Makepeace followed Dempsey through the outer doors of the SI10 headquarters with a nervous churning feeling in her stomach. As they approached the office entrance she began to slow down and Dempsey turned around to see what she was doing. Her eyes were fixed on the door with an expression of foreboding and she was grasping onto her handbag as if it were her only lifeline.

"I'm just going to powder my nose," she said, suddenly speeding up and walking straight past the door.

"Harry!" Dempsey called after her, but she was gone. He shrugged and entered the office.

Makepeace leant on the washbasin with two hands and stared into the mirror above it.

"You are being ridiculous," she said to herself. "Everyone was drunk that night, even Spikings. Oh god, Spikings!" She considered the prospect of facing him. Why did he have to be there that night? Or why couldn't he have just stayed for one or two drinks and then left? "Look, just breeze in there and act as if nothing has happened. Well, nothing really has happened…apart from the fact that I kissed Dempsey in front of all of SI10!" She ran a hand through her hair. "Why? Why? Whatever possessed me to do that?" She suddenly pushed herself away from the mirror. "Oh for goodness sake, stop being such a goose and just get in there! Besides, it would be very unprofessional for anyone to mention that night. Yes, if anyone says anything I shall have to remind them of that." And finally she strolled out into the corridor towards the office again.

She opened the door to the sound of commotion and laughter. Heading straight for her desk, she moved across the room with as much casual grace as she could manage considering that inside she was a mass of tension. Turning her head slightly, she scanned the room and was disturbed to see that one after another of the officers seemed to be looking up at her and following her progress across the room with a strange fascination.

She reached the sanctuary of her desk and slid into her chair, picking up a random report and pretending to study its contents. Okay, why was everybody staring and grinning at her? Dempsey had said that it would all be okay. He had said that he was going to talk to them…make sure it was all okay for her. The bloody thoughtless man had obviously not bothered. Or worse, he'd been talking behind her back, filling them in on the details! That was it! Dempsey was dead meat! Where the hell was he anyway? She glanced around the room and spotted him sat at the other end with his feet up, eating a bowl of cereal.

She flug the report onto her desk, sprung out of her chair and headed for Dempsey. As she approached him he looked up at her with a smile.

"Hiya gorgeous. What's up?"

"A word," she said, moving her eyes towards their desks and away from the other officers.

He shrugged and stood up, taking his cereal bowl and following her. He sat down at his desk, put his feet up and continued to munch on his cornflakes.

She placed her hand over his legs and onto the desk, leaning over him with her other hand on her hip. "It's Sergeant Makepeace to you and I thought that you were going to have a word with that lot," she said under her breath.

Her body language spoke of only angry frustration but at those close quarters Dempsey was suddenly incapable of coherent thought. His eyes were in direct line of the buttons of her white blouse and with her hand placed on her hip the material was stretched across her chest. He could see the outline of her bra, almost imagine what was underneath it as his eyes strained to see further into the material. His gaze travelled up her body to her face and he gave her a guilty smile.

"Sorry?" He wasn't concentrating.

"You will be," she threatened.

He shook his head to clear it. "What's up?"

"You said that you were going to speak to them. Or have you been speaking with them?" She looked at him suspiciously but he simply sat there gazing blankly back at her. He didn't even seem to know what she was talking about. Was his memory that bad? "Dempsey!" she said with exasperation. With rising anger she leant even closer to him and his eyes widened. "If you don't tell me this very minute what has been said, I swear to god…" she stopped there, trying her hardest to control her impatience and annoyance. He knew how she felt about returning to work after the other night. What the bloody hell was wrong with him?

If there was anything sexier than Harry sat so close to him it was Harry when she was angry. He wasn't keeping up. He hadn't a clue what she was talking about so his eyes focused on that incredibly tempting pair of glossy pink lips instead. She was pulling him closer to her like a magnet. He was mesmerized. He didn't even realise that he was slowly moving towards her until she growled with anger and abruptly sprung back, standing up and glowering down at him.

She put her hands on her hips. "Dempsey, if you don't stop looking at me like that you are going to be in more trouble than you could imagine!"

God he hoped so! He sat back in his chair and assessed her with a lazy smile as he continued to eat his cereal.

"Calm down tiger. What am I supposed to have said and to whom?"

"Dempsey! I don't believe what I'm hearing! For the third time now, you were supposed to have a word with the boys about… you know!" she said, reluctant to mention the other night. Suddenly a very disturbing thought hit her. "Has Chas said anything?" she said, glancing around nervously. He looked bewildered and she was finding herself getting more and more worked up the longer he went without answering her.

Now he was really confused. "Look, help me out here a bit. Has Chas said anything about what?" He casually spooned another helping of cereal into his mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully as he watched her. The paranoia grew worse. She faltered. She dreaded to think what had been said and she really didn't relish the thought of verbalising it.

"You sould have stopped him," she accused, pointing the finger of blame at him. Then she laughed bitterly. "But then why would I expect you to? You are probably loving all of this!" She was boardering on hysteria, he had to calm her down.

"Hold your horses!" he said, putting down his bowl, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her to sit in a nearby chair. "What the hell is all this about?" he said, putting his hands around her panic stricken face. She brushed them off and glanced around to see who was looking. Nobody seemed to have noticed, thank god! She leant towards him and spoke under her breath, her eyes glistening with hurt and a look of betrayal. "You've been talking about private things that have happened between us." He was horrified by the look on her face and the tone of her voice. He took her hand and looked at her seriously.

"No! Are you crazy? I wouldn't do that!"

She blinked and seemed a little taken aback. "You wouldn't?"

"No! We've been through this kinda conversation before remember?"

She sighed but still didn't look entirely happy. "Well something must have been said."

"Not to me. Why do you think that anyway?" he asked.

"Well, there's something going on. All the guys were staring at me when I walked in!"

Dempsey watched her for a moment before a grin began to develop across his face. "Harry, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this but there's nothin' going on at all. The guys do that every morning!"

She frowned. "No they don't… do they?"

He chuckled. "Sure they do."

"But why?"

"Well to sum up I'd say, from my perspective at least…" a smile played around his mouth as he uttered those words, "… that they were…" he suddenly realised that he needed to tread carefully here. "…getting their daily fix of… lettin' their imaginations…" No, he'd better not go there. "…indulging themselves in…" She was looking impatient. "Well…the sight of you," he finally finished, grimacing and waiting for her response.

Her faced never changed its expression as she stared at him for a while. Then she huffed.

"Well, I've never noticed that before."

"Maybe that's because you aren't usually quite as paranoid as you are today," he pointed out.

"So, no one has mentioned anything about that night then?" she asked hesitently.

"Well yes…" Her eyes widenend but he quickly continued before the hysteria began again. "… But they haven't mentioned you…or me. They are too busy making fun of Fry." Dempsey laughed. She turned to look across at the guys. "Aparently he went on to a club after the pub and found himself a woman to take home."

Harry's head shot back to him in surprise. "In his state?"

"Well, I think he had a bit of help from the guys," he chuckled.

Harry shook her head in disbelief. "It's a shame the poor woman didn't get any help from her friends. What was she thinking?"

He grinned and she eventually smiled at him.

"No more paranoia from now on then, right?" he asked. She looked a little more appeased and gave a small smile. "Now, Spikings wants to see us," he added. She groaned and watched as Dempsey stood up and headed for Spikings's office. Sighing, she hauled herself out of the chair and reluctantly followed him.

The moment that Harry walked into the office all the vivid memories came floding back in startling clarity. She took a seat and pushed them as firmly as she could to the back of her mind.

Dempsey on the other hand kept the images to the forefront of his mind and ran his eyes over the desk, picturing Harry lying under him, her legs wrapped around his body. Suddenly a playful mood hit him and mischief began to surface itself.

"So glad you made it to work today," Spikings said, looking from one to the other. Harry turned to Dempsey in a panic. He had said that Spikings had told him that they didn't need to go in yesterday!

"I thought…" she began, but then realised that to explain would mean bringing up the subject of that night again.

"Thought what?" Spikings asked.

Oh hell, this was worse than she had imagined.

"Well, Dempsey had mentioned…that is he had said that…"

Dempsey butted in and ended her torment. "We went to see Thomas, like you said boss."

"Hmm." Spikings felt as if he had been coerced into allowing them time off and he didn't like it.

"And?" he was looking at Harry.

"Sir?"

He sighed. "And, what have you found out about the incidents at Rainington Hall? This file is looking decidedly thin," he said holding up the file and throwing it back down on his desk.

"Well that's because there is nothing to put in it," she replied. "We reprimanded the trespasser, he left the premises and that was it."

Dempsey watched Harry with a grin as temptation and mischief took over. "Yeah, that was it boss," Dempsey said, leaning his elbow on the desk and sliding it along. He leant his chin on his hand and turned to look sideways at Harry. She kept her eyes focused on Spikings.

"And nothing unusual was reported when you went there yesterday?"

"No," Dempsey began, keeping his attention on Harry. "I figure that Rainington would be a very hard place to get into. Some things are hard to get into. It would be very frustrating for a trespasser."

Spikings looked quizzically at Dempsey. Harry kept her eyes ahead of her and willed Dempsey to shut up.

"Course any trespasser who really wanted to get in badly would break through the defenses eventually," Dempsey added.

Spikings coughed to draw Dempsey's attention back towards himself. "Lieutenant! Are you trying to say in your odd Yankee way that perhaps the trespasser is trying to break into Rainington?" Dempsey was beginning to annoy him; he didn't seem as if he was focused on the case today. In fact most of the team seemed unfocused that morning. He had been aware of the sound of laughter coming from the outer office for a while now which probably indicated little work being done. He'd have to sort that out. Perhaps it was a mistake to have stayed out for the duration of Fry's birthday celebrations. Perhaps now the team thought that they could take liberties!

Dempsey looked back at Spikings. "No boss, I don't think so. At least we have no evidence to suggest that he tried to break in. But if he is going to, then me and Harry would have some more desk work to do...you know to fill up that file a bit. But you don't mind desk work do you Harry?" he said, grinning back at her. She gritted her teeth and kept her eyes averted from him. "In fact, I think on occasion you secretly quite enjoy it."

"Dempsey!" Spikings barked. "Can we concentrate on the details of the case? I'll ask you once more, did Thomas report anything unusual happening when you visited him yesterday?" Spikings was losing patience and the great peel of laughter from the outer office didn't help.

"No boss," he shook his head. "Nothin'."

Spikings groaned. "Thank you for that!" he said sarcastically, frowning at the sight of Dempsey leaning on his desk and the fact that he didn't seem able to keep Dempsey's attention on him. He brought his fist down on the desk with a thump, making both Harry and Dempsey jump and finally getting Dempsey to turn his head back. "Have I got your attention now lieutenant?"

"Sorry boss," he said, stroking the top of Spikings's desk. "You know you should be careful with this desk, it a good one..."

Harry had had enough and she swung her head towards Dempsey, giving him an angry glare. He ignored her and continued.

"... I'd like a desk like this one. Lots of space to spread out."

"Dempsey," she said through gritted teeth as her glare got fiercer, "Spikings would like us to discuss the case."

"Yes," Spikings said, standing up and pacing the room. "If it's not too much trouble! I want us to go through that file and see what we've missed because Lord Maybrook reported another sighting of the trespasser last night."

This finally got Dempsey's attention for a moment. "You're kiddin' me? I didn't think that kid would go back. Just seemed to be havin' a bit of fun but thought he'd leave Rainington alone after we caught him."

"Apparently not," Spikings replied. "So you two had better put your heads together and come up with a way of finding this 'kid'. There's a reason why he's doing this, we just aren't seeing it."

Dempsey leant towards Harry, grabbed her far shoulder and put his head against hers. She looked sideways at him in shock.

"We're good at puttin' our heads together... that's not all," he whispered in her ear before moving away again.

Spikings looked as if he was about to blow a fuse...and Harry didn't look much calmer.

"Ah come on! That kid ain't plannin' on hurting no one. You gotta agree Harry," he appealed to her. "And if we find him again what can we do? We gotta get Thomas to get a court order and then maybe we can do somethin' but there ain't nothin' we can do before that unless the kid commits a more serious crime."

Spikings frowned at the sound of laughter from outside again. "That may just happen," he said, pointing at Dempsey. The laughter got louder and Spikings snapped, striding through the door to reprimand the noisy officers.

As soon as Spikings could be heard bawling outside Harry turned to address Dempsey. "What the bloody hell was all that about?"

He smiled innocently. "All what about?"

"You know!" she pointed an accusatory finger at him. "And it stops now!"

"C'mon, he doesn't know what I'm talkin' about," he chuckled.

"It's not funny Dempsey! Besides you're just working him up. We have to come up with something on this bloody case," she said, rising suddenly out of her seat and reaching across the desk for the file. In the process she turned to speak to Dempsey again but saw that he was grinning at her like a Cheshire cat and enjoying the sight of her leaning over the desk. In fact, by the look on his face he was letting his imagination run riot. She sprung back suddenly and to her consternation she found her own imagination running away with her. She sat back in the chair and opened the file, holding it up and attempting to hide the blush that was flooding across her face. The file suddenly lowered itself and an amused looking Dempsey appeared above it.

"What ya doin' Harry?" he asked, grinning.

"You know what I'm doing, now move back there," she came back, attempting to pull the file out of his grasp. Dempsey held onto it and watched her face. There was a short silence. "Is there anything else you want?" Harry bit her tongue at the way she had phrased that. This was getting ridiculous! She tried to hide the laughter that was bubbling up inside her. Good god, if she started laughing now she'd only encourage him more!

He went to answer her but seemed to change his mind as another thought hit him. "Hey Harry," he began, letting go of the file at last but moving his chair as close to hers as it would go. She ignored him. He may not have picked up on her last comment but knowing him as she did, she was certain that he was going to make the most of the fact that Spikings had left the room. "Harry," he called.

"What!" A small laugh slipped out of her and he grinned.

He leant sideways to speak to her in a hushed voice. "Imagine if Chas hadn't come back here for Spikings's whiskey," his grin grew. "That really would give you somethin' to blush about!"

She gave up, left the file on her lap and covered her face with her hands. "Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!" She didn't know whether she was closer to hysteria or hilarity.

He laughed but then put an arm around her shoulder, feeling a little sorry for her. "Okay, I'll quit it. In fact I'll not mention another word about it again. But I just have one more thing to say. You won't have to be a detective to figure out what I'll be thinkin' of every time I walk into this office!"