Ok, so, two massive distractions later… I think I've stretched one premise of this story out quite long enough.

Jessie xx

Do you promise to care for her?

It was what UCOS had needed. Four days without laughter was practically unheard of; in fact Sandra could only remember one other time when it had happened – after Hanson had got off. But once they had finished laughing and assured their newest member that the only morning exercise that he might encounter would be a rigorous round of rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to make the coffee; the atmosphere was easier than it had been. Sandra set Nick the task of choosing their next case out of the three they had left on the table. She'd insisted that for their very cruel jokes, Brian and Steve would be responsible for making the coffee and running to the canteen for bacon butties. Rob had been sent away, still slightly confused by the hilarity that the new man had caused, with the Kaye files in his custody; and Gerry happily spent the morning moving desk. By lunchtime they had a new case; Gerry had a new desk; and despite Steve's protestations at poor navigation, he and Nick had gone out to meet with the author of a several strongly worded letters that had been attacking the UCOS in-tray recently.

"Right," Sandra exited her now tidy office with her bag and coat in hand. Gerry and Brian looked up from their respective workstations. She smiled. Somehow it felt better to have the empty desk filled again. It felt right. They hadn't replaced Jack, they never would. But it felt like they had somehow come to terms with his absence. He'd been gone from the office six months. Gone forever for two. She brushed off the melancholy memories of the day the news of his death had hit her and answered their questioning looks. "I've got to pop out for a bit – "

"Where to?" Brian asked instantly.

She frowned slightly. "I've got an appointment," she said vaguely. Though the message not to be nosy was very clear. "I'll be back in an hour or so. You two can manage without me for that long? Right?"

"Yes," Gerry replied indignantly.

"Good," she grinned. "I'll see you later."

The two old friends looked at each other as she left. "What was that about?" Gerry asked.

Brian shrugged. "She's got an appointment," he summarised.

"Yeah, but who with?" Gerry persisted.

"I don't know!" Brian exclaimed. "She didn't tell us, remember?"

"I'm not senile yet!" Gerry returned. "Though god knows how, working with you all this time!"

Brian stuck his tongue out and rolled his eyes, giving a very accurate impression of how Gerry imagined crazy people to look. The cockney laughed. Never in a million years could he put him and Brian as friends if he hadn't known the man so long. They shared a sense of humour of a sort. They were of a similar age, both far younger than Jack had been at the start of UCOS though they had reached those years now. It had been an instant bonding factor in that they were the two that didn't know Sandra; though had both met Jack variously through the job. They knew that it had been Jack who'd vouched for them to her, even though the softly spoken former DCS had never said as much. They were both fiercely loyal to their families and friends and both liked football. Past that, Brian mused, they didn't really have that much in common.

"You looking forward to it?" Gerry asked.

"To what?" Brian frowned. He wasn't surprised by the distraction; Gerry's attention span was the exact evidence of how variation in focus affected the duration of attention.

"Retirement," Gerry picked up his pen as he spoke and noted down something off the screen in front of him. "What are you going to do all day?"

Brian thought for a moment. He clicked on the search result he felt most helpful and read the first few lines of the article before replying. "What would you do?"

Gerry scoffed. "What do you think? I'd be back to bouncing between the bookies and the boozer!"

"Esther says she wants the bedroom redecorating," Brian smiled at his friend's vices. At least he was honest about them. "There'll probably be another room after that. Then, I don't really know. She'll find something for me to do though. Anything to keep me out from under her feet!"

Gerry knew that there was an element of truth in what his friend said. As much as Esther loved her husband, it was going to be a case of keeping him occupied enough that she didn't feel driven to murder. He grinned. His own retirement seemed less rosy. Would he be like Jack? End up working out his days until he ran out of them? Or find love late on like Sandra? When it eventually became her time, she would have Robert and the girls to fill her days. He hadn't lost it all, had he? He could still make a life with someone, even if just to have some company on the last stretch of the journey. While still musing on the unlikely match his guv'ner had found, he turned his attention back to the notes he was making and they worked in companionable silence until they were interrupted by the entrance of the very man he'd been thinking about.

"Hello Gerry, Brian," Rob Strickland glanced nervously around the room. It had taken him a full half hour since he'd seen her leaving the station through the window in his office to summon the courage to seek out the two men. Thankfully, to his purpose, they appeared to be alone in the office.

"Hello sir, Sandra's just out at the moment," Brian greeted the man. There was something apprehensive in his demeanour. Brian frowned and glanced at Gerry to see his expression mirrored; clearly Sandra's appointment hadn't been with her boss; and he also didn't seem to know about it.

"Good, yes, well," Rob stumbled over his words like a teenager. Though to be fair, it was how he felt a bit like anyway. The thoughts behind his motivation for getting the two men alone certainly made him as nervous as he had been when he'd first asked a girl out at school. "It's you I wanted to talk to actually, both of you."

"Oh?" Brian queried as the younger man's agitation seized his full attention. He looked again to Gerry who had also fixed the DAC with a curious look. "What about?"

"Sandra," Rob responded simply. Then found that his mouth had gone quite dry and he couldn't see exactly how to shape what he wanted to say. It had been the first thing on his mind that morning; today was going to be the day that he asked them. He'd spoken to his children; he'd spoken to Sandra's mother. They were the last people he needed to ask. Well, there was one other. He could have asked them last weekend when they'd been fishing. But he hadn't been able to formulate the right moment then either. No, it was going to be now. And if he could switch off the part of his brain that was causing him to act like a schoolboy called in to the headmaster's office, then maybe he could manage it.

"What about her?" Gerry appealed. He tried to refrain from solving the equation that had formed in his mind; that equation called for serious questioning, if she was ill…

"She cares a lot about you both and I know that you care about her," Rob hoped his voice sounded as calm and collected to them as it did in his head.

"Yeah," Gerry agreed slowly. He glanced at Brian to check that his mate was as much in the dark as he was. "And?"

Rob looked between the two men. Their expressions exposed worry, confusion and apprehension. Oh god, what were they going to think? Before he had a chance to complete the thought that would completely destroy him, the words were out of his mouth: "I want to ask her to marry me."

There wasn't a word to describe the shocked silence that followed his statement. Well, shocked might have done it. Anguished and endless were closer to how Rob experienced it. Gerry went with confusion. "So why are you talking to us?"

"Gerry," Brian let out a breath through his teeth and glared hopelessly at his friend. "Shut up."

Gerry's confusion was not abated by Brian's suddenly enlightened understanding of the DAC's presence in their office and his peculiar designs on their guv'ner. If Strickland wanted to ask Sandra to marry him, why didn't he just do it? She'd say no and this whole silly nonsense could come to an end. He could have his drinking companion back. As he watched Brian observing Strickland however, the grown-up in him began to reason with his ego. If it was all just some fling, how come she'd practically moved into his? How come she'd been to meet his son? Did he really want it to all be some flash-in-the-pan rumpy-pumpy or would he rather believe that somebody was going to love her and look after her? After all, as the tosser (who wasn't really all that much a tosser) had put, they cared about her. They cared a lot about her. But they couldn't love her. He studied the younger man as the silence came to an end, if he did love her, then that wasn't such a bad thing. Brian clearly thought the same, Gerry deduced, as the northerner cleared his throat. The look of terror on Sandra's future fiancée however, that was fantastic.

Brian fixed his eyes on Strickland. He realised what the younger man wanted. And what he was going to give him. He cared a lot about Sandra, and he wanted the best for her as if she was his favourite sister. Strickland had to know that, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of asking their permission. The underlying emotion gave his voice a gruff edge as he asked what he needed to.

"Do you promise," he began quietly. "To provide for her, give her everything she needs?"

"Yes," Rob replied readily. He recognised instantly what was happening. There would be conditions. Guarantees. He had to prove that he was as good as his word, good enough for them; for her.

"Do you promise to care for her? Protect her?" Brian continued. They were the same questions that Esther's dad had put to him. He remembered them as if it had been yesterday that he had stood in Robert's shoes.

"Yes."

Brian allowed a pause to grow as he prepared to pose the third and final question. He looked Robert steadily in the eye and tried to ignore the lump growing in his throat as he considered giving his consent.

"Do you love her?"

"Yes."

Brian smiled. "Go on then," he repeated the words of Esther's father.

Rob was ready to form a fist and punch through the ceiling, but he only had half the approval he needed. He nodded gratefully at Brian before turning to the other, uncommonly silent, most important man in Sandra's life. "Gerry?"

Gerry looked at both men; Brian had known Sandra as long as he had and possibly better than he did. If he thought that Robert deserved the chance to be with her; and if Robert did love her – he had sounded sincere – then who was he to stand in the way? He looked at the pitiful pleading in the younger man's eyes and grinned. "Yeah, yeah. You have our blessing. But if you ever hurt her…" he left the threat unspoken.

"I wont, I promise," Rob vowed sincerely. He nodded to both of them. "Thank you."

Five miles away, with a little less enthusiasm and a lot less excitement, Sandra thanked the doctor she had been to see. Walking across the small car park she unlocked the car, opened the door and got in without consciously being aware of her movements. In a daze, she started the engine and threw all of her concentration into driving back to the station. Once parked, she switched the engine off and found herself gazing up at the building, her eyes drawn to the window of his office. She had to tell him.

Two months.

Eight weeks.

That was the truth of the matter. Why she'd been feeling awful. Why she'd been being sick. How the hell was she going to tell him?