Disclaimer not mine. Sorry for delay in updating. Not enough hours in the day.

Blurred Lines

Gene sat in the driver's seat of the Austin Martin as Ray and Chris headed for the small car parked behind them. Alex closed her eyes as she waited for him to start the engine. Chris and Ray drove away as Alex opened her eyes and stared at him.

"You ok?"

"Bolls." Gene nodded once, his hands gripping the steering wheel.

"Gene? What is it?"

"Keats has confessed to murdering those two poor arseholes. We've gone around thinking that it was a homophobic crime. It isn't. It's him wanting to show us he can still get to us. Still get to me." Gene growled at the windscreen. "Annie, poor cow just got in the way."

"Annie is stronger than she looks. Always has been."

"Yeah. I know." Gene shook his head. "There aren't that many men in the world I hate. But he is one of them."

"Gene." Alex rested a hand on his arm. "Gene."

"I know. He wants a reaction." He knew Alex's psychological profiling would have a handle on what Jim Keates was up to this time. He knew she would have something to say.

"He killed people, Gene." Alex answered quietly. "Annie is in a coma. Annie." Gene took her hand in his.

"I know." Gene spoke calmly. "But this ends now."

###########

"Do I really have to stay in hospital?" Annie asked as a porter with a wheelchair arrived to take her to the ward. "I mean, I don't even have my nightie with me."

"You need to have neuro obs overnight." The nurse stated as she walked alongside the porter. "You know what the doctor said."

Annie nodded slightly, annoyed that she knew none of what was happening was real. She remembered Alex and Sam talking about coma dreams. She knew from talking to them that each dream world seemed real. She knew Sam had spent the six weeks he was in his coma believing he was in the 1970s while Alex dreamt of 1981. Why she had found herself in the 1960s she had no idea.

"If you need painkillers ask." The nurse stated. Annie nodded and immediately regretted it.

"I will but I don't have a headache. I just need to get home to my husband and son. That's all." She slipped out of the wheelchair as the nurse watched. The porter rolled his eyes before leaving her to it.

"You remember a contact number for them and I'll ring them straight away. Until then there really isn't much we can do."

"Sam and Daniel Tyler."

"So you say." The nurse nodded, obviously pitying her. "So you say."

#######################

Gene walked back into the office, aware that a few hours earlier Keates had been stood where Chris was.

"Ok, tell me something uplifting."

"That asteroid never hit us." Chris smiled. "Hit Russia instead."

"Chris." Shaz hissed as Ray shook his head.

"Find Keates." Gene hissed before glaring at Chris. "I want his arse in the cells before Beer o Clock tonight." The office door slammed shut befire anyone else spoke. Seconds later Gene could be seen throwing darts at the board in the corner of the room. Alex knew he was imagining throwing them at Keates' head.

"How is she?" Shaz asked, avoiding looking in the direction of the Guv's office.

"Not good." Alex replied. "They're keeping her in a coma for now."

"Oh." Shaz looked at the floor, knowing how heart broken Sam would be. "Phyllis has taken the children for now. Molly was asking questions."

"I thought she would." Alex sighed before sitting down to her computer. "This is all my fault."

"Bollocks." Ray snapped. "The only one to blame is that scum that killed those two blokes, that wrecked the flat and had Annie run off the road."

"Ray." Alex paused as he walked over to her.

"You are not to blame because that short arse scum can't take a knock back. He wanted to break up you and Gene. And he didn't. Last thing he wants if for you pair to be 'appy. That's why he's attacking the people you both care about." Ray carried on. "Not you."

"Ray. I." She rested her hand on her baby bump. "I."

"No, I aint having it. That scum isn't destroying this team." Shaz and Chris smiled slightly. None of them noticed the way Gene was staring at a piece of paper on his desk. None of them saw him pick up the phone and dial the number written on the paper. None of them saw him wait for the caller to answer of heard what he had to say. Seconds later he grabbed his jacket and headed out of the office without looking back.

xxxxxxxxxxx

A/N More soon