A/N: The basic idea behind this fic is that I don't believe that Dave is all bad. I think he has a genuine psychological problem and that his sex addiction is not something he enjoys, but that he can't stop. I think he does genuinely still love Gill and I think he feels really guilty. So he enlists the help of a therapist, and we'll see what happens! Please read and review because I'll love you forever, and also for anyone reading Without Her I am going to update it soon, but Get Pissed, Shag Someone might be a little while because I still don't know where I'm going with it! And I'm more excited about this one right now. L x

"Does the Assistant Chief Con know you're homeless and you've had your car repossessed? Not hard up are you?"

Dave Murray glared back at his ex-wife as she looked him, calmly and calculatingly, in the eye. He didn't reply. Yes, despite being a Chief Superintendant, he was hard up, but there was no way he was going to tell her that. Nor was he going to tell her why; not yet. The moment would come. He stomped through the door she was holding pointedly open and took up his position in front of the screens, very aware of her presence as she stood next to him. Folding his arms, he looked at the furthest screen in the opposite direction. He was determined not to think about anything other than this interview. It was too important to miss a single word.

The video room was silent as they all watched Janet start the interview. The first challenge arose almost at once when Geoff interrupted Janet telling him that the interview was being recorded to say, "You do know… That I didn't wanna hurt you, don't you?"

"Yeah, that's why you stuck a knife in her spleen," Gill murmured. Dave ignored her. She couldn't resist commenting through interviews, it was something she'd always done… One of the things he used to find endearing about her. Still found endearing.

Dave watched with some apprehension as Geoff continued to change the subject. It seemed that he honestly thought that Janet should feel privileged; as if he'd done her a favour. Next to him, he heard Gill let out an impatient hiss. He glanced at her. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, her expression annoyed.

"Finally," she muttered, as Geoff began to talk about Veronica. Dave, again, ignored her, listening closely.

"It were an accident!" Geoff exclaimed, gesticulating emphatically. "We were fightin'! Y'know, we were scrappin'. I w- I was sittin' on her, on her chest and… Well, she said she couldn't breathe, but I didn't believe her-"

"Did you not see her lips going blue? Might have been a clue." Gill chipped in sarcastically beside Dave. He sighed and looked at her again, exasperated because he'd missed Geoff's next words. Gill rarely missed anything, but when she did nobody (including him) dared to mention it. If, however, he missed a trick, Gill would immediately pounce on it and use it to demean him. Not that he blamed her. Maybe she thought if she could destroy his self-confidence it would be some compensation for him sleeping around behind her back.

With a huge effort, Dave dragged himself back to the present and focused on the interview. Geoff was asking Janet about her family and her love life; Dave didn't feel very comfortable with this – it was essential that Janet stayed in control and at the moment she was very much in danger of the ball being in Geoff's court, so to speak. He breathed an internal sigh of relief as Janet managed to persuade Geoff to move on.

"Leaving aside Veronica, and the four other women whose deaths you were convicted of, what other things do you want to talk to me about, Geoff?" Janet was saying calmly. Dave glanced to his left. Gill was looking pleased.

"There were twelve others," Geoff replied, as casually as if he were talking about attendees at party, "actually – there were fifteen."

Dave's blood ran cold. He stared at the screen, aghast. How the hell had this man managed to walk free for all these years? Why hadn't they been onto him before?

"Jesus," he breathed. Next to him, Gill's expression was the same attentive one she had worn throughout the interview. But he felt her, almost imperceptibly, shift uncomfortably beside him. After all these years, he could still read her like an open book. He wasn't sure whether she was aware of it, but the movement had brought her slightly closer to him. Their equally pristine jacket sleeves were almost touching.

"Okay," Janet was saying, with impressive calmness, "Let's get back to Veronica, the first time after Veronica, is that something that you'd like to talk to me about?"

"Yeah, we can do." Geoff answered. Dave narrowed his eyes and squinted at the screen, trying to make out his facial expression.

"Thing is," he went on, "I always thought you had a bit of a fling with that sergeant you introduced me to."

It took Dave a moment to realise what Geoff was on about, but Gill's sharp intake of breath told him that Geoff must be talking about her own sergeant, Andy.

"I need you to stay focused Geoff, on yourself, not on me." Janet was beginning to look a bit angry now and the atmosphere in the video room was tense.

Geoff ignored her.

"I thought it were odd," he went on, looking at her almost challengingly, waiting to see if she would rise to it, "the way he followed you into that pub and stared at you. And behaved so nasty to me, like he was jealous!"

"Bastard" Gill muttered, and this time Dave nodded in agreement. Geoff was laughing, looking at Mitch as if sharing a joke with him. Mitch looked bewildered.

"Geoff…"Janet was clearly struggling to retain her composure now. Dave had half a mind to get them to terminate it before it escalated. He turned to Gill, wanting to ask her opinion, but she shushed him, still staring avidly at the screen.

"What was his name? Andy?"

"We're not talking about any of my colleagues, Geoff, or me-"

"Andy Roper!" Geoff crowed triumphantly, and Dave swore inwardly. "You made him apologise to me! He was so pushy, d'you remember?"

"Yeah, well, Andy had his suspicions about you all along and as it's turned out he was right to, wasn't he."

Dave glanced at Gill again. No response.

"You've gone red," Geoff was saying, looking like the cat who'd got the cream.

"Geoff."

"Were you?" He was pushing her and Dave didn't like it. He'd known something like this would happen. He began to feel a bit angry with Gill for not letting him stop it when he'd wanted to. "Having a fling with him?"

"No!" Geoff continued, in mock horror.

Finally, Janet snapped. Gill sprang straight into action.

"Go and knock on the door," she instructed Lee, pointing at the screen.

As Janet terminated the interview and stood to leave, Dave looked crossly at Gill.

"Every eventuality," he practically growled, "except the one where your constable's been at it with your sergeant!"

She merely gave him a "don't you start" look before hurrying out of the room after Lee. Dave immediately began to feel a bit guilty. Alone in the video room, he groaned and put his head in his hands. What had got to him was not simply the fact that Janet and Andy were carrying on; he knew that he could hardly talk when it came to that. It was more jealousy that they had been carrying on. For the reason that Dave was broke was not because he had been spending all his money on gadgets and drinking and women like he was sure Gill imagined he had been. It was because he had been seeing a psychologist, one of the best, about his sex addiction.

When Dave had got Emma pregnant, he had decided to be with her after Gill kicked him out because he knew it was too late for him to attempt to change, and Emma was young and vulnerable. He felt guilty, like he had to look after her. He continued to sleep around, this time behind Emma's back, but he told himself he had an excuse – it was because he was doing the decent thing, living with her to help her raise the child, but he was unhappy and if the odd one night stand made life a bit more bearable then he couldn't be blamed for it. And yet, throughout all of this, he had tortured himself for hours over why he had been at it behind Gill's back. He still loved her. She was everything he'd ever wanted in a woman. She'd been absolutely fantastic in bed, better than anyone else he'd slept with. She'd given him a wonderful son and a happy life. The two of them were so compatible it was almost breathtaking. So why the hell had he been unfaithful to her? He hadn't had any feelings for the other women, he hadn't even enjoyed the sex all that much, but it was a compulsion. He and his therapist had talked for hours about obsessive personalities and how they could manifest themselves in all kinds of things, about how once something has been going on for a while you become desensitised to the wrongness of what you're doing and it begins to feel like it's okay.

In addition to the therapist, Dave had been attending the group sessions held by the chatline Shagaholics Anonymous. He'd first heard about it during the investigation which had led them to Geoff Hastings, but at the time he hadn't thought too much about it. However, after Emma had broken up with him, he'd realised that he wasn't actually very upset, because he'd never loved her. He still loved Gill. He was now nearing his fiftieth birthday and he wanted to spend his middle and old age with her, but if that was going to happen he needed to convince her that he'd changed – and he needed to actually change. The dream, for him, was to be back with Gill and Sammy. Of course he loved his other son, but the last he heard there was now a stepdad on the scene, so he and Emma had agreed that it would be best that the child (who was only four years old) grow up looking on her new fiancé as his dad. And so, the therapy had been going really well, but it had involved going cold turkey when it came to sex, so he often found himself getting jealous of couples. It was getting easier though. He was beginning to find things he could do instead, like playing squash with some of his colleagues from work and going to the cinema or the theatre in the evenings, instead of to a bar. In fact, Dave felt as if he'd almost cracked it. The time to tell Gill was nearing. He felt nervous at the very thought, but excited too.

Now wasn't the time though. Not in the middle of this Geoff Hastings thing. Deciding to go and see how Janet was doing, he left the interview room and headed along the corridor and through the door that would take him to the stairwell, arriving just in time to hear Janet say "me and Aide have split up." Shocked, he paused at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at Janet and Gill, who liked as stunned as he felt. Back when they'd still all been happy families, Gill and Dave used to see a lot of Janet and Aide. He still had vivid memories of sitting in the back garden of the house he and Gill had had built together, Sammy and Elise playing hide and seek in the bushes and an infant Taisie asleep in a Moses basket next to Janet. It had been rare for him and Gill to have a joint day off and they'd always made the most of it when they did, going on daytrips or seeing friends or relatives.

As the two women continued to talk about it, in low voices so that he struggled to hear what they were saying, Dave focused his attention upon his ex-wife's face. She looked particularly attractive that day, he thought. Perhaps because he hadn't seen her in a little while? Or had she made an effort, even subconsciously, because she knew she'd be seeing him? Don't be a fool, he told himself. The day Gill made an effort for him now would be the day pigs learnt to fly. He waited until Gill had gone upstairs, leaving Janet standing looking a bit lost. Dave walked up to her, and when she saw him approaching she smiled forcedly, but her expression was wary.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, taking in her slightly smudged mascara and shaky hands.

"Fine," she replied, nodding. "I'm just having a bit of a break. I will go back in."

"Thank you," Dave replied, sincerely. "I know how hard it must be for you. You'll let me know if there's anything I can do?"

"Yeah, thanks," said Janet, looking a bit surprised.

Patting her on the arm, Dave continued his way upstairs. At the top, he glanced back to see Janet looking confused. She'd obviously been expecting him to nag at her or something. Did none of the people he used to be so fond of see him as a person anymore, just a shagbandit? He really couldn't blame them but it wasn't a very nice thought. Especially given how hard he'd been working to change. It wasn't easy, particularly doing it on your own with nobody to encourage or support you except the people who were paid to.

Still, he thought with a small smile, they'll know soon enough. And then maybe, finally, I'll be able to make it up to Gill. And Sammy. Maybe I'll finally get back to where I belong.