Dolphin-san: Hey there y'all! The next chapter is complete.

Thanks to Broken Vows, Kiara Kitsune and kailover2006 for reviewing chapter 5. And to kailover2006I kinda thought it was obvious from chapter 1 who was pregnant, seeing as Max bought a pregnancy test for himself. But I apologise to anyone who didn't get it. I'll try to make it more obvious in future.

Chapter 6

Max, flicking without much enthusiasm through a magazine in the doctor's waiting room at ten to nine on Monday morning, came across an article detailing the break-up of some minor celebrity's marriage.

In the accompanying photograph the woman – an actress in her late thirties – was looking suitably devastated in full make-up and a short clinging dress that showed off . . . well, practically everything.

The article was headlined: EVERY NIGHT I CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP.

Lucky you, thought Max, his shoulders sagging with exhaustion. I cry every night but I still can't sleep.

How much could he seriously be expected to sympathise, anyway, with a woman who clearly didn't cry much at all? She was wearing mascara, wasn't she? Her eyes weren't permanently swollen like a frog's. Furthermore, she had a teeny-weeny waist.

Hating her, Max threw the magazine back on the pile. He shifted on his uncomfortable moulded plastic chair – moulded for someone with a far smaller bottom than his, by the feel of it – and eased a finger under the safety pin straining to hold together the waistband of his loose jeans.

There was a poster blu-tacked up on the wall opposite him. It said: Postnatal Depression?

I've got pre-natal depression, thought Max. Ha, beat that.

'Max Granger,' the tinny voice of the doctor announced over the intercom, 'to room six.'

In the space of the next five minutes, everything became astonishingly real. Armed with the date that Max said was when he started to feel strange, the doctor twiddled a circular chart contraption, consulted a calendar, then pronounced, 'Your baby is due to arrive on Tuesday the third of December.'

Max gazed at him. He spoke with such certainty.

Heavens. Move over, Mystic Meg.

'Call it an early Christmas present.' The doctor smiled at his stunned expression. 'So, everything okay? Husband happy with it?'

Uh oh, here we go.

'He left me five days ago,' said Max, and waited to burst into tears.

The doctor looked as if he were waiting for him to burst into tears too.

Max wondered why it wasn't happening.

Instead, the doctor's words, Your baby is due to arrive on Tuesday the third of December, kept dancing through his mind.

Somehow, miraculously, they seemed more important than the brutal ones Hiro had flung at him last week.

'He's never wanted children,' Max told the doctor, marvelling at the steadiness of his own voice. 'But it's okay, I'll cope.'

Well, cope might be putting it a bit strongly. Somehow muddle through was probably nearer the mark.

'In that case, let's pop you on the scales,' said the doctor.

Oh dear, how dainty. That was what you did in the supermarket with a bag of seedless grapes.

'I'm only seven weeks in and I've already put on loads of weight.'

Max kicked off his shoes, embarrassed, and shuffled over to the scales. 'I can't stop eating, I just feel so hungry all the time.'

'Don't worry about it. Just try and eat healthily.'

How healthy was pecan toffee ice cream? And bags of liquorice allsorts? Not to mention strawberry Angel Delight.

'Morning sickness, that's what I need.' Max sounded rueful. 'I keep waiting for it to happen and it just won't.'

Amused, the doctor tut-tutted.

'My wife's pregnant. If she could hear you now, she'd hit you over the head with her sick bag. You stay as you are,' he advised Max good naturedly. 'You're a lucky boy.'

Was he a real doctor?

Or, Max wondered, an escaped lunatic masquerading as one?

Me, a lucky boy?

'You're late,' said Takao.

'I know, I'm sorry.' As he swung round to face Takao, Ray caught a glimpse of his frazzled reflection in one of the salon mirrors. Well, was it any wonder he was looking frazzled? 'Oh, but Takao, you'll never believe what happened!'

Excuses? Takao had heard them all.

'Don't tell me. You were seized by a gang of kidnappers and held hostage,' he guessed, 'until they found out nobody was going to pay to get you back, so they let you go.'

'Oh ha ha.' Ray was clearly miffed. 'I'm being serious.'

'The tube was held up. Body on the line.'

Always a trusty stand-by. It was a wonder London still had a population, the number of times Takao had heard this one.

He got glared at.

'No.'

'Okay, a kitten ran out into the road and you just had to rescue it.'

Takao was grinning. Ray could have hit him. The kitten excuse was a standing joke at the salon. The really frustrating thing about it was, it had once actually happened. It was one of his few genuine excuses and nobody – nobody – had ever believed him.

'If you must know, I've been out looking for that beggar,' he announced. Takao might be a pig, but he was bursting to tell someone. 'You know, the one who sits outside the shoe shop?'

'You mean the beggar you gave Alice Tavistock's money to?' Entertained, Takao raised an eyebrow. 'The one you keep insisting isn't a beggar because he never begs?'

'Okay, okay, don't rub it in.' Impatiently Ray waved the interruption aside. 'Anyway, it turns out he isn't a real beggar at all. He's not hungry and he isn't homeless – he's a total fake. I saw him yesterday on Hampstead Heath wearing normal clothes. He was with his son, flying a kite. And you'll never guess what kind of car he drives.' His golden eyes flashed with renewed outrage as the words tumbled out. 'Only a BMW.'

Takao tried not to smile. Poor Ray, he was positively fizzing with indignation. All his illusions, so brutally shattered.

'Well, it happens.' His voice was mild.

'I gave him a scarf and a pair of gl –' in the nick of time Ray stopped himself, 'er . . . glasses, an old pair of sunglasses.'

Nodding slowly, Takao said, 'I see, sunglasses. Always useful.'

'I can't believe I was so stupid. The whole time he must have been laughing at me. Can you believe it?' Ray seethed. 'A bloody BMW.'

'So did you say anything to him yesterday?'

'Well, a bit, but his little boy was there. Anyway, I've thought of a whole load more things to yell at him today.' In fact Ray had lain awake half the night coming up with bigger and better insults. In the end there were so many he'd had to write them down. 'Look, here's my list.'

It was a big list. Takao could just imagine Ray standing over the poor fellow in the street, bawling, 'Wait, wait, I haven't nearly finished yet!'

'Well, good,' he told Ray mildly. 'But I'd prefer it if you confronted him in your own time, not mine.'

He wasn't there at lunch time.

'Look on the bright side,' said Bev, whom Ray had dragged along for moral – and physical – support. 'At least you won't have to share your lunch anymore.'

This didn't console Ray. There was a nasty feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He was beginning to suspect he'd blown the whole operation.

'I bet he's moved to another pitch.' Gloomily he shoved his hands into his pockets. 'Damn, I should have kept my mouth shut yesterday.'

There again, keeping quiet had never been his forte.

Bev was just relieved that she'd be getting back to the salon with her expensive false nails intact. She wrapped a consoling arm around Ray's shoulders.

'Hey, cheer up. Maybe you've frightened him into going straight.'

By ten to six the last client had left. Ray was in the back room unloading the tumble dryer and folding a mountain of midnight-blue towels – the Takao Kinomiya signature colour – into neat piles.

Well, neatish.

When Bev put her head around the door there was an odd expression on her face.

'Someone's here to see you.'

Ray looked at her. It was actually a really weird expression; Bev seemed half enthralled, half perplexed.

'Who?'

'He didn't say. And he doesn't know your name either, he just asked to speak with the boy with the magpie hair.'

Hastily, because Takao would kill him if he didn't, Ray semi-folded the last of the towels before bundling them up on to the shelf. He hadn't mentioned it to Takao – well, you don't, do you? – but one of his clients this morning had come into the salon with her son, who'd shown definite signs of interest in him. He'd been good fun. Good-looking, too. And – Ray had discovered – he was a policeman!

He'd always had a bit of a weakness for men in uniform.

And now he's off duty, Ray thought with a rush of excitement, he's come to find me again.

Whisked away from your workplace, hmm, very Officer and a Gentleman daydreamed Ray. And how apt, seeing as he actually was a police officer!

Although maybe not a terribly bright one, if the guy hadn't even remembered his name.

Hup, the last of the towels flew through the air, landing – more or less – on the top shelf.

'It's okay, I think I know who it is.' Eyes shining, Ray pushed his magpie hair behind his ears and presented himself to Bev for inspection. 'Do I look alright?'

'Fine,' Bev was still bemused, 'but –'

'Don't be surprised if he picks me up and carries me out of here,' Ray fantasised happily. 'You can clap and cheer if you like. Oh, but don't say: Is that a truncheon in your pocket or are you just pleased to see him? Because it might be a truncheon and that would be really embarr –'

'Will you stop wittering on and get out there?' Exasperated, Bev gave him a hefty shove in the direction of the door. 'He can't wait for ever, he's parked on double yellows.'

Hang on, something not quite right here, thought Ray.

Policemen were honest, law-abiding citizens, weren't they?

Surely they wouldn't park on yellow lines?

Dolphin-san: There we go. I hope that made it clearer who was pregnant. Go Max for not crying, eh? I'll try and update soon so that you don't have to wait too long to find out who's looking for Ray.

Oh yeah, before I forget. I'm looking for a beta reader for the future chapters. I need someone to help look for mistakes I might be making, as I have what I like to call selective reading. My eyes can skip over quite a lot of text and not take it in, but continue later in the paragraph or page as though I didn't just miss half of what I'm reading. So if anyone out there in Fan Fiction land wants to be nice and give me a little hand every now and then, tell me in a review and I'll get back to you.

Ja Ne .