Morningstar Manor

Del, at a loose end, lounged on one of the couches reading a novel in Spanish and sipping iced coffee and dreaming of white beaches, brilliant sunshine and girls in hardly anything at all. Winter - he hated it. Not that he wanted to go anywhere - his job for De Rossi was still fun - but some sun would be nice.

~

Brendan had come down to buy a bag of coffee beans because, while Zack was still too poorly to drink much of it, Brendan needed the bursts of caffeine to keep him going. He thought the crisis was past, thank God, but Zack didn't seem to be improving quickly. Between tiredness and worry Brendan needed all the help he could get.

~

Andy had come home from work early with a crashing headache and a general down on the entire world. It was just one of those days and she didn't much care who knew it. With her aching forehead propped on his fist, she flipped through a copy of Smashing that someone had left there and thought snide things about the glamour pusses within.

~

Finally Allan breezed in to the Mocha with his duffle bag on his shoulder, having dumped the rest of his luggage on a trolley in the lobby. Someone from maintenance would be along to help him move in just now, he had been assured. Meantime - coffee!

Her father had sent a plane ticket and a car to retrieve her from the airport and on the surface it looked like a kind gesture. In fact it was simply his own little way of controlling things. She could only leave when he wanted her to, then. Before if he'd have called and requested a meeting with her concerning 'family' business, she would have not so politely reminded him that he'd made sure she wasn't a part of the family anymore and told him to kiss her ass. But, it wasn't what her mother would have wanted. 
And sadly, with her mother gone, Robert was the last little bit of family that she had left.

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.

Isabella wasn't feeling right at all. She hadn't been since about a week before her mother's passing and she wasn't really sure how to fix herself, aside from working when she shouldn't and drinking a little extra when the time was right. She was on her way to lunch at work when she hit a button in the elevator that would take her all the way to the top floor - a floor she hadn't been on in months.
She wasn't really sure why, but she got off the elevator and smiled at his secretary with a kindness she didn't feel.

"Mr. Wentworth, please."

Del had been working - a long gig, noon til noon, and had been on his way home when he had called the hospital to see if he could speak to Lysette. Shocked, he had called Isabella's apartment and got only the answer machine - which meant either she was at home with Micah and didn't want to be disturbed or she was in New York organising the funeral.

Either way Daphne could do with a spare pair of hands so he turned back and went to the office, letting himself in and looking around with surprise to see an empty outer office.

"Daph?" he called and strolled across to Isabella's office.

He'd been with Max when he'd gotten the message. They were getting ready to go to a meeting but Micah had looked at his phone and then at Max.

"Boss - please..."

Max had read the text message then looked at Micah a moment.

"Go," he'd said and turned away and Micah had dashed for the car.

It had only taken a few minutes to get home.

"Isabella?" he called, coming into the apartment and shutting the door quickly. He headed for the bedroom, shrugging out of his jacket and letting it fall to the floor when he saw her in the bed. "Oh, baby, I'm so sorry," he said, crawling into the bed with her and wrapping his arms around her.

She supposed it was a good thing that they'd known this was coming for a while now and had taken care of things in advance, because Isabella really didn't think she could handle making her mother's funeral arrangements right now.

Isabella was sitting beside her mother's bed watching her sleep. Her mother had started the habit of asking Isabella to read to her and every time it was a book from Isabella's early childhood. This time it'd been an especially poignant one and they'd both cried and then laughed at themselves before Lysette had settled in for her afternoon nap.

She knew Lysette would be waking up soon and even though Isabella had plenty of things she could be doing, she didn't move from her spot by the bed. The doctors had told her it wouldn't be long now and she wanted every second of her mother she could get, even if it meant doing nothing but watching her breathe.

Sterrin was standing in line in the Mocha sleepily shifting through her purse to find her cell phone that was suddenly ringing off the hook. "Hello?" she said in a sleep husky voice, and then her eyes shot wide open. "He did WHAT?!" She was quiet as she listened to the frantic voice of Declan's publicist and after she hung up, she burst out laughing loud enough to turn everyone's head.

Isabella sat at a corner table pouring over her date book. The lack of Sterrin was creating a bit of an issue with some of her clients, but Isabella was almost thankful she was gone. There was something just not - right about that girl. Sighing, she rubbed at the bridge of her nose and contemplated hiring more help.

Anastasia was sitting sideways on one of the couches with several fat packs of pictures in front of her. She'd printed out all the pictures on her many memory cards and was now shifting through them. It was a good distraction from everything else.

Isabella was pretty sure that Micah had managed to beat her home tonight. She'd been visiting her mother all day, something that was entirely depressing, and had to attend a late Christmas party for a client. It'd had an open bar and Isabella had put it to use.
Now she made her way into her apartment in one piece, thanks to Daphne driving her home, and was trying to be quiet and not wake Micah.
The fact that her heel caught in a rug and sent her tumbling into a side table, something that she thought was outrageously funny, didn't help.

Anastasia stood in the garden, definately not dressed for the weather in a pair of dark jeans, black slouch boots, the tank top she'd gotten as a secret santa gift and a open cardigan. She was shivering and her hands were starting to go numb, but she'd get inside just as soon as she could stop camera ninja-ing all the pretty snow and ice that had settled in on the various fixtures in the garden. Hyperthermia? Pffft. Second fiddle to art.

Niles was feeling froggy today. He had plans with Kara for Christmas eve, no plans for Christmas day aside from handing out gifts to his friends, and that made him happy. Wearing a t-shirt that had been given to him as a joke (dark blue with the words "Sorry ladies, I'm gay" on it in white letters) and a pair of jeans, Niles headed down to the Mocha. He might get himself a coffee and then go buy himself a KISS pinball game for his apartment as an early gift-to-self. Fuck it.

Isabella sat in the Mocha slightly more tan and definately jet lagged in a black dress and a pair of leopard print shoes. She'd just gotten back from Hawaii with Micah and was hoping to have some time before they took off to NYC to see her mother to rest up. Stiffling a yawn, she flipped the page of her newspaper and conciously avoided checking emails on her iPhone.

Bea stood in the conservatory with Pippa in a vintage Catwoman t-shirt and a pair of jeans, trying to remind the puppy that it wasn't okay to poop in the flowers.  Ever. Nor was it okay to eat them or dig holes around them. Sighing, she pinched the area between her eyes and made a mental list of all the things she needed to do before Christmas.

Declan was in the ballroom, quiet as a mouse, wearing a black leather jacket, a black and grey scarf and a white v-neck t-shirt with a pair of jeans and smoking out the door to the outside. What? It was freezing balls out there and he needed a cigarette to go with the hot cup of Mocha coffee cradled in his left hand before he went back into the Mocha to finish reading the paper. Later, he'd probably do some last minute shopping for Jack and Sterrin.

Speaking of, Sterrin was up by the pool in a very tiny and pale blue bikini, lounging in the sun like a cat. She had masses of wrapping to do even though she'd only bought gifts for Declan, her mother, one or two for Jack and Leo, and one for Isabella. She wondered if she should buy a gift  for Max or even Trevor. Did sleeping with someone more than once necessitate a gift? Pondering, she flipped over on the lounger and let the sun warm her back.

Drew was in line in the Mocha fresh from the hospital and still in a pair of blue scrubs. They were comfortable, and after he had some tea, a cookie, and dominated this game of Bejeweled Blitz on his iPhone, he was soooo going to go upstairs and crash.

Anastasia for once in what felt like forever, wasn't grading papers in the Mocha. Instead, she was sketching, which made her feel good. The pencil in her hand was well chewed and worn down to a nub, but she didn't care. Not as long as it kept flowing off the page.

Isabella sat on one of the big couches, frowning down at her date book. Had she double scheduled? She sure as fuck hoped not, especially if she was going to be taking some time off to go to Hawaii with Micah. Sighing, she shifted in her seat and went further back in the datebook and contemplated calling Daphne.

Sterrin stood in line, digging through her purse for her cell phone. Why didn't she have a fucking cell phone holder again? And this purse cost a few grand. Why didn't it have a pocket for her cell phone? 
Grumbling, she dug deeper, not wanting to miss her call.

Isabella decided that she was far too easily distracted today as she caught herself doodling in the margin of her appointment book instead of filling it out for the third time.
Sighing, she closed the book and sat back. What was up with her?

After going to her lunch meeting, Isabella came home to see if Micah was up and about yet. He'd worked well into the morning hours, the poor baby, and she'd brought him coffee to see if that would help at all.
The apartment was quiet and there was a large, Micah-sized lump in the bed, so she climbed into the bed with him and lay herself along his back, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.
"Hey," she murmured quietly, just to see if he was awake.

Not everyone was that careful about how they disposed of their garbage - which was how it happened that Palug was able to drag a turkey carcass into the lobby and hide under a chair with it. The vigorous purring and crunching sounds were audible several paces away.

~

Nick had dropped several boxes of screws down the stairwell and was cursing and collected the scatter. "Mind your feet," he called as he heard footsteps.

~

Fin was taking a call from a customer so had paused in the conservatory phone to ear, enjoying the curl of the steam from his coffee cup.

~

Leo had tea so all was right with the world. It was some of that new tea too and he was feeling uncommonly alert. He flipped a page on the brief his was reading and scribbled a note in the margin.

~

Del was sleepy, but had got up because he was hungry. Hungry for a Mocha caramel muffin. Sometimes you just HAD to.

Isabella was enjoying her first real holiday with Micah. He'd gotten the day off because the club was closed and apparently even Max was too busy on Thanksgiving to require him for any of his 'other' services. So Isabella had gotten up early and  had their dinner catered in since she loved Micah far too much to make him suffer through her attempt at cooking a turkey. They'd had their meal at lunch and packed up the rest to bring to her mother who would no doubt be alone since her father had to spend the holidays with his 'real' family.

Anastasia sat at a table by the window wearing a pale yellow sweater that bared both shoulders and a pair of jeans. She stared out the window, not paying attention to the coffee or the donut in front of her. It seemed she thought more than she did anything else anymore.

Niles stood in line in a gray t-shirt that was inside out and a pair of busted jeans. He'd put the shirt on inside out on purpose, dammit. He'd decided that after the third person pointed it out. He was a big boy. He could dress himself.

Isabella stood in line in a deep v-necked red sweater dress and a pair of knee high black boots, her jaw firm. She'd had a nice weekend with her mother, but as soon as she'd gotten up this morning her father had started blowing up her phone which always put her in a bad mood. On top of all of that, she was going to have to reprimand Sterrin today. She didn't like scolding anyone or acting like a badass, but it had to be done.

Smith sat in one of the armchairs working a Sudoku puzzle. It was a complete waste of time, he decided. He should be doing research or working out or something, but instead he sat here, glaring at the sudoku section of the paper and letting his coffee get cold.

Bea sat at a table in the corner reading through a folder of legal papers concerning her comic. Apparently they wanted to make more Stiletto-inspired merch, t-shirts and dolls and stuff like that, which was fine with her. Someone had even expressed interest about making it into a movie, which made her laugh. They'd have to make it XXX rated just to do it justice.

Declan sat at a table, flipping through the latest issue of Smashing. He'd already seen and been involved in the process of putting everything in the magazine together, but he still liked to look at the finished product. Tugging on the black scarf around his neck, he flipped the page.

Olivia stood in line, texting her boss. Julian had decided a long time ago that he didn't like talking on the phone,  so all his orders would come down through text message. Olivia hated it. She missed the satisfaction of being able to raise her voice or hang up on him to convey her annoyance, but it seemed she was stuck thumbing out a five-minute paragraph that would have taken her 30 seconds to type on the computer.

Sterrin sat curled up on the couch in front of the fireplace wearing a white off the shoulder sweater dress and  a pair of brown boots, smiling wickedly back at Joy who was glaring at her. There was a gentleman sitting at the table in front of her that couldn't seem to stop staring, so she looked in his direction long enough to shoot him her best smile. She wouldn't date him in her free time, but if he wanted to make a move she'd be more than happy to give him her De Rossi card.

A box. From an expensive lingerie store. Inside was this and a note.

Saw this and thought of you. Happy birthday, Isabella.

Yours,
Max

She was in a worse mood when she came home then she had been when she left, and she was trying to change that before she walked in the door. She didn't want to be grumpy with Micah when he was one of the few people/things that wasn't making her angry right at the moment and she'd always preached about leaving your work at work when you went home.
Sighing, she walked inside her apartment and unbuttoned her coat.