Hold the Front Page

I do not own Press Gang. All rights belong to Stephen Moffat and CITV. No copyright infringement intended or should be inferred.

Chapter 1.

It was always raining in Norwich. Or at least that was how Spike remembered it. He shook his head as he walked along the rain soaked streets. He had been back in the UK a number of hours and was not really sure why he had left the bright lights of London to visit his old hometown. He had no ties there anymore. Not since the fire that had ripped his heart out as well as ripped the soul out of the Junior Gazette. He closed his eyes as he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Spike? Spike Thompson?"

"Colin." Spike sighed. He hadn't been referred to as Spike since he had left the UK almost twenty years earlier. He wasn't a teenager anymore.

"What are you doing here? Oh my God!" Colin smiled warmly, the same dark fringe flopping over his eyes.

"Jus' checking out the old place. How are you?" Spike regarded his old friend warmly. It seemed like the class would be con artist hadn't changed. He couldn't help but smile when he noticed the wedding ring on his friend's hand. "Why didn't I get an invite?"

"If you remember, none of us knew where you were. Not after." Colin looked away. "You shouldn't have run away like that."

"I didn't run away." Spike glared at him. "I had to go."

"You could have at least left contact details. Sarah and Kenny were trying to track you down for years."

"Yeah, well. I called Kenny once I was back in the States. He knew I was ok."

"You didn't tell us where you were. People were concerned. You had a life here. Friends." Colin shook his head, it was obvious Spike had no idea what he had put his friends through. "Sam and Sarah were convinced you were going to do something really stupid."

"You guys kept in touch?"

"Yeah. Well, most of us. Cindy went to univeristy. Oxford."

"She always was a clever girl." Spike smiled. He knew how much Colin had thought of the younger girl. Colin nodded, smiling slightly as he thought of her. "Yeah, she always was the brains of the operation. Look, I'm meeting Kenny and Fraz for a drink tomorrow. The White Hart on Morgan Lane. Next to the cafe, remember Czars?"

"How could I forget that health hazard?" Spike smiled slightly, it seemed that just being back in Norwich had made it easy for him to slip from being James Thompson, the adult journalist working in New York to Spike, the wise cracking teenager he had thought he had left behind.

"Ok."

"Seven?"

"Ok, you never told me who the lucky lady is?" Spike nodded towards the gold band on Colin's left hand. Colin smiled slightly before meeting his gaze.

"You know her. Julie."

"From Art? Permed hair and the tightest denim jeans in the school? That Julie."

"That Julie." Colin smiled. "Oh there's something you should know. It's not just the guys and me that will be there tomorrow. Sarah, Sam and Tiddler will be there. Only don't call her that. She's Toni now. Apparently dropping her nickname gets her more respect with the Chief Editor."

"She still in journalism?"

"Yeah, most of us are in some way. Mostly attached to the paper that replaced the Junior Gazette."

"Right."

"It's called The Phoenix" Colin watched as Spike looked away. "You know the Editor in Chief."

"Don't tell me, Kenny finally got the top job."

"No. Not quite."

"Who?"

"You know her. She's alive Spike. Lynda is alive."

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A/N I adored Press Gang when I was a kid. This is my first fanfic for it after discovering an old VHS of the last series. I was always convinced Lynda was in hospital at the end and not actually dead. So this is my fix it. Should I go on?