Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Well, except Nancy. And I don't really own Little Paul either…but I guess I could own his personality!

A/N: What was Nancy's big idea? I guess you'll find out here. Oh, and in a few chapters earlier, when Perry called Della his "beautiful girl" if you'll remember that, I took that from an amazing writer, Old English D. If you haven't read her stuff, you really should…after you read this chapter! Hehe…enjoy!

Perry and Della were standing in the dining room when Nancy found them. She stood out of the way and out of their sight for a minute observing. She smiled looking at their faces. She noticed how happy Mr. Mason looked. She didn't think she had seen him look this happy since he had moved out here. She also noticed Della's smile looked exactly like it did in the pictures. They were also laughing a lot; she was sure Mr. Mason had never laughed this much in a week, much less in a ten minute period.

"You do remember the offer I made before I moved out here," Perry reminded Della.

Della eyed him critically trying to mask her apprehension. "Which one was that?"

"The one about you coming with me," Perry told her. "The offer's still open. I still think you should move out here."

Della rolled her eyes. "Perry, all the reasons I couldn't still stand. Not to mention, you've made a life here now. There's nothing I can do for you or for myself out here."

When Nancy heard that, her decision was confirmed. She unobtrusively stepped into Mr. Mason's line of sight.

"Nancy!" Perry called, leaving his argument with Della for another time. "Come over here."

Nancy obeyed.

"Della, this is my secretary, Nancy Swift," Perry introduced them. "Nancy, this is my…I was going to say secretary, but I guess I'll say best friend, Della Street."

"Oh, I know who she is," Nancy assured him, putting the first part of her plan into action. "She's the one in all the pictures."

"Pictures?" Della asked.

"He has two pictures of you on his desk," Nancy answered before Perry could, which was all part of her plan. "There is one where he is with you, but there is another one of just you. Of course, I don't see that one too often. Every time I take dictation, it's face down."

Della looked at Perry, who had a flush creeping up his face. She tried to glare at him but it was hard. The thought of him keeping her pictures on his desk was too sweet. Her years of practice made her able to pull it off pretty well though.

Nancy decided to make her act seem believable she needed to be contrite. "I'm sorry, did I say something I shouldn't have?"

Perry shook his head. "Oh no, you said it all."

"I'm sorry," Nancy apologized, sheepishly.

"It's fine," Perry said. "I'll leave you two now. Think about what I said, Della." With that he walked away.

Della let a smile appear on her face as she turned back to Nancy, after watching him walk away. She wasn't going to think about what he said…at least not right now. "Hello, Ms. Swift."

"Oh, please, call me Nancy," Nancy corrected the older woman.

"Then, you'll have to call me Della," Della said in return.

Nancy nodded. "I'm awfully sorry. If I'd known who you were that day when you called I would've left a message!"

Della shook her head. "No, you were right not to. He didn't need to know that I'd called."

"But he did!" Nancy argued. "He needed to fire me so you could come work for him!"

Della raised her eyebrows. "Who have you been talking to? Little Paul or Eve?"

"What makes you think I've talked to someone?" Nancy asked. She didn't think Eve would appreciate it if she revealed that she had done the talking.

"Very few people know about the complicated relationship Perry and I have," Della explained. "The only people at this party that know, besides Perry and myself are Eve, Paul and Little Paul. I know Paul wouldn't tell you and Eve and Little Paul can't keep their mouths shut."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about?" Nancy lied. Unfortunately, she couldn't look away from Della and Della had learned quite a few tricks form Perry the defense attorney and Nancy caved. "Okay, okay. I talked to Eve."

"Well, at least you got the true story," Della said. "But I still don't think you need to listen to her!"

"I'm glad she told me though," Nancy said. "I needed to know!"

Della wrinkled her forehead. "Why?"

"For a number of reasons," Nancy defended herself. "First of all, I needed to know why I was modeling our whole office after you. I typed up a brief for him one time, but he corrected the way I did it, telling me how you used to do it. So now, when I type up the opinions, I try to make them look like the briefs so they're easier for him to read. It's definitely more work for me, but it makes him easier to deal with. Also, he told me exactly how to sort his mail. I tried to do it differently than you did, not on purpose, but he did not like that and threw a fit. I know he wishes you were still working for him and from what I can tell, you want to be working for him."

This is exactly what Della wanted to avoid in talking to Nancy. She did not want to talk about this! "He likes things to be the same. Tell me, Nancy, how—"

"I'm not finished yet," Nancy interrupted. "There was another reason I needed to know these things. I haven't told Mr. Mason this yet, but I'm going to resign."

"You're going to do what?" Della questioned.

"Resign," Nancy repeated. "I've been thinking about this for a while, but I wanted to wait until this party. I wanted to tell you about it even before I told him. I wanted you to get a head start. If you want the job, I definitely think you should take it."

Della squinted at Nancy. "Exactly how long is a while?"

"What?" Nancy asked.

"You said you've been thinking about this for a while," Della reminded the younger woman. "How long is a while? A few months, a few weeks, a few days, a few hours?"

Nancy had already learned not to lie to the woman, from her earlier experiences, so she decided to tell the truth. "Well, it's more like a few minutes."

Della sighed. She thought it was something like that. "You're not resigning."

"Excuse me?" Nancy asked, with a laugh. "I don't think you can tell me not to resign. If I want to, I will."

"But you don't want to," Della contradicted. "You're reacting on impulse right now. If I said I wanted this job, on Monday you would be angry that you let me have it."

Nancy shook her head. "No, I wouldn't. If you want the job, come to the office on Monday around 11. I'm going to resign on Monday whether you are there or not. If you are, it'll just make things so much easier all around."

Della decided to try another tactic. "Nancy—"

"No!" Nancy cut in. "I've made up my mind. If you are there, I'm resigning. If you aren't, I'm resigning."

"I can't just take the job," Della said. "Where would I stay? I don't have anything here. I have no house, I'm staying in a hotel right now. Besides all that, I don't have any luggage. I only brought enough things for a three day stretch."

"For some reason, I don't see the house thing being a problem," Nancy said chuckling, knowing that Perry would be glad to let Della stay with him for a while. "I know you're looking for reasons not to take the job, but I don't think there are any. I'm resigning on Monday. The future of Perry's judgeship lays in your hands. Just keep that in mind."

Nancy began to walk away. Della just stared after her with raised eyebrows, much too shocked to say anything. She hardly thought things were as extreme as Nancy made them sound.

"What did you think of her?" A voice sounded from behind Della.

She jumped, Perry's voice having startled her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Perry apologized.

"You didn't," Della assured him. "I just wasn't expecting you. As for Nancy…she's quite stubborn."

Perry looked at Della with raised eyebrows. "Just like someone else I know."

Della smiled. "I have no idea who you could be talking about." She walked toward the punch bowl after that. Perry couldn't help but stare after her with a smile on his face. She was still the same Della.

-%

"Dad!" Little Paul called running toward his father. "Wait until you hear what I found out!"

"What you found out?" Paul questioned.

"I was being a great detective," Little Paul bragged. "Well, I guess I'm not being so great right now since I'm telling you, but I had to tell someone and I didn't think telling Mom was the best idea."

Paul tried to hold in his laughter. His son had the right idea about not telling Eve. He still didn't have the makings of a detective down yet, but Paul supposed he was getting closer. Paul did always report all findings to Perry. "Okay, tell me what you know."

"Perry asked Della to move out here with him again," Little Paul relayed.

"Who told you Perry asked Della to move out here?" Paul quickly asked. He noticed Little Paul said 'again,' and he didn't seem too surprised about it.

"Mom," Little Paul admitted. "I kind of bugged her until she told me. I knew you two had a secret and it wasn't too hard to get her to tell me."

Paul rolled his eyes. Wasn't it Eve who convinced him not to tell his son? He didn't know what he was going to do with his wife and child. "Okay, what else do you know?"

"Nancy, Perry's secretary right now, is going to resign on Monday. She hasn't told Perry yet, but she told Della and she wants Della to be here on Monday to take the job," Little Paul continued.

Paul raised his eyebrows, a bit impressed at the information his son found out. Then he narrowed his eyes. "Paul, how did you find all this out?"

"Good questions?" Little Paul said. He realized that sounded more like an inquiry though, not an answer.

"Paul," The boy's father threatened lightly. Paul had learned tricks from Perry and he knew his son would crack in a few seconds.

"Okay, okay, so I did some eavesdropping," Little Paul admitted.

"That is not how good detectives get their information," Paul scolded him. "Good detectives get their information by asking questions. They don't eavesdrop, because their information could be wrong. You never know what you could be hearing out of context."

"But there's no way this is wrong!" Little Paul insisted. "I was headed to the dining room to get some food, and I came in on the whole conversation early. I didn't want to interrupt them. I was going to leave right away, but I changed my mind."

"You wanted to eavesdrop?" Paul asked.

"It wasn't planned, Dad!" Paul insisted. "I promise. I just…I liked watching Perry and Della. They looked so happy. I haven't seen Della look like that since before Perry left and the Perry I saw today wasn't the Perry I saw last night. Last night he looked different too, but with Della he looked exactly like he did before he moved."

Paul softened a bit. He really did believe his son didn't mean to eavesdrop. In fact, Paul thought if he had been getting ready to go into the dining room he would've probably stopped also as to not interrupt them. He might've even watched for a little while. It had been too long since he had seen both of them so happy.

"I suppose you didn't mean to listen in," Paul agreed finally.

"Thank you!" Little Paul cried. "So what are we going to do?"

"Do?" Paul asked. "We aren't going to do anything."

Little Paul's eyes widened. "But we have to make Della stay. We can't just let her leave now!"

"You know as well as I do that if she doesn't want to stay we can't make her," Paul told his son.

"No, we can't," Little Paula agreed. "But we can at least push her in the right direction."

"And how would we do that without letting her know we heard the whole conversation?" Paul asked.

Little Paul paused for a minute. "I guess you do have a point there."

Paul nodded. "I'm sorry, son, but this is a decision Della has to make on her own."

Little Paul began to walk away from his father. "There just has to be a way," he mused. "There just has to be!"

Did you like it? Nancy's idea and Little Paul's scheming. There will be more to Little Paul's plan in the next chapter. Okay, I lied. Review this chapter, then you should go read Old English D's stuff if you haven't! Review and thanks for reading!