Palace: At Your Service.

[Takes place the night of the day Christian and Harry left Liam's -- here.]

Johnny lay curled up in bed, his arms wrapped around Leopold, trying to fight off the nauseous feeling in his stomach. Liam had told him what had brought Robert all the way out here so unexpectedly that afternoon, that Carstairs' lawyers were trying to play a trick with the witnesses. They were calling all the kids who'd been at the house that night to testify at his trial, the first trial, including the ones who weren't ready -- Sara, Linus, Ben and others who were being cared for elsewhere. Liam had told him not to worry about it yet, that the Crown lawyers had just gotten the word and had barely started working on a response, a strategy to deal with it. Time enough to worry later if they failed. But all Johnny could think of was that bastard going free, and he wished more than anything that Christian was there to hold him and tell him it was going to be all right. He closed his eyes and thought, Christian? Are you there?

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Johnny looked up at the clock over the sideboard. Damn. They'd finished lunch a few minutes ago -- Christian, Harry, Liam, Adrian, Charlie and Johnny himself -- and were sitting around talking over the last of their drinks. Harry finished the bottle of orange juice which had always been waiting for him and Johnny hid a grin. Lisa had sized him up the day he arrived and had quietly ensured he'd take what she'd prescribed with no fuss, after discovering his fondness for OJ.

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Christian nudged open Johnny's door, the tray in his hands making things a tad difficult, but he managed. Once inside, he let the door swing shut and closed it with his boot heel, almost instantly spotting his somewhat battered lover curled up in the bed with Leopold. His eyes were closed but Christian could tell he wasn't sleeping, so he walked over to the desk and deposited his load, looking around the room and muttering to himself, "There should be a... ahh, there it is." He pulled the wheeled table, something like a hospital table except far fancier, over to the side of the bed and then retrieved the tray, climbing on to the other side of the bed carefully and waiting for Johnny to notice he was there.

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