Hey guys, time for an update! But of course not until I've thanked you all for reviewing the last chapter - love your reviews as always! :)
Hope you'll like this new chapter again, enjoy! :)
Chapter 3
After Morgan had used the bathroom as well, they left the hotel and walked to Euston Station. On their way over to the underground, they passed an ATM so they could both withdraw some English pounds.
"Cause I don't think our mysterious travel planner is paying for all our meals as well," Greg said to Morgan with a goofy smile on his face that made her grin.
"I still wonder who it is," she then said. "You don't think Russell arranged this all for us, do you?"
"Why would Russell send two of his team members away at the same time?" Greg said, following Morgan to the right underground platform. "Don't you remember when Sara was on vacation and Nick called in sick? He nearly freaked out, especially when that call came in about that double murder, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, I remember," Morgan nodded, thinking back to that shift a few weeks ago when she, Greg, Finn and Russell had each worked triples.
"For me that rules out Russell," Greg continued, looking around the underground station. "Unless you have some really good evidence that he's happy about missing two team members… Are you sure we're going the right way, by the way?"
He frowned when they had to walk through yet another long corridor.
"Trust me, I know where we're going!" Morgan smiled. When Greg didn't seem too reassured, she nudged him. "Come on, don't you trust me?"
"Of course I do trust you," he muttered, clearly not convinced yet. Grinning, she gently squeezed his hand. "Yeah, it shows! But what does it say on the wall there? Northern Line to King's Cross St. Pancras. Do you trust me now?"
Greg made a sound which made Morgan's smile even bigger.
"You just hate saying you're wrong, don't you?" she grinned.
"The train is coming," he said as a reply. Still grinning, she followed him into the train. It was quite a full train – they could barely find a place to stand. Holding on to a rail they waited for the train to start moving. When it did, they both just managed to hold their balance, but a guy standing behind Morgan didn't: he had to step back and accidentally pushed Morgan towards Greg.
"Sorry!" the guy immediately said, polite as most British people.
"That's okay," Morgan said to him, meaning every word of it. When the guy had pushed her, Greg had automatically put his arm around her to prevent her from falling… and he hadn't pulled his arm back yet, something she definitely didn't mind! Unfortunately for her the train ride was only a short one: King's Cross St. Pancras was one station away from Euston. They left the train and went to find platform 9 ¾.
"There!" Morgan pointed out to Greg, seeing the store the taxi driver had told them about.
"You know, it's crazy that they can bring a fantasy world from a book alive like this!" Greg said as they entered the store. "I mean, look at all those wands in the back!"
"Want me to buy you one?" Morgan teased him. "To protect you from all the Dementors when we go to the Millennium Bridge?"
Greg gave her a smile before he walked over to the wand section. Morgan wandered over to the jewelry section, although jewelry section might be a big word: they had some earrings and necklaces and some charms. She was just hesitating whether or not to buy a Dobby the house-elf charm when Greg re-appeared behind her.
"No wand?" she said to him when she turned around.
"I'll be fine," he smiled at her teasing. "What's that?"
He pointed at the Dobby charm.
"Oh, nothing," she quickly said, already trying to put the charm back where it came from. Greg took it from her, though, and looked at it. "Do you like it?"
"Oh, well, I was just thinking that it might be something for this necklace instead of the charm I have on it now," she said, showing him the small silver necklace she was wearing with a letter M charm. "That's all, nothing special."
"Do you like it?" Greg repeated.
"Oh, well, eh…" She wasn't sure what to say. On the one hand she really liked the charm, but on the other hand she was afraid he might find a Dobby charm a little childish.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Greg decided. Before she could stop him, he had walked over to the cash register and gotten out his wallet.
"No, Greg, you don't have…" she started, but he had already given the woman behind the desk money.
"She would like to wear it straight away," he also said. He took his change and turned around to look at Morgan, a questioning look on his face. With a sigh she took off her necklace, put the letter M charm carefully into her own wallet and then held up the necklace. Greg put the Dobby charm on it and then put the necklace back around her neck. He was being careful when he did, Morgan noticed. His touch was soft and gentle, making her heart beat a little faster than usual.
"Thank you," she softly said, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek before she could lose the courage to do so.
"No problem," Greg said, blushing a little. "You, eh, remembered how to get to the Millennium Bridge?"
"Yeah, I checked it earlier, it's easy to get there," she quickly said, understanding he was too shy right now to say more about her kiss. "Just follow me!"
They left the store and returned to the underground station. This time the trains they had to take were less crowded and they could actually sit down. Greg kept a close eye on the stops, which were printed above the windows, but Morgan knew he wasn't doing it to make sure they'd get off at the right stop.
"How many times have you seen Harry Potter and the Half-blood prince?" she asked him to get him to talk again.
"Oh, eh, I'm not sure," he shyly confessed.
"I personally always loved the Chamber of Secrets," she continued. "Except for the part when Harry and Ron go into the Dark Forest of course! I watched it with my best friend in LA when it came out, we were both screaming during that scene! My Mum actually came to check on us, because she thought someone was hurting us!"
Talking about the Harry Potter movies helped to take away the awkwardness between them and by the time they reached the Millennium Bridge, it seemed like nothing had ever happened.
"Well, here we are!" Morgan said. "What do you think?"
Greg stared at the bridge. "It's, eh, nice."
She rolled her eyes, seeing he was trying to hold back his enthusiasm. "Come on, you don't fool me, Sanders, you love being here! Let's walk across it!"
"Oh, eh, that's okay," he said to her surprise. She raised her eyebrows. "What? You're not telling me you scared, right? Do we need to go back to King's Cross first and buy you a wand after all?"
"No, thanks, I'm fine," Greg said with a fake smile. "I'm just… perfectly fine standing here."
"Come on, scaredy-cat, nothing's gonna happen!" she grinned, holding out her hand to him. Surprising her for the second time he took it, starting to walk across the bridge. For a moment she wondered if he had only pretended to be scared so he could hold her hand, but she shook the thought from her head almost as quickly as she had thought of it. Why would he do that? And how could he have been sure she'd hold out her hand? Still, she was happy as they slowly walked across the bridge. He never let go of her hand, not even when she pointed out the Tower Bridge in the distance. She didn't comment on him holding her hand while she pointed, she just said: "Do you think we can go there as well?"
"Yeah, sure, but before we go, I wanna eat something, actually," he confessed. "Aren't you hungry?"
"Yeah, I'd like something to eat as well," she agreed. "Question is: where are we gonna find something?"
"Do you have the map somewhere? What's the name of that really long street again with all those stores? They should definitely have some places to eat there," Greg said, watching her trying to find the map in her backpack.
"Oh, you mean Oxford Street and Regent Street," she already knew. "Eh, let's see: we are here… There's an unground station here… Oxford Street and Regent Street are here…"
Together, they studied the map, trying to figure out the quickest and easiest way to get to Oxford Street.
"Okay, let's go!" Greg said when Morgan had planned their underground route. It wasn't until they had reached the nearest underground station that Morgan realized something.
"Hey!" she said. "At first you were too scared to walk across that bridge and then we were standing still on it for nearly five minutes to figure out where to go next!"
Greg innocently shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He walked into the underground station.
"Wait!" Morgan started to run to catch up with him. He shrugged his shoulders again. "I really don't know what you're talking about."
So he had been acting he was scared on purpose, she realized. Her heart jumped up. Could this be her chance to tell him how she felt about him? Just as she opened her mouth, their underground train entered the station with a lot of noise and she was forced to hold her words. By the time they had managed to get on board the overcrowded train, she knew the moment was gone.
After eating a quick sandwich at Oxford Street they passed a few stores, checking out the windows. Before they realized it, everything was dark around them already and the Christmas lights along the street had lit up, even though it was just four o'clock.
"Almost makes me feel like we're back in Vegas!" Greg said. Morgan grinned. "Yeah, me too… Do you think the Tower Bridge will be lit up as well?"
Greg took the hint and pointed at the tube map she was still holding in her hand. "How do we get there?"
Half an hour later they were walking across the bridge together. Morgan had tried to figure out a way to get him to hold her hand again, but she hadn't succeeded, so they just slowly walked across the bridge together. When they had crossed it, they turned right and walked a little further along the river Thames so Morgan could take a picture with her cell phone of the entire bridge.
"It's so beautiful," she said with a happy sigh. Greg muttered something which sounded a lot like "Yes, you are" to her. Surprised, she looked at him. "What did you say?"
"Oh, I said: 'Yes, it is'," he quickly said. She narrowed her eyes. Why did she have the feeling he wasn't telling her the truth?
"Did you manage to get a good photo?" he asked, pointing at the bridge.
"Eh… No, not yet…" She still didn't believe his answer, but she also realized he wasn't going to tell her the truth anyway. She quickly took a few photos of the bridge and then stared at it again. Suddenly she felt Greg's arm around her waist.
"I'm glad someone booked this trip for us," he softly said in her ear. Smiling, she rested her head against his shoulder. "Yeah, me too!"
