Decorations

[smallhobbit]

Title: Decorations
Rating: White cortina
Word Count: 900 words.
Notes:  With thanks to phyllisdobbs01 for the prompts and for checking it.  Any further mistakes are mine.

 

Sam Tyler turned the collar of his coat up and wondered for the third time in ten minutes why he had volunteered to follow Barnett to see if they could establish that he was making contact with Newman and Dixon.  Okay, so Ray had refused to do it and even Chris, who was generally keen to show how much his skills had improved, had been unwilling to offer.  Which meant that he, Sam, was left on a cold street corner in December, wishing that Barnett had chosen somewhere warmer to meet the dealers than outside what looked like a disused lock-up. 

****

Meanwhile the Guv was rallying the rest of the troops back at CID.  “Right, you lot, we are going to make this Christmas one that DI Tyler doesn’t forget in a hurry.  He may be a royal pain in the arse, but he’s clearly not looking forward to much in the way of celebration, so it’s up to us to improve things for him.  Ray, get yourself to the pub, so that if he gets there before the rest of us do, you can make up some excuse.  Annie and Phyllis, you collect the decorations and bring them to his flat.  Chris, you’re with me.”

Gene drove quickly to Sam’s flat and then set about picking the lock.

“Why don’t we just break the door down?” Chris asked.

“Because we don’t want him to know that anyone’s been here, you div.”

“But he’ll know that when he sees all the decorations.”

Gene opened the door and sighed, “Never mind.  Just clear a space for the tree.”

****

Sam spotted someone approaching Barnett but noted to his surprise that this was a woman.  She didn’t look like a prozzie (where had he picked that up from?) and he watched carefully.  She seemed to be asking Barnett to go with her and so Sam followed the two of them, keeping in the shadows so as not to be seen.

****

There was a quiet knock on the door and Gene opened it, letting Phyllis and Annie in.  They were carrying a variety of packages which they dropped in the middle of the floor.  Gene looked at them and nodded approvingly.

“Chris, you start hanging the decorations.  Phyllis and Annie, you do the tree.”

“What are you going to do, Guv?” Phyllis asked.

“I shall supervise.”

“In which case, you can start by supervising the tree lights,” she said, handing over the box.

So, whilst Chris stuck decorations to the ceiling and sellotape in his hair and Phyllis and Annie enjoyed hanging baubles on the tree, Gene took part in the age old ritual of finding which bulb of the tree lights wasn’t working.

****

Sam saw Barnett and the woman turn into an alleyway.  He gave them thirty seconds and then followed, only to see them getting into a car, which sped off as he came round the corner.  Sam was furious; they were clearly aware that they might have been followed, he should have allowed for this.  He debated about running back to his own car, but realised there was no point since they would have too much of a head start. 

****

“The flat looks really nice now,” Annie exclaimed.  “You’ve done a great job with those decorations, Chris.  And the tree looks beautiful.  We just need to put the fairy on the top.”

“I think it should be a star on top,” Phyllis objected.

“I like the fairy, she looks very pretty,” Chris said.

“There is no way you are having a fairy on that tree,” Gene said firmly.  Picking up the star he tied it to the top branch.  “Right, pub.”

****

When Sam got back to the car he saw that there was a nail in the tyre.  Going to get the spare out of the boot he noticed that it had started to rain.  He jacked the car up and realised that it wasn’t rain, but sleet.  This was the perfect end to a perfect day.

He finally tightened the last wheel nut with a sigh of relief; his fingers were so cold it had taken far longer than it should have done.  He debated about going to The Railway Arms, but decided to go straight home; he was cold and tired and had no wish to indulge in any festive jollity.

As he opened the door to his flat he was trying to decide whether to watch the television for a while or just go straight to bed.  He switched on the light and stared.  There were decorations hanging from his ceiling, there was a decoration in the middle of his bed (presumably fallen off the ceiling) and there was a tree!  He went over to examine the tree and saw that it even had lights in it, so he switched them on and stood looking at it, whilst trying to pretend that there weren’t really tears in his eyes.

Then he noticed an envelope in the tree, with his name on it.  He picked it up and opened it.  Inside was a Christmas card which read, “You can come for Christmas dinner at my house if you want.”

Switching the lights off again, Sam rushed back to the car and drove round to The Railway Arms.  He hurtled in and headed for the table where his colleagues were gathered.  “Thank you,” he said, “I’d love to come.”