"Sorry Jack, if this is a bad time, I'll catch you later." Sam popped her head around DCI Meadow's door as he bid her entrance, stopping as she saw he was not alone.
"Not at all Samantha, I was going to see if you were available. This is DI Tanner, he's joining us on secondment to cover in Neil's absence." Tanner nodded at Sam, no flicker of warmth in his greeting.
"Guv." Sam acknowledged the man she would now have to answer to, hoping that he did not have too many grand designs on radicalising CID. "Maybe now would be the perfect time to ask for permission to organise surveillance on a suspect in our rape case then." Sam addressed both men as she gave them a run down of their knowledge to date on Mark Somerton as well as bringing DI Tanner up to speed on the case so far, encouraged by Jack's posture and unnerved by the poker face displayed by the new DI.
"Well James, I'll leave this one to you since it's your department now." Jack leant back in his seat, interested to see how the new boy would respond.
"You already have numerous staff on the surveillance at DC Master's house and yet you want me to sanction more overtime to trail after a man against whom there is nothing but circumstantial evidence? I don't know how you've been used to things being run around here but I need more to convince me that surveillance is necessary than that. Find something concrete on this Somerton guy and then you can have your surveillance. Or scale down the surveillance on DC Master's house, it's a long shot that she will be targeted anyway." Sam was gob smacked to hear the callous disregard for a fellow officer's safety and more than a little irritated by the DI's insistence at repeating 'surveillance' so many times in one breath.
"Guv, with all due respect…" Sam was cut off by a stony glare from the new senior officer.
"If you give my decision the due respect DS Nixon, you will run along and find the evidence I have asked for." Smarting from his patronising dismissal of her, Sam turned on her heel and left, silently seething, knowing Jack's hands were tied but grateful when she overheard him remark to Tanner,
"You want to keep Sam onside, she's a damn fine officer. She's just concerned about the safety of Jo Masters, we all are."
"That's as may be, Jack but I have no room in my squad for anyone who disobeys my orders." Jack thought it wise not to point out that the squad was only technically on loan to him.
"Anything happen today we should be aware of?" Sam asked as Jo helped her wash the dinner dishes. "Any signs of contact from our guy?"
"Nothing as yet, or at least nothing that I've been aware of. Having said that, I've spent most of my day up to my armpits in sugar soap trying to get the lipstick off my walls! A UFO could have landed outside my backdoor and I probably wouldn't have noticed." Jo laughed, her blue mood having been lifted after an enjoyable evening with Sam, Abi and Bump.
"It's no laughing matter Jo, Emily died as a result of her attack. Since you've put yourself on the market to become his next victim, you need to be more aware of what's going on around you than ever." Sam did not want to put a dampener on their evening but needed to be sure Jo was taking the operation seriously and not jeopardising herself unnecessarily.
"I know, I just thought it was a bit soon to be jumping at every shadow." Jo attempted to reassure her sergeant and friend, her sincerity evident on her expressive face.
"I'm sorry, the day went to hell after you left, the only positive thing being that we might have a name to look into – if the new temporary DI will let us." Sam scowled as she remembered her first meeting with DI James Tanner.
"He sounds like a bit of a stuffed shirt. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he's just a little overzealous, keen to make his mark immediately." Jo flopped onto one end of Sam's sofa next to a weary looking Abi.
"Urgh, can you two not leave work outside the door, just for one night?" Abi moaned overhearing the final remark.
"Sorry." Jo drew her fingers across her lips in a zipping motion.
"The next one to mention work has to give me a foot-rub as forfeit." Sam looked over at her daughter, smiling sympathetically.
"Bump giving you aches?" Abi nodded, shifting as she felt the baby pressing on her bladder for at least the tenth time in the last hour.
"Well I will happily rub your feet without needing to talk about work if you want?" Jo offered, feeling at home with the two cute Nixon women.
"You don't have to, Jo, I was only joking." Abi struggled to her feet, explaining that she had to answer a call of nature again. Both older women smiled after her, watching her struggle to walk.
"That was sweet of you to offer to rub her feet." Sam curled her own legs up underneath her as she snuggled into the armchair she had chosen to sit in.
"I'm quite happy to do it after she made such a fantastic job on dinner. It doesn't look like you'll have to wait much longer to meet Bump." Jo thought she would have felt self-conscious adopting the nickname Sam used for Abi's unborn child but found it hard to feel anything beyond blissfully relaxed.
"I know, I'm going to be a granny! Urgh that makes me feel old." Sam hid her face in her hands as she thought about the realities of Abi's impending birth.
"Well if it's any consolation, you don't look like a granny. I'll bet you'll be a really cool, trendy grandma." Jo gazed at Sam as she spoke, a soft smile adorning her face.
Sam sniggered, images of herself roller-skating with a toddler springing unbidden into her head. Sobering as she realised that Jo was lost in her own world, she ventured quietly, "did you never think about having children with Tessa?"
"It's never really been part of my game plan. That's one thing Tess was right about, I'm too married to the job and whilst an adult can choose to be part of that life, a child couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to bring a child into that sort of situation, they'd have the cards stacked against them from the start, being brought up in a lesbian household. Besides, Tessa never expressed any interest in being a parent." Jo picked at a non-existent thread on the chair-arm as she answered.
"It's a shame you feel that way, you have so much love to give. Any child would be a winner with you in its life."
"Sometimes love isn't enough though, is it?" Sam was about to cross the room and whisk Jo into a warm hug, the heartfelt admission showing how fragile her cheery façade really was, crumbling slightly to allow the blonde a glimpse of the pain lurking so close to the surface, when Abi interrupted the sombre moment returning from the bathroom and casually plonking her feet on Jo's lap.
"What? The trip to the toilet changed my mind for me about your offer!" Abi sensed the tension in room dissipate at her admission as Jo grinned and focused on relieving Abi's discomfort.