Title: When work takes over
Author: Loz
E-Mail: loz06(at)yahoo(dot)com
Rating: T
Category: Neil.Andrea...Who else? Oh and the supporting cast, can't forget them.
Series: Story number twenty four. What follows are titles and story ID numbers:
(1) After he's at her door – 2486705 (11) When they're back together – 2619492
(2) When the mighty fall – 2506192 (12) Life almost in balance – 2630121
(3) While his wife's away – 2525486(13) Life under pressure – 2666280
(4) While they're away – 2543010 (14) Trying to have a life together – 2699235
(5) When love's not working – 2543013 (15) Outside influences on their lives – 2704730
(6) Boundaries when broken up – 2562611 (16) When things start falling apart – 2727112
(7) What happens on the train – 2579012 (17) When they're approaching the end again - 2750079
(8) When they work together – 2595808 (18) Trying not to drift apart – 2891564
(9) When she wants him back – 2598312 (19) When the truth comes out - 2912317
(10) When they're stuck together – 2611364 (20) How things are going to be – 2954769
(21) When they work together…again – 2959211 (22) When Andrea moves on – 3181250
(23) Heart decided – 3188794 (24) When work takes over - 3198959
Spoilers: So minor it shouldn't ruffle any feathers.
Archive (if applicable): www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net(slash)loz06
Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated.
Summary: After Neil's confession he wants her back, Andrea has things she needs to do but she can't get out from under her workload. Phil offers Neil some advice and new information about Neil has Andrea wondering.
Authors' notes: This is sort of a Neil free zone which is unfortunate but necessary as I had to set a few things up. Next part, big N.A. scene...Promise.
Thanks: To everyone for their reviews, reading and support.
Disclaimers: Well work is about to take over my life again, after a brief holiday. Unfortunately it's not work on The Bill, ownership still remains with others.
On the sixth ring Neil picks up the phone, sighing with what he imagines will be another long day of hassling phone calls. He'd sooner not answer it, already buried under work and having to deal with Phil Hunter who is due for his bi-monthly reign in. An immature DS is really the last thing Neil needs or wants and he finds himself asking what he ever did to deserve it. The phone call is a none too subtle reminder of what he did.
"My solicitor told me not to call you." No hello, it's Philippa, she expects he'll recognise her voice and does. She just doesn't call at work that often.
"Why's that?" Neil needs to obtain the information easily so as not to add to his already considerable frustration.
"He's used to refereeing a fight, its instruction out of habit." Neil nods realising she can't see it and he wonders why she's telling him this. It's not like she's said it as though she's doing him a favour, going out on a limb and breaking a rule…just a way of starting a conversation.
"I've signed the papers." The phone doesn't drop out of his hand, he doesn't want to crumble, and he doesn't feel upset, just a little hollow feeling with some failure mixed in.
"I've instructed my solicitor to send them back immediately, not wait the thirty days." Neil counts the days; it's been about two weeks since his solicitor called to say the papers were going to court.
"O.k. thanks for calling." Is there protocol for this; is there a certain reply that should be made?
"Oh Philippa," Neil remembers what he wants to ask but wasn't going to make a special call for. "Colin has been saying some strange things in conjunction with wanting me to go on a date."
"It's your life now Neil, it's no concern of mine." Philippa states simply, he thought she might be more uncomfortable than she sounds.
"No I know that, it's what he's been saying, what he hints at, what's between the lines." Maybe now surrounded by the stresses of work wasn't such a good time.
"I'll talk to him when he's over." Two things Neil realises, that time is still months away, time he doesn't want to spend idle and Philippa's tone suggests she knows what Colin's talking about. To top it off, Phil knocks and enters.
"O.k. thanks Philippa." Neil switches to business-like.
"Bye Neil." She says and his hand drops the phone slowly back into its cradle. There's no way Phil will be able to leave the phone call alone, he interest has been whet.
"So you two are still talking." He drops files on Neil's desk and drops himself into the nearest chair. Sighing Neil stops working; he had hoped it would deter Phil.
"We agreed to make it amicable Phil, for Colin's sake and ours." Neil's inclination to tell Phil to mind his own business is large but he reminds himself Phil's advice has been useful in the past.
"She doesn't know about Andrea then?" Phil questions.
Neil presses his lips together and sighs, picking up his pen again to tap against the desk. "No she doesn't."
"I get the feeling it wouldn't be so nice if she did." There's no smugness, just a continued conversation.
"She suspects she just doesn't know; besides a messy divorce doesn't fit into maintaining appearances." Neil spells out the reality of Philippa.
"How's her new job going?" Phil leans back in his chair.
"Look Phil, Philippa and I only speak about the divorce and Colin." Neil sighs, a little frustration seeping back in.
"I meant Andrea." Phil states and it instantly stops Neil.
"I don't know." And he doesn't, he also doesn't know if she's seeing someone else, he's not sure what to make of the card, he's not sure of her reaction to the statement he's still interested in her.
"What are you doing Neil?" Its Phil's turn to sound frustrated.
"Oh come on Phil don't start." Neil throws down his pen; he's not really in the mood for a lecture.
"Your marriage is over bar the paperwork." Phil points out.
"It's not that easy Phil." Neil drops into a sombre tone of voice.
"Why not, your marriage was the roadblock, don't tell me you've changed your mind and you don't want her now." Phil's tone indicates he doesn't believe it.
"No, I want her back." Neil hears himself say the words for the first time out loud and lets them absorb. It feels good and all her lies fade a little from importance.
"So what are you waiting for?" Phil asks gently.
"There's other things going on, things you don't know about…" Neil stops there and wonders if he should continue. "I think Smithy is interested in her." Phil doesn't visibly react.
"So get in there, pull rank." Phil says and Neil laughs once.
"There's stuff she did too, stuff we need to sort out and Colin needs to know the circumstances under which we were together. He might not want to see or talk to me again and then I think there's something going on with Philippa I don't know about. It's like Colin wants to tell me but he can't."
"You can't do this Neil, if your relationship with Andrea causes waves in his life then that's life, he'll survive, and he's almost an adult. You fell in love with Andrea as your marriage was falling apart, sure you've had some rough patches but you deserve to be happy. Life's short and if Colin loves you he'll support anyone who makes you happy through any means."
"That doesn't mean I can't minimise the impact on Colin by not hitting him with everything at once." Neil argues.
"All at once or gradually and continually, they're both as bad as each other; I don't understand why you're hesitating." Phil's features frown.
"Andrea deserves to have me without distractions, without having to lie to somebody, without her having to see the fall out from my choice to be with her."
"So what are you going to do, tell Colin and if he's angry wait till he's accepted your affair or until he packs up and goes and lives with Philippa?"
"I don't know." Neil says forcefully, this isn't really helping.
"Just don't wait too long or Smithy might just replace you." Phil leaves him with the sobering information.
Andrea could swear she knows the guy standing at the front of their office space. He stares at the cheap artwork as Andrea passes through and tries to look discreetly at him to ascertain who he is. It comes to her once she's passed by.
"I'm sorry; you're Joshua Elsom aren't you?" He looks at little surprised to be recognised.
"Yes, have we met?" Familiarity paints itself on his features.
"I was with Louise on New Years Eve when you met." Andrea watches recognition come to his face.
"That's right; I don't think we were introduced."
"Andrea Dunbar." She places her hand just below her neck indicating to herself. "Louise is in a meeting, it should be finished soon." Andrea looks at her watch; she's five minutes late getting back from her own lunch.
"I told him that." Their bitchy civilian secretary says, although she technically works for Louise, she's shared and Andrea's sure she resents the loss of prestige not to mention the increased workload. That last fact apparently gives her the right to think she runs the place.
"She shouldn't be long it was nice meeting you." Andrea smiles genuinely ignoring the remark from the woman behind the very front desk.
Andrea keeps a casual eye out but Louise and Joshua don't slip into her office, someone's being shouted to lunch and Andrea feels a little down and lonely.
"That's going well." Andrea says from the visitors chair with her back to Louise when she enters her office, only then does it cross her mind it could be anyone here to leave something on Louise's desk. Fortunately it is Louise and she's happier than she's been in a long while.
"Yeah, we've been seeing quite a bit of each other, he's been staying over some nights and he came with me last week to buy a gift for my sister's birthday." There are not too many things right now that could wipe Louise's smile.
"So are you going to introduce him to your family?"
"It's a little early for that." Louise sits down and sorts through the phone messages she collected on her way back into the office.
"So come on, out with it, how's your triangle going, I know that's the reason why you're here."
"Oh really?" Andrea laughs off the suggestion.
"I can count on one hand the number of times you've been in here for something work related, unlike Brennan who can't turn on his computer without consulting me." Louise shakes her head.
"Smithy's good company, we've been having fun, we got out and play pool, drink, catch a movie. We kiss, he's a good kisser but its pressure free, there are no expectations, and we don't ask much of each other…in a good way."
"You're not having expectations." Louise repeats in a mock tone of shock.
She frowns down at her last phone message. "But…"
"Neil came around; he told me his son is asking when he's going to start dating. I told him maybe he should follow his son's advice."
"And you're not half biased." Louise leans back in her chair and tries to work out just how the scene would have played out. Someone so heavily biased towards wanting him to date her, trying to give out neutral advice.
"I mentioned that, I didn't mean it that way – he should date someone, anyone."
"It must have been hard to encourage him to date someone else, that's deliberately causing yourself pain." Louise doesn't know if Andrea is crazy or strong.
"He told me he's not interested in anyone else." Louise's mouth opens and almost drops.
"You are one very lucky woman; most don't get a second chance."
"I know." Andrea acknowledges.
"Damn, I knew he loved you something severe." Louise shakes her head in amazement at how lucky Andrea is. "You know what has to happen with Smithy now?"
"Yeah," A part of Andrea will miss the fun nights they've had together, an easy escape from the things in her life she worried or questioned about. Then again it doesn't compare to being with Neil.
"You should be ecstatic." Louise studies her friend trying to decipher the reason for the mild reaction.
"I know." Andrea repeats.
"You're still worried about how he'll react to Smithy, even though you've been split. So don't tell him."
"I can't, not after everything I've done to him, I couldn't live with it." Andrea is adamant. "I just want to take this carefully and slowly, to not make any new mistakes. I don't think we can go back to where we left off; we've been apart for…"
"What?" Louise asks in reaction to Andrea's pause.
"Monday, we would have been together for 12 months." Andrea distances herself, a far away look in her eyes.
"Then I've got a job for you." Louise becomes purposely enthusiastic. "This documentary is going ahead and got approval this morning. I want to put you on it."
"Sure, it'll be distracting." Andrea agrees.
"No it won't, anything but, they've chosen Sun Hill, you'll be there everyday for a week, babysitting, liaising and making sure everything goes smoothly, no feathers ruffled in the public or at the station, making sure crime is still be stopped." As uncomfortable as it may be Andrea's not going to knock it back, this much trust and faith in her can't be refused. "We'll talk more about it tomorrow."
"It starts Monday." Andrea guesses and smiles ironically at the timing. She's yet to decide how she feels about the impending pseudo anniversary. "It'll force me to decide a few things I suppose."
"You've got two objectives; turn out a good piece of PR for the MET and come back with that ring on another finger."
"You'll be holding your breath on the second one for a while." Andrea looks down at her right hand.
"At least you've moved on from saying it'll never happen." As Andrea leaves she realises she likes that Louise can see the positive in so many things.
Andrea's phone is ringing when she gets back to her desk, she looks at it for a moment, there's a feeling it's going to be a call that she'd rather avoid.
"Andrea Dunbar." She says, clicking to check her email.
"Is this a bad time?" She wonders if he had a feeling she was talking about him. Other than that this is a call she'd rather not take right now.
"No, now's good." Andrea can't shake the unfair feeling that this is an inconvenient call.
"Can we go out tonight?" Andrea gets her first sense that there's something wrong or gone on, he sounds down.
"Smithy, I really can't…we need to talk." She cringes, it's so unfair of her to start this on the phone and if he takes it up she's going to have to meet him face to face anyway.
"Please Andrea; I've had a rotten day."
He's been good to her when she needed her spirits lifted…to knock him back now. "O.k."
"I'll pick you up at seven from work." No time to change. Andrea puts down the phone and immerses herself in work, it's a good distracter.