**For authors notes, summary etc see chapter 1**

Changes

Changes 51 - Office away from office

I'm standing in the middle of what will be my new home office and at the minute all there is a desk with a computer on it and, not even a chair for me to sit on at the computer. I spent nearly 3 hours in staples with Gerry on Tuesday night and now everything is due to be delivered within the hour. I will admit I went a bit mad, I mean this is somewhere I'm going to spent a lot of time once the babies get here and I want it to be an efficient working space. It's Friday and I've taken the day off to be here for the delivery arriving and I'm quite excited. I've promised Gerry I'll not try to move any of the larger pieces of furniture until he gets home this afternoon but I have pin boards and white boards and a large map of London and all sorts of other small things I can be sorting out so that we're ready just to move the book cases, filing cabinet and large work table into place and my chair which is on wheels so I can move from the computer to the desk. I love it all and there's also a huge box of stationery arriving everything from pens to drawing pins and everything in between. I know right now you're thinking I'm some sort of head case and that pregnancy has affected my mind but I have always wanted a home office and never had the room nor a good enough reason to have one so now that I do I'm planning on enjoying decorating it!

When I'm in work I've managed to arrange my office so everything I need is right there so on those days when I'm stuck in it wading through paperwork I never need to feel like I've just got into something and it's the way I want it here too I've already made it clear to the boys that I still want to be in charge of making sure the time sheets and weekly reports are done mainly because I still remember the number of yearly audits that we had to blag when the unit first started and I will not go back to that again. Oddly enough, since they all hate paperwork, they agreed to that without even the hint of a fight and I've also said I want the files home that we never seem to get through so I can go over them all the see which ones we really could be doing something with and which I need to tell Strickland are complete no goers. They're less pleased about that since they know when I have lots of time to look at files properly there's a chance they won't get to cherry pick the way they like to but they should know me well enough to know I'll not send them out to work on anything too boring or too impossible!

"Thanks boys just put everything in the big room at the top of the stairs and I'll sort it out from there." There are four young men marching past me with various parts of my office in hand and all I can say is it's as well Gerry isn't here he'd have frog marched me into the other room and closed the door till they all left. It doesn't matter how often I tell him that I only have eyes for him he is always jealous if we come in contact with younger men and with four of them now two feet from our bedroom door he'd be ready to pass out. I wonder sometimes what he takes me for and when we were first together it was a constant argument between both of us I was convinced he'd meet some leggy 21 year old and leave me and he was convinced I'd decide I didn't love him at all and I'd rather go back to my old life of freedom as he put it, but we got past it and we've accepted each other for what we are when it comes to our petty jealousies but it doesn't mean I can't be amused by the thought of his reaction.

Now that I'm alone again looking round all the stuff as it sits in piles around the floor I'm even more pleased with it than I was when we first picked it. With the radio playing in the background I'm busy putting things on the walls and sorting the stationary into piles and storage baskets ready to be put on the shelves when he gets home and I know every single choice was right. With this room that is mine where I can still feel like I'm using my brain and my hard earned skills I'll love every day away from work and the two little blue dragons that I've just set on the corner of my desk mark it out as a perfect place for the bumps to share with me, it's ours that little space in the house where they can nap and while they do I can still be my old delve and it's perfect! The complete office away from office.