"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Was I mad? In a coma? Or back in time? Whatever had happened, it was like I'd landed on a different planet. If I could figure out why I was here, then maybe I could get back home… yeah, whatever. That is so lame." It was then I came to the conclusion that my mum spent her days talking with complete and utter lunatics. It sounded very much to me like this Sam Tyler was very much mad. I could never understand why my mum did psychiatry… psychology… whatever it is.
"Yep, return the classified document, thank you." Mum took the file away from me and put it in the back seat. It wasn't fair, I was never allowed to read her documents. "What did Evan get you for your birthday, Molls?"
"A Blackberry." I replied. It wasn't like I was surprised, he had been dropping hints for weeks.
"Oh yeah? Maybe I could get you some more while you're at school, and you can make a birthday crumble."
I laughed at that, which caused my mum to smile. Her smile then faded as I looked out of the window.
"Did your dad manage -"
"No, he's in Canada with Judy." I informed her.
"Hm…" I didn't understand why she did that, what was so wrong with them being in Canada? He did apologise about it being my birthday…
"So this guy… Taylor…" I changed the subject, my curiosity on the strange subject getting the better of me.
"Tyler." Mum corrected instantly. I said nothing, waiting for her to tell me more. I could tell she was wary about telling me too much. "He died. April last year." She eventually added.
"Skitso, delusional… what's the German one?" I tried to impress Mum with my knowledge about brain stuff… unfortunately forgetting one. "Is he going in 'The Book'?" I wiggled my fingers as I said 'The Book'… the book full of all the interesting cases my mum had come across during her time as DI Drake, Police Psychologist… or was it Police Psychiatrist?
"Oh, DCI Tyler's getting a book all to himself." Mum replied ominously. Before I could reply, a voice checked in.
"Charlie 75 to DI Drake?" I recognised that this was a fellow police officer. Mum pressed the button and replied, me obediently staying quiet, intrigued.
"Roger that." Mum answered.
"South Bank outside Tate Modern." Charlie 75 said. "Gun man has taken female hostage. Units are assigned. Over."
"Shit. Molly, pass me the thing…"
"I'll do it!" I helpfully chirped, excitedly picking up the siren.
"Pass me -" Mum started, but didn't have time, and I rolled down the window and happily placed it on the roof.
"Okay, hold on." Mum warned, and began to drive much faster. I loved this. Mum took a quick turn, and I noticed that all her sheets on Sam Tyler spread out.
The journey was extremely fun… for me, anyway. This meant no school, and extremely fast driving. Mum, on the other hand, appeared to be very stressed. We got to the destination really quickly, and that was when the excitement began to wear off.
"Okay, now stay put, sweetheart." Mum hurriedly told me. And before I knew it, she was off.
"Mum, don't go…" I called after her, feeling like a silly five year old. I began to worry… like I always did when she went to things like hostage situations. I calmed myself with the thought that my mum was the strongest person I had ever met. She always came back.
This time, however, I had a cold feeling in my gut. This was my birthday. I couldn't not know what was going on. I would have called Evan but the Blackberry wasn't charged yet. So after a couple of minutes, I made the decision to leave the car and run to the crowd of people, cautioned off and desperate to know what was happening.
The first thing I heard and saw wasn't at all good.
"Now… get over here. Now!" Demanded a threatening, male voice. He looked really mean and horrible looking, I observed. He pointed a gun at my mother, who raised her hands up. Horrified, I watched as my mum obliged cautiously.
"I help people, Arthur, I help people who are trapped, I help them to find an escape route." Mum tried to appeal to the man named Arthur.
"You stop looking at me…" He warned, sounding like a crazy man. I made my way further forward, alarm bells ringing. "I don't like it…"
Arthur's hand shook as he held out the gun. Mum said nothing. He looked around and noticed a man in all black, aiming fire at him.
"I see you!" He shouted. "I see you… this is my show, you understand?" Mum took another step towards Arthur, and he brought his attention back to her. "I knew you when you were a little girl… you have your mother's eyes…"
He knew my mum when she was younger? He knew my grandma? I was curious for only a second, fear for Mum being my main emotion.
"I'm sorry… I…don't…" Mum sounded utterly baffled.
"I'm… happy. Hope you're happy too. Yeah." He nodded, then began to sing. "I'm happy, hope you're happy too…"
"What?" Mum, the Police Psychothingy, even sounded confused at this point. Arthur clicked the gun, ready to fire.
"Boom." He said manically. NO. He couldn't shoot her. He couldn't.
"Mum!" I exclaimed, running under the police tape towards her.
"MOLLY NO!" Mum screamed, trying to shield me, while Arthur started shouting alongside her. "DON'T SHOOT! THERE'S A CHILD!"
Mum was busy stopping armed policemen from shooting Arthur that she couldn't stop it from happening. Arthur then grabbed me, pulling me backwards and pointing a gun at me. Fear trickled through me. This was supposed to be my birthday… what if I died? I couldn't die, I was only thirteen! I had the sense to say nothing, scared he'd shoot me. Mum looked just as scared.
"Don't follow me, or I'll blow her head off." Arthur warned Mum. I just wanted to scream her name. This was a nightmare… crazy Tyler's, hostages… nope, I was going to wake up soon… but I wouldn't feel this much fear in a dream, would I?
"Down them steps…down them steps…" He ordered me, pushing me down. He wasn't grabbing me anymore, but I knew that there was still a gun pointing at my head. I quickly ran down, trying to put distance between me and him. I hoped that Mum would save the day… like she always did. "Stupid little girl." Arthur muttered.
Then he shot. But he didn't shoot me. He shot into the sky. I don't understand why he did that, but when I looked around, he was gone.
"MOLLY!" I heard Mum scream. I didn't want to move scared that he would come back. But I could sense Mum was here. I knew that she would stop anything bad happening…
I stumbled out, looked around and she was there.
"Molly!" She shouted again, running towards me.
"Mum!" I finally shouted, and as she hugged me tightly, I began to cry. Her hug was comforting, and I felt suddenly saved, as all the armed officers followed her down, as well as the crowd of onlookers. I had survived. Mum had survived. And I still had the whole day left to enjoy my birthday. But I didn't think of that. I just felt relief.
Mum walked me to a bridge of some sort. I didn't know the name. She had made some calls, as one of the police in uniform gave me his unused can of Sprite. We didn't really speak, but she held my hand more tightly than she ever did when I was four, and about to run off into a main road. She kept looking around, and I could almost hear her brain whirring as she tried to figure out where the man who could have killed us both was. Horrible thoughts began to fill my mind… that man was really scary, and the gun… and he could have killed us…
"Your godfather's going to take you home, Molly." Mum finally said. "I've got a stack of reports, and I'm… Oh, Molls, come here." Mum noticed that I had tears in my eyes, stopped and hugged me. "Come here…"
"You could have got killed in front of me!" I protested, glaring at her.
"Molly, I told you to stay in the car." Mum argued back gently. "You know, it's a hard, screwed up world, you know, but if you trust me, I can try to help you get through it."
I didn't know how to reply to that… I didn't want to believe the world was screwed up at all. Thankfully, I looked up and saw Evan. I beamed.
"Evan!" I cried, and ran to hug him.
"It's alright, Scrap." He comforted me, picking me up. "Let's say we get you a cake, a seriously chocolatey one, and then, um, I can pretend to know something about Shakira, and you can take the piss out of me."
"Molly!" Mum called out. Evan began to walk away, and I looked back, feeling loads better after seeing Evan. "We'll blow the candles out together, okay?"
"Okay!" I shouted back. Mum blew a kiss at me, and I made a show of jumping up to catch it.
"Come on, Scrap." Evan put his arm around me, and we walked away, me greatly anticipating that chocolate cake he had promised me.
- Hey! Thank you for reading the first chapter to my first fic. As you probably noticed, this is basically Molly's version of the events told before Alex got shot. I tried to get it as accurate as possible... spending one veryyyy long night listening to the same scene over and over again... then wanting to watch the whole episode. Please review, and other chapters are about to be uploaded! -
