A/N: Hello lovelies! This is the fourth part of Hannah and Jo's story! It's set about 10 months after Mistakes.
Hope you enjoy it!
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The fallout from the Westlake case was still on-going when Hannah returned from her month's leave. She was surprised to find that DS Carter had transferred to another station and was delighted when the Superintendent offered her his old position when she returned to work. Jen had settled into life in the house and fulfilled her promise by returning to school at the beginning of the year to complete her GCSEs. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly.
Hannah flicked through the paperwork spread out on her desk with a sigh. Nearly seven months had passed since her promotion and she still hadn't got used to the increase in reports she had to file and forms she had to fill in. Jo hadn't been joking when she complained about the massive difference between being a Constable and a Sergeant. It wasn't just the paperwork driving her mad. There were two new trainee DCs in CID and it had somehow fallen on Hannah to keep an eye on them. Since Max, Terry and Banksy had all transferred to different stations and she had been promoted, the DI seemed to have decided that Hannah should be the one to take the two young detectives under her wing. The younger of the two, TDC Rob Evans, was hardworking, eager to learn and rather shy. The other new detective, TDC Ollie Baker, reminded Hannah far too much of Stuart Turner and Phil Hunter and the Detective Sergeant was only too happy to remind him who was the senior officer when she needed to. How he'd made it to CID was a mystery to the red-head most days.
Just as she was about to give Ollie a piece of her mind over the latest report he had filled in, the phone on her desk rang shrilly, causing the Detective Sergeant to jump and knock the open file onto the floor. Sighing and swearing softly, she bent to gather the papers, clamping the receiver between her ear and her shoulder as she did so.
"DS McKay? There's a woman down in reception for you." PC Green informed the detective over the phone.
Hannah distractedly shifted through the masses of paperwork on her desk and sighed. "OK, thanks, Beth. I'll be right down."
Just as she thought to ask who the woman was, Hannah realised that her daughter's best friend had already hung up. She sighed and glanced towards the desks to her left where the two new trainees were looking through the financial and phone records of the four suspects in the fraud case that was currently taking up most of their time and energy. Deciding that leaving them to their own devices for a couple of minutes wouldn't lead to any sort of incident, taking a gulp from her plastic coffee cup and wincing as she realised that the liquid was stone cold, the Detective Sergeant strode through the office and down the stairs to the reception area. Pushing through the double doors the red-head stopped abruptly, the colour draining from her face as her eyes fell on the woman sitting on the plastic seats waiting for her.
"What's the matter, Hannah, you look like you've seen a ghost?"
"You... You're... I was told you were dead." The red-head murmured weakly, feeling as though she was about to faint.
"Well that's a nice way to say hello to your mother, isn't it. I haven't seen you in... oh, years... and all you can say is 'I was told you were dead'." The woman replied, raising an eyebrow.
Suddenly Hannah was very aware of the young brunette PC watching them and cleared her throat. "Go in there." She ordered her mother gruffly, pushing the older woman towards the door that led off the reception area. Then she turned to Beth quickly. "Please don't mention this to anyone; especially not Ellie."
"Of course." Beth agreed with a smile.
Nodding at her, Hannah followed her mother into the interview room and closed the door firmly behind her. She leant against it for a moment, trying to get her head around what was happening. She hadn't seen or heard from Sharon since she was twenty, except a couple of years ago when she'd been told that her mother had died of a drugs overdose up in Scotland where they'd moved. But now her mother was looking at her, definitely alive.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded coldly after a moment composing herself. Her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, as though protecting herself from the woman.
"I came to see you. It's been far too long, Hannah."
The detective snorted. "You're telling me. It's been sixteen years, Sharon. The only thing I've heard in all that time was that you were dead. What about Pete? Is he still alive too?"
The older, blonde woman shook her head, sitting in the chair on the far side of the table. "No, your Dad had a heart attack in 2002. We split up not long after we moved to Scotland. I went to drugs counselling and I met Ian, my husband; he's one of the counsellors. I've been clean and on the straight and narrow since 1998."
"I'm pleased for you." Hannah replied emotionlessly, shrugging. "But you can't just turn up here and expect me to be happy to see you. I've got my life and it doesn't involve you. Clearly you've got yourself sorted in Scotland, so I think you should just go back there."
"What about Freya and Max, don't they have the right to decide whether or not they want to see me?"
"Freya's working in France and Max is at school." The younger woman told her bluntly. "They won't want to see you anyway, so you should just go."
"What about Ellie? I have the right to see my granddaughter."
Hannah glared at her angrily. "No, you don't. You gave up any rights you had, if you ever had any at all, when you buggered off with hardly a goodbye."
"It's not like you gave us the chance to say goodbye, Hannah." Sharon replied with a scowl. "First chance you got you were out of there and you took the children with you."
"D'you wonder why?" Her daughter laughed mirthlessly. "You spent your life in a heroin induced dream. You barely even noticed when we left. The kids wouldn't even recognise you."
"At least give them the choice."
There was a soft knock on the door, preventing Hannah from replying. She shot her mother a glare, before moving to the door and opening it to see who was outside. Beth winced slightly at the thunderous expression on the Detective Sergeant's face, before informing her that Uniform had just radioed in a sighting of the suspect CID had been after for a week and who had vanished off the face of the earth several days ago. Torn between wanting to make the arrest and needing to deal with the situation in the room behind her, Hannah asked Beth to pass on the information to DS Moss and Sergeant Stone and radio out an alert to the Uniform patrol that had spotted the man to keep trailing him.
"You sound like you're important around here." Sharon said as the younger woman re-entered the room and closed the door firmly. "Giving orders and delegating to everyone else."
"I am." Hannah agreed, keeping her face expressionless and shrugging. "I've worked bloody hard to get the life I've got and I won't let you waltz in and ruin everything."
"I don't want to ruin everything. I just want to get to know my family and for you to get to know yours. You've got another brother, Liam, who really wants to meet you all. I just want a chance to apologise for everything."
"It's a bit late to apologise now. You've got almost thirty-seven years' worth of disappointment and let-downs to make up for and I really don't think you're capable."
"At least give me the chance to try." Sharon almost begged, stepping forward and closing the gap between them. She looked imploringly at her daughter and was greeted by a blank, hard expression that showed no signs of slipping.
"No. I don't want you anywhere near me or the kids." Hannah warned her coldly. "I think you should just go back to Scotland and stay there."
"Freya and Max are my children, Hannah, not yours." The woman reminded her daughter, her own eyes flashing angrily now. "You have absolutely no right to stop them seeing me if they want to."
Hannah closed the space between them in a second, jabbing her finger aggressively into Sharon's chest. "That's just the point; they won't want to see you. When we thought you'd died none of us cared. They don't know who you are. They wouldn't recognise you if you passed them in the street. Max was two when you left, for fuck's sake! He was just a baby!"
There was a sharp slapping sound and the red-head recoiled, bringing a hand to her cheek. For a couple of minutes, they just glared at each other. Then Sharon's face fell and she looked at her hand as though it didn't belong to her. She took a step forward and reached out, pulling her hand away as Hannah flinched.
The detective narrowed her eyes. "I think you should go."