Chapter 1: another day at the office

Dempsey sat at his desk, staring down at the scrap of paper in his hand. Written on the paper was a seven-digit number and the name Karen. Karen was a nurse in the hospital where a witness to a recent jewellery robbery was recuperating. The number was where Karen said she could be reached, any time, really, any time at all.

Dempsey hadn't dated in a while. He didn't really think about it much but when someone like Karen made her availability so obvious, he had to admit he was kinda tempted.

He didn't hear Makepeace as she approached him from behind. She nodded at the paper. "Going to call her?"

Without really thinking, Dempsey screwed the paper up into a small ball and tossed it into the trash can. "Not my type."

"Really?" Makepeace's eyes were disbelieving. "I'd have thought she'd be exactly what you're looking for."

Dempsey didn't want to pursue this line of conversation. Instead, he said, casually, "What about you? You seeing anyone?"

Makepeace glanced at him then away, an unreadable look on her face. "There's nothing serious."

It wasn't really the answer Dempsey was looking for. He said, "Well, nothing serious now might become serious later."

Shaking her head, Makepeace said, "I don't think that's very likely at the moment."

"That's what you want though? Something serious?"

Makepeace raised her eyebrows at him. "I wouldn't have thought you'd understand the concept of serious."

"What do you mean? I've done serious."

Makepeace's scepticism would probably have been visible from space. Dempsey affected a wounded expression, but as Harry left to sit at her own desk he started thinking. How come Harry still had that view of him? He opened his mouth but Spikings arrived, started to brief the team on a new job. Dempsey wasn't really listening – Watson and Fry would be leading it, he and Harry were still wrapping up the jewel heist – when his attention was caught by the calendar on his desk. Over half way through June. A bunch of separate thoughts pooled together in his head and as soon as Spikings finished the briefing Dempsey called him over.

"Harry and me, we should've finished up with that jewellery job in the next few days," Dempsey said to Spikings. Harry looked up and nodded when Spikings sent her a questioning look.

"That's right, Sir," she said. "Just one more witness statement to finalise and the paperwork to deal with."

Spikings turned to Dempsey and said, "So?"

"I wanna take some time off. I've hardly had any holiday over the last couple of years. Need a break."

Spikings looked at him closely. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"New York. Now that Coltrane's all tied up, aint nothing stopping me going back. Haven't seen my family in years, the guys from the department, my old buddies."

Spikings nodded. "I see," he said, rubbing his head. "Well, you're quite right that you have a lot of leave outstanding. When were you thinking of going?"

Dempsey waggled his head from side to side, thinking. "The weekend, maybe? Take a couple of weeks off, come back in July?"

Spikings nodded. Makepeace said, "Hold on minute. Just like that? And what about me? Who'll I work with while Dempsey's gone?"

Spikings began, "I think Hargreaves is avail-"

Dempsey interrupted, "Come with me." Both Spikings and Makepeace turned to him, various degrees of surprise on their faces. Dempsey spoke to Harry. "Why not? You said last week that your thing with what's her name had fallen through, right?"

"Jacinta," said Harry. "She broke her leg. We were going to go to Cannes but it'll have to wait now."

"There you go! Come on, it'll be great. I've seen what the English cops do, you can come and see what policing's like in the States. It'd be okay at this end, huh Boss?"

Spikings shook his head. "Harry is also due leave, but what she does with it is nothing to do with me."

Harry's eyebrows were somewhere near her hairline. "I couldn't possibly," she said.

"C'mon Princess. At least think about it."

Spikings said, "You can think about it on your own time, Sergeant. Didn't you say something about a witness statement?"

Harry nodded. She said to Dempsey, "You go ahead, I'll meet you at the car."

oOo

The final witness in the jewellery blag lived about twenty miles out of London and after a tailback on the motorway it took longer than expected to reach him. By the time they'd tracked him down on his allotment, taken down the statement and got him to sign it, there wasn't much of the day left. Dempsey was driving and offered to take her straight to hers, rather than dropping her at the office. She nodded. "Fine, as long as you pick me up in the morning. My car's still at work."

He shrugged. "Sure." To tell the truth, he enjoyed driving Harry around, liked the intimacy of sharing the space with her. They normally chatted easily during their car journeys but today she seemed a little distracted. He sent her a sideways glance as he pulled up at the lights. "Got something on your mind?"

"No," she said quickly, "no, nothing."

There was a pause. "You thought any more about taking a trip to the good ol' U S of A?" His fingers tapped lightly on the steering wheel.

"Of course not," she snapped. "What on earth makes you think I would come on holiday with you?"

Dempsey was careful to ensure his face didn't reveal the hurt. Instead, he sighed theatrically and said, "It's not like we'd have to spend every second together. You could go off and do your own thing if you wanna. You'd love New York."

"I'm not coming, Dempsey."

"Shame," he said, sending her a glance. "Don't know what you're missing."

"Oh, I think I do."

Dempsey couldn't quite account for the disappointment coiling in the pit of his stomach. He hadn't really expected her to say yes. It'd been a crazy idea, but he'd wanted her to spend some time on his territory, to see him the way the people who loved him saw him. Long shot, to put it mildly. The break didn't hold quite the same appeal without her, but it was true that he owed his family a visit and it would be good to catch up with the guys. Maybe if he went away a while it'd give her the chance to miss him.

The lights changed and he pulled away. They didn't speak much for the rest of the journey, Harry's clipped "thank you for the lift" echoing around his head after she closed the car door and walked up to her house without a backward glance.

oOo

The next few days passed in a blur, with Dempsey booking flights, finishing off paperwork and making furtive transatlantic phone calls while the Boss was out of the room. Harry watched as Dempsey's excitement about his holiday grew. He hadn't asked her to join him again, thank God, so perhaps they'd be able to forget about it and pretend it never happened. Surely he could see that it would be totally inappropriate for them to go on holiday together? What would people think? And more importantly, how on earth would she manage to keep a lid on her complicated feelings if they were together for a fortnight without the distraction of work?

Dempsey was flying on the Friday evening and he came to work that day with his suitcase at the ready. He'd managed to either close off his cases or hand them over to colleagues to deal with while he was away, so he didn't have much to keep him busy on his last day. Harry glanced at the calendar. She absolutely would not count how many days it would be before he was back.

Dempsey's good mood permeated the rest of the team and he offered to buy everyone a drink at the end of the day before he headed to the airport. As the team walked across the road to the pub, Fry took hold of her elbow and said, "Dempsey's glad to be getting home, isn't he?"

Harry's lips curled downwards. "Everyone enjoys a holiday, I suppose, even Dempsey."

"It is a holiday then?"

Harry withdrew her elbow and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

Fry looked at the ground, colour rising in his cheeks. "Only, I overheard Dempsey telling Chas that he was in the clear to go back to New York now. Thought maybe he'd be going back for good."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Harry. "Of course he's coming back."

"Right you are," said Fry. "Thought so." He bounced off to rejoin the team, who'd got a few steps ahead of them, leaving Harry to think his words through.

A painful worry began to niggle at her insides. She shook her head. Quickly catching up with Dempsey, she caught his arm and her turned towards her with his most dazzling smile and her mouth dried up. This was all wrong. She said, "I can't make it I'm afraid. Need to get over to Freddy's."

Dempsey's smile faded. "Not even one?"

"Sorry. Not even one."

She turned to go but he held her wrist for a moment. "You gonna miss me?" There was something unreadable in his eyes.

"I'll miss doing two sets of paperwork."

He stared down at her for a moment. "Well, you know where I am if you change your mind," he said softly.

She looked over his shoulder for a moment. "Enjoy your trip," she said brightly, then left the group and headed back towards her car. She didn't see that he watched her until she turned out of sight.