Title: Room Service
Author: Cousin Shelley 
With Permission from: Arletta Asbury and Cousin Tok

Time: After "LC and LN Return to CERK" and  "Pinky and LaCroix???"

Sitting in the rec room of CERK, Shelley and Arletta were trying to
decide what to do.  Arletta's "nice" LaCroix had taken over their 
room, and neither one of them wanted to go in there and disturb
him.  Especially since Cousin Tok had told them about the "Pinky 
and the Brain" video incident earlier.  It was painfully obvious 
that he was *not* in a good mood.

Looking at the pieces of crushed video tape on the floor forlornly, 
Shelley said "maybe we could sleep here?".

"Or we could get LaCroix a room and use it ourselves, just for
tonight", Arletta countered, stifling a yawn.

"Do you think he'll mind?"

"We'll be out of it before he even knows", Arletta promised.  

"Good plan" Shelley agreed.

With that, They both headed down to the lobby area of CERK to get 
a room for the vampire and to hopefully get some much needed rest.


*******************************

Opening up the door to the room on the 12th floor they had gotten
for LaCroix, Shelley and Arletta were happily surprised at the
plushness of it.  It made a striking contrast to their own small
room.

Shelley had the inebriated Nick in tow, and she led him to a small 
couch where he immediately passed out.  Shaking her head in dismay,
she crossed to one of the soft beds and sat down gratefully.  It
had been a *long* day...or night, or whatever this was.  She looked
over at Arletta and they grinned at each other.  Five minutes later,
they were both sleeping soundly.


*******************************

LaCroix opened up his eyes and tried to remember where he was.  Then
it all came flooding back to him...the drunken Nick, the Natalie
who thought she was married to him, the Urs who he'd upset, the
Janette who had tricked him in the dungeon, and that awful nightmare
about being a cartoon mouse.  

He decided it was time to put all that behind him and hope that
he would return to his own universe soon.  At least there he
knew what to expect from people.  Here, one never knew.

Sitting up, he remembered he had borrowed this room from the two
women, Arletta and Shelley.  They had said something about getting
his own room, and he decided that would be his first order of 
business.  Leaving the small room, he headed down to the lobby
area of the radio station.


********************************

Shelley peeled her tired eyes open.  The clock in the dark room read
midnight.  Still plenty of time to sleep before LaCroix would wake
up and they would switch rooms.  Nothing to worry about.  Lots of
time.  

She allowed her eyes to close again and sleep retook her quickly.


********************************

LaCroix was puzzled.  The girl at the desk had told him he already
had a room.  That was strange.  The thought occurred to him that one
of the others must have gotten it while he slept.  He smiled, and
wondered idly who it might have been.  Probably either Arletta or
Shelley, or possibly even Urs had done it.  It didn't matter, he 
now had the key and could go relax by himself.

He headed to the elevator and rode it to the 12th floor, smiling
at the prospect of having some peace, quiet, and time alone.


********************************

There was a noise.  Shelley's groggy mind registered it, but did
not wake up. 

Another one, sounded like a key.  A key in a lock.  Yes, that's
what it was, no need to wake up for that.  She tried to go back
to sleep.

Arletta mumbled something from the next bed.  "Mmmmm".  Then she
went back to sleep as well.

The light snapped on, and they both jumped to a sitting position,
confused and alarmed.  Looking towards the door, they saw a LaCroix 
looking at the passed out Nick on the sofa.  He had his back turned
to the two women, who looked at each other with worried expressions.

"Nicholas, what are you doing in *my* room?" LaCroix asked the 
sleeping form.  "Mmmmphsh" came the reply.

"Nicholas?" he asked again.  This time there was no reply, and he
shook his head as he turned around to inspect the rest of the 
room.  Expecting it to be empty, he was clearly surprised at the
two figures before him.

"And just what are *you two* doing in MY ROOM?" he asked, not as
pleasantly as they were hoping for.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhh" was all Arletta could utter.

"Whaaaa....What t-t-time is it?" Shelley asked, confused by sleep and
rather terrified.

"There *is* no time, *remember*??" LaCroix answered dryly.  "Why are
you in my room?"

"Ummmmmmmm, uhhhhh" Arletta said.  She was trying desperately to put 
together a complete sentence, and failing miserably.

"You were, uhhhh, we thought, ummmm..." Shelley tried to explain. 
Looking at the expression this LaCroix wore, she decided it would be
better just to leave.  She gave Arletta a meaningful look, and they
both grabbed their shoes and ran for the door.

As the door closed behind them, LaCroix looked amused.  "I wonder 
what all that was about," he mused.

Once they were safely in the hall, Shelley breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good thing that was the *nice* LaCroix" she said.  Arletta shook her
head in agreement.

"Uh oh" Shelley said, slapping her forehead.

"I don't like the sound of that", Arletta replied, "what?"

"I forgot about Nick...he's still in there", she wailed.

"Let LaCroix watch him", Arletta said, giggling a little at the idea.

Shelley thought about how much trouble the drunken vampire could be.
She giggled happily at the prospect of not having to watch him 
herself and the two headed for the elevator, still grinning.