A/N: Surprise! I bet you thought you'd never hear from me again! So so sorry it's been AGES since the last update. I was having a story crisis. I realized that I was feeling rushed to wrap this up, so the last chapter thing became part 1, then part 2, then it was looking like it might end up being part 42 or something ridiculous.

So here's the scoop: I've renamed the last two chapters that I had posted as Coordinated Confrontations part 1 & 2. (I can't tell you the relief I feel having finally committed myself to a course of action rather than just mucking about not updating!) I'm also in the process of cleaning up previous chapters, like spelling, grammar and some general rewrites with some stuff I wasn't happy with. I'm not sure how many more chapters this story has coming, and I guess it really doesn't matter as long as they work and the writing is good. If you listen very carefully you can hear it...the sound of me letting go of the angst of 'what to do, what to do' and embracing the joy of 'just do it already'! - RS

Chapter 26 – Lestrade Settles Unfinished Business

In which Lestrade confronts Donovan.

Lestrade was pacing in his office at New Scotland Yard. All night he had been wondering how to bring up the subject of that text with Sally Donovan, and he was still undecided whether he was actually angry or just disappointed with her. He knew the matter had to be resolved, so he had left her a message to come to his office as soon as possible. Looking out into the incident room, he noted that Donovan was coming toward his office, and quickly decided that sitting behind his desk would put him in the power position. By the time Donovan leant into the doorway of his office, he was seated behind the desk, busy perusing the Fairfax file.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Sally was wondering why he had called her to his office, as she usually knew what he wanted before he asked for it, but she wasn't especially concerned about why Lestrade might want to see her. He was her boss, he wanted to see her in his office, so here she was, as requested. She hoped it wouldn't last long as she had just been thinking of popping out to get a bite.

"Donovan. Come in. Shut the door behind you, please." As he said this, he didn't look up at her, just continued scanning the file in his hand. This struck Sally as odd, as he usually left the door to his office open. But she did as instructed and then turned back to face the desk.

She noted that it was the case file on the Fairfax abduction, and began wondering if there had been a development. As far as she was aware, they hadn't gotten any new information on the case since yesterday when they went to Reigate. In fact, now that she thought about it, she recalled that although Lestrade had left early yesterday, he hadn't even checked back in to see if there had been any developments, which wasn't like him when they were in the middle of a big case.

Sally wasn't sure what the DI wanted with her, but seeing him with the file, she figured the girl must have turned up or something and that was why Lestrade had called her in to see him like this. She was annoyed with herself for not figuring it out sooner. Of course, she had been real busy following up on that tip they received regarding the Marylebone murder and the subsequent interview with the suspect they picked up for it. Open and shut that one, boyfriend guilty as sin.

Lestrade did not ask her to sit down. Nor did he make a move to indicate that she should sit. Normally, Sally would have just sat down in the chair in front of her without being asked, as Lestrade tended to be rather relaxed about rank for the most part, but something in her boss' demeanor stopped her from doing so. Lestrade remained preoccupied with the file, leaving Sally to continue standing behind the visitor chair, not so patiently waiting for her boss to tell her what he wanted. She was starting to get the feeling that she was not here just for a wee chat.

As he didn't seem inclined to start the conversation anytime soon and the quiet was starting to feel a might oppressive, Sally cleared her throat and asked again, "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I did." Lestrade sounded distracted when he finally answered. He was still glancing through the file, not looking at her, as he had been doing since she entered the room, which was really strange as he almost always made eye contact when speaking with someone. "I've been just sitting here thinking about the lack of leads that we've had in this Fairfax abduction. Naught to go on, from the very beginning seems like. And then when we finally did get a decent one, when we got that lead from Victoria Burke about that text she was sent, it was just too late."

"Yes, sir. A real shame that was." A slight shiver of guilt ran though her at the thought of the text. That damn text. Sally was beginning to feel like that text was a like a sore tooth. Nothing but misery.

"Yeah. It was, wasn't it?" At this Lestrade tipped back in his chair, and swiveled it back and forth a bit, seemingly in deep thought. Then he finally looked up at Sally for the first time since she had entered the room and added, "Moreover, I've a niggling feel that if we would've gotten that lead sooner, we might've been in time to get to the girl before she disappeared from that cemetery."

The way he was looking at her made Sally wonder if he knew about the text. No. He couldn't. There was no way he could have found out. She cleared her throat and decided to try to down play the importance of the text. "Well, we don't know for sure that she was even there. Could have been a false lead."

"Nuh. I don't think that's true. She was there." Lestrade replied firmly, and then looked thoughtfully over at Sally. "Oh, by the by, Donovan, how you feeling today?"

"Excuse me, sir? I feel fine. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I dunno, no real reason. I just remembered that yesterday forenoon you seemed like you were maybe not feeling so well. You seemed a bit peaked right before we ran out of here to get to Reigate on that Lady Lillian lead. But I didn't get a chance to ask you about it then."

There was a moment of silence in the room as Lestrade paused as if to give her a chance to say something in response and Donovan's mind was racing to figure out what he was trying to get at. A sick feeling started in her stomach as she considered that perhaps he did know about the text she had received and ignored. But how could he? Well, if he was fishing, she wasn't about to jump onto the hook. Best keep her mouth shut until she knew what he was actually after. After a moment, Lestrade put the file down as he noted how pale and queasy Sargent Donovan was starting to look.

"Ah. Feeling a tad ill again are you, Sargent? That's a shame it is. A real shame. Mayhap you should go home for the day? No?" Lestrade had decided that he had had about as much muckin' about with Donovan as he was willing to do. From the look of her, it didn't appear that she would be forthcoming about the text. He decided to give her one more chance to come clean, but if she didn't fess up, he would have to put her in her place and let her know he wasn't going to put up with a liar on his team. "Well l dunno about you, but I've found that a bit of confession can do a body a world of good. Yeah, confession's good for the soul, they say. And rumour has it you 'ave some confessing to do."

"I don't know what you mean, sir." Sally straightened her shoulders and tossed her head defiantly. It was very clear to her that he knew something, but she still wasn't about to give it up until he spelled it out. As far as she knew, he could be talking about anything from her parking last week in Dimmock's designated space to not making a new pot of coffee after she drank the last of it yesterday morning. Unlikely, yes, but still possible.

"Oi, give over, Donovan! I know about the text." Raising his voice and adding steel to it, Lestrade stood and glared at her from across his desk. It startled Sally so much she physically flinched, which gave him some satisfaction. "And I have to tell you, I was gobsmacked that find out that one of my people, one of my team, could possibly have had vital information and withheld it. What in the hell were you thinking?"

"Text, sir?" Sally swallowed visibly, then cleared her throat. How could he possibly know about the text? No sense trying to avoid it now, best to make a clean statement. "Yes, sir. On the night of the abduction, I did receive a text from an unknown sender. The sender information was blocked and I didn't think the text was important, or that it had any connection to the abduction, sir. I mean, why would someone send that information directly to me? I was off duty sir. I thought perhaps it was one of my mates or someone sending it as a joke."

"Oh? When did you realise that it did have a bearing on this case, Sargent?"

"When I saw the text from Victoria Burke's phone, sir. I recognised the numbers from the text I received. But, I didn't have any way of knowing that the text was information on the case. How could I have known that!?"

"Why didn't you say something when you realised that it was the same as Ms. Burke's text?"

"Honestly, I was just so surprised that I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to do."

"Donovan, you should have told me right then. Instead of hiding it. Lying about it. You know I could have you written up for this. Even if you didn't understand what the text was when you got it, you sure as hell knew what it was later. You withheld vital information in an active case. You might have jeopardised the welfare of the victim."

"I know sir. I'm sorry. I should have brought it to your attention as soon as I realised. I made a mistake, but I swear it won't happen again. What I don't understand though is how you came to know of it, sir? You said you heard a rumor? A rumor from whom? I haven't spoken to anyone about it."

"It was a tip from a very reliable source, so let's just leave it at that, Sargent. Now, here's what we are going to do about this. I'm going have to note the incident in your file, but this time I'll put it down more as an oversight on your part rather than as a disregard of vital information in an active investigation."

"Thank you, sir. It won't happen again."

"It better not, Donovan. More over if for some reason something like this should come up in the future, I trust that you will be aware of the need to follow up on it or contact your superior officer to advise you regarding what you should or shouldn't do about it. We'll consider the matter settled for now."

"Yes, sir. Will there be anything else?"

"Yeah, there is actually, I need you to go straight away and pick up Victoria Burke, who is wanted for questioning in connection with the abduction of Lillian Fairfax.

"What? You're joking, right? Victoria Burke is a suspect now?" Donovan snorted with amusement. "I don't get it."

"This is no joke, Donovan. I want you to go and pick her up. If she will agree to go with you freely, lovely, otherwise, I want you to arrest her."

"Let me get this straight. You want me to go pick up Burke and bring her in, but if she is disinclined, I'm to arrest her?"

"Yeah, freely or cuffed, but either way make sure you caution her. However, I don't want you to bring her back here. Once you have her, you're to bring her to Bart's morgue. I will meet you there."

"Now you are joking!"

"Do I look like I'm joking? Really, Donovan, do you want to be arguing with me right now? As you seem to keep forgetting, I am your superior officer. That's something you might want to start remembering as I haven't made my notes in your file yet. We could do this the hard way or you could just do as you are told. So what's it gonna be?"

A/N: Once again I have to say, I feel so bad about the long wait, I hope it was kinda worth it and you enjoyed this chapter. A huge thank you for all of those who have hung in there waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for me to get my **** together. I promise I will update as soon as possible. I do appreciate the support and knowing that you are waiting makes for a whole lot of guilt to get the next chapter out. I will be replacing previous chapters soon, and I'm not sure how that works actually, so if you see that I've updated and there isn't a new chapter, please bear with me (or re-read!) and I'll have a brand new sparkly one coming up soon. Next time we will all be meeting in the morgue at Barts! - RS