Well, I've decided to leap aboard the Alternate Ending Bandwagon myself. I'll try to make mine different from the others though.

I don't own Ashes to Ashes. If I did, the finale would have been much happier. Please don't sue me, because I am flat broke.

It was the right thing for them, Alex kept telling herself. Better to move on than continue existing in a lie. The illusion had already started to come apart at the seams, what with the stars appearing and all. She wondered what had taken so long(from their perspective) for the cracks to appear? Keats' arrival? Gene's grave being dug up in the real world? Maybe both at once? Did it even matter anymore? Ray, Chris, and Shaz were safe now. Nothing and no-one would ever be able to hurt them again.

Gene did not join his team inside. Alex knew that he was not ready yet. He felt that he had unfinished business. There were still so many lost souls left to be saved. Eventually, someone would take his place. Maybe once his body was identified and given a proper bruial? Or maybe not. Maybe he would continue to do this for all eternity. It was his life---well, afterlife, anyway---and if that was what gave him peace, Alex would not deny him that. Heaven meant different things to different people.

Alex knew that she was trying to analize something that could not be analized. At least, not in any way that she had been taught. A coping mechanisim, she knew.

At least now she could finally go home. For real this time, not an illusion. She didn't care how broken her body would be when she returned. All that mattered was seeing Molly again. Leaving Gene hurt terribly, but it was where she belonged.

All of this she kept telling herself as tears streamed down her face. Doubts started to creep in. If only Ihad never listened to Keats, the team would still be together. No. In the end this is for the best, and anyway, what is done is done. It was time to move on.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the look on Gene's face. For the first time in what was from her perspective several months, she could hear the bleeping of the heart monitor. It was faint, but it was gradually growing louder. She opened her eyes. In front of her, she saw not buildings, not stars, but a blinding white light.

It was not the warm friendly light of The Railway Arms that symbolised peace. This was colder, harsher. A light that in her line of work she was all to familiar with.

My hospital room, Alex thought. Home.

It was time to go. So why did she continue to hesitate. Those doubts were nagging at her again. She couldn't stay with Gene, but she didn't like the idea of leaving him all alone either. The poor man didn't even have his car anymore, for crying out loud! She had no choice though, Molly needed her. She had always known that. Ever since she first began to suspect that Gene was real.

Gene would never have been able to endure 2008. Too many rules and regulations, too much red tape. The man would have suffocated. And in order for Molly to be here with them----Alex quickly slammed the door shut on that thought. No, there was only one choice that she could make.

There wasn't much time, Alex knew. If she didn't get going, her choice would be made for her. She sent out a prayer that she would be like Sam. That she would remember this place. That Gene, Ray, Chris, and Shaz would never leave her mind. When she was strong enough, she'd look for their graves.

She smiled slightly. Well, Sam. Now we know why we never found anything about our friends in the records. Wrong decade, wrong rank. And in Gene's case, he was buried in a shallow grave.

That was going to change. Finally that young PC would get the honourable burial he should have gotten in the first place. He could have been a hero, had he been given a chance. Then Alex remembered that Gene already was a hero: guiding lost souls to their final reward.

"See you around, Bolly-kects," Gene said softly.

Alex nodded. "Take care of yourself, Guv---Gene."

For just a split second there was a flicker, and in that moment Alex saw the face of PC Hunt. This time his face was intact, with a slight smile. Same as the image in the photograph. Then, just as quick as it was there, it was gone, and the Gene Hunt that Alex and Sam had known so well stood there once more.

She knew that Gene would forget this moment. She tried not to let it gut her. She sensed that he might have to forget, in order to continue doing this. And it wasn't like he was forgetting her, personally, or the rest of the team. Just the how and the why they had left.

Just remember that I returned to my daughter. However you choose to package that, remember that I got what I had longed for.

Now, Alex! You have to move now. She broke into a run, her shoes thumping on the pavement. The harsh light engulfed her completely. The bleeping of the heart monitors grew louder, and her body started to feel sluggish.

"Mummy?"

Alex struggled to get her eyes to focus. Had she done it? Was she truely home? She tried to move, but her body felt so heavy.

"muuhhh..." Was that slurred moan really her voice?

"Evan! Come quick! Mummy's awake!" Molly's sheriek sent a sharp pain through Alex's skull. The room was still too bright.

Finally, a very blurry Molly swam into view.

"muuhhh," Alex tried to speak. There was so much that she wanted to say. But she was tired, so very tired.

"Don't try to talk Alex, you've been through a lot." Evan's voice.

You don't know the half of it, Alex thought ruefully as a doctor shone a flashlight into her eyes.

She could hear the droning of the t.v. in the room and tensed, waiting to hear Gene's voice calling her back. It never came.

Many weeks later there was a news report saying that the body found in the shallow grave was identified as Gene Hunt, persumed missing since 1953. No living relatives. Alex felt an incredible sense of peace wash over her. She closed her eyes.

In her dreams she saw a familiar man approach the door to The Railway Arms. Before he reached it, the door opened to reveal Nelson standing in the doorway. Leaning over his shoulder were Sam, Annie, Ray, Chris, and Shaz.

"Been waiting for you, Guv."

The end! How'd I do? Like it? Don't like it? Please tell me!