Author's note: This chapter starts with a Rese and Liam story. I just thought I should emphasise this so maybe you'd like to read the Barb and Tommy version first.

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Birthday (Rese and Liam V, 848)

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(X+)

Tomorrow was her birthday and she had wanted to celebrate tonight but everybody else had been occupied so Therese had asked MacKenzie out for dinner. He had messed it up with his stupid suggestion that of course he would pay. It had ended in an argument. She had rushed home and had finished her first drink at six.

He had ruined everything!

She finished her second drink at six thirty.

Therese was quite tipsy when MacKenzie finally knocked at her door at eight.

"Have a drink?" Therese slurred. She gave him hers and left him standing in the door to make another one.

This will be funny. Liam thought. He sat down and waited.

Therese came back and glared at him. Waving her drink she grumbled on while he kept silent. She snorted. He sipped at his drink. This was not about the dinner. This was very personal.

"I just wanted to have a simple nice evening, Liam." Her glass was empty.

"You know what?" She put the glass on the table with a thud. He sighed. He could tell that she was more than just tipsy. Her articulation was everything but straight.

"I don' care 'bout bloody consequences, Liam. To hell with everythin'. Tonight... tomorrow... ummmonday... I ask for a transfer to... wherever... b'tonight... tonight's about me. T'night I take what I want. And I want you, Liam. Just for tonight I make you-" []

She hiccupped.

"...mine. [] I m- [] -make love to you. Even- [] -'f's the last [] thing you'n'I will be- [] -doin' together. To hell with [] tomorrow."

Liam could not believe that this scenario was real.

"You!" she earned a quizzical look.

[]

She pointed at her bedroom door. "Get into that [] room!"

Liam swallowed. "No. You-"

In that moment she heavily plonked into his lap, pushed him into the backrest and invaded his mouth.

Liam could not help but respond. It was a deep kiss, full of desire, though she constantly hiccupped.

Liam brought himself to firmly push her away. "Rese... You're far too drunk. We-"

She kissed him again.

"Mmmmh. Therese! We can continue when you're sober." She probably won't remember.

Therese sat on his lap, pouted and hiccupped so desirably sweet that he struggled hard not to give in.

"But... []"

"No, Rese." He pulled her tenderly against his chest. With a low voice he soothed her until he heard a soft snoring.

Liam sighed and carried her to her bed.

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Therese woke up with a bad headache and the memories of the evening only slowly returning.

"Happy Birthday, idiot." she mumbled into her pillow. Now she needed a strong tea and painkillers.

On her way into her lounge she stopped dead in her tracks. There sat a very relaxed smiling DI in socks, tea and painkillers on the table. Therese reassured herself that she had slept decently dressed. Liam must have slept on her sofa.

" 'morning." he said.

Therese moaned in frustration. What an awkward birthday morning.

"...still here?" she croaked.

"Breakfast." he nodded.

Therese watched him getting a tray with buttered toast.

"Hmph." She slumped onto her sofa and swallowed a painkiller.

"Sir, about yesterday... I'm sorry..." she blushed and could not look at him. "I've gone too far."

Liam sipped at his tea. He had thought a lot when Therese was peacefully sleeping. He offered his apologies in return. "Though I must confess I really would like to see more of your straightforward side."

Therese looked at him wide-eyed. Now he blushed.

"No... I didn't mean... I mean you could be more self-confident sometimes."

Then he blushed a little more. "Well, that other... In fact I quite enjoyed the kiss, but honestly... Well, call me romantic but our first time should definitely not be that way..."

Shyly smiling Liam stopped his rambling. He was not sure if his cryptic words were clear enough.

Therese looked at him blankly, then rose. She swallowed, harrumphed, swallowed again. Without breaking eyecontact she gestured towards her bedroom.

"The offer still stands." she croaked.

"No." Liam whispered and held out a hand. "Not that way either."

She took his hand and they shared a deep look. His thumb caressed the back of her hand. What if they overstepped the carefully maintained line between them now?

Therese cursed, overstepped that bloody line, straddled him and pushed him into the backrest. With a deep inhale of air she cupped his stubbly face with both hands and initiated a passionate kiss.

Liam had no objections this time - as if Therese would have accepted any.

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They continued where they had stopped yesterday. Therese took his words to heart and showed him her straightforward side. She took what she wanted - Liam. Very straightforward she made love to him right there.

After their overwhelming encounter Liam wrapped a blanket around them.

"...hope 't's not always so... exhausting." Therese mumbled onto his neck.

"No." Liam whispered into her hair. "But only on anniversaries I let you act so imperious."

"Hmmmm." Therese smiled without opening her eyes. "Macho!"

"Happy Birthday, Rese."

(+X)

"Macho?!" Her head still dizzy from the wine and that story Barbara chuckled while she wrote her comment.

congratulations! what an exciting ride! I like this adventurous side of her. he could do with some of it too!

She thought she could do with some of it herself. Or she just needed to get herself another drink. Make herself drunken and with that maybe a bit more blunt, more courageous, less cowardly, less shy, less stuck in her room.

And more hangoverish tomorrow morning! Oh, hell, what a pity!

She was a bit tipsy and not quite sure if her eyes did not betray her but she was sure that the light in the main room had been off when they both had popped off to their rooms. Now it shone through the keyhole of the antique doorlock. Some sort of tapping like bare feet on wood could be heard. Then the light disappeared again and it was silent. She blinked and thought it must have been the giddiness coming from the red wine but after a short while the light reappeared. Putting the laptop aside Barbara sat up.

Her ears recognised some more shuffling in the main room and she would have sworn she heard clinking glass and bare footsteps and then the light was off again. A faint sound of something brushing against her door made her heart race. Deep inside she wished he would come into her room. She had no doubt that it was Tommy standing in front of her door. But there was no knock, no whispered question if she was still awake, no creaking door or light shining through it of course and soon the only light that was in her room was the once again reappearing light through the keyhole, the only sounds audible were some tapping again, the closing of his door on the other side of the main room straight after the lights went off with a loud click.

I should have called him in. I really could do with some of Rese's courage! I'm a bloody coward!

Frustrated Barbara hid her head under her pillow. Sleep came late.

At that same time Tommy crouched under his blanket. I am a bloody coward.

When Barbara had refused the nightcap he had gone to his room and prepared for the night. Then he had laid in his bed and had wondered what he should do. This had been such an entirely pleasurable, comfortable evening. Sure, they've had a bit too much wine but they had not been drunk, not even fully tipsy. He should have...

...dragged her into my chest. I should have pinned her against the wall and tell her what I want. Show her. Kiss her. I should have tried to convince her that a nightcap would be... nice... pleasurable... prolonging the evening... giving me more time to act... What a bloody coward I am.

Then he had gotten up and had sneaked through the main room to her door where he had stopped, not knowing what to do. He had wanted to knock but then had not dared to and had moved to the bottle of whisky on the drawer cabinet. Looking out of the window into the pale Roman city night he had downed a drink and then had returned to her door. Still Tommy could not bring himself to knock. He simply had put his hand on her door and holding his breath he had stroked the wood.

He dearly would have loved that she would not have been so reasonably, that she would have been a bit less composed when they had returned to the suite. Tomorrow they probably would fly back home. All this stupid file searching and re-opening of old wounds and the bloody seductive city of Rome in its medieval summer sun had led to nothing but personal confusion and they would return with no real success. Nothing had happened, nothing will ever happen. They constantly took dead end roads, feigning a destination by hiding their pointlessness with its zigzag ways.

His hand had fallen down at his side and angry with himself he had returned to his room, heavily pushing the poor light switch in the main room.

Nothing will ever change. Nobody will ever overstep that bloody line between us.

Tommy pulled the blanket over his head in order to close out the entire cruel world. He felt like he had not felt for a very, very long time - helpless. It took a while before he finally fell asleep.

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