As August morphed into September, life both on and off set seemed to become busier. Killian was working long hours to make sure the editing team had the footage they needed not only to splice together another trailer for the new season, but also to craft the first couple of episodes before their looming premiere date.

At home, there always seemed to be a constant stream of people coming in and out of the house, making last-minute changes to any area Emma was unhappy with or otherwise meeting with his wife in her office. Killian was pretty sure Emma had explained to him what was going on, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember a word of what she'd said.

Thankfully, it seemed like the house had at least achieved one of their goals – the dogs were wonderfully happy with all of the space they now had to explore, and Killian was pretty sure they were both sleeping more than they used to in the apartment.

"That's because you're getting home so late every night," his wife explained, gently massaging some sort of lotion into her hands. "If you were here for the eleven o'clock frenzy, you wouldn't be calling them lazy."

"Well, hopefully, I'll get to see that sometime soon," Killian mused, leaning across the bed to press a kiss to his wife's lips.

When he pulled back, she hummed in contentment before she turned her attention to screwing the lid back onto her jar of hand lotion. "Speaking of you seeing that sometime soon," she began carefully, "I know you've taken a lot of time off recently for me, and I really appreciate that, but do you think you'll be able to escape early one day soon? I really need to schedule these final rounds of interviews, and I'd like you to be present for them."

"Interviews? What interviews?"

Emma shook her head fondly as she fiddled with the sheets draped over her lap. It was still much warmer in Vancouver than it would have been in London at this time of the year, and she'd been forced to banish the duvet from the room after Killian had woken in the early hours of one morning, claiming that he was slowly being boiled alive.

"Job interviews, Killian. Now that we have a better base of operations to work from, we need to start building up a team to help manage our workload."

"I thought you already had one?"

"I do," she agreed, "But a lot of those people have lives based in London. They don't want to relocate to Canada, even with the perks I offered to them. So I spoke with Anton and he suggested that the sensible option might be to have a London based team and one for here in Canada. Then we can hire someone who doesn't mind moving between the two locations to oversee them both."

"I don't mean to be difficult, Sweetheart, but surely you're better qualified to judge the applicants than I am?" he offered, pulling his wife into his arms to settle her comfortably against his chest.

"While that may be true, you're going to need to work closely with these people too. Don't you want to at least get a feel for them before I hire them?" she asked. "I really don't want to have to let someone go after only a few months because you clash with their personality. That doesn't look good for us and it won't help with our agenda either."

"Okay," Killian agreed, because he could understand wanting to get this decision right, even if he didn't fully understand why they needed an entire team of people working for them. "I'll have a word with the director tomorrow and see what I can sort out," he promised. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something soon."

"Thank you." Emma tilted her head back to press a kiss to her husband's jaw. "I love you, Baby."

"I love you too," Killian mumbled sleepily, as he reached out to flick off the bedside light and plunge the room into darkness.

A soft bark from somewhere at the end of the bed just made its way into his consciousness, and Killian called out, "Love you too, boys," before finally allowing sleep to claim him.

Finding some time to interview potential staff members was actually much easier than Killian thought it would be. He assumed the network was going easy on him given the increased ratings they'd seen when he'd first started dating Emma, but when he'd asked for an afternoon off, he was still pleasantly surprised to be told by his director that he wouldn't be needed on set the following Monday.

"Lucky git," Robin sighed, as the two of them sat in makeup the very next day, preparing for their upcoming scene together. "I'd kill for a day off soon."

"I'm not sure you'd class it as a day off," Killian argued. "Emma's planning to pack it full of job interviews. If I'm honest, I think I'd rather be here than there."

"Don't let your wife hear you say that," Robin cackled, and Killian reached out to slap his friend's arm. "Well… at least you won't have to be up at the crack of dawn," Robin pointed out.

"I dunno. I think Anton's helping her schedule the appointments and I don't think that man ever sleeps, so knowing my luck, the first one will be at the house for eight."

"Ugh. That's just unnatural."

"Agreed," Killian chuckled, leaning back in his seat to try and find a more relaxed position.

For a long minute, a comfortable silence settled between the two friends. Killian was happy to savour the rare moment of quiet while Robin scrolled through something on his phone. Eventually, he set the device down and turned back to his friend to ask, "So, how's the new house working out for you?"

"I still get lost trying to find my way to the bathroom," Killian said, because he'd definitely had a few close calls since they'd officially moved in, "But other than that, it's great. Theo and Rogan seem to enjoy having more space. Emma sent me a video of them this morning chasing tennis balls around the garden for almost an hour. We now have plenty of space for work, entertaining guests, and for the staff members that seem to come in and out all day long. But… I kinda miss the city. Is that bad?"

"Not at all. I think you sort of get used to the hot, cramped, hustle and bustle it has to offer," Robin explained. "Especially given how much time you've spent here over the past four years."

"Yeah," Killian agreed, allowing his eyes to flutter shut as his body relaxed further into the soft, buttery leather. "We did keep the apartment, though, so at least we can come back to it when we want to."

"Damn. I was gonna offer to buy that from you," Robin chuckled, quickly tacking on, "At mates-rates, you understand. Some of us don't have an entire royal family's fortune behind us."

"It's a good job we're not selling then," Killian threw back at him, before turning his attention up to Maria, who had just made her way over to him, armed with more makeup than his wife owned.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

I sent out replies for the last few chapters this weekend. I'm sorry I couldn't go back and answer them all. I figured you guys would rather have the updates instead of replies but if I missed anyone or you have a question, feel free to PM me.