A Taste of Paradise

Disclaimer: New Tricks belongs to the BBC, but now that they've put it back in the cupboard, I'm going to play with it for a bit.

Author's note: Thank you for all the lovely reviews, they really do mean a lot and they keep me writing. I'm so sorry I havn't updated for a while. I've come to the conclusion that work can seriously get in the way of enjoying yourself! =( So many story ideas, so little time!

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Sandra looked up at the clock on her office wall. It was still only eight o/clock in the morning, but she had already waded through half of the mountain of papers which had built up over her week off. She now understood Robert's desire to get here early, if she had this much backlog from one unit after only one week, lord knows how much he would have on his desk from the numerous departments he had to supervise, and he would have two weeks worth. Sandra had a vision of Rob leaning against his office door, trying to open it against the mountain of paperwork filling the room. She picked up her phone and dialled his number, it had only rung a couple of times before he answered.

"Hi. Missing me already?" He sounded in good humour, 'the pile of paperwork couldn't have been too big' she thought.

"I always miss you when we're apart." She replied. She heard him chuckle.

"It's a good job I'm only just outside your office door then." He laughed, Sandra smiled as she heard the glass outer door open and shut. She hung up and watched as his face appeared around her door. "Good grief! Has someone gone beserk with the photocopier?" He looked at the pile of paper in front of her. She gave him a wry smile.

"The price we pay for having a week off. At least I do. Don't you have a pile waiting for you?"

"I had half a dozen memo's, some expense requests and last weeks overtime sheets to sign off. All sorted."

"How come?" Sandra was surprised. He grinned.

"There is a sort of understanding between DAC's, when one of us is off, their paperwork gets deflected amongst the others, that way the backlog is taken care of, but because the work is dispersed amongst several, each of us only has to pick up a little bit extra work." He looked at her with a smile. "Is all that from one week?"

"Most of it is rubbish, but I have to wade through to make sure I don't miss something important."

"Do you want a hand for twenty minutes?" He seated himself opposite. Sandra smiled and nodded.

"How come you wanted to get here so early then?" She asked, passing him a handful of papers to go through.

"Seven thirty isn't really that early for me. I never had anything to stay in bed for before." He grinned, making her blush slightly, she smiled back.

"This morning?" She asked. His smile faded, he almost looked nervous.

"I want to see the Commissioner before the morning meetings start. I've already called his office, I'm due up there at eight thirty." He put the papers down and moved around the desk, perching on the edge, he took hold of one of her hands. "I want to tell him myself, on my terms. I don't want to get called in because he's heard some gossip about us."

"I understand." She told him, squeezing his hand. She paused for a moment. "Robert, what do you think he will do?"

"I think he'll give me a ten minute lecture on appropriate behaviour for a senior officer before telling me he'll have to think the situation over. He likes to make people sweat. The worst that can happen is that he'll tell me I can't be your boss anymore."

"What if he does?"

"I'll throw in the Barset connection, if that doesn't work, I'll just have to transfer UCOS from under my supervision. Don't worry, if it comes to that, I won't leave this department under the control of a complete bastard. But I refuse to sacrifice my personal life for the job. I've been down that path once, I won't make the same mistake twice." He leaned in giving her a brief kiss. "Now, do you want a hand with all this, or shall I make you a coffee?" She smiled against his lips.

"Coffee please." She grinned, stealing another kiss. He retreated to the outer office, she heard the sound of the kettle being filled and switched on and the clinking of the mugs being put out. She hoped the Commissioner gave them a chance, they had a good working relationship, and she knew it would be better now, their new understanding of each other re-enforcing what had existed before. He came back, carrying two steaming mugs.

"I put the other cups ready for the boys when they get in." He told her, putting her mug down in front of her and perching back on the edge of the desk. "What?" He caught her smile.

"I love you." She told him. Those simple three words filled is chest with warmth, he leaned in and cupped her cheek, caressing her face with his thumb. He leaned in and gave her a searing kiss which she returned with equal relish. Finally he pulled away, licking his lips.

"I should get going. Don't want to keep him waiting."

"Will you call me, let me know how it went?"

"I was going to come back down. But will it be better if I stay out of the way?"

"Call me. Let me spend a few hours with the boys. Let them get it all out of their systems. If it's all ok, I'll let you know." She gave him a brief re-assuring kiss. "I'll be fine."

"So long as you are sure. I'd rather they shout at me than you."

"They won't shout at me." She stood with him, straightening his tie and smoothing down his lapels. She rubbed her thumb across the corner of his mouth, smiling. "Probably not a good idea to state your case with lipstick on your face."

"That wouldn't help. No. I'd better get a move on. See you later?"

"Absolutely. Call me!" She insisted as he left the room.

She sat sipping her coffee, her mind drifting back, over the week away, and the weekend they had just spent mostly at his place.

Rob's flight had left an hour after Sandra's, they had tried to get onto the same plane, but they were both full, so Rob had suggested they go home to freshen up before meeting up again later. Sandra had only been at her flat for an hour before she had decided that it wasn't a home, it was the place she slept and kept her stuff. There were no momentos, no personal knick knacks, no pictures of family or friends. Yes it was a comfortable place, but she had no attachment to it all. She had gathered as much stuff as she could fit into three bin bags and had found herself sitting in her car in his driveway, waiting for him to get home. He had been surprised when he pulled up, seeing her waiting for him.

Flashback.

"Everything alright?" He asked, concerned. She wrapped her arms around his back, letting his warmth envelope her.

"It is now. Rob, you know we spoke about living between our two places." She started. He nodded.

"Yes. But if it's too soon..." He started, she shook her head.

"No, It's not enough. My flat is a single person's flat, and I don't want to be there any more. I want to move in here with you...If that's alright." She finished, slightly uncertain. He smiled.

"Of course it's alright. But you might not like my house."

"My flat is still painted in the same colour scheme it had when I bought it. I've never put any kind of personality on it. It's almost like a hotel room. Somewhere I exist."

"Then come in, see if my pad is up to scratch." He joked.

And it had been. She had fallen in love with the thirties style house with it's huge round bay windows, high ceilings and large rooms. There was a double garage and a good sized garden. Rob had it decorated in a modern, yet homely manner, with lots of light colours, and natural materials. Real wood floors and wood and leather furniture, contrasted with the modern appliances and slashes of bright colour throughout. The whole place oozed comfort and character. She had decided on the spot that this was a home, somewhere to live, not just somewhere to doss. She felt instantly at home and they had spent the rest of the Saturday and most of Sunday moving Sandra's personal belongings into the house. They had decided to leave most of the furniture in her old flat and Sandra was going to contact a letting agency with designs on renting it out.

Waking up on the Sunday morning in Rob's king sized bed, with the man she loved spooned up behind her, she had realised that this was what she had been waiting for. This was the reason her flat had never felt like home. She felt like she belonged, for the first time in her adult life she felt like she had come home. She had stayed as still as she could, relishing the feeling of having the one thing she had never thought she was missing, companionship. Rob had his arm around her, his hand on her stomach, she had reveled in his warmth, in the movement of his chest against her back as he breathed, the light tickle of his breath against her ear. She had wondered at how one week could have changed her life so completely, just nine days ago, if anybody had suggested this scenario to her, she'd have thought it more likely that she would have found herself teaching cooking at Hogwarts. Nine days, that was all it had taken. It didn't seem long enough, to change a life, but she had realised, lying there, that a part of her had always wanted this, since that moment when she had watched him kissing Christy Berlin at the circus, the rush of anger and jealousy she had felt at the sight of him holding that bitch, that should have been the start of it, but she had hidden her feelings, from him, from the team and most of all, from herself.

She had regretted then the wasted time, the years spent dancing around each other, all those lonely Friday nights spent in front of the television. She had realised that the holiday hadn't changed the way she had felt about him, she had always had feelings for him, the island had taken away all of the obstacles which had stopped them from taking the final step. On that island, he hadn't been the boss, she hadn't been the subordinate. He hadn't been the political tosser who agrivated the hell out of her, she hadn't been the hard as nails, career driven ice maiden. They had just been a man and woman, with several years of unresolved attraction which had been released that moment on the beach.

The sound of the outer door opening brought her back to the here and now, she glanced at the clock, it was just past eight thirty, Rob would be in with the Commissioner by now, she glanced towards the door, wondering who had arrived early. She took a breath and picked up her coffee, it was still warm so she took a sip and carried it with her into the outer office, pausing at her door and leaning against her door frame. She watched as Jack hung up his coat, oblivious to her presence. She suddenly realised that he was the only one she hadn't talked to over the last week, she became nervous, watching as he walked over and switched the kettle on. He paused as he noticed the cups set out ready and turned towards her office. She smiled shyly.

"Hi." She squeaked. There was a short but uncomfortable silence, until Jack broke it, pointing to the mugs.

"I see you got in early."

"That wasn't me, it was Rob." She confessed. Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Rob eh! That's going to take a bit of getting used to. He's already been down here then, or did you arrive together?" Jack couldn't keep the tone of dis-approval out of his voice. Sandra sighed.

"We came in together." She admitted. "Jack, I know this has all happened so suddenly, but I can't help how I feel..." She couldn't think of anything to say, Jack looked down at the floor for a moment before locking his piercing eyes on her.

"Just tell me one thing. Did you know he was going to be there? Promise me that you havn't kept this from us." Sandra stared at him, shocked.

"How could you think that? I had no idea he was going to be there, and before you ask, he had no idea either. We both picked up one of Carolines brochures. In fact, I realised not long ago that had I known he was the man lying in the shade of the palm, I would have probably avoided him, and that thought makes me sick to the stomach. The thought that I could have missed out on this because I never bothered to look beyond my own misconceptions of a man who I have worked next to for years, but never bothered to get to know. I love him Jack, I think I probably have for a while, and I won't give up what we have, not without a fight." Her voice was raw with emotion, Jack could hear anger, fear and determination mixed together, and her face showed her distress at his interrogation. He relented, giving her a brief smile.

"I hope he's worth it." He stated, she nodded.

"He is." She whispered, there was an assuredness in her tone which left him in no doubt that she was serious. He turned back to the boiling kettle and poured some into one of the cups. He made himself the drink and turned back to her.

"Ok. Can you think of one word to describe him?" He asked, she thought for a moment.

"There are lots, all the obvious ones. Caring, kind, funny..."

"I mean, what's the first word that pops into your mind when you think of him?" Jack interupted.

"Us." She replied. Jack smiled and nodded. Just then the door opened and Brian wheeled his bicycle through the door, bumping into just about everything as he went, the door had only just swung shut when it opened again, as Gerry entered.

"Thank's for holding the door 'mate'!" he grumbled, Brian grunted.

"Sorry, didn't realise you were behind me, you're not usually early." He countered. They both stopped as they realised they were not alone.

"Morning." Jack, greeted them, trying to prevent the uncomfortable silence from developing. "There are cups ready on the side, kettles only just boiled."

"Thanks." Gerry went to the side and busied himself making the drinks. Sandra watched as he took longer than usual squeezing out the tea bags, Brian was making a meal of hanging up his coat and cycle helmet, neither men would make eye contact with her, Jack stood watching, like a teacher presiding over class. Finally her patience snapped.

"I can't take this!" She put her cup down with a thud, making the now luke warm liquid splash over the table and turned and grabbed her bag from her office. She made her way to the door before Jack's voice stopped her.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I don't know!" She almost shouted, "But I'm not going to wait around here though, with you lot treating me like I've commited some terrible crime. I've fallen madly in love with Rob Strickland. There! I've said it. We are a couple now, I moved in with him over the weekend, and we are planning on being very happy together, no matter what everybody else thinks. I was hoping that you lot at least would be in our corner, but I was obviously wrong." She was desperately trying to hold back the tears which were threatening to fall. Gerry was the first to move, he was beside her before she realised.

"Sandra, God, I'm sorry. Look, we've been having a chat about this, and we're alright with it, really. I mean, yeah it's gonna take a bit of getting used to, and I suppose we're gonna have to be nice to him now, but we're not gonna give you a hard time. We thought we'd wind you up a bit, that's all." He tried to explain. Brian stepped forward.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to upset you."

"But it was an opportunity we couldn't pass up." Jack grinned. Sandra jet out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding.

"You arseholes!" She grouched, shaking her head.

"We really didn't think you'd take it to heart like that." Brian apologised. We thought you'd maybe get angry at us."

"Or maybe frustrated, but we never meant to upset you." Gerry finished. Sandra shook her head.

"You caught me at a bad time. Robert's up with Commissioner Swann, I'm a bit on edge." She explained. Gerry looked concerned, he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Is everything alright? Does he know?"

"He will by now. Rob wanted to talk to him before he heard about us through the gossip grapevine."

"Does he have any idea what the Commissioner might say?" Jack asked. Sandra shook her head.

"Rob thinks he'll make us sweat a bit, but as he told me earlier, the worst that can happen is that UCOS might be transfered to another DAC's supervision..."

"But..I don't want another DAC, I like the one we got!" Brian exclaimed. The other three in the room all looked at him like he'd grown another head.

"Since when? You lot have always treated him like he's the devil incarnate." Sandra exclaimed. Jack raised his eyebrow.

"Us lot?"

"Yes! I know I'm just as guilty. You think I havn't been beating myself up all week over that. I saw the same as you, until I saw him on that beach, for the first time I saw the real Rob Strickland, all the masks and pretense stripped away. And I liked what I saw." She sighed, "I know it's going to take a while for you to understand, but please believe me...the person he is here, when he's having to deal with politicians and press and the high and mighty's we have to keep sweet with, that person is an act, a mask he wears to protect himself." She paused, she didn't know how much to tell them, but she needed desperately for them to understand. "He's not as confident and self assured as everybody thinks, he didn't have an easy time growing up, and he certainly wasn't priviledged."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, the three men were all intreagued now. Sandra felt torn, she hated having to keep anything from her 'family', but at the same time, Rob was her lover, and he had shared the most painful parts of his life with her. She knew her team would never use the information against him, but it was a matter of trust. Brian saw her internal struggle.

"If you don't want to tell us, it's ok." He assured her.

"It's not that I don't want to, but it's not my story to tell. He's worked hard to bury his past. Let me ask him if it's alright to share it with you all first...Please." She implored them with her eyes. Gerry smled.

"That's fair enough I suppose. And I'm with Sparky over there, I don't want a different DAC, but if that's what it takes for you to be happy, then we'll support you... both of you." He gave her shoulders a squeeze, she leaned into him, looking at the soft expressions on the faces of the other two.

"Thanks guys." She whispered, her emotions almost overwhelming her. "You have no idea how much it means to me to hear that." She jumped slightly as her phone started to ring. She grabbed it and accepted the call. "Rob, how is it going?" She frowned, "Oh..Ok... No everythings fine, they had me going for a while though...Will you come down?...Ok, see you then... You too, bye." She hung up and stared at the phone for a moment, Gerry, Jack and Brain all looked at each other.

"That didn't sound good." Jack observed. Laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. She nodded softly.

"He's giving Rob a hard time. He's waiting while Swann makes some phone calls, then he's got to go back in." She thought for a moment, "Maybe I should go up there." She whispered. Jack shook his head.

"No, if he needed you up there, he'd have said. Let him handle this."

"But, it's not fair that he has to take all the shit, while I get to sit it out down here."

"He'll be fine. He can handle a tosser like Clive Swann." Gerry observed. "Let him do his thing. Come on, let's sort through all that crap on your table and get down to what we're really good at. The top brass won't be able to argue with results." He went over to his desk and showed her a file. "This got brought down while you were gone, we were going to run it past you when you got back. Wanna take a peek?" He teased, Sandra laughed.

"Go on then. You set it up while we clear my desk." She answered cheerfully, but she couldn't help but cast her eyes towards the doorway, her thoughts wandering towards her man upstairs.

/

Sandra hadn't heard anthing for several hours, she sat on the sofa in the UCOS office, nervously chewing her top lip, her thoughts a million miles away as she desperately hung onto the old saying, 'no news is good news'. she had received a text half way through the morning informing her that Commissioner Swann had dragged Robert into the morning meetings and still hadn't given his decision reguarding the relationship between two of his most senior officers, and that Rob would come down to the office as soon as he could get away. She had cleared the build up of paperwork from her desk, burying herself in work to take her mind off the the silence from her mobile, and she had given the go ahead on the case that the boys had shown her, they had started the preliminary work on it, covering the whiteboard with relevent information and reading through all the original statements and forensics.

She had been fine so long as she was busy, but now she found herself alone in the office and couldn't help but worry. Gerry had slipped out for a cigarette, Jack had gone to the canteen for some sugar, and Brian had nipped off to the loo, leaving the room silent, allowing the hollow feelings to invade the normally warm space. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't hear the door open, it wasn't until she felt the warm, familiar hands on her shoulders that she realised she was no longer alone. The hands started to massage her neck and shoulders, making Sandra want to purr like a cat. She put her head back and smiled up at her lover.

"Hi." She smiled. He leaned forward and stole a kiss.

"Hi, how are you holding up?" He asked her, concerned. He had noticed the tension in her the moment he had walked through the door.

"Better now that you're here." She told him, she stood and faced him, allowing him to gather her into his arms, she needed to feel his warmth. "So...What's going to happen?"

"The old bastard dragged me to every meeting he had this morning, keeping me hanging on untill I finally lost my temper and told him he'd have my resignation on his desk before the end of the day..."

"Rob! No! There must be an alternative, you've worked so hard to get where you are..." Sandra interupted, horrified. Rob smiled and put a finger against her lips'

"Shhh. Let me finish sweetheart. I told him that as a Barset, I'd have no trouble finding another job. For a moment I was quite worried, I didn't know whether he was having a heart attack or was trying not to cry." He grinned at her, "We're fine, he soon changed his tune after that. Now it's just the gossip mongerers and shit stirrers we have to do combat with."

"I can cope with anything they throw at me." Sandra smiled, I'm just so glad this isn't going to affect your career. By the way, the boys were all quite dismayed when I warned them you may have to hand UCOS to another DAC. Though if you say anything, they'll probably deny it." Rob smiled, running his fingertips along the line of her jaw.

"I won't say a word." He smiled, she grinned back and pressed her mouth against his, he returned the kiss, losing himself in the beautiful woman in his arms.

Just outside the door, Jack watched through the glass, a soft smile on his face. He had no doubts now, he had been only a few paces behind Strickland as the younger man had entered the office. He had watched the exchange between the two, but most of all he had seen how the woman he thought of as a daughter had relaxed into the embrace of her lover. She had been at ease for the first time since he had laid eyes on her that morning. He heard the voices of his colleagues as they approached and he turned and shushed them, indecating towards the couple on the other side of the window. Brian smiled.

"They look good together, don't they." He whispered, Gerry nodded.

"A very handsome couple, as Mrs P put it."

"Should we nip off to the canteen for a bit, give them a bit of privacy." Brian inquired. Jack smiled.

"We could, or we could all burst in and shout surprise, see how high we can make them jump." The other two chuckled.

"That's just wicked, Jack. Bloody funny, but wicked." Gerry grinned.

"Let's give 'em ten minutes." Brian suggested. "If they havn't come up for air by then, we'll use Jack's plan." He turned and started back up the steps.

"Sounds good to me." Gerry agreed, turning from the door and following. Jack gave the couple one more glance before smiling, and set off after the other two men.

"C'mon, I'll buy you both a cocoa."

They left the couple in peace, wrapped up in their own little piece of paradise.

/

FIN.