"Come here, baby!" Leo moved a sensuous finger on the smooth body, gliding over the luscious curves. He circled around then dipped a finger in it, slowly gliding back up. His eyes were closed, he would rather leave them closed for such a divine moment.

"Jeez, get a room!" Leo opened his eyes and grinned at Tim. They were jamming in Drew's basement like old times and he was reverentially fondling his old guitar. He lovingly moved his fingers over her strings, tightening a few and playing a few chords. Man, he loved this piece of wood.

"How's the baby duty coming along?" Tim grimaced and let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Can't take the sleepless nights anymore. I don't know how Betty does it."

Betty, his wife, had just delivered a baby girl and Tim was, to put it mildly, a snippy bitch. Blame it on sleep deprivation.

"Pizza's here!" Felicity entered, carrying two big boxes of steaming pies. Leo reluctantly relished his hold on the guitar and helped her. She was a real good pal. She served him first, giving him a extra helping of mushrooms, his favorite.

"You're coming for my birthday party this Sunday, yeah? It's at the pizzeria." Felicity leaned in when Tim, Ben and Drew were too busy stuffing their faces to care about conversing.

"Will you be jumping out of the birthday cake, sweetheart?"

Felicity giggled and punched his arm. Then, real close to his ears. "Do you like licking strawberry cream?"

Alarm bells went off in Leo's head. But Felicity was a good pal. Surely, he'd misunderstood.

"I like nothing better, madam." He replied with his best choir-boy voice.

"I'll  keep that in mind." After that cryptic comment, Felicity blew him a kiss, waved to the other three boys and left them alone.

Leo sighed and turned to see Ben glaring at him.

"What? Do I have sauce on my face?" Leo picked up his guitar and continued strumming.

Ben muttered something that sounded very much like "Asshole" and Leo shot him a puzzled look. "What the hell?"

"You know what."

"What?" 

Ben was the quietest member of their group and Leo had seldom seen him annoyed. Apparently, he had managed to piss him off today. He turned around and saw that the other two members of their group, Drew and Tim, inspecting some musical instruments in the back. Which was pretty pointless as they were quite tone-deaf.

"It must be nice to be rich, successful AND have all the pretty girls running behind you." 

"It's just dandy. Mind telling me what you're on about?" 

Ben muttered another curse. Leo sighed and set his guitar down. "Now you're just pissing me off. What the hell's gotten into you?"

"You know what!" Ben was breathing harder but determinedly not staring at Leo.

"Jeez, are we back to that? I told you, I have no idea what you're on about!"

Agitated, Ben got up to pace. "It's not fair. First Andy, now Felicity. They're nice girls, dammit. Not for some Casanova like you to mess with."

Whoa. "I..I've never, ever been interested in Felicity. We are just friends. You must be thickheaded indeed if you think there's anything going on between us."

Ben let out a disbelieving snort. "I've seen her look at you, man."

"Oh, and how does she look at me?" Leo couldn't believe Ben. They were fighting over Drew's sister? He and Felicity had grown up together, she was like a sister to him! The whole thing was preposterous.

With a dramatic sigh, Ben sat down with his head in his hands. "The way I wish she would look at me. Just once."

Oh, finally it was making sense.

"So you like Felicity?"

"He's a puppy-dog. Gapes at her with his tongue hanging out. Naturally she wants nothing to do with him." This was from Drew who just joined their conversation. For some inexplicable reason, they had just found a tuba.

Tim laid the tuba down. "He's pathetic, really. She doesn't even give him the time of the day."

Ben just sighed dramatically and buried his head in his hands. God, that was just sad.

"Didn't you let your sister know how he feels?" Leo turned to Drew.

"Oh, I did try to set them up once. She threatened to eviscerate me. She can't stand him, maybe because he stares so. And the more unrequited his love, the more he is tempted to stare."

"Oh." Leo felt sorry for poor Ben. Though, he thought with no small amount of smugness, he had no idea about how being rejected feels.

"I guess Knightingale here will be your savior." Tim, Drew and a cautiously hopeful Ben turned to him.

"What the hell do you expect me to do?"

"Well, butter up the girl, put in a good word for our Ben here."

Leo picked up the guitar and thoughtfully strummed it. Music really calmed him down. He never thought clearer without it.

He would hate it if Andy would treat him as something she had scraped off her shoe. So, in a way, Ben had his sympathy.

"You can give him tips about how to talk to ladies. You are always so popular for that. Why, even Andy talks to you!"

Leo's ears perked up when he heard Andy's name. "Why, what do you mean? Doesn't she talk to others?"

"Well, not really." Drew continued. "The girl's a bit reserved. But she did recently move here. I was thinking of asking her out, initially."

"What?" Leo exclaimed. This was a day chockful of discoveries.

"Well, I did not." He added, a tad defensively. " Didn't think she would agree, she's a bit younger than me and I lost the nerve. Then, because of Felicity, we sort of became friends and I guess we'll leave it at that."

Leo lifted his guitar to his ear and strummed it. This was ridiculous. Just the mention of Andy's name and he wanted to go over and see her. What the hell was this madness? And what would have happened if Andy had said yes to Drew. He loved Drew like a brother but he would probably have killed him. Why was he so attracted to Andy? She was beautiful, yes, but so were a lot of other girls. Maybe it was that something in her eyes. The allure of mystery, the essence of world-weariness. She held secrets and was wary of people finding them about her. Maybe they were kindred souls. If Leo looked in the mirror, he would probably see the same reflected in his own eyes.

"Well?"

"What?"

"What's the big plan for Ben? Are you going to help him with Felicity?"

Leo looked around him and chuckled. Three grown men, one already a father, and they still looked up to him as their leader. Some things never changed.

"If things go according to plan, Felicity would be mad for you in a week."

Ben lurched up and grabbed his hand. "Thank you, Knightingale."

Jeez.

"Ok, can we give it a rest with the "Knightingale" business? That was only cool in high school."

Tim snorted. "Then why the hell did you name your company Knightingale Records?"

Leo just gave him a sheepish grin. 

*******

"Please, please Mary, oh for the love of all that's holy, please come out of the bathroom! I really need to pee! "

"Ju-just a minute. I am al-almost done, ma-madam, I mean, Andy."

Andy cursed, but under her breath. What the hell was she thinking, letting Mary in? She wasn't equipped to take care of anyone but herself. Now she was working extra hours to take care of a homeless woman and her dog?

The dog in question was looking at her calmly, as though wondering why she was acting like a lunatic.

"Easy for you, you tinkle in the woods." Andy muttered under her breath as she hopped around.

Andy dashed in the minute Mary came out with a profusion of apologies. With a sigh, she noticed that the bathroom was really messy, littered with paper tissues. It was a pet peeve with her, why couldn't people keep things in their proper places?

When Andy was done, Mary was waiting for her, lip trembling and eyes swollen. 

That explained the tissues.

In the halfway home that Andy had helped Mia run, Andy was more concerned than day-to-day administrative activities like accounts, replenishing the food and other supplies and helping the home run smoothly. A time or two, she had also gone with other volunteers to convince some women to leave their abusive husbands and return to the halfway home. But never had she been one of the counselors or a someone who spoke to the women on a daily basis. Oh, they all knew her alright, but as an administrator, never as someone who lent them a sympathetic ear.

That's why it made her position with Mary singularly awkward. She didn't know how to console hysterical women. She had zero tolerance for tears and very little sympathy for women who were at the mercy of other men.

Mary had been here for nearly a week now, they shared the same home but hadn't had a decent conversation. Andy had tried, awkwardly, to make her open up about her life before she got here, but so far she only got blank looks or confused stares. Not for the first time, Andy was left wondering if Mary was all there in her head.

She had contacted the Home a couple of times, but Mia wasn't available as she had gone abroad with her husband. Not sure who she should discuss Mary's sensitive case with, Andy had determined that Mary was not missed in the home, (she was apparently discharged a few months back), Andy hung up.

"Ok..." Andy awkwardly shuffled her feet and swung her arms. "So, it was a good cry, I hope. Let it all out."

Mary gulped and looked out of the window. Jeez, this was ridiculous!

"Mary, you have been here for a week, your damn dog sleeps in my bed every night and yet we never have a decent conversation. Don't you think it's high time we did?" Andy was striving for a sympathetic tone, but she was pretty sure it came out annoyed. How was she supposed to deal with this anyways?

Mary sobbed and wiped her eyes. "I-I'm really sorry, A-Andy. It's just that so-sometimes I m-miss him. Ma-Maybe I did sh-should've tried ha-harder."

Damn it. Every time the same story!

"Listen to me good, Mary! I am not gonna sugarcoat it for you. Your husband's an asshole. He uses you as a punching bag whenever he feels like it. You really deserve better. If you go back to him, he will ill-treat you again. Is that what you want? Where is your self-respect, woman?"

Mary sighed and with a trembling lip, stared into space again. Then, in a very low voice, "He won't..hurt me....He just got .... angry. I di-didn't serve him his fo-food warm."

Andy took a deep breath to tamp down her rising anger. "Listen to you! You served your pig of your husband food and when he beat you, you're blaming yourself! Don't be so ..." She bit her tongue. She was gonna say "pathetic", but that won't do. She was maybe learning some of this empathy business after all. "..weak. You're stronger than you think you are, Mary! Just believe in yourself."

Mary sniffled again. "A-Andy, when I was wi-with him, I felt sa-safe."

Andy strove to maintain her calm. She felt like a fake, so full of bluster when she was scared in the big, dark house alone. But, she had to appear brave at any cost. She confidently strode forward to the state-of-the-art security system that Leo had installed. She flipped the panel open and exposed the display of the gleaming buttons.

"See here? No one can get in! We are safe, Mary! Not even Phil, your douche-bag of a husband, can get in if you don't want him to!" Andy could have hugged Leo when he told her the security system had been installed. She had badly wanted to, but had restrained herself because he had come with two workmen, who were, thankfully, much more efficient than Leo. But the gleam in his eye had told her that he knew. 

That she would probably jump his bones if she got him alone again. She felt an inward shiver. God, she was so common!

"I li-like him. Leo." Andy turned sharply to Mary. She had been day-dreaming (or maybe night-dreaming since it was night) about Leo.

"Oh, get in line!" She snapped and for the first time, Mary broke into a smile.

"He li-likes you, too. I ca-can tell, he looks at you when y-you aren't looking."

God, Andy was blushing like a teenager. So embarrassing!

"We-ell," Andy attempted levity. "I'm a very likable person."

"Yes, you're the best, A-Andy." Mary readily agreed. Andy burst out laughing at her acquiescence.

"You know, Mary. We are going to be just fine."