"The Practice" (Written to happen before Bobby and Helen started a relationship) by: Dawn Last night after everyone left the office, Bobby was still writing and rewriting his opening arguments. Around 9 p.m. he began to feel achy and tired. He knew what that meant . . . he was getting sick. It shouldn't have been unexpected. After all, he'd been working late every night for the past two weeks and hadn't been eating right. It was only time until he came down with a cold. He ended up falling asleep in his office. He awoke around 7:15 the next morning with a sore throat, headache and a runny nose. A little while later, Rebecca walks to the office door. As she walks in, she sees a faint glow coming from Bobby's office. She checks the office clock . . .7:30 am. Knowing that Jimmy and Ellenor had to be in court all day, Lindsay and Eugene were working on their summary judgement and that Bobby stayed up late last night to work on the McMillan case, she knew no one would be in the office today, at least not until Bobby comes in later in the morning. "It's too early for Bobby to be here," she says. Then she hears a rustling sound coming from his office. She slowly walks to the door and pushes it open without making a sound. Bobby is lying on the couch blowing his nose, his desk lamp giving off a faint glow. There are tissues all around the wastebasket. "Achoo!" "Choo!" He grabs another tissue from the coffee table in front of him, wipes his nose and tosses it into the wastebasket. "Bless you Bobby" Rebecca says walking into his office. Startled, he turns toward the door and starts to get up but sits back on the couch. He's too weak to get up and if he does, he knows he'll start to feel dizzy. "Oh, hi Rebecca. Thanks, I didn't know anyone was here . . . Choo!" He rubs his sore red nose. "Are you feeling alright Bobby?" Noticing how pale he looks she adds, "You don't look so hot." "Yeah, I'm okay. I just have a little cold." He feels the familiar tickle in his nose and grabs a tissue just as three sneezes explode out of him. "Choo, achoo, ahCHOO!" "Bless you. You know it sounds like it's a big cold, not a little one." Noticing that Bobby was still wearing the clothes he wore yesterday asks "Have you been here all night? You should have gone home." She starts to walk to the couch to sit next to him. In all the years that she has known Bobby and worked with him, she's never seen him looking this bad. The more she thinks about it, she's never even seen him with a cold. "I know Bec, but I've been working on my opening for the McMillan case and at the same time trying to get another witness" saying it as innocent as he can because he knows when Rebecca really wants someone to do something, they eventually end up doing it. He knew he should have gone home last night and tried to get some rest to take care of his cold, but he had too many other things he needed to do. He had to come up with a brilliant opening argument so he has a chance at winning this case. He takes a tissue from the coffee table and blows his nose trying to get the cold out of him. "That's no excuse. You know you can get Eugene or Lindsay to help you" she says while picking up the tissues that Bobby missed throwing in the wastebasket. She didn't know why she even bothered telling him they could get help. She knows Bobby likes doing his own work and not having anyone help him unless it's absolutely necessary. While arguing over why Eugene or Lindsay should help, Lindsay walks in to the main office. She didn't expect anyone to be at the office except Rebecca. Neither Bobby nor Rebecca hear her. Then the door to Bobby's office opens and Lindsay walks in. "What can I help with?" she says overhearing their conversation and her name being mentioned. Noticing that Bobby is pretty pale she says "Bobby, you look awful." Bobby, feeling the need to sneeze, puts his right index finger under his nose trying to hold the sneeze in. He really can't stand sneezing in public let alone in front of Lindsay. His feelings for her make him not want to sneeze even more. He doesn't want to seem vulnerable to her. The feeling in his nose leaves so he feels he can reply to what was just said. "Well thank you" the sneeze coming back to him even stronger "Lin . . . Lin" trying to finish his sentence before the inevitable happens "Lind . . . Li . . AHHchoo! Lindsay." Feeling relieved and rather embarrassed he blows his nose in the tissue that Rebecca handed him . "Bless you Bobby," says Lindsay. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but what can I help with?" As she waited for either Rebecca or Bobby to answer she looked around the office. Bobby had all the blinds closed and the desk lamp on low. Her eyes then turned to the floor and saw all the used tissues lying around the wastebasket. Knowing that Bobby always had the blinds open and always picked after himself, realized something must be wrong. Looking at Bobby and his clothes made her suspicions seem more right. As Lindsay was looking at Bobby and Rebecca was just about to answer, Bobby felt the familiar tickle again. He tried the best he could to hold the sneeze in. He even put his finger under his nose. That seemed to do the trick. Rebecca started telling Lindsay about her and Eugene helping with the case, but before she got two words in Bobby stopped her and started telling Lindsay himself. "It was nothing. Rebecca was just saying that maybe you and Eugene should help me with the McMillan case." He gave her his puppy dog eyes and gave her a little smile. "I was just say . . ." He stopped, feeling the sneeze that just left him coming back. This time there was no way to stop it, it was too big. He grabbed a tissue from the coffee table, put it to his face, turned to his left and let out a big sneeze. AHHCHOO!" . He started to finish what he was saying but there came more. He couldn't stop. "CHOO! Choo! Achoo! Achoo! Achooo! CHOO!" He reached for another tissue and blew his nose. "Excuse me! I guess this cold is worse than I thought." At this point he didn't care anymore about sneezing in front of Lindsay. Lindsay, realizing now why Bobby looked so bad says "Bless you! Why are you here and not home in bed taking care of that cold? Bobby, you know that you will be no good to us while you are sick and that you won't get any quality work done" giving a sympathetic smile to him, knowing that he previously said the same thing to her a while ago when she was sick. "So, what was is that you were saying?" " I was just about to say that you both were too busy with your own cases." Bobby stops to cough and blow his nose. "Besides, I don't want you working with me today. We can't afford to have anyone else in the office getting sick, especially you since you are the only one working on the tobacco case." Just as he finished, an unexpected sneeze startled them all. "CHOO! Excuse me." "In that case," says Lindsay, "I better get going Eugene and I have to work on our summary judgement. I hope you feel better." She then leaves Rebecca and Bobby in his office. Finally being able to get up, Bobby heads to his desk to get some aspirin. "Well Bec, it looks like it's just you and me. Can you help me? I promise I won't get you . . . si . . . ah . . . ahh . . . ACHOO . . . sick." He then swallows the aspirin. "Sure, I'll help you. Just let me know what I need to do," feeling a little reluctant. She really doesn't want to be fighting with a cold if he ends up giving it to her. The next few hours Rebecca and Bobby are working on his opening argument. They decide to wait and look for another witness tomorrow when Bobby feels better. They had no interferences except for Bobby's sneezing every 5 minutes or so. By 5 p.m. Bobby's opening was finished. Rebecca was in the office turning off the computer and lights since no one was going to be coming to the office tonight. Bobby finished cleaning up his office and getting his court case together. Walking out of his office, Bobby says "Thanks Bec for helping me. I really appreciate it." He gives her his puppy dog eyes again with that little smile. "You don't know how much you've helped me." He stops to sneeze "CHOO! CHOO! I don't think I could have finished without you." "That's okay Bobby. After all you've done for me it was my pleasure to help you. I just wish it wasn't under these conditions." She walks over to Bobby who's standing next to the main door leading out to the hallway. "I hope you feel better. Oh, and guess what, I'm not sick." She then notices her nose tingling. All of a sudden she lets out a sneeze. "hachoo!" "Bless you Bec. Looks like you spoke too soon. You better go home and take care of that cold." "Thanks Bobby" she says jokingly. "I guess it's only fair that I get sick too." They both walk out of the office laughing.