First of all I would like to say that this story is much more light-hearted than the last one, I will continue to write as long as people are reading however as I love to entertain, well at least I try.
Also I should be banned from starting a new story while I already have two on the go, but I am a masochist.
Hope you enjoy.
It all started with a cockroach
Sandra had been hearing noises coming from her walls for days. At first she thought it was termites, not that that was a brilliant thing, eating away at her house running the foundations and generally being annoying and noisy.
She soon realised that it was better than the actual problem. Having been on a case for the past two weeks, one that had taken it out of all of them, Sandra had barely been home to think about her infestation problem let alone do anything about it.
Switching on her CD player and lighting some candles she turned on the tap's to let the bath fill up while she climbed out of the day's work clothes.
Feeling the weight of their latest case slip away with each layer of clothing she peeled off Sandra breathed in a sigh of relief as the soothing sounds of Eva Cassidy echoed from her bathroom and made a small smile appear on her face.
"God I really must need this." She said to herself as she grabbed a towel from her linen closet and deposited her clothes in the laundry basket ready for picking up at a yet unknown date.
"I think I might actually sleep for a week." She said to herself as she pushed open the bathroom door and smelt the lavender coming from her scented candles as she placed her fingers in the tub to check the temperature was ok.
Pulling back sharply as the water scaled her hand Sandra turned off the hot tap and let the cold one run on it's own.
"I like it hot, but I have no desire to become a boiled lobster." She said with a smile as she now tested the water and found it was perfect.
Dropping the towel over the rail within reach of her bath Sandra climbed in and let the water wrap around her easing her aching muscles and relaxing her entire body.
"Heaven." She breathed out allowing her eyes to shut as she let "Song Bird" carry her off to sleep in the soothing hot water.
Feeling something crawling on her face Sandra swatted at it ineffectually as it made it's way towards her neck.
Thinking it was a fly Sandra cracked open one eye to see what had disturbed her sleep when her eyes grew wide and a scream stuck in her throat.
There about the size of her fist was a brown long tentacle ugly cockroach. It was crawling for the top of her chest as it made its way south but paused as her skin disappeared into the water.
Sandra was frozen in place, she hated cockroaches they made her skin crawl and now literally were doing just that.
A splash to her left unfroze her as another cockroach fell from somewhere above her and it fell into the water with a plop as Sandra rushed out of the tub sending water spraying everywhere and leaving the two cockroaches scrambling to escape the tub.
"Jesus Christ." Sandra yelled having now gotten her voice back as she dripped water all over her bathroom floor but right now didn't care.
"Bloody disgusting things." She said her eyes darting around the room and finally landing on a small hole in the ceiling above the bath tub where they had probably fallen from.
Grabbing her towel Sandra was wide awake now as she shuddered at the thought of those bugs crawling on her, as she wrapped the towel tightly around her body.
As if on cue another cockroach appeared in the gap in her ceiling and fell south wards joining its friends in the now vacant bath.
"First thing in the morning I am calling the Damm exterminators." Sandra said quickly blowing out the candles and turning off the CD player.
Slamming the door shut behind her she did not empty the bath thinking that a little water wouldn't hurt them and there was no way she was sticking her hand in the tub to pull the plug anyway.
When Gerry got into the office he could tell something was up right away, Jack looked busy for once, Brian was quite and the door to Sandra's office was closed.
"Do I even want to ask?" He said coming over to Jack and catching the older man's attention.
"Probably not, if I were you I would keep your head down, don't know what's going on, but she is in a foul mood." Jack said as Gerry noted his eyes dart behind him as the door to Sandra's office opened up and Gerry made a B line for his desk.
"Are Gerry so nice of you to finally grace us with your presence." Sandra shot at him as he lowered himself on to his chair and opened his moth to explain why he was late, but her hand in the air made him close it quickly.
"I don't want to here it, any way you and I need to be down at the court house, seems like they have brought forward the Driscal trial and we need to give evidence." She said and Gerry was happy that the blonde didn't have more time to chew him a new one as he suspected she would have enjoyed it this particular morning.
Not bothering to say anything further Gerry followed Sandra out of the office with a quick glance at Jack and Brian who were both making statues of a hung man Jack was using his tie while Brian had tilted his glasses at a funny angle.
Gerry threw them the finger as he left the office their usual humour doing little to comfort him as Sandra breezed down the hallway like her arse was on fire.
"Come on Gerry or we are going to be late, not an unusual concept for you I know, but I quite like my reputation kept in tacked thank you." Sandra said only glancing behind her as she walked out into the bright sunshine of an all too rear warm London summer's day.
Gerry climbed in next to Sandra as she turned over the engine giving him barely a glance as she pulled out and headed for the court rooms.
Sandra had not meant to be in a bad mood that morning, and she certainly had not meant to take it out on the boys, but once she had gotten in and caught them yet again messing around and using a photo of Strickland as a dart board, that was all it had taken to set her off.
She had spent the night paralytic in her bed, jumping at every noise, the tick tick tick of tiny feet grinding on her nerves and making her clench her jaw in an effort not to scream.
Obviously she had gotten no sleep and upon finding her boys once again pissing about she had snapped, that and the fact that the exterminator had told her she would have to be out of the hours for forty eight hours had pushed her over the edge.
"What the hell do you think you are playing at!" She yelled at Brian who had just laded on right in the middle of Strickland's forehead as she plucked the dark out of the board and tore down the photo.
"Morning Sandra." Brain had replied as she scowled at him and his face turned from happy to scared in an instant.
"Morning, morning what if I had been Strickland, what the hell would you have said then?" She spat at them taking both the photo and the dart into her office and slammed the door behind her.
"Damm it." She said feeling immediately guilty but there was nothing she could do about it now.
Gerry had been late and that had set her off again, she had wanted to talk to him about using his spear room for a couple of night's. She had thought about Jack, but the thought of spending two nights alone with him, and Mary of course was more than she could have coped with. Jack was a great colleague and a wonderful friend, but socially he was weird. Not however as weird as Brian she had dismissed staying with him and Ester almost immediately thinking she would end up in the Looney bin after one day. No it had to be Gerry, and that thought made her kind of sad, that she had no one else, unless she wanted to stay with her mother at the retirement home. Shuddering at the thought Sandra had settle on asking Gerry when he was once again late. Screwing up her plans for a chat and she was again in a bad mood.
'God they must think I am the wicked witch of the west' she thought to herself as she pulled up at the court houses and climbed out of the car. Determined to spend the rest of the day in a better mood, if not for her boys sake but for her own.
Gerry had spent the car ride as silent as a mouse, once they had gotten to the court house Sandra had climbed out and smiled at him over the top of the car roof.
Briefly Gerry wondered if his Gov'ner had turned bi polar, but before he could think too long she was next to him and talking.
"Come on let's go and put this scum bag away shall we." She said giving him a quick nod and Gerry couldn't help but smile back at her.
There was something about Sandra, when she smiled he was like putty in her hands and however much he had tried to stop it he couldn't help himself.
The court case had gone without a hitch, it was pretty much a for gone conclusion as they had collected an overwhelming amount of evidence against Driscal who had been found guilty of killing his step son and was being taken away back to his cell where Gerry thought he should spend the rest of his life.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish." Gerry said turning to Sandra who was thankfully still smiling at him as she nodded her head him.
"Couldn't agree more, fancy some lunch?" she said and Gerry got the distinct impression that it wasn't a request.
"Cool what did you have in mind?" Gerry asked her as they returned to Sandra's car and she decided that it was time she got the roof down.
"How about the pub?" She said indicating to him that she was going to pull the roof back and not to get in yet.
"Sounds good to me, it's warm enough to eat in the garden if you're interested, although I have to admit the bugs irritate the hell out of me." Gerry said as he finally climbed into the convertible unaware of how apt his words were at that moment as Sandra winced at the thought of those cockroaches plopping into her bath last night.
Her plan was simple, get Gerry to the pub, ply him with drink and food, and then get him to agree to letting her stay with him, without implying anything else was on the cards.
Sandra took a deep breath she knew this was going to be easier said than done, but there was no way she could stay at her house and she wasn't forking out for and exterminator and a hotel. Glancing briefly at Gerry she knew that he would say yes to her request, hell any of them would have. It was just the implications of that yes that were scaring Sandra.
Sure Jack and Brian would have been easier on that score, but Sandra knew that she could stay with Gerry and keep things strictly professional.
'But is that what you really want' a nagging voice said from somewhere in the back of her mind. Shaking her head slightly trying to dislodge the unwanted thought Sandra placed her eyes back on the road and she noticed that they had almost reached their destination, and she couldn't remember driving any of the way here.
Gerry had the distinct impression that something was up with his boss, she had been in a horrible mood this morning, now she was smiling at him and taking him for lunch. If he didn't know her better he would say she wanted something, but Sandra Pullman, did not try and sweet talk you in to doing something for her, she just asked out right, no shit do it or I will have your balls. No perhaps it was something else, maybe she was feeling guilty for being so horrible to him the morning, but he highly doubted that.
Then a thought struck him that made his blood run cold. What if she was thinking of leaving again, except this time it was for real, the position had been offered and excepted and now all she was doing was telling them quietly one by one in a public place.
It would go a long way to explain her moods swings and the tense manor she had been conducting herself in since he had first seen her walk out of her office this morning. Feeling sure now that this was it, Gerry tried not the disappointment show on his face as they made their way into the pub.
Ok what do you think? Carry on or bin it? Obviously next chapter Sandra asked if she can stay at Gerry's place and let's just say his mood takes a turn for the better.