Well you wouldn't expect the course of true love to run smoothly now would you. So, the next part of the story deals with that.

Joyce observed both Jim and Harry when they arrived back in the office on Monday morning, Harry was early as usual and Jim scraped in just in time as he took his responsibilities as a D.I. seriously and bawled out anyone that came in later than him.

Harry was quiet, Jim was loud and that told its own story, she could only hope her friend hadn't given in to the Neanderthal's demands but she didn't have much faith in that outcome.

'Good weekend,' she asked brightly as she sat next to Harry, 'bag many birds.' Her cat like eyes observed her friend and the blonde officer looked a little self-conscious.

'Yes, I did rather well actually which was just as well because the majority of the guests were terrible shots.' She knew what Joyce wanted to ask and wasn't forthcoming.

'And your personal minder?' Joyce asked tongue in cheek as the younger woman met her gaze somewhat defensively.

'Was a suitable deterrent,' Harry responded in an even tone as she accepted a cup of coffee off Fry. Harry had quickly come to appreciate that James could drag his knuckles along the floor if any chap attempted to flirt with her.

'Successful weekend then,' Hargreaves summarised and then caught a glimpse of a tiny bruise on the back of Harry's neck. 'You might want to wear your hair down,' she said in an undertone that sent the D.I. to the safety of the female locker room.

Harry got out her handbag mirror and looked at it to see her mirror image in the locker-room, 'damn it,' she swore under her breath. She found a scarf in her locker and put that around her neck, the last thing she wanted was gossip about who'd been nibbling at her.

Dempsey popped his head around the door after briefly knocking, 'what's up? You shot out of the office like you were on fire?'

'Nothing, it doesn't matter,' she responded in her usual cool tone. She'd berate him later about the bruise but not whilst in the office. She didn't know when later would be. What was the protocol after a weekend of rampant sex?'

'Nice new Italian opened, I'll take you there tonight,' he smiled at her in a pleased way. 'Can't have you saying I never took you to dinner.'

'You're spoiling me,' she remarked sarcastically as she pushed past him. 'It's the ladies' locker room; you're not supposed to be in it.'

'There's only you and Joyce who use it,' he growled as he walked with her back to the office, 'used to be just you. You could share ours nobody would mind.'

'Joyce and I would mind, the male toilets are hideous and there's always a smell of deep heat and body odour, I'm sure there's a ten-year-old pair of socks trapped somewhere in the ventilation system.'

'Just the one pair huh,' they entered the office together indulging in their usual banter.

It felt normal Harry thought she'd expected it would be different and everyone would know. She was glad it was normal but the elephant in the room was that it wasn't really normal as they had done it and now technically she was his girlfriend although they wouldn't be telling anyone that.

'Hi James,' Suzanne Leyton had arrived to do the Belbin tests on the team so that was nice.

Dempsey could tell Harry was made up about it even though it was her fault as she'd offered them up for the analysis. They all dutifully filled in the forms and handed them in. He gave his to the doc and smiled at her. 'What happens next?'

'Well you can buy me a cup of coffee and I'll tell you,' Suzanne flirted with the detective shamelessly.

'Careful Dr Leyton, he has a terrible reputation with the ladies,' Watson remarked as he gave her his form. 'I'll buy you a coffee if you like.'

'Well that would be rude as I've already asked James, why don't you come too?' Suzanne had her sights firmly set on the American officer but she wasn't impervious to the Sergeant's charm.

'Not into threesomes,' Watson retorted and left 'James' to the lady. Dempsey was a bit of a legend when it came to women and most of the guys acknowledged that, attributing it to the American accent which seemed to be like catnip to the fairer sex.

'If Jim's buying I'll tag along,' Hargreaves responded just to get up Dempsey's nose, 'how about you Harry?'

'Why not,' Harry responded and they all walked down to the canteen. She didn't appreciate Dr Leyton annexing Dempsey so she was happy to run interference.

Dempsey didn't particularly like being the tea boy as they all left him to it and sat down chatting away as he queued for what seemed like a year. Spikings turned up at his elbow and ordered being too exalted to get his own coffee. When he saw Watson and Chas approaching he told them less than tactfully what they could do with their order.

Harry rescued him coming over to collect some of the beverages. 'Thought I'd give you a hand we're all dying of thirst,' her eyes twinkled with humour.

'Oh, well I'm sorry about that I've enjoyed every minute of waiting in the queue while you dames sat around chatting. What's wrong with the service here, I mean the foods not that complicated. Pasties, a slice of pizza or a cheese scone or whatever you call it, I mean it ain't difficult.'

'Suzanne's keen she's been asking us where we go on our time off, I'm expecting the Ambercote Arms to be her local.' Harry wasn't beyond needling her former partner as he seemed to effortlessly collect female admirers.

Dempsey looked annoyed because he knew the psychiatrist was a sore point with her. 'Don't start, I can't help it if I'm charming, British guys are so backward I'm surprised you've still got a population, they don't know how to talk to women.'

'Well we've got you to show us the way,' Harry punched him on the arm in a joking fashion.

He got the bill and moaned about that, 'I didn't say I was buying the whole department coffee,' he growled.

'I'll pay you back for mine and Joyce's,' Harry responded pleasantly knowing he was in a bad mood with the slow service in the canteen and being railroaded by Suzanne. 'Biscuits,' she said tongue in cheek and waited for the explosion.

-oOo-

Later that evening James and Harry were seated in the new Italian restaurant Dempsey had discovered and Harry made an attempt to clarify the terms of their relationship. She twirled her linguine expertly around her fork and looked over at her partner. 'I don't believe in spending every hour in each other's pockets. I do have a life and it's a matter of fitting things in. Freddie's various charities take up a fair amount of my free time and what with friends, the gym and various sports depending on the season…

Dempsey gave her one of those looks as he could see where she was going with this. 'You know what it is Harry, you're relationship phobic. You set these little fences around life; it ain't healthy. Life should be spontaneous; I'm not being fitted in around a pedicure and bow and arrow practice.'

'Archery, it's called archery. You could try it and then we could practice together; two birds with one stone,' she murmured wishing she had never started this conversation as she could see he was picking up the ball and running with it.

She was right Dempsey was on a roll and his resentment at Harry's tentative way of approaching their relationship reared its ugly head. 'You're still trying to run off; you get me to admit to caring about you by making me jump through more hoops than a Sea World dolphin and now when I do admit it you're trying to put me in a box marked boyfriend, Wednesday's.'

Dempsey had a way of reading her that was disconcerting. Harry was very defensive about relationships since the debacle of her ill-fated marriage and she hadn't really taken romance seriously since. She was attractive so she was never short of a date and James had taken up the slack by being a fanciable friend.

Her dinner companion hadn't finished. 'I've seen the way you've starved all your relationships of oxygen until they've withered and died; was happy to lend you a hand by yanking you out of your so-called dates for work but that ain't how it's gonna be with us.'

'I see,' Harry was rather annoyed at his analysis though being a fair person she could see how he'd come to that conclusion. 'So how is it going to be with us; I expect you're going to tell me since you try and dominate everything we do.'

'The way we do it is we assume that out spare time will be spent together and then we fit stuff in around that so the opposite of what you were saying. We come first.'

'You mean you do,' Harry took a sip of her wine. 'You always think that after putting your well-practiced moves on some hapless female that she'll then run after you until you get bored and give her the 'it's not you it's me,' line or I'm the job, I don't have time for commitment.'

He wasn't being Harry's hapless guy running around grateful for crumbs; that needed nipping in the bud straight off. 'It's taken us three years of bumping heads to get here Harry and we ain't going backwards; I spend half my time at yours anyway and I ain't being scheduled.'

'I see,' she rested her chin on steepled fingers and looked at him like he was some strange specimen on a slide, 'I keep asking myself why, but unfortunately no rationale answer is forthcoming.' Her blue eyes ran over him critically.

'That's cos what we got ain't rationale. If you think I wanted some toffee-nosed dame whose as warm as an ice shower when she don't get her way, then you're nuts. I'm stuck with you and vice versa so suck it up Makepeace and throw away your little schedule cos I ain't going in it.'

'Duly noted,' the ice shower responded as she gave up on the meal, declined dessert and went straight to coffee whilst watching him devour a large helping of tiramisu.

He offered her a spoonful and she shook her head. 'I'll try the archery,' he glanced over at her. He'd drawn the line in the sand over how they were going to be and offered a concession as an olive branch. 'You can teach me since you're such a hot shot with the bow and arrow, didn't you win a cup or something.'

'Yes, I'm reasonably good at it,' she murmured. 'I'd be delighted to teach you if you'd listen to word I said that is, because that would be unusual.'

He smiled at her engagingly. 'I promise to be an attentive pupil and I do listen to what you say angel, I just don't always agree with it. Two strong characters there's bound to be some healthy friction.'

'Hmm,' Makepeace was non-committal because she knew what James was like and he had something of a my way or the highway approach to life and it took emotional dynamite to make him deviate.

'Your place or my place,' his warm gaze met hers and he patted himself on the back for not allowing their discussion to get in the way of his favourite part of the evening.

'Mine,' she folded her napkin and watched him as he signalled the waiter for the bill. It's like some kind of bewitchment she decided; if she'd drawn up her list of desired characteristics in a male Dempsey would be unlikely to meet the requirement but somehow she found him endlessly fascinating. Unbelievable really. A thrill of excitement ran through her about the night to follow and she felt helpless to resist the charm he held for her.