Another idea that's been floating around my head for God only knows how long.
Not sure how quickly updates will be with this, but I'll try not to be too slow.
I own nothing.
Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they're almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.
Robert Heinlein
Jackie's mouth twitched in amusement as she noticed Robbie attempting to skulk into the office without being noticed. Luck however was not on his side today, as Burke barked out, "Ah, Robbie, nice of you to finally join us."
He glanced up and shot him an apprehensive grin. "Sorry Boss, traffic."
Burke snorted. "I'd have had to have come up the Clyde on a banana boat to believe that one. Now straighten yourself out and try doing some actual work for a change."
Dropping into his seat, Robbie rolled his eyes at his Boss's departing back. "I see someone's his usual sunny self."
Stuart didn't answer him, while Jackie pointed her pen at him and informed him, "You've buttoned up your shirt wrong."
Glancing down, he hissed out, "Ah, Hell." Placing his coffee onto the desk, he casually began to fix the problem.
"Good night then I take it?" Jackie asked, trying to look as though she wasn't too bothered by whatever the answer may happen to be.
"It really wasn't what you think," he insisted. "I slept in, I spent the night fielding off calls from an ex and I was tired." As if on cue his phone beeped, alerting him to arrival of a new text and he groaned as he looked at the caller ID.
Smothering a laugh, she replied, "I thought you enjoyed all the attention."
"There's a limit," he muttered darkly.
"Well my heart goes out to you," she laughed.
He regarded her thoughtfully. "You know you might be able to help me out with this one."
"No," she replied automatically.
"Come on Jackie, you don't even know what it is yet!"
"I don't need to, I already know that I'm not going to like it."
He got up from his seat and moving over to her draped his arm over her shoulder. "She's just not taking the hint."
She shrugged his hand off. "And neither are you."
"I need your help here, and may I remind you Detective Sergeant Reid that part of your role is to help the public, I'm a member of the public."
Sending him a sharp glare, she let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine, what is it?"
"Need you to be my girlfriend for a bit."
Jackie arched an eyebrow at the request, while Stuart's reaction wasn't quite as subdued as he choked on a mouthful of coffee. "Robbie, as flattering as that proposition was, can I please get back to work now?" she asked as she threw Stuart over a packet of tissues.
"I'm being serious," he laughed. "If she phones again, you answer and tell her that we've just gotten back together, that we're giving things another go. You know, make it sound like we're madly in love."
"Would you like me to cure world hunger while I'm at it?" she asked sarcastically.
"It won't be that difficult!" he insisted. "Look, Jackie I told her it was just a fling but she's somehow got it into her head that we're the real deal. I need out and I need out fast, she's a bunny boiler."
"Oh well in that case…no."
His phone began to ring, and after looking at the caller ID he held it out to her, brown eyes wide. "Come on, it's just one tiny little favour."
Rolling her eyes, she snatched the phone. "You owe me big," she informed him.
"Yup, I know." He flashed her a grin and moved swiftly back round to his own seat to watch the show, while Stuart leaned forward.
Grimacing at the phone, Jackie took a deep breath before answering, "Hello. No, I'm sorry he's too busy to come to the phone just now, can I take a message." She glowered at Robbie as she listened to the agitated woman on the other end of the line, before answering her. "I'm his girlfriend. We work together. Look I know about your fling, he's already told me about it. I appreciate your concern but we've decided to try again, so I really think that you should stop calling him. It isn't going to change anything." She stared at the phone and gave a small shrug as the woman hung up abruptly. "Well she's gone," she informed him as she handed the phone back over to him.
"What did she say?" he asked as he tucked the phone into the pocket of his suit jacket.
"She asked how we met, told me she'd been sleeping with you for around three weeks now and tried to tell me that it was her that you really loved." Jackie frowned slightly. "She sounded a bit…"
"Deranged?" Robbie offered.
"I was going to say distressed," she tutted in reply. "And are most woman who sleep with you not normally a bit odd anyway."
"Very funny." He pulled a face at her. "Anyway she'll get over it, move on and find some other poor sod to torment."
"I don't know," Jackie teased. "I mean she does have a fair point, three weeks is practically an engagement in your world."
Robbie struggled not to smile. "Watch it, remember I'm still the superior officer."
"Nope, just the higher ranking one."
Three hours Later
"Looks like he was beaten to death," Gemma informed them. "From the bruising on his face, I'd say someone stamped on his face. If you look closely you can see the print of the sole of his shoe."
"I think I'll pass," Burke replied shortly. "Do we have a time of death?"
"Not yet, but I'll get one for you. What I can tell you is that his assailant would be covered in blood, and quite probably injured as well." She indicated at the victims hands. "These scrapes on the knuckles are from fighting."
"So it was a fight gone wrong rather than an attack?" Stuart asked.
"I would say so. Oh and I found this in his pocket." She handed them over a blood stained wallet.
Pulling on a glove, Jackie took it and opened it. "Well at least we now have an ID and know that robbery wasn't the motive."
Burke nodded. "Right then, you and Robbie go to his address, see if you can a next of kin to inform about his death."
Nodding, Jackie turned to walk in the direction of the car, pausing when she realised that Robbie wasn't following her and rolled her eyes when she saw he was too busy laughing with Stuart about something. "I'll meet you in the car," she called over to him.
She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye as she stepped out of the alley and into the street. The next thing she was aware of was pain splintering through her as she saw the sky flash momentarily across her field of vision before everything went black.
