Life from the Ashes
Chapter 4: Rules and Regulations
Alex was stood in the centre of C.I.D as people sat around the room, making phone calls, reading magazines, drinking tea, smoking and routing through files with half hearted efforts. She had never been happier to see the predictable chaos of this room, with it's permanent, thick smog, the cluttered desks and checkered ceiling, the white boards and cabinets...nothing had changed...except her desk, which it seemed, now belonged to D.I Robson, as the name plate read.
Ray and Chris were sat down with their feet propped up on their desks, adding to the thick smog with their own cigarettes as the people around them talked over their work.
"So what's the deal with that Robson bloke?" Ray asked Bammo.
"He come down here a while back...started pickin' fights with the guv. Worse one was a few weeks ago...he and the guv 'ad ter chase these drugs dealers. They were using kids ter distribute the drugs but the dealers turned on 'em and used 'em as hostages," he said.
"One of 'em ended up dead 'cos Robson didn't listen ter the guv; thought he knew better, didn't he?" another detective finished.
"Git," Ray muttered and the others nodded.
"Should've seen the guv when he got back 'ere...never remember seein' him so pissed off. Robson probably shit his-self," Terry added and the room was suddenly filled with quiet chuckling, and no one said anything else.
Feeling that some work needed to be done, and needing something to keep her mind working, Alex asked; "So...tell me..what'd we know about this Michael Brown?" she spread her hands in a manner which the C.I.D detectives were well accustomed to.
"Well...says here, he's a small time thief," one of them men said, "Nothing special."
"He's an idiot," Ray added.
"Care to elaborate on that?" Alex asked.
"You don't do a blag in a bank with a big glass front. It were like he wasn't even tryin'!"
"Good," she nodded, "And..." she was about to speak further, but the sound of approaching footsteps and the violent 'crash' of the doors being flung open, silenced her as they all stared at the doors.
"I think there's more to this than meets the eye, guv," Robson said as he and the guv walked into the office.
"Just 'cos he's the worst blagger this side of the Berlin Wall, doesn't mean there's a conspiracy theory..."
"I didn't say 'conspiracy'...but the fact that you did, means that you don't believe his story anymore than I do."
"Well then, Sherlock," Gene said as he sat down at one of the desks, clearly making himself comfortable. "Astound us with your wisdom."
"Erm...well..."
"Good start," the guv muttered.
"...They might be being used as someone's catspaw..."
"Catspaw?" Gene scoffed.
"Yes. You saw him, does he strike you as a criminal mastermind? He's a small time crook, he doesn't do big bank jobs..."
"It were 'ardly big."
"It was trying to be. Like he was trying to do a big blag but he didn't know how...or as if he didn't want it to succeed from the start. There's more to this than a small time crook doing..."
"He's guilty and he's an idiot, what more do you want?! "
"It's just...it's too neat...it's too easy!"
"I like easy."
"It's too simple!" Robson continued.
"You just wanna make my life more difficult, admit it," Gene sighed.
"Guv..."
"But...I do 'appen to agree with you...I can't believe I just said that," Gene growled, "...Coppers nous, Robson...don't need a fancy psychiatry degree like you or Lady Bolls 'ere ter tell me that little shit's hiddin' somethin'."
"It's...but why didn't you say so from the start..." he asked, looking slightly confused at the nickname for Alex which everyone else was used to.
"Because I wanna make your life difficult," he answered with a smirk and there was the quiet sound of repressed laughs in the room. "Right, I want you lot to tell me if these criminal idiots got into something they shouldn't and if someone's pullin' their strings, or if they really are just thick. Well...move!"
"Yes, guv," they nodded and shot in all directions.
"Guv, I..." Robson began as he walked towards Gene.
"Not now, I have something else to deal with," Gene told the D.I and scowled at his 'A Team'. "You mind the store."
"...Right..." Robson nodded and went to sit at his desk.
"You lot, mush," Gene ordered the four of them out of the office after puttin on his black coat, and led them out into the street. "Get in," he snapped and got into his Mercedes.
"Nice one, guv," Ray chortled, as he eyed the new car. It clearly met with his approval.
Gene drove them through the streets in silence, every time someone tried to say something he snapped until they were quiet. It was beginning to get on Alex's nerves. When he finally stopped the car a while later it was at the start of an empty street which seemed a lot darker than the streets they'd been driving through in seconds ago.
"Out," he ordered and slammed the car door closed as he stood on the street. He stormed off down the street with the four of them in tow and stopped once they could see the 'Railway Arms' pub directly ahead of them. "Well, go on then, off you pop," he said to them.
"Wha'?" Ray scoffed.
"Lovely catch up, Raymondo, but some of us have work to do, now..."
"You can't make us go in there, guv," Chris said bravely.
"Oh, really?" Gene asked sarcastically.
"No, you're right, Chris," Alex nodded.
"Is he now, mrs woman?" Gene asked, with even more bitter sarcasm.
"Yeah, he is...sir," Shaz added.
"D'you know, this is doin' wonders for my ego," Gene said, raising his head to the sky, as though talking to the heavens themselves. He sighed then moved so that he was standing across from them and pulled out his gun then pointed it at them; if this was what it took to keep them safe from Keats then he'd do it. "I'm not tellin' you lot again! Get in!" he snapped and cocked his gun, pointing it momentarily at the 'pub'.
"You going to shoot us, guv?" Shaz asked quietly.
"I didn't send you in there, just so's you could come swannin' back out again whenever you bloody well felt like it!"
"And what will pulling a gun on us do?" Alex demanded, not a bit threatened.
"Send yer back in there!"
"And is it working?" she asked but Gene didn't answer.
"It'll kick in any second now, luv."
"I..."
"You can't just come back 'ere when you want to," he told them. "You've done wha' you're supposed to, now bugger off! Them's the rules, Drakey."
"You're 'ere..." Chris said, confused.
"I have a job..."
"You forgot what it was," Alex replied and felt guilty as she saw the hurt look on his face, "I'm sorry, but you did, you forgot, and that almost meant that Shaz, and Chris and Ray..."
"Don't you think I don't know that!" Gene snapped, finally lowering his gun. "Don't you think that didn't scare the shit outta me?! Because I forgot, they...they got Viv...they got Viv because I..."
"What happens...y'know...when they..." Chris asked, thinking about the horrible dream he'd had about Viv and fire.
"...You don't wanna know, Christopher, trust me," Gene replied slowly. "'People' like Keats don't care about 'elpin' yer. They just want to destroy everything and everyone..."
"Keats...Keats was like old Morgan, wasn't he? They both wanted ter bring you down, guv...wha' are they, guv?" Ray asked. "Why did they want ter destroy yer so much?"
"Stop askin' so many bastard questions!" Gene shouted and held a hand to his face. The left side, Alex noted.
"Gene..." Alex whispered and took slow steps over to him, but stopped when he looked up at her with an almost feral look of a cornered wild cat in his eyes.
"Yer see! This is why yer supposed to forget 'ere - 'cos if you don't it'll drive you mad!"
"But Sam...Sam and I remembered things...we knew this place was..." she said, taking another step closer.
"That's the problem with you coma people," Gene said, pointing at her half heatedly with his gun, "Always wantin' ter go back. Always wantin' all the soddin' answers. Yer don't fer one second think yer 'ere for somethin' other than ter drive me round the bend!"
"It's not intentional," she smiled slightly.
"Oh, trust me, Bolls, that's all that keeps me goin' sometimes," he chuckled.
"Then why stay?"
"...Why do you think?! If I don't then they win...then Keats and his shit'll be able ter do whatever the bloody hell they want!" he shouted and waved his gun around. Alex took a few more steps closer to him and soon she was standing right in front of him. She worked on gently prying the gun from his hand with a kind look on her face and sympathy in her eyes and he slowly relinquished his hold on the weapon.
"Why you?" she asked, expecting an answer filled with bravado, but a second later she was no unpleasantly surprised at his sincere answer.
"...Why not?" he said, keeping eye contact with her.
"Damn you," she took a deep breath, and shook her head with a smile.
"Why? What've I done this time?" he asked with exasperation.
"Been a good person...doing the right thing," she answered.
"Oh...and that's...bad?" he raised his eyebrows.
"No, no it isn't."
"...Don't go tellin' everyone though, eh, Bolly, they'll be thinkin' I've gone soft," Gene said quietly.
"And we can't have that, can we?" she mocked.
"No, we can't," he nodded, and finally broke their eye contact. "Now are you gonna do the right thing, and do wha' I tell yer to do?"
"No," she answered and he growled in anger. Then he snatched his gun back and pocketed it, and stormed away from them down the street. "What?"
"I'm hungry..." he frowned and continued walking.
"Where are you going?" Alex called after him in exasperation.
"Chippy van," Gene shouted.
"What van?" she asked, looking around and not seeing any fish and chips van in the dimly lit street. Then, a second later, a large van pulled round the far corner of the street to where Gene was walking and stopped right in front of him and he pointed at it. It was rather dirty and dated, and had obviously seen better days, but the sign clearly read 'Traditional Fish and Chips'.
"That van!" Gene replied simply and Ray chuckled as both he and Chris jogged down to him, grinning all the way as they raced.
"He really is a kid, isn't he, ma'am?" Shaz sighed, suddenly remembering the young man she had seen for a fraction of a second in C.I.D when Keats had kicked the guv to the ground.
"Evidently, Shaz," Alex nodded as they walked slowly over to the van. "But what does that make them?" she asked with a smile, indicating Ray and Chris.
"But...what is he...the guv, I mean...is he...I dunno...dead?" the younger woman asked quietly.
"Oh, yes, he's very much dead," she nodded sadly.
"'Ow'd you know for sure? I mean..I know I'm...but 'ow'd you know he's..."
"I...I know, Shaz...I know...because I saw him...in the ground...he was there...that's when he remembered..."
"What'd you mean...you saw him in the ground?" Shaz furrowed her brow, but Alex looked up to see that they were too close to the man on question for her to answer, so she said nothing. Hopefully, Gene would explain everything to his team in due time.
While Alex was contemplating this worlds' deeper mysteries Gene was walking back over to his car and sat in the drivers seat with his feet on the ground leaning out of the vehicle as he ate his chips from the paper wrapping. "Don't you dare get shit in my car!" he warned Ray and Chris who were leaning out if the car the same as Gene.
Alex and Shaz had chosen to share a portion of chips and stood by the car, they looked back for the van but it had vanished...they hadn't even heard an engine.
"Gene...that van..." Alex frowned.
"Wha' about it?" he snapped.
"It's gone, guv," Shaz answered.
"Well he's not gonna wait around all day like one of his chips, is he?" he scoffed and Ray chuckled.
"So...this place..." Alex asked after a minute.
"What about it?" Gene sighed; he knew once she got it into her head to get answers she was gonna get them, come hell or high water, even if it meant dropping him in the funny farm.
"Keats said you made it? But he lied, didn't he? You didn't make it, did you?" she asked.
"If I said I did, would you call me god?" Gene asked with a smirk as he chewed a chip.
"No," she chuckled.
"No, I thought not," he sighed. "No, Bolls, I did make it...if I did, d'you really think it'd be this shit?"
"It's not all bad," she said.
"It is when you've been 'ere this long," he replied. "And when bastards like Keats just won't go away...taking good people with 'em."
"Is he gone fer good? I mean, we didn't see Morgan again, did we?" Chris asked.
"Dunno. Morgan failed, I guess his 'bosses' weren't 'appy with him. Keats didn't fail...not completely...he came closer than Morgan did; he didn't even get Sam in the end. But Keats got Viv, he got Viv 'cos I wasn't there to 'elp him," Gene answered.
"Who's Morgan?" Shaz asked.
"D.C.I Frank Morgan, right?" Alex said. "Sam mentioned him in his notes," she added.
"Yeah, D.C.I bastard Morgan down in Manchester," Ray scoffed, "Bastard nearly got us all shot full of lead ter bring the guv down."
"Boss came through in the end though," Chris nodded.
"Never saw Morgan again...least I never did," Ray finished.
"Neither did I, mate," Chris told him.
"Good riddance to bad bastards," Gene muttered.
"Amen, guv," Ray nodded.
"He nearly got Sam, y'know...they get in yer head and once they're in yer can't get rid of 'em. You know that, don't yer, Bolls?"
"Sam, you know, Sam called you a tumour, a tumour in his mind. He thought that if he got rid of you he'd wake up," Alex said.
"Daft git," Gene scoffed fondly.
"But he chose to come back..."
"Yeah, and then he had ter go again," he frowned, "But that's 'ow it is, he couldn't stay anymore. You and Sam...and even Robson...you think I can just snap me fingers and send you off to wherever you want! It doesn't work that way, Alex! Yer waste too much time fightin' me and too much time trusting bastards like Morgan and Keats."
"I know, I know...if I could go back...but we don't know that when we come here. You can't blame us for trying to get home," she replied.
"No...guess not," he muttered. "Now...you've got yer answers, and I've broken a hell of a lot of rules ter give 'em to yer. Will you please just bugger off now?"
"No way, guv," Ray answered quickly.
"Oh, for the love of..." Gene sighed as he scrunched up the now empty chip paper in his hands with violent anger. "And what d'you think you're gonna do 'ere? Hang around like Scooby Doo?"
"Fab...always fancied me self as a pesky kid, guv," Shaz grinned.
"Argh...right...you know what? You're demoted...in fact, you're all demoted...back down ter uniform! Let's see how long you wanna stay 'ere when you're shovelling shit and handling ruddy bastard domestics with plods!"
"Regulations state you need to have a damn good reason for demoting us down to uniform, guv. Especially when two of us are D.I's," Alex countered.
"What bloody regulations?! I make the rules 'ere!"
"Not these ones you don't," she said confidently when he jumped from his seat, trying to stare her down. When it became clear that it wasn't going to have any effect, het urged away and leaned heavily against the roof of the car with his head resting on his hands, and after a minute he turned back to her.
"Be breakin' a lot of rules, Bolls, if I don't send you lot on yer way," he mulled and suddenly smirked
"Since when do you give a toss about rules, guv?" Ray asked with a smile.
"Good bloody question," Gene exclaimed, then got back in the car and started the engine, "Well, what're you waitin' for, yer bunch of poofs?! Let's break some rules."
A.N. In case anyone reading this, for some reason doesn't know who he is 'cos you haven't watched Life on Mars I suggest you do so! It's D.C.I / Surgeon Frank Morgan, he was in the last few episodes of the second series.
And by the way, I still have no legal claim to the series!