A/N Hello again, from the Land of the Long White Cloud (that's what Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand means). I had a request for some links to clips which would give you guys an idea of the Nu Zild accent (What accent? Isn't it just how normal people sound?). So I will be sticking some links on my profile if you're at all interested.

Disclaimer: Definitely not mine.

EPOV

I'd guessed I wouldn't need an alarm to wake up given that we had Amelia and Felicia, but what actually woke me up was hearing Sookie yell "For God's sake Bob!" from somewhere in the house.

I passed a chastened looking Bob on my way to find Sookie. She was in the living room staring at a small, orange blob on the floor. "We don't kill other pets!" she yelled at Bob's retreating figure. Wow, this was the most upset I'd seen her over any of Bob's 'presents'. I thought it was probably what the stupid cat deserved, but I guessed my comments wouldn't be welcome.

Amelia appeared and looked at Bob's victim. "Is that Nemo?" she asked, looking at Sookie.

"Uh, no" I said, scooping it up, as Sookie just seemed a bit stunned. "It's just…another fish."

"Where'd it come from?"

"Bob brought it in."

"From where?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"Because Bob can't talk!"

Amelia sighed and wandered off. I turned to Sookie, "What should I do with this?" I asked.

Sookie shrugged. "Bin, I guess. Poor thing. God, I hope he hasn't found an uncovered fish pond he can pillage."

Yeah, I fucking hoped so too. There were only so many small, slimy offerings I wanted to have to deal with.

I was getting myself some toast when Sookie joined me. "So, do you need a shirt ironed for this morning?"

"Nah, its fine. I've only just got them back from the cleaners."

Sookie looked surprised. "You took shirts to the drycleaners? That must have cost a fortune! Seriously, I would have washed them for you."

"No, it's all good."

Sookie looked at me like I was a fucking retard, but let it drop.

By the time I was ready to leave, Sookie was shepherding Amelia towards the car while carrying Felicia. I debated with myself whether to help her out by taking Felicia from her, and the likelihood of getting something sticky on my suit as a result. In the end I did, and managed to escape with just getting a drooled-on hand rubbed over my cheek.

Sookie was quiet on the drive into the city, sticking to muttering about the buses that were apparently out to get her. Amelia more than made up for it of course, and kept up a running commentary on what she could see outside the window, and what Felicia was doing when she couldn't think of anything else. The traffic was heavier than I was used to, but it still wasn't that bad and it only took about 25 minutes to get there.

Sookie pulled up outside the office building and parked in a loading zone. "Um, what time do you want me to pick you up and take you to the car yard?" she asked.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll get a cab."

"Are you sure? That's going to cost an awful lot of money."

"Yeah, it's fine." I glanced at the backseat. "Don't drag everyone out again today."

"OK, well have a good day and we'll see you tonight."

I kissed her. "Yep, Bye." I turned to the backseat "Bye, guys."

"Bye Eric!" Amelia yelled, and then I was out the door and off inside.

I thought I'd buy coffee on my way in, and, while I was waiting in line I looked across at the large cruise ship which was now parked at the wharf across the road. Unlike last time, I didn't feel any desire to run across the road and stow away. Although I guessed if Sophie-Anne turned into a bitch later on I might be tempted. But only if I could take Sookie with me.

I took the elevator upstairs to reception and they phoned Sophie-Anne to come and meet me.

"Morning Eric" she said, her heels clacking across the floor as she walked over.

"Morning Sophie-Anne" I said, figuring we might as well start off at least pretending to be pleasant.

"Right, well, let's get you set up then." She walked off and I followed. After a quick stop at Karen's desk to get me a new access card we continued on to the main office.

"So I was thinking" said Sophie-Anne, as she was walking, "that it's not worth tying up a whole meeting room just for you, and as you'll be working so closely with Andre, the best place for you to sit is probably…there." We'd now stopped and she pointed to a desk. The desk that had been Sookie's. The desk that was next to fucking Andre, who was looking at me as though he wanted me dead. Fucking fantastic.

"Sure, fine." I said, moving over to put my laptop bag on the desk.

"Andre, you'll show Eric what you've been doing I assume?" Sophie-Anne gave him a pointed look.

"Yes, whatever you want Sophie-Anne" Andre said between clenched teeth. I looked from Andre to Sophie-Anne and back again. Fuck, something was going on there and I wanted to stay the hell away from it.

Sophie-Anne stalked off, obviously she had something more important to do and I was left with Andre, who promptly stood up announced he had a meeting, and walked off as well. I sat down and started trying to set up my laptop, having fuck all else to do.

While I was waiting for Andre I checked my email. Apparently I had an appointment with a counsellor in the New Year. It probably wasn't a good sign that the best part of the day so far was finding out that I was going into therapy.

SPOV

I watched Eric walking up the stairs to the office after he got out of the car and was immediately hit with a wave of loneliness.

"Where'd Eric go?" asked Amelia.

"Work" I said, looking in the wing mirror and preparing to pull back into the street.

"Why?"

"Because he had to." Or wanted to. Or both. I told myself not to feel rejected, he'd have to work sometime. But I liked having him to myself and it was hard to let go.

"Will Sophie-Anne be there?"

"Probably" I said. Well at least that stopped me feeling sad without Eric, now I was just worried about Sophie-Anne getting her hooks into him.

"She's my friend."

"Uh-huh." I missed being 3, when everyone was your friend. Well, most people anyway.

"Where are we going now Mummy?"

"Home."

"Home's borin'"

"No it's not, it will be fine."

Amelia was right though, it was very boring without Eric. I missed having him to talk to. If I hadn't had to take two kids into the city and pay for parking, I would have considered going in to have lunch with him, but it wasn't worth the effort. In the end I did put them in the car but we just went to the zoo for an hour or so in the afternoon. It was hot out in the sun, but at least Amelia got to run around for a bit and look at whatever animals weren't sleeping in their houses.

I wondered how I ever managed to entertain two kids all day every day through the winter when we were all stuck inside. We had ice cream at the café, where Amelia introduced Felicia and me to the people sitting at the next table, and then we all headed home to wait for Eric.

EPOV

Andre was still fucking AWOL when Sophie-Anne arrived after lunch. "So, how's it going?" she asked me.

"Very slowly without Andre" I said, gesturing to his empty seat. "I've made a start, but I really need him to tell me where he got stuck."

Sophie-Anne frowned. "Oh, I see. Right, well he should be back soon". She perched on the edge of the desk, which wasn't a good fucking sign. I really didn't want to chat to her.

"So, I take it you're playing dad to Sookie's kids now then?"

"Well, not really."

"You all looked…cosy when I saw you on Friday."

I held back a laugh, thinking about just how flustered Sophie-Anne had looked. "Amelia really likes you" I said. "She named one of her Barbie dolls after you apparently."

Sophie-Anne wrinkled her nose. "Oh" she said,

"Yeah, it's a huge compliment I believe." I was trying not to smirk. Sophie-Anne looked like she was mulling it all over.

"Hmmm, well. I guess she's…alright. For a child." Sophie-Anne said the word child like it was something you scraped off your shoe.

"She's great" I said. "They both are."

Sophie-Anne just stared at me, like I'd grown another fucking head or something.

"I just don't see what the big deal is about children" she snorted "I mean, anyone can have them. Anyone" she paused and then gathered her thoughts. "I'll leave you to it then." With that she stalked off again. She was a fucking odd woman.

Eventually Andre arrived back. He looked like he was sulking so I wondered if Sophie-Anne had tracked him down and sent him back. "So Andre" I said, "can we perhaps do some fucking work now?"

"Sure, Eric" he spat. "Whatever you want."

I bit my tongue, just wanting to get this over with. I was so looking forward to getting home to Sookie.

It was several hours later before I got there, however. Sookie was right; taking a cab from the city to Greenlane cost a fuck-load of money and was an exercise in torture during rush hour. But my car was ready, so that was something. Although finding my way back to Sookie's without GPS was an adventure. By the time I got there I was hot, tired, bored, hungry and fucking grumpy.

SPOV

I heard Eric's key in the door, as we were sitting down to eat. "Eric's home!" Amelia yelled. Yeah, I guess she felt like I did. I was tempted to yell too, but instead I stood up and hugged him. He'd lost not only his jacket, but his tie at some point during the day and he was looking tired and dishevelled.

"Hey" I said "Sit down and I'll get you some dinner."

"Thank you, I'm starving."

"No you're not" piped up Amelia "you're just a bit hungry." It was a pretty good imitation of me and Eric burst out laughing.

"So how did it go?" I asked, putting a plate in front of him and sitting back down.

"OK. Andre's a fu…, uh, complete pain in the ass. But I guess you already knew that." I nodded. "And Sophie-Anne was, well, OK for Sophie-Anne I guess."

"You saw Sophie-Anne? Was she wearing a dress?" said Amelia. Great, Sophie-Anne's fan club lived at my house.

"Uh, I don't really know" Eric said between mouthfuls. Amelia huffed and went back to picking through her food.

"I don't like mushrooms" she said.

"Just eat round them" I told her, before turning back to Eric and asking "So you think it will take the week to do everything?" I hoped he would say that he only needed to be there for two hours tomorrow and it would be done, but instead he nodded yes.

"Yeah, Andre's no help at all and he's the one that's been trying to re-work it all, so yeah, it's going to take at least the next four days. Maybe more if he continues to hinder me."

"Oh, right." I wasn't thrilled with that news but there wasn't much I could do about it.

Eric finished first, even though he'd started after the rest of us. He leaned back in his chair. "This is better though" he announced.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yeah, better than living in a hotel. It's nice to have somewhere to actually come home to". He thought for a minute and then I saw a flash of panic across his face as he obviously realised what he'd said. He stood up quickly to take his plate into the kitchen.

I turned in my seat to face him across the breakfast bar. "Well, we're glad you're home now, aren't we Amelia."

Amelia nodded. "Home's borin'" she said solemnly.

Eric just continued to look a bit like a deer caught in the headlights and mumbled something about going to get changed.

When Amelia had finished, I cleared up in the kitchen and got Felicia's bottle ready for her. Eric re-appeared looking more like himself in a t-shirt and cargo shorts. Amelia threw herself at him and said "Do my bath!"

"Oh, yeah. But um, do you want to look at my car first?"

"Yeah!" she squealed, and the pair of them headed out the front door to the driveway. I finished up then went out, holding Felicia. Amelia was sitting in the driver's seat, pretending to drive.

"Wow, it's, um…big." I said. I knew nothing about cars. It was black, it was an SUV. There wasn't much more I could say.

Eric snorted. "That could be useful with the amount of shit you pack to go out."

"What? That's only because I have kids and they have a lot of stuff. It's not me at all."

Eric looked at me. "You forget I've seen your handbag" he said.

"Again, it's the kids. I have to carry all sorts of stuff for them."

Eric just chuckled. Amelia stuck her head out "Can we go for a ride?" she asked.

"No, hun" I replied "Eric doesn't have any car seats in his car. You're not allowed to drive in it."

"But I want to!"

"Well you can't."

"Well, that's not fair."

Amelia got down, with a bit of help from Eric, and stomped off into the house.

"I think that means she likes it" I said, waiting for Eric to lock the car back up again.

"Yeah. Do you think I should get car seats?" he asked.

"Well…I don't know. I guess we can always move the ones out of my car if we really needed to."

"Yeah, that seems like a lot of work though. Maybe I'll look into it."

We walked back inside so I could get Felicia's bottle and Eric could, it appeared, do bathtime.

EPOV

I'd been feeling a bit bored hanging out at Sookie's fulltime, but I wasn't sure that I had properly appreciated it until I left to go to work. The feeling of actually getting home and being able to leave all that shit behind was indescribable. Plus I arrived home in time for dinner, which was a bonus.

I was worried I'd fucked up though when I told Sookie it was home. I wasn't sure she wanted me to call this home yet. We hadn't really spoken any more about me getting my own place other than saying I should wait until after Christmas. Was that still what she expected? I had no fucking clue. Amelia might be pissed though if I wasn't there for bath time, which seemed to be my new job.

I felt like I should be issued wet weather gear or something for it, the amount of splashing that went on, but Sookie said that was normal. There was also a small flotilla of plastic ducks that needed to be in the water with them, and from what I could gather from Amelia they were a family and under no circumstances was Felicia allowed to touch any of them. Consequently Felicia spent the entire bath trying to grab any duck that floated near her and put it in her mouth. The two of them together were fucking hard work.

We were just finishing up and Amelia was rattling off the names of the ducks, which appeared to be a mixture of names of people she knew and names that were completely made up, when Sookie appeared with clean pyjamas and a diaper for Felicia. I wasn't really listening to what Amelia was saying anymore, but Sookie turned from where she was dressing Felicia and pointed to the largest duck, "What did you say his name was?" she asked Amelia.

"Eric" Amelia replied, "and the pink one is Sookie, and this one's Arabessa, and this one's Lee-lee, and that's Maisiemillie"

"Right" said Sookie. "Interesting."

"Why is that interesting?" I asked.

She leaned over and whispered "Because I'm pretty sure that one used to be called Bill."

"Huh" yeah that was interesting. I had no fucking clue what it meant. Other than that we were all in the shit now if Sookie kicked me out. I guess Amelia would be on my side if it did happen. Well, I hoped she would.

When the kids were in bed, Sookie and I sat on the bed and watched TV for a bit. I was feeling quite relaxed now, having Sookie snuggled into my side helped a fucking lot with that feeling.

"So, was it really alright? Sophie-Anne wasn't a problem?" she asked.

"No, really. She was fine. Andre was more of a fucking problem, but like you once told me, I've had to handle bigger assholes."

She snorted. "I would have said arsehole, thank you very much."

We sat for a bit longer and then she said "Its fine you know."

"What's fine?"

"You calling this home. It's fine." She didn't say anything else, so I just said "Great" and we left it at that. There was silence until the programme we were watching finished and I refused to let Sookie watch some stupid fucking cooking show. I had better things we could be doing, and I wanted her full attention. She did her best to pretend to be annoyed but from the amount of giggling and sighing she was doing, it was pretty fucking obvious she wasn't. Well, not that annoyed anyway.

Thanks for reading!