Chapter Two

Matt stepped back out onto the London streets, putting his scarf on in the process. The Merrick trial had ended less than an hour ago; justice had been well and truly served. It was all over. But Matt knew it was far from over for Alesha. He knew her life would never be the same again, but Matt was well aware of how strong Alesha could be, she would get through this horrific ordeal. It was just going to take time.

Alesha returned back to her flat, she took off her boots, coat and scarf before pouring herself a rather large glass of red wine. Collapsing on her sofa, she sat there thinking it all through. She didn't cry. Knowing that if she cried, it was like letting Merrick win all over again, and he had done more than enough damage already. James had seen that Merrick got the punishment he deserved. Now it was her turn to do the only thing she could. Move on, or try to anyway.

Alesha put down her glass of wine as she heard her phone go off in her bag. When she found her phone, after searching amongst all her paperwork, she discovered a text message from Matt.

'Hope you're okay. I'm thinking of you, remember I'm here if you need me x'

Alesha gave a small smile, thinking how sweet it was of Matt to leave her a message. So she returned the favour.

Matt was now back at his own place, hoping Alesha would reply. A smile soon illuminated Matt's face when he received a text message back from Alesha.

'Thanks for the message, Matt. I'm okay, as well as I can be anyway. Going to get some rest, I'll see you soon. Thanks for everything x'

A sense of relief flooded over Matt. Knowing Alesha was doing as well as she could be, under the circumstances, made him feel a little more content. This would still not stop Matt worrying about her, but it was all he could do for now.

...

It was the following week, and the team had earlier in the day met up to discuss the case on Nick Bentley. Matt had seen Alesha, and had even managed a quick chat, but Matt wanted to put his mind at rest to make sure Alesha really was okay, so he came up with an idea.

It was now almost the end of the day and Matt knocked on the door of Natalie's office, where she and Ronnie were discussing the Bentley case.

"Hey Gov, do you mind if I leave a bit early?"

"Oh ay, what you up to Matty?" Ronnie inquired, as he stopped leaning against the wall.

"I was ..." he blushed a little "Just going to see how Alesha's doing, treat her to dinner."

Ronnie looked at Natalie with a knowing grin, Natalie had seen this look out of the corner of her eye but pretended like she hadn't, instead she answered Matt.

"Yeah of course Matt, god knows she needs cheering up after what's happened. Ronnie and I will finish up here."

"Thanks Gov, I really appreciate it" Matt gave her a smile, before looking at his partner "See you tomorrow, Ron."

"See ya, son. You look after her now" he gave a smile, knowing that Matt would always do just that.

As Matt left the room and closed the door, Ronnie sat down in the chair in front of Natalie's desk and said "He's besotted."

It was Natalie's turn to give the knowing smile.

...

"Night guys, see you tomorrow" Alesha said, before switching off the light at her desk, and she headed downstairs and out of the building, only to come face to face with DS Matt Devlin.

"Alesha! I was just coming to find you" Matt said somewhat breathlessly, clearly having rushed to meet up with her before she left to go home.

"Hiya. Why's that, you got some more information about the Bentley case?"

"No, it's not about that" Matt replied "I was just coming to ask you, if you fancied dinner?"

"Just me and you?" she asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah, if you like ... I'll cook!"

Alesha laughed "You can cook? Really?"

"Don't look so surprised!" Matt laughed too "My culinary skills aren't that bad I'll have you know."

Alesha gave a small laugh before questioning something "Why dinner, Matt? I thought I said earlier, just be the same ... we never have dinner together."

"Uh, correction, we had chinese together last week. And is there anything wrong with someone wanting to cook dinner for a friend?"

Alesha raised her eyebrows at him, Matt crumbled too easily.

"Alright, I just ... want to cheer you up a bit, that's all, I promise. We ate dinner at your place last time, I want to return the favour and treat you to dinner at mine. So what do you say?"

"If you promise you won't give me food poisoning, then yes I'll have dinner with you."

Matt grinned brightly "Come on then" he took her hand gently before shouting "Taxi!"

Matt and Alesha soon arrived at Matt's very upmarket apartment. Upon leading Alesha inside, Matt switched on the lights and watched as Alesha walked into the spacious apartment, consisting of a large open plan living-room, kitchen, diner with large glass windows overlooking the River Thames. The city of London illuminated in lights on this cold evening.

"Wow, this place is amazing!" complimented Alesha, as she headed to the windows to have a proper look.

"Looks even better in the daylight" Matt said, as a matter of fact, approaching Alesha and offering to take her coat and scarf for her.

"Well I'm not likely to see your place in the daylight am I?" Alesha said cheekily, as she turned away from looking at the windows.

"Oh I don't know, play your cards right" he winked at her, this earned a playful slap on his arm by Alesha, which forced Matt to come up with a quick defence. "No, I didn't meant it like that!" he gave a short laugh "I meant, in the summer, if you come over for dinner again, it will be light at this time."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Matt, you can't recover from it" she giggled "And you never know I may not want to come back for dinner, depends how tonight goes."

"Well i'll have to try and impress you with my cooking then won't I?" Matt smiled, as he hung up her coat and scarf.

Matt quickly began preparing the smoked salmon and veg, with Alesha watching him with her glass of wine, finding it highly amusing that Matt was cooking all of this by himself and had refused her offer of helping. Once it was all done and put in the oven, they sat down on the sofa and Matt put on some gentle background music.

"Do your girlfriend's get this much treatment when you invite them round?" Alesha inquired, curiously.

"Not really. Only if it was a special occasion."

"Well tonight isn't a special occasion" Alesha stated.

Matt gazed at Alesha in all seriousness "We got the right result in court, we can celebrate the fact that the bastard got what he deserved."

Alesha looked down at her hands, not knowing if she was happy talking about this. Matt sensed this immediately, now regretting bringing it up.

"Oh god, Alesha, I'm sorry! I should've known you wouldn't want to talk about it, you want to put it all behind you. I'm such an idiot!"

Alesha looked back up at Matt, taking his hand tentatively. "No you're not an idiot Matt, it's okay."

"No it's not" Matt had to stop himself from raising his voice "I've made a mess of everything, I'm supposed to be cheering you up and now I've gone and made things worse! I'm so sorry Alesha!"

Alesha was surprised to see Matt get this angry with himself, he seemed so stressed.

"Hey, hey, come on, stop all this. Come here" Alesha hugged Matt "You don't have to apologise."

"But I want to" Matt began as he and Alesha pulled out of the hug, he looked so desperately concerned "I've been worried sick about you."

Alesha took Matt's hand, feeling so heart warmed by his confession of concern. "You don't have to worry about me anymore."

"I will always worry about you, Alesha" Matt admitted.

Alesha looked surprised "Why?"

"Because" Matt blushed, thinking how corny and cheesy it sounded "It's you. I ... care about you a lot."

"Matt" Alesha gazed at him intently; Matt looked back at Alesha with as much intense emotion as she showed towards him. Their gaze never breaking contact as their heads moved closer together, their lips were within seconds of contact.

Suddenly the smoke alarm blared throughout the flat, Matt and Alesha's moment lost.

"Oh my god, the food!" Matt leapt up and rushed across the room to the kitchen to see smoke billowing out of the oven. Matt grabbed the oven gloves and took out the ruined food, chucking the tray onto the kitchen counter. Alesha had opened one of the nearby windows and used a discarded newspaper to fan the area by the smoke alarm. It stopped going off within seconds. Alesha came over to the kitchen, Matt taking off his oven gloves and he turned back to his dinner guest.

Alesha looked at the ruined food "I know you were going for smoked salmon Matt, but I think that was a bit too much."

Matt looked at Alesha with raised eyebrows, but Alesha just burst into laughter.

Matt couldn't help himself and laughed along with her "Oh god, why did I bother offering to cook, should've known it would've ended in disaster."

Alesha still could not stop laughing "Never mind Matt, at least you tried."

"Suppose" Matt said, as he threw the food in the bin. "Sorry Alesha, looks like dinner won't be happening."

"That's alright" Alesha assured him, finally calming down "I wasn't that hungry anyway."

"I can do us beans on toast?" Matt offered.

"Oh you're all class Mr. Devlin!" Alesha giggled, before raising an eyebrow and saying teasingly "You sure that isn't too technical for you? Do you know how to make toast without burning it?"

Matt raised his eyebrows in amusement and pointed at her "Right you! I'm gunna get you for that!"

Alesha squealed as Matt began chasing her around the massive room, weaving in and out of furniture, until Alesha got worn out and Matt managed to catch her and enveloped her into a big hug.

"You can be so mischievous, Miss Phillips" Matt said softly into her ear.

Alesha giggled and broke out of the hug to look at Matt "We make a good pair then don't we?"

Matt smiled as he also started thinking about something Alesha had said during their conversation earlier in the day:

Matt: "...nothing funny, i'm not cracking on to you."

Alesha: "Why not? ... I'm not broken Matt."

Alesha was right, she wasn't broken. Yes she had been hurt, but that didn't mean she could never be with anyone else ever again. Matt's brain was quickly brought back to attention as Alesha had put her hand on his arm, but Matt was drawn to Alesha's face; their eyes connected again and before either of them knew who started it, they kissed. It was gentle and tender, but became passionate, so much so that Matt picked Alesha up and they continued kissing on the sofa.

They broke apart for air, both of them smiling. Matt was lost for words, something that very rarely happened, but luckily for him Alesha spoke up.

"So ... where's this beans on toast?" giving Matt a cheeky grin.

"Oh stuff the food!" Matt replied, causing Alesha to giggle before they began kissing again.

...

Hope you liked this :) I'm going to leave this as the end. Review please :)