Chapter 8: More Instinct, Less Thinking

They made it through the night without too many issues. Danielle did wake up distressed again, but with less screaming thank goodness. She had been desperate to check that Richard was ok, so the two had gone into the living room where he was sleeping soundly on the couch in his shirt sleeves. Danielle prodded him, and he looked really rather adorable, all drowsy as Camille explained that the girl wanted to check he was okay. Camille watched affectionately as he gathered Danielle up and gave her a brief hug. It seemed to Camille that these actions were probably because he was half asleep, so instinct drove him rather than reason, the display of emotion was rather uncharacteristic.

Over breakfast (banana sandwiches were replaced by the more traditional brioche) Camille asked, somewhat hesitantly, "I think it's good for Danielle to have some stability at the moment, so, um, maybe we should carry on with both of us being around overnight?"

He was in the process of lifting a piece of brioche into his mouth, and at her question is hand came to a somewhat abrupt stop. Camille thought she was about to be told how inappropriate her idea was, but instead all Richard came out with was, "Okay."

Danielle had finished breakfast and Camille was letting her watch TV again. This distraction allowed her to broach more difficult topics.

"I'll take the next ferry to Guadeloupe, but what will you do with Danielle all day?"

"I can keep her entertained this morning, but there is work to do at the station that can't be ignored really. I'm hoping I can find something to keep her relatively quiet whilst I get on with it," Camille wasn't sure taking the child to the police station was the best idea, and Richard must have seen the doubt in her face. "I won't leave any details of her Mother's murder lying about, don't worry."

"I didn't think you would," she told him, annoyed he would think she thought so little of him.

"Also, at some point we have to try and question her about what she saw that night, might as well try this afternoon. Though I'm oddly reluctant to put her through that," he admitted.

"Why would your reluctance be 'odd'?"

"I don't know, if I wasn't looking after her I probably wouldn't have an issue with it. But this way round, I have to be the bad guy who reminds her of it all, then try to be the good guy who comforts her," He shrugged, clearly not sure if he was making sense.

Camille gave him a small smile, "So you'll be the pushover, then?"

He frowned, "What do you mean?"

"The one the kids go to when they want something, because you always let them have their way. Forcing m- uh, their mother to be the bad guy." She prayed to God he hadn't spotted the slip.

"Last week I probably wouldn't have agreed with you, now however…"

Danielle ran into the kitchen, stole more brioche, and ran straight back out again. Then, seeming to remember her manners, dashed back in to shout "Thanks!" at the top of her voice before disappearing.

"God she moves fast," Richard said, looking a little panicked.

"Yup, good luck."

At the market, Danielle actually attached herself rather firmly to Richard's leg. Perhaps she was nervous of the many, many, people that seemed to frequent the place no matter what time of day it was. Perhaps her mother had taught her to stay close in crowds, for fear of being separated. Either way, there was no way he was going to lose her, though the tightness with which she held on to him did rather restrict his movements. He had explained as best he could to the girl it was necessary for him to go into the station to do some very important work, but she would come with him. Before they went to the station they would go and buy her some things she could play at quietly whilst he worked.

Richard was a little taken aback by how eager the girl was to please. "I can do that!" she told him excitedly. "I know from being quiet when Mummy teaches." He had hoped for as much, assuming it must be hard to teach violin if a small child constantly wanted your attention. He hadn't had to heart to bring up her mother, but Danielle had done it herself, though using the wrong tense as the recently bereaved were all warrant to do.

They stopped at a stall that, judging from the toys and brightly coloured packages, catered largely for children. Richard didn't need Camille's skills at reading people when he saw the way Danielle looked at a pack of 288 crayons, her whole face lit up with excitement and it seemed pretty evident colouring was high on the girl's list of preferred activities. Though he felt 288 different colours was a little excessive, who was he to stifle creativity in a child? The crayons were selected with a couple of colouring books and a pad of blank paper. Richard was a little disappointed when Danielle failed to show the same enthusiasm for the picture books he found, but then again he probably wouldn't be able to read them in the appropriate manner anyway. He imagined putting on different voices was probably something best left to Camille.

Whilst encouraging Danielle to pick out some fruit to have with her lunch, Richard was surprised to look down to find a toddler had attached herself to his other leg, and was looking up grinning at him round her dummy. Richard recognised the child, and looked around to see a very harassed Juliet pushing her way over.

"Oh I'm sorry, Inspector, she saw you and pointed, and I said, yes Rosie we'll go say hello, then I tried to pay for a pineapple and she let go of my hand and moved over her at a pace I've never seen her achieve before. I mean since she learnt to walk I've been sort of reluctant to put her on one of those child leashes you know, looks like you're talking them out for a walk like you would a dog, but if she's going to escape my grasp like that well I don't have a choice it's just not safe otherwise. Anyway, sorry to disturb you, she just loves you, you know. I think it might be your accent." Inconceivably, Juliet said all of this without taking a breath.

"That's ok," he reassured her, still trying to process everything that had been said. A giggle drew his attention back to the two children he now possessed about his person, and he found Danielle making funny faces that Rosie clearly found entertaining. Richard reached down and picked up Rosie, in case something else distracted her and she made a run for it. The baby shouted "Bah!" and proceeded to begin to poke him repeatedly in the arm. He gave her a small smile and took her hand in his to distract her from the poking.

"How is it going?" Juliet asked, eyes flicking down to Danielle to indicate what she was really asking.

"Ok, um, we've bought some colouring stuff," he told her, a little uncomfortable. Really, he'd like to confess he was worried he was messing everything up and did Juliet please have some advice, but couldn't exactly admit that with Danielle standing there staring between the two of them. "Danielle, this is Juliet, and this here is Rosie."

Danielle smiled politely and managed a little wave, both of which were returned by Juliet. The mother must have sensed something of Richard's fears, because she said next, "You know I wouldn't worry too much, you're a bit of a natural actually, well…when you don't think too much."

That statement really didn't make sense to Richard, and blunt person he was, he told Juliet so, "I don't understand. What do you mean by 'don't think too much'?"

Juliet looked like she wished she hadn't said anything, as she painfully began to explain, "Well you know, like just now. You didn't think about picking Rosie up, you sort of just knew that is what she wanted and also what would be best to stop her running off again! Then when she started prodding, you just grabbed her hand and let her play with that instead, which is much less distracting. You didn't think about those things, you did them on instinct."

"I like babies!" Danielle piped up suddenly.

"Rosie likes you, too," Juliet told the girl. "And she has just started colouring, I bet you are really good aren't you?"

"I could draw you a picture," Danielle suggested, rather shyly.

"That would be wonderful."

Richard was not distracted by this interruption. Danielle fell silent, looking quite pleased by Juliet's praise, and he took his opportunity to probe again.

"Are you saying I shouldn't think about things?"

"No, I'm more saying you shouldn't worry about things so much, because then you might do what you think is right instead of what is right." Juliet bit her lip. "Look, I think everything came out wrong, I'm not very good at this. Just, honestly, I think you're much better with children then you think you are. Honestly, Rosie learns a new word every time she sees you because she loves listening to you."

In a moment that you couldn't make up, Rosie spat her dummy out (snatched from mid-air in a well-practised move by Juliet) and practically bellowed "THINK!" Well, something more akin to 'fink', as she hadn't quite managed the 'th' sound. Still, Richard would admit to be impressed.

"There we go, a live example," Rosie seemed to suddenly remember her mother was there, and held out her arms to indicate her desire to be returned to her. Juliet took the baby and said, "We better get you home before you toddle off somewhere else without permission!"

"Right, yeah, see you soon, Juliet."

Winding her way back towards her home, Juliet very nearly paused to bang her head repeatedly against a tree trunk. What had she been thinking, or perhaps the problem was she hadn't. Or it could be being alone with the baby all day, perhaps she was getting starved of adult conversation. Though that was a little unfair to Fidel, mind he loved her enough to forgive her quirks. She had meant well, she really had, but the man had a tendency to put himself down when it came to his relationships with other people. The first time he'd looked after Rosie, he'd informed Juliet he was sure it was a worse experience for the baby than it was for him. But Rosie did genuinely seem to like him for reasons clear to her childish mind, whenever she spotted Richard she was always delighted. Whatever he was doing during the few other occasions he had babysat was clearly working.

The problem was, when she'd tried to come up with an example of a time he'd overthought a situation instead of acting on instinct, she could only think of one example. It was the sort of example you do not give to your husband's boss, the sort of example that probably didn't seem very appropriate given the context of the conversation even though it was probably what deep down had driven her to make the comment in the first place. And that example's name was Camille.

She had watched, on several occasions, Camille flirt with or otherwise try to encourage the Inspector. Juliet felt she was rather good at reading people, and she'd watch with no small amount of frustration, as he overthought everything and somehow, impossibly, came to the entirely wrong conclusion. He clearly didn't think he was good enough for Camille, even though Camille had clearly decided that wasn't true. Juliet had silently willed Camille just to make the first move (one that would have to leave him with no doubt of her desires), but the woman was not entirely secure enough in herself to do that. All Camille needed, Juliet was sure, was just a single ounce of encouragement from the Inspector. Juliet had become so frustrated that she had begged Fidel to help her come up with some scheme to get the two of them together, but he had asked her to leave them to sort things out at their own pace.

When Juliet had seen the worry in his eyes when she had asked him how things were going, she felt like she was seeing him draw similar conclusions about fatherhood as he did about Camille. He probably thought he wasn't cut out to be a father, or that he had left things too late now. Perhaps he was concerned he was going to mess everything up. But Juliet knew that he had all the right instincts, he just didn't always have the confidence to act on them.

She sighed so dramatically Rosie looked at her a little alarmed, so she gave her daughter a reassuring smile. Perhaps she'd ask Fidel about that scheme again…