"Robbie'll sort him out"

Laura Hobsons words floated after James Hathaway and Robbie Lewis as they walked out of the college and watched as the ambulance crew loaded the injured Babs Temple onto the ambulance with her husband stepping in quickly to sit beside her and take her hand.

Robbie sighed. It had been a tough case. Seemed like they were all tough cases lately. Wearing them down piece by piece. James Hathaway took things personally yes, but even he under normal circumstances would not have let this get to him as much. They did their best, hell if his bagman hadn't pushed the gun away Babs Temple would have taken her own life right in front of them. But it was just one more case on top of the others, one more twisted sad tale of love and anger. It felt like they hadn't had a break in weeks, although Robbie Lewis knew that wasn't the case.

At the entrance they both stood and watched the ambulance pulled off. Lewis looked over at his Sergeant, his face full of anguish, and found that for once he really didn't know what to say.

"I was looking forward to that concert" As he said the words Lewis could see the incredulity on his young sergeant's face, and he thought, maybe just the briefest flashes of relief.

"Do you think we'll be able to get our money back?" James Hathaway could always be relied on to rally back a witty reply, even in the worst of circumstances.

Robbie flashed a sympathetic smile at his junior and the two men made their way wearily back to the car, their banter continuing albeit half-heartedly as they walked along the deserted Oxford Streets.

"Pint?" Lewis asked as they sat into the car. "I just need to leave the car home or at the nick?"

"No thanks Sir" James scrubbed his eyes wearily. "If its okay with you I'd really just like to crash and forget today ever happened".

Lewis nodded. By now he knew James Hathaway's' limits and knew he couldn't push him any further and if he was honest, he was bone weary himself and wanted nothing more than a brown ale, a curry and bed.

After dropping Hathaway at his flat Robbie Lewis made his way home, remembering to ring and order his food on the way. It arrived at the same did he did and gratefully he paid the delivery man and made his way into the silent flat. Grabbing a beer, he sat down, realising suddenly how hungry he was. One curry and two beers later and Detective Inspector Lewis fell soundly asleep sitting on the couch, exhaustion having overtaken him.

He awoke some hours later to the sound of his phone ringing. He missed the first call, fumbling to find the phone buried underneath cushions on the couch. IT rang again just as he found it.

[Unknown number]

"Lewis" he barked into the phone when he finally got it to his ear

"D.I. Lewis this is Sergeant Malone." The voice down the phone was difficult to hear, with what sounded like fire engines running in the background. "It's about Detective Sergeant Hathaway"

"What about Hathaway?" Lewis could feel a tight knot forming in his chest as he spoke

"There's been a fire sir, in his flat, we have it pretty much under control bu…"

Lewis interrupted him "What about Sergeant Hathaway?". Lewis frankly didn't care if the whole street was on fire, he just wanted to know about his colleague, no, his friend.

Sergeant Malone was quick to reply. "That's the thing Sir, the apartment was empty, I got Sergeant Hathaway's number from the station but there is no answer from it, I was wondering if he was with you?"

"Not home? But I dropped him there a few hours ago, it was close enough to 1am, he must be in there"

Lewis grabbed his keys as he spoke, running now out to his car.

"He's not sir, fire crews have been over the whole place, there is nobody home."

Lewis knew he was right; those lads knew their job. Still the knot in his chest didn't ease, not even a little. "Sergeant Malone can they tell what started the fire?" He was driving now, and fast, phone illegally and dangerously perched on speakerphone on the dashboard.

"Can't tell for sure" Malone replied "but they think it might be deliberate, there are signs of an accelerant in the living room, but we wont know for sure until the fire is totally out and they can get in and examine it properly.

Lewis hung up the phone and drove a little faster. "Deliberate?" It just didn't make sense, he'd left James Hathaway just a few short hours ago, and other than sadness and exhaustion after a harrowing case there was no cause for concern. So where was the (canny lad) man?

40 minutes later he was negotiating his way back between fire engines and police cars back towards his car. He had persuaded the lead firefighter to let him into James flat for 5 minutes but had seen nothing other than a lot of water and smoke. No sign of his sergeant, his mobile phone or anything to suggest he had spent time there that night. Lewis had called the Chief Super and Jean Innocent had sounded as worried as he felt and promised to come straight to the scene.

Standing beside his car he dialled James Hathaway's mobile for what seemed like the 100th time and again it went straight to voicemail, the same precise, clipped message he always got. "James Hathaway, leave a message"

"Where are ye lad?" Robbie Lewis didn't know if he had said it out loud or in his head, but didn't think it mattered either-way, he knew James wasn't calling back. Something was wrong. Horribly bad wrong. James could be foolish sometimes, could get into his own head too much ("Existential flu sir") could easily go off and brood for hours on end but he would never ever not answer his phone like this, particularly not when his D.I was phoning him.

And just like that…. The phone rang.

An unknown number, but still…

"James?" Robert Lewis answered, hoping to hear the younger man's voice

"No Detective Inspector, James is sleeping at the moment, but I thought that maybe you might be looking for him?"

The voice at the other end sounded calm. An older voice, one Robbie Lewis knew well, had heard before, and lately, but just couldn't place.

"Who is this" he demanded into the phone. "Is Sergeant Hathaway alright?"

"Sergeant Hathaway has a nasty bump to the head but will be fine, so long as you listen to me. I want you to meet myself and Sergeant Hathaway in the Radcliffe Observatory"

"What's this all about?" Lewis tried not to shout, tried to keep his voice calm but knew he wasn't doing a very good job of it

"See you soon Inspector Lewis, I'll meet you at the door"

"I'll meet you at the door" ….. That voice... surely? Robbie Temple pushed his hand into his forehead as he drove. Think man, THINK, you know that voice.

Then it dawned on him.

Roger Temple… The porter…. Babs Temple's husband. The man they had last seen sitting beside his wife in the ambulance on their way to John Radcliffe Hospital. Lewis shook his head, trying to think, to understand. The man had been a little, well, eccentric that's for sure, and was under pressure caring for his Dad.. Robert pushed down a little quicker on the accelerator. He had been hard on the man when they interviewed him last, his contempt for the porter ill-concealed, and James too had shown an obvious dislike for the man. But that didn't make the man a kidnapper, an arsonist?

It wasnt yet 6am on a Sunday morning so it took Robert Lewis less than 15 minutes to get to Green Templeton Collage. On the way he phoned for back up but warned them to stay outside until he called them.

The main door from the street was unlocked and as he stepped into the entrance and closed the door behind him Robbie Lewis heard the faint hum of 2 people talking.

"What….. … .expect…. … of this?" A low voice, obviously in pain. Hathaway

Lewis walked down into the courtyard where James Hathaway was sitting on the ground, handcuffed to a bench, blood trickling from a wound on his head down onto his shirt.

Roger Temple stood a few feet away, a gun (bloody gun club) pointed at the younger man's head. When he saw Robbie Lewis step into the courtyard, he turned the gun he was holding towards the Inspector momentarily, before returning his aim to the wounded sergeant.

"You made a fool of me, Detective Inspector Lewis" Temple spoke slowly, not looking at Robbie Lewis, but straight into the eyes of James Hathaway.

"You and your bloody sergeant here. Thought you were big men; thought I was just an old fool. And then Babs. Babs and that… that … MAN!" Temple turned his head to look at Robbie Lewis, and the Inspector could see madness in his eyes, and the knot in his chest twisted even tighter.

"Don't you think I knew? Don't you think I knew all along what was going on? But I was losing so much already. With Dad… and… I… I just wanted to hold onto some normality. To pretend" Roger Temple paused

"And YOU" … he pointed the gun at Lewis again and then back at Hathaway "And YOU. You took it all away, and now I have NOTHING" Temple's hands were starting to shake, the anger, the madness was increasing, and Lewis knew he had to be careful, to be so very careful now.

He glanced over at his sergeant, trying not to see how much blood was on Hathaway's shirt, catching his gaze momentarily and silently asking "Are you okay lad?" A tiny imperceptible nod of head was some slight reassurance. For now.

"Robbie'll sort him out". Laura Hobsons words went around and around his head as he looked for the right words.

Temple had stopped speaking and was standing, hands shaking finger dangerously on the trigger of the gun.

"You're right" Lewis spoke quietly, trying to make his voice as casual as he could. "Its not fair Mr Temple and we were hard on you, the lad and I, but we didn't weren't to know this would happen, none of us"

"We didn't want to take her away from you" Lewis took a step closer to the older man. "I would never want to take a man's wife away from him" He paused. He had sworn he would never do this, would never 'use' Val in this way, but it was to protect the lad. "I lost my wife, a few years ago, and I miss her every day, I would never do that to someone else if I could avoid it".

Roger's hand trembled as he whipped his head around. "You're just making it up"

"He's not making it up, her name was Val" James Hathaway's voice came out scratchy and Lewis could see the lad was in obvious pain.

"Valerie Lewis" Robbie continued, "She was taken too young and too suddenly and I know how hard that is".

It was working, he knew it was working, and James Hathaway had known too, which is why he had chimed in. Temple loosened his grip on the trigger.

"I love my Babs" he choked out. "It's not fair, it's not fair"

"I know it's not Mr Temple but killing me and my sergeant here won't make it any better will it?" As he spoke, Robbie Lewis closed the gap between him and the former porter and closed his hand around the gun, taking it gently from Roger Temple's hand.

The older man crumpled into a heap on the ground and began to sob.

Lewis already had his phone to his ear, and within 15 seconds armed policeman were arresting Mr Temple. He knelt down in front of his sergeant, taking his keys out of the young man's pocket and unlocking the handcuffs. James was pale and trembling. Lewis looked him over worriedly, noting the open gash and visible confusion in his friend's eyes. "You're alright lad" He put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Ambulance on the way".

James was visibly shaking now as tiredness, pain and shock set in. "Thank you, sir," he mumbled his eyes closing. "I don't think I can stand up though, can we just wait here for the ambulance?"

"Hey, no sleeping on the job Sergeant" Lewis gently chided him, shaking him slightly as he spoke, trying to mask his worry. (concussion, don't fall asleep lad) "James, come on now, I know it's been a long day, but we're not finished up here yet and you haven't spouted any poetry at me for at least 8 hours"

"Been a long few weeks…" James cracked open one eye and looked at the older detective. His head hurt badly, and he was so tired, but he tried to make his voice sound lighter than it was. "Being your bagman should come with a health warning".

And despite everything, Robbie Lewis couldn't help but smile.

"Don't worry lad, I'll save you all the paperwork for when you're out of the hospital. He stood aside then as two paramedics arrived to deal with the injured officer. He watched, trying to mask the concern on his face as they inspected the gaping head wound and wrapped the younger man in blankets before moving him into the ambulance.

As he was being moved onto a stretcher, he saw James looking around confused

"You alright lad? Robbie moved closer into Hathaway's eye-line

"Will I... I mean will you...?." James voice trailed off, as if he didn't know how to finish the sentence or was sorry he'd started it.

Robbie smiled. "Yeah, I'll see you at the hospital." He reached out and squeezed the young man shoulder quickly, then stood and watched as he was loaded into the ambulance and drove away.

Shaking his head and sighing, Robbie Lewis walked back to his car, stretching his tired limbs before switching on the engine and turning his car towards the hospital…..

THE END