I don't own Scott & Bailey. I just own this story and i'm writing this 'cause i LOVE the series, the characters and the gritty realism of the whole thing. Follows up from the last episode of Season 2.

Together.

" Ade, please don't!" Janet cried, banging on the closed door of her home in the midst of all her things her soon to be ex husband had chucked out on the path to their-his-home, along with her.

Adrian ignored her, and deep down Janet knew she deserved it for playing such a whore.

Janet broke down crying, she kicked one of the bin bags in anger. Anger in herself but more anger in Adrian. And Andy. God, it was such a mess. Andy hadn't let off, he'd decided to up the ante by first humiliating her and Gill, threatening her job, and then covered it up by lying. Gill had found out Andy's deliberate act and kicked him out, but Andy had the final laugh by calling Adrian, just as the other man was moving back in.

Petty bastard.

Janet cried harder at the thought of the girls. How would they feel? Would they hate her? Her heart clenched at the thought at what their father would say to them, what words he would choose to twist their minds? Worse, she wouldn't be there to tell her side of the story.

Unbidden Janet had another nasty thought. Where would she go now? She could stay at her mums. No, Janet disspelled the idea. Her mother would interrogate her mercilessly. Who did that leave?

Gill?

A possibility, Janet admitted. They were old friends with a relationship going back years but did Janet really want to live with her, her boss who only a day or so ago was gazing at her with disappointment and rage?

That left Rachel. Her best friend, but again could she live with Rachel, who she knew was going through a rough time after her brother Dom and Sean McCartney who was begging her to marry him. Could she intrude in that. Janet shuddered at the thought of interrupting Sean and Rachel making out in the flat.

Janet dragged her things to her car, often going back to the front door to grab something else to bring. She had no idea where she was going, but she would find a place, maybe a hotel or a flat she could rent.

" Janet? What's going on?"

Janet's head shot up when she saw Gill's car stopped next to her hers in the road. So mixed up in her thoughts, Janet hadn't even noticed the approach of another car. Her boss's face was drawn with concern. Janet sobbed harder as the reality set in.

" Ade, he's kicked me out."

Twenty minutes later, with Gill's help, Janet found herself in her bosses car. She would go back to her place later to pick up her own car when she was settled in. In the meantime Gill was being given a summary of what Andy had done.

She sighed. " I'm sorry cock, I had no idea he'd do that. I thought him leaving would've-" She trailed off, thinking about the lanky sergeant. Up till now DS Andy Roper had been a bloody good cop, efficient and logical. Gill had listened to the summary of the relationship her old friend had rekindled with Andy, and many of her questions had been answered. Andy had scared Janet, though his intentions were logical. Andy's marriage had broken down, he'd broken down. When he and Janet had gone out, Gill imagined when he became too intense and clingy, not wanting it to be over, though she knew Janet wasn't telling her everything and she wasn't going to pry despite her concern. Janet had been scared stiff of Andy. Gill certainly didn't want to add to her burden.

No wonder it had come down to a shouting match between the two in the middle of the office.

Gill never involved herself in her officers private lives, and sometimes it backfired on her. Now it was backfiring on her friend.

" What're you planning to do now?" Gill asked.

Janet took a staggering breath, " I dunno," she admitted with a sigh. " Everything I've got," she pointed at the backseat of Gill's car, " is in those bags. I can't go to my mums 'cause shell ask so many questions, so I'll probably find somewhere else to live. I was thinking of staying Rachels."

" Hmm," Gill hummed, slightly hurt her friend hadn't thought about her. " Do you want me to take you there?"

Janet nodded. " Yeah, please." She replied before the car descended into companionable and slightly uncomfortable silence.

It didn't last long. Janet's phone went off. She checked the caller I.D, wondering if it was Adrian or Andy. It was neither. It was Rachel.

She pressed the call button.

" Rach hi, what-" she began with forced cheer, stopping when Rachel began speaking. " What?" Janet breathed in horror. " You're not serious, not again. Fuck. Okay, I'm just-" she glared at the phone. " She's hung up."

Gill frowned. " That sounded like an intense call. What's wrong?"

Janet sighed. " Rachel was seeing her mother, who walked out on her when she was 12. Anyway, she's dating, or was, dating this guy called Sean who knows her since they was kids. He keeps in touch with Rachel's mam, and they met at a pub. Rachel was driven home by her mother, and she found Sean in her flat, in her own bed, with his ex wife." Janet shook her head in bewilderment. " Christ, us three have lousy taste in men."

If DC Rachel Bailey had known her boss was bringing a kicked out Janet to her and the reasons, she would tell her to join the club. Lying on her couch, knees hugged to her chest, Rachel didn't feel in the mood for anything aside from brooding.

Men were bastards. Rachel rubbed her head. As if she hadn't had a trying day. First Dom being a murderer for killing Nick Savage even if the now deceased barrister had deserved it though Rachel wouldn't have actually wanted him to die, especially in the violent way he had, then Nick, now Sean.

Rachel had met her mother who'd left her, her brother, and her sister behind for some bastard. It had been such a nice meeting, surprisingly, but one Rachel had dreaded since she'd agreed to the bloody thing. Her mother had certainly moved on. She'd asked about her other children and Rachel had given basic summaries, though speaking about Dom made her feel ill. Sharon hadn't been surprised about Alison's reticience about meeting her since her leaving her practically killed any chance Alison had of having a good life, and Rachel was sharp enough to see the regret in her mothers face. Her mother had insisted on driving her home, and it gave the two women a chance to talk more. When they finally arrived back at the flat, Rachel had said a cheerful farewell to her mother for the first time in a long time.

Then it fell apart.

The moment she'd walked in, her eyes had found bright red lingerie on the floor of her hall. Tears trickled down her face as she sobbed. Sean was fucking his ex wife. In her bed. The same bed Rachel had hoped to share with Sean.

She'd even agreed to marry the bastard. What, was his wife a bit on the side?

After few apologies and pleas to listen rejected, Rachel had angrily kicked Sean and his ex out, bollock naked, in the cold streets of Oldham. She hoped they both caught pneumonia. Rachel buried her head in her hands, groaning. She was too tired to think straight.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Rachel sighed and picked herself off her couch. She staggered to her kitchen and opened the fridge. Typical. Everything inside was out of date. Fantastic.

Rachel sighed again. She was tired and she was angry, now she was hungry. Ordinarily whenever she found herself in this kind of dismal mood Rachel would get drunk, but tonight she just couldn't find the energy. In any case, every time she got drunk in the morning she always regretted it. In theory getting pissed was sound, in practice it was something else. Besides, her knuckles where she'd punched that lamppost still hurt like hell. A lamppost! She just wanted to find something to eat then get herself to bed. Pulling on her coat and shoes Rachel left her flat and marched to the corner shop to get some food. The journey took 3 minutes there and back, and another three minutes to get some food. It wasn't anything special. Just some cereal and milk. Rachel just wanted simplicity tonight and tomorrow morning. She promised herself to get some proper food tomorrow.

On the way home she took deep drags from a cigarrette. Her last smoke of the night.

She'd called Janet a few minutes ago, and was now setting her oh so wonderful dinner up. She poured a liberal amount of sugar over the lot, and set down to eat it. Rachel wasn't thinking of anything nor was she anticipating anything. All she was doing was eating on autopilot just to feed her body and give her energy for the night. About halfway through, she slammed her spoon down and pushed the bowl away from her.

She buried her head in her hands and sobbed. Why did she have to choose these men in the first place? Then she turned her thoughts out to the other countless police women who'd had a lot of terrible marriages that simply fell apart. Look at Godzilla, her fella had shagged a girl and she ended up pregnant. The thought of Janet, Andy and Adrian sprang to mind as well. Rachel dragged the cereal back and started eating it with more gusto, and when she was finished she washed it in the sink before putting everything else away.

The doorbell rang.

Rachel closed her eyes and cursed. " Why me?" She asked gazing upwards for some semblance of patience. " Please," she drawled tiredly, " please don't be Sean, or heavens forbid Dom. Please, I just want to be left alone. How hard can it be? I swear..." The rings became insistent. " Fuck! Okay, I'm coming!" Rachel shouted at the door. She reached for the knob and turned it. " Whoever you are, this had been be goo-," Rachel's sentence died in her throat when she saw just who was on her doorstep.

" Boss?" She stared at Gill before turning to the other woman. Janet looked like she was in a terrible state. Her eyes made her look like a panda, and they were red rimmed, and she was still crying. " Janet?" Rachel asked in horror; she knew from her conversations with Janet earlier Ade was coming back, but what had happened to get her in that state?

" Janet," Rachel said gently, moving forwards to the other woman. " What happened?"

Janet sobbed, and threw herself at Rachel. The younger woman winced at the impact that made her head spin. Reflexively she managed to grab hold of Janet to stop her hurting herself, and barely managed to stop herself from being knocked to the ground. Rachel twisted her head as best she could but Janet's hair was in the way. Gill looked on, delighted she'd brought Janet here.

" What happened?" Rachel repeated.

Janet finally got enough control of her emotions to speak, but even that made no sense. Rachel had to lean in to listen clearly to make some sense of what Janet was saying, but it was hard. The words she got out was, " Over...Ade...Andy...phone...fling," was all she could make out.

Rachel looked up at her boss. Gill looked decades older, and there was a tightness around her mouth, and her fists were clenched. Rachel shivered involuntarily; Gill Murray never looked that angry at work, not even with Kevin. Then she saw something else. The anger contrasted with the sympathy in Gill's eyes when she looked over at Janet.

" What happened?" Rachel said for the third time, hoping she wouldn't have to repeat herself again and again.

Gill sighed wearily, stepping into Rachel's flat and closing the door. " Do you mind if we come in first, Rachel? It's been a terrible night."

Between the two of them, they managed to take Janet into the living room. It frightened Rachel to see Janet Scott like this. She was usually self assured, wise and confident. Not now though, now Rachel was seeing the vulnerable side of her best friend.

And she did not like it. Gill helped Rachel sit Janet down, and collapsed herself with a tired sigh. She wouldn't admit it but Gill was delighted she was in the presence of someone who understood.

" Do you want me to tell her, or do you want to do the honours?" Gill turned to Janet.

Janet sobbed quietly, but she shook her head. No, she didn't want to talk about it.

Folding her hands like she was speaking to a press conference but Rachel had known this woman long enough to see she was pissed beyond belief.

" Andy called Adrian. He told Adrian about the fling he and Janet had," Gill explained.

Rachel sighed. Now it made sense. " And I guess he did this when Adrian was just getting resettled in their house?" She asked, budding rage for DS Roper burning in her mind. Gill nodded, pleased to see the same anger she was feeling herself in Rachel's eyes, just like she was pleased by the deduction Sherlock had made. Rachel sighed again, looking down at Janet, and gently pulled her friend into her arms. She looked at Gill. " Why the hell couldn't he leave her alone?" She hissed angrily, her dislike for Andy surfacing.

Since she'd started working for MIT Rachel had quickly established friendships with every member of the team; Mitch was calm and quiet, but he was a strong presence. Pete was like a caring older brother, and he'd always been encouraging with a ready smile. Lee was the same. With Gill, Rachel found herself a mother figure; she would always ask the DCI for advice, and that was possibly why Gill was hard on her, but every member of the team knew she was always there for everyone. Kevin was a practical joker, but he livened the place up regardless.

But Andy...

Rachel had tried to be nice to him, tried to help him with their cases, and she'd hoped he would help her in her goals in life. But she didn't like him. There was something about the DS Rachel just did not like, despite the respect she held for him as a police officer. He was always calm, collected, patient, and logical. He looked at things like they were jigsaw puzzles, and he was always in control. Maybe that was part of his problem, Rachel mused. He was so used to being in control he couldn't see any other way. Whenever they were out, be it doing a search of a street then they worked together beautifully, and then there was that time when she, Keven, and Andy were chasing a couple of racist thugs in a taxi driven by someone destined to be their next victim. Andy had had no problems with her then, but Rachel remembered the put downs he'd handed out to her during a meeting. And before that, he'd threatened her after she'd gone into Gill's office to talk about a phone call she'd sent her boss whilst drunk, about Geoff Hastings diaries being in his mother's grave. Andy had misinterpreted the meeting, since the night before he'd met them at a pub, and his conversation with Janet began to become borderline harassment. Rachel had stood up for her then, she would do so again. Andy had told her not to take him on as he leant over her, invading her space. Though she'd hidden it, Rachel had been slightly scared for her personal wellbeing, and rightfully so. Andy was a superior officer, but he was using his size to intimidate her. That wasn't professional. After a quick pep talk by Gill, Rachel had told him the meeting was something different, but nothing between them changed. Rachel had once overheard Andy make a comment about her to Mitch about her being an airhead, and only an hour before he'd sung her praises. Rachel at the time had glowed with pride at the praise, but when she'd walked into the office and heard him say that about her when he'd thought she was out...It'd hurt her. Mitch had taken one look at her surprised and hurt face, and he'd calmly refuted that by what he'd seen of her she wasn't an airhead. He'd received a kiss on the cheek later for that. The kind thing was Mitch had meant what he'd said.

An airhead...after all the work they'd done together. How could he think that?

Rachel was also repulsed by Andy's obsession with Janet. He would shamelessly watch her from across a room, but Rachel hadn't pointed it out to her friend. She knew of the history between the two of them, and she'd assumed, wrongly it now turned out, that Andy was still harbouring a crush on her despite her being married to someone boring and argumentative.

The last few weeks Rachel had been concerned for her best friend, that argument blazing in the office and the harassment had led to Gill summoning the pair of them into her office for a talk sprang to mind. After that the pair of them seemed to have reached an understanding. She'd been told Andy had rung up Janet about some meeting with a coroner, and someone had misheard. Janet had admitted it was a possibility, but Andy hadn't. Later Mitch revealed he'd overheard him say what it was to Gill.

She'd kicked him out.

" He probably thinks if he can't have Janet, then no one else can," Gill's voice broke through her thoughts. Rachel nodded. " Poor Janet." She whispered, stroking her friend's hair gently.

Gill sighed. " She wanted to come here, then she got your call. What happened?" Rachel's head shot up to face her boss, expecting to see something but it wasn't there. There was genuine care and curiosity on her face.

Rachel's face twisted with tired anger, she could see Gill wanted the conversation to move away from Janet for a bit with someone elses problems to show the blonde she was not alone. Rachel had no problem with that. Only the knowledge of Janet needing her kept her voice calm, but even Gill shivered at the rage in her eyes. Rachel sighed, and the anger in her eyes gave way to despair.

" I've been seeing this bloke, Sean. A uniform. We were mates growing up, and he still kept in touch with my mum after she walked out on me for another guy. Never saw her again until tonight. How he kept in touch, I dunno, but he told me she wanted to see me. I thought about it, and decided too." Rachel looked away for a moment before she turned to face Gill again, her voice becoming a nostalgic whisper. " He drove me up the wall at times, always phoning me at work, always joking around. But he did help a lot; it was Sean who found the taxi driver that got me cleared for Nick's attack and murder. Anyway I told him I'd marry him when he took me to this pub where I'd meet my mother."

Rachel took a breath. " That was a lovely meeting." She admitted to herself. " We spent hours chatting, I'd expected us to hate each other, but it didn't happen. Mum regretted leaving us, but now I think about it, I think it changed me and my sister for the better in some ways. Alison had to learn how to fight for us, even if it meant losing chances for her to become something more, and me to become a copper."

Gill nodded, noting idly her young colleague didn't mention her brother Dom. She made a mental note to look at his record. For some reason Rachel seemed reluctant to talk about him. She'd called him a black sheep of the family when they'd gone to Bristol about Leach, but that was it.

Her young DC carried on. " Mum offered to drive me home, which I thought was nice of her," Rachel looked thoughtful. " I remember when I mentioned Sean she didn't look genuinely enthusiastic when I mentioned I was planning on marrying him. In fact, she looked almost sympathetic, but I didn't question it then. Now I wish I had. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

Gill quirked a brow, wondering if Rachels mother was a detective herself though not a copper. Did her mother know Sean had wandering eyes and a wandering dick?

Fresh tears welled up in Rachel's eyes. " I found him in MY bed with his ex!" she cried. " I dragged them out and threw them into the streets." That was too much for Rachel, and she started crying her heart out.

" Oh, my god," she heard Gill gasp. Rachel didn't pay attention. When she felt a pair of thin arms wrap around her, Rachel found she was in Gill's embrace.

" What-?" she gasped.

" Sshhh!" Gill ordered, holding her DC tightly but gently.

Rachel forgot her logic, and returned the hug. She felt one of Gill's arms release her from the embrace, but the emptiness was filled by someone else being pulled into a hug. From the distinctive perfume, Rachel knew it was Janet. Adjusting her arms, Rachel wrapped an arm around her best mate.

Janet, Rachel, and Gill, three spurned women, found themselves in a warm hug.