Gene sighed as he sat in the hard plastic chair beside the sleeping form of WPC Shaz Granger. On the outside she was a brilliant police officer, hardworking, passionate, good at the job. She didn't care that she was the only female on the team until DI Drake had arrived. Although she did mostly desk work, she was just as good as the rest of them when she got to participate in things outside the station. She could run, she had proved that earlier, and she had successfully caught the bastard. It wasn't her fault he'd had a bloody pen-knife. For the split second he had been sure she was dead, he had felt numb, as though it had been Chris or Ray or even bloody Sam Tyler again. He never thought her 'death' would upset him so much.
Alex sat beside Gene, her head on his shoulder. It had been a long day. Shaz had almost died. She looked over at her sleeping face. Day to day she was a young professional, brilliant, but looking at her now, she looked like the young, innocent Essex girl she really was. It pained Alex to see one of her colleagues like that, even if she wasn't sure if they were real or not.
Chris held Shaz's hand tightly, watching her deep, even breathing. Even asleep she was still beautiful. She couldn't die, he could never let it happen. He looked over at his DI, the woman who had saved Shaz's life. He saw the way her head was on the Guv's shoulder, any other time he would have pointed it out to Ray and they'd have had a laugh about it. But not now, now was the time to focus on helping the brilliant Shaz Granger recover.
Ray had never really liked Shaz, especially when she was with Chris, but that didn't mean he hadn't been terrified when she had stopped breathing. Of all people to get stabbed he never imagined that it would be the resilient Shaz. He focused on the fact she was alive. He watched the young WPC for a while.
"Come on you lot." Gene sat, gently moving Alex's head and standing up.
"Yeah, her family should be arriving any minute now, let's give them space." Alex sat quietly, following suite.
Ray stood up to follow, "Come on." he said, talking to Chris.
"Just one minute, I'll be out in a minute." He said.
Gene, Alex and Ray nodded and walked away.
"Come on Shaz." Chris whispered in her ear, tears falling softly.
He looked at her, slowly, Shaz's beautiful brown eyes opened.
"I love you." she whispered, looking into his eyes.
"I love you too." He said softly, smiling.