Dean 2005 (The return)

Dean had been travelling for two days straight, he was tired and grumpy he reached in to his suit pocket to retrieve the key to his front door, he thought it was strange that the lights where on, it was 2am, everyone should be asleep. He suddenly felt a deep sense of panic, somthing must be wrong. He cautiously opened the door of the town house that he shared with his Dad, Stepmother and half-brother. Dean could hear sobbing coming from the sitting room and the familiar voice of Ben talking in soothing tones. He entered the room taking in the scene of his step-mother sat on the sofa with her son holding her tight while she sobbed uncontrollably. He looked to Ben whose face was ashen and full of worry, his brother's face twitched when he was uncomfortable, he was only 13 and his emotions clearly showed on his face, his mother clinging to him for dear life, was an unprecedented situation for the teenager.

Dean went straight to Denise and took over the comforting duties, much to the relief of his younger brother. He stuttered out an explanation that their dad had had a heart attack and had been taken to the hospital and was currently undergoing emergency surgery to remove the blocked artery. That was all he knew Dean reassured the boy and sent him to his room telling him he would be up to see him as soon as he could. Dean could see the tears starting to form in his brothers green eyes, something they had both inherited from their father, he sat and waited for Denise to stop sobbing and found out exactly what had happened. The heart attack had happened a few hours ago, when he had been on a flight back from Italy, which explained why nobody had tried to contact him, they where all too busy concentrating on getting his dad treatment. Denise had finally cried herself to sleep, so he carried her upstairs and placed her in her bed. It was strange how small and fragile his step-mother seamed, she was usually a very composed individual, who was placid and faced emergencies head on. If Denise was in this much of a state the situation was dire.

The following morning Dean had risen as early as possible, he felt rough suffering from jet lag but he needed to take control of the situation. He was on the phone to the hospital as soon as he was dressed, it was good news his Dad had made it out of surgery and was showing signs of recovery. The news was relayed to the rest of the family, and everyone felt a little more at ease. Dean had called Ben's school, and reorganised Denise's work load. So that they could spend the day recovering from the shock, and visit the hospital to see his dad.

Dean was going to take on the work load of both parents while his dad recovered so Denise could spend the time with her husband. He knew his dad would be in good hands.

After a few weeks Dean had settled in to his role at head office, he usually had to travel every where to check on the group hotels. It was a perfect fit for him over the last year, after his divorce from his wife. It gave him space and distance to allow him to deal with everything that his ex had done to him and his family, but he was enjoying being settled in one place and working back at the hotel that held happy memories and a special place in his heart.

He had wandered down to the restaurant a few days ago, it had changed a lot on 5 years. It had been where he had cut his teeth in management and where she had been. He was busy having a look around before service hours, chatting to the manager and the chef, when he thought he saw her. He thought he was seeing ghosts and shrugged it off as a longing for the past. However after leaving the restaurant and walking back to the elevator he saw her again. This time he was positive he had seen Jessica.

He followed her at a distance and saw her disappear in to a conference room, with a group of other people there where several of the hotel managers milling around outside the room, so Dean asked them what was happening. Apparently Denise had decided to run a graduate programme to encourage the next generation, he had read something about it in his briefing notes but had other more urgent issues to deal with in the absence of his father and he trusted that Denise would of employed loyal and hard working management teams.

He left the conference room area and made his way back to his office. He called in the human resources manager and requested the information on Jessica Walker. It was sent to him immediately and he spent the next few hours studying it. He read everything the company had collected on her, her application, her resume her dissertation that she had submitted as part of the application process. She was just as fascinating as she had been all those years ago. He saw that she had a son, so he was disappointed, because surely that meant she was in a relationship, but she had listed she was a single mother, so this had given him hope. He knew he had to see her again so he began to form a plan.

The day that she was due in for the final round of interviews he had asked the lovley Tiffany to redirect Jessica Walker to the executive offices. Tiffany was the perfect front desk receptionist, she was kind, friendly, approachable and excellent at customer service. His step-mother really did have a good eye for placing people in the correct job. This was why she mostly ran the company rather than his father. After leaving Tiffany with his instructions he had returned to executive offices, left instructions with the secretary at the office lobby and sat in his office waiting for Jessica's arrival.

The office intercom buzzed and he heard the voice of the secretary telling him she was here. He felt like a kid at Christmas, so excited to see her face again, even though she had betrayed him, she was someone who had never left his heart. He heard the soft knock at the door and it opening he heard two sets of steps enter the room, he turned his chair to face the door..

'Hello Jess, nice to see you again.'

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