"Wow, well that's been a long night."

"Sandra, I think we both knew it was going to be a long night, just neither of us expected to be this sober." We've just got back home from the office and I'm right, we both expected to be out of our head drunk or at least drunk enough to forget we'd had to sit through yet another police awards.

"Yeah, today's been hard." She tells me, I know it was a pretty gruesome case but I know something else is bothering her and I don't know what, seeing her down has always been hard for me so its always easier to change the subject and try perk her up a bit.

"So what was the linking arms thing about earlier? I thought this was a secret, I thought we had rules."

"We did, but normal couples don't have rules in their relationships so why should we. Anyway Jack wasn't there, Brian was hardly going to figure anything out and well anyone else would just think you were being a gentleman."

"I suppose, I love you know." I tell her as I kiss her, she looks a bit happier but still desperately sad. I've sat down on the sofa and I thought she was going to join me but as I turn the TV I realise she hasn't and I hear her padding around upstairs.

"Okay I give up. What's wrong?" I ask her as I find her in bed with a bottle of wine, a bar of chocolate and tears slowly falling from her eyes. She's not answering and isn't even looking at me, she's just looking straight ahead as if she can't hear, so I crawl in beside her.

"Gerry, I mean this in the nicest possible way but can you please leave me alone."

"I'm sorry Sandra, no can do. Firstly I'm taking this wine because it will do you no good, I'm taking the chocolate because however often I tell you you're perfect you don't believe me and then you'll spend all tomorrow complaining about the fact you've put on weight." I dry her tears, take them chocolate and wine from her and put them on my bedside table and pull her into a cuddle.

"Why is he doing this?" Sandra asks me slowly and I can tell she's trying to keep the tears back.

"You're going to have to elaborate a bit honey."

"Jack, he pretty much told me he didn't want to live." Oh God, I wasn't expecting that from her, I thought it would be something to do with Strickland.

"What?!"

"I know, I thought he was coping better, I thought he was finally accepting Mary's death. He wasn't talking to her memorial as much and he seemed better, how could he be feeling like that without me noticing? I can't lose him."

"Sandra, it's not your fault, some people are good at hiding things and he certainly hid that well. I can promise you he's not going anywhere, not with us around as support. Now tell you what, I'll run you a nice warm bubble bath and we can talk about ways of supporting him."

"Okay, I love you you know Gerry."

"I know and I love you too."

THE END.

I guess the moral of this story is everyone's breakable when they get to a certain point, some people are good at hiding when they're broken but always be there as support because all though it may seem like it doesn't help it really does.

Beth x