Best Friends Forever, Chapter Nine (A Good Sized Fourth-Grader By Now)




"Come here, Eric, we need to complete the circle." Mrs. Smart had said innocently enough.

He walked over without a hint of suspicion and took the seat she had pulled up next to her and sat down slowly, seeing a few eyes turn in his direction. Nadia walked into the room slowly and saw the circle, pausing with a half-drawn-out thought process, and then her mother tugged her next to Eric with a smile.

"Sit!" She insisted, but when they searched for a chair, every single one was occupied. Eric started to stand, but was shoved back into his seat by Carmen, who gave him a smug look as Mrs. Smart forced Nadia to sit on his knee, her arms windmilling wildly as her balance was tampered with. Eric caught her and started to scowl at Mrs. Smart, but Nadia made an indignant noise and shifted up onto his lap further, her nose wrinkled in slight irritation. Her father walked in and made a face, but didn't say a word, and Eric felt himself get slightly angry at the whole thing. Just as he was opening his mouth to object, he felt something shift to his left. When he looked over to see what the hell it was that was moving around, he jumped to see a small child standing there, black hair, bright eyes; not one of Carmen's. He leaned forward to see if there was anything about the child he could recognize when his eyes flicked open and he saw Nadia squirm next to him, groping for the lamp on the table.

"Jesus," he muttered, grabbing his racing heart for a moment, unsure why the image had startled him so much, and then he was thrown into a bright light and he felt vaguely like a booming voice should be saying he was welcome in the realm of God. Then he snorted and told himself that those were words he'd never hear, if he had any say about it.

As Nadia started sitting up, her alarm went off for nine thirty in the morning; she usually only took ten minutes to get ready for her classes, but today was different. Today he was there and she needed to get up early to see him off so he wouldn't get mutilated when he stumbled into the BBC half asleep and with a cowlick the size of England.

She elbowed him. "Come on, you have to go."

He groaned and pulled her onto his chest, playing with the sheets around her, separating her from him. Once yanked away she sighed lovingly and sunk into his embrace, unsure just why she found it her responsibility to keep his job for him. Almost without realising it, Nadia picked up Eric's hand and put hers palm-to-palm with it, seeing the size difference, her long fingers so short next to his, and his hands bigger in comparison. She then clasped her hand around his fingers, lacing them together tightly, and he smiled.

"Not moving yet," he said.

Nadia groaned and put her head on his shoulder, making disagreeing noises as he ran his hands over her back. Calluses on the tips of his fingers from playing guitar were starting to heal, and Nadia felt a sort of disappointment he never had the opportunity to play anymore. Sometimes they'd need him to play for some nonsense sketch and then he'd toss the thing back into its dusty case, end of story. She heard her alarm go off again, and smacked at him as he tried to hold her down. A quick elbow to the stomach and she was curled at the foot of the bed, her sheet around her tightly as she sat, waiting for him to move and start getting ready. He snored softly and she scowled.

The nightmare began again, and Eric awoke around noon, unsure again what his dream had been about. At first he couldn't remember just what had awakened him, and then he drifted off, so unbelievably tired. The day went on like this for him, stopping and starting abruptly, startling and shocking all at once as he tried hysterically to find the source of his terror. It was like catching moonbeams though, and he only grew more frustrated and tired until the phone rang and his hand shot from under the covers like a snake, snatching the phone from the cradle.

"'Lo?" He croaked.

There was a disapproving sigh on the other end before a muffled response of, "I told you he was there."

Eric's heart thudded dully in his chest. "Gray? Izzat choo?"

"Yeah," he replied dully, "and we need you here. You knew we were filming today, or did Nadia need something back at her place?"

Eric frowned heavily. "You know how hard it is for me to do this?"

"You make it worse on yourself. Now, I've been keeping your ass off the fire long enough down here, if you can't make it before seven thirty when we close-"

"Gray, I'm not coming, and I don't care what Howard, or Terry, or John have to say about it." Eric spat.

"Why the hell wouldn't you come back?" Gray asked, and Eric could hear the grumbling on the other end in the background grind to a halt.

He sighed. "Just today. I'll leave tomorrow morning. I-" He wanted to explain to him that he was there because he was with Nadia, and he was also with her in another sense. Just when he really wanted to come clean, to stop hiding everything, that's when they choose to do it.

"Not dating her are you? Slinking around up there like we can't figure it out, Christ, Eric. You know you're making everything harder on yourself, don't you? Eric?" Gray was talking softly, trying to sound gentle but only pulling off a considerate attacker kind of sound.

Finally finding the bravery to swallow his pride, Eric felt his lip curl and he spoke. "Yes, I am dating her. In fact, I'm here because I fell asleep here again and I didn't just pass out on the couch, Gray. If you want to laugh and tell me you told me so, go the fuck ahead! I could care less right now, and if you think I'm going to up and leave because I might lose the job that's keeping me away from her, you're fucking nuts!"

There was a heavy silence.

Eric slammed the phone down and ran a hand into his hair, breath shaky. "Great," he muttered aloud, "no job, no money anymore. No money means no house, which means nothing. Which means no Nadia. Damnit."

The clock chimed and he noticed it was five o' clock. With a heavy heart he stood and pulled on his clothes, leaving jacket and tie on the floor with a scowl. He then made the bed and walked downstairs to the tiny kitchen where he made tea, yawning every few seconds. The paper was spread out on the table, so he indulged for a moment in other affairs, hardly hearing Nadia walk in.

She had seen his car outside still, and had tore off for the house immediately, angry and slightly embarrassed. How many students walked by and noticed a car sitting in front of her yard? How many were talking? Then she realised she didn't really care if they knew he was there, and walked in the front door, surprised to see him fully dressed but looking tired as hell at her kitchen table.

She paused her planned angry rampage. "You alright?"

He glanced up and shrugged. "I might lose my job, but I'm not complaining yet."

"Did they call?" She asked gently.

He turned the page. "Yup, and it doesn't sound good."

Nadia felt annoyed for an instant before despair starting nibbling at her feet and she felt her toes dance across the floor in seconds flat to fall to her knees in front of him, her shoulders hunching forward as he too slid to the floor. They held the other for a moment, but the moment passed, and they pulled apart, smiling weakly to the other with a nervous shyness.

"God, Eric, I'm so sorry. I just keep making things worse, or starting things off that never end up well, and now I've crossed the line from ruining my life into ruining yours." She threw her gaze over his head with a sad look.

"Hey," he said, and she was surprised to hear a slight angry undertone there, "you didn't do a damn thing, Nadia. Besides, I'd rather be here with you than in that stupid building staring at two people fight like cats for half an hour. I love you, I couldn't possibly blame you for this."

A pinprick of a strange feeling enveloped Nadia's lower stomach. The very pit of her stomach had prickled gently, leaving her feeling like at any moment she'd be unbelievably happy, and this caused her to flash a quick smile, but it dissolved when her thoughts started whirring again.

"I love you," she muttered, feeling him grab her shoulders again in a tight hug.

"That's all I need."

~*~*~*~*!*~*!*~*~*~*~*~*~*!*!*~*~*!*~*!*!*~*!*~*~*!*~

Right on time the next morning, Eric pulled into the car park and stopped, his eyes downcast. When he clamored out he thought about how he was going to beg his case to Howard, the director/producer sort of friend they had. He was probably hopping mad as it was, and Eric had to be careful not anger him further; he stepped into the building, surprised as a few people gave him shocked looks. He knew he probably didn't look very healthy at that point, but he wasn't that surprising to see.

Voices coming from the back room? He leaned forward and listened.

"He's not coming back, Howard. You should have heard him talking-" Gray shook his head slowly in amazement.

Mike sighed. "Christ, leaves us for that girl; we were the ones that told him to do it though, I suppose we can't complain."

Howard's fist collided with the card table. "He can't just leave! You guys were more than a team, he wouldn't just leave!"

"Well," Gray shrugged, "one could argue that he's in Cambridge, we could all find him, but he did leave us, more or less. He was at Nadia's house with her, and he sounded upset that all we could do was badger him about her and his job. Those were our only points of focus."

Eric pushed the door open then and cocked an eyebrow at the dropped jaws. "Gray," he flicked his eyes to the man carefully, "what part of 'I'll leave tomorrow morning' was so confusing?"

Abruptly Howard's arms threw themselves around Eric and he was pulled into a rough man-hug of sorts which left his arms crushed to his sides, breath wheezing out as the others cheered in a relieved way.

"So, Howard," he said as the man still crushed him, "I need to make my case, right?"

He pulled away. "That's right, I've only heard these guys bugged the hell out of you to date some girl and then you were and you weren't coming back."

Eric rolled his eyes. "Worse than women sometimes, aren't we?"

"So?" Howard made a funny gesture.

Eric took a while explaining just what the guys had done before he explained what he and Nadia had been doing the past few weeks.

"-So she was staying at my place for a while and we just started going out in a way. She had to leave and I pissed her off because she thought I was embarrassed about her-"

"Sex, yes or no?" Gray asked without a hint of sensitivity in it.

Eric scowled at him. "Mike," he turned towards his friend, "how's sex with Helen going? Is that alright? Or have you shagged her yet?"

His jaw dropped and he started to turn red when Eric spun around to face Terry. "Or Alison? How's that?"

Gray started to object when Eric rounded on him. "If these guys shouldn't have to elaborate on if or how great sex with their wives is, I should not have to tell you if I've done a thing to Nadia."

They smiled weakly at him. "Really care about her, don't you?"

"Could care less what you think about that, honestly," he muttered, standing up.

With that, all was sorted out.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There was something strange about that morning in December when Eric tossed a wave to John, who had been kind enough to carpool half of England up to Cambridge with him while visited the theatrics department for whatever reason. The note on the door was specifically for Eric, and when he caught it fluttering on the door, he smiled.

"'Eric'," he read aloud, "'my landlady is here right now, so if you so much as think of coming inside and skipping formalities like last week, I'll kill you. Literally, I'm cooking and I have a knife out.'" He snorted. "Naddy's cooking, I'm going to have to do something."

He pushed the door open and stood, poised for action as he heard voices talking pleasantly in the other room. "HONEY! I'M HOOOOME!" He shouted with cupped hands, and her head poked out around a corner, smiling bemusedly.

"Mrs. McCartney, this is my crazy boyfriend. Don't feed him please, he bites," she pointed to him and an elderly lady with flaming maroon hair leaned over and smiled at him as he slipped his shoes off. She had waddled over to a cupboard and was going through it, pointing to a recipe book now and again checking it for a spice they needed for whatever it was in the large mixing bowl.

"Naddy," he whispered while the woman's back was turned, "you're cooking again." His eyes sparkled mischievously.

She was about to hold up a warning finger at him, but he'd already shoved her against the nearest cabinet and was trying to keep as quiet as possible. She giggled for a moment before Eric released his hold on her and linked his hand into hers, trying to keep her from escaping, even if it was to help Mrs. McCartney find the garlic salt. Finally the woman found it and Nadia's shoulders relaxed. She turned and poured some of the spice into the bowl, stirred and showed the contents to Nadia, who shrugged with ignorance, Eric nuzzling her neck in an effort to distract her.

"Is that how wet it's supposed to look?" Nadia asked with a shrug.

Mrs. McCartney nodded. "Oh yes, the casseroles have to be this way or they'd dry out in the oven. It's preheated, so let's put it in the dish and see how she turns out!" Nadia abandoned Eric and helped smooth out a rather gross looking amount of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french-fried onions into a casserole dish, seasoning with cheese in the end. With the salt and garlic it smelled pretty good, but Eric still wrinkled his nose at it, waiting for the moment he had alone with her to talk about something that had been bothering him recently.

The woman had gone upstairs to use the bathroom, and he leapt upon the moment.

"Nadia," he hugged her from behind, "I need to ask a huge favor from you."

She laughed. "Because you know I'm going to do it without knowing what it is,"

He smiled weakly before speaking. "You know Lexi moved again to start her own firm, so your house is empty in Bloomington. It's bigger than this, and closer to you than I am already. Say we move in there together and stop the weekend-dating crap we've got going on?"

There was a long pause as Nadia stared at Eric, the hope in his eyes, the nervous way he chewed his tongue. For a moment she was distracted by the way he reached up and pushed her glasses up on her face for her, and then she heard some creaking upstairs and knew any minute now Mrs. McCartney would reappear and hear what she was going to say.

"I can't do that," she said suddenly, "I'm buying this house from Mrs. McCartney. I can't just move away or sell it-I've painted this sucker like there's no tomorrow. Not to mention you'd be driving about an hour to work every single day-which would suck ass-"

"Sometimes you amaze me," Mrs. McCartney said from the stairwell, "the man asks you to live with him so he can be closer to you and you start talking gibberish about painting and how far he'll have to drive. Wasn't it his bleeding idea?"

Nadia blushed hotly, her face turned down. "I didn't-"

"Think, I know. If you want my advice at all, go live with him, you're happy with him. You've always got a place to stay up here-it's yours. Rent it out, make money!" The older woman sounded so excited it was almost funny, but Nadia blinked in surprise. It was the perfect idea, and she'd be living with him again. Her stomach did a little flip and she spun around and hugged him tightly.

"Yeah, alright."

The next class, on a Wednesday, she stood awkwardly at the end of every lecture or project, and stared on nervously at her students, which caught their attention.

First hour was probably the worst of all the explanations.

"Uh, I'm not going to be here for the next two days, and since there's no classes on Monday or Tuesday, I won't see y'all until Wednesday next week-"

"Why?" Julia piped up.

Nadia smiled carefully. "I'm moving back to Bloomington,"

"Why?" Asked another student. "I mean, didn't you just move up here?"

Nadia squirmed. "Well, that is true, but it's a pain in the neck dating a guy so far away, only able to see him on weekends, so we're moving into my old house down in Bloomington."

"Oooh!" Julia cooed, giggling with a few other girls.

"Wedding bells and children's laughter," chirped another and Nadia blushed again, just hoping the day would END ALREADY!

The only other hitch in her explanation came in her third class, where Jimena was infamously making herself Nadia's worst enemy.

"So, if you have any problems with the sub, Mr. Moorman, you'll have to restrain yourself until Wednesday. And no more snowball fights, that was ridiculous!" She smirked at the guilty parties before turning to face the girl who had made an indignant noise.

"Julia said you were moving back to Bloomington, with that boyfriend of yours. Are you really moving away?" She seemed sad. Nadia smiled sadly at the girl, who lived next door to her in a dorm with two other girls in her room alone.

"I am, but don't worry, I own that house, so you guys get to rent that out and live in my funhouse-"

"Moving in with your boyfriend?" Interrupted Jimena, and a few people mentally groaned.

Nadia eyed her. "Yes. What do you want to hear, Jimena?"

The girl scowled at her. "I want to hear that I have a respectable teacher. We can't have harlots teaching here at Cambridge."

A few gasps echoed out of some mouths, but Nadia only smiled. "I may be the single least respectable teacher here in a few respects, but I may also be one of the best teachers here. With the rare exception of you, Jimena, people like me and tend to listen to what I have to say. Go ahead, get me fired for moving in with a guy I've known since before I was your age. If you want, you can leave now and use class time to do it-certainly would make me happy."

She only scowled again and folded her arms. One more absence and she failed, and she knew it.

That night she loaded up the car Eric had allowed her to borrow from him and drove it down from Cambridge to her old house, moving boxes back into the dark brick building. Four half-hour trips and she fell asleep on the bed she'd brought, unaware that she was even supposed to be moving along at all. It wasn't until early the next morning that she even remembered that she had to put the signs up on her little house in Cambridge with her phone number. As she rolled over to push the boxes away from her bed looking for the phone, she noticed that there were a few more boxes than normal. A hollow thud and a grunt reminded her that Eric was probably moving around out there, trying to stay quiet. She stood and walked into her old living room, stepping over boxes and footstools.

Eric reappeared, stepping carefully over a particularly large box of books. He looked up and grinned at her. "Good morning, sunshine."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "What's so good about it?"

"I refuse to go pansy-ass on you today, so figure it out yourself." He replied, eyes dancing as he walked back out into the yard where Mike was yawning as he leaned heavily against the hood of his car, falling asleep standing up. He waved sleepily at Nadia, who waved back and proceeded to help Eric unload the last of his things into the house. All that was left was the unpacking of the boxes and they could be done.

"How many days did you say you had off?" Eric asked as he cut the tape from a large box of photo albums.

She hefted her paints into the sunlight area with the washer and dryer under the single skylight. "Uh, the rest of this week plus Monday and Tuesday."

He grinned mischievously at her but said nothing as she bent to help him with the photo albums. A particularly full one spilled from her stack and opened to a middle page in the book. Nadia set the stack down and looked blankly at the pictures. On the left side were a few pictures of Eric looking bemused as his mother and grandmother sobbed in his dorm, arranging his bed as they went, trying to be mothers as they were shoved from his room. On the right side was a single picture of Nadia sitting placidly in the fountain. From that photo on she was in almost every single shot with him, grinning, scowling, there was even a great shot of her about to land a rather high kick to some haughty girl's jaw in a kickboxing match, her mouthpiece just about out.

Nadia pointed to the photo. "Kicked her teeth out, I think she lost three."

Eric laughed. "Three and a half!"

They grimaced together but were immediately distracted when a gust of wind blew through the open door and a stack of papers went soaring from one of Nadia's boxes. She started gathering, but Eric was hunched over a green and red one, a Christmas tree on the back side.

"Family newsletter?" He asked bemusedly as she gathered the rest of them. She nodded and grinned as he read aloud.

"'Our little Nadia has finally made it to the big world. She's all alone in Cambridge-an English school-though I am relieved to say she has made a total of two friends there. My husband is not as pleased as I am to admit that one of them is in fact an English boy, but Lexi has traveled with her to the school so they'll take care of each other and watch out for the other nasty little boys that we all know dwell there.'" He glanced over the paper. "I almost want to believe I'm perverted just because I'm reading this."

She held out another before reading, "'Nadia has settled down for her third year in Cambridge and is living with her friend Eric Idle in a small house just inside the campus. As wonderful as it is for us to finally accept that she is living on her own and a responsible (almost) adult (almost) she is living with an English boy nonetheless, and we're losing money hysterically as we take turns checking on her every few months or so. Can't trust him, damn!'"

He laughed. "When did she start bugging you about me?"

"Oh, probably senior year when you graduated. Those first few months you were gone and I was still there she showed up and told me that I should go find you and try to date or something so we had a better excuse to stay together. My papa was a little leery about you still though-just like he is to my sister's husband." She shrugged. "Of course, when she first saw us living together she thought we were dating and started asking me if the stereo-type was true."

"The stereo-type that all us English boys are perverted and prey on lovely French girls like we can't get laid for our lives, am I right?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow.

She nodded. "Exactly,"

"Well," he dug through the photo album box and held up a faded letter, "this is my mum's reaction. 'Dearest Eric, we are so happy to hear that you have been able to settle in just fine with your friend Nadia. She seems like a lovely girl, and so polite! You couldn't have chosen a better house-mate, if I can say so without you rolling your eyes at me even with the distance. Give her my best wishes and please keep out of trouble; I'd rather not have to explain why you tried to run over another security guard with your car on the sidewalk this year. Love, Mum.'"

Nadia giggled. "If my dad ever sent me letters they'd say things like, 'Give that Eric-boy a good slap across the face for me-'"

"What's his problem again?" Eric frowned.

"He thinks you can't possibly bring me anything, or be worth anything. If he had the choice he would have me unmarried forever, and in the basement of our house in Paris forever." She shrugged. "So, don't take it personally."

Eric stroked his chin. "I'd like to go see this house in Paris."

"Someday," she promised, and began emptying boxes again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eric grunted as the alarm clock went off, and Nadia slapped it once to shut it up. Once silence was restored, however, she began to move over to shove him off the bed. He had to leave at some ridiculous hour in order to get to work, something like eight thirty. He groaned and eyed the face of the small clock, groaning as he saw the hour.

"Just shoot me now," he moaned and rolled over.

"Bang," Nadia mumbled and pulled a pillow over her head.

He sat up and pulled the sheet from his lap, looking blankly at the boxers he was wearing. "Happy Monday, to all ten of my toes and fingers."

Nadia snorted under the pillow.

"How about you? Don't you have today and tomorrow off?" He shook her shoulders.

She groaned. "Go awaaaay,"

He pulled her up, grinning as she flopped over his shoulder sleepily, her tank top and pajama pants all too big for her. She groaned again, but held his neck for support.

"You could probably come into the Beeb today, just to scowl at Gray for me when I can't do it." He told her, smiling as she squinted at him.

"Why?"

"He's going to give us hell for moving in and all that stuff." He shrugged.

She shrugged right back. "I'm sure he puts up with plenty of hell himself, right?"

"I'm sure he does, in fact-"

"Don't you even think about using that! How tasteless can you get?" She pushed him gently, trying to stress her anger.

"Still not as bad as him asking me, 'Sex, yes or no?'" He retorted bitterly.

Nadia smirked. "You should have said, 'Yes please.'"

He laughed and hugged her. "Well, I better start getting ready if I'm going to be leaving in half an hour-"

"I'll come too, sheesh." She rolled her eyes and stood.

They dressed and forced themselves to eat and drink something before skipping out the door arm in arm, trying to look a little bit stupid as they flopped into the car and started the ride. The radio came on and neither of them moved to turn it off; too sleepy to talk. A little later than intended, Eric pulled into the car park and stopped, feeling more awake than normal. He glanced at Nadia, who was hunched over her glasses, trying to fix the bent frames, her black fingernail polish chipped. He caught sight of the enormous green class ring and smiled, waiting for her to stop fixing the damn thing so he could get out of the car with her. Finally she slipped the frames back on and blinked at him, her mind suddenly awake.

"Please tell me I didn't wear all black again-" She glanced down and sighed in relief. Her blue jeans were blue, thank God, and her gray and black Beatles shirt had a vintage yellow submarine emblem on it. She felt less death-obsessed than usual, and stood from the car, hardly expecting to be swept off her feet and carried into the building. As he set her down she grinned happily at him, his smile unusually cute. Just as she was about to kiss him, she heard a snicker and Terry and his counterpart, Mike, walked into the room, whispering while they walked. They stopped dead as Nadia forced herself to ignore them and hug Eric, he also ignoring them with a fervent passion.

"We filming today?" Eric asked and released his grip on her, walking to the back room where the other three were sitting, feet on the table.

Terry nodded. "Yeah, today's the day when the masses show up to watch us film live-"

"Oh, that's right. Huh," he shrugged and sat down, unnerved. Nadia felt slightly like a sort of Yoko Ono, and sat herself down next to him, busying herself with picking the rest of her black nail polish off.

Gray stretched his shoulders slowly, wallowing in the pleasure and relief it brought the aching muscles, hardly noticing that Nadia had thrown him a strange look in the midst of it all.

"Told you so," John said suddenly, and they all laughed, including Nadia.

The actual filming of the show was not disaster or even particularly exciting, though Nadia did cringe when Eric walked out on stage wearing a pink floral dress. Just before the sketch itself started, he was tossed a small handbag, and he caught it with a scowl, a childish grin coming to his face as the camera started. The rest of the day was sort of bland, but fine enough with Nadia. It was Carol who finally snapped on the two of them in the lounge area, her hands on hips as a few of the other crew members and the Pythons sat around the couches, all smiling occasionally at Nadia and Eric, speaking softly in the corner.

"Do me a favor, Eric, since I'm leaving." She begged, and clasped her hands together. "Just kiss her once before I leave."

He stared at her disbelievingly and started to shake his head, but she tilted her head insistently and he knew she was dead-serious.

"Uh, no?"

"Come on! I don't think I believe she even puts up with you when you don't have people staring at you!"

Nadia laughed and tilted a mug of tea up over her grin, waiting for Eric's face to succumb to the action as well.

"Carol, leave them alone, huh?" Mike said with a grin, but she flashed him a dangerous look.

"You're worse than my family." Nadia stated, shifting her leg across Eric's lap. He abent-mindedly rested his hands on her knee and began to play with the frayed hole there, waiting for Carol to give it up already, and leave.

She stepped closer to Eric. "I'm giving you an excuse to kiss a pretty girl in front of your friends, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Terry lifted a hand. "I'd do it."

"Second," John lifted an arm.

Eric started to frown, but Gray had already lifted his arm. "Even I'd do it."

Nadia started to giggle, but the jealousy effect had worked its magic and he kissed her on the cheek, a quick peck.

Carol let her face implode into a small, pursed-lip scowl. "Eric Idle-"

"CHRIST!" He lifted his arms above his head before turning and pushing Nadia to the armrest, pushing his face up against hers, tongue flitting in the second their lips touched, and she windmilled her arms, trying to keep from falling back completely. A few seconds later he pulled away from her and sat up, taking her mug of tea and sipping carefully. Nadia flashed him a dirty look and sat up while Carol grinned at him.

"Thanks," she said, and left.

Nadia rolled her eyes as the other guys smiled knowingly at Eric, who hadn't really looked at any of them up until now. He locked eyes with Mike and stared on, expressionless.

"Faker," Gray said suddenly.

"What the hell?" Nadia asked and wrinkled her nose.

Eric laughed. "He doesn't believe it, he doesn't believe it was real."

"Not that," he shook his head, "you just did it. I saw it; what I don't believe is you two enjoyed that at all. You're putting us all on, aren't you?"

Nadia rolled her eyes. "Yes, we're not dating, he's not living with me, and we didn't just kiss and like it."

It was confusing for any spectators, but they shut their mouths and let Nadia sit there, her legs draped on Eric's lap. He looked at her suddenly, and when their eyes met, Gray knew they had to be in love. He didn't want to say a word though; it was crucial Eric tell them this time, without their prodding. He had to be able to look them in the eye and say it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Disaster seemed to skip blessedly over Eric and Nadia for a while, but Christmas was approaching fast, and the snowy weather made for slick roads, and finally disaster bent and smacked them rather harshly, if not hard.

The phone in Nadia's studio rang during her first class, and she snatched it up. "Nadia Smart," she muttered quietly while her students finished up the test.

"Miss Smart? This is Doctor Carrigan at London General. We have here a Mister Eric Idle? He said we should call you first to come sign the release forms." An apologetic voice said softly.

Nadia's throat seized up. "What's he done now?"

"He didn't do anything, Miss Smart. He was, er, sideswiped shall I say? He and his friends were riding around in a couple of shopping carts when an elderly driver hit him. Concussion, sprained ankle, he's walking out today if you'd just sign the papers. Right now he's unconscious-" There was a hint of bemusement in the doctor's voice, but Nadia didn't want it.

"Is he alright?"

"Oh, he'll be fine in a few days. Let him bedrest and he should be right as rain."

"Alright, I'll be there in an hour and a half." She informed him and hung up.

She stood and whistled through her teeth. "Tests will be finished tomorrow, hand 'em in right now, you're all dismissed." She gathered papers without asking questions or answering them and exited, leaving a sign on the door informing all her future classes that she had an emergency to attend to.

Fear and anxiety forced Nadia to speed, it really wasn't her fault she didn't believe the doctor when he said that Eric would be fine. Her Eric had gone and sprained his ankle, dumbass. Of course, immediately after thinking this she made a sad face and drove faster, trying to outrun the anger that wanted to envelope her fear. She parked in the hospital car park and walked to Eric's room, surprised to see three doctors there.

"Well, you did give him sedatives when you said he had a bloody concussion, Carrigan!" One of them said hotly.

The other one squirmed. "He'll be fine!"

Nadia's heart pounded and she walked in, tossing a dirty look at all three of them. "What's going on here?"

"Miss Smart?" Asked the youngest of the three. "I'm Carson Carrigan and we've put him a tiny bit of trouble for the moment-"

She made a face at him and turned towards Eric. He appeared to be sleeping, but the heart monitors on him made her believe something bad had happened.

"Coma? Vegetable? What's going on here?" She gestured at him.

The oldest of the three glared for a second at Carrigan, and then spoke. "Carrigan here let him go to sleep after he had a concussion, which means he may or may not wake up for a while here. A coma is highly unlikely at this point, however, the REM patterns are starting-"

Terry walked in sheepishly, glancing with a guilty _expression at Nadia. "Gosh, Nadia, I'm sorry. We told him to do it, see, and then he did-"

"I don't want to hear anymore about this." She threw her hands up and bent over Eric. "Wake up," she poked him in the side and he squirmed away, groaning.

The doctors gaped in astonishment as she slapped at his face until the slow coma-like beating of his heart escalated to a healthy rate and his eyes fluttered open.

"Oh do I have one hell of a headache, Naddy-"

"What made you get into a bloody shopping cart and run it into an old lady, huh?" She smacked his head and he grabbed it with a whimper.

"Have a heart! I just got a concussion-"

"You are NOT playing the sympathy card with me!" She snarled and felt her racing heart finally slow down. For a second there she had realised that his heart was beating far too slow to be normal, and then it had sped up and she prayed to God he was alive.

As soon as he saw the look in her eye and not the sound of her voice, he smiled and opened his arms. She collapsed into them and sighed with a shaky squeak. He kissed the top of her head and sat up, keeping her in a tight hug while Mike and Terry stared on with relieved faces.

"You were scared," Eric accused softly, and her hand smacked at his head again.

"Was not," she retorted, and wiped a single tear from her cheek.

Collecting him and signing papers, Nadia drove Eric and his car back to their house, anxious to have him take the medication and sit up for the next twenty-four hours to make sure he didn't fall into another coma. Once home and full of painkillers, Eric found it easy to stay awake, and for the next two days he was perfectly fine. After the first twenty-four hours, he slept for twelve to make it up, and then his regular schedule was restored. By Friday night he was perfectly healthy, on crutches but perfectly healthy. His sense of humor had restored itself as well.

He tossed the crutches at Nadia and made a break for the door, hobbling on one leg as Nadia screeched at the objects thrown at her before tearing off after him. She didn't care if it killed him, it was the last straw.

"AIEEEEE!" He shrieked and felt the backs of his knees buckle as she grabbed him round the leg. He collapsed to the floor just before the couch and rolled over with a wild look of terror. Nadia sat on him with a crazy look and held his arms back as he panted, waiting until he apologised.

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry I put the egg in your hair."

"And?" She pressed, threatening to twist his arm further.

He yelped then added, "And for throwing the other things at you! NOW PLEASE!" He begged and threw his head back in pain. Instead of the pain getting worse for a split second while she stood and left him there, humiliated, he felt her kiss him and suddenly her presence over him wasn't a bad thing at all. He pulled one of his legs to a bent position and tugged her down so she wasn't crushing his ribs, but straddling his stomach. For a few moments they kissed and then she shifted away from him, listening carefully.

"You hear that?" She asked and started to crawl away.

He snatched her leg up and pulled her back. "If it's the voice in my head, then yes-"

"No, shhh!" She smacked his hand away and put her ear to the wall. A few seconds later a weak noise emitted from somewhere down the hallway in the linen closet. They crawled to it, and Nadia pulled up the hatch that led to her crawlspace. Eric fetched a flashlight and handed it down to her, and she slipped down, cooing suddenly.

"We've got kittens!" She shouted up and started handing up kittens one at a time, following with a very tired looking black cat. The kittens all mewled pathetically, and Nadia took it upon herself to get an old sheet and box to make a small, comfy den for them. Once settled the kittens became less pathetic and more satiated. The mother cat looked at Nadia and Eric gratefully. The kittens were about four weeks old, and Nadia found it strange she hadn't heard them before. Then again, the house was rarely silent what with the music and the talking all the time. They both despised silence, so something was always working, moving, making noise. The rare moment when all the sound had stopped, they had discovered the cats.

"We'll be able to give away a few of them for Christmas; make some little girls very happy." Eric pointed out when Nadia regretfully informed him that they could not keep seven kittens and a cat.

She gave him a puppy-dog look. "Can we keep one? And the cat?"

He looked blankly at the seven jet-black kittens. "How do you pick your favourite?"

One meowed weakly and rolled over, slightly smaller than the rest. "You pick the runt," she said wisely and lifted the small cat to her face, letting it run it's soft hair all over her and purr.

"What's his name then?" Eric asked, picking up another kitten as it tried to escape the box and nearly fell five whole inches to the carpet.

"Well, let's name the mother first." She reached into the box and scratched the mother's ears.

"Something completely unrealistic-"

Nadia laughed. "Greek goddess, that should be nice."

"Alright then, Aphrodite it is."

Nadia touched noses with the tiny kitten. "Then we'll name this one after Mars' minions. Phobos or Demos?"

"What do they mean?"

"Fear and terror,"

"Oh, definitely fear," Eric nodded.

Nadia smiled at the kitten. "Phobos it is,"

There was something about Nadia in the weeks following that made Eric feel more and more crazy. She came home at the end of the day, a few hours after he returned and immediately came to his side for a quick briefing on his day, and then it was straight into the laundry room to check on her kittens and their lovely mother. She was very responsible about it, too, making sure they were healthy, a good weight, eating the right things for their age. One of the cats was getting little white spots around her paws, and traditionally she should have named the kitten "Socks," but being as unconventional as she was, Nadia named the animal "Reebok."

"As in the shoes," she informed Eric.

He snorted. "Very clever,"

And still he watched her care for the animals and the vague thought entered his mind about how great a mother she'd be some day, and he found himself thinking about that, but not of who the father would be, or anything to that. She'd just be a mother, nothing more. And then, before he knew it, he knew why he was thinking that recently; he wanted to marry her, and nothing could convince him otherwise.