Eddie arrived back on campus and took a deep, chest expanding breath.

Thank. God.

Regardless of his assurances that he was indeed applying himself in some sort of way at college, his father remained sceptical. Mamma, however, had accepted it with cheerful grace, and chose to ignore the simmering tension between her husband and her son. So Eddie made contact with Mr Richards and Cressida via email, announcing his sudden eagerness to be useful and they had responded eagerly, without asking why.

So he had, in spite of the fact that less than a month previously he had told them he wasn’t interested, been keeping himself busy. He coordinated with Richards concerning the various branches of the project; media, actual manpower, how best to connect the police force to the centre when it was up and running. Richards was precise, even clinical, in how he did things. Eddie supposed that for someone like Richards, this was a good gauge of his emotional investment in the project. And yet, he was obviously friends with Cressida, who was every calm, seraphic psychiatrist Eddie had ever met, which was, unfortunately quite a few.

Cressida didn’t need his input as much as Richards did, but liked to maintain contact with him anyway, asking him vague, leading questions about his personal ideals for the project. He either ‘forgot’ to respond to these, or left them until much later if he replied at all. Her ever so subtle fishing was unwelcome, and he focussed his efforts on Richards’s demands. It was all development, but Eddie could see the holes even over an email and was borderline rude in pointing them out. Richards would respond with a completely stoic instruction that Eddie come up with solutions.

So he did.

By the time he arrived back on campus, Eddie had sent out his feelers in every direction. Despite what he had told Brendan, he really did know a lot of people. People who either owed him something, or loved him enough to give him what he wanted anyway. Richards suddenly found that his staff of seven had increased to about twenty within the space of a month, all beavering away at the little projects Richards or Eddie assigned them. Cornelius was happy to design a website as long as he didn’t have to manage it, and Eddie remembered Dianne from a brief computer language course and recruited her for that job. Richards needed flyers and posters designed and printed, and Eddie knew Strawberry (actually Eliza, but she was finding herself) worked at a printer and just adored him since they had gotten drunk together at “Out and Proud” a few years earlier. As an afterthought, Eddie had enlisted Deon too, so that he could educate the others on the actual side effects of most commonly encountered drugs, though he did warn the man not to share that Eddie had been his guinea pig for those discoveries. It might be misunderstood….hell, it very definitely would be misunderstood.

So he pulled into the parking lot, with “More than a feeling” blasting from his radio, because it just felt that good to be back. He almost skipped up to his dorm room to briefly drop his bag there before heading off to see Richards.

He rapped on Mr Richards’s door, too jaunty to care if he irritated the man. He was Eddie again, Eddie was exempt from mundane rules that dictated he knock quietly. Instead, he rapped a quick tattoo on the glass fronted door of Richards’ office, feeling jaunty and light.

Apart from his four weeks in the Philippines, spent indulging in the most wonderful pastime of doing whatever he pleased, he had been diligently working on the rape crisis centre. Knowing his parents were watching over his shoulder made it necessary, but it also provided a perfect excuse to remove himself from their company after any time longer than five minutes. It was a win –win.

And now, he was refreshed and ready to be back and mostly, away from home.

As usual, Richards was sitting behind his carefully maintain desk, with his colour coded in-trays and neatly stacked papers. He was incredibly tidy. One might almost say fanatical, if he could ever apply that word to the stoic vision that was Richards.

“Yoo-hoo!” Eddie greeted. “Miss me?”

Richards ignored that, but indicated for Eddie to sit down.

“Your chairs,” Eddie said after shifting about a bit. “Are far too short.”

“They’re average sized. And you’re not here to talk about chairs.”

“No, I suppose not. Although, we should discuss those appalling chairs in the prefab. Yuck yuck yuck.”

Richards held out a thick folder to him which Eddie took and opened in a bored way.

“That,” Richards told him, “is what we have so far in terms of planning and basic infrastructure. And also the outline for our next steps, based on what you sent me last.”

Eddie glanced at him then him. “And why are you giving it to me?”

Richards’ shoulders hunched a little, which possibly meant he was exasperated. Who could say?

“Because, Eddie, you have a talent for finding the flaws, and redirecting to the best way forward.”

Eddie made a thoughtful face. “Well, thank you for the compliment.”

“You were taking this seriously last month.”

“Well yes, I did, and it was lots of fun, but surely you can take the training wheels off now? You don’t need me holding your hand?” Eddie knew he was being cheeky, but it was just extremely hard to resist trying to needle Richards.

Richards leaned back in his chair and looked at him over a pair of non-existent spectacles.

“Eddie, you need to stop fucking around.”

Eddie raised a hand to his mouth in mock astonishment. But Richards went on, spoiling his quirky retort.

“You cannot be ‘here’, and then not be ‘here’. If you’re going to be involved in this, we need you to do it 100%, or you’re just wasting everyone’s time. Honestly, you have a talent for this. It may humble me slightly to admit it, but we have come a lot further in the last month with you on board than we had without you. We could genuinely use your help. And that includes everyone who will one day benefit from this project. So if you’re here, be here.”

Eddie did stall a bit then. He had been enjoying it…..And he did have to have something to show his parents at the end of the day, so pulling out now would be stupid. But he didn’t want to look like he had caved-in too quickly.

“You’re ruining my buzz. I have a life to live, friends to drink with, fun to plan…” he pouted.

Richards didn’t bat an eye. “You can do all those things and still work on the project. And some of your friends are involved anyway. Besides, by the looks of your transcript, you will have no trouble juggling this many balls.”

“Oh my, Richards, was that an innuendo?”

Richards gave him a deadpan look. “No.”

Clearly, he wasn’t going to budge, so Eddie rolled his eyes dramatically. “Oh all right. Since you’re being so congenial about it.” He leaned forward, opening the file and pointing at a headline. “I can already see a hole. This won’t work, because you need more manpower, which means more money and you don’t have that in your current budget.”

Richards did look mildly annoyed then and glanced at his door, as if he could see right out of it, down the corridors and into the dean’s office. “Hmm, yes, funding is becoming a real issue here.”

“What’s the problem?”

“The board say that they can’t put any more money into this until actual results are seen.”

Eddie made disgusted face. “They want us to open a box with the crowbar inside the box.”

“Well put.”

Eddie stared at the ceiling for a moment, then back to Richards. “I have an idea. Let me think on it.”

Richards raised an eyebrow. “Alright. I’ll be here.” He pushed the file back to Eddie. “Take this with you please. I’d like your feedback latest tomorrow.”

“Oh woe is me, and where will I have the time to eat, sleep and bathe?”

Richards didn’t respond, and was back to typing and staring at his laptop screen. Eddie left quickly, the wheels already turning in his mind.