A/N: This story is for Elly who like me would've liked to have seen more Dixie and Jeff in this week's episode.
Based on: Happily Ever After. Series 26 Episode 34.
"There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate."
Linda Grayson, "The Pickwick Papers"
Jeff Collier sat in the staff room of the ambulance bay, staring blankly at the piece of paper in front of him. Dixie had gone on a shout with Stevie and left him under strict instructions that she wanted the statement written up by the time she got back.
They never really argued in the way that they had today, it was always over minor things just general bickering but this was serious, a young boy had lost his life and they were at each other's throats.
Jeff looked back down at his half written statement, he could barely read his handwriting himself.
Dixie may do his head in at times, but he couldn't deny her attention to detail and doing everything by the book was what got them through their shifts, he would deny it but he knew all to well if it was left to him disaster and chaos would be the inevitable outcome.
He sighed to himself, he had been acting irrational and he knew it. Once again she was right and he had been too stubborn to realise it.
He had had argued with her decision and had failed to see reason despite knowing the protocol inside and out. She was merely doing her job, being efficient like she always was.
Jeff reached out onto the table and picked up the Walkie Talkie. Maybe he could radio her and apologise?
No. The radio was for doing the job only and by using it to apologise for not following correct protocol was a contradiction in itself.
So how could he make it up to her?
Directly apologising wasn't exactly their style, neither were grand gestures, nor did they like to admit any wrong doing.
He could have really done with a coffee around about now, it was just not his day.
"Bloody machine." He cursed looking over at the out of order sign on the beverage maker.
Why did she have to be so annoying?
So infuriating?
So sceptical?
Yet so right at the same time?
Jeff looked at the piece of paper once more. Well they were arguing about him not cooperating fully, so what if he was to get the job done properly?
He picked up the paper and screwed it up into a ball and flung it into the bin, if he was going to do this it would have to be done properly.
He searched around for a decent sheet of paper that other piece was no use it was crumpled and had a water stain on it.
He reached into the draw and pulled out a plain white sheet of paper and placed it on top of a lined piece, he hadn't bothered with the other one and his writing had been wonky.
He picked up his pen and inspected it. It was a Biro that had seen much better days, the lid was unaccounted for and the end had been chewed to within an inch of its life, not to mention the way it blotted when used, the other sheet had numerous ink splodges on it. If he was going to do this he would need to do it properly.
He got out of his seat once more and ventured over to Dixie's desk, he knew she wouldn't mind him searching through it if he had good reason, which he did. In the second draw down he found a pen, she had bough it t last year but had deemed it too good to use, so it never really saw the light of day.
"Now is a good time as any." He said to himself taking it back to the staffroom.
He had had the radio on in the background so he turned it off, he wanted to be certain that he wouldn't be distracted.
Jeff sat back down on the chair and focused on the job, telling himself that his reward at the end would be a coffee from the canteen.
He made sure his hand was steady, he was determined that his handwriting would be top quality. He put aside his friendship with boy's father and wrote a statement based on facts.
He put in everything he saw and included everything he knew, he wrote it as if the family were strangers to him ,he was determined that this would be nothing more than an unbiased statement of events.
He made a point of overdramatically dotting the full stop as he placed the lid back on the pen and placed it down. A smile swept across his face, he had done it and it was bound to place him back in Dixie's good books.
The next step was to reread it, he nodded to himself in approval the presentation was to a high standard and the content was thorough and unbiased.
"Right coffee time." Jeff announced to the empty room folding up the piece of paper and carefully placing it in his pocket.
He walked across the car park, feeling pleased with himself. He couldn't work out why Dixie's approval meant so much to him but all he knew was that he wanted it, so very badly.
He finally arrived at the canteen and made a B line for the coffee machine it had been several hours since his last caffeine fix and God knows he needed one.
He reached out and picked up a polystyrene cup relishing the thought of the hot liquid he was about to consume, all he had to do was place it under the machine and make his selection.
For a moment he paused the chocolate display had caught his eye. One chocolate bar in particular slowly he lowered the cup and walked over to the stand and studied the wrapper. It was Dixie's favourite chocolate.
He reached into his pocket and found he had only two pound, the coffee was a pound and the chocolate bar was one pound fifty. He couldn't afford both something would have to give.
Truth was he didn't need to think that hard, she would always come first, always.
He placed the cup back and bought the chocolate, he would have to go without today.
He rushed back to the ambulance bay eager to be there to greet her on her return, he had put a lot of effort into this and hoped she would appreciate it.
He listened as the ambulance pulled up, he stood in a slumped manner before crossing his arms. He was going to lead her on a bit first before he put things right, let her believe he was still unimpressed with her.
He heard her loud northern accent before he saw her.
"Cheers Stevie." She shouted to her co worker as she approached Jeff.
Their eyes met and he held the paper high for her to see.
"Better late then never." She commented reading through what he had written, pleased with his efforts.
He then produced the chocolate bar, the second gesture of apology hoping it would break the ice.
"I got you this as well."
She took it off him, a little taken aback by his sudden change of heart.
"Still don't think Thomas did it." He confided making it clear he still stood firm on this belief.
She watched him for a second before deciding to forgive as she held out the bar as a symbol of this.
"Do you want some?"
Some?" He muttered building up towards a joke. "At least half."
He made to grab it in which she protested.
"No Jeffrey!"
"Get your hands off." He joked play fighting with her.
She opened the staffroom door and in a bid to keep it all for herself.
"What about your diet?"
"We'll share it Jeff."
She backed away from him holding the chocolate above her head, waving it about.
"You can't eat it all."
"You'd be surprised Jeffrey."
He ran up to her wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her arm down and tearing the wrapping paper off with his teeth before biting down into it.
"Oh God that's disgusting." She laughed looking at the teeth marks in the chocolate.
He over emphasised his chewing ,opening his mouth so she could see the brown mush.
"Yum, yum."
She cringed at the sight covering her eyes with her hand.
"Argh Jeff, no."
"Just eat a square and save me a bit."
She smirked in his direction, poking out her tongue and licking the length of the bar.
"I bet you don't want it now." She teased licking it again for good measure.
"Oh you'd be surprised, princess." He winked coming over to her in attempts to grab it once more.
She backed away, taking large bites trying to finish it before he came over.
"Oh Mrs Collier, are you trying to give me the slip?
"You better believe it, princess."
"Ay that's my thing."
He laughed once more approaching her trying to get her into the corner, she dived away from him.
"C'mon Jeffrey, you said you wanted some." She joked taking another bite accidentally knocking a cup off the counter.
Jeff laughed harder at this, clutching at his sides, her face was a mixture of surprise and guilt. She quickly overcame this Jeff's laughter was infectious.
He caught her off guard lifting her up over his shoulder and spinning her around.
She screamed out in excitement and surprise, she hadn't expected him to be this spontaneous.
"Put me down, put me down." She squealed, becoming dizzy.
"Let go of the chocolate."
"No."
"Then I won't put you down."
Suddenly he lost his footing sending them crashing down onto the sofa in the corner.
"Jeffrey!"
"It could have been worse we landed on the sofa didn't we?"
She relaxed and allowed herself to smile, she and Jeff were often like school children and that's exactly how she liked it.
"So are you going to get off?" He asked observing that she had landed on top of him.
"Just let me finish this first." She replied presenting him with the half finished bar.
"Awww c'mon Dix."
Meanwhile Charlie Fairhead was making his way over to the ambulance bay to inform them of Luke's cause of death.
As he approached their staffroom he was stopped dead in his tracks by the sound of the uncontrollable giggles and found himself stunned by what he was hearing.
"C'mon princess give it to me, give me some."
"Go on then just lick it."
"I wanna bite it!"
"No you're not biting."
Charlie quickly pressed his hand down on the door handle and braced himself for the sight he was about to see.
"There will be no funny business in this E.D!"
"Oh this isn't what it looks like." Dixie protested getting off Jeff and getting to her feet.
"Yeah, c'mon mate you know she's on the other bus."
"Right I don't want to know." He said placing his hands up to signal them to stop.
There was a painfully long awkward silence before Charlie spoke again.
"The cause of death has been determined."
Dixie and Jeff looked at each other before staring down at the ground, they had temporarily forgotten why they had argued in the first place.
"They believe he had a stroke causing him to fall down the stairs as well as this he had a benign tumour in his heart causing the cardiac arrest."
"Thanks Charlie." Dixie nodded.
"I'll leave you both to it." He weakly smiled before leaving the room.
"Looks like you were right."
"You did everything by the book Dix, there was no evidence as to how he got those injuries."
"There is never an easy way to go about these things."
"Its all part of the job, we can't save them all and the world is a bad place next time it might be a deliberate job."
"You know what I think we need a coffee."
"It's knackered." He pointed out gesturing to the out of order sign on the machine.
"Nah its not." She replied ripping up the note and stuffing it in the bin.
"You what?"
"Head office phoned, says that us paramedics were taking too long on our coffee breaks, I had to work out how to put a stop to it." She winked placing the cups under and filling them up.
"You're one mad cow you know that?"
"But you love me." She said placing the final square of chocolate into her mouth.