27/10/07/
6:55 AM
Canada Water

"Dad." Adam stirred reluctantly. There was a tap at the door. "Dad." He was home, he was safe, that was Wes. "Dad, are you awake?"

"Just about, come in." Adam hauled himself half way in to a sitting position. The door opened, a moment later, Wes came through it, carrying two mugs. "Oh, you brought tea! You're a star." Adam sat up further as Wes handed him his mug and perched on the end of the bed. It was the first day of half term, Wes was going to spend most of the week with Fiona's parents, but Adam had managed to get a day on which Ros and Harry had promised he'd only be called as a last resort, though being down to a unit of three again it wasn't hard to imagine that happening. He could only hope.

"How did you sleep?"

Wes nodded once. "Okay, how did you sleep?" He dipped his head to take a mouthful of tea, but flinched back. "Hot tea."

"Ah, well enough." He'd been woken a few times by vague, unpleasant dreams, and he kept seeing Zaf telling him to leave him behind just as he was dropping off, but at least he wasn't screaming himself awake every night anymore. "So how many brochures have you still got on the table?"

"Just three. British, Science and Imperial War." That was their plan for today, worked out in the car on the way back from school last night. A museum, lunch and a park, then off to Nana and Grandad's. Adam was quietly grateful that Wes hadn't said the Tower of London, which struck him as a better bomb target than a museum because of its political significance.

"And which way are you leaning?"

"Well, Imperial War is nearest, but we went there with school this term."

"You could probably show me round then."

"And it's in a park so we don't need to get to the park afterwards because we're already there."

"True."

"But the Science Museum is so big that we didn't really do it properly last time."

"Also true. Do you still like the Launchpad?"

"Sort of. I think I'm getting a bit big for it now, I understand more of the rest of the museum now."

"If we went there, Hyde park would be closest. We're too early for Winter Wonderland though."

"And if we went to the British Museum it would be Regents Park?"

"I'd say so, unless we wanted to go for one of the little squares near there."

"But then we couldn't really bring the ball, could we?"

"Russell Square we probably could."