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(Prompt - Thanksgiving)

A Family Affair

Date: Thursday 26th November 1981

It made a nice change to be sitting with everyone else in Luigi's. Usually she and Gene sat at the small round table in the corner, while everyone else sat at the long table. Admittedly the two were right next to each other but it was still nice. The place was packed with police all saying farewell to one of the desk clerks who was retiring and Alex and Gene, being the last to arrive, had been surprised to see 'their' table being used to hold the cake. The only two spare chairs were at opposite ends of the table, so they'd shrugged at one another as Gene had sat at one end and Alex at the other.

It was on nights like this that Alex thought she might be happy to stay in the eighties. She was surrounded by friends and colleagues all laughing and chatting with one another and she realised that she never did this in 2008, rarely went out with her own friends who were all part of a couple and never went out with people from work. Of course the people she worked with in 2008 would never get as drunk and rowdy as this group and would think it inappropriate to be so close. She found that she liked being a part of this close knit group and wished it hadn't taken her so long to realise them as such.

She tried to imagine what she would be doing if she was in 2008 now. Molly would be in bed so she would probably be sitting on her sofa with a glass of wine, reading over case files. Instead she was listening to Shaz, Chris and Ray good naturedly ribbing one another about the North/South divide and watching Gene out of the corner of her eye; a surprised smile coming to her face as she saw him laugh out loud as he shared a joke with one of the detectives.

It struck her that Gene seldom, if ever, really laughed and she wondered for a moment if that meant that he was unhappy or just quite a serious man. She put it to the back of her mind as Shaz grabbed her arm and insisted she back her up in her debate.

~~

It was almost one in the morning before she spoke to Gene again, smiling at him as he slumped down in the chair next to hers. Luigi's had thinned out considerably since the start of the evening and now only a few people remained along with the core of CID. "So, Bolly, had a good time, tonight?" He asked, reaching for the bottle of wine on the table and topping up her glass, before doing the same to his own.

"You know what? I really have, Guv," she replied, picking up her glass and chinking it lightly against his. "I've never worked anywhere like this, where everyone is so close, so friendly, it's like being part of a great big, drunken family!" She laughed at her own stupid joke and was thrilled to once again see a genuine smile on his face as he watched her.

"Well they say you can't pick your family, Bols, but I think that if you could..." he looked around the restaurant, "there would be no way in hell I would pick this bunch of useless twats!" Alex laughed again and slapped Gene's shoulder lightly. "You don't mean that. No, you don't!" She insisted, seeing his raised eyebrows. "I see you, you know, the real you, underneath all the bluster and bravado. I see what they mean to you, your team and I see what you mean to them too." she nodded resolutely.

"Oh good, Bolly knickers has one glass too many and now I have to sit and listen to her drunken psycho bollocks! A perfect end to the day!" Because he was smiling as he said it, she ploughed on. "Okay let's start with Chris and Ray..."

"Must we?"

"Shhh, just be quiet and listen to me." She watched as he lit a cigar and looked over at the two men in question. The younger one of which was serenading Shaz, badly, the other one who was chatting up and surprisingly succeeding to romance one of the ladies from the offices upstairs. "You brought them with you from Manchester and I bet you didn't even hesitate to ask them to come with you, did you?" Gene opened his mouth to answer but she ploughed on. "More to the point, I bet they didn't hesitate to pack up the lives they had there and follow you to London."

Gene sat back in his chair. "I didn't ask them to come with me, I wouldn't have done that," he said quietly. "So they followed you of their own volition. Your boys, sorry, men, your faithful sidekicks who I'm sure would follow you to the end of the world."

"Oh great, I'm never going to get rid of them now, am I?" Alex frowned and sipped her wine. "Then there's Shaz." They watched in silence as she clapped loudly for Chris who was taking a wobbly bow before collapsing down in the chair next to her, taking her hand as she softly kissed his cheek.

"Oh no, Granger was already in CID when we got there, I'm not taking the blame for her!" Alex smiled. "No, but she is yours, as much as Ray and Chris are and despite the fact that you call her unflattering names and treat her like a servant, she would gladly stand at your side or get your back." She considered Shaz for a moment. "She'll do you proud one day, and maybe there will be two female senior officers in the Met!"

"Yes, because what we need is more of you cluttering up the place!" Gene grumbled, as he gestured to Luigi for a couple of whiskeys. He turned to her then, a thoughtful look on his face. "You missed one of my team out, Bolly." She nodded and took one of the drinks that Luigi had put in front of them. "I did," she said softly. "I haven't quite figured out what role I play in your little dysfunctional family yet. But I do know that I would do everything in my power to protect it, you, all of you."

He nodded and sipped his whiskey, a warm feeling inside him. "You don't have to know which role you play, Alex," he said softly, "you just have to know that you are a part of this...family, an important part, to all of us and that we would protect you too." He cleared his throat and looked away.

She smiled and bumped her shoulder lightly against his. "Well then I'm thankful that this where I ended up."