A/N: A little more backstory for Christian, along with a glimpse at one of the supporting characters. The resolution of this is open-ended, so it's very likely we'll see the character again. Thanks again to PDXWiz, Harry2, jtbwriter and BishopT.

This one is for the "real-life counterpart"…you know who you are…
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§ § § -- January 10, 2002

"Aw, geez…" moaned the reporter at the desk next to Gordy Strassner's. "Not again…"

"Not what again?" Gordy asked, moving his computer mouse back and forth to wake up his machine. He eyed the box of doughnuts sitting on his colleague's desk, and the other man caught him at it.

"Hands off, Strassner. There's another freaking glitch in this thing. You better tell Bud to call that computer place over in Amberville." The reporter, a recently-married young man in his late twenties by the name of Kevin, glared at his monitor. "Y'know, if the suits in charge would quit being such Scrooges and start replacing all the computersaurus rexes in here, I bet this'd quit happening in no time flat."

"Hey, we gotta support the techies," Gordy kidded, gingerly pulling the lid off his paper cup of coffee and dumping in some cream. As he did, he looked up at his monitor and discovered a blank screen. "What's this, some sort of virus? Mine's on the fritz too. Figures. I needed to transfer some shots off a disk."

Kevin half rose and called across the room, "Hey, Myeko, your computer working?"

Myeko Okada looked up in surprise. She had just returned to work from her maternity leave and was still having some trouble readjusting to her regular work schedule: before she could answer, she let out a huge yawn. "I just got here," she said. "You want to give me a chance to sit down and see if it's still alive?" She snorted and added, half to herself, "If it is, it'll be doing better than I am."

Gordy and Kevin chuckled. "Baby still keeping you up at night?" Kevin asked.

"It's not Dawn…she's finally sleeping through the night. I just can't seem to get used to waking up early again. I always went back to bed after I got Alexander and Noelle off to school. Oh, crud. Must be going around. My stupid computer's dead." Myeko dropped her purse into her chair and wandered over to their desks. "You think the big cheeses around here are ever going to get the message that they need to spring for new ones?"

"Of course not," said Kevin. "They're fat cats—they'll replace their own computers, but us peons have to make do with these glorified abacuses. Hey, Strassner, I said hands off." Gordy was still eyeing the doughnuts.

"What, you eat an entire box of those things every day?" Gordy said, grinning. "If you do, you're worse than me."

Myeko laughed. "Impossible. Oh, hey, there's Bud. Bud, you better call Enstad Computer Services again. Mine and Kevin's and Gordy's dinosaurs decided to start their weekends a couple days early." The Humanities editor paused on his way to his desk, then rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Oh, that's just perfect," he grumbled. "We're making that place rich, I'm telling you. That German guy's a whiz with these things. Before you give me your disk, Myeko, let me see if mine's up or not." He went off to his desk, discovered his computer was also down, and made the phone call.

Within ten minutes Christian Enstad arrived, glancing around the room with curious interest. "Oh wow, we get the owner himself," Kevin kidded. "Yo, Mr. Enstad!"

Christian looked at him with surprise, then grinned. "Good morning to you too," he said. "So I understand that all the computers in this room have taken a little vacation?"

"Every last one," Kevin assured him.

"It's an epidemic," said Myeko from her desk. "Hi there, Christian, how's life?"

Christian turned to her and grinned again. "Ah, so this is where you work. We're fine, Myeko, how about Nick and the kids? Are you finally getting used to dragging yourself off to work like the rest of us?" Myeko rolled her eyes, precipitating laughter, and Christian pulled up a chair and chose a computer at random to examine. "Oh, and hello, Gordy…it's been a while."

"Yeah, it has," Gordy agreed, pushing his glasses back up. "How's it going, Christian?"

"Can't complain," Christian murmured, looking at Gordy's monitor, shutting off the surge-protector switch and then turning it back on, and waiting to see what happened while he dug around in an overstuffed briefcase. "Leslie and I were tossing around some ideas about what we're going to do for our anniversary next week."

"Why bother?" Gordy joshed him, sipping from his coffee cup. "You know there's gonna be a big stink about it, and all you and Leslie have to do is show up."

Christian rolled his eyes, and Gordy laughed, settling back in his chair. He sometimes found it amazing to realize he'd become friends with a former prince; it had come about gradually across the past year. Shortly after Christian and Leslie's marriage, the newspaper's aging computers had begun breaking down on a regular basis, necessitating frequent repair visits from someone at Christian's business. Usually it was Anton Lauterhoff, whose primary job was troubleshooting; but Anton's weekends fell on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and today happened to be one of the latter. So the task had fallen to Christian this time. The computers went down so often that the paper actually had Enstad Computer Services on what they termed a "semi-permanent retainer", which supposedly indicated that they'd get around to replacing the machines eventually. So far there had been no sign of any such occurrence, so Christian and Anton had grown used to coming out to the newspaper building about two miles down the Ring Road from Amberville. The Humanities office had the oldest computers in the building, so that theirs broke down more than anyone else's.

Christian took in the scene on the monitor, turned off the surge protector again and shook his head, finally unearthing a small screwdriver. "I really need to clean this out," he observed absently, fitting the tool into one of the screws on the tower housing and swiftly twisting it loose. "Leslie would never stop teasing me if she knew it's such a mess."

"Oh, yeah, that's right…you're Mr. Clean," Gordy said through a laugh. "Hey, I'll keep your dirty little secret for you. What're friends for?"

Christian laughed, loosening the next screw. "I appreciate it. Do you have something small that will hold these screws, Gordy?"

They talked amiably for the next twenty minutes or so, while Christian examined the interior of Gordy's tower and removed a couple of components to check their condition. Now and then Kevin and Myeko got in on the conversations, while Myeko went through some European entertainment magazines for snippets for next week's column and Kevin contributed the occasional joke in between phone calls to newspapers on other South Pacific islands. Bud offered Christian a cup of coffee, which he accepted.

"Oh, man, you don't want the paper's coffee," Kevin exclaimed. "That stuff tastes like hot tar. You should do what Strassner here does and hit the café."

"I make my own coffee at home, actually," Christian told him with a chuckle, replacing a component in the tower. "Unfortunately, it's still sitting on my desk. Julianne suggested when she took your call that it was a matter of life and death over here."

"It is a matter of life and death," Myeko said. "Namely ours, if the big cheeses wander in here and see we're not working."

"Don't worry, I'll see if I can get you a stay of execution," Christian kidded her, "since these things are down again. Bud, have you tried asking the corporate types to replace them? Do they ever actually come here and see what condition they're really in?"

Bud grunted, "Naah, we're the redheaded stepchildren in this place. Nobody ever notices us, unless somebody they know makes the obits or manages to get a mention in Myeko's column. Uh, Gord, you've got some mail on your desk there. I kept meaning to tell you, but this stupid phone wouldn't quit ringing." Having said that, he groaned aloud when his phone rang again, and everyone laughed. While Christian began to carefully clean the interior of the tower, Gordy shoved aside some of the detritus on his desk and found the mail Bud had referred to.

"Want a doughnut, Mr. Enstad?" Kevin offered, holding out the box.

"No, but thank you," said Christian with a quick smile.

Gordy looked up with feigned outrage. "Hey, what's with you, Mossevich? How come he rates a doughnut and I don't?"

"He's a guest," Kevin said. "You're the resident eating machine. I just thought one of these might counteract that liquid tar Bud gave you, Mr. Enstad." That got him another laugh from Christian, who had yet to touch the cup Bud had left on the corner of Gordy's desk, and Kevin shook his head. "I'm serious, man, that stuff's lethal."

Christian paused, glanced questioningly back at him, then lifted the cup and peered at its contents. "I've heard of black coffee, but this is ridiculous."

"You better pour that junk out, Christian," Myeko advised from her desk. "You don't want a case of food poisoning."

"Geez," yelled Bud, "do you mind? I made that myself."

Christian looked across the room at him and remarked straight-faced, "Well, in that case, now I know whom to sue." Laughter rang through the room, and Christian grinned, taking an experimental sip while Gordy finally found his letter opener and sliced it through the flap of an envelope. He looked up at Christian's loud gulp and noticed the former prince wore a wide-eyed look. Christian caught Gordy's gaze, cleared his throat loudly and gave his head a sharp shake, and said, "I don't suppose you'd have any sugar…"

Gordy snickered. "Always keep a stash for emergencies. Cripes, Bud, did you put the pot on extra-strength again? Christian'll have enough caffeine in him to keep him awake till Sunday." He smirked at Bud's glare and rummaged around in another drawer, while Christian set the cup aside and resumed his tinkering. After a minute Gordy found two small packets and handed them to Christian, who murmured thanks and lifted out the motherboard to scrutinize. Kevin finally offered Gordy his doughnut box; Gordy, never one to miss an opportunity, helped himself to two.

"Hey, I meant you could take one," Kevin protested.

"You should've said only one," Gordy returned easily, taking a bite. "Myeko, if you want one of these, get it now while Kev's feeling generous. Hey, these are good. Sure you don't want one, Christian?"

Christian snorted. "If you think these computers are in bad shape now, imagine what would happen if I got chocolate glaze on them."

"They'd probably actually work," Myeko wisecracked, evoking laughter again. "It's chocolate, after all. The greatest panacea on the planet. Oh, Christian, that reminds me. Is Leslie gonna be free on Monday? There's this new chocolate shop in the Coral Island mall, and I wanted to show it to her."

"I think so," Christian said. "Just to be safe, call after lunch." He scowled. "Well, so this is the problem. Bud, whatever you have to do to get these computers replaced, you'd better start doing it. Gordy's motherboard is completely shot. I can back you up if the purchasing department wants documentation to justify the expense, but whatever you do, it's got to be quick."

"You mean we're not going to have any way to work at all in here?" Myeko exclaimed.

"Cool, does that mean we can take the day off?" Kevin asked eagerly.

"In your dreams, hotshot," Bud grunted. "Okay, Mr. Enstad, I'll put in a requisition, but I don't hold out much hope. I might as well warn you to expect a phone call for that justification you mentioned."

"I should probably make notes," muttered Christian good-naturedly. "There are so many things wrong with these machines, I wouldn't be able to remember them all without a detailed list. I do have some spare parts with me, at least."

"Whoa!!" Gordy blurted suddenly, instantly catching everyone's attention. "This is great! Hey, you won't believe this…Christian, remember those pictures I took of you and Leslie at Myeko's interview last year? They finally started getting some attention! I've got letters from magazines in the states and Canada offering me freelance work if I want it, and a couple of 'em are even asking if I'm interested in joining their staff!"

"Go for it," Kevin said immediately. "My doughnuts would finally be safe."

Christian looked impressed. "Congratulations! Seems belated to me, but I suppose it's better late than never. You'll have to let us know what you plan to do."

"I'll do that," Gordy agreed cheerfully. "Maybe I'll drop you an e-mail, since we don't seem to run into each other much. Or I would if that piece of junk was working."

Christian, reminded, turned the motherboard over in his hands a couple of times and then laid it on the seat of the chair he had pulled up before checking a pocket in the lid of his briefcase and extracting a plastic-wrapped package. Then he turned to Myeko and asked her, "What happened when you tried to boot up your machine?"

"Looked normal for about half a minute," she said. "It came up like it was supposed to, but then it just quit, boom, just like that. Since you came in here and started poking around with Gordy's, it's come up and gone out the same way about four times. It's really weird, you know? Like there's some little gremlin in there, or the thing's alive."

Christian grinned. "Ah. I think I know what the problem is with yours. And how about you?" This he directed at Kevin.

Kevin glanced at Gordy, who was avidly reading another letter. "Pretty much the same thing as Gordy's. But I keep getting this eerie grinding noise inside mine."

Christian paused, regarded him curiously and asked half-jokingly, "You don't beat up your tower when it's giving you trouble, do you?"

Kevin stared at him. "How'd you know? I pound on it at least twice a day just to get it to work."

"Computer abuse," Gordy cracked without looking up. "I'm a witness."

"So it seems," Christian remarked, chuckling and shaking his head. "All those fisticuffs are probably beginning to shift something inside the tower, and it might be rubbing up against something else to produce that noise. I'd go so far as to suggest you're quite lucky it's worked for you up till now."

"Mossevich, you're gonna be liable for that equipment," Bud called from his desk.

"Hey, now, wait a minute…" Kevin yelped in a panic, only to have Bud smirk at him and make him glare. "All right, all right, your coffee isn't liquid tar!" Laughter echoed around the room again, and Christian, still chuckling, set about installing the new motherboard in Gordy's tower and replacing the housing.

"This is just great," Gordy said, pushing up his glasses again and shaking his head in wonder as he waited for his computer to boot up. "You wouldn't believe this. Offers from all these big-shot newspapers and magazines…"

"You gonna desert us and take off for greener pastures?" asked Myeko, glancing over for a moment while Christian was removing her tower's housing. "I mean, this is pretty small potatoes, after all."

"Hey, we're the biggest paper on the island," Bud said.

"We're the only paper on the island," retorted Myeko, noting Christian's grin. "There's a lot of turnover here, actually. I don't know the names of half the kids in here because they do their stint, pay some dues, and then take off someplace else. I'm waiting for Mossevich over there to pick up one of those cop-beat things he loves writing about in Hawaii or somewhere. Of course, then he'd take his doughnuts with him and Gordy'd starve to death." Christian burst out laughing, and at that precise moment Leslie came through the doorway with a sheaf of papers in one hand. "Well, whaddaya know!" Myeko remarked.