A/N: Thank you for your warm welcome and the reviews :-) And it looks as if there was more to write than just a short second chapter.
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Times - ch. 2
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After Winston's funeral the two detectives went to Tommy's house. Barbara fell asleep on his couch, curled up into his side, while the TV was running. Then she stayed over night for as long as her emergency bag in his guest room provided her with fresh clothes. She did not want to get home and be alone at the moment. It seemed to be normal to stay with him although she knew she should return home eventually. After all he was her boss.
Then, with the first summer during the pandemic, the restrictions were more relaxed. Throughout summer all circumstances were a bit easier. Shifts at the Met weren't divided as strictly as they were in the beginning and more people came to the office to work there and to have the chance for a better exchange with their colleagues. Cafés re-opened, you could sit outside, you could open windows and let in clean fresh air. People were allowed to travel and they did. The incidence data turned better, less people became infected and less people died.
Barbara kept staying at her own flat constantly again. But that did not mean she would not meet with Tommy every day. Apart from their work where it was inevitable to face strangers, and that was more than enough, the two were the only ones for each other. Regardless of loosened rules they still did not meet others.
Then it was autumn and the weather turned colder again, more people stayed inside and the virus stretched its wings among them and rose again to haunt the land. In media they called it the second wave.
Winter arrived quickly and with it more stressful times despite the prospect of a vaccine. All stuck strictly to tightened health safety rules again. Through the cold weeks, the friendship between Barbara and Tommy deepened and while almost every one else was not, at least they came closer, even physically. In these times of distance their physical contact with all its small touches and the warmth from a real person became a beloved treasure.
Barbara kept staying at Tommy's house more often again. Eventually she even had occupied a wardrobe in his guest room but of course she still did not move in completely. He had offered it several times. "Just so all would be easier." he would say. "You know, I do have a washing machine here." Never would he tell her the real reason, that it was her proximity he needed.
And she always politely refused. She was not sure if it was good for their relationship. Not that she wanted to stay. In fact she wanted to snuggle with him every evening and even wake up in his arms in the mornings. But still she was afraid that what she wanted was not what he wanted. And even if so, she was pretty sure that it would not work for long.
At some point Tommy realised that their lives slowly had woven together. It even could become more, at least that was what he wanted. But he was not sure if Barbara was feeling the same. A few days before Christmas, when once again he had offered her to move in with him, she only had snorted a laugh and told him that he would not want to have her mess up his house completely. He did not answer to that. Actually he would like to have her do that but did not dare to tell her.
Their Christmas evening was absolutely strained just because there was one single thought in Tommy's mind but Barbara seemed to have one of her foul mood days that day. Her nerves were stretched. She did not feel at all like Christmas. She usually was annoyed by it, with all its displayed warmth and family stuff, the endless charity appeals and cute Christmas films on TV, and with all that bloody pseudo-romantic stuff strewn into the atmosphere. She usually only got herself something extraordinary to eat and then watch something on DVD that had nothing to do with Christmas and later she would go and have a pint or two in the pub around the corner and she would waste the following days with getting levels in stupid little online games. A visit to the pub was impossible this time because of lockdown and she missed it dearly. This time she would just watch through her DVD collection and finish more levels in those games. And this year the unnerving situation added to her usual annoyance. Plus she had been playing online games constantly every time she was alone at home during the previous year. It had become boring and repetitive.
And then Tommy invited her for Christmas Eve and Barbara agreed although she knew of her bad mood, just because he had insisted.
Tommy did not even dare to touch her when she visited him, let alone he dared to approach her in any romantic way, as much as he wanted it. He only accompanied her when she went to her mother in the caring home on boxing day. Barbara did not talk at all afterwards but Tommy knew from the looks in her eyes that she was glad to have him around. This time he stayed in her flat although he did not sleep well on her couch.
New Years Eve went by with a lot of work on a tricky case. One of the main suspects had to be interviewed just on that day and they only made it back to his house shortly before midnight. They watched some rare fireworks from his window and had a glass of champagne. Tommy put his arm around Barbara's shoulder while they stared out of the window, then placed a kiss into her hair and whispered "Happy New Year, Barbara. May the new year be of less hardships than the past one."
"Yah..." she muttered. "Won't be very hard. Happy New Year to you too, Tommy."
Barbara did not look up to him in that moment or else he would have kissed her properly on her lips. It was the first time she called him by his given name. He swallowed. His heart was doing somersaults. He was so excited that he did not even recognise that she suddenly had stiffened in shock about herself.
Just five minutes later they went to bed because they were so exhausted from this day's work.
The following week was stuffed with putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It ruined Tommy's plans to finally make the next step towards Barbara. He finally had realised that he had fallen in love with her completely and knew that he had to show her somehow. Much to his disappointment she did not call him Tommy again but they were engrossed in work anyway.
Barbara took care that his name would not slip again. She already was sure about her feelings for him for years but never let them bubble to the surface, not even now that they were so close all the time. She would risk too much, or so she thought. It was a treasured friendship, a deep and good friendship. She would not want to ruin that. Calling him 'Sir' helped her keeping herself at a mental distance, but she knew that she would fail again eventually.
Their hidden feelings for each other led to a certain awkwardness despite their growing friendship. While at work it was slightly easier. In spring they worked hard on another case and fought a lot, having different opinions about their suspects and witnesses and how and where the act of killing could have happened. Misunderstandings dominated. In that time Barbara did not meet him a lot after work. One of these occasions was a visit to Winston's grave when one year had passed after his death. It was one of the rare moments when they forgot about their burdensome work and their 'forbidden' feelings but just hugged closely for comfort at Winnie's grave.
"I miss him." Barbara mumbled.
"Yes. So do I." Tommy answered slowly.
On the way to his car he nudged her softly. "You know, Barbara, we should accept DC Smith eventually."
"Mh. I particularly don't like her."
Tommy sighed with amusement. "Well, I don't know if the Chief Super will get us a third new DC."
In the end that difficult case was solved with DC Smith who was transferred to a different team afterwards, next summer came, and more cases too, and a third DC. Unfortunately capital crimes still were a part of life, no matter what the pandemic made of it. With warmer temperatures life turned easier again just like it was the previous year. The tension between Tommy and Barbara decreased and they acted easier with each other again. Their private relationship became almost like that of a real couple - except of course for the essential parts.
Barbara savoured every moment she was with him and Tommy enjoyed having her around. Every day of the week he looked forward to their routine of going grocery shopping on Saturdays. He loved cooking for her and he was delighted when Barbara occupied the kitchen to do the same for him every once in a while. Not to mention the mess she usually left there and which they always cleaned up together. The stress of the turn of the year was forgotten.
During summer he sometimes carried her off to the green belt of London to have some picnic. He cheered for her team when she invited him to a rare public football event. Tommy even was glad that Barbara opened her heart to him when her mother's mental conditions worsened at the end of July. And one evening in August she even surprised him with her knowledge about "the Bard" and "the Scottish Play" during interval while they sat in the box he had reserved for them on an open air theatre event.
"You know, I am able to use Wikipedia." she had answered gruffly, waving her mobile phone in front of his nose, when he had raised his eyebrows quizzically.
"Oh, I'm afraid I've lectured enough about him, so you wouldn't have to check it on the internet." he laughed.
"You bet." she snickered and briefly leaned into his side. Her hand squeezed his knee. It just had landed there by accident and Barbara, a bit shocked about it, quickly straightened her back, eyeing him intensely with an apologising look.
Surprised about it Tommy stared back at her for several moments.
He just wanted to bend down and kiss her.
She just wanted him to lean over and kiss her.
Unfortunately a bell announced that the interval was over and the actors were on the stage again too soon.
Anyway, it could not always be summer and so when the days were closing in and weather turned colder, the pandemic data was in danger to become sinister again. Nationwide vaccination made it easier this time but still the shifts inside of the Met's offices were strictly limited and divided to allow people to keep their distance. Nonetheless another wave of another mutant was on its way to the UK.
Quite some time had passed after the satanic virus first had reached the green and pleasant land and many, many people not only in the UK but all around the world had died of it. Meanwhile, most people had adjusted to the pandemic situation, with all its ups and downs, hopes and fears, restrictions, freedom days, vaccines, masks and distance rules, horrid stories and pictures, scientists' warnings, people who think they knew better and idiots who denied the sheer existence of the virus, the final Brexit and supply shortfalls. And 'not happening' parties in certain politicians' homes while the rest of the nation was not allowed to go out at all. Some sort of normality had come back now, although the ghost of doom still lingered in the background with every wave and every new mutation.
DI Lynley's team was augmented by another new DC. This time it was not because Barbara felt bad with DC Number 3, but fortunately Number 4, DC Morrison, seemed to meet Barbara's approval. They were assigned to a case where the main suspect, a lorry driver from Wales, seemed to be giving them the runaround.
He obviously was responsible for at least five brutal murders all across the land, that had happened in the past eight years or so. Teams all across the land, from Cornwall to Scotland and from Wales over to Kent were forced to work together. A huge network of different police districts provided the separate teams with all the data from every progress, every related CCTV footage, the post-mortem findings of all victims and all the interviews with witnesses. The exchange of ideas and hints was immense, now that the police had linked the previously separate cases.
The latest victim was a young woman who was found dead in a drainage ditch on the M6 Moto Burton-in-Kendal. The pathologists did not know the exact time of her death but she had been lying there for a few rainy days. That only meant there was plenty of CCTV footage to be checked. Good for them that the Moto's safekeeping period had been extended recently.
For one week DC Morrison and DI Lynley were up there in Cumbria and on various other crime scenes to receive an impression on-site while DS Havers coordinated the team in London as an acting DI. This was the Chief Superintendent's idea. It would force a career jump for Barbara, which was overdue, like Tommy had said.
Progress in their case somehow had come to a halt but with the latest victim in Burton-in-Kendal it had restarted. It was so sad that it had to come like this, but at least they had new evidence.
Straight after his return Tommy had to meet his mother to sort out some stuff for their Cornish estate. So not only the entire week, but also the evening of his arrival and the entire following day and night, he would not be able to meet Barbara again.
She knew of his plans and tight schedule. Therefore, for the second night in a row, she volunteered for looking through the provided CCTV footage of the Moto. Evenings and nights were the best time for it anyway. This way she was out of the way of the daily bustling, as little as it was at the moment, and could watch it on the big screen and not only on the small monitor of her netbook at home. Plus, when she was busy at the office she would not have to stay in her flat for another long and lonely night and it kept her mind busy with something else than brooding. She had missed her boss dearly while he was away.
"I'm glad to be out of my home." Barbara told Tommy when he called. "The walls seem to move and it lets that bloody small flat shrink even more. I'm so sick of it by now."
"Your flat?" he asked and Barbara knew where this would lead but she was not in the mood for that discussion again.
"Haha. No." she answered sadly. "The entire situation. I want back summer. I'm so fed up with all this staying inside."
"We have ice cold temperatures here up north. When this case is done, I guess there will be snow in the Cairngorms. I'll take you on a skiing trip then."
"No way!"
"Well, let's see." Tommy laughed. "We'll talk about details when I'm back home."
A warm feeling flooded Barbara when she heard that. The gentle sound of his voice when he said 'home' had caused it, but she had to scold herself not to be silly. He definitely could not mean it the way it had sounded. But in the occurring pause Tommy realised that he actually felt it the way it had sounded.
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