Chas heard on the grapevine about Harry and Jim and he smiled. He could well imagine the scenario in Spikings office even though the boss hadn't said a word. He caught Dempsey in the locker room.

'I hear congratulations are in order,' he gave a small smile. 'You and Harry tying the knot when do we get the save the date cards.'

Dempsey just shrugged. 'Protecting a lady's honour what can I say, Parker was in there making all sorts of accusations trying to say Harry was the Met bike; had to say something.'

'Caused something of a stir,' the Glaswegian remarked. 'Parker shouldn't be a problem for much longer, it's turned from an internal disciplinary matter to a criminal charge. I've got the warrant and Spikings is talking to the Chief Superintendent this afternoon.'

Dempsey cracked his knuckles, 'I'd like a meet with the guy before he gets banged up, I won't let anyone touch Harry and it's been killing me not sorting that out.'

'Best to leave it Jim, he's in enough trouble already…. Chas knew he might as well save his breath, as he could see from Dempsey's face he wasn't going to let it go.

'How about we go for a drink at the Angler's and then if we happen to bump into Parker we can say hello,' the American put the idea forward. The Angler's Arms was Fraud's local.

Chas shook his head, 'I can't, I'm the arresting officer. Watson and Morrison might go with you; don't take Fry he's just recovering from the last brawl.

-oOo—

Spikings went to make the arrest with Inspector Jarvis and wasn't surprised to see Parker looking rather the worse for wear. He eyed the man sternly as Jarvis read out the charges.

Parker of course said he'd been framed and that Inspector Makepeace was in on it and that Dempsey was just a brainless thug. It was all bluster although the thug part was probably accurate. He didn't accuse the Yank of responsibility for his current facial rearrangement so by that the Chief Inspector and Jarvis assumed that the American officer had scared him to such a degree he'd keep schtum. As they'd all seen the Detective Inspector's interrogation style they weren't entirely surprised.

Harry returned to the office after a morning in court and immediately tuned into the office dynamics. She noticed a sudden buddy, buddy behaviour between Dempsey, Watson and Morrison and was suspicious especially as her erstwhile fiancé's knuckles looked badly bruised. They were all crowding around something and even Chas had a twitch of a smile on his face.

Makepeace got closer as they were too involved in their conversation to be aware of her proximity and then she saw the mug shot of Rory Parker. She bit her lip and stepped away, so that was it. Dempsey had been true to his word and roughed up Parker as some sort of sop to his machismo which would be cloaked under getting payback for her. Men!

Hargreaves had seen her take a sneak peek at the mug shot and since she'd been privy to the macho banter on the subject when Makepeace was out of the office she was fully aware of Parker's current status.

'Boys will be boys,' she murmured as she handed Harry a cup of tea, 'and at least D.I. Dempsey kept a lid on it while the investigation was underway which is the best that could be hoped for I suppose.'

Harry nodded fairly as she remembered asking Dempsey to take Parker to one side when the assault first happened. 'I always think it's more about the male ego than the female they believe they're protecting,' she sipped her tea.

Hargreaves sat on Makepeace's desk and got right to the gossip, 'a little bird told me that Dempsey announced your engagement in Spikings office this morning, congratulations.'

'Oh shut up Joyce,' Harry replied crossly. 'Parker was trying to make out I was some kind of man-eater; I'd lead him on and was fornicating with D.I. Dempsey so James made me respectable to spike Rogering Rory's guns. It worked; the Chief Superintendent congratulated me or us and apologised for the fact we'd been forced into a premature announcement. It was classic Dempsey and if it hadn't been about me I would probably have appreciated it.'

Joyce laughed heartily and Harry's fed up expression made it all the funnier. 'Dempsey has all the finesse of a tank but I have to say he gets amazing results,' she gave a moue of sympathy at her friend's exasperation. 'Oh well, you can always break the engagement and plead irreconcilable differences or insanity nobody would be surprised,' the sergeant offered helpfully.

Harry sighed pushing her fringe out of her eyes, 'Insanity probably however I'm going to have to endure the status of newly engaged until it seems appropriate to end our engagement. I'm sure there will be some kind of trigger which will naturally cause the event. Dempsey and I generally have a rather volatile relationship so I'll probably have a choice.'

'I would think you'd have a menu of options,' Hargreaves observed Dempsey and the boys critically; 'it's as if they're a completely different species; look at them they're metaphorically beating their chests.'

Harry looked over and caught Dempsey's eye, he maintained the eye contact and she blushed slightly and felt her heart beat faster. Joyce was right about there being no explanation for the mystery of biological attraction it was completely irrational. The sad fact was that although she deplored his macho behaviour her hormones seemed to sing and dance to the tune of a primitive beat; she roundly berated herself for this but there you go; she couldn't deny the fascination.

'Oh dear, poor Harry,' Hargreaves had caught her friend's expression as the newly engaged couple shared a glance.

'Shut up Joyce,' responded Harry as she buried her face in the computer trying to control the guilty blush stinging her cheeks, and the conversation ended as it started in a circular fashion.

-oOo-

Dempsey approached Makepeace at the end of the day and sat on her desk his gaze running over her, his eyes twinkling with amusement. 'So honey, what's the plan? Guys are going over to the bar to celebrate our engagement, you coming?' He saw her blue eyes fire with temper and leant over and kissed her nose. 'Well at least they won't be working out whether we do or we don't,' he offered in a dry tone.

'No, they will be conjecturing on when, where and which position,' Harry was under no illusion about locker room gossip.

'To be honest they did that anyway,' Dempsey responded in an even tone. 'C'mon, come over to the bar and treat me like you usually do and they'll all be thinking it was just me playing the big guy in front of the Super. Knowing Chas, he'll be downplaying the whole thing and refusing to pay out on the book they got running.'

Harry picked up her bag, 'they'll probably be opening a new book on how long it will take me to break off the engagement, or on what basis I would break off the engagement so there's still the opportunity for a wager. And just to be clear James, we are not engaged!'

Dempsey gave her an irritable glance, 'cool your jets, I ain't asked!' He picked up his jacket and followed her out. The weather was warm and the air balmy as they crossed the street and walked the short distance to the Ambercote Arms, he could hear the animated conversation and groaned internally and hoped the guys wouldn't go overboard on the fake engagement cos he could see Harry's spine stiffening and she looked ready to bolt, like a high bred filly that didn't fancy jumping this particular fence.

A roar of congratulations met their entrance and he could see Spikings face twitching with amusement as the wedding theme was badly rendered, 'dah dah, de dah, dah dah de dah.' A cheap looking bridal veil was placed on Harry's head by one of the girls from the typing pool, it was Wendy if he wasn't mistaken, yeah that's right willing Wendy if Morrison was to be believed.

Makepeace took it well; it was times like this that Lady Harriet truly emerged and she smiled and exchanged words here and there although her body language was telegraphing to him that if he thought sex was on the agenda tonight he was very much mistaken.

'So,' Watson was looking highly amused, 'how long has this been going on? We'd almost given up on the pair of you and then bam, engaged! News is all over the Met courtesy of our colleagues in Fraud.'

Harry saw the opportunity for a spot of revenge; she smiled with mock happiness, 'well Dempsey's been begging me for a date for so long it started to get rather tedious. I kept rejecting him because of his reputation with the ladies and in order to show me his utter devotion he asked me to marry him to prove to me that he was serious. Imagine that we hadn't had a single date.'

Jim took that one on the chin and his raised eyebrows and look of amusement showed his lack of provenance for that story, 'nah she's six months gone; father's got a shotgun, had to do the decent thing,' he got an elbow in the ribs for that one.

Since Harry looked as slim as ever; she caught they're not too subtle glances to test Dempsey's story, she could see that an element of doubt was starting to creep in.

Joyce handed Makepeace a drink which she accepted gratefully. 'Very good,' Hargreaves smiled at her, 'and what are the wedding plans have you got a date in mind?' Her eyes danced with amusement, 'after all if what Dempsey says is true; you're cutting it fine.'

'No ring on that finger D.I. Makepeace, is Dempsey being a cheapskate or have you got some ancestral ring being adjusted to fit your fair hand,' Spikings was getting his money's worth.

'Good point sir,' Harry's blue eyes met her fiancés with mock askance and she saw his jaw square and she braced herself for something outrageous.

'I told you, you get the ring when I get the sex,' this led to a chorus of bawdy comment and laughter especially as Harry responded that she didn't believe in sex before marriage and that she wasn't that kind of girl.

The merriment became general and the focus on the mock engagement faded somewhat as the general consensus was that they were faking it and the bogus engagement would be very shortly yesterday's news.

'Nicely done,' Joyce congratulated them, 'you'll have to ham it up for the Super though or he'll realise he was played.'

'I don't know what you mean,' James ran his arm around Harry's shoulders. 'My little piece of paradise here is just playing hard to get; bound to give in to my charms sooner or later and then she can have any ring she wants as long as she don't go overboard cos I can't afford the Koh-i-Noor on my per deum.'

'Well I can't sport something out of a cracker I have the Winfield tradition to uphold,' Harry protested. 'Daddy will expect something suitably ostentatious even if he has to buy it himself.' That was a lie, Freddie wasn't at all like that but one of her aunts was quite particular on what was to be expected.

'Your Pop ain't like that, he'll be just glad you've managed to snag a guy after what can only be called a dry spell,' Jim was now going for payback after she'd effectively neutered him with the desperate-for-a-date story.

'Well James I foresee something of a dry spell for yours truly,' Harry responded with a mocking look and then she didn't look too confident of herself when she saw the light of battle in his eyes.

'Really, is that so,' he nodded his head as if he was considering that idea and then his head swooped and he fastened a hot kiss on her unsuspecting lips and moved his leg in such a way as to defend against a Makepeace knee to his manhood.

The noise level increased as Dempsey maintained the stolen snog and a chant counting the seconds started, Harry managed to wrench herself free and glared at him in a way that could hardly be called lover like.

'What? She don't like public displays of affection,' Dempsey threw at the team as Harry left and he quickly followed to the sound of mockery hooting behind them.