Contract Negotiations

Allison blinked at Mercy in surprise. "Darling, I never was in their lives. As I understand it, much of their frustration comes from me not being there. And so here we are..."

She pushed back from the table slightly and leaned one elbow on the table. With her legs crossed, she let one foot idly bounce up and down. "After our match, I never had any interest in either of you. It was you who insisted on antagonizing me until..." She closed her eyes for a moment, and then looked at Bonnie. "Well, now I've found an interest in you. As for the contract, you may note that if I willfully engage with the Gastins in any hostile capacity, I will promptly leave the company. However, that does not apply in the event that one or both of them initiates contact with me, or with the people I've previously instructed them to avoid."

The Twins grit their teeth and clinched their fists as Allison talked. Her attitude, mannerisms and the fact she put everything on them, angered the siblings deeply. All she ever did was frustrate them and push them just to get her attention.

But the way Allison was going on about something before pausing and giving off a stare, made Bonnie raise her eyebrow. When was she going to stop acting like the victim?

Still, Allison's self imposed note to Mercy seemed acceptable. Bonnie didn't see anything wrong with it, but the instructions made Clyde think of Emily. He still hadn't told Bonnie about what he knew regarding the poor girl.

"Pff. Sounds good ta' me. I won't have no reason ta' fight ya once I beat yer ass silly. Sorry if I make ya miss tea time for a while..." Bonnie said with a confident smirk.

"I think we done here. I'm tired of arguin' with her."

Mercy furrowed her brow a bit too. Allison was very good at playing the wolf in sheep's clothes, that was for sure. Still, she began scribbling on her note pad once more.

Mercy then began to pull out the proper papers. "Very well." Mercy said. "Hostile contact." She said. "excluding contact required by being employed by the AFW, should circumstances arise." Mercy looked at Bonnie and Clyde. "Please define "hostile capacity" Ms. Gastin. I'm afraid ambiguity has no place in a legal contract." She said. "And, Ms. Watson, please specify the names of all persons you have instructed them to avoid. After that, I will finish drawing up the contract and then I'll just need signatures. Then, everything should be settled."

Allison looked directly at Mercy. "Lu Jiao Jocelyn, I suppose," she said, and glanced at the Gastins with a slight hint of a scowl. "And my neice, Emily Clarkson."

She drew a slow, calming breath. The fingers on her left hand writhed into a fist over and over. She took a moment to ensure that she was completely calm when she spoke again. "To be clear, if either Gastin lays a finger on her, speaks to her, or contacts her in any way, these conditions don't apply." There was quiet murder in her eyes when she looked at Bonnie. "Then, you and I would have a long conversation."

"Tch. Whatever. Fine" Bonnie scoffed. She couldn't touch Jocelyn? But her loss to her was total bullshit! Bonnie wasn't done! Bonnie wasn't affected about losing contact with Emily, just Jocelyn. Clyde thought of his phone call with Taylor and what they did to Emily.

Bonnie stood up from her chair and glared at Allison definitely. Her threats did not scare her. She had long tired of the fear.

"And what if we wanna squash things with Emily?" Clyde muttered, to his sister's surprise and confusion.

"Mmhmm."

Mercy hummed as she carefully filled in the contract proper. She listened to Allison and Bonnie. She was good at multitasking.

However, as Clyde spoke, Mercy's ear twtched. Her pen slipped and she drew a long line at the end of theword she was writing. Nothing too bad for the casual observer but to her, she might as well have drew an ugly line across the whole contract.

Her head snapped up and the words came out without thinking.

"Clyde! Knock it off! What do you think you're doing!?"

Mercy's eyes widened and she blushed furiously. She took a big drink of her hot coffee, fighting through the burning. "Whaaa... AHEM!" She adjusted her tie. "Mr. Gastin, I advise you not to ruin all the hard work we've done in this negotiation with flippant comments like that."

She glared at him, giving him 'the look' she gave him quite often when they were still dating

"If you approach Emily Clarkson," Allison said simply, "all bets are off."

"Pffk." Bonnie snorted a laugh, covered her mouth and nose and turned her head away. Clyde went from composed to wide eyed and red faced in front of Allison before turning to Mercy in total confusion, giving Bonnie a few looks as she laughed at sight.

The paralegal adjusted herself while the cowboy was sitting there bewildered, blinking with an open mouth as Mercy drank the hot coffee.

Her following advice and glare caused him to curl his lip at her, doing this to him in front of Allison? It was pretty embarrassing. He averted his eyes and huffed before sitting straight. "I'm not." He said firmly, ready to drop the subject for the sake of these difficult negotiations. Regretfully.

But Allison soon made things clear on the matter, making Clyde go quiet as he glared at the woman.

"Fair enough." Bonnie said. "This'll be the end." She then turned to Mercy. "I think we're set."

Mercy blushed deeply as Bonnie laughed. Her cheeks puffed out and she thrust her head down and concentrated on finishing up what she needed to do. After that was finished, she sighed and then slid the paper around.

"Yes, well, everything seems to be in order. If the two of you will please just sign here." Mercy pointed and then flipped a page. "And initial here. Everything will be settled and we can put all this behind us, finally."

Despite Allison's persense, the current scene was a little cute with Mercy and Clyde, both visibly embarrassed. "Crazy kids..." She thought and sighed, thinking it was a shame they just didn't talk and work things out like she and Duffy would.

But regardless of the cute scene, Bonnie kept her game face on, taking a pen from Mercy and giving her signature on the top line before handing Mercy the pen back.