"He's waking up… he's coming back!"
Gene tried in vain to open his eyes, to see what was happening. Panic was settling into his stomach, turning it upside-down inside him, and his head ached for some reason that he couldn't fathom, not a normal headache, a real "I've-been-clubbed-on-the-head-with-a-baseball-bat" headache.
Severe trauma to the head came back to him as he thought this, and his brain, ever quick despite all the times Alex had called him stupid or an idiot, began to work it out.
I'm not… am I?
Gene's eyes finally opened and began taking in a hospital ward. Not out of the usual, perhaps, he had been travelling to a hospital…
But this was a hospital ward a la the 1980's.
Gene gave a strangled gasp and tried to sit up, urgency coursing through his veins and quickening his breathing. A hand gently pushed him back, and Gene found himself staring into familiar blue eyes, staring at him with mingled relief and awe and concern, although the latter was hidden behind the sky-coloured irises. Gene, having a lot of experience at doing the same thing, easily stripped away the cover.
"Guv? You need to stay lyin' down, Guv, the nurses said so."
Ray Carling calmly lowered his DCI back onto the pillows and turned towards the doorway.
"Are you divs comin' in or not?"
"Yeah, we are," a familiar Essex voice said, and two more people walked in, followed by someone who Gene had thought he would never see again, on whose arm hung someone else he had thought was safely on the other side.
Chris, Shaz, Sam and Annie all walked in at Ray's words, sitting down next to the bed and watching as Ray carefully helped Gene sit up to face them properly. Gene was weak and knew it, but still resented Ray helping him and taking away his independence- heck, it had been him helping Ray and the rest for God knows how many years, he didn't want a role reversal now.
Then it struck him- there was one person missing.
"Where's- where's Bolly? Alex?"
The team looked round at each other, confused or uncertain looks rife between them.
"One of you answer me!" Gene gasped, real panic now infused in his gut and rushing through his mind. Chris and Ray looked at each other. Shaz simply stared at the floor.
"Who's Bolly?" Sam and Annie asked in unison. Shaz looked up at Gene, meeting his eyes, her dark chocolate into his vivid blue.
"Alex went through, Guv. That's what Nelson said. She'll go home. You were meant to go with her, but you got pulled back."
NO! Gene screamed internally, but he kept his temper back, with an effort. His team had had enough of that when they had worked for him, they didn't deserve it now they had entered the Railway Arms.
That brought a fresh thought into his mind.
"What are you lot doin' 'ere? You're meant to be in the pub!"
"Nelson let us out when 'e 'eard you'd been attacked," Ray said, chewing a piece of gum as he spoke. The familiar sight and sound made Gene close his eyes for a second, reliving Fenchurch East CID and the years he had spent in it. "'E said you deserved to 'ave your team one more time."
Shaz smiled as Ray said it, leaning forwards and putting her hand on Gene's arm. Her fingers were surprisingly warm, either that or Gene was freezing.
"You really want 'er back, don't you, Guv? Ma'am."
There was no point pretending; the Manc Lion knew he needed his lioness, and he was needed by her. He nodded slowly.
"She needs me," Gene murmured, almost to himself, his voice rough after lack of use. "She needs me to 'elp 'er get back to 'er daughter… she said she wouldn' do it withou' me."
Shaz nodded, bowing her head.
"Well, Guv," Chris said, speaking for the first time, "you 'ave a choice. Come with us to the Railway Arms and stay there until it's 'er time, or…"
"Or what?" Gene asked eagerly, leaning forwards. Ray sighed and pushed him back.
"Guv, they'll 'ave our knackers in vices if you keep leanin' forwards, you're meant to be lyin' down. We don't want to leave before you know wha' the choice is."
Gene ignored him and focused on Chris, who was opening and shutting his mouth wordlessly, looking like a particularly gormless goldfish out of water.
"Spit it out, Skelton."
"You kill yerself, Guv. You destroy this version of yerself and go back to 'er in whatever state yer in there. We'd never see yer again until yer made yer way ter the Railway Arms in yer own time, but yeh'd be with Boss- Ma'am."
Gene drew in his breath sharply, his eyes wandering towards the corner of the room. In it hung a spider, quickly wrapping an unfortunate bluebottle in silky web while the bug screeched and buzzed, trying to resist the spindly legs now trapping it tightly. Gene shuddered, not for the reason that he disliked spiders, but for the reason that he felt the same way as the bluebottle, trapped between two things, neither of which appealed to him at this moment in time.
"Guv?" Sam asked quietly, his arm round Annie's shoulders and his hand playing with the tassels on her Western-style coat, one Gene hadn't seen before and assumed she had bought in the pub. "What d'you want to do?"
Gene looked back and made eye contact with his team, his body now changed, purposefulness infused into his stance and his eyes alert.
"I need to get back to Bolly. So I'll go for killin' meself. I'm sorry, but it's wha' I 'ave to do."
The people assembled around the bed nodded, understanding in their eyes.
"We'll see you again one day, Guv," Ray said, standing up and reaching behind him to pull a gun out from under his coat. Gene would have smiled, had nobody been looking, as he took in the sight of the familiar gun in Ray's hand; it was the same gun he had been using for years.
"First we 'ave to get you out o' 'ere, Guv, or we'll never get back to the Railway Arms. An' for that we need a doctor on our side. So we'll go an' flash our badges at a couple an' get a car ready to take you somewhere secluded to… to do it."
Ray stumbled over the last couple of words. This was his Guv, his role model, the man he'd admired for years, and he was happily killing himself to be with the woman he seemed to love. Gene's face changed as though he was going to snarl at Ray for being a poof, but instead it morphed into an expression of almost thankfulness.
"Well, are your badges going to si' around all day in your pockets or are they goin' to get me out o' 'ere?"
Ray nodded and turned to go and find the doctor in charge of Gene's care, hating himself inside. Every step he was taking was another step towards the destruction of the Manc Lion.
"Doctor Carlton? I need a word."
Alex couldn't believe it. Just a couple of hours ago she had been herself, happy and warm, laughing with Gene at a programme on the TV, making breakfast and reminding him not to be late for their appointment at the hospital, stroking the picture of Molly on the window-sill and telling Gene some random story about herself and Molly as they ate beans on toast, grabbing the keys to the much-loved and much-abused Quattro and ready to get out of the door to go to the appointment… and then he had collapsed and taken her world with him.
To all intents and purposes, Gene Hunt was dead.
His brain showed minimal activity, and that little activity was slowing and becoming less and less. His heart stuttered if he was taken off life support. He couldn't breathe on his own. He didn't react to her touch. Electrical shocks had achieved nothing. He was totally gone.
Alex allowed the tears to fall as she watched the heart monitor register his pulse weakening, and pressed her hand to his chest as she had done all those years ago to feel it for herself, thinking she was in a coma and this was all a dream. The difference was obvious; there was hardly anything there.
"Gene, you need to come back to me," she whispered to him, allowing tears to fall onto his face, the rugged, weathered Northern skin that she knew like the back of her hand. He didn't flinch, but a small smile seemed to flash over his face and she gasped.
"Gene…?"
But nothing more came, and Alex sighed, lying back in the chair and leaning her head against the wall, her hand tucked in his and her eyes slowly closing, her own brain sliding into sleep…
"Alex? Bolly?"
"Gene!" she shrieked, running towards him and pulling him into a huge hug. He returned it, and then held her out at arm's length, his eyes serious, boring into hers with an urgency she had only ever seen before in situations where they might have lost their lives. That said, this was one of those situations.
"Listen, Bolls. What happened was that I wen' back to 1983, with the others. Sam an' Annie even turned up. I 'ave to kill myself there to get back to you."
"Kill yourself? And you'd… you'd do that… for me?"
"Course I would, you dozy mare. Just don't le' 'em turn me off. I know I'm on life support, I would 'ave to be to stay alive. If they say I'm dead, don't le' 'em kill me, OK? I will come back. I'm jus' waitin' for Raymondo to turn up with a car to take me out o' 'ere."
"Where are you?"
"Hospital. I 'aven't got long. Jus' don't le' 'em kill me. Keep me alive at all costs, OK?"
"I will," Alex promised, clinging to him, feeling his warmth, his rough skin and his attachment to her. They knew each other better than anyone else in the world and they knew that they were unbreakable in that moment, when their eyes made contact and Alex reached up to kiss him passionately…
And then he was gone, vanished, and all that was left was the feel of his lips on hers.
Smiling, and deciding that all was not lost after all, Alex turned and began to wake herself up. She had no idea how she was doing it, but it was easy.
"Ma'am? Alex?"
Alex looked up. A nurse was standing over her, her eyes creased in concern.
"I'm fine," Alex replied, smiling at the young woman and sitting up. "Just… don't turn him off. Keep him alive."
The nurse looked down at Gene.
"His chances are slim…"
"Trust me," Alex replied, her eyes alight and her mouth curved in triumph. "He will wake up."
A/N: There we go, another chapter for you lucky people ;) Chocolate biscuits for everyone who reviews, since I'm in a good mood (I go to Cyprus in a month!). Thanks to all reviewers and happyeverafter72, my beta! Jazzola :)