Phew, a little earlier upload than last week! I'm taking a brief break from work, call it a lunch break since it's rare I get one of those! So I thought I'd use my time wisely and upload the next installment of this (not so little) tale. Thanks as always to all you readers for coming along on the journey, with special thanks to my lovely regular reviewers, Sez01, iheartsergeantsmith and A for Antechinus. Hope this lives up to expectations!
Disclaimer: We all know by now, I own nothing except the shirt on my back and the laptop I type this on so don't both suing me!
"Thank you, for persuading me to come with you to Jo's," Lorna murmured as she stood in her hallway facing Sam, who was preparing to head in to work.
"I'm glad you came. It was good, spending time with you all. It helped to take my mind off things, you know," Sam agreed, stepping into Lorna's personal space and sliding her arms around the taller woman's narrow waist. Lorna snaked her own arms around Sam, clasping her hands together at the small of Sam's back and pulling their bodies flush against one another.
"Mine too," she husked before dipping her head to offer Sam a loving kiss. "Is Abi still staying with you?" she asked when they parted for air.
"No, she ran off back to Mike. I think the eyeball incident gave her the perfect escape route if I'm honest," Sam sighed, resting her head against Lorna's shoulder, face nuzzling her neck.
"What do you mean?" Lorna enquired, rocking them both slightly from side to side.
"I told her about us… about me having feelings for you. It shocked her and it's going to take her some time to come around to the idea of me being with a woman but I do think she will come around to it eventually. In the meantime, I just need to be prepared to accept some thoughtless things that are going to keep coming out of her mouth."
"Like what?" Lorna pulled back, looking concernedly into her lover's expressive blue eyes. "Sam, if this is going to cause a problem between you and Abi, we need to rethink where we're going with it."
"It won't, no more so than anything else I've ever done. Abi is… she's always had a volatile relationship with me, always assumed that the attention I give to anyone or anything else should be hers and hers alone. She was jealous of my job, of Hugh's obsession with me, of my relationship with Phil. She's headstrong and vocal but she usually apologises to me once she's had chance to cool off and think about things rationally. She's very much an act now, think later kind of girl," Sam assured her lover, not wanting her to think that Sam was having second thoughts. "Anyway, why were you asking about Abi? Do you want to meet her?"
"Someday, although perhaps when she's less inclined to say something we might all regret, hey? No, I was more wondering if you'd consider staying here again tonight? Especially if Abi's not at your place, I don't like to think of you alone at the minute. And if I'm honest, I'd really like to go to sleep in your arms," the Scot admitted self consciously.
"I'd like that too, very much. Will Moira be back tonight?"
"No, I'll let her know she can have a night off so we can have the place to ourselves." Lorna's gaze flickered between Sam's eyes, feeling the sexual tension rising between them despite the stress of their situation or perhaps, more accurately, in light of it.
"That sounds perfect," Sam husked, pressing a lingering kiss to her lover's lips before reluctantly withdrawing with a groan. "I've got to go or Jack will have my head on a platter. Call me if you want anything before I get back but I will definitely see you later. Want me to pick up some wine on my way in?"
"No, it's ok, I'm going to go shopping, stock up on a few things. Getting out of the house has done me good so I'm going to bite the bullet and choose to live my life. That way, when Katie comes home, she won't shout at me, or you, for letting myself go!" Lorna replied with a self-deprecating smile.
"Good for you, love." Sam turned towards the door, hand reaching up to open it before she had second thoughts and turned back. "I'm proud of you for the way you're handling this. I just… I wanted you to know that."
Jo rubbed her hands tiredly over her face as she approached the front door, having been woken from a nap by the doorbell. Throwing open the door, her face registered the shock she felt as she saw who was standing on the other side.
"Inspector Gold!" she exclaimed, startled but recovering almost instantly and beckoning the older woman inside.
"I thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing. The relief co-opted me into bringing some small tokens of their well wishes for you, since I was coming anyway," Gina brusquely announced, as usual brushing off any hint of a suggestion that she herself cared in more than a passing sense. She handed over a small gift bag along with a large bouquet of mixed flowers in varying shades of pink, white and yellow. "The colours are supposed to be soothing, personally I'd have gone for something a little more striking and vibrant but I'm afraid that's what you get when you send a man flower shopping!"
"They're beautiful, really. You shouldn't have got me anything but please let everyone know I appreciate their generosity and thoughtfulness," Jo murmured bashfully. "Can I get you a drink?"
"A cuppa'd be lovely, thanks," Gina accepted, sinking into an arm chair and allowing her host to wait on her, knowing from experience how annoying it could be when someone assumed you were incapable simply because you happened to be ill. "Tea, a dash of milk, two sugars, please."
Jo grinned and nodded her head briskly before striding into the kitchen to prepare the requested drink. She furtled about in the cupboard locating a fresh pack of suitable biscuits, hand hovering over a plate on which to put them before deciding it would only lead to an outrageous amount of teasing from Gina for being so 'posh'. She opted instead to toss the packet onto the tray she would carry the drinks in on and let the older woman help herself straight from the pack.
"So how's things at the nick?" Jo asked as she walked back in with her wares.
"Same as usual really. Reg is keeping everyone entertained with his tales of how things used to be back in the day. Callum is treading on just as many toes as always – I swear that boy has a degree in putting his foot in it. Honey is, well, Honey. And CID are busy proving that without you, they can't find their heads with both their hands, so all in all, nothing out of the ordinary," Gina declared, voice laced with her ordinary traces of laconic wit. "Enough about them, how are you?" she asked, turning serious in an instant.
"I'm… I'm actually doing alright… thanks. My treatment is going as well as can be expected, it looks like whatever cocktail their pumping into me is doing what it needs to so I start my next round of treatments in a couple of days. As you can see, I've had to go for a change in style but after an initial few wobbles, I'm learning to adapt to that as well. I've discovered that I really do have the best support network around me. Sam has been great and Lorna – Lorna Hart – too and my partner, Lucy has just been incredible. So much so, we're getting married," Jo admitted with wide-eyed astonishment, still struggling to believe she was going to be able to call Lucy her wife.
"Excellent, glad to hear you're not repeating my mistakes and thinking your tougher if you battle it out alone. There's no way it'll beat you, Jo, not when you keep focussed on everything you have to live for." Gina sat back in her chair, observing the detective and noting how content she appeared, despite her obvious frailty. "Sun Hill could use a good wedding, it's been too long since we had a justifiable excuse for getting legless. I'll certainly raise a brandy to you and your fiancée, she's a very lucky woman."
"I think I'm the lucky one. I doubt there are too many people who would willingly take on a spouse in the middle of a cancer battle, not with knowing what the possibilities are for the future," Jo claimed in return, hugging her steaming brew to her chest.
"The ones who don't stick around are the ones who never really loved their partners in the first place, believe me, I know all too well," Gina responded, remembering her own experience of being disappointed by Jonathon Fox during her own chemotherapy treatment. "Keep hold of Lucy and for God's sakes, don't do anything stupid like go back to work and accept another undercover assignment halfway across the country for six months!"
"Oh believe me, I've no intention of going anywhere without Lucy. What I share with her makes me realise how Tess and I were barely anything more than good friends for so many years of our relationship and how selfish it was of me not to end it with her long before I went to Nottingham," Jo confessed, having spent many an hour comparing the two relationships in her mind and finding the former lacking in a startling number of ways. It made her all the more thankful for having met Lucy and determined to maintain their connection by whatever means she could.
"Good. Now let's talk about something far more important…please tell me you watched the fight last night," Gina growled, swerving away from anything remotely slushy in favour of discussing her favourite sport: boxing.
"Ummm, I'm afraid not, I was a little busy, celebrating my engagement and avoiding the calamitous United game," Jo admitted with a playful shrug, not actually in the least bit sorry she hadn't witnessed two grown men beating one another to a bloody pulp.
"You football pansies wouldn't know a real sport if it jumped up and bit you on the backside!" Gina groused with a shake of her head. "I thought you of all people would have had an ounce of taste. You seem like such an intelligent woman," she teased mercilessly, surprised at how easily the banter flowed between them outside of their usual environment and without the usual ammunition to fire at one another.
"Oh really? Watching two grown men commit GBH on one another with acts that if performed on a street would see them visiting our cells is a superior sport to football? Where is the skill in battering a bloke's brains out? We see muppets doing that day in, day out on the job," Jo retorted, warming to her theme.
"The skill is in avoiding being the one who ends up with his brains splattered on the canvas. There's far more art to boxing than to watching 22 little boys run around a field chasing a pig's bladder filled with air who then writhe around in supposed agony as soon as someone blows on them. I've seen four year old girls who make less of a fuss about someone stepping on their toes than those footballers make when someone so much as crinkles an eyelash!" Gina fired back with a derisory grin.
"I suppose you'll be telling me you approve of hunting next too," Jo quipped, agreeing with the inspector's sentiment regarding many modern footballers but refusing to concede the point out of pride.
"Of course not – foxes don't get to choose whether to participate or not. If it was a human they were chasing – one of our frequent fliers or some of the kiddie-fiddlers say – then absolutely, I'd be all for it!" Gina replied, barking out a brief laugh as she imagined a skinny thief being chased across country fields by horse-riding gentry and their hounds.
"I think we'd have to change the rules then though, to give to the dogs more than a fighting chance of catching them. There'd have to be some kind of handicap those being hunted had to wear, like a blindfold or a weight around their ankle. Wouldn't want them getting away, after all," Jo rejoined, her mind turning towards the case she had been working on when she was diagnosed which in turn led her thoughts to Katie. "They will find her, won't they? Katie Hart, I mean."
If the officer was surprised by the turn of their conversation, she hid it well. "You know as well as I do that unfortunately, we can't guarantee that they will. Or that if they do, the outcome will be the one we're all hoping for. Not everyone who goes missing comes home or are found, unfortunately, but these are your colleagues who are looking for her, you know them, know how they work, how meticulous they are. If anyone can find her, they will, we have to hang on to that hope for her family's sake."
Jo nodded, her expression pensive. "I've been thinking about maybe coming back to work if I can – maybe just for a few hours a day, a couple of days a week, just to take some of the pressure off them. I know they're shorthanded, with Stuart missing and me out sick. Even if I just did some of the mundane paperwork that they don't want to be bogged down with…" Jo trailed off, not really sure who she was trying to convince it was a good idea since she still had reservations and doubts about her abilities.
"If you need to do some hours to keep your own conscience quiet, then I'm not going to persuade you otherwise. But I will advise you to consider how passionate you are about your job, how difficult it would be for you to walk away at the end of your hours if you were in the middle of something important, before you make any kinds of enquiries into returning to work. You don't want to become frustrated and jaded or push yourself too hard and risk setting your health back. As much as you love being a copper, it is just a job. You have a whole life beyond that which you need to consider too," Gina cautioned sagely.
"Indeed I do," Jo agreed quietly, expression pensive. "I keep bouncing between thinking that going back is the best thing to do and that it would be a total disaster. I don't know what to do."
"Give yourself time. No one is expecting you to rush back to work in between treatments, the pay doesn't drop too drastically until you've been off a few months so it's not like you have to come back yet and you're about to begin a new round of treatment which you can't know how it'll affect you until it starts. Play it by ear, see how you feel and if, at some point you know in your heart that you can come back and handle anything that's thrown at you – and I've no doubt that day will come – then talk to Jack about doing some hours. In the meantime, so you know how you'd fair being around people again, you could always bob in for a coffee in the canteen. If you feel like you need an excuse, you can say you're there to thank everyone for the flowers. I'm sure there are many who would be glad to see you., especially if you can knock Sergeant Stone down a peg or two for them while you're there," Gina stated with a surreptitious wink.
As Jo went to reply, they both heard a key in the front door followed by a loud slam as it was forcibly closed again. The brunette bolted to her feet, stepping towards the hallway before halting as a dishevelled and irate Lucy stormed into the lounge.
"That bastard…" she spat, silencing herself as she spied Jo's guest, mumbling a quick "sorry" and turning to leave.
"Don't go on my account, I've more than outstayed my welcome. Time for this old crow to be on her way. Good seeing you, Jo, and good to see you looking as well as you do given the circumstances." Gina rose from her seat and stepped towards the hallway.
"Thank you, Inspector Gold, and please do pass on my thanks to everyone on the relief. I'm really touched by their thoughtfulness." Jo kept a steady grip on Lucy's arm to prevent her from bolting even as she made to follow her superior out of the lounge.
"Just think on about what I said, don't try to be a superhero. And I think, this far away from the nick, it's safe enough for you to drop the formalities and call me Gina." Another wink, this time more blatant, accompanied the statement. Turning to the young woman who had joined them, Gina offered a sincere smile. "Since I'm assuming you're the young lady I've heard so much about, congratulations on persuading this one to marry you. She's a keeper, you won't find any better."
"I know, believe me, I do. I can't believe she agreed but I will certainly spend the rest of my days proving what a wise decision it was for her to make!" Lucy ventured, a little of her sour mood evaporating, a tiny smile tugging at her lips as she turned her gaze to her fiancée.
"I already know how wise a decision it was, sweetheart," Jo rejoined, sliding her arm around the shorter woman's waist.
They waved Gina off with final farewells and then Jo guided her lover back into the lounge, pulling her down onto the sofa and hugging her close to her own body. Lucy sighed heavily, nestling her head beneath Jo's chin and wrapping her arm across her lean stomach.
"Not that I object to seeing you earlier than expected but why are you already home from work and what has 'that bastard' done now?" Jo asked gently, her tone implying quotation marks around her repeated phrase of Lucy's from moments earlier.
"He cornered me again, in the copy room, started telling me how much of a tease I am, how I've been coming on to him for months and how I owe him for how I've led him on. He tried to grab me so I slapped him and kneed him in the groin...just as one of the senior managers from our parent company walked in. I've been suspended without pay pending a full enquiry," Lucy fumed, plucking idly at a loose thread escaping the seam of Jo's shirt.
"Well that's a good thing, isn't it? Obviously not the suspension without pay part," Jo hastened to add as she felt her partner stiffen in her arms, "but the investigation part has to be good, doesn't it? I mean, you already mentioned one guy who will back you and I'm sure there have to be others there who know what he's like."
"I'd think that too if the boss who walked in on us wasn't the bastard's brother-in-law. There's no way a full and fair enquiry will be done, it'll just be a sweep it under the carpet, pass it off as a bit of office banter that got out of hand on his part while I'll be sacked for gross misconduct and violent behaviour with no hope of getting a reference out of them." Lucy squirmed away from her fiancée, her agitation needing a physical outlet as she set about pacing the lounge. "I can't believe he's going to get away with it, smarmy, lying, manipulative bastard."
"He won't get away with it, babe," Lucy shot Jo a look as though she had grown a second head, obviously wondering if they were having the same conversation. "He won't get away with it because we are going to send a report to the most senior manager at the parent company, detailing every instance of sexual harassment you have had to endure along with the name and address of any witnesses you know will back you up. He can't be related to everyone in the company and if this other guy, his brother-in-law, can't be trusted to act objectively then we will take the matter out of his hands." Jo stood, capturing her fired up lover in her arms once more and wrapping her in a soothing embrace. "He'll soon regret the day he decided to go after you for loving me." Lucy sagged against Jo's body, her energy departing as swiftly as it had sparked to life.
"Sam, a word before you get started please?" Though Jack phrased it as a question, his swift disappearance back inside his office signalled that any response his DI offered was moot. She hauled herself up the last few stairs and followed him, pulling up short when she saw they were not alone.
"Phil!" she exclaimed, not daring to hope that this meant Stuart's replacement had finally been decided upon.
"Good to see you, Sam," her ex-lover and colleague replied from his seat in front of DCI Meadow's desk.
"DS Hunter will be joining us as temporary cover for Stuart until such a time as a permanent replacement is appointed or Stuart returns to the role. I'm sure you can appreciate it hasn't been smooth sailing arranging this nor is it the most popular decision with the brass but I'm confident that we can all prove how beneficial it is to have someone filling in who already knows the lie of the land around here. I'd like Phil to work with you, Sam. Do either of you see that being an issue? If you do, tell me now so I can reassign Grace or Terry but if you say nothing now and don't like it in a few days time, don't expect me to be sympathetic and make changes then." DCI Meadows fixed both officers with a steely glare, daring them to defy him and lie about their level of comfort regarding working together again.
"Sam and I will get along just fine, Guv. We both want what's best for the team, isn't that right, DI Nixon?" Phil smirked as he turned his gaze on the diminutive blonde.
"Absolutely, you have no reason to worry about us, Guv. Phillip will do as he's told, I'll make sure of that," Sam replied evenly, not daring to appear too keen lest the senior officer think she couldn't be objective.
"Good. See to it that I don't live to regret this," Jack cautioned before shooing them out of his office.
Phil trailed after Sam into the CID hub, following her into her own office and closing the door over behind him. "It really is good to see you again, Sam. It's been too long since we hooked up for drinks."
"With Jo and the cancer plus this place, I've just been really busy, Phil. You know how it is, you never really leave this place. Wherever you go, it follows you in some way," Sam explained, wandering behind her desk and slumping into her chair.
"I get that but what say we make the most of being back in the same part of London again and go out tonight after shift. A few drinks, I'll even throw in a curry if it tempts you. You can fill me in on all that's been going on since we last went out." Phil perched on the edge of Sam's desk opposite where she sat, twisting his upper torso so that he could still face her.
"I don't think that's appropriate. While you're here, you're under my command and the same rules apply as they would if you were here permanently – supervisors are not to date their subordinates," Sam dismissed the offer hiding behind protocol in an attempt to hide the fact that she was, in fact, not currently in a position to see Phil or any other man on any basis.
"It ain't me who's the submissive one when we're together, Sam!" he quipped with a saucy wink in Sam's direction as she blushed a deep crimson. "It wouldn't have to be a 'date' date, it could just be two old friends catching up on each other's news," Phil wangled, trying to coax her from a different angle.
"We both know where it would end up if I agree to go out with you…" Sam began, only to be interrupted.
"I can't help it if you find me irresistible." The statement was followed by a leer of lecherous proportions.
"Phillip, I'm not interested in being with you. Whatever we might have shared in the past, it's not there now. I'm not in the market for any kind of fling, relationship or casual arrangement so please do us both a favour and respect my right to say no to you. We're friends, I don't want to lose that and I don't want us working together being awkward like it got to be before. We've both told Jack we can handle this like professional adults so please, let's do that." As she finished her speech, Sam was alerted to a text message arriving. Picking up the tiny device from where she had tossed it onto her desk, she read the short but sweet message from Lorna, informing her that she was about to do the shopping and reiterating that she was looking forward to spending time with her that night. Sam was unable to prevent the soft smile which stretched her lips and lit up her face.
"Wouldn't it have been easier just to tell me you were already involved with someone, Sam?" Phil murmured quietly, cursing the timing of their paths crossing again, acknowledging that he was too late to rekindle any flame with the beautiful blonde DI.
Sam's head shot up, her expression frozen in shock at being so easy to read. "Uh…I…erm…" Bowing her head, she sighed, "you're right. I should have just been honest with you and told you I'm not available."
"Can I ask who it is?" Phil asked pensively.
"I'd rather you didn't. It's still very new and we're not ready for it to be common knowledge just yet," Sam replied, feeling unusually protective of Lorna and their budding relationship.
Phil nodded, rising from the desk and straightening himself to his full height, visibly switching from 'Phil' to 'DS Hunter' before Sam's eyes. "Ok, where do you want me to start then? Am I hijacking Stuart's desk to work from?"
"Yeah, that's fine. I'll brief you on the cases we currently have open then we can see where Kezia and Angie are up to with them," Sam confirmed, motioning for him to take a seat before she launched into her rundown of their caseload.