A/N: As requested by a few reviewers, I hope you realise I was slaving over this until one o'clock this morning for you guys! And thanks for the reviews, as always!

Jo climbed off the bus, struggling to see into the field they'd stopped outside.

'I knew it. It's the place we drove past. It's gonna be awful, really awful.' Jo turned to her right to see Sam standing next to her, her head tilted slightly to the left. Jo headed towards the rest of the group, causing Sam to sigh as she followed the brunette. Resting a hand on her arm, Sam stopped Jo just before they reached the others. 'Jo, can we just talk quickly, please, just 2 minutes.'

'I said all I needed to last night Sam, there's nothing more I want to say to you.'

'Well, there's stuff I want to say to you.'

'Not stuff I want to hear, Sam. We should be over there.' She concluded, heading towards the group of other officers that had already entered the field.

'Jo…' Sam called, almost running to keep up with the quick strides Jo wads taking.

'Save it, Sam.' the brunette joined Phil, preventing Sam from continuing the conversation, the blonde whispering her annoyance before finding herself joined by Stuart.

'All right Sam. I wouldn't bother with her y'know. Be careful around her an' all, y'know, what with her being…'

'A lesbian? It doesn't bother me.'

'What not that she might… y'know… try it on with you… you're sharing a bed aren't you?'

'We're fine Stuart. I'm not worried that she's going to try it on with me' She mimicked his previous statement, strolling off and leaving him contemplating the meaning of that admission. 'Not any more.' She added quietly to herself, sighing slightly. The time they almost kissed was constantly playing on her mind. Every time she thought of it she wished she hadn't been scared, that she'd let Jo love her.

'Anything you want to share?'

'Oh, nothing particularly important, just wondering what we'll be doing on this weekend.'

'Oh. Dunno really, but I did notice something that looks suspiciously like a makeshift army training centre about five minutes walk from here when we drove past.'

'Oh no. They wouldn't, would they?'

'Wouldn't put it past them.' Sam concluded, lying back down on the double bed.

'Oi, Sam.' Jo called over her shoulder, the blonde instantly jogging to catch up with her.

'Jo.' She replied, a smile adorning her face, hoping Jo had forgiven her.

'Makeshift army training centre.'

'Eh?'

'You said this was a makeshift army training centre.'

'Well, yeah, it looks like one.'

Jo frowned, studying the objects dotted around the field. 'What, are the army five now?'

'Eh?'

'Sam, it looks more like a kids playground.'

'No it doesn't, it… it looks…' Sam paused, contorting her face slightly as she tried to figure out what it actually looked like.

Jo tilted her head to the side, her eyes scanning the field. First, there was what looked a little like a roundabout. Then, some of those little tunnel things kids have in soft playgrounds, then there was a rope swing. She couldn't quite figure out what part of that made an army training centre in Sam's eyes.

'It looks like…' Sam continued, still hopelessly racking her brains to find a similarity. 'It looks like a…'

'Small recreational area I would take my six year old niece?' Phil interrupted, the sergeant having walked back to where the two women had stopped.

'Thank you!' Jo grinned.

'Phil! It doesn't.' Sam replied defensively, 'It looks like a…'

'Very tedious way of spending a weekend?' Stuart asked, finally having caught up the three grouped officers.

'Well, yes, but… well that's not what I meant.' Sam stuttered, her head flopping to the side as she studied the area. 'It looks like a…'

'Hell hole?' Terry suggested, having heard their conversation and stopped to join in.

'Yes… but that's not what I was going to say. It looks like a…'

'Great way of spending a weekend, I'm looking forward to this, aren't you guys?' Kezia asked enthusiastically, having just caught up with the other officers and missed the rest of the conversation.

'No!' they all answered, turning around to face her with quizzical expressions on their faces.

Kezia smiled slightly, shrugging before walking off to the centre of the field.

'It looks like a…' Sam paused, staring blankly at the field.

'Typical bloody management training weekend.' Jack provided, looking about as enthusiastic about this as he would a full body wax.

'Mmm.' They all nodded in agreement, without of course Kezia who was still admiring the field in awe.

'Yeah, but, it looks like a…' Sam continued, attempting to finish her sentence for herself, everyone seeming to have a chance but her.

Jo sighed, tilting her head to the side again. 'Very boring place, now come on, the sooner we start, the sooner we can go.' She concluded diplomatically, heading towards Kezia and the instructor in the middle of the course.

Everyone sighed, following Jo's lead and walking over, crowding around as the instructor began.

'Okay guys, in Ben, now, as I can gather from your conversations on the way here, you're not looking forward to it.' he smiled as a guilty nod went around the group. 'Well, I'm hoping to change that. So, basically what we'll be doing here is a bunch of tem-building tasks that should leave you bonded by the end of your stay.' After inspecting the reactions of Sam, Jo, Phil and Stuart he added, 'Or at the very least leave you with such embarrassing memories that you'll have little choice but to be nice to each other for risk of the entire work force finding out about what you did here.'

'Mmm, that's more likely.' Jo provided, resulting in three nods from the surrounding adults.

'Well, at least you can all agree on that, I suppose that's a start.' He had more enthusiasm in his voice than he felt, he could see that most of the people here really needed it, but he wasn't quite sure if one weekend was enough time for him to change that, by the looks of things these conflicts ran deep.

After receiving no reply other than a disgruntled glare from Sam, he sighed. 'Right, well, I think we'll start with a little activity I like to call the death drop.'

'I know who I'd like to throw down the death drop.' Stuart muttered, though loud enough for everyone to hear.

'Yeah, well the only life you'll be risking is your own. It's an activity I don't do with many groups, but I'm hoping you can be mature enough to put life before petty squabbles.'

'Um, maybe there's a different one we can start with, save that one until later maybe?' Jack suggested, knowing that not even that could be certain given the officers he'd brought with him.

'I think this is as good a place as any to start.' Ben replied, not realising that Jack was concerned about his officers safety, but thinking he was just trying to maintain a little of the control on the weekend.

'On your head be it.' Jack muttered, sighing to himself before groaning, hearing what sounded like the beginning of another argument between Sam and Jo.

'I'm not putting my life in her hands.' Jo stated, shooting a glare at the blonde DI.

'What makes you think I'd make any attempt to keep you alive?'

'That's not how you were acting last night.' Jo retorted, resulting her receiving a scowl from Sam.

'Eh? What's all this then?' Terry grinned, both Jo and Sam sighing as his male brain kicked in.

'Nothing.' Sam answered, 'Jo just can't accept the fact that I'm straight.' Sam stated matter-of-factly.

After a series of 'ooh's from the group, Jo sighed, replying with a simple question she knew only Sam would understand. 'Have a shower this morning, did you?' she asked, referring back to the argument they had the previous night prior to their kiss.

'Yes.' Sam responded, causing a frown to appear on Jo's face.

Jo froze, unsure as to what that comment meant. When she'd asked that question she'd expected Sam to go mental, she'd intended it as an insult and she knew full well that Sam realised that, so why was she responding? Was she… was she flirting?

Jack paused, watching as the two women apparently shared a private moment together, they're eyes locked. It seemed no one else had picked up on it, all returning to their own conversations as they lost interest.

'Okay, well, let's get on with it, shall we?'

'Yes, let's.' Ben continued, taking the lead back from Jack. 'Okay, so the death drop is a short activity that will require you working together as a team in your pairs. You'll need to put your life in the other's hands, and not be afraid to let go of your inhibitions and admit your fear. What you'll be doing is abseilling.' He watched as each face dropped, obviously relieved that it wasn't as life threatening as they'd imagined. 'Blindfolded.' He added.

'Eh?' Stuart called out, shooting his vision from the instructor to Phil. 'No way, he'll kill me.'

'Well, you'll just have to trust that he won't. There is no way that any of you will get through this weekend without the basic trust between two people, this exercise takes trust to the extremes, if you can do this, the entire weekend will be a breeze.'

'I swear, if I end up getting hurt…' Jo warned.

'I wouldn't… I couldn't.' Sam whispered.

Jo didn't respond, not quite sure if there was anything she could say after that. She looked back to Sam, seeing the blonde's lips curl into a smile at the attention Jo was giving her.

Jo marched back into the bedroom, throwing her water bottle onto the bed before collapsing on it herself, sitting up a little as she noticed Sam hadn't moved since she entered the room.

Looking at the blonde, Jo found she was standing in front of Jo awkwardly, a nervous smile on her face. 'Yeah?' Jo asked hesitantly.

'I had fun today.' Sam said meekly, unsure of how to approach the subject she wanted to.

'Erm, Sam, you ended up on a forty foot abseilling tower with very little support.'

'You did okay.' Sam lied.

'I dropped the rope three times.'

'Well, yeah, but, other than that…'

'I bet you're covered in bruises.'

'Mmm, a little I think… but…'

'Does it hurt?'

'A bit.' Sam fibbed.

Jo frowned, seeing that Sam was lying. 'Sorry.' She whispered.

'Did you mean to?'

'No! Of course not, I wouldn't. You don't think I'd…'

'No, I don't. I just wanted to make sure. Why are you apologising if you didn't mean to?'

'Well, you just do, don't you?'

'You're meant to apologise if you've done something worth apologising for. Like getting us on a training weekend or something.' Sam commented, hoping Jo wouldn't take it as an offensive statement.

'Is that an apology?' Jo asked warily.

'Yes. I'm sorry.'

'Yeah, well, I'm sorry I blamed you for it, it was no one's fault.'

'Yeah, I know that. And I'm sorry for, er, y'know, being such a cow about it.'

'Yeah. Well, I'm sorry I was too.'

Sam paused, thinking back to the other arguments they'd had in the past two days. 'I'm sorry I got so uptight about sharing a bed.'

'Yeah, well, I'm sorry I called you a bike, that was uncalled for, I shouldn't have.'

'Well, I'm sorry I called you, a, er,' Sam stuttered, thinking back to that row. 'Well, a lesbian.' She concluded, a confused expression falling on her face.

'Er… Not the usual kind of apology, Sam. That was more of a statement than an insult.'

'Yeah, but the way I said it. I shouldn't have.'

'No, it's fine. I'm sorry I brought up your history with Phil and Stuart and stuff.'

'It's nothing.' Sam relied, though obviously it was affecting her somewhat. 'I'm sorry about dinner last night, y'know, the whole asparagus thing. It was petty, I shouldn't have had a go at you.'

'Yeah, and I'm er… sorry for throwing the gravy at you.' Jo added guiltily, obviously embarrassed by both their childish actions.

'Mmm, I'm sorry you missed.'

'Eh?'

'Well, I did deserve it, be fair.'

'Well, yeah, but I still shouldn't have.'

'What's done is done; we can't change what we said. But… I reckon we could try not to make the same mistakes again.'

'What do you mean?'

'Last night. I pushed you away… I shouldn't have.'

'I shouldn't have kissed you.'

'Yeah, you should have. I wanted it just as much as you did, Jo, I was just too frightened to show it.'

'So why the sudden change of heart?' Jo quizzed, staring blankly at Sam and allowing her to reply in her own time.

'I came to my senses. I realised how stupid I'd been. When you yelled at me this morning, when I fell out of the bed, everything just seemed to slot into place. I was an idiot; I should have listened to my feelings ages ago. And now… now I'm scared I'm too late…' Sam left it as a sort of hanging question, praying Jo would reply that she wasn't, but convincing herself deep down that it would be the brunette's answer.

Jo tilted her head to the side, staring into Sam's striking blue eyes. 'It is.'

'What?' Sam was shocked, as much as she'd prepared herself for that, it still hit her hard, she'd told herself that Jo cared enough about her to understand, maybe she'd been wrong.

'I'm sorry. It's just, the things I've said… the things you've said… we've gone too far now. There are things we've said, things we've done that we can't take back. It just wouldn't work.'

'Yeah, I understand…'

'I'm sorry.'

'No big deal. I get what you mean. I just thought, y'know, if you were up for it, it could be a laugh, a bit of fun, but it doesn't matter.' Sam stammered, attempting to persuade herself as much as Jo that this was what she believed.

'Oh, well, we obviously felt different things then.'

'What do you mean?' Sam asked hesitantly, not sure where she was with Jo anymore.

'I mean… I loved… love;' She corrected, 'you. It's something that won't go away, not ever… but, I'll just have to live with that.'

'You won't be alone with that feeling.' Sam whispered, instantly adding to the tense atmosphere already surrounding them. 'Don't do this.'

'It's not that simple, Sam.'

'Yes it is Jo. You just said you loved me… I just… I just said the same thing… what's not simple about that?'

'I've… I've got a history you don't know about.'

'What history?' Sam asked dismissing it immediately in her mind.

'Your cousin…' Jo paused, hoping Sam'd work it out and wouldn't have to be told.

'Cathy?'

'Yeah… Me… her…' Jo pursed her lips, willing Sam to think about what she was saying.

'You know each other?' she asked innocently, hoping Jo wouldn't come out with the answer she was fearing.

'We… we sort of dated… for a bit.'

'Oh, I see.'

'It wasn't like serious or anything… just a bit of fun… but I just thought you should know.' She concluded, looking optimistically at Sam, yet all the while believing Sam was going to go crazy about this little revelation.

'Oh. Well… I… it's… You? Her?' she asked, trying to figure it out in her mind.

'Yeah.' Jo admitted sheepishly, wondering to herself why love ties always had to be so complicated.

'Oh.' Sam headed towards the bathroom, not saying anything else to Jo, just shutting the door and appearing five minutes later in her pyjamas.

The rest of the evening passed painfully slow, neither knowing quite how to break the silence, so both choosing not to. After about three hours of complete silence, Jo rose from the chair she was occupying, pulling Sam's duvet off the floor and onto the bed before placing her own on the floor, grabbing two pillows to accompany it.

'I think it'll be best if I take the floor tonight.' Jo provided, smiling slightly before she turned the light off and lay on the floor, the blonde already snuggled down in the bed.