forever thanks to funkygibbon!
--
Alex lay awake while Gene slept soundly next to her, snoring. Time to say something, she told herself. He may say no, but she knew she'd moved past just wanting to shag the bastard. Against her better judgment, she did care about him, and wanted him to know it. She'd grown accustomed to waking up to him snoring in her hair, accustomed to the cigarettes and the swearing and the smell of whiskey. He seemed genuinely concerned for her, and the sex was ridiculously satisfying. They'd done it again after they went to bed. She couldn't believe he had that much energy, but he never seemed to tire, and she never seemed to tire of him. Every time he touched her it was like an electric current ran through her body. Even now, lying next to him, she felt charged.
Ok, so it hadn't been two weeks, but nothing seemed to be slowing down, and they'd managed an entire week of work without killing each other. Or anyone else, for that matter. Face up to it Alex, as much as you like having him here every night, you just like having him around.
What if he said no thanks? She'd thought he wanted more, wanted her to commit to more, but he seemed to shrug off her drunk ramblings so easily she wasn't sure anymore. She wasn't sure what she'd do if he rejected her. What if he just wanted the sex? If having his clothes here was just convenient? Stop arguing with yourself. Tomorrow is Sunday, you'll have all day. You'll lie around in each other's arms and you can tell him then.
Besides, she could wake up in a hospital bed in 2008 at any time, and she didn't want to waste what she'd had here. She went back to sleep, holding onto his arm.
--
They were sitting at the table drinking coffee, eating what was left of the toast. Alex had resigned herself to going to the shop to get some food. If they were going to be here, she figured she'd ought to be able to feed them.
"Gene." He was staring at his toast. "Do you want anything about this situation, our situation, to be different?"
He looked up. "I'd like there to be some bloody food here."
"That's not what I mean." Just say it.
"What do you mean, then? Different? What would I want to be different?" What the bloody hell was she on about? Wasn't he doing everything she wanted? "Do you? Want it to be different?"
"Well, the sex is fantastic. Really. Fantastic." She looked away. "But I just thought that, I mean, if you didn't want to have sex all the time…" My God Alex, you aren't making any sense at all. Spit it out!
"What am I not doing? I thought this was what you wanted. I thought you wanted me to shag your brains out. I spent all bloody day yesterday doin' it! You seemed to enjoy yourself, now you want me out?" She could not be dumpin' me already, could she?
"That's NOT what I said!" They were shouting. Why were they shouting?
"I don't understand what you're saying to me, Alex!" Can we go back to bed? It'll be better if we go back to bed.
She couldn't believe this had escalated into a shouting match. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea!
The phone was ringing.
"Don't answer that!" he was shouting.
"Augh!" she picked up the phone. "What!"
Gene threw his hands in the air and walked away.
"It's for you. Viv." She handed him the phone and walked across the room to glare at him.
"This better be good," he snarled into the phone. She watched the expression on his face change. "OK. Radio Ray and tell him we'll be right there." He hung up. "Get dressed," walking to the bedroom "We'll have to continue this thoroughly enjoyable conversation later."
--
He filled her in on the way there, but she still wasn't prepared for what they found at the crime scene. Neither of them were.
Gene parked the Quattro in front of an empty shop that looked like it had a couple of flats over it. There were squad cars everywhere. Alex followed him up two flights of stairs and they found Ray and Chris both standing in the corridor. Chris was pale and even Ray had a slightly frightened look on his face.
"It's inside," he said, nodding towards the open door.
They stepped into a room empty but for a wooden chair and a cardboard box. Into the second room they saw what had disturbed everyone. Two bodies, it looked like one male and one female, had each been tied to separate chairs. They'd had their throats slit, and the blood had been allowed to spill out onto the floor, and it was everywhere. Going further in they walked carefully along the walls where there wasn't any blood. Strange symbols had been painted on the walls, and Alex went near one to look closer.
"Gene. " He grunted a response. "They used the blood to draw these symbols on the walls."
He looked at her, every confusion from the morning gone from both of them. She knew the look in his eyes. Rage, terror, a need to find the bastard who did this. She felt it too, but it radiated off him.
"I've never seen anything like this Alex." He was still looking at her. I need you on this.
She met his gaze, nodding her understanding. "I need a piece of paper, Gene." He called for one, and a uniform came in with a pad and pen. Alex drew copies of the symbols on the pad to take with her.
At that moment the small forensics team arrived. They came carefully into the flat, and Alex gave them some specific instructions regarding the symbols. She and Gene left them to do their job, stopping to speak to Ray and Chris outside the flat.
"Building landlord called it in this morning. No one lives here. The building was scheduled t' be torn down in a few days and 'e had come by to make sure there was nothin' left anyone might want. Said no one's lived here for two years, and the shop downstairs has been empty longer. But 'e was here two weeks ago with the demo crew and the place was empty." Ray stubbed out his cigarette on the floor then lit another one, continuing.
"The whole block is basically empty buildings waiting to be torn down and sometimes dealers hole up in them. We busted some small dealers here about a month ago. They could be back out on the street by now, though." He rolled his eyes. "We can bang 'em up and see if they've been around."
"Do that Ray, and start now. I want every drug dealer, street walker, and bloody blind busker at the station giving a statement. Don't care how many of them and I don't care how long it takes."
Ray nodded, grabbing a peaked looking Chris and a few uniform and left the building.
"Alex, what the hell is this?"
"I don't know." She shook her head. "There are many possibilities."
"Give me some, I need to start making sense of this." He stopped, telling a plonk, "Tell forensics they don't go to sleep until I have a report. I'll be at the station waiting. Come on," he said to Alex. "You can explain this to me in the car."
"I'll do my best," she said following him out.
--
"…or it could simply be some drug dealer trying to make it look like a ritual killing in order to throw us off the trail. We will have to explore every angle until we turn up a lead that points in one specific direction."
Gene had been listening to her list the possibilities. There were a lot of them, and he was starting to worry about it. Did they have the manpower to cover all these angles? How many other poncey specialized divisions were going to want a piece of this? They needed this done and dusted as quickly as possible. The public fear, the Superintendent. He could hardly wait for it to hit the papers.
They squealed up to the building, running up the stairs together. CID was buzzing, and they went straight to Gene's office.
"Gene, I'm going to need to do some research on these symbols." She cursed the eighties and the lack of a useful computer database. "I think the best bet is to start with a professor of pagan religions. I want to have Shaz start making calls to see who I can get to today."
He nodded, and she left.
Hours later the corridor was full of witnesses that had been dragged in, many unwillingly, for statements. Some of the more unruly ones had been locked up, and the cells were nearly full. Gene and Ray had taken out their frustration on several of the drug dealers, but none of them had had any useful information. At least none that sounded useful. Gene was back in his office brooding.
Alex watched him from her desk. He was wearing the same suit he'd worn yesterday, when they'd played hooker in the hallway. He didn't have any clean suits, she thought idly. She'd gather them up so he could take them in tomorrow.
"Ma'am?" It was Shaz. "I found a professor who thinks he can help you, but you'll have to go to his house. He's not in his office at the moment."
Of course, she thought, it's Sunday. "Thanks Shaz." She went to tell Gene where she was going.
"Great." He got his coat. "Something to bloody do."
"Gene I can do this, you don't have to come."
"I know. But I'm pulling my bloody hair out waiting for the forensics report. And if I'm not here, then I won't have to talk to the Super when he calls." He followed her out the door.
--
When they returned, Ray and Chris were sorting through statements, seeing if they could find any clues, reading the statements they hadn't taken themselves. It was getting late, and everyone was on edge.
"Guv. Preliminary forensics report is in. They asked for a bit more time on a few things." Ray handed him a folder.
"I'm going to look through these books and see if I can find anything." Gene nodded, taking the forensics report into his office. He poured a drink before he sat down.
Gene hadn't said much on their drive to the professor's and back, but he had asked a few questions when they got there. The professor Shaz had found had been very helpful, taking a copy of the drawings Alex had made, and loaning her a few books to take back to the station. Between the two of them they were hopeful they could find something by morning. Alex was at her desk going through the texts when Gene finally came out of his office. He set the forensics report on her desk.
"If you can find anything in this you're better than me." It was near midnight. He set a drink on top of the file.
"Thanks," she sipped. "Nothing helpful at all?"
"Well, they set time of death for both bodies at about 14 hours before we found them, and they would have been killed there for that much blood to have spilled out. No sign of a weapon anywhere, so they're making a list of guesses and they'll get that to us tomorrow. The blood used for drawing on the walls was the blood of the victims." He stopped, gulping from his own glass. "Oh, and both victims had drugs in their systems. Sedatives."
"So he drugged them, brought them there to kill them. We need to find out if these symbols are part of a ritual, or if he just put them there to throw us off. We won't find a murder weapon, I'm sure the killer still has it. Anything from the coroner yet?"
He shook his head. "No. In the morning" he said. Looking for something?"
"Well, if this is a ritual killing it wouldn't be unusual for the killer to take a souvenir, a memento, from the victim. I was just wondering if there were any body parts missing. It can certainly help in developing the profile and determining if we think there will be another murder."
"Another murder! Bloody hell." He sat silently on her desk another minute. "I should be off, then."
"Off?"
"Was going to go home. This morning you said…"
"No. I didn't. Forget this morning. Poor communication on my part. Please come home with me, Gene. We both need the sleep. I can take these books and go over them there. You'll get to sleep quicker if we go to my place."
He gave her a look. "Seems bloody unlikely." But for the first time today she almost saw him grin.
--
Back at her flat, Alex put her books and papers on the coffee table. She planned to stay up until she found something. A glass of wine would be helpful, though, if it didn't put her to sleep, she thought.
Gene had gone straight into the bedroom and peeled off his two day old clothes. "I feel disgusting!"
She heard him go into the bathroom and shut the door, turning on the shower. Pouring her glass of wine, she sat down on the sofa and opened her books. She was engrossed in them when he sat down next to her.
"Much better," he brought a glass and the rest of the bottle with him. "So, psychologist, tell me you've solved our crime."
"Ahh. Now you want my psychological insights?"
He grunted. "If I must."
"This is really fascinating. You should read some of it." She'd found a matching symbol in one of the books and put it on Gene's lap.
"I don't want to read this. That's what I have you for. You read it and tell me how it solves the crime."
"Mmm. Is that what you have me for?" She taunted him.
He took the challenge. "That and a daily shag or three. Which reminds me, we seem to have fallen behind today." He put the book Alex had placed on his lap onto the coffee table then moved the remaining papers and books off the sofa. He pulled her on top of him, his mouth tugging hers. They kissed, tentatively at first, the first time they'd touched since the morning's argument. He put his arms around her, she put her arms on his chest. His tongue traced her upper lip, teasing her mouth, going deeper, finding hers. He pulled her closer, his hand finding skin at the small of her back.
"Alex," he tugged at her top and she sat up, letting him pull it over her head. She noticed he had nothing on under his dressing gown and leaned in, kissing his chest lightly. She kissed up his torso, gently licking at one nipple, then the other, kissing and biting his neck, nibbling at his ears.
She stood up, unbuttoning her jeans. He sat in front of her, unzipping to find her naked. "Alex, if you keep comin' to work without your knickers, I am going to be forced to put you over my desk." She smirked at him as he pulled down her jeans his tongue sliding up the inside of her thigh, finding her clit, lightly teasing it. Alex moaned, her knees bending slightly. "Gene," she breathed. He held her steady as he pulled her jeans off over her feet then stood, pulling her close.
"It's bloody freezing in here. Come on."
They sat up on the bed, hands and mouths exploring each other, each trying to lead. "Gene," he'd wrestled her to the bed, all fours over her. His mouth had taken hold of one breast, his hand the other, and together they worked her, teasing her buds taut, her breasts rising with her heavy breathing. "Gene I want you" "Not yet" he panted. Her hands found his face, pulling it to hers, her mouth found his, kissing biting, she became more frantic.
"What's the bloody rush?" he grabbed her hands in one of his, holding them together over her head. His other trailed slowly down her body, touching her lightly, pulling her leg up as he fingered inside her. She moaned, her wrists held firmly in his hand. He lay on top of her without entering, and spying a tie on the night table he reached for it with his free hand. "Gene, what?" Managing a figure 8 around her wrists, he tied her securely to the iron bars.
He growled in her ear "Now, Alex, don't be in such a hurry." "Oooh," she moaned, arching her back as he entered her. Filling her, he began to thrust slowly then withdrew, causing her to whimper. "Don't do this to me, god I want you, please Gene." He buried his face between her legs, mouth and tongue finding her hot center. "Oh my god" He brought her close, but not to climax, and she pulled at her wrists, wanting to pull him into her, bring him closer, but he stayed out of reach. He kissed his way up, her neck, behind her ears. "What do you want, Alex," he was throbbing, his cock at her entry, teasing her, moving slightly, not entering. "You, Gene Hunt, inside me,want...you, fucking me" he pushed in a little more. "Anything else?" "More, Gene, deeper, god, want to feel you explode" he began thrusting, the sound of her voice making him want her more. He thrust harder and she screamed, he felt her climax and he moved faster coming closer "Alex…" She wrapped her legs around him, raising up slightly as he came, grunting.
--
He untied her eventually.
"My God, Gene."
"You ok?" He was looking at her wrists rubbing the circulation back into them.
"Yeah." She rolled onto her side, putting her arms around his neck. She noticed the sweat around his hairline.
"Gene?" She looked into his eyes.
"Mmmm?" He kissed her.
"I need you."
"What?"
"That's what I was trying to tell you this morning. I may have been drunk before, but it was true. I don't want you to not be here, ever."
Pulling back his face, he looked at her.
"OK." He said. "I won't leave."