A/N: Yeah...so...I know I'm terrible for waiting so long, but dang. Life, man, life. Or I suppose I should say, technology, man, technology...lol! My laptop is in love with the blue screen of death it seems. Geez! I can't write like I usually do, and writing using Word (or even Google docs) online sucks! Anyway...enough of my excuses...here's the chapter. There's one more after this one and I'm not even going to try and promise it won't be as long a wait as it was for this one.


December 24th – day eleven

Having once again watched the clock rewind itself, Isobel yawned and drug a hand over her face. It was six o'clock and she needed to sleep, but her thoughts were such a jumble, pounding loudly in her brain, that sleep had become elusive. She shrugged. There was always tomorrow...well, today all over again...to try and sleep.

"If I could just talk to Richard," she mumbled, knowing that it was thoughts of how she'd treated him that were keeping her from slumber. "Blasted stubborn Scot!" she shouted at the empty room. If only he had agreed when Elsie asked him to meet Isobel, but then again...why would he have agreed after the way things had been going between them?

Picking up her phone when it dinged, Isobel raised an eyebrow at Elsie's message. "Now what?" she wondered. Meet me on the twelfth floor. "The twelfth floor?" She frowned then sent an answer back. I think you're crackers, but fine. What time? Getting an almost instantaneous response, she rolled her eyes. The smart arse was just a bit too sure of herself.

Isobel pushed herself up from the sofa, folding the throw and placing it on top of the pillow she'd been resting on. Stretching, she yawned and shook the tiredness off before making her way to her bedroom to take a shower and get ready. She only had half an hour before she was to meet Elsie.

IC

"Charlie, do you think this will work?" Elsie whispered as they moved about the room.

"I hope so, Love. I had no luck with Richard."

"He's been very hurt, Charlie. At least with you, someone wasn't trying to get you back with the woman that hurt you."

"Because that woman didn't love me. Isobel does love Richard."

"I never thought she'd be afraid of love."

"I didn't, either. After all, she knew about my past with Alice and still pushed you toward me. It never crossed my mind to think she'd be afraid."

"Never crossed Richard's mind, either." Elsie sighed.

"We'll fix this Elsie. She pushed you until you were nudging me along toward our life together. We're just returning the favor."

"I don't think they're going to see it that way."

"Maybe not at first." Charles winked at her. "I wouldn't mind being locked in a room with you."

Elsie smiled, a blush on her cheeks at his implication. "Maybe I'll test that statement...later."

Charles growled, "Behave," but his smoldering look gave him away.

"Don't look at me like that or it'll be us locked in this room...and getting caught out by Richard and Isobel."

Charles gave her a half leer, making as if he was going to go and lock the door then turning and pulling her against him, kissing her breathless.

Elsie took a deep breath when Charles broke the kiss then gave him a sassy grin. "Now who's misbehaving?"

Tapping her lightly on the derrière, Charles shook his head at her. "Go on then, before I'm not teasing anymore about locking the door and we really are caught out by our friends."

IC

Richard huffed as he leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. "Why would they do this?" he mumbled.

Isobel stood staring out the window down into the construction going on outside that had rendered this floor unusable for the last several months. "They care about us."

"And this is how they choose to show it? By locking me into a room with the very woman that..." he stopped and shook his head.

Tears rolling down her cheeks, Isobel finished his sentence. "The very woman that broke your heart and whose very presence you have avoided because all it does is make you remember what she did to you."

Richard looked up, startled to hear the tremble in her voice. Studying her reflection in the glass of the window, he saw the tears that tracked down her cheeks, and suddenly the hardness of his heart was softened. She was hurting, too. Why hadn't he seen that? He'd been her friend long before he'd fallen in love with her, and as her friend he should have seen the hurt she was suffering.

But he hadn't.

Love had gotten in the way.

"I'm sorry," he finally whispered.

Isobel wiped at the tears then turned to face him. "Sorry? Why are you sorry? I'm the one that hurt you and should be apologizing."

"I've been wrong for laying all the blame for this mess on you. I let my hurt cloud my senses and I missed the fact that you've been hurting right along with me. I've said things that I'm ashamed of and as your friend, I'm asking your forgiveness."

"Oh Richard," she cried as she turned away from him. "I'm so sorry. Deep down I suppose I knew that you were in love with me but I was so afraid of it..." she shook her head.

"And as your friend I should have known that my being in love with you, and telling you, would frighten you. I knew how much you loved Reg, how his death devastated you, and I let love blind me." Richard moved behind her and turned her to face him. "I still love you, but if that is going to keep us from being the friends that we always were, then I'll shove it aside and forget about it and just be happy to be your friend again."

Isobel shook her head and reached up to caress his face. "No. I don't want that. I want my friend back, but I don't want you to hide your love for me...not when I've finally admitted to myself that I love you."

"Are you sure?"

In answer, Isobel pulled his head down and pressed her lips to his as her arms slid around his neck. Moaning when she felt his hands sliding to her waist, she shivered when he pulled her body flush with his.

Richard moved his mouth from hers, trailing the kiss from her face to her neck, nuzzling her ear before moving back to her lips. The taste of her was intoxicating and he felt light headed. Breaking the kiss, he stared at her glassy eyes. "We have to stop or I can't promise to continue being a gentleman. I don't want the first time I make love to you to be here on a hard floor or up against a wall." His eyes grew dark as he gave her a wolfish grin. "Though both of those are fantasies I'd like the opportunity to fulfill at some point."

Isobel felt herself blushing at the way he was looking at her...at the thought of him taking her against the wall or on the hard floor here in this little room. "How long do you think they'll leave us locked in here?" she breathed.

"I think they've probably already been by to unlock the door." Richard let her go and moved to check the door, smiling as it opened.

Isobel shook her head. "Crafty devils."

"Good friends."

"Yes," she smiled as she agreed. "I have something I need to do before I can leave, and I don't really want anyone knowing about us just yet, so will you meet me at my house?" Caressing a hand up over his shoulder, she tickled the back of his neck with her fingernails.

Brushing a stray curl from her face, Richard smiled as he nodded and agreed. "Gladly."