And I Hope To Be (Open)

She had lost the one thing that mattered most. While she had thought that her resteraunt was all she needed, she had since realized that there was a lot more to it. Tiana realized that she missed Naveen, the once playboyish prince who had proved to her that he was different. Tiana realized that she missed Louis, the fun loving jazz aligator who wanted nothing more than to be a member of a real band. Tiana even missed Ray, the Cajun back swamp fire fly who was in love with a star named Evangaline.

She missed her friends and, dare she say, the man she had fallen in love with. She had yet to find them in this town, Yensidia. She assumed that they didn't know who they were yet. For a while, Tiana hadn't known. She simply ran Tiana's Palace as a woman named Dia Macedon. While those who didn't know better still called her Dia, she preferred to be called Tiana. As she got the restaraunt ready to open up, she heard the door open. "Welcoe to Tiana's Palace! Hoep you're havin' a good day so far!"

Bernie checked his watch as he stepped into restaurant, he only had an hour for lunch before he had to get back to his classes. He smiled as he sat in a booth, "Hello miss, what smells so good today?"

"Bernie!" grinned Tiana as she saw who it was, "How are you dear? We've got a shrimp gumbo in the pot as the special of the day. And I'm makin' my famous beinets."

"I'm doing fine ma'am, getting lunch between classes." Bernie answered with a smile, "No wonder it smells so wonderful in here, I hope the beinets will be ready soon."

Dia smiled at Bernie. He had always been one who was polite, no matter how many times she had asked him to called her Tiana, it was always ma'am. She nodded, "They should be, sugah. What classes ya got today?"

"I believe almost all of my class's today Ma'am, its Wednesday and they like to remind us by making it so long." Bernie answered with a soft chuckle.

Dia grinned wide, "You know, I've thought about going back to college for writting. I'm thinkin' about writin' a cookbook."

"That sounds exciting ma'am, I'm sure your cook book will be a hit when you release it." Bernie replied as he smiled back at her.

Dia chuckled to herself. Of course she knew that in his past life, Bernie Souris had been Bernard, a little mouse who worked with the Rescue Aide Society. She had found that to be most amusing when he first started coming around the resteraunt. He was one of the nicest men in town and Dia was certain that one day he would find his Miss Bianca, "So what have you all been learnin' in class Bernie?" Dia asked as she brought a plate of beignets over to the table.

"Nothing important, mostly about how to treat a client we think is guilty. The pros and cons of defending them and why sometimes we should still do it." Bernie answered with a smile before thanking her for his food.

Dia nodded her head as she talked to Bernie, "So would you personally ever defend someone that you thought was guilty?"

"I don't know, I think it would depend on what they did..." Bernie answered softly.

Dia smiled as she listened to the shy young man speak, "Are you alright Bernie? I didn't mean to put you on the spot. Oh!" She heard the ding of the timer in the back and rushed to grab the beinets from the oven. She came back with them on a tray, "Sorry about that! Had to grab the food before it burned!"

"It is quite alright Miss Dia, they smell wonderful today." Bernie said with a soft smile, he quite enjoyed her cooking and loved coming to the restaurant.

Dia smiled widely, "You know, ain't no more charmin' words then you tellin' me that you like mah cookin' sugah!"