Laughter is the best medicine

Clive descended the stairs on his way to Martha's room. He stopped in his tracks when he heard her loud laughter. Clive groaned in frustration.

Billy smirked, and remarked knowingly: "Not too pleased with our latest Silk anymore?"

Clive didn't respond, but glared at him instead.

Billy walked to the clerks' room, smiling broadly. He only worked half days now, but all the drama had certainly been worth staying for….

Martha had wanted to leave Shoe Lane and it had cost Billy, CW, and Clive a lot of persuading to change her mind. She had finally agreed if another Silk, who incidentally shared her room now, for the defence would be hired. Martha refused to be the only one in a prosecuting set.

She had a point there, and so Peter Clammingham had entered their chambers, and their lives….

Clive had liked him at first. Now, not so much….

Peter was a bit like him, came from a similar background, dark-eyed and dark-haired, but otherwise remarkably similar. He and Martha had hit it off, which had been good, well, initially anyway…. Peter fit right in…

But now it had got to the point where Clive hardly dared to enter his old room…. Clive loved his new bigger office at first, the ornate walls, the large desk… However, it was a bit lonely and he'd soon begun to miss their banter.

Clive had never been so jealous in his life! Sure, there had been Daniel, and Sean, as well as a few other blokes… but this… this was simply excruciating…

He wondered if he should interrupt… Seeing Martha smile at Peter's jokes; it was all she seemed to do nowadays… Yet, the silence was even worse… If their room was silent, he was always afraid to walk into something even more untoward…

He knew he didn't have any real reason to be angry or upset. After all, he'd been chasing Harriet.. and she'd proven to be damn difficult to get rid off… It had taken him quite a few rows, before she finally gave up on him, but not without her sneering things about Martha and Peter in return….

It was Harriet's sneers that had first opened his eyes. Yes, he had abandoned his own party to find her… and yes, that was probably a pretty good indication that Harriet and him weren't meant to be from the start. Harriet had said that he was too late… That Martha Costello had most certainly moved on, and that he would now be left with nothing… with neither of them.

Clive still talked to Martha, of course, still came round for a chat or some advice, still had drinks in the pub… but Peter was never far from her side. Martha was so generous with her smiles and laughs for him… It hurt him just to look at it, and had caused him to withdraw a lot more than he'd ever meant to do…

He knocked on their door anyway. "I'd like to borrow your ear on this, Marth," he said lightly.

She smiled. "Sure, what's it about?"

Clive explained, and Peter soon left the room, giving Martha a wink as he left.

"He's missed his calling, that one…" Martha said, when he was out of earshot… "I keep telling him.."

"You do seem to have a lot of fun…" Clive said, a bit sharp.

Martha rose her eyebrows. "Nothing wrong with that, is there? You sound like one of my old teachers…"

"Of course, there isn't," he snapped. "It's just really loud, and… distracting…"

"You never minded it before…" Martha replied a little annoyed.

Clive wanted to say that she'd never laughed so much before, and not for lack of him trying either… but pursed his lips instead.

"Just working on a difficult case, that's all," he grumped.

"Let's have a look then… See if we can lift that mood of yours.." she said, giving him a smile.

Clive's smile was sad, as he nodded his head. Martha frowned…

What was going on with Clive? He should be on top of the world… He'd won, for God's sake!

A few days later, Martha was determined to wiggle an answer out of him. She'd been talking to Billy and he had been cryptic and unhelpful as ever… with remarks like "the head that wears the crown and such, Miss…" Martha thought it was nonsense. Clive liked responsibility fine, he wouldn't mind being Head of Chambers one bit… In over his head, maybe, but he could get help…

"Are you coming..?" she asked, when he seemed extraordinary slow in putting on his coat. "The drinks are waiting for us…"

"Just us?" he asked.

"Yes, CW wasn't in the mood and Peter has some sort of rehearsal…" Billy only came when he felt well enough, which wasn't often anymore.

"Music? Drama?" Is there anything he cannot do?!

"Violin, I believe… Come on.."

A few minutes later, they were on their first beers of the evening… Clive was already half-way through his…

"Are you sure you're alright?" She asked again… "You seem a bit different lately… More distant, I suppose…"

"Oh? I wasn't aware of that…" he said. "Just busy, I guess…"

"Yeah… You see, I'm not buying that…" Martha said bluntly. "Something is bothering you… And, for the life of me, I've got no idea what…"

If anything I should be gloomy…. Martha thought. I'm the one who lost, me and CW… How dare he be sad when he won? He's got everything he wants career wise…

"It's just…. Well, I've been meaning to ask… Not to pry or anything…" Clive began, hopelessly worried about his question.

"What?" she said, puzzled.

"Well, I guess, I should know about it… If that's what's going on… It's important to know such things, in case…" Clive tried to sound like a Head of Chambers instead of his own jealous self.

"You still haven't spilled it out.." Martha said impatiently.

"Are you and Peter together?" he blurted out, not exactly meeting her eyes.

Martha began to laugh. "Me and Peter?"

Clive didn't say anything; she hadn't answered yet.

"You're serious? Right…" Martha smirked, slowly nodding her head. She might have know…

"Well, there was this one time…" she said, "quite early on… but we mutually decided the next morning that it wasn't a very good idea… so, there you have it…"

Clive's eyes lit up.

"Feeling better already..?" Martha whispered, leaning in. "You really are something, you know…"

"Well, it's what Harriet insinuated when I broke up with her… and he is making you laugh… like, like the whole fucking time…" he stammered.

"He's funny!" she replied exasperated. "It's what he does…. Even in court… Get's the jury on his side, just like that…" she snapped her fingers. "And even some of the grumpiest judges can't hide their smiles…"

"Not together then…" Clive sighed, leaning back in his chair. Now he could enjoy his beer…

Martha smirked. He truly was unbelievable….