Kaylee was practically bouncing as she made her way into the Zen Building that morning, full of gossip and secrets to share with her little brother. She was a girl with a mission, and that mission was going to be carried out by Correy, whether he liked it or not. Dressed a little skimpy for the weather in shorts and t-shirt, she ran up the stairs and knocked rhythmically on the door to the boys' apartment. Shave-and-a haircut ...

"Two bits!" Correy jumped off of the couch, naked as the day he was born, when he heard her familiar knock and hurried to the door. It was unlocked and thrown open. His smile was from ear to ear. "You look cold, but like you're about to burst. Get in here!" He reached for her hand and pulled her inside, then slammed the door behind them.

Dragged inside, Kaylee flung her arms around her brother and bounced happily. "Dude, it's so good to see you! How's things" How's Jon' How're you? You would not believe what I have to tell you!" It all came out in a rush, gathered together and fired directly at Correy from her mega-watt smile.

He hugged her tight enough to lift her off of her feet, then put her down. "Things are good, Jon's f**king fantastic and I am dying to hear what you've got to say!" He spoke just as rapid fire as her, moving to the kitchen to make some hot cocoa.

She was so high on her pent-up excitement that it took a moment for Kaylee to do more than spout incoherent words as she followed him to the kitchen. "Okay, Cog, I have a mission for you," she managed eventually. "I'd do it myself, but I gotta work tonight."

He was putting the pot on to boil when she finally gained the ability to speak. "Will the message self destruct in ten seconds?" He teased with a bit of a laugh. The mugs were pulled from the cabinet and then he grabbed a can of whipped cream. "So what kind of mission?" He upended the can of whipped cream and sprayed into his mouth.

"Hey, guest here," Kaylee laughed as he sprayed cream into his own mouth. "Me first!" She pointed at her open trap expectantly.

"Oh, sthowwy." He reached over and sprayed a good sized dollop into her open mouth, then onto the tip of her chin. He giggled then and capped the whipped cream. It was sat down and he folded his arms, waiting for her to swallow.

"Oy, 'oo, 'ittle ..." Gulping down her mouthful of cream, Kaylee wiped the rest off her chin and dolloped it onto the end of her little brother's nose. "Anywho, you will never guess what juicy gossip I got. Guess who came 'round yesterday morning looking for Ollie?"

"Hey!" He showed off his singular talent and licked the cream from the end of his nose. "Oh my Gawd!!" His eyes got wide and his mouth was one wide open mouthed grin. "Somebody came looking for our sweet, little Ollie?"

"It gets better." Kaylee's grin was in real danger of eating her nose as she eyed her brother cheekily. "Not just anybody. A girl. A really pretty girl." She beamed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "And even better - I recognised her because he's been sketching her from memory for two days!"

It didn't seem possible, but Correy's eyes got bigger and his jaw dropped visibly. "Get out of here! A pretty girl looking for our Ollie?" Correy shook his head with amazement. "Was she a paying customer?"

"I don't know!" Kaylee squealed in frustration. "The man has no soul when it comes to gossip. I've been hinting and hinting, and all I'm getting is 'she's a girl I know from around'. Seriously' I thought he was making plans to go into a monastery since Cally left him high and dry."

"Cally left him' Oh my Gawd! I've been out of the loop for too damn long!" He frowned and shook his head again. "So she's just a girl he knows from around? That's bullsh*t. There's more to it than that!"

"I don't know whether she left him, exactly, but she certainly hasn't been around," Kaylee shrugged lightly, scrubbing a hand through her hair. "Anyway, this girl - Piper, that's her name - she left him a letter. Which I haven't seen since, by the way. And suddenly the one sketch he had done turned into loads and loads. Look." She dug into her bag and withdrew a piece of paper, unfolding it to show her brother. http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab51/RhyDinLittleTheatre/OlliesSketchofPiper.jpg

Several hours later ...

Correy high-tailed it from the shindig as soon as he felt comfortable enough that Ollie and Piper weren't going to end up in a shouting match. Once he was in the Bentley, he pulled out his cell phone and dialled his sister's number.

Kaylee was busy restocking shelves when her phone rang, hiking it out of her pocket and wedging it between shoulder and ear to answer it. "Hey, dude, is the fun over already?"

"O M to the freakin' G, Kaylee, you will not believe this!" He was laughing as he put her on speaker so he could drive with both hands. "That Piper chick" You won't guess in a million years what?s going down with her!"

"You found out' Seriously?" Kaylee almost squealed down the phone at her brother, squeaking happily. "You didn't scare her off, did you? What's going on?"

"Calm down and I'll tell you!" Correy was talking fast and trying not to giggle at the scandal of it all. "Ollie introduced her as his fiance! Can you believe it?"

"He what"!" There was a thunk as Kaylee dropped the phone in her amazement, scrambling to pick it up again. "His fiance" Are you sure" He's not yanking your chain or anything?"

"No! I thought so, too. But then Cally was there! And she heard Ollie say that Piper's his fiance. She nearly started crying and ran off. So Ollie pushes Piper off onto me and goes high-tailing after Cally! I tried to talk Piper into hanging around and giving Ollie another chance. But I'm not sure she's going to. She said it's a marriage of convenience. If you'd have seen the look on her face, on Cally's face and especially Ollie's face....Kay, there's a lot more going on than convenience."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up a second ..." Ignoring her work for a moment, Kaylee concentrated on the phone call. "A marriage of convenience" Like in the olden days" What is this, some golden oldie movie where they get married and then realise they were always meant to be together?" She snorted derisively. "Or is it one where Ollie makes a huge mistake and ends up hating himself and everyone else because he didn't jump on Cally when he had the chance?"

"That's what she said, convenience. I don't know what or why but I think Ollie's in way over his head with this girl. She's sweet and downright gorgeous, but most of all she's very smart and Ollie's going to have to do something special to win her back. The whole scene was awkward, to say the least. Oh, and Ollie knows you spilled the beans. Sorry!" He cringed at the last part and waited for her to scream at him.

"Aw, hell, Correy, why not sign my eviction notice in blood?" Kaylee spluttered, but in truth she was too interested in the saga of Ollie's love life to care much whether he threw her out for gossiping. "Okay, so sweet, gorgeous, and smart, and apparently in for a penny with Ollie. So what?s Cally's angle in this" I thought she wasn't interested; she's never done anything but yell at him from what I've seen."

Correy gasped. "You don't think Piper's after GrangerGuild money, do you?" The thought made him frown and shake his head. "I don't know what Cally's deal is. You know they've always had a thing for each other. And like I told Piper, they're either too shy, too stubborn or just plain too stupid to ever admit it."

"If she was after the money, why would they be engaged all of a sudden?" Kaylee asked thoughtfully. "I mean, gold-diggers usually ingratiate themselves with the family, don't they' Remember Caroline's Henry - now he was a nasty piece of work."

"You're probably right," Correy blew out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, that guy really messed her up, too. What's the angle on Caro lately, anyway' Since she's the new head honcho now, I never see her anymore."

Kaylee snorted. "I heard she's been shaking up the Guild," she said, returning to her shelf stacking. "Moving people around to make them prove they can actually do their job. Heard anything more about this guy of hers" All Gramps'll say is that he owns a boat."

"You get the same schpiel that I get." He shrugged and pulled the Bentley into the garage. "I think I'm going to have to schedule a meeting just so I can see her." He laughed at that as he pulled into his marked space. "Gotta go, kiddo. I'm home now."

"Okay, bruiser," Kaylee grinned. "I'll see what I can get out of Ollie when he gets back. If I'm still living here." She chuckled, blowing kisses down the phone just to embarrass her brother. "Sleep sweet, Cog."

"He won't kick you out," he chuckled and shook his head at her kisses. "Love you, Kay. Don't work too hard, ok?"

"Me? Never!" She laughed. "Night, Correy."

"Night Kay," he chuckled and with a beep, the line went dead.

((And thanks to Correy again!))