Inside the cabin was silent bar the snoring
"Something stinks in here." Whispered Alice.
Dominic was still asleep in the armchair. Michael snoring lightly on the couch with Snowball the black cat, curled up by his neck and Ptery the tabby cat on his chest.
Michael fidgeted restlessly and Snowball adjusted her position against his neck, knitting her paws into his hair. Michael murmured in his sleep. "Cait. Oh yes. There, right there."
Marella smirked and nudged Cait standing beside her. "You're popular."
Cait's face reddened, "I don't want to know, I just don't want to…"
Michael stretched his legs over the arm of the couch and farted. Ptery fidgeted before curling up again
Al sniggered. "The winds of the South Mouth have arrived loud and proud."
Elaine raised her eyebrows. "Guess we know where the stench is coming from."
As Ptery made himself comfortable Michaels muttering continued. "Marella. Oh, my..."
Marella's face fell and her eyes widened. Cait grinned and nudged her. "You're popular too."
Alice fell to her knees. "Too much." She burst out laughing.
Elaine's lips quivered as she struggled to hide her own amusement. Looking at the dismayed faces of Cait and Marella was the last straw. "Sorry." She mumbled before the laughter consumed her.
The noise woke Michael, who opened his eyes sleepily, smirking at Marella and Cait. "Ladies?"
Marella giggled and glanced at Cait. "
Michael sat up, shedding cats from his person. "What is so funny?" He asked.
"You are." Laughed Cait. "I hate to ask, but what in hell were you dreaming about."
He looked startled. "Dreaming? Was I? I can't recall."
"Or are you too embarrassed to say?" Snorted Marella.
*****AW*****
Dominic stirred in the armchair. "Mamma Mia, my neck, Elaine, why did ya let me sleep here?" He rubbed his neck.
Elaine crawled across to Dominic on her hands and knees, still laughing.
He stared grumpily at her. "What's so damn hilarious?" He demanded. She looked at him, snorted and laid her head on his knee. She pointed toward Michael. "Him." She gasped.
"Humph," grumbled Dom. "Can ya gimme a hand up?"
Still giggling, Elaine shook her head. "Can't stop laughing… and my ribs hurt."
Dom pushed himself up on the arms of the chair with an almighty crescendo of wind. "Only way I can get out of this damn chair is jet propulsion." He grumbled.
He looked down at the four women sitting and lying on the floor, laughing and clutching their sides.
"It ain't that funny ladies."
Dominic shuffled off to the kitchen. "I could use a hot drink. Anyone else want one? Oh, and Michael. You'd better get a mop. One of those damn cats has overshot the litter tray. It's halfway up the wall." Dominic Smiled angelically at him. "And Michael, don't forget the pine scented disinfectant."
"Dominic, you will never let me forget that will you?" Michael scowled at him.
Dominic grinned triumphantly. "Not in this lifetime, and if I have any say in it, not the next too."
*****AW*****
Cait and Dom added whipped cream to the mugs of steaming, cinnamon spiced hot chocolate that everyone had requested. Dom carried the tray of mugs through and Cait brought a plate piled high with cookies.
"Now that smells delicious Cait, Thank you." Said Michael.
"Much nicer than the smell that greeted us when we got back." Sniggered Alice.
Michael glared at her. "I was not solely responsible for that."
"Your cats were a contributing factor though." Hawke grinned. "I wish I'd been here." He dunked a cookie in his mug of chocolate. "You know there are still gifts under the tree?" He put his mug on the fireplace, and wandered over to the tree, bending down to study the tags.
"Al and Michael.." He passed the parcels over.
Alice ripped the paper from her first parcel. It contained a CD. "Coltrane's Ballads. I have wanted this for ages." She checked the tag. "Thanks, Cait."
Michael opened his parcel. It was a small box, and he smirked as he opened it. "Hilarious," he said as he pulled out his gift. "I assume these are for the cats?" As he held up two sparkling pink balls that jingled.
"Hey don't blame me, It's not easy shopping for the man who has everything, so I got something for the homicidal muffins instead." giggled Alice.
"One more parcel here for…" String checked the tag. "...Dominic."
Dominic's brow furrowed into an uneasy expression. "I don't need to open it, String. I know what's inside."
Hawke raised one eyebrow and grinned slyly. "Oh, yeah?"
Dominic was defensive, "Yeah, and I don't need everyone knowin'. It's between me and my girl." He wrapped his arm round Elaine's shoulders. "Ain't that right, honey? Besides, Ain't it about time we had a little music ?"
"Yeah Honey, Why not open your present? I'd like to hear it."
Dominic was agitated. "No one wants to listen to that. I was thinkin' you could play your saxophone."
Cait grinned "Aw Dom. Come on, what is it? Why don't you want us to know?"
"Alright!" He shouted, ripping the paper off the gift and holding aloft a cassette tape. "I Like ABBA OK?"
Cait's eyes widened "Really? That's your big embarrassing secret?" She leaned in towards him and peered at the box. "Voulez Vous. Al's got The Visitor. Put it on!"
String grimaced. "I'm outnumbered by Euro Pop lovers."
*****AW*****
"Voulez-vous
Take it now or leave it
Now is all we get
Nothing promised, no regrets…"
The volume on the stereo cranked up as high as it would go.
Michael and Hawke were stationed at the bar, the only two not dancing.
"I'm starting to think you're envious, Michael." said Hawke.
"What?"
"The way you're watching 'em. Like you wanna be down there, 'boogieing' too."
Michael looked at him and grinned. "We're allowed to have fun you know."
He slid off the stool and joined them.
Hawke sighed and watched them with a sardonic smirk.
All of them together, twisting, turning, hands and feet moving in time to the music, grinning like loons.
A change of tempo with the next track. Slower. Dominic and Elaine arm in arm, gently swaying in time.
I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope, with anything
If you see the wonder, of a fairy tale
You can take the future, even if you fail.
Michael and Cait. No, that would not do. Not at all.
"May I cut in?"
"Hawke?" Cait's smile spread from ear to ear. "I didn't think you'd join us."
He drew her close, wrapping his arms around her waist. "If you think I'm letting him have all the fun while I watch, you're mistaken."
Cait draped her arms around his neck and leaned her head on his shoulder. "It has been fun today, hasn't it?"
"You sound surprised?"
She blushed, hoping he wouldn't notice. "I may have got a little stressed this morning."
His grip on her waist tightened, and he sighed. "I know. I guess that was my fault. I shouldn't be so…"
She sneaked a peek up at him. "Jealous? Angry? Dumb?"
He smirked. "All of those."
*****AW*****
Michael withdrew to his perch beside the bar as the dancing continued. Hawke switched the cassette for the slow, smooth tones of Coltrane's Ballads. Le took himself up to the cot bed at the top of the staircase, and Alice flaked out on the couch.
"Penny for them?"
The words startled him. "What?" He hadn't noticed Marella walk up to the bar.
"Your thoughts. I'll give you a penny for them." She took a glass and poured orange juice in.
He gestured towards the lounge where Dom and Elaine, Hawke and Cait were still gently swaying to the music. "Envy."
She looked surprised. "You? The man with everything?"
"I don't have that. Love. It's the one thing that gives meaning to life, and I want someone to care about me as much as I care for them." He set his empty glass on the bar.
"Marella, I won't be Deputy Director forever. Zeus won't rest until he's seen the back of me, and he has a queue of younger men desperate to jump into my shoes. I'm getting too tired to play this game, but without it I have nothing worth getting up for. I don't want to grow old and lonely. Going home to an empty house night after night is soul destroying, and I want what Hawke and Santini have right there. Actually, I want more than that, I want a wife."
Marella studied his face. "You could always join a dating agency in the new year. Although I doubt there is one specifically for aging intelligence agents."
He laughed. "That is a possibility I had not considered. And a little less of the aging"
He slipped off the stool. "Would you care to dance?"
Marella smiled. "That would be lovely, sir. I am however reminded of the George Bernard Shaw quote."
"Which one?"
"That dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire, and I wouldn't want you getting the wrong idea." She scrunched up her nose "You're not my type."
"I'm curious, what is your type?" He inquired, as he drew her close.
"My type?" She smirked as she whispered in his ear. "Is about 5' 7", blue eyes, long dark hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose." She glanced down at the couch, where Alice now slept.
Michael's eyes widened, and he studied her face carefully. "Well, you learn something new every day."