A/N: I'm really not keen on this part but I hope you like it! It's another one of those stories that I started before exams then had difficulty getting back into afterwards...anyway, the chapter for Friday will follow shortly :) Eden xxx

Disclaimer: I don't own New Tricks.

Monday

Eight forty-five a.m

"So yes, that is about all really. Do feel free to call me if you need any help, which of course I'm sure you won't. Like I said yesterday Superintendent, you've proved yourself more than capable of taking on this role numerous times in the past. I have every faith that you'll ensure all your departments have their audits complete by Saturday morning at the very latest."

She mentally shook herself awake. She'd been standing there for fifteen minutes and she hadn't absorbed a word of what the Assistant Commissioner had been droning on about. Still, like she'd presumed yesterday, the job didn't seem too difficult. The deadline of Saturday morning could prove tricky if the other departments hated the audit as much as her boys did, but she could be persuasive, in more ways than one.

"Thank you, sir." She nodded, offering the falsely bright smile that she normally reserved for Strickland as he turned and left the room, closing the door politely behind him. She crossed the room to sit down in the absent DAC's black leather office chair, a similar style to her own. It didn't feel right, though. Her, sitting here in this large office, surrounded by pictures that were specifically designed to inspire creativity or whatever bollocks the management attempted in order to make their minions work harder these days.

There was even room for a sofa in the corner, without making the room look cluttered. For a moment, she wondered which direction her career would have taken if she hadn't shot that bloody dog. Naturally she would have continued to rise through the ranks, that was one of her main motivations in those days. Perhaps she would be a DAC now. Although, the administrative bureaucracy side of the Met wasn't the one she belonged on.

As she waited for someone in uniform to bring her some paperwork to fill the empty in-tray on the right-hand side of the desk, she logged on to the computer in front of her. It wasn't even nine o clock yet and already there was over twenty emails in the inbox, all from different people in different departments. She sighed, opening some at random. 'Can you sign off this paperwork?' 'Can I take a day's holiday on Wednesday?' 'Could we reschedule that meeting for next week?' were the typical dull questions they contained.

She had an urge to just type 'Yes' in an email and send it to all of the twenty people at once, but of course she couldn't. Starting with the least recent first, wincing as more and more appeared, she slowly began to plough her way through constructing responses that didn't sound as annoyed as she felt, finding it a difficult task first thing on a Monday morning. How did Strickland cope?

Five p.m

Despite the busy start, the day had been unnervingly quiet since she had finished replying to the stream of emails. It had been so uneventful that she'd wondered again why she had been forced to abandon the supervision of her own audit in order to cover Strickland's duties. She was planning to see the Assistant Commissioner tomorrow morning and say that she would be capable of overseeing the DAC's duties from her own UCOS office, whilst making sure the boys were focused.

When she had visited the office earlier, as part of her walk around all the departments under her supervision, they had actually seemed to be getting on. Her conversation with Jack must have paid off, and she was surprised that her instructions to an overly tipsy Gerry had actually permeated through his thick skull and into his brain cells. Although she was sure that she had seen Jack's office golf set concealed under his desk.

Tuesday

Nine a.m

She had arrived at the office fifteen minutes ago, and already her inbox was filled with emails, although thankfully there was less than yesterday. Today she had felt more comfortable hanging up her coat on the stand in the corner and taking a seat at the polished wooden desk. It was different, sitting here, waiting for the hesitant knock on the door of someone who wanted to confess to a cock up in their department, rather than being the one who was admitting to their mistake. But whether it was a good or bad feeling, she was still uncertain.

Right on cue, there was a brief knock at the door and a young PC entered, politely closing the door behind him with a soft click. He was tall and skinny, gangly even, which gave him an air of discomfort in the black and white police uniform. He frowned, surprised to see the Detective Superintendent sat behind the desk facing him. Evidently he hadn't got the memo that she was covering for Strickland this week.

"Er, good morning ma'am, I've brought you the paperwork that the AC requested."

"Thank you." She replied, her eyes narrowing as confusion as he simply stood there, staring at her. "Where is it?"

"It's in the corridor, ma'am, I'll just go and get it." She rolled her eyes. She was never that much of an idiot when she was a PC. Where the bloody hell had he gone? She wanted a coffee. Crossing the room, she pulled open the door to find the young PC struggling to pull a trolley full of cardboard boxes into the room.

"Is that all for me?" she asked, incredulously.

"Yes, ma'am." The younger man said as he finally succeeded in heaving the boxes into the middle of the office. "Would you like them stacking in the corner?"

"No, it's fine, I'll do it." She sighed, running a hand through her hair in exasperation. "Can you get me a coffee? Black, no sugar. Please."

"Well it's not really my job…" his protest was cut off mid-sentence by the infamous death glare which the temporary DAC directed at him sharply.

"Of course ma'am, I'll bring it up right away."

Twelve p.m

The past three hours had been spent much like yesterday; sifting through emails, making sure all the departments were on track to finish by the end of the week. Just one of them was annoying her so far, which was a pleasant surprise. Yet today, her afternoon would be filled by checking over the five huge boxes of paperwork which had been delivered earlier by the PC, and which were still deposited unceremoniously in the centre of the room. She had been deliberately putting off opening the boxes, which explained why she was now going for lunch early, just for something to delay the arrival of the inevitable boredom that the afternoon would bring.

Just as she was about to head out, there was a knock at the office door. "Come in," she said wearily, sitting back down in her chair. It was probably another PC delivering yet more paperwork. The door opened to admit the boys, all three of them, each grinning as they saw her sat in the chair usually occupied by Strickland.

"DAC Pullman, we have come to take you for lunch," Gerry announced, adopting his best posh accent.

"Yes, to the finest restaurant in all of London, no less: the Metropolitan Police canteen, famed for its Michelin-starred food." Jack added, in a similar accent, barely able to keep a straight face.

"Does her highness have enough time to spare in her tightly packed schedule to accept our invitation?" the third of the men asked, continuing the theme.

"Only if my subjects have made sufficient progress with their task; that is, if they have completed at least a quarter of their audit." She smirked, leaning back in her chair, or throne, as the boys clearly thought it was.

"Of course, ma'am."

"Come on then, I'm bloody starving. Get me a bacon sandwich, peasants."

The men laughed in unison.

"That's our girl, not letting being a DAC go to her head."

Four p.m

Admittedly, she had dragged her feet when it came to lunch with the boys- neither her nor them had wanted to return to their respective offices for another afternoon of box-ticking and filing. Eventually, though, she had sent them back to the UCOS basement- she had a feeling that they hadn't made as much progress with the audit as they professed to have done, and she would be checking on them tomorrow. Once she had got back to her office, she had reluctantly begun to sort through the boxes of paperwork, and it was this task which had occupied her until now.

One thing had become clear- she wouldn't have the time to return to UCOS to supervise the boys. She had only scratched the surface of the endless paperwork despite giving it her full attention for over three hours now, and she had the heads of various departments booked in to give her a progress report throughout the next hour. So she would have to stay here, and probably until the end of the week. She'd expected it to be mind-numbingly dull, and so far, it hadn't disappointed.

Wednesday

Twelve p.m.

The progress meetings with the various heads of departments had not gone well yesterday. Neither had this morning's check on how the boys were progressing. It had transpired, after over an hour of profuse apologies on her subordinate's parts, and headache-inducing shouting on hers, that it was going to involve a huge effort to get the audit finished by Friday, as most of them had only completed a third of the paperwork involved. Just to add insult to injury, the Assistant Commissioner had visited her first thing today, expecting her to pass on details of their progress to him. She had been forced to lie through her teeth, reassuring him that everyone was on track to be completed by the end of the week. She was quickly realising that it was almost impossible to deal with the constant pressure from upstairs whilst trying to sort out the mistakes and failings of six departments- she wondered how Strickland coped, and thanked her lucky stars that she would only have to see this through the week.

Thursday

Five p.m.

The past two days had been a living nightmare. The AC's demands for progress updates had become even more frequent, her printer had broken down due to the sheer amount of paper it had to cope with, she'd clashed with almost all of the heads of department at some point and the number of coffee cups she had spilled over important documents was increasing by the hour. But there was good news, at last- they would finish the audit by tomorrow night. She had accepted that she would be saddled with a lot of work at the last minute, but she could cope with that if it meant that the AC was off her back, and she actually had a chance of getting a weekend to relax. She clung to this idea as five o clock passed, and she sighed, knowing that she would have to stay at the office well into the evening. She completed checking over another box of papers, and pushed it to the side of the room. The end was in sight.