Well here is my happier take on the last episode... Please let me know what you think!
Bob settled in well to his new home. For the next week he was the only male presence in the Reader-Costello household. With voting for Head of Chambers only a week away, Harriet was commandeering all of Clive's free time, and he had been late home every night of the week so far.
Martha had been very understanding, but now with voting tomorrow she really wanted him home early that night. Olivia had been asking where her daddy was all week, and it was slowly driving her mad.
"There's nothing more you can do to your speech now, Clive," she had told him as she was packing up her belongings ready to go home. "Knowing you, you've rehearsed it to death. The best thing you can do is get an early night ready for tomorrow, and there's also a little girl at home anxious to see her daddy for a little bit,".
"I'll be home to see her tonight, I promise Marth," Clive replied. "You're right as usual. I do need a night off,".
True to his word, he was packing up his desk at 6pm. He was just on his way out, when John stopped him. He was acting up as senior clerk whilst Billy was on sick leave.
"Can I have a word, Sir?" He asked.
"Can it wait?" Clive asked. "I promised Marth I would be home early,".
"It's quite important, Sir. It's about Shoe Lane's future,".
"Ok," said Clive detecting a sense of urgency in John. "Take a seat," he instructed as he indicated the empty seat opposite his desk whilst returning to his own chair.
It was nearly midnight when Clive arrived home. The information John had told him had totally destroyed any chance of an early evening. He now had a whole load of troubles occupying his mind. Turning on the living room light he realised his problems were not just limited to work. He was going to be in a load of trouble at home as well.
It was now obvious why Martha had wanted him home early. Hanging from the ceiling was a home made banner proudly declaring 'GOOD LUCK DADDY!'. Balloons were on either side of the banner and sitting on the table was what appeared to be a homemade cake. It was difficult to tell what type it was as Liv had obviously been in charge of decoration.
Bob had been roused from sleep when the lights had been turned on and he sauntered over to Clive. He had been asleep in the living room instead of his bed in the kitchen. Rubbing around Clive's ankles he gave out a few tiny meows. Clive picked him up and headed into the kitchen to deposit him back in his correct sleeping place. Giving him a few strokes, he watched Bob settle down.
"I think I may be sleeping out here with you for the next few nights, Bob," he admitted. "I think I'm going to be in the dog house,".
Turning off the light he headed to the main bedroom. Martha was fast asleep. In her arms was Liv, also fast asleep. He could see dry tear tracks on his daughters cheeks. His no show this evening obviously hadn't gone down very well and he felt awful. Deciding not to disturb the slumbering pair he headed to his daughter's empty bed to spend the night there.
Sleep didn't come easily to Clive, partly due to what John had revealed to him, and partly because he was quite uncomfortable curled up in Olivia's small bed. He did manage to eventually fall asleep although what time he couldn't say. It felt like he had only just closed his eyes when he was woken by Martha and Liv entering the bedroom ready to get Liv dressed for the day.
"What you doin' in my bed, Daddy?" Olivia asked crossly.
"I didn't want to wake you two so I decided to stay in here,".
"What time did you get back?" Martha asked and Clive could detect an annoyed tone from her as well.
"Late," he admitted and waited for the comeback. He was not prepared for it to come from his daughter.
"You missed the party! I very ang'y at you Daddy!" Liv said wagging a tiny finger at Clive, before leaving the room. Martha just raised an eyebrow at him before following her daughter out.
Clive tried apologising to both the ladies in his life when they appeared in the kitchen for breakfast.
"I really am sorry that I missed the party," he started. "Something came up just as I was leaving chambers," he admitted truthfully.
"You mean Harriet," interrupted Martha angrily. "She seems to be more important to you than either Liv or me at the moment," she carried on, voicing her fears. All the time he had been spending with Harriet recently had caused her initial worries about Clive being tempted away to return to the surface.
"That's bollocks Marth!" Clive retorted getting angry.
"Daddy said a naughty word," piped up Olivia unhelpfully from her seat, but it did stop their argument in its tracks.
"I think I'd better leave before I say any more. Enjoy your breakfast!" Clive snapped before leaving the room.
Martha grabbed the coffee he had made her, and took a mouthful as she heard the front door slam behind Clive. Perhaps it was the argument but it didn't taste good. She realised she also had no appetite. Watching the coffee trickle down the sink something did register in her mind about the strange coffee taste but she couldn't dwell on it. She had to get Liv to nursery before heading off to court.
It was a busy day in court. It had been verdict day on her case and she was so pleased that she had managed to get a not guilty for Michael's client. Hopefully the young teenager could now carry on with his life without getting in any more trouble with the police. Realising she had to get back to chambers in time for the vote, she said a quick goodbye to Michael before she started negotiating her way through the familiar corridors of the RCOJ.
She stopped in shock when she happened to see a face from the past leaving the court she knew Sean's trial was being conducted in, and walking purposefully out of the building. What on earth was Mickey Joy doing in Sean's trial? She wondered to herself feeling extremely grateful she was no longer involved in that case. Shoe Lane had just about recovered from their initial dealings with the scheming solicitor. It would have been awful to have had him back on the scene.
Entering chambers she could hear a buzz of voices in the meeting room so she headed there. Stepping into the room she couldn't fail to notice Harriet sat next to Clive on the front row, although to his credit he didn't appear to be particularly happy about it. Clive tried catching her attention, but she decided to ignore the pair and headed to the back where a familiar face was sat.
"Billy!" She greeted her friend with a hug. "You're looking good," she exclaimed as she sat down beside him. "I thought you weren't starting back until next week,".
"And miss this? I had to come and see whether it would be a new master or mistress that I was returning to, Miss," Billy replied. "You're not sitting next to Mr Reader?".
"No. He's got his mascot beside him already," Martha said crossly.
"Do I detect trouble in paradise?" Billy asked concerned.
"All I wanted was for him to come home early last night but he couldn't even manage that!" Martha explained angrily. "He's her bloody lap dog at the moment. Anything she wants and he does. Liv and I don't seem to matter. All he cares about is this fucking head of chambers and it's driving me mad. It's even upset Liv as well now!".
"So you're going to be voting for Miss Warwick then?" Billy asked cheekily.
"Don't tempt me Billy!" She warned.
A little later and the room became quiet as John called the room to order. Clive got to his feet and started to address his audience.
"Who am I? I'm Clive Reader. I thought I knew what I was going to say right now. God knows I've rehearsed it enough. But something came to my attention last night,".
Over the next couple of minutes he detailed everything that John had told him the previous night. John had been keen to run a tight ship in the clerks room whilst Billy was away. He wasn't entirely sure of the reason for Billy's absence, but if he did a good job he would surely be kept in mind for promotion, or maybe Billy's position if he never returned.
Despite his best efforts however, vital bits of evidence started to go missing in various different trials. After a barrister had read him the riot act on the adequacy of the clerks, John had investigated the matter further...and come up with very interesting results. It appeared that it was only the defence cases that were being affected which had aroused his suspicion. And it wasn't until he had happened to see Harriet purposefully misplace a medical file for Martha's extradition case that he knew he had found the culprit.
What would Billy do? He had thought. The answer was easy. He would be a clerk and do some ducking and diving and find out some background information on their Practice Manager. The results were a little shocking. It appeared she had major plans to turn Shoe Lane into a prosecution set.
The first steps of her plan were being carried out by trying to sabotage as many defence cases as possible. When the new head of chambers was elected, i.e. Clive, she would be able to show him evidence that they were under-performing, and keep pushing him to get rid of them. She had cultivated their relationship nicely and was fairly sure he would do what she wanted in the end. John had even uncovered the fact that she had lined up a few prosecutors to replace any defence barristers that refused to become prosecutors when the time came.
It was a nice coincidence as well that Clive's partner was a staunch defence barrister. Surely their relationship wouldn't survive this, and Clive would be an available man. They would be a formidable couple in charge of Shoe Lane.
The whole set was quiet as Clive's story continued. You could have heard a pin drop. Harriet meanwhile was looking more and more furious as the truth came out.
"I don't want this to happen to Shoe Lane," Clive began to end his speech. "We work well as a mixed set, and I want it to stay that way. And there is absolutely no way I would force the woman I love to become a prosecutor" Clive added, directing the last comment only to Harriet. "Therefore, the only way I can think of to prevent this from ever happening, is to withdraw from the contest. Caroline, I believe that makes you an unopposed candidate, and the new head of Shoe Lane. Congratulations," he announced. "Excuse me," he finished before leaving the room.
The room remained quiet for a little bit before murmurings started.
"Perhaps you'd better go and apologise," whispered Billy to Martha. Knowing he was right she got up and headed to their office fairly sure he would be hiding in there. She saw Caroline get up and address the room as she left it.
Clive was staring out the window when Martha entered. He was lost in thought and didn't acknowledge her until she had wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her forehead against one of his shoulders.
"That was why you were late last night?" She asked and she felt him nod. "I'm sorry for what I said this morning," she apologised as Clive turned around and wrapped his arms around her as well.
"You're talking to me again? Even after what I just did? I know I should have talked to you first, but there wasn't really an opportunity to talk to you beforehand," he explained, hoping to avoid another argument.
"Of course. I'm very, very proud of you," she confided.
"Do you think you can get Liv to forgive me as well?" He asked.
"No problem," she agreed. "I'll just tell her what a good thing her Daddy did today, and I'm sure she'll be wanting a hug and some Daddy time this evening,".
"I didn't mean to ruin your party," he continued before Martha silenced him with a finger to his lips.
"We can try again," she explained. "It's your birthday next week. We'll just change the wording on the banner and make another cake. As long as you act surprised she'll be happy and she won't even remember this week". They hugged for a while before Martha asked another question. "How are you? I know how much you wanted it,".
"I'll be ok Marth. How old's CW anyway? Couple of years and she'll be nearing retirement, right? I'll be head after her" he replied. "Give me time to build up my reputation as a QC,".
"And help me look after our new baby," revealed Martha.
Clive was a little speechless. "Is this your way of telling me you're pregnant?". Martha nodded. "Well at least it was done a little more gently than last time," Clive teased and both smiled at the memory. Martha had chosen a fairly unique way of telling Clive about Olivia last time.
"I'm fairly sure," Martha continued. "I'm late and I was off my coffee this morning,". She had finally remembered when her coffee had tasted so strange before. "That only happened to me when I was pregnant with Liv,".
"Fuck me Marth! Is that what we are using as evidence that you're pregnant?" Clive teased. "Times have moved on you know. I believe there are these things called pregnancy tests that you can easily buy and are very accurate. Maybe we should buy one on the way home and use it before we start telling people we are pregnant? Call me old fashioned, but I need something a little bit more than 'weird tasting coffee' before I'm convinced we've been successful. For all we know, the coffee could have tasted bad because the milk has gone off!"
"Fine by me," retorted Martha, "but I know my body, and I know it's going to be positive,".
"I hope it is too," he agreed before giving her a quick kiss. "By the way, I want to clear something up from this morning before the little bad language detector is in the vicinity. For the record, you and Liv and any other child we have, will always be the most important thing to me Marth. Got it?" he asked before leaning down and kissing her a little more thoroughly.
"Yay! You've made up!" exclaimed Billy as he interrupted them, causing them to break apart. "We're off down the pub, Caroline's treating us all. Will Team Reader be joining us?".
Clive looked at Martha, unsure what to do. "You go," she urged. "I'm not drinking just in case and I need to pick Liv up and have that little chat with her,".
"You're sure? I won't be late, I really promise this time,".
"That's fine Clive. I believe you," she reassured him before turning her attention to the clerk. "You've certainly changed your tune about CW. When did you become her number one fan?".
"Since she fired Miss Hammond! It seems she understands about the importance of good clerking and not paper shuffling managers. We're gonna get on like a house on fire! I haven't been this happy since West Ham last won the FA Cup," he continued as he literally bounced out of the room.
Clive and Martha leant in for another kiss. This time they were interrupted by CW herself.
"Don't stop on my account," she ordered as they broke apart again. "Looks like it was a good consolation kiss. You'll be pleased to hear I'm going to leave my desk free when I move to Alan's old room. Let you two have this room to yourself. Not just so you can make out. I didn't get to do my speech, but in it, I would have told you all that I'm creating two deputy head of chambers positions and I think it right they have their own space. I want to know if you'd be interested?".