Another snippet, from the day before the previous chapter – afternoon I think. This episode is proving very inspiring! There's one more section from it to come.

I was going to say that there will now definitely be more than five chapters because I had already written several more... but somehow my computer has eaten them. I'm going to try to rewrite them - whenever I finish cursing the universe!

"He might as well have locked me up in a bloody tower"

"He's trying to split us up."

.

'Umm...' Rachel waited till she was sure Kevin was gone and then she hesitated as soon as she opened her mouth. She didn't want to actually voice her next thought. Do you think Andy knows? She didn't want to suggest that there was anything for anyone to know about, still keeping with their policy of silence. Not that there really was an 'anything'. Policy of denial. But office gossip, coppers were the worst. She shuddered to think what could get put about. People would be sure to misunderstand. Andy, she was sure would misinterpret it, willfully or through his own twisted perception. Kevin would be unbearable. The other lads: stupid questions maybe, knowing they were talking behind their hands at the very least. Gill. Rachel's brain stopped there. She didn't know what Gill would do, or say. A step beyond her imagination. But Janet would really hate all that, worse even than she would.

'No' said Janet, mostly to the hole-puncher. 'He can't. He doesn't. Like I said, he's just trying to get at me.'

'Now who's paranoid?' Rachel bent forward to give her a sly grin. Janet looked up at her through her fringe. Deadpan.

'No, I can see it' Rachel admitted, realising her friend was serious. 'Unfortunately.'

Janet sighed as she picked up another box of paperwork and dumped it on the desk. She was sick of it already. She lifted the topmost file then paused.

Sod Andy.

Thinking he could ruin her day.

'Come 'ere.'

She eyed Rachel firmly and reached across the desk for her.

The kiss was firm and fast. Janet prised Rachel's mouth open with her tongue almost at once. She held her with one hand behind her neck, using the other to brace herself on the desk. A surprised Rachel had to use both her hands to steady herself against Janet's pull. She kissed back furiously, joyfully.

The "naughty teenager" sensation was getting to be overwhelming. Only it was a lot more fun than what Rachel remembered of actually being a teenager, and the snogging was a lot better too.

They broke off after a couple of seconds. The risk of being caught was an added thrill, but a real fear as well. Two sets of eyes glanced to the doorway. Nothing.

Rachel turned back. They were both still leaning together, half bent over the desk between them, breathing hard.

'Why Janet Scott, what has got into you today?' Rachel kept her tone light, feeling somewhat unsteady on her feet, literally and metaphorically.

Janet blinked. She could try to explain, but she wasn't sure she had the words. I'm not going to let him control me. And this was surely not the time and place. I want something in my life that's just for me. It sent a little hot tingle through her to be flirted with like that, to be seen as a risk-taker, a flirt, even... sexy. You make me want you to want me.

'I can see right down your top from here,' she observed, instead of a reply. She deliberately dropped her eyes and raised them again, enjoyed the way Rachel swayed ever so slightly.

'But...'

'I should go.' Rachel finished for her, in a voice that broke. 'Get a move on. Pete will be...'

For a moment longer, neither of them moved. Both of them wondering if they could get away with another kiss. Then Rachel groaned theatrically and pushed herself upright.

'See you later mate.' Janet managed to make herself sound almost normal. 'Stay safe.'

'Yeah you too,' Rachel quipped from the doorway. 'Watch out for paper cuts.'

Rachel blinked at her, not quite blowing a kiss, and then she was gone. Janet listened to her footsteps, fast and light. The creak and slam of a door. She looked at the files in front of her and pulled the most hideous face she could muster.