Buster had decided that he did not want to share a bed with Sarah and Al that night; Sarah had closed all the other doors, so he had to settle on the sofa.  When they emerged the next morning, he made a mad dash for Sarah’s bed and sat on the pillows bristling and growling ominously.  Feeling that even Buster’s tantrums could do little to spoil her mood, Sarah left him where he was, and after putting his food down and cleaning out the litter tray, she got on with finding something to them both to eat that wouldn’t be affected by pre-press call nerves.  Al was very reassuring on the drive to work, but reminded her that she couldn’t refer to any details regarding Marta, Natasha or the pending Coroner’s verdict.

“Just stick to the fact that your attackers are unwell, and that you are extremely grateful for the self-defence lessons, and that fact the night security guard was so on the ball.”

“And you.  You were on the ball too.”

“Just be prepared for the tabloid journos to make nasty comments about us.”

“Will they? Really?”

“The trashy ones probably will.  I’ve stood in at too many of these press calls; they start off well enough but if you don’t give them what you want, they start digging at you.  Bit like Oliver really.”

“Oh, well.  If I can handle Oliver …”

“Just don’t let them wind you up, and if in doubt blink at me.”

“No sucker punches this time though.”

“Okay.  Here we go.  We’ll probably have to run a bit of a gauntlet just to get in the studio.  Just keep walking and smile – a bit.”

There was a crowd of people outside the door; fluffy microphone booms, cameras, and handheld microphones.  Al managed to shield Sarah from them and get her in through the side doors.  The camera flashes were blinding and disorientating, causing her to regret making the decision to come into work today.  Jenny was waiting by the security desk, and gave her a hug, carefully avoiding the dressing side of Sarah’s face.  The press call was scheduled for nine-thirty in one of the recording studios.  Al signed them both in, gave Sarah her lanyard, and then, as defiant gesture, he took the hand that was wearing the engagement ring and kissed it, before whispering in her ear.

“Be strong.  This will all blow over quickly. I’ll see you at the press call.”

Jenny and Sarah went upstairs in the lift, for a meeting with Oliver and some of the legal team about what should and shouldn’t be said.

“How bad is it under the dressing?” asked Oliver.

Jenny showed him the picture she’d been sent yesterday.

“Ouch.  You came off worse then?”

“Not really, Al knocked Marta out with a punch, and Natasha broke her ankle again when she fell over. The pair of them were hell bent on stabbing me.  The knife came from Natasha’s Mummy’s kitchen apparently.”

“That woman has a lot to answer for.  Am I right in thinking that Natasha has left a trail of disaster in her wake?”

The woman from the Legal team produced a printed list from her folder and handed it to Oliver.

“Jesus Christ!” he said, “Who employed this nasty little female in the first place?”

“Erm. You did,” she said, “Sorry Oliver, but your signature is on her contract, and yours is too, Jenny.  We are well aware that there was pressure from the Chief Executive’s department due to Natasha’s mother being employed there.  There is also a question of the girl’s references; they were never followed up, again possibly due to her mother’s position in the Chief Execs office.  Looking more closely at them, the information is largely identical, and can be traced back to members of the maternal family who should never have given references in the first place.  We’ve checked out her CV as well now; her actual exam grades were very poor; she didn’t attend a university or get a degree. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have even got through to an interview stage.”

Oliver and Jenny were looking very uncomfortable; the woman turned to Sarah with another piece of paper.

“This is a list of subjects that we don’t want you to discuss at the press call, Sarah.  You were not employed by the company at the time when the gentleman took his life, and I believe that your colleague Millie was on leave.  As a consequence, you are not to be drawn into answering any questions regarding the inquest. As far as we can see, the situation regarding your attacker was dealt with efficiently, and the only fly in the ointment appears to have been Natasha acting on her own agenda. By the same token, the security staff acted in a timely and effective manner, but we understand that you are in a relationship with one of the staff, and this may draw some unwanted questions.  You must be careful not to name any names as both females involved in the attack are under investigation.  Is that clear?”

Sarah nodded and put the piece of paper down on the desk.

“I was hoping to focus on the importance of getting help for people who behave in a way where they may harm themselves or anyone else.  I was also hoping to say something about the importance of self-defence techniques for women and girls.  If I hadn’t had those lessons as a part of my job, I might possible have been very badly injured or even dead. Touching on the actions of the security staff; Al asked me to marry him yesterday, and my answer was yes.  This is not being done out of gratitude, we’ve actually been seeing each for some months now, but we were quite discreet about it, weren’t we Jenny?”

Jenny nodded, feeling at last that this was something that she had actually done right.

“If you ask Al, he will quite categorically tell you that he didn’t save my life; the communication between us was so good that he was able to understand that I was about to do something to alter the situation, and I needed him to be ready to react. He is a brave and very intelligent man, and I don’t like the way you dismiss him as ‘just a security guard’. Mike, the guy who was on night duty, also played a very important part in the whole incident too.  If anyone deserves some gratitude and praise, he does too. I appreciate the importance of not saying any more than I need to say, and not allowing myself to be goaded by any over-eager reporters.  I’m doing this press call because I hope it will give the whole team some much-needed positive publicity.  I sustained a minor injury, the people responsible were arrested, and those who provided support and medical treatment did an excellent job.  Will that do?”

There was a bit of a stunned silence, and then a round of applause, particularly from Jenny.  Feeling that she had said enough, Sarah went into the wardrobe and makeup room, and allowed herself to be subjected to some very gentle hair-brushing, a dab or two of powder and reapplication of lipstick. Jenny led her down to the sound stage, where Al was already waiting, together with Oliver and two of the legal team.  The usually crowded audience area held half a dozen reporters with microphones and cameras.  Sarah recognised some of them from outside the building; there was one young man in particular who had been particularly pushy as they were trying to get in through the doors.

It wasn’t easy, and Sarah felt the strain of media manipulation as every comment she made was subjected to being twisted and misinterpreted, especially by the unpleasant young man. She decided that smiling at him was the best technique, as the pain it caused helped her to focus and not be tricked into saying anything unnecessary. The other members of the media were more obliging, and eventually they were telling the young man to shut up, and let someone else ask questions.

Then it was over. Equipment was switched off and the room emptied.  Al took Sarah’s hand, and gave her an indiscreet kiss on the pain-free cheek.

“You were awesome; especially with that scrawny little idiot from the Mail.”

“The Mail!  I could have guessed.  Let’s hope the more responsible reporters will print the truth rather some sensationalist rubbish.  Luckily no one I know reads that paper anyway.  I guess we’d better get out of here so they can set up for filming this afternoon?”

“Sorry Sarah.” said Jenny.  “We’ve cancelled today’s recording.  We lost most of yesterday being tied up with the investigations into the inquest, so there wasn’t enough time to prepare for today.  We’ve got some cases lined up for Friday but nothing even vaguely controversial.”

“That’s right!  Friday’s show will be a sanitised version.” said Oliver coldly.

“I take it that the guests still have problems to work through though?  Perhaps this is a time when we need to be more pastoral and less confrontational.”

“Saint Sarah! I hope that I know rather more about what the viewing public wants than you do.”

“I’m sure that you do Oliver.  Strangely enough, even after all that’s happened, I can still see the good in people, and I hope that never changes. I’m due for painkillers now, so if you’ll excuse me?”

Al ushered a very angry Sarah out of the sound stage and into the nearest pod.  He checked to make sure that the camera was switched off, and held her very close. He could sense that she was on the verge of tears, but determined not to cry in front of Oliver.  He passed her his handkerchief.

“Ungrateful little git!” she muttered.

“Yes, he is.  I’ve no doubt that he’ll get it in the neck from his wife when he gets home.  Do you want to hear some good news?”

“Yes please?”

“Millie’s home and she’s on the way over with her surprise.  She said that she couldn’t wait until you got home.  I take it that your phone has been switched off?”

“Hasn’t been switched on since we got here this morning.  When did she text you?”

“Just before the press call.  I had a feeling you might need something to cheer you up afterwards.”

“I do love you, Al.”

“It’s mutual.  I need to get back downstairs to the front desk so that I can greet Millie and bring her upstairs.  Will you be okay now?”

“I’ll go back to the office, and see what the team think of my Phantom disguise.”