Morningstar Manor

Granger didn't particularly like the City, but it seemed in this particular instance it was a necessary evil. He'd just spent an hour driving around from hotel to hotel seeing who'd let him snag a room for the night at this hour without a reservation and had wound up somewhere on the edge of town in a dump that he was hoping wouldn't contain enough bed bugs to eat his skin off before morning. He had an apartment waiting, though it wasn't quite ready or free of his dead wife's shit, and he'd rather sleep on sheets covered with newspaper than in a bed that smelled like her right at that moment.

It'd just been that sort of year.

So with a sigh he sought out the place where at least one person was guaranteed to know his name. The Slaughtered Lamb was warm and welcoming, and it was definitely the sort of evening for a drink.

"Conn around?" he asked the pretty redheaded waitress as he settled in on a stool and spun the cherry sucker that was currently tucked securely in the side of his cheek by the stick.

Gabe was in the spa cleaning up. It was nearly closing time and he was ready to head back to the apartment for some food and rest. He made a mental note to call Sarah too. He'd had to take a rain check on their night out due to an omgemergency hair issue with a very high end client.

***

JJ hadn't had a chance to hang out in the Mocha since he'd moved in and tonight - since after the band try out he didn't have anything else planned - he decided to give it a shot. He sat in one of the overstuffed chairs, sipping surprisingly good coffee and playing with his iPad.

***

Jason was technically off duty - and out of uniform - but he was still strolling the Manor grounds. Out in the gardens he paused to light up a cigarette and take a sip from the bottle of beer he held in his other hand. He looked up at the night sky, unable to really see any stars due to the city lights. But still - it was a nice night.

***

At the Lamb Kara wiped down the bar and smiled at the regulars. Tuesday nights were slow but that was okay. After a busy Labor Day she could use an easy night. She looked at the clock and then caught Jack's eye, giving him a nod.

Jack grinned at her and cleaned up the last table. His shift was over so once he put this in the kitchen he could go home.

Long hard days in court, in a suit and heels, were not Icene's favourites. Add that Adam was working late, and had asked her to pop into the Lamb to see if they could do the bar for the barbecue, and having her hair pinned up was annoying her, and it was a somewhat tightly controlled Icene who entered the bar and headed straight to the nearest bar stool, settling herself on it with a small smile for the bar staff, "White wine and soda please, no ice."

She'd left her briefcase at the Manor security desk, and only had a small purse with her, but luckily that had just enough room for her diary and a pen, some cash and a few other essentials. She hung it over her shoulder and tucked the purse into her lap while she waited for her drink. Hopefully Adam wouldn't be too long, but in the meantime....

"...think your brothers will burn the place down if I don't go in this morning?" Conn asked from his comfortable spot on Kara's couch, feet up, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants and rumpled hair. "Because I've a mind to stay here all. Day. Long."

They'd driven straight through from Boston to the City. Well, Seamus had driven. Dermot had gotten his license taken away so he was playing Miss Daisy for twenty-four hours while Seamus drove like a mad man.

But, they were in the City now, at the Lamb where their sister and relative safety was bound to be. Seamus crawled out of the car and walked into the Lamb with his brother, taking his sunglasses off when he entered the darkness of the pub.

"Well. Ain't this some shit?"

He'd picked her up at her door, with flowers, and wearing a suit, of all things. It was a date, a real one, and they had a good reason to celebrate. The paperwork had gone through.

Connor Bradley was now officially an unmarried man.

"You look gorgeous, have I told you that enough tonight?" He said to Kara as he offered her his arm before they went inside.

Cook was on some rampage, so Conn was keeping out of the way. Whistling, he swept up the floor to the tunes filtering from the jukebox and pushed in the chairs that had been scattered all over the place. He was so glad the Lamb wasn't one of those hoity toity places with little candles on the tables, which was a strange thought to think out of the blue like that, but hey...he meant it.

"The Slaughtered Lamb," Callan said as he walked in and smiled at the pretty redhead working the tables immediately.  "This sounds like a good place to get nice and fucking stupid."

"No place is a good place to get nice and fucking stupid. No fighting."

"Right," Callan said, but smiled the entire time. "Do they have something on tap besides Guiness? Holy shit," he said as he and Declan took a seat at the bar. "They do!"

Connor liked being behind the bar far better than being in the office, and it showed on his face as he chatted with customers, served drinks, argued with Cook. It was a good day, here in the Lamb, with daily specials galore and drinks freely flowing.

It had been his weekend to take the kids and though it had passed fast, Conn still had them until after lunch. The three of them were happily watching a movie in the livng room and eating sugary cereals their mother didn't allow them to have.

Big doings over at the Manor had made the crowd here a little...hell, a LOT more interesting over the past few days. Pretty people came and went, eating Cook's food and drinking. Always drinking. Conn watched from the bar, wondering what on earth was going on over at Morningstar.

Whistling, Connor put out a bunch of Valentine's day decorations on the table and studied them, considering the efforts of hanging little pink hearts all over his pub and wondering if it would be worth the effort, or just look stupid. On the other hand, he'd found them all in a box in the storage closet and he figured now was as good a time as any to start getting rid of junk like that, or at least organizing it.

One bunch assorted wildflowers tied with a red ribbon, card accompanying to read:

I usually send flowers when I've screwed up, so I figure I'll get started now so maybe when I do, you'll already be in the mood to forgive me. xo, Conn

He'd asked her to help him carry some things from the office downstairs to his place upstairs so he could sort through ancient files that had been there since his uncle had owned the place, but that wasn't really the only reason. Connor wanted to talk to her. Maybe not talk. Maybe just...try to feel her out about what had gone on, what WAS going on. Or not. Because too much had passed between them before for him to screw this up again, ever, and lose her all over. If just friends was what it was going to be, he could handle that. But just friends didn't feel about each other the way he felt about her.

How did you thank someone for possibly saving your life? And for sure saving you from one of womens's worst fears? Hell if Kara knew. But she called Niles anyway.

( Voicemail for Niles )

That call done she called Connor, knowing he was likely at the Lamb and getting his voicemail.

( Voicemail for Connor )

The nice thing about the Lamb being right next door to the Manor was that Kara wasn't nervous about locking up on her own. After all she only had to walk a few yards and she was in one of the safest buildings in the city. Even still Cook usually hung around to see her out and on her way - a sweet gesture, even if he usually was cussing at her to hurry up the whole time - and now that Connor was back he often helped lock up too.

Tonight though Cook had had to leave right away - family emergency - and Conn had needed to run a few errands and then make a few phone calls so had gone on to his flat above the pub, and that left Kara in the pup on her own. Despite the time she was still fairly awake and so decided to get a bit of book keeping done before she left. She locked the front door, flipped off the lights, and headed to her office.

It was an hour later when Kara thought she heard something. She paused, the computer screen the only real light in the room and listened. Kara was used to some noises - usually from the basement. Maybe it had been her imagination... No - there it was again. Glasses clinking? Figuring it was just the - thing - in the basement Kara got up and quietly headed into the main room.
( The Lamb is robbed )

Connor had decided staying in his office might be the best thing for him to do, at least for awhile. That business with Kara had kept him up nights -- not in an unpleasant way, to be sure, but certainly in a way that wasn't particularly easy to deal with when he had to see her the next day.

Today, though, his little ones were with him, dropped off by their mother as she had some shopping to do, and though he knew his soon-to-be-ex disapproved of keeping the kids in the pub, at least it was the daytime and not at night when things got "rowdy."

"Daisy," Conn said, "shall I have Cook make you and your brother some chocolate cake?"

Daisy, of course, said yes.

"Kara, d'ya have any clue what these are for?" Connor asked, utterly perplexed, holding out a cardboard box full of green glittery high heeled shoes -- miniature ones, not meant for feet. At least not any size feet he'd ever seen on a real person.

"Ahh, listen, gorgeous, could you slide me a pint down this way?" Connor said to Kara as he tipped the fella in front of him a grin. "This lad here's just gotten dumped by his fiance."

True to her word after they'd closed up the Lamb Kara had insisted that Connor come to the Manor with her. She'd made him get his swim trunks then they'd gone to her flat so she could change. The first swimsuit she found was a black bikini so she'd slipped it on and thrown a large flannel shirt over it, then they put some beers in a cooler and headed up to the roof.

This time of night - or early morning she supposed - it was deserted and she laughed as they headed for the hot tub.

"I feel like a teenager sneaking in somewhere after hours."