A month passed. Shane went back to work, Erin was still AWOL and Phoebe became an almost honorary housewife. She would go to work, come home to cook, clean and wash. She'd would help Shane pack and call him up while he was away. She did everything that Erin should be doing. But she was mostly likely in Paris, already fluent in French. It was in the middle of attempting to bake a cake for the fisrt time in twelve years when the phone rang. Phoebe answered, leaving a slightly yellow mixture on the back of it when she picked it up.

"Hello this is Phoebe."

Over the years she'd grown accustomed to taking calls like this, even when she lived alone she could never shake the habit. Such was the curse of having a twin sister.

"Well I know it's you. I'd be bloody surprised if Erin answered."

She couldn't help but smile at hearing her mother's voice. Julie Glen was British and even though she'd grown up hearing her say things like "bloody and bugger " It had seemed out of place since Phoebe was about six and all her friends started to notice that her mom was different.

"Hey Mom. What's up?"

"I just had a phone call of some deliquent calling himself Harper. Harper? I ask you? I knew a boy called Harper in school, but that was his last name, not his bloody first. Do you know him?"

"Harper Lions, one of Erin's friends."

"Well I know that. He sounded a bit...odd to me."

In Julie's terms, odd meant gay and she wasn't wrong. Harper was extremly camp. If memory served, his real name was Thomas Jones. But he'd once remarked that no one was ever going to get noticed with a name like that.

"Seems he's heared from the runaway bride. She wants her things from here. Wouldn't say where she was. I think it's safe to say that she's settled somewhere for awhile now."

Forgetting about her covered hands, Phoebe rubbed her forehead. "Shit."

"I know." Julie replied with a heavy sigh. "I think you should tell Shane. Break it to him gently."

An hour later, Shane arrived home. He found Phoebe was cleaning up after her baking disaster with dried cake mixture in her hair.

"Hey, any calls while I was gone?" he asked, as hopeful as always.

She shook her head and carried on cleaning.

"None at all? Not even off your Dad?"

Phoebe stopped, she turned to face Shane and leaned back on the sink, biting her lip. That gave her away. Shane had come to learn just as much about her as she had about him.

"Phoebe tell me what's wrong." He said, his voice shaking slightly. "It's Erin, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It is. The thing is...."

"The thing is what?"

"The thing is, Erin's sent to my Mom's for some of her things. It doesn't like she's not coming back for awhile."

The last sentance seemed to hang in the air. It seemed to take awhile for it to sink in. Shane eventually nodded slowly and shrugged.

"Oh well."

"It doesn't mean she never will." Phoebe said, trying to sound convincing.

But all Shane replied with was "It doesn't matter."