Spoilers for Death in Paradise double bill. I hope Catherine survives.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.


Love.

The distance was a good way for Catherine Bordey to see clearly that love was in the air between the most unlikeliest of people. Neville Parker and Florence Cassell, or by their police ranks Detective Inspector Neville Parker and Detective Sergeant Florence Cassell. With a smile on her face, Catherine watched the unknowing couple, already able to sense the growing feelings between the pair of them, and in many ways, she was reminded of another police couple with the same ranks.

Richard and Catherine's own daughter Camille.

Catherine closed her eyes and let out a remorseful breathe when she thought about Richard Poole; when she had first met the stiff Englishman who had been the ultimate personification of an Englishman with the way he had refused to let up, how he'd always dressed in a suit which must have been like a piece of meat wrapped in aluminium foil and then placed in an oven, and while she had forgiven him for the way he had insulted her when she had tried to nurse him back to health when he'd suffered from a fever, she had grown to like him and she had known Camille had thought the world of him. It had really broken Camille's heart when he had been killed with that ice pick, driven into his heart by a woman who was pretending to be an old friend of his from university.

Camille had told her the details of what had happened, how Helen Reed who'd impersonated her own successful sister, Sasha and took her place with only Sasha's husband, who was already having an affair with Helen at the time being aware of what was going on. Richard, who'd once loved Sasha during their university days, had realised what had happened and he had sent away for proof to be sure before she killed him. Camille had never really gotten over Richard's death despite her best efforts and Catherine's own habit of organising disastrous dates between her daughter and young men in the hopes of kick-starting a romance. But she had seen one romance that was doomed to fail from the start.

Humphrey Goodman's own crush on Camille.

She had not said anything about it to Humphrey because she could see it would never go anywhere, despite the awkward detective's best efforts, but at the same time, Catherine had come close a few times to chiding her grown-up daughter's lack of kindness towards Humphrey, who had seen him as beneath her when it had come to romance. In the end, she hadn't, it had nothing to do with any kind of indifference on her own part, it had to be worked out between them. Humphrey had needed to see for himself his own attempts at romance would not work, and that was before Camille was transferred off of Saint Marie for Paris (she had actually mentally thanked Humphrey for his attempt to keep Camille here, but at the same time he'd angered her for doing such a thing to Camille since it did not sound like something anyone in love would do), and in any case, Martha was a better fit than Camille. A lot of stemmed from the fact their chances of kindling a romance were doomed to failure; Humphrey was going through a divorce which had hit him so suddenly the poor man hadn't even realised their marriage was on the rocks until he had received a message on an answering machine. Catherine had seen many marriages fail over the years, but by even the coldest standards that was the worst way to announce a break-up.

And Camille had just lost the man she had fancied.

Catherine honestly hoped the same thing did not happen here between Neville and Florence, especially since Florence was still recovering from the murder of her fiancé Patrice who was murdered two years before.

Like many people who had met her, Catherine had fallen in love with Florence; the young woman was vibrant, cheerful and she had always worn a kind-hearted smile that instantly made people like her, and Catherine honestly hoped the young woman didn't let her sorrow for Patrice cloud her against what could be.

They were an odd couple, she had to admit; Neville was a more sickly cross between Richard and Humphrey; he had some of Richard's inability to accept he was in the Caribbean, but it wasn't as extreme even if his diet consisting of chicken and chips was far from adventurous, and he had some of Humphrey's unintentional awkwardness. Catherine wondered sometimes what it was about England that made its people, especially Detective Inspectors like that.

She had begun noticing little things between them for some time; longing looks, the closeness between them, it definitely reminded her of her own daughter and Richard.

Catherine chuckled and she went about her business.