Thanks for reading and reviewing! Jessie xx

Back to Work

"Urgh, you are kidding me?" Robert grumbled as the alarm went off on the wrong side of nine o' clock. He rubbed his eyes sleepily as he gently removed his arm from Sandra's sleepy clasp and rolled toward the offending noise.

"Make it go away," she mumbled in agreement, moaning as he pulled away. "Cold…"

They'd made it back quite late the previous night, the snow in Wales having slowed the initial part of their already lengthy journey. By the time they'd unpacked the car, reluctantly agreeing that it wouldn't do it by itself and that they wouldn't want to be bothering with it in the morning, half a glass of wine and a bath had seen them both into bed, even more reluctantly setting the alarm clock.

"Come on," Robert growled softly.

"I know…" she agreed, still trying to bury her head in the pillow that she didn't want to leave.

"Not you, bloody time," he smiled lazily. "Why can't it just leave us alone?"

"Mmm," she rolled over and allowed him to replace some of the covers around her with his arms.

Neither of them spoke for a while, enjoying the simple pleasure of waking with each other. Then, as always, came time's interruption again. Though it had, on this occasion, the slightly more welcome scent of coffee accompanying it.

"Are you awake?" followed a knock at the door. Added to which came, "And decent?"

Sandra grinned at Robert as she forced herself off his chest.

"Yes," she called.

"Never!" Robert cried simultaneously as his daughter opened the door.

"Morning," Mia raised her eyebrow, deciding to ignore her father's jibe. "Coffee's on. Did you have a nice time?"

"Yes, thank you, love," Robert pulled on his dressing gown as he stood up. He walked over to his daughter and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "Did we wake you when we got back?"

"No," she shook her head. "What time did you get in?"

"Late," Sandra grumbled, swinging her legs out of the bed.

Mia let out a small laugh. "Well Bella woke up at eleven and went back down at twelve, so I was spark out 'til she woke up at six."

Robert grinned at the thought of his granddaughter. "Is she awake now?"

"Yeah, I was just about to get her up," Mia paused and added with a cheeky tone. "Unless you'd like to do the honours? Pops?"

Robert happily disappeared out of the room; the happy mumbling noises that met the girls' ears moments later told them that grandfather and granddaughter were reunited after the weekend apart.

"Have you had a good weekend?" Sandra asked as she rubbed her eyes. "Did your aunt come over?"

"No thank god," Mia answered. "We went for lunch on Saturday. She moaned about everything!"

"Where did you go?"

"Just Barnaby's," Mia replied. "The usual. Then I met up with Tan and did a bit of shopping, came back here and just chilled for the rest of the day. Sunday, nothing much, went for a walk round the park but its just been so cold!"

"Mmm, it snowed where we were. That's why we were so late back," Sandra agreed. "It's nice and warm in here."

"Warmer in bed," Mia grumbled, then blushed as she realised what she had just implied to her dad's girlfriend. "Do you want some toast? Or I've got some of those chocolate croissants in?"

"Toast would be great," Sandra smiled politely as she had also noticed the girl's faux pas. "Thanks."

Mia gratefully left the room leaving Sandra shaking her head in amusement that hadn't dissipated by the time Robert returned having deposited Bella at the breakfast table.

"What's funny?" he asked in dazed confusion as he watched her pulling on her jeans. It was moments like this that usually made him envious that she was a plain-clothes detective who could wear jeans to work. Knowing the number of meetings he had to see to that morning, casual was not something he was going to get away with.

"Nothing," she pulled the zip on her jeans and turned her attention to finding something that wouldn't require any attention from an iron. She still felt ridiculously tired, the sort of tired that made her doubt her ability to remember how an iron might work. "Just your daughter suggesting that bed is the warmest place to be."

"And why is that…?" Robert drifted off as he stared at a wardrobe of suits, casually wondering if one of them would just like to apply itself to his body to save him the task and effort.

"Well, after she said it she remembered that the person she'd said it to spends most of their time in bed with her father," Sandra snuck her arms around his waist and played with the cord of his dressing gown.

"Oh…" he replied in dawning realisation.

"The grey one," she grinned as she successfully loosened the tie and pulled the dressing down away from him.

"No fair!" he protested. "Cold!"

"White shirt, blue tie," she added as her hand found the door handle. "Mia was right though, it's warmer in bed – you shouldn't have made us get up!"

Forty-five minutes later, with the family breakfasted and the younger members dropped off at their respective morning locations; Bella at the child-minders and Mia at college; Robert pulled up outside the station. Sandra's car was visible in the background where she had left it parked on Thursday night, Gerry's Stag just parking next to it. She sighed.

"It's bad, isn't it?" he asked sympathetically.

She closed her eyes for a moment. "I don't know," she admitted. "If any of them… I was expecting Brian to throw a complete wobbly on me. But Gerry… I never thought I'd lose him."

"Maybe, it's all been a bit quick?" Robert suggested tentatively. "I mean, us two, so soon after Jack…"

She shook her head. The subject of Jack's death, although a topic they had often touched on in conversation, was still one that was too recent and too painful for her to think about in any great depth. "I thought he was happy for us," she laughed. "Though god only knows why I thought that! Anyway, it's not your problem. Thank you for a wonderful weekend," she leant over the handbrake and kissed him. "I'll see you at lunch?"

"Absolutely," he agreed. He knew that she wasn't really brushing the situation under the carpet, but recognised that it was something that she had to deal with in her own time and in her own way. "I'll come down about half-twelve?"

"Unless something crops up," she grimaced. There was a vague plan that today was just a review day, tedious pouring over case files trying to find a new lead, angle or element of interest. His initial words of organising cases according to chances of success and such-like had evaporated like steam off a hot-tub; it was still a matter of something seeming interesting as far as her team were concerned. Though she would err on the side of caution in saying that that was how the day would pan out in reality.