Author's usual notes and disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters nor the original Inspector Lynley Mysteries – they belong to Elizabeth George and the BBC. I have borrowed the characters from the TV-Show and solely own the ideas of my stories and the developments I let them go through.

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Author's note and summary: Conferences can be boring but they usually always offer you something new and inspiring. This could be for example a new girlfriend for Nkata, just to name one thing.

A short story for your amusement. Enjoy...

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Thin Walls

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They were in Leeds. DCI Tommy Lynley, DS Barbara Havers, or better soon-to-be DI Barbara Havers and DC Winston Nkata, who soon was going to be promoted as well, attended a police conference there. Sir Hillier himself had signed them in and literally forced them to have these advanced education courses. So during the days they listened to lectures, participated in workshops and did everything that would earn them rewards of merit in their homework books just to please Hillier.

In fact they also really learned something new there.

Of course they also met some nice police officers from all over the country so after the first week they had made a habit of meeting with them. In the evenings they sat at the canal or met in the pub or went to a club with local detective officers. Especially with a certain female detective to be precise in Nkata's case. He had met her in the first week on Monday at an afternoon workshop and now, on Thursday of the second week, they had grown quite close to each other. During this evening's dinner when she was alone with her boss Barbara voiced her suspicion that tonight Winston definitely would bring her home to his room in the small hotel all three were sharing for their stay.

"Oh, the joys of being newly enamoured." Lynley had chuckled with a cheeky wink. Barbara just had blushed and grinned and then their meals were served so the topic was dropped.

It was a rather small and simple hotel, not every room had its en-suite bathroom even, but it was dimensioned for having police officers checked in to shared rooms and it was cosy, the staff was polite and they all knew what they were doing and above all it was clean. Even DCI Lynley would not have wanted to upgrade his stay out of his own pocket. He surely would have checked in at a better place but he also would have wanted to take Barbara with him and for several reasons she surely would have objected.

Their rooms were all on the same floor. Barbara had room 106, Nkata was in 105, both rooms rather small and definitely more for rankers than for Detectives but with the hotel completely booked and filled with officers Lynley was glad that he had one room with an en-suite bathroom. It was number 104. On the other side of the floor was one of the two bathrooms and some utility rooms.

The views from the simpler rooms were all great and breathtakingly stunning: The bricks of the other house's wall.

"At least there are yellow bricks and not just a grey concrete wall." Barbara had joked after they had moved in. Lynley though was the lucky one. Not just because he had his own bathroom but his room also had two sides with windows. It was at the corner of the house and from one window he could see across the streets. There was another high building.

After dinner tonight the DCI and the DS took a short stroll home. Since they had to pass some tests the other day they had planned to go to bed early. Nkata of course was not seen until then but he was the lucky one anyway and there were no tests for him the other day.

After he had read his notes and a few papers they had handed out to them Lynley went to bed. His mind had started to wander to a certain woman in the other room more and more often so there was no more use in trying to focus on work anyway. He had just dozed off when the noise of something bumping into the wall on the other side woke him. Giggles were heard and distinctively indecent laughter, and then there was silence.

Tommy sighed and thought that at least one of them was having fun tonight. He tried to get back to sleep again. Unfortunately it did not stay silent in the other room for long so the first moments of his sleep were already disturbed again after just a couple of minutes. It had come as predicted by Barbara earlier. Winston obviously had brought the woman to his room and now, Tommy did not even have to listen close, they were having a lot of fun. A lot of audible fun. Loudly they enjoyed each other very much. Annoyed that he was able to hear so many details Tommy rolled over and tried to muffle the sounds with his pillow over his ears. Of course he had no chance. The increasing noises of his neighbours making love still hit his ears.

"Oh, drat it! So much for an early sleep." Tommy cursed. The thought of Barbara in the other room crossed his mind again. For a few moments he pondered if it was a good idea but then Tommy got up, fetched the two piccolo bottles of champagne from his mini-bar and two glasses, briefly wondered why there even was one since this was a conference hotel room, whipped on his dressing gown and quietly left his room.

Three times Tommy had to knock at her door before Barbara finally asked through the closed door who was outside.

"It's me." he whispered.

"Who's me?" she whispered back.

"It's DCI Thomas Lynley!" Tommy sharply hissed. Was she really letting him stand outside of her door? "The eighth Earl of Asherton and I request admission, Barbara. And if you don't open soon I'll call for backup!"

The door opened and only Barbaras grinning face appeared in the small crack but Tommy could also catch a glimpse of her funny pyjama top. It had a wide collar and it was rather alluring for him to see so much of her cleavage. Her harrumph made his eyes divert back up to her face though. "Sir! It's rather late for a visit, isn't it!"

"Don't Sir me, Barbara. Not at this time of the day. Will you please let me in?" Tommy waved the bottles. His broad grin matched hers. "Fancy a nightcap? I can't sleep."

"Yeah, I can hear them too." She rolled her eyes and let him into her room. "We could go through the papers one more time, couldn't we? There surely is something we still need to learn."

"You bet!"

Barbara slightly blushed but she could not help but laugh about his raised eyebrows and the pointing movement of his head towards Nkata's room.

It was late in the night. So far the night had been quite successful for Winston. After a nice dinner in a cosy Italian restaurant he had had a drink with Kathy, this time in a different club so they would not meet other police officers, then they had walked home to his hotel and they had exercised the proper use of a billy twice before they fell asleep in his bed. Now he had woken up and was just crossing the corridor to go to the toilet when he could hear giggles and quiet laughs coming from Barbara's room. A dark voice murmured something that made her laugh out loud and clearly amorously delighted.

Hesitating only for a second Winston finally had to chuckle but then quickly vanished inside the bathroom. He was happy that Barbara obviously had a male guest which was about time, he thought.

"Serves him right." Winston said to the reflection in the mirror above the sink when he thought about their boss, DCI Lynley, who obviously never had realised that Barbara had a crush on him for years. This in fact reminded him of someone in his own room. A quick splash of water into his face would refresh him before he went back to where that wonderful woman was waiting in his bed.

In the middle of the corridor he suddenly stopped rooted to the spot. Coming from Barbara's room a well known low male voice growling the Seargent's name reached Winston's ears. It was followed by Barbara's voice crying out the Inspector's name positively encouraging.

"Yes! Oh, Tommy! Yes!"

"Oh, Barbara!"

Nkata could not help but grin broadly. It was the DCI's voice. His superiours who had danced around each other for years, oblivious to the growing and constant tension between them, audibly proved that they finally had come to their senses.

Actually their voiced delight was so inspiring that Winston quickly rushed to his own room.

In the morning, his new girl-friend had left earlier to go to her own hotel before she had to get to the conference location herself, Nkata was smirking all the time. He had been the first at the breakfast table he shared with Lynley and Havers and for a while he even had wondered if the other two would get there on time. Probably they would miss breakfast today.

They would not. His boss came down looking rather tired. Lynley got himself a bowl of cereals and sat down, only half suppressing a yawn. "Good morning, Winston."

"Morning, Sir." Winston almost laughed out loud. He also was completely knackered but to see Lynley like this and knowing exactly what had caused his boss' tiredness was priceless.

One moment later Barbara came to the room looking similarly tired. Winston presumed she had waited outside the door so they would not appear at the same time. Hiding the obvious, Winston thought.

" 'mornin' everyone!" she greeted the men rather cheerful.

"Good morning, Barbara." Lynley answered. They both had that certain soft glow of a sweet night's exercises in their faces. In the very early morning when Kathy had kissed him goodbye Winnie again had heard some certain noises coming from Barbara's room. The two of them apparently not only had exercised in the night but also in the morning.

"And a very good morning to you, Barbie!" The Constable could not help but give a short laugh. Barbara quizzically looked at him when she sat down at the head end of the table, Winston to her left and Tommy to her right. A light rosy touch appeared on her cheeks when she remembered the thin walls between their rooms. All she could hope was that Winston would not notice but of course he had the eyes of a detective.

Nkata's constant smile turned into a cheeky grin.

"What is it that amuses you so much, Nkata?" Barbara asked. "Did you have a nice night with Kathy?"

"Oh, yes. It was rather enjoyable." Winston snorted another laugh. "But it seems that I wasn't the only one who had enjoyed the warmth of another person's body next to him."

"Oh, good to hear that it had been mutual." his boss replied pushing away his empty bowl.

"Exactly. Good to hear..." It still was a hard task for Nkata to swallow down his laughter.

"Hm?" Lynley innocently asked and bit into a buttered toast.

Barbara caught his eyes and she exchanged a look with Tommy that included everything. There was the smug satisfaction of their night's activities, a mutual smile of love and the knowledge that this house had very thin walls. They silently agreed on telling Nkata right now what was going on between them. He obviously had heard it anyway. They would not be able to hide it from his eyes and in fact they both would not want to hide it any longer.

"Well, I couldn't sleep-" Winston began.

Tommy filled his mouth with a huge bite of sausage and beans. "I couldn't either..." he mumbled almost unintelligible.

Barbara fought hard to suppress a laugh. She hid her amusement behind the rim of her coffee cup.

Nkata went on unimpressed. "...so when I went to the bathroom tonight I couldn't help but notice the sounds coming from your room, Barb."

"So you've eavesdropped?" she impishly asked. Her breakfast was served. A lot of calories was exactly what she needed now. "Ah, marvellous!"

"Not at all!" the Constable protested. "But there were unmistakable sounds. I even was able to recognise the voices. Sir." He emphasised it with a nod towards the DCI.

"And that leads your detective brain to...?" Lynley encouraged him.

Nkata sighed. Apparently he was forced to voice it. They would not say it loud, that was for sure. Briefly he wondered if it really was his DI's voice coming from Barbara's room and not a different one. But she had clearly called his name and as far as he could tell from their happy faces it surely was not another man coincidently named Tommy.

"Well, I thought it was you both... umm... having... err... having a certain conversation." he stammered.

The point was reached where she could not stand it any longer. Laughing out loud Barbara took Tommy's hand in hers and squeezed it. "Yeah, nothing wrong with having a certain conversation, hm? And I have to admit that we talk a lot. It's good for mutual understanding."

Seeing them holding hands like this in the public of a hotel's breakfast room Winston's eyes turned bigger. "So, I do understand that you both...?"

Tommy nodded and hid his lovestruck grin behind the rim of his tea cup. Barbara laughed again and briefly nudged her head onto his shoulder. They were still holding hands and looked as cute as a happy couple could look.

"Finally!" Winston exclaimed. "Congratulations! And what on earth had opened your eyes in the end? I mean, there's hardly anything that's turning love more off than this conference."

"It was another couple." Trying to sound casually Barbara told him. For a second Winnie was thinking that he and Kathy were their inspiration but he was wrong. "You know, seeing the old woman in Eden Park caring for that old man and enjoying, as best as they could, being together in his last days on earth after he got poisoned has raised several thoughts about a few things in my life. And it obviously has made Tommy think too. When we came from our appointment at court for that case we've finally... umm... talked about our thoughts."

She happily grinned at her boss.

"And lives." Tommy also grinned and bent over to give his Sergeant a brief kiss. Winston's eyes went wide.

"Yes, and lives." Barbara whispered.

Nkata was completely shocked. The court hearing to the Eden Park case already had been ten months ago.

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