Disclaimer: I still don't own all of this.

A/N: Well, here's the next chapter. LIB, I threw a couple lines in here for you, so I hope you like it! Enjoy!

"Mr. Perry Mason, please," Paul said to the young woman who answered the phone.

"Just a moment, I'll put you through," the woman said back.

"Paul!" Perry boomed into the phone.

Paul smiled, regardless of how angry he might be right now. "Hey, Perry. How are you?"

Perry avoided the question, knowing Paul was just engaging in small talk. At this point, Perry didn't care about small talk anymore. "How are you guys? Did everything go okay?"

"The plane ride was good," Paul informed Perry. "We're all pretty good. I think ready to freshen up and rest though."

"Well, I'm going to leave work today around six," Perry said. "Do you guys want to go to dinner with me? We could just go to the hotel restaurant so you all wouldn't have to get out. The food there is pretty good."

Paul shook his head. "Well, Eve, Paul and I will go, but I can guarantee Della won't come."

"Why?" Perry asked. He was disappointed, but had sort of expected that response.

Paul rolled his eyes. "After what you did, you'll be lucky if she comes to your party tomorrow."

Perry closed his eyes. "I deserved that. But can't you at least ask her?"

"No," Paul said. "She won't come."

"How do you know?" Perry asked.

"I just know," Paul told Perry.

"I object," Perry said. "Begging the question."

Paul pressed his lips together and tried very hard not to burst out laughing. As much as Perry infuriated him with the stupid things he did, he had missed this man. "Literary fallacy, Your Honor, no grounds for legal objection."

Perry chuckled. "You, Eve and Little Paul should still meet me for dinner, even if Della won't come."

Paul nodded. "Alright, we will. What time?"

"Say around seven?" Perry questioned.

"That should work," Paul agreed. Suddenly Paul got an idea. Granted, it may not be the best idea he ever had and was sure it would probably get him killed by Della herself, but he didn't care. "Would you like to talk to Della?"

"Does she want to talk to me?" Perry asked. The real answer to Paul's question was God, yes, but he didn't want to force himself on Della in any way if she didn't want to talk to him.

Paul shrugged. "I'm not sure, but she will." He pulled the phone away from his ear and pretended not to hear Perry's heated objections. "Della, Perry wants to talk to you."

Perry heard what Paul said and rolled his eyes. He would have to clear that up when she came on the line. This was so very Paul. Of course inviting Paul out here with Della would turn out to be an adventure.

Della sighed. Did she want to talk to Perry? She wasn't exactly sure. Then again, what harm could talking to him on the telephone cause? She walked over to Paul and took the phone from his hand. She glared at him until he walked away from her. She shook her head as an amused smile played around her lips. "Hello."

"You know Paul is setting us up, right?" Perry asked. "I do want to talk to you, but only if you want to talk to me. We can hang up if you want."

The smile finally broke through on her face. Oh, this man. "It's fine. I'm not totally surprised at Paul anyway. This is exactly something he would do. Coming out here to visit you with him has definitely been interesting."

"I am sorry about that," Perry apologized. "I did want him to come though and I made the reservations for the tickets at the same time. Besides, I thought you'd be more comfortable sitting with them on the plane anyway."

Della couldn't help but laugh slightly. "I'm a big girl, Perry. I've been travelling by myself for quite some time now. I'd go as far as to say I'm quite good at it. I can even get through an airport terminal all by myself."

Perry full out laughed. He did love this woman with everything in him, even still. "I know, I know. I just figured since you all were coming from Los Angeles it would be easier to sit together. I did think you'd enjoy it a bit though."

Della was still smiling. "Oh, it's fine. It's been fun. Speaking of, did you invite no one else from Los Angeles?"

"If I though Burger would've come I probably would've considered inviting him," Perry said with a smile, remembering the process he went through trying to decide what to do. "Overall though, I decided not to go to the trouble of having him refuse, or come out of obligation. I did call Tragg though. He sounded like he would've liked very much to come, but he claims he's much too old to travel, especially on an airplane. He said if I ever come back to Los Angeles for a visit I should make it a point to visit him. He did agree with my decision about Burger though."

"Did he say how boring life's been without you?" Della asked, teasingly.

Perry shook his head. "He said he's rather glad to have me out of his hair, though I'm not sure how much of that was said for appearance rather than truth. He said Burger's having a much easier time winning cases. I do think he misses our sparring matches though. I believe those were his favorite parts of all cases."

"Oh, I doubt that," Della disagreed. "I think he loved almost arresting you and everyone associated with you even more than sparring with you."

Perry smiled, remembering the few times Della was arrested or the times he came close to being arrested for harboring a witness or information or something similar. "Of course, how could I forget that?"

"I have no idea," Della answered coyly. "Maybe because I was always the one you were leaving to get arrested! You had to spring me more times than I care to count right now."

Perry knew she was teasing, so he didn't address that part of her statement. He decided to try his luck. "So, Paul and company are going to have dinner with me at the hotel restaurant tonight. You're welcome to join if you would like."

Della bit her lip. Sure, she was comfortable joking with him in a phone conversation and she was even feeling more like her old self, like nothing had ever changed, but she just wasn't sure she was ready to see him just yet. She needed another night to get ready for that. "Thanks for offering, but I think I'll just stay in tonight. I'm rather tired from the plane ride and dodging Paul's interested questions. I need to be completely alert tomorrow for your party. If I know you, it's going to be amazing, but a tiring experience all in itself."

Perry smiled. "That it will be. Oh, by the way, my new secretary, Nancy Swift is going to be there."

"Okay," Della said, unsure as to why he was telling her this. He didn't need to clear his guest list with her. She had no qualms with meeting his new secretary, just as long as they didn't talk about things she would rather not think about…like working for him.

"Nancy was a bit worried that you wouldn't want her there," Perry clarified, knowing she was wondering about the logic. "I told her you wouldn't care. You don't care, do you?"

"Not at all," Della assured him. "I would actually really like to meet her." Della conveniently left out the little fact that she had already talked to the girl on the phone and she seemed very sweet, though Nancy didn't know who she was at the time.

"Alright," Perry agreed. "I have to dictate a few opinions before I leave for the day and if I want to be on time for the dinner with Paul and company, I'd better get to that. It was good to talk to you, Della."

"It was good to talk to you too, Perry," Della agreed, surprised at how much she actually meant that. She had been wary of it at first, but she was infinitely glad she had agreed to talk to him. It had reminded her of earlier years and reassured her that tomorrow wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe they could fall into old habits easily. Hopefully it would be just as easy to fall out of them.

"See you tomorrow, Della," Perry said by way of parting.

"Tomorrow," Della agreed.

When Della hung up and looked back over towards the desk she saw only Paul standing there. She walked over to him. "Where did the wife and child go?"

Paul smiled. "They went on upstairs to the room to freshen up and rest a bit before our dinner tonight."

"Oh, yes," Della said, remembering the dinner Perry had told her about. "And you didn't go with them because…"

"I wanted to give you your room key," Paul said.

"Why, thank you, Paul," Della gushed, with false enthusiasm. "I'm not sure how I would've managed had you not been here. I don't think I would've known what to do. Do you think you could show me where my room is? I don't think I'll be able to find it on my own."

Paul rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, that's enough. I also wanted to watch your luggage. We wouldn't want any of it stolen, though I'm not sure anyone could lift it long enough to steal it."

Della smiled picking up her bags very easily. "Looks like you're just a wimp."

"I can feel that complex coming on," Paul whined with laughter lacing his voice.

"Oh, Paul," Della sighed.

Paul and Della began to walk to the elevator. "So, did you have fun talking to Perry?" Paul asked with a gleam in his eye.

"It was fine," Della said nonchalantly. She was not going to give Paul the satisfaction of gloating or anything he might try right now.

"I saw you laughing," Paul told her. "It looked like it was more than fun. Did he finally apologize?"

Della turned to Paul with a glare in his eye and he held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry. I was just pointing out a fact and asking a normal question."

"Well, it would be greatly appreciated if you would refrain from pointing out those facts in the future," Della told him. "You could also keep your questions to yourself." She wasn't going to tell him Perry didn't need to apologize. She wasn't going to tell him there were other factors present that he didn't know about. They had arrived at her floor and at her room (which was across the hall from the Drake's). She went inside her room and closed the door without a backwards glance toward Paul.

Paul couldn't help but smile as he walked into his room. She was going to have fun this weekend whether she knew it or wanted to admit it or not. He didn't know what he hoped to come from this weekend, but he hoped something happened. He didn't want her to go back to L.A. and Perry to stay here without something changing!

Well, there it is. I know I said Paul wasn't going to get into it on the phone, but he really didn't. He just snarked at Perry for being an idiot. At least, because he thinks Perry was an idiot. As I keep hinting at…there's more than meets the eye. Please review and thanks for reading!