The obligatory disclaimers and warnings:

Life On Mars is not mine (unless you count the DVD boxsets). This fanfiction is not being used to earn any form of money (Pounds, Euros, Rupees, Galleons, conch shells, etc).

There be spoilers for the entire duration of the program, up to and including episode 2.08 (the finale).

This fic includes slash, i.e. a male/male relationship. If this offends you, there's always the back button.

Thanks go to my lovely betas, fanficwhore and boiledpotato!

Oh She Knows

Chapter One

It was 1981. Little Sammy Tyler was cosily tucked up in a hospital bed in some city he had never heard of before between London and Manchester. He stared up at the blank hospital ceiling. The big plaster cast on his arm felt really uncomfortable and he wanted to give it a good scratch but couldn't.

He is twelve. Of course, he knew none of this, but it was only his first crash onto a hard tarmac that will make any difference to his life.

1973

Sam found himself slammed into Gene Hunt's office wall for what must be the seventy-eighth time. Not that he'd been counting.

Gene bellowed at him for a few minutes more. Somehow, the younger man had learnt to block out the details of his superior officer's rants. But even he couldn't escape the Genie's green eyes. The tirade was finished with a 'So, Gladys, you are arresting that bastard Stead!' and a kiss that was meant for Sam's lips, but he had turned his head to check that the blinds were down and it only reached his ear.

Still furious, Gene paused to stare at Sam for a moment, then shoved him to one side and reached for the ever present comforter, if such a soft word could be used for a single malt Scotch whisky.

'Now just go, you fairy, and don't let me see you again until... '

The door clattered shut.

2006

Maya stroked a comatose face for the last time and sighed angrily. Sam had betrayed her. Not just by being on the bed with tubes shoved into his insides. The thought at the back of her mind whispered for just a second and was equally quickly shifted back into darker corners.

Soon after the car knocked him over and the brain tumour was found nuzzling away Maya went to Sam's flat to collect things that might just remind him of home and life. She hadn't been there since she moved out, but seeing it without his face, the face that shifted in her memories from laughing to frowning to a blankness that seemed to eat away inside him was what shocked her most.

His boyhood stamp collection with its musty tang of glue; some of the old seventies records in their ordered crumbliness. His deodorant. The perfume, which she had forgotten to take with her and found behind his shaving kit, brought the hot tears from her brown eyes. Again. Maya made herself look through his address book to see if there was anyone who would care enough to know, any old schoolmates or people he lived with in halls. As she flicked through 'S' she noticed that the answering machine was flashing. Three new messages. All from the same number, one that wasn't programmed into the machine's memory.

She pressed play. 'Hi, this is the residence of Sam Tyler and Maya Roy. Er, please leave a message and we'll get back to you... '

'Sam', a cooing voice growled. 'When are we meeting again? I know you said please don't phone this number, but your mobile's off...'the man giggled, and it didn't suit him. 'I bet your...'

Bleep. First message ended. Second message recorded at twenty-three-oh-five on...

Maya was still holding onto the address book. Just about.

'So', the same masculine voice purred, 'why aren't you answering? I really miss you. Are you alright? Is it something from work again?'

Pause for a few seconds.

'Or is it...' the message conveniently stopped just there.

Maya's hand hovered above the delete button, pretend this never happened, leave with what she had found and spend a few days by Sam's side, but the police officer in her came to the fore. She would see this to the end, like she had with a lot, lot worse.

...two thousand and six 'Is it that girl of yours? You know I hate pretending like this. You know that. Oh, well, she must have heard by now, hmm? Love you.'

All messages ended. To listen again, press one. To delete...

But by now Maya had run to her car. What she had really, really wanted to do was smash the poncey glass bottle of deodorant on his tiled floor and drop her perfume after it. Pure Bollywood.

But then, no Bollywood film she had ever seen involved the hero suddenly turning queer in the middle of the movie.

A.N. : This is one of the first fanfics I've written that might be worth reading, so con. crit is welcomed. All flames will be used to warm the author's cold feet.