"Of course I'll be there. But if you pull a flanker on me and sing some daft song you've written or say anything about me, I'll walk out."

"I won't. I haven't any songs about you. Honest."

"Don't believe you. You write songs about everything. Everyone you've ever met. I can't believe you haven't got some bit of doggerel that you plan to spring on me for maximum embarrassment in the middle of the concert."

"Ash, I swear I haven't written anything about you. I can't. Been trying for years but it doesn't work. Everything I start sounds like... it doesn't sound like the way I feel about you. I haven't got the literary skills required. Can't write about Dom, either. I don't want to open my heart about you two to the world."

"So you've stopped being the world's greatest living exhibitionist, have you? Somehow I find that hard to believe. But I'm kind of flattered. Too important to write a song about? That's the sort of backhanded compliment I'd expect from you. Come here, I want a snog..."

Ash was lying on the settee watching TV while Russell was sitting cross-legged on the floor, deep in concentration, his tongue peeking out in that mannerism of his that Dom had also acquired when his mind was on something. Ash smiled at him; he had had to watch that during some of the fight scenes of Gladiator - couldn't have Maximus with his tongue lolling out while he hacked off heads. He was messing with some expensive electronic equipment that was incomprehensible to Ash. It was something to do with music; that was as far as her interest went.

"Besides I'm entertaining other women. They won't want to hear about you." He continued to fiddle with his gadget.

"Russ, can you stop twiddling that gizmo and come here and twiddle my knobs."

"Later. I'm not in the mood..." he retorted absently.

"WHAT? Not in the mood? Is there a Z in the month? Are you suffering from some fatal incurable disease that has attacked your libido?"

Russell pulled his tongue out. "Yeah, it's called Shagged Out-itis. Don't you ever get enough? It's a wonder you haven't got the vaginal equivalent of rope burn."

"You're getting old. Past it. I had you in your best days and you're losing it."

"You were still in knee socks when I was in my best days, love."

"Exactly my point. You're living on past glories. Old geezers are always doing that - like old soldiers reminiscing about their campaigns..."

"If you don't give it a rest I'm going to come over there and shove my dick in your mouth. That'll give you something to chew on for a while." He returned to his task.

"Woo-hoo. I'm scared! Go on, then. Get your dick out." 

When Russell wanted to move fast, he could. Ash was waiting for him but he still covered the ground faster than had she expected and she found herself on her back, on the floor, pinned down by his weight. She struggled and kicked out but he wasn't taking any chances this time. With her legs wedged under him, he straddled her and held her hands out at either side of her head.

"Ha! You can't do it. I'll belt you one if you let me go." Ash taunted.

Russell rolled over until he was on his back and she was pressed on top of him. He shunted up and thrust her head down to his groin. Taking both her hands in one of his, he freed his cock from his sweats with the other and pushed it against her mouth. Ash jammed her lips shut. Russell held her nose until she was forced to gasp for air and then he had her.

"Suck my dick!" he laughed crudely. Ash immediately relented and stopped struggling. She coiled herself around him and cradled his balls in her hand as she gave him the attention he was after. Russell's head dropped back and he moaned with pleasure. He couldn't help it. It was his weak spot and Ash adored it. You could have marched in and stolen his entire fortune from under his nose when he was in the throes of fellatio and he would have been helpless to save himself. Ash knew all guys loved it - but Russell just melted if you sucked him and was as helpless as a newborn baby in her hands. To hold him there was magic and they both knew that his aggressive bravado of a few minutes before was nothing of the sort. The boy just wanted some TLC. And he got it.

Nuzzling up to him when he had duly received his special and was still lying in some post-orgasmic haze, Ash whispered in his ear. "I love you. This is not just about sex, Russ. It's about wanting to be part of you. You know that don't you?"

He seemed to make an effort to collect his thoughts and then held her face in his hands. He just stroked her, a dreamy faraway expression on his face. She wondered what was passing through his mind.

"And about the concert. I want to be there for you.  It's the women that I'm bothered about. They hate my guts. I'll have to find some quiet corner and keep a low profile. But I wouldn't let a big occasion for you like that go by and not be there somewhere. Just don't expect me to play rock star's chick, because it's not me."

He grinned. "So I don't get to fuck you up against the wall in the dressing room like a proper groupie?" She threw a cushion at him. 

"Don't be so crude. You wouldn't even dream of it. Well, actually you would dream of it but I know you wouldn't do it. You wouldn't let anyone that close to us. You're all talk, mate. But Russ, I have been listening to the music. The old stuff. It's so... revealing. Makes my heart bleed sometimes. Like when I first met you and realised who you really were. I don't hate it. In fact I love it. And if you did write a song about me... I'd be knocked out. Don't take any notice of me. I just talk a load of shit at times. I can't handle my own feelings. They scare me.  " Ash knelt up by him and played with his hair.

"They're all about you. The songs I mean. Even the ones I wrote years before I met you. You are what I've needed all along. A real woman. One who tells me like it is - who won't let me get away with being a bastard - 'cos I know I can be. I walk around bleeding about unrequited love but I've done plenty of damage, broken hearts, taken love on the run. Buggered up plenty of lives. Wasted my chances and then blamed everyone but me."

He turned over on his side and his intense mood took over. He had a burning need to tell her something and all the smart stuff was gone. She loved him most in this mood. Dominic had the same way of frowning when he was struggling to explain something; she almost expected him to grab her face and make her listen as Dominic always did. They were so alike in many ways although Dom didn't really look like Russ - apart from the eyes and his sturdy little frame.  Russell was lighting up and going on with his point.

"For the past few years I have been a law to my fucking self. Thank Christ I found you and remembered just in time who I really am. You make me feel like that boy busking on the streets again. You won't stand any shit - but you will put up with me. You know what it is to really love me. Can't think of many I've known who were prepared to do that." He lay back and smoked the cigarette, staring at the ceiling, his other hand resting lightly on her knee.

"Let's get married soon. Maybe we shouldn't plan a big thing. Just run down south and do it..." She could feel that emotional rush in him when he used words to cloak his feelings. Sometimes he could make big mistakes then.

"No, Russ. It's not just about us. I want the families reconciled. I want Dom to have a wedding album to look at with everything done right. We haven't done anything right so far and this time we are going to be absolutely on the nail. And I know that a quickie in Vegas or Mexico isn't what you want really. It's another of those spur of the moment ideas you get - and they always backfire. Christmas time in Oz - big white wedding. Let's start planning- OK?"

"You can't wear white," he grinned, suddenly playful again and observing her with that cocky expression of his.

"Who says? I'm even going to be a virgin again for that day, honey bunch- just you wait and see." She straddled his thighs and leant  back against his bent legs.

He smiled. "Now that is worth waiting for. But Ash, I want to make plans. I'm very busy over the next year but I don't want to wait. Dom is two in a few weeks. I'm thirty eight. What I mean is..."

Ash put her finger on his lips. "You want to know if I'm ready for another baby?" He nodded. "Dom needs siblings. You and I aren't getting any younger. I do want to have your babies - a houseful if you want. But not until after the wedding. I need to be with you before I go back to all that. Pregnancy is amazing but it sort of takes over. I know I'm being selfish but I want you for myself for a while. I want to have fun with you - do all the things that we've missed since we've been apart. There might be a lot of shit thrown at you but you are also a very lucky man. You have everything most people only dream of. Is it wrong if I want to enjoy some of the benefits with you?"

Russell smiled. "You're right - I want that too. Go home. Live a little. Take a few trips. Muck about on the farm. But, Ash, when I look at him - Christ, do you know how he makes me feel? I love kids. Pick 'em up, play with them - love to have them around. But when I hold him in my arms and he looks up at me - he is mine and it feels like my whole world is in his eyes. I want to be there for him in everything he does and needs. If I'd had this years ago I think I would have been a better kind of man."

He twisted over and stubbed out his cigarette, the words now tumbling out in confessional mode, all smart comments and clever chat left aside.

"Shit, I know I'm a sentimental bastard but I missed so much. I want to be there this time for more than the conception. I want to help you do the test, cry when it's positive, hold your head while you chunder every morning, watch you swell and rub your aching back. I want to run around like a headless chicken when you go into labour and faint in the delivery room and sob on my knees and see my child being born. I want every single minute of this baby's life..."

Ash pulled him up to her and held him in her arms.

"Dom will have a fandango, do you realise? He will be three and a monster. He will hit and kick and bite and probably start wetting the bed again and we will be out of our minds with that and sleepless nights and I'll have the blues and be crying and my nipples will crack and be sore... And it will be paradise. Next year. I promise. I'll never let you down again, Russ. You know that, don't you?

Russell grinned and put on his cocky 'What woman could resist me?'  face and Ash giggled. "I must be mad to try soppy with you. Go back to your toys and let me watch a film - got one here with Colin Farrell in. Now he is sexy. Why don't you watch it - might give you some pointers on how to ooze smouldering sexuality on screen- and they say he has an enormous dong, too. Apparently he whipped it out at some reception when some woman showed surprise that he hadn't been circumcised..."

"Good - keep you out of my hair for a few hours. If he really gets you going, I'll be upstairs later. You can close your eyes and pretend I'm anyone you like, love, but I'll still have my evil way with you, so everybody's happy." He gathered up his toys and ambled out of the room.

"I might just get my little girl's best friend out of its box and have some fun down here..."

"If I hear that fucking engine purring, you will be in trouble, love. No self abuse in this house, mate - I'll be in like a shot and giving out some Russ abuse- and I might not use any lube this time!"

"Promises, promises. You think you can give out anything I can't take? I'd like to see you try..."

"You would?"

"I said, didn't I?"

"Oh - are you gonna be sorry you said that..."

Ash never saw the film. 

It was Dominic's second birthday. Two years since he had been born. Ash had woken in an introspective mood that morning. Lying in the enormous bed with Russ snoring beside her, on his back with his arms flung out above his head in that ' master of all he surveyed' posture that always made her smile, she had a lot to think about. Slipping out of the bed, she pulled on her robe and found her album, lying at the bottom of her bedside cabinet.

Leafing through the photographs of Dominic taken from the day he was born, a complete record of his entire little life, she could not help but think about the future and where it could possibly lead them. Everything was so perfect between Russ and her, better than she had dared hope. Sure, they argued and fought - but they always had - that was nothing to be surprised about. But now she felt they had settled into a sort of companionable relationship which, although they were capable of wild passion and inventive lovemaking, seemed more about two friends just muddling through together. But the moment they stepped outside, something else happened. Russ became Crowe, she became a showbiz trophy girlfriend and their life assumed the madness of a surreal nightmare.

At the moment they were constantly together. That could not always be the case. What would happen when he was away for protracted periods? Would he be faithful? Could he be faithful? He seemed to have such an ambivalent attitude to sex. He could be madly in love with her but just as capable of seeking a bit of free action if someone offered. Or rather that's the image he sometimes projected. But was it true? Even Ash wasn't sure how much of his reputation was his own careless flirting and braggadocio combined with a hostile press who had decided that he was an unprincipled stud with no control over his libido.

Then there was his rabble rousing. He had been mostly quiet of late, working hard and drinking moderately. That would definitely not last. When this film wrapped he would be raring to go. He had friends and family and he owed them his time - he needed to be with them too. How would she cope with him dumping her to run off with his mates and get into the usual bother that he seemed to drum up everywhere he went, whether accidentally or through his own thoughtlessness?

Not to mention the band and that whole scene. Frankly she knew she didn't fit in with it. She wasn't a particular fan of that kind of music although she reckoned he had more talent and a better voice than most people gave him credit for - but, she couldn't see herself as some back stage groupie, letting him grope her when he came off horny as hell after vocally fucking a roomful of women.

She had already, probably somewhat unwisely, begun reading the posts on Crowe sites about her. They had never taken to his women but she was getting a major hammering. Seems she was a stuck up little bitch who had given him a run around and was setting him up again. She wouldn't give him what he needed - didn't have the spirit to go with him and loosen up. Apparently she was even following him around on set to watch he didn't step out of line, wouldn't give him space, didn't like him drinking or smoking... the complaints went on and on. They even claimed that the only reason he was with her was because of the child.  Did it matter? Ash wasn't sure, but it hurt - that much she knew. Didn't they want him to be happy? Maybe somewhere in her she also wondered herself how much his affection for her was actually driven by his longing for children - how much did he understand about his own motivation?

So many hurdles to leap. And at the core of it was Dominic who would always be her main concern. No matter how much she loved Russell, Dominic was her son. He needed her in a way that even Russell didn't. She must not risk her son's peace of mind for anything. If they should not make it, it was essential that they protect their son from the results of their blundering.

Ash had wandered into the kitchen and brewed up. It was almost six. She poured out two cups and carried them upstairs to the bedroom. Placing one on the cupboard by his pillow and the other on the table on the balcony, she returned to the bed. He was still asleep, eyelids flickering, clearly dreaming, and a slight smile playing across his lips. She brushed the long hair back from his face, rolling it through her hands, loving the feel of it, hating the colour - she could not wait for him to either dye it back or cut the whole damn lot off and start again. Dominic had laughed his socks off when he had seen it blond - he had called him 'Looby Loo' after the rag doll in Andy Pandy. Would the press love that little gem!

"Hey, leave me hair alone - you got a hair fetish or something?" Russ grunted hoarsely; he had woken up while she had been daydreaming and he was rubbing his face with his hand. "What's the fucking time?" He raised himself up on his elbows and scowled, scratching himself and yawning.

"Nearly six. Brought you a cuppa," Ash replied.

"Good girl. Pass me a smoke."

"No. You smoke too much. You'll be coughing your guts up this early." He laughed and found a packet, lighting up and coughing anyway. It was no use. Stop him from drinking and smoking? She wished she bloody could. He drank back the tea gratefully and beckoned her over.

"You're up early. Something up? Dominic alright?" She nodded. "So, spit it out, Ash. Something's on your mind. You're normally like a dead dog at this hour in the morning."

"Nothing."

He tilted his head; he was not convinced.

"Just thinking about stuff. You and me. Dominic. The future. Get scared sometimes, Russ, overwhelmed, you know...?"

"You and me both, kid. Snuggle up here." He pulled back the cover and patted the mattress. "Let Rusty give you some loving."

She smiled and slipped in beside him. He was warm and musky, all early morning male. He wrapped his arms round her and rested his head on hers.

"We'll make it somehow, Ash. We got this far. That was the hard bit. We both do too much thinking. Let's just do some being for a change." He was right. There are never any guarantees for anyone - even your own children. You just have to do the best you can.

"Wait, I need a leak." He got up and went to the bathroom. Ash stretched out in the bed, lying in the sheets still warm from his body, already missing him. Watching him stroll back naked and messing with his hair - it was seriously annoying him this length - she sighed at his physical presence. He often took advantage of it, playing on the effect he knew that he had on both men and women but he was always at his most devastating at moments like this when he wasn't even trying. Just moving around like a large beautiful animal, relaxed within his skin. He caught her expression and grinned.

"You perving over me again, ya nympho?"

Ash raised her eyes. "You are so bloody vain. There's so much of you, you're filling my field of vision. Move aside and let me look at something interesting."

"Liar, you perve!" He knelt on the bed and pulled open her robe. "That's better- give me something to lust over. Jeez, Ash your tits are amazing." His words did not match his actions as he lowered himself gently forward and stroked her body from neck to hip. She felt his breath on her face, his large hands on her body and his rising cock brushing her thighs and come to rest against her belly as he kissed her so sweetly, murmuring as he felt her respond.

The alarm rang. He reached out and slammed his hand down, breaking both cup and saucer - probably the alarm clock as well. They sniggered.

"Good job you've got plenty of money, the amount of breakages in this house," she whispered.

"Fancy doing a bit more damage myself," he muttered as he parted her thighs and began to ease his cock along her slit, groaning softly as it slid through her moistness.

"Told ya you were perving," he smiled as he raised his hips and glided in, dropping his head and rotating to enter more easily whilst Ash ran her hands through his long blond hair and swallowed him deep, kissing his face.

She loved him best in this mood, no matter how much passionate and kinky sex they had at other times. Russ in gentle, tender mode, taking care of her, healing her pain, his body like a love sonnet, physically encapsulating how he felt. Ash thought it was better than words. Words can be lies, exaggerations, misconstrued, misunderstood. They could be faked - especially in the mouth of a consummate actor. But this was crystal clear and could not be feigned. He was telling her how he loved her and wanted to make everything all right, as far as it was in his power to do so.

"I love you, Russ. No matter what. Always."

"I know," he gasped, " 'cos I love you the same."

They were lying together some time later, still in the moment, when the phone rang. He answered.

"Half hour, mate. Give me a break."

He pulled that wry face and broke away from her arms. "Go back to sleep," and he rolled out of bed. Ash followed him into the bathroom and joined him in the shower. She simply held onto his back and as he tried to wash, she cried, not even sure what she was crying about.

"You gonna be all right? Want to take a day off?" He asked, turning to cup her face and wipe her eyes.

She shook her head. "I'll be fine. ' Specially if I get to watch you in breeches and boots all day!" She put on a smile that he knew she was not really feeling.

Dom ran into the bathroom. "Mum? Dad?"

"We're in the shower," Ash opened the door - he was already pulling off his pyjamas and joined them, chuckling.

"Can't a bloke get a shower in peace without a bloody audience?" Russ moaned. Dom simply peed all over his leg, chortling at his own prowess. Russ groaned.

Ash screamed with laughter. "You taught him how!" Russ made as if to repeat the action over her.

"You bloody dare!" She jumped out of the shower and left the two males to it.

Dried and dressed, Russ carried his son downstairs still wrapped in a towel. Ash slipped a T - shirt and shorts on him and they led him to the lounge. Laid out before him were a little three-wheeled bicycle and several packages wrapped in bright paper.

"Happy Birthday, Dominic!" Ash whispered.

Dominic hadn't a clue. What does a birthday mean when you're two? But he knew what a bike was and wriggled away to ride it round the room. Russ helped with the concept of the pedals but he didn't take long to catch on. They watched him as he pedalled furiously, highly satisfied with himself. Russ held her in his arms. "That means more to me than..." He stopped. "They could take the fucking lot of it away from me as long as I had you two. Do you understand that?"

Suddenly she did. Dominic was at the centre of the package but she and Russ were the ones who had made him. Made him with love. That tied the three of them inexorably. Maybe even forever.

"I have to go. I'll send the car back for you later. Don't be late - you start work at nine - until five! No sneaking off. Dock your pay if you do", he grinned. "By the way, Got a lunch planned. Few of the people with kids his age - I put out an SOS. Thought we'd give him a little party. Helen's organised the cake and whatever the fuck two-year olds do instead of getting pissed on their birthdays. Make sure you're there. I don't usually invite the menial staff to my private lunches..."

She kicked his butt as he turned to go. When he got it right, boy, did he get it right!

"I love birthdays," he said as he pulled on a jacket.

"Missed yours," Ash answered.

"Missed yours," he replied, standing at the door and lighting up, his voice a gravely tone.

"Make it up to you," she responded with a smile.

"Make it soon, Ash," he pointed his finger at her as he turned to leave.

The lunch was a riot. There were about eight children aged eighteen months to four and they wrecked an entire marquee between them. With parents and cast members, clowns and a complete over-the-top array of junk food, not to mention Russell, who was worse than any of the kids, very little work took place that afternoon. One of the cameraman filmed the action - wonder how long it will take some of the stills of that to get into the public domain?- and Dominic ran around like a wind up toy until he threw up. But even that didn't seem to stop him. Ash just backed away and let them rip. When he began to get tired from all the activity and excitement, the birthday boy just settled on his Dad's knee and watched the party, his thumb in his mouth, listening to Russ whisper in his ears. Ash wondered what they were talking about. Dom kept nodding and smiling, occasionally turning to say something to his father, holding his face to make sure he was looking at him. He needn't have worried. Russ rarely took his eyes off him.

Dominic did not like the clowns. While the other children clapped and cheered at the antics and the close up magic of pulling sweets and gifts from the children's clothes or behind their ears, Dom hid his face, occasionally peering over Russ's shoulder and then ducking down again. When one of the clowns decided to win over the birthday boy, he started to cry - it had all been too much. Ash tried to take him but he wouldn't leave his Dad and Russ took him outside for a while to calm him down.

She left them fifteen minutes or so and then followed them out. They were standing by the port side watching one of the tall ships and Ash stood away and listened to them. Russ was telling him a story about an incompetent pirate sea captain, hardly Aubrey, who had a bunch of equally hopeless crew- it entailed a lot of falling into the sea, slipping on wet fish and getting the run around from the Royal Navy. It even came with a rather familiar theme tune, which Russ whistled at intervals. Dominic was screaming with laughter.

"And then, Master Bates said to Seaman Staines: "Ahoy, me hearties, I will hang 'ee from the yard arm and then I'll keel haul you and then I'll..." Dominic did not understand a word: it was the silly voices that were making him laugh.

Suddenly Ash realised that she knew what he was talking about. "You're doing Captain Pugwash, aren't you? How do you know about Captain Pugwash?"

Russ spun round, "Watched it when I was a kid. Love the gay subtext. Well, didn't get it then, of course. Used to play Pugwash with Terry in the back yard. I always had to be Seaman Staines - didn't realise they were all taking the piss out of me at the time - I was only eight." They both laughed.

"I'd forgotten about all that. Surprised you weren't Master Bates!" Ash giggled.

"No, that was a mate of ours, Billy something or other - think he's got a white stick now." He retorted with a grin.

Dominic grabbed his face and turned it to him. "More Captain!"

"Okey dokey, mate. So they ran up the Jolly Roger (how did they get away with this script for kids?) and..."

He began to walk back to the marquee and the riot within. Dominic was curled up listening to him, not far from sleep. Ash smiled and felt a wave of contentment flood over her. What a perfect day! And it was still only afternoon. Did that man deserve a treat or what?

They strolled over to the waiting vehicle, a sleepy Dominic riding on his Dad's shoulders while Ash and the posse carried all the gifts and left over cake. It was early evening, warm and balmy. Everyone was in a good mood, relaxed and laid back. As they loaded up the trunk, Dominic wriggled down and wandered off. For a while no one remarked what he was up to.  Suddenly they heard his voice "Go 'way, you!" and  everyone looked  in his direction. The little boy was talking to someone through the fence. Then they saw the camera and flashlight.

"Hey, little Crowe, give us a smile!" One of the intruders called out. 

Mark and Russell noticed it at the same time and both shot over.

"Back off, mate." Mark shouted at them.

Ash made her way over behind them. 

"Just taking a few shots of the birthday boy, Mr. Crowe. No harm intended." The photographer continued to snap as his companion called to Dominic who was beginning to look frightened. Russell snatched him up quite roughly and handed him to Ash. "Get him out of here!" Dominic did not like the tone of his father's voice and began to sob. Ash held him against her and ran for the vehicle. She didn't see what happened next - but she saw its results.

Russ had scrambled over the fence, Mark in tow- probably more to restrain Russell than anything else - and Russ launched himself on the man with the camera. By the time that Ash looked back, the two were rolling on the floor. Mark warned the other man to back off and then yanked Russell by the neck, shouting something at him. It was a little too late - the other guy was already holding his bloody nose, having been head-butted. Russ shrugged Mark off and grabbed the camera, exposed the film and then threw the case onto the ground and smashed it. He was shouting expressively. Ash could imagine what he was saying.

It only took a matter of moments but she already knew that the repercussions would be major. Mark held him from the back, pinning his arms to his waist while he continued to rant and rave, kicking out in frustration. Other bodyguards pulled the other men away and handed them over to site security. Ash watched him fling off Mark's arms and turn on him with, no doubt, another choice mouthful; Mark merely shrugged. He'd heard it all before and knew it would take him a while to calm down. Russell walked off away from the vehicle, pacing up and down and smoking a cigarette, staring out to sea.

"Miss Connor?"

Ash looked up and saw the driver at the door. Dominic had not seen much of the outburst but he was frightened and still sobbed against her breast.

"Mr. Crowe wants me to take you home. He ...isn't ready to leave yet."

"No. Let me out." Ash whispered to Dom. "Just snuggle up here with Teddy a minute, I have to talk to Daddy..." Mark nodded and sat down beside him, trying to take Dom's mind off things; the site of the burly bodyguard attempting to make Teddy talk almost amused Ash, even in this state.

She walked over to where he was pacing, his back turned away from her. You could see the tension in him from the way he was holding himself.

"Russ?" Ash put her hands on his shoulders. She felt him stiffen but he did not shrug her off.

"Russ? Don't blank me. Turn round. Talk to me."

He reluctantly faced her, his face set, his eyes moist.

"Why can't they leave me the fuck alone? He's a little baby. They have no fucking right...!" She could hear that catch in his voice, a prelude to a major blow up.

Ash held him in her arms. "Unfortunately they do. They shouldn't have been trespassing on the set but they still have the law on their side. You hit the bastard. Broke his camera. But I'm glad you did." She held his face in her hands as Dominic did when he wanted your full attention. "I don't give a shit what happens. You got it right. If it had been me, I would have done the same. You protect your kids - it's an instinct. Just don't turn away from us now when you need us as much as we need you. Come back home now - don't send us back with a few bodyguards, please. Dom is scared - show him that you're all right - even if you have to put on an act. I'll tend to your wounds later, baby, once he's settled."

Russ put his hands on her face. "I won't let them near you or him. I swear I'll kill anyone who tries to get too close..."

"No, you won't. You know you would never go that far. But frighten them off? Good. Make them think twice next time. You know the saying 'Don't get mad, get even?' Maybe it's time we started turning the tables on them a little."

"I've tried that game. They shaft you even worse when you do that," he grunted.

"You scared of a challenge? They shaft you anyway. Might as well give them a bit of stick of our own." Ash smiled and he began to relax. He bent over and kissed her, a slight breeze blowing their hair around until it made a sort of veil around them. She could feel his anger subsiding in her arms.  That picture, of course, made the next day's tabloids. Someone still had a working camera.

They returned to the car and found Dominic wide-eyed. Mark stepped away and let them sit down on either side of him. The child looked from one to the other and suddenly wriggled onto his father's lap, burying his head against him.

"What's the matter, mate?" Russ said.

The little boy whispered in his ear. "Fighting is naughty." He turned to his mother. "Mum? Fighting is naughty."

Russ for once seemed unable to answer. What could he say to his little son to try to explain? 

Ash took over. "Fighting isn't always naughty, Dom. Not when people you love are getting hurt. Dad just wants to keep us safe. Can you understand that, sweetie?"

Dom looked up at them. He seemed confused and scared. "My name is Dom'nic. Not little Cwowe," he said.

They both laughed, suddenly realising the child's predicament. "Dominic Crowe, darling, that is your name. Russ, he doesn't even realise! He's the only person in the world who doesn't know who you are. Daddy's name is Russell Crowe, Dom!" Dominic seemed to think about that for a while; you could almost hear the wheels turning.

"What's your name, Mum?"

"Aisling..."

"Crowe. Aisling Crowe. Don't confuse him, Ash."

She nodded. Sometimes Dom frightened her with his acuity; how much of an answer he needed to his incessant questions often frightened her even more.

Dom smiled and circled his father's neck. "Love you, Dad." Suddenly the moment was restored. Ash didn't need to tend Russ's wounds. Dominic seemed perfectly capable of doing that himself. He certainly knew how to shut his father up. Russ simply held him, his face buried against his son's neck and Ash wondered exactly who was helping whom.

It wasn't as bad as they feared. No charges were pressed. The deal was that they left Crowe alone if the studios didn't take action on the trespassing. A new camera was supplied to replace the other. But the rumours were rife of Crowe's outburst and his attack. For once the other media sources didn't give him too much aggro. Seems most people think a two-year old boy on his birthday is not fair game. Perhaps there is still some sanity out there.