A/N This is my first ever Ashes to Ashes fanfic. I actually wrote it in my very 1980s Filofax straight after series 2 episode 8 aired. Four months later, I've managed to type it up! Obviously, spoilers for series 2 episode 8.
Disclaimer-Sadly, I don't own Ashes to Ashes!
So much for being on the lam! Gene Hunt was leaving the hospital when he was arrested for the attempted murder of Detective Inspector Alexandra Drake. Gene realised that he'd never thought of his DI as 'Alexandra'. She was 'Bolly' or 'Drake' or 'Drakey' and occasionally even 'Alex'. He'd been at the hospital, desperately trying to get Bolly to wake up. Cajoling, coaxing, even shouting at and shaking her hadn't worked. She just lay there, pale and still. He was exhausted, not having slept since it had happened
"DCI Hunt?" the officer's voice cut across Gene's reflections. They were now back at the station. Gene had met DCI Collins before and had considered him to be a jumped up twat. Collins had only been a DCI for five minutes!
"You've been arrested for the attempted murder of DI Drake, Hunt. The way things are looking at the moment, the charge could easily become murder."
"I'm not in the 'abit of murdering my DIs. It was an accident!" Gene knew how pathetic that must sound. "Jenette 'ad DI Drake at gunpoint. I was aiming for Jenette!"
"Ah yes! The mysterious Jenette Rivens. We've checked out the information you gave us and you know what? She doesn't exist. She's just a figment of your imagination. An imaginary construct."
'Bloody 'ell' thought Gene, 'he sounds just like Bolly!'
"She must be using an alias, then. She was there!" Gene replied
"No, Hunt. It was just you and DI Drake. Twenty four hours before she was shot, thirteen witnesses heard you threaten her life. I quote 'if you dare to get in my way, I swear to God, I will kill you!' Pretty unambiguous, wouldn't you say? Then, on the day of the incident in question, your officers arrive at the scene to find you holding a smoking gun and your DI lying on the ground, having been shot."
"That is circumstantial evidence." Gene's solicitor, Phillips, intervened. It was a valiant attempt, but Gene knew that he, himself, had got some of the scum of the earth put away on less evidence than there was against him.
"I was not trying to kill Drake!" Gene burst out "At the time, I thought she'd betrayed me, gone bent. I was angry. If I'd been trying to kill her, I wouldn't 'ave shot her in the gut and she would actually be dead now!"
Phillips closed his eyes briefly and Gene realised how that must have sounded. Although he was taking the whole attempted murder charge seriously, he found that he didn't really care what his solicitor or the other DCI in the room thought. The most important thing was Bolly and what would happen if…when…she woke up.
"So you admit you were angry with her? Thought she'd become corrupt?" Collins was talking again. "That's a pretty good motive for attempted murder, Hunt."
"'ow many bloody times! I did not try to murder my DI!" Gene was beginning to get really frustrated.
"You can say it as many times as you like. It doesn't change the fact that she's currently in a coma, likely to die."
Gene had been responsible for a few deaths over the years, but they were all criminal filth, only likely to be mourned by their mothers. The possibility that Alex could die because of his actions was something he wasn't at all sure he'd be able to live with. Whenever he thought of her, lying in that hospital bed, he was assailed by two almost forgotten emotions. He'd tried to squash both beneath his crocodile boots, but they kept jumping out at him. One, he'd been forced to admit, was guilt, but he couldn't bring himself to even name the other one. It didn't seem right at the moment.
"I shot 'er, but I didn't shoot 'er!" Gene almost seemed defeated.
"Such cryptic remarks won't help your case, Hunt. The evidence still points to you following through on your threat, when she turned up, against your orders, at the scene of the blag. She wasn't supposed to be there, you thought she'd betrayed you and you were angry with her."
"We're a team. I just didn't believe 'er when I should 'ave."
Gene couldn't help but think back to Ray's report over the radio that the bricks had been diverted down King Douglas Lane. Bolly had been right all along, but how had she known what would happen? She'd said she was from the future, but that was just Bolly being a fruitcake, wasn't it? In any case he couldn't mention it. As it was, Collins actually believing him was about as likely as Maggie Thatcher, the Great Handbag herself, being a Commie spy. If Gene told Collins that his DI thought she was from the future and Gene was even considering believing her, the men in white coats would soon be here and the straight-jacket would definitely be in his bloody size!
"As things stand you are looking at twenty-five years in the Scrubs and more if she dies. I'm sure that the people that you've put in there will give you a very warm welcome. You are almost certainly a cop-killer, Hunt." Collins looked like he was really enjoying himself.
This was going precisely nowhere! Gene felt the anger rise, like bile, in his throat again.
"If all you have against my client is this rather circumstantial evidence, I suggest we finish this interview here." Phillips shuffled his papers.
For the first time, Collins' female colleague, DS Wilis, intervened.
"How would you describe your relationship with DI Alexandra Drake, DCI Hunt?"
"We're a team", Gene repeated. "We work well together, 'olding back the tide of scum in this city."
"And as people? Not just as colleagues?"
That was a question that Gene had often tried to avoid answering, even in his own head, in the fifteen months since he'd carried Alex into CID. He supposed that he and Bolly were friends; at least they had been until Operation Rose. They'd spent enough time in Luigi's, indulging in the 'house rubbish'. Gene had, on several occasions, wondered if he and Alex could be more than friends. The pure physical attraction he'd felt when she'd first arrived had certainly changed into a deeper feeling and sometimes he thought he saw something in her eyes when she looked at him that wasn't there when she was talking to Ray, Chris or Viv. When Gene had confessed that he knew that Supermac was corrupt, he had thought Bolly was going to….Bloody 'ell! Thinking about feelings! Was he really becoming such a soft, southern, poof?
"We're friends. We 'ave a connection." Gene almost instantly regretted using that particular word. The last time it had passed his lips was just before he'd suspended Alex and everything had gone so badly wrong.
"But in spite of that, or maybe because of it, you shot Alex Drake, since you thought she'd betrayed you!" Collins was speaking again.
"No! For the millionth time, I was not trying to kill 'er! I would never, ever try to kill 'er!" Gene was on his feet now, leaning forward with both fists on the table. He was absolutely furious.
Collins was also on his feet "Why not? Why wouldn't you try to kill her?"
"Because I bloody love 'er!"
Gene sat down abruptly .Had he actually just admitted, out loud, that he was in love with his DI? Judging by the stunned looks on the faces of Willis and Collins, not to mention Philips, his solicitor, it seemed that he had! Shit!
So what did you think? Thank you for reading. Reviews are much appreciated