Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to the great genius Val McDermid. I'm merely borrowing her characters to play a little.

AN: Written right after series two, episode three, 'Right to silence'. The killer got to Carol and Tony's quick thinking came only just in time to save her. Afterwards, she sits in the hallway, defeated, and he comes rushing in, kind of worried sick. I couldn't say where this would fit the books, as it was inspired solely by the tv-series. I also didn't have this beta-ed, all mistakes are mine. If you find any typo's or errors that should be corrected, please let me know. Enjoy!

Shock

"Where are you staying tonight?" Tony asked seriously.
"At home thank you. Why?" Carol shrugged.
"The shock still has to come, you shouldn't be alone then."
"Ah..." Her answer was non-committing and dismissive. He knew she'd got his point, but he also knew she was too proud to agree with him right then. Tonight was time enough though. If he showed up at her place later on, she'd be happy to have him there.

"Tony." She looked surprised, but he knew she wasn't. He knew she was glad not to be alone. His return was equally as vague as her statement.
"Carol."
"..." And once again there they stood. Today it was him breaking the crackling silence.
"I thought you'd like some company..." It worked.
"I do, come in..."

Minutes later they were sitting in Carol's living room, their usual mugs of tea in front of them. The only difference was that they lacked a case to work on...
As tension was building, both watched the other sipping tea. Carol gave in first.
"I know your last statement about it was supposed to be final, but I can't help asking one last time, what are you going to do about Laura?"
He sighed. "My opinion won't change Carol. She doesn't need a trial, especially not now after she's lost her best friend, she needs help." Carol smiled a little, but was still in doubt whether his doing nothing was the right thing to do. "She did cause us some troubles no? How could you not have seen this one coming?"
No one would have noticed the irony of Carol's 'some troubles'. Tony did. Shrugging again he answered: "She caused a bit chaos, yes, but I don't blame her. And you know I don't see that sort of things. In fact it was her who enlightened me of something else along the way." With Tony speaking in his usual complex way it was no wonder Carol didn't get it. "How was that?"
As she exchanged her smile for a questioning look, the corners of his mouth curled upwards. She was cute when she was confused...
"You know she was studying the notes from previous cases?"
Carol nodded.
"She felt there was something between the lines there, Carol."

It was the emphasis on her name that did it.

He knew he was talking about them, and she knew it too. Neither acted on that knowledge. After several minutes of comfortable silence, both moved and they settled back into their usual habit of reading and discussing. With no case to talk about, the reports of an old closed because of death one had to do.
Everything was good to keep Carol's thoughts away from the incident of that afternoon, and Tony was doing remarkably well. It was late when they finally said their goodnights and Carol went to bed with a smile on her face. He took the sofa, another habit. Being who he was and knowing her like he did, he should have known that the facts would eventually catch up with her. She was a tough lady, and a good cop, but she was human, and she'd been in a terrible situation only a few hours ago.

It was two am when her nightmare woke him. She wasn't trashing or something, but still the droplets on her forehead gave it away. Tony wouldn't be Tony if he wouldn't start analysing first. He watched her for a couple of long minutes, before his brain registered that he'd come to look after her and that it would probably be a good idea to wake her.

He didn't.

Once again he was too afraid to face her at right then. Not afraid of her, but still he was afraid. He shook her just long enough for her to snap out of the nightmare and back into a soft slumber. Then he returned to his sofa, to lay awake for the remainder of the night.

---

By the following morning Tony had convinced himself that it was all his fault. He was to blame, for being to late and for not helping Carol better. Around six he got up from 'his' sofa and started pacing through Carol's living room, only stopping long enough to make coffee. After a while of pacing and thinking, his actions changed into pacing and mumbling.

"I should have seen it coming. I should have gotten it right about his personality from the beginning. I'm getting slow, I'm no use to Carol like this. It was all in front of me and I was too dim to see it..."

The reproaches to his name were piling up by the second. His self-esteem had reached a very low point and then to think that he'd come to comfort Carol, not the other way around. Still pondering over the same problems, he went on.

"What if I'd spent less time with my students and concentrated more on my work for the police? Am I able to be of use to them, or do I only put them in dangerous situations the greater part of time? Carol for one can't be happy with my work, that's impossible. I should have quit our co-operation before I ruined everything, I should have anticipated this..."

He could have gone on like this for hours, only he didn't, he wasn't allowed to. His first stirrings and his manly use of the coffee machine had roused Carol, and when she staggered towards the living room with sleepy eyes, she'd heard his musings. For minutes and minutes she quietly stood in the door opening leading from the living room to her bedroom, and he hadn't noticed. His words hurt. It hurt her that he was blaming himself, he shouldn't, and him musing about the incident brought it back, which hurt too. Needless to say that she would rather cry then laugh. There was only one way out of this situation. They had to talk...

"Tony..." It was a whisper, and one would think he was too far away to notice, but he did. He didn't stop pacing, but he did stop talking. After several long seconds, he also stopped pacing, but for another couple of long seconds neither spoke.

"Carol, I'm sorry..." He started. For this once she wouldn't let him.

"No Tony..." She wanted to tell him he shouldn't blame himself, he'd saved her! She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated his concern, how much she owed him, but she couldn't. Without further delay, tears came and tough Carol broke down sobbing. To think that had been since Berlin, which then came crashing back too. What a wonderful world...

Her words and tears had brought his common sense back and he snapped out of his ridiculous behaviour. Still he had a sobbing Carol on his hands, and although shock and memory accounted for most of that, partly he was to blame there too. Very un-Tony-like, he crossed over to her and hugged her tightly.

His poor social skills had for once not messed things up. A firm hug and a shoulder to cry on had been exactly what Carol needed. Especially if it were Tony's. Blame the shock, the friendship, the ancients tension, neither would ever know, but before they knew, their embrace found them in a mind-blowing kiss. It was nothing fancy, no heated movements, no tumbling over feet, no crashing down on the sofa, just a sober lip-lock, but mind-blowing it was.

When they returned to earth minutes later, both knew it was right. Something had changed, yet nothing had. It had always been like this, only it hadn't. Neither acknowledged the change, not then, not later. Nothing changed in their daily lives, not really. The only difference was that from that night on their 'close-encounters' didn't end at two inches anymore, but locked, and that his sofa was no more. Whenever he stayed, he got the right side of the bed...

AN:

I hope you all like this, I for one liked writing it. I'd love to hear what you think of it, what you'd like to see, what you don't, basically whether you guys would like it if I wrote more of these. It's my opinion that there are far too few WitB fanfictions around. So, please review, it feels great to recieve those little notes of encouragement and appreciation. Most happy of course I would be if there were some others around there taking up the pen and writing a WitB fic, preferably a T/C. Writing is great, but from time to time it's more fun to read something someone else wrote.Until the next!

Sara.

Before I forget, I know I once again broke the UST between them by having them share a kiss, but I swear I didn't do it on purpose. I grew like this in my mind and that how I wrote it. I too love the UST in their 'relationship' and am sure that the series would be ruined if ever something more happened. Of course that doesn't mean that from time to time Istill want to see something more happen.

And by the way, Coolbyrne, if you're reading this, pleeeeeease write again, I love your stories.