A/N: Thanks again for the reviews, I know I said that there would only be two or three chapters, but I couldn't quite end this here, so there's at least three more to come for you! This is for Lucy, for keeping me company when I was ill and being such a fantastic mate!

Sam climbed out of the car, locking it behind her before heading towards the house. What did it mean? She couldn't be thinking rationally, could she? No, of course she couldn't be. Sam shook her head, trying to rid it of the theories spinning around her head that she just couldn't accept to be true. Should she tell Jo? That would be hard to explain, but how could she lie to her? She just couldn't do that, not to Jo.

Sam plastered a fake smile on her face as Jo opened the door, extending her arms towards the brunette, engulfing her in a hug.

When they finally pulled apart Jo looked down to Sam, 'Hey you. Glad you're back.'

Sam looked up, briefly meeting eyes with Jo before flicking her vision away, struggling to look at the brunette without wanting to tell her straight away. But she knew she'd have to break it gently to Jo, she needed to prepare her for the full implications of her discovery.

'Hi Jo. It's good to be back, how've you been?'

'Fine, y'know, not great, but that's not really surprising.'

'No, no of course not. Can I come in or are we gonna stand on the doorstep for the rest of the day?' Sam joked, trying her hardest to remain natural.

'Yeah, course, sorry, I'm really not with it.' Jo frowned to herself, something was different between them, she couldn't figure out what it was, had she done something wrong?

'That's fine.' Sam laughed, following Jo into the house. 'Coffee?'

'Mmm, that'd be good thanks.'

'Good.' Sam busied herself with the kettle, trying to put off telling Jo for as long as possible.

Jo sat at the kitchen table, shortly joined by Sam and two cups of steaming coffee. 'Thanks.' She smiled, glancing up to Sam only to see the blonde look away again.

Sam sat down at the table, looking down to her hands and inspecting a non-existent mark on her right palm. She was conscious of the fact that she kept looking away from Jo, and she was conscious of the fact Jo had noticed, but she tried to not mention it for as long as possible.

After about fifteen minutes of not speaking, and when Sam could no longer pretend to still be drinking out of her empty mug, Jo broke the awkward silence that had descended on them. 'What's up Sam?'

'Eh?' Sam replied falsely, 'What do you mean?'

'You know what I mean Sam, why can't you look at me? What happened back in Sun Hill, I know you weren't called into work.'

'How?'

'How what?'

'How do you know something's wrong? How do you know I wasn't at the station?'

'It's obvious something's wrong Sam, you know that as much as I do. And I called up to ask you where you'd hidden the teabags, but Phil said he hadn't spoken to you since before you went away to France. He said you hadn't been at work, where were you?'

'I went to Somerset House.'

'Somerset House? Why? Have you found something? A lead?'

Sam bit down on her bottom lip, how was the easiest way to tell her this? Easiest for both Jo and herself. 'I don't know how to do this Jo, I'm no good at this kind of thing.'

'Just tell me the truth Sam.'

'I can't.' she admitted weakly. 'Will you look at a photo for me?'

'Yeah, course.' Jo agreed, confused at what could be so bad that even the great DI Nixon couldn't say.

Sam gave a small smile, 'Thanks.' She pulled out the file she had from her bag; full of all the newspaper cuttings Jo had given her. Flicking through 'til she found the one she wanted, she pulled out the photo, studying it slightly before placing it on the table, turning it around to face Jo, 'Do you recognise that man in the background?' she asked, pointing at a very blurred figure of a middle-aged male.

Jo squinted slightly, examining the picture carefully, not quite sure if she could believe what she was seeing. 'Is that…? No, it, it can't be. It can't be him. Sam?'

"I only saw him a couple of times, but it looks like him to me Jo.'

'But, he's dead. He died, that's why I came back up here. That can't be him, it just can't.' she felt a stray tear escape her eye and run down her cheek, not quite coming to terms with the full implications of this. 'Tell me it's not him Sam.'

'I can't. That's what I was doing in London. I called up Somerset House the day before I went back there, they couldn't find the death certificate so I went there in person. They couldn't find it Jo. They had no record of your father's death.'

'But he can't be…. No, he must… He wouldn't… Even if he was y'know, he wouldn't kill her, no, he just wouldn't.'

'Jo, I'm sorry, but if he can fake his own death then he's obviously capable of a lot more than you thought.'

'Is he definitely…? I mean, is this definitely him?'

'I don't know Jo, I can't tell you if that's him or not but they have no death certificate. That means no death Jo. He's still alive, whether that's him or not, he's not dead.'

'But he can't be. Why would he…? Why would he pretend to be dead? Why would him and mum hurt me so much by telling me he was?'

'I don't know Jo. I can't tell you that, he's the only person that can answer that. I've got to put a call in to the station up here and tell them what we've found.'

Jo froze for a few seconds before her brain clicked into gear, 'No, no you can't.'

'What? Jo if he did this, then they need to be looking for him.'

'No, we can look for him, you and me, Sun Hill's finest, but please, I can't do that to him.'

'Jo, read this.' She said, thrusting a newspaper article in Jo's face, 'Multiple head wound and three fractured ribs, Jo. He needs to be caught.'

'I need to know why he did it. I can't ask him that if there are half of Manchester CID present. Please, do this for me. Let me find out why he did it, then you can arrest him and take him into the station, but I need to know Sam, I need to know.'

Sam sighed, feeling Jo's pain, yet not quite sympathising with why Jo didn't want the police informed. 'Okay. We do that, we find him, and then we nick him. But we do nick him Jo, I don't care what he says, if he did it, he needs to be put behind bars.'

'Okay.' Jo nodded slightly, 'Okay, thanks.'

Sam forced a smile onto her face, she couldn't figure out what to do. She knew she had a duty to do, but was that duty to the police, or to her friend?

Jo rose from her chair, 'I'm just going to take a shower. Do you wanna go out for something to eat tonight?'

'Um, yeah, all right. We start looking tomorrow though, okay?'

'Yeah, okay.' Jo headed towards the door, turning slightly when she heard Sam call her back.

'Jo, when we start looking, I need you to tell me everything. No holding back anything, okay, you promise?'

'Mmm,' Jo nodded slightly, 'Yeah, of course I will.'

'You promise Jo?'

'Yeah, course, I promise.' Jo added hesitantly, not really sure if she believed she could.

'Okay.'

Sam nodded slightly at Jo, who nodded back before exiting the room, leaving Sam to flop forward in her chair, her head falling into her hands. Everything was spinning in her head; she couldn't make sense of anything. And that made her angry, because if she couldn't make sense of what was happening, then that made her a bad copper in her eyes. But there was something nagging at the back of her mind, deep down she didn't think it was the case she couldn't understand, but Jo. She'd always felt like she'd known her, even back when they did nothing but argue, there was still a connection between then, she felt strong enough about Jo to care what she did. Why was it now that she felt she had no connection through friendship to Jo, but through something else that she couldn't quite understand?

She hated this, she couldn't work out what she felt for Jo, and her mind kept flicking back to those thoughts she had about fancying Jo. As much as she reassured herself that wasn't true, she couldn't quite believe it. Though fancying her just didn't seem quite right, the feelings she was having for Jo were stronger than a crush, but she couldn't feel anything deeper, she refused to even accept it as a crush, never mind anything more.

'Any thoughts?' Sam asked hopefully. They were both sitting in Jo's car, Jo had previously been tapping her fingers on the dash board until Sam spoke, she then stopped and turned to face her.

'Just one or two. He had a lock up somewhere, I can't remember quite where but I now the area it's in, maybe if we went that way we could find it, that might shed some light on things, he might even be there. I've only been there once or twice but I might remember which one is his ' Jo suggested.

'Mmm, maybe. All right, get driving and let's see if we can find this place. Might even get back in time for lunch.' Sam offered with a grin. Jo felt her stomach beginning to rumble at that, so she put her foot on the accelerator, determined to get there and back as quick as possible.

When they finally arrived at the lock up yard, after more wrong turns than Sam had thought humanly possible, they both jumped out of the car, strolling around until Jo found something familiar. Sam had gone one way, leaving Jo to go the other. She wasn't entirely sure if she trusted Jo to do the right thing if she found him, but she knew she couldn't watch her twenty four seven and needed to be able to trust her.

Jo wandered around, shutting her eyes every now and again to see if she could feel a connection to her father, yet getting nothing. She opened her eyes at one point to see a lock up she recognised. After a moments hesitation, she realised it was her father's. Blinking a couple of times, she contemplated her next actions; did she call for Sam? She'd promised she would, but what she really wanted to do was find her father in there and tell him to run. She was going to do just that until her memory flicked back to Sam briefly, as much as she wanted her father safe, she wanted Sam, even if she couldn't have her, so how could she betray her? She just couldn't. 'Sam.'

'Yeah.' came the reply about four seconds later as a breathless Sam flew around the corner and almost bumped into Jo.

'I think I've found it. I think this is his.'

'You think?' Sam asked doubtfully, not wishing to break into the wrong place.

'No, I know. It's his.' Jo replied with a little more certainty than last time.

'Okay. Do you want to do the honours, or…'

'No, you go for it.'

'All right.' Sam answered, moving back slightly before running at the door, only to ping back and grab her shoulder in pain. 'Ow, ah, ah, nope, hard door. Is there anything to lever it open?'

'Erm…' Jo paused, looking around before heading towards a pile of scrap metal. She tossed a few bits aside before holding one bit up triumphantly, 'Ah-ha. Crowbar!'

'Great! Give it here then, I'm not going home with a bruised shoulder for nothing!' she joked, taking the instrument out of Jo's hand, ensuring that they brushed for just a second too long, wanting to know how she felt around the brunette once and for all. She jumped back slightly as what felt like electricity rushed through her veins. Well, that was pretty clear then, she told herself. After pulling herself together, she set to work at breaking into the lock up, and after four unsuccessful attempts, she managed it, resulting in a small cheer for Jo.

Sam crept in the room, hitting out at the nearby wall in attempt to find a light switch, when she finally did, she flicked it on, illuminating the room for a brief second before it blew, plunging them into complete darkness. 'Shit.' She whispered to herself, the light not being there long enough to see if herself and Jo had company.

Sam froze as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Shivering slightly, she felt convinced it was Jo, despite lack of image, it was the same feeling she'd had when they'd touched briefly outside. 'Jo?' she called almost silently through the darkness.

'Yeah, it's me.' Jo whispered in her ear, equally unsure if they were alone.

Sam's felt her heart skip a beat at their close proximity. She knew if she didn't want to feel this way forever she'd have to act on her feelings, but was here the right place? Well, she supposed the lack of lighting could prove the perfect cover for her actions if Jo didn't reciprocate, she could act as if she didn't mean to and couldn't see what she was doing. Turning, Sam reached out into the darkness, finally finding Jo's cheek and resting her hand on it.

Jo gasped, feeling Sam's tender hand against her face, butterflies working overtime as she felt one finger move to the right slightly, running over her bottom lip. Jo was attempting to convince herself that Sam was just trying to make out where she was, when she felt the blonde's lips press gently against hers. She froze initially, paralysed by the shock of contact, but it didn't take her long to pull herself together and return the kiss, wrapping her arms around Sam's waist, attempting to decipher whether this was a dream or not. As she felt Sam relax into her arms, and endeavour to deepen the kiss, she felt mesmerised, though unsure whether this was fictitious or not, she didn't care, it seemed real enough for her.