(Untitled)

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy enters the bar, followed by his young son Alex. The toddler looks rather content, and is singing a song that sounds like an advert for pickles. Guppy looks somewhat less content, having just forked out several hundred pounds to repair the radiator in his living room.

He also ended up having to fend off a nosy journalist from the Holby

Comments

[cheeky_bugger]

Travis is over by the fire today, half-way in uniform. He still looks positively knackered, but whether that's from totally failing to sleep the night before, or from a rough shift is anyone's guess.

He's currently staring into a cold cup of tea, and looking like he might just fall asleep right there.

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy spots Travis. He feels a pang of sympathy for the guy - he's had to live with insomnia for a long time.

He gets up and goes over, bringing Alex with him, and sits near Travis.

"Hey." he says gently. "You okay?"

His nose is looking a bit better today. The swelling has nearly gone down, and he's used make up over the rest.

[cheeky_bugger]

"Huh?" Travis looks slightly startled at their presence. "Yeah, just, ya know. Couldn't sleep very well last night. Even tried going somewhere else, and it still didn't really work."

He shrugs indifferently. His new plan is to do what Nicholas does, and just run himself into the ground until he passes out. Probably not the healthiest way to go about it, but he's not sure what else to do.

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy's tried that. He can vouch it doesn't work.

"From worrying?" he asks quietly.

[cheeky_bugger]

"I'm not worried," Travis insists. "I've got no reason to worry."

He turns his attention to Alex, giving him a rather tired smile. "How you doing, Sport?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"I arrested Granny." Fry says, proudly.

"That's not an achievement, Alex, she was very upset. So were the firemen, who could have been out fighting fires." Guppy says sternly. Then to Travis. "You haven't lost any handcuffs, have you?"

[cheeky_bugger]

Even so, Travis laughs.

"No," he tells Fry. "No, that's... something you gotta wait until you graduate Hendon to do."

He checks his belt, which is lying on the floor by his feet, and pulls off his cuffs, which are quite a bit different than the ones Gene would have given Alex.

"Nope. Wait, he handcuffed her?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Yeah, but we don't know where he got them." Guppy says. "I'm a bit worried he might have nicked them."

He gets the bag out of his pocket and reveals the three parts of the handcuffs, as cut open by the fire brigade.

"Do you recognise these?"

[cheeky_bugger]

Travis looks at them for a moment.

"Force hasn't used those for a while," he says. "If he got them from here, it wouldn't have been from me or Nick."

He pauses slightly.

"There's a bunch of CID around here that say they're from like, the 80s or something. One says he's from before even that, sometimes."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Oh... sugar, he must have pinched them off Gene. He's going to go ape..."

Guppy grimaces. "Gene was showing him how they work. It never occurred to me that the kid would swipe them, or that he wouldn't notice."

[cheeky_bugger]

Travis snorts. "That guy'll look for any excuse to get pissed off at you."

[guppy_sandhu]

"We were getting on all right before. He and the kid seem to like each other. Maybe if I say quickly that I'll pay for the replacement and buy him a drink it'll help..."

[cheeky_bugger]

Travis laughs. "Watch out, with the drink-buying," he says. "Guy like that's likely to think you're coming on to him, and he's not the sort of bloke to find that flattering."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Well he knows I'm married." Guppy says. "But thanks, I'll be careful."

[cheeky_bugger]

"Just passing on what I know," Travis says. He drinks some of his tea, making a slight face at how chilled it's become.

[guppy_sandhu]

"Have you had a fight with him?" Guppy asks.

Half the bar has, after all.