Disclaimer: I haven't stumbled upon rights to Perry Mason in the last few days. I do own Nancy though. She's an okay character to own if I can't have Perry, Della and Paul.
A/N: Sorry, this took longer than I had hoped. It's kind of a filler chapter, but I hope you enjoy it at least. It may not clear up all of you questions, but hopefully it will make you feel a little better about things?
"So, what are you doing the fourth?" Perry asked Nancy the next morning.
"Nothing right now, but I'm sure you're about to change that," Nancy said with a smile.
Perry chuckled. "I'm having a Fourth of July/housewarming party and you're invited."
Nancy raised her eyebrows. "I thought you were going to invite the girl in the picture out here for the fourth?"
"I am," Perry assured her. "But I'm also inviting Paul and his family," Perry turned around the picture on his desk so she could see to whom he was referring. "And Judge Henry Fenwick and Judge Tracy Stallings from here."
Nancy was still unsure. She felt like she was in the middle of a Jerry Springer old secretary meets new secretary episode. "And she won't mind that I'm there?"
Perry shook his head. "I'm sure she would love to meet you."
Nancy bit her lip. "Well…okay. But if she doesn't want me there, I'm leaving."
Perry rolled his eyes. "That won't happen."
"If you say so, Mr. Mason," Nancy said. "Now, did you have an opinion you needed to dictate? You have to be in court in an hour. The State of California vs. Betty Giddings."
Perry sighed. Back to the real world. "Yes, I have the opinion from Valerie High vs. Melissa Tabor. Are you ready?"
Nancy sat down in a chair, her pencil poised over her pad of paper. "Whenever you are."
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Della was having a hard time staying still. She had gotten to the airport way too early. She knew she was going to be early when she left, but she was afraid she was going to get caught in traffic. She hadn't, so as a result she had been roaming around for at least thirty minutes with nothing to do. She rolled her eyes at herself. For someone who didn't want to see Perry her actions were sure contradicting that.
"Della!" a voice shouted.
She turned and saw Little Paul running toward her. "Hi, Little Paul."
He stopped when he got closer and frowned. "I'm thirteen years old. Are you ever going to stop calling me that?"
Della chuckled. "It's doubtful."
"I haven't seen you in so long!" Little Paul exclaimed.
Della smiled. "You saw me a month ago. In fact, it was a little less than a month."
"Yeah, but when Perry was here you guys used to come over at least once a week," Little Paul reminded her. "Or more."
"Paul!" Paul Drake said, finally reaching them.
Little Paul gasped. "Sorry, Dad!"
Paul rolled his eyes. "Go with your mother and get our tickets." He turned to Della. "Sorry. I must've told him ten times there was no need to mention that. But he's just like his mother, he talks too much!"
Della smiled, grateful at Paul's protectiveness, even though she didn't necessarily need it. "It's fine. I hope he doesn't want to follow in your footsteps and be a detective too."
Paul sighed. "Well he does, but I just don't know if it's going to happen." Little Paul walked back over to him with the tickets. Paul captured his son in his arms. "If we can just calm down his mother's mouth!"
"I resent that!" Eve exclaimed joining the trio. "How are you, Della? It's been so long since we've seen you."
Della sighed. She decided not to even go into the specifics. Either way, it was apparently too long. "I've been doing okay. I'll try to make sure I don't leave so much space in between my visits to you all."
Eve nodded in satisfaction. "It would be greatly appreciated."
Paul sighed in exasperation. It really hadn't been that long since they'd seen Della. They were just all spoiled because when Perry was here they were always doing things together. Now that Perry didn't have a practice in L.A., they weren't able to see each other as much. "Let's board the plane."
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Paul looked over at Della. "Would you please calm down?"
"I'm fine," Della lied. She wasn't stellar, but she wasn't exactly nervous yet. She planned to save that for tomorrow. Right now, she was just anxious. She wanted to get to San Francisco and then stay in her room for the rest of the night.
"If you're fine, then why is your foot bouncing?" Paul asked. Della was not one to fidget. She was always pretty still and the only time Paul had ever seen her be restless was when she was nervous or anxious. Definitely not when she was fine.
Della glanced at her foot and forced it to be still. She then looked at Paul and gestured to the open magazine in his lap. "Don't you have something to read?"
Paul chuckled and looked away from Della. That was her not-so-polite way of telling him to mind his own business. She always did come up with some crafty ways to say things. Paul was glad Perry hadn't completely destroyed her when he left without a backwards glance. Of course, if that had happened, she wouldn't be Della.
On the other hand, Paul knew Della was hurting. She may do a fantastic job of hiding it, but he could tell things weren't the same. Her eyes were just a bit sadder and the light in her smile wasn't as bright as it used to be. The only reason Paul noticed these things was because he knew her so well.
"Please fasten your seatbelts, passengers, we are beginning our descent into San Francisco," a voice said over the loudspeakers. The clicking of seatbelts was heard all around and out of the corner of his eye, Paul saw Della's foot begin to bounce again, seeming to be an unconscious movement on her part. He also heard her take in a deep breath. Paul narrowed his eyes and tried to tamp down his anger. He was going to have to work very hard to not chew out Perry as soon as he saw him. He hoped he could manage. He didn't want to ruin this weekend. That man could definitely be an idiot sometimes though.
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"Mr. Paul Drake?" the man at the hotel desk asked.
"Yes, that's me," Paul answered.
"You have a message here from a Mr. Perry Mason," the man told Paul. "It says for you to call him as soon as you arrive, at this number." The man handed over the piece of paper with the number written down.
Paul looked at his companions. "Hold on one second while I make the phone call." He looked at Della. "You too."
Della rolled her eyes. She was planning on waiting before he got smart with her. She almost wanted to leave now just to show him up, but knew there was no way Eve and Little Paul would let her. She shook her head. Of course coming to San Francisco with Paul would be a chore.
So, what did you think? Now, I'm not saying that Paul and company and Della never see each other, I'm just saying they probably saw each other a looooot more when Perry was in L.A. I also need to mention that as much as Paul is angry at Perry, he's not going to do anything in front of his family or in front of Della and he probably won't get into it on the phone. Just an FYI for the chapters to come. I just feel like if Paul was going to get really angry he'd wait until he and Perry were alone. Makes sense? If not, I'll try to modify the next chapters…I suppose. If you read and liked (or didn't) please leave me a review! Thanks so much for reading!