Chapter Nineteen;
O'Malley

The fresh air and sea smell drifting off the Thames refreshed Millie and she awoke from the half-asleep state she'd been in for a while now. Since leaving the Roxon residence she'd been left back at the station as the others prepared for the obbo, purposely left behind by a bad-tempered DS Carter who clearly hadn't taken too well to her backchat. She growled under her breath at the thought of him and it seemed the man seated next to her in the worn-out white Vauxhall guessed the subject.

"Enjoying the CID work?" Ben teased, now also sporting civvies for the job.

Millie gave him a smile. "Don't start."

"No, I get it, your problem is with the people. Not a fan of CID?"

"No, that's not it at all." She frowned. "DS Turner is friendly and a fantastic detective, Will is intuitive, Stevie is brilliant and fun, and DS Carter is…" she paused, looking away. "Well, he's good at his job."

"But…" Ben prompted with a mischievous grin.

"But… the most infuriating man I have ever had the misfortune of working with."

Ben laughed. "Oooh, trouble in paradise."

"Well, first, find me a paradise that has ever included under-age prostitutes, 19-year-old girls used as drug mules by their uncles, and estranged sons – then sure, trouble in paradise." She leant on the car windowsill, eyeing the passenger seat's rear vision mirror. "Come on Brecht. Move it."

"Ready to go home?"

"I'm ready to arrest the bad guy and get back to uniform as soon as possible."

"Awww Mill, you miss us."

Millie laughed. "I always miss you Ben." She tapped his cheek affectionately with a grin.

*

DI Manson shut his phone and looked at Stuart. "TIU." He explained. "They're still tracing Brecht's phone. They say he's close." Stuart grinned. "And that someone just sent a text to him, but because his phone is turned off, he didn't get the message."

"Bolt. He must be making sure Brecht will get here in time." He looked like the cat who'd got the cream, but Neil made to spoil his joy.

"We haven't got either of them yet." He reminded the Sergeant.

Stuart just shrugged. "We will. I have no doubt." But Neil did, had since they'd realised Hayleigh was playing them. Who else was in on this little game? The whole thing hadn't been easy, but for a while now they'd seemed to be one step behind. Except for the drugs find in Eleanor Roxon's home, everything they did seemed so pre-planned. Neil had no doubts the drugs hadn't been part of the plan but everything else smelt like Bolt's handiwork. He, unlike Stuart, wasn't so sure this obbo would end the way they planned – but as long as they could get Bolt back to the station and grill him on the drugs allegations it would not be in vain.

*

Max folded his arms and pressed himself against the wall, flattening himself so he couldn't be differentiated from the dark brick behind him. These parts of the docks, despite being in daylight for at least another hour, were dark and he knew he couldn't be spotted from a distance by any incoming boats – namely just one. Their intelligence told them Bolt's little vessel, a craft little bigger than a small cruiser, had been spotted by Water Police a few minutes earlier and they'd received word he was headed in their direction. Max stood alone, the way he worked best, watching the water with his usual frown and brow furrowed in the sunlight blinding him off the water.

Usually, in this position, he'd be running over the questions in his head for the upcoming interview. Mentally picturing drilling the suspect into an admission of guilt. It was one of the few things that made Max sit back and genuinely smile. Not the smirk he saved for every other situation, but a smile. Satisfaction at a job well done. Well, that and the memory of Will Fletcher's middle name. That almost made him laugh out loud. But this time, his eyes scanning the water for Bolt and his harem of illegals, his thoughts strayed from the prize to a certain PC who had taken to backchat. He hadn't expected anything of the like from her, accustomed to little more than questioning his motives, but she'd suddenly become spiteful. Almost as witty as well, himself. In fact he'd been so shocked by the new face of Millie Brown that he'd purposely tried to distance himself from her for the obbo, suggesting to the DI that uniform help Will Fletcher cover the shipping yard lest Brecht try and make his escape. The DI had given him a look like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but Max had been too preoccupied with the fact he'd let her under his skin. Nothing got to Max Carter, he made himself that way (even more so since the Jankowski business) but here he was, requesting his distance from her. To be honest, it worried him a little bit. Sure he'd taken to avoiding her like the plague after the Mick and Si Jones business. But that had been different. Back then she'd made it pretty obvious she wasn't his new 'best friend' and he'd made out to himself that he was avoiding her because that was what she wanted. But she'd followed up on the Bolt case knowing full well that Max would be on the case as well. She wasn't avoiding him. It blew his theory out of the water.

So why was he avoiding her?

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates. My Internet at home went offline for a while *beats it* and then when it returned I got a little preoccupied by screen caps from Smash and Grab *is dead from squee* at .uk. Airs here August 25th (lol, my best-friend's birthday party just got dumped! He he). Anyway, this chapter is for my aforementioned best friend who is currently living it up in London. Lucky mole. Ironically my friend Brendan asked her to try and find the set of The Bill. I wonder if it's too late to put in a request for my present from London to be Christopher Fox? Mmmmmmax…

Charlie_Alice: Welcome to the storyline and I hope you're enjoying it. I'm trying to make it more Millie/Max than anyone else, but at the same time keep up the storyline – the problem with these two is that any pairing involves taking them just a little out of character (which is extra hard seeing as all of Max's charm comes from his anti-socialness and Millie's comes from the fact she's a weepy little wimp. Lol) and I want to keep them as realistic as possible. I assure you, Mallie will come, but let's drag this out as much as possible first! ;)

Megan: Oh yeah, I knew I'd get you in the end. Lol. So can I hold my breath for a SoloStarr Mallie story soon? Yes? Please? :)