Date began: November 30, 2006
Date finished:
Dedication: For
Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to the writer. They remain property of Channel 7 and Southern Star.
Song credits: Chantelle Barry, Hinder, Ben Folds, Joshua Kadison
Grab: Amy and Evan entered Homicide with high hopes and big dreams. Instead they discover they have walked into a world of corruption, paying off, keeping quiet and one very dirty little religion. They suddenly find themselves bought together through the steadfast commitment they both hold for a clean police force.
War Crimes
He faced her with a pained expression. "This isn't how I imagined us to be," he said quietly. He tore his eyes away from her for a moment and looked down at the couch, as if contemplating whether or not to sit down. But they couldn't fight if he was sitting down, so he remained standing in front of her.
She looked back at him with a similar expression. Something had changed. They weren't the same couple they were a year ago. She pondered in her head what it was that had taken away the feverish night time moments they used to share when they had first gotten together. Had they simply outgrown each other, after just a year? A year ago she hadn't thought that would ever be possible – they hadn't been able to get enough of each other, or live a day without the other, and they had promised they would always be faithful to one another. But this wasn't even about being faithful. It was something else that she just couldn't put her finger on.
And Alex was now only confirming it for her. In the past couple of weeks they had begun fighting, pulling out the little nagging things about each other that they used to not be bothered by. She had yelled at him for the first time during one of those fights and afterwards she couldn't believe she had done such a thing. Amy didn't know what had gotten into her, but whatever it was, it had got into Alex too and they fought constantly. Had the first year been too intense, and now they were burnt out?
"It's not how I imagined it either," Amy whispered in reply, a tear threatening to spill down her cheek. She fought hard to keep it back. Now was not the time to fall apart.
Alex finally plonked himself down onto the couch when he realised this wasn't just another fight. It was the end. The end of him and Amy. He ran his hands through his hair, tired. How could they love each other so much but fight so often? "I didn't think it'd be this hard," he sighed, looking up at her as she sat down beside him. "I didn't think it'd be like this. I didn't think we'd be like this."
Amy didn't have an answer for a moment. The same thoughts were running through her head as she finally came up with a realisation – one that hurt to say out loud, because she wondered what life would be like without him. "Maybe we're not meant for each other after all," she whispered. It was all it took for the room to become claustrophobic like, and it made them shift awkwardly away from each other before Alex got up and walked out of the room entirely. Before he exited, he kissed her delicately on the forehead for the last time as her face crumpled in front of him.
It's not giving up
It's just letting go
The next morning Amy sat in her office, all her colleagues out of view, called the assistant commissioner and accepted the job at Homicide that had been patiently waiting in the wings for her for the past three years.
She left just two weeks later, leaving everything she had worked so passionately for in this little country town behind. But most of all, she was leaving Alex behind, and everything they had shared, good and bad. Despite their painful split, they had shared a lot, and it was almost like a security blanket for Amy – one she clung to because she felt like it protected her.
Policing was different in the country, and it had been a nice pleasant change when she had made the move. Things went at a slower pace, but the challenge was still there, and it had made her genuinely fall in love with the way things were done in Mt Thomas. It was a change from the ugliness of the city.
But now circumstances had changed. She and Alex couldn't even work together, and she felt that nothing could resolve the awkward tension that bubbled inexstricably between them but one of them relocating. Amy knew that nothing would move Alex from his position of sergeant – a position he had earnt, fought for, and grown to love, and so it was up to her. She still wanted to be fair, despite the way in which they had parted. It was just too difficult to work around him day after day when they used to get along so famously. And so Amy finally accepted the job at Homicide.
Homicide had been after Amy Fox for years now, and the ways in which they tried to poach her were really flattering for the female detective. Someone must've noticed her back when she was in the city, she thought to herself. And they only confirmed this for her when they continued to try and have her join them in the city. City offices always had places for talented, hard working young detectives, and that was exactly what Amy was, and so they wanted her.
When she phoned early on that Monday morning, and asked to speak to the assistant commissioner, who had acted as her mentor during her years of detective training, a buzz went round the 5th floor of Homicide. They knew they had nabbed her.
Paperwork was fast tracked and Amy was ushered into her new office as soon as possible. She dragged her cardboard box through the maze of desks that littered the main area of the fifth floor and approached her office just a little bit apprehensive. Upset still at leaving her friends behind in the country, she heaved the heavy box onto the laminate desk with a sigh. She would miss the country. But she didn't have a choice.
