Hidden feeling

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything to do with the Bill, it all belongs to ITV...

The Next Morning

GPOV:

I rolled over to find Neil looking at me; I smiled as I remembered exactly what had happened last night.

"You know," he said. "You're really beautiful when you sleep."

"You were watching me sleep?" I said raising my eyebrows at how cheesy that sounded.

"Of course, what else was I supposed to do for the last half an hour?" He said as he planted a tender kiss on my lips.

I kissed him back and was just enjoying the situation, until I remembered that it was still a weekday and we were meant to be at work.

"Oh god!" I said.

"What?" he asked.

"It's 9:30! We were supposed to be at work an hour ago."

"Screw them; they won't even notice we're not there..." He said as he went to kiss me again.

"DI Manson, the big bad DI? Willing late to work? I don't think so, I'm going to get enough grief from Stevie and Jo without turning up at work a little after lunch time, so up we get!"

"I suppose we had better get there soon." He grumbled.

"Yes we had! I'm going to have a shower, in the mean time you can make yourself breakfast."

"One thing," He pulled me onto his lap and kissed me. "Now you can go."

An hour later at the station

I walked over to my desk, deliberately avoiding making eye contact with anyone. I made it all the way to my desk and started my work without anyone saying anything. That was until...

"Hi Grace!" Said Stevie.

"...What?" I asked knowing what was coming next. I quickly glanced over at Neil, and he just laughed.

"Oh... nothing, just wondering how you were?" She asked widening her eyes in an attempt to look innocent.

"I'm fine, although I have a bone to pick with you! Where were you last night?"

"Last night? Oh, you mean at the pub! Umm... something came up and none of us could make. I know, so sad! Was it awkward being there with just the DI? She asked with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know!" I laughed, sensing where this was going.

"So it wasn't then?"

I said nothing... enjoying the look of intense curiosity on her face.

"C'mon Grace! Alright, I admit it! We set you two up! But it needed to happen; it was so obvious that you two like each other! Let's just say that we simply 'helped' the process along."

"Come on what?" I said playing the fool. She was so easy to wind up.

"...Did anything happen?"

I just sat there looking at her for a while weighing up my options in my head, finally I decided to tell her so that it would be over and done with and I could get the little midget out of my hair...

"Well if you must know-and I'm only telling you this because I know that you'll eventually worm it out of me anyway, something did happen. We had a few drinks then went back to my place..."

"AND?" She demanded.

"Well, what do you think? Aren't you meant to be a detective? Neil hasn't yelled at anyone the whole morning, we arrived late and together!"

"Oh my god! You didn't! I can't believe you slept with the DI! She shouted.

The whole of CID turned to look at us, including the certain DI in question.

"Shut up! Say it loud enough? Yes, but I don't want you making a big deal over it or anything!"

"Oh my god! I still can't believe it. So are you two together now?"

"I don't know, but I think you really should get back to work now..." I said in an offhand manor.

"You're just trying to get rid of me!" She said with mock outrage.

"Yes, yes I am." I said bluntly.

"Oh well... look! Here comes lover boy now!"

She walked back over to her desk and winked at Neil on her way past.

"You know that we're never going to hear the end of this now?" He said

"I know, but it doesn't really matter, I mean we work together. They had to find out sometime..."

"Well, if you want it to be open, then so be it." He said as he scooped me down into a movie style kiss.

"Neil! Just because people know, doesn't mean you can do that!" I said ignoring the wolf whistles coming from the general direction of Mickey and Max.

"Hmmm, DI's rights." He said as he put me back the right way up and a smirk spread across his face.

A few hours later in the Canteen...

I walked into the canteen to get a cup of tea hoping that I wouldn't run into the one person I had been avoiding all day... Jo.

"Dasari, we need to talk." She said with mock seriousness.

"What?" I said knowing exactly what she wanted.

"A little birdie called Stevie told me about you and a certain DI..."

"So?"

"Well, c'mon, SPILL!"

"Ask Stevie." I said trying to change to topic.

"I did, and first of all she told me about what he did to you up in CID earlier and then she went to tell me something about you two at the pub last night but couldn't get it out because she was laughing so much..."

"And..."

"Well, what was she on about? And if it's what I think it is then it's about time too!"

"Well... we had arranged to meet up with the rest of CID after work but it turned out hey set us up, so it was just us, and one thing led to another and we went back to my place afterwards." I said as I was trying to hide the smile that was tugging at the corners of my mouth.

"Oh my god! What happened?"

"Well let's just put it this way, this morning I woke up with a rather Neil-shaped lump next to me."

"Grace! I'm so happy for you! But seriously it had needed to happen for months, you guys have been driving us all crazy!" Oh that reminds me, Mickey now owes a fiver." She said grinning.

"Why does Mickey now owe you money?" I asked suspiciously.

"Oh, we were all placing bets on how long it would take you two to get together." She said as if it was a completely normal thing to do.

"You guys really are quite strange..." I said smiling, over the last day or so it seemed like everything had fallen into place and everything was going to work out fine. Finally, Neil and I were together, we were happy, and that was all that mattered.

The End

So, how was that? Sorry it was an abrupt ending, wasn't quite sure how to finish it... oh well, please r&r as always though! :)