Strolling into the UCOS office the next morning, she was confronted with the sight of Steve and Gerry sitting practically comatose at their desks.
Gerry lifted his head slowly, prising his eyes open. "Morning Guv, where'd you get to last night?" he asked drowsily.
"More like where the hell did you get to? The nearest pub I presume?" she returned, pretending to be more annoyed than she actually was.
"Eh? You went before we did," Gerry said, obviously straining to remember the events of the previous night.
"No, I went to the ladies and when I got back you'd buggered off." She explained, enjoying Gerry's confusion.
"Oh…" he paused, frowning. "Sorry about that Guv, must have had a bit too much to drink."
"Less than him anyhow," she replied, indicating to Steve, who hadn't even got the energy to lift his head from his desk. She grabbed a pen from the table and threw it at his head, before walking into her office, taking off her coat and putting it on the stand.
"Oww, what was that for?" Steve raised his head slowly.
"To wake you up, we've got a case!" Sandra yelled from her office, smirking as her hungover colleagues put their hands over their ears.
"Could you keep it down a bit? Bloody hell…" Gerry muttered to himself.
"And this is the reason why I don't drink." Brian chipped in, earning himself a chuckle from Sandra and irritated looks from the other half of the team.
As her boys began to sort out the whiteboard in preparation for their new case, Sandra found herself thinking about the events of last night. She and Robert, as he'd insisted she call him, had spent another couple of hours in the restaurant, just…talking. Perhaps it was due to the alcohol, but she had found it surprisingly easy to be in his presence outside of work. They had more in common than she'd previously thought, and she hadn't been able to refuse when he paid for a taxi to drop her home. She'd even briefly considered inviting him in for coffee, but in a moment of clarity she'd realised she needed to think things through. She'd learnt her lesson about mixing work with pleasure: it hardly ever ended well.
Robert Strickland definitely had a spring in his step that morning as he navigated the corridors of the Met to his office. Earlier, he'd received a message from Clare informing him that she had been ill yesterday and unable to speak on the phone, swiftly followed by a notification from the website that she had deleted her account. How suspicious. Sitting at his desk, he suddenly decided to delete his own profile. He had a feeling he would no longer need it.
Last night, after dropping Sandra off at her house, he'd been doing some thinking. He realised that, subconsciously, he had been looking for Sandra all along by choosing Clare, who looked so much like her. However, he knew that she was hesitant to start a relationship with him- work had always been her main priority, and she would never do anything to jeopardise her position at UCOS.
He was past the hurt he had felt at his divorce and finally felt ready to begin a new relationship, but he understood how passionate she was about her work and doing her best for her team. This was what he had wanted, albeit secretly, for years, and he wasn't about to turn her against him by pushing her into anything.
Two hours later though, he couldn't stand waiting any longer. Patience never had been his strong suit. He walked down to the UCOS basement at a quicker pace than usual, eager to see her. Before even entering the room, he ascertained that she wasn't there by the fact that Steve was hurriedly shoving his office golf set into the nearest filing cabinet.
"Morning, sir," he was instantly greeted by Gerry, who was obviously trying to distract him from the commotion at the opposite side of the room. Brian simply shook his head at the antics of his new colleague.
"Morning Gerry, Brian, uh…Steve," he nodded his head to the Scot, who had just that second returned to his desk, looking slightly flustered.
Gerry broke the momentary silence: "What can we do for you, sir?"
"I was just wondering if I could speak to Sandra but I can see that she's out, do you know when she'll be back?" he inquired, trying to sound at least a little less desperate to see her than he felt.
"Yeah, she's interviewing the victim's mother again, she might be a while actually, Mrs Hall gets a bit confused at times," Gerry explained.
"Confused at times?!" Brian interjected. "She's had bloody dementia for ten years, she's more than a bit confused, she can barely remember her own name, never mind who her son was hanging around with before he died!"
"I see, right, well, just let her know I was looking for her when she gets back," he reasoned, backing out of the office to avoid the oncoming debate between the original members of the team.
"Anything we should know about?" Gerry asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed. He knew that the older man had always seen him as a threat when it came to Sandra, he was so protective over her. In Gerry's opinion, he fit the bill of Sandra's usual boyfriend choice: well-off, looked after himself, another tosser from upstairs who was only interested in mingling with the top brass. Even he hadn't been so cut-off from the Met's gossipers to know that her previous relationships hadn't exactly been successful.
"No, I just wanted to speak to her about the annual audit next month, that's all, nothing to worry about," he smiled.
"Oh right," Gerry replied lightly, although his suspicion hadn't entirely dissipated. He returned to his desk as Strickland exited the room, staring at the back of the man who he had stopped seeing as his competition and now viewed as simply an annoyance to the tight-knit family of UCOS. When he was acting strangely, it was usually because he was annoyed at one of them or because he'd had to fend off his superiors about something the team had done. Either way, it spelt trouble.
That night, sitting in a comfortable little wine bar in the company of her boss, the only word she could think of to summarise her emotions was contentment. She felt oddly relaxed around him compared to when they were at work. Gerry's text earlier, warning her that Strickland wanted to see her and to brace herself as he was acting strangely had put her on edge, at first, until she remembered how easy it had been between them last night. She hadn't been expecting it, but the news that he was looking for her had stirred the butterflies of hope within her- hope that she could potentially have a relationship with a man who not only respected her, but also respected the fact that her work came first.
"Sandra?" the gentle voice of the man in question snapped her out of her reverie.
She suddenly felt the need to clarify how she felt about their situation to him. It had scared men off in the past, but she had a feeling he was different. He understood. "Sorry, I was just…thinking," she apologised, but he began to look worried.
"Please don't feel like I'm pushing you into anything, I-"she cut him off by softly putting her hand on his. He looked down at their joined hands and then back into her deep blue eyes, losing himself in them, not wanting to waste a single moment with her. "I don't feel like that at all," she reassured him, "it's just that I need to explain something to you before we go any further."
He didn't look any less worried but motioned for her to continue nonetheless.
She took a deep breath, unsure of how to phrase what she was about to say without making him think that she actually wanted to be a spinster workaholic until the day she died. "I just want to let you know that UCOS is my number one priority. It has been for a long time now and having a relationship won't change that. Of course that doesn't stop me spending time with you and…caring about you, but I have my boys to think about too. I know they'd never say it, but they need me."
She finished her speech. Studying him, she could see that he was thinking of how to respond. At least he hadn't got up and left yet, that was a promising start.
"I completely understand." He said frankly. "I know that UCOS is your baby," he grinned as she chuckled, but quickly became serious again. "I'd have to deal with the consequences at work if we did start a relationship, and I'd make sure that it wouldn't come between us, but it's a constant balancing act between work and home. Like you said, we both need to be completely straight with each other before we go any further."
She smiled softly at him, relaxing again after the serious topic of conversation. "I agree. I'm glad you understand, and I'm glad we talked about this." She felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, a weight that had put unbearable pressure on previous relationships with men from work. This time it would be different.
A/N: I still have no idea what is going to happen, but I'll just go with the flow and see where it ends up :)