A/N: Something stupidly brave... LOLZ :-D

Here's Part 2

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2 Fast 2 Furious

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While Barbara and the boy had arrived in the building the events underground followed in quick succession. The train arrived, a squad, previously having pinned the man with the suitcase inside and having secured the other passengers in the furthermost waggons, stormed onto the platform and before the man was able to realise the entire situation and hit the button on the remote control the CCTV observing unit had reported, he was shot dead. No bomb exploded that day.

Except for the bomb in Lynley's office later.

After he was informed that she had returned to New Scotland Yard he had called Barbara in. Since his concern meanwhile had made place for anger about her thoughtless actions he may have approved of her observations and her foresight first but then only rebuked her for disobeying orders once again and putting herself into danger. He did not know how to put in words that he had feared he could lose her so he just dressed her down.

"I'm not quite sure yet what to make of it since you've actually rescued that boy and kept the terrorist in the dark. Nonetheless I wasn't really pleased with the situation." He gave her an intense look full of general pain and something Barbara could not decipher completely. Somehow she would have said that he looked fondly at her. Proud somehow, and happy that all went so well, but still with a little fear that it could have gone seriously wrong. "I wouldn't want something like this happen again, is that understood." He almost rasped.

"Yes, Sir. Neither would I, Sir." Barbara looked down on his desk and blushed. She already felt tears starting to dwell again and she knew that she would ask Angela to join her tonight after work. Reality finally sunk in deeply and she was more than agitated. Of course she would have preferred to be taken in Tommy's arms again and be soothed like she had been a few years ago. She just wanted to cry loudly into his chest. She wanted to feel his arms around her and his cheek on her head. And this time, she swore to herself, she would not let him go. She would try to encourage him to- Ah, bloody...! A tear rolled down her cheek and she quickly got up. He would not do any of this and his office was not the place where she would start to cry.

"Sorry, Sir." she croaked.

She ran to the Ladies and did not care at all how it looked with her running from his office and him calling after her. After all it was not happening for the first time.

"Barbara, stay! Please!" He had called her back but she had not heard it or had not wanted to hear it. It did not matter. When the door fell close Tommy just groaned and let his head bump onto his desk. "You're an idiot, Lynley!" he muttered onto the papers.

After returning from the sanitary rooms Barbara made it pretty quick with her bloody paperwork. Undisturbed by Winnie who was particularly quiet this evening she just scribbled down some notes of the day's events and called it a day quite early without seeing her boss again because Lynley did not dare to come out of his office for the rest of the day and only left when just the nightshift still was there. When Angela had come around late Winnie also had dropped his pen and had brought the two women home, seeing that His Lordship obviously was not in the mood.

After work Barbara had a long night of talking with Angela.

It was definitely without wine this time but with a big bowl of double chocolate ice cream and many tears about missed chances, inexplicably difficult relationships with her own parents, her experiences with them being in hospital or in the nursing home, the loss of her brother, Lynley's loss of a child, the absence of a family and children of her own. And the chance being prone to zero that she will ever have even one single child, being 38 already and without a husband or even a man in her life and what a bloody life this is in general. As expected she was psyched up by Angela saying something like it's not too late, she's not too old, there are horses for courses and so on. Muttered words, soothing pats, offered tissues.

Some of Barbara's deepest feelings surfaced and the tension of the day's events dissolved in her tears. And finally her general grief of not having someone at all broke out with a vengeance.

"You mean not having Tommy." Angela smiled encouraging, glad that Barbara was a bit calmer now, so she tried a light joke. "I mean, you have me to talk to..."

Barbara sadly grinned. "I'm happy about that, Angela, but I want someone to love. Someone to come home to."

"Someone to be with for 24 hours and 7 days a week?"

The poor mess that was the usually very strong appearing Detective Sergeant nodded with eyes already brimming with tears.

Angela sighed. "To me it seems easier than you think. You should just relax a bit concerning that aspect. In my opinion it looks as if you already could have him 24/7. If you just let him. Maybe you should just show little, or better clear signs that you do want him, that you do want to let him behind the last walls around your heart. That you do want to let him into the innermost best hidden corner of it. Like I told you, he's hesitantly anxious like you are."

"Of course not." Barbara choked and then whispered "He's had his chance earlier when he'd called me to his office, but no... Mister Detective Inspector only had to shout at me..."

"I bet he simply was overpowered by emotions too. You've put yourself into such a danger down there. He might have lost you."

"Then why wasn't he just happy that everything went well?"

"Oh, he was, of that I'm sure." Angela stroked Barbara's back but the tears still would not stop running.

"Then why couldn't he just have taken me in his arms?" Barbara sobbed.

"Maybe you just should have asked?"

"Of course... haha." Barbara rolled her wet eyes.

"Barb, he's as inhibited as you. You know, wooing is one thing. The next step you need to make will be one giant leap forward. For both of you. It will change everything, I think he's afraid of that, afraid of making this step and ruining everything you have. But one of you should make this step. Soon. Otherwise it's breaking you both..."

For a little while longer Angela let Barbara talk and grumble and cry and complain and object since she knew that was what she needed the most now. So the psycho mostly kept her tongue and only added a few reassuring words until they finally both fell asleep in Barbara's bed again - totally unaware that they had a guard.

Tommy had stood outside her house until he had seen the lights being turned off. He still had stood there for a few more minutes before driving home. Previously he finally had talked himself out of going in. He already had been afraid to come around and when he had seen Angela's car, an old Volkswagen Golf Cabrio with the plate number P57CH0, he knew his beloved Sergeant was in good hands and he probably only would be an intruder to this woman-to-woman talk. So he simply had waited outside and had watched the lights in Barbara's window, thinking about what had brought him here and why he just could not go inside. Why he just could not simply knock at her door and take over from the psychotherapist. He actually longed to take Barbara in his arms and reassure her that she had done the right thing, that he was entirely proud of her, that he was sorry for the scene in his office. That he was sorry for so many things he had not done or had done wrong. He wanted to rock her to sleep and watch her the entire night. He wanted to be there when she would wake up and grumble for a coffee. A bitter smile flashed across his face.

Nothing like this will ever happen if you don't go inside, you idiot.

When the lights had gone out and Angela had not driven home he finally cursed himself for being such a bloody coward. She should not need a psychotherapist, even if that was her best friend. She should have some broad shoulder to cry on. She should have some strong male arms to hold her. She should have him. And he did not care how selfish that sounded. On his way home the usually well-mannered Inspector had been so angry about himself that he even had showed his middle finger to a poor someone whose right of way he had ignored speeding back to his entirely empty house. His nerves were strained to their limit and he could not even drown his self-pity in alcohol.

He stayed awake for most of the night and thought about himself failing as her friend, failing once more in acting the right way with the woman he was in love with. But mostly he thought of Barbara.

But when DI Lynley picked up his Sergeant and the psychotherapist on the next morning both police officers' confidence ostensibly was restored and they were ready to face another day. They had to function. They did somehow.

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A/N: Drama, baby, drama... ;-)

I'd like to add that everything in chapters 13 and 14 is purely fictional - the places, the events, the persons. And I don't want something like this happen anywhere, anytime, to anybody. Except, of course, for the rescue...

Ah, I've changed another bit in a previous chapter. It has to do with Tommy bringing her home. As you can see, I've let him stay brooding in his office but had mentioned earlier that he had brought her home. This has changed now into Barbara and Angela being brought home by Winston. In chapter 11 I've just changed the one sentence mentioning that but you don't have to read it again.