Disclaimer: I don't own The Bill. All characters that are non-canon inhabit a world which is not mine; therefore I relinquish my ownership of them. Oooh, how formal sounding! ;)

A/N: Enjoy some Max and child time. I blame the new Bill episodes for it. It's like the perfect pair – a four-year-old plus a man with temper tantrums he stole from a four-year-old!

Chapter Five;
Delaney

The Social Services girl took Nicholas from Roger and Nate at the front desk, shaking her head to herself as Nate led her back inside. Apparently she'd had dealings with the Delaneys before herself and Valerie had promised to change. It appeared now to be an empty promise. Roger, meanwhile, headed upstairs to tell CID about the boy.

"His name is Nicholas Delaney, he's four-years-old." Stuart nodded, listening carefully as Roger filled him in. Across the other side of the room Stevie and Millie were in conversation as they read through a list of names on a computer. "Nate and I found him this morning during door knocking. He mentioned seeing something happen on the Maycroft and guns. I can't be certain sarge but I think he saw the shooting."

Stuart frowned. "I don't know how accurate the testimony of a four-year-old would be."

"I know, but I just thought you may get a few pieces of information out of him, just in case."

"You reckon he could do an ID parade?" Stevie asked. Stuart and Roger looked up, unaware she'd been listening in. "Just that we've got ourselves a list of Maycroft locals here, all of which could have been involved, and any chance to narrow this list would be fantastic." Stuart nodded slowly as Stevie said one last thing. "48 names."

Roger just shrugged at the question. "He might."

"Okay, thanks Roger." Roger left and Stuart glanced back at the women. "So who've we got then?"

"Alphabetically you can go from Aaron O'Rourke – charged in 2006 for handling a stolen weapon, never served time, right down to Zander Kane – charged in 2002 for armed robbery, released two months ago."

"Millie, work the PNC on all of these names, see if we can rule any out. Look for any connections to Bolt or Manchester or even Natovnia. I don't think he's quite off the radar yet, especially not in this." Millie nodded and returned to her desk with the list of names in hand. "Stevie, if Bolt organised this, which I think we can safely suspect he did, he might have met these people in Linbroke. Get on to Kingmarsh and see if they know any names."

"Well, we're really abusing my Kingmarsh contact today aren't we?" But Stevie said it with a smile before grabbing her phone and taking a seat in front of the names. As Stuart returned to his desk CID were joined by the frowning figure of the young, blonde Social Services girl.

"Hey, DS Turner, I hate to be a pain, but I'll need to pop out for a short time." Stuart frowned. "Just half an hour, max. It's just Nicholas' mother won't be here for an hour at least so I'll need someone to watch him just for a short time."

Stuart shook his head. "Can't, sorry Sara."

The Social Services worker frowned. "I have another appointment. I'm sorry but I will have to leave Nicholas here with you. There must be someone who can watch him?"

"The only person free is DS Carter who's currently on a lunch break."

"And DS Carter isn't the kind of person you leave a kid with. Not unless you really, really don't like 'em." Stevie grinned, walking past with her phone still pressed to her ear.

The girl growled. "Fine, you have half an hour."

"Thanks Sara," Stuart called after her as she walked out of the room. "Okay, no one will be free in half an hour either."

Stevie looked up from the fax machine, phone gone. "I'll go seconder a uniform."

"Get Roger," Millie suggested, looking up from her computer. "He's good with kids."

"Because he looks like someone's friendly grandfather?" Stevie raised her eyebrow with a mocking smile as she left.

*

Roger had been watching the child for an hour when the door to the soft interview room opened and Max appeared, nodding to Roger. The PC came to the younger DS' side. "I heard he saw the shooting."

Roger frowned. "We suspected and he mentioned seeing DC Spark and PC Brown, but he's closed up, won't talk about anything until his mother gets here."

"His incompetent mother who left him home alone?" Max judged. "I don't think she'd be helpful. Give me a few minutes with him." Roger looked he was about to say something negative but quickly nodded and left the room.

Max turned his attention to the child seated on the floor in the centre of the room. "It's Nicholas right?" The boy smiled shyly as Max took a seat. "My name is Max. What's your friend's name?" He motioned to the boy's stuffed bear.

"Ted." Nicholas hugged it. "He can be your friend too if you'd like."

Max nodded. "I would like that." Nicholas smiled and turned his attention back to the toys before him. "Now, Nicholas, Roger thinks that you saw two of my friends this afternoon, two women?" Nicholas nodded. "Did you see what happened to them?"

"Someone went 'bang bang' and they got scared." He didn't look up from his toys.

"That's right. Now, I think you saw the people who did it." Nicholas shook his head. "Are you sure? Because if you're scared to tell me it's okay because we'll keep you and Ted safe." Max inched forward in the leather armchair trying to sound as comforting as possible. Nicholas didn't respond. "I'll try it again okay? Did you see the people that fired on the two women?" Nicholas shook his head. Max sighed. "Okay, well th…" He only just noticed the bear nodding as he got up to leave. He sat back down again, intrigued. "It's Ted right?" The bear nodded again. "Ted," he felt stupid talking to a stuffed animal, but if it got a result as to who tried to shoot Millie and Hayleigh it was worth it. "Did you see what happened?" Ted nodded. "Did you see who did it?" Again the bear nodded. "And how many?"

Nicholas held the bear to his ear then whispered "three".

"Three?" Max noted it down on his notepad. "Thanks Ted." He glanced at Nicholas who averted his eyes to the ground and then to Ted. "Could you identify them Ted, if we showed you some pictures?" Ted nodded again. "Thank you." Nicholas, with the hand not being used to control Ted, started to build a small tower out of blocks. Max smiled at the child. "Okay, so after the men went 'bang bang' at the women, what happened?" The bear shrugged. "Come on Ted, you can tell me right, we're friends." Nicholas was silent, just staring at the floor. "Nicky?" Then the twitching started, starting at his hands until he fell. Max caught the boy before he hit the ground and lay him down, dashing to the door and tugging it open to find Roger waiting for him. "Roger, get an ambulance. Now!"

The Life On The Other Side series returns in 2010