Changing lives

Rose knew she could never have managed on her own so she sat down with her mother after checking on Jamie, who had hardly said anything to her.

"I didn't want to push him," Jackie was telling Rose.

"I know Mum. I think the school has a counsellor, I'll ask if whoever it is can keep an eye on him," Rose told her.

"Yeah, good idea. So what did ya want to ask me?" Jackie wondered.

"If maybe ya want to come and stay?" Rose dared to ask.

"Stay as in move in?" Jackie wanted to know.

"I know ya miss your friends and working," Rose realised.

"Well I do miss it, yeah," Jackie admitted. "You and Jamie are more important though."

"Thanks Mum. I was thinking about getting the loft converted, then Jamie can move up there and you can have his room?" Rose suggested.

"Well that makes sense I suppose? If I'm here, ya won't have to take any more time off work," Jackie told her.

So Rose got some quotes from reputable firms and gave the job to a local one, who assured her they would keep disruptions to a minimum.

In Sandbrook, Alec was completely unaware what had happened to Rose, that her husband had died in a car accident. He didn't even know her new surname as he noted the latest incident reports from other areas and somehow missed James had been one of the victims.

He was aware though of Tess taking more than a passing interest in another detective sergeant in the same division whom he only knew as Dave. Tess had got herself partnered with Dave after the new chief didn't think it was a good idea for Tess and Alec to work together when they were married as by his experience, couples seemed to argue a lot.

The new chief had been right and Tess still argued with Alec over their daughter and the fact he was giving her orders in his fairly new role of detective inspector. The chief was also a firm believer in handing over the day to day running of the division to the most senior officer, which unfortunately for him was Alec, since the detective chief inspector had recently retired and there were no plans to get a new one.

"Are you busy Alec?" Tess wanted to know as she entered his office without even knocking.

"That depends whether it's work or personal Tess," Alec replied without looking up from his computer screen.

He had just got one of the new monitors while everyone else had kept the same larger ones. He was trying to get used to having more space on his desk and Tess had often wanted to know why he had got a new model and no-one else had.

"It's 2006 Alec," Tess began to tell him. "Can't you ask the chief to update the monitors for the rest of us?"

Alec was relieved it wasn't about Daisy for a change.

"I expect they'll update the office ones when the new budget is allocated?" Alec tried to tell her.

"Well I really hope so," Tess replied. "So are you finishing work early for Daisy's parents evening?" she wanted to know.

"It does not need us both Tess," he reminded her. "You can manage on your own."

"If you insist?" Tess replied, getting used to going to the school on her own. "You could show more interest though."

Alec did have an interest but why Tess insisted he went with her to get Daisy's reports, he didn't know.

"Are you going to reconsider who you are partnered with?" he then wanted to know.

"No, why should I?" Tess asked him. "Have you picked on one DC to go out with you when needed?"

"Anyone who is available will do, I don't need just one Tess," he reminded her.

Tess got the message he wanted her to leave and went back to reading the reports. He went back on a few of them and saw the report from a few weeks ago about a car crash victim in Chiswick, North London with the name of James Noble. Surely that wasn't the man he knew as Rose's friend's cousin?

He had no idea where Rose could be, she may have even moved on from James as far as he could tell. He went onto something else then leaned back in his chair, putting his arms behind his head and looking out into the main office. Why the hell had he agreed to take responsibility for the squadroom without getting a promotion?

Had the chief just been trying to make life easier for himself? He knew this chief had moved from the other station and had known Tess from there. He hadn't been happy on hearing the news Tess was being moved and had argued with the old chief but had lost. He'd been told to make the most of it and try to avoid her, which was easier said than done.

He had finally heard the truth as to why Tess had left Sandbrook in the first place and it had hit him hard and caused them to drift apart. She had used him to get back and he wasn't happy about it when he could have salvaged what he and Rose had and taken a job in London. Would it have been too late though, after Tess had tried to get her claws into him?

He got up to go make himself a drink and tried to avoid looking at Tess, who had moved her desk opposite Dave's, he noticed. When had that happened?

"What's with him Tess?" Dave wanted to know as Alec went back into his office.

"He's afraid I'll drag him to Daisy's school's parents evening," Tess replied.

"Well even I leave that to my wife," Dave admitted.

Tess didn't reply, thinking all men were the same really. The only difference was Dave seemed more understanding than Alec had become since the reason got out why she moved to Scotland. Her only consolation was no-one else there had learned about it and she still didn't know how Alec had found out. She knew that was why Alec had become distant and spent more time at work and Dave had told her she could talk to him if she wanted.

She had found herself wanting to talk to Dave more and more and wished she could talk to him outside of work. That would be impossible though since she finished early for collecting Daisy from school. She was considering asking her mother to collect Daisy so she could get a few more hours in but was that just an excuse to stay with Dave?

She looked across at Alec and began to wonder if he'd notice if she dared spend more time with her work partner.

Rose was getting used to life being single again but it hadn't been easy. Jamie was becoming distant even to Jackie, who was there when he got home from school as Rose had been asked if she wanted a few more hours at work.

Jamie got home one evening and Jackie tried to get him to talk.

"Ya have to let it all go Jamie," she tried to tell him.

"Why wouldn't mum let me see dad at the hospital?" Jamie then wanted to know.

"He was badly hurt Jamie," Jackie replied as she put his tea on the kitchen table. "She didn't want ya to see him like that, she could hardly bear it herself. Besides that, it was late."

"Donna would have let me," Jamie told her, still trying to work out what relation she was to him.

"I don't think she would've sweetheart," Jackie doubted.

She knew Rose had been going to tell Jamie that James wasn't his real dad but the boy was already upset enough so she'd talked her into putting it off. She also thought Rose had delayed it because Donna and her parents would have also found out and everyone was already upset.

So when Jamie went to his room, Jackie decided to talk to Rose about it.

"Ya have to put it off for a good while Rose," Jackie told her.

"Yeah, I know Mum. We should have told Donna years ago," Rose agreed.

"What do ya think she'll say?" Jackie then wondered.

"Well it could go either way," Rose debated. "If it goes badly, I think she'll only talk to Jamie and never forgive me for never telling her."

"I don't know?" Jackie wondered. "Maybe Donna suspected something right at the start?"

"Maybe?" Rose wondered. "Maybe she worked it out and didn't want to say anything? Even so, I can't risk it Mum, Jamie needs her and so do I."

"Well leave it a bit longer then?" Jackie suggested.

So Rose decided to leave it, for a few more years until Jamie's thirteenth birthday. He'd had a great party at the local church hall and all his friends from school had attended. Donna and her mother were dishing out the food and as the party was winding down, Rose was in the kitchen area with Donna.

"That went well," Donna observed as Jamie was messing around with Donna's granddad.

"Yeah. He's a lot happier these days, thankfully," Rose told her. "It won't go away forever though."

Donna went to put her arm around Rose.

"Yeah, I know Rose. I've been meaning to ask something for a while now but I didn't want to upset you," Donna told her.

Rose turned to look at her. Had Donna guessed the secret that herself, her mother and James had been keeping all this time?

"What is it Donna?" Rose dared ask as she watched Jamie talking to one of his friends.

"Rose, don't take this the wrong way but something's been bothering me," Donna started to tell her. "Something never added up for me, about Jamie. He's not James's son, is he?"

Rose headed for the nearest chair, Donna following her and seeing her mother talking to Sylvia.

"Why did ya never say anything?" Donna then wanted to know. "We would never have felt differently about him."

"I told James, when I discovered I was pregnant," Rose admitted. "He said he'd take care of me and we'd tell everyone Jamie was his."

"Yeah, that was just typical of him," Donna told her. "Ya both did a good job covering it up. Do ya still want to keep it a secret?"

"We have to tell Jamie sometime," Rose replied. "We wanted to tell him together."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Donna agreed. "I won't tell anyone until Jamie's been told."

"Thanks Donna. Best go finish up then?" Rose suggested.

So it was put off again and down in Sandbrook, Alec had no idea he had a son who had just reached his thirteenth birthday. He was having enough problems with his daughter Daisy. Things were getting tense between him and Tess and it was spilling over at home. It had been going on for some time and Alec had been feeling guilty about leaving Rose just so Tess could get back home again.

It was all going to change sooner than he thought a few years later. He just had to get through them. He and Tess were now the talk of the station that their marriage was on the brink of divorce and despite his pleas to the chief, nothing came of him asking for a transfer.

"I can't move either of you at present Alec," the chief told him. "You'd maybe have to look at further away."

"How far?" Alec then wondered, thinking he wouldn't mind travelling or maybe move out somewhere on his own.

There was no point in pretending he could salvage his marriage to Tess. She had got what she wanted and Daisy had been an accident, Tess not taking to motherhood naturally that she had taken a lot of advice from her mother.

He wasn't able to get away so easily, Tess was refusing to sign the divorce papers and Alec had moved into an apartment on the opposite side of town. He called to see Daisy most nights then everything changed. Two girls from an estate just out of town were reported missing one Sunday morning. Alec had gone to pick up Daisy for a few hours when he and Tess got the call.

"What's happening?" Daisy asked both of them as Tess stayed in the living room and Alec was taking his call in the kitchen. "Are you both going to leave me?"

"No you can go to your aunt's or your gran's," Tess told her, assuming Alec had got the same call as she had.

"Great," Daisy complained. "I'll go get my stuff then?"

Daisy had already been told that if they were both occupied by a major incident she'd have to stay over. Tess dropped her off and went to meet Alec and uniformed officers just outside the town.

"What are we looking at?" Alec asked as he put his specs on to read the initial report.

"Did this need both of us?" Tess objected when she arrived.

"What do you think Tess?" Alec wanted to know. "This is serious."

He didn't want to remind her it could have just as easily have been Daisy they were looking for. Two cousins had gone missing and it was their job to find them. They went their separate ways when the search was scaled down for the day and Alec said they would resume in the morning by searching the nearby woods and riverbank and a more thorough search of the youngest girl's home and garden.

That hadn't gone down well with the younger girl's parents.

"Is that necessary?" Ricky Gillespie had asked Tess, who was their liaison. "Cate's upset enough as it is."

"Well that's what DI Hardy thinks is the best way to proceed," Tess had told him, not wanting to take the blame for it.

"You think we're hiding them?" Ricky asked angrily.

Alec had heard what was going on.

"Do we have to remind you what happened in a small north of England town?" Alec had asked Ricky.

"That was on some run-down council estate," Ricky replied.

"None the less, for all we know it can happen elsewhere and it does not matter where it was," Alec had reminded him.

"Can you believe he said that?" Alec wanted to know before he got in his car to go to the guest house he was in while he was moving.

"Well he was right," Tess agreed with Ricky.

Alec stood with his hands on the roof of his car.

"You as well?" he asked, though he should be used to Tess being a snob. "That girl was used Tess, for financial gain. There is just no excuse for doing that to a child."

"Like I said," Tess reminded him, making him give up.

There was no excuse for what had happened before no matter where it was, Alec thought as he drove off. The next day, the search was stepped up, tracker dogs were taken to the woods after Ricky revealed the girls used to like to go there and Tess was finishing off on the estate and handling the press. Before Alec left to go to the woods, he read out a short statement since the chief had given the news from the station the day before.

Jackie was watching the morning news while sorting the laundry after Jamie had gone to school and Rose had gone to her job in the book store. She stopped as she saw they were going over to the lead detective handling the case of two missing girls. She dropped half a dozen items on the kitchen floor when she heard Alec's voice.

She stared at the screen while Alec read out his statement. So that was where he was hiding these days, Jackie thought to herself. She reached for the phone to call Rose.

"Mum, what's wrong?" Rose asked as she went behind a book shelf when her phone buzzed.

"Nothing's wrong as such," Jackie admitted. "Have ya heard the news this morning?"

"Mum, ya know Graham just has music on," Rose reminded her mother what her boss listened to.

"I think ya'd best listen Rose, ya won't believe me," Jackie warned her.

"Well I'll try but ya could just tell me," Rose insisted.

"Well don't say I never warned ya," Jackie told her. "I saw Alec on the news."

Rose leaned back against the shelf. She tried to let it sink in, she'd had no idea he was even in the south of England when her mother told her where she'd seen him on the news.

"Was he with anyone Mum?" Rose managed to ask her.

"Well there was a few people in the background," Jackie recalled. "Ya mean was there a woman around his age?" she then realised. "Yeah, just behind him but it could have been anyone."

"Well I suppose so and why am I bothered?" Rose asked her.

"Rose, ya could call him when ya get home," Jackie suggested.

"Forget it Mum, he's probably married," Rose replied.

"Ya could try Rose?" her mother wondered.

"I'll think about it Mum. I have to go now," Rose told her.

She dashed off to the ladies room after tapping the other assistant on the shoulder.

"Where's Rose gone in a hurry?" their boss wanted to know.

"To the ladies. Don't know what's wrong with her though, she just dashed off," he was told.

"I've told her not to let her mother call her at work," Graham guessed.

Rose was thinking about what her mother had just told her. Alec was down here and she guessed it must have been down to Tess, the woman who had come between herself and Alec. She had still thought about him, even more so when around Jamie, how could she forget him? She had brought it on herself, she had always thought because of her reluctance to set foot in Scotland again. Why had she been so afraid when she was all grown up?

Alec would have been able to protect her, she should have known that. How could she have allowed Tess to take Alec from under her nose? She had known there was something going on when Tess had answered his phone, why hadn't she put a stop to it by telling Alec she'd marry him? James had been amazing though, he'd never even brought up the subject that Jamie wasn't really his and the only time he'd lost his temper was on the night he'd died.

She still felt guilty over that even after all this time. Did she deserve to possibly reunite with Alec after all this time and tell him they had a son? She went back to work but when she got home, she had a decision to make, one that would change hers and Jamie's lives as well as Alec's.