** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1

Franken-Ollie Strikes again 2/3

"Mummy! Mummy! We're here and Emily decided to come but she wouldn't dress up and she won't tell us what's in the…"

"Ssssh sweetheart I know and I asked her to bring the bag but it's a secret, why don't you and Eliza go check out the party food and see Malcolm, Ollie and Glen's costumes they're hilarious." Nicola whispered stopping Ella in her tracks as she ran out of the lift the volume of her excited babbling risking the covert nature of what she'd organised with her oldest daughter.

"Ok, Liza come on Mum says there's party food over here." She shouted as the thirteen year old glared at her mother on the way past the cute cat costume Nicola had picked clearly not meeting with her middle daughter's approval as the sulky edge to her stare verged on venomous.

"You're not her favourite person at the minute." Emily laughed as she and Nicola headed in the direction of her office the large paper carrier bag in her hand.

"Yeah well she can add her name to the list of people who would happily see me trip on this god awful dress and take a nose dive down the stairs. It's not my fault that she refused to come costume shopping with me so I had to pick something for her myself, god I don't remember you being that much trouble until you were at least 15."

"Ah well see she's had a couple of years to learn from the best about making your life a misery, and you have to admit I am the best I had nothing to work with I was the oldest I didn't realise you could have an attitude problem till I got one of my own."

"Maybe you should have a word with her about when it's appropriate to have an attitude and when you're better off just towing the party line then because she's going to spend the rest of her teenage years grounded and without her phone and computer if she keeps this up."

"Yeah ok, I'll try but no promises. Now what's this about?" Emily smiled closing the office door behind them before handing the bag to Nicola and sitting in the chair behind her mother's desk propping her feet up on the surface beside the framed picture of her and her siblings. "Jesus Mum this chair is the most uncomfortable thing I've ever sat in you'd think considering how much in debt this country is it wouldn't exactly make it worse to give you something to sit in that wasn't going to give you a severe back problem along the way."

"Don't get me fucking started on that chair we have bigger things to deal with." Nicola sighed lifting out the selection of things from the bag and setting them on the desk as she filled Emily in on what Ollie had told her while they looked over the stuff her daughter had brought.

"God he's such a bastard Mum I swear I don't know how you don't just knock him out at least once a day!"

"Don't think I'm not tempted. Right he's dressed as Dracula….."

"Talk about type casting."

"Yeah I know, take this and see if you can pull your sweetest awe struck groupie act and hide it in the collar of his cape, he's terrified of anything resembling an insect or a spider he thinks no one knows but I had to remove a spider from his office a couple of weeks ago while he pretended to be busy with what was on his desk while quacking in his boots." Nicola smiled taking the small plastic spider off the centre of the desk and handing it to Emily.

"Ok what are you going to do?" Emily replied slipping the spider into her pocket as she watched Nicola lift a bag of sweets from the desk too.

"I'm going to start with leaving these where he'll find them then I'm going to set up the ducking for apples and pin the tail on the cat. If by the time we've done all that he's not ready for the hills then we'll come back for more of this stuff." Nicola smiled scooping the other things into the bag again and putting it into the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet behind her desk. "I want you to volunteer to supervise the ducking for apples I'll deal with the pin the tail on the cat which we'll get him to do first. When he gets to the ducking he'll be so determined to prove he's not shit at everything that he'll be desperate to have a go. Come here."

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Emily asked as they stood by window and Nicola opened the blinds just as the lift opened and two dozen hyper active children poured out.

"You see the boy in the Mummy costume?"

"Yeah."

"His Dad is the energy secretary and last week Malcolm gave Rodgers a particularly hard time. Scott is 12 he knows the score and I happen to know from the last time he and Ella were at a party together that he hates Malcolm with a vengeance. He's also got ten times the guts of his father who is about as strong as a damp tissue and as much back bone as an earthworm. Have a word with him and tell him we want to make sure the minute Malcolm gets anywhere near the basin of water he end up head first in it, if you think you need extra help with anything the girl leaning against the wall giving Liza a run for her money in the attitude department is Sophie. She's Ollie's Niece and she'll be up for anything especially if it alleviates the boredom of having to be here at all and socks it to Malcolm in the process."

"OK, let's do this. By the time we're done with him he'll wish he'd never been born." Emily smiled giving her mother a tight hug before heading out the door palming the spider and making a beeline straight for Malcolm.

"Oh yes he will baby he really will." Nicola whispered taking the bag of sweets she'd set down again on the desk and heading out the door herself suddenly much more convinced that she would enjoy the party herself than she had been only an hour before.