Morningstar Manor

Bea had gotten up early this morning to let Pippa out and had almost tripped over the large box of comics she'd set out to give to Sean at the Gallery.  Smiling to herself, she decided she should get right on that. They weren't doing her any good sitting around her apartment.

So she got dressed and kissed Eli awake long enough to tell him where she was going before she headed out to the gallery, the box tucked under one arm. 

"Hello!" she called as she walked in, not knowing who was there but figuring even if Sean wasn't she could leave it there for him.

It had seemed like a simple enough request, and up to then Nick had been as helpful as anyone might wish, especially since the maintenance team were now a man short. But hearing Kris's instruction he had said, "You want to what?" and on repetition had said, "I'm not doing that on my own."

Health and safety, Kris supposed. There were a lot of heavy boxes and pieces of tatty old furniture to move. But he was surprised to see Charlie Shaw arrive wearing the most god-awful tatty version of maintenance uniform, and even more surprised to see him swallow hard when Kris explained that Lewis Flodderson had set his heart on some really nice grungy pics taken in an authentic location and that the head of maintenance had suggested the ideal place in the under basement.

"Okay," Charlie said, looking half Nick's size and somewhat white around the eyes. "Yes, we can do that for you but I think you had better stay here - it's really grubby down there."

"Thanks guys," Kris said with a smile, "Lewis will owe you both a big one."

It sounded as though Nick muttered, "If we live to collect," but that was impossible, wasn't it?

All the same Kris felt a little guilty as he noticed how close the two men were standing as Nick opened the door to the sub-basement area. Surely they weren't holding hands?

He grimaced as he strolled back to the Spa feeling sorry for the little painter and the big blond if their boyfriends were using their time at work to carry on behind their backs. But he had no proof, only surmise, and it really wasn't his business.

Del had been in the office in the afternoon and he and Daphne had had a bit of a heart to heart.

Frankly they were both pretty worried about Isabella - Daphne because she saw her frequently and could see how tense she was, and Del because he hadn't seen her to speak to since the funeral and that just wasn't regular.

So when he got home he whipped up a bowl of rocky road ice cream [Haagen Das double choc allowed to thaw a little with crushed macaroons, cherries, marshmallows and chocolate sauce folded into it], stuck two spoon in the bowl and jogged up the stairs to pre-emptively work off the calories.

He arrived at her door breathing only a little heavily and tapped - ba-bap-ba-bap.

It had been a LONG while since he had done this but he hadn't lost the hang of it.

Charlie hung out in the Mocha, his old maintenance uniform fitting a little better now than it had way back when, with his old tool bag at his feet and a big smile for anyone who passed.

On call again!! So Nick could spend the evening with Seth and Zack and Brendan, and Phil, who was ehausted poor kid, could crawl home to mum and sleep until Monday.

It was quite fun if you knew you wouldn't have to do it too often.