Companion Fic
Title: For the sake of the team
Author: echo_voice
Rating: Brown Cortina (slash and explicit het)
Pairing: Annie/? (I don't want to say here, though it becomes obvious failry quickly), Gene/Sam
Word Count: 4127
Summary: Annie's feeling neglected by Sam and finds an unlikely source of comfort
Notes: This is a companion fic to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road", written for the Betrayal Challenge over at 1973flashfic
It was half an hour past his finishing time. Annie sat in the cloakrooms waiting and trying very hard not to scream. They had arranged to go out together. Had being the operative word. Sam had barely spent two seconds with her recently and she didn’t know what the hell was going on. Apparently he wasn’t going to tell her, either, but she was damned if her was going to stand her up again. She strode in through the swing doors of CID and Ray looked up from where he was picking up his jacket from his chair. “Have you seen Sam?” she said more irritably than she intended.
“Oh dear, lost your boyfriend, Cartwright?”
“Have you seen him?”
“He’s with Chris and the guv. They’re still on this Wizard case. Could be a while.”
“Of course,” she said quietly. Demands of the job. It wasn’t Sam’s fault, not really, only he was so wrapped up in this stupid case at the moment that she wondered if he even knew she existed.
“Go home, Cartwright,” Ray suggested. “You know what the boss’s like when he’s got his sights set on something, and I don’t think the guv’s gonna let him go either. He’s still furious after our darling Inspector decided to storm out again.”
Yes, she did know what Sam was like, and as Ray suggested Sam would remain in CID for hours yet. She knew it was unfair, but she was furious with him. “Great. Another evening with the telly,” she snapped.
“Stood you up, did he?” Ray sneered and she felt rage flicker inside her. Quickly she turned to leave before she hit her favourite, sexist pig of a Sergeant. “Could always come to the pub, love,” he said suddenly.
“What, like one of the lads?” she asked mockingly.
He held up his hands, sounding a retreat. “Don’t go all PMT on me. Just a suggestion.”
She looked at him, a sudden angry sort of resolve coming over her. “Actually, I think I will. I need a drink.”
Ray grinned at her. “You know what, Cartwright? I’ll even buy you one.”
Good God. Ray being nice? And she nearly fainted as he opened the doors and allowed her to go through first. What the hell was this?
“I never knew you were such a gentleman,” she said over her shoulder, gently teasing.
“There is an upside to being a gentleman, Cartwright. Great opportunity to check out your arse.”
The smile slid straight off of her face.
But five large gin and tonics later, the sixth half drunk, she was starting to hate him marginally less as they sat together in the easy companionship of the slightly drunk, and curiosity was getting the better of her. She had always wondered about him. When she had first met him and his lewd comments, she had concluded easily that he was a sexist pervert and wasn’t worth a moment’s time. Yet working with him, she didn’t think he was that simple. He worked hard, Ray did, and looked up to Gene more than anyone else in the station, battling for his respect. Underneath the bravado, the laziness, the narrow-mindedness, all those things Sam always hated him for, was a devoted copper. A copper with blurred views, certainly, who had perhaps inherited the worse side of Gene’s do-what-it-takes attitude, but one who got serious results. And she honestly had been furious when Sam had almost got him killed in the bomb explosion, livid with him for taking a superior attitude and goading the overly-proud Ray into doing something he would never have dreamed of otherwise. She’d visited him in hospital and had felt a weird sense of guilt, because if Sam hadn’t been trying to impress, Ray most certainly had. He was, Annie mused, more complex than everyone took him for, including Sam.
Ray raised an eyebrow at her distant expression. “You’re drunk, pet.”
“Maybe, maybe,” she conceded. “Cheers, for taking me out. I needed it.”
He nodded once, eyes averted. Annie frowned slightly. She wondered sometimes if Ray actually liked her, saw her as anything more than ‘tits in a jumper’ and she wondered why. She had proved herself, hadn’t she? Was she not one of the team?
“Why didn’t you want me to be a detective?” she blurted out suddenly, the words flying out of her mouth with the aid of alcohol before she could stop them.
Ray looked startled and took a quick drink to cover it. “Too much of a distraction, love,” he grinned, gaze flitting down to her cleavage and back up again.
Annie grimaced, not knowing whether to take his flirting seriously as usual. “Did you think I wasn’t good enough?”
You’re a sharp lass, don’t get me wrong,” he shrugged, “But CID is no place for girls.”
“Too weak?” she asked snippily.
“Too sensible. Men are stupid and proud enough to want to be the hero, but truth be told it ain’t glamorous and it ain’t pretty. Why would you want to be exposed to it? No place for a nice girl. Women are out to prove something and I don’t think they have a clue what they’re getting into.”
“You’re wrong. I knew what I signed up for. It’s about making a difference.”
“Bullshit. It’s about fighting hard enough to keep your head above water so you don’t all bloody drown.”
Annie considered this carefully, taking a sip of her drink. “That’s a very negative view.”
“Policing ain’t pretty. Simple as that. And it’s not easy either. You have to make tough calls, do what it takes, something which your boyfriend doesn’t seem to understand.”
“Sam makes tough calls all the time.”
“All the while sitting on his moral high horse. He thinks he knows it all.”
She gave a little laugh. “He quite possibly does know it all. You have to admit, it’s been better since he’s been here.”
Ray scowled. “Different. Not necessarily better.”
“Better,” she argued. “He tempers the guv. They even each other out.”
“Ha, when their not clashing and dragging everyone else down with them.”
She laughed openly and he gave a grin in return. “True. Adds a bit of drama, though.”
“Like we need any more drama.”
She took a deep breath and said what had been on her mind for a very long time. “Why do you hate him so much, Ray?”
Ray took a long time before answering, spinning the pint glass in his hand. “Because Sam Tyler is wrapped up in his own world, and he expects the rest of us to bend with it.”
“Like Gene.”
Ray shook his head violently. “I don’t care what similarities they have. The guv cares about his team. He might expect a bloody lot from us, but Tyler tends to disregard that in favour of ‘doing the right thing’,” he said scathingly. “He’s blind to the bigger picture.”
“I don’t know if that’s true.”
“He’s blind to you, unless it suits him.”
She bit her lip and looked down.
Ray sneered and settled back with his drink, his eyes dark as he watched her. “Why do you do it? Why do you always allow him to do what the hell he wants?”
“Same reason you do whatever the guv wants, I suppose,” she said quietly.
“That’s different.”
“How so?”
“I’m not shagging him!”
“Well I had my suspicions…” Annie said, a smirk tugging at her lips. Ray looked horrified. “I’m joking!”
“Funny. I don’t know how you put up with Tyler, I really don’t.”
The humour fled from her and she sighed. “Because I care about him.”
“Enough to put up with the way he treats you?”
“He doesn’t treat me badly. He’s under stress, that’s all.”
“That’s right, make excuses for him. The Golden Boy,” Ray sneered.
“He is special. He’s different,” she mused. “And I don’t bloody get him in the slightest.”
“God, why does everyone think he’s perfect?”
“Who said anything about perfect?” she said with a twisted smile and a little shrug.
“Drink up, comrades!” Nelson’s voice carried over to them and she drained her glass, setting it down to grab her coat.
Ray’s hand stilled her wrist. “He makes you unhappy.”
Quiet sincerity from Ray Carling. He was full of surprises tonight. She met his eyes and realised vaguely that they really were the most shocking blue. She shook herself slightly and turned away sadly.
“No. I’m not unhappy. He could make me happy. But right now he’s untouchable, and I’m miles away,” she murmured. “I have to go.”
She only realised how drunk she was when she stumbled on the way out, her heels unsteady on the cobbles and the cool night air making her shiver. She threw her jacket on and made her wobbly way home.
“Annie!”
She turned to see Ray racing after her and rolled her eyes. “What? Come to tell me more about how rubbish Sam is? Come on then!”
“You asked me what I though of him!”
“Well now I don’t want to hear it! I want to go home!” she snapped.
“You shouldn’t be with him,” he growled.
“No?” she shot back, affronted and furious.
“No.”
And then Ray had grabbed her, pushed her into the wall and was kissing her and Annie didn’t know where the hell that came from, nor indeed why she kissed him back like a mad woman. Everything she needed was in that one kiss. She tasted everything in Ray that simply wasn’t in Sam: cigarettes and beer and something that wasn’t just male, it was bloke. Ray didn’t hold back, his hands greedy and his mouth demanding, and she found nothing like the pain in his kiss that she always found in Sam’s, didn’t feel like there was a little part of him that was just beyond her reach and completely inaccessible. He was male and rough and touched her with nothing even vaguely like respect and she surrendered completely, needing to be an object of lust and not a china doll.
He pulled away and she almost whimpered. He smirked. “Well, well, Cartwright, didn’t think you were the type.”
“Maybe you don’t know me well enough,” she murmured challengingly.
“I intend to remedy that shortly,” he growled, taking her arm and dragging her down a side street into the shadows.
“An alleyway? You’re a classy man, DS Carling. Know how to wine and dine a lady,” she said mockingly, and he pushed her swiftly into the nearest wall.
“Shut up,” he snapped, and his mouth was devouring hers once again.
This isn’t me, she thought wildly. What the hell am I doing? I’m not actually going to have sex in an alley with Ray of all people? Then his fingers flicked her shirt buttons open and he was tonguing her nipple through the soft cotton of her bra and she was gasping incoherently into the night air. It was dangerous and dirty and so out of character, but Annie felt a mad desire to fly in the face of everything and simply go with the moment. Why shouldn’t she? Why shouldn’t she be able to grab at a moment of pleasure when offered?
Sam was shoved from her thoughts.
So she broke the kiss, tilting her head back to allow him to move his head to the sensitive spots on her neck, her own hands sliding down his back to settle on his arse. Like suet in a bag… and she giggled at that memory; it was possibly the first time Ray had been forced to respect her. Only it wasn’t really like suet in a bag at all, it was hard muscle and she allowed her fingers to splay over the material of his trousers. He shifted closer, his hand inching up her skirt to push the material of her knickers aside and find her wet heat, fingers questing until they found the spot that made her gasp and push into him. She couldn’t help the loud moan that escaped and he chuckled and recaptured her lips to stop the noise from carrying. Wouldn’t do to get caught, two coppers. He drove her close to the edge, taking signals from the way she gasped into his mouth and tilted her hips, and then his mouth and hand were gone and her eyes flew open.
“What’re you doing?” she asked wildly. “Don’t stop!”
“You sure you want this?” he murmured, his voice low and strained.
“Do you think I would have let it get this far?”
He shrugged, his eyes searching hers and apparently finding some kind of confirmation there, as he moved closer again.
It didn’t cross her mind that sleeping with Ray was the worst betrayal she could possibly make.
All at once he was lifting her up with her legs around his hips and her back propped against the wall, her skirt riding high. There was the sound of a zipper, her knickers pushed aside again, and he slid into her with a groan, their foreheads touching, sweaty and breathless. He took a moment to adjust before he was driving her into the wall. Messy, hard, fast, needy, angry. It wasn’t graceful and her muscles hurt from the position, the brick hard against her back, but she was lost in the sensations and the sheer daring of her own actions. It didn’t take long before the heat spread right through her and exploded, lights dancing in front of her eyes. She came with a loud cry. He wasn’t long behind her, stifling his own cry with a searing kiss.
There was a pause and then they unentangled, catching their breath. Annie steadied her shaky legs against the wall, her eyes closed and Ray still pressed close. Finally she looked at him, and something like victory in his eyes made her crash back down to reality from her pleasure high and realise what the hell had just happened. Guilt stabbed through her remorselessly and Sam’s face invaded her mind.
Oh God.
She shoved him away in one swift movement, her hand flying to her mouth. His expression had darkened considerably, but before he could say anything biting she had turned and was half-running out of the alley, her heels clicking unsteadily against the cobbles.
He swore and started to follow. “Annie!”
He caught up easily and grabbed her arm, swinging her around.
“I’m going home,” she whispered. “Just let me go.”
“At least let me walk you there.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” she replied harshly.
His eyes narrowed as he tilted his head to regard her in the harsh light of the streetlamps. “I am not going to say I’m sorry.”
“Why the hell should you? It was my mistake to make!” She wrenched her arm away from him and spun round, walking determinedly away from Ray and his angry expression.
“Oh fine, mistake then! You just can’t admit that he’s not good enough for you!”
She whipped her head around and gave him a death glare, the guilt inside her shifting to angry blame aimed at him. “What the hell do you know? He’s a better man than you’ll ever be!”
Ray halted abruptly, his face closed, and she realised how unfair that little jibe was, but she couldn’t apologise, not now.
“Just bloody leave me alone!” she muttered.
“You’re nothing but a slapper, Cartwright!” he shouted after her.
She stumbled away, the cold air stinging her cheeks, her mind reeling, and her and Ray’s fluids sticky on her thighs.
Oh Sam. What now? Oh God.
What the hell have I done?
Why did you have to neglect me?
***
Gene Hunt had built his department up from scratch and he knew when something was not right. A twitch in the dynamics and he twitched too. He was twitchy that morning, watching his department through his blinds with narrowed eyes. Truthfully, he had been twitchy all week, but that was because of changes in the dynamics of his whole world.
Damn Tyler.
But Tyler’s not the issue here. Well. He was. He was the constant bloody issue, an issue that seemed to be resulting in inappropriate drunken sex, if last night was anything to go by. Gene shook those thoughts away before they could result in yet another issue involving tightening trousers. Anyway. Tyler’s not the new issue that Gene can detect brewing amongst his team and it’s making him wary, observant.
He noted that Annie walked in that morning without a smile. He frowned when she drank her morning coffee with shaking hands, and caught her adjusting her expression when Sam walked in. He felt a moment of guilt. Perhaps the stupid prat had told her what had happened between them. He got a bit distracted for a minute watching his DI bend down to kiss her cheek, concluding that if Sam had told her, she would not be letting him do that. The issue was Annie’s then. He ran his eyes across the room to pick up any other discrepancies and caught sight of Ray glaring at Sam. That at least never changed, Gene mused. And yet when he looked again, he realised that it had, and DS Carling was looking at Sam with a touch of smugness and bitterness rolled up in one twisted scowl.
Two and two made four, and Gene’s eyebrows shot up. He rather thought the bird wasn’t the sort. He rather thought she would never try to hurt Sam like that. He was really rather cross, and that was a bit irrational, seeing as Sam had betrayed her with Gene himself. Two betrayals in one night: so much for the perfect couple. Gene allowed himself a little smirk at that: Gene one, Cartwright nil, which was an incredibly unfair thought as it wasn’t a competition, but the animal in him hated sharing Sam. But if she had to cheat, did it have to be Ray? Stupid girl. His Sergeant and his Inspector had never seen eye to eye. If this got out and back to Sam, it would rip the team apart. And rip Sam apart. Gene was not a happy bunny.
He bellowed for Sam and watched his Inspector come running, nervous and edgy as he stood in front of Gene’s desk. It was a bit too enjoyable to watch him squirm, and Gene could tell he wanted to talk about the previous night. No such luck for Sam. He sent him away to talk to Chris’ daft new girlfriend and returned his attention to the unfolding drama. Time for some damage limitation.
For once, he didn’t rush in. He observed Ray and Annie quietly for the rest of the morning out of the corner of his eye while Sam was in the canteen with Sally to confirm his suspicions. He was only disturbed when Sam came back to tell him that the girl had the transthingy and was ready. They had to wait until Sally’s normal going home time though at three, and Gene sent Sam away again to set up the surveillance equipment in the van, enjoying the frown that twisted the DI’s features.
With Sam gone, he had a chance to intervene, but didn’t get the opportunity until lunch when Annie left for the canteen, Ray hot on her heels. He watched them both stern-faced as Ray sat opposite her and they talked in hushed voices. Annie was clearly upset by the look on her face; the chit was bound to do something stupid. Like tell Sam. She was just the type. Gene had seen enough.
He strode over. “You two. Lost and Found. Now.”
“Guv?” Ray asked slowly.
Gene fixed them with his best glare and they scurried out. As soon as the door of lost and found swung shut behind them, Gene rounded on them. “Do you want to tell me something?”
They exchanged a glance. “Guv?”
“Don’t for a second think I’m stupid. What happens in your private lives is none of my business, but hear this now: if this causes one single little issue in my team, I will come down on you both like a ton of bricks. Clear?”
“What?”
“How did you…”
He rolled his eyes at their combined confusion, wondering if they like Sam were oblivious to the extent to which Gene knew his team. Typical.
“Cartwright, you’ve been as edgy as a masturbating teen expecting their bloody mum to walk in at any second! Can’t blame you either. I’m sure DI Tyler would love to hear about how you’ve been letting his best friend in the world slip you a length!”
“Guv…” Ray began slowly. “It’s not like that…”
“Shut up, Carling. You and I both know that you and my Inspector don’t see eye to eye. You should have bloody known better! I will not have my department ground to a halt because you two have decided to turn this into your own little soap opera!”
“It isn’t like that,” he muttered.
“What is it like, then, hmm? Was it about getting one up on Tyler?”
Ray glared at Gene, and the DCI arched an eyebrow, the anger of the Sergeant rarely directed at him. “I’m not that pathetic, guv.”
Odd. Maybe Ray actually liked the chit. If Sam wasn’t wrapped up in it, Gene would have been vaguely amused. Cartwright would certainly give Ray a run for his money.
But this wasn’t about matchmaking, it was about preventing havoc. Gene tilted his head and looked as Ray. “Fine. I don’t want to know. Do you reckon you can keep your lip buttoned and be a grown up about this one, then?”
Ray’s mouth tightened into a scowl, his chin tilted defiantly. Apparently not.
Gene drew himself up and bore down on the unsuspecting sergeant, rage in his eyes. “If I hear one little whisper of you rubbing this in DI Tyler’s nose, I will make your life misery.”
Ray glared back up, surprisingly rebellious. “What? Why do you care? Why the hell are you always protecting him, guv?”
“Is it not enough that you’ve been boffing his bird?”
“Well if he can’t handle a plonk right then…”
The punch to his stomach silenced Ray effectively enough. Gene caught him by the collar.
“You just have no idea,” Gene hissed. Ray was looking at him in confusion and Gene quickly calmed down, realising that his instinct to defend Sam looked odd to the two of them. He pushed Ray away. “I will not have a divided team, Carling. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, guv.”
Annie had none of Ray’s unquestioning obedience, however, and fury was blazing in her eyes. “You have no right to-”
“Don’t you tell me what I do and don’t have a right to do, love! As long as you’re my officer, you will keep your private life out of my department, and this is not the bleeding way to do it. Understand?”
“Are you suggesting I lie to Sam?” she asked incredulously.
“I’m not telling you how to tidy up your own mess, Cartwright, though you know as well as I do that it will not be pretty if this gets back to Sam, and this current case is too important for me to lose my DI on, clear?”
She looked down, biting her lip. “Clear, guv.”
Gene frowned at her for a second and couldn’t help feeling rather cold towards the WDC. “You need to talk to Sam,” he muttered, before moving to leave.
“Guv!”
Gene turned and stared her down.
“Are you going to tell him?”
“That’s not my job, Cartwright. It wasn’t my betrayal.”
She nodded in what might have been thanks, but she looked desperately unhappy. Ray kept shooting glances at her. Gene said nothing, a quick twist of guilt in his gut, for it was his betrayal, and Sam’s, just as much as it was hers and Ray’s. What a mess. But she didn’t have to know that. No one could ever know that.
He walked out. They could sort it out on their own.
In the safety of his office, he closed his eyes. He didn’t think it would get back to Sam and quiet relief stole over him. Job done, his team safe. His position safe. Carling and Cartwright might be smarting a little, but they knew why he intervened. They understood, even if they didn’t like it. Determinedly he ignored the little voice inside that was questioning whether this was the right thing to do: of course it was, for both Sam and the team. The issue of whether it counted as a betrayal to keep this from his DI was irrelevant. He didn’t owe the blind git anything. He wasn’t betraying Sam’s trust.
He was just protecting him.
Right?
Author: echo_voice
Rating: Brown Cortina (slash and explicit het)
Pairing: Annie/? (I don't want to say here, though it becomes obvious failry quickly), Gene/Sam
Word Count: 4127
Summary: Annie's feeling neglected by Sam and finds an unlikely source of comfort
Notes: This is a companion fic to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road", written for the Betrayal Challenge over at 1973flashfic
It was half an hour past his finishing time. Annie sat in the cloakrooms waiting and trying very hard not to scream. They had arranged to go out together. Had being the operative word. Sam had barely spent two seconds with her recently and she didn’t know what the hell was going on. Apparently he wasn’t going to tell her, either, but she was damned if her was going to stand her up again. She strode in through the swing doors of CID and Ray looked up from where he was picking up his jacket from his chair. “Have you seen Sam?” she said more irritably than she intended.
“Oh dear, lost your boyfriend, Cartwright?”
“Have you seen him?”
“He’s with Chris and the guv. They’re still on this Wizard case. Could be a while.”
“Of course,” she said quietly. Demands of the job. It wasn’t Sam’s fault, not really, only he was so wrapped up in this stupid case at the moment that she wondered if he even knew she existed.
“Go home, Cartwright,” Ray suggested. “You know what the boss’s like when he’s got his sights set on something, and I don’t think the guv’s gonna let him go either. He’s still furious after our darling Inspector decided to storm out again.”
Yes, she did know what Sam was like, and as Ray suggested Sam would remain in CID for hours yet. She knew it was unfair, but she was furious with him. “Great. Another evening with the telly,” she snapped.
“Stood you up, did he?” Ray sneered and she felt rage flicker inside her. Quickly she turned to leave before she hit her favourite, sexist pig of a Sergeant. “Could always come to the pub, love,” he said suddenly.
“What, like one of the lads?” she asked mockingly.
He held up his hands, sounding a retreat. “Don’t go all PMT on me. Just a suggestion.”
She looked at him, a sudden angry sort of resolve coming over her. “Actually, I think I will. I need a drink.”
Ray grinned at her. “You know what, Cartwright? I’ll even buy you one.”
Good God. Ray being nice? And she nearly fainted as he opened the doors and allowed her to go through first. What the hell was this?
“I never knew you were such a gentleman,” she said over her shoulder, gently teasing.
“There is an upside to being a gentleman, Cartwright. Great opportunity to check out your arse.”
The smile slid straight off of her face.
But five large gin and tonics later, the sixth half drunk, she was starting to hate him marginally less as they sat together in the easy companionship of the slightly drunk, and curiosity was getting the better of her. She had always wondered about him. When she had first met him and his lewd comments, she had concluded easily that he was a sexist pervert and wasn’t worth a moment’s time. Yet working with him, she didn’t think he was that simple. He worked hard, Ray did, and looked up to Gene more than anyone else in the station, battling for his respect. Underneath the bravado, the laziness, the narrow-mindedness, all those things Sam always hated him for, was a devoted copper. A copper with blurred views, certainly, who had perhaps inherited the worse side of Gene’s do-what-it-takes attitude, but one who got serious results. And she honestly had been furious when Sam had almost got him killed in the bomb explosion, livid with him for taking a superior attitude and goading the overly-proud Ray into doing something he would never have dreamed of otherwise. She’d visited him in hospital and had felt a weird sense of guilt, because if Sam hadn’t been trying to impress, Ray most certainly had. He was, Annie mused, more complex than everyone took him for, including Sam.
Ray raised an eyebrow at her distant expression. “You’re drunk, pet.”
“Maybe, maybe,” she conceded. “Cheers, for taking me out. I needed it.”
He nodded once, eyes averted. Annie frowned slightly. She wondered sometimes if Ray actually liked her, saw her as anything more than ‘tits in a jumper’ and she wondered why. She had proved herself, hadn’t she? Was she not one of the team?
“Why didn’t you want me to be a detective?” she blurted out suddenly, the words flying out of her mouth with the aid of alcohol before she could stop them.
Ray looked startled and took a quick drink to cover it. “Too much of a distraction, love,” he grinned, gaze flitting down to her cleavage and back up again.
Annie grimaced, not knowing whether to take his flirting seriously as usual. “Did you think I wasn’t good enough?”
You’re a sharp lass, don’t get me wrong,” he shrugged, “But CID is no place for girls.”
“Too weak?” she asked snippily.
“Too sensible. Men are stupid and proud enough to want to be the hero, but truth be told it ain’t glamorous and it ain’t pretty. Why would you want to be exposed to it? No place for a nice girl. Women are out to prove something and I don’t think they have a clue what they’re getting into.”
“You’re wrong. I knew what I signed up for. It’s about making a difference.”
“Bullshit. It’s about fighting hard enough to keep your head above water so you don’t all bloody drown.”
Annie considered this carefully, taking a sip of her drink. “That’s a very negative view.”
“Policing ain’t pretty. Simple as that. And it’s not easy either. You have to make tough calls, do what it takes, something which your boyfriend doesn’t seem to understand.”
“Sam makes tough calls all the time.”
“All the while sitting on his moral high horse. He thinks he knows it all.”
She gave a little laugh. “He quite possibly does know it all. You have to admit, it’s been better since he’s been here.”
Ray scowled. “Different. Not necessarily better.”
“Better,” she argued. “He tempers the guv. They even each other out.”
“Ha, when their not clashing and dragging everyone else down with them.”
She laughed openly and he gave a grin in return. “True. Adds a bit of drama, though.”
“Like we need any more drama.”
She took a deep breath and said what had been on her mind for a very long time. “Why do you hate him so much, Ray?”
Ray took a long time before answering, spinning the pint glass in his hand. “Because Sam Tyler is wrapped up in his own world, and he expects the rest of us to bend with it.”
“Like Gene.”
Ray shook his head violently. “I don’t care what similarities they have. The guv cares about his team. He might expect a bloody lot from us, but Tyler tends to disregard that in favour of ‘doing the right thing’,” he said scathingly. “He’s blind to the bigger picture.”
“I don’t know if that’s true.”
“He’s blind to you, unless it suits him.”
She bit her lip and looked down.
Ray sneered and settled back with his drink, his eyes dark as he watched her. “Why do you do it? Why do you always allow him to do what the hell he wants?”
“Same reason you do whatever the guv wants, I suppose,” she said quietly.
“That’s different.”
“How so?”
“I’m not shagging him!”
“Well I had my suspicions…” Annie said, a smirk tugging at her lips. Ray looked horrified. “I’m joking!”
“Funny. I don’t know how you put up with Tyler, I really don’t.”
The humour fled from her and she sighed. “Because I care about him.”
“Enough to put up with the way he treats you?”
“He doesn’t treat me badly. He’s under stress, that’s all.”
“That’s right, make excuses for him. The Golden Boy,” Ray sneered.
“He is special. He’s different,” she mused. “And I don’t bloody get him in the slightest.”
“God, why does everyone think he’s perfect?”
“Who said anything about perfect?” she said with a twisted smile and a little shrug.
“Drink up, comrades!” Nelson’s voice carried over to them and she drained her glass, setting it down to grab her coat.
Ray’s hand stilled her wrist. “He makes you unhappy.”
Quiet sincerity from Ray Carling. He was full of surprises tonight. She met his eyes and realised vaguely that they really were the most shocking blue. She shook herself slightly and turned away sadly.
“No. I’m not unhappy. He could make me happy. But right now he’s untouchable, and I’m miles away,” she murmured. “I have to go.”
She only realised how drunk she was when she stumbled on the way out, her heels unsteady on the cobbles and the cool night air making her shiver. She threw her jacket on and made her wobbly way home.
“Annie!”
She turned to see Ray racing after her and rolled her eyes. “What? Come to tell me more about how rubbish Sam is? Come on then!”
“You asked me what I though of him!”
“Well now I don’t want to hear it! I want to go home!” she snapped.
“You shouldn’t be with him,” he growled.
“No?” she shot back, affronted and furious.
“No.”
And then Ray had grabbed her, pushed her into the wall and was kissing her and Annie didn’t know where the hell that came from, nor indeed why she kissed him back like a mad woman. Everything she needed was in that one kiss. She tasted everything in Ray that simply wasn’t in Sam: cigarettes and beer and something that wasn’t just male, it was bloke. Ray didn’t hold back, his hands greedy and his mouth demanding, and she found nothing like the pain in his kiss that she always found in Sam’s, didn’t feel like there was a little part of him that was just beyond her reach and completely inaccessible. He was male and rough and touched her with nothing even vaguely like respect and she surrendered completely, needing to be an object of lust and not a china doll.
He pulled away and she almost whimpered. He smirked. “Well, well, Cartwright, didn’t think you were the type.”
“Maybe you don’t know me well enough,” she murmured challengingly.
“I intend to remedy that shortly,” he growled, taking her arm and dragging her down a side street into the shadows.
“An alleyway? You’re a classy man, DS Carling. Know how to wine and dine a lady,” she said mockingly, and he pushed her swiftly into the nearest wall.
“Shut up,” he snapped, and his mouth was devouring hers once again.
This isn’t me, she thought wildly. What the hell am I doing? I’m not actually going to have sex in an alley with Ray of all people? Then his fingers flicked her shirt buttons open and he was tonguing her nipple through the soft cotton of her bra and she was gasping incoherently into the night air. It was dangerous and dirty and so out of character, but Annie felt a mad desire to fly in the face of everything and simply go with the moment. Why shouldn’t she? Why shouldn’t she be able to grab at a moment of pleasure when offered?
Sam was shoved from her thoughts.
So she broke the kiss, tilting her head back to allow him to move his head to the sensitive spots on her neck, her own hands sliding down his back to settle on his arse. Like suet in a bag… and she giggled at that memory; it was possibly the first time Ray had been forced to respect her. Only it wasn’t really like suet in a bag at all, it was hard muscle and she allowed her fingers to splay over the material of his trousers. He shifted closer, his hand inching up her skirt to push the material of her knickers aside and find her wet heat, fingers questing until they found the spot that made her gasp and push into him. She couldn’t help the loud moan that escaped and he chuckled and recaptured her lips to stop the noise from carrying. Wouldn’t do to get caught, two coppers. He drove her close to the edge, taking signals from the way she gasped into his mouth and tilted her hips, and then his mouth and hand were gone and her eyes flew open.
“What’re you doing?” she asked wildly. “Don’t stop!”
“You sure you want this?” he murmured, his voice low and strained.
“Do you think I would have let it get this far?”
He shrugged, his eyes searching hers and apparently finding some kind of confirmation there, as he moved closer again.
It didn’t cross her mind that sleeping with Ray was the worst betrayal she could possibly make.
All at once he was lifting her up with her legs around his hips and her back propped against the wall, her skirt riding high. There was the sound of a zipper, her knickers pushed aside again, and he slid into her with a groan, their foreheads touching, sweaty and breathless. He took a moment to adjust before he was driving her into the wall. Messy, hard, fast, needy, angry. It wasn’t graceful and her muscles hurt from the position, the brick hard against her back, but she was lost in the sensations and the sheer daring of her own actions. It didn’t take long before the heat spread right through her and exploded, lights dancing in front of her eyes. She came with a loud cry. He wasn’t long behind her, stifling his own cry with a searing kiss.
There was a pause and then they unentangled, catching their breath. Annie steadied her shaky legs against the wall, her eyes closed and Ray still pressed close. Finally she looked at him, and something like victory in his eyes made her crash back down to reality from her pleasure high and realise what the hell had just happened. Guilt stabbed through her remorselessly and Sam’s face invaded her mind.
Oh God.
She shoved him away in one swift movement, her hand flying to her mouth. His expression had darkened considerably, but before he could say anything biting she had turned and was half-running out of the alley, her heels clicking unsteadily against the cobbles.
He swore and started to follow. “Annie!”
He caught up easily and grabbed her arm, swinging her around.
“I’m going home,” she whispered. “Just let me go.”
“At least let me walk you there.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” she replied harshly.
His eyes narrowed as he tilted his head to regard her in the harsh light of the streetlamps. “I am not going to say I’m sorry.”
“Why the hell should you? It was my mistake to make!” She wrenched her arm away from him and spun round, walking determinedly away from Ray and his angry expression.
“Oh fine, mistake then! You just can’t admit that he’s not good enough for you!”
She whipped her head around and gave him a death glare, the guilt inside her shifting to angry blame aimed at him. “What the hell do you know? He’s a better man than you’ll ever be!”
Ray halted abruptly, his face closed, and she realised how unfair that little jibe was, but she couldn’t apologise, not now.
“Just bloody leave me alone!” she muttered.
“You’re nothing but a slapper, Cartwright!” he shouted after her.
She stumbled away, the cold air stinging her cheeks, her mind reeling, and her and Ray’s fluids sticky on her thighs.
Oh Sam. What now? Oh God.
What the hell have I done?
Why did you have to neglect me?
***
Gene Hunt had built his department up from scratch and he knew when something was not right. A twitch in the dynamics and he twitched too. He was twitchy that morning, watching his department through his blinds with narrowed eyes. Truthfully, he had been twitchy all week, but that was because of changes in the dynamics of his whole world.
Damn Tyler.
But Tyler’s not the issue here. Well. He was. He was the constant bloody issue, an issue that seemed to be resulting in inappropriate drunken sex, if last night was anything to go by. Gene shook those thoughts away before they could result in yet another issue involving tightening trousers. Anyway. Tyler’s not the new issue that Gene can detect brewing amongst his team and it’s making him wary, observant.
He noted that Annie walked in that morning without a smile. He frowned when she drank her morning coffee with shaking hands, and caught her adjusting her expression when Sam walked in. He felt a moment of guilt. Perhaps the stupid prat had told her what had happened between them. He got a bit distracted for a minute watching his DI bend down to kiss her cheek, concluding that if Sam had told her, she would not be letting him do that. The issue was Annie’s then. He ran his eyes across the room to pick up any other discrepancies and caught sight of Ray glaring at Sam. That at least never changed, Gene mused. And yet when he looked again, he realised that it had, and DS Carling was looking at Sam with a touch of smugness and bitterness rolled up in one twisted scowl.
Two and two made four, and Gene’s eyebrows shot up. He rather thought the bird wasn’t the sort. He rather thought she would never try to hurt Sam like that. He was really rather cross, and that was a bit irrational, seeing as Sam had betrayed her with Gene himself. Two betrayals in one night: so much for the perfect couple. Gene allowed himself a little smirk at that: Gene one, Cartwright nil, which was an incredibly unfair thought as it wasn’t a competition, but the animal in him hated sharing Sam. But if she had to cheat, did it have to be Ray? Stupid girl. His Sergeant and his Inspector had never seen eye to eye. If this got out and back to Sam, it would rip the team apart. And rip Sam apart. Gene was not a happy bunny.
He bellowed for Sam and watched his Inspector come running, nervous and edgy as he stood in front of Gene’s desk. It was a bit too enjoyable to watch him squirm, and Gene could tell he wanted to talk about the previous night. No such luck for Sam. He sent him away to talk to Chris’ daft new girlfriend and returned his attention to the unfolding drama. Time for some damage limitation.
For once, he didn’t rush in. He observed Ray and Annie quietly for the rest of the morning out of the corner of his eye while Sam was in the canteen with Sally to confirm his suspicions. He was only disturbed when Sam came back to tell him that the girl had the transthingy and was ready. They had to wait until Sally’s normal going home time though at three, and Gene sent Sam away again to set up the surveillance equipment in the van, enjoying the frown that twisted the DI’s features.
With Sam gone, he had a chance to intervene, but didn’t get the opportunity until lunch when Annie left for the canteen, Ray hot on her heels. He watched them both stern-faced as Ray sat opposite her and they talked in hushed voices. Annie was clearly upset by the look on her face; the chit was bound to do something stupid. Like tell Sam. She was just the type. Gene had seen enough.
He strode over. “You two. Lost and Found. Now.”
“Guv?” Ray asked slowly.
Gene fixed them with his best glare and they scurried out. As soon as the door of lost and found swung shut behind them, Gene rounded on them. “Do you want to tell me something?”
They exchanged a glance. “Guv?”
“Don’t for a second think I’m stupid. What happens in your private lives is none of my business, but hear this now: if this causes one single little issue in my team, I will come down on you both like a ton of bricks. Clear?”
“What?”
“How did you…”
He rolled his eyes at their combined confusion, wondering if they like Sam were oblivious to the extent to which Gene knew his team. Typical.
“Cartwright, you’ve been as edgy as a masturbating teen expecting their bloody mum to walk in at any second! Can’t blame you either. I’m sure DI Tyler would love to hear about how you’ve been letting his best friend in the world slip you a length!”
“Guv…” Ray began slowly. “It’s not like that…”
“Shut up, Carling. You and I both know that you and my Inspector don’t see eye to eye. You should have bloody known better! I will not have my department ground to a halt because you two have decided to turn this into your own little soap opera!”
“It isn’t like that,” he muttered.
“What is it like, then, hmm? Was it about getting one up on Tyler?”
Ray glared at Gene, and the DCI arched an eyebrow, the anger of the Sergeant rarely directed at him. “I’m not that pathetic, guv.”
Odd. Maybe Ray actually liked the chit. If Sam wasn’t wrapped up in it, Gene would have been vaguely amused. Cartwright would certainly give Ray a run for his money.
But this wasn’t about matchmaking, it was about preventing havoc. Gene tilted his head and looked as Ray. “Fine. I don’t want to know. Do you reckon you can keep your lip buttoned and be a grown up about this one, then?”
Ray’s mouth tightened into a scowl, his chin tilted defiantly. Apparently not.
Gene drew himself up and bore down on the unsuspecting sergeant, rage in his eyes. “If I hear one little whisper of you rubbing this in DI Tyler’s nose, I will make your life misery.”
Ray glared back up, surprisingly rebellious. “What? Why do you care? Why the hell are you always protecting him, guv?”
“Is it not enough that you’ve been boffing his bird?”
“Well if he can’t handle a plonk right then…”
The punch to his stomach silenced Ray effectively enough. Gene caught him by the collar.
“You just have no idea,” Gene hissed. Ray was looking at him in confusion and Gene quickly calmed down, realising that his instinct to defend Sam looked odd to the two of them. He pushed Ray away. “I will not have a divided team, Carling. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, guv.”
Annie had none of Ray’s unquestioning obedience, however, and fury was blazing in her eyes. “You have no right to-”
“Don’t you tell me what I do and don’t have a right to do, love! As long as you’re my officer, you will keep your private life out of my department, and this is not the bleeding way to do it. Understand?”
“Are you suggesting I lie to Sam?” she asked incredulously.
“I’m not telling you how to tidy up your own mess, Cartwright, though you know as well as I do that it will not be pretty if this gets back to Sam, and this current case is too important for me to lose my DI on, clear?”
She looked down, biting her lip. “Clear, guv.”
Gene frowned at her for a second and couldn’t help feeling rather cold towards the WDC. “You need to talk to Sam,” he muttered, before moving to leave.
“Guv!”
Gene turned and stared her down.
“Are you going to tell him?”
“That’s not my job, Cartwright. It wasn’t my betrayal.”
She nodded in what might have been thanks, but she looked desperately unhappy. Ray kept shooting glances at her. Gene said nothing, a quick twist of guilt in his gut, for it was his betrayal, and Sam’s, just as much as it was hers and Ray’s. What a mess. But she didn’t have to know that. No one could ever know that.
He walked out. They could sort it out on their own.
In the safety of his office, he closed his eyes. He didn’t think it would get back to Sam and quiet relief stole over him. Job done, his team safe. His position safe. Carling and Cartwright might be smarting a little, but they knew why he intervened. They understood, even if they didn’t like it. Determinedly he ignored the little voice inside that was questioning whether this was the right thing to do: of course it was, for both Sam and the team. The issue of whether it counted as a betrayal to keep this from his DI was irrelevant. He didn’t owe the blind git anything. He wasn’t betraying Sam’s trust.
He was just protecting him.
Right?