Thanks to Bawbert and Laura for bettaing

Thanks to Vikki, Becki, sn0zb0z, Ami and starfish saver for reviewing chapter 14

I'm trying something different in this chapter- tell me if you like it or not.

I stole a line from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, sorry about that :P the majority of people won't know anyway, so it doesn't matter. If you watch it, see if you can spot it.

Settling the Score chapter 15

On The Outside Looking in

Stuart's POV- warning prepare to feel some sympathy if I'm doing this right lol

I acted like it didn't matter, acted like I didn't care, but I do, and she knows it. Sam said she wanted us to be a serious couple, not a casual fling, and I believed her. I believed her despite how she and Phil went silent when I entered a room, almost as if they were hiding something. I believed she wouldn't cheat on me, because she told me she knew what it was like to be let down like that. On reflection, she was probably talking about him. Phil Hunter. The one who cheats on every woman he dates. The one with two children with two different mothers, neither his ex-wife. The one that she prefers to me.

Everyone in CID hates me. They've made no secret of that. Some find me bossy and arrogant. Some blame me for stealing DC Suzie Sim's job. And some just hate me because Phil does. Because I just swanned in here and took the girl he was supposed to be with.

I know that I order the DCs and even my fellow sergeants around, but that's my job. I was promoted for a reason. Perhaps they dislike the way I take credit for some other people's hard work. Perhaps they dislike me because I got Zain in trouble, just to make an example of him. However I know how things work. I couldn't begin being DS Stuart Turner, everyone's friend. You earn no respect like that. Some manage to find the balance between friendship and superiority with their charges. Some never find it. I'm definitely one of the latter, while the other two sergeants, Sam and Phil, they're the former. They're the type that can yell 'til they're blue in the face at someone, and still head to the pub with them later. For them what happens at work stays at work. I hold grudges. I wouldn't be able to ever have something like that with my colleagues.

The group that resented me for taking Suzie's job seems to have died down since her departure, perhaps showing that they weren't as good friends with her as they once believed. They've mostly drifted to one of the other two hatred groups, because no one can be seen being nice to Stuart Turner, DCI's pet. It would be social suicide. Except for Sam. She stayed with me throughout all this childish isolation. She gave me a reason to stay at Sunhill, despite everyone, including her 'best friend' as she referred to him, hating my guts.

Of course they weren't just best friends. Anyone with that kind of relationship could never be. From the very start, I asked her what was between them, and she denied that anything had ever been. She told me how Phil had gone from being her worst enemy to her best friend in a few small steps. Apparently all you have to do to get DS Sam Nixon on side is to be there with her in her hour of need. Then you'll be friends for life.

Her and Phil, they'll never be friends. He likes her too much to just be that. Of course, I didn't know that when I asked her out. I didn't know that when she kissed me. To me, this was just a single woman that found me attractive, so I went for it. I never loved her, and I now know she could never love me while Hunter's still in the picture, but I was on my way to loving her, so maybe it's best that we split up when we did, before I started to feel something more for her.

She says she dumped me because I gave her no space, because I constantly called her on my days off, because I accused her of sleeping with that philanderer. What was I supposed to think though, when she spent her lunches with him, picked him over me for all the best cases? She always gave the same excuse: Sorry Stuart, Phil has more experience in (insert a crime here) cases. It didn't matter to her that Phil Hunter has the emotional maturity of a monkey of course. All that mattered was she got to spend her day with him, uncaring when he screwed up, because she'd help him out. Her and Phil were a team, she'd said, and teams look after each other.

I could've taken that though. I could have let the picking him over me slide, because let's face it, if it was Mickey, or Terry she was choosing over me for cases, I'd assume she had some reason related to the job. I knew it was just paranoia on my part. Let her and Phil spend all day together if they wanted, as long as I was the one taking her home at night.

However it wasn't just that. It was the little touches they would give each other, without even thinking. His hand on her back when they're leaving CID, her hand on his shoulder when she's standing over him, one of their hands on the other when one was upset. It was the longing glances they'd give each other, the knowing smiles, the drinks together after work, the gossip that surrounded their friendship.

And there was gossip. Despite Sam's claim that she'd never heard any, there definitely was. There were rumours that Sam and Phil had kissed on numerous occasions, some of which during her time with me. Rumours that they'd gone out properly before most of the current DCs had arrived. Only Terry remains from that period, and he agrees it could have happened. Rumours that Phil's in love with her… Sam denied all of the rest, but she couldn't deny that one. She said she couldn't know for sure how he felt, but she assured me that he'd never brought it up. It would never be an issue while we were together.

Well we're not together anymore. Does that mean she's run straight to his arms once again? For comfort as 'just friends' or as something more, I'm sure I'll never know, but she will run to him nevertheless. Through the years he's been beside her for times of difficulty, why should now be any different? I can see it now. She'll cry, he'll hold her. She'll tell him what's wrong, he won't have a clue what to do, but he'll make her feel better because he's there. Because he's Phil bloody Hunter, and he can do no lasting wrong in her eyes.

We were arguing, and she said he's better in bed than me. I know she was making it up. I know she was trying to hurt me, and she succeeded. Sam's not the best liar in the world. I could tell she wasn't telling the truth the second the words came out of her mouth. I was hurt because we'd been officially split up for less than a quarter of an hour, and already she was imaging her and Phil in bed together.

Our relationship wasn't healthy. No relationship could last between two people who work together, one ten years younger than the other, while one's lusting after another man. It couldn't work, and it's a good thing I got out while I still could.

So why does it feel like she's ripped my beating heart right out of my chest?

The line 'borrowed' was the, "they'll never be friends", taken from Spike's dialogue in Lover's Walk. Kinda sums up Sam and Phil, except tis very OTT, but let's face it, this is a show about vampires :P

SpikeYou're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... blood screaming inside you to work its will.

Ironic since Spike later fell for said girl himself.

Anyway that's all off topic, the important thing is you review and tell me what you thought of the different style of this chapter, so go ahead. If you liked it, tell me, if you didn't, tell me what you do like.