What are men to rocks and mountains

The embrace

Alison's morning had been, as most of her mornings seemed to be, chaotic. It had begun with a screaming match between Thomas and Julian, lead on by Pat, who had- with no ill intent- brought up the subject of women's votes. Thomas, being ever the pleaser had wholeheartedly agreed with the statement Pat made, but Julian had thrown his entire being into a discussion about how women had never done him any service in parliament. Alison had rolled her eyes when she ran into the pair, Pat having long since left the room in frustration. She had better things to do anyway, like finding those stupid letters she lost. She could have sworn she'd left them on the table in the library...

"You despise women in parliament simply because you can't control yourself around them, you heathen!" Thomas yelped from somewhere behind Alison. She just heard Julian scoff.

"Exactly! How am I supposed to concentrate on important business when there's such pretty ladies around?"

"Oh come off it! Have you any respect for women?" Thomas asked in an offended tone. Checking if Alison was still near enough to hear him. He would surely win over her heart by defending her honour as a woman!

"On the contrary mon compagnon, I have the highest respect for women, they're very good liars. Which is why I don't want them in Parliament. I may be good at lying, but women always seem to fool me in believing whatever it is they're selling. And most of the time- the things they sell cost me a lot of money!" He seethed before Alison finally moved in between them to settle the argument.

The rest of the morning went relatively well, Alison had gone about her morning, having breakfast with Mike, helping him put on his dollar store diving gear, phoning the party planner and scheduling a date for the decorators to come by for the office party. By the afternoon she felt like she'd done a whole day already. She let herself fall into the sofa in the drawing room blissfully, enjoying the sound of silence for a few amazing minutes before she heard the sound of chatter and she groaned. A few seconds later the group of ghosts piled into the room, all chattering happily to one person or another.

"Ah Alison! Hello there! We're just about to start dinner club!" Pat piped up as soon as he spotted Alison laying on the couch in the middle of the room.

"Today we're talking about our favorite utensils! I don't want to give anything away, but it's going to be forking awesome." He continued, as the others all went to sit down.

Alison got up and give him a smile.

"No thanks Pat, tomorrow is film club, right? I'll join you then." She said, trying to excuse herself quietly before someone inevitably needed her for something again.

"Oh Alison!" She heard Kitty yell before she could slip out. She winced as she turned around and gave Kitty a forced smile, but she couldn't be mad at Kitty, not really.

"Where's the nice army man? No offense, Captain." She asked, giving the Captain a polite smile as she did so. The Captain made an undignified noise and cleared his throat shortly. "Nono, none taken. I was actually just wondering about William myself." He replied, bouncing on his heels slightly and gripping his swagger stick a little more tightly. He couldn't be gone again... could he?

"Dunno" Alison said with a shrug. "Haven't seen him all morning. But I did get him an alarm clock, so maybe he went out early." She added. This time Robin piped up.

"Army man weird" he said, his eyes fixed on the chess board in front of him. Thomas huffed at the caveman, mumbling in reply. "You're one to talk..."

"What do you mean weird, Robin? Why could you possibly think Lieutenant Havers is weird?" The Captain snapped, almost offended for his friend. Maybe a bit too offended.