A/N: OK. My apologies...again. I said this was a two part story. It is now a three part story.

But there is a good reason for that. You see, I started a new job!

Now, this isn't just a new job, folks. It's a whole new career. I am going from 21 years in the tech field to crisis counseling, which is another of my degrees. And if you think that is easy at my rather advanced age...think again! But I have always lived by the reasoning: age is just a number...unless it helps you get discounts and seats on a bus. Then it is totally real.

So, here's the deal.

Is this story complete? Yes.

Will I post the completed story? Yes.

Will I post the completed story any time soon? More so than you know. Due to my varied and often times just plain crazy work schedule, I decided to post all three chapters of this story at once. So, consider it sort of a reverse birthday present. And yes, my birthday is coming up this week. The big 6-0 for me.

In the meantime, again, this chapter has all the stress of a sloth on anti-anxiety medication, or that person from back in Part I who is still in the coma.

So all in all, enjoy.

LET'S GET DRUNK - Part II

Apparently being something of an expert in getting drunken people into bed, Ms. Audrey seemed to easily have the whole of the matter shorted out in under fifteen minutes.

Appearing perfectly calm as she stepped out of the bedroom, casually brushing herself off, she stopped in front of Layton. Pointing a stern finger at him she stated, "Twelve days! No talking to your friends! No phone calls. No cards."

Leaving a forlorned looking Layton, she stopped in front of Knox next, who was looking very apprehensive at this point.

"Twelve work credits! Same time applies!" She stated before moving on.

Knox looked appalled. "Per pint?!"

Ms. Audrey stopped and backed up until she was standing in front of Knox again. Her trademark smile now gracing her lips. "The price goes up for every stupid question you ask me." She replied in a falsely sweet voice.

Knox snapped his lips tightly together.

Walking past Alexandra, Ms. Audrey gave her cheek a gentle pat. "Look after your mom, sweetheart." She said, then added with a stern glance at the two men, "And her two idiot friends."

Alexandra gave her a please smile, but then remembered something. "But Bennett and I are driving tonight." She stated.

Ms. Audrey sighed as she turned back to Layton. For a few moments she simply studied him up and down, then sighed again.

"Do your best, Mr. Layton." She stated as she exited the cabin with all her usual elegance.

All three stood in silence for a few minutes until Knox slowly leaned around Layton, staring into the bedroom.

"You gonna be OK with her? I can get Javi to take over for Alexandra if..."

Layton quickly shook his head. "I'll be fine. I've taken care of a lot of drunk friends in my day. You two go on. Give Javiar a night off. Plus it'll give the night apprentices time to practice whatever weird song he taught them just before they ended their shift this morning so they can regale him with it at 7AM. They really enjoy doing that."

Knox gave him one last anxious look before exiting the cabin with Alexandra. While Melanie had certainly gotten drunk before in their time together, he had never seen her at quite this level.

But if nothing else, he figured Layton had height and weight on his side. So even if she tried to leave the cabin, he could likely stop her for a reasonable amount of time until she changed her mind and went on to some other activity.

Layton watched the cabin door slide shut behind the two before turning back to the bedroom. He wasn't by any means looking forward to the night. As intoxicated as she was, he doubted he'd be getting much sleep tonight.

How could someone be SO drunk and SO awake at the same time?

Walking into the bedroom, he was pleased at first to see her laying comfortably in the bed on her side. Somehow Ms. Audrey had managed to get her thermals on her and get her settled in with the covers pulled up.

Grabbing his own thermals off the chair in the bedroom, he retreated to the bathroom to finish his own routine before climbing into bed for a hopefully partially peaceful night.

But as soon as he came back to the bedroom, all hope vanished.

Sitting up cross-legged on the bed now, the covers bunched around her, Melanie sat waiting for him to come back.

"Why am I in bed?" She immediately stated.

Layton walked over to his side of the bed and sat down before turning to her over his shoulder. "Well, you were suppose to be sleeping. But that was apparently just wishful thinking on my part."

Melanie gave him a drunken giggle. "I have an idea!" She stated.

Layton shook his head. "This has literally never been the prelude to anything good this evening."

Melanie smiled at him. "Let's play 'Secrets'."

Layton returned the smile. "See. I'm right again." He stated, then switched to a more serious tone with her. "Melanie, playing 'Secrets' when you're drunk is a very bad idea."

Melanie stuck her lip out in a deep pout as she stared at him. "Come on, Layton." She whined softly. But suddenly an idea seemed to come to her as she quickly pulled up with a smile. "It'll help me go to sleep!"

Layton sighed as he turned to the ceiling, seeming to think that one over.

"All right." He finally relented. "But just one. Then you have to promise to go to bed."

Melanie quickly nodded her head. "I'll answer first!" She quickly announced, then immediately followed up with, "I'm drunk!"

Layton barely managed to stop himself from laughing. "Yeah? Well here's a secret for you." He replied past a wide smile. "That's no secret to anyone else."

Melanie gave him a drunken sort of laugh as she nearly fell over on top of him, but just managed to pull herself back up. "My turn!"

But Layton quickly shook his head. "No. No. I didn't really get to ask a question." He told her. "You volunteered information. And common knowledge at that. So that didn't count."

Melanie pouted again, but relented. "All right. Ask."

Layton paused, thinking for several seconds before asking his question. A quick idea suddenly rushed to the forefront of his thoughts. He quickly tried to push it back, knowing it wasn't really fair to asked her in her current condition, but the idea just pushed back harder.

He had asked her about it before, and she had shut down immediately, stating clearly and concisely to him that that particular question was off limits. When he had inquired why, feeling the question was, in fact, rather mundane, she had given him a vague answer, then changed the subject fast enough to cause whiplash. But he had tagged the item in the back of his mind.

He knew it was wrong.

She had stated the question was off limits.

He knew he was going to pay.

But the curiosity had been eating at him for months now, and he knew if he was ever going to get a straight answer, he felt it was when she wasn't. And he felt he was likely never going to get a chance like this again.

So with his justification firmly planted in his mind, he finally lifted his head and asked his question.

"What did you break?"

The smile that had been on her face suddenly disappeared as she paused for a movement, then returned a questioning look. "Break?"

Layton turned in the bed so he was now leaned up against the headboard, turning to face her, giving her a friendly smile as he tried to waylay any apprehension or memory she had about the question. "Before we started sharing the cabin." He explained, the smile staying firmly in place. "That one day I came down here and we had a fight. And when I left your cabin, I distinctly heard something hit the wall and shatter. What was it?"

Layton swore he never saw someone sober up so fast in his life. "It was...just a picture." She stated in a lower tone. "It wasn't anything important."

That was her standard answer. But Layton wasn't going to give up that easily this time.

"Come on." He coaxed. "You know the rules. You have to tell the truth."

"I told the truth." She replied. "It was a picture. Something I grabbed because it was available. I don't even remember what it was of."

"A picture of what?"

Melanie thought back to that day as she stared back at him, her alcohol soaked brain trying to come up with anything but the truth. How, when she had realized what she had done, she had grabbed the picture off the floor and quickly made sure, even though the glass was broken, the picture itself wasn't damaged. She had quickly brushed off the loose pieces of glass, in her panic cutting a finger slightly before she quickly judged it all right and returned it to its hiding place.

If he thought about it, Melanie was sure he would realize there had been several moments between when he stepped out of the cabin and when the picture hit the door. Meaning she had had the time to take it from its hiding place. In other words, it wasn't, in fact, a random picture she had just picked up. She had specifically gone for that picture. And it had taken her a few seconds to pull it out of where she kept it hidden. But within less than a second of it hitting the door, she had regretted allowing her anger to cause her to damage that one particular item.

A picture that meant so much to her.

Melanie turned back to the bed. She hated lying to him. Especially now. The game was sort of an unspoken tool they used to build trust. Telling each other something about themselves they wouldn't tell anyone else, believing the other wouldn't betray that trust. Sometimes one of them would inadvertently ask what seemed like an innocent question that unknowingly touched on something extremely personal. In those instances, because they both agreed trust took time, the questionee was allowed to refuse to answer, but had to give the reason. Usually it was 'That's too personal'. But the questionee was allowed to give any reason, as long as it was, by stipulations of the game, the truth. Then the 'asker' got to ask another question.

Layton studied her for a few moments. He knew she wasn't telling the whole truth. And he attributed part of that to her current condition. But he still wanted to hear her answer.

"A picture of what?" He coaxed her again in a softer voice.

Melanie paused as she turned back to him when a sudden thought that was her escape made it through the alcohol.

"I don't have to answer that." She replied. "You ask your question, and I answered it. You asked what I broke, and I told you the truth. It was a picture. You don't get to go digging for details." She stopped him from saying anything more with a quick, "My turn!"

Layton sighed with a smile. She was correct, of course. Even soaked in who knows how many ounces of alcohol, that brain of her's still ran on pure logic. The asker couldn't dig deeper after asking their question.

One question. One answer. Those were the rules.

Layton steeled himself up. The previous question seemed utterly forgotten by her behind a playfully drunken smile, and in her current condition, he had no idea what she might ask.

"OK." He said, taking a dramatic breath. "Ask."

Melanie thought for a long time. Something that only made Layton even more nervous. But suddenly she slowly turned to him, the smile disappearing and looking, he thought, almost totally sober again.

"Andre, do you love me?"

Layton froze, totally taken off guard. First by the fact it was one of the very rare times she had ever called him by his first name. Secondly, by the fact she did looked so utterly sober all of the sudden.

He had expected a standard question: Did you ever have a pet name? When was your first kiss? WHO did you first kiss? Did you ever lie to your wife? When did you decide to sneak on the train?

But not THIS!

Layton tried not to let the question be taken to personally. Regardless of how she looked, the woman WAS utterly smashed.

He gave her a friendly smile. "Can I get some clarification of that question?"

Melanie stared back at him for a moment, apparently trying to gain some focus. But she finally gave him a slight nod.

"OK. Is that a 'Do I love you'? Or is that an "Am I IN love with you'?"

Melanie frowned at him. "There's no difference." She stated.

Layton quickly shook his head. "There's a world of difference, lady. And it directly effects how I will answer the question."

Melanie tilted her head slightly as she continued to stare back at him. "How so?"

"Simple." Layton answered her with a smile. "Am I IN love with you? You are a very pretty lady, but 'no'. You're my friend. And that's exactly where I need you in my life right now."

He expected her to pout, but instead she perked up at the answer.

"I'm your friend?!"

Layton smiled at her again, amused that that was all she focused on in his answer. "Of course. And in that respect, 'Yes, I love you...as my friend'." He added for clarification.

Melanie paused as she thought about the answer.

"Is that the truth?" She finally asked in a low tone.

"Of course." Layton answered with the same smile. "Those are the rules. You have to tell the truth."

Melanie fell silent again, but then finally said, "OK."

Layton watched her for a few minutes as she sat cross-legged on the bed still. It always amazed him how she could fall into utterly silence at a moment's notice whenever something puzzled her and she simply had to work it out.

He finally looked up at her. "All right. Game's over." He reminded her. "We each got a question, and you promised to go to sleep now."

"I only promised to go to bed." She reminded him.

Layton helped her rearrange herself so she was laying down again on her side of the bed. "I'll take what I can get at this point." He lamented.

Getting her settled with the comforter and blankets snuggled around her, Layton finally looked over the situation and decided that was as good as he could make things for her right now. The real trial would come with the morning. When she had to face the consequences of her actions.

'If you're gonna play, you gotta pay.' He told himself, watching her pull the blankets around her chin.

"Good night, Ms. Cavill." He said.

Melanie grumbled at the statement. "I hate that."

"Hate what?"

"'Ms. Cavill'." She replied. "You don't love me when you call me that."

Layton gave a soft laugh as he shook his head. "All right. Goodnight, 'Melanie'."

The body on the other side smiled as it gave a soft sigh, mumbling an answer as it relaxed under the covers.

Layton sat up reading for a little while, watching over her to make sure she would be all right and maybe even manage to sleep for at least a few hours. Finally, convinced she was peacefully asleep, he carefully leaned over and gently kissed her on the head.

"And of course I love you." He whispered to her, then rolled over and pulled the covers up, finally falling asleep himself.