A/N: This is my first fanfic so any tips or advise on how I can improve would be appreciated. It's not beta'd so there are probably some grammar mistakes that I've missed. This story started as a drabble and slowly got longer, it's not perfect but I hope you'll still enjoy. Thanks!
I have taken three lines directly from Season 2, Episode 3 and these are marked by: *
Disclaimer: I don't own New Tricks or any of the characters.
Five times Robert Strickland called Sandra Pullman 'Sandy'...
The first time he called her Sandy he was teasing her.
Robert Strickland had been promoted to DAC only a few weeks earlier and had still been getting use to the job and to those he was working with. But what had become clear to him very quickly was that Sandra Pullman, head of the UCOS team, was an excellent detective and an intelligent woman with a formidable temper, who would go far in the MET if she put her mind to it. She also happened to be a very attractive woman.
The first day of the Hannah Taylor and Michelle Davis case, despite the misidentification of a body and a few rumblings from the legal boys, had been a good day for Robert. The weather was matching Robert's good mood and he was planning on leaving work early and taking the boat out and he said as much to Sandra when he stopped to speak to her in the corridor.
"It looks like the perfect sailing day; maybe I'll skive off early and take the boat out."*
When Sandra replied "I didn't know you had a boat,"* he couldn't help himself by teasing her and saying "well you know what they say about all work and no play, Sandy."*
The second time he said it by mistake.
Years had passed since Robert had first called her Sandy. He was now divorced and had had several failed relationships since then. His admiration of Sandra had only grown over the years as had his affection for her and it was this admiration and affection that had led to him accidentally calling her Sandy for the second time.
It had been a warm summers evening, they were leaving work at the same time and had been waking to their cars together. Thinking back on it afterwards Robert could never recall what he had said that had made Sandra laugh but whatever it was it had caused her laugh such a free and infectious laugh that he had started laughing too. It was then that the thought 'you have such a beautiful laugh Sandy' went through his mind and only when Sandra stopped laughing and gave him a confused and embarrassed look that he realised that he had said it out loud.
The third time was when he almost lost hope.
After the incident in the car park Robert had apologised and the two had spent months awkwardly avoiding each other. Even when work compelled them to be in the same room they studiously avoided making any eye contact with each other. Excluding his divorce those months of eluding Sandra had been some of the worst Robert had ever been through. He had not realised until that day in the car park and the months following it how much he had grown to care for Sandra, how much he wanted to make her happy, how much he'd miss her company, her laughter and how he wanted to be more than just her work colleague and her boss. Over those months Robert had started to go into a decline; feelings of hopelessness, of not being good enough, of not being worthy of affection or love but most of all feelings of loneliness and isolation had started to take hold.
It was late one evening in early January that his resolve to remain silent and avoid Sandra broke and he made up his mind to tell her how he felt. After which he would put in a request for a transfer so she wouldn't have to suffer his pathetic presence any longer. He had planned on remaining calm and being clear-cut but when he went into her office the words just spilled out from him, he couldn't stop them and he told her everything about how he felt. By the end Sandra was just staring at him, looking shocked and confused and he turned to leave the office before she could say anything. At the door he had paused and looked over his shoulder at her and had said with an air of despair and finality "I hope you'll find a way to forgive me for putting you into this situation. You won't have to worry about seeing me around the place after this, I'll put in for a transfer first thing tomorrow morning. Goodbye Sandy."
The fourth time was when he told her he loved her.
After that fateful evening when he had told Sandra how he felt Robert had expected to never see Sandra Pullman again. But things did not go as he thought and later that night there had been a knock at his door and when he opened it he had found Sandra standing there. It had been awkward at first as neither of them were quite sure how to proceed passed their established working relationship but they got there in the end, although they told no one at work.
One evening several months into their relationship they found themselves having a quiet night in curled up on the couch in Robert's house watching TV with a glass of wine each. However Robert had been spending most of the time watching Sandra rather than the TV. He eventually put down his glass of wine, ran his hand gently through Sandra's hair and said quietly "I love you Sandy."
The fifth time was when they told her team.
It was summer before Sandra and Robert (mainly Sandra) had felt it was time that the UCOS boys found out about their relationship. It was not something Robert was particularly looking forward to, the team could be quite protective of Sandra at times and he was in all honestly very nervous about how'd they'd take the news, not that he'd tell anyone that!
It was Sandra who led the way into the office that morning and after the usual good mornings to her team she smiled at Robert and turned to face her boys, blushing slightly as she said "I...we have some news."
"We?" one of the boys questioned.
Robert stepped up beside Sandra and put his arm around her waist. "Yes, we. Sandy and I have started going out."