Fic: Call Me Conrad (4/16)
Title: Call Me Conrad (part 4 of 16)
Fandoms: Buffy/Hollyoaks/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Summary: New Year's Eve, and all's partying.
Michaela McQueen was having less fun than she ought to at Amy's party, at least in her opinion. First off, Amy's parents were there. Michaela loved Mike and Kathy, but parents at a party? Always a disaster. Nobody could possibly have fun when they knew they were being watched.
Then there was the kid. Somehow in the process of switching boyfriends yet again (and Michaela still hadn't got the full gossip on that), Amy had managed to acquire a nine-year-old kid. Who was currently alternating between hiding shyly from strangers - meaning everybody - and running around on a sugar high. Either way he was a right royal pain, and Michaela would be quite happy never to see the brat again.
Amy's mysterious new boyfriend Conrad was no fun either. He was pale, thin and terminally quiet. Seriously, Michaela was beginning to think she had to torture words out of him, he was that quiet. Nice as it was not to be interrupted all the time, he wasn't exactly giving her anything to work with.
"So how did you meet Amy, then?" she asked, hoping that would get him talking.
Unfortunately that just seemed to make him panic. "At a club," he blurted out.
"What, the Loft?" Michaela frowned. She didn't remember seeing Conrad around the village before, but she could easily imagine him hiding away in a dark corner somewhere.
Conrad shook his head vigorously. "No, it was in town."
"Oh, any good?"
"Horrible," he said vehemently enough to make Michaela cross the nameless club off her list of places to check out. Then he smiled a little. "Amy decided I shouldn't be there and dragged me out. I'd have stayed and been miserable otherwise."
"I've never seen the point in that," Michaela said blithely. "I mean, who wants to be miserable?"
"The owner's gone anyway. Maybe it'll get better." He didn't sound terribly enthusiastic about the idea, though. Michaela decided to move on to more interesting topics.
"Your friends look proper lush," she said, looking at the group standing awkwardly by the snacks.
Conrad looked puzzled. "Lush?" he asked.
"You know, a bit of alright. Good looking," Michaela tried when that didn't seem to help either. She gave him a sly nudge. "I don't suppose any of them are looking for a girlfriend?" To be honest, she would have preferred to go out with Nige rather than Conrad's stuck-up looking friends, but he'd disappeared after Amy had kicked him out.
Conrad still looked bemused. "Lush," he repeated, then shook his head. "Wea... er, Ron and Hermione have been together since forever, though they won't admit it."
"And the other one?" Michaela prompted. She was more interested in people who might be interested in her back. Besides, she had spotted the scar on his forehead, which she reckoned made him look proper hard.
Conrad shrugged. "Harry? There's always girls throwing themselves at him." He sounded disgusted, Michaela was intrigued to note; then he seemed to catch himself and shrink a bit. "I mean, I don't think he's got a regular girlfriend. I don't really know."
Curiouser and curiouser, Michaela thought. Her inner journalist sat up and took note. "You don't like him much, do you?" she asked.
He grimaced. "He's popular, good-looking, and we always ended up on the opposite sides of arguments. It turns out he was right."
Sounds like a right smug git, Michaela thought, though she managed not to say anything out loud. She studied this Harry more intently with eyes used to probing her big brother for signs of weakness. He was talking to Sasha, but he didn't look comfortable doing it. It was like he wanted to back off and run away or something. "Maybe he's gay?" she asked.
Conrad laughed. "Oh, that's... That would be..." He looked over at Harry and burst out laughing again.
Conrad's red-headed friend Ron appeared beside them, looking annoyed. "What's so funny?" he demanded.
"She asked me if P- Harry was gay," Conrad managed eventually. "I just imagined how the girls would react." He started snickering again.
Ron tried to look unamused. Michaela wasn't convinced. "There would be crying," Ron admitted. "And accusations."
"Or denial. 'He just needs the right woman,'" Conrad finished on a wobbly falsetto. Ron guffawed.
"There's no need to be sarky about it," Michaela said, miffed. Maybe the guy wasn't gay, but there was no call for laughing at her. When the boys managed to look at her seriously for less than a second before they started snickering again, she stalked off in annoyance.
A small hand tugged at her sleeve. "Hello, I'm Mark," the little kid said. He was practically vibrating with enthusiasm, Michaela thought sourly. "Can I try some of your drink?"
Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him have some, it occurred to Michaela. After all, if he got drunk and Amy sent him to bed, at least the little monster would be out of her hair. "Alright," she said with a grin that would have done a shark proud. She held her glass low so the kid could take it off her without being too obvious. "Just a sip, mind you." And if that didn't ensure he swallowed a good mouthful, nothing would.
Before Mark could take a drink, an arm snaked between them and plucked the glass out of his hand. "Ah-hah," Ste said warningly. "You know you aren't allowed to have adults' drinks."
"Hey, that's mine," Michaela protested. She glared at Ste, for all the good it did.
Josh appeared on her other side. "So how did Mark get hold of it then?" he asked mildly.
"I just wanted to taste it," Mark whined, saving Michaela from having to think of an answer. "Please?"
"Remember that talk we had about how there's some things your body isn't ready for yet?" Ste told the boy. Mark nodded and, inexplicably, brightened. "Well," Ste continued, "this is one of them."
Mark's face fell. "But it'll be years before I can have any," he protested.
Josh knelt to give him a quick hug. "If you drink much while you're still growing, it could hurt you," he said in that same mild, infuriating voice.
"It never did me any harm," Michaela snapped at him. She didn't count hangovers.
"There's two opinions on that," Ste snarked.
Josh looked up at him. "Do I need to separate you two?" he asked. Michaela found his smile a bit disturbing.
"You could distract him with kissing," Mark offered.
Ste smiled back at Josh. "That would work," he allowed.
"I think they like each other," Mark said in a stage whisper.
Michaela took one look at the sickeningly lovey-dovey display of affection in front of her and shuddered. "Oh God, don't you two start," she said feelingly. "Bad enough I have to put up with John Paul and Craig holding hands and staring into each other's eyes, I don't need you two doing it as well." From the look on the kid's face, Mark agreed with her.
"We're nothing like as bad as those two," Ste said defensively.
Josh smiled again. "Maybe we need more practise?" he suggested.
Ste actually appeared to consider this. Michaela rolled her eyes. "Kill me now," she pleaded.
"Maybe later," Ste said cheerily. "First, someone needs to apologise to Amy for trying to scrounge a drink."
Before Michaela could object they were off, even with the kid dragging his heels. With Michaela's drink, she belatedly realised. "Well, that's just brilliant," she told the room in general.
"Here Mics, you look like you need this."
"Mike, you're a life-saver." Michaela practically grabbed the cup out of Amy's Dad's hand and took a big swig. Sadly the hoped-for vodka and orange contained no vodka. Not that there was much chance of that with Kathy standing right there, but there was always hope.
"I don't understand those two," Kathy said, staring after Josh and Ste.
"Join the club," Michaela muttered in disgust. She shot a baleful glance at the presumably alcoholic drink Mike handed to his wife.
"They've grown up, love," Mike said. "They've all grown up. Present company excepted, of course."
"Thank you," Michaela said tartly. She wasn't entirely sure whether to be pleased or annoyed, but sarcasm was rarely the wrong answer.
"But... those two?" Kathy sounded confused, and Michaela couldn't blame her. The speed that Josh and Ste had gone from hating each other to playing tonsil hockey was downright unnatural.
Mike sighed. "I know. I didn't believe it either but you saw them just now. I think they're good for each other. They've certainly been doing a lot of good lately."
"Good? Mike, one of them got our daughter pregnant and the other one tried to bash your brains out!"
"After I'd scared him out of his mind," Mike said. Michaela was surprised at how sad he sounded about that; she would have laid money that Mike Barnes would have carried that grudge to his grave.
"Those boys have been through a lot in the last couple of weeks," Mike continued, "and they've been through it together."
"They still left Amy in the lurch, though," Kathy said disapprovingly.
"Eh," Michaela disagreed, "she's got that Conrad now." Not that her best friend needed looking after the way Kathy seemed to think, but it was the principle of the thing.
"And what do we know about him?"
"That he would do absolutely anything for Amy," Mike told Kathy firmly. "Do we really need to know any more than that? Besides..." He hesitated, piquing Michaela's interest. "She's grown up too, love. She can more than look after herself. It's not an exaggeration to say there's people that owe their lives to our Amy." Michaela wondered what Amy might be involved in to make Mike say that. It was probably all Ste's fault, whatever it was; drug dealing or robbery or something dodgy like that.
"Look at her now," Mike continued. Amy was dancing with Conrad in the centre of the room, looking as happy as Michaela had ever seen her. Conrad looked disgustingly besotted, and Michaela wondered if he was one of the people who owed Amy. She could give him a proper interview later, she thought; this could be the big break she had been waiting for! She'd have to change the names of course, but if this really was as interesting as Mike implied...
Amy stopped all of a sudden, said something to Conrad, and headed towards the bedroom. "She can't possibly have heard Leah," Kathy said.
Mike chuckled. "I seem to remember someone else claiming she could hear her baby crying through a crowded room."
"Yes... but..."
"She's a mother, love. She's got good at it too, from what I've seen."
Kathy looked gobsmacked. Michaela didn't know why; her mother always seemed to know what she was up to, even halfway across the village. Maybe it only worked when you were trying to skive off?
"What's left for us?" Kathy asked sadly.
"Being grandparents." Mike grinned. "We get to have all the fun, then give them back at the end of the day. No more smelly nappies or tantrums at bedtime."
"But I liked changing nappies," Kathy protested wistfully.
"And that I will never understand," Mike told her. "Come on; you round up the little 'un and I'll give Conrad some moral support."
Conrad did indeed look a bit panicky to Michaela, as if no one had ever successfully kept an eye on a party for five minutes before. She turned to say something sarky to Mike about it, but he and Kathy had already gone leaving her alone with a depressingly teetotal glass of orange juice.
Well, wasn't that interesting, she though. Something was going on, something involving saving lives, and Amy was right in the middle of it. It was her journalistic duty to find out what, in as much detail as possible. She owed it to her future readership.
Now, where had that bottle of vodka gone?
******
New Year's Eve at the Dog in the Pond was mad. There was still most of an hour to midnight and Jake was already knackered. He and Justin had done the bulk of the work behind the bar while his mother made sure Jack didn't do anything that might aggravate his heart condition like, well, anything.
Having Darren there would have helped, but Jake understood why his step-brother didn't feel welcome. They had run into each other before the evening started, and Darren had looked as desperate as Jake had ever seen him. He was apparently trying to raise the cash to buy his half of the Dog back off Warren the only way he knew how, by gambling. Jake had been surprised at how much he had managed to raise already.
Justin had been surprised that Darren intended to use everything he had raised so far as a stake. "Isn't that a bit risky?" he had asked.
"You have to take the risks to win," Darren had said. Neither Jake nor Justin had liked the look in his eyes.
"You don't have to take all the risks," Justin had pointed out. "Jack would be happy just to get something."
"He won't be happy until Warren Fox has no say in his pub anymore," Darren had retorted. "I caused the problem, it's up to me to fix it."
Something about the way he said that had bothered Jake. "How much of this is about making it up to Jack, and how much is it the rush you get from gambling?"
That had stopped Darren. "I'm not... I don't... This isn't about me."
"It's all about you," Jake had said as gently as he could. "You said it yourself; this is your problem to fix. Only you don't have to fix it all in one go."
"Or all on your own either," Justin had chipped in, picking up on Jake's point quickly. "We may not be able to help much with the money, but we can back you up."
In the end they had persuaded Darren to leave most of his winnings with his girlfriend and just take a modest stake with him to the casino. Jake wasn't at all sure he trusted Jess with the money, not when she was both broke and used to being pampered, but Darren had got stubborn. He wasn't going to give Jack any of the money until he had all of it.
"Good luck, then," Jake had said, "and for God's sake listen to your instincts more. You knew taking all the money was a bad plan as much as we did, didn't you?" Darren had just snorted and left, making Jake wonder if he had just managed to break the uneasy peace between them. Again.
"I feel sorry for him really," he confided across the bar to Xander during a brief lull. "I don't think he had shaken off the Grove's screwed-up influence when he lost his share of the pub. If we knew a ritual to bring him luck, it would only be fair to use it for him."
"Don't even think about trying to invent one," Xander advised. "I'm not happy when Andrew and Josh do it, and between them they have half a chance of getting it right. The rest of us, not so much. Besides even if it worked, he sounds like the sort of guy who would start relying on his luck, and that can get you very dead."
"True." Jake spent a moment wiping down the counter reflectively. "If there's a way to screw up, Darren will find it."
"Eh, you never know. Fixing the Grove might help with that." Fat chance, Jake thought as Xander took a sip of his beer. You couldn't blame everything on the village having been soaked in twisted magic. Darren was just a screw-up, he didn't need any more explanation than that.
"So what's up with Smiler this evening?" Xander added.
Jake glared over to where Warren was playing the charming host, a broad smile on his face that had no genuine warmth behind it. "Just winding Mum up, I guess. Don't let him hear you call him that, though."
"No sense of humour, huh?"
"Not when it comes to his pride, no."
"Huh." Xander digested that for a moment. "He's spending a lot of time watching Justin," he commented.
Jake sighed. "They've got history," he said. He didn't really want to rehash Justin's murky past, but Xander struck him as the sort of person who would just keep asking until someone told him what he wanted to know. It wasn't like there was a shortage of people in the village who still hated Justin's guts.
"Justin wasn't popular when he finished school. Warren was pretty much the only person who would give him the time of day. It didn't take long before Warren had him running around like a good little minion, getting too involved in dodgy deals to even think about backing out.
"Then Justin fell for Katie, Warren's little sister, and of course he wasn't good enough in Warren's eyes. Warren couldn't do more than threaten while they were together, but once they split up he didn't waste any time making Justin's life miserable."
Xander frowned. "It's not that," he said, "or at least it's not just that. He's looking calculating, like he knows something and he's figuring out how to use it."
"We haven't done anything anywhere near him," Jake said rapidly. Thinking about using magic to keep his step-father alive didn't count. "Well, we've held hands and maybe kissed a bit," he continued when Xander raised an eyebrow, "but we've done that in front of everyone."
"So he's figuring out how to use Justin to get at you, then," Xander guessed. He snickered. "He's probably driving himself crazy trying to figure out what hold Jay's got over you."
Jake didn't smile. "If he thinks he can use Justin and get away with it, he's got another thing coming."
"Down, boy!" Jake didn't appreciate the grin Xander was sending him. Xander predictably ignored the glare he returned. "He hasn't done anything yet. Maybe he won't."
"Maybe pigs will fly," Jake retorted. "Warren isn't the sort of person to let an advantage go. Or a grudge for that matter."
"Just don't do anything hasty, OK? You've got a lot of backup if you need it," Xander reminded him.
Jake snorted. Xander could be very scary, but he was just one man and Warren didn't scare easily. And Warren had some very scary friends... but then so did Xander. So did Jake, for that matter, if the other druids decided to get pissed off. And that was without stirring up his family, the McQueens, the Ashcrofts, the Barnses... "Wow," he said after a moment's reflection on the sheer number of people he could at least ask for help.
Xander just grinned some more.
Jake shook his head and moved to serve the next person up to the bar. Before he could even greet Zak, the pub door swung open to reveal a wild-eyed Darren. Jake's heart sank.
Xander quickly slipped behind the bar. "Jay and I can hold the fort," he said, "you deal with the family drama."
By the time Jake managed to get out from behind the bar and push through the crowd, Darren had made his way to Jack. Jack took one look at his son and sighed. "Oh Darren, what have you done now?"
"I won," Darren said. He sounded shocked but happy, not at all what Jake was expecting. "I won it back. I..." He turned and gave Jake a blinding smile. "I trusted my instincts."
"Darren, what are you talking about?" Jack asked.
Darren lifted a hold-all onto the table and unzipped it to reveal crisp bundles of notes. Lots of crisp bundles of notes. Jake sat down on a nearby stool before his legs gave way. "You won that much in one night?" he asked faintly.
Darren gave him another wild grin. "I was in the zone," he said. "I just knew what was going to drop where, and I went with it, and..." He trailed off, gesturing at the money.
"That's incredible," Jack said. He shot a quick, suspicious look at Jake, who held up his hands defensively. There was no magic involved in this, at least not as far as he knew.
"Hey, Warren," Darren called, completely missing the by-play. "You said I could buy back my half of the Dog for a hundred grand, right?"
Warren sauntered over, smirking. "Yeah, and where are you going to get that kind of money from?" he sneered.
Darren smugly pulled the bag open so that Warren could see the money. "There's eighty thousand there," he said. "I've texted Jess, she should have the last twenty here soon."
Zak, who was passing by laden with drinks, paused. "She isn't here already?" he asked. Darren gave him a puzzled look. "She looked so excited earlier, we all assumed you'd asked her to move in."
"What?" Jake asked. He had a sinking feeling he knew exactly what had happened.
"Why would you think that?" Darren asked.
Zak frowned. "She was packed and everything, I thought she was just waiting for you to pick her up."
"She's run off with the money," Jake groaned.
"No, she wouldn't," Darren protested weakly.
Jake and Zak shared a look. Jess was well known for being a poor little princess, with a credit card that had only run out once the police did her father for fraud. The only question was whether she would think twenty thousand pounds was enough to run off with.
"Sounds like you're not all there," Warren to Darren. "As usual."
"Oh, I don't know," Jack said. He clapped an arm around his son and gave Warren the fakest smile Jake had seen in a while. "Twenty thousand's a lot easier to raise than a hundred thousand. You'll have your money within the week."
Fandoms: Buffy/Hollyoaks/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Summary: New Year's Eve, and all's partying.
Michaela McQueen was having less fun than she ought to at Amy's party, at least in her opinion. First off, Amy's parents were there. Michaela loved Mike and Kathy, but parents at a party? Always a disaster. Nobody could possibly have fun when they knew they were being watched.
Then there was the kid. Somehow in the process of switching boyfriends yet again (and Michaela still hadn't got the full gossip on that), Amy had managed to acquire a nine-year-old kid. Who was currently alternating between hiding shyly from strangers - meaning everybody - and running around on a sugar high. Either way he was a right royal pain, and Michaela would be quite happy never to see the brat again.
Amy's mysterious new boyfriend Conrad was no fun either. He was pale, thin and terminally quiet. Seriously, Michaela was beginning to think she had to torture words out of him, he was that quiet. Nice as it was not to be interrupted all the time, he wasn't exactly giving her anything to work with.
"So how did you meet Amy, then?" she asked, hoping that would get him talking.
Unfortunately that just seemed to make him panic. "At a club," he blurted out.
"What, the Loft?" Michaela frowned. She didn't remember seeing Conrad around the village before, but she could easily imagine him hiding away in a dark corner somewhere.
Conrad shook his head vigorously. "No, it was in town."
"Oh, any good?"
"Horrible," he said vehemently enough to make Michaela cross the nameless club off her list of places to check out. Then he smiled a little. "Amy decided I shouldn't be there and dragged me out. I'd have stayed and been miserable otherwise."
"I've never seen the point in that," Michaela said blithely. "I mean, who wants to be miserable?"
"The owner's gone anyway. Maybe it'll get better." He didn't sound terribly enthusiastic about the idea, though. Michaela decided to move on to more interesting topics.
"Your friends look proper lush," she said, looking at the group standing awkwardly by the snacks.
Conrad looked puzzled. "Lush?" he asked.
"You know, a bit of alright. Good looking," Michaela tried when that didn't seem to help either. She gave him a sly nudge. "I don't suppose any of them are looking for a girlfriend?" To be honest, she would have preferred to go out with Nige rather than Conrad's stuck-up looking friends, but he'd disappeared after Amy had kicked him out.
Conrad still looked bemused. "Lush," he repeated, then shook his head. "Wea... er, Ron and Hermione have been together since forever, though they won't admit it."
"And the other one?" Michaela prompted. She was more interested in people who might be interested in her back. Besides, she had spotted the scar on his forehead, which she reckoned made him look proper hard.
Conrad shrugged. "Harry? There's always girls throwing themselves at him." He sounded disgusted, Michaela was intrigued to note; then he seemed to catch himself and shrink a bit. "I mean, I don't think he's got a regular girlfriend. I don't really know."
Curiouser and curiouser, Michaela thought. Her inner journalist sat up and took note. "You don't like him much, do you?" she asked.
He grimaced. "He's popular, good-looking, and we always ended up on the opposite sides of arguments. It turns out he was right."
Sounds like a right smug git, Michaela thought, though she managed not to say anything out loud. She studied this Harry more intently with eyes used to probing her big brother for signs of weakness. He was talking to Sasha, but he didn't look comfortable doing it. It was like he wanted to back off and run away or something. "Maybe he's gay?" she asked.
Conrad laughed. "Oh, that's... That would be..." He looked over at Harry and burst out laughing again.
Conrad's red-headed friend Ron appeared beside them, looking annoyed. "What's so funny?" he demanded.
"She asked me if P- Harry was gay," Conrad managed eventually. "I just imagined how the girls would react." He started snickering again.
Ron tried to look unamused. Michaela wasn't convinced. "There would be crying," Ron admitted. "And accusations."
"Or denial. 'He just needs the right woman,'" Conrad finished on a wobbly falsetto. Ron guffawed.
"There's no need to be sarky about it," Michaela said, miffed. Maybe the guy wasn't gay, but there was no call for laughing at her. When the boys managed to look at her seriously for less than a second before they started snickering again, she stalked off in annoyance.
A small hand tugged at her sleeve. "Hello, I'm Mark," the little kid said. He was practically vibrating with enthusiasm, Michaela thought sourly. "Can I try some of your drink?"
Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him have some, it occurred to Michaela. After all, if he got drunk and Amy sent him to bed, at least the little monster would be out of her hair. "Alright," she said with a grin that would have done a shark proud. She held her glass low so the kid could take it off her without being too obvious. "Just a sip, mind you." And if that didn't ensure he swallowed a good mouthful, nothing would.
Before Mark could take a drink, an arm snaked between them and plucked the glass out of his hand. "Ah-hah," Ste said warningly. "You know you aren't allowed to have adults' drinks."
"Hey, that's mine," Michaela protested. She glared at Ste, for all the good it did.
Josh appeared on her other side. "So how did Mark get hold of it then?" he asked mildly.
"I just wanted to taste it," Mark whined, saving Michaela from having to think of an answer. "Please?"
"Remember that talk we had about how there's some things your body isn't ready for yet?" Ste told the boy. Mark nodded and, inexplicably, brightened. "Well," Ste continued, "this is one of them."
Mark's face fell. "But it'll be years before I can have any," he protested.
Josh knelt to give him a quick hug. "If you drink much while you're still growing, it could hurt you," he said in that same mild, infuriating voice.
"It never did me any harm," Michaela snapped at him. She didn't count hangovers.
"There's two opinions on that," Ste snarked.
Josh looked up at him. "Do I need to separate you two?" he asked. Michaela found his smile a bit disturbing.
"You could distract him with kissing," Mark offered.
Ste smiled back at Josh. "That would work," he allowed.
"I think they like each other," Mark said in a stage whisper.
Michaela took one look at the sickeningly lovey-dovey display of affection in front of her and shuddered. "Oh God, don't you two start," she said feelingly. "Bad enough I have to put up with John Paul and Craig holding hands and staring into each other's eyes, I don't need you two doing it as well." From the look on the kid's face, Mark agreed with her.
"We're nothing like as bad as those two," Ste said defensively.
Josh smiled again. "Maybe we need more practise?" he suggested.
Ste actually appeared to consider this. Michaela rolled her eyes. "Kill me now," she pleaded.
"Maybe later," Ste said cheerily. "First, someone needs to apologise to Amy for trying to scrounge a drink."
Before Michaela could object they were off, even with the kid dragging his heels. With Michaela's drink, she belatedly realised. "Well, that's just brilliant," she told the room in general.
"Here Mics, you look like you need this."
"Mike, you're a life-saver." Michaela practically grabbed the cup out of Amy's Dad's hand and took a big swig. Sadly the hoped-for vodka and orange contained no vodka. Not that there was much chance of that with Kathy standing right there, but there was always hope.
"I don't understand those two," Kathy said, staring after Josh and Ste.
"Join the club," Michaela muttered in disgust. She shot a baleful glance at the presumably alcoholic drink Mike handed to his wife.
"They've grown up, love," Mike said. "They've all grown up. Present company excepted, of course."
"Thank you," Michaela said tartly. She wasn't entirely sure whether to be pleased or annoyed, but sarcasm was rarely the wrong answer.
"But... those two?" Kathy sounded confused, and Michaela couldn't blame her. The speed that Josh and Ste had gone from hating each other to playing tonsil hockey was downright unnatural.
Mike sighed. "I know. I didn't believe it either but you saw them just now. I think they're good for each other. They've certainly been doing a lot of good lately."
"Good? Mike, one of them got our daughter pregnant and the other one tried to bash your brains out!"
"After I'd scared him out of his mind," Mike said. Michaela was surprised at how sad he sounded about that; she would have laid money that Mike Barnes would have carried that grudge to his grave.
"Those boys have been through a lot in the last couple of weeks," Mike continued, "and they've been through it together."
"They still left Amy in the lurch, though," Kathy said disapprovingly.
"Eh," Michaela disagreed, "she's got that Conrad now." Not that her best friend needed looking after the way Kathy seemed to think, but it was the principle of the thing.
"And what do we know about him?"
"That he would do absolutely anything for Amy," Mike told Kathy firmly. "Do we really need to know any more than that? Besides..." He hesitated, piquing Michaela's interest. "She's grown up too, love. She can more than look after herself. It's not an exaggeration to say there's people that owe their lives to our Amy." Michaela wondered what Amy might be involved in to make Mike say that. It was probably all Ste's fault, whatever it was; drug dealing or robbery or something dodgy like that.
"Look at her now," Mike continued. Amy was dancing with Conrad in the centre of the room, looking as happy as Michaela had ever seen her. Conrad looked disgustingly besotted, and Michaela wondered if he was one of the people who owed Amy. She could give him a proper interview later, she thought; this could be the big break she had been waiting for! She'd have to change the names of course, but if this really was as interesting as Mike implied...
Amy stopped all of a sudden, said something to Conrad, and headed towards the bedroom. "She can't possibly have heard Leah," Kathy said.
Mike chuckled. "I seem to remember someone else claiming she could hear her baby crying through a crowded room."
"Yes... but..."
"She's a mother, love. She's got good at it too, from what I've seen."
Kathy looked gobsmacked. Michaela didn't know why; her mother always seemed to know what she was up to, even halfway across the village. Maybe it only worked when you were trying to skive off?
"What's left for us?" Kathy asked sadly.
"Being grandparents." Mike grinned. "We get to have all the fun, then give them back at the end of the day. No more smelly nappies or tantrums at bedtime."
"But I liked changing nappies," Kathy protested wistfully.
"And that I will never understand," Mike told her. "Come on; you round up the little 'un and I'll give Conrad some moral support."
Conrad did indeed look a bit panicky to Michaela, as if no one had ever successfully kept an eye on a party for five minutes before. She turned to say something sarky to Mike about it, but he and Kathy had already gone leaving her alone with a depressingly teetotal glass of orange juice.
Well, wasn't that interesting, she though. Something was going on, something involving saving lives, and Amy was right in the middle of it. It was her journalistic duty to find out what, in as much detail as possible. She owed it to her future readership.
Now, where had that bottle of vodka gone?
******
New Year's Eve at the Dog in the Pond was mad. There was still most of an hour to midnight and Jake was already knackered. He and Justin had done the bulk of the work behind the bar while his mother made sure Jack didn't do anything that might aggravate his heart condition like, well, anything.
Having Darren there would have helped, but Jake understood why his step-brother didn't feel welcome. They had run into each other before the evening started, and Darren had looked as desperate as Jake had ever seen him. He was apparently trying to raise the cash to buy his half of the Dog back off Warren the only way he knew how, by gambling. Jake had been surprised at how much he had managed to raise already.
Justin had been surprised that Darren intended to use everything he had raised so far as a stake. "Isn't that a bit risky?" he had asked.
"You have to take the risks to win," Darren had said. Neither Jake nor Justin had liked the look in his eyes.
"You don't have to take all the risks," Justin had pointed out. "Jack would be happy just to get something."
"He won't be happy until Warren Fox has no say in his pub anymore," Darren had retorted. "I caused the problem, it's up to me to fix it."
Something about the way he said that had bothered Jake. "How much of this is about making it up to Jack, and how much is it the rush you get from gambling?"
That had stopped Darren. "I'm not... I don't... This isn't about me."
"It's all about you," Jake had said as gently as he could. "You said it yourself; this is your problem to fix. Only you don't have to fix it all in one go."
"Or all on your own either," Justin had chipped in, picking up on Jake's point quickly. "We may not be able to help much with the money, but we can back you up."
In the end they had persuaded Darren to leave most of his winnings with his girlfriend and just take a modest stake with him to the casino. Jake wasn't at all sure he trusted Jess with the money, not when she was both broke and used to being pampered, but Darren had got stubborn. He wasn't going to give Jack any of the money until he had all of it.
"Good luck, then," Jake had said, "and for God's sake listen to your instincts more. You knew taking all the money was a bad plan as much as we did, didn't you?" Darren had just snorted and left, making Jake wonder if he had just managed to break the uneasy peace between them. Again.
"I feel sorry for him really," he confided across the bar to Xander during a brief lull. "I don't think he had shaken off the Grove's screwed-up influence when he lost his share of the pub. If we knew a ritual to bring him luck, it would only be fair to use it for him."
"Don't even think about trying to invent one," Xander advised. "I'm not happy when Andrew and Josh do it, and between them they have half a chance of getting it right. The rest of us, not so much. Besides even if it worked, he sounds like the sort of guy who would start relying on his luck, and that can get you very dead."
"True." Jake spent a moment wiping down the counter reflectively. "If there's a way to screw up, Darren will find it."
"Eh, you never know. Fixing the Grove might help with that." Fat chance, Jake thought as Xander took a sip of his beer. You couldn't blame everything on the village having been soaked in twisted magic. Darren was just a screw-up, he didn't need any more explanation than that.
"So what's up with Smiler this evening?" Xander added.
Jake glared over to where Warren was playing the charming host, a broad smile on his face that had no genuine warmth behind it. "Just winding Mum up, I guess. Don't let him hear you call him that, though."
"No sense of humour, huh?"
"Not when it comes to his pride, no."
"Huh." Xander digested that for a moment. "He's spending a lot of time watching Justin," he commented.
Jake sighed. "They've got history," he said. He didn't really want to rehash Justin's murky past, but Xander struck him as the sort of person who would just keep asking until someone told him what he wanted to know. It wasn't like there was a shortage of people in the village who still hated Justin's guts.
"Justin wasn't popular when he finished school. Warren was pretty much the only person who would give him the time of day. It didn't take long before Warren had him running around like a good little minion, getting too involved in dodgy deals to even think about backing out.
"Then Justin fell for Katie, Warren's little sister, and of course he wasn't good enough in Warren's eyes. Warren couldn't do more than threaten while they were together, but once they split up he didn't waste any time making Justin's life miserable."
Xander frowned. "It's not that," he said, "or at least it's not just that. He's looking calculating, like he knows something and he's figuring out how to use it."
"We haven't done anything anywhere near him," Jake said rapidly. Thinking about using magic to keep his step-father alive didn't count. "Well, we've held hands and maybe kissed a bit," he continued when Xander raised an eyebrow, "but we've done that in front of everyone."
"So he's figuring out how to use Justin to get at you, then," Xander guessed. He snickered. "He's probably driving himself crazy trying to figure out what hold Jay's got over you."
Jake didn't smile. "If he thinks he can use Justin and get away with it, he's got another thing coming."
"Down, boy!" Jake didn't appreciate the grin Xander was sending him. Xander predictably ignored the glare he returned. "He hasn't done anything yet. Maybe he won't."
"Maybe pigs will fly," Jake retorted. "Warren isn't the sort of person to let an advantage go. Or a grudge for that matter."
"Just don't do anything hasty, OK? You've got a lot of backup if you need it," Xander reminded him.
Jake snorted. Xander could be very scary, but he was just one man and Warren didn't scare easily. And Warren had some very scary friends... but then so did Xander. So did Jake, for that matter, if the other druids decided to get pissed off. And that was without stirring up his family, the McQueens, the Ashcrofts, the Barnses... "Wow," he said after a moment's reflection on the sheer number of people he could at least ask for help.
Xander just grinned some more.
Jake shook his head and moved to serve the next person up to the bar. Before he could even greet Zak, the pub door swung open to reveal a wild-eyed Darren. Jake's heart sank.
Xander quickly slipped behind the bar. "Jay and I can hold the fort," he said, "you deal with the family drama."
By the time Jake managed to get out from behind the bar and push through the crowd, Darren had made his way to Jack. Jack took one look at his son and sighed. "Oh Darren, what have you done now?"
"I won," Darren said. He sounded shocked but happy, not at all what Jake was expecting. "I won it back. I..." He turned and gave Jake a blinding smile. "I trusted my instincts."
"Darren, what are you talking about?" Jack asked.
Darren lifted a hold-all onto the table and unzipped it to reveal crisp bundles of notes. Lots of crisp bundles of notes. Jake sat down on a nearby stool before his legs gave way. "You won that much in one night?" he asked faintly.
Darren gave him another wild grin. "I was in the zone," he said. "I just knew what was going to drop where, and I went with it, and..." He trailed off, gesturing at the money.
"That's incredible," Jack said. He shot a quick, suspicious look at Jake, who held up his hands defensively. There was no magic involved in this, at least not as far as he knew.
"Hey, Warren," Darren called, completely missing the by-play. "You said I could buy back my half of the Dog for a hundred grand, right?"
Warren sauntered over, smirking. "Yeah, and where are you going to get that kind of money from?" he sneered.
Darren smugly pulled the bag open so that Warren could see the money. "There's eighty thousand there," he said. "I've texted Jess, she should have the last twenty here soon."
Zak, who was passing by laden with drinks, paused. "She isn't here already?" he asked. Darren gave him a puzzled look. "She looked so excited earlier, we all assumed you'd asked her to move in."
"What?" Jake asked. He had a sinking feeling he knew exactly what had happened.
"Why would you think that?" Darren asked.
Zak frowned. "She was packed and everything, I thought she was just waiting for you to pick her up."
"She's run off with the money," Jake groaned.
"No, she wouldn't," Darren protested weakly.
Jake and Zak shared a look. Jess was well known for being a poor little princess, with a credit card that had only run out once the police did her father for fraud. The only question was whether she would think twenty thousand pounds was enough to run off with.
"Sounds like you're not all there," Warren to Darren. "As usual."
"Oh, I don't know," Jack said. He clapped an arm around his son and gave Warren the fakest smile Jake had seen in a while. "Twenty thousand's a lot easier to raise than a hundred thousand. You'll have your money within the week."