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Tassy watched him enter her flat with a critical eye noting a significant change in his demeanor but having no idea what the cause was. She didn't think anyone in his family had died and she was pretty sure if his father kicked the bucket he'd be throwing Mardis Gras parades instead of looking like the world was ending. She closed the door behind him watching him fidget, actually fidget! Goddess she didn't think she looked that angry when she answered the door. Not enough to make him this despondent. When Les sat and told her to get the yelling out the way first since he had something serious they needed to discuss causing both of her eyebrows to raise in suspicion and a small amount of anxiety. What the hell had he gotten himself into? She wanted to ask that first but she decided to humor him about the yelling, mainly because she really did want to.

"Fine. The ******** crawled up your arse and died leaving you in such a state that you thought the smart thing to do was avoid me for the past few weeks. And don't say you haven't because we hang out with Chalmes and everything because you know damn well what I mean. And while we're on the subject, what kind of s**t are you and Chalmes in because I've noticed you two trading your little not-subtle fake a** James Bond looks and I'm ******** sick of it. So take this time to tell me everything and if a single ******** lie comes out your mouth you better hope the door hits you before I do, capiche?" Mentally, Tassy ticked off everything she had said wondering if that was everything and when she thought it was she went and stood right in front of him with her arms crossed. She wasn't kidding about hitting him, if he didn't straighten out everything right then and there he better pray she only punches him and not actually use anything she had learned from kickboxing. There was move she'd been practicing and she was sure his stupid bald head would be a perfect target.

Tassy wanted to say that she more than likely wouldn't like whatever explanation he managed to get out and that his doubt was rightly placed. But she decided to just keep quiet and just wait for the s**t storm which was actually a ******** hurricane. As he went on explaining the events that lead to wherever it was he was going she couldn't stop the snort of amusement to escape her as he described some bimbo he had hooked up, or she assumed that's where this was going, and ignored the tiny bubble of jealously that formed in her gut. Now was not the time for that nonsense, it was time for his. She also nodded and waved her hand for him to continue when he mentioned the sea of skanks that he tried to avoid least he be caught in one of the silicon death traps. However the moment Les said "pill" she went ramrod straight as all the pieces started to come together in her mind even as she slightly tuned out the rest of what he was saying. Holy ******** goddess he got someone pregnant. It all made so much sense! Why he had gone to Chalmes first and why those two acted like they were the starring roles in a B-list buddy cop film lately. He was probably getting tips and hints on instant fatherhood. Or helping their friend write a book titled "The Brotherhood of the Germinated Egg." Title a work in process.

Tassy caught back up to Les' words when he mentioned child support giving her pause. He wasn't going to actually raise his baby? The ********, he had just admitted the little tart set him up and now he was going to leave him or her with that for the rest of their lives with a check in the mail their only source of correspondence? Like hell he would! She had just opened her mouth to say as much but he continued on talking about how the b***h got cut off (oh boohoo) and how she didn't even care about the baby growing inside her (******** piece of filth) and lastly how he was suing for custody of his baby. She had to applaud her friend; she could see he was more that terrified or scared shitless he was basically going from Ferris Bueler to Cameron! She nodded when he confirmed her suspicions that Chalmes had been helping him out anyway he could and when he was finished, or just out of words, she was honestly at a lost at what to do. Part of her, a bigger part than she would like to admit, wanted to bust a gut at the irony of it all. All those times he had been super a**l about their own contraception when they had just been fooling around he got drunk once with some unknown formerly hook-nosed, pre-hightlighted skank and winds up coasting into parenthood. She almost wanted to point it out to him. Almost. Tassy conceded that what Les needed leaned more towards understanding than her usual off-beat brand of humor. But still..."You had me worried you and Chalmes had whacked some guy and left his decomposing body in a freezer somewhere when all it is was that you got some former high class hooker up the duff? I really should be more sympathetic, I know, but...but it's really hard not to at least chuckle. Especially when I think about those stupid rants and lectures you used to give to me about 'proper condom control.'"

At the use of her own quotation marks the musician's control slipped and she began to snicker and then just outright laugh as she remembered one particularly long one when she had mentioned not understanding condom expiration as a joke. It took her a minute or two to sober up before she flopped down onto the couch with him. "Correct me if I'm missing anything: you got drunk and was coerced by a sleaze impersonating a decent human being, said sleaze used every underhanded trick in the book to ensure that she got pregnant and then did so, she then tried to trap you into a marriage which you very smartly weaseled your way out of while she also got cut off by mommy and daddy because of the whole impersonation bit. Then she goes off on you telling you everything because at this point we can just assume she is not quite the weakest link but definitely a close second or third and you begin to sue her for your unborn child for full custody and no visitations I'm expecting which leaves you here with absolutely no idea how to raise a child and no experience bar a few hours looking after Chalmes. I'd say you were screwed but that's kinda how you got into this mess in the first place, mate." Tassy said with a coy smirk.

Tassy was still snickering as Les defended his lectures making the comment that they had to have worked since she wasn't the one preggers and then to add insult to injury brought up the fact that her own sister ended up with twins her first go. That stopped her laughter and she grabbed a pillow from her sofa and thwacked him with it. "Shuddap! I told you that fear in confidence you wanker!" she said with scowl. Then she realized what she had said and a small smirk came across her face. "Although...if you had done that you might not be in this predicament now would you?" she told him laughing some more. Gods she honestly was pissed off about this more than she was showing but at that moment after worrying about this madness for the past couple of weeks it was just too bloody funny! She sobered back up when he spoke on how his lawyer was filing for custody on Monday and that the baby was do sometime in January. That gave him some time but considering that he never expected fatherhood six months would feel like a blink of an eye to him which he said as much. She wanted to say something about his melodramatics as he flailed his arms about talking about how he's only looked after Chance for a few minutes and not an actual baby and even brought up how Ada wouldn't leave him alone with her own babies. To be honest, she didn't think he should take that too personally since she had heard from her youngest sister that the blonde hadn't let anyone go near her little bundles of joy their first few months of life. It was probably that whole overprotective, overbearing, mama bear stage she heard some first time mothers went through.

At his obviously rhetorical question, Tassy looked over at him and wondered why he'd even ask her. She wasn't a parent like Chalmes and Ada, she barely remembered caring for her youngest sister, and from the way her twin was acting she wouldn't get to actively participate in any parenting with her nephews until they were well into their teens. Which was sort of rude considering how well she was with Chance, teaching him songs to annoy his dad with notwithstanding of course. This actually reminded of all those months ago when her brother came crashing through her floo flailing about how he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and that he was nowhere near ready to be a parent. Which had reminded her of when Chalmes had called her about his son being dropped off on his doorstep. Goddess, what was with this generation's men and their lack of contraception?! With a soft sigh Tassy raised herself off the couch and went rooting through her pantry for the bottle of whiskey her Da had given her and Tanna when they had first moved in their flat. Her twin hadn't taken it with her mainly because she wasn't a big drinker and because their Da had given her and her husband a nice bottle of wine when they moved into their home in Scotland. She hadn't opened it for a bit because she had wanted it to gain some age and wanted to save it for when she got her big musical break. Since that had never happened and would never happened, she figured using it to knock a friend back from the void was good enough. She grabbed two classes and clunked a few ice cubes in each before pouring copious amounts of the alcohol in them and pressed the glass into Les' hand before sitting back down on the sofa. "Ok, this is what you're gonna do: you're going to do whatever it is you need to do to mentally prepare yourself for the fact that yes dammit you're about to be a dad. That can include baby books, parenting books, self-help-for-balding-dads, whatever. Then you're going to get off this merry-go-round of self doubt and what if's because it's not gonna get you anywhere. Lastly, just in case it's not painfully obvious, you have to accept that you're not going to go about this alone. Between me, Chalmes, the wonder couple, and I bet a few others, you'll always have someone around to help you out. So! Now that that's out the way, drink up. We're going to get pissed and then tomorrow we'll plan out everything you're gonna need if you haven't already with your partner in parenthood Chalmes." Tassy told him with a small grin raising her glass in a salute before taking a long sip.

Tassy was unhappily enjoying a day off at home having been sent there by her newest worker who informed her that working nearly sixty hours in a week wasn't good for one's health. She also threatened to turn the wizarding wireless on to that Legba-awful oldies station and keep it there if she didn't leave and seeing as how she's done it before she didn't put it past her to do it again. So she went home, and changed into her comfortable clothing, or rather the few comfortable items she still had in her closet, and made the best out of daytime telly. It took her a few minutes to realize that she was watching one of Ridley's favorites and actually singing along, really a minute longer and she might've done something stupid like look around for the infant again, before she just shut it all off and went into her kitchen for another cup of tea. Really with all the time on her hands she could have broken into the stronger stuff but since her first few nights back she hadn't had the urge. But that wasn't what had woken her up to how big the fight had gotten.
What had killed her was the silence, it practically suffocated her the first night she slept in her bedroom. No baby monitor with soft breathing static, no random elevator dings because there's had broken long before she got there, and even worse was the very distinct lack of breathing beside her. It had thrown her that she actually couldn't sleep without that bald son of a d**k. So she had taken to either staying up until she literally passed out from exhaustion or just staying up for days on end and then crashing on her days off.

She was in the middle of this horrid cycle had unfortunately ran out of coffee just this morning which was why she had to resort to tea. And after being so use to the harder caffeine, it wasn't kicking like she was hoping. If anything it was just making her sleepy. Tassy yawned and placed her cup in the sink before grabbing the fuzzy throw she had in the living room and wrapping it around her. She went back to her spot on the couch and slowly laid down, telling herself it'd only be for ten minutes and then she'd get up and do the mobile tango. It had only taken her a few days, alright maybe a week, to realize that he wasn't trying to apologize so she would have to be the person with bollocks and do it herself. First she tried to call and threw down her phone before she could even press the button. Then she would type out long intricate text messages before deleting them and just shutting off her phone for good. Each and every time she would do so she would groan and whinge that she was acting like a teenager girl with a crush which was stupid because this was so far beyond crush territory it was ridiculous.

The Scot could admit that it was more than possible that here feelings were more in the "********, I'm in love" category than she previously alluded. The musician just sighed and rolled over trying to force herself not to think of the mess they had found themselves in and begged for just ten minutes of blissful sleep. Fifteen minutes later heavy knocking woke her from her actual peaceful dream, or maybe a memory? She couldn't really recall since she didn't remember seeing anything rather just a warm safe feeling. But that could just come from the blanket she had wrapped around her and the heater finally cranking itself on. Remember why she had woken in the first place Tassy sighed as she pushed herself from the couch and didn't even think to look through the peephole before opening the door then standing there looking at Les for about two seconds before her brain caught up to what she was seeing. Her sienna eyes widened and while a part of her just wanted to slam the door the larger part was still in shock at seeing him there. She barely resisted reaching over and pinching her thigh to make sure she wasn't still napping on the couch since she hadn't even even conceived to think that he would be the one to come forward. Legba this was going to be painful, she just knew it. Realizing that she was still standing in the doorway just staring and being silent while she was sure five of her nosy older neighbors were staring out of their own peepholes at them she wordlessly moved aside so he could enter the flat then closed and locked the door behind them. The woman bit the side of her lip lightly as she thought of something, anything really, to say but there wasn't really a universal word or sentence for "I'm sorry, I screwed up, can we snuggle because I haven't slept in over a week?" So that just left the English standard. "Tea? I ran out of coffee I'm afraid." she told him her voice still a bit thick from her sleep while her eyes roamed over towards her kitchen. She was sure if she looked at him, really looked at him, she'd do something stupid like throw herself at him declaring affection and saying how much she missed him or something equally embarrassing.

Had Tassy been in her right frame of mind she more than possibly would've been cackling at the confused and bewildered facial expressions she was getting from Les, especially since she knew why. The last time they had been together she had been very vocal about everything and hadn't really thought over her words before she said them which was the main reason they were even in this predicament in the first place. When he denied the offer for tea a part of her wanted to add that she still had some ice cream in the freezer if he wanted to saturate it in sugar as usual. But she felt it was too soon to be acting so casual with him, she also didn't know if she could. She had no idea where their relationship laid now. Before she knew, yes she knew, that while she told everyone it was a purely physical connection they shared that it went much deeper than that. So when things blew up rather spectacularly in that bathroom the following weeks after she felt like she was stuck in the middle of a ragged tightrope. Did she apologize or cut her losses? What if she didn't want to cut them and he did? What then? She didn't think she could take watching some other woman sliver her way into the spot next to Les and be fine about it.

She shuffled in place a bit noticing she was still clutching her throw blanket around her and turned to lie it back on the chair she grabbed it from when his words caused her to pause and turn back to him in surprise. He was actually going to apologize first? Still stuck in her stupor she could only listen in awe as he apologized for what had transpired at the wedding even though he avoided voicing what exactly had occurred, probably to avoid pointing out her major part in the blame to avoid another conflict. Which was admittedly a good plan. Tassy probably shouldn't have been but she couldn't help occasionally glancing down at his hands feeling amused that they weren't being used in the actual conversaion and being annoyed that she actually felt a pang of longing. At his sigh she actually raised her eyes to meet his own and felt her traitorous heart give a flutter when he told her he missed her and trailed off making her wonder what in Samedi's name he meant by "all." "Him and Ridley" all? "Her practically living there" all? Or maybe, and this was a huge maybe, "them as a family" all.

The awkward silence was back signaling that he was finished with whatever he had to say and it was her turn to return the serve. "I accept your apology, even though I'm the one who should be doing the actual apology after going off on you like that. You were right, you were, and I just...I just shouldn't have blamed you like I did." the Scot responded slowly. In that moment she realized how dangerous of a situation she was in. There wasn't a question that she wouldn't accept his apology, he had willingly walked into a dragon lair with the intent to fight so she had to give credit where credit was due, but really it was a matter of how. Accept it and try and go back to before? Lying to herself every day and night and watch the inevitable happen where he finds someone better suited and she's dropped cold. Or, she could accept it and take a chance to see if maybe she wasn't the only one invested in this..whatever they would call it.

She didn't need to know statistics to realize the probability of him returning her feelings even after that fight was devastatingly low but, dammit she'd done worse hadn't she? She had moved all the way to London on her band's vague notion that they had steady gigs at a local pub and while her sister attended Uni she worked and saved up money to sell her instruments without a brand. She had more bollocks than a randy rhino so why was this so ******** difficult?! The musician crossed her arms if only to stop them her hands from covering her face or her arms from doing something truly stupid like making her run over and fling them around him and rose her eyes to meet his. "I missed you too, I really, really did. H-hypothetically, if I were to say that...that I couldn't go back with you until I knew everything, your feelings and where we stand all that, what would you say?" Tassy had been steadily walking over to him keeping the established eye contact until she was standing right in front of him with only inches in between. Now or never she supposed.