Authors note: This is a sort of short but necessary expositiony chapter. Er, There is angst and hopefully adorableness. Also this chapter deals with the threatening of children, however indirectly. You have been warned.

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When he heard the noise, he stopped what he was doing. When he heard Chrissy shout, his head snapped up.

When he heard his son crying, he raced downstairs faster then he had ever chased any suspect.

There were three men in his living room, masked men, one had hold of his wife, one had hold of his son and one was looking straight at him.

Chrissy kicked the man holding her in the shin, and he backhanded her in retaliation, dropping her to the floor. Sam screamed out and James launched himself at his son's captor, shoving his son away as he laid into the man who'd had hold of him.

It was only as he realised that Sam was screaming in fear that he stopped, turning slowly, all thoughts of revenge forgotten as he took in the sight before him.

Chrissy was no longer lying on the floor where she had fallen...Or rather she was, but it wasn't anything like her. A decaying body lay in her place, skin slowly turning blue and torso bloating with the gases of decomposition. It was all happening faster than normal, James knew, he'd been to enough post-mortems to know how bodies decomposed.

James hugged Sam tight to his chest, averting the young child's gaze from the gruesome sight. It was then that he remembered that this was impossible, Chrissy had already been dead a year...

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James woke with a start, aware of tears on his cheeks as his heart hammered in his chest. He turned to his side and was surprised to see Sam awake and staring at him worriedly.

"Sammy? What's wrong?"

"You haved another bad dream. You screamed Daddy." The little boy snuggles closer to James and he can feel him shaking a little. Hathaway pulls him closer, trying to offer reassurance. Sam continues speaking;

"I wanted to get Unca Robbie, but then I hearded a bang down'a stairs and I was too frighted."

"What bang?"

"Just a bang." James started to get out of bed, pulling on some tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt that he kept by the bed.

"I'm going to go downstairs-"

"No! Not leave me here."

"Sssh, listen, I'm going to go downstairs, I want you to go in Uncle Robbie's room and stay there till I come back ok? But try not to wake uncle Robbie up. Ok? Good boy." James smiled as Sam nods uncertainly, making sure he has his comfort blanket as he scrambles off the bed.

James makes sure that Sam goes into Lewis' room before heading downstairs carefully.

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Lewis is awake as soon as he feels the other side of his bed shift. This time he does not mistake it for Val, he can hear quiet snuffling sounds. He turns over, already knowing what he will see when he does so.

"Sam? Kidda, what's wrong?"

"Daddy dreamed again. But I couldn't get you cos of the bang an' Daddy is gone to look at it an' he said to come in here an' to not be waking you up an' now I've waked you up an' I scared an' I want Daddy to come back here an' I sorry." Once the hurried words had run out, Sam started to cry.

"No need to be sorry lad, I don't mind being woken up if you're scared. Come on, stop crying eh? You're safe here laddie." As Sam's sobs slowly dwindled, Lewis stood up.
"Right I'm going to see how your Dad is getting on. Stay here."

"Don't go...I scared, don't want be here on my own." Sam had reached out to Robbie, and grabbed one of his fingers. Lewis swallowed, realising that he didn't have the heart to leave the little boy there. He picked Sam up and walked around the room, shushing the kid to sleep. He hadn't heard any noise downstairs and he wasn't sure if this was good or bad. Once Sam had appeared to doze off, he headed downstairs, still carrying the child, to see what had become of his former sergeant.

He found James sitting at the table, staring at a couple of bits of paper. The younger man's head snapped up as he heard Lewis come into the room, softening as he realised that his son had fallen asleep and was firmly holding on to the ex-inspectors pyjama top.

"James, what's going on?"

"What?"

"Oh come on Jim, its not often that I have a very scared little boy climb onto my bed and start babbling about dreams and bangs downstairs and then finish by apologising for waking me up"

"Oh...Yeah." James doesn't seem to be very forthcoming and Lewis rolls his eyes in exasperation. He watches as James gets up from the table, and gently pulls the sleeping child off Robbie, stroking Sam's hair as the boy mumbles in his sleep. Hathaway sits back down on the chair again, holding Sam close and watching as the child subconsciously settles against his side in his sleep. Lewis sits opposite them at the table and sighs.

"What happened James? I couldn't make all that much sense out of the bairn."

"I had a dream. Bad one. Must have screamed or something because it woke Sammy up. He was going to go get you again ...should probably tell him not to do that next time actually ... he was going to get you but he heard a bang downstairs and it scared him...So I suppose he just waited for me to wake up."

"Firstly, you'll tell him no such thing. Two reasons. One, I'd rather come and help if you need me, and don't look at me like that, I saw the state you were in the last time. Two, it is not fair on the lad to have to stay there alone like that. Not with you screaming and shouting in your sleep. It scares him James, and to tell him not to come looking for help isn't fair." James looks down at the youngster and nods slowly.

"Didn't think of that. You're right...about him anyway. I-I don't need your help though."

"Daft sod. Nightmares don't get less scary when you get older, God knows, I still have them. I don't mind Jim. I'd rather the young'un woke me up than you both had to deal with it alone." James smiles shyly and nods again.

"Thank you si-Robbie."

"Now, what's this bang that Sam was going on about?"

"Was your letterbox I think" James said and the tone of his voice told Lewis that he wasn't going to like what ever was coming next. James pushed the paper over to him. One was a copy Sam's birth certificate. Lewis looked at the name and filed it away for future conversation. That in itself wasn't a problem, anyone could get hold of a kids birth certificate. It was he other piece of paper that was the problem.

Mr Hathaway,

We know you are staying here. We know your son is too. I am after you, and I won't stop until you know the pain I'm going through. You had my son taken away and I will do the same to you. You'll feel everything I'm feeling and more, knowing that it was all your fault. Your son will die like mine did and I assure you Mr Hathaway, I'm not squeamish in these matters.

Think about it

Oh and don't try to leave Lewis' house and hide away. We'll know and we'll shoot your ex-inspector. We'll leave you alive of course, once we've killed those dear to you. You'll have to live with it.

Sincerely...well now, that would be telling wouldn't it?

Lewis looked up as he finished reading and he could see the fear and anger in James' eyes. He rather suspected that his own mirrored the younger man's. Suddenly all the anger left James' eyes and all that remained was fear. Fear and uncertainty.

"What...what do I do Robbie? I mean this isn't just about me is it? They, fucking hell, they want my son."

"We go to Innocent. We'll phone her in the morning" James shook his head.

"No!...No, they'll see that as a threat."

"James...Jim, please listen to me. I don't want to scare you lad. But this note...they mean to get you. They'll try whether we tell Jean Innocent or not. Surely its better if we have back up. Even if its just one man."

"You're right. Except for one thing. They don't mean to get me. They mean to get Sam. If it was me, I'd go and bloody find them. But...I want to grab him and run, keep running till I couldn't even find me."

"Aye. I know what you mean James. But you saw the note. You can't run. Well you can, but it won't change anything. I know this seems mad kidda, but go to bed. Take your son back to bed and sleep." James nods and Robbie is surprised that he is agreeing.

"I...I think that's for the best Robbie."

"It is" Robbie says firmly. There's one more thing he has to know though, just a little thing. He finally plucks up the courage when James is almost out of the room.

"James..."

"Robbie?" Lewis holds up the birth certificate slightly. James shifts uncomfortably and he almost considers leaving it. But he can't.

"Sam Robert Hathaway?" James looks down at the floor, his cheeks flushed lightly with scarlet.

"Yes. That's his name."

"I know lad...I just...why?" For a few seconds, Lewis is convinced that James isn't going to answer, or worse, he's going to fob him off with some excuse. But then Hathaway raises his head and stares past Lewis, at the far wall, before raising his eyes to the ceiling as if preparing himself and answering Lewis quietly.

"We...we agreed that Chrissy'd get to name him and I'd get to choose his middle name. And then, if we had another kid..." Robbie wished he couldn't hear the sorrow in that last sentence.

"You'd get to choose the first name and her the second?"

"Yes sir." James took a deep breath. "Well, she named him Sam after her father and I...I er... And I thought of...er...the one person that had ever acted like a father to me and well...Sam Robert Hathaway." Lewis couldn't speak for a short while. He was scared his voice would break and that would embarrass them both.

"I'm sorry sir, I never intended you to find out...I shouldn't have..." James was babbling, Dear God, the boy actually thinks that I'm upset about it!

"Shut up James" Robbie interrupted, voice rough with emotion. "How could you possibly think that I'd have a problem with that? I'm...I'm touched lad. I wasn't aware that I'd ever acted like..."

"You saved me. Back when we first met. When Will killed himself, when Zoe tried to kill me, When I cracked after the Zelinsky case. You saved me Robbie and I've never been so bloody grateful. And...I wanted my son to have a little bit of that...just in case I couldn't do it." Lewis merely nodded, really not trusting himself to speak, if he'd had such an effect on James, simply by just being nice to him, he hated to think what had been going through the lad's mind at the time of the aforementioned events. James smiled a little.

"And now I've just made this awkward, I think I'll go to bed." Lewis smirked.

"Just made it awkward? You've always been an awkward bugger."

"Charming. But I meant what I said sir, all of it." And with that he left, cradling his child.

Lewis watched him go and smiled. He wasn't exactly sure what he'd done, but somewhere along the line, he'd obviously done something right for James Hathaway.

He stared at the letter on the table and resisted the urge to rip it up. He just had to hope that he'd manage to do right by the younger man again. There was even more at stake this time.

It was another half an hour before Lewis moved towards his bedroom. It was another hour before he fell asleep, his mind alternating between the pride that he felt about James giving Sam his name, and the anger he felt that someone was threatening his best friend and his son.