Morningstar Manor

Declan stood outside of the Mocha in the garden, wearing a casual black sweater with the sleeves pushed up and a pair of jeans. His phone was pressed to his ear and his head was in his opposite hand that also held a lit cigarette. On the other end of the line his mother was informing him that his sister was coming to stay with him whether he wanted her too or not. His sister was a grown woman, but apparently she'd gotten in some trouble and needed a change of scenery. Declan loved his sister and they'd always had fun together, but he'd never had to be responsible for her either. 

Smith sat in the back corner at a table with his back against a wall out of habit. One might say that he looked grumpy and they would be right. He was miserable and completely pissed off, which was a bad combination. He wanted to beat the shit out of something, but he'd already pounded the punching bag in the gym to dust more times than he could count this week. He missed Laura. He wanted her back, but how did he get her? He'd pretty much burned that bridge the last time he'd seen her. Sighing, he took a sip of his coffee and glared at the world in general. 

Oliva was sitting on one of the couches with her legs tucked up beside her and her shoes on the ground in front of her, wearing a dark blue sweater dress that draped to bare one shoulder. There was a bag next to her from a Halloween shop in the City and a large photo book in her lap that was all about the works of Alberto Vargas and his pin-ups. She adored retro pin-up art, and she was looking into buying one of his paintings. What better way to make an informed decision than to read up and look at all of his work?

Isabella stood in line with her hands tucked into the pockets of her new, cream colored coat. She smiled at everyone that looked at her. She was in a fabulous mood and had been for over a week now. Micah and her were getting along amazingly well, her mom had come out of her surgery okay, and things were just... Good. Almost frighteningly so.

After Anastasia had delivered Charlie's present, she stopped at the store and bought a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, and a big bottle of wine before heading home and up to Emily's. She'd heard that her friend had been hurt, but she didn't know how and she felt horrible for not going to check on her sooner. Holding her bag of goodies in one hand and her flowers in the other, she knocked.

Horrified and saddened when she heard about it in the Mocha that morning, Jazz used her lunch break at work to stop by a local bakery and requested a selection she hoped would make Emily smile.

Later that afternoon the basket of cookies was delivered with a note.

My best wishes for a speedy recovery. ~Jazz

Fin had learned that the best way of dealing with this situation was to be utterly professional about it. So he presented his card to the desk at five to ten and stated when he was expected and who by. The desk sergeant read the card, nodded and asked him to wait, suggesting he took a seat.

Fin smiled and went to stand in the middle of the room, as far from anything that might harbour anything intrusive as possible. This was going to be hard enough as it was without any leftovers tainting the taste.

He just hoped - prayed - that this one wouldn't be too bad.

The biggest of the floor polishers was an ugly bastard of a machine that must have weighed 400 pounds so Nick wasn't too surprised that Phil and Jack had left the final polish of the ballroom floor to him. They both had muscle enough but you needed bulk as well to keep the old horror going in a straight line rather then wandering off and crashing through a wall.

So Nick had his weight thrown well back against the handles as he wrestled it across the dance floor and sang along to the music on his iPod. His singing wasn't up to much but who cared? The machine would drown it out anyway.

Sadie was astonishingly active. Charlie had never seen her so enthusiastic and eyed her with a little concern. But, if she really wanted to polish the dust and dust all the shelves he wasn't going to dissuade her.

"All right," he said, "you know where I am if anyone wants me and Leena will be back soon."

"Sure, boss," Sadie said handing him Sean's coffee and a cup of the tea she had made for him and Charlie sniffed the spicy brew then wandered out of the back of the gallery and along to the lock up for a pleasant afternoon's handy manning.

He did enjoy it.

Dinner at Charlie's had been a grand time. The food had been quite good and the chess had been even better. It was a challenge with three boards going and they'd fallen about laughing more than once. And now it had grown rather late and Demitri and Kris had just exited Charlie's flat.

"Did you have fun?" Dem asked as they headed to the lifts.

Even Emily on her sick leave had heard the news. She felt distressed that she could not right away do something delightful for the happy couple, but feeling that she had to do something, she decided to send a pink bouquet of flowers instead and attached a special little pink card to it.

Travis needed help. He didn't know anybody better suited than Jane to help him either, he just hoped that he wasn't disrupting her by calling her. He didn't know her work schedule which was not very helpful. When he got her machine, he left a somewhat odd message.

"Jane, it's Travis. I was wondering if you maybe had a recipe for worms in dirt so I could make it for Memphis's birthday... I'll be home for the rest of tonight if you wanna call or stop by. Either way is okay with me. Thanks." After he hung up, he wondered if she knew Memphis's birthday was on Saturday...