Author's Note: "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" is the name of a song by the group, "The Real Tuesday Weld" (album "I, Lucifer"). I'm being deliberately vague about exactly which bit of London Tanya & Jack live in, as I'm not a native Londoner and will undoubtedly get the details wrong if I try to narrow it down. Let's just say it's somewhere in London and leave it at that. smiles

As everyone dispersed, Goren took the chance to wander upstairs. Partly, he was trying to distract himself from the case for a few hours, knowing that he needed to let his mind slow down a little if he was to have any chance of some sleep. Partly, he was just being curious. As he came to the top of the stairs, Tanya emerged from the door nearest him, clad in black from head to toe.

"Looking for the toilet? Third on the left," she remarked, and loped past him and down the stairs. As he heard her discussing the arrangements for the rest of the night, he took the chance to have a quick peek through the other doors. So, one was obviously Tanya & Jack's room, one was the bathroom, two of them were spare rooms with what looked like pull-out beds for when guests came to stay, and the remaining one… led to a flight of stairs. He glanced quickly around, using his peripheral vision. There was no-one else about. He succumbed to his curiosity and wandered up. To his surprise, he found himself in a small garden on the rooftop.

He looked around. It was dark, but he could see a small lightswitch near the top of the stairs. Cautiously, he flicked it on, and was rewarded by several small lights on the walls around the garden blinking on. Carefully downward-angled so that Tanya & Jack's neighbours didn't complain about being kept awake at night by the lights, they illuminated a small, but beautifully-laid out garden at the back of the main roof of the house, with a small brick shelter containing what looked like a bench on one side, some flowerbeds and pots with flowers and shrubs and a couple of small abstract sculptures in the middle. There was a tiny brick structure in one of the corners that backed onto the tiles of the roof behind the garden; he tried the door and found to his surprise that it was actually a tiny bathroom, with a metal toilet, sink and shower.

As the breeze gently caressed his face, he turned round and walked across to the top of the roof to take in the view. Impressive. The house was at the end of a street that ran up a hill; it actually stood on top of the hill, and from here, the London night skyline could be seen clearly, sparkling away into the distance. It was a pleasant night now, just warm enough to be bearable.

"Lovely up here, isn't it?"

Sienna's voice from behind him. He turned to see her walk across to the same wall he was leaning on, and take up a position about two feet away from her, staring out across the city. He tried hard to do the same, whilst trying hard also not to take the chance to check her out, see how she had changed… those legs looked as strong and shapely as ever…

"This view is one of the reasons Jack bought this house. It used to belong to a artist friend of his, hence the odd layout – he liked to use the ground floor as his studio. Unfortunately, the friend had more money than sense, and, unfortunately, he soon found other things to spend it on." She sighed. "Jack bought it without it ever going on the market. I think he actually paid for his friend's rehab. It had to be practically rebuilt, it was so badly trashed when they moved in. Still." She shrugged. "It's a great house and they've been happy here for – ooh, nearly two years now."

"Uh-huh."

They paused for a few minutes, each studiously not looking at the other. The impending conversation hung in the air between them.

Sienna tried to put it off for a few moments longer. "I don't mind if you smoke, you know."

"I quit."

She smiled, a small smile which didn't reach her eyes. "Well done. I'm happy for you." There followed another few minutes of awkward silence, then she sighed, and turned to face him. "There isn't any way this isn't going to be awkward, is there?" She smiled rather sadly, walked across to the bench, and sat down. "I wish things had worked out differently between us, Bobby. I'd hope that for the sake of what we did have, we could at least be friends, or at least be friendly with each other whilst we're involved with this."

"I hope so too." He walked across and joined her. The bench turned out to be quite comfortable, with thick padding on the seat. It seemed to be some sort of couch designed to be left outdoors, like a sun lounger. He settled himself on the opposite end, trying hard to stay calm and rational and ignore the signals the primitive side of his brain was sending him, that's Sienna on the end of that bench. Remember that scent? That face, that sweet smile? That figure, the way her breasts fill out the top of that dress? Been a while, hasn't it? That's your mate on the other end of this bench, do you think she's aware of you in the same way?

"Good. How have things been for you?"

"Much the same. We had two new detectives join us – Mike Logan & Carolyn Barek. Left them minding the office whilst we're here. How… how have things been for you?"

"Good." She smiled, and he was struck once more by how much older she seemed. It should have cheered him, he thought, that they could still talk so easily, but instead it saddened him to see that polite little smile on her face. There had been a time once, he thought, when the mere sight of him could cause Sienna to burst out into a brilliant smile of welcome and happiness, as though he was the only thing in her world at the time… and he remembered smiling at her the same way.

When they had made their phone call to Captain Whitefield, they had no chance to speak to each other, Sienna needing to make the call quickly in order to avoid missing the Captain before he left the office. Even so, he had been struck by how utterly calm, even cold, she had been. He could have been any police officer, anyone she happened to be working with. Not that he thought that was a bad thing, but it was a big change from the passionate woman she had been when he'd known her.

She continued. "Right now I'm involved with a major case of my own. I was leading a small team of my own for a year when I got here, then about a year ago we merged with a larger squad to focus specifically on people-trafficking, mainly women from the former Soviet Union being brought over here to be forced to work as prostitutes. Not long after I started, Drew and I were involved in a sting on a corrupt officer in the Met, DI John Durham – I went undercover, pretended to be his girlfriend, managed to eavesdrop on some of his conversations with the people he was dealing with. Thanks to the information we got from that, we were able to stage a major bust on a massage parlour being used as a front for a brothel of trafficked women. I speak their languages, so we've been able to work with some of the women involved and get them to testify." She sighed, and wriggled her shoulders. "The trial's been chugging through the justice system for some time now, but it's nearly concluded."

"How's it going?"

"About as well as is possible, I think. We may not be able to turn off the tap, but for now we've mopped up under the sink. Looks like quite of few of the people involved will be going down, and these guys were serious gangsters, they have links to the Russian mafia. Big score for our side." Ah, so that's why she's carrying, he thought. He doubted she seriously needed to worry – if so, she'd be under closer protection – but he could see why she felt the need to be armed, just in case.

She continued, and didn't quite smile. "I should be happier, but frankly the whole thing is depressing. We refer to these women as being trafficked; "being brought over so that they can be raped for money, then traded like cattle" is closer to it." She shook her head in frustration. "We had to break into that place using battering rams and boltcutters. It was more difficult to get out of than some prisons, all the doors had locks and there were bars on the windows. How could the men who used the women there not know or care… sorry. I'm ranting."

"It's okay. I used to work Vice, don't forget. After a while you can develop a real hatred for the male sex drive."

She grinned wryly. "Yeah. Gotta remember that not all men are bad. That's why I hang around with Jack and Tanya so much – gets me away from that atmosphere. We're actually meant to be going to the match, would you believe it? Jack keeps saying you haven't seen the real England unless you've been to a live soccer match – then again, he's Scottish, so I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean."

"You have tickets?"

"They do. As for me…" She shrugged. "Did Drew tell you about the energy summit going on in London at the moment? Several very senior politicians – Cabinet level types – plus representatives from major oil and energy companies are in town at present for a summit on the future management of the world's energy resources, it started out as just a European thing, but representatives from all the world's developed countries are here now, it's grown and grown…" She caught sight of him nodding, and broke off.

"Ah, modern politics, it's all about the oil," McAllister contributed from behind them, making them both jump. He shrugged apologetically, and came to join them. Goren noticed that he was clutching a sleeping bag. "Thought I'd find you here. Sorry, I interrupted."

"Yeah. Anyway, as you know, my family is in the oil industry. Currently my uncle is over here too for the summit to do a little lobbying in person - he's our head of public relations and most of the people involved are going to the match as guests of the British government. It's a big photo opportunity, also a chance to take a break from meetings, mingle, do a little networking and probably broker a few deals on the quiet. My uncle managed to get invited, and asked me to attend as his companion, stroke, interpreter."

"Doesn't he speak Russian himself?"

"He does, but not any other languages – as you know, I'm fluent in quite a few, particularly German. Admittedly most politicians these days speak English, but it puts you at a huge disadvantage if you can't hear the gossip, and of course people like to be spoken to in their own language." She caught his expression, and read his thoughts. "No, I'm not particularly happy about being roped in as Uncle Peter's spy… but it's not against the law, it doesn't actually conflict with my job, and his money paid for me to go through college."

"Little SiSi, all grown up," Jack remarked in a spectacularly bad American accent. Goren guessed it was meant to be an imitation of Sienna's uncle.

"Watch it, Jack. You know what happened to the last person who pissed me off like that?"

"Nope."

"Nor does anyone else, they're still looking for him."

Jack grinned. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to threaten me, SiSi. You should hear Tanya if I don't manage to load the washing machine properly. Anyway, you're in our room, Alex is in the guest room, Drew's on the couch once he and Tanya have finished discussing the details of her watching the girlfriend, you're-" he pointed at Goren "-in the other guest room, and the two of you are currently sitting on my bed."

They both stood up. "You're planning to sleep on this?"

"Watch." He picked up the end of the couch, motioned them to stand to the side, then lifted and pulled. The entire thing unfolded, turning into a double-sized bed. "An outdoor futon. Tanya & I like to sleep up here if it gets too hot to sleep indoors. Natural air-conditioning. SiSi, do you mind showing him where everything is?"

"Not at all." They said their goodnights, and she led the way downstairs. "Now, this is the spare room-" she pointed "-and this is the bathroom." She opened a door, and hit the lights. Goren stared in with some admiration. Jack's money, wherever it came from, had been spent to good effect. The room was done out in pale turquoise with white tiles, the effect being to suggest the Mediterranean sea, with pretty bottles of various kinds of soap, shampoo and other scented goodies lying around.

A shower stall stood in one corner, and in the centre of the room was an enormous bath with jacuzzi jets set into the sides. As one who had suffered too many baths in which he had to stick his feet over the sides because the tub wasn't big enough, Goren suspected that Tanya had deliberately chosen a bath big enough to fit all of her in. All of her, plus Jack. It was easily big enough for two.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Sienna commented, looking wistfully at the bath. "I could just murder a bath right about now. London in the heat is hellish. In fact-" she grinned wickedly "-the hell with it, I'm having a bath. I need to relax after the day I've had. Jack won't care." She scampered across to the bath and turned on the taps.

He was trying desperately not to recall it, but his mind was remembering Sienna in the water. That holiday we took, a few days in the Caribbean, not my choice, but somewhere she always wanted to see… He remembered the two of them, out wandering along a small, slow-flowing river of clear warm water, the weather sunny and pleasant and no-one else around, such a tiny island, but so beautiful.

Bobby, let's swim… "I didn't bring my bathing suit", but I knew what she meant, just teasing… her smile, wicked all of a sudden, "I didn't, either", and before I knew it, she'd peeled off her dress and was in the water, so damn beautiful, like a water nymph… he could not stop himself remembering the feel of the water against his naked skin, the two of them graceful as otters in the water, Sienna's voice, always wanted to see if this was possible, the incredible heat of her body around him as they coupled there and then, his powerful legs keeping them both afloat, Sienna writhing against him, so incredibly soft and warm and…

He pulled himself out of the reverie, but couldn't help noticing that Sienna was watching him with an oddly tender expression on her face. They were close together now, only inches of space between them. He had the oddest sensation that she had read his mind, but she wasn't leaving, wasn't pushing him away, that bath looked very tempting…

Suddenly, a bellow from downstairs shattered the moment. "Drew, PUT THAT FUCKING THING DOWN or I'll pull off your arm and hit you with the wet end." Tanya's exasperated voice carried up the stairs with little difficulty.

Sienna chuckled, and moved away from him towards her own room. "I'll leave you in peace. Sleep well, Bobby."