As it happened, René didn't miss Leila.
She was standing at her door, trying without success to get the key into the lock because her hand was shaking so much and because the key wasn't going in the lock, she was becoming frustrated.
She was a little shocked when René took the key out of her hand and inserted it into the lock, turning it before trying the door handle. Rather gratefully, she went in, closely followed by René. She was ghostly pale and in need of a good cry.
"I never expected to see him again. Never," she whispered, unable to speak any louder than that.
René knew the 'him' she was referring to was that Marc creature. He looked like an arsehole and he would like nothing more than to wipe the evil smirk from his face.
"What the hell am I going to do? I can't keep running away from him."
In response, René simply walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. Leila gratefully buried her head in his chest.
He could feel the frustration and annoyance in Leila which wasn't at all good. The feeling of helplessness he had wasn't good either.
As much as Leila wanted - needed - to cry to release at least some of her frustrations, she found she couldn't. Simply being held by René was enough for her to keep her emotions in check for the moment.
She had a horrible thought and stiffened somewhat and that was something that René didn't miss.
"Leila?"
She removed herself from the circle of his arms and went hunting for her bag. Once she had found it, she went looking through it for an envelope that contained something important.
"Do you think this would still apply over here?" she asked, walking over to René and handing him the piece of paper. He took it from her and glanced at it briefly before paying more attention to it.
It was a restraining order taken out on that Marc creature, although issued in France. He wasn't to be within 100 metres of Leila and Sophie or he'd be arrested for being in violation of the order. Technically, he was violating it now.
"I have no idea, to be honest. But, we could go to a police station tomorrow and see what they have to say. How about that?"
Leila nodded in agreement. It would have to wait until the morning after all. She was tired and wanted nothing more than to have a nice, warm shower and go to bed to try to sleep. Which she severely doubted she'd do.
"I'll stay here until those two get back."
Leila nodded, her attention on the television. She supposed it was a good thing that René was staying until Sophie and Sylvan returned, because she wouldn't be on her own, and that would be when she'd be at her most vulnerable.
"Who took that out on him?"
"My parents. After what he did, he was hassling me, hassling Sophie, hassling Thomas, wouldn't leave any of us alone and it got to the stage where my parents told his that they were going to take that out on him. His parents were fine with it. We still talk to his parents. We just don't talk to him."
René nodded in understanding.
"Shit. I should tell my parents, shouldn't I?" Leila asked, looking at René. "They've got a right to know."
"If you want to phone them, you can. I'll be here regardless."
Leila nodded and pulled out her laptop, switching it on and waiting for it to boot up before connecting to the net.
"Before you ask, I've worked it out that it's cheaper for me to chat this way instead of using my yuppie phone. They should be online now."
There was no way that René was going to argue with Leila on that one. She was obviously more technology savvy than himself and he was quite content to sit back and watch her fingers move all over the keyboard. She seemed to be quite good at typing because she would spend most of her typing time looking at the TV, let alone paying any attention to the keyboard on her laptop!
A few minutes later, she swore several times.
"What?"
"Something tells me that my parents are seriously considering getting on the next plane heading this way. Ah, me and my big mouth."
"It's not that big!"
"You obviously haven't seen me really eat. Put food in front of me and I'll eat it."
A few minutes later, Sylvan and Sophie turned up, Sophie looking a little worse for wear herself.
"He hassled her a bit," Sylvan explained. "And I've taken the liberty of arranging to have our stuff moved into here."
"We're big enough and ugly enough to look after ourselves, Sylvan. I do have a black belt in karate after all." Leila pointed out to Sylvan. It was clear that she didn't like this one iota.
"And you two need protection from this Marc creature. He'll probably try to get the two of you alone and if we're around, he won't be able to do that."
Leila visibly folded. She sighed as she sank onto her bed, burying her face in her hands. But something told René that Sylvan did mean well by saying what he said. The twins were at risk of being attacked again and they needed someone to look out for them - if not their parents or brother, then La Resistance would do the job.
"If you don't want us to stay in here for the night, then speak up now, especially you, Leila."
Uh oh. Leila's face was starting to resemble either that of a Russian solider or a thunderstorm - either way, it didn't look pretty. She was clearly very annoyed.
René showed Sylvan the restraining order.
"We're going to see if this will still apply over here tomorrow. Technically, he's in breach of it but whether it has any jurisdiction over here … we don't know. We won't know until tomorrow."
"Cheer up Leila," Sophie whispered. She had been hunting through one of Leila's suitcases and had brought out a rather large bottle of alcohol. "I'm sure Jim Beam will help you forget about him temporarily."
As soon as she heard the magic words 'Jim Beam', Leila visibly brightened.
"But we don't have any Coke and I can't drink that on its own. Slyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Leila turned around and looked at Sylvan.
"If I give you $20, will you get as much Coke as you can get with it for me?"
"Certainly, chérie. It will be my pleasure."
Leila laughed as she held out what she thought was a $20 note for Sylvan to take then noticed the funny look on his face.
"I don't think they'd accept a €20 note somehow."
"Whoops!" Leila took back the €20 note and gave Sylvan a $20 instead. He took it and left the three of them alone, to eye up the bottle of Jim Beam. In the meantime, Sophie booted up the laptop again and set their music to play.
Things appeared to be normal but underneath her happy façade, Leila was nervous. Nervous about Marc and what he could possibly do while he was there.