"Gene! Come on! We're going to be late for the wedding!" Alex Drake called up the stairs of their new home.
"Alright, Bolly, alright, keep your hair on! Two minutes!" he called back down to her in his gruff voice, sounding strangely nervous. She sighed and tapped her nails on the banister rail impatiently until footsteps echoed on the landing.
Gene Hunt appeared, silhouetted at the top of the stairs. She could just about make out his outfit, an unusually smart suit and a crisp white shirt. Even in the semi-darkness, she saw his expression as he saw her dress for the first time. He looked satisfied, to say the least.
"Like it?" she spun around playfully on the furry rug, giving him a full display of her gleaming white dress, and her white heels. Her hair was up in a quiff, held in place with white clips. A bunch of white flowers were clasped in her hand.
"It's not bad, actually, Bolly. Let's fire up the Quattro!" he gave her a feeble smile, the best she ever got from him. He clomped down the stairs in his leather cowboy boots, gave her a playful kiss on the cheek, and dragged her out into the hallway.
She shook her head in disbelief as she stumbled over her heels, then turned to lock the door as he dived into his beloved car. The Quattro. It was maybe the only thing he adored more than her. Today it was dazzlingly shiny, thanks to a polish from their best friends from work, and covered in frilly bows and flowers. He flicked a ribbon from his windscreen, and screeched off as she jumped in and slammed the door.
XxXxX
"Gov!" Sharon Granger, WPC at Fenchurch East CID, called from the entrance to the church, where she stood sandwiched between Ray Carling and Chris Skelton. "Oh my gosh, ma'am, you look gorgeous!"
"Thanks, Shaz," she smiled appreciatively and skipped up to the door.
"Back off, she's mine," Gene growled, "He's more in your league."
"Ignore him, Shaz, he's nervous," Alex straightened her dress nervously, giving her soon to be husband a playful shove, "So am I."
"And me, ma'am," Shaz ran her fingers through her hair.
"Come on!" Chris took Shaz's hand and they disappeared through the door, closely followed by a shrugging Ray.
"Aww, don't worry, Ray, you'll find someone one day," Alex ruffled his hair affectionately, earning a playful tap from Gene.
XxXxX
Halfway through the wedding, the doors burst open. Jim Keats stormed up the aisle, calling out to them. Ray stopped the music and they heard him shout. "Stop the wedding!"
Alex rolled her eyes as Gene and Chris exchanged a torrent of swearwords. Shaz looked nervously around, "Sir! What is it?"
"Alex. Remember what I told you about him. He's not who you think he is. Think about it, Alex. Remember," Jim sat down in the front pew, tapping the side of his head repeatedly.
"Jimbo, Jimbo, Jimbo," Gene shook his head haughtily.
"No, sir. I'm sorry, but no. I love Gene. That's the end of it. I trust him."
"Yeah. Right. What about Sam Tyler? What about all the evidence against him?" Jim insisted, jumping up and going over to put his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off. Gene took his hand from her grasp furiously and took a step towards Jim. Jim jumped backwards as Gene's fist collided with his jaw, and sank down onto the floor, blood dribbling from his lips.
"Sir?" Alex crouched down by him, agonised, "Are you okay? Jim?"
"Look at him, Alex. You just have to look at him. He's unstable!" Jim smeared blood across his cheeks with the back of his hand, cackling nastily as he pulled himself up, "Is this what you really want? A life of violence?"
Gene leant across and aimed another punch at Jim, accidentally knocking Alex sideways as she and Chris attempted to intervene. There was a long silence as she moaned in pain, clutching her stomach.
"See, Alex. This is what it's going to be like," Jim's voice was dotted with satisfaction between the concerned frowns.
Gene yanked Jim's collar with one hand, reaching out to Alex with the other, "Bolls?"
She shook her head and ran from the church, leaving all five of her colleagues, and the vicar, staring after her as the heavy oak doors closed with a crash.
XxXxX
"Where the hell is she?" Gene paced up and down the graveyard; clasping Alex's abandoned bouquet in his blood covered hands.
"She can't have gone far, gov," Chris sighed, wrapping his arms around Shaz as she buried her head in his shoulder. Gene rarely showed it, but he did have a sensitive, gentle side, underneath the forcefulness. It tended to scare his officers more than the tough pretence; it usually meant something was badly wrong. "Ray's checking back at the station; maybe she's in the office."
Gene looked unconvinced, "Alex? Alex?"
"Look what you've done now, Gene. You've only gone and lost your potential wife," Jim suggested slyly, peering out from behind a gravestone, "Maybe she's finally realised the truth. Maybe she's disappeared into the sunset with the handsome prince she deserves. A world away from this life."
"Please, sir, don't," Shaz begged, turning to face him. Her make up was smudged, her hair tousled. Her dress was matted with half dried mud, and ripped along her right side, revealing more flesh than she appreciated. "She'll be okay. She has to be."
"Don't bet on it. She won't be when I've finished with her," Gene growled, slowing in order to thrash out at the nearest tree, so the branches shuddered wildly. Jim shrugged and vanished back into the undergrowth. Shaz squirmed from her boyfriend's protective hold and stumbled away behind the crumbling walls, Chris following cautiously.
"If anything's happened to her, if you're involved in any way..."
"What, you'll punch me? Like you punched her?" Jim's glee at the air of misery surrounding him was evident, "It's never your fault, is it, Gene?"
Shaz's muffled squeal shattered the frosty silence between them, united in anxiety. Gene's footsteps pounded the hard earth as he strode swiftly towards the cry, rounding the corner in a matter of seconds.
Chris held Shaz in his arms, softening her sobs as he stroked a strand of hair from her flushed face. Her knees were grazed, similarly the palms of her hands. Her head hung downheartedly; a bewildered schoolchild having fallen, playing tag, into a whirlwind of blazing autumn leaves.
Gene's eyes fell to the ground; an originally sparkly white shoe lay at their feet, now scuffed, and deprived of the heel. Jim stepped forward, any grudges suddenly irrelevant. "Alright, Shaz. That's enough now. Chris, take her home."
XxXxX
"Get...get off me!" Alex squealed, lashing out at the cloaked figure leaning over her. He responded by dragging the binding ropes tighter around her, so the wiry cord dug into her limbs. She spluttered and kicked harder, but his determination to finish the job just grew.
To what extent could this be a dream? She wasn't fully unconscious, she knew that simply because of the amount of excruciating pain coursing through her. But this man...his face was blurred in the shadows, but she got the distinct idea it wasn't human. Voices echoed in her head; Molly, and Gene. In between these moments, the harsh cackle of her kidnapper was apparent.
She couldn't exactly remember how she'd got here. Or where she was. She hadn't got far from the church, just a few metres across the road and up an alleyway. That hadn't been her brightest idea, but she'd needed to think. Then they'd forced a warm liquid down her throat, and blindfolded her. Then there'd been the odd sensation of floating on water as they carried her, and then...then there'd been a slam, and the whole world had gone black.
"Who are you?" she attempted, ceasing her struggles to focus on his face, "What do you want me for?"
"Alex," his voice was deep and cold, and slightly familiar.
"Yes!" she couldn't stop herself; that put a clear stop to the random kidnapping theory, "How do you know me?"
"Alexandra Drake," he yanked the ropes callously. A spot of blood soaked through her dress from beneath her ribs. "You betrayed me. You betrayed me and everyone around you. Can you even remember your life now? Your real life?"
"Of course!"
"Your daughter? Just a little girl. Struggling at school. Orphaned."
"She is not an orphan!" Alex gasped, outraged despite the compromising situation, "I will get back to her! I will!"
"Think what you may, Alex. I know the truth," he flicked back his hood, revealing sunken eyes set upon ghostly pale skin. His hair was thin and dull, his lips curled into a merciless smile. "Did you ever think about her, at work, when you threw yourself in front of guns to save random passers-by? Did you ever wonder what would happen to her if your powers didn't work?"
"Powers? I'm a psychiatr...psychologist!"
"Make your mind up," he shook his head, disdainful, "Did you presume her dad would come back and rescue her? Did you not know him well enough to realise he'd send a tenner in the post and forget for another year?"
"No!" she coughed hoarsely, struggling to breathe as the ropes were jerked tighter and tighter across her chest, "She's got Evan! He'd never abandon her! He'd never abandon me! I'm practically his daughter!"
"Evan. He sees her occasionally, yes, but he's got his own life. A successful job, a dedicated girlfriend..."
"Where's Molly? Where is she? I need to know!"
"She's back in 2009, Alex. In a stuffy boarding school in London, surrounded by rich girls visited by posh parents twice daily, and teachers more concerned with teaching their pupils sewing and cooking than maths. 80's style. And she hates it."
Tears splashed down her face, blinding her as she struggled to stay awake. Images flashed through her mind, similar sobbing from her daughter, locked up all alone in a cell with only a chair and a towering pile of filthy dishes. Then recollections as opposed to hallucinations; she and her daughter laughing as they splattered chocolate cake mix across the kitchen, and curled up on the sofa with a pile of Molly's teddies, reading Alice in Wonderland. The pictures gradually weakened, fading from her mind as he reached over and dribbled liquid over her lips.
"No," she struggled to keep Molly's face in her head, but all that remained was her eyes, as if imprinted in her brain. She'd always loved her daughter's eyes; deep brown, and overflowing with warmth and affection. "No. I need to see her. Please."
"I'm not sure she'll want to see you any more, Alex," he bent over her, every wrinkle, every blemish, visible. Enjoying her pain. Alex sobbed raggedly, her vision gradually blurring into blackness as she fell unconscious once more.
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed it
I'm new to FanFiction so please review and tell me what you think – I'm hoping to add more chapters...
I do not own anything – I just love to write Ashes to Ashes stories!