In which Stevie, Grace and Kezia share a secret ... and Stuart finds a new little friend.
I just know there's a softy side to Stuart which doesn't get much of an airing, so decided to bring it out in the open...
"Immigration believe that the boat sank close to shore. They found the dead woman here..." Jack pointed to the map pinned to the noticeboard behind him, "but there are indications that there was a small child in the boat, and as yet, they have not been able to account for her."
He looked around the room at the hastily assembled team, CID and Uniform, it was all hands on deck because this was a child, unknown age, intelligence from one of the live immigrants picked up suggested that it might be a little girl, five years old, Chinese.
"All we know for certain is that the boat sank and the mother drowned." He pinched the top of his nose, this one made him feel sick, little child, lost, scared and alone in a strange foreign land, unable to communicate with anybody she was likely to run into, god knows what may have happened to her. Pulled himself together. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, you have your positions, let's get on with it."
Stevie was partnered with Stuart again. He drove in silence, which wasn't really like Stuart, and Stevie looked up at him with some concern, "Sarge?"
"Huh." He sounded absent.
"Sarge, are you okay."
"Yes, fine ... why do you ask?" His voice sounded odd and the quick glance he gave her shocked her, he looks like he's about to cry. And that definitely was not like Stuart. For a moment she wondered if he was suffering some hang over side effects from the heroin that had been shot into his system.
Then suddenly he pulled over. "Sarge?"
"Just be a minute." He got out of the car and disappeared into a small shop. Emerging a minute or two later with a plastic bag, which he lobbed onto the back seat of the car.
Stevie was dying to know what was in the bag, but taking a peek was out of the question. They reached the search site they'd been given, off to their left they could see Uniform doing a slow walk through of the waste ground, Jo and Kezia, and Grace and Mickey were somewhere off to their right. Stevie swept the area with binoculars, then heard a rustling behind her, turned back towards the car and was in time to see Stuart slip something into his jacket pocket. The plastic bag... She peered into the car ...Wagon Wheels? This was definitely getting stranger by the minute.
Half an hour later and it seemed like they'd covered every possible hiding place for a small child. Stevie was about to suggest that they give up this derelict building and move onto the next one, and turned round to say as much, but Stuart's attention was focused elsewhere.
"Sarge?"
"A minute, Stevie..." there was a small space through which a little child could have crawled, he was far too big to get through, so have to go over. He scrambled over the pipes. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see something in the corner, crouched down. A little dirty face was turned up toward him, eyes sparking with fear...but she didn't make a sound, just cowered away.
Heart racing with relief, Stuart reached into his pocket, and gently waved the wrapped biscuit. The little girl's eyes focused on the bright wrapping, and hunger overcame fear. She came towards him, quickly he split open the biscuit wrapping so that she could take a bite, she was filthy and cold, so he stripped off his jacket and wrapped her in it.
"Sarge?" he'd almost forgotten about Stevie. "What's going on?"
"I've got her. We're coming back through." He didn't care that his voice sounded a bit high and breathy, the relief was just too much. He lifted the little girl in his arms, one little arm slid round his neck, while she burrowed against him still nibbling on the biscuit. He could hear Stevie move away from the pipes, presumably to radio the news in. With some difficulty he climbed over, holding onto the little girl and climbing the pipes was a struggle, but he managed it.
Jo, Kezia and Grace were by the car when Stuart emerged from the run down building with Stevie in tow.
Jo stared at him, he was absolutely filthy, nearly as dirty as the child in his arms, his chinos were torn and covered in grease and muck from the machinery, he looked a mess. Bizarrely, he'd never looked better to her eyes. She stepped forward "You look a mess." Their eyes met, and Jo felt the jolt right down to her toes.
Still cuddling the little girl, Stuart leaned against the car, he was too tired to keep everything straight in his head, and right then he needed the reassurance that someone cared, he knew letting his guard down in front of Jo might be a mistake but the emotions of finding the child just weren't about to be contained. So he'd looked at Jo with all pretense stripped away, looked into those beautiful solemn blue eyes with all his heart laid bare, and was stunned by what he could see shining back at him.
Jo was stunned, she couldn't imagine he'd feel that way, and there was no mistaking that he did. What they were going to do about that knowledge she was having a hard time imagining, but that they would work it out somehow, she was certain. She felt humbled by the gift, true he'd dropped all defenses in the hospital, but he was ill, frightened and in pain then, now was very different. Suddenly it seemed that they were the only two people left on earth.
Oh my god!! Stevie, Grace and Kezia exchanged looks. That was simply too weird for words, tomboy Jo and super-smoothie Stuart??
TBC...