I Dream of Toni
By Scarlett Elizabeth Cooper
Rated: PG (K+)
Summary: Antonia Nelson, a New York City paralegal and Tony and Jeannie Nelson's granddaughter, must keep her secrets close to her, until her co-worker uncorks her bottle and they are forced to uncover corruption with in their firm.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of IDoJ or the character Johnson, they belong to their respective creators. This story is written purely for entertainment and not for profitable purposes. I do, however, own all original characters and the plot. If you would like to use the characters I have created, please ask first.
Archival: Here, Livejournal (username: maurreyaugust). and elsewhere with my written permission. Just ask:)
Author's Note: I Dream of Toni has been revised and rewritten from it's original version. It is longer now , but nothing in the plot has significantly changed. I hope that the revisions make it better and more interesting! - Scarlett
Timeline: Since this story is about Tony and Jeannie's grandchildren, it would have to take place no earlier than 2012 (using the date of the episode "The Wedding" (1969) and having Toni's father born in 1970). In order to give some room, though I'd say it was set in 2015. I'm giving this information mostly as an FYI in case someone wonders how it could all fit together :).
Character list: Visit the IDoJ page in the Fanfiction Archives on my website for a list of all original characters in this story.
Chapter 1
Keeping Secrets
The bustling streets of New York City were as noisy as ever, even in the late morning sunshine that was partially blocked by skyscrapers that rose out of the concrete. It occurred to Antonia Jeannie Nelson that there was hardly a patch of bare ground from here to Central Park. She shuffled the papers on her sickly green, metal desk and sneezed. Dust particles danced in the slanted ray of sun that stretched across the room, casting a shadow on the tight curls of grey and purple fabric that made up the carpet.
The door to her office swung open with a sudden burst of irritated energy and she glanced up to find the blonde head of one of her bosses poking through the door. "I want you to sit in on this consultation," Leif Yahn told her. Toni nodded and stifled a yawn as she set down the sheet of paper in her hand. It seemed that her duties at Placid, Goldwyn, Charles, Baker, Thomas, Riley and Yahn had been greatly exaggerated in the ad she had answered nearly a month ago. Her job did not fully utilize her professional skills as a paralegal.
As she slipped her feet into her high heels, she knew that the only reason she was being summoned to this consultation was so that she would be familiar with the back ground of the case and thus be better equipped to fulfill the research required to adequately present the case in court. She'd already done this many times before.
At first she'd had high hopes that she would be able to actually work on preparing and presenting the cases that the various partners were working on, but it always ended up in the menial tasks. She would work first with one partner, then another, never really spending enough time with just one of them to fully get to know his way of working. In a way that was a good thing; it made it easier for keep her…well, secret. She did not have the constant worry that she would be found out. She usually tried to ignore her fears of what would happen if one day, someone in the office knew what she was.
Shaking her head to clear it of her current thoughts she pushed open the door to Leif's office, nodding to Darlene Everly, his secretary, as she passed her desk. In the office, seated in two straight back, burgundy leather chairs sat the two clients. One was an older woman, possibly in her fifties, her silver hair had only the faintest hint that it was ever brown and was pulled back in a braid that hung down her back. She sat perched on the edge of the seat, a box handbag resting on her knees and her fingers were fiddling with the handles as her eyes darted from Toni, to Leif to the young man opposite her. A kind of worried affection glowed in her dark eyes when she looked at the man. Toni guessed him to be in his early 20s or late teens. His hair was dark – she guessed it was probably the same color as the woman's had once been – and his light blue eyes shown with outraged anger and fear.
"Mrs. Capp," Leif had stood up from his black leather, swivel computer chair and motioned for Toni to take the stool next to him. Before she did he introduced her to the woman. "And this is Mrs. Lilaine Capp and her son James."
"Nice to meet you ma'am," Toni nodded, her dark brown hair was pulled back from her face and secured in a pony tail, but during the day strands of hair had escaped and were now framing her face with slight curls.
After the introductions and they'd sat down in their seats, Leif turned to Mrs. Capp, "Now I understand your son is accused of assault and robbery," Leif began. "Would you give us some details into this young man?"
Taking up her notepad, Toni began to jot down notes as the young man began to speak. Like his mother, he was perched on the edge of the seat, his eyes darting nervously from Leif to Toni and the door as if he intended to make an escape. "I didn't assault and rob nobody Mister!" a hint of that anger Toni had seen in his eyes laced his tone.
"In the report I read you've been picked up for vandalism charges in the last six months. What kind of people do you hang out with James?" Leif probed. The man's eyes flashed with indignation.
"Yeah, I was picked up for vandalism, and I did do that, but I didn't rob nobody or beat 'im up!" he slammed a fist on the desk. "I don't hang out wid them boys no more though."
"Do you know if it's one of your friends that robbed that store?"
"They ain't my friends, but I don't know. Maybe they did. Leon might have; he's the one that decided we should do that vandalism."
"I see," Leif's attention was turned to his computer as it dinged to tell him that a message had been sent. She couldn't read all the words that were written in the message, but Toni got the gist of what was said, especially when Leif turned his attention back to the two clients, a fake smile pasted on his face. "Well, that's all we're going over today. I want to review it further, then I'll get back to you."
"Thank you sir," Mrs. Capp nodded as she quickly gathered up her purse and her son lead the way out of the office. Once they were gone Toni stood with her hands on her hips. She was boiling angry. She knew what that message had said.
"What'd you do that for?" she demanded, her eyes a steely blue. Leif looked at her a little surprised.
"I have to. It's policy. They don't have enough assets to pay the fees."
"Oh? So it doesn't matter that the man is innocent?"
"Of course it matters, but they'd have to pay up front and I don't think Mrs. Capp or her son would be able to do that," Leif's dark eyes had snapped while he was speaking. "Why am I explaining this to you? It's none of your business to question my decisions. I can make the call, and her funds don't come anywhere close to paying for an hour of services! They can get a state appointed attorney."
"Fat lot of good that'll do them," she muttered, folding her arms across her chest and turning her back on Leif.
During his speech, Leif had been standing up, both fists planted firmly on his mahogany desk. Now he bent to sit back down, and Toni gave a tiny, discrete blink of her eyes and the chair moved back an inch. "Ahhh!" Leif shouted as he desperately reached for something to hold onto, but instead managed to bring down a stack of papers that puffed out in several directions. Toni licked her lips to stifle the urge to laugh.
"Serves you right," she walked to the door.
"Get out of here," Leif growled. "And by the way…you can tell them."
"What?" she whirled around, her face red with indignation.
"You can tell Mrs. Capp that I'm not taking the case."
"Why you little coward!" her voice had risen slightly as she now stomped towards his desk. "You make the decision, but I'm the one that's gotta tell them you're not going to take the case?"
Anger boiled with in her as the urge to start blinking at random nearly strangled her. He had picked up a pencil and began scribbling notes in the Capp file. With a blink of satisfaction the pencil broke in two. Leif muttered as he threw it down and picked up another. "This just isn't my day."
"I would say not," Toni replied sweetly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Get out of here!" Leif growled again, but she simply ignored him.
"If they could pay up front then could you take the case?"
"I suppose," he shrugged, his mood not changing. "Now get out of here before I throw you out."
Before Toni had made it to the door way she collided with Darlene. "Oh," she exclaimed. "Placid's called a meeting. He said he wanted you there too."
"Me?" Toni asked surprised. Then she remembered that she'd been assigned to help out with the Johnson case. Hand picked no less by the founder of the firm, Drake Placid and his right hand man, Ace Goldwyn.
As she entered the conference room Toni deliberately ignored Leif and took a seat next to Martin Charles. She'd only worked with him briefly on a minor case that got settled out of court, but she'd rather liked the middle aged gentleman. The best description of him she could come up with was that he was robust. He grinned at her when she sat down.
"So, you're name's Toni Nelson?" he began. "Any relation to the astronaut Tony Nelson?"
"Actually, yes," she grinned up at him. "He's my grandfather."
"Your grandfather?" Charles seemed surprised and excited. "That's fantastic! Back in the '60s he was my idol! What's he doing these days?"
"Enjoying retirement," she smiled back, glancing as Placid adjusted the projector of his PowerPoint presentation.
"I can remember a time when he went into space, but had to abort his mission because of some problem and he landed on some island," Mr. Charles continued. "You don't think I could get an autograph do you?"
"I'll see what I can do for you," she felt warm. It was nice to meet someone who still remembered her grandfather. Now days an astronaut didn't seem to be as well loved as they were forty years ago.
The preliminaries they went over for the case did not take very long and afterwards Toni decided to go get a cup of coffee from the break room. Leif was already there at a drink machine. "I hate it when it does that," he muttered and beat on the side of the machine.
"Ate your change, huh?" Toni asked smugly.
"Yeah," he paused and leaned against it, looking at her. "So your grandfather was really an astronaut?"
"Sure was," she nodded proudly. "I've always been rather pleased with that fact. My cousin always bragged about it at school and became the most popular girl there," she laughed at a memory that popped into her head. It was always so easy for Glenda to make friends she on the other hand, had withdrawn, especially after her mother had deserted her and her father. It was easy to tell people about her grandfather too, but it was never, ever, appropriate to mention her grandmother. No one would ever understand.
Leif had resumed his tirade with the drink machine as Toni took a sip of her hot and bitter brew, burning her tongue. As she strode across the room to leave she glanced at Leif and the machine. A devious grin twitched at her lips. With one discrete blink the jingle of change plunked into the return. She felt amused as Leif picked it up with satisfaction. She blinked a second time as she stepped out of the room and a torrent of change poured out of the machine. "What the…!" she could hear Leif saying as she headed for her office.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Toni went over a couple of files, typed up some letters, and went over the Johnson case file. It was being passed around from each of the attorneys working on it. She liked to always make a copy of files that she worked on for her own references. She blinked the copy home and closed her folder.
She was not looking forward to her last duty of the day. She could just as easily call Mrs. Capp, but she decided that she would not be a coward, even if Leif Yahn was. She would face the woman and tell her straight out that the firm didn't have enough kindness in it to help her out.
Boiling over the thoughts she found the address and rang the door bell. The woman looked at her sullenly and invited her into the house. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," she was sympathetic and knew that the woman already suspected that this was the case. Mrs. Capp looked stricken.
"Mr. Yahn doesn't believe my boy is innocent?" she demanded.
"No," Toni shook her head. "I don't believe that is it." Mrs. Capp's bowed head slowly rose to meet Toni's gaze. Understanding bloomed in her eyes.
"I don't have enough money he thinks?" she rose to her feet, anger flashing across her face. "That is what he thinks does he not?"
"I'm afraid so. It's the policy of the firm," she hesitated. "If you had the cash to pay up front he'd take the case."
"Cash up front?" she sighed. "I only have a meager share," she shook her head.
"Do you?" Toni felt excitement twitch inside of her. This was exactly what she had wanted to hear. "Where do you keep this stash?"
"Where? In my cookie jar of course!" the woman responded with a sense of renewed strength. "But I'll go into debt if I have to!"
"Go get your money, Mrs. Capp," Toni waved the woman on. "Let us count it and see if there is enough."
The woman bustled into the kitchen…but while she was gone Toni blinked. Mrs. Capp and her son would have that lawyer fee in the morning. And Mr. Leif Yahn would have no excuses for not taking the case.
(To be continued…)