I am not worried. There is nothing you can't handle. Robbie.

The fear that had fuelled her morning depression shrunk back into proportion. As long as Robbie believed in her, she knew she could see this storm through. A warm, fuzzy feeling filled her heart. I wish people knew Robbie as I knew her. She slipped into her house-coat and padded softly out of the bedroom and down the hall to peep around the corner.

Robbie was sitting on the floor with Reb between her legs watching The Roadrunner cartoon on T.V. They were sporting matching black eyes. "See, Reb, there is good animation in the character, but none in the background. That's how you save time and money. You gotta watch those below the line costs when you're a director. Good point-of- view here as the Roadrunner falls off the cliff again. You see him from the top and then from underneath and then below ground level all within a twenty second time frame. You remember, I told you there are twenty-four cels to a second of animation, so that scene had about eight to ten cels."

"Oadunna Ody! Oadunna!" squealed Rebecca with delight, pointing to the screen.

"That's right, Rebel. Roadrunner."

"What's a cel?" asked Janet, leaning in the doorway watching the two interact with delight.

Robbie looked up in surprise and a blush crept up her neck. "It's a word Disney created. Short for celluloid, which is the type of plastic the cartoons are painted on."

"Do you do cartoons too, Robbie?" asked Janet coming over to the pair.

"Mommy!" demanded Rebecca, standing up and holding her arms up to be lifted. Robbie patted the spot beside her. Instead of picking Reb up, Janet curled up beside the director on the floor and let Reb climb into her lap.

"Morning, Reb," Janet greeted her daughter, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "You, little one, are up very early."

"We went for a walk after my run this morning," explained Robbie, proudly.

Janet looked up and smiled with delight into Robbie's eyes and Robbie found her insides melting like an over heated candle. My God, she wanted this woman! She'd felt desire many times before but not like this. This was a hunger that just wasn't going to be denied.

"I need to be getting ready for work, but just share with me a little bit about what you and Reb have been talking about." Janet reached a hand out to briefly squeeze Robbie's arm. "Thank you for the flowers. It made my morning a lot brighter."

Robbie snapped back from her world of sensations and tried to remember what it had been she had been telling the kid! "Ahhh, you're welcome. Reb found them. No, I've never made a cartoon. It would be fun to try but it is hard to compete with companies the size of Disney. Even Universal can't match their work."

"How are they made?" asked Janet, enjoying the pride that Robbie took in her field. Robbie lost all her defensiveness when she talked about the art of film. Janet liked that side of her friend.

"Well, you start with the story, the script. Then the team is brought together to make a storyboard, which is like a big comic book only with just rough sketches. It's a brainstorming session where ideas are developed and interrelated. Once an idea is agreed on, it is written on the storyboard. That way, everyone working on separate parts of the production - animation, sound, background, special effects - will know how all the parts are to fit together."

"When you see an animated movie, you are actually seeing individual pictures moving at a rate of twenty-four frames per second. So, for every second of film the animator draws twenty-four pictures! In reality, the animator will do only the main positions of the character. They're called the extremes. The assistant animator draws the main interconnecting stages between the extremes, called the breakdowns. The less practiced artists, called inbetweeners, fill in the remaining sequences, called tweeners."

"Producing a cartoon feature takes a lot of time and money. It has to be a real team effort. A Disney or Universal production, of feature length, will take three to four years to produce and have around 400,000 drawings."

"But aren't they just produced by computer now?" asked Janet, looking at the cartoon closely as Roadrunner handed the coyote a stick of dynamite.

"Computers are used to set colour and create reversals and things like that but no, the only way to make a good cartoon is by hand. It is an amazing art form."

"So everything I'm seeing is done on cels?"

"The characters are. The backgrounds are painted. Each cel is put on, filmed, removed and the next one in the sequence put on."

"I guess I'd better not make some inane remark about cartoons being cute, kid stuff, huh?!" Janet laughed giving Robbie an affectionate push with her shoulder.

Robbie smiled down at her, one eyebrow raised. "Nope."

The urge to reach up and kiss Robbie was almost uncontrollable. Instead, Janet passed Reb back to her and got up. "Well, I've got a busy day. I'd better not be late."

Robbie watched Janet disappear back down the hall and then quickly picked Reb up and deposited her in her play pen. "Listen, Reb, play with Pooh Bear here for a bit and don't cry, got it?! I'll be right back!"

Janet stripped off her house-coat and nightie and turned on the shower to adjust the temperature. She turned back to get her shampoo and hit a human wall. "Ahh! Robbie! You scared me! How can anyone so big, move so silently," gasped Janet, recovering from her shock to feel a blush flooding her cheeks as she realized she was totally naked.

An eyebrow went up and the corner of a mouth raised in a bemused smile. "I had to follow you. You didn't give me a good morning kiss," reasoned Robbie.

"Hmmm, where's Reb?"

"Penned."

"Come here," ordered Janet with a smile as she wrapped her arms around Robbie's neck. There was no timidness this time. Open, hungry lips sought each other in a passionate dance. Tongues stroked and curled and sucked in a sensual imitation of things not yet done. Robbie let her hands slide down to cup Janet's round, firm bottom, and felt the responsive woman moan deep into her mouth.

Yes, now! Robbie thought and moved one hand to glide over a well defined waist, across tight abdomen muscles and up to the soft, warm breast. Robbie slipped her tongue deep into Janet's mouth as her thumb rubbed over a taunt nipple. Oh God, I'm going to come right here, Robbie thought as she bathed in the heat and scent of Janet's body.

Janet felt Robbie's explorations on a rush of heady sexual energy. Her whole being tingled with need and she rubbed herself along the lean hard body wrapped around her. She throbbed with want and tore Robbie's shirt free of her jeans so that she could run her hands across the silk-covered steel of the actor's chest. Ohhh, I should stop. Oh God, I can't! Then the hand that was rhythmically feeling her breast touched the area where the tumor lay.

Janet stepped back and leaned her head against Robbie's chest. "We can't."

"Why the hell not!" came the frustrated response, rough and breathless with desire.

Janet stood on her tip toes and kissed Robbie's cheek. "Because I'm not going to tie you to me when in a few days time my world could turn upside down. I can't anyway. I need to get ready for work and we can't leave Reb long," explained the teacher, unconsciously tracing patterns over Robbie's bra cup with the tip of her finger. Bother, she had fallen hard for this complex and moody woman.

"Okay," Robbie agreed with a sigh, as she kissed Janet lightly on her brow and lowered her hands to rest on Janet's hips. Janet's hands dropped slowly, weaving patterns across Robbie's chest, as she pulled her hands from under the T-shirt. Forest green eyes met winter blue. "This is not over," Robbie warned. "It is just beginning. I want you."

Janet nodded. She had entered that wind tossed sea and the elements were going to take her where they may in the next few days. One thing she knew was she wanted one night at least when she lay on golden sands and made love to Robbie to the beat of the sea of emotions that stormed within. " Nothing I can't handle," quoted Janet cheekily. Robbie laughed. "Now go get my daughter fed and dressed. I'm running late and need your help!'

Another quick kiss and Robbie was gone. Janet stepped into the now lukewarm shower and let the water beat against her sensitized flesh. My God, where is all this going?!

Janet gulped down the last mouthful of coffee as a too innocent Robbie and Reb stood by watching. "Okay, Wednesday, you went a round with Reb and lost, Thursday, you bought a truck, what is on the agenda for today?"

"Reb and I are going shopping," smiled Robbie.

"Well, that sounds harmless. If anyone asks for an autograph, please don't hand the baby away," laughed Janet, picking up her briefcase. "You sure you want to keep Rebecca all day? She can come with me to the daycare..."

"We'll be fine. She has to get used to me, in case you're laid up for a bit next week. We discussed this," responded Robbie, with an edge to her voice. Didn't Janet trust her!

Oh, oh, Williams' temper, observed Janet. "I know we did, but I'd hate Reb to get you in any trouble," giggled Janet, placing a kiss on her daughter's cheek and then Robbie's.

An eyebrow went up, "Funny!"

"Call me at lunch?" Janet asked in a worried voice, turning back at the door to look at the two trouble makers standing holding hands.

Robbie rolled her eyes. "I'll report in on regular intervals.

Janet laughed as she looked back through the now closed screen door. "You won't have to. Once people know you are in town, I'll get a constant report of your movements through the jungle telegraph!" Robbie snorted and Janet trotted down the porch steps and a few minutes later disappeared along the dirt road in her truck.

Robbie looked down at Reb. Reb looked up with a smile. "Kid, it is time to get the ingredients to seduce your mother. Come on!"

Gwen cradled the phone and cursed Robbie to a lower level of Hades than she had placed her yesterday. Her e-mail could patch hell a mile, she just wished she had shares in Bell Canada, and she'd had to post a security guard at the office door to repel boarders, in order to get any work done at all. And the instructions she and Brian were carrying out in Robbie's name indicated strongly that the woman was up to no good!

To her surprise, a ring came from her purse. Damn! The bastards have got my home number now! No, it might be her husband or one of the kids, she'd better answer it. "Hello, Gwen here!"

"Gwen, Robbie. Why can't I get through on the office phone?" came the impatient voice of Gwen's boss.

"Because you are behind at least a million others in line! That's why! Come back!" the harassed secretary responded.

"No! Listen, I'm in the grocery store. Do you know they've got these neat carts with seats for your kid? Where do I look for the Thanksgiving food?"

Silence. Robbie was clearly in one of her moods when she was going to try to stir things up. Patience! Then, "Robbie have you ever been in a grocery store before?"

"Sure I have, in grade two. Mrs. Rousseau bought the class to check out the vegetables."

"Oh God!" came the exasperated response.

"Hey, that was the Cook's job. It would have been presumptuous of me to interfere!" responded her boss, hiding her irritation behind a mask of sarcasm. It wasn't a crime to be raised rich.

"How do you eat?!"

"Eat out or cater in."

"How can you look the way you do and have such appalling eating patterns?! Okay, listen, above all don't lose your temper. Everyone has right of way over you because you're the new guy. Don't block the aisles, and if anything goes wrong give your name as Lucy Lawless," ordered Gwen, doing a little stirring herself. She got the response she wanted.

"I DO NOT LOOK LIKE LUCY LAWLESS!"

"Hmmm, first, we look for the meat counter. It's a cold section, usually towards the back of the store."

"Okay, here, Reb say hi to Aunty Gwen while I steer this thing. I have to get the one with the rusted wheels. It probably spent the winter in a snow drift and was only salvaged last spring," muttered Robbie, striding awkwardly with the wonky cart towards the back of the store.

Reb giggled gleefully. "Hi!"

"Hi, Rebecca! How are you?"

"Hi."