Author's note: I hope people don't mind a further sojourn into Leo's mind in this chapter. I actually feel a bit sorry for him as he's not a bad guy, he just married someone who was in love with someone else. If anyone has any thought as to what Assumpta's 'explanation' to Leo is then I'd love to hear - I'm finding it difficult to square her being totally frank (which is what I want!) with Leo's actions in Amongst Friends, though of course he may just be grieving. Leave me a comment in the reviews :)


Leo - late September 1998

Leo looked at the priest who looked back at him; they held each other's gaze and Leo said again:

"I think I'm on a hiding to nothing unless you say otherwise."

It'd been a long couple of weeks since he'd seen Assumpta at the church with the priest at midnight, and his mind had gone into overdrive. She hadn't mentioned it the next day, her late night rendezvous, and he hadn't asked, but he had been watching her; watching her and wondering if the real problem with their marriage wasn't the pub's turnover, or that he didn't love Ballykissangel like she did, or even his jokes, but the priest.

It would explain some of why things weren't working between them and why, when they were here in Bally K, she seemed to hold him at arms length, whereas in London things had been different. It would also explain why she'd come to London with him in the first place, especially after initially saying no; had she been running away from him then? He had wondered at the time if she'd had her heart broken, especially the first day or so, but they'd so quickly fallen back into a relationship that it hadn't seemed necessary to probe further.

He refocused his gaze on the priest who was looking at him uncomfortably and almost guiltily. He definitely knew what Leo meant, he could tell that, and he wanted an answer, he wanted to know what was going on.

"Last chance now Father."

What exactly he was expecting the priest to say, he didn't really know, but he wanted him to say something, even to deny it and tell him he was crazy. Maybe he was crazy. Did he really think Assumpta was having an affair with a Catholic priest? It was absurd. And he probably didn't think they were having a physical affair, though his mind had gone through some dark scenarios when he'd seen her coming out of the church, but emotionally his wife was unavailable to him and he believed that that was caused by the priest in some way.

To his credit, the priest didn't drop his gaze but neither did he deny anything. They just looked at each other, man to man, until Leo decided he'd seen enough; that he needed to leave it there and think.


Assumpta, late September 1998

"There's a perfectly good man walking out of your life! Did you even lift a finger to try and stop him?"

Niamh was angry with her, but also clearly concerned. Assumpta loved her, but she knew that, without all of the facts, Niamh couldn't understand what was going on. And right now didn't seem the time to acquaint her of all the facts, especially the bit about her being in love with a priest. It still frustrated her though, it was Leo who had walked not her.

"He didn't want stopping."

That was the truth; sort of. Leo had said he was leaving, he'd said she was emotionally unavailable and that he knew she didn't love him. They were not accusations you made lightly; he'd made up his mind.

"That's not the way it looked to me"

Niamh, always seeing the good, the romantic in people. Maybe she was right, maybe he had wanted her to fight for him to stay. But she couldn't; what could she say? He was right, it wasn't working because she wasn't in love with him; she was in love with Peter. Earlier in the week, she'd been talking with Siobhan who'd just assumed that she was on the road to babies and family with Leo and it had unsettled her, even spooked her, that that was what everyone was expecting; but then, just earlier that day, she'd seen Peter with Kieran, and it felt like that first day of spring after winter; it was hopeless. She'd fought it for so long and, if anything, being with Leo had just shown her the depths of what she felt for Peter.

"Have you two talked? Have you even spoken to him about how you feel?"

Niamh was on the money; she and Leo hadn't talked, not properly. They'd been bickering and arguing for weeks but then something changed for Leo, she'd seen him watching her, like he was trying to work something out. And then tonight, after that moment with Peter and Kieran in the kitchen, he'd drunk too much and then told her in bed that he was leaving in the morning. An instant marriage and an instant separation. Fitting really.

"The least he deserves is an explanation."

Assumpta sighed. Niamh was right again. Leo did deserve something more from her, an explanation of some kind. He had walked, but she'd given up, almost the minute she'd arrived back in Ballkissangel. Leo deserved better than that; he was a decent guy, a good man, and he loved her, of that she was sure. He just loved her a lot more than she loved him.

"Yeah you're right, you're right. He should have an explanation."