A/N I promised a friend I would put this up ages and ages ago, and only now am I doing so, opps! This is for you Azuragal.
Oh and as a quick disclaimer, the views, attitudes and comments of Gene Hunt are not my own views, attitudes and comments, and please don't take offence to any of them, I was merely keeping him in character.
Threshold of a nightmare
Alex stood perfectly still on the threshold of a nightmare. A stalemate held the scene before her in thrall.
It was an ordinary lounge in an ordinary house; a semi-detached affair in an ordinary street. Emotions, tensions, nerves all swirled together sickeningly in the air like an explosive concoction that could take the slightest spark to ignite.
The scene before her was a negotiator's nightmare. Two small time criminals, both at the bottom rung of two rival gangs, had decided to try for bigger things. An exchange was taking place but they were inexperienced and trigger happy. A deadly combination. They had chosen the house of a civilian as the location of the exchange. Alex thanked God that said civilian was not on the premises as an additional hostage, but that was where the good news died. Both men had bought mates, and the mates had bought guns, and the worst, the very, very worst thing that made bile surge and almost brought the hard-headed Alex Drake to her knees was that each man had his son in the room to make the exchange for them. They were both about Molly's age.
Eyes wide with fear, face white and steely, Alex watched the two lads prepare to pass the goods, praying that the deal was successful and they all left with no bullets fired.
The closer the two lads got the higher the tensions mounted and the more deadly the atmosphere became.
'Please, please, please,' Alex whispered in her head desperately…to no avail. A shot rang out. A mistaken twitch of a finger from a too jumpy lackey – sweat dripping off his head.
Alex's eyes clocked the shooter in a split second of terror, before flashing to the cry of pain from one of the boys. Hand clasped to his arm as scarlet dripped through his fingers and the goods smashed to the floor.
She saw it all slowed down. The spark as it jumped into the air – the momentary still – and then the explosion.
Alex dropped to the floor as guns burst out from all corners of the room. Screams of machines mingled with humans as she rolled out of the doorway and pressed her back to the hall wall. The thud of bullets into the other side sent sickening vibrations through her as she sat in a frozen state, eyes replaying the few seconds of blood spraying up the wall as bullets mowed into flesh before her eye-line had been lost. In all, the time of the first shot to the last was mere moments. It was minutes after the last shot before Alex could make herself stand up. There were red drops splattered over her clothes.
Two of the longest steps of her life bought her to the doorway. White knuckles grabbed the frame as her knees and stomach nearly gave out. From her graduation Alex had never been so shocked by a scene that she had fainted, but she had never seen anything like this. Gore painted the floor red and splattered the walls and ceiling with polka dots of scarlet. Bodies lay strewn over the contours of the room. She had never seen so much of a horror scene in reality.
"Bolly! What the bleeding hell did you think…" the strong voice of Gene Hunt boomed to silence as he caught sight of the room.
Alex swallowed slow and dry, forcing out a croak.
"Gene…"
Then her legs gave out.
Strong arms caught her as she fell into the black weightlessness and cool air smacked her face as the voice of her Guv drew her back.
"C'mon now Bolly, you stupid tart. Can't have the men thinking you're a girl."
A shiver wracked her body as her eyelids cringed open onto Gene's face.
"I couldn't…stop it…couldn't even check…to see if anyone was alive." Her voice cracked guiltily and her fingers curled around the lapels of his suit.
"You are quite possibly one of the stupidest people I have ever met and I've met some brain-dead tossers in my time." The coarse, harsh tone grated soothingly over her semi-conscious and drew her further back. "That was one of the most gut-churning blood baths I have ever laid these peepers of mine on and rather than being concerned about nearly being cut up into tiny bullet sized chunks you're worrying about not checking to see if there were any breathers in the slaughterhouse."
Alex wasn't really listening fully. The room of bodies was replaying over in her head on loop. The bullets tearing flesh, the rivers of blood, the two boys…
"No, no, no," she breathed feverishly, eyelids fluttering. "I have to check," she muttered and tried to move. This appeared to be difficult as she was clasped more tightly.
"Cut out that fidgeting or I'll drop you right on your bony arse."
Consciousness returned fully in the final jolt as Alex realised Gene was holding her in his arms outside the house. The breeze brushed her skin as the coloured blurs at the edges of her vision became the rest of the street. Slowly she scanned the vicinity with now alert eyes, noting the Quattro parked haphazard in the middle of the road some way off, at the top of the street. Other cars had arrived and the Police and Ambulances were beginning to appear in scattered formation around the house perimeter. She guessed most were inside already.
"They'll check the room," came the rumble on the chest at her ear. Alex twisted her head back to gaze up properly into the face of her constant. He was looking down at her with his best not-impressed expression.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," he uttered sarcastically.
Strands of hair were tickling her face and she brushed them away, feeling the dried sweat and clammy forehead.
"Fancy making my job a little easier by putting your fair arms around my neck Bollykegs."
It was said as a statement with no affectionate inflection.
Alex rolled her eyes, the immediate shock wearing off and making her feel more herself.
"I'm perfectly all right now Guv," she told him almost patronisingly, as she snaked her arms around his neck. "You can put me down."
"Not a prozzies chance in a puff's parade Drakey. I'm not letting you out of my grip."
He hoisted her more comfortably in his arms and set off striding down the street to the Quattro.
"Guv?" she protested, verbally at least.
"You listen here Drakey," he stopped and stared down at her intently with eyes of blue and Alex felt her heart still. Gene Hunt holding her possessively, protectively, surrounding her in a cocoon of security.
"You may be feeling better now but there will be all manner of shaking and nightmares later so I'm taking you home and not letting you out of my sight. You got that?" Alex opened her mouth to respond but got cut off. "Before that I'm going to dump your skinny arse in the Quattro and give you a thorough going over," he raised his eyebrows in a suggestive pause before continuing, "for any injury you may have sustained during the course of duty."
The smile twitched the corners of her mouth before she could stop it, a half-incredulous laugh bursting out with "Guv!"
Hunt wasn't looking at her anymore but was walking again.
"Carrier's rights," he announced.
Alex bit back a smile, trying to push the thoughts of Gene Hunt giving her a 'thorough going over' out of her head.
"And driver's rights," he added after a pause, "so make it a doubly efficient going over."
Alex burrowed her face into his chest to hide the smile, breathing him in as she shut her eyes, absorbing his strength.
Gene halted and Alex glanced to see they'd reached the Quattro. She waited to be put down but Gene didn't move. Curiously she looked up at his face but he was staring off somewhere over the roof of the car, face stern and imposing. They were some distance from the rest of the force, beyond even the recently fenced off area of police tape that was gathering a small audience. No one paid attention to them. The absurdity struck her forcefully.
"Why is the Quattro so far away?" she enquired the face of Granite.
Silence reigned and she thought he wasn't going to answer. When he did speak it made her jump.
"Because I gunned the engines as soon as I heard you were once again being a bloody idiot. I couldn't remember the house number so I stopped here and proceeded to hunt down my good-for-nothing DCI," he paused, still refusing to look at her. "Didn't need to ask for the number anyway. Could already hear the shots."
The tension was radiating from him in waves. Alex could feel his grip become almost bruisingly hard on her body.
Suddenly he dropped his head and looked at her. His eyes burned into her so intensely, swirling with every emotion from the last hour. Then everything cleared, leaving only a bitter-sweet gaze of affection that penetrated her heart, forcing her to utter a silent gasp.
When he finally spoke his voice was quiet and strained.
"You gave me the fright of me bloody life." He paused and she could only be still. He continued, "It could have been you splashed all over that room back there, but for a spot of some divine providence you would have been." He broke off and she found she could not drop her eyes. "For a moment I thought it was you…"
She felt everything he had felt in that moment, the uncertainty, the anger…the paralysing fear. To know he had run into a room full of guns that had gone off, not sure if he was still alive, whether she would reach him in time…the panic surged.
"Gene…I…" she stuttered, cracked and broke off.
He held her gaze for a split second longer then cleared his throat and looked away.
"Now don't get all emotional on me. Can't stand women weeping all over the damn place."
Alex swallowed the lump in her throat and forced away the slight sheen of tears.
"No…right…course not Guv."
She moved as though to release herself from his grip, realising that though she enjoyed the sensation of being swept off her feet, Gene Hunt was no knight in shining armour and it was probably undignified as well as unprofessional…
She was jerked sharply back into a tight grip as lips descended on her own with almost bruising intensity. Alex recovered and leaned into it just as Gene drew back.
"Where do you think you're going Bolly?" he growled. "I told you I'm not letting you out of my sight."
Alex smiled up at him with a twitch of her lips, face slightly flushed.
"Oh I know you did," she said slightly breathlessly, "but you're going to have to put me down," she pointed out, trembling slightly from the kiss' after-effects, "especially if you want to check me over," she paused significantly, "in case I'm hurt."
Gene paused for a moment, slightly stunned, before recovering. "Yes…well…erm…right then Bolly. Best get started."
The shaking did come, and so did the nightmares, of bullets tearing into flesh, blood spraying up walls and of Molly standing next to the two boys, holding contraband as the guns went off. But when she woke up there were strong arms around her and gentle whispers in her ear, soothing and comforting, from her rock, her constant. Her Gene Hunt.