Wow, look at me! I've gone from not updating for over a month to TWO bloody updates in 48 hours! The OCD is back people! Thank you so very much to all those of you who reviewed the last chapter. I hope this one is to your liking as well :)

When Allie Harding was eight years old, she had lost her mother.

On the odd occasion she would still have nightmares, even nineteen years later she would still wake up sweating sometimes, tears streaming down her face as she recalled what had been the worst moment of her life.

A moment made worse only by the stares she had gotten as she strolled into school her first morning back; the other girls staring at her with a mixture of pity and morbid curiosity to see how long it would take her to break down.

The very same stares that nineteen years later, she was receiving all over again.

People had actually avoided getting into the elevator with her, avoided eye contact at all costs and not one person had bothered to say good morning to her.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, the elevator doors opened revealing the Vogue penthouse as it had always been; the air thick with perfume and buzzing with noise. Idle chatter and laughter breaking through the silence in her head and convincing her if only for a second that things would be alright.

The receptionist eyed her warily though didn't say anything, apparently as unwilling as everyone was of starting up a conversation with her.

Deciding that standing still was getting her nowhere, Allie forced her feet to start moving and began her usual walk down the hallway; lined with photos of previous issues, of parties they had been to, of people they had met. It seemed almost normal.

But then she saw it.

The door at the end of the hallway came into view, the light coming in from the blinds spilling across its wooden panelling. The name had been removed from it though, the words Lara Knight now replaced with an ugly scratch. The poster stating that 'Vogue Girls Do It Better' no longer graced it.

Taking a deep breath, Allie walked towards it feeling her heart thumping heavily in her chest.

Reaching out with a shaking hand, Allie pushed the door open further and froze.

There was…nothing.

An empty desk sat staring at her, the large leather chair facing the window, a thin but visible layer of dust covering the wooden surface.

Clothes and handbags no longer littered the floor, the card Poppy had made for her wasn't on the wall; neither was their graduation photo or the pictures of them at Allie's wedding.

The room didn't even smell like Lara any more.

"It was her mum," a voice spoke softly from behind her but she didn't turn around. "She came in a few days after the funeral and took it all away...I tried but…" Jack's voice broke. "I think her mum found it helpful…you know part of the process…"

Allie glanced over her shoulder to where Jack was sat on the floor, his back against the wall as he nursed a large cup of Starbucks coffee, picking a second one up and holding it up to her.

"Welcome back, kiddo,"

She choked out a laugh and sat down next to him, pulling her knees up to her chest and sighing shakily.

"Today's going to be shit, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah," Jack lifted his cup and tapped it lightly against hers. "But hey, she would have wanted it this way…"

"What? Shitty, moping about, crying all the time?" Allie smirked. "Actually, yeah, you're right…"

They sat in silence for a moment and Allie felt a lump form in her throat.

"Its like she was never here," she whispered brokenly. "This was hers, Jack. This was where we would sit and work through next months issue at 3m with wine and pizza all over the carpet…" she bit her lip. "This is where she showed me my wedding dress for the first time…this is where I spent half my life with her and someone's just come in and taken it away like it was nothing…"

"Allie…ow! Mother fucker!" he shouted as the door they were sat next to suddenly flew open and smacked his funny bone.

Allie frowned and sat up straighter, peeking around the door and jumping slightly when she found herself looking up at a pair of sapphire blue eyes she hadn't seen in eight years.

"Nathan?" she whispered.

The dark haired man crouched down to that he was level with her, patting Jack on the shoulder and ignoring the hand gesture he received in return. Grinning widely, he plucked the cup of coffee out of her hand and raised an eyebrow.

"Coffee on demand, huh?" he took a sip and nodded to himself. "And to think they say that the first day of a new job is supposed to suck."

"So once again…just to clarify…"

Benjamin Ellis sat cross legged on his desk watching his best friend pace the empty classroom like some kind of predator.

"The reason you look like you're about to punch a hole through the window is because Natalie had a bloke back to the house,"

"Not just a bloke," Pete spat through gritted teeth. "You should 'ave seen the fuckin' state of 'im. Bruises all over his face, blood on his clothes, proper little shit as well, the attitude on him…"

He trailed off when Benjamin began laughing, his chuckle soon turning into a full out cackle as he slapped his hand on the desk top, wiping his eyes with the other one.

"What?" Pete frowned.

"Brother," Benjamin shook his head, snorting elegantly. "You do realise you're describing yourself a few years back, don't you?"

"Fuck off," the blonde snapped.

"Come on," Benjamin smirked. "Half beaten cockney bugger with an attitude problem sneaks into the posh house to have this way with the girl…you're telling me it doesn't ring any bells?"

"Wait…you don't think him and Nat…" Pete wrinkled his nose feeling physically sick.

"Yeah, Pete, I'm sure they were playing Scrabble and comparing how many friends they had on facebook all night," the Scotsman snorted. "Christ…you sure you went to University?"

"What's that got to do with me and Allie?" Pete shook his head.

"Because that's exactly what you were doing when you were Nat's age," he shrugged. "Or have you forgotten about the morning you gave yourself concussion jumping out of her bedroom window so her old man wouldn't find you?"

"That was different," Pete snapped.

"Course it was…" Benjamin rolled his eyes. "Pete, what exactly did the kid do wrong?"

"Exactly that!" he half shouted. "She's a fuckin' kid! She shouldn't 'ave blokes like that hanging round her…"

"You were a bloke like that," Benjamin pointed out evenly.

"Yeah and I was an arrogant little bastard only after one thing," he smirked back, remembering all too well the nights he would sneak into Allie's room after a fight.

"There you go then," Benjamin held up his hands.

"No, mate you're missing the point," Pete shook his head. "She's supposed to be staying on track…after all that shit a couple of years ago, she promised me that she wouldn't let anything like this happen."

"That she wouldn't meet anyone?"

"Not anyone like him, no," Pete sighed. "I'm serious mate, Ben, you should have seen the state of him…"

"The state of who?"

Both men turned towards the door with very different expressions; Benjamin wore an arrogant smirk whilst Pete scowled.

"What?" Natalie raised her eyebrows.

"You're in trouble…" Benjamin called to her in a sing-song voice.

"Ben," Pete warned him, trying not to laugh.

"What's going on?" Natalie looked at her cousin and hoped she appeared calmer than she actually felt.

"Easy tiger," Benjamin chuckled under his breath as he jumped off of his desk and clapped Pete on the shoulder. "We were all young once,"

"Still am," Pete shot back, shoving him forward.

Stumbling over to Natalie, Benjamin raised an eyebrow when he noted she was carrying bag of pin n' mix.

"Sweets?" he pursed his lips and leant forward slightly. "Wow, you really so know you're in the shit, don't you, sweetheart?"

"Oh yeah," she nodded, offering him the bag only to slap his hand a second later when he scooped up a few too many cola bottles for her liking.

"Chris says hi," Benjamin grinned through a mouthful of gummy bears.

"I'll bet," Natalie rolled her eyes, not particularly wanting to acknowledge the fact that Benjamin knew how she had felt about Chris in the past. It was a fleeting attraction that had faded as soon as she had met Daniel. Yep, no sign of that left. Natalie never even thought about Chris. Ever.

"Good luck, kiddo," the Scotsman ruffled her hair and strolled out into the hallway, spotting a student and shouting out something to them that sounded like, 'who are ya?'

"I take it you taught him that?" Natalie cocked her head towards the hallway and Pete smirked despite his mood.

"Its only fair I share my pearls of wisdom," he shook his head. "Was Sinead there when you left?"

"No," Natalie told him seriously. "But I gave Alex and Poppy some bleach, a box of matches and some vodka shooters before I left so I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Do you ever get sick of being a smart arse?" Pete narrowed his eyes.

"Not when you give me opportunities like that, blondie," she smiled. "So what was with the cryptic message?"

She had decided on the way here that even though chances were Pete had somehow found out about Daniel staying the night, she should play dumb until he finally lost his temper. Then…then she would grovel.

"How about we skip the bit where you play dumb?" Pete asked her evenly. "Because we both know I'll just end up losing my patience and I really don't wanna do that."

"Fine," Natalie jerked her chin up indignantly. "So come on then, let's have it,"

"Who is he?" Pete demanded, his voice low but not quite as even and controlled as before.

"Daniel," she gulped. "Daniel Courden. He's my age…well, a year older but…"

"What does he do?" Pete interrupted, folding his arms over his chest in a big brother-ish way which drove her mad.

"He's a politician," she snapped bravely.

"Natalie," Pete hissed through gritted teeth, her full name something he only used on occasions when his patience with her really was growing thin.

"Alright, he's a mechanic…what's the big deal about what he does?"

"You know that's not what I meant," Pete shook his head.

"What?" Natalie frowned. "I don't…"

Suddenly the penny dropped and she felt her jaw fall open.

"You're talking about drugs?" she whispered.

"You actually look surprised," Pete snorted.

"You son of a bitch," Natalie spat at him. "I don't have to listen to this,"

"So he's not a dealer?" Pete shrugged.

"No!" the brunette wheeled around, her light green eyes flashing dangerously as she glared at him. "He's not a drug dealer…he doesn't do drugs. He doesn't know I used to either before you ask,"

"I'm not gonna feel guilty for asking you that," Pete told her.

"God, when did you become such a self righteous arsehole?" she practically screamed. "Have you forgotten how many mistakes you used to make? How fucked up you were a few years back?"

"I was a twat," Pete nodded.

"You were a fucking hooligan!" Natalie spat at him violently. "You were a piece of shit rotting on the streets convinced that all that mattered was a fucking football team! And then even when you did get something good in your life, how many times did you end up almost fucking it up?"

"We're not talking about me," Pete stood up and towered over her, but she didn't back down. "We're talking about you fucking around under my roof and pissing all over the trust that I put in you,"

"What trust?" she snorted. "You just asked me if I was dating a drug dealer,"

"Well you bringing back random blokes to the house where your niece and nephew live doesn't say a fucking lot, does it Nat?" Pete shouted back at her.

"Don't make this about Alex and Poppy," Natalie glared at him. "Because we both know what this is really about. This is about you realising that you're past it, that you're stuck in some fucking school in a dead end job with a ditz of a wife who earns more money than you and the 2.4 kids you thought you'd never had to deal with and you can't fucking stand it!"

Pete stared at her for a moment and in that instant, Natalie knew she had hurt him. She knew that none of those things were true, that Pete was the proudest dad she had ever known and that he would sacrifice anything for Allie…

He stared at the floor for a moment before shaking his head and letting out a sigh.

"You know something Nat," Pete mumbled quietly. "You want to play by your own rules, you want out of my pathetic little life so badly then…go. Fuck off and never come back for all I care," his voice held no anger, no sorrow. Nothing.

"Pete…" Natalie stuttered.

"We're done here," he muttered, walking past her and holding the door open for her. "My dead end job starts in about six minutes and I need to get ready,"

"We can talk about this later…when we've both had the chance to calm d-.."

Natalie was cut off as the door slammed in her face and bit her lip, for some reason feeling as though she wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

Daniel wasn't worth this, that much she knew. There was no doubting that the boy was trouble…but he wanted her. He would do anything for her. And she'd be damned if she gave that up just to please Pete Dunham.

No matter how much it hurt them both.

"It was when you…" Nathan Guerin's deep laugh broke through the sentence once again and he shook his head, leaning on his desk for support. "When you looked at Madonna and said, 'so, what do you do?'"

Allie covered her face with her hands and blushed deeply.

"Jesus, I was so hammered you're just lucky I didn't end up singing Vogue at her or something…" she laughed heartily and pointed at him. "Hey, you could have at least helped me out,"

"And associated myself with you?" he grinned, his blue eyes twinkling. "Screw you, Harding,"

Holding up her left hand, Allie pointed to the ring and caught the roll of his eyes. She'd had to remind him about twenty times the last hour that her last name had changed.

"You can wear whatever ring you want," Nathan told her, his gentle American drawl softer and slightly rougher than Matt's. "You're still Harding to me,"

Allie had met Nathan eight years ago, way back when she had been sent over to New York. Having been the only person in the Vogue office that didn't treat her like a leper or refer to her as Mary Poppins, they had formed an instant friendship, though most of the time she had merely used him as a shoulder to cry on about how much she missed Pete at which point he would force her to put on a dress than cost more than her flight out there and they would hit the hottest bars Manhattan had to offer.

"So you're here…" she bit her bottom lip.

"As a filler," he finished for her. "We heard that something had gone down over here and you were an editor short so I thought I'd use the opportunity to make good on my eight year old promise and come visit my favourite girl,"

Allie smiled and looked down at her coffee, swirling it around the paper cup and getting lost in the patterns it created on the sides of the Styrofoam.

"So what happened?" Nathan inquired. "Someone get a promotion?"

Allie felt her throat get thicker as her stomach plummeted down to her toes. Of course no one would have told him, he was just a blind monkey walking into an office just as she had been all those years ago.

"No…uh, you remember me talking about my friend Lara?" she asked, her voice faltering just slightly on the name.

"Yeah," Nathan nodded.

"Well, um…she was actually the assistant editor to Jack and she…" Allie gripped the edge of the table hard enough to turn her knuckles white. "She died last month…in a car accident."

"Holy shit," Nathan breathed, shaking his head and leaning forward. "Allie, I'm so sorry, I wish I'd known…"

"It's ok," she whispered. "It's just…this is my first day back at work since…I was in the car with her and it was just…a lot to deal with,"

"Fuck," he closed his eyes. "I can't believe…"

"So you have to take really good care of that office," Allie warned him playfully, though her smile didn't even try to make it to her eyes.

"You miss her?" he asked quietly.

Allie glanced up at him, slightly startled by the question. It was the one thing no one had really asked her.

"Like hell…" she whispered, her voice wavering. "Walking through this office this morning is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I mean, seeing her office like that…" she shook her head. "It's like she never existed."

"You know she did though," Nathan smiled at her. "That's all that matters. No one will forget her, Allie,"

"Please," she rolled her eyes, growing angry when a tear rolled out of one of them. "They already have,"

"How do you know that?" Nathan asked her seriously.

"Because you're here to replace her!" Allie half laughed, half cried. "We buried her less than a month ago, Nathan and suddenly you're here moving your shit into her office…"

"So you want me to leave?" he raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Allie shook her head. "No, this isn't about you!"

"No, it's about you," he shot back, crossing his ankles as he leant back against the desk and watched her intently. "Allie, I can't even begin to imagine how much the last month must have sucked ass, alright? No one's debating that…losing your best friend is something that I can't relate to, it's something I don't ever want to think about but…but it happened,"

She shook her head, not wanting him to keep talking but knowing all to well that he would.

"See you can shout and you can scream and you can get so angry that you make yourself sick but you know something…at the end of it, Lara still won't be here." He spoke the words gently, so as not to upset her, but the meaning of them was sinking in, he could tell from the way she turned to stare out of the window so he wouldn't see the tears rolling down her face. "And if she could be here, even for a second, you know she'd probably go nuts about you being this way. Because if she was even half the girl you made her out to be, then she would have wanted you to keep going. You're stronger than this, Harding,"

Allie closed her eyes, not able to listen to anymore. Pulling a tissue out of her pocket, she dabbed her eyes lightly and turned, sniffing loudly as she tossed the tissue into the bin with shaking fingers.

"Allie, I didn't mean to upset you…" Nathan reached out, his hand just brushing her elbow before she pulled back from him and snatched her bag off of the floor.

"I have to see Pete," she mumbled.

"Who?" Nathan frowned.

"My husband," Allie laughed bitterly. "See, there it is,"

"There what is?" the American wondered aloud.

"The proof that you don't know as much as you seem to think you do," Allie told him, this hostility at the surface of her words as she stepped around him and stormed out through the door, not letting another tear fall until she closed her car door and turning the music up as loud as it would go, sobbed her heart out.

Oooh..so what do we make of that then? Two new boys in two chapters, I'm dishing out the man candy by the bucket load! And a fun random fact for those of you who might care...Nathan is actually mentioned in WCHB. If you go back and read it, he's in the office with Allie when Pete calls her from London and he gets all jealous on the phone. Anyway, now would be a perfect time to leave a review, don't you think? :) Thanks guys!