A/N: I am so sorry. This should have been up months ago.

Ch 4

"Back soon." Fran said as she walked out of the shop. It was the second last day and she felt that Bernard could be…trusted; no…not trusted…well at least Bernard would not hurt Charlie. Hopefully.

And besides, she would only be gone for an hour.

"Bye Fran!" Charlie waved after her with his smile blazing.

Bernard waited for the door to shut to ask;

"So what's for lunch?"

Charlie looked at him in a confused manner but his smile never faltered.

"I don't know. Whatever Fran brings back I suppose."

Bernard looked up from his book with a single eyebrow cocked.

"What?"

"Fran. Whatever she decides to get. Why?"

Bernard slammed his book closed and knocked his head back laughing.

"Did she not tell you? You make the lunch."

Charlie thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright then." He dropped his broom and headed for the kitchen. "What would you like?"

Bernard stood up and followed Charlie behind the curtain.

"Pasta." He said and then, as he turned to shut the curtain, began to laugh manically.

None of the customers seemed to find it odd.

"So where is the pasta?" Charlie asked.

Bernard sat down in the chair across from the television and stared at the young man.

"The pasta aisle of Londis I'd assume."

Charlie turned and frowned.

"Do you not have any pasta here?"

"Why do you ask?" Bernard frowned back.

Charlie shook his head as if trying to put everything back in place.

"Well, you asked for pasta, didn't you?" He continued smiling.

Bernard was reading a book and looked up at Charlie with a look of shock. He widened his eyes.

"What are you doing in here?" He gestured to the shop. "We could be being robbed by the reanimated corpse of Clint Eastwood and we would be none the wiser."

"But…Clint Eastwood isn't dead."

"Have you not seen 'Planet of the Apes'?"

Charlie shook his head to fix it again and then laughed,

"Of course!"

"Then you'll know that the monkeys gut and skin Clint Eastwood after he discovers the statue." He turned the page of his book.

Charlie, yet again, shook his head in confusion.

"Wait, that doesn't happen and Clint Eastwood isn't in 'Planet of the Apes'."

Bernard shook his head and sighed.

"You must have blanked it out."

"But even if he was, that was just a movie. Clint Eastwood isn't dead."

Bernard just laughed again.

"Why of course he is! Why else do you think all the rabbits are in mourning?"

Charlie's jaw dropped and he tried to wrap his head around what Bernard had said. He decided to just let it go and buy some pasta.

"I'm going to go buy the pasta. Do you need anything else?"

Bernard waved Charlie away.

"Don't forget to look out for him." He called after the young man.

"I'm back." Came the chirpy voice from within the shop.

Bernard grinned evilly. He stood up and walked into the shop.

"Well hello." Bernard said sternly. "And what time do you call this, then?"

Charlie looked puzzled.

"Oh, I don't know, two o'clock?"

"Well I think maybe you should know what time it is before you come waltzing back in here after leaving the shop unattended for almost twenty minutes."

"But you were here."

Bernard's heart leapt. Charlie's smile had become slightly less wide with this last statement. It had begun.

"But what if I had decided to leave? What then? The shop would have been left unattended all because you wanted to buy something that undoubtedly has something to do with smiling."

"Well," Charlie said. "then you would have been the one to leave the shop unattended. Because you were the one who left it when there was no one to look after it."

"I would never leave my shop unattended." Bernard said as if Charlie had implied he ate puppies.

"Look, I'm going to go make the pasta now. You'll eat it and then we can get back to selling books." Charlie said this with the slightest bit of frustration in his voice.

As he walked past Bernard into the kitchen the shop owner smiled his own smile. A drunk, devious smile.

He stepped in after Charlie and watched as boy began filling a pot with water. Bernard stood and stared for three minutes until the pasta was ready to be taken out. Charlie took out a sieve from beneath the sink. It took almost another three minutes to try and removed the caked on food.

As he was about to pour the pasta into the sieve Bernard sauntered over and watched over Charlie's shoulder.

"Are you alright?" He asked Bernard.

"You know that if any of the pasta was to miss that sieve," He stared into Charlie's eyes. "if it was to fall onto the floor or into the sink, you know that it would be inedible. The whole lot would be spoiled."

Charlie blinked.

"W-why is that?"

Bernard just looked at the sieve. Charlie went to pour the pasta when a sudden feeling came over him.

He felt that something was telling him not to miss the sieve. Something was warning him that if he missed the sieve, that if any of the pasta was to hit anything other than the sieve, he would be in danger. He didn't know why but he feared the task before him.

Bernard smiled. He knew that look on the boy's face. That was the look that would appear on Manny's face whenever he was asked to do something. It was a pleasant look for Bernard to see.

The pot was tipped. The pasta began to move. Water poured from the pot through the sieve. And Bernard coughed.

Charlie wasn't sure which hand it was that slipped. He didn't know if it was the one with the pot or the one with the sieve. All he knew was that before he could realize what had happened one little piece of pasta missed the sieve and landed in the filthy porcelain sink. He had been so tense and worried, that one little cough had sent a jolt through him.

"Alright then, back to the shop." Was all the Irish man said.

"I'm sorry." Charlie mumbled.

"It was a mistake anyone could have made." Bernard said, picking up a packet of cigarettes. "Apart from me. I know better."

Charlie sighed. He put down the pot and the sieve and took a deep breath. Bernard laughed evilly in his head when he saw this. The young ones are always the best spirits to break.

"Yes, lets go…sell…books." Charlie sulked across the room towards the curtain.

Yes, that's right, sulked. Oh what a sight to behold. With a maniacal smile Bernard followed the young man into the shop.

Though not before snatching up a lollypop and asking,

"Have you ever seen Kojac?"