Chapter 7: Lessons from a Four Year Old

A/N: Believe it or not the delay in this chapter was caused by one thing and one thing only. I could not, for the life of me, decide what Camille should cook. References/spoilers for the movie Up.

Camille carefully guided Danielle through the hallway, where paint tins were scattered and the ladder was still up – clearly the coving wasn't finished yet. Luckily the living room, though sprinkled with the odd box and featuring a layout of furniture that probably wouldn't make it into an interior design magazine at the moment, was perfectly habitable.

"Do you want some juice, Danielle?" Camille asked the girl, who had flopped dramatically onto the sofa.

"Yes, please."

She shot a questioning look towards him, and he told her water would be fine. He watched Danielle carefully, remembering what the psychologist said about how any conversation or behaviour could be significant. After a few moments he surmised that there probably wasn't much of a clue to be provided by her hanging upside down off the end of the sofa giggling. Danielle must have spotted something though, because she suddenly sat upright again and asked him excitedly, "Can we have Peppa pig, please?"

This question made no sense to Richard, and he frowned as he tried to work out if he had misheard or if she had misspoken. Seeing the look of confusion on his face, Danielle clearly tried to aid him by snorting incredibly loudly given her size. So, she'd definitely said pig then.

"I'm sorry, you want peppered pig for dinner?" He asked for confirmation. The horrified look that Danielle gave him indicated he clearly hadn't come to the right conclusion.

"You can't eat Peppa!" She protested tearfully.

"I was just joking!" He said in a rush, figuring it would be easier than explaining he had no idea what she was going on about. Camille came back in the room and his Detective Sergeant took one look at the tearful child and shot a glare of the sort of intensity he'd managed to avoid for ages. As if the child's tears weren't enough to make him feel chastised.

"What's the matter, Danielle?" Camille asked the girl, though Richard really thought she should ask him so he didn't get accused of something he was not guilty of.

"I want to watch Peppa pig but Richard said we were going to eat her!"

"Watch?" He repeated, suddenly realising where the two of them may have gone wrong. "It's a TV show?"

Camille had gotten on her knees to talk to Danielle, "You see, Danielle, Richard doesn't have a TV that works. So he didn't realise who you were talking about, otherwise he would never, ever, have suggested eating Peppa." She told the girl gently, asking him a whole lot more firmly, "Isn't that right, Richard?"

"Absolutely," he agreed hurriedly, relieved to see Danielle looked a lot calmer.

"Can we watch Peppa then?" Danielle asked, with only a hint of a sniffle. "It starts when the big hand is on the four."

"Sure, you can watch with Richard whilst I make dinner," Camille told her. This annoyed him a little, as he had no desire to watch children's TV, but perhaps Camille thought it would help alleviate Danielle's fears that he planned to take her favourite TV character to an abattoir. She had found the appropriate channel, and Richard settled down and told himself he should be grateful the show was at least in English.

Children's television programming was not exactly big when he had been younger, but he had to question if he would have been as entertained as Danielle seemed to be. All he knew was that he was without doubt not as entertained right now. He spared the girl a glance, and she seemed pretty absorbed still, even though Peppa had ended and been replaced with some sort of Spanish/English bilingual show about a girl called Doris or something. Now if they made a French/English kids show he might at least learn something useful. Deciding that Danielle was unlikely to care (or perhaps even notice) if he left, Richard decided to go investigate the clanging noises and occasional muttering coming from the direction of the kitchen.

Camille appeared to be giving the cook book a glare equivalent to the one he had received earlier, so he assumed things were perhaps not going so well. "What are you making?" he asked, startling her and causing her to drop the knife she had been holding with a curse. She looked sheepishly towards the door, but when Richard leaned back to check on Danielle the girl was busy pretending to swim on the floor and clearly hadn't heard.

"It's ok," he reassured Camille.

"I am trying to make Boeuf en croute," she said, tone tinged with frustration. "I've made it with salmon a hundred times, I don't understand why this is harder."

Richard frowned, that sounded French. However when he looked at the recipe book he smiled happily, "Oh, you mean Beef Wellington."

Camille had retrieved the knife, and pointed it at him as she made the next statement, "You can call it whatever you like but I mean Boeuf en croute."

He smirked at her, but didn't argue the point, "I never realised you were so domestic."

"What are you saying a woman can't have a career and be able to cook and sew and such?" She snapped angrily, tipping mushrooms from a frying pan.

"No," Richard said carefully, preferring not to fight with her when a child was in the other room. "I was saying that I didn't know that you could."

"Right, yeah," Camille replied, still a little flustered. "Look, if you're going to be in here disturbing me do something useful. Um, beat those eggs." She said, pointing distractedly whilst consulting the cook book again.

Richard had to question why she'd cook something so complicated, Danielle probably didn't have very sophisticated tastes and was too young to be impressed. Then he remembered that she'd been intending to cook this for him, as a thank you for the whole fixing the sink and helping her move thing. The cook book was new as well (or old, but never used), and suddenly he felt a little flustered as well. Surely a woman like Camille – confident, independent, and savvy – hadn't actually been trying to impress him? He beat the two eggs as instructed, and pushed the thought aside as ridiculous. Camille still looked a little stressed, so he decided he would get out from under her feet and went to check on Danielle.

As he entered, she pointed at him and said in a surprisingly commanding tone, "Dance!"

"No!" He replied firmly, sitting back down on the sofa, but it would seem she was not willing to be satisfied by a simple refusal. When she continued stare at him, hand still raised to point, he elaborated, "I'm sorry I don't know how to dance."

She shook her head, and Richard started to get the impression Danielle thought he was a poor, deprived adult who needed educating desperately. In some ways, that was correct. In the unlikely event he ever did find himself a father, there were a lot of skills he needed to learn. Danielle once again demonstrated her prowess with technology, eagerly prodding at a button on a device that sat on Camille's mantelpiece. Music that Richard didn't recognise (and, a few bars in, knew he didn't want to learn to recognise either) filled the room.

She stood directly in front of him, and instructed, "You dance like this!" What followed looked more like jogging on the spot accompanied by some wild hand movements then any dancing Richard had ever seen, but then she was only four. He couldn't help but smile, she really as quite adorable.

With Richard out of the room, Camille was able to force herself to concentrate, and soon had the damn thing in the oven. She didn't know what she was thinking, she'd been flicking though the book in the shop and when she'd seen this recipe had a feeling of familiarity. Then she'd remembered Richard mentioning it was always what his Mum made on Boxing Day. She hadn't known what Boxing Day was, and had then received a long lecture on how it evolved. She had bought the book, mentally convincing herself it was full of recipes that would be useful for all the dinner parties she could throw now she had the room. It was just a coincidence the first time she used it was to make him dinner.

She came back into her living room, to find Danielle had put some music on using her iPod docking station, and was proceeding to dance wildly in the middle of the floor. Well, Camille assumed it was meant to be dancing, the girl probably wouldn't be winning Strictly Come Dancing at any point soon. Richard was watching, apparently highly amused. He was smiling in a way he rarely did, relaxed and open, unaware he was being watched. She couldn't deny it, he did have a very attractive smile, and she took a moment to continue to enjoy it. If it meant he smiled like that more often, a child would probably do him a lot of good.

Much to her embarrassment, Camille was caught staring. Danielle cried out that Camille should come and dance as well, and when Richard turned to look at her Camille was unable to avert her gaze fast enough. Though some people might consider her next actions more embarrassing, Camille enthusiastically joined Danielle in dancing in the hopes it would distract from her faux pas of staring at Richard. He just continued to sit there, trying not to laugh, and Camille was relieved when the song ended.

Danielle was all for hitting repeat and starting the process over again, but Camille convinced her that watching her DVD of Up was a much better idea. She then left see to things in the kitchen (though there wasn't actually anything to see to) because she didn't want to end up crying at the start of the movie which always seemed to happen no matter how many times she watched it. Because Danielle was still absorbed in the movie, they'd ended up eating off plates on their laps, which was a far cry from what Camille actually had planned when she'd first thought of cooking this meal, and something her own mother would probably classify as bad parenting. Richard hadn't minded though, apparently more disturbed by the idea of dogs being able to pilot small planes than not eating at a table.

When he started to mutter about scientific inaccuracy, she hushed him saying, "It's for children, Richard."

"Well if it's just for children how come you have a copy?" She hadn't got a comeback for that one. Great, now he probably thought her idea of culture was a kid's film. She must have looked like she was sulking, because a moment later he hesitantly added, "I like Kevin." She smiled at him, but his admission must have embarrassed him on some level, because he was resolutely staring at the screen.

Danielle had curled herself up in a corner, and when the credits came on they both realised she was fast asleep. At least they could surmise her normal bedtime must be somewhere between 7 and 8 then. Richard looked ready to doze off himself, Camille suspected he hadn't slept much the night before.

"Do you want to just stay here," Camille whispered, though she wasn't sure why, Danielle had just been sleeping through the movie. "We could take the bed."

Richard gave her a shocked look, and it took Camille a moment to realise what she'd said. Trying to hide her blush, she clarified, "I meant Danielle and I could go in my bed. You could sleep on the sofa."

"Oh right," he said, also whispering and clearly relieved. "Are you sure it's not too inconvenient?"

"Oh it's not inconvenient at all for me, but will you be able to sleep without your pyjamas?" She said teasingly.

He levelled her with a look that indicated he was not, in fact, amused, "I'll be fine."