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Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes... It was dreamed up by Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh. On the other hand... this story was dreamed up by me... Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Confirmation
Gene was first to arrive; as usual. He started in the kitchen, making tea with five sugars. Walking leisurely back to his office, looking at is kingdom of rows of separate desks, each with a computer.
His office had been launched into the 21st century, no longer having PONG but a whole computer to 'play' with. He checked his emails – there was a new one from Josh;
Gene, got the results. Ready for you to come and get them whenever. Josh
Turning on the mobile from his pocket, he had the same email from Josh, also several others from his CID department 'why they send me these I do not know.', and the country regarding common crimes on his turf. Phone calls had ran on to voicemail "Gene answer your emails", "Where are you, you need to be at this meeting", "Guv, won't be into today, fractured my shoulder yesterday when you asked me to kick the door in." After he'd checked his messages, he rang them back leaving the excuses and truth intertwined on their voicemail.
He turned his phone off; he only used it on his terms.
Opening the door to the usual chaos that was and could only be Josh's office.
"Ahh, Gene!"
"Morning."
"Come, come." Josh lead Gene to the x-ray machine, and turned it on; showing two vertical columns with horizontal lines across them; some matching, others not. "Look, these horizontal lines are matching and only these 6 aren't; this means that the two samples are related"
"I need to know how."
"DNA hybridisation?"
"No you daft twat, how are they related?"
"Mother and daughter."
"Oh my God." Gene said out loud; his thought confirmed 'Molly Grant is Alex Drake's daughter'.
"Good or bad?" Josh watched Gene's face, a face of disbelief and realisation.
"Thanks as always, gotta go." Gene made a swift exit.
Back at CID, the team had begun to filter through the doors. When they'd all arrive, he left his office.
"Jon, Amanda"
"Guv."
"My need was elsewhere yesterday, so I missed the meeting with fancy dancy pants of special branch. Inform us of what they said, or didn't say for that matter."
"Well, they basically haven't had any more leads; they spent hours telling us who they thought it could be but nothing for definite." Jon finished
Amanda continued "They eventually let on that they were getting information from an undercover officer; he thinks that something is going down on the 17th July, but they haven't heard from him for three days, they think that his communicator is down, but they can't be sure."
Molly was the next to speak, "we need to work together with Scotland Yard if we're going to catch the people that are masterminding this."
"Go on then, continue."
Getting the go ahead from Gene, she did. "Where I worked, we got many specialised branches working together; Scotty, MI5, and GCHQ. If this is as big as you're suggesting then they probably know more than they're letting on to us. We need to have the whole of London under observation, all emails, calls, text messages, and radio waves need to be scanned and filtered through; listening and looking for similarities – code words, places and dates. Obviously there is going to be lots of information that is irrelevant, but if we cross reference everything that comes in, then we can isolate the members that are setting this up." Molly finished what she had to say, she would have stopped sooner if she'd thought she was wrong; but the faces of her co-workers dropped at the truth of the scale of the expected event.
"Where you come from, must be one strange place" Gene concluded her statement
"Have you got any better suggestions then Guv?"
"No, but…"
Rupert interrupted him "Guv, this is the best lead we have, DI Grant is right, the scale of this is massive, we need all the help we can get."
Gene acted on the idea of Molly's fast; knowing that it would be his name to get the credit. The meeting had resulted in permission for the city to be under surveillance for the next week; the only exception was that all information collected which wasn't part of the case, should be deleted. That was the best that CID could do, they had to dig their fingernails in deep to even continue to be involved. Molly made sure that they would be kept in the loop as it was down to them for the idea. They would be in charge of making arrests, jumping when specials said jump.
They had to take a step back from the case, they couldn't do much else. Smaller cases had started to come in, Gene was used to the smaller ones; always catching the one responsible.
That night at Italiano; CIDs haunt, most just had a glass and then left to go home; others went as soon as the day was over.
"Mols?" 'he hasn't called me that before' thought Molly. "Molly?" Gene said instead, Mols sounded just too similar to Bols.
"Guv?" Molly looked up from her wine glass.
"How did you get in to being a copper then?"
"It's a very long story." In other words, she didn't want to say.
"I'm not going anywhere, come on, tell."
"Alright." She agreed, "I was sent to medical school, I wanted to be a surgeon and to specialise in neurosurgery, but I knew that it was very competitive; I only got in to Oxford because my Godfather bribed the right people. I dropped out after the 1st year, just hated it, I loved the possibility that it would archive, but I just couldn't do it. I was an IT geek, so I did a criminal forensics degree at Oxford, and I loved it. I then knew that I wanted to use the skills that I acquired, so I joined special branch."
"You said it was a long story."
"I gave you the basics."
"Special Branch? You've got to be kidding me!"
"We're not that bad!"
"Don't make me laugh. You go around acting as if the sun shines out of your arses, never thank us when we do you lot a favour and the general attitude 'we're better than you' thing..."
"Eh? Look, we don't think that, I don't think that. You just see the face of it, not the underneath."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that just because, ergh, it doesn't even matter does it? You're not going to change your mind."
"You're right." Gene held his glass up, a waiter came and topped it up; leaving the bottle.
"I feel really strange here, it's like, its real, but it can't be."
"What are you on woman? Course this is bloody real, it's not fake is it?"
"I don't know Guv. I just keep thinking that I've been brought back here, for a reason. I remember when my mum was writing a book; about a policeman who had been hit by a car, and went into a prolonged deep coma. I remember reading the file as she drove me to school for the last time. 'I had an accident and woke up in 1973, am I mad? Back in time or in a coma? All I know is it feels like I've landed on a different planet.' I did have an accident, and I am back in time and I'm not mad, I must be in a coma – and all of this – you – are not real."
"Are you quite finished DI Grant? You may feel as mad as a bag of bees, but you're pissed. Now drink up and get over it." Not real? I'm as real as anything darlin' Gene mused in his head.
Several glasses of wine later, Gene was slumped in the chair, his tie was loose and his hair was messy. Molly didn't look much better.
"Guv, I'm going to go to bed, I think you'd better come with me and sleep on the sofa, you can't drive in the state you're in."
After some grumbles and murmurs about 'being fine' and 'I'm not even drunk' they both left. Molly opened the door, and put her keys on the kitchen table, Gene closed the door behind them. Molly went to get a pillow and a blanket, which had conveniently been left in a bag under her bed. Molly went to the living room; Gene had sat himself in the centre of the sofa, his eyes were already closed and his chest moving to sleepy breaths.
"Gene, wake up a bit, I've got you a blanket and pillow." Gene remained motionless, Molly put the pillow on the arm of the sofa, and gave Gene a prod with her hand.
"Mm?"
"Got you a blanket and pillow." Gene lay down.
"Thanks Bols."
"It is OK." She said as she draped the blanket over his fully clothed body.
Bols? Did he just call me Bols?
Darling? It's Matthew. I hope you can hear me. You're ok, the doctors have kept you in a coma, you are in too much pain to wake up. Xand is fine, he's had to take his exams, they're giving him special dispensation if he needs it.
I love you.
Molly opened her eyes, the sun shone through the blinds; waking her properly. "I will wake up, I will stop hurting." Molly went for a shower, and brushed the taste of alcohol from her mouth.
When she had finished her morning routine, she went to check if Gene was still there, he wasn't. He'd folded the blanket and placed it on top of the pillow. Molly picked them up and returned them to where she'd got them from.
Returning to the living-room she sat and drank her second cup of coffee. Hearing the distressed flapping of wings in the chimney; Molly got up and placed her ear upon the wall, she could hear crow cawing and the scrambling of claws from the crow, it grew quieter, she assumed it had gone. A loud dropping sound came from the base of the wall; where a fire should have been, but had been removed, Molly screamed; expecting to have to deal with a live crow flapping about – but it wasn't. It was a tape, coated in cloud of black soot lay at the bottom.
Molly picked it up, and brushed the soot away with her finger; making them black. It read July 1981.
She opened up the tape ladled July 1981 and put it into the tape player.
"My name is Alex Drake" Molly immediately stopped the tape. 'Mum? How.. how can.. I don't understand.' She pressed rewind and play once again, promising herself that she wouldn't stop until it was over.
"My name is Alex Drake, I was shot and I woke up in 1981, I may be one second away from life or one second away from death. All I know is that I have to keep fighting. Fight to live. Fight to see my daughter. Fight, to get home."
There was a long pause from Alex
"Today of all days, why today? I promise you Molly, I will get back to you. Somehow. Don't blow out your birthday candles Mols, wait, I'm coming home."
Pause.
"Sam was in a coma too, he woke up, I can wake up too, I just need to focus. I came here for a reason, that reason must be my mum and dad, they were in a car bomb, October this year, if I can stop it, then I'll wake up."
Pause, but it was longer than it had been before must have ended thought Molly, as she reached to press stop, the tape played again.
"Arthur Layton is here, and in my future, if I can stop him now, then my parents would never have been killed and I would never have been shot. Evan is here too, and he'll help me. He doesn't recognise me as being his Goddaughter, I don't really want him to; because bloody hell isn't he lovely! I'd seen him in photos before, but wow. Evan will help me keep Layton locked up in the secure prison, he trusts me."
Pause.
"I heard Molly today, on the radio I don't know if it was my head making it up or if I am in hospital and she's there. I miss her so much. If I could reach out and give her a cuddle."
Alex's voice was breaking up as she spoke.
"Why do I have to assimilate Sam-Bloody-Tyler's fantasy? My mum hates me, and I cannot stand the attitude that is Gene Hunt."
Molly broke the promise she'd made herself; she stopped the tape.
Breathing shallow breaths out of sheer shock.
Sitting for what must have been hours not making sense of her thoughts.
Mum, here? Gene still here after 25 years, even before –with Sam? How can he be the same man. And for that matter, if mum was here to stop the car bomb and to see nanna and granddad before they died, then maybe I'm here for the same reason. If I stop him from shooting mum, I can go home.
The silence was ended by the ringing of the phone.
"Hello?"
"GRANT? Are you taking the piss, I've been ringing you for hours! I was about to come and knock the door down!"
"Sorry Guv, I wasn't feeling too great. I'm better now," she lied, "I'll be there in a bit." Molly put the phone down, fixed her makeup and left for CID.
to be continued...
Thank-you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
NelleEsor xx