Stuart Turner stood in the dock and tried to clamp down on the rising panic he was feeling. Just absorbing the bit about being on remand was making him feel sick, his head in a whirl, the fact that he knew exactly what was going to happen didn't make him feel any better about it. He looked down at his hands, cuffed in front of him. A detached part of his brain attempting to process the information he would need for survival.
A hand touched his elbow and pulled him away, and Stuart looked up, his eyes searching the packed room, but seeking only one person. Terrified, confused brown eyes looked deep into the strangely blue and brown eyes of the one person on the planet who meant the world to him, and he steadied his nerve. She was there for him. Whatever came, Jo was his rock.
"I always knew he was a wrong un." She heard Phil Hunter speak to Sam Nixon. She wanted to yell at Phil, even now, he just had to put the boot in and he knew that she must have heard him. She knew how it looked, but since he also knew that she and Stu were friends, couldn't he, just once, have said nothing. Because she knew he would never say anything nice or constructive about Stuart Turner.
She slipped quietly from her seat. Whatever else happened, whatever she had been asked to do, for the fear and stress she had seen on his face, she had to be there for him. She ran downstairs quietly, avoiding her colleagues. Just then she needed to be alone, to summon her courage, because she knew what he was facing, and in her heart of hearts, she was afraid. She couldn't show him that. He needed her to be strong.
"Can I have a couple of minutes." She looked expectantly at the bored, indifferent guard. Every fibre of her being screaming can't you see how stressed he is, how close to the edge, what's the matter with you, aren't you even human? But she didn't.
Stu sat on the hard bench, his head resting back against the wall, he was looking at the ceiling. She moved forward and sat next to him. Taking his cold, quivering fingers in her warm ones, she looked back at the guard, "can't you take the cuffs off, please?"
"No. You have two minutes." he pulled the door to behind him, affording them a tiny measure of privacy.
"I never thought I'd feel like this..."
"Stu, this is all wrong."
"No." He shook his head, swallowing hard. He leaned forward, and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him hard against her, he was shivering, his cuffed hands reaching up to clutch around her upper arm, his face buried against her neck. She knew it wasn't what he was facing, or even the stress of being cuffed in these circumstances, it was the prison van. Stu's claustrophobia was something that he had kept hidden from everyone, she'd only found out by accident, and he was fighting to maintain control, but being put, cuffed, into what amounted to a tin box nearly caused a major panic attack. Now he was facing the journey back and he wasn't coping.
She rubbed the back of his neck with her hand, his breathing was coming in snatches, shudders ripping through his body as he fought the panic that was rising at the thought of going back in the van. He had to do this, there really wasn't any choice.
"Time's up." The intrusive voice of the bored guard.
Jo wanted to scream, NO To hold him close and never let him go. But making any kind of scene would make the stress worse for Stu. They got to their feet. Stu stood passively, and the guard took hold of the cuffs. Jo gently stroked his cheek. "I'll be seeing you." He nodded, and allowed himself to be led away.
Jo walked into the office and shut the door behind her. Meadows looked up.
She sat down and fixed him with a weary gaze "Well it's done." She glanced at Neil Manson. "I hope you both know what you're doing, because he's not really up for this."
Neil picked up on her flat tone, and the slight wobble in her voice.
"Jo, are you ready for this, Stuart is going to need you, if you can't do it, I'll find someone else."
She looked down at her hands and twisted her fingers together to still their trembling. "No, I'm ready," she looked up at him, the merest suspicion of tears in her eyes, "despite the fact that I think this is absolutely the most stupid, dangerous plan that has ever been thought up and I hate it with a passion. In spite of all that, you see, everything depends on success, failure is not an option." her voice wobbled, tears were very close now, "because, guv, my baby will not grow up without a father."
They stared at her in disbelief, and then incredulity.
She nodded, "that's right." She rose to her feet, "now guv, if you don't mind..."
Jack waved his hand, "no, no, of course not, go home..."
She turned back at the door. "Guv, I would appreciate it if you didn't say anything. Stu doesn't even know yet." She fought the lump in the back of her throat, "I couldn't tell him, or he wouldn't have been able to go."