I don't own The Bill.

For MissLala and Faerienutmeg, and especially for Kate-Emma with thanks!

Max and the Photo

DS Max Carter had almost completely forgotten that such a person as PC Millie Brown existed. It was just the way his mind worked. If something, or more often than not, someone, was occupying his mind to such a degree that they became a distraction, he did his best to banish them from his thoughts. And Millie had been a troubling preoccupation in the weeks after his refusal to listen to her had led to her being kidnapped. But he and she hadn't really worked together much since then. As time went on and she made fewer and fewer appearances in the realm of his life's main focus (his work) the memory of her and the uncomfortable feelings associated with it had been all but erased.

It was a shock to him then to be suddenly reminded of her existence by the discovery of her picture amongst some papers in his desk. As if to mock his expulsion of her from his thoughts, the word 'MISSING' was printed along the bottom of the picture.

"I haven't seen Millie around recently", he said, more to himself than anyone in particular. His comment was overheard by Jo, Stevie and Eddie, who were congregated around Stevie's desk, seeming amused about something.

"You are hopeless!" replied Stevie, "Remember, she left the force a few months ago. We had a big send off for her…"

Stevie was cut off by Jo elbowing her in the ribs. "Er hem, Stevie," Stevie looked chastened and bit her lip.

"What? When was this? Why wasn't I told she was leaving?" said Max, suddenly smelling a rat. He paused and added, "And why didn't I hear about her send off?"

"Perhaps if you want someone to confide in you in future, you should avoid calling them stupid," Jo suggested.

"I never called Millie stupid!" Max was indignant, and the others had to turn away to hide their delight at having discovered that the normally invulnerable DS Carter actually had a soft spot.

"No use denying it mate, I heard you," Will joined the conversation. He'd kept quiet about how much Max's behaviour had annoyed him for so long, he wasn't going to miss a chance to cast it up to Max now. "It was the day she was kidnapped. Roger tried to tell you Millie had a point about Jade Hopkins, and you said something like her offering an opinion was like listening to the rule book being read, and that she didn't have much going on between her ears."

The memory flooded back to Max, "Yeah, I said that to Roger, not to Millie. And anyway, I was just letting off steam. I thought Jade was playing her. I didn't think she was being logical."

"She was right though," Jo said under her breath to Stevie and Eddie. Aloud to Max she said, "Speaking of not being logical, think about this: if someone is in the same room as you, there's a good chance they might hear what you're saying."

To Will the incident went beyond simple Max-baiting and he wasn't about to stop having a go at Max yet. "I will never forget the look on her face. At first it was like, stunned disbelief. Then there was such a look of, I don't know, hurt, betrayal? I couldn't believe what you said! Poor Millie, who'd always given you the benefit of the doubt. Here she is thinking 'the great detective' had taken her on as, like, his protégé, and then she overhears what you say about her to other people…"

"It's no wonder she quit the force," said Stevie. The look from Jo told her that perhaps she had gone too far.

"Are you saying it's my fault she left?" Max was getting angry now.

"Well, to a degree, maybe," conceded Jo. "But apparently she's doing really well at her new job." She added this in an attempt to soften the blow.

"No surprise really, she's very talented," said Eddie, who then smiled and murmured, "and good to look at as well."

Grace, who had been sitting in the corner silently throughout this exchange got up and said "Anyway Max, she's gone now, so don't let it worry you. You can't do anything to change it. Maybe you can just be glad she's happy."

With this she walked towards the door, and held it open purposefully until somehow everyone felt that the conversation was finished and that they should all get back to work.

Millie and the Sausage

An exhausted Millie was woken in the early morning by the sound of someone moving about her bedroom. She opened one eye to the half-light and smiled.

"Time to go to work hey?"

"Sorry darling, I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep and I'll call you later."

With this he bent down and kissed her on the forehead. Millie had drifted back to sleep before he pulled the front door locked behind him.

Millie woke up again at 11 that Monday morning. She got out of bed, put on her robe and fluffy slippers and stretched. God she was glad it was her 'weekend'! Every inch of her ached from dancing and wearing those ridiculous stiletto shoes and boots all night at work.

She opened up the curtains of her flat to the sunny spring morning. No need for her to go anywhere today. She put her coffee pot on the stove and started to cook herself an extra big breakfast. Dancing and singing all night (and of course having a new and enthusiastic lover to come home with) really made one work up an appetite!

Millie sat down at her table, poured her coffee and spread out the newspaper to read while she ate. She broke the yolk of her egg with some toast and nibbled the toast. Next she stabbed a sausage with her fork and held the end to her mouth to take a bite of it. Her eyes moved from the paper she was reading to the sausage and she lowered her fork back to her plate. She smiled to herself when she thought what people would think if she told them that a sausage made her think of Max Carter. Actually, it just made her mind wander back to a particular sausage breakfast she'd sacrificed over a year ago…

At first she had thought missing out on her breakfast was worth it to have him smile and wink at her for letting him take her place in the queue. They had worked together a few times before, and apart from the fact she found him so attractive, he had a way of making her feel like he singled her out as well. Admittedly his attentions were never long lasting, and he had bruised her feelings slightly at times with the way in which his mind could shift so quickly onto the next thing, but she enjoyed thinking of herself as someone he relied on. He didn't really seem to have anyone else at Sun Hill he got on well with, so it touched her that he seemed to turn to her when he needed help with something.

There was a robbery that day, and Max was the SIO. Millie was excited at the prospect of spending a day working with him. However, she had challenged Max's assessment of a suspect, and Max had been pretty harsh in expressing his disagreement to her. But the fatal blow had been when she overheard Max talking to Roger, who had been trying to tell Max that perhaps she was right.

She couldn't believe her ears. It was not so much what Max said that was so devastating to her. She knew his opinions could be dismissive and limited by the fact that in Max's mind crimes were often scripted affairs with all the players cast in specified roles. And she had enough faith in her own intelligence not to be shaken by an offhanded comment. Of course, it hurt that he apparently thought so little of her. But what really stung her was the fact that when he spoke he hadn't even noticed that she was there. Here she'd been believing she was special to him, but he had absolutely no sense of her presence near him, no awareness that she'd been at his side only second's before and might overhear what he said. And even if the possibility of her overhearing him had entered his mind, he didn't seem to care that what he said might hurt her.

Millie wished she had a reason to just go home, where she could crawl into bed and cover her head with the blankets and hide from the world and cry. What a fool she'd been! As she sat in the next team briefing, she felt like everyone was looking at her, pitying her, knowing that any feelings she had for Max were never going to be reciprocated. She could feel Roger's eyes on her. She knew he was only looking out for her, but she felt he could read what she was thinking.

She tried to pay attention to what was being said, but she couldn't bring herself to look at the board where Max was standing, talking away, once again oblivious to anything she might be feeling. Bastard. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. He was wrong. She knew he was wrong. Fuck it, she'd prove he was wrong. She had opinions, and she wasn't going to let this join-the-dots detective shut her up….

Millie grabbed her knife and made herself feel better by hacking her sausage into pieces.