Forty eight pages he had amassed.
Forty eight pages spelling out a possible case for legal action.
He crossed a couple of words through and jotted some brief notes at the side of his printed up material.
After a re-read, he was satisfied for the moment.
Shuffling the documents neatly together he placed them back in his brief case which sat next to his chair.
Evan rubbed his eyes.
He was sat in a small but spacious room.
He had been here day after day for hours on end, watching over Alex.
Evan stood up slowly and stretched.
He had been here since 10am this morning and it was now coming up to half past two in the afternoon.
He sat back down again, his muscles a little looser now.
Music was playing on the small battery powered radio. Some local station was playing popular music.
The Doctors had said it might help stimulate Alex's brain and give her mind some information to process.
Evan wasn't sure, but he had to be hopeful. It was all he could be.
It had been eight weeks now since Alex had been shot.
That day had been such a blur.
The first inkling of something being wrong was when someone called his mobile number and said something about "Tim and Caroline Price's daughter".
That could only mean Alex, but the line had been terrible and the mobile signal broke up before going dead.
Whoever was on the other end must have thought he'd hung up on them.
Evan had made a mental note to mention it to Alex later that day in case she knew anything about it.
With that filed away in his mind, he had continued on with Molly.
He had taken her home after the "seriously chocolatey cake" he had promised.
He knew she was meant to be going to school but it was her birthday and, admittedly, she had been through quite a lot that morning.
Best to just write school off...and deal with the flack he would get from Alex later.
Such a smart kid for her age. Molly's main topic of the afternoon had been wanting umpteen demonstrations of how every single aspect of her new Blackberry worked.
She had picked it up pretty quickly too.
Immediately Molly had begun to test it out, messaging her mother amongst other people.
When no reply returned from Alex, Evan inspected the Blackberry in case he had picked a faulty one, you never could tell with these things.
A test text to his own phone came through with no problems.
"Maybe she's busy Molly", Evan had concluded, "or driving, she can't read it whilst driving can she? She'd have to pull herself over and put points on her own license".
And with that, they gave it no more thought.
Until a knock at the door came.
Molly was too engrossed in the space age phone to look up.
"I'll get it then", Evan concluded and got up from the sofa.
He cast aside his Daily Telegraph as BBC News 24, on the television in the background, broke a newsflash reporting the shooting of a Metropolitan Police Officer in London.
He was met at the front door of Alex's house by two uniformed Police officers, one male, one female.
"Mister White?" the female officer asked.
"Yes", Evan nodded a little confused, "Are you looking for Alex? She's at the office or on her way there".
"Mister White, could we come in please", the male officer said in a quiet voice, "We have some news regarding Detective Inspector Drake".
"News? What sort of news?" Evan quizzed.
"Best we come in sir", the female officer said in a hushed voice.
Once in, Evan had learned the terrible truth and had sat with his hands clasped over his mouth.
Molly had been sent to the kitchen to make some tea while the Police explained.
Alex had been abducted and found shot in the head on an old disused barge alongside the Thames.
Only by chance did a passing dog walker find her. The dog must have picked up on the scent of blood and followed it to the source.
Alex had been rushed to hospital but it wasn't looking good and the odds were stacked against her even making it to the evening.
And yet here she was, eight weeks later.
Alex had made it through the emergency surgery despite having technically died twice while in theatre.
But she had made it, or made it this far at least.
Alex had been unconscious ever since she was brought in but the Doctors did say she occasionally showed some very small signs of responsiveness and there was definite brain activity.
They had explained that if...when...she did wake up, it would be when her body was ready, and not a single moment before.
Evan cleared his thoughts and looked up.
As usual Alex lay unmoving in the hospital bed before him as the beeps on a heart monitor constantly assured him that she was alive.
Her complexion was very pale, like someone who'd had all the life drained out of them.
Evan had come to feel slightly uneasy seeing Alex like this, as if he were doing her an indignity and he shouldn't be looking at her in this state.
But he felt someone had to be there for her.
There was no one else after all.
Sure enough, Molly came in and sat with her on a daily basis, but the child was at school a lot of the time.
She had been allowed some time off school after the shooting, but Evan had decided it was for the best to give her something to focus on and she had gone back in the last few weeks with Evan's promise of calling if there were any news.
As he did daily, Evan took hold of Alex's hand. It was warm, that was good.
He had no idea if she could feel it but, again, it was something he had been encouraged to do.
With his other hand he picked up a large card off the table beside the bed.
It was a get well card from Alex's colleagues in the Met, filled with messages from the sincere to the silly.
"Our thoughts are with you"
"Hope you're back on your feet soon!"
"We'll get him for ya!"
"Get well luv!"
"In our prayers"
"Lazy cow, get out of bed and come back to work".
Evan smiled slightly at the card and placed it back on the table.
He tried to shake the thought but it had been in his mind for some time.
Would Alex even be going back to work?
He squeezed her hand as he looked at her.
He could see the bullet's point of entry and it was, if he was honest to himself, a lot less dramatic looking than he would have expected.
A slight scarring above Alex's left eye and a very slight round indentation where it had pierced the skull.
Lucky, he thought as he considered that some gunshot victims had their entire faces blown to bits.
One of the unfortunate parts of his chosen career was dealing with cases such as this in court, in both in defence and prosecution.
One thing that bothered him was the object still inside her head.
The surgery to save Alex's life had been successful but the surgeons had been unable to remove the bullet.
It was still in there, just feet from him, right now.
After Alex had stopped breathing for the second time in theatre the decision had been made that any attempt at removing the bullet would almost certainly prove fatal.
Leaving it had been the safest, and only, course of action.
Evan reluctantly accepted that this had been the only choice.
He thanked whatever being there might be that the bullet had at least stopped there.
The Surgeon had left Evan in no doubt that had the bullet gone right through and exited at the back of the head then Alex would be dead.
He just hated this waiting game.
He wanted Alex to wake, right now.
He didn't care about getting back to work.
He was his own boss and had handed his cases over to other members of his legal team who were all perfectly competent.
But the waiting was getting to him.
Evan constantly played the 'what if's' over in his mind.
What state would Alex be in when she woke?
Would there be any lasting effects?
If so, how would she cope? Alex was one of the most fiercely independent people Evan knew.
What impact might any disability have on Molly, and Alex's ability to raise Molly?
And that was why he had amassed forty eight pages.
Forty eight pages of documents outlining a case for suing the Metropolitan Police for failing in their duty of care to an employee.
No way, in this day and age, should someone be able to grab a Police D.I off the street and put a bullet in her head.
Before that even, Molly should never have been able to wander in to the hostage negotiation Alex had been dealing with by the Tate Modern.
Why had no officer stood guard by Alex's car to ensure the safety of her daughter? She hadn't even been on duty at that moment!
He had 48 pages of compelling evidence against the Met and, with Alex's blessing, he would use it.
He would use it because, God forbid, if there were any lasting physical or mental effects to deal with then Alex would need money...and money didn't come easy.
Evan looked at his watch. Nearly three o'clock.
He had to go.
School would finish at 3:30 and he needed to be on his way to pick up Molly, take her home to change and then bring her in to see Alex.
How that kid was coping he never knew.
Evan stood, still holding Alex's hand as he got to his feet.
"I've got to go now, pick up Molly from school", he said, "I'll be back with her later and she can tell you all about her day".
Gently, he placed Alex's hand back down beside her and reassuringly gripped her shoulder for a few seconds.
"I'll see you later Alex, just keep up the good fight!"
And with that, Evan picked up his briefcase and slowly left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

The only sounds left in the room now were the heart monitor and the music playing quietly on the radio.
Nothing else moved or made a sound.
Until, that is, something did move.
Very slightly and very slowly, Alex's fingers moved, as if making a very slow grasping action.
The beeps on the heart monitor also altered, as if reacting to a very slight change.
This continued until, very slowly, Alex's eyes managed to open ever so slightly.
There was almost certainly no conscious thought behind this.
It simply meant that the body had obviously reached a stage where it felt it could move onto the next phase of recovery.
Although Alex wasn't conscious as such, Alex Drake was very much in the early stages of waking up.

End of Chapter 2