Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I only the own the situation in which I have put them in.

Ten years had passed since the new arrangement of the children had taken place. Perry's heart was back to about ninety-five percent. He was just as active as he had always been with defending clients and playing detective with Paul. The children were fine as well. Eli was seventeen, driving and active in sports. He was a good kid in general, but that didn't mean he hadn't served his fair share of detentions. Brooke, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of what her brother had become. She was now fourteen, and was starting to like guys, much to Perry's dismay. She was a model student with excellent grades and active in community service. She would also sometimes go with Perry and Della to work, and she would always try to sneak her way into a case even though Perry and Della always told her no.

Perry was extremely excited for Friday night to come because he and Della had the teens for the weekend. Even though they weren't as social with the two of them like they had been when they were younger, Eli always watching sports, and Brooke text messaging constantly, Perry and Della were, nonetheless, happy to have them over like they used to.

Della was stationed in the kitchen preparing their dinner, while Perry had perched himself by the door, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the kids. Della shook her head as she yelled to Perry, "Darling, they will be here in a few minutes. Come in here with me and calm down some!"

Perry sighed and slowly ambled into the kitchen with a distracted and worried look on his face as he explained, "Well, Eli is driving now, and I just don't want him to wreck."

"So watching out of the living room window will prevent that?" Della asked as she checked on the lasagna she had in the oven.

Perry scowled at her while she wasn't looking. He grumbled something that sounded to Della like "whatever".

Once she was sure dinner wasn't burning, she turned to Perry and said in a stern but loving and understanding voice, "Don't give me that, Perry. I know you're worried and so am I. However, camping out by the window and biting my nails isn't going to prevent an accident from happening!"

Perry was about to counterattack when he heard the doors of a car slam. As quickly as he could, he went to open the door with joy and mostly relief running through his veins, calming him down considerably. As soon as he opened the front door, a small, lean body jumped into his arms and hugged him fiercely. Perry caught Brooke and gave her a bigger hug in return.

"Pappy!" Brooke squealed enthusiastically, nuzzling into Perry's neck.

"Hello, Bunny," he chuckled, hugging her tighter still. "How have you been?"

"Fantastic," Brooke said as she finally released him.

Perry stared into her big brown eyes and still saw the little four-year-old who got lost at the zoo on that hellish day. When he finally looked up expecting to see Eli, his eyebrows pulled together and he asked, "Where's your brother?"

For a flicker of a second, Perry saw an emotion flit across her face that looked somewhat like pain or embarrassment or shame? But in that second the emotion was gone and replaced with a look in her eyes that Perry often didn't see there…hate and pain.

"He has a football game this weekend," she answered in a monotone voice that startled him. "He said he didn't want to 'inconvenience' you by having to drive him up to the game in some city that's about two hours away."

For some reason her voice sounded bitter, and Perry doubted it was because of the football game. Not really sure how to handle this mood with her, he proceeded cautiously, "Did you not want to go?"

"Not really," Brooke shrugged, "if you've seen one football game, you've seen 'em all."

It wasn't a big secret that Brooke wasn't that into sports, but it still didn't make sense that she didn't want to cheer her brother on. There was something more going on, and as his detective mode kicked in, he was determined to find out what.

Seeing that her grandfather was somewhere else, Brooke cleared her throat loudly and asked a startled Perry, "Can I come in, Pappy?"

"Oh yeah!" Perry said, moving as quickly as he could to allow her to pass, even though she was so skinny he needn't move much. "Sorry, baby girl, of course you can come in!"

Brooke smiled at him, and then squeezed passed him and went straight for the kitchen to greet her grandmother. Perry could tell the two girls had reunited when he heard a squeal and then excited chatter. Perry then bent down and grabbed Brooke's bag to take up to her room. Once he had come back downstairs, he found his girls sitting together on the loveseat, talking and giggling the way every woman did. When Perry entered the family room, the girls both stopped their chatter and stared at him smiling.

Feeling somewhat self conscience he asked, "What?"

"Nothing, Darling," Della said, purring in such a way that if Brooke hadn't been there, he would have kissed her passionately right then.

"Then what are you two up to?" Perry asked innocently as he roughly settled into his big recliner.

Della and Brooke looked sideways at each other for a few seconds as if sharing an ESP moment. Finally Della told her granddaughter encouragingly, "You tell him. It's your good news."

Perry looked between the two of them, one of the few times in his life when he didn't have a clue as to what was going on. Brooke looked over at him, deliberated for a moment, and then slowly got up and went to him. She stood beside his chair and told him, "Well, at school I was just named the top of my class."

"That's excellent, sweetheart," Perry roared with enthusiasm. His chest swelled with pride; however, from the look in her eyes, this wasn't the best of the news to her. Unconsciously, she took a step back from him before she continued with her good news, "And also," she took a deep breath, never losing eye contact with Perry, "a boy asked me out yesterday…and I accepted."

His chest which had just moments ago been swelled with pride was slowly deflating. So the cause of her excitement was not for her smarts, but for a boy. The smile slowly started to slide from his face, and in turn her smile mimicked his. The madder he seemed to be, the more anxious Brooke became.

Della was familiar with that face, and told Brooke before Perry had the chance to say something he would regret, "Dear, why don't you go upstairs while I talk to your grandfather."

Brooke was all too happy to escape the madness that was soon to erupt, even though she felt guilty for leaving her grandmother to clean up the mess, but she'd been doing it for forty some years so she could handle herself.

As Brooke dashed upstairs never once looking back, Della all of a sudden turned stern and demanded softly, "Now why did you act that way for?"

That snapped Perry out of his reverie as he asked incredulously, "What way did I act that was so inappropriate?"

"You could have at least pretended to be happy for her."

"I am happy for her," Perry said, sitting up straighter in his chair, "when it comes to her grades. But not about a boy! Della, she's too young to be dating! Her parents can't possibly allow it!"

"Well, according to Brooke they've met this young man," Della countered, impatience starting to creep into her voice, "and Paul even has liked him. If he's good enough for her father why can't he be good enough for you?"

"Because I've been around longer than Paul the ex-playboy, and I know how a gentleman should act. I don't even know this boy's name!"

"Well, you could have if you hadn't scared your granddaughter!"

"I didn't scare her," Perry retorted, a hint of shame and worry in his tone.

"Yes, you did," Della told him, "and if you want to know this stuff, you'll have to calm down and talk to your granddaughter, who was mature enough to keep us in the loop of her life, unlike her brother…."

At that she paused. Whenever they talked about Eli, Della especially always took it hard that he had separated himself from them. Perry sighed knowing she was right like so many times before.

"Alright," he said defeated, sounding like a brittle old man, "I'll go talk to her."

Della smiled as she watched him turn and go up the stairs.

DGP

When Perry reached Brooke's room, he noticed that her door was slightly ajar. Deciding that it would be better to knock after his upset downstairs, he tapped lightly on her door and asked quietly and ashamed, "May I come in, Bunny?"

When he heard neither an acceptance nor a rejection, he quietly opened the door the rest of the way and walked in. Brooke was lying on her bed, her head resting on her bunny that Perry had bought her that day at the zoo with her head facing away from the door. Perry closed his eyes for a second before he sat beside her, and put his hand gently on her narrow back. He rubbed her back and then her hair a minute before he said hoarsely, "I'm sorry, Bunny. I didn't mean to scare you if I did. Please forgive me?"

Perry heard her sniff, and then she turned on her back and stared at him. It killed him inside to see that she had been crying. She sniffed again and rubbed her eyes as she said, "I thought you were mad at me."

"No, sweetheart," Perry said apologetically. "Not over a boy."

Brooke smiled and launched herself at him, burying her face into his chest. They merely sat there like that for about five minutes, neither one saying anything to the other. Finally, Brooke pulled herself away from him and asked quietly, "So do you want to hear about my boyfriend or not?"

Perry grimaced at the word boyfriend, but never the less nodded. Brooke seemed to realize that was all the answer she was going to get from him, so she began to tell him.

"Well, he's sixteen…"

"Sixteen?" Perry barked, staring down at her incredulously. Seeing the look in her eyes reminded him of Della when she was silently telling him to hush so he mumbled, "Sorry, go on."

"Thank you," Brooke said and began again. "His name is Josh Wynn; he's sixteen, a junior, and captain of the football, basketball, and baseball teams. He makes high grades too and plans on majoring in law."

At that, the corners of Brooke's mouth twitched. Perry rolled his eyes at the thought of the going-to-be lawyer. Brooke continued as if she hadn't seen his gesture, "I hope you get to meet him one day. I know he will be ecstatic about me being the granddaughter of the famous Defense Attorney, Perry Mason, and his legendary Secretary and partner in crime, Della Street."

Perry thought about that and then sighed. He looked at Brooke intently before he asked, "He's not dating you because he knows that, is he?"

"No," Brooke answered, "I've never told him."

Perry nodded, and then another thought occurred to him, "If he's the captain of the football team, why didn't you want to go see him and your brother?"

Once again, that look of pain, hate, and bitterness glinted in Brooke's eyes for only a second before it was gone and replaced with tiredness and defeat. She sighed before she said, "When Eli found out that I was dating, not only his fellow captain, but his best friend, he got really mad at me. He started acting all crazy and shouting things like 'I can't believe you would steal my best friend' and 'Your relationship won't last long'. It was actually really scary. I thought he was going to wreck the car he was so upset."

Brooke unconsciously shivered as she thought about the drive to her grandparents. Perry listened to her story, half frightened and half mad. It scared him that Eli would be so upset at his sister over a friend that Brooke feared for her life while in the car, and it made him madder than hell that he would treat Brooke like that. Besides, Brooke hadn't asked this boy out, he had.

Perry was suddenly startled out of his thoughts when he felt Brooke snuggle into him, maybe trying to find protection. Perry hugged her back, kissed the top of her head, and whispered into her hair, "I promise, Bunny, your brother isn't going to do anything. He's just blowing off steam. It will all be over soon."

"I hope you're right," Brooke said, "because if Eli isn't over it by the game tomorrow he might take it out on Josh."

Perry rubbed her back in comforting circles while he mumbled in a low growl, "Your brother's not that stupid to jeopardize his game over Josh dating you."

"You didn't see Eli, Pappy," Brooke whispered. "He was ticked."

Perry thought for a moment before he asked, "Do you know where the game is tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Brooke answered, confused by his sudden interest, "I've been there a couple of times for other stuff. Why?"

"We may go to the game," Perry decided despite the alarm in Brooke's eyes. Before she could object, he held up a hand and said simply, "I've never been to one of your brother's games, and this would give me the opportunity to see Josh and decide if I like him. Maybe afterwards we'll all go out to dinner, you, me, Mimi, and you can invite Josh if you like."

At this, Brooke beamed at him. This was the face he's prefer she wear all the time. She squeaked her delight at the idea and threw her arms around his neck, "Thanks, Pappy! This will be so much fun!"

"You're welcome, Bunny," Perry answered, unable to keep from laughing himself at her enthusiasm. "Now, let's go downstairs and eat some dinner. I'm starving, and it looks like you could eat something too. Mimi fixed her lasagna."

Brooke jumped off the bed, pulled Perry to his feet, and together they went down to dinner.