AUTHORS NOTE: So I was bored outta my mind in my English Lecture but here you go. This is the typed up result. Sorry, Noel. I know you love English but tough, I love Taggart. Hahaa!

DISCLAIMER: I only own the OC's like always

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[Their Nights]

***

Stuart sighed with relief as he stepped through the front door but that was completely ruined by the shouts of his thirteen year old daughter. "What do you mean I'm not allowed to wear make-up?" She demanded and Stuart could sense that something had happened at school that day. It appeared that Ronan was popular at school but she felt that her fathers were hindering her because they had strict rulings. She wasn't allowed out on a school night and at the weekend she had a curfew of nine o clock but they had promised that with the years it would eventually increase. Right now, she was too young to be walking the streets in the dark.

"Ronan, we have been over this several times. A because you are too pretty to wear make-up and B because your father and I have made it quite clear that we don't want you looking like your friends do!"

"They look good!"

"No, they don't. They're the kind of girls that try to sneak into the nightclubs late at night and end up in the back alley either dead or raped. Do you think it's what you father wants waking up tomorrow morning with a phone call one morning from Uncle Burke saying that they had found a dead body in a bin and for all of them to walk down and find it was your body?"

"Oh, dad you're so serious!" She grumbled and shook her head. "I know not to go into nightclubs!" She promised and then sighed as if realising that her dad wasn't joking when he said make-up was a no. "You're so mean at times. I'm sure if mum was still here then she'd let me wear make-up."

"Yes, she probably would so how unfortunate that she's not here and you have to live with our rules." There was an edge to Ewan's tone and Stuart could tell that Ronan had hit a raw nerve mentioning her mother but her daughter had started to use that as a line of battle recently because she knew it hit below the belt. "Now go to your room and I'll shout you down when dinner is ready."

She mumbled under her breath before stepping into the hall and seeing Stuart stood there, "Dad, he's being unfair!" She pouted and Stuart gave her a kiss on the forehead before shaking his head.

"I'm sure if you got Uncle Robbie and Uncle Burke's input too, they'd all say no to make-up." He cupped her chin in his hands and smiled. "You're too beautiful to be hiding away in such stuff! Besides, if you wore foundation it would probably clash with that beautiful shade of red hair then what colour eye shadow would you wear to compliment your green eyes and obviously your blush is already there naturally." He teased as she turned bright red at his words. She threw her arms around him, her lips burrowing into his cheeks.

"I love you, dad." She said just as Ewan stepped out into the hall to see why he hadn't heard her go upstairs yet.

"Ronan..." His tone was warning and she turned round to look at him, a sorry smile gracing her features.

"I'm sorry, dad. I should have realised that you were just looking out for me." She apologised before moving up the stairs and shutting her door. There was no slamming and Ewan glared mockingly at his husband. Whenever Ewan had a talk with her, she always ended up mumbling all the way up the stairs before slamming the door shut and then when Stuart talked to her, she knew to apologise and wait in her room calmly.

"I hate how you do that!"

"I have to deal with too many teenagers in my work to not know how to keep them calm." He turned to look at Ewan as they moved into the kitchen. "I think we should omit the odd piece of make-up, you know." He commented sitting down at the table and Ewan turned to look at him. "If we start treating her like an adult, she'll respect us more and I literally mean the odd piece. Maybe the odd tube of lip-gloss, a mascara wand."

"What?"

"Even if we don't surrender this then she'll probably wait until the minute she is out the door and steal some of her friends!" He explained taking an apple and was about to bite into it when Ewan confiscated it.

"You'll spoil your dinner."

Stuart just glared before continuing, "so if we treat her like an adult and give her what she wants with rules such as no make-up for school and then she'll no longer hate us and we have a bridge created."

Ewan had the metal spoon in his mouth as he looked at Stuart thoughtfully before taking it out, "have you been reading those child psychology books?" Stuart responded by throwing a coaster at him. Ewan just laughed before walking over and pressing a small kiss to his lips. "Who thought raising a daughter would be hard for two gay guys?"

"This is why we need a female friend."

"You have Jenny. I'm sure she'll be able to show you the ropes."

"Jenny doesn't even dress like a woman!" Stuart proclaimed turning so that he was snuggled up to Ewan who had perched on the end of the table. "I suppose we'll just have to use trial and error with our little one."

"You're just too soft with her." Ewan whispered before leaning down and taking his lips with a kiss.

"I hope you two are paying for my counselling." The voice of their daughter came as she moved through the kitchen, heading to the fridge and pulling out a can of cola. She turned to look at her two fathers before holding out her hands in exasperation, "Now what did I do?"

"Did I just not send you to your room?"

"I was thirsty though! I have human rights." Ewan started to clench his jaw as he looked down at Stuart who in turn was just trying not to laugh.

"Ronan, you've got to stop pushing your father's buttons."

"But dad..." She whined before sitting down at the table. "I hate having you guys as parents at time. You're too kind and caring." She smiled at this sentence so they both knew she was up to her old tricks.

"You're not going out tonight." Ewan simply commented. "We're staying into have a family dinner."

"You've burnt the chips, by the way." She explained and Ewan cursed before jumping off the table, his hand ruffling her ginger hair as he passed and then turning to look over at them as he reached the offensive pan. Ronan had since moved to curl up on Stuart's knee as if she was a small girl and they were trying not to snigger.

"So do we phone in for takeout or should we go out to eat?"

"Take out!" Both father and daughter cried as they started to laugh over Ewan's cooking incompetence.

***

Robbie noticed that only the upstairs lights were on that night as he climbed out of his car. Ashley had long since told him that she couldn't wait up for him to come home from the office when it was her morning shift because it tired her out. They never fought over hours because they both realised that with both their erratic timetables, they'd always have the weekends together unless Robbie was called in but Burke knew better than to do that most of the time. He understood that the couple needed their time together and Robbie believed that Burke was still shocked Robbie was settling down.

He could still remember the day that he had met Ashley and how she'd saved him from a dark place. It was a year after Jackie had left and they were working on a gun smuggling case. Smuggled guns were being used to execute top drug dealers in the Glasgow area. Both Stuart and Robbie had managed to infiltrate the area but something had happened and there were gun shots heard everywhere. Robbie was shot in the arm and Stuart through the chest. Stuart went down like a tonne of bricks, his hand clutching his chest was already red from his blood and Robbie was shouting for someone to phone for an ambulance but everyone was too busy capturing the bad guys.

They eventually both reached the hospital. Robbie was taken away from Stuart so that his arm could be checked out but he could remember struggling as he watched his best friend getting taken away on the gully. The doctor promised that he'd be okay. Two hours went past and Robbie was eventually allowed to see Stuart. The bullet had been removed from his arm and he now wore it in a sling. He stood at the end of Stuart's bed and felt guilty that Stuart had taken the main bullet. Stuart had a family to think about whereas Robbie had no one. In the dark year he had contemplated suicide many times but he had found himself either not brave enough or finding excuses not to do it.

That was when the door opened and in walked a fiery haired fox. Robbie politely told her that he thought she had the wrong room and she laughed before explaining that she was Stuart's doctor. She went onto explain that the bullet had just dodged all his main arteries but they had induced a coma so that his body could have time to heal himself. Or that's what Robbie thought she said, he hadn't been listening to her. He was too busy checking out how beautiful she was.

They'd eventually gone out for coffee even though she kept refusing at first. It had led on to steady dates before moving in together at Robbie's house because for some unknown reason to her, he had refused to sell his property and then most importantly of all, he had plucked up the courage to ask her to marry him so that they could be together forever. He didn't know what had made him do it but he sure knew it felt right.

He walked in to the house and smiled as he smelt the bath oils that she used every night to help her relax after a day at work and then other nights when she just wanted an hour with her book, a glass of wine and time to herself. Robbie understood this because during this hour, he was normally down at the pub with either Burke or Stuart or the pair of them, Jenny still had to come out with them one night but no one pressured her because they knew she liked to be home to tuck her daughter into bed.

As he climbed up the stairs, he fiddled with the knot in his tie. He was determined to take if off but he knew it was a struggle because thanks to his playing, he always managed to make it tighter than it had been originally. He smiled as he stopped at their bedroom door and saw her lying on the bed with her latest crime novel resting on her chest and her little bedside lamp still glowing. He loved that sight more than anything. That showed him that his family life was real.

Moving round, he lifted the book off her chest and placed the bookmark – a napkin from their first date where he had hastily scribbled his number and left his name – into the book. He had told her many times that he would replace that bookmark but she had just smiled and said that she liked that one too much to have it replaced. He rested it on the table and then leant down to press a small kiss to her lips, smiling more as she stirred and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You're home late." She teased and he knew that she wasn't angry so he just straddled her before rolling over onto his side of the bed, his hand on her hip as he looked down at her.

"An old case has come back to haunt us and it looks like it's going to be a long one." She knew that he couldn't tell her about the case but she was always grateful when he told her that she might not be seeing him often.

"Do you want me to cancel this weekend?" He looked down at her and then remembered that this weekend they were going to her parents' country house to help her sister, Andrea, prepare for her wedding that was in like a month or something.

"No. I'm sure I can wrangle the boss into letting me have this weekend off." He whispered kissing her lightly again before stroking her cheek gently. "You have the early shift tomorrow morning so you best get sleeping." She just moaned with a pout before giving him one final kiss then starting to fall asleep.

"I love you." She whispered gently making him smile and then take her lips with his.

"I love you too." He replied before climbing off the bed and looking down at her sleeping form. He had seriously believed that when Jackie had left, he would never find someone else to love but here she was, the love of his life asleep in his bed with a small smile on her face. He knew that life couldn't get any better than that.

***

Jenny walked into her house and smiled as her daughter ran into her arms. Jenny's mother arrived at the door and frowned. She had already told Jenny several times before to try and be home before nine o clock on a school night because it was unhealthy for the young girl to stop up so late. She knew that she'd have to explain to her mother later but first she was going to take her princess upstairs.

"Mummy, are you okay?" The observant little girl asked as she fiddled with the chain around her mother's neck. Jenny smiled at her baby before lying her down on the bed, giving the top of her head a light kiss.

"Mummy is just sleepy, baby." She lied as she covered her baby with the covers. Instead she was picturing Leigh in the place of that little girl that they had found dead in the park. She could see her own daughter clutching her hands in prayer, begging for forgiveness after she had been violated by a much older man and she knew she had to stop thinking like that but it was also really hard.

"Are you going to bed now too?"

"I best go talk to Grannie first."

"She mad though!" Jenny smiled at how Leigh always seemed to know when her grannie was angry at her mother. It was true. Elizabeth McGonagall was going to be angry with Jenny for the rest of the evening but Jenny didn't care.

"Well she can be mad because the only person I care about is you." She teased tickling her daughter before moving her fringe out of the way. "I love you, Leigh baby."

"I love you too, mummy." She whispered before turning around in her bed, her hands reaching out for the teddy bear that her father had given to her. Jenny rose from the bed and flicked off the light after turning on the nightlight and moving downstairs to the kitchen where her mother had placed her dinner on the table and was sat waiting patiently.

"Are you going to start yelling at me now or are you going to wait for me to eat my dinner first?" The sarcasm in her voice was a large hint towards how tired she was and her mother didn't even flinch, instead she just pouted her lips and shook her head.

"Jennifer, do you not see how much this job is hurting you?" Jenny knew she was in trouble when she got her Christian name and when the surname cropped in – which it probably would later – then she knew her mother was an inch away from murder.

"Mother, I need to do this job." She whispered starting to eat her dinner before pushing it away. "Want to know the latest case?"

"Jenny..."

"It was the body of a young girl the same age as Leigh. Her parents abused and neglected her, she was found raped and mutilated in the park as if she didn't deserve any respect at all. You tell me that doing this job is wrong when I'm chasing demons that can do that to young girls?"

"No what's wrong is you're too busy chasing other people's demons, you never stop to think of your own!" Her mother hissed angrily and Jenny knew that this was going to turn onto another rant about Lee but she wasn't going to allow that to happen. Instead she rose from the table and looked down at her mother.

"My demons can rest for now. I might even like my demons." She hissed angrily before looking away from her mother. She knew that if she could afford to move out and have care for Leigh, she would have left the tyrannical grip that her mother had on her but she also knew that her mother was the best thing to happen to her and Leigh as well.

"Jennifer, I understand that you feel like you need to protect everyone but you don't. You need to protect your little girl!"

"I am protecting my little girl by building us a future." She explained softly before smiling at her mother. "Goodnight mother." She whispered pressing a kiss against her mother's cheek before turning to leave.

***

Matt sat down at his lone microwave meal and stabbed at it gently as he looked over the old case notes. They'd chased after Grahams for so long and now to know that he had an apprentice was literally heartbreaking. They'd fought long and hard to get him arrested! Burke eventually pushed his meal away and thought about bringing Jackie back in on the case. It had taken Robbie a year to get out of his depressed state and that was only because he'd met Ashley, who was an amazing girl and just right for Robbie but that didn't mean he hadn't thought everyday about Jackie.

He sighed as he knew it was too late now to take back his actions but he wished he could. He should have thought about Robbie first and then there was Jenny. She was still really shy compared to the other two and would she feel as if Burke didn't think she was good enough hence the reason he had brought in his old DS? He should know by now that acting on impulse always got you into trouble. He should probably phone her and tell her not to come.

Eventually deciding that was a good idea, he stood up to look for his mobile when there was a knock at his door. Moving to open it he found himself staring at Jackie and knew that phoning her would be too late and the wrong thing to do. He did need her help on this case. "Seeing as you requested me, I supposed I might as well bunk in your spare room?" She teased and Burke just laughed before opening the door wider so that she could enter.

"I didn't realise you'd get up here so fast."

"My boss demanded that I get up here as soon as possible because its bad press to have paedophiles walking the streets. The quicker we catch him the better in his eyes."

"Then you obviously get to go back home to your fiancé."

"Yes."

"You didn't think to bring him with you?"

"Where would the sense in that be?" She asked in a haze sitting down on the couch and looking over at Burke. "It would rub salt in Robbie's wounds."

"Jackie, Robbie is engaged." He said knowing that Robbie had spitefully kept his life away from Jackie since she had walked out on him. She stared at her hands, her lips making an 'o' as she realised that she'd been left in the dark for so long.

"Well that's good to know." She said standing up and looking at him. "Do you mind me staying here because if not, I'd best go find a hotel?"

"Jackie, you're always welcome to stay here." He promised and she just smiled at him before lightly squeezing his shoulder and heading up the stairs. She had no idea why she was so upset over the news of Robbie's engagement but she decided that she'd think about it more when she'd had a sleep because she was too tired to have an opinion right now.

Burke watched after her and decided that he'd kill Robbie with his own hands.