A/N: This is it - the end. I know there are a few loose ends, but that was intentional. There will be another story as this is going to be a series. That one will tie up the things I've left hanging in this story. I can't promise when the next one will show up...it might well be my next NaNo story...but I can promise it will be written and I won't just leave all of these loose ends flapping in the breeze ;). Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites on this story.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Hu asked as Billy helped Vera into her wheelchair.

"I told you, I can't remember anything. I have to go back to work. I'm going crazy sitting here."

"But Vera, what if something at works triggers a memory?"

"Shep will be there." Vera sighed as she settled herself more comfortably in the chair. "I can't let my crew keep putting up with my replacement. They're miserable, Hu. I've never heard of DCI Strather, but from what Shep's been telling me, he's horrible. He's put her behind a desk and won't let her do any investigating. Evidently he doesn't like women coppers."

"So he's a sexist pig."

"Yes." Vera hissed. "I won't have my crew treated like that."

"Even though you yell and shout at them?" Billy broke into the conversation.

Vera scowled across the room at Billy. "You hush up. I yell and shout when they do something that I know they know better than. I push them to be the good investigators I know they can be so that when they leave me, they have more positions open to them. As long as they're doing their best, I treat them as equals."

"Even though they're not." Hu smiled at her. "None of them are equal to you, and I don't mean rank."

"Flattery, Hu, will get you no where. I'm going to work."

"And does your temporary replacement know that you're going to work?"

"No."

"Sneak attack."

"Yes. Shep knows."

"And is anxiously awaiting the scene I'm guessing." Billy half chuckled as he bent over to look at his friend.

Vera wrinkled her nose at Billy and tapped his cheek. "Don't be so cheeky. Let's go."

Billy grinned as he stood up and gave her a sketchy salute. "Yes, Ma'am."

"I'm going with you." Hu told her.

"I don't need you to babysit. I told you, Shep is there. She'll take care of me. You know that she knows all about the haunting, the nightmares…everything. She'll protect me as well as the two of you have and do. But I don't need you to keep babying me. I need to get back to being me." She shrugged and tapped the arm of her wheelchair. "As much me as I can be."

Hu stopped Billy before he pushed Vera out the door and knelt down in front of her. "I'm not babying you. I'm only worried because no one goes through what you did and just bounces back. I only want to help you be you. You're still having nightmares. I see the look in your eyes. It's there at the back of your mind, poking at you, waiting for a weak moment to come bursting out. I don't want that to happen around people that won't understand, people that might hold it against you." Sighing, he looked up at Billy, making a decision to tell her something they had decided not to. "Vera, the IA team. They've questioned me."

Vera frowned. "And you didn't tell me because?"

Billy joined Hu and held her hand. "Because we didn't want to upset you anymore than you were."

"Babying me."

"No." Billy sighed, "Protecting you, damn it. I know you don't like that, and I understand why, but neither of us put ourselves in danger by doing this."

Vera sighed and nodded then looked at Hu. "And what did they want?"

"They demanded to know why I had been seeing you. I informed them that I wasn't seeing you in an official capacity, that I was nothing more than a friend having dinner with a friend. I told them that I had been asked to do another friend a favor and that's all our time spent together was. I might have also implied there was something going on between the two of us when they wouldn't believe it was merely dinner."

Vera frowned. "And I suppose they believed that."

"No."

"Of course not." She looked down at her hands then took a deep breath and looked back up at them. "Let's go."

Hu looked at Billy, neither of them having missed the look on Vera's face. Both of them knew that Vera hadn't told them how affected she'd been as a woman by the memories Hellen had shared of her and Martin making love. Hu knew more about it than Billy, since he'd forced Vera to tell him that she'd been aroused just as Hellen had been, as if she was Hellen, but she hadn't admitted the emotional toll it had taken on her. He knew from Billy that Vera hadn't been with a man since Peter, so he knew that her body hadn't experienced any of the things it did during the haunting until those hauntings had started. That would take an emotional toll on anyone.

"Hu." Vera tapped his cheek. "Where did you go?" she asked when he finally looked at her.

"Sorry. Gathering wool as my mother used to say."

Titling her head, Vera studied the man. "Me, you were thinking about me."

"Yes."

"I'll be fine. You can have dinner with Billy and I tonight to see for yourself."

Hu nodded. "Fine. Why don't I make something special?"

"Healthy." Billy reminded.

"Oh shut up." Hu told him causing Vera to laugh. "I think she's been good enough with her diet and deserves something a bit naughty. What's your favorite?" he asked Vera.

Billy huffed. "Oh good grief. It's a good thing I'm the one that's been staying with her. She'd have conned you into letting her eat all sorts of junk that's not good for her."

"She is right here!" Vera scowled up at Billy then looked back at Hu. "Pasta of any sort so long as it isn't a healthy pasta dish. And wine. I want more than one glass of wine. Dessert, yes…a nice unhealthy dessert."

Hu winked at her as Billy huffed. "Chocolate?"

"That would be lovely."

"Deal."

Billy grumbled. "Then it's back to being healthy tomorrow."

"Oh hush and push me out to the car." Vera huffed at him then winked at Hu.

Hu moved out of the way, satisfied that he'd done the best he could to put Vera in the right frame of mind to face work without the tension setting her off. He knew she was a strong woman, he'd seen that the first conversation they'd had. But with everything that had happened to her, she was an emotional time bomb that hadn't gone off yet.

He just didn't want her to blow at work and embarrass herself.

VS

Shep looked at her phone, smiling at the text. Show time. Damn she loved the cheek of this woman. He's perched behind your desk, completely oblivious, she sent back, trying desperately not to grin like an idiot so she didn't give anything away.

Aiden saw Shep sitting at her desk staring at her mobile and wondered just what she was up to. He knew she was bored and angry, hell, he and Kenny were angry for her. DCI Strather was an arse. Kenny didn't know much about him, but he had learned from a few of his mates that the man had transferred in from Vera's old district, though neither of them could figure out why a man would leave the lucrative position he'd held to take this small posting.

Something was clearly up…that was the first thought Kenny had when he looked across the room at Shep. The woman was fairly buzzing in her chair. Then he heard the doors to the incident room open and his eyes widened as Vera wheeled herself in. Grinning, he looked at Shep and winked, figuring out what she'd been up to and applauding her.

Aiden's eyes widened as he spotted Vera. Grinning, he started to stand up but she shook her head and he stayed where he was, watching as she rolled by…heading straight for her office.

Oh, this was going to be good.

"What sort of mess have you made of my desk?" Vera asked without preamble as she rolled through the door of her office. Looking at the frame sitting in the corner, she raised an eyebrow. "Making yourself comfortable?"

DCI Strather looked up. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here. This my team. My office." Lifting the papers from her lap, she held them up. "These are my release forms from my doctors. They all told me that I could return to work any time I chose to. I chose today."

"You can't just come in here and shove me out." DCI Strather boomed at her.

Vera just blinked at him. "I'll be visiting with my crew while you gather your things."

Shep had moved to sit on the sofa and was grinning when Vera backed out of her office and turned to wheel toward them. Giving her boss a thumbs up, she did her best not to laugh at the muttering and cursing coming from the man currently slamming things about. She saw him pick up the phone and knew what he was doing, but she also knew it wasn't going to work. Vera had made sure she had the upper hand before she ever moved one inch into the building.

"Well?" Vera asked as she looked from Kenny to Aiden and settled on Shep. "What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"I wouldn't say nothing." Kenny chuckled when they heard the phone slam down and another curse from DCI Strather. "I'd say he just found out you had the backing of your superiors before you ever came in this morning."

"I did?" Vera asked as innocently as she could.

Aiden grinned. "It's good to have that sarcasm back."

"No sucking up, DS Healy." Vera winked at him. Waving at DCI Strather as he stormed by, she shrugged then looked back at her team. "First things first, Shep, no more sitting on your arse."

"Yes, Ma'am." Shep grinned.

"Secondly, I'm still me. I can't go out in the field like I always have before, but my mind still works like it always has. I need you all to be at your best, better than ever. You're going to have to do even more leg work than I've had you do in the past, but I know you can do it. You're my crew and the best damn crew out there."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

"We'll do whatever it takes to have you back."

"Enough of that now." Vera held up her hand. "Finish up whatever the arse had you working on so that when a new case comes in we can go at it without interruptions."

"Yes, Ma'am," the three chorused, all of them standing and watching Vera roll toward her office.

"Is she really okay?" Kenny asked, gazing at Shep out of the corner of his eye.

"I think she's as okay as she can be, more than good enough to be back here where she belongs."

"We'll still have to watch out for her." Aiden whispered as they watched Vera settle behind her desk.

"Just don't let her know you're doing it. She'll have your head." Kenny grinned.

Shep chuckled and nodded. "We know that already."

Aiden smiled. "Yes, we do."

Vera looked up and raised an eyebrow when she saw that her team were standing staring at her. "What? You act as though you've never seen me sitting behind me desk before."

Aiden shrugged as the other two turned to go to their desks. "It's just good to have you back, Ma'am."