Chapter 14: I Just Don't Understand

Gene woke slowly, feeling groggy and slightly nauseous from the sedatives. He kept his eyes closed for a moment, trying to figure out how to get rid of the nurses that would inevitably approach him once they saw his eyes open. He had had enough of them when he had come around the first time. Oh, there had been a major fuss when he had opened his eyes earlier. There were doctors and nurses everywhere. They had started to run him through tests, but he ignored them. He was searching for once face among the crowd, but she was not there.

He had asked for Alex, but they said that she wasn't there. He had told the doctor to ring her, but the doctor had refused, saying that they would ring her in a little bit. That was when he tried to sit up and realised that his hands were tied down. He had started to yell at the doctors to take them off. Finally a nurse came forward, apologising profusely.

"I'm sorry Mr. Hunt," she had said. "When I took out your ventilator an hour ago, I didn't remove these."

He was in such a rage by this point that he had thrown a cup of water at the nurse. It was at that point that he felt a burning in his arm. He looked down to see what had caused the pain, and saw a nurse with a syringe attached to his IV. He had sat up again, ready to get out of the bed to chase the bloody nurse down when the medication started to take effect. A doctor had pushed him down and Gene couldn't fight anymore. Finally he had drifted back into sleep.

Now, he lay there quietly, thinking. Why hadn't Alex been there when he had woken up? His first thought was that she had been caught in the blast as well and gotten hit worse than he, but the doctors had said she was fine. If she was fine, then why wasn't she here? Had they had a row the morning of the blast? Would she be childish enough to stay away from hospital just because they had a row?

He heard a voice talking and listened to what it was saying.

"The sedatives should be wearing off soon, but he'll still be tired. If you could calm him down when he wakes up, Miss Drake, we'd like to finish our tests. We weren't able to get in a cognitive function exam. He did prove his range of motion quite well though."

Great! So he had more bloody tests to go through.

"I wonder why he was so insistent on seeing me," he heard Alex say. "The last time we were near each other he seemed pretty intent on not seeing me until I would communicate with him."

Gene was puzzled. He had no idea what she was talking about. She had been communicating with him fine last he remembered.

"He wanted to see you before the bomb happened, Alex," a voice said that he didn't recognise. "Remember, I was giving him updates on your progress. He was angry that I wouldn't let him see you that night he came to look at your studio. Besides, a bomb resorts priorities. You should know that as well as anyone."

Gene was now extremely confused. What progress was Alex having? And who was the man who belonged to the voice? He certainly couldn't place it, and couldn't recall seeing a 'studio' at any point.

"You're right. If it weren't for what happened, I still wouldn't be speaking to him."

Gene had had enough. He needed to know what was going on. Keeping his eyes closed, he focused on the muscles around his mouth, concentrating on making them work. Finally, he was able to slur a small sentence. "Why wouldn' you talk t'me?"

"Gene?" Her voice sounded concerned.

He focused on opening his eyes. Finally, he got them open, blinking several times in the light. Alex was sitting next to him, looking several pounds thinner than he remembered. Next to her was a man he didn't recognise.

"Hey, Bolly," he said. "You made it."

"You sound like you're in a better mood than you were earlier."

Gene sniffed. "Doctors and nurses. Doing tests. Wankers."

"Gene, you almost died. Of course they want to do tests. They want to do a few more, actually."

"Bollocks. I'm fine."

Alex raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes. "If you were fine, you wouldn't have had to spend half a week on the ventilator."

"I wasn't then, I am now." He was finally starting to wake up, and was able to talk more clearly.

"If you're trying to prove to them that you're ready to get out right now, it's not going to work. You've still got a chest tube."

"Eh?"

"You've got a tube coming out of your chest, Gene. They're getting the blood out of the place where the lung is supposed to be so you can breathe better."

Now that she had mentioned it, Gene could feel a piece of hard plastic against his side. "Shit," he said.

"Yes. Now would you like the doctors in? The sooner they can perform their tests, the sooner you get out."

"One minute. I have questions."

Alex sighed, looking irritated, but relieved at the same time. "What are your questions, Gene?"

"I heard you talking to him before I really woke up. I don't understand what you were talking about."

Alex frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You were mentioning things like studios and that man next to you said he knew me. But I've never met him. I'm certain of it."

Alex's expression changed from not understanding to worry and she ran her hand through her hair.

"What the bloody hell happened to your finger?" Gene yelled. Her little finger was missing. And it looked like it had been healed over for quite a while. How long had he been out?

"Gene, Jinks and his men cut off my finger when they kidnapped me," she said slowly.

"How long have I been out?"

"Four days."

Gene frowned. Nothing was adding up.

"You still haven't told me who this wanker is," he said finally.

"I'm Mark, Gene. We've met several times."

Gene shook his head confidently, not noticing that Alex had slipped out of the room.

"I've never seen you before in my life. I think I'd remember a tosser like you."

The man smiled. "Glad to see your opinion hasn't changed at least."

Suddenly, there was a flurry of movement as Alex came in flanked by the doctors.

"Bolly, what are you doing? What's going on?"

"Let the doctors perform their tests, Gene."

"Mr. Hunt," said a doctor that had been in earlier. "I'm going to ask you some questions. The answers may seem obvious, but we do this check on absolutely everyone who enters the hospital."

Gene nodded, sighing inwardly. He'd have to cooperate if he wanted out of this place.

"Right. Can you tell me your full name?"

Gene looked at Alex despairingly, but she raised an eyebrow and nodded toward the doctor. He noted the look of worry that she was trying to hide. Finally, he answered, more for her sake than anyone else's.

"Gene Hunt."

"Good. Can you tell me where you are?"

"Hospital."

The doctor nodded approvingly and Gene got the sudden urge to punch him.

"Last question, Mr. Hunt. What's the date?"

Gene frowned. "I've been unconscious. How am I supposed to know the date?"

"Just give me the month and year."

Gene frowned, thinking. "December, 1982. Near Christmas."

He saw Alex give the man named Mark a worried look. Gene suddenly felt panicked. Was this not the right answer?

"Mr. Hunt," the doctor said solemnly.

Shit, he thought. Something's wrong.

"It's November of 1983."

"But it can't be 1983. I don't remember the bloody year turning over." He stopped, looking at Alex and the doctors. "You are joking me, right."

Alex shook her head. "It's November, Gene."

"You must have hit your head when the bomb went off. We'll arrange for you to talk to a hospital psychologist. Your memories might come back the longer you're up as well."

Gene narrowed his eyes as the doctor walked out. As soon as the man was gone, he turned to Alex. "The bomb hit the station?"

Alex nodded.

"Was my department okay?"

Alex did the thing he was dreading. She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "The bomb was underneath your desk. All of CID was gathered around in brainstorming session. Three non-CID officers died."

"And CID?" Gene didn't want to hear this, but knew he had to.

"Poirot, Bammo, Gordon, Riley, at the scene. Shrapnel and glass flying everywhere, according to Ray. Terry and Johnson passed because of injuries sustained. Your replacement DI was injured, but not as badly as you. Chris and Ray were injured as well, but they're fine. Viv was fine, as was Perry. Ackley was released yesterday."

Gene let out a breath. "Half the office is dead."

Alex nodded solemnly.

"And what do you mean, my replacement DI?"

Alex sighed. He could tell that she was dreading this moment. However, she explained what had happened. He listened with growing horror and anger as she told of the ordeal she had gone through.

"I was angry," she said. "I ran away from you after you told me I had to talk to you or I couldn't stay. Mark had offered me a place, so I stayed with him."

Gene glared at Mark.

"Don't you be rude to him, Gene. If it weren't for him, I still wouldn't be speaking."

Gene crossed his arms. "Fine. As long as you two aren't shagging."

Alex gave a short, sharp laugh, but he didn't miss the nervous glance she threw towards Mark.

"I can guarantee you, Gene, that Alex and I aren't shagging," Mark answered.

"Good."

He glared between both of them before he realised that he was getting tired again. He hated these stupid drugs they had him on. He wasn't going to be able to stay awake for more than a few minutes until he got off them. He was surprised he was able to stay awake for as long as he had.

Alex seemed to notice that he was growing tired. "You should go to sleep Gene."

"I don't want to. I just want out of here." He wanted to go see the station, to talk to what remained of his team.

"That's not an option at the moment. They've already said that after you get the chest tube out, you still have to stay for another couple days."

"Why?" he yelled.

"Because they want to make sure that your lung doesn't collapse again," the man named Mark said plainly.

Gene glared at the man. "You get out of here. I didn't ask for you to be here."

"Gene. Don't be rude," Alex said, but Mark held up his hand.

"It's okay Alex. We both knew that he wasn't going to like me. I'll be waiting outside." With that, Mark walked out of the room.

"Good riddance," Gene muttered.

"I can't believe you," Alex said. "He's a nice man Gene, and you treat him like shit!"

"I don't like him, Alex. You should stay away from him. He works with the government."

She opened her mouth, her face flushed, ready to yell at him, when she stopped, looking stunned.

"We didn't tell you that he worked for the government," she said softly.

"Eh?"

"I glossed over a lot of what happened to me. I just said that I was kidnapped and after I had been rescued, Mark visited me in hospital. We haven't mentioned the government, Gene. You came up with that by yourself."

Gene grinned, proud of himself. "Good. I'll have all my memories restored in no time."

"Good. And then you'll be obnoxious and irritating, as always. Oh wait, you are right now."

"You would've missed it," Gene said, settling into his pillows, hardly able to keep his eyes open.

"You think," Alex replied, her voice sounding further away. He could hear the grin in her voice as she said it. There was a long pause before he heard her voice once more. "Sleep well. I'll be back later. And don't hassle the nurses too much."