Chapter 2
Mickey smirked, "That's a blinder that one is. Things we could never have predicted - Gina Gold swinging to the other side."
"With a subordinate as well." Jack noted, and then instantly wished he hadn't when a hint of amusement appeared in Mickey's eyes, "Did I say something funny?"
Mickey, detecting a hint of frostiness in Jack's voice toyed with the idea of lying through his teeth and pretending to have no idea what he was talking about. Unfortunately for him though, as he tried to do so he accidentally started laughing, only stopping when he realised that Jack was seriously not amused. He sighed, "How is Debbie? Did you ever get anywhere with her?"
"No I didn't." Jack murmured, making it quite obvious that his non-success with Debbie McAllister was an incredibly large chip on his shoulder. "But," he added, "Debbie's ok. She's just getting changed actually, she'll be down in a minute so you can see for yourself."
Desperately wanting to get the conversation back on to safe ground, but totally unsure where to take it, Mickey groped for another interesting but uncontroversial topic, failed and ended up blurting out, "How's her little Spawn of the Devil?" He half expected Jack to hit the roof and so was fairly relieved and pretty stunned when he didn't.
"Andrew's a good kid." He replied lightly, "But take a tip Mickey, don't refer to him as the Spawn of the Devil this weekend, not in front of him - Debbie really won't appreciate it, and neither will I." He paused for a second and then added, "And another thing, when you meet him, be tactful."
Before Mickey could ask why, he caught sight of Debbie walking towards them, deep in conversation with a teenage boy, and, in spite of Jack's warning found himself blurting out, "Fuck me! He looks just like Chandler." He knew it lacked the tact Jack had requested as soon as he said it, but was unable to stop himself. The likeness was uncanny - it was like looking at Tom Chandler reincarnate.
Before Jack could reprimand him, or he could apologise Debbie and Andrew were upon them and he quickly had to try and get his brain back into gear to the point where he could hold a sensible conversation. Luckily Jack took some of the pressure off by introducing Andrew to him, and generally making a fuss of him and Debbie - telling Debbie how nice she looked and getting them both drinks. Once Mickey had recovered from the shock he actually found it all quite amusing. Jack may not have got his leg over with Debbie but she was obviously doing a very fine job of pulling every string he had. And Andrew's confession that 'Uncle Jack' had bought him his very expensive looking trainers more or less confirmed in his mind that Debbie McAllister was without doubt the scheming manipulative little cow he'd always suspected she was, and Jack was still falling for it all hook, line and sinker...
By the time Gina and Gemma arrived in the bar, 50 minutes and 3 exhausting bouts of sex later, a fair sized group had assembled round the table that Jack and Mickey had commandeered. In one corner Jim, June, Cathy and Brandon were reminiscing about their days working together in the CSU, Debbie and a very pregnant looking Kerry were deep in conversation about the relative merits and non-merits of motherhood and Jack and Mickey were holding court to Nick, Gary and Luke on the classic collars of their era. It all seemed so laid-back and harmonious that Gina didn't know whether to be reassured, or unnerved.
"Hi guys." She breezed up to them, with Gemma in tow, "Nice to see you all." She sat down next to Jack, "Boring the younger generation to tears are you?"
"We're just giving them the benefit of our experience." Jack retorted, "Not that they need it mind you, they're part of the strongest team Sun Hill CID has had in years."
Gina chuckled, "You three in CID eh? I'd never have thought you'd had it in you."
"We could say the same of you." Gary said with a grin nodding in Gemma's direction, "Our Inspector, a lottery winning lesbian, how cool is that?"
"My little Gary, a Detective Sergent, how cool is that?" Gina replied, a dangerous looking smile appearing on her face, "Not bad for a little Christmas Elf eh?" She glanced around the group, "No Samantha yet?"
"I'm sorry?" Debbie broke off from her conversation with Kerry about Playstation 6's and interrupted before anyone could answer the question, "Samantha Nixon's coming?" She turned to Jack, "You didn't tell me." Her tone was frosty, a fact that everyone around the table clued into, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
Gina, although not the most religious person in the world, quickly said a silent prayer, pleading with the Lord Almighty not to turn her reunion into a bloodbath.
Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat, looking at Debbie guiltily, "You wouldn't have come if I had told you." Noting a number of perplexed faces around him he turned his attention from Debbie to the others, "For those of you who don't know Debbie and Samantha are DCI's at rival stations. They're also both up for the Superintendents job at Sun Hill when Anthony Roberts retires next month."
Gina quickly digested this information, mentally hurled some abuse in Gods direction and excused herself to purchase a large Scotch. Mickey however received the news with some amusement as he realised before anyone else that the man with the privilege of appointing the new Superintendent was none other than the leading light of the Debbie McAllister fan club, Borough Commander Meadows.