A/N – I always think WR was better with the old cast. Chris was one of the main reasons I stuck at watching it! There was something about him that no one else saw and I'm glad it came through Series 7, as he was so lovely!

xXx

Perfection; there was no other way of describing him. Even if he didn't quite believe that there were more than a few women who would've happily corrected him.

His deeply set blue eyes let off a subdued shimmer, yet within there was a mild playfulness. She only became aware of it whenever he was aware of her intent gaze on him – and whenever their gazes interlocked his cheeks would turn pink and he would dart his eyes to somewhere else in the hope of breaking the eye contact.

And he knew full well that she enjoyed flustering him in such ways; during those sorts of moments the corners of her mouth would quirk into an almost impish smirk and she would focus on some other delectable part of him.

Somewhere else like his body – he wasn't considered as someone who had loads of muscle, but she felt herself go weak all over at seeing the slightest firm ripple of flesh through his shirts.

"Chris…"

His bright blue orbs flashed back into reality from his few minutes long reverie. He didn't make a mental note of just how long he'd been in his own thoughts but a wave of embarrassment crashed over him at the realisation of zoning out at such an inappropriate time. "Sorry."

Karen smiled softly. "Wake up." She teased.

He sat back in his chair in her room, lowering his head at the feel of his cheeks turning red. "I-I don't know what came over me. I-I'm so sorry." It wasn't very often that he lost concentration, but for some reason right there and then, he did.

"As long as you don't forget about the end of term ball next week."

He inwardly jolted at her prompt. He'd completely forgotten about the bash. Not that he was intending on going to it, as he had no one to go with. It was a sad thought in itself, but certain people were pushing for him to go when he didn't feel like it. He inwardly thought maybe he was getting to be at that agewhere he was finding it hard to enjoy the finer points in life, but that was daft.

"You are coming to that," she got up from her chair, setting about putting her coat on as it was the end of the day, "aren't you?"

Chris was going to reply, when he looked through the doorway to her room and realised that Janeece had been peering round the corner at him. She'd gotten up from behind her desk to get ready to go also, and she wrapped her warm fur-lined coat around herself.

"Janeece is going next week."

"G-going where, Miss?"

"The end of term ball."

"Oh." She placed the strap of her bag around her shoulder. "I don't think I'll be able to go." She didn't seem caught out by Karen's assumption, which led both of them to assume that there was a genuine reason.

"That's a pity," she frowned, "why not? If you're having trouble finding a babysitter…"

"No, it's not that, Miss," she cast her gaze away, feeling awkward at giving them the real reason, "I-I have to go."
And with that, she sharply turned away from them and hurriedly walked out.

Chris lowered his gaze down at the floor, not really knowing what to think at that stage – and why the heck did he catch her looking over at him? That was what it appeared to seem like anyway.
That aside, he couldn't understand why Janeece, of all people, wasn't going. After all, she was at the age where parties and going on nights out mattered.

Janeece picked up Cheryl from her mum's, and then continued the rest of the way back to her place. She was lucky to have one quiet, happily sleeping baby she was pushing along, as it gave her an opportunity to go through her feelings about the young male.

She knew enough to know that she liked him, but from what she could tell from their past moments together he didn't show any signs that he felt the same way about her.
Maybe he inwardly felt she was too young for him or…that he wasn't her type, and he could well have had a point if that were the case.

Cheryl bawling in her sleep brought her out of her thoughts, and she felt relieved that they were metres away from her flat's door.
She got her out of her pram and lifted her into her arms so as to ease her distressed cries. She'd been crying on and off for some time, and she knew she had to think about getting her to the doctors to find out why.

The next morning, Janeece was, in a way, unpleasantly surprised to find that Karen wasn't in and Chris had taken her place behind her desk. "Is she not in today?"

"She took the day off for emergency." He explained loosely, deciding not to look straight up at her in case he'd caught her staring at him like the previous night.

"What for?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "she doesn't tell me everything."

She swallowed hard at his seemingly stressed manner, and thought it best to go back on what she wanted to see him for.

He became aware of the fact she hadn't left the room and he slowly looked up at her. "Is there something you wanna talk about?"

She nervously tugged at the necklace she had around her neck. "I-I don't think I should say," she stated, "if we're short-staffed."

"We're not exactly short-staffed," he smirked a little, "not if I'm taking over for one day."

"It's just that Cheryl needs to go to the doctors tonight and my mum's too busy to take her." She watched his eyes widen a little. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even clear it with youfirst."

"Don't worry about that. You don't have to make any time up for when you come back." Chris reassured her. "She is ok, though, right?"

Janeece sighed a little in relief at his lenience towards her situation. "I guess so," she supposed, "I've been getting problems with feeding her."

"She's not teething, is she?"

She inwardly laughed at his postulation if not for the fact he wanted to make more conversation with her. She didn't have him down as someone who knew a lot about babies and what sorts of conditions they went through, but she found it cute.
"I don't know." She admitted. "She won't even go as far as to let me even see for myself."

"Well, at least you know where she's having problems." He made to go back to what he was doing, which was sorting out a few forms. What for, she didn't know.

"Were you planning on going to the party that's coming up, Sir?"

"Me?" He sounded surprised that she wanted to talk to him some more. "I would if I had someone to go with."

She giggled a little.

"What's so funny?"

"Just that," she couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from curving upwards into a smirk, "you're making it sound like you're planning on being a hermit."

"So what's your excuse?"

That didn't catch Janeece out at all, and Chris was rather hoping that he'd done so. "I don't have a reason not to go. I just didn't want to."

He said nothing, and went back to his work.

"That wasn't the answer you wanted to hear, was it?"

"It isn't up to me whether you wanted to go or not." He admitted. "It's your decision, no one else's."

She smiled a little to herself. "You don't sound like the others."

"You know, if you wanted," he had a passing thought, "if you had to take her to the doctors after work, I can drive you. At least that way it'd save you a trip there and back to your place."

"Really?" Her eyes lit up excitedly. "You'd do that for me?"

"Sure."