After what felt like the longest, noisiest train journey in the world, Emily and I emerged bleary-eyed onto the platform in our small town. We waved goodbye to the friends who had alighted with us and got into a taxi for the short journey home. Stumbling in the front door, we barely had time to say hello to our parents before we were being relieved of our rucksacks and various other containers and the first load going in the washing machine. Our mum was well versed in our post festival routine, and took over the mountains of washing while we showered and put the rest of our gear away.

Sitting in front of my computer a few hours later, I decided to upload my pictures from my phone to Facebook. Thinking about it, I also decided to tighten up my security and privacy settings and have a minor clear out of my friends list, people I didn't really know well or hadn't spoken to in years were taken off. I didn't have much on my phone, a few from the campsite and of various bands, and one or two of Richard and the rest of the guys from backstage. I uploaded them anyway, waiting patiently for Billy to get around to uploading his. Smiling wryly to myself, I also changed my relationship status to "in a relationship", which I noticed Emily had also done. I browsed the internet for half an hour or so, and finding nothing too interesting had happened, I decided to get my things together for work the next day before dinner. I put my phone and my Kindle on charge, found my ID pass and made sure my clothes and makeup were set out ready for the morning. Soon we were called through for dinner, and our dad had made us chicken salads which tasted amazing compared to the festival junk food we had been eating for the past week. We chatted about our time away, and told them we had each met someone. I thought that maybe they were under the impression that they were just "flings" of sorts, because they didn't ask any prying questions like the normally would.

We headed to bed early, still tired even though we had both slept for five hours or so on the train. It felt strange going back to normality, especially since this year the festival had been different for both of us. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, my phone started to beep, the screen showing an incoming call on Facetime. I answered it, and was greeted with the background noise, hum and chatter of a busy party. Richard's face appeared on the screen, and I turned my bedside lamp on so that he wasn't speaking to darkness.

"Hey sweetie." He grinned at me, looking slightly tipsy. His hair was done perfectly and he was wearing a black long sleeved shirt and had a spiked collar around his neck.

"Hey." I replied, stifling a yawn. "How was your journey home?"

"Oh it was fine, didn't take anywhere as long as yours did, and I slept the whole way." He shrugged. "How was yours, did I disturb your sleep?"

"No, I wasn't sleeping yet. Mine was uncomfortable and smelly, and I'm glad to be home in my nice clean bed." I laughed. The background noise faded as he moved away from the groups of people, into another room which was apparently empty. He sat down and lit up a cigarette, inhaling deeply then exhaling slowly, looking like he was enjoying himself. "So what's the party for?" I asked, suddenly awake again.

"Ah, some record company thing." He waved his hand like it didn't matter. "They do it every so often, only Till and I are here, the rest of the guys have gone home to spend time with their wives and families."

"You haven't gone to see your own little one?"

"No, she was napping when my flight landed and by the time we had done our radio interview and travelled into the city, it was too late again. I'll visit tomorrow, I guess."

"I hope you enjoy yourself." I smiled, feeling a slight pang of jealousy that his ex would probably get to see him more than I would.

"I will. The only way I could enjoy myself more would be if you could come with me." He said sweetly.

"Well, unfortunately for us both, I'm back at work tomorrow and it'll be a loooong day." I groaned, thinking about the paperwork and things that would have built up in my absence.

"Oh, honey." He sympathised. "I better let you get some sleep, I'll call tomorrow if I can, probably sometime after 8?"

"Sounds good. Night, Reesh." We said goodbye and hung up, and I fell asleep with the stupidest grin on my face.

*****

I was woken what felt like far too soon by my alarm, which was the intro to "Wake Up" by Emigrate. I snorted a laugh to myself switching it off, stretching as I sat up. I sent Richard a message, saying "morning love, hope you don't have a sore head this morning. enjoy your visit to your daughter and have fun. I miss you, looking forward to your call tonight.x", climbed out of bed reluctantly and went to the bathroom for my morning shower. An hour later I was ready to go, and with fifteen minutes to spare until I had to leave to catch my bus, I logged onto Facebook to see if anyone else had uploaded pictures. Billy had, and I was tagged in several of them. Looking through them, I saved the ones I liked the best and sighed inwardly with relief at the fact that none were too unflattering. There was a really cute one of Richard and I that someone had taken when we weren't looking: I was lying against his chest with his arms wrapped around me, his chin was resting on the top of my head and we were listening intently to someone off camera - I think it was Paul. Billy had also taken photos of the concert from the side of the stage he was on, and I giggled as I made the picture of the Rammstein boys bowing to the crowd - taken from behind! - my cover photo.

Looking at the clock on the desktop I realised it was time to leave. I checked my notifications, and I had several "likes" on my relationship changes, including a couple from some coworkers. I would be in for an interrogation today, that was for sure! I pulled on my hoodie and checked that everything I needed was in my bag, then left, picking up a satchet of cat food on the way out the door, saying a quick hello to the cat and giving her some breakfast before walking the short distance to the bus stop.

Arriving at the hospital 30 minutes later, I made my way to the staff room to have another quick coffee before my shift started. When I arrived in the lab, I pulled on my white coat and checked my pigeonhole - only three messages which was good - one about new reagent stock being tested; one about a new member of staff starting in a related department; and one about a charity bakesale that was happening the following week. As more staff started to arrive, a few people who I wasn't as friendly with said their hellos and how-was-your-weekends, and settled into the first van load of work that arrived. When the coworkers that I properly got along with started to arrive later in the shift, I was bombarded with questions about the festival and Richard.

"I can't believe you ended up with a guy that's the spitting image of that one from that band you're obsessed with!" Aaren laughed, shaking her head in amusement.

"Er..." I started, but noticing the look on my face, Shona interrupted.

"Ohhh, he's not a doppelganger, is he? Hah, I knew it! Our girl bagged herself a rockstar!" She did a little dance right there in the middle of the lab, which had us all laughing.

"Yeah...that's him." I smiled, unloading yet another bag of samples that had just arrived, putting handfuls into smaller boxes to share them out between workstations. "He is pretty awesome." I admitted. The rest of the shift was spent with me telling the story of the festival, and answering their questions as they asked them. When my phone beeped and I noticed I had a picture message from Richard, they all aww'ed when I showed them the picture of him and his daughter.

"Who's the wee one?" Evelyn asked. Evelyn was one of the "morning" staff who I wasn't as close friends with. Not that I didn't like her, we got along fine, we just weren't as involved with each other.

"That's his youngest daughter." I smiled, not sure how she would take this next relevation, since she was an older lady and also quite staunchly religious.

"Youngest?" She asked, a puzzled look on her face.

"Yeah, she's three years old. He has a son, who is twenty, and an older daughter who is twenty-two."

"And you're twenty-four." She stated, a disapproving look starting to spread over her face.

"Yep." I confirmed. "He's 46, if you're interested."

"And what does his presumably ex-wife think of this?" She asked tartly.

"I don't think she gives much of a crap." I shrugged. "His ex girlfriend, the little one's mum, she's the only one likely to have an issue. She is in fact not much older than I am. As for Merlin's mum and Khira's mum...they've long moved on with their lives, I'm sure they don't care much either." This speech left her a little gobsmacked, and Shona, Aaren and the others were stifling laughs at my mini-outburst. I knew that by the end of the day I would have been labelled a gold digger and a home wrecker, but I couldn't care less about what they thought of me. My friends, family, and Richard were the only opinions who mattered. The rest of the shift passed uneventfully, and I was impatient to get home and talk to Richard. I felt like a teenager again, waiting by the phone to talk to my crush.

The next couple of weeks passed this way, Richard and I communicated through text message, Facetime and Skype, and I threw myself back into work, updating all the lab paperwork and SOP's, and filling my time as much as I could to keep busy. My supervisor had mentioned several times how impressed she was with my new attitute towards work and had hinted more than once that another supervisor position was likely to be opening up soon.

******

One Friday in the lab, I was in charge of doing the tours from foreign visitors. The hospital was a teaching hospital which got the majority of it's funding from allowing students and foreign visitors to tour the hospital, the lab in particular, since we were one of the few who had the current set up of analysers and equipment which was rather impressive for one which wasn't run by a private healthcare company. I had not long waved off a group of five or six people visiting from Sweden, who had peppered me with questions about time frames, reagent use and downtime efficiency, and my head was spinning. I was taking a five minute break to grab a drink and half a sandwich when April, my supervisor, called me back through to the lab. I groaned and pulled my lab coat back on, cursing the fact that I had decided to wear boots. My feet were too hot and killing me, and the discomfort was dampening my mood. Added to the fact that I hadn't heard from Richard since the previous morning, it was turning into a bad day. I was just getting greedy, I told myself. He took the time to call me every single night before bed, surely I could give him a bit of time off once in a while. This was going to be his first full weekend off in ages and he probably wanted to spend it with his family. The logic of my thoughts didn't stop me missing him, though.

"What's up?" I asked April, arriving back at the front of the lab.

"Sorry babe, I just got a call from the main hospital reception, it looks like your next load of visitors have arrived early." She explained. I looked at the clock.

"Three hours early!" I groaned again. "Oh well. They only give us an estimation of when they'll arrive, I guess. I'll have my lunch after this tour." My stomach chose that moment to growl and April and I laughed. "Where are this group from?" I asked, checking the diary over her shoulder.

"Germany." She said, pointing at the next entry with "@ ~16:00" written next to it.

"Typical." I muttered to myself. "Thanks April." I smiled, fastening my lab coat properly and leaving the lab again, walking up to the main reception to let the visitors in. I plastered my most welcoming smile onto my face and turned the corner only to squeal in surprise as I was confronted with Richard standing not five feet in front of me. I ran up to him and threw my arms around his neck, ignoring the stares I was getting from staff, patients and visitors alike. He hugged me back tightly, chuckling softly into my hair, happy that he had surprised me.

"You could have told me you were coming! I could have taken the day off work!" I protested, releasing him slightly so I could look into his face. He leaned down and kissed me lightly, then took my hand as I started to walk back to the lab, leading him with me.

"I wanted to surprise you." He said sheepishly.

"How on earth did you know where to find me? And which department to ask for?" I asked.

"Emily." He replied simply. I sighed and shook my head. My sister and her love of surprises.

"Well. I'm supposed to be giving tours of the lab today, so my hands are pretty full." But he's come all this way from Berlin to see you. My mind protested. "I guess I could ask April for the day off, she probably wouldn't mind doing a tour for a change." I hazarded. Thankfully, April was more than happy to give me the rest of the day off, and take over my duties for the remainder of my shift. "Thanks hun, I owe you one!" I called to her as I removed my lab coat, washed my hands and waved goodbye to my workmates. I retrieved my hoodie and bag from my locker and walked back to the front of the lab to meet Richard. He was, somewhat unsurprisingly, surrounded by my friends who were taking the opportunity to bombard him with questions. He was taking it all in his stride - it was probably unusual for him to have such a large group of people interested in Richard Kruspe my boyfriend as opposed to Richard Kruspe from Rammstein. I took his hand and disentangled him from their group, and waved to them again as we walked back to the main entrance of the hospital.

"You do know how to please people." I laughed, wrapping my arm around his waist and leaning into him slightly, enjoying the feel of him and the fact that he was really here beside me again after what felt like so long. He led me to where he had parked his car, in the drop off point infront of the hospital. I admired the car, it was a rental, but it was also some sort of fancy BMW - I was useless when it came to cars but this one was definitely impressive. I climbed into the passenger seat and he got into the drivers side. He turned to look at me after he closed the door, and within seconds we were kissing passionately; weeks of suppressed emotion pouring out of us. I was immersed in his scent, the feeling of his mouth on mine and his hands on my back and in my hair, and the taste of him. We sprang apart with a jolt as someone knocked sharply on the window: it was the parking attendant. He pointed at the sign that read "Drop Off Point - 15mins Max" and motioned for us to move on. We grinned and nodded at him and Richard started the car, laughing as we pulled away.

"So sweetheart," he said. "What do you want to do? We have all weekend..."