Until Proven Innocent - NetJames

Chapter 9 ~ weekend plans ~

The week dragged by for Man and the team then on Thursday they got a bit of a lead, Mina had been digging through court records and discovered that Winchitathoom's ex wife wasn't an ex at all but in fact they were still married, just separated which gave them a motive.

Someone had gone to great lengths to bury the information, the question was who? Maybe the lover who still remained elusive and the wife was not talking. Man hadn't seen Noel since Monday night but he checked in from time to time.

He trusted the kid a lot more now so he didn't check in as much, mostly it was because he wanted to see if he was ok?

He'd seen the boy doing random stuff, cleaning the kitchen cupboards out, laundry, ironing, washing the curtains upstairs, normal things that any housewife would do while their husband was at work, wait, what? why the hell would he think that?

He still kept the audio on through the night just in case Noel had any bad dreams and he'd had two since then. Man was still curious as to what was causing them but only time would tell. 

By Friday afternoon, Man had decided to go to the house and he had a great excuse. He left work earlier than usual and went to a builders yard where he bought 20 ltrs of wood sealer then dropping by a restaurant, he ordered enough takeout for two and bought some beer then drove to the house hoping that Noel hadn't eaten yet.

Noel was just drying his hair after getting out of the shower when he heard the automatic gates opening outside. He turned the bedroom light off and peeped through the curtains afraid of who it was but when he saw the car and recognized the registration he breathed a sigh of relief and went to turn the light back on.

Noel wondered what Man was doing coming on a Friday but to be honest, as he had said himself, it was his house, he could come and go as he pleased. Noel finished drying his hair and hung his wet towel before going downstairs to meet the owner.

He was waiting at the foot of the stairs as Man keyed in the security code and when he walked inside the smile he delivered to Noel made his heart flutter. It felt nice having someone come home and greet him, when he had lived in the children's home he had kept a low profile most of the time.

"hey Noel, how's it going?" Man smiled again and held up a bag.

"I hope you haven't eaten yet, I bought take out" he added and suddenly Noel's tummy made a gurgling sound.

"I guess you're hungry too" he smiled again.

"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow" Noel said.

"yeah, I had some stuff to bring, I'll explain later" Man said as he kicked off his shoes and padded into the kitchen.

"do you want me to dish it up while you wash up?" Noel offered.

"would you? that would be great" Man said before disappearing upstairs and jumping in the shower. When he came back to the kitchen he was wearing shorts and a baggy vest, he had a towel round his neck and his hair was still dripping.

"you didn't dry your hair properly, you'll catch a cold" Noel said then blushed when he realized how personal that sounded.

"I could get used to this, someone to come home to and who cares about me" Man said before rubbing his hair a bit more with the towel.

Noel had set the table and they both sat down and filled their plates but then Man stood up again and walked to the fridge.

"do you want a cold beer Noel?" he asked.

"no thank you, I don't drink" Noel replied.

Man shrugged and grabbed a can for himself and as an afterthought, an empty glass and a bottle of lemonade.