Charlie groaned as he awoke in his bed the following morning, he did not remember getting home the night before or was it morning he thought to himself as he tried unsuccessfully to block out the pounding in his head that felt as though a whole score of the high school cheerleaders were dancing inside his head.

Groaning again he rolled to one side as he tried to sit up and realised that as the blanket slid back that he was naked beneath the blanket, leaning forward he thought the morning could not get any worse until he heard movement behind him on the bed and a muffled voice.

"Good morning….I thinks?"

Turning his head a bit too sharply and causing a throbbing pain to pulsate through his temples, Charlie stared aghast at the body in the bed next to him.

"W…w...what are you doing in my bed?"

"Well that's nice, you drag into your bed when I brought you home and now you play the prude, tut tut, I would never have thought it considering what a beast you were last night. Mind you considering the shy little book worm look that you seem to have perfected that you would not have such a wild thing in bed that you were."

As she spoke Mary sat up but at least had the decency to hold the blanket up against her breasts as she sat up and Charlie saw with horror that she also was naked beneath the sheets. He moved a little to one side as she leaned towards him and tried to kiss him upon the lips.

"Umm we can't do this!"

"That wasn't what you were saying last night Charlie and after your fight with that prospect from Rogue River that tried to besmirch my honor, I felt that you deserved a prize for standing up for me so valiantly."

"What fight, I never was in any fight."

"Oh I have to beg to differ as would the state of your face that is going to be one beauty of a shiner when it comes out fully but at least your lip is not split so badly, at least not as badly of the prospects lips, you split both of his. I think the sons are certainly going to be keeping an eye on you in the future, I can tell they were impressed with you last night, was not that impressed when we got there with Half Sack but after the fight they were than a little impressed. Especially Tig and Happy, they made quite a bit of money on you."

As Mary had spoken of his injuries he had lifted one of his hands up to his face and gingerly felt his lip, hissing at the pain it caused and then moved it further up towards his eye, hissing again as his hand touched just beneath it. Feeling the urge to pass water as well as assessing the true damage he staggered to the bathroom forgetting for a moment that he was naked until he heard Mary giggle and with his face blushing like a tomato he moved even faster to the small bathroom across the hall from his room and slammed the door to hide his embarrassment.

No sooner had the door shut then his mother made her presence known in room, handing a mug of coffee to Mary and placing another onto his bedside table. Not taking any notice at all of Mary's undressed state or the fact that she was in his bed.

"Well how is he? Did he fall for our little joke?"

Mary giggled a little as she looked at Charlie's mother and smiled a huge grin at her as she questioned whether or not he had fallen for Mary's speech about how wild he had been the night before, she knew Mary had not spent the night in his bed and had in fact helped the young woman to drag his sorry ass up the stairs into his bed and while she had pointed Mary to the spare room she had undressed her son and put him to bed.

"Oh yeah he fell for it."

"Oh good, he does need to loosen up a little bless him, I love him but sometimes he is so straight-laced like that idiot of a father of his."

The sound of the bathroom door opening alerting both Mary and Charlie's mother to the fact that he was now emerging from the bathroom now fully covered having grabbed his bathrobe that had been hanging on the back of the door although he could have sworn that he had not left it in the night before.

"Mother, what are you doing in here?"

"It is my house Charles and if anything perhaps you would like to introduce me to this young lady in your bed and then explain to me what exactly she is doing in your bed."

"I…I….It's not what you're thinking?" Charlie stuttered.

"Oh and what would that be Charlie?"

She asked arching an eyebrow at her squirming son as he stood before her twisting his fingers behind his back like an errant schoolboy who had been caught out by his parent, well he had been caught out by his parent and he was desperately trying to think how he was going to get out of this mess. As he started to panic even more with how he was going to explain to his mother what Mary was doing in his bed he was startled to hear laughter and giggling coming from the two females who were in the room with him.

"Oh son if you could just see your face." His mother laughed.

"What?"

"I know what is going on although obviously you do not. Mary brought you home last night and while I put you to bed, she went and slept in the spare bedroom but we both thought it would be good for you to think she had slept in here."

"But why?"

Charlie's mother walked towards him and reached up to give him a gentle pinch on his face before continuing.

"Because you are too straight laced like you're no good father. There is coffee on you bedside table and breakfast is on the table downstairs in the kitchen, I expect to see you both down stairs in ten minutes to eat…understood."

Turning she looked at Mary before leaving the two of them to it, they could still hear her laugh as she went down the stairs to the kitchen.

Charlie sat on the bed staring at Mary who was still grinning at his discomfort at having thought he had been caught by his mother.

"You Bit…" he started to say.

However before he could say much more Mary leaned forward and kissed him deeply.

"You're welcome." She murmured against his lips.