This is a new work by me, after Infiltration, it's set in the post Series 3, please read and review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ashes to Ashes except the characters I create.
A Tale Of Two Families Chapter 1
"Is there life on Mars…."
"Bugger! Why are they playing that on the damn radio again!" Gene was sitting alone in his office, with his cup of new whisky on the desk, watching over his new team.
His new DI a man who had a funny name of Drew Jensen, Danish blood, a bit suave and charming, playful at times but has a funny Scandinavian Londoner accent which would make Chris and Ray cringe with jokes.
After knowing DI Jensen was one of those Danish immigrants, Gene proceeded to call him Danny Boy. But what an awful name it is compared to Bollyknickers, he thought again.
"Everybody's got to learn sometime….." The Korgis were at it again...
Gene suddenly felt that this song somehow represented his story, everybody's got to learn that they're not alive but dead and that they had to bloody move on.
He also had a few other new team members, DC Katherine "Kate" Hill, a bit of Shaz and Alex combined, but an inexperienced lady copper. Another DS, this time in the form of Benny Delgado, a latin chauvinistic copper whose violent methods, well sort of mirrored Raymondo's. This whole team was noticeably more experienced, street-smart and clever in many different ways.
However Gene still missed his old crew, this was an unprecedented move of him to send four souls up to the pub heaven. Sam and Annie were two people that had qualified way earlier to go up. But Ray and Chris needed more time, especially when both of them made mistakes that made Gene hell angry.
But yes he missed them, as much as he hated to say he was a nostalgic prick, he really missed them.
"I need your loving like the sunshine…."Especially DI Alexandra Drake.
Gene Hunt, for all his years as a Guide, never encountered such a feisty posh tart who dared to stand up to him. Yes, all those 3 years of adventure and tension ended with a kiss. But was he satisfied, "Bloody Yes!" He would swear, but yet again in his heart, the cracks still remained. The fact that he still kept his 6620 badge from Alex firmly in his pocket and kept her flat intact was a huge sign that he definitely missed her more than he ever missed Sam bloody Tyler.
"Don't I mean nothing to you!" Alex's chilling cry still gave him the headaches, like a call of arms to the already dead tired soldier, like a haunting ghost lingering in the air. It was definitely something you really hated to hear. Even Alex's parting kiss was something too bittersweet to dispel that desperate cry.
"You going to The Londoner's Arms, Guv!" It was Benny Delgado, a man known as Big Ben to most of the gang. Delgado was a tough guy, but compared to Ray, he had little of Raymondo's chauvinistic humour, much less the camaraderie between him and the Guv.
"I'm going home, Ben." Gene snarled as he took his coat away, he still couldn't bear to have a drink at the new Pub with his team. When Sam was gone, at least he could still drink with Raymondo and Chris. But now, he just wanted some peace.
"I prefer you address me as Benito, Sir." Gene couldn't care much about that, though he understood why, Ben wasn't really a good name in his idea.
"You really not going to the Pub, Guv?" DI Jensen had got on well with his comrades. Previously, it seemed like he was one of those police officer souls who might clash everyday with the rest of his colleagues like Sam bloody Tyler. He turned out to be a bit like Alex Drake instead.
"No DI Jenny Danny, I decide that I should be going home today, because I need a break from damn bloody alcohol!" What made this funny was Gene immediately took a huge gulp from the whisky bottle which led to DC Hill to smirk along with the rest of the team.
He marched out of his office, he didn't feel much home about it anymore. Bloody Jimbo Keats was once right when he said this place defines him. But now, this place definitely didn't define him at all. It became a very strange place, just like how he felt in Manchester 1980.
"Boy I miss the good old days…" growled Gene as he took his first step to the journey back to his apartment. Drew was making a funny impersonation of Stevie Wonder's voice, while Kat \was chuckling away while Benito managing a slight smirk as they too walked out of the office.
"Luigi's?"
"Nah, Shaz wants to watch Fame…"
"You can't be serious…."
"I do like to have a drink too, Chris."
"Alright, you two, this is the workplace still!"
In his eyes, he could only see Chris and Ray discussing on which place to go to spend the night with a watchful eye and reminder from Shaz and ultimately Alex laughing and bickering her way with him through the corridor.
This had to be the worst transition between the souls that he has guided ever since his death in 1953. Those sights were now lost to memory, forever never to be re-enacted again. Or was it?
Pub Heaven.
"A Toast to DI Alex Drake, for successfully arriving to Pub Heaven!" It was Sam's voice as he led the crowd to welcome their new Detective Inspector Drake. Nelson deliberately delayed her welcome as she was irritable and moody, unusual for a person who has entered Heavenly realms.
"A Toast!" The crowd rallied as Alex gave a faint smile before joining in with the Toast. Alex was however in no mood to say any congratulations or whatever thank you speech. Sod it, she was feeling gloomy, Molly would only join her later, Gene decided to keep himself out of the Heaven to continue guiding souls. She was alone, much as she appreciated Ray, Chris and Shaz' company and along with Sam and Annie. She was feeling upset, in fact she still had tears in her eyes, especially as the bar started to play any piece by David Bowie.
Pub Heaven was a multiple storey building, the first floor was of course the celebratory Pub. The other floors was the row of endless individual rooms for the occupants. There was a lift up there, which could lift you up to the room you are occupying.
"Sorry seems to be the hardest word" was being played in the Pub Radio. Pretty different from the usual Bowie anthems. It was the late night, Nelson being a pub landlord for all the years, knew that by such a late night. Those people who were still in the Pub Heaven downstairs were those who didn't enjoy this place or were still new visitors still getting themselves drunk till the sun has risen.
Sam and Annie were still constantly flirting as Ray and Chris reminisced those days in Manchester. Sam made a quiet observation that Alex was still sitting alone in the bar counter. It was normal for people to have some time of peace in heaven. Heaven can be a bit too noisy at times, but not when you've just entered Heaven!
"What to do when lightning strikes me…"
"And a way to find that you're not there."
Alex was drinking more than she could, in fact it was a wonder that she wasn't drunk by now. If she ever drank like that in the real world she would end up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. But yet again this is Pub Heaven.
"How's DI Drake!"
"Still missing the Guv, they were very close, Sam." Chris turned solemn at once.
"How close…" Annie asked.
"Close enough between Chris and Shaz." Ray made a very fair comparison this time.
"I can tell, poor Lady, do you need me to …" Annie decided to be helpful as she looked at a depressed Alex.
"No, Annie, I don't think she needs it now." Shaz interrupted, she knew her lady superior well enough that Annie a person who Alex barely knew from the files will be helpful enough to bring her to peace.
"I think we better leave and get some rest." Chris noted, as the gang gets prepared to leave for the upper floors. Annie decided to guide them through the heavenly procedures.
"I will do it." Sam cheekily declared as the gang looked at him while he walked to the bar counter, Nelson encouragingly nodded towards his direction, he didn't want an unhappy customer.
"How's it going, DI Drake?"
"Alex, no longer in the CID now, Sam?"
"You must be joking! You're in Coppers Heaven, you will always be in the CID for eternity!" Sam laughed as he asked for a chilled martini still Alex wasn't very cheery.
"Come on, Alex, he will be back."
"He won't, I know him more than you Sam, he will never be back." Sam hated the fact that Alex knew the truth well enough for him to not harp and spin anything positive about it.
"You're sure one tough psychologist." Sam smirked.
"Well you still have 5 more appointments with me, DCI Tyler." Alex remembered that Sam for all his reasons, kept skipping the meetings. Alex pretty much enjoyed her sessions with Sam, his wacky stories that were believable though she was quite sceptical and nearly wanted to refer him to the psychiatric institution before his suicide.
"It's sad….so sad…."
"It's a sad sad situation."
"And it's getting more and more absurd…"
Elton John's soft voice following with the woodwinds played a very depressing tune and the lyrics a very bitter reflection of Alex now.
"Why can't we talk it over…" What was in Alex's mind was the lingering bitter and sadness of Gene leaving her to go to the Pub and that she couldn't talk it over with him. She wanted to talk it over with Gene, not Sam!
"Alex, you need to know that you're in Heaven." Sam became more serious this time, he decided that approach should hit the tones right.
"You do sound like me now." Alex mused as she grabbed her glass of wine, this was her 9th, and yet she still wasn't the slightest drunk.
"You know Sam, I would have liked you sitting next to me on the bar counter, such a suave and handsome man, but now…" Alex was nearly back to her normal self as Sam smiled, yet she got herself back to the depressing mode.
"You're in need of anti-depressants."
"Well isn't alcohol a bloody kind of anti-depressant."
"Well it isn't working."
"Is there a pharmacy here in Pub Heaven?"
"There's a Doctor here, but I don't think you really want to visit him, he would be the one who asks you to stop being moody and writes you back to the bar and gives you a mighty pint more of bitter and lager."
"Doctor from 70s?"
"60s, medically trained coroner who has a crooked conservative mind, he would sit well with Enoch Powell, a bit like Ena Sharples."
"You watch Corrie?" Alex suddenly lit up, amazed that any male copper ever would sit down and watch Coronation Street, imagine Gene's expression when he hears that!
"No, but my mother and grandmother does, and my grandmother was a form of Ena Sharples." Alex smirked bitterly again.
"You know what Sam, I still don't feel happy at all." Alex's silent declaration alarmed Nelson, as he stopped pouring the wine and beer for now.
"I can't help it, but you will get over it."
"I'm just not happy, it's not the matter of getting over it, but I'm just not happy!" Alex shouted at Sam, her anger seemed to boil over quite suddenly,luckily most of the police officers were back to blissful sleep now.
"Sorry seems to be the hardest word…"
"Sorry…"
"I think you need some rest." Sam knew that his tactics failed miserably, it could console Annie but definitely not Alex.
"Yup."
"I'll escort you to your room, your room key…"
"It's with me, Thanks Sam, but I prefer to go alone."
"Sure."
Alex left the bar counter, Thanked Nelson, and went straight to the lift to her room.
"Failed ahgain, DCI Tyler." Nelson was in his Jamaican accent.
"Yea." Sam gulped down another glass of beer.
"Seems like she doesn't belong here." Nelson reverted back to his Mancunian tone again.
"Why you're changing accents again, Nelson!"
"I like it, anyway Alex, she will have to speak to Old Man soon…." Nelson's tone was now more solemn, as he switched the radio back to some cheerful music after Alex's departure. Nelson smirked, though Sam had no idea who he was referring to.
"The Old Man knows what to do…."
Please Review! Chapter 2's coming soon!