much food."
"The book said you should gain about 30 pounds," pointed Larry.
Ally turned to him. "But not in the first month, sweetheart."
David caught on. "You're pregnant?"
Ally smiled.
He hugged her. "That's terrific. I'll see you tonight, Ally-cat."
Ally closed the door behind him.
"Ally-cat?"
"Don't ask." She peered into the bag. "What else did you bring?"