Hiya everyone. Thanks again to x.Emzi.x her brilliant beta'ing again! And a massive thank you to anyone reading this, and those of you that have taken the time to leave a review: x.Emzi.x, gazing-at-blue-skies, Shutters, clownish, Molly Hunt and RushholmeRuffian. Merci!

Disclaimer: All Characters taken from the BBC series 'Ashes to Ashes' and as such do not belong to me, these are the property of Kudos Production and the BBC.

Alex stepped out of the Quattro and began to walk towards the house, closely followed by Gene, Chris and Ray. They weren't the only ones on the scene either: Alex had to shield her eyes from the flashing blue lights of the squad cars. Gene sped up so as to walk at her side, and as the two of them stepped under the police tape, Gene stopped at the sight of the Superintendent. Alex did likewise. The Super saw Gene and took a few steps towards him.

"Ah, there you are Hunt."

"Superintendent Faulkner, what are you doin' 'ere?"

Faulkner didn't reply, just cast a curious look at Alex. Gene cleared his throat.

"Oh right. Superintendent Faulkner, this is my D.I, Alex Drake. Drake, Superintendent Faulkner."

Faulkner nodded and gave Gene a surveying look.

Why do people always do that? Gene wondered to himself.

Faulkner sighed.

"Well Gene, pretty nasty business actually, the owner of this house is my sister in law. I'm afraid the wife won't be too happy with me if I don't see her sister's abuser brought to justice. Therefore, what ever you need for this case, you've got it. Officers from all over London will come to your assistance, and I'll have a helicopter crew at your beck and call too."

Gene's eyebrows raised in a surprised fashion.

"Thank you, Sir. We'll get 'im."

Faulkner seemed to have heard enough, and with that he walked off. Gene turned to Alex, who was surveying him with a weary eye.

"You asked the Superintendent for more officers, and helicopters, yeah? I did just hear that right? When I suggested that to you a month and a half ago, you said and I quote: "I reckon them tight jeans o'yours might 'ave cut the blood flow to yer brain Drake."

Gene remembered it well. He sighed and looked to the heavens for help. What was a man to do? He only did what suggested to him and here she was pissed off at him.

"I said that cos I knew the super wasn't going t' 'ave it!"

"Well he seems pretty keen now doesn't he?"

Alex walked into the house with a smirk on her face. Gene frowned after her. Bloody women swapping and changing moods all the time.

July 7th

Why did he have to look at her like that? It certainly didn't help Alex's concentration, and right now she needed to concentrate. Once again she had all of C.I.D gathered round, and the added pressure of detectives from other divisions listening to her as well. Alex could feel the pressure as though it was her first day here all over again. These outsiders weren't used to listening to a women, whereas her own officers had become accustomed to it by now, even respected her, although somewhat grudgingly. She'd gotten no sleep either, which didn't help. All this pressure and still Gene stared at her from his position at the back of the room. He leant up against the wall, arms folded across his broad chest, one foot crossed over the other and that smouldering look in his eyes. Alex took a deep breath and tried to continue as before, ignoring the shiver that ran through her.

"Now, last night after a month of no activity, he struck once more. The Owens were in bed, sleeping, when he broke in. They woke up to find his shotgun in their faces. He then made them get up, and proceeded to bind them with their own clothes and shoelaces. The Fox then started to assault Mrs Owen, and despite his warnings, she screamed: causing him to flee the scene. He left no evidence and he wore a mask again. This man isn't going to leave us any clues at this stage, so our best option is to try and catch him in the act."

Alex pointed to a map behind her. There were lines and coloured dots all over it, indicating the houses attacked, and the infamous 'Rape Triangle'. She pointed to one of the dots.

"The house he attacked last night falls once more into this area, the rape triangle. It's this small area of land that we should target. The helicopter crew patrol these areas and we will also have foot patrols taking place on the streets at night."

Alex could see the looks of scepticism in place on most of their faces. One raised his hand.

"What good will that do? It'll just scare him off and he'll go somewhere else."

Alex was glad to hear Gene clear his throat, gladder still when he strode to the front of the room to stand next to her, supporting her.

"We won't be walkin' round with neon signs sayin' 'Police' above our heads you stupid bastard."

Alex smiled and continued.

"Correct. We will of course be incognito, but the helicopter won't scare him off. He's got a taste for what he does and he's drawn to this area for some reason. He won't let obstacles get in his way."

Gene loosened his tie and perched himself on Alex's desk.

"Now, you all know what yer dealin' with, 'n what's expected of you."

Nobody moved and Gene rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Well go on then! Get the bloody 'ell on with it!"

As C.I.D became movement itself, Gene looked over his shoulder at Alex. She was stood with her back to him, pinning pictures on the whiteboard. He allows his eyes to travel down her body, a wanting smile on his lips.

"So, what do we do now?"

Alex laughed and turned to him. He couldn't help but let a slight smile creep across his face.

"Well, we go about our business here for another half an hour or so, then we join our colleagues on the streets for a rendezvous."

The word rendezvous brought forth all sorts of imagery in Gene's mind, and he didn't really want to think about it. He nodded and headed in the direction of the tearoom, where he mentally shook himself into thinking straight, annoyed with how much that woman could distract him beyond imagination with a perfectly innocent word. Seconds later, 'that woman' poked her head round the door.

"Are you making a tea, Gene?"

"No, I'm learning salsa, what does it look like?"

"No sugar for me thanks."

'She was sweet enough', she had said once before. He agreed wholeheartedly, even smiling as he tipped the milk into her cup. It was then that it hit home. What the bloody 'ell am I makin' her tea for, she's s'posed t' do it fer me! Oh yeah, Gene Hunt was definitely scared of the hold Alex had on him. He just hoped and prayed she didn't know about it.

July 10th

Alex stared out of the Quattro window as they made their way to the next rendezvous point, where Chris and Ray were waiting. Gene grunted from her right.

"Four days we been doin' this."

"Relax, he'll show his face again. Trust me."

"Trust you? Yer must be joking! You've caused more bloody trouble since you've bin 'ere than Sam ever did."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, let's see shall we? Yer went and got yourself taken hostage and locked in the freezers at the Ala Casa, got us both locked in an air tight vault, you got me suspended, nearly lost all our jobs by pissin' about when Scarman was sniffing round, shall I go on?"

Alex only rolled her eyes and stared out of the window as they pulled up beside Ray's car. Chris came running over to the driver's door and poked his head in through the window.

"Guv! It's 'appened again, The Fox."

"Did they get 'im?"

"Nah, 'ere's the address though."

Gene snatched the paper from Chris and put the Quattro in reverse handing Alex the piece of paper, which she read with a groan.

"'ow did 'e get away?"

"He attacked outside the rape triangle."

"Are you tellin' me you've been leading us on a wild bloody goose chase?"

"No! He's attacked outside the triangle before-"

"So why 'ave you 'ad us 'anging round 'ere the last four nights!"

"Because he'll come back here, you've got to trust me on this one!"

"No!"

Gene pulls the Quattro to a halt outside Luigi's. Alex looked at him confused.

"What about the attack?"

"I'll 'andle it til mornin', just get outta me sight."

Gene leaned across her, opening her door. Stopping as he felt her glare on him, he looked up. He tensed, seeing once again how they had gotten too close for comfort. He gulped and pulled away, focusing his eyes on the road. Alex let out an exasperated sigh and got, out slamming the door behind her before making her way into Luigi's without a backwards glance.

July 21st

It was too quiet in the station. Gene glanced, for about the 400th time that day, at Alex's empty desk. She'd been calling in sick for a week and a half now, and hadn't been in Luigi's either. He missed having something nice to look at, but he still felt he was right. He had widened the net: now the officers were further apart. There had been two burglaries since, but both times, no one had been home, no one had got hurt and both times they were miles outside Drake's stupid rape triangle. He hoped she'd come into work tomorrow so he could tell her that, in a smug pig-headed way. But she didn't come, not then, nor the next day, or the day after that. It looked as though he was going to have to go looking for her.

July 24th, 9.20pm

Alex sat in her flat, the noise from the restaurant downstairs distracting her slightly. But she wouldn't go down. That pigheaded moron would be down there, and she sure as hell wasn't going to be exchanging pleasantries with him. He'd got what he wanted. He wanted her out of his sight, and as luck would have it, fate seemed have given her the flu. He had got his wish and he hadn't come looking for her.

Damn the man, and damn my mind!

She pulled a file across the coffee table and examined the contents. Shaz had been popping in with updates on the case, not that Gene knew. Earlier that evening, Shaz had made an appearance at her door, file in hand, to tell her there had been another burglary. Once again, no abuse and not inside the rape triangle. Maybe Gene was right, maybe she had got it wrong? No.

Alex knew this case, he would come back into the rape triangle, she was sure of it. She lay back on the sofa and closed her eyes for a moment. She fell into an uneasy sleep.

"Hoping to see an angel, Signor Hunt?"

Gene tore his eyes away from the ceiling and looked at Luigi.

"I was wonderin' where the bloody 'ell my D.I is hiding."

"Ah she is not'a so well Signor. Maybe you should go to her?"

"No chance. I'm not runnin' after the stupid bloody woman."

Gene sipped at his drink, a look of distaste written all over his features. When, by 11 o'clock, she hadn't shown her face, and he had a little more chemical courage, he decided Luigi was probably right. He drained his glass and went to the stairs, beginning the climb to Alex's flat. He raised his fist to knock the door, but stopped. Gene looked down at himself. He tucked his shirt in a little more and brushed the hair out of his face. Exhaling slowly, he knocked on the door.

Alex woke to a series of loud crashes and sat up alarmed.

"Police, open up! Drake, open this bloody door!"

Alex sighed and got to her feet. The moment of the reckoning had arrived. She pulled the door open to find Gene leaning on the wall outside. He frowned a little as he saw her.

"You're as pale as a ginger bird's arse, what's wrong with yer?"

Alex walked away from the door, leaving it open. She heard him come in and close the door behind him.

"What do you want Gene?"

"My D.I goes AWOL in the middle of a case based entirely around a psycho profile wotsit, and you wonder what I bloody want?"

"Why are you so bothered about my absence when you don't think my profile is sound? You wanted me out of your sight Gene, you got what you wanted!"

"I've got a bunch of southern Nancies I can't trust, Chris and Ray, who I wouldn't trust to make themselves a brew and a lobotomised Essex girl who spends half 'er day staring at D.C Div. I need my D.I!"

Alex opened her mouth to reply then stopped to think.

"So what you're saying is, you don't trust anyone else in the nick? But you do trust me?"

Gene gave her an evil look and took a deep breath.

"Yes yer dozy cow. Much t' my discomfort most of the time!"

Alex smiled.

"Okay, so what are you doing up here?"

"Making sure you're goin' t' be back at work tomorrow. If I 'ave t' kip 'ere n' drag you in tomorrow myself, I will."

"That won't be necessary, I'll be there."

Gene narrowed his eyes and took a step closer. Alex wished he wouldn't as her immune system wasn't the only thing that was weak.

"So are you tellin' me you were just takin' time off to avoid me?"

"No, it just so happens that I'm feeling well enough to come back to work."

"Mmm. Right, well you better get your arse downstairs then."

Gene nodded and walked to the door. Glancing over his shoulder, his eyes roved over her in undisguised lust, as if he'd never seen her before.

"Welcome back to the team."

"Thanks. Guv."

Gene walked out and Alex couldn't help but grin.

There's chapter 4 for you, and i've spared you a nasty cliffhanger just this once, don't get used to it ;) Chapter 5 up asap! Thanks again! LSQ x