'Bolly! Wake up; we're 'ere.'

Alex jerked awake and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Their early morning activities had meant she wasn't very well rested. Gene had been ridiculously chipper when they awoke and Alex had had to stop herself snapping on several occasions.

Gene had pulled the Merc to a stop in the car park of a large, unattractive cement building.

'Worse than ours,' Simon said from the backseat.

'Oi!' Gene said, affronted. 'Do you mind?'

'Sorry, Guv,' Simon said, sharing an amused glance with Alex.

'Right,' Gene said, pulling his gloves off. 'We'll nip in, announce our presence and see what they've got on our friend Carson.'

They climbed out of the Merc and headed up the steep steps that led to the station. Gene's longer legs carried him up the stairs ahead of Alex and he paused at the top, looking down at her.

Alex glanced up and stopped in her tracks. For a moment, the sun shone in her eyes and Gene looked… different. Shorter hair, a lighter coat. She blinked and the vision cleared.

'You comin'?' Gene demanded.

'You all right, Alex?' Simon asked, drawing level with her shoulder.

'Did you see…' she began.

'What?'

'Bolly!' Gene snapped.

'Nothing,' she said to Simon. 'Shall we?'

\/\/

As they entered CID, Simon let out a low whistle. Blue smoke hung in the air and several of the desks had overflowing ashtrays. The posters on the walls looked like they hadn't been changed in fifteen years.

'It's just like Sam described it,' Alex said softly.

Gene grunted but didn't speak.

'Empty though,' Simon said.

'Lunch time,' Alex supplied, watching Gene walk over to a desk near the cubicle that occupied the centre of the incident room. He ran his fingers over it, tapping them slightly on a stack of files at the edge of the desk.

'Speaking of,' Simon said. 'I'm going to head down to the canteen. Grab a bite to eat. Alex? Guv?'

Gene shook his head, still looking around the room, his expression unreadable.

'No thank you, Simon,' Alex said quietly.

Simon nodded, shooting a quick glance at Gene before turning and heading out of the room.

Alex moved to Gene's side and touched his arm lightly. 'Gene?'

He looked up at her, as though he'd just realised she was there. 'You were right, Bolls. Nothin's changed.' He nodded at a couple of desks on the other side of the aisle. 'Ray. Chris.' He nodded at the desk behind her. 'Cartwright.' He tapped the desk he'd paused at again.

'Sam,' she said quietly. Gene nodded once.

'Sam Tyler was a friend of mine. Sam Tyler died.' The words echoed in her head as though Gene had spoken them aloud. But Sam hadn't died, had he? Not really. All the same, he'd left Gene behind. Gone where Gene couldn't. Or wouldn't.

'That your office?' she asked.

'Hmm,' he said, glancing up at the partition in front of them. 'Fancy a butchers?'

\/\/

Alex sat on the edge of the desk, surveying the room around her and trying to imagine it with Gene's unmistakable stamp on it.

'It's bigger than your office,' she observed.

Gene was sitting in the desk chair with his feet up on the desk, legs crossed at the ankle, looking for all the world as though this was still his office. He turned a page in the Gazette newspaper he'd picked up. 'Just more space for paperwork, Bolls.'

'You know I've often wondered what it would have been like if I'd come here,' she said. 'To Manchester in the 70s, instead of London in the 80s.'

She glanced at him, expecting him to be annoyed at her explicit reference to the nature of their world. Instead, he merely continued leafing through the paper.

'Cant say as you would've liked it, Bolls. You would never've been a DI fer a start. Before Sam I wasn't exactly squeaky clean - ' she snorted derisively at the idea of him ever being squeaky clean. '- And besides, I was a married man at the time.'

She opened her mouth to retort but her outrage was stalled by the doors to the office opening and admitting a man sporting the most ridiculous moustache she'd seen since Ray's departure.

'Well, make yerself at home, why don't you, Gene?'

Gene didn't move, merely glanced up at the man before returning to his paper. 'Wonderin' when you were goin' ter show up. Bolly, this is DCI Gary West of the Greater Manchester Police. Gaz, this is my DI, Alex Drake.'

DCI West stepped forwards and shook Alex's hand. 'Bolly?'

'Alex,' she corrected with a smile.

'Charmed, I am sure.'

'Don't waste your time, Gaz. Drake's spoken for.'

'Don't see a ring,' West said, holding Alex's gaze.

Gene folded up his paper and threw it onto the desk. 'Married to the force that one. Feminist pair of stockings, an' all.'

'Shame,' Gaz said, winking at Alex.

'I've got a DS knockin' about somewhere, maybe you can try your luck with 'im.'

'Ray Carling? No ta.'

'Not Ray.'

'Feet off my desk, Gene.'

'Well, it was my desk first.' Gene looked around the office. 'Don't think much of what you've done with the place,' he sniffed.

'Well you buggered off to London. Took the bloody dartboard with you.'

'Cockney scum to catch, Gaz.'

'Actually, Gene, we could use your - '

Gene swung his legs off the desk and stood. 'We're 'ere to bring our bastard in. Nothin' else.'

'Come on, Gene,' Gaz said, watching as Gene moved around the desk. 'I'm only asking you to take a look. You and your fancy Met detectives.'

Gene walked towards the office door, swinging his coat over his shoulders.

'She's twelve years old, Gene. And it's her birthday tomorrow. Name's Sandra Larkin.'

Gene stopped. 'Runaway?'

'Kidnappin'. Parents are worried sick.'

'When did she disappear?' Alex asked.

'Last night. We're goin' to interview the parents now.'

'We'll come along,' Gene said. 'Give you a chance to use your psychobollocks, Drake.'

Alex smirked. 'Yes, Guv.'

Gene turned back to DCI West. 'Let me 'ave a word with my DS. Someone should be lookin' for our fella.'

'Tell him to take a couple of mine.'

Gene nodded and the three of them headed out of the office. As they reached the double doors leading onto the corridor, West turned to Gene.

'So what are you driving these days?'

\/\/

'Mrs Larkin, this is my colleague from the London Metropolitan police, Detective Chief Inspector Gene –'

'I know who you are, DCI Hunt' the woman said slowly, speaking directly to Gene now.

Alex and Gene had been seated on the chintziest sofa Alex had ever seen. The woman sitting opposite them – Kitty Larkin, the missing girl's mother – was attractive, in a tired way. She looked distraught, as Alex would have expected, but also resigned, which she wouldn't.

'My sister was murdered,' Kitty continued. 'In '75. You led the investigation. You weren't living in London then.'

'Transferred down there a few years ago.'

'I remember. After your friend was in that accident. He was nice. Polite, too. For a copper.'

'That's right, love,' Gene said softly.

'I was sorry to hear he passed.'

Gene nodded as an older woman entered the room, carrying a tea tray.

'This is my neighbour, Mabel Stubbs.'

Gene looked up and Mrs Stubbs blinked in surprise. 'Eugene Hunt, as I live and breathe. Thought you'd buggered off to that London.'

'Mabel!' Mrs Larkin said, scandalised.

'Sorry, love,' Mrs Stubbs said soothingly, patting the younger woman's shoulder. She looked back at Gene. 'Pop round and see me before you go, Eugene. I'm at number 29.'

'Yes, Mrs Stubbs,' Gene said, shifting slightly. After Mabel Stubbs had left, he returned his attention to 'Mrs Larkin -'

'Kitty.'

'Kitty, this is my colleague, DI Drake. Can you tell us about the night Sandra disappeared?'

'She was taken. Sandra would never wander off. She was a good girl, Mr Hunt. You remember? She were four when you were 'ere last.'

'I remember.'

'She took a shine to your DI. To you too, come to that.' Alex poured Kitty Larkin a cup of tea and handed it to her. 'It was my fault. The night Sandra was taken I was out. I'd left her dad to take care of her. He's not very good at staying awake.'

'He didn't hear the break-in?' Alex asked.

Kitty shared a look with Gene. 'He's a heavy sleeper,' she said flatly.

Alex glanced at Gene, who shook his head minutely.

'Came 'ome about elevenish, and there was all glass on the step. The door was unlocked.' Kitty stared at the teacup in her hands, turning it slowly.

'So the front door was unlocked?' Alex asked gently, when it became apparent the woman needed prompting.

'Kitchen door,' Gene said. 'Go on, Kitty, love.'

'Went in to check on 'er and she wasn't there.'

'Did she take anything with her?' Alex asked.

'She didn't run away!' Kitty snapped, this much emotion seemed to break her and she burst into tears.

Gene leaned forwards and took her teacup from her, wrapping his long fingers around hers. 'DI Drake's just going to take a look at Sandra's room, love,' he said, nodding at Alex.

'She didn't, Mr Hunt!' Kitty sobbed as Alex rose and headed towards the stairs.

'I know, I know, I know.'

Pausing in the doorway, Alex paled; Gene's words and his tone throwing her back over a year to a cold street outside a pub that had been magically transplanted from Manchester to London.

'My baby…'

'I know. I know. I know.'

When Gene joined her roughly ten minutes later, she was sitting on Sandra's bed, her hands wrapped around a small pink book.

'Her diary,' she said in response to the look he sent her.

'What's it say?' he asked.

She handed it up to him. 'I haven't looked,' she admitted.

He opened it and flicked through it. 'Can't make head nor tale of this, Bolls. More your thing.'

He handed it back to her and moved to the girl's dressing table, leafing through the homework he found there. After a few moments, he glanced back over his shoulder at Alex, who hadn't moved. He walked back over to her and touched her shoulder. 'Bolly?'

'I'm sorry,' she said, looking down at the diary. 'It's just – '

'Sandra's about the same age,' he said. 'As your Molly, I mean.'

She looked up at him, her mind frantically searching for another time he'd called her daughter by her first name. He usually avoided mentioning Molly at all, out of some desire to protect her, she was sure. Now she came to think of it he had done so ever since their fight just before they'd taken down Operation Rose.

'Yes. Yes she is.' He nodded and squeezed her shoulder briefly before turning away. 'It's just… I find myself forgetting. Sometimes,' she added hastily as he paused in his searching.

'You never forget 'em, Bolls,' he said quietly. 'You just get distracted.'

She stared at his back, opening her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the door opening, admitting DCI West.

'Gene, radio for you.'

Gene took it and thumbed the button. 'Hunt.'

Simon Tremaine's voice came through the tinny radio. 'Thought you should know we've got a lead on Carson. Heading over there now.'

'Right. Radio me if you pick him up.'

The radio crackled and Gene moved it away from his ear. 'Don't miss these bloody things,' he muttered. 'Say again, Simon.'

'I'm taking DC Harris.'

'Right. See you at the station. Hunt out.' He looked at Alex. 'Come on, then. Bring that,' he nodded to the diary. 'We'll 'ave a look later on.'

'Are we going to see Mrs Stubbs?' Alex asked.

He glared at her. 'I am.'

'Oh no, I'm coming with you, Eugene.'