A/N Once again thanks for the review love, not to mention the alerts and favourites. You guys are awesome. And it's really nice when I get up in the morning and see the emails (given I'm in a weird time-zone!)

Disclaimer: Characters still aren't mine.

EPOV

I was pretty fucked off with my phone ringing in the middle of the fucking night. Thank fuck it didn't wake Felicia up, because she'd been awake not long before that. Sookie rolled over and gave me a 'what the hell?' look.

I grabbed my phone and took it out to the living room before answering. Given the time of the call I wasn't fucking surprised when it turned out to be Victor. He wasn't the sort of person who'd particularly worry about checking time zones before calling.

When I got back into bed, Sookie was sitting up. "What was that about?" she asked.

I sighed. "It was my boss, Victor. They need to me to go back and do some more work on that model I created. Apparently Sophie-Anne and Peter want some changes made." I lay down and pulled Sookie down next to me.

"But I thought you quit?" she asked.

"Yeah, but as they're not really making me work out my notice, I don't have much of a choice. It's only for a week or so."

Sookie just said "Oh". I buried my face in her hair and went back to sleep.

SPOV

I woke up in the morning with a sense of dread. Shit, I thought. If I hadn't tried to gloat to Sophie-Anne about Eric he wouldn't have been asked to go back there again. God knows what she'd try to do to him.

No one else was awake yet, so I lay there for a bit just thinking about what I could do. Nothing was the answer to that. I was just going to have to hope for the best.

I disentangled myself from Eric and sat up. I looked down at him, lying there. He was mine at the moment, so I thought I'd better make the most of it. I leaned over and ran my tongue around his ear, sucking the lobe into my mouth. "Shower" I whispered to him.

"Nrgh?" he said, slowly coming around.

"Come on" I said, louder this time. "Or I'll start without you."

He opened his eyes. "Start what without me? Is it something I'm going to enjoy watching?"

I didn't answer but just headed to the bathroom, listening to the sound of Eric throwing off the blankets as he scrambled out of bed.

Later on, when everyone had breakfast and Eric and I were having coffee, I decided I'd better tell him about yesterday.

"So, when we were in Downtown yesterday, I saw Sophie-Anne."

"Oh, did you?"

"Yeah. When you were in the pharmacy. She came over to…well, I don't think she even said hello, but she came over to me anyway. I said we were waiting for you. I paused and took a deep breath. "I said you were living here."

"Oh."

"Mmm, so I wonder if that's why they suddenly want you back there now."

"What, because I'm still in the country?"

"Yeah, and because I said you were living with me."

"You did?"

"Well…yeah. I did. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. Don't be sorry." He leaned over and kissed me. "She's an annoying bitch and I don't really care who knows."

"I think she thinks I've trapped you into something." I knew she did, but I was curious as to Eric's reaction to that. Sometimes I wondered if I had trapped him into something, although I had no idea how I would have done it. Maybe I had skills too?

"She probably just thinks everyone's like her. For one thing, I'm pretty sure Peter's married, so if she is sleeping with him she won't be losing her job anytime soon."

"Yeah, she was just rather…nasty in what she said to me yesterday."

Eric looked at me sharply. "Sookie, what exactly did she say?"

"I'd rather not repeat it."

Eric's eyebrows shot up. "Well you have to say it now" he said "because I'm really fucking curious."

I sighed, and looked around to make sure Amelia wasn't in ear shot. She was over trying to put on a show for Felicia with some stuffed toys, so I was safe. "She said that I must" I dropped down to a whisper "suck cock really well." I went back to a normal volume "you know, to have landed you."

I expected Eric to be outraged on my behalf, but instead he burst out laughing.

"What?" I said indignantly.

"You know, she's actually quite right."

"Eric!" I slapped him on the arm.

"Oh, don't be pissed. You know I like you for lots of reasons, we already covered that." He pulled me into his arms. "But she's right about your skill-set. I wonder if she realised that when she hired you?"

I sat there, wanting to feel indignant, but mostly I felt kind of pleased with myself. "So, am I really good?" I asked in a small voice.

Eric kissed the top of my head. "Now you're just fishing for compliments" he said. "But yes, you're very, very, very good." He stood up to take his cup into the kitchen.

Well, I thought, you learn something every day.

EPOV

Sookie's very fucking funny when she's being prudish. Although her confession about running into Sophie-Anne did put another spin on the request for me to go back to work there. I hoped she wasn't going to try any more bullshit. But I didn't have a lot of choice about going back and to be honest, I was kind of glad to have something to do. Hanging around with Sookie and the kids was a lot of fun, but I needed something else as well. I just hoped I could keep far, far away from that fucker Andre.

After Amelia had been dropped at pre-school, I rang Sophie-Anne to make arrangements to come in and see what was required. She sounded OK and didn't say anything about Sookie to me, although I guess she wouldn't on the phone. She'd rather look you in the eye while she's trying to screw with your mind. She was a bitch through and through. God, I was so fucking lucky I'd hadn't let myself get mixed up with her before I'd met Sookie.

We set a meeting up for Friday morning and I finished the call. I spied Sookie outside hanging laundry, and was going to go and help her, when the first spots of rain started to fall. Sookie froze, obviously caught between continuing on in the hope it would blow over, or grabbing what she had out and taking it back in.

I stood at the door watching her stand there, as the drops turned into a shower. Sookie started to pull things back off the line, and I really wanted to go and help her, but I was far too entertained watching her stomp around and mutter at the injustice of it all. By the time she'd got everything back in the basket and was hauling it through the door, I was almost doubled over.

"You would think" she announced, wiping her feet, "that just for once, it could bloody wait until the washing is dry. Or at least have the decency to rain before I get out there to hang anything up. But no. I swear the weather is out to get me every time." At that point she spied me "What's your problem?" she asked.

"You're fucking hilarious. There should be a caption, like 'When good underpants fairies go bad' or something." I wiped the tears off my face. "Honestly, you have no idea what you look like out there practically shaking your fist at the clouds…"

Sookie's face didn't look amused. "And what exactly do I look like Eric? Go on, enlighten me."

"Ummm...well, you look like a really pissed-off pixie or something…"

"Humpf" Sookie said and she stomped off to put the washing in the dryer.

I followed her, hoping to salvage the situation. She was throwing clothes into the dryer rather angrily. "Hey" I said, but she didn't look at me.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"You don't sound fine."

"No, I'm fine."

"It was just…funny, surely you can see that."

She stood up. "Yeah, OK. I'm sorry too. It's just this stuff is important to me. I guess it's silly to you, but the washing and everything; it's kind of like my job. And it's a pretty stink job, but it's all I've got." She shrugged and walked off again. I guess this was my morning to be following her around.

She'd made it to the kitchen when I found her again. "It's not that bad" I said.

"Yes it is" she sighed. "I'm starting to get upset over washing. That's pretty bad." And then she was laughing. Obviously she had some kind of built-in delay or something. As far as women went, Sookie was the best I'd ever known, but even she had her moments which were completely fucking mystifying.

I waited for her to get over it. "Right" she said "Yeah, that was funny. I can't believe that's what I'm reduced to. Being upset that I can't get the washing dry."

"Well, you are the underpants fairy."

"Yeah, but I'm sure there used to be more to life." She sighed and looked a bit wistful.

"So, you mean you wished you were back working?" when I'd met Sookie she was working, but now I mostly thought of her being here with the kids.

"Well, not working with Sophie-Anne and Andre" she looked at me sideways. "Good luck with not being sucked back into their bullshit. You might be alright with it, but I'm over that these days."

It occurred to me I didn't know anything about what she'd done before that. "What did you do, before you had kids?" I asked.

"Same shit, different bank. Before I had Amelia I basically did Andre's job, but I was probably never going to go any further. I don't have the killer instincts of someone like Sophie-Anne. And after I had a baby, I didn't want to work full-time, so they begrudgingly took me back three days a week to run some projects for them. But then I got made redundant just before I had Felicia so that was that."

"You wouldn't go back there?"

"I doubt they'd want me back, even if I did want to go back. Which I don't. The CFO there is a total fuckwit. Let's just say there's no love lost between Steve Newlin and I."

"So…you're going to be a stay-at-home mom then?" I asked with a fair amount of trepidation. I wasn't sure what the rules were about asking women that question. Sometimes they'd be a bit shitty about stuff like that.

Sookie didn't seem to mind though. "I think" she said "I'd go bonkers if I had to stay at home forever. I just need to find something that suits me better really. And still lets me have some time with the kids. Just not enough time that Amelia and I drive each other mental."

This was actually quite interesting stuff. I wondered maybe if I could get Sookie to come and work for me if I did find a business. The Subway franchise idea popped back into my head, but she might be a bit pissed if I asked her to spend her days making sandwiches. I was sure we could think of something though.

"So how about you?" she asked. "Are you OK with going back to work? The end of your holiday and all of that."

I shrugged. "I guess so. Don't really have a choice."

"Yeah" she said. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but changed the subject. "So, plans for the day today are?"

"Dunno. Suppose I should get a bank account. Take my suits to get cleaned. Shit like that."

"OK, well we're off to St Luke's then."

I groaned. I just hoped nothing was on sale.

SPOV

We spent the morning doing errands for Eric and I was very good and didn't go wandering into random stores more than once or twice. At some point I had to start some Christmas shopping. I left Eric and Felicia outside a homewares store so I could go and look at something for Judith and Calvin. When I came back out Eric was holding Felicia up so she could get a good look at one of the Christmas trees that were stationed around the mall. She was gazing in awe at the sparkly ornaments and trying really hard to reach one.

"Oh" he said when he saw me. "Is this OK? She was desperate to have a look so I got her out of the stroller."

"No, that's great. This stage, when they're impressed with anything sparkly, is so short." I smiled at him; he was obviously feeling a lot more confident with her these days.

Eric smiled back and Felicia smiled at her reflection in a large red bauble and started clapping. It looked as though we were all having a good morning.

We got back in time to put Felicia down for her nap. She was tired from having had another cranky night, although you'd never tell during the day. Eric persuaded me we should have a lie down as well. With the early afternoon sun pouring through the French doors in my room, it was lovely and warm in there, and I probably would have drifted off, if Eric hadn't leaned over and given me one of his special kisses; the ones that make all sorts of parts of me go tingly and want a lot more contact. So obviously we weren't going to be sleeping any time soon.

I wondered if we stayed together whether Eric would always be able to talk me into having sex quite this easily. And then I wondered whether I'd ever get a chance to find out. And then I thought I should really shut up and stop thinking before I made myself completely depressed.

It wasn't long before we were naked. I was still surprised with just how much I liked being naked around Eric. I really loved the feel of our bodies pressed together.

The sun on my skin just added to the lovely sensations Eric was creating with his mouth and hands. I could have felt so exposed; lying there in the middle of the day, naked, legs over Eric's shoulders, opening myself up to him completely. But I didn't feel exposed, well, not in a bad way. I felt…well, my sex-addled brain thought that I felt loved, but that couldn't be right. I didn't know what I felt. Valued? Safe? Both of them and more.

And then I had to stop thinking because I was overcome with waves of pleasure. Even better, Eric soon had a condom on and was inside me. And I felt that feeling again. The one that felt like love but wasn't really.

Thanks for reading!