Challenge Two: Love

Pairing: Jackie/OC

Characters: Jackie. Matt.

Author's Note: I've been working on this for the past few days and I just can't seem to get it right.

Disclaimer: I don't own Taggart, Jackie or Matt.

He couldn't explain what it was about her that drew him to her. He had spent countless days and nights trying to suss out why she made him feel such a way. Sometimes the intensity of his feelings towards one woman terrified him, other times it made him feel human and reassured him that all the hurt in his past had not taken away his ability to feel.

There was something special about her. Something different from all the other women he saw on the crowded streets of Glasgow. She was naturally beautiful with dark hair that framed her pale face and deep brown eyes that he would often find himself becoming lost in if he stared for too long. Lately he had been making a point of working alongside her just so that he could spend some extra time in her company. He didn't even have to think about it, he needed her in his life.

He was divorced with an estranged son who didn't want any contact with him and at night he would return to an empty flat where he would waste away the hours by drinking with only the drone of the television for company. These days the only thing that kept him going was the knowledge that she would always be there. She was the only thing consistent in his life. It was almost as if she gave his life meaning.

In the seven years that he had known her, he realised with a pang of guilt, she still knew very little about him. He wasn't close to her like Stuart or Robbie, she didn't go out with him on the weekends or confide in him, and to begin with that was the way he liked it, he wanted to set a barrier between himself and the other Detectives to make them fully aware that he was their boss and not a friend. But now he regretted putting up that barrier which was becoming more and more like a huge chasm between himself and Jackie.

He wanted her to tell him about her weekend, or about how their latest case was bringing her down. More than that, he wanted to be there for her like she had been unknowingly there for him all these years.

They were having a drink together one night when she broke his heart. "Sir, there's something I've been meaning to tell you." She brushed her dark hair back from her face awkwardly and looked into her glass of red wine as though she had never seen something quite so interesting. Robbie and Stuart had left ten minutes earlier despite it still being early and he knew that she had simply stuck around out of sympathy for him.

"Aye?" he asked gruffly. "What is it?"

Finally she tore herself away from the dark red liquid and her eyes met his. He quickly broke eye contact and looked around the bar feeling uncomfortable with the way she was staring at him. She began speaking again and he listened intently. "Stuart and Robbie already know. Sir, I've been seeing this guy for a while." He knew all about Connor Woodard who in his opinion was a complete waste of space, certainly not good enough for a woman like Jacqueline Reid.

"Mhm?" he asked, urging her on as she had fallen silent and was back to staring into her drink.

"Well," she said awkwardly and stared at the row of bottles behind the bar. "I'm engaged. I'll be handing in my letter next week. I'm sorry it's such short notice."

The words hit him like a ton of bricks and for a moment he wasn't quite sure what to do. Finally, he did the only thing he could think of. "That's fantastic Jackie." She gave him a strange look, perhaps she had heard the disdain in his voice and didn't know what to make of it.

"There's something else, sir." He nodded, wanting nothing more than to return home and continue with his miserable life. "We're moving. Bradford, to be exact." Now he understood why Robbie had been off with her all day, the man was probably as besotted with her as he was.

Matt sighed and downed the rest of his beer, slamming the glass down on the bar when it was finished. "That's your choice, and I'm happy for you," the words were forced and didn't sound right to him. "I hope you two are very happy together." As he stood up he leant over and kissed her cheek, something that he had never done before, but it wasn't every day you lost the woman you love.

He left her sitting at the bar staring after him in confusion, not daring to look back.

I'll probably continue this in another one-shot.