A/N: Thanks for the reviews, they're very much appreciated, and do actually speed me up in writing the next chapter! Please don't hate me for the beginning, I just want to show that she really is happy with Phil.

Lucy - I'm not killing Sam, even if she is engaged to Phil!

Abi – I have actually written a Sam/Phil songfic before, so this isn't the first time I've delved into that side of things.

Sam wriggled slightly in the bed, pulling herself, and the sheet that she'd managed to wrap herself in, off the mattress.

'Oi, where you going?' Phil asked sleepily from his horizontal position on the bed, sitting up slightly to wrap his arms around her waist as she made for the door.

'I've got to get going.'

Phil turned to the clock, not releasing Sam from his hold. 'It's twenty to seven. Stay a bit longer, I haven't seen you properly yet this morning.' He grinned, attempting to drag her back onto the bed.

Sam writhed in his grip, pulling herself free. Smiling sweetly, she bent down to plant a soft kiss on his lips. 'Sorry, I've got to get in early today, Jo's back and Jack asked me to come in to sort some things out with the two of them.'

'I'm sure fifteen minutes won't make much of a difference. Come on, babe, you can spend all day with Jo and Jack.'

'Yeah, and I can spend all night with you, later. But right now, I really have to get ready.'

'All night?' Phil asked cheekily, an unmistakable grin on his face as he wrapped his arms back around her waist, softly drawing her back to the bed. He sat up, allowing her to straddle his lap.

'Yes.' She answered with a smile, 'Now come on, let me go.' She protested half-heartedly, quite happy sitting on top of him. The blonde ran her hands along his back, moving towards him further to kiss him once again. 'Love you.' She whispered when she pulled back, running a finger down his cheek.

'I love you too, babe.' He murmured, tracing his hands down her sides, slipping his arms around her back once again, placing another kiss on her lips. 'You don't have to go right…'

'You have a one track mind, Phil Hunter!' She interrupted, kissing his nose softly, 'I have to, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you later, I promise.' She whispered, slowly climbing off the bed again and wrapping the sheet back around her properly, slipping half way out of the door. 'I'm gonna go grab a shower, I'll be back in a few minutes.' She called; walking fully out of the room and shutting the door before Phil had another chance to make a grab for her.

Sam lent against the wall, smiling to herself. She shut her eyes briefly, picturing the happy memories she'd acquired with Phil. Shaking herself out of her trance; she headed for the shower.

Sam looked up to the clock as she walked through the deserted CID office. Five past eight. She sighed to herself, thinking about the extra time she could have spent with Phil this morning. Heading into Jack's office, she was surprised to find her boss and Jo already seated. 'Sorry, am I late?' She asked briefly, looking to her watch, positive they'd agreed to meet at quarter past.

'No, no, we're just early.' Jack replied. 'Take a seat.' He offered, motioning to the chair next to Jo.

'Hi Jo.' She smiled slightly as she sat down next to the brunette, attempting to not look the woman in the eyes.

'Hi, long time no see, you alright?' Jo asked warmly, striving to break the atmosphere between the two of them, certain that Jack had noticed.

'Yeah, I'm fine, thanks, how are you?'

'Oh you know how it is, over-worked, stressed, tired, heavens knows why I came back to this place!' she joked, a grin on her face.

'Sound like a typical DS then.' Sam smiled, her eyes meeting Jo's for the briefest of seconds, the blonde instantly looking down. 'Right, well, we can't chat all day, what's this about?' She asked, looking to Jack, trying to remain as professional as possible.

'Well, just wanted to check how things are between the two of you, y'know how it is. Make sure everything was left okay from when you were up in Manchester together, from the sounds of things you haven't stayed in contact.' He commented, not knowing quite how far he could stick his nose into their business before they stopped him.

'Oh, you know what it's like, two different places, two different shift patterns, you loose contact.' Sam responded quickly, a fake smile on her face.

'That all there is to it?' he asked innocently, never quite believing that Sam and Jo were just friends, the way Sam had rushed to Manchester when Jo needed her was quite out of character. She left her job and life behind for over a month, he knew Sam wouldn't do that for just anyone.

'Yeah, why wouldn't it be?' Sam answered casually, her heart racing as she thought of all the possibilities flying around in Jack's head as he contemplated it.

'Oh, no reason. Just seemed that you left all of a sudden, that's all.'

'Well, we caught the killer, there was no need for me to stay any longer.'

'Course. It's just I heard you left pretty much as soon as he was arrested.'

'Well, I'd been away for a while, I needed to be earning again, I couldn't stay indefinitely.'

'Couple of hours wouldn't have made a difference.' He remarked without thinking, forgetting he was talking to Sam Nixon, not just anyway.

'I just needed to get away, that's all.' Sam replied harshly, not as prepared as she'd like to be for this interrogation into her private life.

'Right, well, just out of interest, who was the killer in the end?' He turned to Jo, fearing he'd pushed Sam a little too far this morning already.

Jo took a sharp breath in, having been attempting as best she could to forget what had happened. 'My father.'

Jack paused, lost for words, 'Wasn't he…'

'Dead? Yes, or so I thought. Turns out he faked his own death.'

'Oh, well, I'm sorry that must have been hard for you.'

'Yeah, I'm just trying to forget it now, though.'

'Right, yeah, sorry. Listen, I better let you get your desk sorted out.'

'Oh right, yeah thanks Guv.' She smiled, rising from her chair and exiting the office.

Sam looked to the door, about to do the same and head to her own office. Jack addressing her once again stopped her, though.

'Sam, would you mind working with Jo today?'

'I'm on an assault case with Phil at the moment, sorry Guv.'

'Yeah, I though maybe Phil could use a bit of time on paperwork.'

'He won't thank you for that, Jack.'

'I'm not really interested in his thanks, Sam, I think Jo could do with settling back in.'

'Maybe it'd do her good to be paired with someone she doesn't know, let her get to know some of her new colleagues.' Sam suggested.

'Look, Sam, I know there's more to you and Jo than you're both letting on, what is it?'

'Nothing.' Sam replied defensively, 'There's nothing.'

'Right, so why do you have a problem working with her?' As confident as he was that Sam wouldn't intentionally allow whatever happened between herself and Jo interfere with her professional life, he needed to stress that to her, even if all it did was open up old wounds and forced the blonde into confronting whatever demons she was obviously fighting.

'I don't.'

'Then prove it to me.'

'Fine. I'll work with Jo today. But I'm not backing you up if Phil blows up about this.'

'Why would he?' Jack queried.

'Because you're putting him on paperwork.'

'So he wouldn't be jealous of you and Jo working together then?'

'No, why would he be?'

'The two of you just seem to have a bit of tension between you.'

'Phil and I are perfectly happy together, Guv.' Sam replied cautiously, knowing there was no tension between herself and the DS she was due to marry.

'I meant between you and Jo actually.'

'There's nothing between myself and Jo.' She retorted, not aware that the atmosphere between the two of them was so obvious.

'Okay, get to work then.'

Sam perched on the edge of Jo's desk, the DS rummaging through her bottom draw. She looked up as Sam sat down, smiling slightly at the blonde. 'Sam.'

'Look, Jack's asked me to work with you today.'

'Okay, what have we got?'

'He thinks there's something between us, Jo.'

'Right… And what did you say to that?'

'That there wasn't, of course, there isn't.' She added firmly, looking into Jo's eyes properly for the first time in over three years.

'Okay.'

'What happened with your father, did you ever get to speak to him?'

'No… he, er, he committed suicide. I didn't get much of a chance to talk to him.'

'I'm sorry.' Sam said softly, raising her left hand to her head to straighten out her hair.

Jo's attention immediately diverted to the blonde in front of her, her vision following her hand as she saw something catch the morning light. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the ring on her finger, a glistening diamond on a white gold band.

She took a sharp intake of breath, causing Sam to look down to her. 'Er, nice ring, Sam.' She commented, her heart doing somersaults as she attempted to accept this.

'Oh, yeah, I meant to tell you, Phil and I…' she bit down gently on her bottom lip, 'We're getting married.'

'When?'

'August the 31st.'

'Oh, that's, well, soon.'

'Yeah.'

'How long have you been…'

'Engaged? Six months.'

'Oh, and how long have you been together?'

'Almost three years.'

Jo looked down, feeling a tear trickle down her face. 'Well, I suppose congratulations are in or…'

'You don't have to.' Sam interrupted.

'No, I'm happy for you.' She concluded convincingly, still looking away from the blonde, knowing that Sam must have got back with him almost instantly when she returned from Manchester.

'Well, thanks, look I better get back to my office.' Sam added awkwardly, not knowing how to react to the brunette.

'Yeah, I'll see you in a bit.'

'Yeah. Here's the file.' She placed a thin file on the desk, standing as she did so. 'We've not got much to go on I'm afraid.'

'Okay, well I'll take a look.' Jo replied, watching as Sam retreated to her office, the DS left alone in the CID office, feeling out of place, hoping someone else would arrive soon. Glancing at her clock, she sighed, twenty past eight, she doubted she'd find herself with company for another half an hour.

'Sam?' Jo called, knocking on the open door to alert the blonde to her presence.

'Yeah, come in.' She said, briefly looking up to signal for her to take a seat.

'Think I've got something on this case?'

'Yeah?' Sam asked hopefully, her own investigative skills having drawn a blank on it.

'Yeah, this vic, she's a small time model, right?'

'Mmm, pretty low level stuff, a few magazine shoots for a couple of the glossys, but nothing to get her recognised on the streets.'

'Precisely.' She concluded with a smile, causing Sam's brow to furrow.

'Does that give us any leads?' the blonde asked dubiously, having already looked into the girl's profession and finding nothing untoward.

'Well yes, I mean, she was killed at Jamaica Docks, right?'

'Right.'

'Well then. There was a big shoot there a couple of weeks ago.'

'Wait a sec, how long have you been back in Sun Hill?' Sam quizzed, knowing Jo wouldn't know about something like that had she been in Manchester at the time, the blonde not even knowing about it herself.

'A few weeks.' Jo admitted sheepishly, fearing her superior was about to explode at her.

'And how come you didn't tell me earlier?' Sam asked calmly, knowing raising her voice would attract unwanted attention.

'I didn't know how to. At least when I got the sergeant's post here I had a reason for contacting you. Before that I just didn't know how to call or email or anything. I'm sorry.'

Sam paused, waiting for enough awkward silence to fill the room for her to be able to revert back to the previous conversation without Jo having enough strength to push her for a response. 'So this thing at Jamaica Docks, was she in the shoot or what?'

'I'm not sure yet, I've got a couple of uniform looking into it for me while I chase up a couple of possible witnesses, I just thought I should let you know.'

'Yeah, well thanks for keeping me informed.'

'No problem.' Jo replied, thinking twice about pointing out to the blonde that it was in fact their case, not just Jo's as Sam seemed to think it was at the moment. Letting out a quiet sigh as Sam said nothing more, the brunette turned and left the office, silently praying Sam would grow up soon and either admit she wanted to be with her or let go, allowing them to both lead normal lives without all the hostility and tension.