Easy As Falling Off A Bike
by Angharad
part: guess what, 26 doz!

On the way home we went to the university, where I checked up on my babies. Spike seemed happy to see me, or maybe it was the brazil nut she nibbled while I held her. I was pretty sure she was pregnant again, so she was making her regular contribution to the captive breeding programme.

While I was in the lab talking with the technicians, Simon, was bringing Henry up to speed on Stella's condition. He came in to find me when he'd finished.

"Dad's coming down tonight to see Stella, we're invited to dinner at the hotel."

"With Tom?"

"Of course, you don't think he'd leave Tom out, did you?"

"No, but with you lot, it isn't safe to assume anything, is it?"

"Well you know I love you."

"I wouldn't have thought that knowledge of something is the same as an assumption. I could perhaps assume something because I know you love me."

Simon's eyes glazed over, "Why did I have to fall in love with an academic?"

"You didn't have to, it wasn't compulsory," I pouted back.

"Oh gawd, I'm going back to the car, when you're ready."

"Why don't you pop back via Pippa and leave a message for Tom about tonight?"

"Yes, okay. Will you be long in coming?"

"Depends on how excited I get," I winked at him forgetting that Neal was standing a few feet away. He fell about laughing and I got very embarrassed, all self inflicted.

Simon went off shaking his head and muttering to himself. I went back to talking about the breeding programme, which brought a fresh set of blushes to my face and a snigger to Neal's.

Simon was still chatting with Pippa when I came through from the labs. "Did you tell Tom?"

"No, he's in a meeting, but I told his boss, here."

"Oh, okay, hi, Pippa."

I made us all a cuppa and we chatted for a few minutes while we drank it.

"When are you coming back to work?"

"Well that depends upon whether or not Stella is sent home again and if she needs me to be there."

"Yes, that was a bit sad."

"It was awful. I felt so guilty," I confessed. "I sent her up to bath to give my ears a short break, she was getting so clingy. If only I'd thought..."

"You wouldn't know though, would you?" Simon tried to alleviate my guilt.

"I didn't even think, Si, I was simply concerned with my own needs that I didn't consider hers."

"Don't beat yourself up, Cathy, she was obviously worse than you thought." Simon could be so supportive.

"But it was partly my fault, I sent her up to the bathroom."

"Did you know she was going to do it?"

"Of course not."

"So how are you responsible?"

"I rejected her."

"You'd spent all day with her, for goodness sake."

"I know, but I still feel I failed her when she needed me."

"What psychotherapy training have you had?"

"None, you know all that, Simon."

"I'm just showing you that you didn't know, nor should be expected to know. You know more about bloody dormice than you do about anything useful! Bloody academics!"

"I know, we should all be strangled at birth," I continued his whinge.

"And bloody Watney's red barrel," he continued going straight into a Monty Python sketch. I did wonder if insanity ran in his family or if he was the first sufferer.

When he'd finished his complaint sketch, we left. Pippa laughed which only encouraged him, she hadn't seen any of them. I'd seen the lot, one of the side effects of a university education, down the union watching tapes of the Monty Python shows and the films of course. Well it was more fun than the lectures. I hoped my stuff was more interesting than the, knights who say, 'Ne', although the reality would be, only if you were interested in my subject, mammalian biology.

"We going home or do you need anything?"

"Could do with some stuff for the bread machine, can we stop at Morrison's?"

"Of course we can, that's why I asked you?"

We did stop and he nagged me the whole time. I didn't say anything although I did notice a certain amount of unease in him, when I picked up a cabbage. He also shut up for a while. I put the cabbage in our basket.

Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, "Was it one like this you hit that bloke with?"

"What bloke?" I played dumb.

"You know damn well which bloke, the one who clobbered Stella, that bloke!"

"Oh him, nah, that was a savoy cabbage, not a white one. These are lethal weapons, why I could probably kill you with one of these..."

He recognised my Psychopath example and behaved himself. That's what I love about Simon, he's totally gullible!