It Was My Fault Paul

A short story that has no plot at all really. I just felt the need to write it and I have no idea why.

Thank you to CaptainChaos for allowing me to both use and seriously advance the Mason children in age this one time. This is a totally different universe. Paul is still alive and well in this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I make no money and I write for fun.

I hope you enjoy

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'Here dad drink this.' Perry Mason Jnr wafted a Styrofoam cup of coffee under his fathers nose. Perry Snr shook his head.

'No thank you,' he said tersely. Junior dropped onto the chair, one away as Lily Mason strode back into the room and saw her father gazing out of the window.

'I've called the station and they're getting a message to Tom as soon as possible. I also managed to get George. With the time difference, he had just got up. He says he's going to speak with his managers and hop the first plane out of New York. He's hoping to be here by tonight. Have you heard anything yet?'

'No,' Perry junior shook his head. 'Mom's still in surgery. No word yet.'

'I just don't understand what happened.' Lily was angry. 'I just don't understand how the hell someone can sneak a gun into a court building in this day and age.'

The door flung open and Tom Mason appeared in the doorway. Lily flung herself into his arms. 'I got a radio message from the Captain. I didn't hear the original job, sorry, I was at a crime scene in Brentwood but he heard it come in and let me know once he heard who one of the victims was, so I hot footed it here.' Tom held his sister tightly. 'What happened?'

'Lily left you a message too. Guy came into the county court building for a divorce hearing,' Perry Jnr stood and also embraced his brother. 'I heard he lost custody of his kid. His ex was in the corridor, he pulled a gun and started shooting up the place. Mom got hit.'

'Why was she even there today?'

'Because I was a fool.' Perry Mason had until that point said very little, had just stared out of the window, resting his mouth and chin on his hand, deep in thought. Now he turned and looked at three of his four grown children. 'I asked her to go the court record office and pull a couple of files for me to get some information on that Alvarez case. The new records office is on the same floor as the two courtrooms they use for custody hearings.'

Again the door opened before any of the Mason brood could ask anything further. All four occupants looked towards it in expectation but it wasn't any doctor. Paul Drake senior stood there with an anxious grimace on his face.

'Uncle Paul, any news?' Tom asked.

'Guy's in custody, his ex-wife was declared dead at the scene and the court bailiff is wounded but should pull through. How's Beautiful?'

'No news yet,' Lily offered. She looked at her father and saw the look in his eyes that asked for privacy. 'Come on guys, let's go see if we can rustle up some decent fresh coffee and sandwiches.' Lily indicated to her brothers to leave. Recognising her tone of voice, they knew better than to argue with her and did as their sister instructed. Once the door closed again, the silence that descended became almost deafening. Paul blew out a breath and flopped into a chair.

'How you holding up?' Paul looked concerned.

'It's not supposed to be like this,' Perry mumbled into his hand.

'What you say?'

'I said,' Perry turned towards his best friend of forty five years, 'It's not supposed to be like this.'

'Like what?'

'Della going before me and like this.'

Paul shot from his chair and strode over to Perry. 'Cut that out!' he almost snapped. 'She ain't going anywhere anytime soon. She's the toughest of all of us, always has been and that means she's gonna come through this like a trooper.'

'But it was my fault Paul. I'm the one who asked her to go there and get that information. We have other staff that can do that.' His mind briefly drifted to earlier that morning.

Della stretched the sleep from her joints and allowed her hand to drift under the thin cover of the bedsheet directly towards her target. At the same time her mouth began roaming from the shoulder she was comfortably resting on, upwards towards the crook of Perry's neck and onto his jawline.

'Someone's in a playful mood already,' his deep voice murmured, his face with the ghost of a smile, eyes still closed.

'Well if it it's too early.' Della went to remove her hand but not before playfully lightening her touch and brushing it across the target she had found. A target, almost fully awake. In the blink of an eye her fingers were trapped by a larger hand and held in place in place as he rocked his hips slightly into her touch, a moan escaping his mouth.

'Since when has loving you ever been too early.' Without warning he deftly rolled her onto her back and settled himself between her hips. Pressing kisses to her jawline and neck, one of his hands slid up the silky skin of her thigh. It was her turn to moan and his fingers found his own target and as always, she was more than ready for him.

'And what's your point?' Paul brought him back into the moment. 'You'd simply be here comforting the loved ones of one of the interns at your offices most likely. Besides, Della did it because you asked for the best. And isn't she the best?'

'Always.' Perry answered without hesitation. He began wringing his hands. 'I can't lose her Paul. Not now, not like this.'

'You won't.' Paul dropped a comforting hand on Perry's shoulder. 'If she knew you were talking like this, she'd kick you right in the pants and tell you to snap out of it.' Before Perry could answer, the door to the waiting room opened again and a young woman in surgical scrubs stood there. Paul noticed immediately Perry paled and wasn't sure his own wasn't ashen at that moment either. The comforting hand on his friends shoulder tightened involuntarily.

'Mr Mason?' The doctor looked between the two men not quite sure who she should be addressing.

'That's me,' Perry answered his voice gruff with emotion.

'I'm Dr Jacobs,' she offered by way of introduction. 'I've just come out of surgery with your wife.'

Perry drew a sharp intake of breath and steadied himself mentally, throwing a quick prayer up to the sky at the serious look on the doctors face. He could feel the iron grip of Paul's fingers digging into his shoulder.

'And?' Paul sounded impatient. Dr Jacobs looked between the two.

'It's alright,' Perry offered smoothly, 'This is her brother. You can say what you need to in front of him.'

'Alright. Your wife's in recovery right now. We've just brought her out of the anaesthetic. Everything went as well as expected.'

'What does that mean?' Perry was sure at that moment his heart was about to beat out of his chest as he gripped his cane tighter.

'It means, if you want to use the term, your wife was quite lucky. The bullet didn't hit anything vital but it did hit one of her ribs and caused some damage there. We've removed the bullet and cleaned out as many of the fragments as possible. She's going to be in pain for some time as rib fractures are notoriously painful and slow healing, but we will need to carry out a further MRI scans to make sure there's no bone in there floating around that can cause complications.'

'What complications?' Perry was losing the battle of patience. 'What can go wrong?'

'Sometimes floating bone can drift into areas of the body we don't want them to. Worst case, a piece may eventually lodge itself in the heart, lungs, liver. That can cause serious complications, but sometimes they just float about for years with no issues. Best case is, we removed all there was.'

'And in your opinion?'

'I'm cautiously optimistic Mrs Mason will make a full recovery at this moment in time.'

'I need to see her,' Perry pushed himself to his feet with surprising agility considering his knee was playing up again and he'd had to rely on the cane for the better part of the last week.

'Very soon, I…..'

'Now!' Perry growled, his eyes boring into the doctors.

'I'm sorry Doc,' Paul realising Perry's mood was turning dark, started to apologise.

'It's alright.' The doctor held her hand up. 'I understand. I can allow just one of you in there for a few moments, then we'll move Mrs Mason to her room where you and the rest of your family can have a little time with her, but only a little, she needs to rest.'

'You go,' Paul encouraged, 'I'll wait here for the kids and tell them what's happening.'

Perry nodded his head and walked more assuredly than he had in many months as he followed the doctor out of the room and disappeared through a set of double doors. Paul finally sighed in relief and rubbed his hand down the beard he had also grown recently. Tomorrow he was now certain was going to be a good day.

Fin