She hears him before she sees him, the sound of his footsteps coming down the corridor is one her ears tune into without conscious thought, and she feels her stomach flip over as she takes a breath. Silently reminding herself where she is, she forces her attention back to the report in front of her, to the tangle of eye witness accounts to the latest fiasco, all reading as though talking about completely different events. She sighs and as she does the door opens and he steps in, sending the Christmas wreath on the door slightly askew and aiming his familiar grin straight at her.
"Dempsey, you look…" Spikings hovers in his office doorway, throwing a scathing glance at the mistletoe that someone has strung up above his head before turning his attention back to apparently sizing up her partner's slightly dishevelled appearance. He eventually settles on a description. "Rumpled."
"Yeah, well…" He shrugs and follows it with a grin in Spikings' direction. "That's what an overnight flight does for you, Chief. I'll be back to my usual dashing self after some breakfast."
"Yes...no doubt you will. I'll leave you to it. I'm sure your partner here can fill you in on what you've missed." Their boss's door closes and Dempsey slumps heavily into his seat, dropping his bag onto the floor next to his desk with a thud.
"Morning, Sergeant. Miss me?" There's a weariness in his eyes but his smile is lacking nothing.
"Oh, have you been somewhere?" She gives him a half smile and her foot expertly locates his under the desk, her toes tickling his ankle and sliding slowly up his leg. "Come to think of it, I did think it had been a little quiet around here."
"Must have been real dull, huh?" He smirks and she wants to drag him across the desk and kiss the living daylights out of him, but instead she pulls her foot back and grins when he pouts slightly in response.
"If by dull you mean peaceful then yes, it's been terribly dull." She stands up and his eyes track slowly up her body, the look in them proving without question that he missed her too, if she hadn't known that already. "Come on, I need to chase records for some paperwork, I'll fill you in on what you've missed on the way down there."
He follows her out of the office and she smiles when she feels his fingers press lightly against her lower back. In the corridor they're about to pass the locker room when she grabs his hand and drags him inside, slamming the door behind her, recalling a time when she pulled him into the same room but for very different reasons.
"This is…" He hesitates but doesn't object when she pushes him back against the wall. "Not records, Harry."
"I'm glad to see you didn't leave your detective skills back in the Big Apple. I can't very well kiss you in the middle of the records office while they're looking for my reports, can I?"
"Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't mind and it would sure as hell liven things up down there." He closes the gap and she manages the tiniest of smiles before his lips are on hers.
It's a kiss that starts soft and moves quickly into a kiss between two people who haven't seen each other for four nights. Four nights that felt like four weeks because she can't remember the last time they spent a night apart. Five days ago she almost asked Spikings for the time off, almost booked herself a seat across the Atlantic beside him, but at the last minute she wavered and instead she drove him to the airport and kissed him at the check-in desk with an air of desperation she'd never felt before.
"I was going to come straight home this morning but the damn flight was delayed, I-" He pulls back for just a few seconds before she kisses him again. "God, I missed you."
"You called me every single night." Her lips curve into a smile as she murmurs against his lips.
"Yeah, because I missed you."
"I missed you too." His hand moves into her hair, his fingers gently cup the back of her head, and she sighs softly under his touch. "I'd forgotten just how cold my bed is without you in it."
"I do like being your blanket, princess." He gives her his softest, sweetest smile. She's missed it. "So...I did some thinking while I was away."
"Oh sweetie, be careful." She looks up at him and grins. "Your poor brain."
"Remind me again why I missed you?"
"Because without me to keep you focused, you resort to terrible things, like...thinking." She pauses and runs her thumb slowly across his bottom lip. "Anything I should know about?"
"Nope." He pulls her away from the wall and into his chest, pressing his hands to her shoulder blades. She feels him drop a soft kiss to the top of her head. "Not right now anyway."
"Dempsey..." She slips her hands up and under his jumper, rubbing his chest and biting her lip as she looks up at him, lost for a moment in her thoughts of all the ways she plans to touch him as soon as they're free from work.
"Harry...you can't look at me like that when I'm jet lagged and I have a whole day of work to get through."
"I don't know what you mean, James, I'm not looking at you like anything…" She knows what she's doing, he knows as well as she does that she only ever calls him by his first name when her guard is down, always when they're alone, often when they're in bed, and certainly never at work. "Are you going to let me in on what you've been thinking about?"
"Maybe I will." He smirks and she shakes her head, appreciating the opportunity to roll her eyes after five days of resting them.
"I should have gone with you." Her hands stay pressed firmly against his chest, and she curses the fact that ripping his clothes off right now just isn't an option. "To New York."
"Yeah, you should. Especially at this time of year. New York is pretty great around Christmas."
"I almost did. The day you left I came very close to walking into Spikings' office and telling him I needed a few days off, but then I realised maybe you needed to go alone, that my being there might make things difficult for you."
"What do you mean?" He frowns faintly and she feels his hands move down her back.
"Well, I didn't know if you were going to get back there and realise how much you missed it and I didn't want to feel like you were only coming back here to make me happy. I didn't want to cloud your judgement if you needed time to consider your options."
"You're way off base here, Harry. That didn't cross my mind for a second. Yeah, it was good to see everybody and to see that the old place is still standing and all, but there was never any doubt about me coming back here."
"There wasn't?" She hates the note of uncertainty she hears in her own voice but then he smiles at her and she feels less worried.
"I love New York, princess, and I always will, but I love London now too." He moves his hands to her face, his thumbs soft on her skin as he smiles at her. "They're just cities anyway. I love you more than I love either one of them."
"Sorry, I just...I don't know, I had time on my hands while you were gone, I suppose. Overthinking." She leans in and kisses him one more time, wishing she could just drag him home now but knowing they have hours yet before they can escape the office. "We probably should get back to work before Spikings notices we're gone. I'm not sure finding us hiding in the locker room again is something he'd particularly appreciate."
"Yeah, and this time we are actually doing what he probably thought we were doing last time." He pauses and his hand trails slowly down her side, settling at the waistband of her skirt, his thumbs pressing against her hip bones. "Did you wear this skirt today because you know how hot you look in it?"
She smirks at him because yes, that's exactly why she wore it. She's neither blind nor stupid and she sees how he looks at her whenever she has it on, so when it became apparent she was going to have to leave for work before he made it home it was the most obvious choice.
"Are you suggesting I own skirts that I don't look hot in?"
"Babe, you would look hot in a garbage sack…" He steps back and she watches as his gaze moves slowly and appreciatively down her body. "But this skirt shows off your ass in all its perfect glory."
"I hope you're not reducing me to nothing more than how good my arse looks in this skirt, Lieutenant?"
"I wouldn't dream of it, Sergeant." He smirks and she aims for a stern look in response. "Anyway, it looks even better out of it."
"You'll have to wait until we get home for that." She squeezes his hand and turns for the door, giving him the view she knows he will appreciate. "Come on."
The first thing she wonders as they walk back into the office is why Fry is holding the poor baby in the way that he is. The second thing, which probably should have been the first thing, is why there is even a baby in Fry's arms at all.
"Why are you holding that child like he's a bomb liable to detonate at any moment, Fry?" She stops and puts her bag down on her desk, frowning at the newest member of the team. "And why on earth is there even a baby in here in the first place? Is there some sort of nativity play taking place that I'm completely unaware of?"
"I, uh...I've never really held a baby, if I'm honest. I have no idea what I'm doing." Fry looks embarrassed and completely uncomfortable. "We busted his father, Chas has him in an interview room now. Tried to turn over a jeweller's with his kid in tow, the bloody idiot."
"Language, Fry, he has ears." She gestures at the baby who turns in Fry's arms to look at her, his blue eyes wide as he squirms in Fry's hold. "Oh for goodness sake, give him to me."
"Really?" Fry raises his eyebrows and she has to fight a strong urge to roll her eyes at him. "He just...won't stop wriggling."
"He's a small person, Fry, not an angry bulldog, and he's in a strange place with people he's never seen before, of course he's going to be restless." She walks over to him, reaching out and lifting the baby into her arms, smiling at him. "Come here, little one."
"Thanks, Harry." Fry lets out a long sigh of relief and smiles gratefully at her. "I have no idea what I would have done if he'd started screaming."
"Yes, I can't imagine what you would have done in the event of such a major disaster." This time she's unable to contain her eye roll. "Did anyone bother to find out this child's name? Or where his mother is and if she can perhaps come and collect him?"
"Uh, no, I don't think so." Fry scratches his head and at least has the decency to look embarrassed. "I'll go, shall I, and find out?"
"I think that would be a good idea, Fry, yes. Find out how old he is and if he needs something to eat too, would you?" The baby chooses that moment to smile at her, a sweet, gummy grin that makes it impossible for her to do anything other than smile back at him. "Well, you certainly have at least a few teeth, baby, so I'm guessing you can chew on something if you're hungry."
"Right, yeah, I'll do that." Fry hovers in the doorway, finally moving when she glares at him for a few seconds longer.
"Do you think he actually realises he's a detective?" She watches him leave the room, shaking her head as she turns to Dempsey.
"He's cute." Her partner steps closer to her, smiling at the baby.
"Fry?" She watches as the baby stares at him, his gaze curious. "I really wouldn't have thought he was your type, Dempsey."
"The baby, Harry. And no, Fry's definitely not my type and you know it." He reaches for the baby, squeezing his cheek softly, and he's rewarded with a grin too.
"What kind of idiot takes a baby along on a robbery? Two weeks before Christmas too." She's exasperated by yet another display of criminal stupidity, this time one that may have put a child at risk of serious harm.
"The kind of idiot in there, I guess." Dempsey shrugs, seeming as baffled by it as she is. "I'd guess his mom's going to be pretty mad when she gets here."
"Well, I would hardly blame her." The baby's hand makes his way into her hair, tugging hard on it. "I'd be furious."
"So you wouldn't want me going out with our kid in one hand and my gun in the other?" He grins at her as she frowns and frees her hair from the baby's hold.
"For the avoidance of doubt…" She switches the baby onto her other hip, sighing as he shifts his attention from her hair to her earring. "If you even so much as thought about it I would take the gun out of your hand and shoot you with it first."
"Gotcha."
For a moment there is silence, loaded with their words, and she finds herself picturing him as a father, probably focusing on all the fun stuff while she worries about the serious things. She imagines him pulling her away from a pile of laundry and taking them to the park, arguing that fresh air is more important for their baby than clean clothes, and in her mind's eye, she sees herself agreeing with him. The quiet spell is broken by the baby starting to babble as he reaches for her yet again, his hand finding her necklace, his chubby fingers twisting it more tightly than he looks capable of managing.
"Now, you listen to me, young man…" She smiles at the baby and uncurls his fingers from her necklace before pressing a finger gently to his nose. "You've already caused enough trouble here today, strangling me won't help your case."
"Harry." She looks up as Fry walks back in, looking no less flustered despite no longer having the baby to deal with. "Sorry, I mean the baby's name is Harry. He's eight months old, and he likes fruit, biscuits, and yoghurt."
"Sounds like he has about as varied a diet as you, Dempsey." She smirks at her partner. "With the addition of fruit."
"I've got a name and number for the mother." Fry waves a piece of paper in front of him, looking far prouder of himself than he should considering he hadn't even thought to ask until she suggested it. "I'll call now and see if I can get hold of her."
Fry walks out of the office and she shakes her head as she turns back to Dempsey, finding herself wondering about Fry's detective skills, not for the first time, but deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt. It isn't like she, or any of the team, would have expected to arrest a robbery suspect with a baby in his arms.
"Little Harry, huh?"
"Apparently so." She shrugs and looks up at the clock, wondering what time the baby might need to eat but completely lacking the patience to interrogate Fry in any more detail. "Could you go down to the canteen and get a banana and some yoghurt? If he starts wailing we can at least try to quieten him down with food."
"You don't want to go?" Her partner grins at the baby again and then at her.
"As much as I would like nothing more than for the rumours to start that I've secretly had your baby, no, I think I'll stay here while you go."
"Suit yourself, princess. You want anything while I'm down there?"
"No thanks." She pauses and smiles at him. "Could you try not to be down there too long loading up on bacon rolls or whatever they have on special today? Just in case this little one does decide he's hungry and starts screaming the place down."
"Sure thing. I'll be right back."
She watches him go and her thoughts drift to the last few days and how surprised she was to find herself missing him quite as much as she did. She knows she loves him, she knows he feels the same, she knows how much she loves to sleep beside him, to wake up with him, but she realised only when he was gone that she doesn't ever want to be without him. She's so deep in thought that Spikings is somehow standing on the other side of her desk before she had even noticed him step out of his office.
"Sergeant Makepeace, what month is it?" Her boss frowns as he glances at the baby in her arms, and then back at her.
"Uh…" It doesn't feel like a trick question but with Spikings it's hard to ever be completely certain. "It's December."
"Presumably it's also still 1985?" He looks no less baffled, his frown somehow deepening even further.
"Are you alright, Sir?" Again the baby reaches for her and she catches his hand in mid air, running her thumb over his little knuckles and earning another smile from him.
"I think so. For a moment I wondered if I'd fallen into a coma for a few years. I'm almost certain there wasn't a baby in your arms when I went into my office."
"Ah, no, you're quite right, there wasn't. His father is in an interview room with Chas." She pauses, jiggling the baby in an attempt to prevent him finding anything else she's wearing interesting enough to aim for. "He apparently tried to try his luck and see what he could make off with from a jeweller's shop and for some reason decided to take his son along for the ride."
"Dear God." Spikings runs a hand over his head, a gesture she's more than familiar with whenever things are going awry.
"Yes, quite." She smiles at the baby again, sending out a silent prayer that his mother is more responsible than his father would appear to be.
"Where's your partner?" Spikings looks around, apparently only just noticing Dempsey's absence.
"Canteen, Sir. I sent him to get something to feed to this little one should he start screaming."
"Good thinking, Harry." He looks at the baby properly and nods. "He's actually rather sweet. Can I presume someone is going to come for him?"
"Fry is trying to contact his mother, yes." She doesn't miss the trace of a smirk creeping onto her boss's lips before she turns her attention back to the baby. "So, until she can get here, you're stuck with us, aren't you?"
"Oh, I don't know about stuck, Harry. The little chap seems happy enough. I think I'll leave you to it." She watches as Spikings heads back towards his office, shutting his door at almost the same time that Dempsey reappears.
"Alright, so I got a banana, yoghurt, a bowl, a spoon, and a knife. Pretty sure that covers it." He puts everything down on the desk in front of her, looking pleased with himself.
"It does, thank you." She doesn't know what surprises her more, that he got everything she mentioned or that he doesn't seem to have returned with a pile of junk food for himself. She steps around the desk and hands the baby to him. "Here, take him for a minute, would you?"
She feels her stomach flip over unexpectedly at the sight of the baby looking completely comfortable in Dempsey's arms, his tiny hands curled against her partner's chest, his bright blue eyes darting between the two of them. She opens the yoghurt and tips it into the bowl, sets to work slicing the banana, and tries not to let her thoughts run ahead of her. Looking up at Dempsey again, seeing him pulling faces at the baby to make him smile, she knows her efforts are futile. Something spreads from her stomach into her chest, a tightness, a dawning, and she finds herself needing to look away for a few seconds whilst her brain attempts to process the thoughts suddenly swirling like an unforeseen tornado hitting a small town. She had always thought about babies, about children, but as a far off possibility rather than something she had to really consider, not yet anyway. Watching Dempsey with a baby in his arms, his tough side entirely overshadowed by the gentleness she is frequently the only one to see, she knows suddenly and with complete certainty that she wants this, and with him, only with him.
"Alright, little buddy, I guess you are hungry." The baby squirms in Dempsey's arms and she watches as her partner tries to pacify him before realising nothing but food is going to do the trick. "You want to go back to big Harry, huh?"
"Big Harry?" She raises her eyebrows, knowing what he meant, but intrigued to see if he can dig himself out of it. "Really?"
"Grown up Harry?" He grins as he bounces the baby, trying to keep him quiet until she's ready with the food. "Girl Harry? Uh, beautiful Harry?"
"You should probably quit while you're finally ahead." She smiles at him and the baby grins as he stretches out his arms to reach for her again. "Give him to me, for heaven's sake, before he starts chewing on your fingers in desperation."
She feels Dempsey's eyes on her as she starts to feed the baby, who happily accepts the yoghurt and banana on offer and seems completely happy with the mess he's making, the same mess she's trying to ignore because this is what babies do, she knows that. Her house isn't at all baby-proofed, she realises, before filing that worry under 'too soon, Harriet, far too soon'. She's about to ask her partner to help when he leans over and moves the files on her desk out of the way of little Harry's yoghurt-sticky hands, and she smiles her thanks. Her smile turns to a faint frown when he stands up and heads across the room, but he's back before she knows it with a pile of paper towels in his hand which he holds out and she takes gratefully.
"You'll be good at this when the time comes." The words are out before she really thinks about them but it's true, he's calmer than she would have expected, he seems to find the baby genuinely sweet and, unlike Fry, there's no fear, no apprehension at all when it comes to holding him.
"So will you." He grins and she feels herself blushing even as she looks around the room to confirm they're the only ones here. "You want kids, right?"
She opens her mouth to tell him this probably isn't the time or place for that conversation, but the door to Spikings' office opens and he steps out before she can say anything, his eyebrows raising as he takes in the sight in front of him. She can only imagine the domestic picture they're currently painting; her with a baby in her lap, Dempsey perched on the desk next to her, wiping yoghurt from the little boy's face without her even needing to ask. Arranging her expression into one she hopes says professional and mildly put out by this turn of events, she looks over at their boss.
"Everything alright, Sir?"
"I've just had a call, Sergeant, and it seems like our inept jewellery thief is one of Terry Carter's boys, which, as I'm sure you will agree, rather changes the game."
"Terry Carter?" Dempsey balls up a paper towel and tosses it into the bin beside her desk before he grins at the baby, still happily working his way through his bowl of mess.
"Amateur gangster, professional idiot. Heads up a gang south of the river. Spends his days lording it around Peckham and apparently ordering other willing idiots to raid jewellery shops." She fills her partner in and glances at the baby in her lap. "Sorry, little one, I'm sure your daddy isn't always an idiot."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Hard to imagine that anyone who jumps to the beat of Terry Carter's drum is exactly a genius." Spikings sighs and shakes his head. "Anyway, it might be prudent to hang onto him for a while, see if he spills anything useful. Pull Chas out of there and let him know, would you? Whenever junior here has finished his elevenses, of course. I wouldn't want to interrupt."
"I'll go." Dempsey pushes himself up off the desk and she watches as he strolls out of the room, the baby's gaze following him the whole way.
He's been gone for barely a couple of minutes when she realises attempting to read through the reports in front of her while she juggles a rapidly grumpy baby is futile. If his grumbling gets any louder she's going to end up with Spikings in front of her desk again, no doubt looking at her as though she has some magic wand to wave that can calm the youngster down.
"Right then, little Harry." She closes the file she was hoping to look at and stands up, thinking that at least walking him around a little might quieten him down.
At the end of the corridor is the department Christmas tree. It's a pitiful effort, hastily thrown together by someone who was issued orders rather than someone blessed with any genuine Christmas spirit, but it has lights and a certain amount of sparkle so it will do. She points out the star at the top, holds the baby at just enough of a distance that his grabbing hands don't quite reach the tree, and she's pleased that the twinkling lights seem to have caught his attention. For the moment, at least.
"You know, this is not how I thought my day was going to go." She runs her hand gently over his head, his hair soft under her fingertips.
For a few minutes she's happy to stand and let him stare at the tree, mesmerised by the lights and the glitter, not yet aware that this is what he'll be looking at for many Christmases to come. She can only hope his father sees sense, or if not that his mother's head is screwed on more tightly.
"Hey, there you are."
"This little one seemed restless so I thought I'd bring him down here to see if the Christmas lights could distract him, as poor an effort as this Christmas tree is." She smiles at the baby and when she glances up at Dempsey, he's doing the same. "Seems to have done the trick."
"Well, his mom's here, finally." He steps closer and runs his finger down the side of the baby's face. "She's furious with this little dude's dad, asked if she was allowed to go in there and smack him."
"I can't say I blame her. Hopefully somebody is holding her back from actually doing that?"
"Nah. I just told her one parent possibly heading for the slammer was bad enough, two would be a real shame for this little guy." He shrugs and smiles as the baby's attention is caught once again by the twinkling of the lights. "Seemed to work but we probably should head back there before she has time to change her mind."
"Has he given us anything useful on Carter?" She turns to face him, away from the Christmas tree, relieved that the baby doesn't start to protest too much.
"The mention of him missing his kid's first Christmas in favour of a cold cell and a bowl of prison slop and he was singing like a canary in there."
"Perhaps he's not quite as stupid as we thought, after all." He starts to walk down the hall and she's about to follow when she remembers his question from earlier. "Dempsey?"
"Yeah?"
"I...I hadn't been married very long when I started to realise I didn't want children." She sees him stop and look at her, sees the fleeting look of disappointment in his eyes, and it spurs her on. "But then later, when it was over, when we had finished fighting over the divorce, dividing up belongings that really didn't matter, I realised that wasn't really the case at all. I just knew I didn't want children with him."
"Right." He sounds wary, seeming unwilling to make the assumption she's trying to point him towards. "So, you, uh…"
"I never once wondered what our children would look like, I never pictured him holding our baby, nothing like that." She looks him square in the eyes and gives him a half smile. "The second you had this little chap in your arms today, suddenly those things were all I could think about. So yes, I do want children. With you, Dempsey. Does that answer your question?"
"Yeah." He nods and grins at her, all traces of confusion long gone from his face, and she feels herself smiling a little wider too. "Same goes. With you, I mean."
"Well...good. That settles that one then." She anticipates little Harry's hand before it manages to reach its target, sparing her hair at the final second. "Speaking of babies...come on, we need to return this particular one to his mother."