The Bill-

I do not own the bill or any of its characters.

Neil looked down at his son to see his reaction. tears were welling up in Jake's eyes, he had met the detectives time and time before, and he liked them. he didnt expect this reaction from them. he let go of his dad's arm and ran into his office.

"right, well done you lot, he wanted to come in and see you and you lot treat him like that" Neil said curtly to his team.

"well you could have warned us sir.." mickey trailed of.

Neil just shook his head. he looked at grace to see her reaction, she seemed shocked and almost..upset. Neil couldn't work that one out. he pushed open his office door shut it softly behind him. he found Jake sobbing in the corner.

" Jake, i'm sorry, i didn't tell them about your...cancer" he said.

Jake crawled onto his Dad's lap, even though he was eleven years old, he was very emotional. they sat there like that for half an hour, Jake still sobbing, until Max walked into the room with news about the recent case. obviously he wasn't here when we walked in, Neil thought, as he saw max's shocked face.

" erm... sorry sir, i'll come back later" stuttered Max.

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"Jake was just sitting there crying on his lap, the DI looked upset, first time i've ever seen him show an emotion other that grumpiness" joked max.

"can't you just leave him alone for once, your not exactly Mr. Cheerful are you? "retorted Grace.

"you seem quite close with..." he was interrupted by the DI's office door opening. everyone returned to their desks, Jake went straight over to Stevie. She was the only one who hadn't reacted when he stepped through the door. everyone else went quite for a minute and then went back to work as if nothing had happened.

"you alright jake?" stevie asked.

"yeah, im fine..."

"come on lets go to the cafeteria and get something to eat" said Stevie, trying to cheer him up.

" yeah sure" he replied, he yanked his hood over his head, covering the bare patches.

"hey, there is no need to do that, if you're worried that much then you can borrow Max's Nike cap. Max looked up in silent protest. Stevie took no notice, grabbed the cap and ushered Jake out the door. Neil gave him an encouraging smile.

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Neil was at his desk filling out a form to say that Max and Mickey could have a warrant to search James Milligan's flat. though Neil wasn't thinking about the warrant at all, he wasn't even thinking about jake, he knew he would be fine. He was thinking about Grace, he was thinking about the betrayed and upset look she had had on her face, he couldn't help if she was upset about the fact he didn't tell her about Jake, he had found it hard enough to tell his mother! why didn't she understand? every time he would look at her he would have seen the worry and sympathy, he didn't want that.

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