Check it out. 24 hours later – boo yah. You didn't believe me when I said I was declaring war, did you? Well, battle has commenced. ;-)

Not much happens here, but I did want this scene to happen, so it has. Enjoy.

Chapter Fourteen

"Your Dad's nice," Jess said to Becker as they left the dining room after breakfast.

"Ted, you mean?" Becker said teasingly.

Jess rolled her eyes, and he shrugged. "He's okay – he's… well he's not on the same level as my Mum, but he's not exactly what you'd call a doting father," Becker said as they walked across the foyer. "He's not very good with kids."

Jess smiled but didn't comment, though she'd noted how uncomfortable he'd been with Millie and Jake.

"We barely saw him when we were kids, because he was working all the time," Becker continued. "And he's never really made an effort since he retired." He said it matter-of-factly, but Jess couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. She was really close to both her parents… but then it had always only been just the three of them, whereas the five Becker kids had each other.

The wedding was just over two hours away, so Carrie had disappeared to start getting ready and her sisters had gone with her. Jess knew that none of them were being bridesmaids – Carrie was keeping things low key, and just had Millie and Olivia as bridesmaids, and her best friend as her maid of honour. Francis was apparently doing the same – his brother was his best man, and Ross was a groomsman, but that was it.

Apparently Becker's mother, who had had six bridesmaids, did not approve.

Jess hadn't seen the rooms where the wedding was taking place yet, but activity on the other side of the foyer gave away where it was – they were wheeling chairs through and carrying boxes of champagne glasses into a corridor off of the foyer. Jess looked through an open doorway near this corridor and saw that there were several free-standing boards near the back wall, covered in photographs. She stopped walking and peered in curiously – in the centre board was a large picture of Carrie and Francis.

"What's that?" She asked Becker.

"I think that's where we're having drinks before the reception," Becker said.

Jess peered into the room and saw that it was empty of staff. There was a bar in the corner and a long table with champagne and wine glasses on it, so she guessed Becker was right about the drinks. She looked back at Becker. "Let's have a look," she said.

Becker hesitated in the doorway. "I think they're still setting up," he said.

Jess smirked. "You're such a soldier, unable to break the rules," she said. "Would it help if I made it an order?"

Becker rolled his eyes and followed her into the room.

Jess wandered over to the picture boards. The middle board, the one with the larger picture of Carrie and Francis, had lots of pictures of the two of them together. Ross was in quite a few of them, and the rest of the kids and Becker's sisters. Jess spotted a picture of Becker with Francis, Carrie and Mindy which looked like it had been taken in the past year or so. The board to the right had photos of Francis on it – some recent, some very old; there were picture s of him as a kid and even as a baby. Jess grinned and moved over to the left-hand board, which was full of pictures of Carrie instead. Jess' eyes fell on a picture of Becker. He was sitting on a sofa holding a baby, smiling for the camera. Jess looked round at Becker behind her.

"Who is that you're holding?" She asked him, pointing to the photo.

He stepped up right behind her to look at the picture, and he smirked. "That's not me," he said. "That's my Dad – and he's holding Carrie."

Jess' eyes widened. "You're kidding," she said. Becker shook his head, and Jess looked back at the picture. Now that she looked at it properly she could see that it was an older photo, obviously taken in the seventies. But he looked exactly like Becker did now… it was astonishing. "That's... wow," she said lamely.

Becker smiled and shrugged. He looked past her and his smile turned into a grin. "If you like this photo, you'll love that one," he said, pointing to one. Jess looked, and her jaw dropped. It was a picture of all the Becker siblings together as kids – they looked like they were on holiday somewhere, and were sitting on a wall eating ice creams and grinning for the camera. The girls were all teenagers by the looks of it, but little Becker was only about five, and it was like it was a picture of Jake.

"Oh my god," she said, peering closely at the picture. She shook her head. "I've heard the phrase spitting image before… but that is something else." She grinned. "We'll have to get a picture of the three of you together today."

Becker rolled his eyes again, and Jess looked at the photo, looking past Becker's resemblance to his nephew and just seeing it as a photo of Becker as a kid. He had chocolate ice cream smeared round his mouth and his grin was missing a tooth. He was so adorable. She wondered if his own kids were going to look like him, or if they would take after their mother. Whoever that would be.

Jess bit her lip and focused on the other pictures, pushing he r thoughts away from dangerous territory.

XXX

Becker glanced at the occasional photo over Jess' shoulder, but really he was watching Jess as she looked at them. He wondered if he should be embarrassed about her looking at pictures of him and his family – he'd already spotted another photo of Carrie in which he was baby wearing nothing but a nappy, and crying. He wouldn't want anyone else from work seeing these photos, but Jess was different. He didn't mind her seeing these things, learning about him. In fact he found himself wanting to share more. It felt so natural to tell her things, and in spending so much time with her the last couple of days he'd found himself opening up to her more than he'd done with anyone for a long time.

And he wasn't really sure what to do with that knowledge.

"Bring those in here – and the other two like it that are by the entrance."

Becker turned round at the sound of the voice behind them, to find a smart-looking woman had walked in, carrying a clipboard. Two men in overalls followed her, each carrying a large white vase with floral arrangements in them. She was directing them to put the flowers down by the bar, scribbling on her clipboard as she did so.

Becker looked at Jess to say that maybe they should go, but stopped when he saw that she was looking at the lady with the clipboard through narrowed eyes, as if she were annoyed about something. The two men in overalls went out the room, leaving the lady behind fussing with the flowers. Becker glanced at Jess again, and she pursed her lips. She raised an eyebrow at him and then brushed past him and walked over to the woman.

"Excuse me," Jess said brightly as she approached her. The woman looked up, and Jess gave her a big smile. "Hi there, I'm sorry to bother you – I just wanted to say the flowers look beautiful."

The woman smiled, looking pleased. "Oh, thank you," she said. "Yes, they've turned out very nicely."

Jess nodded. "The bride was telling me there was a bit of a mix-up with the roses, but it looks like it's all been sorted," she said, in a deceptively friendly tone. Becker knew it was deceptive because he'd been on the receiving end of this kind of trap a few times himself. He raised his eyebrows, wondering what Jess was up to.

The lady's smile was a little strained now, but she gave it anyway. "Yes, that was unfortunate, but luckily we were able to rush some more in," she said.

"Do you have a card?" Jess asked her. The lady's smile became more genuine and she flipped her papers aside to get out a business card from a pocket on her clipboard.

"Of course – here you go!" She said cheerfully.

"Thanks," Jess said, taking the card and reading it. "Sophie and Margo's Occasion Flowers… which are you?"

The lady grinned. "I'm Sophie," she said, holding out her hand.

Jess shook it, grinning back. "I'm Jess," she said. "You know I'd think, being a small business, you'd want to be more careful about the way you treat your customers."

Jess was still smiling, and her voice was still cheerful, so it took a couple of moments for Sophie to catch on to what she'd said. She frowned as Jess let go of her hand. "I… excuse me?"

"Carrie ordered the flowers over two months ago, including the yellow roses, so either you knew in advance that you wouldn't have them and lied to her, or you're just incompetent and didn't realise," Jess said, her voice now hard.

Sophie went pink. "Excuse me, but –"

"Either way," Jess continued firmly, "charging her extra for your mistake is not just bad business practice, it's bordering on malpractice."

Sophie pursed her lips and drew her shoulders back defiantly. "If Carrie had a problem with the extra cost, she should have said so at the time," she said.

"You took advantage of a stressed out bride, and you know it," Jess snapped furiously. She glared at Sophie and twirled her business card around her fingers. "And just so you know, I intend to visit every single website that you're registered on to review the service, and let everyone know about the incompetence or the lying, whichever it was – and of course that we had to pay extra for it." She looked thoughtfully down at the card. "I'm guessing you get sixty, sixty-five per cent of your business from online bookings?" She raised a challenging eyebrow at Sophie, who was very pink now and seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Of course, if you were to apologise to Carrie for the unnecessary stress and drop the ridiculous extra charge, I'm sure I could forget the whole thing," Jess said, folding her arms.

Sophie looked like she was sucking a lemon at this point, and her face was bright red. She stared at Jess for a long moment, and Jess looked back at her calmly, one eyebrow raised in a silent challenge. Eventually, she swallowed. "I suppose that the extra charge is… unnecessary," she said. Jess just tilted her head to one side, still looking at her, and Sophie's lips tightened further. "I'll talk to Carrie," she added.

Jess nodded smartly. "Good," she said. The men in overalls were back, carrying two more vases, and Jess suddenly smiled again. "They really are very beautiful flowers," she said cheerfully. Then she walked back to Becker, looking absurdly pleased with herself.

It took everything Becker had in him not to grab her and kiss her when she got close enough. He hadn't known the details of the flower fiasco, but he'd picked up enough during Jess' tirade to figure out that Carrie had been badly taken advantage of. And Jess, of course, had just cut that lady down to size with just a few choice sentences. She was amazing.

"Oh my god."

Becker looked over and saw Ronnie standing in the doorway. He didn't know how long she'd been there, but from the look of sheer enjoyment on her face, he guessed long enough to have heard most of what Jess'd said. Jess had reached Becker's side now, and he put a hand on the small of her back and guided her out of the room. He couldn't resist a glance back at Sophie as he did so – she was still pink.

Ronnie stepped back and grinned at them once they were all back in the foyer. "I wish I had filmed that," she said delightedly. "The look on her face!"

Jess shrugged, though she was still smiling. "Someone had to say something, and Carrie has bigger fish to fry," she said simply.

Ronnie grinned. "Well, I just came down to look for you to ask if you want to come and get ready with the rest of us?" She said. "Carrie's in the massive bridal suite and we're all getting dressed for the wedding in there." She looked up at Becker and pointed at him. "You're not invited."

Becker gave her a mock-hurt look before rolling his eyes and looking down at Jess to see her reaction. She looked pleased at the invitation, but gave him an uncertain look when he caught her eye, as if unsure whether he'd want her to go. Becker supposed that he should be nervous about leaving her alone with his sisters for an extended time, but the way she was handling herself he didn't think she'd have any problems with them.

"That's really sweet," she said to Ronnie after a moment. "Um…"

"Come on, Jess – you must know Hil's useless at fashion," Ronnie said with a grin.

"Please," Becker said indignantly, gesturing to his clothes, which were perfectly fine in his opinion. The two women grinned at him, and he smiled down at Jess. "Go ahead, I'll survive," he told her.

Jess smiled back and nodded to Ronnie. "Okay, let me grab my stuff and I'll join you," she told her.

Ronnie grinned again. "Great! The suite's at the end of the corridor on the third floor," she said. "I'll see you up there." She smiled at Jess and then turned the smile on Becker, who thought he saw an odd look in her eye for a moment. It was gone quickly though, and she turned on her heel and hurried across the foyer and back up the stairs.

Becker immediately turned to Jess.

"You're brilliant," he said. Then, without really thinking about it, he bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks."

Jess was blushing slightly as he pulled back, and it was enough to make him want to kiss her again. "What for?" She asked him.

Becker smiled. "For helping out my sister," he told her. "And… well, everything." She really was brilliant – no one else could have handled this weekend like her – no one.

Jess' blush darkened, and she reached up to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You're welcome," she said after a moment. She looked up at him silently for a moment before clearing her throat and starting across the foyer.

Becker swallowed and followed her.

TBC