Peter Noakes was sitting at the table in the small kitchen of his attic flat. Camilla Browne was sitting opposite him. They were both having breakfast on an early thursday morning.
Peter didn't really understand what had happened that morning. His head was all in a muddle, he had been up all night working, and he hadn't slept very much at all since Camilla packed him in.
But he couldn't help feeling thorougly happy. He was smiling at her munching fried eggs and tomatoes, dressed only in her underwear and his dressing-gown. She had taken her raincoat off as soon as they closed the door, obviously not caring that he could see - or perhaps she was even wanting him to see - all her lovelieness inside that pink slip. But he didn't want her to get cold during breakfast, so he had handed her his gown with a smile, and she had put it on with a smile.
...
Early that morning he had been fixing the last paperwork in the station after a long night out in the streets. He was almost ready to go home and go to bed. He had been thinking about Camilla, as he always did when he didn't have other urgent things occupying his mind.
Peter had wanted Camilla's mother to like him, but he was almost certain that she hadn't. He had felt that she thought he wasn't good enough for her daughter. Her mother's disapproval was probably an important reason - perhaps the most important one - for Camilla to break up with him.
Peter wanted Camilla back. He wondered what he could do to make her mother like him better. He just didn't know...
...
Some of the things Camilla had said when she broke up with him had actually given him hope when he thought it through afterwards.
She had said that she felt comfortable with him. That she had felt that she was in her proper place.
And she had said that it had all been rather splendid. He couldn't agree more to that...
But she had also said that he made her uncomfortable. When he had at last managed to pick up enough courage to try to ask her to marry him she had stopped him and said that he made her uncomfortable...
He just didn't know how he could get over that - and how he could get her over that.
"There are plenty of girls out there." That was what Steven, one of his fellow officers, had said when he found out that they had split up. "You will soon find a new one."
At least Steven hadn't said that Peter would soon find a better one, but still. Peter found it insulting that Camilla should be thought to be so easily replaced.
Peter didn't want a new girl. He wanted Camilla back.
And that was just about how far he had got in his thoughts when he noticed that someone had come into the station. He looked up from his papers to ask what the visitor wanted.
Then he saw that it was Camilla.
...
The first thought that crossed his mind when he saw her there was that he must be dreaming. Falling asleep leaning over the desk, most likely. He had been thinking about her, and then he had started dreaming.
He just looked at her, not knowing what to say or do. Then she said she was turning herself in. Guilty of criminal covardice. Robbibg two people of something that would make them both very happy.
"I've decided it is time to be brave." She added.
Peter had difficulties believing his own ears.
"I see", was the only thing he could get out. But see was the last thing he did. He didn't dare to believe this was really happening...
That made her come closer, looking in both directions to see that no one was around.
"I hope so", she whispered then. "Because underneath this raincoat I'm practically naked."
And she gave him a smile, and he couldn't help smiling back.
She was the most extraordinary woman. No wonder he loved her so much. And now they were back at their usual comfortable ways.
Then they had kissed, leaning over the counter, holding each other as close as they could with the counter separating them. It had really been rather splendid. Peter had wondered how he had managed to go on living without her kisses during the last weeks.
As soon as they had stopped kissing he had told her the most important thing.
"I love you", he had said.
And she had smiled at him, accepting him back again. Then he asked her to sit down and wait for him to put the last paperwork away, half fearing that she would leave during the few minutes he was away.
...
When Peter was ready to leave the station he had considered taking Camilla out for breakfast in one of the small cafés in Poplar. Then he had realised that his own kitchen was probably the only place where he could bring a woman who was "practically naked" under her raincoat for breakfast. So he had just bought some eggs and a couple of tomatoes to go with the usual toast and tea he had for breakfast after a nightshift.
The flat was small and the bed was close by. It could even be seen from where they were sitting in the kitchen. He was glad he had tidied it up last afternoon before he went to work. He usually did that, but not always.
He didn't know what would happen once they had finished eating their breakfast. A normal morning he would go straight to bed, trying to get some sleep. And perhaps that was what he wanted to do now also - sleep. Sleep with Camilla, quite literally.
He knew she had been on the night-shift too, and probably, like him, was too exhausted to think straight.
But if Camilla wanted more than just sleep there was really no way he could refuse her. Not that he wanted to...
Peter was certain that Camilla's mother would dislike him even more if she had known what was going on right now. That Camilla was having breakfast in his flat dressed in nothing but her underwear and his dressing-gown.
And he was certain Camilla's mother would dislike him even more if he and Camilla made love...
Not that she was ever likely to find out...
AN: Thank you for reading! Please take the time to review!
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This is my first CtM fanfic, maybe also my last, I know I am very late to the party. I have just rewatched series 1. I haven't even seen most of the rest but I know that Chummy and Peter are no longer in the series.
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Edith in my pen-name is Edith Crawley in Downton Abbey.