A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Only two more chapters to go.

"Why would you think she did something wrong? Have you seen her?" Shep asked as she stared across at the people investigating Vera and the death of Steven Franklin.

"We'll ask the questions, DC Shepherd."

Shep crossed her arms and sat back. Question me all you want to written all over her face. If they thought they were going to get something out of her to hurt Vera, they were sadly mistaken.

"We'll ask again, was DCI Stanhope personally involved with the family or the man she killed."

"No, she was not."

"You expect us to believe that she just happened upon a murder scene where one of the victims looks exactly like her."

"Not exactly. Figure was smaller and her hair wasn't red." Shep pointed out.

"Enough attitude, DC Shepherd."

"Only pointing out that Mrs. Kingsley was not exactly like DCI Stanhope."

"You've picked up her bad habits."

"I wouldn't say that. I was very good at my job before I ever met her, though I will admit that working with DCI Stanhope has made me more observant."

"Why did she keep the details of the bodies at the scene a secret from DC Lockhart and DS Healy but not from you? She actually let you into the bedroom before the bodies were removed."

"You've seen the photos. I'm the only woman on the team. She felt that it would make things awkward for DC Lockhart and DS Healy if they were to see the naked body of a woman that resembled their superior. I didn't find anything wrong in that. Neither of them needed to see the bodies as they were to be able to do their job."

"But yet you did?"

"No, I did not, but I was first on scene. It would have been rather difficult for me not to see."

"And if the first on scene had been DS Healy?"

"She would have let him go in and do his job, but he wasn't, and so she was able to keep the awkwardness at a minimum. I'm not sure why this seems to be such an issue. The murderer was found."

"Which took far longer than it should have. And, he's dead."

Shep looked at the man as if he'd grown two heads. "Have you looked at the case files at all? The only suspect we had was the former manager of Mr. Kingsley's club. He was all we had for a week until DCI Stanhope learned that there had been a man doing work about the Kingsley's place."

"We've read the case files."

"Then how can you possibly hold it against DCI Stanhope that it took us so long to find the murderer? We had nothing. Nothing. These people had no enemies. Their neighbors barely knew them, most of them doing their best to snub the Kingsley's once they learned what Mr. Kingsley's business was. We did everything we could. We annoyed the neighbors by constantly going and asking them questions. If it wasn't for DCI Stanhope, we wouldn't have had any of the leads that we did."

"And just how did she know to ask the family the questions that she did?"

"She's very good at her job. She doesn't always tell us why she does something." Shep shrugged. "Her mind works differently than ours. She sees things none of us do and she processes everything at a speed that I sometimes wonder is equal to a computer."

"Or maybe in this case she just simply knew the answers before the questions were asked because she was involved."

"Oh, not that again. She was not involved. Have you bothered to talk to her?" Shep asked then frowned when she noticed the looks on their faces. "You haven't. You haven't even seen her. Have you at least heard of the hell she was put through?"

"We're done now, DC Shepherd. DCI Stanhope's replacement will be here tomorrow."

"Lovely." Shep snapped as she got up and stormed from the room. Anger was rolling off her in waves. Anger so hot that all she wanted to do was hit something or shoot something. Ignoring the calls from Aiden and Kenny, she rushed out to her car and took off. Hitting something, she decided, wouldn't be enough so shooting something won out. And she knew just the place.

VS

"What the hell?" Aiden looked at Kenny. "Shep just blew outta here like…"

"A very angry woman ready to hit something." Kenny finished. "Probably a good thing she left. They must have really raked her over the coals."

Aiden shook his head. "No. Not Shep."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it wasn't Shep they raked over the coals." Aiden looked at Kenny then lowered his voice. "They're after Vera."

"Bloody hell." Kenny murmured then rubbed a hand over his face. "I knew it. Someone that's been holding a grudge has seen this as their chance to get rid of her."

"But who?"

"Who knows with Vera."

"Do you think it's someone at the top?"

"Oh no doubt."

"Damn."

Kenny nodded. "Well they aren't going to get anything from me. I'll not be used to get their revenge on her."

"Same goes for me. She may be an anti-social cow, but she's a good boss."

"At least you don't really have anything they can ask you about to try and use against her." Kenny sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember the story about her throwing the file at me?"

"Oh."

"Yes, oh."

"Don't tell them."

"And how do you figure I'll have a choice?"

"If they ask, don't give them a straight answer. Call Shep and ask her what she did. I guarantee they didn't get anything out of her."

"I'm sure they didn't. She makes me think of a young Vera."

"Did you know her back then?"

Kenny shook his head. "No. Didn't know her until she came here. I've just heard stories."

"Maybe Shep reminds Vera of herself and that's why she's never been as hard on Shep."

"Could be. Or it could just be that Shep is damned good at the job because of her MP training. I don't know. I just know she was annoyed when Shep was transferred. She tried to stop it, but higherups didn't listen."

"But after Bethany's death…" Aiden started, still feeling a tug at his heart when he thought of his fallen colleague.

"She demanded Shep's transfer back." Kenny finished the thought. "Vera doesn't intend to let Shep go until it's Shep's decision to leave, and even then she'll probably try and talk her out of it."

Aiden nodded with a small smile. "Probably. I'm going home. It's been a damned long day and I'm afraid if I stay here they'll drag me in to be interrogated."

"I'll join you. Maybe we can go to the pub for a pint before home."

"Charlie'd kill me."

"Oh?"

"Baby number two and if she can't drink…"

"Neither can you. I remember those days." Kenny chuckled. "Go on then. I'll see you in the morning. And Aiden…"

"Yes?"

"Don't worry. We'll protect Vera."

Aiden nodded and waved goodbye before leaving. His thoughts turned to his boss, wondering how she was doing, too afraid to go and see her. He knew it was cowardly, but he just couldn't bring himself to face her. He shouldn't have let her have her way. He should have followed her all the time, not just at night when she was going home. Most of all, he just couldn't bare to see her battered face again.