'You seen Harry, Chas?' Dempsey peered around the office, frowning as if his absent partner might appear suddenly from behind a set of shelves.

'Went to the canteen I think.'

Dempsey opened his mouth to say, 'without me?' but instead grabbed his jacket and hurried out the door, oblivious to Chas' knowing shake of his head.

He wove his way through the tables to where his partner was sitting, deep in conversation with another woman.

'Here you are' he pulled over a chair and slumped down, 'what you doing in here?'

Harry ignored his question and turned to the other woman.

'Michelle, this is James Dempsey, my partner.'

'Dempsey, this is Sergeant Michelle Harding, she's just transferred to Vice.'

Dempsey sat up straight and blinked as if noticing Michelle for the first time, he held out his hand 'pleased to meet you.' He turned back to Harry, 'Spikings wants us to go interview Sparkes again, thinks he may know more than he's saying.'

'I very much doubt that' Harry said, showing no sign of moving.

As he made to stand up Dempsey pointed to the piece of cake on the plate in front of her, 'you gonna eat that?'

'I was planning to, yes, that's why I bought it.'

'Okay, just asking,' he hesitated, 'you coming?'

'Two minutes, Dempsey, I'll meet you at my car.'

As he started to protest Harry sighed and handed him the plate 'here, wouldn't want you to starve before I get there.'

He picked up the piece of cake with a grin, 'you're all heart Harry'

He nodded across to Michelle, his mouth full of chocolate cake, 'good to meet you.'

Both women watched in silence as Dempsey made his way back towards the door and disappeared from sight.

'That's your partner? Wow, how do you get any work done?'

'Oh believe me, his many charms wear off after a while' Harry smiled.

Makepeace was right, Sparkes, a small time crook and source of many past tip offs had nothing more to tell them about the spate of fake paintings turning up in London auction houses. She was more than a little annoyed at the waste of their time and the mountain of paperwork still waiting on her desk.

'I'll see you in there' she said to Dempsey as she headed into the women's cloakroom.

In the office the guys were clustered around the coffee machine with Dave holding forth, 'legs up to here and….' he blew out his cheeks as he gestured an exaggerated pair of breasts.

'You've got no chance, mate' Mack scoffed.

'None of us have a chance' Watson added ruefully, 'not once she sees Dempsey'

'What's this?' Dempsey asked.

'The new sergeant in vice, you seen her, she's a right looker' Dave said.

'Yeah, I met her earlier she was in the canteen with Harry'

At that moment Makepeace walked in and the conversation faltered as the guys started to disperse.

Later they were back in the car watching a warehouse, an unexpected tip-off from Sparkes after all, although Harry suspected he'd made something up in the hope they'd now leave him alone.

'So what was going on earlier? It all went quiet when I walked in.' Harry asked.

Dempsey glanced at her and smiled, pursing his lips. 'Oh, the guys were talking about your new friend.'

'Michelle?'

'Yeah, you know what Dave's like. Thinks he might be in with a chance.'

Harry huffed in annoyance. 'And let me guess, they weren't discussing her incredibly high marks at the police academy, her maths degree or the fact she can speak four languages fluently.'

Dempsey grinned then looked down at his lap a little shamefaced. 'Ah Harry they're just being guys, you know what they're like.'

'And you wonder why women have to work twice as hard to be taken even a bit seriously.' Dempsey knew the signs of Harry getting up a head of steam.

'You know Harry, they never talk about your first class degree from Cambridge or your advanced driving certificate or your three years in a row top marks for marksmanship….sorry, markswomanship.'

'I rest my case' she said.

Dempsey watched her as she determinedly avoided his eye, then reached across and laid his hand over hers.

'Even though I do mention these things out loud, at least once a week.'

She looked at him in surprise, 'you do?'

'Yeah, I'm proud of my partner. You'd do the same for me I hope.'

The look of blatant adoration in his smile shifted something in Harry, a realisation that the boorish, sexist version of James Dempsey had been a front all along and what he really was was this.

'Well I will definitely brag if you ever get top marks in shooting' she smiled.

'I came second, a very close second' he protested 'you watch your back partner.'

They were back on safe ground.

'So never mind Dave, what did you think of Michelle?'

'Yeah she seems nice, only met her for two minutes'

'She said I was lucky to be paired with such a 'dishy' partner - her word not mine.'

'Dishy? Is that good?'

'Yes, it means handsome, although personally I stopped using that word when I was fourteen.'

'So she thinks I'm handsome?' He grinned.

'Apparently so. Just so you know where you stand.'

By now Dempsey was so attuned to Harry that he knew the exact moment when the mood changed, the playful atmosphere evaporated; he wasn't quite sure what had happened, what he was supposed to have done, but he didn't like this sudden coldness between them.

'Harry..?'

At that moment the door of the warehouse was flung open and a van sped out much faster than was necessary in the deserted yard.

Harry turned the key and pulled away behind it.

Things remained tense for the rest of the day. Dempsey heard Michelle's name mentioned again, then Mack called across the office, 'hey Harry, do you know if that new sergeant is you, know, married or attached?'

'She has a name Mack, and you may find this hard to believe, but Michelle and I had much more important things to talk about than men'

'Dave wants to know that's all' Mack said with a snigger.

Dempsey leaned back in his chair watching the exchange. 'Maybe Dave should talk to her like you know a human being rather than a potential notch on his bedpost'

Harry looked up at her partner in surprise, but then her insecurity won out again and she wondered whether he was standing up for Michelle to mark out territory for himself, planning to make a play for her, confident in his tried and tested successful techniques to woo women.

By half past five they were starting to pack up for the day. Harry rubbed her eyes, 'I can't look at this screen a minute longer'

Dempsey watched as she gathered up her papers and started to clear her desk.

'Harry..can I buy you a drink?'

'I'm tired Dempsey'

'Please Harry, I need to talk to you.'

She stopped what she was doing, and looked at him. He was absolutely serious, a slight frown on his face as he looked up at her 'please' he said again.

She sighed.

'Okay one drink'

XxXxXxXx

Dempsey took a long swallow of Dutch courage from his pint glass.

'Harry, you've been funny with me all afternoon, and I don't know what I've done.'

'No I don't suppose you do'

'Is this because of the way the guys were about Michelle? Because you can't blame me for that, I wasn't part of that conversation.'

She sighed, 'and yet when I told you Michelle thought you were handsome you positively preened.'

Dempsey leaned back against the wall, momentarily clenching his eyes closed.

'So I looked pleased when you tell me a nice-looking woman thinks I'm 'dishy' and you put two and two together and come up with the idea that I'm gonna make a play for Michelle. Am I right, Harry?'

'Well aren't you?'

'Aren't I what?' He was becoming irritated now, accused of something he hadn't done and Harry was talking in riddles.

'I just don't want to sit and watch as you try to woo Michelle with your considerable charms, it's just so predictable.'

Dempsey huffed in annoyance.

'You know Harry, you're making a lot of assumptions here,' his voice rose, 'about me and about Michelle too.'

Harry flushed slightly, she wasn't used to this, Dempsey being the reasonable one, although it happened increasingly often. And he was right, she had jumped to conclusions, several of them, but the idea of losing their easy companionship, his company at weekends, was making her petty, and if she was absolutely frank with herself the idea of him being with someone else made her feel queasy.

'Just cos Michelle makes a statement about' he smiled, gesturing at his face 'aesthetics, doesn't mean she wants to date me, or even that she's available. After all, I showed my brother a photo of you and he said you were beautiful, pretty sure he's still happily married though, it could just be an observation Harry, not a statement of intent.'

'You showed your brother a picture of me?'

'Last time I was home I was talking about you, he wanted to know what you were like, had a picture in my wallet of the two of us from…' he stopped realising he'd given too much away.

'So you're not planning to ask Michele out?' Harry said, trying to regain some composure.

Dempsey scratched at the stubble on his chin, keeping his eyes on her and when at last he spoke, his voice was a low whisper.

'Do you know when I last had a date, Harry?'

'I don't know, I don't keep tabs on your love life.' She said crisply.

'Don't you?' He gave a dry smile. 'Go on, humour me, have a guess.'

'Um I don't know, two months ago?'

He paused for a long moment, his gaze never wavering.

'February last year I went out for a drink with some friend of Chas' wife and that was the last time I dated, eleven months ago.' He spread his hands in a gesture of frustration. 'I can't even remember her name, but d'you know what she said to me just before we went our separate ways. She said "you seem distracted", those exact words.'

'Why are you telling me this?'

'I'm telling you this cos you seem to think I'll make a play for any attractive woman who comes onto my radar. But believe me, if I was distracted almost a year ago that's nothing as to how I'd be now.'

'I don't understand.'

'No, I guess you don't.' He sat back again sipping his beer, still watching her.

His frustration was obvious, and she knew she'd been unfair. Reaching across the table she laid her hand on his wrist, 'what are you trying to say Dempsey?'

Dempsey put down his glass a little too hard, he bit his lip, clearly choosing his words carefully.

'Michelle is a good looking woman, I have eyes and from what you say she's also intelligent and talented. But I'm not interested in dating her, Harry, not even a little bit, not her, not Chas' wife's friend, nobody. Because I'm too distracted by the person I do want to date, the person I want to spend all day - and all night with' he paused for a moment and then took a deep breath 'the person I seem to have fallen in love with.'

Harry let him continue, fully aware of where this was going.

'I didn't mean for this to happen, didn't want it to happen' he shrugged 'but here we are.'

'Here we are' she repeated quietly.

Dempsey carried on. 'When I came to find you in the canteen I didn't even notice Michelle, or anyone else in there, all I could see…' He reached out and with the lightest of touches stroked the back of his fingers across her jaw, 'all I could see..was you.'

He slid his fingers under her chin, lifting her face to meet his eyes 'all I ever see is you, Harry' he murmured as he leaned in and kissed her softly.

Of all the times she'd imagined kissing him, none were anything like this. They were in a public place and probably too old for such blatant displays but she didn't care, she gripped his shoulders and kissed him back with fervour as his words rang in her mind 'the person I seem to have fallen in love with'

They broke apart, both grinning.

'Well, that was…' Harry said

'Better than I ever dreamed of,' Dempsey finished.

'That's exactly what I was going to say.'

'So what do we do now Harry?' He stroked his thumb over the back of the hand he was holding.

'Well I don't know about you' she kept hold of his hand as she stood up 'but I'm rather hoping my dishy partner will finish his drink and take me home.'