******* 

"District Attorney Harold's office, Elizabeth speaking." 

"Hi, mom?" 

"Hi sweetie.  What's up?"  Pam had been calling more often since that night almost three weeks ago, but she'd never called her mother at work.

"Um, I need to..." Elizabeth heard scuffling on the other end, and then her daughter muttered an expletive. "Sorry, I dropped my phone.  I need to tell you something, mom." 

"Anything."  She started riffling through files, searching for the Mendez case.  Her boss needed it in ten minutes.

"I left Roy." 

She stopped dead, several files falling to the floor.  She almost asked if she'd heard correctly, but knew instinctively that she had.  To be honest, she'd felt this all coming to a head ever since Pam had called to confide in her about Jim.  Elizabeth's heart had broken for Pam when her daughter had told her of Jim's transfer, bringing all the general unhappiness in her life to the forefront.

"You-when did this happen?"

"This morning," Pam answered in a small voice.  "I told him I couldn't marry him." 

"Oh."  Liz worked hard for several moments, searching for more syllables to tack onto the end of the sentence, but found nothing.

"Yeah," Pam said, all the strain in her voice evident.  "Um, anyway, I was wondering, I packed an overnight bag and got in my car and..."

"Of course, honey."  Liz said immediately nodding to no one.  She bent over, starting to pick through the mess she'd made of manila envelopes all over the floor. 

"Thanks, mom." 

"Pam, is this..." Liz started, searching for the right words to use in this situation. 

"There's just so much missing," Pam offered, sadness in her voice.  Liz could feel her throat closing and swallowed hard.  "Even if it's too late to... I still needed to do this, mom." 

"I know," Liz answered.  "I'll take the rest of the day off and we can start taking care of everything." 

 She hung up, and grabbed her coat, letting Betty, the other assistant in the office know she was taking a sick day.  It wasn't until she was behind the wheel of her old model Honda that she noticed she was holding the Mendez file.