It was closer to being early than late when Kelly finally climbed into bed, flicking her phone open as she did so. There was a missed call from Andrea so she quickly sent her a text to say that she would let her know what had happened in the morning. Switching her phone off so that Andrea couldn't insist on hearing the details then she sighed deeply and fell back against her pillows a contented smile playing on her lips as she recalled the night's events.

The reaction to their arrival had been even better than expected. The clerk on the door had gone varying shades of red and eventually purple as he waged an internal battle; not knowing whether it would be worse to break tradition and allow her and Miss Fritton into the traditionally all male event or to try to challenge Harry and not let them in. The decision was made for him when Flash, bored of waiting, had simply pressed the tickets into his hand and walked past him. Ignoring the stammered objections of the doorman and other guests Flash made short work of the crowd emerging by the bar, Tony laughing hysterically all the while.

"Honestly Tony," he chuckled, "There is no way you can already be drunk."

Tony laughed again, "Harry my friend; it is never too early to be drunk."

Kelly smiled softly as she watched the two friends joking around; she was getting to see so many different sides to Flash this week and despite his dislike of the social circle, he was much more at ease than she would have ever believed Flash could be when surrounded by all these money grabbers who were out to snatch a piece of his fortune.

"Tony, you do realise that you'll be playing poker tonight?" she heard Flash mutter incredulously while Tony nodded enthusiastically.

"Come on Harry, it would be brilliant!" Tony's exclaimed.

Rolling his eyes, Harry hit his best mate lightly round the head, "Tony, do you know why you always loose at poker? It's because you always insist on doing shots before hand – you daft plank."

Tony made a great show of pouting and rubbing his head but couldn't help grin, "That might explain a few things." He admitted happily, downing his drink and strutting over to the closest table, "Come on Harry, let's see who can lose the most money."

"No, Tony," laughed Harry, "That's how you play, the rest of us win money."

Still laughing, Flash turned to Kelly, "What you say, Kell? You up for a few hands?"

A slow smirk spread across Kelly's lips and she was not disappointed by Flash's reaction as he was rendered incapable of forming an intelligent sentence, "Always." She replied spotting a table with two vacant seats and leading Flash over.

In the back of her mind, Kelly registered the sound of a phone ringing in the next room, then Flash as he spoke quietly with who ever had called.

Kelly had played cards with Flash in the past and was unsurprised when he was much better than the others on their table, he however, seemed to enjoy watching Kelly beat them more than doing it himself. Something Kelly was more than happy to indulge him in; the men's reactions were priceless and Kelly often found her fighting a smirk.

The gentleman sitting opposite Flash threw down his cards in annoyance as Kelly presented her winning hand, "Bloody hell," he growled, the man was red-faced, possessed little neck and apparently did not like losing, "You sure she didn't win the ring off you at cards."

Flash stiffened instantly, fixing the man with a murderous glare, the other players at the table shifted uncomfortably and Kelly slowly raised her eyes.

"I'm positive," Flash growled, his eyes boring holes into the man.

The others at the table winced and one hurried to smooth things over, "I'm sure he was just joking, no harm meant."

Catching slight of Flash's expression, Kelly quickly placed a hand on his arm; worried that he would lose his temper with the man. However, her concern proved unwarranted when a rather unwelcome distraction bustled over.

"Mr Hacket! It's a delight to see you again! An absolute delight! And Miss Jones too, how lovely," Kyle Brittmore was all smiles as he seized Flash's hand and shook it furiously, forcing him to stand up to greet him or else have his chair over turned.

"Brittmore," grunted Flash, doing an admirable job of concealing his distaste for the man, "It was good of you to invite us."

A smarmy grin spread across the man's face, clearly overjoyed that his invitation had been recognised, "Not at all, the pleasure was all mine and you flatter me greatly by attending."

Kelly could barely suppress a grin at Flash's poorly hidden grimace at Brittmore's assumption that there being there was a compliment to him, fortunately, no one else seemed to notice.

"Although, I was hoping you might do me a small favour," Brittmore, now grinning at Flash as though they were lifelong friends in on a private joke, "You see, I have a few of my clients here this week, and I thought perhaps you could have a talk with them, then, if you were interested..."

It was all Flash could do to stop himself from groaning at this, Here we go again.

"My family are not currently investing in any ventures," Replied Flash in a tone which clearly spelt finality.

"Oh I understand; I understand completely. However these are very promising business opportunities, or they will be once you get involved, I'm sure this isn't something you would want to miss out on," Brittmore ploughed on, ignorant of Flash's dislike of him.

The persistent prattle flowing forth from Brittmore's mouth was starting to draw attention from the other patrons, and on hearing the topic in discussion, others took it as a signal that now would be a good time to present their own cases to Harry. Up until that point, Kelly had thought that Harry's complaints of being hounded by other business men was an exaggeration, however she quickly found out that was not the case. Just under half of the men present, suddenly seemed to have something to say to Harry.

Swearing softly under his breath, he caught Kelly around the waist and pulling her into his side, began to push their way through the crowd. Although the men's egos prevented them from actually following Harry around many stood in his way in an attempt to force him into conversation but he simply walked around them with a withering glare.

"Wait, what about Miss Fritton?" the thought hadn't occurred to Kelly until the pair had left the confines of the poker room.

Harry glanced sideways at Kelly, smiling in amusement, "She left about an hour ago, didn't you notice?"

She hadn't. I was too engrossed in H... the poker game, defiantly the poker game.

"And Tony?" she quickly added.

Harry just shrugged, "He'll play till he's out of anything worth betting."

The pair wandered into the virtually deserted bar, sitting at the opposite end of the bar to the only other patron who was engrossed in his paper and a whiskey.

Harry sighed as he sat down, dragging a hand across his face.

"I'm sorry I made you come," Kelly spoke softly, "I didn't realise how bad it was for you here."
He quickly shook his head, "It isn't, it's not bad at all."

Raising one eyebrow, Kelly gave him a disbelieving look, "Harry, I know you, there's no way you're comfortable with them hounding you like that."

Harry shot her his best grin, "True, but I can think of other points which are rather more than making up for that." He lent ever so slightly closer, "In fact..."

Kelly was started from her recollections by the sound of Harry's raised voice in the next room. Quickly slipping from her bed she moved silently into the lounge where he was pacing up and down, his face a strange mix of anger and distress as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone speak.

Finally the pacing stopped and he sank down onto the sofa, his voice was hoarse when he spoke, "I understand, I'll be right there."