AN: This is just a little fic I found on my HD that I half wrote a while ago. I think I've completed it and felt the need to post it now because of the CV crisis - life seems so weird now, and although I don't go to pubs that often these days, the fact that it's not somewhere any of us can go right now is a bit of an odd notion, making me want to go to one! I also needed a little break from writing my other story. Anyway, lets look to better times when things get back to normal. Good health and wishes to you all.

ML

PS sorry in advance for the profanities - unfortuately they are in keeping with the characters I have used, so for authenticity I had to use them.

It was 9pm on a Friday evening in August. It was the start of the bank holiday weekend. The streets of Oxford were hot and the city was reeling from the heat of the day as darkness started to seep into the sky.

The city center pub was stuffy and busy, the bar thronged with a mix of students and tourists and people getting drunk after work. On the small raised stage a country blues guitarist had just finished his set and a new ensemble of musicians had started to set up. A double bassist was hulking his instrument onto the wooden boards and a fiddle player was tuning up his strings.

At the bar, two students were downing the dregs of their pints and had ordered another two pints of beer along with 2 chaser shots of whiskey. They were setting in for the night. The two were university medical students and had stayed in Oxford for the summer. The pub was a favourite haunt of theirs. They both fancied themselves as aficionados of music and the pub was a well-known venue for small bands of both obscurity and notoriety. Both had been invited along to listen to a friend who played in a small jazz ensemble. The music was of the "roaring 20's" jazz, the sort that if you didn't really think you liked jazz would leave you reeling, breathless and wanting more of it after you'd heard it.

The two cocky students, filling nicely with their beers, were talking about the man who had just walked on stage. The man was of their age, small and tubby and dressed in snappy clothes, reminiscent of the 1920s. He wore pale cream pleated trousers and braces and a crisp white shirt rolled up at the sleeves. In his hand he held a battered old trumpet. He chatted to the other musicians on the stage and generally looked like he was in charge.

"Dan's looking the part" said the taller of the two boys to the other before letting out a big beery belch.

"Yeah" said the other "He might get sent down but he's a damn good musician. If he does get sent down he could make a living doing this"

"He won't get sent down, he says he will but he won't. He loves to worry"

"Anyway where's Hetty?"

"She's cut and run, gone travelling"

"So who's doing her part then?"

"Some woman Dan knows, well, someone in his department who knows someone. She's a pathologist or something."

"What? From the forensic department?"

"Yeah"

"Not the pathology doctor?"

"Erm, yeah, that's it"

"You're kidding? Have you ever seen her? She's massively hot. I mean she's like pushing 50 but you'd never know. Dan says he thinks she's single"

"Is that all you ever think about, getting laid?"

"Yeah well if she's single and older she's probably gagging for it right? And I am the obliging sort, I can help her out in that department"

"For gods sake, Ben, you only just dumped Sally, come on mate"

"Yeah, well she shouldn't have leered after that guy the other night, come on, I've got standards"

"She didn't leer, she gave him directions to the train station"

"Yeah, well, it was time to move on. Wait till you see the good doctor anyway"

"Obviously she plays the clarinet?"

"Yeah, she plays" the boy said with a lascivious grin

"You're a nightmare" and he laughed and they both downed their whiskey chasers.

The pub was getting busier and busier. Crowds butted up to the bar and waited to order drinks from the busy staff. The air was thick with breath, booze and body heat. Presently the musicians of the little ensemble gathered on the stage. The two boys watched as their friend warmed up his trumpet and chatted to the others on stage. After a few minutes an attractive small blonde woman dressed in a vintage style dress appeared from a door that lead to the upstairs part of the pub. The trumpeter met her with a smile as she stepped forward onto the stage. They chatted for a while, the woman asking what appeared to be questions, he, sweating under his trilby and gesticulating and talking loudly above the din of the pub noise.

"Look! There she is!"

"Oh..."

"Yeah, I fucking told you didn't I? Fucking gorgeous"

"Yeah, ok she's hot"

"Ah, not such a gentleman now then eh?"

"She's got a certain appeal. I mean, she's good looking and she's a doctor and I'm guessing she's shit hot on the clarinet?"

"Yeah, just you wait until she get her lips around that..." the boy's next words were lost as, the jostling thrust of the crowd caused the man behind to bump into him resulting the boy to spill half of what remained of his pint down his top and trousers.

"Shit! Get some more drinks in, they're about to start"

"She's looking over. Does she know you?"

"Dan introduced me once but she was in a bad mood apparently. He says she doesn't take any shit in the lab"

"Well, she's either looking at you or me and I'm pretty sure actually that she is looking at me"

"I bet you the next round of drinks she's looking at me"

"You're on. Easiest pint I've ever had. She's looking at me "

"She's looking at me you mean"

The woman on stage did indeed illicit a small wave in the direction of the two boys, both of which returned the gesture with what they thought were appropriate looks back to the woman.

After a quick adjustment to their mics, the band leader, with his trumpet in hand addressed the pub briefly. And then the music started. The audience in the pub, suddenly became transfixed by the explosive syncopated rhythms that issued from the little ensemble of the band.

The blond woman played the clarinet in the impeccable style and energy required for the blisteringly hot music that burst forth from the stage, taking turns with the other musicians to perform stunning and intricate solos that made everyone in the pub want to move to the rhythms and the quick paced flow of the music. After four numbers of pure unadulterated Dixieland jazz the trumpeter, now running in sweat took to the mic again to thank the audience for their uproarious applause and said they would take a little break before continuing with some more numbers. The musicians put their instruments on the various stands and rests on the stage and headed to get well deserved refreshments from the bar. The blond woman also put her clarinet down on the stage on a stand and headed towards the bar, in the direction of the two boys.

"Here we go mate, I told you she was looking at me, get ready to buy me that drink" said the shorter boy, assured in his confidence that the slim sexy blonde woman was walking directly to him.

The woman was indeed heading plumb towards him, a knowing smile on her face, picking her way effortlessly through the crowds at the bar.

She walked straight up to the boys.

And then straight past them, to the man standing behind them at the bar.

"Robbie! You made it!" She exclaimed excitedly to the man. He was older than her and had what might be described as a world-weary face, in spite of which lit up and looked 10 years younger as the woman approached him. He was smiling at the blond woman, a big beaming smile.

"I got here just in time. Bloody hell, you were knockout" He said loudly so the woman could hear him properly, as well as being audible to the two boys.

"Thank you" said the woman in return, also having to raise her voice above the din of the pub, and the older man reached out towards the younger woman and pulled her into his arms. The two boys watched in abstract disbelief as the pair kissed.

It was not just a peck on the cheek, it was a full-on kiss, one that they were clearly at ease with and that they had done before. They pulled away, the man looked down and said in a low voice that was still audible above the volume of the crowds.

"I tell you what," The boys could just hear what he said "You look as hot as the jazz sounds"

And the man pulled the woman to him again and whispered something in her ear. The boys watched her face as she listened, a smile formed on her face and then a grin.

"Your place or mine" She said

"Yours"

"And are you going to bring your clarinet?" She laughed and they saw her hands go to the man's backside where she squeezed it generously still laughing.

The man laughed back and with a slight tilt of his head raised his eyebrows. It was clear what the answer was to the boys, who both stood with open mouths.

"I need to go and chat with Dan for a minute" The blonde woman said to the older man, giving him another kiss

"Ok, I'll get you a drink"

"Wonderful, G and T please" and the Doctor of Pathology walked back up to the other end of the bar where the other musicians had gathered for a drink.

The man watched her go with a proud and affectionate smile on his face and said, as he turned towards the bar and the two boys,

"Can I buy either of you two lads a pint?" and with a chuckle to himself he looked down at the two boys whose mouths, open and gaping, still hung open as if in disbelief at their own youthfulness.