~3~

Manchester-2008

Caeli left her grandmother and her grandmother's guests in the sitting room to start dinner. Something was going on, Gran looked guilty, the two men looked shocked at her appearance, and more worrying was the fact that Gran was allowing her to cook dinner unsupervised.

It wasn't that Caeli was a bad cook, just that she was easily distracted and liked to mix odd combinations of food. Like the time she decided that macaroni and cheese was too boring and added hot sauce, paprika, and cinnamon to it. After that, Caeli wasn't allowed to cook without someone in the kitchen with her.

The first thing she did when she reached the kitchen was turn on the radio. Caeli never could work in silence. She went around getting out what she needed for the spaghetti and tried not to think of something to give it more zest. Singing along to The Wombat's "Let's Dance to Joy Division," she put the water on to boil, set the oven for the garlic bread, and started on a salad. While heating up the tomato sauce, Caeli's will to not experiment faltered and she added more garlic and put some cumin into the sauce. She added some cranberries to the salad and then rushed to set the table.

Pouring some water into a pitcher, her mind once again went back to the two strangers talking with Gran. One of them reminded her of Harold Saxon but that was probably her overactive imagination running wild. They seemed to all know each other, but Gran didn't get out much and the men seemed like they were Nathan's or John's age.

"Dinner's ready," she called. Caeli went back to the kitchen to start bringing everything to the table.

"Let me help," a voice said from the doorway.

Turning around she saw Gran, "You don't have to. You should still be entertaining our guests."

"They can look after themselves for a few minutes. Give me the salad and bread. I'll take them in."

Caeli handed over the requested items, grabbed the spaghetti, and followed her Gran back to the dining room. Sitting down at the table she was introduced to Doctors John and Sam Smith.

Dinner was an awkward affair; Caeli, like her eldest brother Nathan, wasn't the best at interpreting social interactions yet she knew that there was tension in the room. Their two guests didn't seem to know what to say, Gran was staring suspiciously at her food, and Caeli did what she did best when she was nervous, babble. She talked about the club she was working at, how Owen seemed to have a new boyfriend, which was surprising since she never thought of Owen as being anything other than straight, Shawn actually staying in one place for the longest time since he graduated high school, and how John seemed to have dropped off the face of the Earth; she would have continued till the end of dinner if Gran hadn't chosen to break into her one sided conversation.

"Caeli, what did you put in the spaghetti sauce?" It seemed like Gran finally figured out what was wrong with the food.

"What do you mean Gran? The sauce tastes fine to me." Caeli was a horrible liar, but didn't want to admit to adding anything unusual to dinner especially since the two doctors seemed to finally get interested in what was happening around them.

"Don't lie to me Caeli Amara Sheppard. You put something in this spaghetti sauce, something I'm sure was never supposed to be in spaghetti sauce."

Gran's voice was stern and Caeli winced at the use of her full name, "I might have added some garlic." At Gran's pointed look, she continued, "and a teaspoon or two of cumin."

The Doctor Smith who didn't look like Harold Saxon laughed. It was like a cloud had been lifted from the table as the other Doctor Smith smiled as well.

Gran just shook her head, "why did I let you make dinner alone and are those cranberries in the salad?"

"You were too busy having a serious conversation and yes," was the prompt reply.

Conversation became more casual, as Gran told the story about Caeli's macaroni and cheese mishap. Other stories of cooking disasters were shared. Though towards the end, Caeli's inquisitive mind got the better of her, "did you know that you look remarkably like Harold Saxon?"

"So I've been told," was the only reply she received.