Lara Knight padded sleepily down the stairs of Allie's house, her auburn hair still in the messy pony tail she had pulled it into before climbing into bed last night.

Lastnight; she grimaced, the taste of sambuca still strong in her mouth despite the double dose of mouthwash and chewing gum. Practically clinging to the banister of the grand Victorian staircase which curved into the foyer of the house, she smiled at the familiar surroundings. Lara's parents had divorced about ten years ago after her mother had discovered that her father had three other women on the go. All younger, more limber and completely unaware that he was a married man. It was fair to say that although her family had never been the Brady Bunch to begin with, things when pretty downhill after that. The divorce had allowed Lara's mother Millie to keep the Primrose Hill town house, which up until last year Lara had gladly shared with her, but being the free spirited hippy type, Millie had encouraged Lara to go out and live on her own. Her solution: move into Allie's house that was about ten minutes around the corner.

Having spent such a large chunk of her life in these four walls even before her family went to hell, Lara had always felt at home here, because that was the difference between them…Lara had a house, Allie had always had a home.

Turning the corner into the kitchen, she blinked in surprise as she watched Allie twirling around the kitchen, fully dressed and with a scarily big smile on her face.

"Morning sunshine," she called startling Lara who hadn't realised she had been spotted. Approaching the blonde warily, Lara reached out and pinched her arm. Hard.

"Ow!" Allie cried, shoving her. "That hurt, you bitch!" she grumbled, rubbing arm protectively and glaring at her friend as she walked over to the fridge, pulling out a jug of orange juice.

"Oh so it is you," she rolled her eyes. "I was just making sure I wasn't dreaming that I was in the invasion of the body snatchers or something, because correct me if I'm mistaken, but you actually look…happy."

"I'm always happy," Allie told her defensively, picking a strawberry out of the fruit bowl and popping it in her mouth.

"Not since you started dating Wanker Will," Lara reminded her, reaching for a strawberry, she froze, looking at Allie in amazement. "Oh my God, you dumped him, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah," Allie nodded, grinning. "And not in a manner that left him with any dignity either, but that's not why I'm happy," she practically skipped over to the breakfast bar and picked up her bag. "I met someone else, too."

"What?" Lara choked on her fruit. "Who? Oh, please tell me it's not that weird guy with the bowl cut from accounting,"

"Remember I told you about the guy on the train?"

"Yeah, uh…Paolo, right?" Lara asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Pete," Allie corrected her, laughing. "But anyway, I uh, I kind of went to see him yesterday and…"

"You what?" Lara screeched. "Allie, you know nothing about this bloke, he could be anyone!"

"He's nice," Allie shot back. "And he's funny, plus he's got a really amazing body…"

"Yeah, well that's probably what all the girls said about Jack the Ripper," Lara snorted. "And that didn't exactly have a fairytale ending, did it?"

"So you're saying the guy, who give or take, saved my life on the underground, did so, so that he could lure me into a relationship and…kill me?" Allie burst out laughing. Lara had an amazing heart, but apparently, it shared no common connection with her brain.

"Oh sure, its all fun and games till someone gets a phone call asking to come down to the morgue and ID their best friends body," Lara snapped, shaking her head. Maybe she would feel more comfortable if she met the guy…or maybe she was just horrendously hung over and therefore blowing everything out of proportion.

"Ok, every time we go out you end up chatting up some random suit, but I meet perfectly nice…"

"Hooligan?" Lara offered.

"Man," Allie interrupted her, speaking slightly louder than before. "And he's out to butcher me? That is so unfair!" Moving to stand behind the girl who had been her surrogate sister for the past fifteen years, she leant her head on her shoulder and saw her smile. "He's got a really, really, really nice body,"

"You're insane," Lara laughed through her mouthful of coco pops.

"He asked for my number," Allie grinned. "And I gave it to him." Snatching up her purse again, she planted a kiss on Lara's cheek and grinned. "I'm going out; I need to hit Agent Provocateur for Jack's newest article,"

"Whatever," Lara shook her head. "If the morgue calls, I'm hanging up on them,"

"I love you!" Allie laughed, pulling the front door open and stepping out into the cold November morning.

"Love you, too," Lara shouted back with a laugh of her own. She had to admit that if the guy had the ability to make Allie smile like that in just a few days of meeting him then there had to be something decent about him. Staring at the bowl of half eaten cereal, Lara felt her stomach lurch and leapt up from the table, running full pelt towards the downstairs bathroom.

Coco pops and sambuca: not a good combination on a Monday morning.

A/N: So I know this chapter was a bit…uneventful and well, erring on the side of crap but the next one is much better as its solely Pete/Allie interaction. So enjoy, and don't forget to review! ;)