Disclaimer Ashes to Ashes/Life on Mars are owned by Kudos and BBC. No copyright infringement intended.

Trial and Tribulations (2010)

Gene sat at his desk in his office, feet perched on the end he was monumentally fed up. The trial of Arthur Layton was due to start in a little over 24 hours and he hated waiting. He hated seeing what the thought of going into the witness stand was doing to Alex and Annie. Most of all he just wanted this over with. He narrowed his eyes as he heard Ray wolf whistling some skirt in the outer office.

"DS Carling" Mia smiled. Annie wanted to hit her. She ignored the DI as she walked towards Ray. Annie knew the woman outranked her and was now working with Murder Squad but after she had found out about Mia and Sam she could barely contain the urge to throttle her whenever the two women crossed paths. Ray smiled at Mia as she leant forward on his desk and began flirting outrageously. Annie got up and walked across to the small kitchen area where she could avoid the DI until she left the squad room. Shaz noticed Annie walk away as she got up from her computer.

"You ok?" she smiled as Annie sniffed the milk dubiously. It had been Chris' turn to buy milk, which meant she was more concerned about the milk than usual.

"Yeah" she sighed as Shaz looked back out into the main office.

"Tart" she declared as she waited for the kettle to boil

"Excuse me?" Annie almost laughed at the young PC.

"Her, that Mia. All fur coat and no knockers that one. My Nan would have had a field day wiv 'er" Sharon did not like Mia one bit and wasn't afraid to show it.

"I mean, look at 'er! All airs and graces and skirt up to her knickers. Ray's an idiot. He'll lap it up" she shook her head and folded her arms as Alex walked in

"You talking about me Shaz?" she smiled as Sharon turned beetroot.

"No Ma'am. Not you. Mia. Look at her fawning all over Ray. Improper that it" Alex took a mug of tea from Annie as she laughed. She could help but agree with Sharon and Annie on that score. Mia was definitely not a girl's girl and had flirted with most of the men in CID. Alex knew she had tried to seduce Gene and failed when she was ill and sadly had succeeded with Sam. Shaking her head she knew people would not have been surprised by Gene being unfaithful. It was Sam's liaison with Mia that had been the shocker. Alex couldn't help but wonder what she wanted from Gene's team this time.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gene had had enough. He flung the office door open. "Mia. To what do we owe this displeasure this time? You hang round long enough you might be able to turn young Christopher's head this time." He glared at her as Sharon re-entered the room.

"Better not try" she muttered as she returned to her computer.

"Your key witness in the Layton trial." she stood facing Gene with both hands on her hips.

"What about me?" Alex stood in the doorway wondering where Alex was going with this.

"Not you. Mickey Fingers. Turned up dead this morning. I need to know what you had on him." Gene held eye contact with her.

"Mickey Fingers was not a key witness. DI Alex Hunt and DC Annie Tyler are so I suggest you drop these little games and run along back to Murder Squad while we do some real policing." Mia shook her head as Gene walked across to her. He glared at her "Trial of Arthur Layton won't be affected by this, separate case. Now if that is all we can help you with" Mia glared before turning. She noticed Annie sat at her desk and smirked.

"For now" she announced before she flounced out the room.

Alex crossed the floor and was stood in front of Gene before he could close the office door. She looked worried.

"It could affect the trial." Gene picked up his darts and started throwing them across at the dart board.

"No it won't. CPS would have contacted us by now." he turned noticing how worried Alex looked.

"Bolly? Mia's talking rubbish. She just likes to rile people up." Alex nodded she looked worried. "Bolls" Gene crossed the room to his wife.

"Tomorrow we will be at the Court, you'll give your evidence and that little Scrote will go down" he wrapped his arms around her waist as Alex sighed.

"That's what I'm worried about" she stared at his shirt rather than meet his eyes.

"Him going down?" he was genuinely puzzled

"No" her curls bounced as she shook her head "Seeing him again" Gene sighed as he pulled her to him. Secretly Gene was worried about the same thing.

Author's note. Please review, they really do help make the writing better x