After the service, Fiona's parents had asked everyone back to their place for afternoon tea.
Lucas felt like an intruder. He had been undecided as to whether he ought to come or not but for some reason Malcolm had insisted that he should. Aside from Harry, Malcolm was the only friend he had left on the Grid, so after some persuasion he'd agreed to attend, not wanting to offend him.
He sat down on an armchair with Malcolm and Jo opposite him on a couch. Connie was talking to Fiona's parents while Ros and Harry were huddled in the corner talking quietly.
Malcolm and Jo were engaged in a discussion about the arrangement of the Beethoven Sonata playing quietly in the background - a subject no doubt initiated by Malcolm. He presumed Jo was keeping up her end of the conversation either due to the politeness instilled in her as a result a good upbringing or to avoid thinking about Adam. Or both.
Malcolm's voice brought back memories of late nights on the Grid, the camaraderie of banter under pressure as they worked to deactivate the latest threat to the nation. Her voice was unfamiliar but soft, with the melodic rise and fall of a song. He sat quietly, listening to the rhythm of their voices, not really taking in their conversation, and watching their interaction.
As they talked his attention became increasingly focused on Jo. It seemed to him that the dress gave her an oddly exotic air, and her glamour was strangely out of place in such a mundane setting.
He thought to himself that the ability to attract men was both a useful and a dangerous thing for a woman to possess. In his world it had been used countless times during operations to get what they wanted. He had even, as a Senior Officer, overseen operations where he had instructed his female colleagues to put it to use it to achieve a higher purpose. He had been vaguely conscious of the fact that there was always a risk that it could backfire. But he hadn't actually seen that happen before during his time in the service. Until now that was.
He was startled from his thoughts by the sound of Malcolm loudly exclaiming that he had just seen a version of latest multi function Notebook laptop in the corner.
Opposite him, Joanna took another sip of her tea then returned it to the saucer with a muted clink and looked up to see Lucas watching her intently, his expression inscrutable.
**
Just a little bit this time, next chapter some dialogue after the funeral but still working on that.