“What’s that noise?” Paul asked into his pillow.

“Something’s burrowing through the wall,” Gina sighed and rolled over.

“Oh,” he agreed. “What time is it?”

“Too early for something to be burrowing through the wall.”

He lifted his head and squinted at the clock. “It’s almost seven.”

“Fine,” she yawned. “When’s the plane leave?”

“Ten thirty.”

“We should get out of bed.”

“Yes, we should.”

They lay there, making no effort to move. Gina opened one eye to find Paul looking at her sleepily. She smiled at him. There was an annoyed clatter in the living room. “Fenny’s up,” Gina sighed. “Maybe she was burrowing through the wall. She doesn’t sound pleased.”

“I liked them better when they were fucking like bunnies,” Paul mused as he kicked the blankets off them. “Come on, let’s go rescue her from herself.”

Fenny pawed through the CDs she had just dumped into her bag. She needed music, something to reflect her mood. Something pained. Janis Joplin. She dropped the CD into the player and paused as she reached for the volume knob. Gina and Paul were still asleep…

“Morning Fen,” Gina chimed from the hallway. “What’s going on?”

“I’m getting out of this fucking apartment,” Fenny yelped, surprising herself, and stormed over to the bookshelf.

“You are?” Gina asked, eyeing the suitcase by the couch and her box of art supplies by the door. “Why, what’s wrong?”

“That bastard came over here last night and we had sex, he told me he loves me, and then just up and left, to be with Lilly I’m sure. This is insane, I’m not putting up with it anymore.”

“Where were you thinking of going?” Gina asked carefully.

“A hotel. Home maybe. I haven’t gotten that far yet, I just want out.”

“How about Australia?” Paul perked as he sauntered up behind Gina.

“What?” Fenny asked, looking up from her task of hunting out her old sketchpads.

“We’re headed back home for a few days, Paul’s got an interview, and you could certainly use the break,” Gina smiled. “Clear your head. We’ve already got a ticket lined up for you.”

Fenny dropped the two pads into her bag, on top of the CDs, and looked up at her friends. “Under normal circumstances, the prospect of returning to Australia would really freak me out, but yeah, sure, anything. When’s the plane leave?”

“In about three hours,” Paul announced.

“Good thing I’m already packed then,” she nodded. “We should hurry up, get outta here. I just gotta hunt down my passport…”

I’m not likely to see you anymore

With the dawn I fly so you must listen

Just to spite me you’ve chosen to ignore

That I’m on to why you’re always missing

So you’ve got a lover

Who just rings a bell when he needs you

They tell me there’s another

Who could never tell he loves you too

Before you yell there’s another thing I guess

You should hear now while I’m thinking of it

Ringing bells don’t bother me unless

They become like strings to guide a puppet—

Brad thumped the CD player with one hand and it stopped. “How does Fenny listen to that shit,” he grumbled to himself, making a mental note to destroy the CD when he got out of the car. He drove in silence to the one place he shouldn’t go, the one place he felt he needed to be. After a few minutes he parked the car and wandered over to Ella’s apartment and knocked on the door.

“Brad,” she cooed when she opened the door. “I didn’t know you were coming. We didn’t see you yesterday.”

“Yeah, well yesterday was kinda bad,” he hissed and wandered into the front room of the apartment.

Ella closed the door carefully and watched as Brad began to pace. “You told her,” she breathed.

“No, she found out.” He pulled his hand through his hair. “She saw us in the park the other day. Went apeshit.”

“Do you blame her?” Ella asked carefully.

Brad turned to face her, his eyes glowing with anger. “You’re not helping.”

“I’m just saying that you must have known she wouldn’t take it well, otherwise you would have told her earlier.”

“Yeah, well she certainly didn’t take it well,” he grumbled.

“What happened?” she asked comfortingly.

“Well we screamed at each other for a few minutes, Fenny dropped the ring on the floor and stormed out of the room. I spent the night in a hotel.” He sighed and finally sat down on the sofa.

“So that’s it, she broke it off?” Ella asked as she sat on the couch with him.

“I don’t fucking know what happened. I don’t want it to be over, but she can’t cope with, well, with everything that’s happened. We slept together last night,” he announced, frowning at himself.

“Well that sounds good,” she said, unsure if it did or not but trying to be helpful.

“I don’t even know why we did it. We were both screaming at each other, emotions were running high, and we just did it.” Brad looked into Ella’s eyes. “I love her. And I love Lilly. But I don’t think Fenny is willing to let me love both of them.”

Ella smiled sadly at him. “I think what you two need is time. You both need to sort things out, think things through for a while. Every relationship gets tested, and if you can make it through the rough spots, it just makes it stronger in the end. Granted, this might be a harder test than most people have to deal with…”

“You’d be surprised,” Brad mumbled.

“Well look, you can stay here if you want, until things cool down enough for you to straighten Fenny out.”

“I hardly think that’ll help,” he groaned. “She’d find out, and then the shit would really hit the fan.”

“Trying to be helpful,” Ella said softly.

Brad took her hand. “I’m sorry. I, I want you to know that, no matter what happens, I’ll always be Lilly’s father, and I’ll always look after her.”

“Thank you, Brad,” Ella smiled. “And I know this isn’t want you want to hear, but you’re still Fenny’s fiancé, maybe you should look after her too.”

“But I—”

“Yes, you want to be here for Lilly,” Ella interrupted, “and I understand that and you have no idea how grateful I am for you. Most men would have said ‘too bad lady’ and skipped town. But honestly, what good is it going to do her to have a morbidly depressed and unhappy daddy? If you lose the woman you love over this, you’re going to get bitter and hold it against me and Lilly.”

“I wouldn’t—”

“You would. And as it is, you’ve spent more time with Lilly this week than my father spent with me in—”

There was a shrill cry from the bedroom down the hall. “I’ll get her,” Brad announced and jumped up, mostly to escape the discussion. He stepped up to the crib where Lilly was wailing, the fingers of one hand in her mouth, the other gripping the leg of the stuffed monkey he’d bought for her. “Oh, what’s wrong with my little girl?” he cooed as he picked her up and held her against his chest. Her crying soon abated to hiccupping whimpers and he rocked her, knowing she just wanted attention. “I think your mommy took too many psychology classes in college,” he mused, and she smiled at him.

Gina, Paul and Fenny made it past the insanely long lines at the baggage check, the metal detectors, and the ticket desk more or less unscathed, apart from when the zipper on Gina’s pants set off the metal detector and Paul volunteered to remove them for her.

The trio sat in the terminal, waiting for their flight to be called. Fenny had slipped into a funk and didn’t say or do much, and Gina and Paul just sat together, all of them still tired and not particularly looking forward to the long trip trapped on an airplane. After a few minutes Fenny pulled out her sketchbook and a pencil and began drawing some of the people around them.

“That woman’s head looks like a poodle,” Gina mused as she followed Fenny’s gaze towards the prim woman seated by the windows.

“Which is why I’m drawing her,” Fenny nodded.

“Draw me,” Paul smiled.

“You don’t look like a poodle,” Gina said with a grin. He growled at her for a moment and then let out a bark. Gina turned away and found the poodle woman staring at them.

“C’mon, draw me, it’ll be fun,” Paul perked.

Fenny raised her eyebrows at him. “Will you pose?”

“Absolutely.”

Her face broke out into a smile as Paul stood up and stood across from her. “Gina, pose him for me, would you?”

“Ooh, my own bendy-Paul,” she giggled and stepped up to him. After a moment of thinking and a few startled grunts from Paul, Gina had him situated on the floor on his hands and knees.

“Stop giggling, Paul,” Fenny laughed as she attacked her book with the pencil, Gina watching over her shoulder.

“Paul dressed as a 70s porn star on all fours in the middle of LAX, where’s my camcorder?” Gina chuckled.

“Hey, you’ve got a drawing, that’s almost as good,” Fenny noted.

Paul still couldn’t control his giggles, and soon they were all in hysterics, and almost missed the first boarding call.

“Melbourne, here we come,” Gina announced as they gathered their bags, wiped the tears of laughter from their eyes, and headed for the plane.

Brad wandered out into the living room where Ella was waiting with a warm bottle for the baby. He took it from her with a nod and carefully sat on the couch as he propped Lilly up in the crook of his elbow to feed her.

The three of them sat in silence together, watching Lilly until she fell asleep again in his arms.

“You’re a great daddy,” Ella sighed.

“She’s a great little girl,” Brad said softly.

“Well of course, with our genes,” she smiled.

“I’ll put her back to bed,” he announced and gingerly stood and carried her back down the hall. He tucked her into the crib with a light blanket and looked at her a minute. Lilly had his impish mouth and a head full of dark hair. She opened her eyes sleepily for a moment to look up at him before sticking her fingers back into her mouth and gurgling to herself as she slipped back into sleep. If he didn’t know better, he would say that the child had Fenny’s deep brown eyes, but he was just seeing what he wanted to see. He wanted to see Fenny.

Brad turned to leave the nursery and nearly ran into Ella, who had come in to reunite Lilly with her beloved stuffed monkey. “I should go,” Brad whispered. “Fenny’s probably at work and I should get some things before she comes back.”

“Will we see you again tonight?”

“Maybe,” he said. He wrapped Ella in a hug and turned to go.

“Things’ll work out,” she said, and he nodded as he disappeared down the hall.

Takeoff was smooth and quick, which astounded all on board. Paul was still convinced he was a model and began striking poses, even as the plane tipped at a 30 degree angle, much to the amusement of Gina and Fenny. “Look what you started,” Gina giggled as he resorted to poses only before seen in porno shoots.

“Wasn’t me,” Fenny laughed. “He volunteered to pose.”

“Yeah, but you started drawing people.”

“Then it was poodle lady’s fault,” Fenny giggled as the plane leveled out. “She was the one who was just begging to be drawn.”

Paul pointed to the row next to them where “poodle lady” seemed to be hyperventilating and everyone else around them seemed to be staring.

“My god,” Fenny breathed, turning her face away, “they’re gonna think we’ve lost our minds.”

“Oh no,” Paul gasped, “mental foreigners, quick, get the rubber bullets, we’re all gonna die!”

“Have you ever looked in to Ritalin?” Fenny mused.

“For Christ’s sake,” Gina hissed suddenly. “Can’t we go anywhere without those two being on a screen somewhere?!”

Fenny and Paul looked up at the in-flight-movie screen to be greeted by Brad getting ready to play Superheroes, Colin, Ryan and Greg in the background.

“I may have to kill something,” Fenny mused.

Brad slipped into the apartment carefully. Fenny’s car wasn’t in the lot, but that didn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t home, laying in wait for another vicious attack. Once certain it was safe, he stepped inside, vanished into the bedroom and came out a few minutes later with a bag packed for a few night’s stay away from home.

He wandered over to the refrigerator to grab a soda for the ride to the hotel, and paused when he noticed the memo board:

Went to Oz with the guys. If I see the Wizard, I’ll be sure to ask him for a heart for you.