Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters nor the original Inspector Lynley Mysteries – they belong to Elizabeth George and the BBC. I have borrowed the characters from the TV-Show and only own the ideas of my stories.

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For Anon99: Ah, well, Anon99, I guess many of those who used to hang around here have lost interest, especially after the long pause where nobody has written. I have to admit that I miss the comments, because they could be inspiring.

A/N: Making progress is not only moving in together, you also have to have a break from time to time. Our detective couple spends this break in a green oasis in the middle of the city. This is Door 2. Enjoy...


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The Green Gem, London

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At one o'clock our detective couple left the Met building and strolled down the embankment towards the tube station. After a train ride of about 15 minutes they arrived at Warwick Avenue Station. Barbara still deeply wondered where this trip was going but Tommy did not let on anything. He just had said that he knew a perfect place. Only a few yards away from the station he finally led her into a narrow, canopied alley between two houses. The Green Gem London could be read at the front of the baldachin and the passage opened into a space with plants and gardening stuff.

"Recently I've found this on the internet." he explained with a proud grin. He stopped to enjoy a few beams of warm sunshine. A black cat royally welcomed them with a stoic expression and no move away from its warm spot on a stack of wooden crates. In the back, near a wall, some people looked out for plants for their gardens or balconies. In a glasshouse the sprinkler just had started. The hushed conversations of people were heard from a distance and some birds were chirping in potted trees. The usual city sounds were completely inaudible here. It smelled of wet earth, budding flowers and the hint of garlic.

"This is a nursery! I thought we'd go for lunch!?" Barbara asked full of confusion and awe about this green oasis, but they went further on. Tommy opened a double glass door and led her into something that appeared as a conservatory although it had a bar at its end, and tables and chairs in all styles and mainly mismatching offered places to have a bite. She was awestruck. From the glass ceiling there hung huge studio lamps and some hanging baskets with overflowing plants. On one side there was no wall but just a glass facade with several small pots with small plants, providing a good view to the garden centre outside. Just a few people were there and it was quiet although the atmosphere was lighthearted and happily buzzing.


"Lynley." Lynley said to the waitress who welcomed them and they were brought to a small whitewashed table with a metal chair on oe side and an old white kitchen chair on the other. It was slightly off side and behind a huge laurel bush. They could only be seen by the bar tender when he went to one side. Two menus laid there decoratively, a small aloe stood near the window and a short, thick candle in the middle of the table already was lit.

"Oh, Thomas, this is lovely." Barbara sighed, leaned into Tommy's side, tugged at his lapels and gave him a briefly lingering kiss before they sat down to study the menu.

They ordered pasta with seafood and a beer. "I'm afraid you won't get ketchup with it." he joked.

"I'd never have that with ketchup, you bet!" she informed him indignantly. "And by the way, why haven't you ordered white wine? I mean, it's fish, isn't it?" She winked.

He winked back. "Because I know you'd prefer a beer."

For a while they talked about the brilliant weather, this beautiful location, the perfect food, and their conversation only slowly went over to their talk with Hillier. When the empty plates were taken away they had a coffee afterwards. With an absent mind and staring at the candle, Tommy had become silent. Somehow he appeared to be preoccupied with something else.


"What's running through your mind?" Barbara asked and took his right hand with a smile. "You look as if your mind has wandered miles away."

Gently he caressed her fingers with his thumb. Then he took a deep breath and with his other hand he grabbed into the pocket of his jacket. Barbara saw a small box covered in black velvet placed onto the table but still covered by his fingers. She swallowed. She had a clear vision of what would come now and she did not know if she would be able to say the right words. She loved him. She had moved in with him. She was not about to leave him, ever. Nonetheless the idea of marriage was too frightening. And then again it was not.

Slowly Tommy withdrew his hand from her fingers, opened the box and took the ring from it. Again he searched contact to her hand. Gently he caressed it, looking at it with a thoughtful expression but still staying silent. He took it as a good sign that Barbara had made no move to retreat her hands or to object before he had said anything about that ring. He had seen in her expression that she knew what this was about.

"You know..." he slowly started and finally looked into her eyes. He saw love and fear and still a lot of insecurities. "It's almost exactly four months ago that we've had our silly argument in my office when I couldn't keep to myself what I really feel for you and blurted out that I love you in the midst of harshly shouted words. It was not the best of moments but in the end it actually was. I still love you. How could I not?"

Tommy placed a light kiss on the knuckles of her fingers before he went on with his speech.

"And I believe that you love me just as much. You've finally moved in with me and we've finally dared to tell Hillier today and much to my surprise that has been far easier than I've thought." Barbara chuckled nervously in the pause he made. "I intend to spend my life with you, you know that. And as far as I remember, you've already agreed on that part. I have wanted to marry you on the spot when you've said that you love me in the very first hours of this year, but I understood that you needed more time to adjust to this weird situation, like you named it. Anyway, nothing has changed. I still love you. So, umm..."


He held up the beautiful ring and it glistened in the sun. Through a slightly blurred vision Barbara saw that it was made of two silver bands parallelly melted together and with a surface that looked roughly treated. Like their shared lives, she thought. A tiny emerald was attached in the mould between the two parts and sat next to a tiny diamond - like the Asherton Emerald and the Havers Carbon, turned into a diamond. She knew he really had chosen this ring deliberately. Barbara swallowed.

"When I'm going to put this ring onto your finger, Barbara Havers, it goes along with the deep wish that one day in the hopefully not so far away future, you'd do me the great honour to accept my hand in marriage."

It was no real question, it almost was just a statement and Tommy actually had intended to not make it sound like a question she had to answer straight away.

At first, Barbara said nothing. Every clear thought in her head had swooned away but that tiny voice of insecurity was as loud as all other voices could have been together. So in the end she still stayed silent and still searched for the right answer although there was no voiced question at all. She could not say anything, not even a no, by no means, but she still feared the huge change that would go along with a yes.

As if that change had not already started.


Tommy sensed her insecurities and he saw her inner turmoil displayed in her eyes. He also saw the happy spark when he took her hand and prepared himself for letting the ring slip onto her finger. She let it happen without a tremble and still without a word, but with a light, enchanted smile. His heart burst with joy but he recognised that she could not say anything, for whatever reason.

"Just say nothing now, Barbara. I love you and I want to marry you. Just keep that idea in the back of your mind. Just wear this ring. See it as my promise to you, and, who knows, maybe one day you'll come to like the idea. Then you can give me your answer."

"Okay." she croaked and adjusted that fine piece of jewellery on her left ring finger. She cursed herself for being an idiotic coward, but to be honest, words also failed her because she was so touched by his little speech, his gesture, his affectionate offer to go on waiting for her to be ready.

Tommy though still locked his eyes with hers and lifted her left hand with both of his to give it a gentle kiss. Barbara lost herself in the darkened marbles of the man she loved so deeply. Eventually her cheeks turned slightly rosy. She knew it was time for her decision.

"It's a beautiful ring, Thomas." She almost whispered. "The most beautiful ring of the world. And this is the most beautiful spot in London to give it to me." Barbara paused and her lips turned into a wider smile when Tommy placed another soft kiss on the back of her hand.

In that moment the laurel bush rustled. "Can I get you anything else?" a cheery voice asked.

The couple startled.

The waitress suddenly had broken the strange spell. Out of nowhere she had appeared at their table, completely ignoring what went on in the lovers' little green niche. As if she could not have stayed where she had been all the time - politely in the background and only coming when called.

Silently, Lynley cursed the damnation of all deities over the poor woman.

"No, thank you." he almost grunted with anger. "Just the bill, please."


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A/N: For those of you who happen to visit London – I can highly recommend this address for your lunch break: 5A Clifton Villas, London W9 2PH