Another Friday night and another work drinks celebration Hannah as the defacto boss couldn't get out of, despite the fact she would much rather be curled up on the sofa with a takeaway and a bottle of red. To make matters worse, Nina had been able to use Cora as a convenient get out, so she was left to deal with a room of lawyers - including the ever odious Melanie Aickman - alone; at least until Christie finally showed up.

"Oh Hannah, it's so nice to see you again," Melanie said, voice dripping with false pleasantry.

"Melanie," Hannah replied curtly.

"I heard that you and Nathan sorted the divorce between you, so congratulations on that," she said with her trademark smarmy insincerity.

"As it turns out, sometimes things can be sorted without tearing strips off each other," Hannah told her dryly.

"If you say so," Melanie replied with a barely concealed sneer, "but I've yet to see much evidence of that, personally."

"Hannah," came a voice from behind her back as a hand touched her shoulder. "Good to see you again," JJ Johnson said, baritone voice and an ever charming smile. "I couldn't bend your ear about a case, could I?"

"Er…" It took Hannah a second to realise he was offering her an escape route. "Yes," she finally said gratefully. "It was…nice to see you again, Melanie."

"Hmm," Melanie hummed, her lips thin, before sipping her champagne.

"Thanks for that," Hannah told JJ gratefully once they had moved to a corner away from Melanie.

"I know Melanie can be a bit…much sometimes," JJ said with a pleasant smile. "So, how are you? I haven't seen you in…"

"A few months, yeah," Hannah informed him, remembering their last slightly awkward encounter when he'd asked her for a drink. "I've been good. Still stepping in for Zander, so busy…but good." She paused for a second, only then realising she should ask him the same question. "And you?"

"Oh, you know," he replied with a shrug. "Work's been good, but er…outside of that I've been…less successful." He chuckled slightly. "So it's still meals for one, for me."

Hannah saw exactly where he was heading, but she couldn't think of what to do except give an awkwardly tight smile as nodded her head. "Right."

Arriving late, Christie spotted Hannah across the room. Watching for a second, he saw JJ laughing at something as Hannah seemingly nodded along agreeably.

"Hey," Christie said as finally greeted Hannah with a quick kiss to the lips, draping his arm around her waist as his hand came to rest on her lower back. "Sorry I'm late."

Glancing in JJ's direction, Christie was pleased to see a fleeting look of disappointment cross his face.

"JJ Johnson, this is…" Hannah searched for a moment; using the term boyfriend seemed ridiculous at her age, but was she really ready to introduce him as her partner? Maybe neutrality was best. "This is Christie Carmichael."

"Nice to meet you," he said, his smile stiff as he reached to shake Christie's hand. "You used to work at Noble Hale Defoe, didn't you?"

"That's right," Christie told JJ with reluctant admiration that he remembered him. "And you work for…?"

"Oh, er…" He cocked his head nervously, straightening it before finally replying. "Melanie Aickman."

"Oh, I was going to take a position there myself actually, but I got offered something in New York, so…"

JJ raised his eyebrows and lent back a touch on his heels, a small show of being impressed. "But now you're back."

"Now I'm back." Grinning, Christie pulled Hannah a fraction closer.

An awkward silence fell between the group, the two men looking at each other with stiff expressions.

"I think I'm just going to…" JJ finally said, pointing to the other side of the room. "There's some people I need to catch up with."

"Right," Hannah replied a little too quickly, feeling a little too relieved. "It was nice to see you again."

"Yeah, you too," he agreed, offering Hannah a genuine smile. "And er, it was nice to meet you," he added, gesturing with a nod of his towards Christie.

"You too," Christie told him with a degree of smugness.

As soon as JJ was out of earshot, Hannah turned to Christie. "I can't believe you," she told him, shaking her head but with a look of droll amusement on her face.

"What?"

"That was the most blatant attempt at some sort of…" Hannah searched madly for the right phrase. "Some sort of…macho pissing contest I've ever seen."

Christie rolled his eyes. "I was just-"

"You were just showing off is what you were doing." She shook her head. "'I was going to take a position there, but I got offered something in New York'," she parroted with mocking affection.

"Well," Christie said with a shrug of slight indignance, "it's true."

"It is true, but I think you were trying to prove that you're the bigger man." She looked him dead in the eye, a mischievous grin on her face. "I think you're jealous."

Christie shrugged, a little rattled. "Well, he likes you, I can tell."

"I don't know…" Hannah started, giving up when she saw Christie's look of scepticism. "Alright," she rescinded reluctantly, "so he might have asked me out for a drink, but it was months ago and I didn't even get back to him about it. He's just a colleague."

"Well, he's obviously still hoping for more. I saw his face when I turned up, he was disappointed."

"Don't be silly," Hannah said, a little embarrassed to think Christie was right and she was actually the unwitting object of JJ's affection.

"Your problem is," Christie said as he leaned in and brushed his nose with hers, "you don't realise how desirable you are," he insisted, sealing his words with a kiss.

"Pfft," Hannah brushed his comments off, even as she blushed.

"You're just too damn irresistible, Hannah Defoe."

"Well, you're not so bad yourself," she whispered back before leaning in for a kiss, a briefer than she'd have liked due to the environment they were in.

"You know…" Christie told her under his breath, face still close to hers as he leant down. "You can introduce me as your partner. If you want to."

"Well, I didn't want to assume..."

"Hannah, I've been in love with you for 25 years," he said with a chuckle, "so you can definitely assume."

"Alright," Hannah agreed with a nod and another quick kiss. "Partner it is."

—-

Given how increasingly swamped with work Hannah had become since taking over Zander's role, it was with hesitation that Nina bothered her sister by knocking on her office door.

Hannah looked up from her desk as Nina opened the door, her face falling when she saw her sister. "What is it?" She sighed and put her pen down. "You only come to my office when you want something…"

"Can't I just drop by and say hello to my sister?" the brunette said as she stood in the doorway.

Hannah's expression, her lips pursed, said she wasn't falling for it.

"Alright, you got me," Nina told her, raising her hands briefly in defeat before fully entering the office and shutting the door behind her. "I've been asked out for a drink by that John guy on Saturday night. Thing is…" She bared her teeth in a grimace. "Mum is still away with Ronnie and Rose is seeing the vicar again-"

"Glen," Hannah interrupted Nina pointedly, although she got little more than a blank stare back. "The vicar," she further clarified. "His name is Glen."

"Right, whatever," Nina said, brushing the information off with a flick of her wrist. "Anyway, could you take Cora on Saturday night? I'll owe you."

Hannah should have said no; she normally would have said no - the kids were with Nathan and she'd promised Christie she would stay over at his new place - but it was nice to see Nina with a spring back in her step after the disaster with Tyler. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Thank you!" Nina practically squealed.

Once her sister had left the room, Hannah decided now was as good a time as any to let Christie know their weekend plans were cancelled.

"Hey," he said, a smile in his voice, when he answered on the first ring.

"Hey," Hannah replied, smiling to herself; the novelty of being able to call him up whenever she wanted had still yet to wear off. "I'm going to have to cancel Saturday, I told Nina I'd babysit."

"That's OK, I can come to you," Christie said with what Hannah knew was a cheery shrug. "It'll be like I'm back in high school, making out with my girlfriend on the couch while she babysits, even though we said we'd be studying."

Hannah chuckled. "I never actually babysit as a teenager, unless you count looking after Rose and Nina."

"See," he encouraged, "we can be teenagers, and you can experience what you missed out on."

Hannah found herself smiling. "As long as you don't have any algebra homework." She scrunched her eyes and shook her head at her stupid giddiness before continuing. "Because maths was not my strong point."

"Pfft, I didn't have time to waste with doing homework," Christie scoffed. "I had drinking and girls to think about."

"Why am I not surprised?" Hannah said with an affectionate eye roll. "See you later?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "I'll be around as soon as I'm finished with this paper work."

Hannah nodded, and while it wasn't audible, Christie knew instinctively she had performed the action.

"Love you," he told her.

"Love you, too," Hannah replied with a grin before pressing to end the call.

Sitting at her desk, she stared at the phone for a minute, biting back a smile and unable to believe this was where she finally was in life. She wouldn't change a thing.