A/N: I have written myself into a corner with my other fic so that's on hiatus for a few days. I don't know what's going to happen this season, but here's an idea I had.

Written: August 6th 2013

Spoilers: Fallout of events of season 9, set well into season 10, implied character death.

Disclaimer: Prob best I don't own New Tricks or its characters, they'd be tortured endlessly with angst & sex if I did.

The office had been unusually quiet these past few days. Gerry sat at his desk staring at the clock on the wall. He'd been watching it since after ten, it was now half past two. None of them had even bothered to get up for lunch. No-one had come down to visit them either; no Strickland, no mail lady, no junior officers dropping off evidence or notes from cases that were opened probably before they were even born.

His eyes took inventory of the office every couple of minutes; Sandra in her office, Steve typing away at his desk and the wall clock. Gerry couldn't concentrate. He'd done no work all morning. Hell, he'd barely done any work all week. He didn't know why he'd bothered coming in at all actually. Too many things had changed. The mood had changed. He'd changed. So had she.

Brian had been suspended indefinitely from the Met. He'd been gradually going off the rails for some time during the past year. Gerry and Sandra had assumed Jack leaving must have triggered it, having him at work seemed to stabilize him somewhat, at home, apparently had been another story. They'd had no idea he'd been burdened with the knowledge of the real reason Jack had decided to re-retire to France. That, and the suspension seemed to be the last straw for him and he'd had another mental breakdown; Esther had Brian admitted into a psychiatric hospital where he was under constant heavy sedation. She'd been the one to tell Sandra and Gerry about Jack; Jack's nurse had sent Brian a letter. Brian had kept his promise to Jack and could now unburden himself with the secret. Esther had come by the office one evening and given the letter to Sandra. Sandra had been furious at Jack for leaving them in the dark, and what he'd done to Brian. She stormed out of the office and didn't come back to work for a week.

~~/~~

The week she'd gone AWOL, he'd staked out her place, even let himself in with his spare key and on the weekend, he'd gotten Steve to go around. But she wasn't there. Gerry assumed she'd up and gone to France, take care of Jack's body, or his ashes, he never asked. One night he'd gotten a call from Caitlin, Sandra was in some dodgy pub west of the city. Gerry didn't even want to know what Caitlin had been doing there. He made her wait outside until he arrived then sent her and her friend Riley home in a taxi. Gerry scanned the bar and around the pub, it was still early but it was fairly packed for a Wednesday night. It took him a moment to find Sandra, sitting at the back, off behind the bar, in an open booth by the giant fireplace. He stopped himself before heading over to her, wondering for a moment if she was there to meet someone.

Fuck that.

Sandra was mesmerized by the flames in the fireplace and watched as glowing embers flew up and disintegrated. Gerry slid into the booth to her right.

"Come here often?" he asked.

She shifted her gaze from the hypnotizing glow of the fire to him.

"How'd you find me?"

Gerry shrugged his shoulders.

"Ex-detective; eyes and ears everywhere, you know."

She gave him a sad smile and stared back at the fire.

He reached for the tall glass he doubted was just orange juice sitting in front of her and sniffed it. It was just orange juice. He put it back down on the table. He needed a stiffer drink than that. Gerry fixed them both with two straight up vodkas, which they downed immediately.

They were quiet for a moment, as he watched her, then the fire. She told him how her first case with Jack had brought them here and she had never been back since, but needed to remember it. Gerry grabbed her hand from the table and covered it with his. He asked her if she was alright. She said she was. He asked her if she needed more time off, he'd deal with Strickland. She laughed and said she didn't want Gerry punching Robert out; she'd be back in the morning. He squeezed her hand before letting it go then stretched his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer towards him. He half expected her to pull away, but she leaned back against the booth and rested her head against his shoulder, and let out a tired sigh.

As promised, she came into work the next morning as if nothing from the past week had happened, and they carried on as usual; their new unit of three.

~~/~~

Gerry had to talk to her. He'd been wanting to all day but just couldn't bring himself to do it. Then Steve's extension rang and he answered it. Gerry got up from his desk and walked over to Sandra's office and stood in her doorway.

"Sandra?"

"Hmmm?"

She had a stack of papers in front of her that she was scanning up and down, highlighting and didn't look up.

"Come take a walk with me."

If his tone hadn't been so low and adamant, she would have made some sarcastic comment and told him to piss off. But when she looked up, she saw him in her doorway, holding her coat for her. She got up immediately and let him help her into it. Gerry grabbed his own from the rack beside the door as they left, Steve still on the phone, oblivious to their absence.

Opening the doors to the outside world, they were hit by a blast of cold air. Gerry grabbed hold of her arm and led her down the street, away from the direction of one of their usual watering holes.

"Gerry, what the hell, what's going on?"

She was more concerned than annoyed.

"Are you happy? … With your career and everything?"

Sandra thought for a moment before answering.

"It's not where I saw myself at this point in my life, but I've come to value career satisfaction over status. So yeah, I'm happy, why, aren't you?"

"No, not really." He replied nonchalantly.

She halted their walk and stood in front of him, holding up her free hand to stop him from saying anything else.

"Look, Gerry, I know you feel guilty about Brian, I do too but …"

"It's not just Brian," he interrupted her.

"Well what then?"

"It's Brian, it's Jack, it's …" he paused for a moment. "It's you."

She looked at him confused. He let out a long, heavy sigh before continuing.

"We're, a weird, dysfunctional, lovely family, but it's all…" Gerry hesitated for a moment, "I think you should disband the unit."

"You what?!" Sandra practically yelled out, utterly bewildered. She yanked herself free from his grip and crossed her arms in front of her.

"The only reason you stick around is because of us. And the only reason we've stuck it out this long is because of you."

Sandra knew that was probably true but she didn't really want to hear the rest of this conversation and took a step back, "You don't want to work with me anymore?"

But before he could answer, she was throwing more questions out at him, including if he'd given any thought to Steve's future and maybe she liked her job, before walking ahead in the direction they had been going, towards the park.

"Steve wants to go back to Glasgow." Gerry announced, when he'd caught up to her. "Charlie's got a new business there. He wants to help her out with that, maybe do some consulting work with the Scottish cold case team."

"And you?" She asked, though she knew they probably wouldn't be having this conversation if something hadn't prompted Gerry to re-evaluate his post-retirement options.

"P.I. Standing at your service, ma'am," he saluted her. "Had offers since the day I left the job. Maybe I'll start my own business." He half joked. "We both know your job satisfaction would go progressively downhill if you had to hire a new yourself a new team, how would they even compare our perfection? Plus you'd make a way better D.A.C. than that wanker Strickland, or head of the murder squad, or even the Met.

Sandra would ordinarily be flattered by such comments, especially coming from Gerry, but she was still trying to process all this information he had just spewed out at her. Her team was disappearing before her eyes and willingly, because they didn't want to hold her back. She didn't know whether to be happy or cry.

"I think I need a drink" She announced, before walking off ahead of him again, leaving Gerry to wonder if he'd done the right thing.