A Fluffy Tale 2: Warm & Fuzzy (6 page)

“Thanks, Bob. I’ll just pop up and drop
these off.” He waved the folder of reports he’d brought up as cover. “Do you
keep those recordings? I can’t remember what they said when they installed
them.”

“Yeah. Have to, in case we have to call the
police in. Didn’t used to, but now it’s all on some hard disk somewhere. I
think they copy it off and store it. Don’t know the details. That’s your area,
not mine.”

“Only when they break, man. So don’t go
breaking it. Catch you around.”

Bob waved him off in a friendly fashion,
hopefully unaware of Spen’s real purpose. He’d already picked up the newspaper
he’d been reading when Spen interrupted, so Spen hoped he wouldn’t pay any
attention to the monitors unless an alarm went off. Spen had no intention of doing
anything to warrant an alarm, but the more discreetly this was handled, the
better it would be for all concerned.

There was no one about on the fifth floor
that he could see, and all was quiet. The door to Daniel’s office was shut, but
Spen didn’t knock. After all, he wasn’t supposed to know Daniel was there. He
threw the door open, making the two men at the desk straighten up in shock. The
reactions were tellingly different. Daniel was simply surprised, but Noble was
angry too...and a little afraid?

Spen played it casual. “Oh, hi, Daniel.
Wasn’t expecting you to be here. Just had some reports for Tony, and thought
I’d drop them off before I went home.”

Noble snatched the folder from him.
“Couldn’t this have waited, Spencer? Why on earth would you think I was around
at this time of night?” He backed further away from Daniel, and Spen didn’t
think he imagined the relaxation in Daniel’s features as he did so. Relaxation—and relief too.

“Oh, I checked at Security.” Spen pointed
casually up at the corner of the office’s ceiling. “The new system. The in-office cameras. Don’t you remember? Head Office
authorised them after we had those laptop thefts.”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Noble straightened up
and cleared his throat. “Right. Fine. Thank you. Daniel, I think we’re finished
here. You should get on home.”

“Thanks, Tony. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Spen
had never seen anyone logoff that fast before, and Daniel had picked up his
coat and shot out of the office before Spen had a chance to offer to walk him
out.

Noble made a show of collecting papers from
the desk, ignoring his departing PA and Spen. His lips thinned as he looked up
and realised Spen was still there. “Anything else, Spencer?”

Spen pretended he couldn’t hear the chill
in Noble’s tone. “No. I should get home too. Don’t believe in overtime as a
rule. Leads to burnout.”

“Good night then. Don’t let me hold you
up.”

Spen grinned to himself as he made his way
to the elevator, while Myko trilled in approval. Message delivered and point
made, he hoped.

~~~~~~~~

Relieved beyond words at his unexpected
early escape—and thanking Spen for prompting it, though it had been a
rather odd thing to do—Daniel sprang for a taxi in the hope of getting
back home even faster. Kani, allowed out once more, perched on his lap and gave
constant squeaks of frustration as the taxi encountered red lights or slow
drivers. Finally, they were at the house. Daniel ran up the path and flung the
door open, startling his brother and sister in the living room. He immediately
realised that however quickly he’d managed to return, it wasn’t fast enough.
Alex gave him a cold stare before running out of the room, while Dee stood with
her arms folded, her expression as sullen and angry as Daniel had ever seen it.

“You
promised
.”

“I know. I let you know, and I tried
to—”

“Doesn’t matter. You
promised
. You said things would get better when you got this job,
but it’s only got
worse
. We hardly
see you in the evenings, and you’re so tired the rest of the time. It’s not
worth it, Daniel.” She bit her lip, clearly fighting back tears, but when
Daniel went to put his arm around her, she pulled back. “No. Go to Alex.”

“I’m sorry, DeeDee. Did you have supper?”

“Sort of. He was too upset to eat, and he
didn’t want the ‘stupid cake’ I made for him.” The lip wobbled again. “Go!”

Daniel went, because there was only one of
him to go around two upset siblings.

Alex was lying on his bed on his stomach,
petting Veen. He didn’t look at Daniel as he came in. “Go away. I don’t want to
talk to you.”

“I know. Happy birthday anyway.”

“Don’t be stupid. It sucked. You suck. This
job sucks.” He rolled over and glared at Daniel with red eyes. “You don’t even
need to work. Dee says there’s plenty of money in the bank.”

Daniel sat on the end of the bed. “That’s
got to cover a lot of things, Alex. You and Dee going to
university, our bills, house repairs, emergencies—that kind of thing.
It’s not that much, and there’s no more to come. Not for a while, anyway,” he
amended, thinking of the protracted legal battles, and the obduracy of companies
denying liability. “If I can’t look after you, then social services will have
to take over. I have to prove I can manage.”

“They won’t take us away. Not when you’re
around.”

“They might. I can’t risk that. Look, I’m
really, really sorry. I let you down, and I knew you’d be mad at me. But we’ve
been through worse, right? Got through it?” He reached out and stroked his
brother’s carroty curls. “It’s just the three of us, kiddo. We can’t fight with
each other.”

“Can’t you find another job? You never said
you’d have to work late all the time.”

“I didn’t know. Give me a little while
longer. Once I have a bit more experience, I can apply for other jobs.”

“I wish I was older, then I could get a job
instead.”

Daniel ruffled his hair and tried to smile.
“I wish you were too. You’d be better than me, I bet. Um...Dee has a cake.”

“Don’t want anything. Not hungry.”

“Alex, she’s crying. I know it’s my fault,
but I don’t know what to do. It would mean a lot to me if you came downstairs
and helped me cheer her up.”

“You spoiled my birthday.”

“It’s not over, though. And I’m home now.
Can we have some cake and see if that helps? I’ve got a birthday present for
you somewhere.”

Alex’s mouth moved as if he was about to
say he didn’t want any stupid present, but he didn’t actually say it.

“Please?”

“Okay. But I still hate your job.”

“I don’t like it much either. We just have
to hang on a little longer. We can do it, if we do it together.”

Alex screwed up his face. “You sound like a
TV commercial.”

Daniel grinned. “Sorry. Come on. I’m
starving.” Kani squeaked. “So is he.” He reached over to hug his brother. To
his relief, Alex let him. “We’ll get through this, Alex. Just hold on.”

“It’s so hard. I miss Mum and Dad.”

“Me too. All the time.” He kissed his
brother’s head. “But at least I have you and Dee.” Kani chirped and leapt up
onto Alex’s shoulder to lick one side of his face, while Veen nibbled Alex’s
ear on the other side. “And you too, fuzzballs.”

Spen kept a close eye on the security logs for the next two weeks, and
enjoyed a little burst of satisfaction every time he saw Daniel’s ID register
his departure by six every evening—sometimes even as early as five. He
wondered how Noble explained the sudden drop off in overtime requests to
Daniel. Maybe he hadn’t bothered, expecting his PA to accept management
oddities as part of the job.

Spen didn’t really care so long as Daniel
wasn’t being pressured into working long hours and being perved over by a
creepy boss. The other change in behaviour he did care about, since it meant
Daniel no longer came down to IT, limiting his communications to email and rare
phone calls. Spen didn’t know if it was by Noball’s orders, or whether Daniel
was angry about his intervention. He figured eventually he’d find out, since
the Cross-Channel project was still on-going, and
likely to be rolled out across all their offices after the national conference.
Unless Noble handed it off to someone else—which, Spen judged, an egotist
like him would never do—he would have to keep working with IT, and since
Noble was still technologically inept, he would need Daniel’s help. Spen gave
it another week before Noble stopped sulking, and he
doubted Daniel’s gentle personality could sustain rage for anything like that
long. The emails and calls were polite enough, so no change there. Maybe he’d make another attempt to
entice Daniel out to the Friday pub night soon, now he couldn’t use the
overtime as an excuse.

The chance to have a drink and a chat came
sooner than Spen expected. He left a little later than planned on Tuesday and
almost knocked Daniel over as he came around the corner from the stairs. “There
he is. Hello stranger.” Daniel’s big green eyes stared wildly, not really
seeing him at all. “Daniel? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t...just leave me....” He pushed
past Spen and bolted for the men’s toilet. Sensing it wasn’t a sudden bout of nausea which had sent him running, Spen gave chase.

He found Daniel sitting on the floor at the
far end of the room, next to a urinal. “Hey, kid, you can’t sit there. It’s
dirty.”

“Don’t care.” He looked up at Spen, his
face glistening with tears. “Leave me alone.”

“No, don’t think so.” Spen crouched down
and hoped like hell no one else would come in. “Did something happen? Something at home? Tony get mad
about something?”

“I can’t...you wouldn’t understand. I just
have to...but I can’t.”

Spen frowned at him, then stood, pulled
some paper off the roll and wet it. He crouched again and handed the wetted
towel to Daniel. “Wipe your face, then stand up. You need to get out of here.
Well away from here.”

Daniel obeyed, accepted Spen’s help to
stand up, and threw the screwed up towel at the bin with unnecessary force.
“I’m okay now,” he said, voice as flat as a computer simulation.

“Yeah, right. Look, do you have time for a
quick drink? We can talk.”

Daniel’s eyes darted about in panic. “I
can’t...I have to get home.”

“Half an hour? Give them a call? Daniel,
I’m worried about you.”

“Half an hour?”

“An hour max. Just call who you need to.”

He shook his head. “It’s okay. They don’t
count on me being home early any more.”

Spen didn’t comment on that, though he
could strangle bloody Tony Noble. “Come on, it’s only around the corner.”

Wednesdays were quiet in their local. It
was usually quiet anyway, being more of a lunchtime crowd type of place. “Do
you drink? Want a beer? My shout.”

Daniel looked about to protest, then his
shoulders slumped in defeat. “Half of bitter, please.”

Spen ordered the same, and some crisps to
soak it up. He guided Daniel over to a corner and made him sit. “Where’s Kani?”

“Kani? Oh...here.” A grey head suddenly
popped out of the middle of Daniel’s chest, and gave an interrogative chirp.
“It’s okay, you can come out now.” Kani jumped out and onto the table, taking a
sniff at Daniel’s beer glass. Daniel stroked him gently, though rather
distractedly.

“What’s going on? Why are you keeping Kani
out of sight? And drink that. You look like you need it.”

Daniel took a sip, then a longer slurp.
“Tony told me to keep Kani inside at work. Says it’s unprofessional.” He said
it as if it was of no importance, but his eyes went red again. Kani gave an
indignant squeak, even stamping his little feet to make the point.

“He’s the only person in the whole damn
office who thinks that. That’s unreasonable, and unfair on Kani.”

“Yeah. But he’s my boss. I can’t lose my
job over that. Only I’m going to lose it anyway.”

Spen opened the crisps and set the bag in
front of Daniel. “Eat those, and drink that beer. No way is Tony going to fire
you. You’re too good at your job.”

Daniel picked at the crisps but didn’t eat
one. Kani snuffled about in the packet, then stuck his
nose in Daniel’s beer. Daniel waved him off and took another long slurp. “He’s
going to fire me because I can’t go to the national conference. He says I have
to go to it or it’s my job.”

Spen blinked. “Wait a bloody minute. He
can’t say things like that. You told him why? Is it your family? Does he know
about that?”

“He knows. I thought he understood.”

“Understood what, exactly?”

“I’m...sole guardian for my brother and
sister. She’s sixteen. He just turned eleven. Mum and Dad...died. Last year, in
an accident.”

“I’m sorry. That’s a lot to handle.”

“Yeah.” Daniel’s voice still held no
passion or anger, just a dull misery that made Spen ache to hear. “I can’t
leave them on their own for a week. There’s no one I can ask to look after
them. No one I would trust. Dee might cope on her own, but not with Alex, and
it would be a shitty thing to do to them anyway. They get so lonely.” He looked
up, and added quietly, “We all do.”

“No, you can’t leave them. Tony can’t force
you to either. It’s totally against company regulations, and you should tell
him that. Tell HR too.”

“No, no, I can’t.” For the first time, he
became a little animated, his cheeks flushing. “I can’t lose this job. I’m
still on probation. He can fire me at will, no need for a reason, though I’m
sure he has plenty of reasons he can come up with. He could even use what
happened with Kani and Julian.”

“If he tries that, Julian’s boss will eat
him alive.”

“Maybe, but I’ll still be gone. I need this
job, Spen. If I push back, I’ll still end up losing it, only with a worse
reference than what he’ll give me anyway. I’m so fucked.” He finished his beer
in a long swallow. Spen silently pushed over his untouched glass. “Thanks.
Look, I appreciate the concern, but I don’t have a choice in this. You can’t
help. I’ll have to tell him no, and then I’ll have to leave. My family are
everything to me. I’m all they have.” He rubbed his eyes. “God, Mum and Dad
would be ashamed of me not coping with this.”