"Kerboooommm!" Jessica made a explosion sound and gestured one with her hands.

"You're kidding me? He didn't know? What have you been talk- Actually I can guess. That good eh? Maybe we would of worked out had we not talked-"

"Kerboooommm! You just keep dropping them bombs."

"Well considering you're from a family of police offices and your friends are police officers I kind of assumed you might have mentioned your job to him."

"I'm standing here." Inputted Spencer who was still reeling from the shock that his Librarian girlfriend had been a police officer.

"Give me a second. Had I known you were going to be here, I would of told him."

"It would have been a crap surprise if we'd told you."

"Oh it was a surprise." Added Spencer. "Jess?"

"Right, yes. Lets talk outside." Sighing Jess lead him out to the garden, trying to find the words to drag herself out of the crater Grim had just created for her. Standing on the patio Jess looked up at Spencer and tried to smile. He didn't look amused. "It's actually a really funny story." Spencer stood there hands in pockets and just stared at her. Huh, so he wasn't going to let her off lightly. "Well you see, I had to resign…There was a misunderstanding and had I not left I would of got fired and probably not allowed into the States and I'd already decided I wanted to move there. And…That's it really. Do you want a coffee?"

Spencer grabbed her arm as she tried to walk away and raised a eyebrow. "Try again."

Sighing Jessica looked down at her feet. "There was a Inspector who was a bit hands on. I didn't work with him often but when I did…" Jessica shuddered. "So one day I…accidentally…ran him over. Though not really because he never went under or over the car, just got his face and hands against the wind screen."

"It was funny as hell!" Called Grim through the patio doors. Turning to the patio doors Jessica saw everyone looking out at them. Gesturing towards the audience Jessica looked up at Spencer. "Now does that explain Daphne? She can't help it." Taking his hand she led him down towards the garage where no one would hear them.

"You ran over your inspector?"

"It's not that bad. I just waited, the car park had a busted light and when I saw him, brrrrrrrr, just knocked right into him. Grim was my witness that it was a accident."

"You said you waited-"

"Stop nit picking you make me sound like some crazy stalker."

"Why didn't you just report him?"

"Because they wouldn't of believed me. There's a saying here, female officers are either bikes or dikes. When you make a complaint you're plastered with one and it follows you to your new team where they treat you like crap. Trust me as a whole the Police force is great but every now and then there's a weasel who can get out of anything. He was one. He always targeted the girls that were…popular. The guys on my team tried helping me out but he didn't get the hint. So I gave him a hint he couldn't miss. I'm not crazy."

"So because you didn't want to be called names you ran over a Inspector?"

"It isn't just a name. Once you're labelled as the Borough Bike they do as they please and if you complain you're accused of being a serial complainer, and the decent officers become too scared to work with you. I couldn't bare the thought of being moved from my team and it would have been me that would have had to move. The SOB wasn't meant to report me. He said if I didn't resign he was pressing charges. Six years down the drain because he was all handsie."

"You do realise trying to kill someone is not a normal response to a problem?"

"I wasn't trying to kill him, just wanted him to poop his pants. Don't even think the bugger did that. I swear I'm not a fruit loop."

Spencer tried processing the information, his girlfriend had hit someone with a car, he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Worried, yes definitely worried, but she was sweet, caring and loving he could only imagine how far she'd have to be pushed to feel the need to resort to that. "And…" Nudging his head towards the house he looked at her, hoping that the guy who clearly meant so much to her wasn't all that great.

"Oh Grim? He still works on the team I used to be on. We were best friends, really close like you and JJ or you and Morgan except opposite sexes of course. Anyway we met at Hendon and were buddies ever since. We've know each other about three years when we decided it would be a great idea to date. Worst idea ever. For three months all we did is fight. In the end we sat down and agreed to break up. We hit the town that night and the next morning compared details. We were closer friends than before but, we could never go back to that. God no."

"Is there anything else I might need to know?" He asked, really hoping he wouldn't regret it.

"Let me think." He watched as she began counting her fingers before looking at him. "No, that was definitely the last straw."

Spencer pinched his nose, he was sure she'd only been put on this earth to test him. "Right, tell. Me. Everything. That. I. Could. Find. Out. From them." How much clearer could he say it?

There was a long pause and Spencer wondered what internal battle she was fighting. "If I tell you the basics can I explain the details another time?" She looked at him properly and he saw real sorrow in her eyes, the kind that meant tears were close to surfacing. He nodded, realising that the avoidance of the subject was a defence tactic, not to annoy him or hide secrets. "I…Used to be a response driver…" This surprised Spencer as she had always told him she couldn't drive, that she had never learnt. How many lies had she told to hide this story? "We were running on blues when we were in a head on collision. I lost my partner." Another long pause as Jessica tried not to let the memories flood her mind. "Once I was back at work my work ethics changed. I became a 'problem' to the higher ranking officers. My career was over long before the…last incident."

"You could of told me…After all I know what it is like losing a team member. Even if it turned out to be false, I still went through the grief. Was…it your fault?"

Jessica shook her head. "No…but they treated me like it was. Even after the investigation. I buried it all long before I moved to DC. It's why Daphne has never put her foot in it and why they wouldn't of had Grim not been there." She looked him in the eye and he saw a faint smile, more a twitch. "You're the last one to talk though. I know what you're not telling me."

"W..What?" He watched as she walked away, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry, you'll tell me when your ready." Spencer knew, deep down he knew she knew the one thing he was terrified of telling her. But he wasn't ready to tell her in case she was referring to something else. He couldn't really be annoyed with her, after all she knew very little about him. She had to force him to tell her about his parents. Other than that she knew little of his childhood and only the better times from the years before they met. He'd told her about Emily's fake death purely because sometimes she spoke of Paris and Jessica spent a lot of time with them. He followed her back into the gathering.

Her family where, different, and suddenly he knew why Daphne was the way she was. Not that it made things between them any better and he was sure he wouldn't suddenly take a real liking to her but he knew she wasn't going out of her way to be a pain, it was just how she was programmed. He found it easier to deal with the rest of the family though. The grandparents were old and sometimes Spencer wasn't sure if they were being rude, funny or if they knew exactly what was going on. Jessica and Daphne's parents followed every conversation with offers of food or drink or some form of compliment so he knew when they said something that made him uncomfortable it wasn't intentional.

It also seemed Grim was considered family as he helped himself to things, spoke freely and took everything they said, no matter what it was. He seemed far to friendly with Jessica for Spencer's liking. He was close to JJ, but he never touched her how this stranger, to Spencer at least, was touching Jessica. In fact if a outsider came in they'd surely guess that Jessica was with him. Daphne's father approached him and passed him a beer.

"You'll drive yourself crazy watching them, kid. She's thrown many a man aside because of the old green eyed monster. All I'm going to say is she's a good girl. Just remember this, she's crossed the Atlantic twice but only once was with a bloke. She's happy to life a lifetime without him but not two weeks without you." Spencer smiled to himself as he took a sip of beer, Jessica's uncle had a point. Still it was hard not to get bothered when some guy was all over your girlfriend.

"Why is he called Grim?" Spencer asked trying to not look like he was watching him with Jessica too much.

"When Jess and him first joined the police, he seemed the unlucky one and seemed to get all the death calls. Either they were already dead, died after the incident on the way to hospital or in hospital. Once one scroat died in a car accident on the way to court, months after he arrested him. Oh course it used to be Grim Reaper, but it shortened quickly. I think his name is Max. Oi Grim, what is your name?"

The bloke pulled a face as if trying to remember it himself. "I believe it's Max-"

"Yep, Maximus…" Jessica sniggered and got a jab in the ribs from her friend.

"I think Max would have been enough Jess." He laughed.

Before long Daphne explained she was tired and was heading to bed. To Spencer's confusion he watched her walk down the garden and climb over a fence and disappear into another garden. "See the house painted blue?" Jess was by his side and smiled. She was pointing to the end of the garden and to the house that backed onto her parents home. The house next to it was painted a pale blue. "That's uncle Peter and Aunty Jeans place. Me and Daphne climbed that fence thousands of times. I often woke up in the morning to find her in my bed. Or waiting for me downstairs. I was just as bad. We should leave too if we want to get to our hotel."

"Jess! Me and your mother were talking about that, you should stay here." Interrupted her father.

"We've already paid and…it's closer to see all the sights."

"We're five minutes from the train station, we'll pay you the money you spent."

"Really dad, we're fine, we don't want to be under your feet and I promise we'll pop in loads while we are here-"

"Stan! Clearly they want to be alone." Grandma was helping herself to more food as she gave her son a look that clearly said drop it. "It's perfectly normal."

"Here, Christine, do you remember when we'd leave the boys with next door?" Grandma chuckled and Jessica looked at Spencer horrified. He just smirked back at her. As embarrassing as trying to get out of staying with her parents were it was interesting the way everyone else looked at each other.

"Exactly Alan." Grandma turned back to her son. "Its normal for a girl to not want her parents to hear her young man make her toes curl."

"Right we're off!" Cried Jessica going a lovely shade of pink in Spencer's opinion. They said their goodbyes, Jessica pausing at her grandma to inform her she doubted her toes would ever curl again, but got a wink in return. Grim offered to give them a lift and they left. Once Spencer was sure Grim couldn't hear, as they walked to the car, he raised a eyebrow at Jessica.

"So I'm not going to make your toes curl?"

"You'd better do, or I'm leaving you here."