Thanks again to my beta reader lioness2611, for pointing out some silly little mistakes.

Enjoy this one, longer than the previous chapters.

AWAKE- Chapter 3

Alex dreamed of nothing in particular, it was less of a dream and more of an out-of-body experience. She was lying in a hospital bed; eyes closed, but could see the banoffee curtains and the dark cream walls which surrounded her. The voices she heard, started as faint muffles, only becoming clear as she drifted into a deep sleep. As her mind focused on the muffled voices of two men; knowing immediately it was Gene Hunt.

"I did NOT mean to shoot my DI. DI Drake is one of the best, if not the best police officer I have ever met. Why would I want to shoot her?"

Shock rushed through Alex's body, Gene? Was that a compliment!? Stunned, Alex continued to listen with intent to the battle between DCI Hunt and the unnamed constable.

"Sir, calm down. May I remind you we are in a hospital, there are lots of sick people here, including your DI."

Gene's facial expression changed from poker, to anger in a split second. Gene glared at the constable, making him look away instantly. Gene would have punched the young, cocky constable right there, but he knew it would only land him in deeper shit – especially if he was looking at an attempted murder charge. Pulverising a fellow member of the police force would only make things worse for him. Managing to quickly change his mood, Gene moved around the small curtained room, standing next to Alex. As he took her hand he looked at the constable.

"I did shoot Alex. But before you come at me with your shiny handcuffs and arrest me. Listen to what I have to say."

With a nod from the constable, Gene let out a sigh looked at Alex before looking back up to the eager eyes of the constable.

"Jenette was holding Alex hostage, I had my gun drawn, Jenette was in central focus I had a clear shot. But, Alex made a sudden movement at the exact moment I pulled the trigger, she took the bullet. She is in here because of me"

I am Home because of you, I had to Gene! You needed to shoot me. Thank you, I'm home, I'm with Molly. I am happy.

Gene let go of Alex's hand to rub his face and neck, before running his fingers through his hair.

The constable poked his head through the curtains and called forward two uniforms, appearing through the yellow and brown pinstripe curtains they stood waiting for orders.

While the constable read Gene his rights, the uniforms handcuffed him.

Shit was the only thought that ran through Gene's head.

"Can I have a moment with my DI?"

Gene's eyes never left the constable's. Gene hoped to bloody God that they would allow him five minutes with Alex. The constable saw something in his deep sea blue eyes, something which came from deep within the very depths of Gene's soul. Knowing full well that Gene was no threat to Alex, he gave a nod, and the two uniforms released Gene from the arm lock, and removed the handcuffs. The uniforms left, followed by the constable who gave him a glare, as if to say 'don't try anything funny'.

"Two minutes." He said in a firm tone as he closed the curtains behind him.

"I'm sorry Bols."

Is this sorry for you being in the shit, or are you sorry that I'm in a coma, and seriously ill?

Gene bent down, kissing Alex on the forehead. "I didn't mean to hurt you, if I only listened to you today in my office, neither of us would be in the current situation. When Operation Rose had panned out just as you said it would, I realised how much of an arse I was for not believing you. I saw that old guy walking away, I decided to follow him, I heard him talking to you. 'You could never be corrupted' were his exact words, I believed him. I knew that you could never be corrupt, I don't even know why I doubted you, there has never been a time I have ever been given any reason to doubt you." Tears gathered in Gene's eyes, but he blinked them away quickly, shutting his eyes he traced his fingers along his eyelid, making sure that no tear would escape.

You're crying? I've never even imagined that you would. Alex wiped away her own tears. You had plenty of reason to doubt me, the tape about you and the case; I knew so much, too much. You only jumped to the conclusion given the circumstances that the whole of the Met was in.

"You probably can't even bloody hear me; you're in a bloody coma for Christ's sake! Seeing you like this, just lying there; helpless, makes me look like the bloody bogeyman. You're much easier to talk at, rather than to. If you can hear me I bet that you are screaming 'why the bloody hell did you shoot me, bastard.' You would be right to call me a bastard, I deserve a lot worse. I hope you can hear me, a thousand apologies would not make what I did OK, but know this, I would never deliberately hurt you Bolly."

Alex was speechless; how could my DCI be so sensitive, I've never seen this side to him, other members of CID have been in here, maybe it's because he shot me...

Over the few past months in 1982, Alex and Gene had grown closer, spending less time with CID at Luigi's and more time at their small table for two, drinking cheap wine, flirting with each other. Alex had thought that it was just her having feelings for Gene, but was he having them too?

"I'm going to need you to wake up pretty soon Bolly, I need you."

With his final words Gene gave Alex one final kiss, not on her forehead, but on her slightly parted lips.

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He pulled out his torch and lifted Alex's eyelid – waking her immediately.

"HEY! GENE What the hell do you think you are doing?" Alex raided her clenched fist and caught the looming figure on the jaw.

The doctor flinched as he tried to grab Alex's waving arms, while the nurses pinned her legs to the bed.

"Alex, do you know where you are?" Of course I bloody know where I am, you put me here. Alex stayed silent but looked around her, taking in the familiar surroundings she remembered what happened, looking at the doctor in disbelief she let out the faintest sigh of relief. "OK, Alex. I am Doctor Smith, but you can call me David. You are in the hospital; you woke from your coma three hours ago, and disappeared"

As Doctor Smith spoke, Alex relaxed, the nurses and Doctor Smith released Alex from their grasp.

In a husky hoarse voice Alex spoke, "I know where I am, I came down here to think; I needed to think. I was overwhelmed by seeing Molly again; I have missed her so much…" As she spoke, tears began to accumulate in her eyes, but she wiped them away, took a deep breath before she broke down again – which she had promised herself she wouldn't.

Seeing the tears in her eyes, Doctor Smith reached out to her, wrapping his arms around her, but Alex pulled away. She thought that if she let her guard down for an instant, the pain would return.

"Come on Alex, let's get you back to your room. Molly has been worrying about you, she was in the family room with Evan last I checked, she was very keen that we find you. Can you walk, or would you like the nurses to get you a wheelchair?"

"I'll walk." I was able to run here, I should be able to walk back.

When Alex returned to her room, the events which had taken place in the past 3 ½ hours had caught up with her. She was well and truly exhausted, despite having fallen asleep and dreamed. Her sleep had not been filling enough, it was empty, she did not feel rested after being rudely awoken, just tiredness.

"Mum!"

"Hi Molly, I'm sorry about what I did today, I don't know what came over me."

"It's OK Mum, I'm glad they found you. You scared me.

"I know Molls, it's not going to happen again, promise."

Molly gave an unsure smile towards her mother, before wrapping herself tightly around her mother, burying her head deep into the warm comfort her mother offered to her. Alex held her daughter as close as she possibly could, moving over in her bed so Molly could lie beside her. They looked at each other – neither talking, just taking in every detail of each others faces, just as if it was there first ever day together. Evan and Doctor Smith left the room, closing the door behind them.

"The Doctors say that you will have to stay here for a few weeks before you can come home." Tears escaped from Molly's eyes and ran down her cheeks.

Alex wiped them away with her thumb and soothed Molly's soft brown hair.

"Hey now, don't cry. I'm going to be here, every day – where am I going to go? Hey? Molls, you can visit me whenever you want to, I'm sure Evan has already been driving you here whenever you want to see me."

"It scared me at first, coming here to see you. You didn't look like my mummy any more, you had this," Molly pointed to Alex's head bandage "and I couldn't see your hair, you looked so scared. But I soon got over that, you are my mum, always will be, doesn't matter what you look like. The Doctors told me to talk to you, it was hard at first, so me and Evan talked to each other in the same room as you, but that too got much easier, I talked to you about pretty much anything, Evan drove me here as soon as I was out of school. Some days I refused to go to school, I just wanted to be with you, the school understood, and Evan and I would talk to you for hours."

"Molly? How long was I in a coma for?"

"You were found on the day you were shot, about 11am, July 17th. You were brought to the hospital and numerous scans and test were carried out and within an hour you were in theatre. Evan and I had been contacted by the hospital when you arrived, he picked me up from school and we came rushing here. The Doctors put you into a coma for three months to allow your body to heal its self." Three months?! "Gradually they reduced the drug which caused your coma, but this reduced your immune system. You caught an infection, they didn't notice at first but by about a week of having the virus, the symptoms made themselves known. You had a very high fever, but your skin was cold to the touch, your heart rate was irregular, no one knew what was wrong. They put you on drugs to reduce the illnesses the virus had caused, like your chest infection. They told me and Evan that you were 'medical phenomenon' they had specialists taking blood and urine samples to identify the virus. Evan and I had to watch you through glass, we weren't allowed near you in case we caught what you had, or gave you another infection. They finally figured out what you had, it's something really difficult to pronounce, so I'm not going to even attempt it. They started you off on 5mls of antiviral increasing the dosage every three days. So that increased recovery time by another month. Then here we are December 5th 2008. you'll be home for Christmas."

"It must have been tough Molls, with me being in a coma."

Molly nodded, she was exhausted too.

"I think we both need sleep, come back in the morning?"

Molly had already fallen asleep, Evan was standing in the doorway.

"Hi Alex, have a nice sleep?" Evan joked.

"Yeah, lovely, I'm really tiered. Bring Molly back to me in the morning."

"Will do."

Evan bent down to kiss Alex on the cheek "It's good to have you back Alex."

Alex nodded, turned and said goodnight to her sleeping angel. Evan scooped Molly up into his arms, and carried her out of the door.

Night Molly, night Evan Alex thought, she had meant to say the words, but she had already fallen asleep.

TBC...

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