Marissa shuffled into Krystal's Bistro and took a seat at the bar.

Opal looked up, genuinely surprised to see her.

"I thought you weren't going to be back until tonight." she said.

Marissa sunk her head down onto the counter.

"I drove Bianca home last night, so she could be with Miranda." she said with a groan. "It was a long drive!"

"Well, you look exhausted."

"I told her to go back to bed… Bianca told her to go back to bed… the kids told her to go back to bed…" said Camilla appearing behind Marissa and putting her hands on her shoulders. "But she refused."

"I just need a coffee. I'll be fine." said Marissa, sitting up again. "I feel like a fraud at the moment! You know, I can't remember the last time I did a full days work. I'm still the manager here. I should be doing some managing!"

"You should be doing some sleeping." scolded Camilla.

"Look I've just dropped the kids off at school and I've come in here for an innocent cup of coffee!," said Marissa, "I had to get out of the house for a bit. That's not a crime!"

Opal nodded,

"You have had a lot to deal lately." she said putting a large steaming mug of coffee down in front of Marissa. "But as you are not meant to be back to work until tomorrow, don't get any ideas! Camilla and I are perfectly capable to lasting one more day."

"I won't, I swear." said Marissa, holding her hand up in a girl scout pledge. She took a long sip of her coffee and smiled happily. "You know I don't feel like I've had a normal day like this since that Inquirer story started over a month ago."

"But it's over now." said Opal.

"It's over." said Marissa. "JR is in hospital. The Inquirer is no longer in existence and my two main persecutors are now in jail. I am now a free woman. Free to enjoy my life with Bianca and our kids and get back to normality."

Camilla patted Marissa on the shoulder again.

"After all that, don't you think maybe you will be more ready for normal once you've caught up with your sleep?"

Marissa took another long sip of her coffee, she was clearly still struggling.

"Just let me finish this coffee." she sighed, a cheeky grin on her lips. "Then I think I'll be more ready to make that decision."

Opal and Camilla laughed at her little joke and then left her to enjoy her coffee in peace.

…

It wasn't much later when Scott walked up to the counter to order a take-away cappuccino.

Marissa looked up from her drink, feeling a bit more herself with the extra caffeine in her system.

"Wow," she gasped, catching sight of his rather haggard appearance. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. "You look as tired as I feel. Is baby Holly keeping you up already?"

Scott blinked in her direction; he hadn't noticed her at first.

"Marissa, hi!" he exclaimed. "…no …um, Holly is still in hospital. She's still not putting on the weight as fast as the doctor's would like… Madison is breast feeding regularly, but she still needs additional nutrition. I don't really understand it."

Marissa reached across and squeezed his hand.

"It must be a worry." she said.

Scott was surprised by her forwardness, ever since her amnesia she'd been a little distant, but somehow it seemed her old spark was back.

"It is." said Scott, a little confused at the show of familiarity from his former best friend. "Are you alright."

"It been a long few days." Marissa admitted, "First my memory comes back, there's the trial and all the drama with the newspapers." She let out a long weary groan and then looked over to give Scott a playful smile.

Scott's mind was still caught up in her first words.

"You got your memory back!"

Mairissa nodded, her grin widening.

"Bianca's music box was the key... It just all came flooding back! Sorry if I was a little distant before..."

"We both had a lot to deal with." said Scott. "It's hardly your fault."

"I know, I was just a little weirded out by the thought of us having an affair."

"And now?"

"And now I still regret going so far with a good friend... but I'm glad that we are still friends."

"Me too."

"So do you want to tell me about it?"

"About what?"

"Whatever it is that is keeping you up a night! I mean if it's not Holly, is Madison okay. That must have been traumatic, almost miscarryinga second time"

"Madison is fine. She's being discharged tomorrow in fact, but they've offered us rooms close to the hospital so we can be near Holly… My main worry is work actually."

Marissa straightened up.

"Yeah, you must be running Chandler Enterprises pretty much single-handedly now that Adam is in hospital!"

"I'm trying to keep it afloat." he sighed.

"Are things that bad." Marissa asked genuinely shocked. She'd heard the rumours of course, but she'd assumed they were just that … rumours.

"Worse." said Scott glumly. "I thought I had the deal to save us, but Adam said no and Caleb pulled out… I've run out of ideas."

Marissa squeezed his hand again.

"You'll think of something I'm sure of it!" she said confidently, giving him a broad grin. "Just don't give up."

The waiter chose that moment to hand over his take-out coffee.

"Thank you." said Scott grinning back at Marissa. "…I've got to get to a meeting, but it's been good to talk."

"Well you know where I am if you need me!" said Marissa sympathetically.

"Thanks" said Scott again, as he hurried out with his coffee.

…

As Scott was walking out, Caleb was walking in.

Noticing Marissa nursing her coffee, he walked up to lean on the bar beside her.

"Aren't you supposed to be on the other side of the counter?" he asked playfully.

"Actually not today. I'm just deciding whether to get another coffee or obey my instinct and go back home to bed." said Marissa, draining the last of her cup.

"Hmm… well I'll happily buy you another coffee." He said smiling.

Marissa frowned.

"Do you want to talk about something?" she asked confused.

Caleb sighed.

"I do in fact."

…

They moved to a table in the corner, Caleb with a cup of coffee but Marissa had opted instead for a glass of water. It wouldn't do to get too high on caffeine.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Well a little bird told me you have your memory back."

"A little bird?" said Marissa, "It was in the newspapers!"

"I had an even better source than that." said Caleb indicating his head in Opal's direction.

Marissa laughed, Opal always was the first with the gossip.

"Well, it's true. All my marbles have happily been returned to me. There are no more worrying blanks." Marissa smiled, "It's great to be all me again… but why are you interested?"

"Well… you were once upon a time an excellent lawyer and I do still have a vacancy in my firm."

Marissa blinked.

"You want to rehire me… but I'm probably very rusty, it's been over a year! Besides I work here now! I can't let Krystal down. I've barely worked a full week since I started here!"

"I thought being a lawyer was your passion."

"It is …it was!"

"Is or was?"

"Is…" said Marissa slowly.

"So, we can ease you back in. Start you off on the easy clients!"

Marissa was delighted at the chance to get back into law, but she also felt she had an obligation to Krystal …to her mom.

"I'm not sure." she said thoughtfully.

Caleb sighed.

"Well I must admit I do have a slight ulterior motive."

"A slight one?"

"I need your help with the Chandler deal."

"What Chandler deal?"

"Well there isn't one at the moment… but there needs to be. Chandler is going down the drains and taking a lot of valuable assets down with it. I thought you, with your family connections would be an excellent person to help with the negotiations."

"And you'll be helping Chandler out of the goodness of your heart?" Marissa asked, not entirely convinced.

"Not exactly. In the current financial climate, we need to expand. Courtland Electronics doesn't have the infrastructure in place to deal with another financial hit. We had as close call last month when a supplier went into receivership still owing us fifty thousand parts. We had to find another supplier urgently at twice the price to get our order out in time. We can't afford another disaster like that! Chandler has the manufacturing base we need to keep our company safe."

"So you want me to help you buy out Chandler?"

"I want you to help me save both businesses. We just need Adam to see it makes sense!"

"No pressure." said Marissa nervously. It sounded like a huge challenge! But after seeing how ill it was making Scott, and now seeing the worry in Caleb's eyes, she knew she wanted to help.

"I'll think about it." she said eventually. "I think I should talk about it with Bianca first though, because being a lawyer again will affect my working hours and my family-time… and I need to talk to mom as well…"

Caleb smiled, he probably could already tell she wanted to say yes.

"Take you time." he said, getting up from his chair, his coffee only half drunk. "Let me know what you decide."

Marissa nodded dumbly, knowing full well she hadn't had enough coffee yet to be able to make that kind of decision!

…