"Thanks again for staying to help get the little ones settled," Ro was saying as she walked down the hallway with Beni. "I don't know what's got them so excited today." She shook her head with a disbelieving smile. It would have been almost impossible to get all the kids into their dormitories on her own this evening; thank god Beni had stayed to help her out.

"Seriously, it's no trouble," Beni laughed cheerfully, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. "I don't know how you do it every day, all on your own." Her face was still flushed from the exertion that had come with having to chase down pre-teens and manhandle them into their pyjamas.

Chuckling, Ro shrugged. "They're not normally that rowdy," was all she said. It was all she could say; it just wasn't safe to tell any of her staff where most of the children came from, or that she wasn't generally alone. There was almost always someone in the secret rooms below this level. "You sure you're okay to walk home alone?"

"I'll be fine," was Beni's smiling answer. "I grew up around here, remember?" She winked, drawing the door open. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ro. Get some sleep!"

"Oh, you can bet on that," Ro grinned, watching her friend and colleague down the street before shutting the door behind the redhead. She turned to walk back down the hallway, heaving a sigh of relief. Rose House was, finally, quiet.

As the ladies moved down the hall towards the front door, Edward moved up the stairs and into the kitchen. The sounds of whispers between the children, tucked snug in their dormitory beds put Edward at ease. They were safe and sound and on their way to good homes. He held a certain pride in his walk and eyes for having some part of that. But, there was no rest as long as slavery thrived so well in Rhydin. As he poured himself a glass of milk, thoughts of the next raid were being itemized and catalogued in his head. He'd learned to do everything by the numbers. He had to, no chances would ever be taken with the lives of the little ones. He finished off the glass of milk and moved across the kitchen to rinse the glass and place it in the rack to dry. He then sat down at the table and waited for Ro. They had much to discuss.

He didn't have to wait long, although Ro hadn't heard him slip from the classroom and to the kitchen. Walking into the kitchen, she gave an almighty jump, one hand clamping over her mouth to stifle the strangled squeak of fright. "God, Ed, you really need to learn to announce yourself," she laughed weakly, leaning against the wall.

There was a slight smile at her reaction and he leaned back in the chair. "My job is to get in and out without notice." A brow ticked and he folded his hands in his lap. "Got the next group picked. Going to be four this time."

Shaking her head once again as she smiled back, Ro moved to drop herself into a seat at the table, leaning forward onto her elbows as she considered the numbers in her head. "How long can you hold them for?" she asked with a reluctant frown. She hated having to ask for more time. "I've got three of littler ones due to leave us over the next four or five days - that'll give me room to manuver with the new ones."

"Can hold off for a few days. Then the window closes." he didn't go into great detail of the mission, it was better off that way. Ro's job was to take care of the kids he brought to her. It was his job to get them there safely. He didn't question Ro, and Ro had never questioned his methods. It was a peaceful and benevolent working relationship. "He's only going to be gone for about a week."

She nodded slowly, her expression thoughtful. "The Pankhursts are coming for Josiah tomorrow," she mused, half to herself, "and Patience is going the day after ... three days, that's all I need." She looked up at him confidently and nodded again. "Any trouble with these four?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary from what I've seen. They're scared little scarecrows; but then they always are." There was a hard edge to his voice, nothing angered him more than the frightened look in those children's eyes. "I think one has a broken leg, but I'm bringing the backpack."

Ro's eyes darkened in sympathetic pain for the children he spoke of. "No ... nothing inappropriate this time, I hope?" she asked softly. "If the break is bad, I'm sure Dec can persuade his friend to come along and do a little Healing for us. He keeps assuring me that she's completely trustworthy."

"No," he shook his head. "Not this time. They're too young for the pedophiles, so we're getting them in time. A healer would be nice, but I have to trust her. I don't care what the playboy says. These kid's lives are in my hands. I'll have to meet her first." He wasn't completely unreasonable, but he took what he did very seriously and if a child was harmed in his care, there'd be hell to pay. And that hell would be self directed.

"How young?" It was an important question; if they were, all four, toddlers, then Ro might have to divulge a little more information than she was happy with to her staff. "Daytime is fine, you know that, but when everyone's gone, I'll be hard pressed to give them all the time they need if they're so very young."

"Four year olds, from the looks of them. When the main man gets back, he's coming with paying customers. That's why the window is so tight. I don't want those kids to go through anything worse than they already have." He sat back then and blew out a breath. "If need be, I can house them until you're ready."

Ro offered Edward a gentle smile. "Somehow I think even your neighbours would notice if you suddenly had four infants running around your house," she said with fond amusement. For all his intimidating stature and quiet manner, she liked Edward. He could gather calm around himself like a cloak, and the children he brought to her were always comforted by that fact.

Edward merely nodded, his expression was calm and serene. It hid well the anger that boiled just beneath the surface. As he glanced away, he wondered idly how Ro would react if she knew what he did to relieve that anger and tension. When he returned his gaze onto her, he took a breath to ask a question. "How's the new staff working out?"

"Who said anything about a wife?" Ro laughed, ducking away as he tweaked her nose. She doubted there was anyone else who dared talk to him like this, so she took it upon herself to do it as often as possible. "You need to get laid, Ed. You're wound so tight a twang in the wrong place'll send you to the moon."

"Now you're overstepping your bounds, Ro." His sex life, or lack there of, was nobody's business. He kept personal and business strictly seperate. "I appreciate your concern, but that's something I'll handle myself."

"I think that's the problem," she muttered, but she didn't press the point. It had been made, and if she knew him as well as she thought she did, he'd be mulling over it for at least a week.

"I'll be fine," he turned around and smiled. "But I can't let my personal life interfere with my professional life. There are children's lives at stake. I'll take your concern under advisement, alright?"

"Which is fancy talk for 'shut up and mind your own business'," she grinned back at him. There was a pause, and she took another left turn at the traffic lights. "Of the three of them, who would you say is the least likely to lose their grip on our secret if we told them?" she asked curiously. "Christian, Beni, or Trudy?"

Ed rolled his eyes and shook his head. Fists rested on his hips as he thought over her question. "I don't know, Ro. I don't think any of them would do anything to deliberately harm any of the children. So, I hope none of them."

"Then I think perhaps you need to be a little more visible," she mused. "The lawyer pose would work for a few visits, just so you can observe them. I'm not making a decision like that alone."

"I think I'll do the social worker routine," he mused thoughtfully. "Really keep them on thier toes and test their ability to keep their traps shut about things that don't need to be known."

She nodded, almost smirking to herself. She had a feeling Christian, at least, would fail Ed's test, simply by dint of the amount of information he spread about in the hopes of being useful. "When should we expect you then, Mr Acton?"

"I think I can take a little time off of surveillance for a couple of days. "Leave Charlie and a couple of others to it for now. I'm sure they can't muck up simply watching."

Ro tried hard not to laugh at his overzealous attitude. "They're not as hopeless as all that, Ed, and you know it," she chuckled. "Taking a little time off now and then wouldn't be the end of the world."

"The little ones don't get a day off," he explained with that calmness that he was known for. "They deserve all I can give them, Ro." It was as simple as that, to Ed. "You don't take a day off, either."

"I don't spend all my life underground, in sewers, or hiding," she pointed out with a wry smile. "And I know that I have all the support I need. If I did need to take time, I could, because I trust the people I work with to do their jobs, and do them well."

"There is no arguing with you, is there?" Lowering himself into the chair he'd abandoned earlier, he looked up at her and then laughed. "Who would have thought, ten years ago, that you'd turn out to be a hopeless romantic."

"Ten years ago I was a newly qualified teacher, in a strange city, with big ambitions and silly expectations," Ro laughed back, pleased to have drawn two laughs out of him in a single evening. She thumped down into her own abandoned chair. "Hopeless or not, looking after these kids has definitely taught me the value of love and companionship. And unlike you, I do get laid on occasion."

Now that did take him by surprise. His normally half lidded eyes flew open. "With whom?" There was more than a bit of protectiveness in the gravel voice as he leaned forward.

Ro's own eyes widened at his sudden interest. "A very old friend," she told him, "who doesn't ask questions, and doesn't want to know what I do. We just ..." she gestured aimlessly, "... relieve each other's tension every now and then."

Ed grunted and sat back, stroking his non-existant beard. He constructed his face back into the placid planes and curves, once more. "Fair enough."

"Which just proves that if I can do it, you definitely can." No, Ro wasn't going to drop the subject. She was going to keep turning it back on him as often as she could. And not just because it was actually quite funny to watch him try and squirm out of agreeing with her out loud.

"What makes you think I don't? I just don't advertise my personal life. You, this house, the kids; those are professional life. Personal life is not within the boundaries of this house." Ok, it was a bluff, he couldn't remember the last time he'd scored some tail. It wasn't for the lack of women trying. He just saw the haunted look of too many children in each of the women's eyes and couldn't bring himself to do it.

Ro smiled teasingly. "If you were getting some, you wouldn't look as though your neck was slowly disappearing into your shoulders all the time," she pointed out. There were other signs, of course, but she wasn't going to embarrass him by pointing them out.

Edward was growing tired of the conversation and it showed in the edge of his voice. "That's enough, Ro. No matter how you try to badger me, you're in my professional life. You won't know, ever, any of my personal life."

She rolled her eyes, still smiling, but knew enough not to push any further. "Actually, I was wondering if you could tell me something," she veered off onto another subject. "How rough is the Dogwood Point estate?"

He sighed with relief, glad to be discussing work again. "With a name like that, you'd think it'd be sunshine and magnolias. On the outside it is. On the inside, it's rotten and disgusting. Just about as rough as the neighborhood around here."

Ro frowned; that wasn't the answer she'd been hoping for. "Buggeration, I knew I shouldn't have let her walk home alone at this time of night," she swore, glancing up to the clock, and then over her shoulder to the silent hallway.

"Who?" he frowned when she did. "Who walked through that area by themselves and how long ago?" Already he was getting to his feet and pulling his keys from his pocket.

"Beni," Ro's frown deepened as she, too, rose to her feet. "She lives there. Dammit, I should have insisted on her staying the night." Muttering curses on herself for letting a friend walk the Shambles alone at night, she started to pace back and forth.

"I'll go get her." He'd seen the young teacher before and knew just what dangers lay in her path. "Do you want me to bring her back here, or take her home?"

Pausing in her pacing, Ro looked up at him. "Take her home," she said almost instantly. "She's too stubborn to agree to come back here tonight, especially with a stranger." She smiled gratefully to Edward. "Thank you, Ed."

"No problem. I'll call you once I find her." He nodded then and left the kitchen in an all mighty hurry. Good teachers were hard to come by. And if the truth of the matter was known, he thought Beni was a very pretty woman.

Ro followed him to the door, ready to lock it up after he left. There were some habits so deeply ingrained they couldn't be ignored. She just hoped nothing had happened to Beni while she and Ed had been talking.

"Mmm." Beni withheld judgement; she wasn't entirely sure she believed him. She'd check with Ro in the morning, she decided. Glancing out the window, she noticed that they were now driving past the double quadrangle of houses where she lived, peering through the tunnelback alleys between the little houses to work out where exactly they were. "You know, you can let me out anywhere here. It's perfectly safe."

So she didn't answer his direct questions. Eyeing her warily, he turned to watch the road ahead. "No ma'am, I promise door to door service. If something should happen to you between leaving my door and opening your own, I'd lose my credibility. I don't have much, so that kind of means a lot ot me.

"Well, you're going to have to get out and walk, then, because there's no entry for vehicles into this part of the estate," Beni smiled over at him. She could sense the wariness, wondering what exactly he was trying to get out of her. Her grip on the perfume bottle had eased during their conversation, but she hadn't let go of it.

"Alright, which is the closest?" He eyed the quadrangle and turned to circle it. "And if you don't mind a bit of advice, regarding Ro, it's best not to ask too many questions if you do stay the night some time. And stay locked in your room."

"The next turning is about as close as you're going to get," the redhead shrugged. "It's still a walk, though." His advice was listened to, and filed away. There were a great many secrets in Rose House; Beni was just grateful that she was being allowed to do what she loved, let alone being paid for it. "I'll bear that in mind, Mr Edward, thank you."

"Ed is fine." he smiled as he pulled the truck over under a street light. He got out of the truck once he killed the engine and walked around to her side. The door was opened and he stood back, with a hand out to help her. "You'll let me pick you up in the morning?"

Beni's brows looked ready to disappear into her hairline. So the white knight was a gentleman as well, was he? Twisting, she slid out of the truck, glancing about to get her bearings, and turned in the right direction. "Why would you want to pick me up? Don't you live at Rose House anyway?"

He folded his hands behind himself as they walked. "No, I don't," and he wouldn't elaborate on his living arrangements. "Consider it a perk of the job. A ride to and from work, to keep you safe. If not me, then another driver. If Ro doesn't insist, I do."

"I've been walking to and from work everyday for a week," Beni pointed out with an almost exasperated smile. "Why is everyone suddenly so concerned about me and my safety?" She laughed a little, taking a sharp turn into an almost pitch dark tunnel between two of the little houses.

"Because the kids would murder us if something happened to you." he made light of it, but how the children feel about things mattered a great deal. Once they began in the tunnel, he placed his hand upon her elbow. The other reached into his pocket for his keys. There was a small flash light and he turned it on.

Beni didn't snort, or laugh, or even smile at the light-hearted comment. She'd been worse off than a lot of children during her childhood, and she understood the need for any caregiver to be safe. Ed had just won the argument. She tensed when hand closed around her elbow, almost pulling away until she saw the little beam of light leading the way. "Alright, then," she conceded to being picked up, letting out a sigh of real relief as they stepped out into the open courtyard. Her little house, just one among many, was a welcome sight.

Ed didn't say a word, just nodded as he glanced about. The flash light wasn't extinguished when they got safely through the tunnel. He pointed it at the different houses. "Which one is yours?"

"This one." Her hand lifted to indicate her own front door as they moved across the courtyard toward it. From her bag jingled her keys as she rummaged for them, not even glancing down the tunnelled alley directly to her right.

She may not have been glancing about, but Ed was. He pointed the beam of light down the alley, then back towards her house. "You should really consider getting a new place, a safer place. The scum will move into the neighborhood soon." He didn't add that a monster lived right next door to her. No need to incite panic.

"No, they won't." She was very confident of that, green eyes finally lifting to look at him as she inserted the key in her door. "I inherited this house from a couple who'd lived here for seventy years, and they'd inherited it from the woman's parents. This part of the Point's been safe for over a hundred years, and we intend to keep it so."

Ed refused to argue with such determination. Instead, he extinguished the light once she had the keys in the door. Taking a step back, he also released her elbow. "I'll see you in the morning. Five am, sharp."

Beni's lips twitched into an amused smirk at the order. "Yes, sir, right away, captain," she repeated herself from earlier, not bothering with the salute this time as she stepped into her house, turning to offer him a smile and a nod. "Thank you," she said finally. "It may not sound like it, but I appreciate the rescue."

"It's what I do," he offered humbly. Taking a few steps back, he waited for her to close the door. Only then did he take a few steps into the shadows and all but disappeared.

((Many thanks to all players involved!))