Paper Training

Return Of The Moonlighting Secretary

Once the school year got into a good swing, it was harder to disappear when Annie had perfected the look of betrayal if you wanted to leave during the weekdays. She would just look upset and then, depending on her mood that day, might even start to cry. And none of them could handle the crying pregnant lady begging them not to abandon the school... so it was very, very difficult to leave.

Which of course, only meant that half the teachers were gone on the weekends, when it was safe — and that was the plan as the end of September rolled around and Annie got it out of K that it was her birthday. Which was the perfect excuse to get out of the house for a while — Annie even insisted on it.

K was in fairly good spirits, even though she said that she just wasn't used to having much company at the cottage. It was one thing to lend it out, another to be there with them. But Kate and Kurt were hard to say no to when they insisted that they wanted to celebrate with her, and when they got to the little cottage perched high over the big lake, the scene was perfectly beautiful.

What wasn't evergreens around the cottage was bright, golden yellow as the forest was in full color. The ferns had all died off, and the whole feel of the place was that of a primordial forest with wet leaves and soft ground.

The four of them settled in quickly — though Logan seemed to take it on as his job to make sure the fire in the wood burner was hot while K gave Kate the more official 'tour'. It was a small enough little place, with one bedroom downstairs and two up, though one had the walls lined with boxes and a tall mahogany wardrobe. "Poke around," K told her when they got to the room full of stuff. "Make yourself at home."

Kate grinned at her. "My fashion director friend," she said fondly as she looked over the room.

"Good stuff is in the wardrobe," K told her. "The boxes ... touch and go. Few warm coats and sweaters. Some rodeo winnings. Nothing exciting outside of that."

"We'll see," Kate said with a smirk before she peeked her head into the wardrobe — and K could see her expression change even before she turned around just by the way Kate was holding her shoulders.

"Should I leave you two alone?" K asked.

Kate laughed and spun around with a sparkle in her eyes. "K, it is a crime against, like, humanity or something that there's no reason to wear these."

"Not too many occasions I can think of that call for vintage Coco."

"It's gorgeous." Kate turned back to run a very careful hand over the edge of the fireworks designs. "It... it needs to be worn."

K walked over to pull on the skirt a bit. "Hand stitched, every inch of it. They thought the war was only going to take six months. Everyone was partying like it was ... a speedbump. This was from just before all hell broke loose."

"It's... we need to find a reason," Kate said thoughtfully. "Seriously. It needs... a chandelier and a big ball and... " She broke into a grin. "Hey, we haven't planned the Halloween bash yet!" She spun on her heel to look at K. "Masquerade. What do you think?"

"It's been a long time, I doubt it would fit me anymore," she replied.

"There are other things in here... I could have a replica made..." Kate was grinning ear to ear. "It would be gorgeous. Whatever you wore — just... any of this stuff, really, but... Seriously, K. You'd kill Logan dead if you showed up in something like this. Just dead."

"He does like silk," she said with a little nod. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try a few on and see if it's worth looking into. I might have to cut my hair, though."