A/N: Kind of a here-and-there chapter. Starting to develop themes involving Millie and the CID couples. It's not quite working. Ah well. Enjoy it anyway. (and by the way, I'm going to keep leaving little hints throughout the chapter what I'd like you to do once you've finished reading it!)

"Hello Jasmine, love."

It was Wednesday. Wednesday was shopping day. Millie smiled pleasantly at the girl behind the counter in the corner shop, the girl smiled back, even wider than usual. "What're you looking so happy about?" Jasmine grinned again, blushing to the roots of her red hair.

"Well," she said, leaning towards Millie conspiratorially, "I met a man last night."

"Oooh!" said Millie, joining Jasmine in giggling like a school girl, "Tell us about him then!" Jasmine bit her lip, twisting a lock of hair around her finger, coyly.

"His name's Ray. He's a police officer." Millie gasped, recognition bubbling within her.

"Hang on, love. You don't mean Ray Carling do you? Detective Inspector?"

"Yeah, that's him." Jasmine looked momentarily confused, "What've you been up to Millie, robbing banks?" the women laughed again.

"No, no. My bank robbing days are long gone love. No, you know that bloke I knock about with? The one who was on crutches for a bit?"

"Ooh-" Jasmine suddenly placed the man who Ray had been drinking with. She knew she'd seen him before. "That's Ray's boss, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's Gene," nodded Millie, "Small world, eh?"

"Isn't it just? I've been meaning to ask for a while anyway Millie, what's going on there? You got yourself a toy-boy?" Jasmine raised her eyebrows mock-suggestively. Millie let out a snort of laughter.

"Unfortunately for me he's taken, love. No, he's just a friend. More like a son that anything else. As a matter of fact, we picked out an engagement ring for his fiancée the other day."

"Ahh, that's lovely. What's her name?"

"She works with Ray and Gene. Alex Drake she's called."

"Yeah, Ray did mention a DI Alex Drake, but I thought she was a bloke…"

The conversation continued in similar frame for a long while. Millie enquired about Jasmine's mother, Jasmine told Millie about her little cousins, and gradually the week's news was passed from one to the other.

A/N: REVIEW!

"I think she's the one mate…" said Ray, dreamily, absent mindedly throwing balled up pieces of paper into the bin, a cigarette hanging casually out of his mouth. Chris look horrified.

"No offence like mate. But you called me a poof just for saying I liked Shaz a couple of month ago…and look at you now." Chris drew back a few inches, worried now, as Ray propelled his swivel chair around slightly, a lazy sort of smile playing vaguely about his features.

"Yeah mate, but then I hadn't felt it," he stared off into space, eyes glazed into a look of sheer pleasure, as if a divine apparition had appeared somewhere above Chris's left ear, "I know what it's like now. I can…feel it."

"Are you high or something?"

Chris's disquiet and Ray's pontifications upon the subject of l'amoure were unfortunately then interrupted by a gruff voice. Gene poked his head out of his office door, looking intensely awkward.

"Right. Shut up you lot. Announcement," he barked, and then, with the air of a man wanting to get something over with as soon as possible, he continued, "Me an' Bolls are engaged. So we reserve the right not to buy our own drinks tonight…carry on then." he disappeared back into his office, closing the blinds quickly. Alex, who had been carefully concealing it all morning, exposed the ring on her left hand and holding it out for Shaz to dash over and admire.

"Bloody hell." muttered Chris to himself. CID, in its entirety had gone completely insane. What was worse, what was ten times worse is that he now had to accept, once and for all that the Guv and DI Drake were together…havin' sex like. (as his mind so eloquently put it.) It was wrong…it was just so wrong.

He did not make a habit of imagining his colleges in bed with one another, but for some reason with this particular paring, he could not help but be curious. Did they argue while they did it? About whether the other was doing it right? He shivered unconsciously as a particularly vivid mental image sprung to mind…

'For God's sake Gene! I'm not a bloody beanbag!'

'This is how a real man does it, Bolls. Get used to it!'

Suddenly, Chris was not looking forward to beans on toast in the canteen anymore.

At least he now had two weddings to look forward to, though one a lot more imminent than the other. He felt as though an ice cube had dropped into his stomach as he was reminded: his wedding to Shaz was only two weeks away.

Invitations had been dispatched and everyone from the milkman up seemed to be attending. Chris was dreading it. Of course he wanted to marry Shaz…but this was different. It was like being thrust onto a brightly lit stage.

A/N: Like the beanbag thing? Hate the beanbag thing? Whatever you felt, REVIEW!

As always when one is dreading something, the days feel like hours and the hours themselves become minutes, as they did for Chris over the next week and a half. Before he knew it, Saturday was coming at him with the force of a speeding bullet, and before he could even register that, he found himself dressed in a suit, smoking heavily around the side of the church and considering making a run for it.

Everyone would be watching. All his friends…everyone. If he cocked up this day he'd be humiliated in front of everyone he knew. He had managed to give Ray, his best man, the slip, and was relishing the solitude; very soon, there would be people all around him. Watching, waiting. Watching him. All their eyes boring into him, just waiting for him to mess up. Ray and the Guv of course, would never let him live this down and DI Drake would look at him with that piteous look she reserved just for him. None of this mattered to him. What really bothered him, what made his sweat break in cold bursts, was the possibility that he'd mess up the entire day…Shaz's day.

He couldn't do it. He had to leave. Looking around, furtively, he dropped the fag-end on the ground, extinguished it with his shoe and made to leave.

"DC Skelton?" He looked round. She seemed to have materialised out of nowhere.

"Millie! Erm, Mrs Stafford, I mean…" he tried, unsuccessfully to hide his alarm.

"Afraid I'm late Christopher. Sorry about that, but my joints are playing hell. Didn't think I'd be able to come, but I really wanted to be here, you know, Shaz is a lovely girl." Chris made a low noise of ascent, fiddling with his buttonhole, nervously. Millie took a step closer.

"You put me in mind of a man who doesn't want to be here."

"Yeah." said Chris, "You could say that."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I can't go through with it Millie."

"Then don't." she said, simply. He looked at her, nonplussed.

"You what?"

"Don't go through with it. That's fine. You leave the poor girl at the alter. Jilt her. If you don't love her, perhaps it's for the best-""No, it's not that I-"

"Well what does it matter that she's spent months, maybe years planning this. What does it matter that she used to dream about marrying the man she loved ever since she were a little girl. No Chris, doesn't matter."

"Does matter." grunted Chris, suddenly, anger flaring in his eyes.

"Of course it does." said Millie with a smile, "You love her then?"

"More than anything. I do, really I do."

"Then where's the problem Chris?" said Millie, inclining her head slightly. He thought for a moment before vocalising his worries. They had sounded a lot more important in his mind.

"I…I don't want to cock it up…What if I make a mistake in the vows or something?"

"Do you often make mistakes Chris?"

"Yeah." he said, looking down.

"And she agreed to marry you?" he looked up again, his eyes meeting hers, currently crinkled into a smile. "Oh, Chris. You could make a dozen mistakes and she'd still love you. Don't you see that?"

And he did see. For once in his life, Chris really did understand. He loved Shaz. She loved him. That was the only thing that mattered.

"Right then Christopher," said Millie, with the air of one getting down to business. "looks like we're going to a wedding." she held out her arm, which Chris took, grinning.

"Fab."

Arm in arm the walked into the entrance hall of the church with only minutes to spare. As Chris was chided by Ray, Millie snuck through the double doors and took her place next to Gene in the pews.

A wedding took place that day. Miss Granger became Mrs Skelton and Mr Skelton became the happiest man alive. This was owed, in part, to the fact that during the service he didn't mess up in the slightest.

Well, except for tripping over Shaz's train and landing in her Aunt June's lap…but otherwise he did quite well.

A/N: RE-fricking-VIEW! REVIEW! Thank you. ^^