A/N: This came about because I'm thoroughly pleased with myself for getting an unconditional offer into a course that usually consists of all men (Vehicle Engineering), so I wrote this about Sandra and Gerry.

Sarah x

"Yeah, well," Gerry grumbled. "The plug's been chewed off it." Sandra rolled her eyes. For the past half an hour, UCOS had heard nothing but how the plug of his TV had been chewed right through overnight by a mouse.

"Bloody hell, Gerry!" Sandra exclaimed, finally losing patience with his moaning. "If it's annoying you that much, just re-wire the plug back on it where the mouse chewed it off. It just means the power lead will be a bit shorter," she suggested. He looked blankly at her, and a triumphant grin spread across her face. "Don't tell me the manly Gerry Standing can't re-wire a plug!" she mocked him happily.

"I never needed to," he quickly defended himself. "The ex-wives never let me within a hundred yards of anything DIY related. I'm crap at it," he admitted. Sandra was very smug at this.

Jack and Brian looked at each other and started laughing; Gerry always let on that he was the manliest man alive and he could do anything, but he couldn't do any DIY.

"What, so you can re-wire a plug, Sandra?" he demanded.

She grinned at him. "I've been able to re-wire anything since I was a teenager," she replied, pleased with herself that she'd shown him up. He frowned and resolved into an almighty sulk, which the other three found hilarious.

"Now I got to take it to get repaired, so I'll have no TV or nothing tonight or tomorrow night," he pouted like a child.

Sandra, Jack and Brian got over their giggling and returned to the case, although Sandra planned to offer to do it for him. He was always paying for repairs for his own stuff and his ex-wives and daughters'. It wouldn't cost much to have it repaired, but it would be an annoying inconvenience to have to cart it to a repair shop and wait for them to get around to it. Especially when she was willing to do it for nothing, and it wouldn't even take long.

So when the Jack and Brian went out on enquiries, she leaned over his desk and waited for him to look up at her. He was still in a mood when she said to him, "Do you want me to come over tonight and fix your TV?" He looked surprised at her offer, so she added a reason. "It'll save you paying some idiot to take two days to do it when I'd do it for nothing in ten minutes."

He eyed her suspiciously. "What's the catch?" he asked her grumpily. Why did he think there was a catch to her offer? Oh, he could be so annoying sometimes.

"No catch!" she insisted, holding her hands up. "I'll be at yours about seven, alright?" she told him, not giving him any more say in the matter. He gave her a small smile, and she knew then that, however much he huffed over it, he was in fact grateful for her kindness.

True to her word, at seven o'clock that night, she was sat in the floor of his living room, armed with a sharp knife, a screwdriver and a glass of dry white wine. "Watch and learn, Gerald," she smirked, and he obeyed, sitting down next to her.

She first opened the plug that had been separated from the rest of the flex, using a screwdriver, and laid the top, the part with the pins, on the floor. She unscrewed the terminals freeing the wires and the fuse from their rightful positions after she removed the cable grip. "Bin," she said to Gerry, handing him the discarded piece of wire.

He obediently took it and watched as she stripped back a small part the insulation one the rest of the flex, peeling it back and cutting it away, doing the same to the three coloured, small wires inside it. She then put the end of the cable into the plug and secured the cable grip back on so it would stay put, and returned the live, neutral and earth wires to their appropriate terminals, and put the fuse back where it belonged.

Gerry watched in admiration of her when she reattached the pins and plugged it in, and his TV was suddenly working again. "Happy?" she asked, standing up.

"Very," he answered with a grin. She handed him a paper bag with a smile, and he looked curiously into it. "Mousetraps?" he asked, slightly confused.

"The one that killed your TV might have been electrocuted, Gerry, but there's bound to be more than one," she reminded him.

"Thanks," he said. "Where'd you learn to do that, anyway?" he demanded.

"My dad taught me when I was thirteen," she revealed. "The plug on my lamp got crushed when Mum moved my big wardrobe, so he taught me how to replace and re-wire a plug," she shrugged. "I can fit a dimmer switch for a light, replace a light switch, everything like that," she added rather smugly.

"Well, now that my TV is working," he began, rather more cheerful than he was quarter of an hour ago, "I reckon we should watch a film." To his surprise, she agreed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd watched a film with someone else. She always watched them alone. In fact, she did almost everything alone these days.

So they ended up watching Shrek, a film Sandra had protested against watching, deeming it "childish," but secretly ended up thoroughly enjoying. So Gerry put the sequel on when he realised that she did in fact like it, even if she refused to admit it. But by the time they were near the end of the second film, it was almost eleven o'clock and Sandra was beginning to feel drowsy after a good few glasses of wine. She surprised herself by moving closer to Gerry, and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Can I sleep on your couch tonight, Gerry?" she asked, not wanting to drive home tonight. She really could not be bothered, if she was completely honest.

"There's a spare bedroom if you want that," he offered her. She looked up at him with a soft smile.

"Honestly," she said, the corners of her lips turning upwards and her eyes softening in a mixture of tiredness and fondness. "I don't want to move from here," she admitted.

"I'll go and get you some pillows and a duvet," he sighed. When he got up, Sandra stretched herself across her sofa and rapidly began to fall asleep. By the time Gerry returned, she was too comfortable and too tired to open her eyes, so she let him think she'd fallen asleep in his absence. He turned off the TV and gently placed a duvet over her body and pillows under her head.

She felt his lips against her forehead but did not object. It felt good to be reminded that someone on the planet cared about her, and she didn't mind him showing it to her when they were alone. She could feel his fingers gently brush the hair out of her eyes, as he whispered, "Goodnight, Smarty Pants Sandra."

She let him reach the door and and turn the light off before she called after him, "Goodnight, Gerry the Joker!" with a soft smile to herself.

Hope it's alright!

Please leave a review and tell me what you thought!

Sarah x