A/N: Another Bill story from me, hope this one's as liked as the last. This involves DI Manson's attempts to get rid of some of the Sun Hill officers he doesn't like, or at least cause major problems for them. Hope you like it!

Samantha Nixon sat silently at her desk, surveying the computer screen but not taking any of it in. The large office was empty, the lights were dimmed, it was that of evening that was so quiet, everything was winding down.

Except that she wasn't winding down. She never did these days.

Oh, she'd always been a bit of a workaholic, the first one in and last to leave, but, since she'd been passed over for the permanent DI's job, she'd been worse. There was a part of her that would never accept that. It was alright Superintendent Okaro saying she just hadn't had enough experience, she'd had enough experience to be in the temporary position for over a year!

So she was sort of determined to prove Okaro wrong by working as much as she could but getting up DI Neil Manson's nose was a delightful bonus!

She knew she had to watch her step around him, one reason to kick her out and he would take it with gloating eyes. Things were rather strained in CID lately, at least she could take pride in knowing there was always a better atmosphere when she was in charge.

The again, there had always been a better team when she'd been in charge. Manson had already transferred Eva out of there (though she'd ended up somewhere much better than he'd intended) and was probably angling for her and Debbie McAllister to leave, the sexist pig that he was. Sam had noticed the way he was with Phil Hunter and Rob Thatcher, it was completely obvious how he felt about women in the job.

Probably thought they were neglecting their children or something, the one thing Sam saw as a redeeming feature around him was his apparent devotion to his family.

Other than that he was a complete prat.

Tony Stamp was bored out of his brain once again. Alright, so he'd never had the most invigorating of lives but sitting home every single night with a good book? Not really his style.

All his troubles could be linked back to that time a few years previously when he was falsely accused of abusing that boy, Lee Dwyer. Even though he'd been proved innocent there was always that smidgen of doubt in people's minds. He saw it every time a colleague brought their kid in for the day or when he was called out to an incident involving children, someone always kept half an eye on him.

That accusation was the reason he'd had to leave his home and was living in a crummy flat above a corner shop. It was the reason he was treated like a leper everywhere he went.

The worst part was when new officers arrived at Sun Hill and they found out about the allegation. At least with the older officers they knew the truth about it, knew who the real abuser had been, but every new body immediately thought he'd just covered it up well.

He'd seen it recently with the arrival of that new DI. At first Manson had been fairly friendly, nothing out of the ordinary, just a man wanting to get to know his team. Then something seemed to change. A glint in his eyes suggested he knew and that he didn't believe the 'cover' story.

It was enough to make him hate the man but so far he hadn't done or said anything directly offensive. Would Tony even have the energy to fight if he did?

There was just something about the whole situation that made him lose the will the fight, even to care.

Jim Carver found himself home alone yet again. It was the same night after night since his divorce from Marie, sitting thinking about what a mess he'd made of his life and preparing for his next day at work. After all, work was his life now, wasn't it?

If he wasn't as strong willed as he was, it would've been easy to slip back into his old life with his friend the whisky bottle. But he wasn't about to do that, his only chance of happiness would disappear out of the window if he so much as thought of touching alcohol.

His chance of happiness revolved around June Ackland and whether he had any sort of chance with her. He knew he'd probably blown it by marrying Marie like that and June wasn't likely to take him back anytime soon but that was the nice thing about her, she was so forgiving sometimes.

Hmm, sometimes being the operative word. Since her dalliance with Gabriel Kent she'd been decidedly harsher, it wasn't something that Jim had missed and he knew anything he said to June at the moment would be taken the wrong way.

No, better to wait. And stay away from the bottle.