"What the bloody hell is going on?!"
Spikings voice boomed across the office. The whole office was in darkness as Spikings edged his way around his desk and out of his office.
"It's the work they're doing downstairs, Gov. They say they've tripped a wire or something" Chas explained.
"They'll be tripping over the end of my boot if they don't get these lights back on!!"
Spikings was suddenly aware that Dempsey hadn't made any crass comment about the British Electrical system as he would have expected.
"Dempsey? Makepeace?"
No reply. Chas coughed uncomfortably.
"Where the bloody hell have those two swanned off to?"
"Er... I think they're doing some filing, Sir...." Chas really hoped he hadn't said the wrong thing.
"I'll give them bloody filing when I get hold of them!"
With that, the lights flickered back on, before remaining stationary.
Spikings looked at Chas, who swallowed hard and turned back to his desk to finish up his report. Spikings left the room and began making his way towards the filing room. As he got there, he contemplated barging in, but something stopped him. Instead he waited, paused for a moment, then shuffled as close to the door as possible, putting his ear against it, and listened hard.
Inside, the lights had just flickered on. Neither Dempsey or Makepeace had moved. Dempsey had touched Harry's lips briefly, before the lights went out and she had moved her head to the side in shock. With the lights back on, she looked at Dempsey.
"We can't do this."
"Why not?
"You know why not! We discussed this last night."
"I thought the point was that we didn't discuss last night."
Harry sighed and walked past Dempsey, back to the desk on the far side of the room. She then turned back exasperated.
"Dempsey, you said yourself we can't do this! We can't jeopardise our working relationship! We both agreed we didn't want that!"
Dempsey looked at her. He knew she was right. He remembered all that he had said to her. That they had a real special friendship and he wouldn't let anything ruin that. At the time, he had meant it. But waking up beside her this morning, having her in his arms, then watching her around the office.....it was torture. Now he knew what it could be like, he knew exactly what he was missing out on, and he wasn't sure he could just turn his back on it. He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back against the cabinets.
"I know what I said, Harry. But...." Harry cut across him.
"No buts, Dempsey! Don't even talk about it." She paused and then continued quietly, her eyes dropping. "There's no point."
Dempsey looked into her eyes. She had said those last 3 words without any conviction. There was every point.
"Isn't there?"
"Dempsey –
Dempsey walked towards Harry. He wasn't angry, but his voice was slightly raised.
"Harry, that's just it! There's every point! We can't go on like this!"
Harry exhaled deeply. "Dempsey... – James. What we didn't want to happen is happening, don't you see? Our personal feelings are affecting our work. Our professional relationship. Neither of us want to lose that! You've said it yourself. We know each other's moves before we do them! You know me inside out. Probably better than anyone. And I'm not going to jeopardise that. And neither should you!"
"Hey, don't make me out to be the bad guy here! I don't wanna lose that either but this job ain't everythin' yanno!"
Harry stopped. Her eyebrows raised in surprise and slight shock. The job came first with Dempsey. It always had done. Was he really implying that he would quit the job if it came down to it? Did he care for her more?
Dempsey continued. "You know what I think Harry? I think you're scared. You're scared that someone actually might care for you, and wanna be with you. You're just usin' the job as an excuse to hide behind!"
Dempsey had said it without even thinking. Now it was Harry's turn to shout. She couldn't believe what he was saying! Didn't he know that she loved him? She wasn't using the job as an excuse, but she knew how much he loved it. She would never ask him to give it up! She loved him too much for that. She thought she was being selfless but putting her feelings on hold so that he could stay in the job he loved so much, and they could still work together and see each other every day, living in each other's pockets as they had done for the last two years.
Harry swallowed, angry but she could also feel the tears coming. "If you want to think that. Fine. We've got paperwork to finish."
She turned her back to him so that he wouldn't see the tears that built and began to fall. She wiped her face quickly and began sorting papers haphazardly. Dempsey watched her. He knew she wouldn't want him to see her cry. He sighed heavily and walked to the door.
Spikings sensed someone approaching the door and slipped into the next room along the corridor. Dempsey exited the room quietly. Harry turned just as the door clicked shut. Then, for the second time in 36 hours, because of Dempsey, she let the tears fall.