Thanks go to Beautymarked, Thought'sPen, and Smile1 for reviewing. You three gave me some of those warm 'n fuzzy feelings.

Oh and I'm completely new at this so I guess I forgot a disclaimer on this first one of these: I own nothing but these words, although not the characters who abide in them. Well you get the point.

Tristan entered his house with a confident stride.

A confident, military stride with shoulders straight and chin up.

Left, Right, Left, Right. It's about time I left you, all right.

Tristan grimaced at his own corniness. But still, it was about time to put this all behind him.

Which is exactly what he would do as soon as he found his parents and looked into their eyes.

Where were his parents on that note?

Tristan had been gone for several months but that still wasn't a long enough time for his parents to change their routine on him. His father should be in his study, scowling down at the paper and ignoring his mother and himself. His mother was a little more unpredictable, sometimes in the garden; sometimes in her bedroom; at those endless charity events but always nursing a drink in a free hand.

Tristan was to busy scowling over memories that were springing to mind, to notice he was about to collide with a rather short woman in uniform.

"oh, excuse me," He said absent-mindedly before stepping aside.

"My fault, sir," She answered automatically before looking up at him and with a glint of recognition in her eye she said, "Ooh you must be the younger Mr. Dugrey, I recognize you from the picture in the hall."

"Tristan yes, Mr. Dugrey no thank you. Do you happen to know where I might find my parents?" Tristan answered politely.

The woman's brow wrinkled confusedly.

"Surely they told you, your parents, they went on a trip to the South of France for the month of October. They left a week ago."

Tristan tried to wipe the look of surprise out of his eyes and steeled himself for the pity he knew would come next from this woman who hardly knew him.

But as if she had read his thoughts, she shrugged her shoulders as if it was not uncommon for parents to take month long vacations without at least mentioning it to their child and said, "If you only knew some of the things my parents have forgotten to tell me in the past. There was one particularly ugly incident where they moved and when I got home from school there wasn't a person in the house."

Tristan responded to the woman's jovial tone and merry eyes with a smile but he knew that story wasn't true. Children of people who forgot important things like that didn't turn out that friendly, he should know.

"My name is Gabriella and I work for your parents and I am their house-sitter while they are gone. It's very nice to meet you Tristan, I've heard a lot about you from your parents."

Another lie, Tristan noted but found himself liking this woman more just for her efforts at trying to make him comfortable.

However it was said in such a light and natural manner that if Tristan had been a bit less suspecting, he might have believed it. That his parents actually did chat about him proudly, much less even mention him every now then.

But Tristan knew it wasn't true. As nice as this woman was, there was no way either of his parents would discuss their delinquent son with someone who worked for them or actually discuss anything with someone who worked for them for that matter.

"I was just about to make tea. Would you like some?" Gabriella asked just as the phone rang.

"Sure, I'll go start the water for it and you can answer the phone," Tristan said, not ready to talk to anyone who might recognize his voice.

Tristan filled the kettle and just as he set it down he could hear Gabriella's distressed voice in the other room. When he left the kitchen to make sure everything was alright, he found the older women sitting on their burgundy sofa wiping her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Tristan asked hoping he wasn't intruding.

"My father fell down a flight of stairs in his apartment. I knew I shouldn't let him live there all by himself. It's just that he's so stubborn about moving down here with me and I have work here and now he' s in the hospital. Oh Dios, that stubborn old man," Gabriella said in a rushed voice.

Tristan knew what it was like to be so frustrated with your parents, except he understood Gabriella's frustration came from deep caring that was evident in the tears that were filling her eyes.

"You should go and see…" Tristan trailed off as he saw her shaking her head.

"I have work."

"You have to sit and be at my house and watch my mother's plants grow," Tristan said trying to keep his tone light.

Gabriella looked at him like he was a child and said in a kind voice, "That's my work. And your mother would be furious if I left her house when I said I would watch it. And then she would fire me and I wouldn't work here at all. You might not like it here young man but I need the job."

Tristan shifted under her gaze, uncomfortable with how much she had already seemed to guess about him.

There was a pause and Gabriella tried to lighten the mood and said, "Think your mother would notice if I left and then just bought her all new plants before they get back home?"

Tristan responded with a silent grin. Of course his mother would notice, she noticed everything inconsequential and she would fire Gabriella over it.

Tristan hardly knew her and yet he felt a deep impulse to help Gabriella. Maybe it was because of the way she hadn't seemed to feel bad for him once this entire time, or perhaps how she had tried to make him feel at home in his home something that had never really been accomplished. Maybe it was because he was a little in love with the idea of this functioning relationship between father and child.

Tristan took and deep breathe and said, "Go to your father. My parents don't need a house-sitter." He shook his head and continued even though she was already starting to argue, "They don't need a house-sitter because I am home and it is my house and I plan on staying until they get back. My parents have never assigned me a babysitter before and I don't plan on having on now," he finished in a joking tone.

Gabriella looked uncertain.

"Are you sure it's no trouble?"

Tristan gave her a smile, the one that always fooled everyone, and said, "of course it's no trouble. I mean why else would I come all the way home if I hadn't planned on staying for awhile?"

Soon after he had called a cab for her and wished the best for her father, Tristan was alone in his house. Mansion. Whatever.

He took a deep breathe.

He felt good about helping Gabrielle.

However he wished she hadn't looked into his eyes as she was getting into the cab and said, "Promise me if you decide to leave you'll call me and I will come back to the house. This is important."

Tristan had promised because he wasn't going to let her not go to her father.

And he knew he would stay at his house, in his town, for the next three or so weeks because he wasn't going to have Gabriella's job in jeopardy.

The only thing Tristan didn't know was how he was going to survive the next three weeks.