Author's usual notes and disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters nor the original Inspector Lynley Mysteries – they belong to Elizabeth George and the BBC. I have borrowed the characters from the TV-Show and solely own the ideas of my stories and the developments I've let them go through.

Please write a Private Message if I did something terribly wrong so I can fix it. Thanks!

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Author's note and summary: Pizza and beer and a heart-breaking film on TV. That's all she had wanted. She almost got it.

This is just a quickly written short story. Enjoy...


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The DI and I

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Barbara sniffled. Annoyed that she had to move away from the comfortable spot on her sofa she bent over the arm rest letting her eyes scan the floor. She finally found the box with the tissues that had fallen behind the small side table, blew her nose and wiped her eyes.

There was a knock at her door but she ignored it at first. It was her first day off, a couple of days after they had closed the file on the Thompson case. The appointment at court had gone well, the judge had decided the verdict, and now she only was in real need of peace and quietness and stupid heart-breaking films on TV. And no disturbing distraction from other certain people.

"Ah, bullshit!" she answered the second louder knock. Half an hour ago she had ordered a pizza. If she would not open the door she would go to bed hungry and Chicho, the cute delivery boy, would go home disappointed. The only thing she needed now was her purse. She opened the door looking into the pockets of the coat that was hanging at the hook next to it. "I'm sorry, Chicho, still looking for my pur-"

"Chicho?" an amused voice asked her. It definitely was not the delivery boy's voice.

Barbara blanched and halted. Her head jerked up. "Sir!" Leaving the door open she quickly turned. He should not see her red eyes. "Come in. What brings you here? I thought you'd be in Howenstow already..."

Tommy Lynley closed the door behind him and placed his coat on the single hook next to the door. "No, I'll leave tomorrow morning. I just thought I'd come around to say good-bye. I've brought a six-pack and seeing you already in your sweat pants I don't think you'd be interested in the other option of going to the pub for a pint?"

Now that her sofa was finally tidied so her boss could sit Barbara turned. She looked into a broad smile that instantly died. With one stride he was right in front of her holding her upper arms in a gentle grip. "Barbara, you've been crying!?"

She answered with a nervous laugh and pointed with her chin towards the TV screen. The final credits with pompous string orchestra music still were running. "I've just... watched a film... please sit down. D'you need a glass for your beer?"

Barbara hurried into the kitchen just to get away from his alluringly smelling chest. Not now! she thought. After that film she felt too fragile to withstand his scent. She put four of the beers into the fridge when her doorbell rang.

"It's my pizza, Sir, could you open the door please? I'm still looking for my purse..." Barbara shouted through her flat.

She found the purse in the plastic bag she had used for her grocery shopping earlier. Out of sheer laziness she later had opted for delivered dinner. And she had wanted to enjoy that film.


"Were you expecting guests?" Tommy asked when he placed the huge pizza box on the worktop. He already had paid and Chicho had left.

"Haha, no... I just like to have cold leftovers the next day. You want some?"

"Just a slice. I've already had dinner." He watched her while she rummaged through the kitchen, getting plates and paper napkins. She even tried to balance the beer bottles to her coffee table but here Tommy intervened. "Oh, heavens, Barbara. Just let me help you."

She nervously chuckled. "Of course."


"So? You've planned to leave tomorrow?" she asked when they had settled down. Her boss nodded. "Any plans, apart from sorting out things of the estate?"

"Ah, well..." Tommy leaned back. Barbara still was chewing at her second slice of pizza. "Go riding, nurse my grand niece, get annoyed by mother's attempts to make me join social events, let the Cornish wind ruffle my hair..."

The TV was muted, Barbara still ate and she had her back turned to him. He watched her nape suddenly turn rosy.

She had felt her face heaten up at the thought of him standing at the cliffs and watching out across the sea, the wind playing with his hair. He should not look at her now so she intensely chewed the pizza and kept her face away from him.

"...maybe go skinny dipping..." he casually continued.

Although her face flushed even more Barbara snorted a laugh and her chuckles made it hard to keep focus on her dinner. The rosy touch of the skin in her back had turned on a deeper red colour and Tommy enjoyed thinking that she might have some indecent thoughts about him. Thoughts he had about her sometimes. Forbidden thoughts. Strictly forbidden thoughts that could not keep him from teasing her now.

"You could come with me."

Barbara choked on her pizza. When the soft pats on her back had worked and she was able to breathe again she harrumphed once more before she asked "Skinny dipping?!"

Tommy laughed. "No. Well, yes, if you'd want to you could even come skinny dipping with me."

You have no idea! she thought.


"Actually I've meant you could still come with me to Howenstow. We could join mother's events together. Or avoid them together." he added after he had seen her shoulders shake with a disbelieving laugh.

"No, Sir." Barbara swallowed down the last bit of her slice and got up to put away the dishes. She called from the kitchen that it was a nice offer. "But I'll stay here in London and enjoy two lazy weeks. No case, no office, no pesky boss..."

"I'm not pesky!" Tommy called from the lounge area.

"Ah..." For a short moment Barbara leaned against the doorframe and watched him. Tommy held her gaze. She knew she was going to miss him tomorrow already but there was no way she could accompany him at his Cornish manor. She could not think of any excuse to spend that time with him. Their close friendship was the reason for her to attend an anniversary there or a garden party but without a real event there she could not simply come with him. Returning to her coffee table she sat down next to him on the sofa. She really should buy a new armchair soon.


The TV still was muted but neither of them made a move to switch on the volume. There was some news show running at the moment. For a while both were silent.

"What have you been watching earlier?"

"Huh?"

"What have you seen that has made you cry?"

"Oh, that... It's nothing. Don't worry."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "I understand that it was only a film. Sometimes films do just that. I'd only like to know what film disturbs you so much."

"Anna and the King." Barbara quietly murmured. "With Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat. I know, it's stupid..."

"It's not stupid to cry when something's touching you."

"Mh, yah, well... It's just... No, in fact it's a silly thing crying about it but... You know, the last scene with them dancing, when the voice-over tells us that this was the last time Mongkut has held the woman he loved... If I've not started by then I definitely cry with that last scene." Barbara dared not look at him. She was not silly sixteen anymore. A grown-up woman of her age should not be crying because of some romance on TV. Tommy probably was silently laughing.

"You love that film, don't you?" His voice did not at all sound mocking. In fact it was soft and understanding somehow. "I've read the book."

"Of course you have, your Lordship." Barbara teased him.

"Of course I've also seen the film. I've been to the premiere here in London. I've met Jodie Fost- What?" Tommy stopped when he saw Barbara's raised eybrows. She had turned to him while he talked. He had not wanted to sound pretentious. "Sorry. I didn't mean to swagger."

"It's okay." It's a part of your life.

Barbara returned her attention to the silent TV.


After a sip from his bottle Tommy went on. "You seem to have watched it one or the other time."

"I've seen it too often and it always breaks my heart." Barbara confessed. She finished her beer. Then she turned her head and gave him a lopsided grin. "Like a stupid teenager."

"Well, it has some sort of sad ending, I admit."

For a while they watched the beginning of another 90s film on the Gold Channel. Whitney Houston was just talking to Kevin Costner but the sound still was turned off. Barbara was the first to speak again.

"When I was younger," she said unaffected by the new film. "I always had hoped there will be a sequel or a new film with them getting together in the end. Ignoring the bit of reality it contains. Now that I'm older I know there never would have been. With all their differences, the completely different universes they're from. They never would become one."

Barbara felt as if Tommy would sense that she in some way was talking about her own feelings. She hoped he would not. It was stupid. Throughout all these years they had been working together she had at first only seen what he seemed to be - the 8th Earl of Asherton, the snobbish police man who had climbed the ladder too fast, her superiour. Later she had found herself having a crush on him because everything he was he actually was. Just not in the negative way. He was kind, he was caring, he was fair and hard working. Plus he had suffered from a whole bunch of tragedies in his life. Her crush had turned into the loving hope that despite the differences there might be a chance for him recognising her as a woman but eventually Barbara had learned to accept that they were more than working partners, really close friends in fact, but the differences still could not be denied. There was no chance he would ever see her as socially equal. There never would be a happy ending for them.

"Well..." Tommy said. "Maybe they should make a movie playing in the present. Adapt the theme and re-write the ending. Nowadays these social differences aren't important anymore."

"Oh, they are." Barbara sighed and turned on the TV volume. "More than they should."


The next beer was shared in silence. With Barbara using the remote control she had ended the conversation about a topic she would not want to discuss here and now but the film was unbearable so eventually she switched to the other channel where at almost any time you could be sure to see a Big Bang Theory episode. It definitely lightened their unfamiliar mood. They laughed and poked each other's ribs, giggling about some characters showing resemblances to colleagues.


"I have to go now." After they had finished a third beer Tommy got up, wished her two nice calm weeks and promised to call her. "I've announced myself for lunch and mother would not approve of me being late." he winked while he put on his coat. "See you later, Barbara."

Standing in the door he turned and bent down to give her a peck on her cheek. "When you change your mind you're always welcome at the old pile."

Then he left.


Instead of drinking another beer and watching another well-known episode of the series Barbara got ready for bed. After she had closed her door she immediately had turned off the TV. His voice and his scent still lingered in her ear and nose and the sizzling feeling of his lips still tickled her cheek. She wanted to keep these memories of him as long as possible and take them into sleep with her.

She put on her pyjama bottoms and an old police T-shirt and hurried through her evening routine. She went to the toilet, brushed her teeth and washed her face. Over the rim of a towel her eyes locked with her reflection's in the mirror above the sink. All the time she had the unreachable on her mind.

"It's just like in the film, old girl. Just forget it." she murmured before she tossed the towel into the basket, turned off the lights and went to go to her bedroom. A knock at the main door made her jump. It was almost midnight - she could not at all imagine who this could be. Carefully she peeped through the hole before she opened the door with a quizzical expression.

"Did you forget something, Sir?"

"Indeed I have." he replied. Tommy pushed past her and closed the door behind him before he turned to face her. "Let's re-write the ending, Barbara!"

"Pardon?" Surprised by him pulling her into an embrace she looked into two affectionate dark eyes. Her voice trembled. "Sir?"

"Don't Sir me." Tommy softly growled. "I'm Tommy. And I want to have a happy ending too."

"Sir, I'mmmh..." His firm lips on hers made it impossible to say anything else. The second of surprise stretched without a reaction. Barbara stood stiffly but moulded against him. And she did not fight him. Nonetheless Tommy let go of her lips to read her eyes. They would tell him the truth whatever Barbara would say or do. Her eyes would not lie to him.

His concerns were unnecessary. Apart from a little shock there only was approval and love shining in her eyes.

"Tommy..." was all she could whisper before their lips met again. This time she answered his nudges with all the love she had treasured up for years.


They were late for lunch the next day.


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