Back to the Future
Chapter 1: 1982

Summary: Alex/Gene. When Gene is shot in 1982 he wakes up to find himself in 2009. How will he adjust to the change in times and seeing Alex again? And when push comes to shove will he choose to go home to 1982 or remain in 2009 with Alex?

I've been meaning to write this since season 2 aired but I've only just made myself sit down and write it. It'll be about eight chapters long. Hope you enjoy it, reviews are loved! Xx

1982.

Gene Hunt was slowly readjusting to life now that the whirlwind of Alex Drake was gone from his world. She had barely been with them; with him a year but for the life of him, Gene couldn't remember how things had worked before her. Of course, he'd never admit how much he missed her. He didn't like acknowledging the fact to himself, let alone anyone else. Shaz had a given him a series of sympathetic looks over the first few weeks after Alex's departure but after he had barked at her more viciously that normal she had stopped, thankfully. Gene just wanted to move on with his life and with his work as if he had never met Alex but that was proving to be far more difficult than he could have possibly imagined.

Working cases, something he had done for many long years before Alex had entered the picture, became more difficult. He missed her input, however annoying it had been at the time. He missed the way she admonished him for being unfair on the suspects even when they were, in his opinion, scum of the earth. He even missed her psychological profiling babble and sometimes found himself applying her tactics and wishing he could ask for her opinion. Maybe he was going soft, of course he wouldn't admit to that either, but he was beginning to see the truth in the old cliché. He really hadn't realised how blessed he was to have Alex around, both at work and outside the office, until she was gone.

Gene had dealt with Sam's death in his usual way, drinking away the pain and turning his grief into pain, cursing the poor bastard's name. With Alex it was different, she had died; hadn't committed suicide or been in an accident, she was just gone. He couldn't blame her for leaving him the same way he had with Sam because he understood why she had had to go, even if he hadn't really wanted to. He would have been incredibly stupid to think that Alex would choose to remain here with him and his team rather than to return to her daughter. He acknowledge the foolishness of that thought process, but he still wished there was some way that she could have stayed with him a little longer. He also knew that had she spent any longer working with him that it would have been harder still to let her go. Gene just hoped she was happy wherever she was, with her daughter and that maybe, every now and then, she'd spare a thought for him.

His whole attitude to life was different without her, including the way that he did his job. He had always been careful not to mix business with pleasure but with Alex this had been impossible. Gene knew he took more risks now than were strictly necessary but it made him feel alive, if only for a little while. It was this reckless, gung-ho attitude that had led to him being shot. He remembered very little except that everything had faded to black.

Now, as he opened his eyes he was greeted by the stark, antiseptic white of a hospital ward.

"You had us worried there." The cheery voice of a pretty nurse interrupted Gene as he tried to piece everything together in his head.

"How long was I out?" He asked.

"We're not entirely sure, you were found unconscious at the Wharf about two hours ago."

Gene nodded slowly, still taking in his surroundings and noticing the odd way people were dressed. Much of the hospital machinery seemed unfamiliar to him too. "What date is it?" But when the nurse told him, Gene shook his head. "No, what year?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "It's 2009, sir."

"Bloody fantastic," He groaned. "I need to see Bolly..." The nurse was beginning to look as though she had made in a mistake and should have transferred him to the psychiatric ward upstairs. "I mean Alex. DCI Alex Drake of the Metropolitan Police."

"Is she family?"

"I bloody well 'ope not. I've already got enough problems."

"Well, do you know her phone number?"

Gene shook his head. "She lives..." No, that wouldn't help. Luigi's would be long gone and of course Alex wouldn't still be living in the flat above it anyway. He was beginning to understand why she had behaved so erratically back when he knew her in the eighties.

"Don't worry, sir, we can find her for you." The nurse soothed, leaving him alone with his reeling thoughts. Despite the fear and confusion there was a definite thrill of excitement at the thought of seeing Alex again.

The first two chapters will be pretty short, but will get longer from then on. Hope you liked it! Xx