Chapter 7

Gene watched as Alex got pulled away pulled away by the station doctor, but made no attempt to follow. In ten weeks, she had done the impossible. She had escaped from the men. This made him seem even more pathetic than before Oh, sure, he had had a surge of the Lion after she went missing, but when week after week had passed without finding her, he had gone back into his shell. The thought of what they might be doing to her was constantly in his head, and he knew that if they didn't find her soon, the next time she would be seen would be on a morgue cart. But here she was. She had defied the odds, and now, she was free.

The crowd dispersed, everyone content with the fact that they had seen the lost DI return alive. The men from Fenchurch West, however, hovered. They were waiting to interview her. All had grim expressions on their faces. To Gene, it wasn't very surprising. They had heard his account of the eleven months in hell, and everyone knew Alex's account wouldn't be any better.

"You okay?" Gene hadn't realised that Ray was standing next to him. He supposed he should have; the air was always thick with smoke whenever Ray was close by.

"Do you really have to ask me that?" Gene responded, staring at the closed door of the doctor's office. Ray had stepped up after Alex disappeared to 'take care of him' ash Shaz put it. In reality, all Ray ever really did was sit and smoke, but at the same time, Gene appreciated the company. They had never had the heart-wrenching conversations one would have in the films, but if they did one day, something would be extremely wrong. Gene didn't do feelings, and neither did Ray. He may be pathetic and useless, but he wasn't a poof.

The doctor's door opened, and Alex walked out, looking somewhat annoyed. He knew she hated doctors, but just by looking at her, he could tell she needed one. Both eyes were black, and one was swollen so much her eye was barely open. Her nose was slightly crooked, and her cheek was bruised and cut. There was still some dried blood on her face. He could see some matted into her hair as well. Her clothes were torn and dirty, stained with blood and sweat. Alex's feet were bare.

As soon as she saw him, Alex walked over to Gene, ignoring the men from Fenchurch West trying to intercept her. She stared at Gene for a long moment, looking at him in amazement. "You're alive," she said, reaching up to touch his clean-shaven face. "They were going to kill you. I didn't know –"

"They didn't." His short and curt response made her back away in surprise. He knew he should be rejoicing that she was okay. Part of him was, but there was another part that resented her. Why could she succeed where he had failed? He had always had to save her in the past, and now, when he couldn't, she had managed anyway. She was stronger than he was. He may as well cut off his bollocks and give them to her. She certainly deserved them more than he did.

However, at her hurt expression, he felt guilty for all the negative thoughts that he was having toward her. She hadn't asked to be kidnapped. She certainly hadn't asked to be tortured by those men. And she was able to escape. Shouldn't he be proud of her for that?

"What'd the doc say?" he asked her, taking on a kinder tone.

"Lots of bruising. Some sprains. I might have had a broken nose at one point. No internal bleeding, as far as he could tell. He recommended me to go to hospital, just to make sure that nothing needs to be treated." The tone of her voice made it clear what she thought of that idea.

"I'll take you there after you talk to the blokes from Fenchurch West. If the doc doesn't think there is anything critical, we'll just get your interview out of the way."

"I don't want to go there." Alex had a stubborn pout on her face, and Gene knew that she was going to fight him about this. Her whole expression had darkened and she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Tough tits," Gene said firmly. "You're going."

"I didn't make you go after you got free! And you were in much worse shape than I am now."

Gene stared at her for a moment. "You weren't trying to keep yourself secret, were you? I heard about that radio call." He felt the corner of his mouth twitching, but managed to keep a straight face.

Alex looked down at the ground guiltily. "I just wanted to get back here. To get away from the flat."

Gene finally allowed himself to give her a small smile. She looked so fragile, so broken, but still, he could see the fight in her stance. There was still fire in her eyes. Had he had that much fight left at ten weeks? No, he realised. Week seven was when they threatened to kill Alex. Week nine, they had threatened to make him watch as they killed her. Although he had scaled back his fight a bit in week seven, it dropped exponentially in week nine. He still hadn't given up fighting back, but did it less frequently. And then, in week thirteen...well, there was a reason he couldn't remember that week at all. After that week, he had given up, mostly because he had been too weak to sit up, let alone fight back. By the time he had recovered enough to do that, their psychological torture had ruined him.

Gene swallowed hard, forcing himself to remain normal. "Understandable. Now, let's get you interviewed, eh?"

"Will you go with me?" In that moment, the confidence she had exuded disappeared completely. Gene could see how great of a toll the past ten weeks had taken on her. She looked like a child, as though she might jump at her own shadow. Gene took in a deep breath. He really didn't want to hear how much she had suffered, but right now Alex needed him.

Gene nodded once. "Of course, Bolly."

She looked at him and smiled softly, and he could see that she was missing a few teeth. Rage boiled inside of him. He would get these three men back. He would make them suffer for what they did to him, but especially for what they did to Alex.

He and Alex walked together to the interview room, leaving Ray standing near the front doors. Gene figured that he would eventually shuffle back to CID.

They entered the room, the three men from Fenchurch West following closely behind them. Everyone took a position on their respective sides of the table, and only then did the DCI of Fenchurch West give a small smile.

"DI Drake. I'm DCI Abney. This is DI Toller, and DS Wyatt. We've taken over this case after Hunt told us that one of your own was involved. We're just here to ask a few questions and get an idea of what happened. First of all, can you give us a location of where you were kept? I'd like to dispatch my team to try and arrest those men if possible.

Gene personally thought they should have done that before she had been dragged off to the doctor, but he bit his tongue.

Alex looked down at the table and nodded her head. "I was in a block of flats. They kept me in an abandoned one. I'm not sure of the number, but the address... 25 Cardigan Street. That's the Borough of Lambeth."

"That's me out," the DI said, standing up and walking out of the room.

"He'll contact their division and they'll get the men who kidnapped you," DCI Abney said confidently.

Gene couldn't help but notice the slight disbelieving smile on Alex's face and realised that she was thinking the exact same way he was. They had waited too long to go after the men. The men would have realised she was gone by now. They would have abandoned the flat and disappeared from the face of the earth by now.

"So Alex, please explain what happened to you."

Gene was interested in hearing this. For weeks he had wondered how she had been kidnapped in broad daylight.

Alex swallowed, biting her lip. "I went to get the bacon that day for Gene. As I was heading back to the flat, Poirot apprehended me. He told me that there was a robbery in progress. I hadn't taken my radio, so I believed him. He got in to drive. When we got to the flat block, he pulled a gun and said I had to obey him or I would be dead."

Alex looked down at the ground. "So I did. I tried to find a way out for ten weeks, besides jumping out the window. Today, Nigel Bloodworth came in to the room. No doubt he intended to beat and torture me as they have done many times in the past. However, I decided that I was going to fight back. I knocked him out."

Gene noted how she swelled with pride when she said this. He was proud of her too. She was far from the defenceless woman he had once thought she was. She was stronger than he could believe.

"What did you do after you knocked him out?" the DCI asked.

"I realised the door was unlocked and I ran. I didn't stop until I ran into PC Logan and we radioed for the car."

Abney nodded, his fingers in a steeple beneath his chin. A cigarette was hanging out of his mouth, the ash still connected as he puffed on it.

"You've identified one of the men that took you hostage," Abney said. "Can you please identify anyone else?"

"Charlie Poirot," Alex said immediately. "I heard that he is dead now, though. Tom Blackwood was the leader. The other was Jack Romilly."

Abney nodded. "Sorry, Alex. That's just verification. Now, would you please describe what happened to you?"

Alex swallowed, and he could see in her eyes the pain she had suffered through. He wanted to reassure her somewhat, but what reassurance could he give? She was better than he was, she would be able to get through this without any help at all. She went straight to the station no problem. He had hidden for a month, plotting how to kill them.

As Alex started to tell her story, Gene felt the rage rising within him. The only thing that he was thankful for was that they had been able to control their urges and hadn't taken advantage of her. Gene knew that one of the worst things to do, if not the worst, was to rape a woman. He abhorred anyone who committed the crime, and some of his worst beatings had been given to suspected rapists. It was a crime that could totally break a woman, and she would never be the same again. And though these men were criminals, terrible, awful people, they were not animals.

After a while, Alex stopped talking, tears in the corners of her eyes. He knew it was the pain of the memories, but that she would be stronger than the memories were. Soon enough, she would be able to move on. She would heal and resume the DI position at Fenchurch East. Her ten weeks would just be an occasional nightmare in the future, something to be forgotten soon after she woke up in the morning.

But he would live with it forever. God only knew if he was going to return to the police. Gene didn't know if they would even allow him back in the same position. Dannell had been DCI in Fenchurch East for nearly a year now, and the men were used to him. Gene would have to be recertified in everything, a big waste of police time. Not only that, but they would have to make sure that he was mentally sound to go back.

As of the moment, he knew he wasn't. He was still haunted by nightmares and he had barely ate anymore. After being starved for so long, he just couldn't find food appealing. He had only eaten because Alex forced the foods on him, but since she had been gone, he had gone days without even really thinking of it. Once Ray had noticed that Gene wasn't eating as much, he had started to push food, but even then, Gene's meals were small.

Gene suddenly realised that Alex and Abney were looking at him expectantly. "What?"

"We've heard everything that we need to," Abney said. "Alex was wondering if you just wanted to leave for today."

Gene nodded. "Keep me updated."

"Dannell will. We're working closely with him."

Gene nodded and they said their goodbyes, walking out of the station. "Let's get you to hospital," he said to Alex.

She turned to look at him, one of her hazel eyes hidden by swelling, the other with a dark bruise underneath. The white of that eye was red with blood. However, he could see the stubbornness in them. Both the set of her jaw and her body stance said 'No', but he ignored all those signs.

"You need to get checked out. Even the doctor said so."

"You didn't go, I'm not going."

"Stop being such a stubborn cow. I told you earlier that you were going to go."

"I'm the stubborn cow," Alex muttered under her breath, irritated.

Gene gave a small smile, but it didn't really meet his eyes. "C'mon, Bolls. Or I'll make Dannell take you."