AUTHORS NOTE: Dudes, I'm back. Fanfiction can try and suspend me as much as they want... FD18 will always return. Lee and I, as you're already aware, are participating in an alphabet challenge. These are the 26 words she gave to me! It also provided me chance to give Stuart/Ewan some loving again!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this, nor do I own my stories apparently...

[Addiction]

"Everyone has an addiction..."

The simple statement voiced that afternoon by Robbie had been running through Stuart's mind all afternoon. He was aware that the other man had only stated such an unproven fact because Jackie was riding him again about his list of addictions – because boy, was that a bloody list and a half by now! - but it had got him thinking. Did everyone have an addiction? And if this was so, what was his addiction?

If he thought about his team, his family, and their addictions, he could pinpoint their addictions perfectly.

Jackie liked to chew gum obsessively, she bought expensive shoes that she knew she'd never get a chance to wear and she loved to pick and tease at Robbie – not really an addiction but it was definitely one of Jackie's. Jenny liked to psychoanalyse everything, she memorised every case as if it was something you'd need for a pop quiz and she drank diet Irn Bru as if it was going to run out or something. Again, not so serious but they were things she liked doing and happened nearly every single day. Burke... Well Burke is a closed book really. Could you state that he was addicted to drinking? He had one or two glasses of whiskey a night but does that constitute as an addiction? Stuart was sure it did. Duncan's addiction was vanilla ice cream which he always kept in one of the spare freezers in the morgues as well as reading one new medical journal each night. But no one had addictions as bad as Robbie.

As already stated, Robbie had quite a few addictions in his repertoire. The most infamous, of course, being his addiction for gambling. How many times had he succumbed to Lady Luck and had lost? God, Stuart had lost count now of how many times his friend had ended up penniless, nearly homeless and then, finally, without any real members of family left because of his problem. Thankfully, gambling was an addiction that Robbie had overcome but that had just been replaced with so many more. There was the drinking, smoking and bringing home women half his age to have emotionless sex with. It seemed not a day went by when Robbie didn't have at least one of those three things to curl up with at night, or on most nights he had all three! Robbie, however, made the addictions work and, like stated, had overcome the worst of them.

So what could Stuart state his addictions were?

He didn't drink, smoke or gamble. Girls... Well girls had most definitely never been something he had to worry about being addicted to. He never chewed gum, shoes were only bought when he needed a pair urgently and he didn't like to drive Robbie insane but thought that maybe he should try it a little more. The only way Stuart psychoanalysed someone was when he was in a dangerous situation, sometimes talking about someone's problems to said person really helps save your own skin, and even then, he tried to avoid those situations like the plague. Case files weren't high on his homework list and diet Irn Bru, in his opinion, was completely sacrilegious. If you're going to drink the most popular drink from Scotland then at least drink it full sugar! Seriously, was it a lot to ask?

Moving into the house, he smiled as he saw Ronan and Ewan tangled up on a twister board in the middle of the living room. Ewan was reaching out with his free foot, desperate to spin the arrow with a toe, while Ronan giggled for him to hurry up because she couldn't keep bearing his weight all night. This just got her a indignant grunt before he told her that her 'fat' father needed to put his right hand on a red circle so he'd be balancing on her even more. She just squealed as they toppled over at the move, Ewan landing flat on their small daughter but turned over so that he could start tickling her. "Is your father fat?"

"Yes!" She squealed loudly causing the torment to worsen and her pleas to get louder for him to stop, a warning that she was going to pee, before eventually she squealed. "No! Father, you're not fat! I promise. Not fat!" In between a mix of giggles and squeals. Stopping the torment, Ewan grinned down at her before pressing a kiss to her lips.

"The neighbours phoned the police and mentioned something about someone being murdered in here...?" He teased causing them both to look up at him, their smiles widening at his light joke as Ewan moved to rise to his feet and pulling their younger daughter up with him. Watching them hug each other, Stuart realised that he did have an addiction. And it was the best kind of trip. It was seeing his husband, the gangster turned father, smiling and having fun with their young daughter. It was witnessing Ronan, a once shy and abused child, letting go of all her vulnerabilities and just having fun like any child should do.

"What's the silly smile about?" Ewan asked as he grabbed hold of his husband's wrist, pulling him into their hug and taking his lips in a kiss – purposefully crushing Ronan in between them causing her to squeal again.

"I just worked out what my addiction is," he simply stated running his hands through Ronan's ginger locks, a kiss being pressed to the top of her head before she twirled around so that her arms were now wrapped around Stuart's waist. He knew that his husband wouldn't understand the reference having not been there for Robbie's comment nor being a witness at Stuart's monologue but he watched as Ewan's face split due to an ear-to-ear grin.

"Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"You two," he stated as he ruffled his daughter's hair, a kiss being pressed against Ewan's lips again, "I don't know how I would survive if I didn't get my daily fix of you two."

"And baby, I don't know how we would either..." Ewan promised before taking his lips again, scrunching Ronan into another bear hug causing her to squeal into Stuart's stomach and he couldn't help but laugh as he took a small step back so that she could escape but his lips didn't leave Ewan's – another addiction, maybe?