Saying I Love You
Chapter 8: No Way Back
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After a further hour of questioning which yielded nothing substantial enough for a conviction, Sam brought the interview with Michael Stewart to an end. She turned the tape recorder off and a member of the relief came to take Stewart to the holding cells where he would be kept until the morning. When Stewart and the uniform had gone, Sam sat back down at the table and placed her head in her hands. The interview room smelled of stale sweat and the oppressive odour of Stewart's cheap aftershave. She thought she was alone but Phil watched her silently from the doorway, wishing he could do something to make her bad day just a little bit better. He was also aware of the fact that he had seriously contributed to her bad mood.
"Sam?" He asked tentatively from the doorway, watching her look up and snap her head around to where he was standing. "Are you okay?"
"Stop asking me that!" She replied, forcefully slamming the palms of her hands down on the tabletop.
Phil looked shocked by her outburst but nevertheless took steps towards her.
"Let me take you home." He said gently. It wasn't an offer, it was a request.
Sam scoffed and rolled her eyes. She knew where that would lead despite what Phil had told her earlier.
"No, thank you." She said, storming past him and leaving Phil alone in the interview room.
Cameron took the spare duvet and some pillows out of the airing cupboard and made up a bed for himself on the sofa. There was no way that he could share a bed with Kerry tonight, it all still hurt far too much.
"Cameron?" She called into the darkness of their living room. Her voice had changed pitched from crying and tears still fell down her cheeks. "Please. We can work this out, can't we?"
"Not tonight, Kerry." He replied, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with exhaustion. "I need to get some sleep."
Both of them knew that they wouldn't get much sleeping done that night, both of them had so much to think about.
Zain Nadir met Suzie outside the station later that day, he waited for her as she parked her car and they headed up to CID together where DCI Meadows would be waiting to give them a thorough briefing before they began the undercover operation. They were both dressed in casual clothes, very unlike the smart suits that they wore on a day to day basis. Both of them were apprehensive about the task ahead of them but this was mixed with a sense of excitement too. It certainly made a change from paperwork.
DCI Meadows greeted Zain and Suzie as they entered CID and he led them to his office, motioning for the two detectives to sit down as he had earlier. He explained to them that the drug dealer, Jamie Johnson, had been using young children and teenagers to distribute his drugs and paying them very little for it. Sun Hill and Barton Street had been working together for months to bring him down and had finally convinced one of his gang, Richard Kelley, had been persuaded to help bring Johnson down in return for a shorter jail sentence. Zain and Suzie were being asked to aid him in catching Johnson for good. When the briefing with Jack was over, he let them go hoping that he had made the right decision in choosing these two detectives for this case.
"Back again?" Dale Smith asked. "You can't keep away, can you?" He said to the doctor as she entered his ward.
"How do you know I came here to see you?" She asked, flirting back.
Dale looked around the rest of the ward, mainly made up of elderly men and a man just out of his teens.
"Hmm, where would I get that idea from?" He grinned.
"How are you feeling?" Elle looked around before taking a seat on the edge of Smithy's bed.
"I'm okay." He replied. "Not that I don't enjoy being here, but when can I get back to work?"
Elle's grey eyes met with his. "I'm sorry Dale, but it won't be for a while yet. You did some serious damage when you crashed. It'll take time to heal."
Dale nodded, he had feared as much. The only upsides to this were that he wouldn't have to face Kerry and Cameron yet, and that it meant he could spend more time with Elle.
She reached out and squeezed his hand in a quick, fluid movement, not wanting to attract the attention of the other male patients. There was something special about Smithy that she couldn't quite lay her finger on.
"Is there anything I can get you?" She asked.
Smithy shook his head. "Some company would be good though, I'm not a big fan of hospitals at the best of times."
Elle laughed, looking at her watch. "My shift ends in an hour, how about I come back and visit you then?" She asked.
"That'd be good." Dale replied, feeling happier now that he had something to look forward to.
"Don't put me on hold again!" Sam hissed into her mobile phone. She was stood in the corridor outside the CID offices as it was the only place she could get a decent signal. She had been trying to get hold of the cab company for ten minutes now and they kept putting her on hold. How many people actually wanted taxis on a Thursday evening anyway? The main thing was that Sam was just too proud to go and ask Phil if she could still take him up on his offer of a lift.
Just at that moment he exited the CID office and found Sam out in the corridor.
"Sam, I'm serious, just let me drive you home. What's the worst that could happen?"
She sighed and hung up the phone. "Thanks, Phil." She said quietly.
They car journey back to Sam's place was silent, the only noise that broke through it was the sound of Phil's stomach rumbling.
"Sorry," He mumbled as they pulled up outside Sam's house.
"Do you want to come in?" She asked, not quite believing that she was actually saying these words. "I was planning to order a take out, they'll be plenty to share."
Despite his earlier promise to himself, Phil couldn't help but agree.
"Thanks Sam, that would be nice."
"As friends of course." She said quickly as they climbed out of the car.
Phil followed her up the path to her front door while Sam searched for her key in her handbag. Just as she was about to insert the key in the lock, the neighbours cat went hurtling across the patch of front lawn. It made Sam jump and her keys slipped through her fingers. She and Phil both bent down at the same time to rescue the keys. Their hands brushed as they both reached for them at the same time, their faces were just centimetres apart. Phil leant in and, against his better judgement, kissed Sam softly on the lips, giving her all the opportunities in the world to break away. She didn't. As they stumbled over the threshold all thoughts of take away were erased for their minds.
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