Just This

Sequel to New Tricks fanfiction, Waking With You by Jessie Marsh

Author's Note

This is a sequel of sorts to the story Waking With You. Sandra and Strickland have began a tentative relationship following the shock of Jack's death. Brian feels isolated by the new fast-formed friendship of Steve and Gerry. The material of cases will be abandoned in this fic with the hopeful outcome of a more focused and character driven narrative.

Prologue

Snow flew past the windows of the cottage in South Wales. Kneeling on the sofa in front of the window and watching it, Sandra was transfixed as a child watching the flakes of white twirl and dance in the wind. Rob's car was already covered, looking like a peculiar shaped dune in a snow desert.

"It's not getting any better, is it?" he asked.

She turned to see him coming toward her holding two glasses of a deep red wine. She took the glass he offered her and turned back to the vista outside as he leant forward to see the landscape in its winter coat. Their long-weekend break had turned into a scene from a greetings card.

"It slowed down for a bit, but then it really started coming down," she informed him. "Good job we weren't planning to go out!"

"No," he said thoughtfully. He sat down on the sofa next to her as she twisted and sat on her ankles. He smiled.

"What?"

He shrugged and took a sip of his wine. "Come here," he gestured.

She smiled back and changed her position again to lay her legs over his and snuggle into chest as he lifted his arm. It had become their favourite attitude; giving to both of them comfort, security and warmth. It had been just three weeks since the inopportune kiss in the UCOS office, one week after a mutual agreement that a relationship between them was unquestionable. The years of solitude that each had become accustomed to; Rob's adjustment to becoming a grandfather and the loss of Sandra's mentor and good friend Jack Halford; had seemed the factors that would keep them apart despite the one night they had shared together. It had been the thought of losing her during a deep and dangerous undercover operation that had pushed Rob Strickland to the edge of reason enough to kiss her; and the realisation that despite all she thought she had lost, there was someone who still mattered to her, that had shocked her enough to kiss him back, that had brought them to their current situation.

"This is a very comfortable sofa," he murmured into her hair.

"Not a patch on yours," she grinned, reminding him of their deep and meaningful discussion as to the sleepability of the three seater sofa in what had formerly been his batchelor pad but was now becoming over-run with feminine touches courtesy of his daughter and grand-daughter. Surprisingly, he found that the small additions of Sandra's essentials which she kept at his for practicality, did not detract from the composition he had previously created. It felt right. Though there was one complication he could not avoid.

"Are the boys alright, about us?" he asked softly.

"Has Gerry stopped teasing you mean?" she eyed him thoughtfully, ready to take the more playful or more serious route as the conversation required. "They don't really have a choice," she added quietly. Gerry hadn't taken to it well. It had surprised her really, she'd have expected Brian to give her the cold shoulder: he had a long track-record of reacting badly to change. Yet it had been Gerry to become distant and irritable, deliberately volunteering for tasks that separated him from her and speaking sparsely about work when they were alone together. Steve and Brian had tried for the first week to purposefully leave them together so that they could talk and clear the air, but to little avail. It saddened her, to think that she was losing Gerry as a friend simply because she had gained a lover. She tried to tell herself that he was behaving childishly; throwing his toys out of the pram because she didn't have as much attention for him as she previously had. She tried telling herself it was only temporary, that he'd come back soon. She couldn't believe it though.

The look in the back of her eyes told him that everything he suspected was true. He couldn't expect her team to embrace their relationship with open arms, however much they might both wish that to be the case. Gerry in particular he knew was uncomfortable with it. Whenever he came near the UCOS office he could tell that there was an unspoken tension and that it was to do with him and Sandra. But, somehow they would be able to sort it out.

They both knew that it ought to be too soon to think that this was a permanent situation, but they knew too that neither of them wanted it to end. Over the years they had grown to know each other. There had been moments between them that had passed without reaction. What catalysts had brought them to this precipice they couldn't count or qualify but they would thank them if they could. As Rob gathered her in his arms and kissed her gently, she reciprocated.

Things had changed so quickly, little could they know how much more was to come.