"It's funny that they're targeting the cheap back street clinics and not the smart clinics" Harry observed as she watched Dempsey layout the next wodge of torn up marvel comics they had collected from bomb squad on their way home. (Not that the bomb squad had readily passed the material over and Harry had all but promised a date to the over confident keeper of evidence.) As Dempsey sorted the fading images into categories she continued to muse "there are just as many upperclass and middleclass women who cant afford an unplanned pregnancy"
"Unplanned baby" Dempsey corrected
"Same thing" Harry said as she picked up a few pieces and turned them trying to work out an orientation
"No it ain't" Dempsey lifted the pieces from her hands "pregnancy doesn't convey the same thing at all -just an inconvenience like a cold" he distributed the scraps and picked up some more "sounds like you all you need to do is take a pill and you'll get better - baby tells the real story" he continued to concentrate on his task
"No" Harry objected "people have plans and careers and slip-ups happen" she had a second attempt at some of the unsorted pictures "you can't destroy a whole career for a failure of procedure or when the pill fails to work"
"So it's always a woman's right?" Dempsey looked up
"It's her body and her life you don't get a guy hanging around saying I'll toss my life down the pan" Harry flustered not making sense of the task she was attempting
"Is that what you think Harry?"
"It's a valid argument Dempsey"
"Don't sound very nice to me" Dempsey took the images out of her hands again and deftly allocated them to piles
"Life is hard Dempsey" Harry sat back
"Yeh but you're meant to get a chance to live it"
"So you think these bombers are right?"
"I never said that" Dempsey brushed his hair back off his forehead "I'm just putting the other side of the argument up there"
"There are times I see it but there are times I don't" Harry admitted "I don't think it's all black and white"
"Me neither Tinkerbell but I don't think any scum have the right to blow people up" Dempsey pushed his task aside and stood up "What food have we got?"
"This is your place – very little I suspect"
"What about that peanut butter you bought me?"
"We need proper food" Harry panicked not wanting to disclose the very nearly empty state of that jar and the similarly exhausted supply of jam
"Let's call for a Chinese and watch a film" he suggested "we ain't even meant to be working this weekend"
.
.
Harry came back from the Locker room dressed in a short mini skirt, blouse knotted at her midriff and her hair pulled up. She had over done the make up and put on some cheap high healed shoes to complete the look.
"Why the hell they couldn't target some decent clinics…" she complained
"You'd make a good hooker Harry" Mac observed
"Well let's hope I'm more successful this afternoon" Harry wished "At least I'll be well informed on the price of an abortion and the places to avoid" she wandered across the office and looked outside "finally it's stopped raining" she noted
"I love that swing of your hips" Dempsey taunted "you should do that more"
"You'd like that" Harry agreed dryly
"Looks damn sexy" Dempsey shrugged his shoulders and smiled as Harry walked back towards him, her feet crossing the midline as she deliberately over exaggerated her steps.
"I need some gum" she asked in her broad faked accent holding out her hand and Dempsey passed a packet to her. Harry slipped one strip from the pack and placed the rest on the desk. Dempsey's gaze had been fixed on Makepeace and now she returned and held it; their eyes locked as she slipped the white outer layer off and then even more slowly and deliberately in three moves she peeled down the silver sheath to expose the stick. She licked her lips and formed her mouth into an O around the still stiff gum. Checking that she held Dempsey's attention she pulled the gum back out and ran her fingers up and back down the gum strip before pushing it fully into her mouth, folding it with her tongue and macerating it into a ball
"Ouch" Dempsey grimaced "that last bit was painful"
"Out of my way" Harry pushed the encroaching Lieutenant backwards "I have a date with destiny"
"Sure wish I was destiny" Mac said and Harry's heart and stomach both plummeted into her feet as she realised that her tease had just been observed by the whole office. Mortified she turned and fled, the glow from her face reflecting off of every surface.
Dempsey winked at Mac and as the office door shut he spoke "She's a pretty hot looking babe"
"You work with her and keep a normal blood pressure?" Mac queried
"I've taken pills ever since" Dempsey blatantly lied as he too exited the office
"I should have joined this department sooner" Mac decided
"It's not normal you know" Tony announced
"What's not?" inquired Mac
"The way they spend all their time together"
"What's not normal about that?" asked Fry
"Well my girlfriend would get jealous if I spent so long with another woman" Tony justified
"You think Dempsey has a woman?" came the question across the room
"Yeh Dave says he has"
"Maybe its Makepeace" suggested Mac
"Nah they're like two opposites"
"They say opposites attract"
"If those two lived together London would erupt in a huge explosion!" Tony laughed "haven't you seen enough of their arguments?"
"I've never seen them stay fallen out for long" Mac insinuated "what about that display just now?"
"They fake stuff all the time" Fry explained
Chas walked back in and handed out a file to each person there "All the cars were stolen locally within hours of them showing up rigged" Chas announced
"All minis" Fry added flicking through the pages
Tony sounded surprised "Why minis?"
"It's easier to plant the stuff on a car frame you know" Mac suggested
.
.
All four clinics on Makepeace's afternoon list were within a stones throw of each other and Harry tottered from one clinic to the other with little luck. The first two clinics had already been targeted and there were no longer any protesters outside. The staff conceded that their figures were down but refused to offer Harry any discount to get business. The third simply asked her to fill in her details and come back on Tuesday morning when the doctor was here to 'do all the girls'.
It was as Harry left that a rather plump woman with flat mousy hair and no makeup approached her. 'Did she know there was another option?'
"Another option?" Harry asked in her cockney accent "what? are you going to have the bleeder for me?"
"If you preserve the life within you then god will bless you" the woman promised
"Well someone will bleeding have to if I can't get no work"
"My name is Myriam let me buy you a cup of tea and tell you some truths" the woman said
"You can buy me something to eat I'm bloody starving" Harry continued in role
"Yes, you see" Myriam was overexcited "that's part of being pregnant"
"And part of not eating anything for two bleeding days"
"The sickness will go soon it's only whilst your body adjusts" the woman was leaning over like a leech
"Well the sooner I'm rid of this the sooner it will be right then won't it?"
"No no dear it won't be right - your body will be in shock craving even more the things you want" Myriam gushed and Harry wondered how long she would have to bear this woman "you are craving foods aren't you?" she asked
"Peanut butter and jelly" Harry conceded before she even realized she had replied. As the words left her mouth a niggle began to squirm around her mind as the woman droned on "you see your body wants to nourish the life inside"
Makepeace banished the random thought "Poppycock! look are you gonna buy me this cup of tea else I've got things to be doing"
"Two teas" Myriam called over to the waitress and she looked back to Harry to add her food request; the truth was Harry wasn't hungry - well not for anything covered in grease "just forget it" she said
"We'll go for a bacon roll" Myriam took charge
"I said I wasn't hungry" Harry protested
"That life inside you" the woman patronised
"It ain't no life it's a bunch of cells thats about to stop me have a life" Makepeace was in full flow with the cockney accent
"No no"
"It's my body, my life
"That you sell" this was Myriams second line of grief on behalf of these girls
"Well it makes a living and gives me a roof over my head. Not a posh one like you would have..."
"You could bring a child into your life" Myriam smiled encouragingly
"No kid would want to be part of my life"
The woman pulled out a leaflet
"I can't read half them words" Harry protested
"Well let me tell you what it says" Makepeace's benefactor suggested and without waiting for an answer launched herself.
Harry listened: the foetus that listened to music, that knew its mothers voice, the silent scream... Harry threw in as many questions as she could and because the Myriam thought she was breaking through she imparted details about the organisation, the vision and the headquarters in Liverpool!
"Think about it - we can offer you support" Myriam promised "a haven to live in until the baby is born"
The bacon roll arrived but Harry could smell the grease, she wretched.
"Morning sickness will soon be gone too" Myriam assured Harry
"It ain't morning sickness at bleeding half past sodding two" Harry stood and making a vague promise to consider Myriam's offer but still refusing to give the woman any of her contact details she left.