Chiara handed the baby back to LeeAnne when she was finished with her bottle, after first putting her to her shoulder and patting her until she felt the tiny expulsion of air that meant little Sienna had burped.

Again, Drew looked at her with admiration in his eyes. "You're really good at this," he repeated. "How'd you know how to do that?"

"I told you," Chiara said with a laugh. "I was a semi-professional babysitter. I've burped many, many babies, in my day."

"Thanks for feeding her," LeeAnne said as she took the baby from Chiara. "Drew, you want to help me change her?"

Drew looked at her in surprise. Was that the sort of thing a person usually needed help with?

"Erm, sure, if you like," he agreed with a shrug, looking over at Chiara with more than a little confusion in his eyes.

Chiara, too, looked a little confused and watched them walk over to the sofa, where LeeAnne changed the baby, asking Drew to hand her wipes and powder and things like that.

"Chiara, would you be a doll and throw this away, please?"

LeeAnne gestured to the tiny, soiled diaper which she'd taped up into a small package on the sofa.

"Okay," Chiara asked, again, with a little confusion in her voice.

"I don't know where the trash is, and I'm holding the baby," LeeAnne said by way of explanation.

Chiara nodded slowly as she took the diaper to the outside trash so the smell wouldn't permeate the house.

They decided to just order sushi for dinner, and Noah was dialing the phone when LeeAnne's voice was heard.

"Uh, guys? I can't eat raw food, okay? It has to be cooked, please." She looked around, a pout on her pretty face. "That's not too much to ask, is it?"

"No, it's fine," Noah assured her with a smile. "Chicken teriyaki okay for you, then?"

"Oh, yummy," she responded, clapping her hands. "Thank you very much, Noah." She walked to where he was and kissed his cheek.

His eyes widened at her actions, but he was on the phone with the sushi restaurant, and couldn't respond any other way.

Gary, who was holding the baby, rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.

And during dinner, when the baby started to cry from her cradle in the lounge, all LeeAnne did was get up and shut the doors between the lounge and the hall and the hall and the kitchen. She sat back down to her chicken teriyaki, which she was eating with a knife and fork, because she didn't use chopsticks.

"Sorry about that," she said to everyone. "That baby has radar, I swear to Christ, she does this every goddamn time I try to sit down to eat."

She adjusted her very short skirt and smiled at Drew. "Go ahead. You were saying?"

Even through both doors, everyone could still hear the baby crying, and it was obvious that the entire table was uncomfortable about it.

"You guys want me to put her upstairs?" LeeAnne finally asked. "I'm sorry she's so loud."

"Don't you think you should go and tend her?" Gary finally asked. "She's barely three weeks old, yeah? You can't just leave a baby that young to cry, LeeAnne. She's probably hungry or needs changing or something."

LeeAnne put her knife and fork down. "Look," she said to Gary. "You can't just jump and go running every time it cries, that's just how you spoil it. I'm not going to be a slave to that baby from the minute it's born, okay?" She picked up her knife and fork. "I'm her mother, and I know best. You want to do something different, you go 'tend her,' then." She did a passable imitation of Gary's English accent.

Angrily, Gary shoved his chair back and left the room, his sushi half eaten. He threw open both doors and could be heard murmuring to the baby. He reappeared a few minutes later with another soiled diaper, which he threw away outside.

He sat down, holding Sienna in one arm, and continued to eat with the other. The baby was quiet, now that her diaper was dry and she was being held, and everyone continued to try to converse like nothing was amiss.

LeeAnne spoke to Drew and Noah. "You guys don't really look alike, but you're both so hot, kinda cool that you're brothers, huh?"

Drew looked at her, unsure how to respond. He blinked and looked around.

Gary rolled his eyes.

"What? I'm not supposed to notice that I'm sitting at a table with the one of the hottest bands in the world, one of the most popular?" LeeAnne pouted.

"Let's start on the album straight away, as soon as we've cleaned up, what do you say?" Luke suggested, looking around.

This was met with approval by everyone.

"We can clean up, can't we?" Chiara suggested, looking at Noah and Mara. "I mean the people who aren't in the band."

"Sure, sounds good, we're not doing anything," Noah agreed, curly blond head nodding.

Mara, too, was nodding.

LeeAnne, predictably, didn't look happy.

"It's okay if you're busy with the baby," Chiara began, but LeeAnne cut her off with a shake of her head.

"It's not just that," she said. "I spent most of my life cleaning up after my family, my brother and sisters, my mother's gross boyfriends or whatever?" She gave Gary a look. "The whole point of having Gary's baby and moving to LA, even coming here to England and everything with him? I thought I was leaving all that scut work behind." Her voice grew plaintive. "Gar, you made it sound like we were going to have servants and stuff to help out, to wait on us and stuff. You kind of lied to me, I think."

Gary stared at her.

"I never, ever, said there were going to be servants to wait on your arse," he stated.

LeeAnne pursed her lips and raised her eyebrow at him. "I think you did," she said sotto voce.

"Well, regardless, there are no servants anywhere, so everyone has to clean up after him or herself, yeah?" Mara said clearly as she laid her chopsticks down. "There's not much to do today since we got takeaway, but that won't always be the case." She stared at LeeAnne. "Now, baby or no baby, you're going to have to do some clearing away and cleaning while you're here. Is that going to be a problem?"

LeeAnne looked sulky, but shook her head in the negative.

"Brilliant," Mara said, taking a deep breath. "So, let's get this cleared away, then. Boys, you're excused to go start on your album, so good bye."

The boys rose and left the room, with Gary handing the baby to LeeAnne on his way out. Pretty soon they could hear the sounds of the guitar and the piano coming from the music room.

As soon as the minimal clean up was over, Mara went upstairs with a casual, "Good night" to Chiara and LeeAnne, which was unusual for her. Normally, she would stay and chat with Chiara, or they would watch a movie together. Chiara couldn't blame her, though, as all she herself wanted to do was get away from the unpleasant young mother.

She kind of wanted to go into the music room and watch the boys work, and knew that she'd be welcome, but she also knew that if she went, LeeAnne would probably follow, and that would be bad. She could always escape to the cottage, but that would leave poor Noah on his own to deal with her, so she felt like she couldn't do that.

Chiara felt like she had no choice but to spend the evening in the main house keeping LeeAnne company. "You want to watch a movie or something?" she asked.

"Sure, sounds fun," LeeAnne agreed immediately, so they went to the lounge and watched something LeeAnne herself picked out, something with a lot of shooting and car chases. Chiara spent most of the evening on her laptop, organizing her calendar and placing orders for the next month's spring inventory. Noah sat between them and held the baby, who began to cry about midway through and needed a bottle.

Around eleven o'clock, the boys came out of the room, laughing and singing, sounding a lot more relaxed than when they went in.

Gary went immediately to the baby, wanting to hold her. Noah handed her over, and Gary began crooning to her, singing something very softly.

"You have a song for her, but not for me?" LeeAnne pouted.

Chiara realized that LeeAnne spent a lot of time pouting.

Drew stood in front of Chiara and stretched before sitting next to her. "You staying here tonight, or do you have to sleep at yours?" he asked, putting an arm around her.

"No, I can sleep here," she said, closing her laptop.

"Brilliant," he declared. "Let's go, then." He rose, pulling Chiara up after him. "Good night, everyone," he called.

"I guess we're going to sleep," Chiara laughed as she let herself be pulled from the room.

"I don't think so," Luke chuckled, lifting an eyebrow and shaking his head.

"Oh god, could you please not?" Noah begged, pretending to gag. "That's my brother you're talking about, it's disgusting."

"Don't knock it til you've tried it," LeeAnne said, putting her foot under Noah's leg in what could only be called a suggestive manner and rubbing it.

He looked over at her, and she smiled.

"CC? Could you go on up and wait for me, please, darling?" Drew requested, pulling her close and kissing her hair before releasing her with a gentle pat to her hip.

Chiara looked at him, looked around the room, back at him, and nodded.

"Course."

"LeeAnne? I'd like to speak with you for a moment, please?" Drew's voice was curt, abrupt, and very loud in the lounge. "In private, if you don't mind." He gestured toward the kitchen.

"Um, okay?" LeeAnne made her response sound like a question, though of course she knew exactly why he wanted to talk to her. She rose and followed Drew into the kitchen, throwing a theatrically worried look over her shoulder as she left.

No one returned her look.

Gary sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said to the room at large. "Hopefully she'll calm down in a few days."

In the kitchen, Drew leaned on the island as he turned to face the pretty young girl.

"Look," he began. "You've got to stop with the come ons to my brother, okay? He's only fourteen, and he's a very young fourteen at that."

LeeAnne smiled and moved her shoulders in a provocative way, pushing her pert breasts forward. "What's the matter, Drew, jealous?" She put a hand on top of his where it rested on the island. "Don't worry, there's plenty to go around. You know I'm not fucking Gary, right? We're not tog--"

"Fuck it all, stop it!" Drew didn't bother to keep his voice down. "I don't give a flying fuck who you're shagging or fucking or whatever you want to call it. Just please leave Noah alone, that's all." He glared at her.

"Jesus, you're hot as fuck when you're pissed off," LeeAnne observed in admiration. "But please, try to see things from my point of view, Drew. I don't have a lot of options, you know? I mean, I don't want Gary anymore, that gorgeous Luke is off limits, right?" She paused and looked at Drew, who looked back at her incredulously. "And I guess you are, too, though why you'd want to screw that plain-faced fatso is beyond me, but whatever--" she waved a dismissive hand. "So that leaves Ned Hunter and your cutie pie little brother, right?"

She leaned on the island, pushing her cleavage together and looking down at herself before looking back at Drew once more.

"So what do you want me to do?" She shrugged prettily, leaning back.

"I want you to sod off and fucking leave my little brother alone," Drew said through clenched teeth. "And while you're at it, fucking leave Neddy alone, too, okay?" He turned and left the kitchen without another word.

"Good night everyone, sorry about all the yelling," he said to everyone in the lounge. He went up the stairs, his good mood of minutes before spoiled. He realized as he headed toward his room that he was looking forward, not just to being in his bed and watching TV, not to showering away the day and the exchange with LeeAnne.

He wanted to be with Chiara.

That was all.

He wanted to hold her and kiss her and come together with her and make love with her.

Just her and no one else.

Because he loved her.