A/N I do not own The Bill, sadly... enjoy the story though. Leafy
'The Ice Man' was what Mel had called him and Millie wasn't sure why she had been so quick to defend him. Well she knew why the conversation had started to begin with, most of the relief knew about her little crush on the stoic man, but not why she felt the need to prove he wasn't the Ice Man. She'd worked with him quite a few times and almost... no... Everything he did seemed to be done in homage to that title. Sitting here now staring into her pint at the lonely bar she wondered if he knew that was what the relief called him and really did try to live up to his title.
Mel and Beth always teased her about her soft spot for him; they didn't see what she saw. They didn't see that there was a kind and compassionate man beneath the ice, locked away tightly, waiting for someone to warm his heart and melt away the frozen exterior. Millie wished desperately that someone could be her. After the day that they'd had, the day that he'd had, with Marek and Pavel Jankowski... she worried that under the cold mask of guiltlessness and self assured behaviour Max was hurting.
Oh sure, they did get a good result today, brilliant in fact. He had talked Pavel down, stopped CO19 from getting a go at him and got Marek put away. But Millie was concerned that he was still trying to make amends for shooting Pavel's father, that he hadn't forgiven himself. She physically ached at the thought that he was hurting. She'd never felt the need to comfort someone more strongly.
But she was a PC. She was PC Millie Brown, who blushed at the drop of a hat. And he was DS Max Carter. The Ice Man.