"Ta DAH!!!" Angela stood in the doorway beaming. Oherra and Colleen flanked her looking somewhat bewildered, but happy.

Bob looked up from his laptop. "I gather we have a go to make the pilot?"

"Even better! He's okayed six episodes too, as long as the focus group likes the pilot." Angela grinned.

"Hmmm." Maria looked up from her antiquated PC. "When Lou says 'if' you can bet that later on, he'll translate that into 'no' whenever he feels like it."

"All the more reason to get cracking then." Angela smirked. "The tom-toms are already beating I'm sure. C. Lou's people are doing preliminary casting. It's how Le Sexec wanted to handle it."

"Hah!" Maria frowned. "You mean he wanted first crack at the casting couch and had to disguise it by pretending to audition men too."

Angela shrugged. "Why not? He's fought his way into a position where he can do that. It's only fair."

Oherra and Colleen exchanged glances.

Bob looked at Angela speculatively. "And what do YOU do when you're handling casting calls, Angel mine?"

"Exactly what you think I do, Bobby dearest." Angela walked over to Maria and handed her the notes from the Le Sexec pitch. "He made some changes to our concept."

Maria perused the sheet for a moment. "Oh dear. So I see. He wants the prince to be straight, and called 'Ned'?"

"Well its better than his initial idea which was 'Prince Steve'." Angela watched as Bob winced. "Better drink some Mylanta, sweets. It only gets better."

"Where on earth did he get 'Ned'?" Maria asked.

"I'm afraid that was my idea," Colleen admitted. "But Prince Steve was just so awful of a name."

"It worked fine!" Angela smiled. "Turns out C. Lou's grandfather was named Ned, so he was very happy with calling the prince that."

"His grandfather!" Maria burst out laughing. "His grandfather was from Hungary and his name was Zoltan!"

"Well, everybody's entitled to two, you know. Grandfathers that is. Maybe he meant the other grandfather." Angela shrugged.

"I don't think so. His mother's people were Polish. More likely he was named Broneslav."

"Well who on earth cares?" Angela was becoming annoyed. "If he wants to pretend his grandfather was an English lord named Ned, what difference does it make?" She waited until Maria subsided before continuing. "Anyhow, Le Sexec seemed quite excited at the idea that we can bring this baby in for peanuts but give him plenty of family-oriented adventure and killing."

"How are we going to make California look like Scotland?" Bob demanded.

"The same way they made California look like Minnesota in that Jesse James movie about the Northfield robbery," Maria answered.

"In other words, we will NOT make it look like Scotland!" Bob sounded like he was in real pain.

"We can send somebody over to do outdoor shots and what not. Do some blue screening." Angela smiled winningly. "And we can save a ton on costumes."

"How are we going to do that?" Bob asked sarcastically. "Send somebody over to a Ren faire to buy castoffs?"

"Oh, I'm sure the SCA will be happy to supply us!" Maria sneered.

"No, no!" Angela answered reassuringly. "Colleen here tells me that the latest Simplicity patterns book has lots of nice medievally stuff. Even Victorian underwear patterns."

Bob let out a howl of pure anguish tinged with moderate interest. "Victorian underwear?"

"I suspect Colleen meant that there are patterns available so that we can get wardrobe to start cutting immediately instead of having to hire a designer to come up with something from scratch," Maria responded dryly. "I doubt she meant that Lady Marion would be wearing cotton knickers and a whalebone corset."

"Um, about that Lady Marion thing…" Angela's voice trailed off. "Le Sexec was not happy with the name Marion. Too Robin Hood. He felt that Maria would be better. It's so Hispanic."

"What?" Maria sat bolt upright. "What the--"

"You know what he is, Maria," wheedled Angela.

"None better. But… Lady Maria?"

"Um, no. Princess Maria. Of France."

"William Wallace is married to a French Princess named Maria?" Bob was confused.

"Um…no. Prince Ned is married to a French Princess."

"Who is very Hispanic?" Maria asked sarcastically. "What other little changes did dear Louie require?"

Angela told them. Bob looked like he wanted to cry. Maria clearly was fixated on the purported French Princess's name. And Oherra and Colleen wandered over to pour themselves some coffee. By the time Angela had run down, Bob was drinking The Glenlivet right out of the bottle and Maria had leaned backwards in her chair and was staring at the ceiling. "Can't wait to cast this one," she muttered.

"Well, as to that--"

Whatever Angela was about to say was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. "Lupino here," she answered. "Oh hello, Mr. Le Sexec! It's so good to hear-- yes, of course. Uhnhunh. Uh hunh. Yes. Sure. Uh………okay. Sure. I'll tell her. Uhuh. I'll tell her too. Ta ta to you too."

Maria looked up. "You do know that when he says 'tata' he's not using the British term for 'see you later' don't you?"

Angela ignored the comment and turned to Colleen. "Mr. Le Sexec wants to see you tomorrow. He does indeed want the run-ups and he wants you to bring them. You feel up to that?"

Colleen nodded bemusedly.

"Good," Angela replied briskly. "And I have some other news. It seems that C. Lou wants to help us out on this deal. He's sending over Kendall Caledonii to help achieve a nice Scottish feel to the dialog and such. Says he's a real history expert, too." Angela's voice was a bit too breezy.

"What?" Bob bellowed and Maria screeched the word simultaneously.

Angela sighed. "It's going to be a bumpy night, isn't it?"