Um, so… yeah. It's been a while. I can only apologise. I've been battling a severe Hollyoaks addiction, a jigsaw of sky and writer's block. Only one has been conquered.
I hope that those of you amazing people still reading aren't disappointed/livid/nauseous/killed by the delay/chapter/content/weather.
On a completely different note, sorry for any historical inaccuracies in language etc. I gave up history (and English for that matter) for cold, hard, numbers. I could write you guys a great equation but instead you're getting another chapter.
"Where's Tyler then?" Gene finally got round to asking Chris after a round of bacon, two fried eggs and a bowl of coffee with a splash of whiskey added.
"He took Annie home. They were both pretty wiped out." Chris moved the whiskey bottle out of the way as Gene made a grab for it.
"Why aren't you?" Gene briefly thought of fighting Chris for the bottle but decided he couldn't be bothered. He'd wait, and bide his time before striking. Sometime when he wasn't so tired.
"Why am I not home or why am I not wiped out?" Chris was far too awake for Gene's liking.
"Both." Gene picked up the bowl and drank deeply from it.
"Well, Sam wanted you to know the current situation but couldn't come himself and I had four coffees on the way over." Now that he mentioned it he did seem to be buzzing slightly, Gene noticed, and thought about telling him so but found something better to say.
"Four? Know how many's in this bowl?" he asked, leaning in towards Chris and beckoning for him to do the same. "Hundred." He said when Chris shook his head in reply.
"There's not a hundred coffees in there." Chris objected but peered into the bowl just to check. While he was doing this Gene reached over and grabbed the whiskey from the other side of the table, pouring a generous amount into both the bowl and onto the table.
"Hundred and one." Gene announced smugly, taking a drink. Chris knew better than to argue with the guv's maths, especially this early in the morning.
"Guv?" he decided to change the topic instead.
"What?" Gene slammed the now empty bowl down onto the table.
"D'you reckon we should wake her or something?" Chris nodded in the general direction of O'Brien, who was still lying on the floor. She was snoring slightly, and was clutching one of Gene's boots to her chest the same way a small child would a teddy.
"Never wake a sleeping lion." Gene told him. "Shoulda learnt that in the boy Scouts."
"Oh. Right." Chris nodded and was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Guv?"
"What?" Gene answered gruffly, really wishing he was still asleep.
"She's not a lion." Chris said simply.
"Fine, wake her then. And make some more coffee while you're up." Gene stretched and rose from the table. "Actually, I'll wake her. If you want something doing…" he muttered the last part to himself as he stumbled back over to O'Brien. He stood over her for a moment, wondering how best to wake her up. In the end he settled for wrestling his boot from her arms, which took longer than he expected as the sleeping woman put up quite a bit of resistance. When he finally managed to get it free he staggered backwards and fell over. O'Brien blinked blearily at him as she sat up.
"What're you doing on the floor?" she asked slowly as she woke up.
"I'm not." Gene retorted, hurriedly standing up again and putting his boot on.
"You were." O'Brien said finally. She rubbed her eyes then looked at him expectantly.
"Wha-" Gene started then realised. "Oh, bloody hell. Fine." He held out his hand to help O'Brien to her feet. Once up she brushed down her trousers and surveyed the sight in front of her.
"What happened to you? I can't say you're normally well turned out but this is worse than your usual standards." she asked as she started to fix her hair. Gene wondered two things then- the first was how on earth she had managed to wake up so completely and so suddenly, and the second was how she thought she looked any better than he did. He relayed these thoughts to her.
"Firstly, that's none of your business, and secondly, it's your fault I'm in this state anyway." She brushed past him into the kitchen. Gene thought about arguing but decided she was probably right, so followed her in silence.
"So. Last night." Gene wasn't sure quite what he was going to say but thought he'd better put last night out there anyway, in the hope O'Brien might have something to say on the matter.
"Yes?" unfortunately she just arched an eyebrow at him from across the table.
"What happened last night?" Chris bounded over to the table with more coffee, filling a mug for O'Brien then the bowl after Gene's directions.
"None of your business." Gene said at the same time as O'Brien replied "nothing."
"Oh yeah, Sam said you two'd gone on a date."
"We did not. I was a hostage." O'Brien sniffed at the coffee suspiciously then took a sip.
"No you weren't." Gene glared at his bowl rather than look at her.
"He had a gun." She told Chris, ignoring Gene.
"He has a missus too." Chris said without thinking, then realised what he'd said. "Oh, I'll er, I'll go now." He edged out of eyesight then ran for the door. Neither Gene nor O'Brien noticed.
"You're married?" O'Brien asked coldly. She was equal parts angry and disappointed, but tried not to let either show.
"No I'm not." Gene decided denial was the best way forward.
"Yes you are." O'Brien wasn't having any of it.
"So?" Gene tried to swig his coffee nonchalantly, but this proved too difficult with a bowl so he settled for leaning back in his chair and folding his arms.
"You kissed me." O'Brien crossed her arms too, but stayed bolt upright.
"You kissed me back." Gene said. "You weren't complaining last night."
"That was before I knew you were married." O'Brien said stiffly as she felt a prickling behind her eyes. She rarely cried. But then again, she rarely found a man she liked as much as Gene. She wouldn't go so far as to say it was love, but last night had been… special, she supposed. And now it had been ruined. She felt she was justified in shedding a few tears at this point. But not in front of him.
"I think you should leave." She at least managed to look him in the eye as she said it.
"Fine." Gene practically snarled as he stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. "Women." He grumbled as he stormed to the door, slamming it on his way out. Once he was gone O'Brien slumped forward and laid her head on the table. Then she cried.
I can't make any promises, but I know what I'm doing. If the next chapter is late out it won't be because of writer's block (but probably something much more sinister.)