Chapter 10

And here we are at the end. I hope you like it.

Robbie walked along the river as he called Jack Cornish. He was in a bit of shock from what Louise had told him. He couldn't think of what was going on with Jack. As he left a message for Jack he stopped, looking out at the river. He'd seen the pain on Louise's face as she'd told him about Jack. It was a pain he was familiar with, the loss of a loved one.

For a moment, grief almost overtook him. Then as suddenly as it started it passed. His pain wasn't the same as Louise Cornish. Val hadn't chosen to leave him, she had been taken. She hadn't deliberately hurt him, she wouldn't want him to continue to hurt. She, unlike Jack Cornish with Louise, would want him happy.

As he turned to walk along the river, he spotted a man walking towards him. The man seemed to be eager to get wherever he was headed. Robbie watched him wave at someone in the distance but kept walking. As he was about to round the curve he turned to see who the man was meeting.

His heart stopped for a moment. Who was this man? This man who was so eager to see Laura. He watched and was both surprised and emboldened by the look she gave the eager man. He knew that smile. She might be smiling but it wasn't her smile. It was the polite smile she gave people. A stab of jealousy spiked through him as she stood and lightly hugged and kissed the man hello.

He turned away from them and walked away like he was really on a casual stroll along the Cherwell. As he rounded the curve that would take him out of sight of the pub a thought floated through his mind. Why wasn't it me meeting her? He continued his walk as her voice filtered into his thoughts, "All you have to do is ask."

Robbie walked around the crime scene to find Laura crouched over a dead body. She looked up at him a bit concerned. She'd seen him the night before. She didn't think he'd seen her and she found herself hoping he hadn't. Last night had been a mistake and frankly the last mistake she planned on making. She was tired of dating, she knew who she wanted; he was standing right in front of her. She smiled up at him, "Morning Robbie."

"Laura, what've we got?"

She stood and placed the lid on the specimen cup, "A gentleman of mature years been dead for some time but a bit of a puzzle. No maggots, no visible pooling, tongue's not distended, the nails…"

Robbie waved off further description, "Spare us…"

She grinned enjoying being able to break his typical cool with the more vivid aspects of her job, "Best suit, polished shoes, clean white hanky in his top pocket…" Robbie looked back at her knowingly, he knew she had saved the best for last. With raised eyebrows her smile broadened, "No underpants."

His eyebrows raised, "No kek?"

She tilted her head at him, teasing him with his own accent, "Aye, you can take the lad out of Newcastle…" She stared at him a moment having expected a response. Was his mood related to her date last night? She tried again, "You're not your usual focused self Robbie." He offered her his hand to help her out of the ditch. She happily took it looking around for his shadow and asked him a question, "Where's Hathaway?"

He pulled her up to him, "On his holiday. Did you ever meet Jack Cornish? Fast track detective destined for great things."

Laura nodded, "Yeah, I've met him why?"

He scratched his head lightly, "Well it's just we were always great mates, cut from the same cloth and…" He looked down at her and suddenly didn't want this pain to touch her. He wanted only happy memories with her, "Oh, ignore me." He motioned towards the body. "Is that it?"

She shook her head as she looked down at the body, "Afraid not, I've saved the best for last, if I were to say all of the usual offices have been performed." Robbie shook his head not understanding, "The thing is Robbie, this man has already been put through the tender hands of an undertaker."

Laura walked away to direct the SOCO's as Robbie wandered the crime scene. She found him crouched over some rubbish as she came around her car. "Interesting?"

He was holding up a sandwich container by the end of a pen. "Best before the 15th, that was when, last week?"

"You're a single bloke, zap it in the microwave, it'll be fine." She closed the hatch of her car and walked away.

He smiled as he watched her walk away. The smile deepened as a single thought crossed his mind. Maybe I'm tired of being a single bloke.

Laura was finishing a report when a knock at the door distracted her. She looked up as Robbie's head entered the door. She smiled as he entered and closed the door behind him, "Laura I need a favor."

She looked at him quizzically, "Why all the cloak and dagger? You could have just called me."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Because the walls have ears." She smirked at him and he nodded, "Innocent stuck me with a DC while James is out of town. He seems like a nice kid but…"

Laura smiled as she finished his thought, "He's not Hathaway."

"Exactly."

"In case you haven't noticed Robbie, I'm not Hathaway either."

Robbie blushed at her comment, "I know that Laura but you know me and you know how I think. I just need someone…" He stopped and looked her in the eye, "I need you to listen to me, let me talk things out."

She took a deep breath, momentarily speechless from his comment. Finally she nodded, "I'd be happy to listen to you Robbie."

He smiled as he opened her office door, "Lunch at one, usual place, my treat?"

She nodded, "I can make that work."

He patted the doorframe twice, smiling as he started to walk out. He turned back to her with a suddenly serious look, "And, for the record, Laura, I'm well aware you aren't Hathaway."

Laura stared after him unsure how to take that last comment. Lunch should be interesting.

Laura watched him chew his lunch. He had been relatively taciturn throughout the lunch. She took a sip of her tea and decided to dive in, "Don't be grumpy, Hathaway's having a holiday."

Robbie grimaced, "He says he is."

Laura raised an eyebrow, "Oh, it's like that is it?" He nodded and smiled as he took a sip, "Come on."

"He thinks I don't know about it. Some old churchy pals of his have roped him in for some do goodery."

Laura had to fight back the smile at Robbie's consternation, "Oh no."

"Fixing up an orphanage. They more or less press ganged him into it."

This time Laura couldn't fight the smile, "Poor James."

"Ahh, get out, he'll fit straight back in with all of them. He wouldn't know fun if it jumped up and smacked him in the gob."

Laura smiled thinking James probably knew more about it than Robbie gave him credit for, in fact, more about it that Robbie would, "But you would?"

He rubbed his hands together, "Oh, I've had me share." He looked at her and smiled.

"In the distant past…" He laughed at her teasing. "Although you did give yourself up to wild abandon the other night." He looked at her slightly panicked, "Friday." He looked away trying to think of an excuse for why he had been there, "Drinking in the beauty of the river, standing in the dusk and just gazing at the sights."

"Oh , yeah, yeah, yeah, I, uh, well, I thought I saw a body," She looked at him. "Well it wasn't. It was a log." She laughed at him. "What?" His mobile rang and he pulled it from his pocket as her laughter deepened, "Yeah, Lewis." He listened for a few seconds. "Neal Strickley, good, thanks." He ended the call and looked at her. "A name band, cut off his wrist or his ankle found about a hundred yards from the body. Still, it's something to work on." He pointed at the food on the table, "Sorry, you're treat."

Laura smiled as he walked away. In all these years, it was the first time he'd left her with a check. She thought for a moment about what that could mean.

Robbie was talking through the points of the case with Jean when his mobile range. "Hobson ma'am." He answered the call. "Hi." He looked at Jean. "Excuse me ma'am." Jean nodded as she took one last look at the board before walking away. "Yeah, right, why don't we try meet halfway." He smiled as she agreed.

Laura smiled as she saw Robbie walking toward her. He seemed so serious until he spotted her then he broke into a smile. It took everything in her not to break into a run.

Robbie saw her and the smile that crossed his face was automatic. Without thinking, he lengthened his stride easily to get to her sooner.

Laura started talking even before she was all the way to him. "I found your ante mortem bruising on Dr. Whitby." She raised her hands and placed them on his shoulders to demonstrate. "Two areas of pressure on either side of the neck whilst he was sitting, probably too drunk to get up off and fight the off because the bruising was pretty light."

Robbie stared down at her as her hands rested on his shoulders. She was gorgeous. As she finished giving him the explanation her hands lingered in his shoulder and their eyes met. He wondered what it would be like to have her look at him like this without a case between them. To have her hands on him for more personal reasons. He smiled as she pulled back shyly realizing that she had been stroking his shoulders in public. It saddened him that he had created distance between them.

Laura pulled her hands back quickly. She couldn't believe she had touched him so intimately. What's more, she wanted to do it again. She shook her head, "Final toxicology report, nothing new same as before. Drunk, stomach awash with whisky and undigested pills." She looked up at him almost apologetically.

He motioned that they should walk. He thought about her touching him as they walked. It had been nice to have her touch him. He put his hands in his pockets before he pulled her into his arms, "Faulkner's into whisky."

Laura nodded, "As are a lot of people."

Robbie stopped walking and turned to her, "Faulkner said when his wife suddenly turned up, he said not this stupid lost body thing again." He started walking again. "But if she went off on the night of the party and she hadn't been in touch with anybody since why didn't she say to him what are you talking about?"

"Well you'd just told her her brother was dead."

"No, no, no, she knew. Her and her husband pretend to be at each others throats but actually their thick as thieves."

Laura shook her head, "Not if she ran off with Jack Cornish."

"Oh, I'd bet my pension she didn't. He wouldn't have anything to do with a woman like her."

They walked for a bit more when Laura asked, "You think it was him in that coffin don't you?"

"Well I hope not but I think he might have been about to uncover something, something big so the Faulkner's killed him."

Laura thought for a moment, "And Dr. Whitby? Think he was in on the murder?"

"I don't know yet. But I'm sure his murder links back to the Faulkner's too. Never mind, there's a lad that wants to tell me something and he's going to wrap up all of the answers for us nice and neat." Laura smiled as they continued walking.

They walked in companionable silence. Each had their hands in their pockets to keep the temptation to touch the other one in check. Laura broke the silence first giving him a look of grumpiness, "You still owe me lunch."

He smiled at her, "Of the hundreds of lunches, dinners and drinks I have bought you through the years, you're going to hold me hostage over one lunch?"

She looked away pretending like she was thinking about it, "Yes, I am. All of those others you bought because you chose to, not because you promised to. Yesterday you promised to buy me lunch. So I think you owe me."

Robbie stopped walking and took her hand, "I think you might be right Dr. Hobson." She looked down at his hand holding hers. His thumb stroked her hand, "The only thing Laura, I don't want to have lunch with you." She looked up at him not understanding his meaning. He pulled her closer, and stroked her cheek lightly, "I want to buy you dinner."

Laura looked up at him exhaling a breath she hadn't known she was holding, "Do you know what you're asking Robbie?"

He nodded as he pulled her closer, he lowered his head to hers, "I know exactly what I'm asking Laura. You gave me the rules. So here I am, standing before you trusting that you will catch me..." He kissed her, "Guide me…" He kissed her again with more passion, "Love me." Robbie pulled her to him and kissed her. All of the fire from their previous kiss returned. They wrapped around one another consumed by the emotion of the moment. Robbie deepened the kiss keeping them on the knife's edge of the passion.

They had danced around each other, around this passion for so many years. Neither of them wanted this moment to end yet both knew this wasn't the place for it. As if by unspoken agreement they both softened the kiss. Cooling the passion without extinguishing it. Robbie pressed his forehead to Laura's looking her in the eye, "Does that answer your question Laura?" She looked at him with unfocused eyes and nodded, "Is that a yes Doctor?"

Laura smiled up at him with a smile he had never seen, mentally he added it to his catalogue of her smiles. This might be his new favorite. She pushed up and kissed him lightly, "I think it does." She pushed up and kissed him more deeply, fanning the flames of desire. When she broke the kiss she gave him his new favorite smile, "When?"

And that is where I leave you. You are free to let your imaginations wander where they will. We all know when they had dinner, you can figure out how it ended. Thanks for reading and reviewing, it really does mean the world to me. Stay tuned soon for White Horse the sequel.