I've not updated this for a while, as I have been concentrating on other fics, but this is almost completely written now it will go up to about 22 Chapters eventually. As always enjoy.

Chapter 10 – Straw Dog

Grace and Boyd continued to live apart, and Boyd continued to ignore the fact that he was depressed. It was now four months since he'd left home, and in that time he hadn't been to see his son. Today was Christopher's fourth birthday, and Grace knew he had bought him a toy aeroplane when they'd visited a model shop on a case recently, whether he came round to give it to him was yet to be seen.

At work things remained relatively unchanged, it was difficult at first, but now they carried on as before, professional. Grace refused to give up on him; she knew she loved him too much for that, she'd hoped asking him to move out would bring him to his senses, that he loved her and Christopher too much to actually leave, but it back fired, and now, instead of living together miserably; they were living apart miserably, and she was once again a single parent.

She found it difficult at first, working and looking after Christopher was exhausting, Christopher constantly asked where Daddy was, and it broke her heart tell him he'd gone away for a while. She soon got into a routine; Christopher had never been a good sleeper and often cried in the night, or got up, and in the past, it had been Boyd, who had seen to him, put him back in bed and got him back off to sleep, now it was her, and she'd taken to taking him into her bed, reading him a story and sleeping with him in her arms, it wasn't ideal, but it worked.

Grace was up, showered and dressed before she went into get Christopher up, she bathed and dressed him before taking him downstairs to see his cards and presents. She'd bought him a bike, a Thomas the tank engine bike to be exact, and his face lit up when he saw it. There were also a few other parcels and cards, Frankie had sent a large box and card through the post. The card was to my special godson on his birthday, and inside, she'd written how much she missed seeing them both since she'd moved on to pastures new. She couldn't stand working in the CCU after the loss of Mel, so she took another research post. She stayed in touch with Grace, and phoned often to see how they were. When they opened the parcel, it contained a very large plastic tool kit complete with a toy work bench that needed to be put together, she sighed as she realised how much she wanted Boyd to be there.

"Uncle Spence will put that together later." She told him.

He also had a card and voucher from Mel's parents, despite being jewish, and having to find a way around her being a godparent in a Christian church. Mel had been very proud of her role in Christopher's life, and her parents were carrying this on. Grace made a note to herself to write back to them later.

Grace and Christopher had breakfast before heading to nursery, she took a birthday cake with them, as the nursery were having a party for him. She took him into nursery, walking him in, another thing that Boyd had always done, that she now did. She kissed him goodbye, and he ran into his class.

At work Grace was giving evidence in the court of appeal, it was a very emotive case for Grace, the first case she had ever worked on, and one where she'd had a fling with the investigating officer, DS Harry Taylor, she fell for him hook, line and sinker, and then found out he was married with children. She had become the one thing she promised herself she would never be, the other woman. She hated betrayal, in her eye's women who slept with married or attached men were the lowest of the low, but Harry had duped her, led her to believe he was single, that was until the day she told him she was pregnant. His jaw fell open. She thought it was a shock, but not that bad. They were both adults. She knew how she felt about him, and she assumed he felt the same about her. Then he dropped the bombshell that he was married with three children.

She was devastated. When she'd told Boyd that she was pregnant with Christopher, he'd reacted badly, and taken time to get his head around it, but at least he'd stood by her in the end, and until recently he'd been the perfect father, it was only recent events that had changed that, and she knew eventually he'd come to terms with Mel's death and return to being the man he was, the man and the father that he is.

Harry wasn't that man, he'd turned his back on her, and alone and afraid she'd had a termination, unable to confide in anyone, too ashamed at her circumstances to admit the truth.

Harry Taylor was later killed in a car accident, whilst under the influence of alcohol. She hadn't seen him in a year, but it still saddened her immensely. She'd been in love with him, and no betrayal could wipe those feelings away without a second thought.

Now some of his cases were under review, and the one she'd worked on was one of them. Tony Greene was a dangerous serial killer who preyed on young men, removing their fingers, whilst they were still alive, torturing and mutilating them before eventually murdering them. Now he was claiming he was framed by Harry Taylor.

Grace was in the office before everyone else, she'd been sat at her desk reviewing the case notes when she heard the door to the offices open, and saw Boyd walk in, he went straight into his office and sat at his desk.

Grace looked at the time. She needed to leave soon so grabbed her bag and coat and headed to Boyd's office. She opened the door without knocking.

"Hey." She said softly.

"You leaving already?"

"I'm in court today, remember?"

"Oh yeah, the Tony Greene appeal, well have a good day."

"Are you coming around to see Christopher today?" He didn't respond. He just stared at his PC screen. "He's been asking for you." He looked at her but still didn't answer her. "It's his birthday Peter."

"I know Grace. I wouldn't forget his birthday."

"Really, because you seem to have forgotten you even have a son."

He knew she was right. It had been months since he'd seen him. He just couldn't bring himself to go and see him, not after that day when he'd hit him, it may have only been a smacked bottom, but to Boyd, it was unforgivable, and if he couldn't forgive himself, how could he expect anyone else to?

He'd drifted off, "Boyd? Boyd?" she called to get his attention.

"I'll pop around this evening, if that's okay?"

Grace smiled softly at him, "It's fine. He'll be really pleased to see you."

"Will he?"

"He's your son Boyd, he idolises you."

Boyd fell silent again, and Grace left him to it, heading off for her day in court.

Grace gave her evidence in court. It was difficult seeing Tony Greene again after all those years, he still looked as evil and filled with hatred as he did the first time she'd seen him, but more difficult than that was remembering her past, the times with Harry and the termination, something she had always regretted.

She left court, and was walking down the steps outside when someone suddenly grabbed her bag, knocking her to the ground in the process, she tried to hold on, but to no avail, he got away with her bag.

She returned to the office in a thoroughly pissed-off mood. Her purse was in her bag, now she would have to cancel all her cards and her mobile, all this, and it was on Christopher's birthday.

As she walked into the bull pen Boyd walked straight over to her, "You okay?"

"No, not really, I was bloody mugged outside the courtroom."

"Yeah we know." Stella replied.

"Well how do you know?"

"Your bag was handed in to the front desk. We put it on your desk, would you like a coffee?"

"Yes, thank you Stella." She replied as she walked through to her office to inspect her bag and see what was missing.

Boyd followed her, "Are you sure you'reokay? Did he hurt you at all?"

"I'm fine. He never touched me. Hejust grabbed my bag and knocked me over in the process, but I'm okay."

"Take the rest of the day off, I'll drive you home." Grace was stood silently staring into her bag in front of him, "Is everything okay?"

Grace slowly lifted a jar out of her bag. It contained several severed fingers. She put the jar on her desk and then put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, it's happening again."

Boyd steered her out of her office, and into his as the others dealt with the evidence, he sat her on his sofa and handed her the coffee that Stella had made for her. He sat next to her, and spoke softly to her, "Drink this, and I'll take you home okay?"

"What about the jar, what if it is happening again?"

"Felix is examining the jar and the contents, and your bag. She will keep us up to date with what's happening."

Boyd eventually managed to convince Grace to let him take her home, stopping off at his home on the way to pick up Christopher's birthday present. Grace went in with him, and was shocked to see that he had been sleeping on the sofa, his bedding still in place. He said he hadn't gotten around to buying a new bed since he'd moved in, but it was more than that, his clothes were scattered around the room, his suits hanging on the door frame. He was clearly still not dealing with his depression. His living arrangements just confirmed that he had not moved any further on.

Grace's house was still scattered with Christopher's birthday presents, wrapping paper, cards and envelopes, and Grace felt the need to apologise for the mess. Not that Boyd was bothered in the slightest, they sat and drank a cup of tea before Boyd went and collected their son. He was strangely nervous, having not seen him for the last few months. He was worried how Christopher would behave towards him. But his son flew at him as soon as he saw him, grabbing onto him and squealing "Daddy!" Very loudly.

Back at home he spent the evening playing with Christopher and his new toys. Spencer came around with a present for his godson; Felix accompanied him and gave them an update on the case. Informing them that one of the fingers in the jar was less than 48 hours old, meaning that, as Grace feared, it was happening again, and they needed to find the victim.

Grace eventually put Christopher to bed, leaving Boyd tidying up as she did so, when she returned downstairs he had poured her a glass of wine and the two of them sat together for a while, he still didn't talk about anything important, such as Mel's death, but it was almost like old times. He glanced at his watch after a while, "I should make a move, let you get to bed, as long as you feel safe, I could sleep on the sofa if it would make you feel safer."

"We'll be fine, if they wanted to get to me, I think they would have done it earlier when they snatched my bag, but thank you."

"As long as you're sure."

"I am."

Boyd left, and Grace locked the doors and headed to bed. She wasn't sure she would sleep, and had only been in bed an hour when she heard Christopher out of bed, and running up and down the landing, fortunately he couldn't open the stair gate at the top of the stairs, as much as he tried. Grace got out of bed to find him running a toy car up and down the floor. He looked up at her, his cheeky grin in full view.

"Where's Daddy?" He asked her.

"He's gone home, why aren't you in bed?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "This is home."

"Not for Daddy it isn't. He has a different home now." She picked him up off the floor and carried him into her room, and laid him in her bed, getting in beside him. She was glad really, having him close to her where she knew he was safe.

The days that followed were becoming ever more stressful, for Grace, she had told the team to investigate her during their investigation. They now had a name for who they were looking for, Kevin Keogh. He was a young homeless Irish boy, and they had since received video footage of another of his fingers being gruesomely removed, the sound of Kevin's screams ringing in their ears as they watched the footage, trying to gain any bit of evidence they could from it. As Felix went over the evidence, Boyd questioned Grace about her relationship with Harry Taylor, his constant questioning driving her mad.

"What are you keeping from me Grace?"

"I'm not keeping anything from you, you know everything."

"I know you well enough to know when you're keeping something from me, you told us to investigate you, we're doing what you wanted, and we deserve to know the truth."

"You mean you deserve to know the truth, to know if I was sleeping with Harry Taylor."

"Well where you?"

"Yes! Okay, yes I was. We had an affair. I didn't know he was married. I would never have become involved with him if I'd known he was married."

"How long did it last?"

"Are you asking as a detective or my former lover?"

"A bit of both I guess."

"It lasted around three months, whilst we were working on the case."

"Did you suspect that he was beating confessions out of suspects?"

"I would never have stood by whilst he did that."

"That wasn't what I asked? Harry Taylor had an unbelievably high conviction rate, did you ever suspect that he was using violence to obtain confessions?"

"Yes, after I questioned Tony Greene."

"What made you suspect?"

"He stopped me interviewing him, and told me to go home, he said he would take over, and that I shouldn't wait, but I did wait, and when he came back to the office at 3am, he said Greene had confessed, but when I questioned him, he had no intention of admitting anything. He later withdrew the confession."

"Why had you not seen Harry for a year before he died?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I need to know Grace."

"It's personal Boyd, and it's nothing to do with the case."

"Stop holding out on me Grace, why hadn't you seen him for a year before he died."

"Because he told me he was married, he told me when I told him I was pregnant, and no it wasn't intentional. I was in love with him, and I thought he felt the same. When I discovered I was pregnant I was happy about it, and I thought he would be too, but he told me he was already married with three children. I was devastated, and I had a termination because I couldn't face the stigma of being a single parent. I cut all ties with him after that."

Boyd's eyes stared at the floor, "I'm sorry Grace."

Grace left his office and walked out of the building. She needed to get out for a while, and knew of only one person she could turn to. Charles Hoyle was an old friend, and one who had recently said if she ever wanted to talk, she should look him up. She was about to take him up on this offer.

She sat in his sitting room talking, his budgie flying freely around the room, as he called it by his name it suddenly struck her that it was the same name she had heard on the video footage. She made her excuses and left the room, heading down the hall into another room, where Kevin lay dazed and bleeding on a bed, she locked and barricaded the door. Charles was banging on it from the other side, suddenly Grace heard Boyd calling her name.

"Boyd I'm in here, with Kevin." She shouted back at him.

"Are you both okay?"

"Kevin looks in a bad way, but I'm fine."

Charles had a gun trained on Grace and Kevin, and Boyd was doing his best to draw his fire away from them, he eventually succeeded. Charles turned the gun hurriedly towards Boyd. He ducked down and snipers behind him shot and killed Charles Hoyle. They smashed down the door, and paramedics rushed into to take care of Kevin, whilst Boyd hurriedly rushed to Grace throwing his arms around her.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Yes I'm fine, just shaken up, and worried about Kevin."

"He'll be okay." One of the paramedics said to her.

She gave a large sigh, and remained in Boyd's embrace.

Boyd again took her home and spent the evening with her. They ate dinner together, and he spent most of the evening playing or cuddling Christopher, reading him a story before putting him to bed. He returned downstairs to Grace, and put on his coat to ready to leave.

"Thank you." She said as he walked him to the front door.

"For what?"

"For saving my life, tell me, what would have happened if he'd been quicker with the gun than you were at ducking?"

"I'd be dead I guess."

"So why did you do it?"

He put his hands on Grace's face and stared deep into her eyes, "I know I need to sort myself out, and things between us haven't been good, but you're the Mother of my son, and I love you. I will always love you, and I will lay my life down for you if I need to."

"So are you going to sort yourself out?"

"No comment." He replied, with a smile. "Goodnight Grace!"

"Goodnight Boyd."

TBC