Des walked into Sheelagh's office on Tuesday after the shift and said.

"When are you gonna talk again? Me and the kids are worried about you."

Sheelagh turned to face Des.

"I'm sorry," she replied, "but I never thought Patrick would cheat on me."

"Me neither."

"Please," she pleaded, "promise me you'll tell me when you find someone else."

"Sheelagh," Des took her hands in his, "I wanna be with you, and no-one else. Okay?"

Sheelagh nodded. "Okay." she muttered.

"Takeaway?"

Sheelagh's face brightened up. "Okay." she said.

Later, after the takeaway, they were curled up on the sofa together, again!

"Do you know what I like?" Des asked.

"No, tell me." Sheelagh mumbled.

"Sitting here, like this, with you."

"Ahhh, you're sweet."

"Yeah. Come here." Des kissed her. The kiss became more passionate and Des lowered Sheelagh down so they were both lying down.

"Desmond! Sheelagh!" Gina Gold said, making Des jump off of Sheelagh. Gina smiled at them.

"Ma'am." Des said, helping Sheelagh to sit up.

"Can I borrow Sheelagh please Des?" Gina asked.

"Depends if I'll get her back in working order." Des joked. Sheelagh playfully hit him on the arm then followed Gina into the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

"What's up Gina?" Sheelagh asked once the door was closed.

"I just wanted to make sure Des's treating you right etc."

"I'm fine. He's…err…" Sheelagh looked at the floor. "He's asked me to live here permanently."

"Are you?"

"I dunno. I said we should see how we got on."

"Okay, but if you want anything - at all. Promise me you'll come to me."

"I promise."

"Okay, I'll… err… let you get back to business as it were."

"Okay, I'll show you out." Sheelagh walked with Gina to the front door. Gina gave her a hug before walking without a backward glance. Sheelagh watched her before going back to Des.

"Has she gone?" Des asked when Sheelagh came back into the sitting room.

"Yep." She sat back down and Des put his arms around her. "Des," she said hesitantly. "you know you asked me to move in with you?"

"Yeah. I am serious."

"So the offer is still open?"

"Yeah, course. Why? You decided you hate me?"

"No, I've decided that, if you still want to, then I suppose I could live here."

Des grinned. "Of course I want to!" He exclaimed. Sheelagh smiled.

"Early night?" she whispered in his ear. He grinned, again, and led her into their bedroom, where they didn't get a lot of sleep.

The next morning Des was lying with Sheelagh asleep in his arms. He sighed.

"Why can't I just tell her how much I love her?" He whispered to himself. Sheelagh sat up (she had been pretending to sleep!) and looked at Des.

"What did you just say?" She said, surprised.

"I thought you were asleep!" Des said, inwardly he was glad that she had heard him.

"I was pretending." She smiled at him. "Do you mean it?" She became serious.

"Yeah." Des smiled back.

"Don't mess me about Des!"

"I'm not, I swear!" Des wrapped his arms round her waist.

"Okay." Sheelagh lay back down.