My first Ally McBeal Fanfiction. Please be nice with my errors.
Not a Larry/Ally or Lally fan. I know I will disappoint many.
New York City
New York
2020
4 am
"Ally, Ally, Ally," the voice called. Ally woke up with a shock. Who...? She saw the ghost of...no it can't be! But it was the ghost of her true love, Billy Thomas, with his original dark hair, not the bleached one before he passed away.
"Ally," the ghost moved closer towards her bed and sat down by her side. "I know it's been long, but you have to return."
"Return? Where?"
"You know where Ally."
"Back home? Where we first met?" Ally finally sat up.
"No back home to the firm." Before Ally could talk further, the ghost disappeared.
"Mom, you talking to yourself again?" Maddie Harrington entered her mother's room.
"Honey, you're supposed to be at sleep."
"I'm not a kid anymore, Mom. I was up writing my graduate essay." Maddie was taking a graduate degree in English which her BS was in. "You were talking to Billy?"
"Go back to bed, honey. I'll make breakfast for you in the morning." Ally found it weird that Billy appeared to her suddenly after so long and Maddie suddenly calling her 'Mom'.
7am
"You make the best waffles, Mom," Maddie commented, taking another bite of the Maple Syrup-soaked waffle.
"Mom? Ally?" Maddie called, watching her mother stare out into the window.
"I'm heading back to Boston," Ally finally said something.
"What, why? The virus is still around. You have a job here."
"Yeah, well I've been working from home," Ally corrected. "No, I'd taking a leave to return to Boston. You stay here of course. Take care, clean up..."
"So, I can see George? I mean, online." George was Maddie's British-American boyfriend studying for a JD here and helping Maddie run the charity for the poor throughout New York State.
"Well, I know you can behave yourself. WhatsApp or call me," She kissed her daughter on the forehead, headed up to collect her suitcase, and the left.
It was slightly past noon when Ally, wearing a mask, arrived in Boston. With the majority of hotels and Air BnBs closed, Ally was lucky to find a small, clean Bed & Breakfast. Coincidentally, it was near her old firm, Cage, Fish & Associates. As the elevator doors open, some secretary with a mask measured Ally's forehead temperature.
"Is Elaine around?" She asked.
"She was until a few years ago," came the reply. Elaine left?! Ally screamed in her mind. The next scream was the sign. It used to read 'Cage & Fish', or 'Cage, Fish & McBeal' or 'Cage, Fish & Associates.' Now it just read 'Fish & Associates.'
"Richard? John?" She called out, noticing the office had drastically changed.
"John Cage left this law firm two years ago," the secretary explained. "Wait, you can't go in there..." But Ally had already stormed into Richard Fish's office, which was in the same location as it was twenty-three years ago.
"It's fine, you can leave," Richard waved off that secretary. He too was wearing a mask but upon seeing Ally, he lowered his own mas and gestured Ally to lower hers.
"Richard! How are you?" Ally exclaimed in the tone as she met Richard on the street twenty-three years ago.
"Well enough," came the reply, although Ally suspected otherwise.
Ensuring the office door was closed, Ally asked, "What happened to Elaine and John? Why is the office like this?"
"John is still part of this firm, but Senior Partner-at-large. He's doing non-legal work, running a Mexican chain that aids poor people. Elaine took night classes in law and now is with another firm down the road."
"But she's been great administrator, how could you lose her?"
"Her choice, just like John's."
"And where are the others? Nelle? The junior lawyers?"
"Nelle is senior partner now, but didn't want her name etched on the glass. We've got new litigators now, Tom, Jane and Sally. They're all working from home. How's Maddie?"
"She's doing well, has a boyfriend."
"Uh ok, want to take a look around?"
Ally did, noticing the new names that replaces offices that once belong to Billy, Ling and Georgina and the other previous associates. "Can I go to the toilet?" Instead of finding the well-known unisex toilet, Abby found a normal female toilet.
"Richard!" She called from outside the ladies. "What happened to our famous unisex toilet?"
"Oh, there was a meeting years ago that more privacy was needed. You can still hear the conversations from the men's room; the walls are thin." That was certainly true, but not the same as me kicking the door, or remembering the cat-fight between me Georgia, Nelle, Ling which was filmed by Elaine and broken up by the men.
"Richard," She cornered him back in his office. "This isn't the Cage & Fish I know, or I used to know. There none of the vibrancy, the laughter, even though most of the staff aren't around-but I can feel it. There none of the excitement without the unisex bathroom, and without John and Elaine or Nelle around. Do you even have your Fishisms, touching Wattles?"
"I've grown past that. Liza and my children don't think it's a good thing for a husband and father."
"Ok, but seriously, something isn't right here. This isn't Cage & Fish. You have to correct it."
"Or maybe you could."
To Be Continued