Her parents joined them at midday in their suite; a beautiful luncheon had been set out for them. When they arrived, Dominic bounded to the door, full of his news.

"Nana! My Dad's got a hurting face!"

Ash sighed. Well, they'd find out soon enough when Russell emerged from their bedroom. It might as well be now.

"Poor Daddy, " Brigid said and Ash felt her mother's voice more sympathetic than she expected - but then she didn't know what Russ had actually been up to.

"Nana!! Nana!! My mum hasn't got a willy. I've got a willy. My Dad's got a willy as well. But it's very big. Have you got a willy, Nana? Is it big or small?"

You just had to laugh at Dominic and his questions. "No, darling, I haven't. I'm a girl," his grandmother replied laughing.

"Who cut it off?" Dominic still hadn't got it.

"No one, darling. I never had one."

"Do you wee, Nana?"

"Dominic!" Ash picked him up and took him to the window. "No more talk about willies or weeing. We are about to have lunch. It isn't nice to ask people questions like that!"

"But why?"

"Dominic!" Ash warned and he pulled a face. It was just Russell. It made her giggle. "Come on, tiger, let's wash your hands."

They went into the bedroom and through to the bathroom to wash his hands. Russell was in the room dressing. He looked very smart.

"Woo hoo! Got a girlfriend?" Ash teased when she saw him.

He shrugged. "Thought the least I could do was try to look like a decent bloke. Christ, do you think they've seen the photographs?"

Ash shook her head. "My Mum and Dad would never buy a paper like that - and they've been in the hotel all day anyway. We'll explain later when everyone has had time to talk." She brushed a stray hair off his sweater. Russell in Armani casual. What a treat!

"OK. It's Showtime! I'd rather face a room of fucking reporters than your Dad," he whispered as they left the bedroom.

"Hallo, Russell," Aidan Connor approached him with a friendly expression. He was doing his best and, at the moment, his best was rather good, Ash thought. Brigid beamed broadly.

 Russell cleared his throat. "I'm very glad you are here. Yesterday was a bad scene. I apologise for my behaviour but I was a bit tense about the whole thing. Frankly, I understand how you must feel and if I was in your position - well, I can assure you I would have been even more forceful. Ash is your daughter and you don't know me. What you do know is bound to concern you. Especially after last night..."

"Ah, now, we were all a little hot headed. How are you feeling? Looks like you've got a bit of a head on y' this morning. And I was thinking of suggesting that we might have a glass of Guinness before lunch?" Aidan smiled. Brigid beamed. Ash stared and Russell said:

"Well, maybe just a small one..."

"Russ!" Ash whispered and shook her head.

"Hair of the dog, Aisling!" Her father insisted. "Let's get the room service to sort it out. I hope it's on draught." Aidan put his hand on Russell's shoulder and they walked off in matey conversation.

"Dad, Russ had a bit of a session last night. I'd rather you didn't encourage him to drink this afternoon...."

"Now and hasn't the boy got a tongue in his own head? Don't let her browbeat you, Russell, me boy. She's a bossy boots, always was."

Russell smiled sweetly at Ash. "Well, you know me. I'd never cross a lady. But I'll take a wee drink, Aidan. Just the one. Stop pulling a face, Ash - I promise, one only- just to be sociable!"

Ash went over to where her mother was chatting to Dominic. "What's with Dad putting on the cheery Irishman? Has he had an epiphany or something?"

"Well, I said a rosary or two last night as you can imagine and he woke up full of the joys this morning. But you know your father. Once he has established how horrible he is, he suddenly reveals his other side and can't do enough for you." Brigid laughed.

Ash scratched her head. "You know - that's exactly what Russell does. He has to frighten people or put them down first and then he is as nice as pie - particularly if they face up to him. Am I about to marry my own father?"

"They are all the same underneath. Well, the bad boys are, anyway- and we wouldn't we interested in the others now, would we?" her mother twinkled.

"But Mum! He was a really naughty boy last night. And it's all over the papers."

"You mean the fight he had in that restaurant? Ach, we know all about that! We had a good laugh over breakfast. Poor lad. He must be squirming with embarrassment. And to get beaten up by that little smeerhogeen..."

Ash shook her head; her parents never ceased to surprise her. Then she caught the tail end of the conversation between Russell and her father.

"...so what were you drinking?"

"Stella, I think. Then saki - some Japanese shit... after that, God only knows. I was out of my skull."

Aidan shook his head. "You look like a guy who can take his drink..."

"...I haven't been drinking seriously in months. I won't when I'm working. Last night was a mistake - major one. Going to do me a lot of damage. My PR are shitting themselves."

Aidan laughed. "No. The press will make all the shocked noises but they love a bad boy. But you must have been wellied to let him sucker punch you like that! Now that would embarrass me if I were you!"

Russell grimaced. "Feel like a complete knobhead. Didn't see it coming. All I could do was fall on him. I couldn't see straight. I hate the bastard, though..."

"Old sparring partner?"

"You could say. We both fancied the same girl once."

"Oh dear. Well, I think enough has been said. What did you tell the little fella?"

"That I bumped my head on the wall. For once he accepted it without asking why."

"Right. Then that's it. End of story. I'm starving. I could eat a man off his horse. Should we crack this lunch, then?"

The meal was relaxed and happy. Aidan seemed to have reacted completely differently to the situation than she had expected. He took to Russell and Russell took to him. They chatted and laughed - real male bonding session with Dominic jumping from one to the other. It seemed like someone had just waved a magic wand over both of them. But that's men for you. The oddest things can bring them together.

Whilst the three of them were getting on like a house on fire, Ash and Brigid took their glasses of wine to the other side of the room and talked it out.

"Your Dad went to buy some tobacco for his pipe at the kiosk across the road this morning. He came back with The Sun. He couldn't miss it. It was headlines. We read it and we just felt sorry for him. How awful for a man not to be even able to get drunk and make a mistake without the whole world knowing about it. Your Dad blamed himself anyway. He said 'I caused that. He must have gone out thinking that I would ruin things between him and Ash. Only a man in love would behave as stupidly as all that. Perhaps I've been wrong about him.' And that was that. He now sees your man as the victim of the press and his own interference. He said he must be under a lot of stress and then that snapped him."

Ash put her hands on her head and groaned. "The whole world thinks he has screwed up big time. And in fact that is the best thing that could have happened to us! What a hoot! But he was stupid and I'm going to kill him if he pulls a stunt like that again. He's too old for that game. Fighting in a Men's room! So drunk he couldn't stand up! And God knows what the truth is about the pass he might have made at some young model..."

Brigid scoffed. "You know what they're like when they 'have the drink taken' as we say. But she sounded like a little floozy. I'll bet she moved in on him to get her name in the papers and then he wasn't in quite the state she required so she turned on him instead!  Little madam, if you ask me. She'd have been on her back willingly enough if he'd been interested..." Brigid lowered her voice.

"...Or if he had been able to more like!" Ash confided in her mother. "He couldn't raise his arms to get his shirt off when he got back, never mind get anything else up!" The two women burst into laughter. The men looked over.

"And what's so funny?" Aidan asked.

"You lot. Men! Mind your own business!" Brigid replied.

"Granddad... have you got a willy?" Dominic was back on today's favourite subject.

"I have indeed Dominic, me lad," his grandfather replied and returned to discussing the chances the England team had of retaining the Six Nations Cup.

"Fair enough, mate, but you've got no chance of the Ashes..." Russell retorted.

"Cricket? I'm an Irishman. We don't play soft games like that. Have you ever tried Hurling, Russ...?"

Later that afternoon Aidan and Brigid took Dominic out for a walk in the Park. They accepted the presence of the bodyguard who was asked to follow at a safe distance. Once they had all gone, Russ thankfully lit up and shook his head.

"How did I do, Ashie?"

Ash bowed. "Another Academy Award winning performance, Mr. Crowe. You almost convinced me that you like my Dad."

"Actually I do. So will my Dad. There'll be no problems - they're cut from the same cloth. He was very understanding about the fight and all..."

"He's no angel. And he likes the booze himself. I think he understands men who are men - which no doubt means acting like schoolboys but he seems to think that's how it's done. However, we are alone now and it's time to face me, buster...!"

Russell blew out smoke. "Don't start now! I'm not in the mood. I'm going back to bed for a few hours..."

"Exactly what I had in mind... We've got about two hours. And I am as horny as hell. Do you know it's days since you've touched me..."

"Actually not true. I've been trying but you've been decidedly uninterested in my body recently. Might have to take a rain check, luv. I'm not sure I can perform after the treatment I gave my system last night," he grinned and stubbed out his cigarette.

"Right, I'll just have a couple of hours in the sack..."

He wandered off to the bedroom, throwing his sweater on the floor as he went through. He was such an untidy bastard. Ash grinned. Rain check? Some hope. He was going to take his punishment like a man and like it. Tired? Too bloody bad. Russ was getting a surprise - and no sleep. That was a certainty.

Allowing him time to settle and imagine himself safe, Ash crept into the bedroom and picked up the trail of clothes. He was worse than Dominic. She sat on the end of the bed and looked at him; he was already asleep. His eye looked terrible - badly bruised and a little swollen. She smiled and imagined the scene. 'Am I glad that I wasn't with him', she thought. But then it occurred to her that it would probably not have happened if she had been. Too bad.  'I can't follow him around holding his hand every time he gets a cob on him.' she decided.

He was lying naked under the cover - as usual he had pushed it away so that it revealed most of his chest - he was always so warm in bed; she always hated that he often threw back the blanket and left her cold. Just one of the many annoying habits of his that she also loved. That was the thing about him. She moaned about stuff like that but secretly loved it all. 'As long as he never leaves me I will put up with anything. No, I won't. I say I will but I won't. He knows I have a threshold and even he is scared to cross it now. Good.' Ash sat and idly stroked her hand down his leg as she thought about him and the next step in Oz and the wedding and having another baby and...

"Are you going to get to the bit where you have at me and I pretend to wake up or do you intend to sit there daydreaming all fucking afternoon? 'Cos if I lie here any longer with my eyes closed, I will fall asleep and I'll be as mad as a cut snake if you start messing with me then..."

Ash punched him in the stomach. "You flake! Here's me all romantic and dreamy and you are just after a quick shag!"

"Hey, a slow one works just as well for me, kid. As long as we finish before Brains gets back and starts asking me what I'm doing with my willy."

They both snorted with laughter. Ash pulled off her Joseph pants and  the elegant cashmere jumper she had been wearing and slung them on the floor. Given half the chance she was as untidy as Russell himself. Settling herself on his chest, she sat up and began to remove her bra. He stopped her and did the honours himself, smoothing his hands down her back then cupping her breasts in his palms with a groan of appreciation.

"Feels good, Russ," Ash muttered, wriggling with pleasure. He jerked her down to his side and rolled her over.

"I want to talk."

"Talk?" Ash said. "We've only got two hours! Less than that now."

"I can talk fast."

 Ash lay back and slipped her arms round his neck, playing with the cross around his neck as he looked at her and twisted a lock of her hair. She nuzzled up to him wrapping one leg round his and trying to massage his groin with her other knee as he talked. He grinned but didn't stop her.

"Ash. I'm sorry about last night."

She hunched her shoulders. "Doesn't matter. I don't give a shit."

"Thought you'd fucking kill me."

She giggled. "Am I the only person you are frightened of?"

"Looks like it."

"Well, I think you were a prat but you had a lot on your plate. Can't you find another way to let off steam in future? But it doesn't really matter to me - as long as you don't get hurt. One of these days though someone is going to really sort you out if you don't watch that mouth of yours."

"I can look after myself."

"Yeah, as long as you're not rat- arsed!"

"I didn't know what you were going to do. I thought you might blow me off again."

"Oh Russ! Why would I do that?"

"Because you hate the crap. I don't know. Maybe you don't want the life. Fuck, I can't work you out. I never know what you'll do or say next."

"But you know I want you! I marry you - not the rest of it! OK, it comes along with you, just like your temper and your smoking and your bullheadedness and all the other things that drive me mad about you..."

"Oh, thanks." But he was smiling. "Why haven't you done something about a dress?"

"Dress? Wedding dress? I'll pick something up in Sydney."

"More choice here or in the States."

"Winter here. Wrong season."

"I thought you'd get a private commission - not pick something up off the peg."

"Don't worry I'll get something nice."

"Nice? I thought you'd want in - fucking - credible. This is your chance to spend a fucking fortune of my money. I don't believe you, Ash. You are lying. Why did you not order a dress?"

Ash wriggled down the bed and hid her head against his chest. She began to stroke his cock and tease him into dropping the line of questioning. He pushed her hand away and raised her face. "Truth, Ash, baby."

"I was scared. I thought the minute I do something definitive like that, something will go wrong. Like the last time when you tried to propose and I said not yet and we fought and you left me... Russ, I'm still so vulnerable. I'm frightened to look sidewards in case when I look back you're not there." She had thought she wouldn't say it but it was pouring out of her along with the tears.

He wiped her face and kissed her, rubbing his stubble gently against hers. Ash loved his tenderness; he seemed to have a limitless supply of gestures that touched her heart.

"Truth? When I asked you six months ago to marry me, I was acting on impulse. You know me. All the old emotions came flooding back but... I can't deny I wanted Dominic so bad. I didn't understand that then but I realise that he was the key to what was going on in my mind. But, Ash - the last six months with you has been the best of my life. It hasn't been an easy ride. It never will be with me. But I have fallen back in love with you so hard that I can't even think straight some days. It's not about Dominic. I love him. He's my son. I cannot even put into words what I feel for him. But you are the reason for his life and mine. Trust me. Buy the dress. Marry me and take the ride. I'll give you fucking hell. But I will always love you. Love me, Ash. I need your love so much...."

She had known it before he opened his mouth but the words cemented the deal. It was her own fear that was holding her back - Ash realised that it wasn't even about him or the lifestyle anymore. Just the niggling doubt that a man like him could ever want a girl like her. But somewhere inside him, she saw that he felt the same uncertainty about himself - would she always want him? At the end of the day he was just a man who needed her, under more pressure than most.

Russell held her to him and they kissed like kids in the back row of a cinema on a Friday night. Lost in his arms, time seemed to have no meaning. Making love with him was always one continuous fluid motion, not a collection of erotic acts or increasingly intimate moves. It was as arousing just to touch his hand as it was to have him deep inside. But joined and buried within her, both bodies seared in the fiery grip of the other, nothing on earth could hurt or challenge the way they felt about each other.

They didn't even speak. No crude encouragement or pleas to the heavens broke through their passion. In silence they gave themselves to each other and only the sighs of utter pleasure and the moans of building desire shattered the peace on that cold November afternoon. Just one cry of each other's name as they poured themselves out, he filling her with his love, she weeping down upon his strength. Then the quiet of fulfilment and the nearness of another body spent and exhausted... And then sleep...

"Mum! Dad! I saw Santa! He's got a beard. It comes off!"

Ash and Russell were fast asleep when Dominic ran in - but not for long.

"Nana. They went to bed! Get up! It's not bedtime! Wake up! I saw Santa. His beard comes off!"

Ash woke with a start. Russell groaned and put a pillow over his head. She crept out of the bed to try to find her clothes. "Mum! You've got no clothes on! I can see your boobies."

"Ssh, Dom! Be quiet! Close the door. Let me get dressed."

"Why...?"

"No, Dom! Mum was tired. I had a little nap. Pass me those trousers. Not those - they're Dad's. The black ones. Good boy. See that bra on the floor? Get me that. Brilliant. Now good as new. Right. Tell me about Santa. What do you mean, his beard comes off?"

"I pulled it. It comes off. But he gave me a present."

"You are lucky. If I'd been Santa I'd have told you to behave first. He only comes to good boys."

"Will he come to Dad?"

"I think he already has," Ash whispered and smirked to herself. Russell was out of it again, totally comatose, oblivious to anything.

Ash breezed into the lounge room where her parents were waiting for her. "Must be jetlag catching up. We both went out like a light there," she announced as she carried Dominic in. Her parents looked amused. She blushed.

"So what do you want from Santa, Dom?"

"An elephant." Dominic was lying on the floor playing with his Lego.

"What?"

"That's what he asked for," Brigid said.

"A toy elephant, Dom?"

 He shook his head. "No, a real one."

"Why?"

"Don't say why, Mum. It gets on my nerves." Dominic replied.

Ash shook her head at him. "I don't know where he gets his ideas from. How do we get out of this one?"

"He'll forget," her father said.

"Want a bet? He's like a bloody dripping tap. Think I'll let Russ sort that one out. An elephant?"

"The horses will play with it," Dominic insisted.

"What horses?" His grandfather asked him with a smile.

"On the farm. In Oz." Russell had been telling him all about the farm and he was very excited about it, although Ash wasn't sure that he actually knew what a farm was, or Oz for that matter.

"He means in Australia. He's thinking of Russell's horses."

"Honey and... the moo cows."

"Cows and horses don't play with elephants, Dom."

"It will be a baby elephant. They will like it. Nana! Want to see a picture of Honey?"

Dominic went diving into the bedroom and found a box of snapshots that Russell had been showing him. He charged back in and upended the entire box on the floor, looking for the one he wanted. Suddenly he picked one picture up and looked at it and then he started laughing.

"Look, Mum. Dad! Who that lady?"

Ash took the photograph from him and stopped dead. It was a picture of Russell and Meg on the farm. They looked happy, wrapped up in each other. It was dated September 2000. Dominic had been a few weeks old. That was life. Russell was a highly photographed actor. If she didn't get used to old shots of him with other women then she was really in for some fun and games in the future. But this was in the private box of mementoes that he took around with him everywhere, the things that reminded him of home and those he loved when he was far away. So he still had fond memories of other lovers? That was so typical of him. He never really let go of his past - and his women never forgot him. Who could blame them?

"What is it Ash?" Her mother asked aware of her sudden silence.

"Nothing, Mum, Just an old picture," and she returned it to his box.

"Nana! My Dad was on the TV. I saw him. Mum, can I see the fighting film?"

"Not now, Dominic. It's too scary for little boys."

"I'm not scared. I saw the fighting. My Dad fighted a tiger."

"What's he talking about now, Ash?"

"Gladiator. It was on the movie channel one day and he stumbled on it. He couldn't understand it at first. He was scared. He thought someone was hurting Russ."

"What did you do?"

"Russell sat with him and made a joke of it. But I turned it off after a while. He just kept saying - "Why does that man not like you? Why are the bad men fighting you? Why are you wearing a dress? He drove us nuts."

"Has he ever seen a film of his?"

"No. Russ hasn't really made anything suitable for kids. Maybe he should. That would be a laugh. But Dominic doesn't always recognise him. He saw a few shots from LA Confidential and he never said anything. He's seen him with a beard and long hair so I don't think he can work him out with short hair."

Dominic hadn't got him as Maximus at first. And then suddenly he had screamed "Dad!" and they had run in to find him crying. For curiosity Ash had put on the opening sequence of LAC but he had mostly ignored it except for asking why the man was pulling Santa down. But he never said it was Russell. Perhaps a tribute to his father's acting? However he would definitely have no problem with Jack Aubrey. Dominic had watched Russell in costume day after day and wondered what his reaction would be when they got a chance to watch an early cut of Master and Commander. Now, that would certainly confuse him because he also knew all of the cast too in real life. She could imagine the future questions already.

Russell wandered in sometime later, back in his usual jeans and a T-shirt. He was looking like he needed a cigarette. "I'm just going out to the boys to have a smoke."

"Dad. I saw Santa!"

"Ripper, mate."

"Dad, can I show Nana the fighting film?"

"What film?"

"Gladiator," Ash answered.

"I'm not sitting through that again," Russell mumbled. "Makes my shoulder ache just watching it." He went next door to Mark's rooms.

"Funny that," Brigid remarked.

"What is?"

"What it must be like to watch yourself on the screen."

"I don't think he sees it as himself, really. He will see it from a performance point of view and it can be uncomfortable for him. He's never really happy with what he's done. He notices things he doesn't like all the time. Things he would do differently now."

"Can't be much wrong with Gladiator," her father observed. He had liked the film very much - or at least he had done in the days when he hadn't known that Russell was Dominic's father.

"You'd be surprised what bugs him. He hears his own accent coming through here and there and he hates that. Most people wouldn't even notice, of course. But he does. Sometimes it is just a mannerism or a pose he wishes he hadn't done. Mostly they are the things his fans like best!"

"And how do you feel when you see him up there?" Her mother asked astutely.

Ash shrugged. "I've never been to a premiere with him. I was just a regular punter. But when I watch his films, I'm so proud of him. I just swell with pride. He is a genius at what he does. I don't know how he does it - I'm not sure he does all the time - but he makes something magical happen when he acts. But make no mistake it isn't easy. It takes a hell of a lot out of him mentally and physically and it's based on months of intense and painstaking work. He doesn't just turn up and wear the frock, although he does make dismissive comments like that sometimes. He is obsessed and obsessive about the process and it is his life. People just don't realise that about him." Ash was passionate in her belief in Russell. Her eyes shone when she spoke, her cheeks burnt bright and her parents could see the way she felt about him. He was the one. There was no mistake about that.

"Right. I'm starving. Let's get some food sorted. Reckon they'll have chicken?" Russell walked into the lounge later that evening and burst out laughing, reminding Ash of the fuss he had made when he couldn't get what he'd wanted in New York. He had been winding up the management. Once a long time ago the same hotel had pissed him off when he hadn't been so famous and he had suddenly got the urge to claim his payback. The bowl of fruit had been an afterthought. He had sat giggling on the couch in the suite while his people had been wrangling with the hotel representative. Ash had been very cross with him but there was no telling him in that mood. The idea that he was so spoiled that would demand his fruit cutting up a certain way! It never usually lasted that long at home - he would eat most things whole. Hotel staff preferably.

"Dad? Can I have an elephant?" Dominic had remembered. He was ready for bed, bathed and in his pyjamas but looking for a reason to extend his stay.

"What, mate?" 

Dominic climbed up on his father's knee and explained about Santa and the elephant. Ash listened with amusement. Let him get out of this one.

"Elephants don't live in Oz, Dom. It's too hot for them. Not enough tree either. And they're scared of kangaroos," Russell was back-pedalling, hands open in a 'throw me a frigging bone expression.'

Dominic thought about that for a minute. "Can I have a kangaroo then?"

"A kangaroo?" 

"With a joey."

"With a joey?" Russell ran his hands through his hair. And then you could see he had it.

"You remember the playpen, Dom?"

"I don't like it," his son pulled a face at the reminder.

"I know, mate. You remember it?"

"You put me in it."

"Yeah, mate."

"I was crying."

"Screaming actually, mate. Chucking a right berko. Why don't you like the playpen?"

Dominic look confused. "Don't like it."

"Why?"

"Don't say why. It gets on my nerves." This was Dominic's latest trick when he couldn't answer you.

Russell giggled. "OK, mate. I'll tell you why you don't like it. 'Cos you like running about. Doing what you like. Mucking about. Playing. Right, mate?"

Dominic nodded. 

"So do elephants. So do kangaroos. They don't want tying up on a farm. They want to muck about in the wild. Be free. Let's leave them there, hey, mate?"

"Can I see them mucking about?"

"No worries, mate. I'll take you out looking for kangaroos. Show you a joey. How about a big car instead from Santa? One of those you can sit in and pedal. Hey, Ash - bet they have some real class ones now for kids. Let's take him to... what's the name of that toyshop on Regent Street...?"

"Hamley's"

"Yeah. Hamley's. Let's go there tomorrow and he can have a butcher's at some cars."

"Dad.... You have to be good for Santa."

"I know. You been good?" Russell asked with a very serious face.

Dominic frowned and looked at his Mum.

"He been a good boy, Ash?" Russell asked. Dominic's eyes were wide.

Ash thought a minute. "Course he has. The best."

"Good job, mate!" Russell grinned.

"Dad, you been a good boy?"

Russell looked at Ash. "Well, have I?"

She snorted. "No, you bloody haven't. It's a good job your Dad has got two weeks to start trying, Dominic, or he gets no presents from Santa, I can tell you!'

Russell giggled.

Dominic put his arms round his Dad's neck. "Poor Daddy, I help you be good."

"Tell him to go off the booze then. I dare your Dad to go cold turkey till Christmas Day. The next drink you have is with your actual turkey. You up for it, wino?"

Russell shrugged.

"Dare you..." Ash added.

"You are on, luv. We'll discuss the terms later," Russell wiggled his eyebrows. Ash shook her head. God knows what this one would cost her. But he would definitely win the bet. He never lost anything once his mind was made up.