Chapter 4

Next Thursday night at "The Unicorn" Sam was waiting for Barbara. He had a surprise for her he hoped she would like.

It was already nearly 10 pm and she hadn´t appeared yet. They were playing "Loch Lomond" when Lafferty entered the pub. Sam saw immediately that something wasn´t right. Directly after the song he called it a night for singing and went straight to Stuart: "What is it, Stu? Where´s Barbara?"

Before he could give an answer also Cordia joined them also asking: What is wrong, love?"

Lafferty took a sip of his coke wishing it was a whiskey and answered: "There was an incident during the arrest Lynley and his team made today. There was a shooting. I wasn´t with them on this case so I went to the hospital before coming here. Barbara got wounded and was taken there. I just got there in time to hear with Lynley what the doctor said.

She was shot but luckily it was only a graze at her upper arm but she lost quite an amount of blood. As it wasn´t too bad she was allowed to leave the hospital as long as she won´t be alone for the night. That is all I knew at the moment as I didn´t get much out of Lynley what happened as he was too concerned about Barbara and Winston was already back at the station with the culprit.

But when I left the hospital Tommy and Barbara were also leaving already arguing again about where they were going now, her flat or his place so more or less back to normal."

Sam sighed hearing that she wasn´t hurt too badly but was also again wondering what is was between Barbara and her boss.

Taking his opportunity he said: "Thank God, and thanks for going by the hospital before coming here, Stu! But was it with Barbara and her guv? She doesn´t like to talk about him and always changes the subject when he comes up. But she talks a lot about you and Winston. Don´t they get on?"

Hearing this Stuart was a bit confused: "That´s weird, Sam. They go on very well. They like working together as otherwise both would have gone for promotion long ago. They are really a successful double act workwise and I would also say they trust each other more than anyone else. I don't know if the others see it but for me it looks like both love the other but would never dare to act on it."

That made Sam smile: "Ah, okay. Now I understand it. Should have recognized it. It has always been her habit to let me think she didn´t like guys she had a crush on. Guess that hasn´t changed."

Now Stuart also smiled: "Sounds like it. I think they both believe the other just wants to be friends." Starting to think about it Stuart´s smile changed into a devilish grin: "Perhaps it is time to help them up the horse so to speak!?"

With that the three friends toasted to each other before calling it a day and Lafferty and Cordia went home.

Sam was also walking the few streets to his house when he suddenly decided to go by Barbara´s flat first to put his surprise in her letterbox so would find it before the weekend. He took out a pen scribbled a note for her on it and changed directions. When he came near her flat he saw that the lights in her living-room were on.

Tommy was sitting on the edge of Barbara´s bed watching her sleep.

It had been a hell of a day. They had a break through with their case this morning after spending the last four days and most of the nights trying to find the head of a gang which smuggled kids from eastern countries to England for stealing. Some of them had been found dead in a truck, dead because of not enough air and water. That was when they got to know about this gang. So when they went to arrest the guy he started shooting without warning. Barbara managed to get the two incidental passing pedestrians out of the line while he and Winston got the man down.

It was only when the back-up arrived that he noticed the blood on Barbara´s arm. Luckily the ambulance arrived soon too and he went with her to the hospital not wanting to leave her alone. The thought of losing her frightened him, he needed to know that she would be okay.

In a way he was grateful when Lafferty appeared as then he hadn´t to face the doctor alone. The doctor told them that Barbara´s injuries weren´t too heavy and that she could go home when someone would stay with her for the next 24 hours as it was possible that there would be minor side-effects due to the pain medicine she was given and also shock could kick in.

Tommy immediately said he would stay with her and got a lot of instructions what to do to help if anything would happen.

Barbara was brought down to them and already on the way to the car they argued again about where they would spend the night. Tommy thought his place would be better but Barbara insisted on her flat. Sensing that is was a kind of safe-feeling-reaction he gave in and phoned Winston on the way to brief him up and also got briefed up about the guy they arrested. It was the first time he let Winston do it on this own but he couldn´t leave Barbara. He made that mistake once when Helen lost the baby. Now he would stay with Barbara to make sure she was okay.

He noticed that Barbara got quite sleepy during the drive another side-effect of the pills. When they arrived at her flat he nearly had to carry her in as the meds worked faster than he had thought.

But he managed to get her in her flat and then straight to the bedroom. Placing her on the bed Tommy managed to get her out of her shoes and her jeans and also in some sweatpants which were lying on the chair near her bed. Her blouse had already been removed at the hospital so Barbara was only wearing the tank-top she had beneath it. Thinking it was comfortable for her now Tommy laid her down as she was now already quite fast asleep.

When he wanted to cover her with the duvet he noticed that there was a small part of her skin shown between the pants and the top which showed her scar from the former shooting.

He had never seen it before of course but seeing it now made him feel sick and he had to sit down on the edge of the bed thinking that he nearly lost her all those years ago without realizing what she really meant for him.

As she was asleep now he dared to touch the scar carefully with one finger tracing over it before covering her up.

Then he stayed sitting on the bed watching her face. She looked quite relaxed thanks to the pain meds and also so young and natural without much wrinkles. Probably the advantage of her not using much make-up at all.

He didn´t know how long he had been sitting and watching her when there was a knock at her door.

A/N: Here we go, Chapter 4. Again thanks a lot for the reviews and your patience as it always takes me so long to go on. But sometimes I need the time to rewrite a chapter until it is how I want it to be...