Halt smiled and then frowned. The fork wasn't straight.

It had to be fixed.

So, with a shrug, he straightened it.

'Halt! How are you today?' Will asked coming barging in through the door. Halt winced at the door slamming open.

'You are a fully qualified ranger and you still manage to make that much noise? How?' Halt asked and dragged Will and Alyss to the kitchen before they saw what he had set up and either ruined it or teased him about it.


One hour later (after finding out that Alyss was pregnant and he was going to play the part of grandad), the newly-wed couple finally left.

'Took them bloody long enough,' Halt muttered and then collapsed down on his lounge. He was just falling asleep again when there was another knock at the door.

'Who is it?' he called out and then groaned as he heard the familiar noise of someone tripping over.

It was polite to open the door to guests, even if you didn't want to accept them, Pauline always told him.


Half an hour later, Gil and Jenny left the room. Halt wasn't complaining that much with their presence as they had dropped off some cupcakes whilst they had been there.

'I should really warn Crowley about their upcoming marriage,' Halt said to himself. 'Nah, I want to see his face when he is told about it at the gathering.'

The smell of the cupcakes drifted into the room.

'Must not eat,' Halt muttered as he drifted off to sleep.


'You know that you look ridiculous when you sleep like that,' a voice rudely awoke him.

'Go away Crowley before I do something that you would regret,' Halt muttered back and then turned over.

'One, Two, Three-'

Halt fell of the lounge and straight onto the floor with a bang. 'What are you doing in Redmont?!' he asked. 'Not another mission for me?'

'No, I got bored doing reports,' Crowley replied and then laid down on the lounge exactly as Halt had been doing.

'You're right, it does look ridiculous when people go to sleep in that way,' Halt said and got up to make some coffee.


Crowley left two hours later after telling him that there was no way that he would ever eat a purple unicorn, to which Halt replied with one eyebrow raised.

Five minutes after the commander of the rangers left, there was yet another knock on Halt's door. He pulled it open, frustrated and looked down at the messenger. It was an orphan from the ward and the poor boy looked absolutely terrified of him.

After a long pause, Halt raised one eyebrow, giving the boy permission to talk.

'The Baron wants you in his office,' he said and ran off.


'Yes?' Halt asked as he walked in. Crowley was already there.

Tied to a chair...

'Did you or did you not drug Crowley?' the Baron asked with an eyebrow raised.

'I might have,' Halt replied.

'Next time can you do it when he isn't able to wander about Castle Redmont hiding in shadows before popping out at people screaming "I'm a ghost!"?'

Halt smiled. He now had his next gathering trick.


Halt walked back to his room after a very interesting conversation with the Baron about drugging rangers and when the right moments were to do it.

There was the same messenger waiting at his door.

'What do you want boy?' he asked the kid.

'There is someone starting a riot in the middle of the streets,' he said and ran away.

'Wonderful,' Halt muttered before running towards the situation.


On the way, he ran into Will snogging Alyss and pulled them apart before grabbing Will by the scruff, and dragging him towards the stables.


'Will you're bleeding from your head,' Halt said to his ex-apprentice's annoyance.

'I noticed,' he said and wiped the blood away from his eyes so that he could see.

'What will you do if Alyss' sees you like that?' Halt said.

'Well, she won't be happy but as it not that bad she won't worry that much,' Will replied.

'But she is pregnant,' Halt continued.

'Oh no. She's going to kill me!' Will said.

'Come up to my quarters and you can wash all of the blood off before going to see her again,' Halt said.


Pauline knocked on her door and waited a couple of seconds. If Halt was home he would open it for her and then make yet another coffee.

After five seconds longer than it would have taken Halt to reach the door from the furthest room, Pauline sighed and opened it herself.

Must not be home yet, she thought and then walked over to the closest desk to dump her pile of reports. All of them being of a poor quality.

'Ignorant apprentices,' she muttered in annoyance.

'Is that you Pauline?' Halt's voice called from another room. She frowned and then walked into the room that he had called from.

A smiled was unable to be held back when she found him stretching, trying to wake himself up again.

'Don't bother waking up, I might join you,' she said to him. Halt ignored her instruction and pulled her over to the meal that he had prepared earlier on in the day. It was as he had set it out, there wasn't even a layer of dust.

'When did you have time?' she asked in wonder and delight.

'Honestly, I don't know,' he replied with a smile and reached out to hold her hand over the table.

'Your wrists bleeding.'

Halt groaned.