A/N Characters belong to BBC and Kudos. Unbetad - mistakes are mine. My thanks to all those who have read, reviewed or faved.

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He sat next to her bed. Watching. Waiting. Would only leave if he were thrown out. Luckily he had managed to charm the night nurse, and in doing so managed to spend what seemed like endless nights here. He always left before the shift change the matron in charge of the day shift was not so easily swayed.

She was in a coma, the doctors said and it was entirely up to her if she woke up. He'd tried shouting at her cajoling her, talked about work. But she remained pale, lifeless, not the Alex he remembered, fiery, full of passion. Life. Occasionally he would swear he saw a faint smile on her face or the trace of tear, but for the most part she lay so very still. He'd reported these changes to the nurse but she had shaken her head and reiterated that her patient was in a coma.

"That brain of yours Bolls is never still. What's going on in that pretty head of yours?"

He held his head in his hands. A week of not eating or sleeping properly and a good dose of guilt had taken its toll on him. He went through motions, went to work, drank relentlessly and ignored his team except to give orders to Ray. The investigation into Operation Rose was taking up most of his time there, keeping him busy thank God. He might have not been back at work at all except for the quick collar of Jenette Rivens. For a grifter, she'd been an effortless catch, though in some ways he had felt insulted by how easy it had been to find her. How easily she had manipulated him. She had smirked at him the whole way through the interrogation. She was smart in some ways though, knew that telling the truth about her involvement with Operation Rose was the best option, now that she'd been caught. He had seen the doubt in his teams' eyes until that bit of poison had confirmed his story, that shooting Alex had been an accident. He had hated her being the one responsible for clearing his name.

However there were certain things about the case that were not adding up. Boris Johnson and Martin Summers were the main questions and he was pretty sure he was sitting right next to the person with all the answers. The nurse said that she needed human contact, but he had been unable bring himself to even hold her hand. She'd said to him once before that she had no one, and he knew that only himself, the team and Evan had come to visit. He had requested a copy of her transfer file from Hyde, to try and find the daughter that she had mentioned, or anyone else who cared for her. Anything to try and make her fight. The look in her eyes when she had pleaded with him to believe that crap about coming from the future, still felt like a sword in his gut. Remembered the look of desolation in her eyes when he accused her of being a bad mother, of being cold. What had truly scared him the most though was the look in her eyes as her conscience faded away. Shock at his actions, then a terrible acceptance.

He took a gulp from his flask, he should at least try. Hesitantly he reached towards hand, only to be interrupted by a frantic beeping sound. He looked up to her face and saw the sweat on her forehead, reached up to brush her cheek. She was burning up.

He was halfway out the door when nurse and doctors descended.

"What the hells going on?"

"Out. Get out of the way – she's crashing"

"What"

"I told you, Get out."

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After what seemed like weeks and but were really days he had news. She holding on, the nurses said, by a thread at first but she was getting better. He'd been allowed to resume his nightly vigil, the night nurse told him that she less fitful when he was there. She was still pale and motionless, though he too would swear that she was stronger. He dozed, restless as she was still.

It was her change in breathing that woke him. He watched her through half lidded eyes, she was breathing faster. As he watched the hand closest to him flexed, once, twice.

He bent over to her whispering softly, "Come on Alex, come back to us". He looked at her eyes, watching them shift back and forth under her eyelids. The hand was moving again, reaching up to her chest scrabbling at her bedclothes. He stood transfixed as smooth creamy skin was revealed, her breath becoming more frantic, until her hand found what is looking for. It flopped back out, her fingers spasming around what looked like a piece of paper.

"What the"

"Molly" she mumbled. He looked at her sleeping face, a ghost of a smile lingering on her lips. Her hands were losing their grip on whatever it was and it fell to the floor.

He picked it up – hands shaking knowing that she was going to turn his world over again. It was a series of photographs of her, and what must be Molly. Smiling and laughing with her daughter, she looked younger and older at the same time. She looked about the same age as she was now. Alex's hair was longer and pulled back in plain style but the love he could see in her face when she looked at Molly made her look younger, more carefree.

Her breath was becoming faster again, her hand groping for what it had lost. He was folding it back up when he paused and caught his own breath. He read the time and date stamp on the back 15:30 12 MAY 2008. He tucked the photos into his jacket pocket, knowing that it was the safest place for it, for now. She was whimpering now, her hand frantically clutching at the blankets. Unknowing of what else he could do he took her fumbling hand in his.

"I'll take care of her, Alex". His heart twisted in sweet pain, as her hand settled in his, her lips parted in contentment and she relaxed back into her sleep. Trust. She still trusted him after everything that happened. Everything he had said and done.

Why he deserved it, he did not know. He knew this time though, he would treasure it, her for the gift in his life she was. He didn't care any more about where she came from, where she was going and that she was inexorably dragging him into her world of psycho bollocks insanity. He knew he would be along for the ride for as long as she was here. With him.

The End. Hope you enjoyed it.