Well thank you to the few of you who reviewed my first chapter of this story, means a lot!

Here's chapter two for you to enjoy!

Chapter 2 - Loneliness

Two empty bottles of wine lay discarded on the coffee table, the last glass of wine from them stood beside them, untouched. The empty Chinese take-away containers littered the rest of the table.

Alex turned over on the couch and slowly opened her eyed; the beams of light that shone through the gap in the curtains hit her eyes, causing her to snap them shut again.

Pulling the blue blanket over her head groaning to herself as the hammer in her head began to thud harder,

"For god's sake! Why the hell do I drink bloody cheap wine, I wouldn't have had this problem with a drop of Bolly!"

She snapped her eyes open immediately and thought,

"Shit! What time is it?"

Looking at the clock that hung above the couch she noticed it read 9.25am.

"Shit!"

Alex was on her feet in a flash, knocking the table as she did, causing one of the bottles to fall off and smash.

"Fuck!" Alex cursed, "I'll get it later!"

She quickly brushed her teeth and brushed her hair before grabbing her jacket and running down the stairs of her flat and walked quickly the short distance towards the station.

Entering CID ten minutes later, she was cast a few looks from all but two of her male colleagues.

"What?" she asked, "Haven't you all got work to do?"

"Get lucky last night ma'am?"

"What?" Alex replied, not knowing who had asked such an absurd question.

"You're wearing the same clothes as yesterday!" Ethan said with a slight smirk,

"And what? Pirot there has been wearing the same tie all week!"

"Leave me out of it ma'am." Pirot called, "I never said anything!"

"Any more leads on this rapist?" Alex asked, changing the subject from her clothes.

There was no answer, and no one was looking at her.

"RIGHT OK!" Alex shouted, "I may be a woman, but im still your BLOODY DCI! So show me some respect! OK?

"Yes ma'am!" was chorused through CID,

"Right back to work then!" Alex shouted again, "I want this bastard caught!"

Alex retreated to her office, closing her door and the blind before sitting at her desk, head in hands thinking, "I can't do this,"

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"Another rape?" Alex yelled down the phone. It was 7pm and another rape had just been reported.

"OK thanks," Alex hung the receiver up and entered the main CID to break the news.

"Right there's been another one, same description, about 6" medium build, same husky northern voice," Alex explained,

"The victim?" Some one asked,

"A twenty four year old woman, she was walking home from work at around 5.30pm when she was grabbed from behind."

"Forensics?"

"Being analysed as we speak," Alex replied looking down at her watch, "well there's not much more we can do tonight,"

"Pub?" Pirot asked CID,

"Pub!" was the weary response.

"You coming ma'am?" Ethan asked pulling on his leather jacket.

"Maybe later," Alex replied, "I've something to do first."

"OK," Ethan replied, "Night ma'am"

Alex watched as CID emptied, as everyone left to head down to their usual haunt - Luigi's.

CID was deathly quiet; the only sound was Alex's heels clunking across the tiled floor.

Alex didn't know why, but she couldn't bring herself to go into Luigi's anymore, she had stood outside the little restaurant on many nights, but never entering, it was as if something was missing. Or someone.

She pulled on her white jacket and swiftly exited CID, turning the lights off as she went, plunging the room into darkness.

She stood outside Luigi's for what seemed like ages, watching as couple after couple ascended the stairs from the door.

Taking a deep breath she descended the fifteen steps to the entrance, where the smell of freshly baked garlic bread wafted out greeting her with a smile.

Stepping inside the warmth of the restaurant made her smile, her eyes gazed towards a small table at the back, which lay empty, a twang of sadness washed over her, before her gaze was broken by Luigi calling,

"Oh Singorita Drake, how wonderful, you are well I see, you not been in for a few weeks, everything ok I hope?"

"Everything is fine Luigi, thank you," Alex managed a small smile,

"A glass of your usual wine?" Luigi asked whilst pouring a glass of red wine,

"Thanks Luigi, but ill have a whiskey as wee,"

"But…" Luigi stammered in shock,

"It's been a long day Luigi, now if you don't mind, my whiskey?"

For the next hour or so, Alex sat at the bar, alone, not one of her colleagues spoke to her, they sat huddled in a group, shouting rather than speaking to each other, getting louder with every mouthful of beer and every puff of cigarette.

She knew she wouldn't be welcome at their table, she also knew that they didn't like having a woman as their DCI, a fact that was made more obvious by the occasional glances from their table to her.

"Can I have a bottle to take upstairs Luigi?" she asked, the sadness on her face obvious.

"You OK Singorita?" Luigi asked handing her a bottle of Red wine over the bar to her.

"I'll be fine Luigi," she smiled, "Thank you,"

"Goodnight," Luigi replied as he watched as Alex left the restaurant with a single glance back to the table of her colleagues at the CID table.

Alex managed up the fifteen steps before the tears in her eyes spilled over and ran down her cheeks.

She hadn't dared cry in the bar, because she knew she had to keep what little respect her team had for her, if she had cried in front of them, she would have lost that along with her dignity, and that was one thing she feared loosing the most.

Entering her flat and turning on the light, the mess from the night before was revealed/

"Oh bugger off!" her eyes were pink and puffy from the crying she was doing.

She placed the bottle she had just bought on the table and grabbed one of the empty Chinese boxes before kneeling down, carefully picking up the shards of glass from the floor.

"Ouch!" As she picked up the last piece, the sharp edge pierced her skin. She watched as the red liquid trickled down her finger.

"Shit!" she ran for the bathroom, grabbing a towel and compressed the cut hard to stop the bleeding.

Five minutes later Alex returned to finish tidying her mess after dressing the wound, and another ten minutes later she was pouring a large glass of ine, pondering her thoughts on her day at work, the case everything,

Bloody drinking alone AGAIN!" she thought, "I seem to be doing that a lot just now, I've got a drinking problem, I mean WHISKEY!"

She took another mouthful of wine whilst thinking,

"No one in my team likes me, cause I'm a woman, they'll never take me seriously."

Alex finished off the bottle, and changed into her pyjamas, looking at her empty bed she decided to sleep on the couch again that night as she didn't quite fancy sleeping in the big bed by herself. Alone. She couldn't bear the thought of it.

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Ok a shorter chapter than I'm used to writing, but oh well…

To make up for it, ill get chapter three up today as well!

You know what to do now! J xxx