A/N – Thanks for all R & Rs, very much appreciated! There's plenty more chapters on the way as they spring to mind!
I absolutely adore playing on the idea of Chris being a dad – in my honest opinion I think he'd make a very good one because of the way he is!

So yeah, more to come! I promise!
xXx

Wednesday morning.
Clara awoke from in amongst the blankets, taking in a very appetising scent that was floating its way in through the door of her sun drenched room. It was something that made her feel quite relaxed and also made her stomach feel empty.

"Thought I heard someone's tummy." Chris peered round the door, his bright blue eyes sparkling playfully. "I didn't know what you felt like, but I was up early enough to give you something before I left for work."

"Not if it's going to hold you up…"

"No, it's not a problem. I don't start till much later anyway. Actually," he sidled over to her bed and positioned himself on it, "I should rephrase that. I don't have a set till much later, so I can spend a lot more time with you."

She smiled a little. "I appreciate you wanting to spend more time with me, dad."

The 'dad' label still felt foreign to him in some way yet gave him a warm fluffy feeling inside. He should feel good about her labelling him in such a way but the unsure feeling he had hidden away only grew at how hesitant she sounded. "…Do I hear a 'but' coming into the sentence somewhere?"

"It isn't that I don't like what you do for me," Clara explained, noticing his eyes glaze over in confusion, "'cause I do."

He shrugged. "Then what's the problem?"

"I just get the feeling that you're overprotecting me a little."

"Well, I feel that I should," Chris defended himself, "if you're ill."

"I know you feel that way, but I'm eighteen years old. I can look after myself."

"That's where you're wrong," he went to go out of the room so he could start to dish up, "I don't think you can."

She sadly gazed down at the blankets.

"What you've got is post-traumatic and I know someone who has a similar sort of condition to you." He stood by the room's door. "And it isn't an easy condition to treat, I can assure you."

She felt even hungrier at realising why he'd gone, and her stomach rumbled angrily at the thought of food.

After she'd eaten, she placed her empty plate on the nightstand next to her. "You know what the worst thing about all this is?"

He tilted his head in interest.

"I sometimes feel that I won't ever get any better."

"No," Chris wrapped an arm around her, "don't feel like that, sweetheart. You will get better. The downside to post-traumatic stress is that it does feel like it goes on forever at the same intensity, but you'll find a way to make it a more liveable condition."

"Liveable?" Clara repeated anxiously.

He nodded slowly. "Post-traumatic stress doesn't fully go away, see. It does stay with you, but there are ways to deal with it so as to make you less aware of it."

"That makes me feel even sicker."

He felt guilty that she was made to feel so bad. What made him feel all the more weighed down was the sheer fact that he was starting to feel bad himself. He didn't make her feel like that, but he wanted her to get better and it was hurting him inside. He was dealing with feelings that to him would've been foreign give or take a few weeks ago.
"Tell you what," he said after some time, "when I come home from work tonight, why don't we both go out somewhere, yeah?"

She kept her gaze squarely down at the blankets. "Somewhere like where?"

"Anywhere you want," he softly smiled, "you decide." Ok, what he was suggesting was to give her a pick-me-up. It wasn't something he could necessarily keep up day after day, but he felt bad for seeing her so upset.

She perked up ever so slightly. At least she perked up at all. "Y-you mean you wanna treat me?"

"That's the general idea." Chris smirked playfully.

He came into work later that morning, going straight to Karen's room.

"Skiving again?" She teased as he came in.

He smirked at her teasing remark. "Well, I thought seeing as I'd caught up with all my marking, I had no reason to come in normal time till my first set."

She laughed at his matter-of-fact answer. "You don't have to explain yourself to me, Mr Mead." She sidled up to him, sliding her fingertips through his dark bangs. "You're in slightly early before your set starts, so I think you and I should spend a little quality time together."

"Oh, I see." He winked. "Been keeping up to date with my timetable, have you?" He wrapped his arms around her, driving her up onto her desk. "You're turning into a very naughty girl, Mrs Fisher."

"I do like to keep people," she brought him closer to her by pulling on the knot of his tie, "especially you, in check."

Chris straddled her leg with either of his, immediately going to unbutton her cardigan.

"Because you are turning into a very naughty boy." Karen caressed the young male under his jaw with an index finger, prompting a soft gasp from him. "Oh, yes, a very, very naughty boy."

"What do you think you should do about it?" He asked her playfully, peeling her cardigan off her to reveal her sleeveless top underneath. "You said I'm a naughty boy, so maybe I need to be punished." He caressed her up her uncovered arms silkily.

"Oh, you are," she lapped her tongue along his lower lip smoothly, "and punish you I shall."

The two of them remained snuggled up together on the sofa with their arms wrapped around each other.

"What're you up to tonight?" She peered at him amorously, sliding an index finger up and down the nape of his neck.

He went to tell her everything, but then refrained from doing so. He still didn't want to explain his relationship with Clara, however devoted he was to both of them.
"Nothing special." He fibbed, feeling ever so awful for not saying anything.

"Well…" She slid her other index finger up the middle of his sternum. "I'm not up to anything special and if you're not up to anything special, maybe the two of us should go back to mine together after work…" The tempting touch inched lower down his body as she'd unbuttoned his shirt all the way. "…Get a takeaway and then go to bed together. Does that sound good to you?"

Chris shivered excitedly from the contact as she traced a circle around the outside of his navel with that same finger. She'd obviously discovered one of his soft spots. "Ok."

Karen smiled naughtily. "I'd better let you go in that case." She shifted herself to the nearest end of the sofa to allow him to button his shirt back up. They didn't go all the way as they didn't feel they had enough time, but what they did was fun enough.
They didn't have to wait too long to do whatever they wanted anyway!

She buttoned her cardigan up, still feeling tingles at where he'd ran his hands up her arms.
"Before I forget, we've got a meeting later on this afternoon."

He pouted cutely. "It's that time again?"

"Afraid so." She laughed at his cute little pout. It was uncharacteristic yet adorable at the same time.

"I can't really think of anything to say." To be fair, he hadn't thought that much about it and he didn't realise how quickly the time had come for them to have a meeting in the first place.
With everything that had gone on between him and Clara and looking after her, he'd completely lost track with everything else.

"I'm sure something will come to you." She stated. "I don't think there's ever been an occasion where you've had absolutely nothing to say."

"Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about." He admitted. He'd had enough of brushing his relationship under the carpet any longer.

"Right now?" Karen was worried that he'd be too late to see to his set and start setting that up. "Are you sure you want to talk about that now?"

Chris then looked at the time. "I guess it can wait till we see each other after work." He supposed. It was something that could wait until then. "I'll see you at lunch then, yeah?"

She nodded softly, as he disappeared from the room. She still sensed chills from where he'd been touching her and the kissing they both shared…passionate yet gentle at the same time. To her, it was like…wow.

They met up at exactly quarter to one as they'd agreed to.
"Well, the weather's been good to us." He pointed out to her, tilting his head to the sun shining brightly through her room's window. "You wanna go out somewhere?"

She smiled a little shyly. "People will talk about us if we do that."

He unlinked his arm from hers. "They won't now." He didn't feel comfortable expressing his feelings for her in front of any other members of staff. And she was right. They'd be the school's hot gossip if anyone found out what they got up to outside of work hours, and it wouldn't have been to everyone's liking.

Not in Karen's opinion, anyway. After all, she was dating possibly the most sought-after male in the building and she certainly felt conscious about other girls wanting to walk off with him.

"To anyone else, they'd just see us as friends." He explained quietly once they'd gotten outside and were quite far away from anyone who'd catch what he was saying.

"Friends who have sex together, you mean."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Not in a casual sense, though. And no one else knows about what we get up to, do they?" Hearing no further remark from her, he continued. "I just thought it'd be nice to go out for lunch as it's sunny outside – plus it'll take your mind off the meeting later."

She nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, that's very thoughtful of you."

They got into his car and drove off together.