"Well, I thought that was quite a productive meeting. Much more so than I had envisaged at any rate."

"Oh, yes sir, very productive," Frank replied, checking his watch. It was almost eleven o'clock, sentence should have been passed down on Stewart Church by now and he couldn't help but hope that Christina was back in the CID office feeling slightly better than she had been when he had seen her that morning. Not to mention the fact he hoped Church had got every year that he deserved for what he had done to her. There was something to be said for feeling as though a rival had been effectively removed from the playing field.

"Keeping you from something, am I?" Derek asked, surveying him critically across his desk.

"No, it's just…" he broke off as there was a sharp knock at the door. Before there was any time to grant or prohibit entry, it opened and Kim appeared, her face slightly flushed.

"Oh, good timing," Derek said sarcastically. "Very good of you to turn up just after the meeting's finished, albeit Frank made an acceptable substitute."

"Never mind that," Kim replied. "I've just been waylaid by reporters on my way into the station. They're out there, in their droves, wanting a comment on what took place at court this morning."

Frank felt his stomach drop.

"What did take place at court this morning?" Derek asked.

"Apparently, Stewart Church's solicitor said, in open court, that his client had discovered his wife was having an affair with a senior officer from this station prior to him stabbing her."

"Oh no…" Derek sighed heavily.

"Is Chris all right?" Frank asked hurriedly.

"I haven't the faintest idea. I managed to get myself through the throng and came straight up here."

"Was this officer named?"

"Not as far as I can tell."

"I'll have to call Mr Brownlow," Derek sighed again. "He'll not take kindly to having his brunch interrupted."

As Kim and Derek talked around him, all Frank could think about was Christina, how she must have felt when the truth had come out, and the fact that he hadn't been there to ride the storm with her. "Excuse me," he said, moving for the door.

"Where are you going?" Kim asked sharply, causing him to pause.

"I'm going to see how she is, if that's all right with you Ma'am."

"Don't leave the station," she ordered him. "Not least because I'm sure you don't want to be besieged by the press, but there will be some further conversations taking place today about this whole mess."

"Well, it's not as if this wasn't always a possibility, is it?" he said. "We all knew it might come out at some point."

"That's really not helpful, Frank," Derek said, lifting the phone. "I think we had all hoped that the information might have been treated in a more sensitive manner. Please, do not leave the station until you've heard further."

"Yes sir," he replied, casting a final look at Kim before he left the office. There was a look in her eyes that he didn't like, one that screamed that his time was up, one way or another. He knew she would enjoy giving him his marching orders if it came to it. "Guv!" He turned to see Viv coming up the stairs towards him, her expression pale. "Is Chris here?"

"I don't know, I've just come out of a meeting with Conway. Reid said there's reporters' downstairs." She nodded. "What the hell happened?"

"Stewart's solicitor said that Christina had been having an affair…"

"Yeah, I got that much. What happened afterwards? Why isn't she with you?"

"Everyone went mad, Guv. Stewart's family, his friends from the squad, the press…Jim had to get her out of there whilst Tosh and I had to hold back the mob."

"Tosh…?" his gaze moved back to the stairs in time to see the other man making his way towards them, his expression thunderous. "I sent Jim down there."

"Yeah, well it's a good thing I was there and all, Guv," Tosh said. "There's no way Viv could have handled that lot by herself."

"So, where did Jim take her?"

"I don't know," Viv said, "we were too busy trying to keep everyone back. I thought they might have come back here."

"I told you, didn't I?" Tosh said, his voice low and angry. "I warned you, Guv…"

"This isn't the time or the place," he replied, turning to walk back to the CID office. "The important thing is getting her back here."

"So she can face the reporters? Tell them all about what's been going on between the pair of you?" Tosh said, following him. "Do you even care what you've done to her?"

"Now you listen to me!" he rounded on the other man. "I haven't done anything to her, all right? Whatever she did, she did because she wanted to."

"Yeah, not because you seduced her, eh? Worked on her whilst she was vulnerable…"

"What I do in my private life, Lines, is none of your business!"

"It is my business when it impacts on someone I care about, when it impacts on us as a department! I told you to leave her alone, Frank. I told you that some fires are better left unstoked!"

"Yeah, and some have to be allowed to burn! You haven't a clue, have you? Stuck in your drudgery of a marriage with five kids you struggle to provide for. You're forgotten what it's like to be in that first flush of feeling, when all that matters is you and her and the rest of the world can go to hell!"

Tosh's face turned red, "Don't you dare talk about my family…!"

"And don't you dare talk about mine!" He paused suddenly, recognising the word he had used, and all the meaning wrapped up in it. "You've known how I felt." He turned and continued walking, hoping the other man would get the message.

"Yes, I've known how you felt," Tosh said, following him. "I've seen the way you've looked at her, the way you've acted around her, and I came to you as a friend to warn you off, to let her be when she was going through a difficult time, when the last thing she needed was her boss telling her how he wanted her. Little did I know you'd already had her on her back!"

The rest mist descended then, the casual dismissal of what they shared pushing him to the brink, and he turned back, grabbing the other man by the jacket before Viv stepped in between them and he felt someone else seize him from behind.

"Leave it, Frank!" he heard Ted's voice in his ear. "It's not worth it!"

"Get off me!" he struggled out of the other man's grip and then turned back to face Tosh. "You don't know anything about us, all right?"

"I know you've probably wrecked her career!" Tosh called after him, but he kept going, back into the CID office, past numerous inquisitive faces, and into his office, slamming the door behind him.

Tosh was probably right.

XXXX

She sat in the corner, pressed up against the wall, almost as though trying to make herself small and invisible from the world, as if at any moment the door of the café would be thrown open and scores of reporters would run in after her, shouting and demanding answers. Though it wasn't cold, she felt a chill go through her and she pulled her suit jacket tighter around herself as Jim returned to the table and put a mug of coffee down in front of her. "Thanks."

He said nothing before sliding into the seat opposite and lifting the sugar, resentment coming off him in waves. "So," he said finally. "How did it start?"

"I really don't want to talk about it," she replied, stirring in some milk.

"I don't think you're going to have much choice, do you?"

Looking up, she met his gaze. "What do you want me to say, Jim?"

"Well, I'd prefer you say it's not true, but I think we're past that." He shook his head. "I would just never have thought…"

"Thought what?"

"That you would have ever betrayed Stewart."

"Oh, I see. It's all my fault, is it? Nothing to do with the fact that he completely changed after he was shot. Nothing to do with the drinking and getting himself arrested and basically treating me like shit. You stood in the CID office last Christmas, Jim, and told me that you could all see it, that I could do something about it, that it was almost a 'new year' remember?"

"Is that when it started?"

She took a drink from her mug, her mind going back to that day when they had sat in his car on the Maycroft estate and told each other how they felt before…his office… "I suppose so."

"You suppose so? Either it did or it didn't?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you, ok?" she snapped.

"I just…" he sat back in his seat and sighed. "He treated you so badly, Burnside that is. All the times you complained about him, all the shit you put up with from him. I mean, it was sexual harassment at times, and you know it!" She looked away. "I know things improved between you but…"

"You don't know anything, Jim, that's the point. You don't know how we were together at work, not really. You don't know how supportive he was when everything happened with Stewart, no-one does…"

"Yeah, he was like that because he wanted to get in your knickers, like every woman he ever comes across. Only you were stupid enough to let him when most other women simply give him a wide berth."

She wanted to throw the coffee over him. "You don't know him!"

"Don't I? Come on, you know what he's like as well as I do. Anything that moves."

"Don't say that…"

"It's expected from him, but you…"

"I love him."

Jim paused, mug halfway to mouth and looked at her as though she had just declared her belief in aliens. "What?"

"I said, I love him. And he loves me."

He stared at her uncomprehendingly, "I thought you said it was a…"

"I lied. It wasn't just a fling. Yes, we had sex of course but…more than that we…we fell in love with each other. I left Stewart, in part, because I wanted to be with Frank. We were going to make a life together and then, well, Stewart found out and stabbed me, and it all got a bit complicated after that." It was the shortened, sanitised version, but the only one she felt able to give at that moment.

Jim didn't say anything for a long moment, his brain clearly finding it hard to process what she had said, and she could tell by the look on his face that he was quickly realising she wasn't the person he had thought her to be. "The top brass is going to be all over this, Chris. You know the rules…"

"They already know."

He let out a short laugh and shook his head, "Of course they do."

"Frank had to tell Reid, after I was stabbed." She looked down at the table. "We both got an unofficial reprimand and that was the end of it." The weight of his gaze forced her to look up again and, for some inexplicable reason, she felt she owed him an apology, "I'm sorry."

He said nothing for a long moment. "So…is it still going on?"

Such a loaded question, and one she wasn't even sure she knew how to answer. They were right back where they'd been almost six months earlier when the affair had been discovered. Two officers, differing ranks, at the same station. Only now, everyone knew. "Maybe."

"Maybe? Either it is or it isn't."

"Well, he spent the night with me last night, so you tell me." The words came out before she could stop them and, instantly, she wished she could take them back. The less said the better, even though she knew she had already said too much.

Jim simply shook his head and then let out a long breath. "I…I don't know what to say."

"I'm still the same person I was before that solicitor got to his feet."

"I'm not so sure you are." He paused. "I suppose I should call the station. The last anyone heard, we were fleeing the court and I'm assuming that at least one person will want to know where you are." His tone was contemptuous, and she found herself poised to scream at him that he was one to talk with his Sonias' and his Carols' and all the screwing around he had done over the years that she had known him. She wanted to tell him that she was better than that, that what she and Frank had was different and yet, she didn't. There was no point. He slid out from the table and made his way over to the payphone against the wall and she simply sat, drinking the remains of her coffee, and steeling herself for what was to come.

XXXX

He could tell they were all talking about him. The whispers, the glances…June had appeared at one point, on what pretext he didn't know, and conferred quietly with Mike before leaving again, casting a brief glance in his direction and so he had to assume that it was the talk of the relief downstairs too. Tosh had clattered and crashed around his desk for a while before seemingly running out of energy and now sat, feet up, leaning back, eyes closed as though trying to block out everything he had discovered that morning. He couldn't help but wonder if it was a challenge. If he expected him to go out and reprimand him for not doing any work, any excuse to start another argument. Well, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. He didn't care what any of them thought anyway. All that mattered was her, and he still had no idea where she was.

He tried to focus on some work, anything to take his mind from what was happening, but it was impossible. His phone had rung a couple of times with people he knew from the press looking for a comment. Although none of them had suggested he was the mystery man, he knew it wouldn't be long before someone put two and two together. At least one of them had been good enough to tell him the sentence; eight years. That had given him a brief moment of satisfaction before he had put the phone down.

As he sat, he felt a deafening silence suddenly descend over the room and, when he looked up, he saw Jim standing outside his office.

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" he demanded, getting up from his seat and coming around his desk.

"I was looking after my mate," Jim replied, his tone dripping with disdain. "She's been through a lot today."

"Where is she?"

"In Conway's office."

"Right," he strode out of the room, conscious of the other man following him, and stopped at the far end of the corridor to confront him. "If you want to have a pop at me, James, you'll have to get in line. I've already come to blows with Tosh this morning."

"Why did you do it, Guv?" Jim asked softly. "I mean her, of all people…"

Familiar anger flared through him. "Everyone around here is acting as though I forced myself on her! She has got a mind of her own, you know!"

"Yeah, a mind that was in turmoil over her husband, a husband who was treating her like crap! The last thing she needed was you taking advantage of her!"

There was that word again; the one that everyone seemed desperate to cling onto. "You don't know what you're talking about, James."

"No? You've turned her head so far upside down that she's even claiming she loves you!"

"That so hard for you to believe, is it? That a woman could actually love me and that I could love her?" Jim opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Leave it alone will you, James? We're living in the grown ups world now." Before the other man could say anything, he turned on his heel and carried on towards Derek's office, rapping sharply on the door and then opening it. Four pairs of eyes swivelled towards him, only one of which he wanted to see. She was sitting on a chair in the corner, looking nothing short of terrible, and he ached to go to her.

"Frank, this really isn't the best time…" Derek said.

"I think I should be party to this conversation, sir, don't you agree? Especially considering that I'm assuming it involves me." Closing the door behind him, he moved over to the far wall.

Brownlow sighed. "I was just explaining to WDC Lewis that I'll need to make a statement to the press in response to what was said in court earlier. I'd like to keep it as vague as possible whilst acknowledging the truth of what was said. I don't think it to be in anyone's interests to try and pretend it's not."

"Name me sir, if you wish." Christina looked up at him and he nodded his head reassuringly at her. "It doesn't seem fair for her to cop all the flak on this."

"She is the one who was married," Derek pointed out.

"She's also the one who was stabbed," he replied, "and I'm part of the reason for that. Seems only fair that they have my name as well as hers."

"I think the less information the press has to play with, the better," Brownlow replied. "It only creates a bigger story if they know your identity, Frank. Besides, hopefully it's all a bit of a storm in a teacup. Tomorrow's fish and chip wrapper and all that."

"You could take the tactic that you intend neither to confirm nor deny what was said," Kim spoke up. "After all, Christina was the victim in all of this and the sentencing of her husband, regardless of what else was going on, should surely be the story we focus on."

"I agree sir," Derek said. "If we show our support to Christina and welcome the sentence, that should hopefully dampen the fire on the affair. After all, why Church did what he did is immaterial, surely."

"Hmmm, you could be right," Brownlow mused. "The bigger question, of course, is what we do about matters internally."

"How do you mean?" Kim asked.

"Well, whether we should take any action in light of the fact that the affair's been made public."

"My understanding was that no action was being taken," Christina spoke up. "That we'd been given our unofficial warning and that was the end of it."

"It was, until this," Brownlow said. "But I'm not sure if we can be seen to do nothing. Kim, how is the department managing, resource wise? You have five DCs at the moment, is that right?"

"Yes sir and, well, we're managing, but losing a member of the team wouldn't be my first choice…"

"I'll go," he spoke up suddenly, Christina's gaze once more locking with his own. "Transfer me, I don't mind."

"That's very good of you to offer Frank, but in light of what happened with DCI Wray, I don't think that the transfer of another senior officer would reflect well on us, particularly in light of the fact that it would be for the same reasons." Brownlow looked at Christina. "Whereas…"

"It's fine sir," she said. "I'll request a transfer."

"No."

"Frank…"

"So, she has to bear the stigma of what was said in court and, on top of all that, be transferred out to another station? That's hardly fair, sir."

"I'm not sure staying here provides much more of an advantage," Brownlow replied. "I would imagine the gossip is rife already."

"But here she's amongst friends, people who care about her. You transfer her out and it'll be a hundred times worse. Besides…" he glanced at her again, hoping she would go along with what he was about to say, "there's been nothing between us for the best part of six months, not since it all came out the first time, and it'll stay that way. The news will get older a lot quicker here than it will somewhere else, especially when people realise that nothing's going on. You move her out, and it'll be the first thing anyone thinks about when they meet her, and they'll all know why she was transferred."

"The same could be said for you if you were transferred," Kim said, "and yet you still offered."

He met her gaze and tried to read what was underneath it. She was no fool after all. "I would have taken that chance, Ma'am. I'm further up the ladder than she is."

"The rules are there for a reason, Frank," Derek said. "If we're seen not to be following them…"

"You didn't follow them before, sir. You allowed us both to remain here. Surely the criticism would be greater if you acted now, make it seem as though you made a mistake the first time around."

A silence descended over the room as everyone exchanged glances, as well as thoughts. Finally, Brownlow nodded his head. "I think there's a lot for us to consider. Perhaps you and WDC Lewis could allow us some time to speak privately."

"Yes sir," he moved over to the door and opened it as she rose from her chair. She moved past him, out into the corridor, and he closed the door behind him, before putting his finger to his lips as she opened her mouth to speak and then guiding her back along the corridor and into Kim's empty office. When the door had closed behind them, he pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly against him. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"It's all right," she replied, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

"No, it isn't." he pulled back and looked at her. "It must have been hell for you."

"Well, it wasn't nice being called a whore by my brother-in-law, that's for sure. Not that he's wrong."

"Don't do that," he said, "don't say that about yourself."

"It's what everyone's thinking."

"No, it isn't. If anyone's coming out of this badly, it's me. I've already had both Jim and Tosh give me a hard time over how I apparently took advantage of you." He waited for her to argue that that wasn't how it had been, but she didn't. Instead, she kept her gaze on the floor. "Look at me." She sighed heavily and he tilted her chin upwards. "It's going to be all right."

"Is it?"

"Of course it is. They're not going to do anything to us because it'll reflect too badly upon them. Brownlow's going to give the press a bland statement to chew over, we'll both have our unofficial warnings reiterated to us and that will be that. Here today, gone tomorrow, just like that."

"You said yourself that everyone's talking about us."

"They'll soon find something else to talk about, especially if they think there's nothing between us."

She moved away from him over to the far wall and leant against it. "Nothing's changed."

"Stewart's going to be in jail for the next eight years, that's something."

"Eight years…" she shook her head. "I didn't expect him to get so much. You should have seen the way he looked at me, Frank. It was as if…as if he didn't even know me. I'm supposed to be the victim and he made me feel like I was to blame for the whole thing."

"He's out of your life now, for good. There's no legal way he could contest any divorce, not with the position he's in. Six months, a year and you'll be free of him and his family."

"And what if they go to the press?" she looked over at him. "The Met might be able to try and kill the story but if they decide to go public…"

"They don't know it was me, do they?"

"No, but…"

"Well then. Besides, are they really going to want to drag Stewart's name through the mud any more than it has been? He is the criminal here you know, not you." He crossed the room and slid his hands onto her waist. "It's you and me now, Chris."

"But that's what I mean! Nothing's changed! We're in the same place we were six months ago, Frank! If you convince Brownlow to let us both stay here, then there's nothing we can do!"

"I know it's not ideal, but things can change over time. Opportunities might present themselves; we just have to be patient. I couldn't bear the thought of not being able to see you every day and, besides, I don't want you shipped out to some other nick where all they want to talk about is us. None of this is your fault." He paused. "There's still the option that I could leave the force…"

"No," she shook her head. "I don't want to go down that road again, I couldn't bear it."

"Well then, we just have to ride it out, together."

"How?"

"We hide it. That lot in Conway's office already think that it all stopped between us six months ago and once everyone else in CID has calmed down…"

"I told Jim we slept together last night." She took a breath. "And I know Viv suspected something when Stewart's family made it clear they hadn't known about you when I told her I had visited them and explained…" she shook her head. "Ted's always known…Tosh…nobody is going to believe that it's over…unless it's over."

He opened his mouth to respond when the door opened and Kim suddenly appeared, her gaze moving between the two of them, her eyes narrowed with obvious suspicion. "There you are. Can you both come back to Mr Conway's office please? Mr Brownlow's made a decision on how to proceed."