AN- Sorry it's taken a while for me to update, I've been visiting family in Suffolk, aka most overcast place in England... Anyway, here's the chapter :)

The next day dawned, as usual, artificially at the calculated time of 0630, the same time as Trouble's alarm clock sounded. He dragged himself out of his warm, cosy bed and showered quickly before Grub could get in there and use up all the hot water. Granted, his brother was rarely awake until midday, unless they had work, but still...

He made his way to the kitchen and stuck two slices of wholemeal bread in the toaster, switching the radio on as he waited for it to pop up. There was a note fixed to the fridge, he noticed as he took out the marmalade. It read 'Don't forget to get some more milk as Mummy is coming to tea tomorrow and she was not happy last time when we had no milk so don't forget to get some. Grub.' Grammar had never been Grub's strong point.

He had nearly forgotten about the mix-up in dates, and reminded himself to tell Holly that they would (unfortunately, thought Trouble) not be alone when she came over. If she still wanted to, he worried, as his mother had a reputation for filling uncomfortable silences with awkward questions, which generally created more silence. He sighed. Holly would surely have heard about this, and the fact that she had been mysteriously absent for three years would not ease the questions, on the contrary, it would positively encourage them. Maybe he could ask Holly to come over earlier, so as to...prepare her for the inevitable interrogation. Oh, and to give her her present, of course.

Holly Short's phone rang. She looked at her clock in the kitchen: 7.30am. She wondered who it was; she wasn't supposed to be going in to work today, a reward of sorts from Trouble for completing the forms, and even if she was, she would have had at least half an hour to get there.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey, Holly, it's Trouble," she could hear Grub singing along to the radio in the background, and smiled.

"Oh hey, how are you? You know I'm not coming in today, right?"

"Yeah I know. About tomorrow," he began tentatively. "Is it OK if you come over earlier, about 4ish?"

"I think so, although I'll have to change at work. Why?" They had originally planned to meet outside Holly's flat at around quarter past 5.

"Well, it turns out that Grub has invited my mother to dinner, so I wanted to be able to...prepare you." Holly laughed. Trouble's mother, Lydia, was well known for her questioning, and presumed that going 'missing' for three years would not make her exempt.

"Oh, yeah, that's fine. Are we going to yours straight after work?"

"If that's alright with you?"

"It is. See you tomorrow, Trouble."

"Bye, Holly." He paused before pressing the small red 'End Call' button; felt there was something more he should say, although a low monotonous sound coming from the handset told him that Holly 

wasn't there. He replaced the phone and picked up his paperback before closing the front door behind him as he left for Police Plaza.

Several hours, and a few chapters, later, Trouble Kelp opened the black oven door to reveal a round chocolate cake which was only very slightly burned around the edges. He could cover that with frosting though, provided it hadn't been eaten yet. It had been in the oven for 5 minutes longer than necessary, so he slid on the green oven gloves and flipped the cake onto the wire cooling rack. After about 60 minutes, he deemed the cake cool enough to be iced, so he proceeded to do so, and finished it off by piping 'Happy Birthday Holly' on top in melted chocolate. Perfect.

The residents of Haven awoke the next morning to the sight of (fake) snow falling to the ground, in recognition of the fact that, above ground, humans all over the world were celebrating Christmas Day.

Holly's phone rang for the second time in as many days.

"Hello," she answered sleepily; there had been a rerun of the Mud Man TV series 'House' which she had stayed up late to watch, too late considering that she had to be at work earlier today.

"Happy Birthday, Holly!" yelled Foaly down the phone.

"Thanks, happy anniversary!" she replied, pleased that she had remembered the important date.

"Thanks! I've got to go, sorry, but you would not believe how much it costs to call from under the sea!"

"Don't worry about it, have a good day," Atlantis was known for its high rates, even compared to the rest of the Lower Elements.

"Bye!"

She put down the phone and showered quickly. She headed to the kitchen to grab a Cereal bar, and noticed that a light on her answering machine was flashing. Having never received a message in this way before, it took a few moments for her to find out what the caller had actually said.

"You have 1 new message," announced the pre-recorded message in Foaly's voice, for it was he who had developed the system. "Press Green to play."

She pressed the green button, a little excited in anticipation.

"Hi, Holly, it's Trouble. I was just calling to wish you Happy Birthday," she smiled hearing his voice. "Anyway, I guess I'll see you at work." He paused. "Bye!"

"To replay the message, press 1. To delete the— " Holly pressed the button to end the call, replaced the phone to the kitchen table, and left for work.

The day passed as days tended to at the LEP: slowly. Even Holly, who had experience of time speeding up and slowing down within seconds, found it took an age to reach the lunch break, 

although predictably the one time of the day she usually saw Trouble seemed to be over before it had begun, and they were all back to work.

The Commander in question was sat in his office, rotating slowly on his chair. He desperately wanted to give Holly her present now, anything to relieve the tedium, but he had wanted to save that for when they got home. Maybe he could give her the card he had gotten her; she didn't have a particularly busy afternoon ahead of her either.

There was a quiet knock on the door. Trouble turned on his chair quickly, a bit too quickly it turned out, as he promptly fell face first onto the cold, hard floor.

"Very smooth, Trouble," came a voice from the aforementioned door.

"Oh shut up," he growled, and realised who he was talking to. "Sorry, Holly! I didn't realise it was you!"

"I was just coming to talk to you, I've been bored stiff, and if I have to hear Grub...flirting...with Lili Frond one more time I may spontaneously combust." There was a slight trace of sarcasm in her voice, although it was very faint. He decided that now probably would be a good time to give her the present, if only to distract her.

"He does seem to be attracted to her, although I can't say the same for Lili!" he joked, picking up the white envelope with her card in and the present that was taped to it. "Anyway, Happy Birthday," he said, giving her the small package.

She smiled as she took it and began carefully unwrapping her present, revealing a CD ('An End Has A Start' by Mud Man band Editors), and continued to open the envelope, after thanking Trouble. Out of the card fell two pieces of paper, which upon further inspection appeared to be...

"Concert tickets?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah, for the Foo Fighters' concert at Lords in a couple of weeks. I saw you had a load of their CDs and figured that you like them. The LEP's got a box there so we wouldn't need to worry about being seen or anything..."

"That's amazing Trouble!" Exclaimed Holly. "Seriously, thank you!" She said, as she jumped up to hug him.

Trouble looked a little surprised at this outward show of affection, Holly was the most private person he knew, but then with Foaly away there was no-one to see them. Remembering this fact, he extended the embrace by kissing her shyly on the lips. A few minutes later, they broke apart at the sound of the klaxon which signalled the end of their day.

"I'll go and get changed," said Holly. "See you in a minute." She walked towards the (pitifully small) Ladies Changing Rooms, and Trouble headed towards the (significantly larger) Men's.

Within 5 minutes, both were changed: Trouble into a slightly smarter shirt and jeans outfit than usual, probably to appease his mother; Holly into a grey sweater and a dark denim skirt, which she 

wore over dark green tights. Trouble stopped for a moment, as did many of the other male employees nearby- Holly Short in a skirt?

"I'm only doing this so your mother doesn't go on about how I never wear anything...girly," she shuddered as she said it. "Like she did last time. I don't see why it's such a big deal though," she muttered.

"You look lovely all the time, you know that, don't you," he murmured. "Come on, let's go." As he said this he slipped his hand quietly into hers, and they left the building.

AN In case you didn't know, Lords is an English cricket ground (the Home of Cricket or something like that), the concert's meant to be basically like their Wembley concerts...I was at the Saturday one...it was awesome XD! Au Revoir for now!