Alex wants to see her daughter again. This is her main, if not her only, reason for wanting to leave the 80s, Gene and everything else behind. There is only one way to give Alex what she wants and to get what I want...which is for her to go absolutley bloody nowhere. In short, Molly has to go back to the 80s. Here's what I came up with.

Reviews are more than welcome...flames are not.

The phone on DI Drake's desk was ringing. Shaz looked at it then around the room, there was no sign of her mentor and she knew without a doubt that nobody else would answer it. With a long suffering sigh, Shaz left her desk and went over to Alex's.

"CID." Shaz reached for the pen and paper she and Alex habitually kept by their phones and started taking down details. "Hit and run, female victim…" The pen fell from Shaz's hand, hit the table and then the floor. Chris looked up from his comic, frowning at the disruption. "And you're absolutely sure? She definitely said DI Alex Drake? Ok…I'll tell her straight away. Bye" Shaz put the phone down and took a breath. "Ma'am!" her voice carried across the department but the DI wasn't there.

"She's still out with the Guv. What d'you want her for anyway?" Shaz had intended to completely ignore Ray until she saw the radio on his desk.

"Gimme that."

"You what?"

"Radio. Now Ray!" It wasn't very often that Shaz shouted, and she gave orders even less frequently so it wasn't really a surprise when all the heads turned her way.

"Jesus. You on the blob or what?"

"Don't be disgustin." She snatched the radio from his extended hand and turned her back on her supposed superior officer. "Guv it's Shaz, what is your location?"

"Either the eighth circle of hell or a confined space with her ladyship. Haven't made my mind up." Gene clearly hadn't heard the urgency in her voice but there was no way Shaz was missing the annoyance in his.

"Are you near the station?"

"Near enough that if you open the window you'll probably hear the lady inspector nagging. Why, what's happened?"

"It's DI Drake-"

"I might have bloody known!" Shaz heard the distinctive roar of the Quattro approaching the station and put the radio down, keeping her eye on the door. The news she had for the woman she still regarded as her guardian angel wasn't something she wanted to deliver over the radio, nor was it something she wanted the whole department to know before DI Drake did.

The sound of raised voiced preceded the double doors slamming open by some time and the argument didn't stop when Gene entered CID, followed swiftly by Alex, who had to put her hands out as the doors rebounded back towards her, but carried on without missing a beat.

"Stop talking out of your arse! It was your fault we lost him." Gene turned around incensed.

"My fault? How in the name of Geoff Hurst's right foot was it-"

"If you'd have listened to me-"

"If I listen to any more of you woolly, liberal lefty, touchy-feely, namby-pamby, Oxbridge psychiatry bollocks than I do now, my ears are gonna bleed."

Gene headed for his office, coat billowing behind him, seeking the comfort provided by good scotch and a fresh packet of cigarettes. He couldn't avoid the ear-bashing he knew he was in for, he knew that from experience, but sitting down with a drink and a fag was still an improvement over being bitched at on the move. Besides, Alex always left his office sooner if it was steadily filling up with smoke, a win-win situation.

Alex marched after him, intent on telling him exactly how he should have acted if he wanted to catch the young man who, in an exhibition of stupidity to a degree that was almost suicidal, had tried to steal the Quattro while they were returning a murder victims personal effects to their next of kin…not that Gene would listen.

"Your ears won't be the only things bleeding if you carry on like this Guv. And it's PSYCHOLOGY!!!"

"Don't threaten me sweetheart. And it was you who started this argument not me."

"I did not start it you sexist, anachronistic, pigheaded shit!"

"Ma'am?"

"Not now Shaz." Gene and Alex spoke in unison, under other circumstances it might have been amusing but Shaz wasn't in the mood to be amused and neither were her senior officers. Alex followed Gene into his office and shut the door.

"Alright then smart-arse. Enlighten me. How did this scintillating discussion start?"

"You said that if I was like this at home there was no wonder than my husband walked out!" Bugger. He hadn't actually meant that to be audible.

"You heard that then."

"Yes. And FYI it wasn't my nagging that made him walk out on me and our six month old daughter. It was the fact that he was, and is, a spineless, two-timing, selfish little twat!"

Shaz stared at the two of them arguing in the office then took a step towards the door.

"Wouldn't do that if I were you Shazza."

"I don't have a choice." She opened the door and heard, with increased clarity, exactly what the Guv could go and do with his head. "'Av' you two finished? Only there's been a hit and run." The arguing stopped abruptly, both more conscious than usual of their lack of professionalism because the most junior member of the team had felt it necessary to say something.

"Why didn't you say something before you dozy plonk?"

"Oh leave her alone Guv. I wouldn't have wanted to interrupt us either. Where's the crime scene?"

"That's not why…Guy's hospital called…"

"Spit it out Shaz!" Shaz's gaze flicked to Gene then back to Alex, she couldn't just blurt it out.

"Ma'am, the victim's…it's your daughter." For the first time since she realised she was in Gene's world, Alex felt her legs go from under her.