James smiled as he read the email from Jean. One of her subordinates apparently held views "so archaic that Noah would have been dismayed" and she'd been forced to "educate him". A chuckle escaped James' lips as he imagined Jean in full flow, ruthlessly cutting through the hapless man's nonsense. The smile stayed on James' face as he finished reading Jean's email and hit 'Reply'.

Jean felt her mood lighten as she saw the email from James in her Inbox. It had been a difficult day and tomorrow would no doubt be hard work too. Settling in to her new job was taking longer than she'd expected, probably because rather a lot of her colleagues seemed to think that she was some sort of token appointment, there to make the equality numbers look better. They were all beginning to realise their mistake but it had been really good to be able to vent to James. She opened the email and began to read, smiling at James' sarcastic phrasing. James had included a link to a cat video sent to him by Gurdip and by the time that she'd watched it, Jean's bad mood had completely evaporated. Feeling invigorated, she began to plan the next stage in her quest to make equality a reality for everyone who worked for her.

Jean smiled at her reflection in the mirror, delighted to be going to a concert in Oxford purely for pleasure. There was no networking to be done and no political agenda to watch out for; she was simply going to enjoy the music. Another joy was that she didn't have to worry for hours over what she was going to wear, as her clothes choices no longer reflected directly on the Oxfordshire constabulary. Now all she had to do was wear an outfit appropriate for the weather and the occasion. They would be sitting indoors and it was a warm day so Jean had chosen a summer dress with a cardigan for later. It flattered her figure without being revealing and was comfortable to sit in. She had a comfortable pair of sandals on and her hair was down. All in all, she felt better about going out than she had done in a very long time.

James rang Jean's doorbell and smiled as she came out, thinking that she looked relaxed and happy.

'Are you happy to go straight there or do you want to go somewhere for a drink first?' asked Jean.

They had agreed to meet early and travel together because parking was likely to be difficult; Oxford's car parks filled up quickly on Saturday nights. It was one of the reasons why James was driving – if the worst came to the worst, they could park at the police station and walk from there. The other reason that James was driving was so that Jean could drink. He was supposed to be being punished after all.

'We might as well go straight there. They'll have drinks and that way we can get good seats,' replied James.

'Okay.'

They chatted idly on the way into town and were lucky enough to find a parking spot near the college so they had ample time to get drinks and choose the seats with the best acoustics. Jean was mildly amused by the precision with which James chose the seats but had no difficulty at all in believing that these were the best seats. James had undoubtedly worked it out beforehand or simply already knew as part of the vast amount of knowledge stored in his incredible brain.

The music was sublime and neither of them wanted to move when the interval came but people needed to get past them so Jean wandered off to get another drink and James went to have a cigarette. When he came back, Jean had been cornered by one of the local councillors, who was trying to get her opinion on the latest Oxfordshire crime statistics. With a smirk, James walked over to them and said,

'There you are, Jean. We should go back to our seats.'

James carefully placed his hand at the small of Jean's back, hoping that she would understand that it was part of his rescue attempt, and escorted her away from the councillor. He relaxed as she made no attempt to pull away.

Jean smiled up at him but waited until they were sitting down before murmuring,

'Thank you.'

'You're welcome. Did he miss the memo about your promotion?'

'No idea. He didn't stop talking for long enough for me to remind him that he was wasting his time.'

'Never mind. He'll presumably notice when DS Moody turns up to the next meeting.'

Jean chuckled and said,

'You'd hope so.'

The orchestra resumed their seats and they sat back and lost themselves in the music again.

After the concert, they walked slowly back to car, talking about the music. Jean had had virtually no formal education in music theory so was delighted when James could explain various things that had puzzled her. They spent the trip back to her house chatting animatedly and both were disappointed when they arrived. Jean thanked James and got out the car, saying,

'I've got some more concert tickets. Would you be interested in coming with me?'

'If I'm off rota… and as long as it isn't songs from musicals,' said James, grimacing.

'You don't like musicals?'

'Not much and I really don't like compilations of songs from musicals.'

'I think you're fairly safe. I certainly don't remember any musicals. I'll email you the dates.'

'Okay.'

They said goodnight and James waited until Jean was in the house before driving off.