OMG!!! I don't know why it is taking me so long to update recently, I'm soooooo sorry. And I feel like I'm taking forever to move this story along, I can only think that everyone else is feeling double my frustration of "Get to the good stuff already!!!!!" and I'm frustrated even knowing that I have to fill in the gaps and explain things in order to get to the good stuff and knowing what the good stuff is! AND I feel like I'm losing readers as a result, cause very few people reviewed my last chapter : ( ugggggh!

So, thank you to those of you who have stuck with me on this, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 13:

November kind of flashed by in a blur. I was hard at work at school, with finals being right around the corner, my first draft of my law review article due right before Christmas and practice for my moot court team beginning. Meanwhile, work was picking up its pace as well, partially because of my new responsibilities as a student attorney, partially because some of the clients were demanding to see a close to their case before Christmas, and others were being completely unreasonable and demanding results by Thanksgiving. However, a good portion of my work stress came as a result of Charlie. A dilemma arose with one of the clients from the Japan office, and being that Charlie's father was unavailable to go out there, it was his turn to go. The result was that all of Charlie's work got redistributed to Darcy, who of course was delegating a huge chunk of it to me. Contrary to your belief, this did not mean that we were spending a lot of time working together, which is a good thing because I don't know how long I would have been able to bite my tongue when he was being an ass in the capacity of my boss. What it did mean was a vast increase in e-mail communication from him, and a pile of work on my desk that threatened to topple over should somebody do so much as breathe on it.

Jane, on the other hand, was in a bit of a daze, when I actually saw her. It was clear she missed Charlie, and she began taking the odder shifts at the hospital, the ones nobody ever wants to work, just so that she could be home, awake and online on Facebook when Charlie would go on after work, just so that they could chat a bit. However, due to the time difference between New York and Tokyo (it is a 13 hour difference), this meant really odd times and Jane began to look paler and paler and the bags under her eyes from lack of sleep got darker and deeper as time went on.

"Hey, Bennett, are you in there?"

I snapped out of my train of thought at the sound of the voice, followed by a knock at my office door. I sat up straight, feeling the cramp in my back from being hunched over the file for so long and peered over the ever increasing piles on my desk, pushing my hair out of my eyes. Of course it was Josh.

"Yes, of course I am, it's the day before Thanksgiving, where else would I be?" I responded sarcastically "What's up?"

Josh took a pile of files off one of the chairs facing my desk and me and set them on the floor, then took a seat.

"Nothing really. I just wanted to check up on you before the holiday started and make sure you're all right. I haven't seen you all week and I was getting worried that you had been buried alive by all of these files. I swear this looks worse than my office, and that's saying something."

"No, I'm ok. My head is still above the files, just barely though. My desk on the other hand . . . well it wasn't so lucky and was swallowed whole. It's hard to believe that there was once a desk under all this." I motioned to all my work.

"Darcy keeping you busy?" He responded sarcastically, with a twinkle in his eye. I sighed.

"I'll say. With Charlie in Tokyo, everything he had was given to Darcy who has of course delegated a chunk of it to me. And now with Charlie extending his trip . . ."

"He's not returning this weekend?"

I shook my head.

"Nope. They found another problem while he was over there. I've heard through the grapevine that there was a discrepancy in a client's escrow account."

Josh frowned.

"Again?!"

I looked him dead in the eye.

"You mean to say that this has happened before?"

"Not quite –"

My phone took that opportunity to ring. Josh motioned for me to take it. 5 minutes later I was hanging up the phone.

"So what are your plans for Thanksgiving?"

"I'm heading out to Long Island with Jane to see my parents and family"

"You don't sound too thrilled about that."

"They're my family and I love them dearly but my mom and I don't see eye to eye on most things and my younger siblings can be immature, to put it mildly."

"So then why don't you just stay in the city? Hey! You can boycott Thanksgiving!"

I laughed at that.

"As tempting as that may be, Chandler Bing, I have to go. Jane has been moping ever since Charlie left and I'm hoping that this will take her mind off of it, at least for just a bit. Besides, my dad and I are really close and I haven't seen him in a few months and despite everything else, I'm really looking forward to seeing him. What about you? What are your plans for Thanksgiving?"

"The whole big family get together. Myself, my parents, Will, his little sister, our Aunt Cathy and Diana Allen."

I pounced on the opportunity to clarify some of my confusions about his family.

"Wait, so how are you, Darcy and DeBourgh all related?"

"Darcy's mom, my dad and Aunt Cathy were all siblings"

"So what's the deal with the different firms?"

"DeBourgh was Cathy's husband's firm. When he passed she took it over. Darbing was founded by Darcy's father with Charlie's father. Obviously Charlie's dad is still here so Charlie had time to experiment with different areas of law after law school to find what interested him before taking his place as a partner of the firm. Will, on the other hand, did not. When his dad died 3 years ago, the firm was too much for Bingley Sr. to handle on his own an Darcy had to step to the plate."

"Where is your family in all of this?"

Josh chuckled.

"I'm what you call the black sheep. They're all doctors."

My mouth formed a silent 'o'

"I'm surprised there hasn't been an attempt to merge DeBourgh and Darbing together. That firm would probably be the most powerful global law firm around."

Josh let out a bark of laughter.

"It probably would be. And trust me it has been tried."

I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Aunt Cathy has no children. Diana Allen is her protégé, so to speak. She's slated to take over running DeBourgh when Aunt Cathy retires. Aunt Cathy has been trying to get Will and Diana together so they'll get married and merge the two firms but to date Will has resisted. Regardless of which, the firms could merge together without Will and Diana marrying but it would never happen."

"Why not?"

"Darbing disagrees with several of the fundamental firm policies that DeBourgh has and are firmly against them. Unless DeBourgh would be willing to forego those policies, in writing, which of course they are not, no merger will ever be agreed to by Darbing."

"Hmmm" was all I could respond.

"Not that it discourages Aunt Cathy from trying to get Will and Diana together. She thinks they are 'absolutely the perfect couple'." Josh then pretended to retch.

"And Diana goes along with this?"

"Diana goes along with whatever Catherine tells her. She's in line to basically inherit millions, she'll do whatever the old bag says and wants." He shrugged his shoulders. "It isn't going to change the situation though, Will has never shown any real interest in her."

"I'm sure eventually she'll get the message."

"Hell is likely to freeze over first, but that's her problem. Now what do you say to getting out of here?"

"Are you kidding?!" I gestured to the office in general "With all this going on?!"

"Liz, it's 4:30 on Thanksgiving Eve. The clients aren't in their offices anymore." He said gently. "Even if you were to stay and work on this stuff, they wouldn't see it until Monday at the very earliest, probably not until Tuesday. This isn't your firm, go home for the holiday."

"But Darcy is still in his office."

Josh rolled his eyes at that.

"Knock, knock. Will is British, the man doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. He's manning the office as the one on call this weekend in case there are problems so that nobody's holiday gets disturbed, of course he's still in his office."

"He's manning the office?"

"You know, in case an emergency comes up. He doesn't think it is right that those who normally would have to staff would get torn from their families on the holiday when it is something that he doesn't even celebrate, so he's doing it himself."

"Oh" was all I could respond

"Now what do you say? Can we leave?"

I clicked a couple of keys on my keyboard, saved what I was working on and shut down.

"Sure. Happy Thanksgiving Josh." I gave him a cheeky grin as I grabbed my jacket off the coat hook, which Josh responded to with a grin of his own.

"Happy Thanksgiving Liz."

Yes, ugggh I know another short chapter. I wanted to explain the relationship between everyone and set the stage for what is coming. I'll try to update as quickly as I can, but you guys need to review, review, REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On another note, I sense another contest coming, considering how well the other one worked out, I already know what the prize will be but just need to think of the contest - so expect that to come within the next two chapters!!