Sixteen.

"Hello, what are you still doing here?" Joyce asked as she breezed past the sitting room laden with shopping.

From the depths of his favourite armchair Barnaby looked up over the rims of his glasses and folded his newspaper in half,

"Sorry?"

She bustled back into the hallway to poke her head around the door,

"You're here."

"Yes, I think so."

She tutted good-naturedly,

"I mean weren't you supposed to be collecting Dan today?"

Barnaby smiled back at her,

"Oh it's all right, he's getting home another way."

Joyce stepped into the room with her hands on her hips,

"Tom!" he looked up startled, "You didn't make that poor man take a taxi! As if he hadn't been through enough already, being attacked by a mad woman! The least you can do is go and collect him!"

Barnaby blinked in bemusement, facing the full fury of his wife

"Joyce, rest assured I am not leaving Scott to find his own way home, and I am well aware of what he has been through,"

The hands slid from the hips,

"So how is he getting home?"

Barnaby smirked,

"Cully is picking him up."

He glanced back down at his paper casually, enjoying his wife's silent surprise,

"Cully!" she asked,

"Yes."

Another shocked pause.

"And, you're ok with that are you?"

"Joyce," he chuckled, "She's not a little girl any more."

"Well I know that," she replied, sinking onto the arm of the sofa, "But I wasn't sure you did."

"She offered to pick him up and I thought he'd probably prefer it."

Joyce faltered,

"But…"

"I trust him."

Joyce hardly had time to stop herself from laughing out loud,

"You trust him?" she spluttered. Barnaby stared back at her coolly,

"Yes, I do. I know he's not always been the most…reliable of men when it comes to women but, he cares about Cully and she seems to care about him so…I trust him."

Joyce stared back at him fondly, crossing the room to lean over the side of his chair,

"Well I think it's very sweet of you," she pecked him on the cheek, "You're a good father," she turned and headed out of the room, calling over her shoulder as she went, "And a good boss too. Now come and help with the shopping."

Barnaby put his paper down on the coffee table and stood up with a sigh. He did trust Scott and Cully, maybe he hadn't always, and maybe he'd come to regret it, but at that moment in time he could only wait and see how things turned out, if they did at all. It was like Scott often said, things were always more difficult in the country, and maybe romance was one of them.