Thank you for your lovely reviews, I love them!
This is a long chapter …I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations
Neil sat in his car drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, too nervous to enter the pub by himself. See, this is why I wanted Grace here, I feel like a little girl, too scared to go into a pub? God I'm an idiot. No, I'm not….Smithy and Stevie are idiots! He shook his head and sighed, deciding to refuse to enter the pub until he saw Grace go in.
He waited about ten minutes and his hand twitched towards his phone, wanting to text her to see if she was near. Though Smithy and Stevie are with her, I won't text; I wouldn't put it past them to take her phone to see who it was. Sighing, he slumped back into his seat and waited.
He was relieved when he saw Grace arrive in Smithy's car and opened his car door heading towards the pub, bracing himself for their reaction.
"Hey guys!" Callum shouted after seeing Smithy and Stevie enter and start heading over to the group of Sunhill officers that occupied over half of the pub.
"'Sup Callum." Smithy said rolling his eye as he saw a glint in Callum's eye.
"Later Callum, later..." He promised scornfully as Stevie just looked from one to the other, bemused.
"How come you get to decide when and where?" Callum said trying to look annoyed while he was really
"What the hell are you two on about?" She demanded.
"Nothing nothing Stevie, I mean just ask Smithy..." Callum smirked, helping himself to a drink that Gina had just brought over for the relief. "Cheers Ma'm."
"Smithy…" Stevie threatened.
"It's nothing Moss, I promise."
"You know you two look like a right couple…." Gina noted aloud, as she sat down next to Jack. "W-what? Me an' Moss…doubt-" Smithy said blushing as Gina raised her eyebrows at him.
"I was actually going to say you and Callum." She commented causing Stevie to roar with laughter.
"Come on let's get drunk." Gina said handing them all drinks and Smithy took one quickly and started to drink awkwardly trying to cover his embarrassment.
"'ear 'ear Ma'm ! I thought you'd never ask." Callum grinned dodging the famous right hand aimed towards his head.
"Oi! Watch it Callum!" Smithy shouted amused by Callum's antics.
"By the way, where's Grace?" Smithy asked curiously, looking around to see if he could see her.
"What you're not going out with another person are you?" Callum asked pretending to look wounded as Smithy glared at him, and Callum was glad he was out of hitting distance as he received a kick under the table, winding him.
"No actually sergeant, we gave her a lift and she came in before us." Stevie smirked knowingly as she and Smithy shared a grin at their new found knowledge.
"Oh, well then you can tell us why she came in in such a hissy fit." Callum probed interestedly, knowing that this was something to do with earlier, while he nodded pointedly towards a corner of the room where she and Banksy were standing and seemed to be having a serious conversation.
"Oh just over something Miss word-vomit here said to her." Smithy laughed into his drink receiving a mock slap from Stevie, before turning around as he noticed the whole of the pubs inhabitant go quiet, all peering disbelievingly at the door.
"Oh my God. Do my eyes deceive me or is that actually Neil Mason?" Callum echoed their thoughts, as Neil Manson came through the door.
Neil opened the door and walked in holding his breath, he prepared himself as he heard the door shut noisily behind him seeming to drew familiar gazes to him. The line seemed to appear in front of him as his colleges struggled to regain the composure that they had drunk away. It was silent and no-one seemed to speak as he walked through the crowd towards grace and Banksy
"Hello." He said, breaking the silence that no-one but Stevie had seemed able to talk through.
"N-Guv" Grace quickly covered up her mistake as she remembered where they were.
"I'll get those." He said pointing towards the drinks that had just been set down at the bar, before heading over to the big table that had been pushed together so most of the Sunhill officers could sit together. He observed everyone to start, just to see what they were doing and he had to admit that after observing ten minutes of Callum and Smithy arm wrestling and everyone cheering them on, he actually was glad he'd come.
"Enjoying yourself there?" Grace whispered into his ear so no one else but Banksy could hear.
"Yes, yes I am." He said laughing as the cheers at the other end of the table signified that Callum had lost the arm wrestling match.
"Go Smithy!" The distinctive voices of Gina and Stevie could be picked out from the shouts.
"You Loser Callum!"
"Call yourself Stone, more like jelly."
"Flimsy and soppy, that's more like! I had a tenner on you!" Shouted the voices of Nate, sally, Beth, Ben and Millie.
"I think you owe me a beer." Commented Smithy as he drained the last of his pint, causing Callum to get up grumbling and complaining.
"Do you like what you see Moss?" Grinned Smithy and he started to show off his muscles.
"You know what would be fun?" Callum said as he sat down again and handed Smithy his beer.
"What?"
"A question round, we each take it in turns to ask each other truths." Callum smirked, looking pointedly at Smithy.
"Nah that's for sissies. Let's do a Strip poker."
"Oi superior adults here and we are if you haven't noticed still in the pub." Protested Gina.
"Fine let's be a sissie and do a fire round instead." Stevie grinned mischievously, Callum straightened in his chair keen to use this as a perfect excuse to weasel more information out of Smithy.
"Basically, what you do is ask a question…like do you prefer chips or cabbage and then they have to say the first one that comes into their head, subconsciously almost, as a slip of the tongue." Stevie said, as she saw most of the relief who were mostly drunk by now, were sitting at one big table, all ready to join in.
"I'll start." Announced Callum, and Smithy groaned inwardly anticipating what was about to happen as Callum spun an empty bear bottle, spinning past Banksy, Gina, Grace, Jack, Mickey, Terry, Nate, Sally, Stevie, Neil, Ben, Beth and Millie and slow down to land on him. Them gleam in Callum's eye was unmistakeable as he triumphantly said
"Lets start."
He cast a glance for inspiration on what to start with.
"Uh yeah…Food or Sex?" You gotta start off small to get big. Callum thought laughing as Smithy shrugged and said, "Food, I guess." The jeers of Stevie could be heard 'Loser'
"Books or TV"
"TV. I'm not a complete loser Callum." Callum thought for a while.
"God call this a fire round," Smithy said. "This is slower than watching a kettle boil." Callum's expression brightened and he smiled mischievously, and Smithy swallowed loudly.
"Gina or Stevie."
"Stevie." He said absentmindedly, as he started to blush after realising what he'd said.
"You're in for big crap now." Callum chuckled. "No more favouritism from the dragon."
He paused before carrying on. "Police officer or a soldier."
"Soldier. It's less dangerous." Smithy smiled.
"What do ya mean less dangerous?" Stevie laughed, "You'd be out in bombs rather than on the streets of civilisation."
"Yeah but if ya think about it, during my time in the war I got a broken arm and that's it. Whereas throughout my years of policing I've been beat up more than I can care to remember, shot, stabbed, held hostage , nearly died in a fire, framed for a murder I didn't commit after being drugged and beaten up and therefore ending up in prison for a while, going undercover, being accused of rape, been accused of being a homophobe and a racist, shot one of my superior officers accidentally, being accused of attacking Delvin, being accused of ruthlessly murdering again and also been attacked by you Callum." Ranted Smithy to an astonished group of people.
"Wow. You're a proper headcase aren't you Smithy?" Stevie laughed, "But at least now it explains the bad face."
"Shut up." Smithy grinned pushing Stevie as they started a mini mock cat fight. "Carry on anyway Callum." He said to a speechless Callum. "I-uh"
"Okay, okay I think it's someone else's go now." Stevie chuckled, "and also lets change it a bit and do a would you rather…" She added smirking.
She span the empty bottle again.
Grace sat back smiling as she watched Neil observe the antics of their fellow colleges and was still in her little day dream when she was pulled out of it by Neil nudging her.
"Grace…Gracey…" Stevie was calling.
"Yeah," she managed; embarrassed by the fact that everyone had caught her staring at Neil. "What?"
"My god, you really haven't been paying attention have you?" Stevie tutted sarcastically, "Something catch your eye?" She joked, and Grace blushed knowing exactly what Stevie was getting at. "Anyhoo, it's you to start would you rather..."
"Ha! I'm not playing." Grace protested as Stevie started asking, 'would you rather…?'
"I'm really not playing" She insisted, she looked to Neil for support but he just smiled crookedly and shrugged as if to say 'why not?'
"Fine."
"That's the spirit." Stevie laughed. "Now shut up and listen. Would you rather….go out with Smithy or Callum?" Grace looked at them laughing, as they showed off their pecks, she pretended to consider as she sized them up.
"Smithy." They all stared laughing at Callum, until Stevie shushed them.
"Go out to a restaurant or stay at home with your chosen individual?" Stevie asked knowing exactly who Grace was choosing in her head. Grace thought back to Neil and her day in as their second date and smiled.
"At home" She said and they replied 'oooohhh'
"In bed no doubt" Stevie joked before saying "Shut up everyone. Work or home?"
"Work. "No contest there. Stevie smiled in anticipation at her next question.
"Would you rather sleep with Smithy or Neil?"
"Neil." Grace replied before realising what she said and clamping her hand over her mouth, blushing. Everyone looked at Neil who was blushing self consciously thinking God I wish there was a way to get out of this, it was all going so well before.
Everyone around the table had started their own conversation about the new gossip, while Smithy and Stevie grinned openly and gave each other a high five.
"We did it. We got them to open up without actually saying anything ourselves." Stevie said, starting to do a mini victory dance.
"Must be a first for you Moss, not saying anything." Smithy retorted as Callum cut in,
"So is this what you two were doing earlier? You two had just found out. Hmm.. Oh you owe me a tenner Smithy." He said cheerfully, as Smithy groaned and got his wallet out.
"What did you owe him for?" Stevie asked stopping her victory dance looking confused.
"Oh nothing he just bet he could find out what happened earlier when he spotted me trying to follow you into the bathroom." Smithy chuckled, and laughed even more when he saw Gina turn around from her conversation with Jack and go "You followed Stevie where…why may I ask?"
"Because we were running away from Neil who somehow knew we were watching him and he came running after us." He said as Callum roared with laughter.
Grace could tell everyone was talking about her and Neil as she looked around the table and cursed her big fat mouth for accidentally letting slip,Stevie knew exactly what she was doing when she asked me that.
A phone started to ring and she looked in her bag in hope that it was hers and she would be granted an escape from the room.
"Hello?" She looked up as the ringing died and Neil answered the phone, he looked relieved for an escape but that expression soon died on his face as he said, "right I'll be right there, I'm leaving now, I'll see you there." He got up and grabbed his coat, he cast a glance in her direction and said "See you tomorrow."
He shared a look with Banksy before leaving.
"What was that about?" Grace asked Banksy who seemed to understand where Neil was going as he started grabbing his and her coat to leave.
"Come on Grace I think we better go. It's about you know who, you know where."
Stevie, Smithy and Callum had all watched this with great curiosity before asking annoyed, "Who's he talking about Voldermort?"
Banksy whispered in Grace's ear , "I think it's Jake and he's taken a turn for the worst."
Please tell me what you think…..Good or bad ?
Hope to have the next one up soon ;)
Lucy ;)