Stafford Terrace, late at night...

Monica was careful not to slam the front door shut. She put her keys to the door in her pocket and switched the hallway light on, hung her coat and bag up, then tiptoed up the stairs to the bathroom; she was too afraid of waking Freddie, who had gotten home before she did, if she used the shower in the en suite.

The day she'd spent running around at her boss Christina's neice's wedding had left her feeling like an exhausted mess (the bride wanted her aunt to do the desserts, something which the hotel venue staff weren't too pleased about). Monica could almost swear people sat away from her the moment she stepped onto the tube home.

She unstrapped her shoes and went to the mirror, piling her unbrushed hair onto the top of her head and fastening it with a large claw hair clip sitting above the sink.

She froze when she heard the door open, but heard the small pattering of paws and in walked Mandy, greeting her with a meow.

"Oh, just you," she quietly giggled with relief. "I was afraid I'd woken up your daddy."

The cat hopped onto the bathtub edge as Monica pulled the shower curtain over, but jumped away when she turned the water on.

After angling the shower head a little lower so that it wouldn't wet her hair, she rushed downstairs and grabbed her clean blue cotton pyjamas hanging on the drying rack in the utility room, and put them on the heater when she got back up. Freddie insisted that they were too tatty and he buy her another set from "somewhere much more upmarket", but she knew he had something opulent and uncomfortable for sleeping in mind.

She switched the tap on, and stuck her hand under the stream of water until it grew warm enough. By now Mandy had darted out, the splatters of water alarming her.

Monica giggled as she stripped down, and lifted the sponge out of the shower caddy.

She stepped in and lathered the musky soap onto her wet, goose-bumped skin, looking through the curtain gap anxiously to see if Freddie would stumble in tired and annoyed. He was never fun when agitated.

Once she was clean and felt refreshed again, and fortunately uninterrupted, she turned the tap off, stepping onto the floor towel and drying herself off as Mandy lingered at her wet feet. The feline had gotten so big, and was twice the size she was the day she had first arrived at Freddie's home. Just another reminder for Monica of how much her life had changed since she first moved in with him.

She took the band out if her hair and let it fall to her shoulders before buttoning her pyjama top up.

"You coming?" She whispered to Mandy as she was about to pull the light switch.

The cat bounded over to her, and Monica giggled before tiptoeing into the dark master bedroom, gently shutting the door behind her.

There Freddie was, sprawled out and sleeping peacefully as she climbed in under the warm duvet on her side of the bed and curled up.

Or so she thought.

She heard him purr behind her suddenly, "Hello"

"Oh! I didn't wake you, did I?" She lifted her head from her pillow slightly as she felt his arms engulfing her from behind as he shuffled close to her.

"Not at all, I've been awake for quite some time" he whispered.

She smiled a little, "Well, at least I came home to a nice, warm bed."

He chuckled in her ear, and affectionately nuzzled her neck, "How was the wedding?"

"Oh, Christina was at her wits end," she rolled over in his hold to face him, and looking at the beautiful chiselled face in front of her she could tell he was knackered as well. "We were short of an icebox and the sorbets half melted, she got so frustrated."

"Be thankful that she wasn't the one baking the cake." He kissed her forehead.

"Oh I know," she giggled quietly, draping her leg across his hip and intertwining it with his thigh as she curled up against him. "Speaking of baking cakes, are Deaky and Veronica still thinking about having another?"

"He didn't mention it at the studio today... or in the last while. But it looks like they're waiting until Robert's easier to manage."  His hands rubbed up and down her arm.

She stared into space as she rested her head against his bare chest, watching as Tom's figure sat on the windowsill, the light from streetlamp making him silhouetted as he watched Goliath lurking on the carpet below. Amidst the sound of Freddie's steady heartbeat in her ear, Monica could hear a familiar dreamy piano intro being played through the faint, crackling speakers of his bedside radio.

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"Oh! I remember this one!" She sat up and whispered, reaching across him and turning up the volume lightly, just as the harmonies began.

"You like Aretha too?" He asked as she settled back down.

"Of course! This song brings me back memories of getting the bus home from school on a sunny day."

He giggled, "I keep forgetting how young you really are."

She smiled into his chest, "I'm glad I'm not in school anymore though."

"And why is that?"

She shrugged, "Just had enough of it... Paula and I couldn't wait to get out."

"Oh yes, that girl..." he murmured, remembering that dark blonde, outgoing girl in the small denim skirt with Monica the night he met her in that club he'd forgotten the name of (it was one that Mary had found and dragged him to), abandoning her to go back with a young man she didn't know.

"Why are you thinking that way? Monica didn't know you either, and you still went back with her... Oh, you couldn't control your sick appetite and keep it in your pants either, could you?" He thought bitterly of himself.

"Are you alright?" Monica noticed he'd gone silently rigid, staring up at the ceiling.

He snapped out of it, "Oh, yes... I was thinking about the night we met."

"Does this song remind you of it?" She asked.

"I want to be what he wants an' he wants it and whenever he needs it..." Aretha sang. "An' when he's lonesome an' feeling love starved I'll be there to feed him..."

He reminisced, thinking back to the night they spent at the Montana Hotel after, and how it resembled the song and its melody so much; short-lived, but still sweet.

"Yes," he whispered, looking back at the gentle blue eyes and kind smile in front of him. "Yes, it does remind me of it."

She kissed his lips softly as the chorus played, "I'm glad I became yours."

"Mmm... I'm glad you trusted me." was all he could say when they broke.

She smiled, and spoke as she yawned, "How couldn't I, Prince Charming?" 

"Oh, stop it, you!" He hissed.

"Are you that afraid that your teeth will scare people off? It didn't scare me." She closed her eyes, pressing her cheek back down against his warm body hair.

He blushed, then tucked chocolate strand of her hair behind her ear, his thumb grazing her soft cheek.

She laid still, locked in his arms and listening to Ms Franklin intently, not wanting to be anywhere else in the world at that moment.

He watched her drifting off to the soothing song as he cuddled her, laying contently still as the late night DJ from the local radio station muttered something about the next track being a birthday request through the speakers.

The next song completely ruined the silent, ambient mood, although it didn't jolt Monica awake it startled Freddie slightly.

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He watched her as the upbeat rhythm of the claps and guitar didn't even cause her eyelids to twitch once.

"Angel..." Cliff Richard sang. "With those angel eyes... come and take the earth boy... up to paradise..." 

"Where have I heard this one before?" Freddie muttered quietly.

He looked back at his own sleeping angel in his arms, completely defeated by his own sudden nostalgia and deja vu as he felt himself slipping away from consciousness...