Prologue

As he backed away from the body, shaking violently, he couldn't believe it had happened again. He'd killed another one, or at the very least was damn close to it. Seeing her face, silent and still, would haunt him forever just as all the other stock-still faces of people so familiar to him already played through his mind in a perpetual loop, one after another.

This wasn't the end either. He knew that. The pattern was just going to keep on repeating; one after another he'd find their blood on his hands. One after another he would kill them or maim them, or see their life in the balance and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it. Blood on his hands… quite literally their blood was on his hands. He was running again, not that it seemed to do any good because he'd just find himself somewhere else with the same old loop repeating, and he just couldn't stop it from happening.

There had to be a way out. He had to break the cycle. He couldn't let this go on forever. He knew there had to be a way to stop it – and he knew there was one person who just might be able to to help him.

~xXx~

Some time in the past

As soon as Alex saw the grim faces at the doorway she just knew.

Her bond with Gene was so strong that no one even had to say a word, she knew that the operation at the docks had gone awry somehow. In fact, shed known something wasn't right all day. She'd been on edge from the moment she'd woken up that morning with a strange churning feeling in the pit of her stomach and a shudder that constantly passed over her shoulders.

She should have said something but she didn't want Gene to think she was paranoid, or worse than that – downright crazy. She could just imagine what his reaction would have been if she'd begged him not to go on the reasoning that she had a bad feeling.

But as she saw the sombre faces in the doorway she'd have given anything to go back to that morning, make him stay in bed, implore him to listen to her instincts – she'd have cuffed him to the headboard if necessary.

There was no putting it off any longer. She had to bite the bullet and ask;

"What's happened?" she whispered, dreading the answer.

It wasn't quite the answer she had been expecting.

"Gene's disappeared."

~xXx~

Some Time in the Future

The pain that seared through his head and neck were the first thing he felt. He had to be honest, they were really making him not want to open his eyes. Where was he, anyway? He suspected he wasn't still in the last place he remembered being. What happened? Shit, his memory wasn't working very well. There was some kind of operation… down at the docks. Illegal immigrants, that was it. He thought it had gone fairly well. In fact, he was certain of it. He remembered a lot of handcuffs, some fancy gun work, a lot of flat tyres and getting kicked in the shin by a pissed-off truck driver.

Alright, so if things had gone well, then why did he feel –

He stopped thinking for a moment as his head throbbed again. Had he hit it somewhere? Had he fallen? Had someone knocked him around the head with one of those wooden crocodiles in the vast metal shipping container? He was too fuzzy on that part. Couldn't remember at all. Back up a bit… back up… what was the last thing he did remember?

Oh yes, that copper. He didn't know him. Looked a bit like he was trying to do an impression of the thin one from Laurel and Hardy… who he also couldn't remember properly at that point… which one was the thin one again? He thought it was Stan Laurel but he wasn't sure, and it wasn't important anyway. Whichever one was which, the copper looked like the thin one and acted like him too, bloody weedy idiot.

He remembered the panicked officer running up to him with a tale of woe; what was it again… woman's body beside the docks?

He remembered running. He didn't tell anyone where he was going, they were all busy attending to the operation at hand. If it was a body he didn't need any help anyway; he'd check it out and then radio it in.

Somehow I don't think there was a flaming body after all, he thought to himself as he tried to move.

A little more sensation came back. Wha… what the hell was that? There was some kind of tube down his throat. He wanted to splutter and choke when he realised, but he couldn't move. Why the hell couldn't he move? What happened exactly? Where was he? Where the bloody hell was he?

Opening his eyes wasn't easy. He wasn't even sure he wanted to see what just was around him. But eventually he had to know.

Wires, white walls and beeping monitors.

This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

Bugger.

~xXx~

Some time in the future, in the past…. Or in the past, in the future…

She scanned the list of appointments in her diary. She'd been so sure she didn't have one between her two o'clock and four o'clock and she'd only checked that morning. She was going to use that time to catch up on her paperwork.

"I thought I had this slot free," she complained to the young man who stood at her door.

"You did, but I'm afraid this gentleman wouldn't leave," the man told her nervously "he said it's an emergency and that you'd see him. He says you go way back."

"Well it would help if you'd give me his name?" she pulled the band from her long brunette locks and redid her doubled-up ponytail as a few rogue strands of hair fell around her face.

"He wouldn't say," he told her apologetically, "I mean, he told me his name but then his driving license had a different name written on it and I don't know which is the real one."

She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Oh, let's just get this over with," she said, "show him in. I'll give him half an hour, then you can get security."

The young man nodded to her and hurried away. There was silence for a few moments then some angry grunting in the distance followed by a strange, metallic noise. It sounded a bit like the clanking of something hitting a filing cabinet. She wasn't sure what to make of that. Nervously she stepped away from the door a little and awaited the unexpected patient.

Just a few moments later a large, looming figure appeared at the doorway. His broad shoulders were hidden away beneath clothes he was clearly uncomfortable with; his fair hair looked like he hadn't washed it in weeks, his blue eyes focused and determinedly bore into hers as he stared upon her face and his hands were encased in leather gloves that he clenched together as though searching for a hint of familiarity.

She was taken aback by his appearance. There was something extremely powerful about his presence but hauntingly sad about his soul. Although he'd claimed they went 'way back' she couldn't place him at all.

"Do I know you?" she asked cluelessly.

He stared at her. He wasn't sure how to answer that.

"I don't know," he said, "But you're about to."

She took a step back nervously.

"I am, am I?"

He nodded.

"Even if you don't know me, I bloody know you –" he looked her up and down, "inside and out." He swallowed. "I'm in serious trouble, Bolly. I need yer help…"

~xXx~

A/N: OK, I know that was probably the most confusing prologue ever, I'm sorry – that was just the way my head presented it to me so I went with it and I promise the chapters will actually make more sense. Well, most of them will… Well, some of them will…. (seriously, chapter 1 will be nice and easy to follow, you have my word, cross my heart and hope to die… or at least to be extremely mean to Kim and take all her hope away… :P)

This fic is kind of different, it follows on from the end of What Do You Want From Me? but is more of a stand-alone than the others in the series. It's also a bit weird and it's melting my brain to try to work out how I'm going to write this one so updates won't be as regular as usual! I will be writing some other stuff at the same time and will hopefully get into an update rhythm soon. Hooray for one-handed typing!

Also, sticking with my tradition of naming fics after songs, this 1997 hit was just perfect for the title of this one – I actually kept it out of WDYWFM? to use as the title for this one!

I clearly do not own A2A. I have already said this about eight million times so I am sure everyone is aware of this fact :P