Author's Note: This whole story is dedicated to For Fanfic because it brought her into my life and for that I am very grateful :) Originally a one-shot and an unhappier conclusion, Old Scores has evolved into something else entirely through the wonderful reviews and interest it has generated along the way. I haven't been able to respond to everyone individually but all comments have been very much appreciated and it often brightened my day to see a review notification or how many times it has been read. This is not my last S&B Gill/Julie fanfic, I still have Meet The Dodsons to conclude and a few other stories I have been working on, so stay tuned!
Six Months Later
Julie's striking heels made their familiar clippity clop sound on the hallowed parquet flooring at Greater Manchester Police's Headquarters in the centre of town. She had her bag slung over her shoulder, an A4 ring binder balanced in the crook of her arm and she held her mobile up to her ear with her free hand.
"Hiya," Julie said down the line.
"Hi Slap. How did it go?" Gill was at the other end on her office phone. She was wearing her spectacles and was mildly distracted by the report she had been desperately trying to finish before lunch. It was a little after twelve twenty and she hoped to be away by one o'clock.
"Alright I think. Karen seemed pleased with my recommendations and the board didn't have any obvious issues with them. They asked relevant questions and I'm pretty sure I explained everything fully and knowledgeably. We'll just have to wait and see. How's you?" Julie temporarily balanced her folder under the armpit of the hand holding her phone as she reached a set of double doors. She pulled them open and slipped through before re-jigging her load once again.
"Busy. Everything has kicked off today; I've got officers doing some house to house questioning over in Lees and Scary Mary prepping a couple of bodies for post mortems. I'm sorry love but I don't think I'm going to be home before ten, if not later." Julie stopped walking and sighed in disappointment. She fully understood that her personal life came second to work and it went to both their detriment on occasion. It was just that she had been looking forward to the evening with Gill as it was a special occasion. "No that's fine, I understand. We'll have to do something another time then, it sounds like you'll be busy for a few days at least." Julie knew more than most that a large-scale investigation could go on for days, if not a couple of weeks and you stayed on the job until it was concluded.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. If you wanted to make alternative arrangements with friends or something, you would be more than welcome to." Gill offered Julie the option fairly certain that even if she did take her up on the offer, all of her friends would be otherwise engaged.
"No, I think I'm just going to work on through. There's not much point at this late stage." She didn't mean for it to sound like a dig but Gill could hear the evident disappointment in her voice anyway.
"I am sorry love." Thank goodness this was all a ploy otherwise Gill would quite rightly be feeling incredibly guilty right now.
"Honestly, it's okay. I'll see you later, eventually." Julie had come to a stop just before the lift that would take her upstairs to her office.
"Yeah, you will. I love you."
"Love you too, bye."
"Bye." Poor Julie, Gill thought to herself. She'd sounded so very disappointed and on top of facing Karen and the board this morning it wasn't exactly shaping up to be the best of days. She just hoped that her plan worked and by this evening Julie would be feeling much better about things.
Gill tried to 'ssh' the thirty-odd people gathered in her living room into relative silence as she noticed Julie's car pull into the drive. All the lights in the house were off apart from the living room ones which had been dimmed. The kitchen was fully lit as she hadn't quite finished cooking and needed to see what she was doing. Julie was a very intelligent detective and she was sure that things would begin to fall into place for her as soon as she arrived home to find Gill's car already in the drive. She might even have noticed all the others parked in the road if she had been paying attention. Julie put her key in the door and was only mildly surprised to find it was already open. A wave of heat hit her and there was a low murmur of background noise. She walked through to the living room and suddenly she was flooded with noise and light. Everyone jumped out at her and shouted out 'surprise.' And she was genuinely surprised, even though she had begun to grow suspicious about a few things as the day had gone on.
"Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed as she was enveloped in hugs and received birthday wishes. Gill looked on with a huge grin on her face and she felt satisfied in a job well done. When Julie had come back to Manchester to live a couple of months ago she hadn't wanted any acknowledgement or fanfare, or even a small something to celebrate the fact that she and Gill had officially moved in together. Her fiftieth birthday three years ago had been a reasonably quiet affair so Gill felt that her girlfriend was well overdue for a proper celebration. It would serve several purposes without making any of them the direct focus of the party, although most people had jumped on the birthday bandwagon. Gill had even persuaded Karen and the Chief Constable to attend. They were both fully in the picture in regards to their relationship and had been completely supportive about it. Eventually she found Gill watching her with happiness shining in her eyes and she disengaged herself from the swarm of guests to greet her properly. "You planned this?" At Gill's affirmative nod Julie continued. "You absolute pain in the… I'm not sure whether to kiss you or strangle you!"
"I know which one I would prefer." Gill got her wish as Julie proceeded to snog the life out of her partner. Everyone else be dammed, this was their home and she had the right to do what she wanted within it. Embarrassment would come shortly afterwards, of that Julie was sure, but right now she was just absolutely grateful for Gill's presence in her life. Just over a year ago it could all have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Gill could have died at the hands of Helen Bartlett, or they could never have spoken to each other again after the night they had slept together after Gill's ordeal. It hadn't been easy but they had worked through their issues, put their friendship first and then built on their relationship from there. Julie had found it tough being so far away in London but it turned out it was the best move to make at the time. It had given her the time and space away from the pressures of HQ and both of them to reflect and re-evaluate their lives. In the two months since Julie had come back she had been given her promised Sergeant and a lot more support in her job. The restructure had not only worked in her own favour but it had made the lives of all the DSI's in the Greater Manchester area easier. Karen had seen the work that Julie had done in London and she had been given a National project from the fallout. Her recommendations might change the way that MIT teams and syndicates across the country were structured. There was the rumour of another promotion out of it but Julie was more than happy where she was now. The money was all very well and good but she now had a home life that she wanted to spend some time nurturing and enjoying. Cheers and claps rose up from the crowd of guests and Julie's cheeks began to turn a lovely crimson colour. Gill kept her arms around Julie's waist as they faced their guests. Chants of 'speech' rose up from the crowd and Julie put her hands up to silence them.
"Oh god, I hate this. Okay, okay. Right, thank you all for coming. To say that I'm surprised is a bit of an understatement, so well done to everyone for keeping it so quiet. I want to say a huge thank you to Gill, firstly for organising this, although I will kill you later! But mostly for being the best friend anyone could have wished for. It's not been an easy year and we've had to work through some personal difficulties but I think I can speak for both of us when I say that it's made us stronger and more determined than ever. I'm not known for my soft sider but I'm going to break with tradition and tell you that I have never loved anyone quite as much as I love her. She's become the other half of me and completes me in a way that I never thought was possible. So, that's why, tonight, in front of you all I am getting down on my knees..." and Julie did exactly as she said she was going to do. "So that I can ask this beautiful, intelligent, wonderful, funny, kind and amazing human being to consider becoming my wife?" Now it was Gill's turn to be suitably shocked and overwhelmed by Julie's surprise. She wondered if it was something she had planned before the party or something she had just thought up on the spot. Gill looked into Julie's sparkling green eyes and at the unshed tears in them. She looked like she was being absolutely sincere and that she meant every word. Despite the people in the room, close friends, colleagues and superiors Gill could only hear the thudding of her own heart in her chest and see Julie's earnest expression. She already knew what her answer was going to be, there really could only ever be one answer. If Julie had seen her through all her indecision, her anxiety and fear and still want to be with her then it was the most simple answer in the world.
"Yes. Yes, you daft cow! If you're mad enough to want me then I'd be daft to turn you down!" Julie stood up and swept her fiancée up in her arms and swung her around in delight. This really was turning out to be a very memorable birthday after all. Julie set Gill back on the ground and they kissed gently. She then pulled out a box from her pocket and opened it to reveal a delicate diamond ring. So Julie had planned it all along, hence why she'd been extra specially disappointed when Gill had spoken to her earlier in the day to say that she'd been caught up at work. Gill's face lit up in welcome surprise and she shakily held her hand out to Julie when after she'd requested it. The older woman slipped the ring onto the third finger of her left hand and it was a perfect fit. It turned out that both women were just as sneaky as each other. More cheers and murmurs of 'congratulations' went around the room. Sammy was the first to step up and wrap his mum and Julie in a bear hug. He was absolutely delighted but not surprised as Julie would later explain to Gill that she had spoken to him at length a couple of weeks ago when she had definitely decided that she wanted to ask Gill on her birthday. Sammy was quickly followed by Orla, then Janet, Rachel and the rest of Gill's syndicate. The party turned into quite a wild celebration after that.
Later that evening, once the guests had finally departed and the house restored to relative calm, if not cleanliness, Gill lay in Julie's arms admiring her ring. They had fallen into bed together, tired but deliriously happy and had just about managed to cement their engagement by making love. In the afterglow they had spoken softly of practicalities and arrangements as well as how they both felt about this new stage in their lives. Gill turned in Julie's arms and looked her in the eye as she spoke.
"If you'd have told me a year ago this is where we would be I would never have believed you. It was the hardest thing I had to do, letting you go, but I didn't feel that I had another choice at the time." The look on Gill's face spoke a thousand words and Julie could see that it was still something her lover bitterly regretted.
"I know and I understand that. Instead of looking back on that time and regretting it let's just be thankful for it. Perhaps we really wouldn't be here now had we not gone through it. I honestly did mean it when I said that I think it's made us stronger and more determined. We're going to make this work, you and me. Forever and ever, Mrs Dodson." Gill's eyebrows rose sky high in surprise and she poked Julie gently by her bare collarbone as if to emphasise her response.
"Err, who said anything about me taking your name?" It was said with mild indignation, as if she was irritated by the mere suggestion.
"Well you can't very well be Mrs Murray can you?" Julie certainly wasn't going to mention Dave by name. As predicted he hadn't taken the news of their relationship well at all and had attempted to cause trouble between them by going through Sammy. Fortunately the teenager was on his Mum's side, as he had been since the beginning and had stood up to his father to tell him a few home truths. Despite Gill's passing gratitude to Dave for pushing her in the right direction in the first place, it was an on-going battle against the snide homophobic remarks and the rumour mill at work. It was a subject that she and Julie didn't often discuss because of the bitter taste it left in their mouths afterwards.
"I might want to go back to my maiden name." Gill said it even though it was an unlikely option; Greenwood didn't feel like a formidable DCI's name, instead it evoked images of a suburban housewife or farm girl or something.
"Then why haven't you done so before now?" Julie had worked out that Gill had already dismissed the idea by the tone of her voice when she had said it.
"I'm just used to it I suppose. Besides, everyone already knows me as Gill Murray." Julie wasn't overly keen on Gill remaining connected to her ex-husband by name, especially once they were actually married. Jealously wasn't her usual style but she couldn't help how she felt in this instance.
"How about we come up with a new name? One just for us?" There were infinite possibilities with that line of thought and they could be witty and clever at the same time as creating something unique and fitting.
"Or why don't we just stay as we are and not change our names?" Gill suggested with a hint of finality in her voice that indicated the discussion was over for her, at least for the time being. Julie couldn't agree more. She didn't want anything to take away the romance of the evening or the happiness that she felt deep inside of her.
"I think we'll be talking about this more later. For now I propose we sleep on it."
"Yes Ma'am!" Gill bent her head to kiss Julie soundly, the awkwardness of the last few moments temporarily forgiven and forgotten. Julie rolled them both over so that she could wrap herself around Gill and keep her safe. Gill held onto the arms around her waist and snuggled her body closer. These moments were rare but cherished. Julie's warm breath caressed Gill's neck and was quickly followed by a few gentle kisses and then a low chuckle.
"Oi, cheeky!" The two of them giggled until they finally fell into a peaceful sleep.
The End.
