Coming Home •cth• 3/3

Chapter Two

Still slightly ajar from what River had just told me, I found the folder on my desk retaining the immigration information on the four boys who had once been so central to my life. The words 'URGENT' were stamped across the front of the folder in red ink.

I briefly flicked through the mass of pages that accompanied their residency request. It outlined everything they had done over the past few years, and their last four addresses, two of which were in Los Angeles, obviously one in Sydney and then lastly their old London address.

It had seemed like only five minutes ago I had last seen the four Australian lads, but when I saw the passport photos that had been attached with their requests I found that I hardly recognised them.

Their appointment was at 10:30am, so I had plenty of time to get on with the other tasks that I had assigned for my morning.

"Miss Ramos, I've done the liberty of rearranging your afternoon appointments to coincide with your 10:30 meeting." Mia said after approaching my desk. "I thought that since it was four individual applications being processed as a group that you would need a block of your day cleared out." She went on to inform me.

I nodded as I sipped on the cup of Earl Grey tea that she had brought me. This application request was going to be exactly like every single other one I would do this week, except with every other application this week it would be unlikely that I would have had an intimate relationship with them.

"Thank-you Mia, that's much appreciated." I answered.

I instructed her to take the majority of my 'to-do' folders and place them beside the filing cabinet to the left of the my office. With such an important appointment I needed to make sure that I was left with no distractions.

Before I knew it, 10:25 had rolled around and it was time to take the short walk to the waiting room to invite the group into my office.

I smoothed out the skirt on my black mid-shift dress and took the dark grey blazer jacket from the back of my chair and put it on. Looking in the mirror that hung on the wall I checked that I looked presentable, and then I left not bothering to close the door behind me.

As I walked past Mia's desk she handed me the brief of their application and I made my way to the waiting room.

The heel of my shoes clicked on the marble floor as I walked down the corridor.

Oddly I wasn't nervous about seeing the boys. In all honesty I guess it had been too long since the last time that I had forgotten a lot about them.

I stood in the doorway of the waiting room and scanned my eyes across the large room that was decked with emerald green leather sofas's and various magazines.

"Mr Calum Thomas Hood." I called to get the attention of the four boys who stood staring out of the window.

They immediately turned around all with huge smiles on their faces, except for Ashton who looked almost as if he had seen a ghost.

Naturally they all bundled towards me with open arms but before they could embrace me into a hug I took a step back.

I cleared my throat, "If you would like to follow me, we can begin with your application." I said professionally before turning on the spot and heading back in the direction of my office.

I could hear the boys mumbling behind me though I couldn't make out any logical sentences or words. I think they must have been talking to their day-to-day manager, or to their 'handler' as he used to be referred too.

They followed me into my office and took a seat in front of my desk. Mia came in shortly after and offered the boys a drink of tea, coffee, fruit juice or water to which the boys replied with their various choices.