A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Hope you all enjoy, and please review. Next chapter should hopefully be up a bit sooner.
Chapter 2: Sam
"Have you got everything you need Alex?"
"Yes, Evan."
"Is your tie straight?"
"Yes Evan."
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Oh my god. YES EVAN. Now please, stop flapping!"
Evan had been very reluctant to send Alex to boarding school. Not just because he would miss her terribly, or that this particular one was just outside Manchester, but because she had spent most of her childhood away at school, and he'd always thought she would resent him for suggesting it. However, as this one was one of the best in the country, and Alex seemed very keen to go, he was in no position to deny her.
He caught a skinny little boy with mousy brown hair staring at Alex, and gave him a look that would wither flowers.
"Alright then, monkey. This is it."
Alex bit her lip, nervously, and nodded. "You will come and get me at the end of term, won't you?"
"Of course. You just call me and I'll come sooner. And stay away from those boys. I just caught one of them staring at you."
Alex frowned, and picked up her bags, scanning the courtyard. She caught the same boy staring at her, and marched towards him, shouting "Bye Evan!" over her shoulder.
Evan chuckled, feeling slightly sorry for the boy, and turned to leave.
"You're not from round here, are you?" Asked the boy, as she approached.
"Well spotted!" She sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Where then?"
"London. Now please, stop gawking. My godfather was about to pummel you."
His eyebrows rose in surprise "Is he not your dad then?"
"I think you should stop asking me questions." Alex replied, hurt ebbing into her voice.
He smiled, sympathetically "My dad's gone too. They're pretty useless, aren't they?"
His smile vanished when he saw the angry look on her face.
"My dad did not choose to leave. Nor did my mum. Now stop staring at me, and stop asking me stupid questions."
She stomped off, only to find him skipping to her side moments later.
"Do you know where anything is?" He asked, rather annoyingly, she thought.
"Yes. I memorised the map before I got here."
"Bollocks. You're walking towards the toilet block. Come on, I'll help you find your classroom." He took her arm and towed her in the opposite direction.
Shortly after that day, Alex Price and Sam Tyler were joined by the hip, much to the confusion and surprise of everyone else, including Alex. Nobody could fathom how a posh, pretty and very articulate little girl, and a rather mysterious, quiet little boy who seemed to walk around with his head in the clouds could have anything in common, or be so taken with eachother. There was a rumour that there was a spark of attraction between them, but when Alex heard this, she had marched straight up to its perpetrators and yelled "I would rather shag chewbacca's foot!" rather loudly. Sam had then, rather reluctantly, restrained her from walloping them over the head.
The truth was, although they had hardly anything in common, except a progressive view on modern policing, buckets of self-belief and a strong hatred of being proved wrong, these characteristics were strong enough to make them compatible.
After finishing at their respective universities, they eventually did join the police force and found themselves paired together on numerous investigations because they sparred off each other so well, Sam would want to do everything 'by the book', whereas Alex, being a maverick, would often tell him to shove the book up his arse, and do things her way.
They knew that one day they would have to go separate ways, but neither of them liked to think about that. For a long time, it seemed almost impossible to imagine.
The incessant ringing of her phone drew Alex Drake from her sleep. Whoever they are, they'd better prepare themselves for a roasting, she thought angrily to herself, glancing at the ridiculously early time.
"DI Drake?" She grumbled into the receiver.
"Alex?" Came a gruff, deeply regretful voice from the other end "Chief Constable McMillan here."
Alex sat bolt upright. Mark McMillan had been Sam's Chief Constable ever since he had transferred to Manchester to look after his mother, and had been trying to persuade her to transfer back to GMP ever since. However, this seemed a rather unlikely hour for him to be bothering her with another offer of promotion.
"Hello, sir. Err… What can I do for you?" Her stomach flipped as she noted that he sounded completely out of character, worn down and defeated, instead of his usual larger than life self.
"Oh Christ. You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?" Nerves were starting to gnaw away at Alex's stomach.
He hesitated before proceeding. "Alex, I'm loathed to have to be the one to tell you this. DCI Tyler was involved in a car accident this evening. I tried to get one of my officers to contact you immediately, but the useless bastard obviously couldn't be bothered."
She was hit, suddenly with an awful dizzying numbness. No, no, not Sam. Please, not Sam...
"I-Iss… he dead?" She managed to stutter.
"No, Alex, but he's in an unstable, deep coma in ICU. He's touch and go at this stage. It would be great if you could get here soon. Ruth Tyler has been asking for you rather insistently."
Oh god, Ruth, her heart filled with sympathy and grief as she thought of Sam's poor mother.
"Of course, sir. I'll… Oh bugger." Alex felt everything come to a halt as she remembered where she was. Guilt and regret swept through her. "I'm sorry, sir, I can't. My little girl is in hospital. She's got a rather serious case of scarlet fever. I can't leave her."
McMillan exhaled sharply "Christ, Alex. I'm so sorry. Of course you can't leave her."
"You will call me immediately, sir, If there's any news?" Alex's voice was rather desperate, as she furiously blinked away her shocked tears.
"Of course. You'll be the first I call. You get some rest now, Alex. I have DC's to clout over the head."
Alex managed to mutter "Thank-you, sir" into the receiver before cutting off, her body losing all motion with the exception of the uncontrollable, pain ridden sobs that now shook her insistently.
This was going to be a very long night.
The painful numbness that the news of Sam's accident had brought stayed with her over the next few days.
Every time she saw her little girl lying limp on her hospital bed, tubes protruding from her nose, her faint heartbeat being echoed by a horrible machine, she knew she was in the right place.
However, this didn't stop the enormous pang of guilt and despair that swept through her every time she thought of her best friend, in an even more life threatening condition than Molly's, with his poor mother holding his hand, begging him to wake up, because she had nobody else in this world.
She wasn't wonder woman. She couldn't be in two places at once. Molly would always be her priority.
She stared at her phone, silently begging it to ring, hoping that any news of Sam might make the numbness stop. How it was possible to feel so isolated, in such a busy place baffled her. Nurses came to tell her how well Molly was doing, she felt pleased, but not as overjoyed as she should've. She was far too distracted.
"Excuse me, Inspector, I'll have to ask you to turn off your phone." One of Molly's nurses dragged her out of her daze, rubbing her back sympathetically.
Alex blinked in surprise "But I'm waiting for some news-"
"I'm sure the Chief Constable will ring as soon as there's any news. Your friend's in a stable condition. The odds are he'll be fine."
Alex ran her hands over her face, contemplating the ultimatum.
"How long will she be under for?"
"Only a few days. And the sister feels it would be best if you stayed with her at all times. She'll want you to be there when she's coming round.
Alex nodded, reluctantly pressing the off button, whilst silently praying to a god she had never believed in that nothing bad would happen to Sam.
Four tediously long days later, after many tearful rants at the hospital staff, Molly Drake sitting cross legged on her bed, impatiently ordering nurses to go and find her mother, so that she could go home. Alex hadn't left her bedside once, only eating and drinking the rather poor food the nurses had provided her with, sleeping fitfully with her head on Molly's lap.
When the nurses had finally deemed Molly strong enough to be without her mother, she had almost snogged them all in joy, planting a quick kiss on her daughter's forehead, before dashing out of the hospital, attracting curious glances from everyone she passed.
Parking herself on a bench in a small communal garden just outside the hospital, she winced slightly in anticipation before letting the screen flicker in to life.
Butterflies rose in her stomach. Her voicemail box was full. Her text inbox was full. She'd received one hundred and fifty six missed calls.
No, no, no... please, not Sam.
A sudden high pitched ringing broke her from her nervous reverie.
"Hello? Sir, is that you?" She asked, holding the phone slightly away from her ear.
"No... no. Hi Lexi, love."
Alex couldn't help but smile as she heard what was unmistakably Ruth Tyler's voice.
"Ruth? How are you? How's Sam?" Alex gushed down the phone. For the first time in her life, she was having trouble speaking coherent English.
"Well… he woke up," Alex's heart surged with joy "and then… he…" Ruth started crying on the other end of the line.
"Ruth? What happened? What did he do?" Nerves drove her to her feet, sending her pacing back and forwards, frantically.
"I'm sorry, love… He jumped off…" Ruth sobbed again before continuing "He jumped off a building. He's… d-dead."
Her phone fell from her hand as the nauseating numbness within her became overwhelming, making her head too foggy for thoughts or feelings. The fog filtered over her eyes, filling her with a sickening gladness that she was being isolated from the world, and not plunged into it's terrible reality just yet.
The last thing Alex Drake could do was let out a small whimper, before her legs buckled beneath her, and she fell into a darkness, far kinder than the world she'd been in before.