Chapter 3

In the afternoon Tommy was brooding in his office.

Everything had been fine this morning. When he came in the office Barbara had already been there joking with Winston over coffee. Tommy smiled at them saying "good morning" and seeing his sergeant relaxed they got back to their normal routine doing the paperwork.

Then shortly before noon Lafferty entered the office with his files they needed for their report.

Winston was out getting them lunch and Tommy just came back from his office when he heard the conversation between Barbara and Lafferty.

Barbara: "Hiya, Stuart. Thanks for taking me out last night. It was fun."

Stuart: "My pleasure. It looked like you enjoyed it."

Barbara: "I did. And give my love to your wife. It was nice meeting her."

Here Lynley relaxed a bit not knowing exactly why as he hadn´t the exclusive rights to go out with Barbara but it was good to hear she hadn´t been alone with Lafftery.

Stuart got on: "Will do. She hopes you will come again. Oh and I hope Sam brought you home alright." Here Stuart smiled a bit.

"Yes, he did and there is nothing to smile at, Stu!" Barbara answered while slapping him jokingly.

This bit confused Tommy but before jumping to any conclusions they had to get the report done so he choose this moment to appear to then more or less together with the returning Winston.

Both Barbara and Lafferty didn´t talk about the last night anymore and over lunch Winston had brought they worked on and were ready at around 3 pm.

While Barbara was typing the report in its final version Tommy got back to his office brooding. Okay, Barbara had been out with Lafferty and his wife but who was Sam? He couldn´t think of any colleague named Sam but then he didn´t knew them all by first name and also not Lafferty´s staff.

But again jumping to any conclusions wouldn´t get him anywhere so he would wait and see if the name would appear again of if there would be a chance to ask Barbara without sounding too noisy or patronizing.

In a way Tommy was very happy with his new way of behaving and hopefully it would bring him further to his dream and happiness.

But the next weeks brought new cases and a lot of work. When ever possible Barbara went down to "the Unicorn" Thursday evenings enjoying the music and the singing very much. She also met some more old school mates there but having Sam back pleased her most.

She also made it a habit to drop in his shop for a tea when possible.

As also Tommy was behaving more normal again she felt more happy than she had in years. Sam noticed that there was something special between Barbara and her boss as she still didn´t talk much about him and tried to avoid that subject but he could wait or ask Stuart about it when necessary.

What he didn´t knew was that he was going to find out a totally different way.

A/N: Again not a long chapter but it will go on over the next weeks I hope. Thanks for all the nice reviews so far they are much appreciated.