"Oh... alright," Annie said, and thought,<i>No, not alright! He's a total stranger!</i>She stepped aside, making the way between him and the dog clear.<i>Now ask him to leave.</i><br/><br/>"Would you like to stay for a little chat?" the words came out.<i>Bloody hell! What are you doing?! He could be a notorious killer for all you know! Certainly </i>looks<i> like one!</i>Annie kept talking, suppressing her own thoughts, "It's been a busy day, haven't had a single opportunity to just sit down for a while and say 'Hello, good day isn't it, could be worse, could be worse, you know, could be<i>dead</i>.'"<br/><br/>She stopped abruptly, having her voice noticably rising during the last word. Taking a few steps towards the dog along with the man, Annie quickly wondered what had been the cause for<i>that</i>.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry, it hasn't really been a typical day for me, being so close to death and all that," she continued, and then briefly raised her voice again, this time intentionally, "<i>Bloody hell!</i>Ah... there we have it. So a little chat, perhaps? Just to cool it out."<br/><br/>She kept walking towards the couch and finally sat down on it at the right side of the dog, raising her hand above Louie's head and gently taking it down to stroke the back of his neck. He was much nicer than the pack of gun dogs back at home. Annie gave Louie a genuine smile as he turned to face her and rattled the bottle. Annie's voice lowered down as she spoke to him in a purely friendly tone, almost as if the man wasn't even present, "<i>Hey there buddy, you wanna play?</i>"<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>