Morningstar Manor

He'd gone with her to the hospital, and hadn't seen her after she'd returned home. The immediate days were meant for family and friends, he thought, and he knew better than to try and shoehorn himself into either of those categories.

Tonight though, he thought maybe it'd be okay and after work he made his way to her apartment with a bouquet of ivory tulips in one hand and small package in the other.

Having had to repair his phone once with gaffer tape Charlie replaced it in the cradle more gently than the phone call he had just had warranted.

Andy was just in time to see him do it, having whizzed round from the desk where she had been listening in to remind him not to break it again, and folded her arms and raised her eyebrows.

"Do you want me to kill him for you?" she asked. "My rates are very reasonable and I'll do a clean job. I'll make it look exactly as though he accidentally ripped off his own genitals and choked to death on them. I know just how to do it."

She hoped, wherever he was, Richard Udridtz was getting an uneasy feeling in his scrotum. Standing outside the New York 290 and leafleting potential customers with complaints about fascist censorship was bad but going inside screaming at poor Prudence until she cried put him beyond the pale.

"I can't ask my staff to deal with that," Charlie said. "It's just not fair. No - I - I'll have to go back there." He reached for the phone again. "I'll tell Deacon. He can't come but - oh lord ..."

Nine's communication made life immeasurably more complicated.

Andy put her hand over his. "I'll go," she said. "Please - let me, Chas. I promise I won't hurt him if he comes in again. Go on. Why should you have all the fun?"

"You're just so weird," Charlie said, staring at her and Andy smiled knowing he'd give in - eventually. It was always more fun if they wriggled.

It had been a normal evening so far. Dinner, playing with Nia until time for her bath and bedtime. It was after she'd gone to sleep for the night that their normal little evening turned into something else.

Deacon got the packet of information Nine had sent him out and laid things out on the coffee table along with his laptop. Charlie made coffee. And a few minutes later there was a soft knock on the door and Demitri arrived.

"So," Deacon said once they were all sitting around the coffee table. "Looks like the Powers That Be didn't forget about our little cell after all. Got a call from Nine and it appears we've got a job."

Demitri sighed.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this again," he admitted. "I mean... with the divorce..."

Deacon nodded. "I know and I told Nine that. She said if we can get away without usin' you so be it but - I think we're gonna need ya, Dem."

Elspeth wore a long gray skirt and a crisp white blouse, buttoned to the throat, but her shoes were purely pretty. Pointed toe, high heel, a little ribbon at the ankle. She loved those shoes, as impractical as they were.She loved the way they clacked on the Manor's marble floors and she was paying so much attention to the click-clack that she wasn't really paying much attention to anything else.

Her plans for tonight had been cancelled, but since Sterrin had already promised Declan she'd be out, she put on a pink sports bra and a pair of black yoga pants and went down to the gym.
Now,  fresh off a 10 mile stint on the treadmill, she was drinking some water and preparing  for the weights.