As promised, the sequel to One Minute to Midnight! It's not entirely necessary to have read OMTM; all you really need to know is that Alex and Gene have now been together for several months, and Chris and Shaz are married. Though of course it would be lovely if you would give the first installment a read if you haven't come across it yet!
Since Christmas is approaching, we thought we'd do a bit of shameless promotion and give you a link to a festive oneshot we wrote and posted a couple of months back...it's called Fairytale of Fenchurch East and is basically light-hearted Christmassy fluff, both Gene/Alex and Chris/Shaz :
.net/s/6330804/1/bFairytale_b_of_bFenchurch_b_bEast_b (...not sure that worked, but if you'd like to read it, it's obviously on our author page!)
The only thing left to do is to wish you all a merry Christmas, and we hope you enjoy the prologue of our new story! :)
In the first trimester of Shaz's pregnancy, her baby develops fingernails.
Voices rose up the stairs from Luigi's, floating out through the wrought iron railings and into the warm May evening. Two figures approached on the pavement, their step more purposeful than usual, as if they had something important they had to do, something exciting they had to tell. At the bottom of the stairs, they stopped.
"I'm kind of nervous..." Shaz hesitated with one hand on the door.
Chris shook his head in disbelief. "You're nervous? I'm bricking it." He gave her a gentle push into the room. "Come on then, let's get this over with."
Stepping over the threshold, Shaz spotted the Guv and DI Drake sitting at one end of the long table usually reserved for CID, heads close together, deep in conversation. Even in her current state of nervous excitement, she wondered for a moment at the change that had come over her superior officers in the past few months. At work, they were just the same as always, just as cutting, just as brittle, just as scathing as they had been to each other for as long as she could remember. It was in these quiet moments of relaxation in amongst it all, these rare snatches of peace and quiet, that things changed, that the edges softened and the sarcasm and frustration was worn down to contentment and satisfaction. Shaz smiled distractedly. Who said miracles didn't happen?
At that moment DI Drake looked up and, noticing her, beckoned her over to join them. "Everything all right, Shaz? You look as if something's bothering you."
"I'm fine, Ma'am," she replied instinctively. "Actually," she added, spotting Chris and Ray approaching them from the bar, "there's something I wanted – something we wanted – to tell you."
DI Drake took a sip from her glass of wine and looked at her intently. "I'm all ears."
"Well..." Shaz glanced up as Chris perched on a chair beside her, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for the various reactions she knew were about to come. "Actually, we're...Chris and me, we're...we're going to have a baby."
There was a crash as Ray's pint glass slipped from his hand and shattered on the edge of the table, drenching his shirt front and resulting in a bout of choking that rendered him speechless for several seconds, while Chris banged him on the back rather more enthusiastically than was strictly necessary.
"You're going to have a what?" he managed to croak several seconds later, when he finally resurfaced, eyes streaming and face fixed in an expression of incredulous shock.
"A baby, mate." Chris grinned. "Fantastic, isn't it?"
The Guv, who had frozen at Shaz's words, his glass halfway to his lips and his eyebrows raised in an almost comical look of surprise, set down his pint and frowned. "I didn't know you had it in you, Christopher. Sure it's yours, are you?"
DI Drake rolled her eyes and Shaz opened her mouth indignantly, but Chris just nodded earnestly, grin still firmly fixed on his face as if super-glued in place. "Course I'm sure, Guv. And y'know what, the doctor says she's going to be a Christmas baby."
"She?" Alex enquired, with a smile. "Surely you can't know it's a girl yet?"
"Well, no, not really." Chris shook his head briefly, his obvious happiness and excitement somewhat akin to a child on Christmas morning. If his smile got any wider, Shaz thought, his face would be in serious danger of splitting in two. "But I reckon she's a girl. Hope so, anyway. I mean, if it's a boy that's great an' all, but a little girl would be something, wouldn't it?"
DI Drake nodded. "It would, Chris. So would a little boy. And for what it's worth, I think you're going to be a wonderful father."
For the first time, Chris's grin slipped and he looked slightly worried. "I don't know, Ma'am. There's such a lot to remember, and it's so much responsibility, you know?"
"C'mon mate, it's a baby," interjected Ray, who still looked slightly shell-shocked. "Can't be that difficult, can it? You could fit the little sprog in your pocket."
"Something I don't suggest you try," added DI Drake, shooting an alarmed glance at Ray.
"Don't worry, Ma'am, I'll keep an eye on him," said Shaz with a grin. "We'll be fine. It's so exciting!"
"It is." DI Drake took both of Shaz's hands in hers. "Congratulations," she told her warmly. "You too, Chris. You're going to have the most wonderful experience."
Shaz beamed. "I know." She looked from Ray and the Guv, neither of whom had quite recovered the power of coherent speech, to DI Drake, and smiled. "You're not surprised, Ma'am?"
DI Drake laughed. "Not altogether, no."
"You knew?"
"No, I can't say I knew, exactly," DI Drake replied with a smile. "I just...had an inkling. Once you've had a child of your own these things are clearer."
"In what way?" Shaz frowned. "We tried so hard to keep it a secret."
"Oh, you did," DI Drake set her glass down. "Very well. I was never quite sure. It was just little things. You looked different, both of you. Happier, more relaxed. Chris has spent the last two months treating you like a piece of glass." She eyed Shaz's coke. "You haven't been drinking."
Shaz laughed ruefully. "I suppose that was a bit of a giveaway. Not that they noticed." She nodded over at the Guv and Ray, who were bombarding Chris with questions over the other side of the table.
DI Drake raised an eyebrow. "It would probably have taken you actually being wheeled into hospital to have made those two sit up and take notice."
"You're probably right," acknowledged Shaz with a sigh. After a brief pause, she turned back to her DI almost hesitantly. "Ma'am, do you think you and the Guv will ever..."
"Ever...have children, you mean?" DI Drake looked mildly surprised. "I don't think Gene Hunt is really the type to croon over a baby, do you?"
Shaz laughed at the image that entered her mind at the words. "I suppose not. It's just..." She ran a finger around the rim of her glass, hoping she hadn't asked a completely inappropriate question. "It's just...you both seem so happy now. Y'know, since...since you got together. It's like...I don't know, like you complete each other or something. I just thought maybe you'd want..." She blushed and looked down at the table. "Sorry, it's not really my place to ask."
"Don't apologise, Shaz." DI Drake flicked a glance over to the bar, where the Guv, Chris and Ray were getting another round in and explaining the news to a thoroughly overexcited Luigi. "It's just not...something we've ever talked about, really. I mean, I'm not saying it'll never happen, I just –"
The end of DI Drake's sentence was abruptly cut off as Shaz found herself almost knocked off her chair, submerged beneath a torrent of rapid Italian as her hands were seized and her cheeks kissed repeatedly and with considerable gusto. When she finally emerged, rather breathless, from Luigi's overenthusiastic embrace, Shaz could only laugh.
In the second trimester of her pregnancy, Shaz feels her baby kick.
It was one of the stiflingly hot July days that left CID fractious, when there was little to do other than attempt overdue paperwork and snipe at one another out of pure, heat-fuelled frustration. For the hundredth time that day, Alex swept her hair off her face and sat back with a weary sigh. Chris had wilted over a pile of witness statements and Ray was pelting him with balls of screwed up paper, cigarette hanging out of his mouth as though it too was drooping in the heat. After the third one missed and hit Shaz, she finally snapped.
"Ray! I'm trying to work! Can you stop throwing that bloody paper?"
Ray scowled at her. "You need to keep your hormones under control, PC Skelton."
Chris looked up then. "Leave her alone, mate."
"Poof. Just because you got her up the duff, it doesn't mean you have to agree with her all the time. "
"You are so disgusting, Ray." Shaz got up from her desk and slammed the desk drawer shut with a bang. Alex suddenly noticed the curve of her stomach beneath her uniform, a small, neat bump that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, an image that sent a strange shiver of solidarity down her spine, a splinter of knowledge that she couldn't quite grasp. "Chris and I are having a baby. It wasn't an accident; it didn't just happen. I know the concept of adult relationships is lost on you, but you could at least try and keep up."
She swept across the room to the filing cabinet, banging drawers with a flourish while Ray glared at her, and Gene's door swung suddenly open to reveal the man himself, tie loose around his neck and shirt sticking to his skin.
"Would someone like to tell me why the bloody hell it sounds like Hannibal's elephants are trampling through my ruddy office?"
Alex kept her head down. Gene Hunt did not deal well with heat, and girlfriend or not, he would not hesitate to snap at her if she made some sarcastic comment about his distinctly dishevelled appearance.
"Sorry Guv." Shaz glared at Ray and brushed one of his balls of paper pointedly off her desk. "Some people couldn't keep their hands to themselves."
Gene scowled. "Delightful as that sounds, Shaz, it's almost ninety degrees outside, Fred and Ginger are tap-dancing on the inside of my skull and the last thing I need is a lot of slamming around! Comprende?"
"Yes Guv." Shaz returned to her seat as Ray looked on smugly, leaning back in his chair to blow out a long stream of cigarette smoke.
"As for you, Carling, I think it's time you unscrewed your arse from that chair and did some work for a change. What happened to those witness statements you were supposed to be chasing up?" He clapped his hands together. "Come on, mush!"
"Come on, Guv, it's boiling out there. You can't be serious!"
Alex recognised the dangerous glint in Gene's eye a split second before anyone else. It was the look he had when his authority was challenged, when someone disobeyed a direct order and the Manc Lion hat went on. Yet it was also the look he had when someone else paid her a compliment, when he took her upstairs and kissed the breath from her, and it made her shiver, this look that was half professional pride and half male jealousy.
"If I wanted your opinion on how to run this office, DI Carling, I'd bloody ask for it. Now shift."
Ray got to his feet, and Alex noticed that his shirt was darkened with sweat patches. He shook his head, jabbing his finger once at Shaz.
"It's all her fault. She's the one making trouble. Bloody pregnancy hormones have turned her into a right psycho."
"Oi!" Chris was on his feet now and Alex groaned, dragging her hands across her face and up through her hair. This was turning into a Shakespearean farce. "You leave her alone."
"For the love of God-" Gene took a deep breath.
"Chris! I don't need you to fight my battles! If Ray's going to be a misogynistic pig, then-"
And then, quite suddenly, Shaz fell quiet. There was a fraction of silence, where everyone waited for the recriminations that never quite came, and then they blinked, breathed, and the moment was broken.
There was the strangest expression on Shaz's face. The anger was still there, frozen, a snapshot of a moment, but there was surprise too, and a pure, naked emotion that could only be wonder. Her hands were on her stomach, one pressed either side of her bellybutton, and when she spoke again, her voice caught on the first syllable.
"Chris...Chris, you need to feel this." Her tone was low, urgent, shaky, and Chris moved more fluidly than Alex had ever seen him, fitting his hands around Shaz's as she watched him. He waited, face contorted in concentration and confusion, and then he jumped, almost as if she'd burned him.
"Bloody hell." His voice was barely more than a whisper.
Ray turned to Gene. "It's finally happened. He's gone stark raving mad."
Chris shook his head impatiently, beckoning to them with one hand. "The baby's moving. It's kicking or somersaulting or...I dunno, playing footie. It's amazing."
Something made Alex look over at Gene. He was watching Shaz, but his eyes flicked suddenly over to her, that piercing look that could make her feel so intensely vulnerable. There was something in his gaze, some indefinable emotion which reminded her, curiously, of longing, and she felt it clutch at her like a hand closing around her heart.
It was oddly compelling, the way he was looking at her, and she shivered, tore herself away and got to her feet, made her way over to Chris and Shaz and then hugged them both.
"Congratulations!" Even as she fussed over Shaz and pressed her own hand to feel the fluttering of this miraculous new baby, Alex could feel his eyes on her, tracking her movements, a watch dog, her very own guardian angel. And when she went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea for Shaz, he followed her there, footsteps matching hers like a shadow.
She turned round and found him suddenly upon her, this tall, powerful figure who radiated safety and strength, and she froze, because he was so fiercely private, so vehemently against public displays of affection, that she was momentarily lost, unsure of what he wanted.
He didn't say anything, just kicked the door shut and touched her, his hands tracing down her sides to the cradle of her hips, thumbs stroking almost reverently over her skin. She just watched him, afraid of touching him and destroying this controlled, fragile moment, and eventually he dipped his head and kissed her. For once, he was hesitant, as though this was their first kiss and he was no more than a schoolboy, and she sensed his shyness, cupped his face in her hands and responded with an intensity she knew he would find reassuring.
"Can I stay at yours tonight?" he mumbled in her ear as he kissed a slow path up her neck, and she smiled at him, at this unaccustomed timidity.
"Well, I've got Ray pencilled in for nine, but if you make it a late dinner..."
He growled against her neck and then kissed her fiercely, possessively, a statement in no uncertain terms that she was his, and his alone. When he broke off, he leaned his forehead against hers, chest heaving, eyes closed, and when he opened them again, the uncertainty had disappeared like smoke in water and his countenance was clear again, confident, assured.
"Bloody hell, woman, I only came in here to make a cup of tea and here you go taking advantage of me." He skirted past her and took his mug out of the cupboard, pretended to inspect it.
"Because that's exactly what happened," she answered drily. She didn't know what had come over him, why he had reacted with such intensity to the quickening of Shaz's baby, but she knew he wouldn't appreciate an interrogation, not here, not now. So she just boiled the kettle and they made tea side-by-side, and then the phone rang and a tip-off came and then they were racing out of the building into the burning July sun.
And so the moment was forgotten, swept away like flotsam in the waves, and when he made love to her more tenderly than usual that night, she put it down to the wine and the rom-com he'd sworn he hated. So the clock ticked on and life continued and the moments where Shaz stood still to feel the movements of her child became frequent and ignored. But the wind of change was blowing, weaving through the office like a sylph, and they felt it, each of them brushed by the knowledge that the baby growing within her would trail revolution in its wake.
In the third trimester of her pregnancy, Shaz goes into labour.
It was Christmas Eve, and at Fenchurch East the mood was distinctly festive. For once, the streets were relatively quiet and the atmosphere was more like a party than a police station. Spangled red and gold tinsel had been draped around the room, and a few brightly coloured baubles gave the station a slightly garish but nonetheless cheerful aspect. It was still well before ten o'clock in the morning, but already the mince pies had done several rounds of the room and everyone was well supplied with whiskey.
"How's Shaz doing, Chris?" Alex enquired as she handed him a bundle of files.
"Not too bad, Ma'am," he replied brightly. "She didn't feel brilliant this morning, right before I left she had a bit of a stomach ache..." He shrugged offhandedly. "Probably last night's curry, it did look a bit dodgy now I think of it...she'll be right as rain by now, I reckon."
Alex frowned and opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment Ray appeared at Chris's side and the conversation was abruptly ended. Alex turned back to her paperwork with a sigh. She was all for a bit of Christmas spirit, but some things just couldn't wait, and unfortunately this report was one of them.
She barely noticed when the phone on her desk started to ring about twenty minutes later, and it was only a well-aimed pen from Ray that woke her up to its persistent trill. Marking her place with a ruler, Alex reached for the receiver and settled it comfortably on her shoulder.
"CID."
"Ma'am – oh, is that you?"
"Shaz?" Alex sat up. "Is there anything wrong?"
"Not really, Ma'am, at least...is – is Chris there?" Shaz's voice sounded slightly hysterical, and Alex frowned in concern. Catching Chris's eye, she beckoned him over.
"Of course he is, Shaz. He's right here." Alex handed the phone to Chris and looked back at her report, but she could hear Shaz's voice rising in panic over the phone, and she suspected she knew what was happening. Chris had gone completely white, his face drained of every wisp of colour.
"What? Now?" His sharp exclamation quelled all conversation, and the room fell completely silent as he listened. "Are you sure?" A pause. "Yeah, yeah of course. Give me ten minutes, love. I'll be there." He dropped the receiver back into the cradle and turned around, completely stunned, to find a room full of people staring silently back at him.
Ray was the first to break the silence. "What's up, mate? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Shaz is..." Chris swallowed hard, clearly struggling to find the words. "She's...she's only bloody having the baby."
"You're joking!" The room erupted in cheers, and before Chris could say another word he was engulfed by the entirety of CID, having his hand practically shaken off and slapped on the back to within an inch of his life.
When the crowds had somewhat subsided, Alex made her way over to Chris and gave him an impulsive hug. "Chris, this is wonderful."
"Yeah...yeah, it is, isn't it?" Chris looked slightly dazed. Alex put an arm around his shoulders and propelled him towards his desk, handing him his jacket.
"You need to take Shaz to the hospital now. Take one of the pool cars." Chris didn't move, his expression still one of complete bewilderment. "Go!"
"Right, yeah." He took a deep breath and grinned. "Blimey, we're having a baby!" Alex watched him leave, and as the door swung shut behind him, she smiled.
Chris's departure acted like a weight on the rest of the day, so that each minute felt like an hour and each job felt like an interminable trawl through treacle. Everyone was jumpy, as though thousands of women didn't go through labour every day and it was some rare procedure in which her safety rested on a knife edge. Even Alex herself, who knew theoretically that Shaz had every chance of emerging from the experience right as rain, found herself jumping every time the phone rang.
By the time they got to Luigi's, the atmosphere was fraught with anticipation. There had been no news since Chris had hurried off that morning, and even Ray was staring into his beer with an expression akin to disquiet on his face.
"D'you reckon we should go the hospital?" Gene had joined her at the bar and she turned to face him, trying to hide her smile. That these men, who tried so hard to maintain an image of impassivity and hard masculinity, were so worried about the fate of a baby whose existence they had petulantly bemoaned, was both warming and amusing in equal measure.
"Gene, it's her first baby. The first birth is always the hardest. Even if she's been in labour since seven o'clock, that's only fifteen hours or so. It took me eighteen."
It felt strange talking about her own pregnancy. Some things were brilliantly, painfully clear, while others felt like butterflies, perpetually flitting out of her grasp as she grabbed at memories. It always made her feel as though her perception was thrown off, like something in the corner of your eye that you can't quite focus on, or a longing for something you can't identify. It was disconcerting, and she shook it off, concentrated her attention on Gene, on Shaz and the child she was bringing into the world.
He frowned at her. "Bloody hell. It's a baby she's pushing out, not a flipping rhino."
"Sensitive as ever."
He huffed and she leaned her head briefly on his shoulder, careful not to make him uncomfortable in front of the team. "It's natural to be worried, but she'll be fine." Her voice was lower now, less teasing, and she squeezed his hand under the table.
"The Gene Genie," he bristled predictably, "does not worryabout silly nancy girly things like giving birth."
"Of course not. And I bet you're not proud of Chris either. Or excited about seeing the baby."
"Has anyone ever told you, Bolls, that you talk a load of bollocks?"
She laughed. "Only you. Frequently."
"Quite right too. Birds like you need taking down a peg or two."
Ray joined them before she could retort, pulling up a bar stool and ordering another pint. He was almost fidgety, Alex noticed, and it touched her to see how much he genuinely cared about Chris and Shaz, despite all the jibes and teasing and mockery.
"You two aren't being all lovey-dovey, are you?" His tone was suspicious.
Gene snorted. "Give me some credit, Raymondo. The day the Gene Genie turns into a soppy git is the day Fenchurch East goes to shit." Beneath the cover of the bar, he twined his fingers with Alex's. She hid a smile.
"Shouldn't they have called by now? Not that I'm worried or anything, just wondering if Luigi's phone's up the shoot again. In case he needs to, you know, get it looked at or something."
Alex nodded, trying to keep a straight face. "Of course. Well, I suppose-" She was interrupted by Luigi himself, voice barely audible over the hubbub.
"Mr Hunt! There is phone call for you!" He shook his head. "Prontissimo, Mr Hunt. I am expecting bookings."
Gene glared at him. "I wouldn't hold your breath, Luigi. That veal leaves a lot to be desired." He strode over to the desk and picked up the receiver. Alex and Ray waited, faces cast in a rainbow by the lights twinkling above them, and strained to hear over the Christmas music blaring from the jukebox. "Right. Right. Bloody hell. What? I'll tell them." There was a pause. "Thanks for letting us know."
He hung up. He returned to where they were standing and for a moment his face was unreadable, but then it split into a huge, unashamed smile, the type of which turned Alex's legs to jelly, a rare expression of untainted, undisguised delight. It reminded her of waking up together, when she opened her eyes to find him watching her, fingers on her skin and a smile playing around his lips.
Outside, the first flakes of snow had begun to fall, answering children's prayers and weathermen's predictions for a white Christmas, as white and pure as if the whole city had been dipped in yoghurt. Elsewhere, tired children set out mince pies and brandy for Father Christmas, and overwrought parents wrapped last minute presents and took artful bites from Santa's snacks.
But there in Luigi's, as the clock ticked towards Christmas Day and the lights twinkled merrily on, Gene announced the birth of Ruthie Grace Skelton, and while all across the country, people lifted their voices to praise the coming of another child, so long ago, the CID of Fenchurch East revelled in their very own Christmas miracle.