Happy New Year! I hope you have all had wonderful holidays and celebrating and that this year is your best. Here we go then 2018, bring it!


There wasn't much going on at the police station in Oxford that afternoon and two detectives had bagged the unlucky part of staying on duty for New Year's Eve. Well one hadn't minded, the other being Detective Inspector Lewis. James Hathaway didn't have anything really to go back to, why bother celebrating when there was nothing to celebrate? It didn't help that Lewis kept banging on about how wonderful it was to have something to a) look forward to and b) how change and the new year could be such a wonderful thing...and there wasn't anything to keep themselves occupied with except paperwork just at that moment so Hathaway had to listen for even longer than he'd wanted.

It was around the fourth huff that Lewis looked up from his computer over to the other side of his office to see what his sergeant was getting at.

"Don't like New Years I take it Sergeant?"

"A day commited to others getting blasted in the evening as they make resilutions they're bound to break the next coming week. You have me pegged sir"

"Aye, get away with it man, you know it's not just about getting blasted, what about the fact it means change, a chance to start something new, be something new?"

"I can do that anytime of the week. I don't need a specified day of the year to do so"

This time it was Lewis's time to sigh.

"Aye, true that. But.."

"But what, sir?"

"I guess for some people they use the restart in a bigger way. Y'know it comes as a way or term of reflection. It comforts them. Reminds them that they can put the past behind them for good and say that *that* good or bad period of life is over and be able to look to the future a bit better, a bit happier. It's nice to be able to wave goodbye and say hello in one go. It's not just about resolutions sergeant. Sometimes for some others, it's something bigger. I'm always feeling lighter everytime the countdown begins and you look round the crowded rooms or the outside as you see their faces light up and it gets to one and everyone is smiling or embracing their friends knowing they have a whole year to begin again, to have more fun, more adventures, and they..just...look -"

"Lighter?"

Lewis looked back to his computer than back to Hathaway grinning a little as he did so. He nodded his head once and jabbed a key to save his work.

"Yeah. There's something magical for me personally about it all. Even when me Val went..I...I guess it's just a part of me that likes being a little silly. It's okay to not like it though James for exactly those same reasons"

"What, being reflective, having fun? Really sir, you make me chuckle like nobody else"

"Sometimes I think you do this annoying me thing on purpose. I meant it in the way that people might have lost someone that year or be going through such a bad time they can't see themselves through that tunnel yet. Things and situations are different for everyone and that changes. New Year doesn't equally mean everything is sunshine and rainbows, it just means new. It just means forward"

James focused in on his boss's face and saw nothing but sincerity there – which was nothing new, case or not – and weighed it all up in his mind. Lewis was always going to be the more positive person in this partnership it seemed. But there were some things he was now contemplating due to the conversation. Lewis didn't need to know that though.

"Come on then Jim lad, let's get these reports done and we can go for a coffee before my brain melts"

Hathaway nodded in response clicking back his screen to life. Maybe he'd try Lewis's way this year coming. After all there were a few things he wanted to start changing...even if he knew you didn't need a certified day to.

Maybe tomorrow just meant forward.