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"Slice it and kill us both."

Gene felt Alex release her hand but he was barley aware of it. He was marvelling instead at her choice of words: both. He knew Alex had meant her and the baby but he thought about it differently. The baby hadn't been factored into the equation, on the day he found out he would be a father he had lied to Alex and pretended that the snout they met was a stranger to him. He didn't feel worthy of a titled as grand as Father. So when Alex said "kill us both", he heard something else. He heard Alex and himself.

The simple fact of the matter was, if Alex died, so did he. Nothing else mattered, not animal ethics, not bioterrorism, nothing. Only Alex.

Alex felt the cold metal of the knife leave her neck and heard the clatter of the knife as it hit the floor. Gene moved away from her and immediately her body cried out for his warmth again.

"What the hell, Drake!" Gene cried before quickly correcting himself. To his surprise, Alex's lips curled up into a beautiful smile that reached her eyes.

"It's you," Alex said softly.

"Who did you think I was, Maggie Thatcher?" Gene grunted and Alex's silvery laughter filled the room like expensive champagne flowing into a flute. Like Bollinger Gene thought, smiling to himself.

"No," said Alex, "But you weren't my Gene."

"I'm not anybody's Gene," he replied, mentally adding except yours. All though there was no way could know this, Alex heard it, even though she didn't know how either.

"But you were theirs," said Alex seriously and Gene looked away, ashamed, "they owned you and corrupted you. Now you're not. You weren't prepared to kill me or the baby. You are your own man Gene. You're free of them and free of Stockholm Syndrome."

"As simple as that?"

Alex hesitated and Gene looked back, nervous. "If I am any danger to you Alex, tell me now, and I'll walk away. I'll leave you and the baby in peace. I don't want you or the baby to pay for my mistakes."

Alex smiled. "You are aware of the problem. That's the first step, acquiring insight. From now on, you need to question your motives for everything and trace them back to either them or us."

Gene moved towards Alex and her body cried out in celebration as it took his warmth again. "How did you know I wasn't going to kill you? I could have done. I could have still been brainwashed and you couldn't have escaped."

"I didn't know if it would work," said Alex quietly, "I didn't know if you would kill me or not. All I know is that when I thought you were dead, it felt like I was too. That was the worst part of my life, Gene, and I was so thankful when you came back to me. Only you didn't, did you?"

"Bolls, I'm s-"

"It's ok. But I decided that if you really had joined them and left me, then I wouldn't be able to live without you. If you killed me after all then-"

Gene couldn't wait any longer. He pressed his lips to Alex's and she accepted his kiss hungrily, having been denied the real him for so long. She felt his hands glide up her body and his fingers twist in her hair. His warm breath exhaled into her mouth and on her lips as he whispered her name over and over again. She wasn't quiet either, moaning "Gene," repeatedly until he tucked his arm under her legs and carried her into the bedroom…

XXX

Alex lay on the bed, a loose sheet wrapped around her and damp locks of hair clung to her forehead. Her eyes drifted between open and closed as sleep threatened to overcome her but she didn't want to go to sleep, just in case none of this was real.

"Alex, I have to tell you something."

Alex was suddenly wide awake, all thoughts of sleep forgotten as she tried to quell her sudden surge of panic.

"This untold misery…"

Alex sat up slowly, keeping the sheet around her. Gene tried not to think about how well the white of the sheet went with her skin.

"They lied to you about it. It isn't at the Maternity Unit. It's at Greater Fenchurch Hospital."

"But it can't be," Alex said, "We had a snout, he told us…"

Her voice trailed away and realisation dawned on her. "They knew about him of course they did! You told Langley about him before Chris made contact, so he told the snout to feed us crap in order to save his own life, but Langley killed him anyway! They've been feeding us wrong intelligence." Her eyes flashed furiously at Gene. "They really had every fucking base covered, didn't they? Brainwash you, manipulate the snout…"

Gene tentatively put an arm around her and when she didn't push him away, he rubbed her arm comfortingly.

"So when is it going to be?" said Alex, her voice hard. "This rubella attack, or is that a lie as well?"

"No, that's true. Everything else they told you was right, the day, the method, everything. They just wanted you at the wrong place at the right time."

"Unless this is a lie," said Alex slowly and Gene snatched his arm away as though it had been burnt.

"I suppose I deserved that," Gene muttered, heaving himself off the bed and running his hands through his still-dirty hair.

"I'm not suggesting you're lying to me deliberately," she said soothingly, "But how do you know the truth? The League are lying bastards, I don't know what to believe any more when it comes to them."

"They thought I was loyal to them," said Gene bitterly, "I'm not underestimating them, Bolls, but the League can't account for everything. They couldn't account for you."

Alex paused then said carefully, "Why did you come back from the dead when you did?"

"Because they let me," said Gene bluntly and Alex leant back against the headboard, satisfied that he had told the truth, "I didn't try too hard to escape, but you know the reason for that."

"How did your car come to be abandoned?"

"I like how you ask me all the important questions only after sex," Gene sighed, flopping down on the bed. Alex laughed and said something about priorities.

"They were following me. They aren't now," he said quickly as he saw Alex's alarmed expression, "Hence the abandoned Quattro. A beautiful red car like that is easy to spot."

"Do they know you're here?" Alex asked, not all together comforted.

"No they bloody don't," Gene said, "When I lose a tail, Bolls, I do it properly."

"If you say so," said Alex, teasingly. She changed the subject. "I haven't factored you into the plan."

Gene knew straight away what she was talking about. "I could replace you if you like. Shouldn't you be on some form of leave? Or giving up work? Can't be healthy, you gallivanting all over the place with a shrimp in your gut."

Alex rolled her eyes at his old-fashioned views. "We'll talk about whether I'll carry on working or not later. And no you can't replace me. I'm going undercover as a patient. I'm sure your acting skills are exemplary, Gene, but even Olivier would struggle to fool health professionals into believing he was a pregnant woman."

"Gary Cooper wouldn't though," Gene replied, "But you're not going to be actually in the building, are you?"

Alex set her jaw firmly. "Yes I am, Gene."

"No."

"What do you mean?"

"It's too dangerous."

"You can't tell me what to do! In fact, my role is the only role that'll transfer over now that we know the attack is going to happen somewhere else. Shaz and Chris were going to replace people working at the Maternity Unit."

"Alex," said Gene desperately, clutching Alex on her upper arms, "Please, think about what you're doing. You can't endanger the baby's life. You're not angry at me anymore, remember?"

"No," Alex hissed, "But I'm angry at them."

Gene let go of Alex, at a loss of how to reason with her.

"I'm going to bring them down, Gene."