"You know," Rimmer whispered tenderly into Dave's ear after a while, "You can go to sleep if you want. I can see you're tired and, well, I know you were with someone else before I came in."

"Yeah. It's busy tonight," Dave said wearily, "But I suppose I should be grateful. It's all money, right?"

"It won't be this way for much longer," Rimmer said, "I promise you." Dave smiled, humouring him, "I forgot. You're going to take me away from all this, aren't you?"

"As soon as I think of a way," Rimmer said seriously.

"I don't mean to sound sceptical, man, but the dude who was in here before you just now is a TV producer – at least that's his story - and he's been promising to make me a star for about two and a half months now. And I'm still here."

"We agreed I'm different, remember?" Rimmer said, slightly hurt.

"You certainly are that," Lister admitted, smiling.

Rimmer felt depressed. It was bad enough imagining Dave's previous client as a gorgeous hunky type without hearing that he was a TV producer and a regular customer. "Is he nice to you?" he asked, not sure why he felt the need to rub salt into this wound. "Depends how you look at it," Dave said, "He's full of sweet talk but once the clothes come off he's a bit of a creep. Not aggressive or anything, just a bit...yeuch." Dave shuddered to illustrate the point, "He probably went past you on the way out. Dark blue suit, walrus moustache?" Rimmer had seen him. Piggy eyes and not so much a beer belly as a whole brewery belly. Somehow that made him feel even worse than if it had been somebody painfully handsome. "He must really like you to keep coming back," he remarked guardedly. Lister snorted,

"He's full of shit. I think he's boned every guy in this place at least twice and he feeds us all the same dumb lines. He'll probably still be coming here swearing to make us famous when he's seventy-two and bald as a smegging coot."

"It doesn't matter," Rimmer said, "You won't be here to find out."

Dave turned to face him, "You really believe that, don't you? You really think you can help me."

"I don't know how yet," Rimmer admitted, "But I promise you I will."

"That seems like a fairly big promise to make," Dave told him, "It might be better for us both if you just promise to try." Rimmer shook his head,

"No deal. Trying is not good enough. I want you safely out of here and on your way home by the time my shore leave is over."

"And when's that?"

"Three weeks. Well...just under."

Lister shook his head, sceptically; "No way. Not a chance, man. You'll never get hold of that kind of money in three weeks. You're insane to even think it."

"Maybe there's another way," Rimmer mused; "Do you get time off at all?"

"Well, not exactly. I mean we're allowed out and everything, but they like us to try and stick together; and they usually send Charlie or someone else along to keep an eye on us."

"Charlie?"

Dave raised an eyebrow, "You can't run a place like this without some muscle handy. Clients can get funny sometimes. Shit happens. They're behind the scenes mostly, but they're there."

"And they send them out to watch you whenever you go anywhere?"

"It's for our protection. You know, just in case we bump into any old clients with a grudge...or something worse. We get some really freaky types in here now and then. It's just to be on the safe side."

"Uh-huh," Rimmer had his doubts but decided not to press it, "But you'll always be here if I come by at this kind of time? If I need to speak to you?"

"Or anything else," Dave grinned and chucked him lightly under the chin. Rimmer smiled and blushed. He intended to keep to his self-enforced morality and not use Dave as a sex object – well...not again, anyway – but he also had no illusions about how difficult he was going to find it. He wanted him so much, every moment of every day...But, no. He had to be strong.

There was the familiar bang on the door and they both sighed. "You know what that means," Dave said, and Rimmer thought he sounded very glum.

"I'll come back as soon as I can," he promised, getting dressed, "I'll try and be here a week from now. And hopefully I'll have a plan."

"Right," Dave said, with maybe just a hint still of scepticism. Rimmer looked at him, and the sadness in his eyes made something inside him ache. Oh, what the hell... "Is it okay if I kiss you goodbye?" he asked awkwardly. Dave smiled. He wasn't sure he'd ever quite get his head round this guy but, odd though he undoubtedly was, he was also incredibly sweet. "Sure." He tilted his face up and Rimmer leaned over to give him a chaste but tender kiss on the lips.

"Was that okay?" Dave asked teasingly when they drew apart.

"I think," Rimmer said softly in reply, "That with that I can actually bring myself to leave."