AN: Thanks to those who replied to the last chapter, and sorry, I did intend to write this chapter faster, but I still have no idea what's gonna happen next. And I'm not sure if that's good or bad…

Disclaimer: I don't own A2A, only in the late hours of the night when I'm dreaming…

Gene/Alex

Rating: hmm… I never get these rating things… obviously language, coz it's Gene, PG 13? Yeah, that'll do for this chapter, may go up later, depends what I do.

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Chapter 2 - Inner turmoil.

At the last moment Alex hesitated, was this what she wanted? Was he what she wanted? After everything? Was she about to just give up hope? Except her fate and take Gene Hunt? No. She would fight this. She didn't want this, she wanted home, Molly, Evan, 2008. She couldn't get this involved. Almost sensing her tension a harsh shrill noise filled the room, she leapt back as though burnt and scrabbled for the phone. Gene didn't stay long enough to find out who was on the other end. She set the phone down after a short conversation and sighed, hurt. After all, Gene couldn't remember the night before.

She had lead him upstairs at closing time, both too drunk to care what others thought. In her flat they had drank even more, and she had ended up crying into his shoulder. They had kissed. And for a moment everything had seamed right. For a moment she had stopped fighting to get home, the turmoil in her head was put on hold. Had he felt the same? Felt the bolts of electricity down his spine? The fire on his skin when they touched, the longing from deep inside her when they kissed? She would never know. She had watched him fall into a drunken slumber on her sofa, watched as the millions of emotions etched into his worn features drained away leaving his face smooth and relaxed, he looked so different asleep. She sat and watched him for the whole night.

That's why she was crying now. Alone in her flat, wanting a man she didn't even know was real. She had spiralled out of control, getting in way too deep. Was this what was prolonging her time here? Preventing her return home? Emotional attachment? She had been thinking, after all, she'd dreamt this whole world up, but apparently she hadn't thought enough. She'd kissed him once drunkenly and had almost done so again, sober. Exactly how much damage was this bullet doing to her? He was Gene Hunt. People like them just didn't mix. Oil and water. 1981 and 2008.

She was late to work that day. She stayed at the flat, thinking of her lost daughter, wanting to go home. But why? What did she have at home that was worth fighting for? She could think of only one thing. Molly. But as each day, or nano-second depending on how you looked at it, passed the likely-hood of ever seeing her daughter again decreased dramatically and somehow the pain lessened. How many people survived a bullet wound to the head? Why couldn't she just enjoy being here? Why couldn't she just kiss Gene? Admit to loving him? He obviously wanted her. But that was it. Want. Not love, the Gene Genie didn't do love, of that she was certain. Would she become like DCI Sam Tyler? She couldn't let that happen, for Molly's sake she had to be strong, Sam had belonged in the 1970's in the end, she had never belonged here, totally out of time and completely out of sync.

When she eventually arrived at CID the Manc lion was in his den, agitated and obviously waiting for her.

"Drake! In here now!" His voice bellowed around the office and she knew she was in for it.

"What?" She spat, storming into the lion's den about to face the mighty Manc lion himself.

" Well thank you very much for gracing us with your presence, Bolly knickers. Where have you been all morning? Well, while you have undoubtedly been sleeping of that hangover I know you have, we are in the middle of a double murder enquiry!"

"And?"

"AND!? We're on our way to the crime scene!" He strode past her, she sighed, today was going to be just like every other day.

The ride in the Quattro was normal, Gene defying all speed limits, despite Alex's protests. That didn't mean that they beat the press to the scene though. Uniform were scattered everywhere, desperately trying to secure the scene whilst the vulture-like journalists tried snapping pictures and crossing barriers. It was a sorry sight. Things would never change.

"Jesus Christ." Chris's first words at the scene. They mirrored what everyone was thinking. 2 bodies lay on the floor, dumped by the look of it, right in the middle of the road. Their school uniforms bloodied and torn, long hair matted with their own blood. School girls.

It was a long and tiring day, first Gene and Alex had had to tell the proud parents of sisters Julia and Suzie Daniels why their girls had never come home from school, why they were never coming home from school. In her head, Alex's worst nightmare flashed before her eyes, being told that Molly was dead, being taken to see her own daughter cold and dead on a hard block in a sterile room. Then they had the tiring task of finding the killer, the evil bastard that had raped and killed two sisters, the youngest of whom had just celebrated her 12th birthday.

"We'll find him Bolls," He told her when they were alone in his office later. "We'll find the bastard and he'll go away forever."

"We owe it to them, and their parents. I'll find him Gene. I am in control."

"I want this scumbag Drake, I want him off my streets. But right now, it's late and there's a botte of red waiting for us at Luigi's."

Silence. Alex looked deep into Gene's eyes, trying to puzzle out the mysteries that lay beyond them, a thought flashed through her mind. So alive, so real, how can those eyes not be real? She dismissed it quickly, replacing the thought with: hell, if I'm here, I may as well enjoy it, so what if he just want's sex, I can give him sex, if by some miracle the man wants more, I can give him that too.

"You know, Gene. I really do need dinner tonight, and I would really appreciate some company, and there's that VHS of 'they died with their boots on' still propping up my coffee table…" She hinted, only half hoping that he'd catch on.

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A/N: Thanks for reading, review if you want, but I hope you liked it, otherwise there's no point in me writing it. I know it's not very long, but I'm trying to focus each chapter on either Alex or Gene, and I wanted to do the next bit with Gene, if you understand what I mean.