Prologue
"A whole glorious Keats-free month," Gene sighed as he stretched out along the couch, arms folded behind the back of his head.
"You look like you need a sun lounger and a tropical cocktail," Alex told him as she turned the page in her book.
"Not bloody likely, that brings us back to Club Tropicana," Gene mumbled and Alex smiled before returning to her evening's reading.
A lazy Sunday morning had turned into a lazy Sunday afternoon and finally a lazy Sunday night. Life was pretty damn good, they had to admit. After the stress of the trial it had taken weeks for them to feel reassured that Keats was gone, his power taken away and how presence no longer a factor in their lives. Where once they'd spent every day fearing his next arrival now they headed to work each morning just looking forward to getting on with their work and their lives without cloud of malevolence hanging over their heads.
Alex glanced up as Gene finally rolled off the couch and began to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" she called to him.
"To get me bloody blow torch and a welding mallet," Gene called back, leaving Alex with a huge frown upon her face. She looked up in confusion as Gene returned empty handed. "Stringer's starting tomorrow. Got to deal with all that metal somehow."
Alex rolled her eyes, pulled a face and disappeared behind her book again.
"I hope you're going to be on your best behaviour tomorrow," she warned him.
"I'll be a model citizen," Gene said innocently.
"Model of a citizen who's been working on his repertoire of Kim jokes for the last four weeks," Alex said, eying him suspiciously.
"Stringer can give as good as she gets, you know," Gene told her and Alex sighed.
"I do know, that's what worries me!" She told him, "talk about World War Three, it'll be more like World War CID." She turned her page as Gene took up residence on the couch again, unfolding the Sunday paper for a good read. It felt so strange for life to be peaceful for once. Unnatural, almost. They were so used to watching their back for rogue Ridgeley fans that it seemed a little too good to be true. Alex rubbed her eyes as she laid down her book and turned to Gene. "I keep thinking there's something we've forgotten," she said and Gene looked at her with a frown.
"There is," he told her, "we've forgotten to make wild, passionate love for the past forty-eight hours."
In response Alex threw her book in his lap, narrowly avoiding the parts that Gene was hoping to make use of later.
"I'm serious!"
"So am I! Almost forgotten what part to stick it into."
Alex got to her feet and shook her head.
"No, it's how to make your the bed on the couch," she told him, "which is where you'll be heading if you say any of those things to Kim tomorrow. She paused. "I thought for a moment it was something about Kim I'd forgotten but…" she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "It's gone. Whatever it was, it's gone." She shook her head. "My brain seems to have more holes than that colander from the canteen at the moment."
She decided to forget about the nagging feeling and to fetch a bottle of wine for the evening instead. It couldn't have been that important. Besides, there was a big day ahead tomorrow; Kim's return and the opening of the new suite in CID. There were bound to be one or two tiny technical details they'd forgotten. That was natural. But it was time to relax and to welcome Kim back so whatever it was, they'd just have to deal with it as and when it happened.
~xXx~
"I feel sick."
Robin watched Kim doing laps of the bedroom and tried not to laugh.
"You're going to make yourself sick if you keep panicking like this," he told her.
Kim started pacing in the opposite direction.
"I think I'm going to throw up," she mumbled.
"Kim," Robin put a hand on her arm and tried to get her to look him in the eye, "you were like this the day you were waiting to find out if you passed your hostage negotiation training too. You don't get worked up often but when you do…" he sighed and shook his head, "you're going to be fine, I promise. It's not like this is totally new for you. You've been a detective chief inspector for… how many months before Keats stripped you of your title?"
Kim hung her head a little.
"About six months between both worlds," she said quietly.
"And you've worked at Fenchurch East before. It'll all be familiar to you."
"Rob, I haven't worked at Nineties Fenchurch East for a decade. It's not the station I'm used to."
"I'm going to be a one-minute walk from your office. Alex is down the hall. And the door of Simon'so0ffice is close enough that – I'm reliably informed – if you fire off a paper plane at the right angle you can get it right through the doorway and hear him swearing."
"Who informed you of that?"
"Bammo."
Kim sighed. She stopped pacing and tried to calm her nerves. She knew Robin was right; she was winding herself up and was going to literally make herself sick with nerves if she wasn't careful, but the thought of being back at Fenchurch East after everything she'd been through was terrifying. Even Kim had her weaknesses. This was one of them.
"I'll just be really glad when today's over," she said as she rubbed her forehead, "get the first day over, get in bed and watch some really good shitty TV."
"Are you sure you're up to going back to work?" Robin asked her, "physically, I mean?" he shuffled over and gently stroked her hair, "you still look very pale."
"I'm fine," Kim said quietly, even though she didn't feel it. Initially her recovery had been very good but she just didn't seem to be able to get her energy back. She started rummaging through the wardrobe, swearing a lot and rejecting clothes for various reasons. "Why are none of these good enough for work?" she mumbled.
"Kim, you used to wear this kind of thing for work back home," Robin reminded her.
"This is my first day," Kim said frantically "I'm supposed to make a good impression."
"You will,"Robin told her, "but not because of the clothes you're wearing. Because you're Kim Stringer, and everyone knows you don't take any crap. You're going to go to work and it'll be just like you've never been away, Kim. Please trust me."
"This coming from the man who hid in the airing cupboard when someone asked you to help them untrain their dog from pulling down their underpants," Kim reminded him.
"It's not my fault they'd fucked up the canine unit by opening it before I got here!" Robin protested, "those dogs were next to useless!" He cringed, "most of them still are…" he sighed, "at least they're opening the new unit today with you already in place."
Kim swore at the trousers she was trying to fasten and kicked them back off.
"Not much bloody chance I'll actually be there, the way things are going!" she huffed.
"What's wrong now?" Robin frowned.
"Fucking trousers don't fit!" Kim cried, "you and all your bloody pizzas!"
"Hey! Don't blame the pizzas!" Robin said defensively as Kim glowered at her reflection.
"You've given me a pot belly," she complained and Robin rolled his eyes.
"Kim," he began worriedly, "you haven't spoken like this since you were with Linda. You're totally exaggerating, and might I remind you how dangerously underweight you were?" he looked at her seriously, "the important word there is 'dangerously'." He saw her hang her head, "You've still got a long way to go to get your strength completely back. You needed to put on some weight."
Kim sighed deeply and shuffled uncomfortably.
"I know," she mumbled, "It's just…" she closed her eyes, "why did it all have to go on the same place?"
Robin sighed and walked over to the wardrobe, leafing through the hanging clothes. He found a pair of jeans and pulled them from the hanger.
"Here," he said, "wear these"
"I can't wear jeans on my first day," Kim frowned.
"Yes you can," Robin told her, "because you're Kim Stringer. You wear jeans and my shirts and clunky boots. You stopped changing for other people a long time ago," he thrust the jeans into her hand. "Don't start now."
Kim stared at the clothes in her grasp and then at Robin's concerned expression. She knew she was worrying too much and about all the wrong things. She hated to admit that she was feeling anxious and insecure. Eventually she nodded and gave him a little smile.
"Alright," she said quietly as she pulled them on, "but one comment from Gene and I'm coming straight home for my piercing kit."
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Robin held out his palms innocently.
As Kim dressed in her jeans and a familiar shirt topped off with a belt and her clunky boots the woman he knew and loved seemed more like herself. Kim had no need to be anyone or anything other than who she was. Changing herself for someone else had never worked out before. Fenchurch East was just going to have to accept that, like it or not, Kim Stringer was going to do things her way.
"Perfect," Robin smiled as he handed her a jacket, "now let's get out of here before you change your mind and hide under the bed. Ow," he concluded as she tapped him with a can of hairspray.
"Fine," she said, "let's get out of here." She paused. "Bagsy you buy lunch!"
"Oh bollocks, I didn't know we were bagsying!" Robin protested as the set off for the door, "that bagsy will not stand up in court!"
"Neither does Evan any more," Kim commented and they both laughed.
As they left the flat Kim began to gain a little more confidence. She was back in the place that felt like home, she had friendship and love around her and a new challenge to sink her teeth into. It was all looking so bright, just for once.
~xXx~
As she tied her hair back in a short ponytail, Shaz Granger wondered if it was time to get a trim. She pulled on her coat and heard the beeping of the car horn outside. Peering behind the curtain she saw Marci waving and waved back before praying here breakfast would stay down. Marci was fun, beautiful and smart but she drove like a maniac.
"I need a new car," Shaz mumbled as she picked up her key and left her flat. It was a regular old Monday morning, a little grey, rather chilly and doubtlessly packed with annoyances but normal none the less.
Then why was there something strange hanging in the air?
~xXx~
A/N: Here we go again! This fic is the sequel to Don't Speak and is set at the beginning of November 1997, which was a really happy time for me (maybe not so happy for Alex and the others though…. No, actually this fic is more of a bit of light relief than anything after the last few fics!) and I'm finding this period of time fun to revisit. Biiiiiig thanks to Jessie for helping me pick the title again!
The story so far; With Keats finally on trial, the staff of Fenchurch East all took their turn in the dock where he finally had this title, and therefore his power, taken away. However with Evan as his defence lawyer Alex's familiar appearance caused some concern. Finally away from the darkness of Keats and Fenchurch West, Kim accepted a job offer from Gene and finally everyone is together and happy. Surely too happy…
Of course I don't own Ashes to Ashes. I'm allowed to borrow them for a bit as long as I return them in the condition in which I found them. Erm… I'm not very good at that though :P This fic will probably update every other day, the next update will be on Sunday.
Thank you so much for reading :)