Author's Note: A bit of a fight is broiling...we'd better get it out of the way before Phryne has to meet the Robinsons! A quick update - I'll work on the next chappie as soon as I can! xoxo - E

"Phryne, we need to talk." I murmured lowly in her ear, a bit trepidly too, as a matter of fact.

"Christ, Jack. If you don't want to marry me, you don't have to marry me! You can say no and we can still be together, there's no need for this nonsensical, absurdly anxious Jack who disappears without excuse for days at a time."

"It was one day." I pointed out ignoring the question. "And this isn't about that." I paused. "The marriage thing, I mean. It is a bit about where I went." Her face softened.

"Oh. Okay. Those topics aren't related, then."

"Not in the way you're thinking."

"You're being quite elusive."

"Not for long, my lovely lady detective." The compliment and teasing grin that accompanied it went quite a way towards calming her ire.

"Very well then, what have we need to discuss."

"My parents are in town."

"Your parents are in town." She was white as a sheet at this. "And that's where you went the other day. Because you didn't want to introduce me yet. That actually makes a great deal of sense. Oh dear God, I never even thought- Shite, Jack I'm a horrible person! We've never even discussed your parents! It's never come up, not once!"

"You're most certainly not a horrible person, Phryne. The reason it hasn't come up is because I've been avoiding it. My father was so stoically silent when I told him that Rosie and I were getting divorced, I had made the decision to separate my love life from them in all future cases but... I took a train North and told them about you and now they're in town and insist upon meeting you and I really owe you something magnificent, I don't think flowers is going to cut it, Phryne, if you agree to meeting them I will..."

"Of course I agree to meeting them, silly! I would have insisted upon it had you not already offered! Shall we have them over for dinner?" She paled even further if that were possible. "Actually, with my parents here... that is that isn't exactly the impression I'm hoping to give off initially, perhaps dinner out?"

"Dinner out would be just the ticket. I'll task Collins with keeping the rest of the Fishers far away."

"Would you really? That would be so much of a help." She bit her lip, like she did every time she was nervous (which wasn't often). "I'm sure I'm not exactly the sort of woman they're expecting, and if they didn't like the divorce part, I'm certain a new lady friend isn't something on their ideal list either, but-"

"No! I'm so stupid I never finished telling you- when I told them, they were thrilled. It turned out my father had to be silent to keep himself from saying something awful about Rosie or saying how much he'd been hoping for us to divorce as that's not a terribly nice thing to say to your son. They were very pleased. Also..." I glanced at Jane, who bit her lip and nodded slowly. "Also they've met Jane."

"They've what?!"

"Perhaps you'd like to tell this story, Jane?"

"Well..." She stepped forward shyly, looking up at Miss Fisher, hoping to see some sort of amusement or jovial mischievousness at her tale rather than disapproval or shock. "I was at the train station to see of my friend's brother with her, so she wouldn't have to walk home alone, you remember, when I was to stay at her house overnight?"

"Yes..." Phryne prompted nervously.

"Well I saw Burt and Cec dropping off Jack at the train station and I hurried after them because I remember you telling them to find out where he was going," Phryne glanced at me suddenly nervous. I smiled at her to let her know I was previously aware of this and there was no hard feelings on the subject. This time anyway. "And when I asked them, they said that they'd made a deal with Jack not to tell, and Cec was crying, and Burt was grinning and I thought something might have been wrong, and so... I sort of hopped the train and followed Jack to his parents house."

"Jane!"

"At which point she saw me embrace my sister and walk arm and arm with her in the house so she burst through the front door and accused me of cheating." Phryne's hand flew to her face but not quickly enough to cover her wide grin, her chin quivering with suppressed laughter.

"Sorry about that." Jane mumbled before retreating quickly before Phryne decided to be mad at her about it.

"So as previously mentioned, Jane has met my parents."

"You have a sister." Phryne mentioned, after taking the story in.

"Two, but Dee won't be here, just Liz. Her husband works for the Navy, and he's on a shore tour right now so she's been staying with my parents and enlisting their help with her small army of children. I also have a brother but he and his wife Gemma are living in London where she's from and where he works writing for a newspaper there. His name is-"

"Eddie." Her eyes were wide and she was staring at me in shock. "Eddie Robinson."

"How-"

"He saved my life."

"If you tell me that my brother is one of your old friends,"

"Don't be absurd. It was while I was living in England. I was leaving the telegram office." She smiled. "You'd just sent me a particularly lovely missive and I was too busy reading it to watch where I was going and I stepped out in front of a car. Eddie pulled me back and I ended up toppling over his wife with the momentum of that. We went out to lunch, Gemma, Eddie, and I thought how funny a coincidence that I'd been reading the words of one Robinson only to meet another. But he sounded British to me, I never even thought to mention it. We ran into each other a few times more, he covered the cases I tried to worm my way onto in the beginning, and then when I was banned from all crimes in the city of London, I read his stories to get my fix. Gemma and I went shopping together a few times. She's lovely."

"You met Eddie and Gemma."

"I did."

"I've always wanted you to meet Eddie. I knew he'd like you."

"You aren't angry."

"Why would I be angry?"

"I don't know. It feels weird that I met your brother without you and didn't even know he was your brother."

"You wouldn't have the chance to meet him now anyway. It's good you met him." I paused. "We weren't... we weren't exclusive, Phryne. We'd shared one kiss, I wouldn't blame you-"

"Jesus Christ Jack, I am capable of keeping my legs closed thank you very much. One kiss and several years of buildup. I was already madly in love with you, you complete twit, I wasn't galavanting out with any men in my nearby area, and to be frank, I don't engage with married men you should know that better than anyone." She spat out angrily. "Is that really what you think of me, Jack? My proclivity to sleep with every man who looks my way?"

"Of course not Phryne, and I didn't just mean him, I meant... we hadn't really talked about what happened while we were apart, and I just wanted to make it clear that I wouldn't blame you a whit if you had met someone special or run into an old friend."

"I'll have you know Jack Robinson that I ran into plenty of old friends all across my trip back to England, and not once was I even tempted to have more than a pleasant conversation with them because I was too busy thinking about the man I was in love with back home and trying to figure out how to get back to him at the earliest possible point. Aparently he has no faith in my affections however so the whole lot of it must have been a moot point!"

"Phryne,"

"Don't you 'Phryne' me Jack Robinson you know damn well what I mean." She paused. A muffled noise through the door alerted us that someone was listening in.

"I was trying to be kind." I murmured.

"Because you assumed I'd slept with someone else!" She hissed back.

"Of course I didn't assume that, I very much so didn't even want to think of that possibility because the thought of you with anyone else now that we're together tears off a piece of my heart, but I knew it would be unfair to assume that you hadn't run into someone who noticed the absolute wonder that you are and was able to offer you comfort and solace amidst your parents' fighting that I couldn't because I was stuck on another continent." I whispered. It was definitely whispering, but it sort of felt like I was yelling at the same time.

"I don't just open up to people like that Jack, you were and are the only one I could ever talk to about things like this. Of course I didn't seek comfort. All I wanted was you. That's why I want to marry you, you complete twat."

"You are the second person whose called me that this week."

"Who else called you a twat?" She asked, instantly distracted from our fight.

"Jane."

"Jane."

"When she thought I would cheat. And then when I told her there were children in the house and to watch her language she called me the same word in French."

"She's so wonderfully smart. I am so proud of the young lady she's become."

"As am I. She's going to grow up to be a brilliant doctor some day."

"Indeed. Perhaps Mac might take her under her wing at the hospital, a sort of apprenticeship after she graduates and before she's off to medical school."

"I think they would both love that."

"Hmm." She took a deep breath. "Where were we?"

"I believe you were calling me a twat."

"Right. Jack... I don't know how you don't see it."

"How I don't see what, exactly?"

"You're far too good for me, and you make me better and on top of all of that you don't expect me to change. I love that, that you don't expect me to become a different person, I do, but Jack, you don't seem to have noticed that I have become a different person. And that person doesn't see anyone but you." I rubbed my hand across my face, covering my mouth, unsure of what to say.

"Phryne, that's how I feel about you. Every bit of it. You have made me a better man and you have changed me for better or for worse. You are far too good for me, and to clip your wings would be... I don't ever want to do that." She stepped forward and entwined herself in my arms.

"So don't." She murmured, nestling her face in the crook of my neck and kissing me lightly there. "But know that my freedom and independence, have nothing to do with my sleeping around Jack. That isn't something I want any part of. Not now. Not when I can have you." She smiled like a cat that had just spotted a bowl of cream. "Speaking of things I want..." I grinned, recognizing the look on her face.

"Yes, dear?" I leaned forward to place my lips on her sweet skin.

"What I want..." She bit her lip coyly. "Is to go upstairs and get changed so I can meet your mother and father and sister Liz properly." She stepped away from my embrace and I felt the entire world around me grow starkly cold. What.

"Phryne,"

"Also, this conversation isn't over. We need to revisit the part where I know nothing about your family because that is seriously not okay with me. You never mentioned them. Not once, and so I assumed you didn't have one, or that they weren't important to you, or a number of things, not one of them being that you had a small herd of people who are desperately important to you whom I've never had the fortune to meet. I detest that, Jack, and we will discuss it."

"Yes, dear." I cleared my throat and reached down to adjust myself. "We'll also discuss you doing this to me and then just walking away. I'm rather feeling that I detest that as well."

"Don't be absurd. I'm no tease."

"No? My pants suggest otherwise."

"Jack, you should know better than anyone, its the long, drawn out emotions, that yield the highest highs."

"Are you comparing my erection to our romantic relationship?"

"Of course!" I shook my head as she, giggling madly scurried up the stairs. "I'd take care of that before we go see your mother if I were you!" She called down after herself. She may insist that she'd changed in some regards, and I believed her. But at the end of the day, Phryne would be Phryne.

And God did I love her.


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