"Garcon! Your finest table please!"

The bartender, a burly man dressed entirely in a grey-green attire that looked as though he had bathed in liquidated peas, glared at the flippant Thomas. "You get the corner seat with the wonky table leg and like it."

Thomas wasn't fazed. "So kind, Cranky!" He gave a mock bow and lead several of the Players over to said corner seat. The table leg was indeed wonky, and seemed to be held up by a mass of sellotape and good intentions. Along with Thomas was Percy, Rosie, Henry, Oliver, Donald, Douglas and Ryan, who had been dragged along by the first person who had happened to grab him.

A youngish woman walked over, smiling. "Evening boys! And Rosie. What can I get for you?"

"Hiya Mavis!" Rosie waved. "Our usual please."

"And for Ryan?" Thomas turned.

Ryan shrugged. "Uh, whatever he's having?" He pointed at Thomas, who laughed.

"Sure! Coming up!" As she walked back to the bar, she turned back around. "So, how are rehersals going?"

"James and Duck have already injured themselves. The stage is falling apart." Henry shrugged. "So usual."

Mavis frowned. "Are they okay? Did Vic and Kevin get to take a look?"

"Yes, of course they're fine. James wouldn't let himself die that undignified. No, if he dies, it'll be looking like Liberace if he really decided to go all out!" Oliver's joke seemed to hit home with the Scottish twins, who both began laughing themselves silly.

"Oh, Ryan, of course, you haven't met Mavis, have you?" Rosie turned. "Mavis Ryan, Ryan Mavis!"

"Are you in the play too?"

"She's Tiger Lily!" Henry leaned back, accidentally knocking the table leg and sending the table swiveling. "ACK!" He threw himself forward and grabbed it in place. He opened his eyes and sighed in relief. "Yeah, she's not a official member, but she's good enough to help us out."

Mavis smiled. "Are you just buttering me up to get a discount?"

"ME! No!" Henry laughed. "But uh, twins, you're paying."

"We are NOT!" said both of them in unison.

"Eh, I'm with these two on that. I think Ryan should pay." Oliver shrugged. "New kid's gotta pay."

"Why, what did he do to you?"

"Wha- No, I mean money." Oliver sighed. "Ye gods Percy."

Mavis handed them the drinks and sat down. "I'll take the money later." She leaned forward. "I'll be coming back with you after this, Porter's taking over my next shift."

"Trust me, it's probably not worth it." Rosie sipped her drink. "We're doing a round table reading because of the stage. We don't have any props and our costumes are late." She leaned across to Thomas. "On the plus side, me and Thomas get to have some quality time to ourselves!"

Thomas began to sweat.

"So, does this sort of thing happen often?" Ryan asked as he pulled out his wallet.

"All the frigging time mate." Donald leaned back on the chair. "Ah remember one time, we were doing Cinderella!"

"Emily was tha lead." Douglas put in.

"Aye, and one of the guys we got in was rae spiteful! He wass supposed to be a wee porter, but he insisted that he play the main role. Even James was annoyed, and trust me, that's a hard task. Anyway, we got to the performance, and this guy comes out and rants."

"And there's kids there remember." Henry noted. "He had been drinking quite a bit. And just when you think that we can get him out of the door without too much fuss...down comes the light."

"I still have NO idea how that happened." protested Oliver.

"I read about that." Ryan frowned. "The guy went to hospital."

"Uh huh. Never came back again." Thomas slowly moved away from Rosie, who seemed not to notice. "Anyway, jury said that Murdoch didn't do it, so we all just moved on with our lives. There was another time where we did Robinson Crusoe. And before we even got to the shipwrecking scene, this newbie called Skiff brings the whole shebang onto us!"

Ryan turned slightly pale. Mavis noticed this. "But most times, we just get bad reviews. Things don't usually blow up on us."

"Apart from James!" Rosie smirked.

"OI! YOU!"

Henry turned. "Oh, hey Duncan! Hey Oliver-"

But Oliver had vanished.

...

Edward looked at Victor, the main medical man of the theater. "How are they?"

"My friend, they will be fine! Duck's leg will need a little bit of healing time, but James will be fine."

"Oh typical. The one I need for the entire play is injured but the one I just need to get shot in the head is perfect!" Edward sighed. "Sorry Victor. Thanks for coming out."

"No problem. Kevin! Come on!"

"Coming boss!" His sidekick Kevin headed back towards the office. Edward glanced over at the two men, both of whom were looking happy as they could possbily be in a situation such as this.

"Don't leave me on my own with HIM!" they said at the same time.

Edward shrugged. "Sorry boys, me and Molly are heading back to Tidmouth House to take our lunch break. Fingers crossed, Toby'll be back with your lunch orders soon. Ta ta!"

...

Edward sighed as he sat back in the car. Molly awkwardly squeezed his hand. "You okay?"

"Hmm? Oh perhaps when we've had a drink or so..." Edward shook his head. "Thank god someone else is doing the show next year. Don't know if I could take all the stress."

"You're doing great." Molly said shyly. Edward beamed warmly, and she focused solely on the steering wheel as she blushed. "Anyway, things'll turn out okay. They always do."

"...Perhaps." Edward massaged his head. "Just that I'm feeling more and more like it's not meant to be, you know." He looked up, looked from side to side. "When we get in, let me show you something I got this morning."

Molly raised her eyebrow. The pulled into a relatively nice boarding house, run by a tall muscular man named Bocco, who had made sure that his house was cleaned repeatedly and looked respectable.

"Afternoon Bocco!"

"Afternoon Edward, Miss Molly." Bocco continued cleaning the front desk as both of them headed into Edward's room. His room was, in itself, pretty clean, it a little disorganized by most standards. Edward dived down and looked around.

"Now where...Ah ha!" Edward pulled out a letter. "Take a looksee."

Molly frowned and opened it. "Dear Edward." She read aloud. "I am so very happy to receive your letter after so long. I was beginning to wonder that you had forgotten to pay up, or that James was trying to use Statford to commit fraud of some kind."

"Sad thing is I'm not entirely sure he wouldn't."

Molly continued. "I am looking forward to seeing your performance of Pan, especially because I am coming to the opening night to watch you. This is your chance to prove that you can manage a show like this. If you pull it off, I will be very impressed. Signed, Sir Topham Hatt." Molly lowered the paper. "So, you didn't mention this today because?"

"Because if I do, everyone will panic. I can remember that one time that Henry tried to direct a play. He told everyone that Topham was coming to see them, and the all dried up. It was painful!" Edward shrugged. "But I can trust you because...well, you're pretty trust-able."

"That is the nicest thing someone's said to me."

"Well it shouldn't be because you deserve to have nice things said to you." Edward shrugged. "Ah, where are my manners? Take a seat, I'll put something on the TV!"

...

James glared at Duck. "This is your fault."

"How?"

"I'll figure it out if you give me a minute." The door swung open harshly, smacking into the wall and removing any of the glass that was still left in there. "Oh look, it's Tweedledee!"

Oliver raced in. "MONTY! WE NEED TO GET OUT, THE MINERS ARE-"

"Eh up boyo!"

Both safety officers tensed. They turned and beamed. "Hello Skarloey!" said Monty. "How are you today?