"Tom Marks. Police. Open up." Stuart banged on the roller door. The echoes faded away and there was still silence. Frustrated, he tried the small door next to the roller door.

It swung open to his touch.

Suddenly wary, Stuart hesitated before stepping into the cool dark space beyond. He peered into the gloom, might as well make a quick sweep, there wasn't anyone in sight, but there was an intriguing pile of boxes half covered under a tarpaulin near the back of the small factory space. He moved across the empty floor, suddenly slightly uncomfortable as his quiet footsteps echoed in the empty space. He lifted the edge of the tarp, and peered underneath. There was a movement in his peripheral vision, and he half turned his head, the blow came from above and it connected with his skull somewhere behind his right ear, he pitched forward into the dark.

# # # # #

Beth looked up at the clock above the desk for the fifth – or was it sixth time. He had been gone for over an hour. Sixty-seven minutes to be exact. She could picture that moment as the door swung shut behind him and he had disappeared from view.

This is mad. He's years older than me. He's not my type. He's bossy and arrogant and.... You are totally falling for Stuart Turner.... no... that's impossible... and ridiculous. Well, ridiculous it may be, but not impossible.

She pictured herself laughing with him in the hallway, his face lit up, his brown eyes had taken on a happy sparkle, and he suddenly looked completely different. She decided she wanted to see that side of him again.

If only she knew where he was? She had a really bad feeling about it. She glanced up at the clock again. There was definitely something not right. She tried to calculate the distance to the address she had given Stuart. Twenty minutes... twenty five at the outside... even in traffic, even allowing for ten minutes messing around with Marks, he should have been back in twenty five minutes... may be thirty.

Something's happened.

"Is something wrong, Beth?" She looked up. Stevie was standing over her, and Beth realised she had been frowning at the clock on the wall for a long time.

She blushed, and shook her head to cover her confusion. "No... I... er..." she glanced up at the clock again. Seventy-one minutes. Stevie was just turning away with a slight shake of her head. Beth dug down "DS Turner's rather overdue."

Stevie turned back, glanced up at the clock and shrugged. "Perhaps he stopped to get lunch on the way?" She shot a sideways look at Beth. "You think something different?"

Beth looked at the slightly sly question in Stevie's eyes, and swallowed, she didn't fancy getting teased about her sudden fondness for Stuart, but something had gone wrong she just knew it. "I just think Stu.... DS Turner should have been back by now." She inwardly cursed her slip.

Thankfully, Stevie pretended not to notice. "Well, we should go and find out then!"

# # # # #

Stuart came to slowly, his head pounding. He was lying face down on the ground, his left arm pinned beneath him. His left shoulder was throbbing in time to the malevolent little troll that was pounding away inside his skull. He groaned and tried to move his left arm, so that he could sit up, which was when he realised that something was very wrong with his shoulder. He awkwardly turned his head, realising that he had fallen over the edge of a stairwell and he'd done some major damage to his shoulder.

He groped for his phone with his right hand, clawing it out of his pocket, he tried to dial, but it was dark and he could barely see the numbers. Desperately he pressed the call button, and the phone cut out, he realised that he had no signal.

The step was two feet away. It might as well have been two hundred feet. Stubbornly, Stuart reached forward with his right arm, tried to gain purchase on the cold, slippery floor and pull himself over to the step.

The downside, he decided, when the waves of pain that shot through his left shoulder had died down to a few ripples, was that fate had not been kind enough to allow him to faint.

He hoped with some fervour that Beth had realised he was overdue and that they were instituting a search for him, because he needed help, and fast. It barely registered that the first person he thought of was Beth.

# # # # #

Beth's thumb was on the seatbelt release button before Stevie had fully rolled the Mondeo to a stop. She checked herself fiercely. Stuart wasn't her boyfriend or anything like that, so coming across as an anxious lover was a no-no.

Stevie noted Beth's almost reflexive action and permitted herself a small smile. Beth Green had a thing for Stuart Turner. The thing was, Stevie was almost certain that Stuart had something of a thing for Beth too. And... she had to admit to being just a little bit worried as to where he had got to, and why he hadn't communicated with anyone. Stevie's blood ran a little cold at the memory of Stuart's brush with death. He had nearly od'd in her arms, and clutch of fear that she had felt when he had stopped breathing had come back to remind her of things that she would very much rather forget.

Beth was already out of the car, Stevie recalled her mind to the present and the slightly more pressing problem of Stuart's whereabouts. Particularly when Beth pointed out the Toyota, half hidden by a panel fence. They turned their attention to the lock-up.

It was old and rather run-down, and when Beth pushed the door and it swung open, Stevie felt a shiver run up her spine.

They moved inside.

"Stuart." Beth called his name, forgetting rank and the fact of Stevie's presence. "Stuart."

"Here." His voice sounded weak and breathy, like he was hurt, and Beth ran towards the tarpaulin abandoned on the ground. She nearly pitched over the edge of the dark stairwell, catching herself just in time.

"STUART." She scrambled down the few steps, unheeding of Stevie behind her, and fell to her knees next to him. Stretching out a tentative hand towards him.

"It's my shoulder." Stuart hissed a little under his breath as Beth's very gentle hand touched him. He tried to make light of it, very aware of the glistening blue eyes that were looking back at him with anxious horror. "Help me sit up." As Stevie joined them.

Very carefully, they helped him into a sitting position, and Stuart tried very hard not to cry out as his left arm dangled at a strange angle. "I'll get an ambulance." Stevie got to her feet. Stuart was leaning on Beth, and suddenly the two of them were looking at each other like they were the last two people on earth.

Stevie left them and went to make a phone call.

# # # # #

Beth eased back against the wall, and let Stuart settle into her arms, carefully avoiding touching his left arm. She looked down, his head rested against her shoulder and upper arm, and he had closed his eyes.

Very gently she bent forward and brushed his lips with hers.