Right, well, thanks to my family, I had to take yesterday off from posting. So instead I'm posting on a Tuesday! Woo! :) Unfortunately, things aren't good for Alex... that poor woman just seems to always be in some sort of distress doesn't she? Today's word is marwolaeth. Thanks as always to Rolephant, for not telling anyone when I do something that is completely out of character for me.... :P

Chapter 20: I Am the Damned

Ray had only been coming back from the loos. He was wondering what the Guv needed to say to DI Drake that he couldn't say it in his office. Ray didn't know where they had gone off too. He didn't really care, he just wanted them back together. Alice was right, they needed to be together to be happy.

Ray decided to take the long way back, around the back hallway just to stretch his legs. It was odd that the back entrance was blocked off with no notice today, he wondered if there was a project starting up. He wanted to look out the window to see what was going on. Ray looked out at the dreary day, concentrating below on the car park. A black transit van sat in the middle. Ray thought it was odd, but paid it no mind until a movement caught his eye. Some woman was dragging DI Drake along the ground toward the van. She was clearly unconscious.

Ray raced down the stairs out toward the back entrance, but the van was gone by the time he got there. He looked down to see Gene lying on the ground, flat on his face. Ray rolled him over.

"Guv! Wake up Guv!" He continued this for several minutes before Gene's eyes eventually flickered open. "What happened?"

Gene just stared at him for a moment, searching his memory, struggling against whatever had knocked him out.

"They've got Alex."

"Who were they, Guv? What did they do?"

Gene pulled himself up into a sitting position. There were no signs of him being beaten, Ray was relieved to see. "One, one was that Neiman. Alex told me her suspicions about her yesterday. I was too concentrated on bloody Hansen to remember to have someone tail her!"

"Guv, who was the other woman?"

"Dunno. One snuck up behind her, and one behind me. They attacked me with chloroform. I tried to fight, but they threatened to kill her on the spot."

"It's better that you gave in Guv. Both of you would have been dead if you hadn't."

"Yeah, but she's gonna die now anyway, isn't she?"

The first thing that Alex was aware of was that she was being jostled around, like she was in a car of some sort. She tried to move her hands to support herself into a sitting position, but to no avail, as her arms were tied behind her back. Alex was still groggy. She tried slowly to piece together what had happened. Gene and her... They were outside. Someone had attacked Gene. A gun to her head. Gene fell. Then...Then they pressed something over her mouth. Alex struggled to remember. It smelled sweet. Chloroform. Just like when Dr. Death had kidnapped her. The question was, where was she now?

Alex opened her eyes slowly. She was in the back of a van. At least that's what it looked like. The van turned, and she rolled across the back. It seemed to take the corner quite like Gene would have. Alex collided with the other side and let out a groan.

"She's waking up," said a voice she recognised.

"It doesn't matter. We're nearly there." With that, the van stopped suddenly. Alex slid to the front, her head colliding with something, knocking her into unconsciousness once more.

CID was in an uproar. No one was angrier than Gene. The two had kidnapped Alex and shattered his pride in one fell swoop. They had made him appear weak. Not only that, but they had made him look weak in front of this own station. Even though he was angry about losing his pride, he knew that could be restored. It was Alex that he was worried about right now.

Neiman had her. What did she have against Alex?

"Guv." Shaz knocked at his door.

"Enter." Shaz came in, holding four sheets of paper. "These are the notes. They were all still in her desk. I called down to Plymouth, they just faxed up the other. It was found as they were cleaning out her desk."

"Set them down Shaz, and get Ray, Chris and Alice in here." Shaz nodded and called out to the other detectives. They all squeezed into the tiny space and looked at the notes laid out on the table.

You looked so lovely in that coma, Alex. Pity you had to wake up. Maybe we could put you back in a coma.

Love,

Your two fans

Gene felt a chill run down his back. He focussed on the second, one which he had already read.

The cold store was freezing, wasn't it Alex? Gene saved you then, didn't he? If you somehow found your way back there, who would save you now?

Love,

Your two fans

(See? We even followed you from Plymouth!)

Gene felt himself get angrier. How dare they?!

Did you figure out the handkerchief was covered in chloroform as soon as it covered your mouth? We'll have to be careful preparing a new one for you. Too much is lethal, and we don't want you dead... yet.

Love,

Your two fans

They had just attacked him with the chloroform handkerchief. He didn't know what they had done to her, but assumed they did the same.

How would Gene deal with losing you? Not just emotionally, Alex. How would he deal if you died? Watch yourself, your time is near. But first you must experience your worst nightmares. Have fun.

Love,

Your murderers

"The names changed in the last one," Chris said. "They got more threatening." Everyone stared at him. This was beyond his normal comprehension level.

"You're right Chris," Gene said. "Now we just have to figure out where they've taken her. Do you think we can do it from these notes?"

"Dunno," Ray said. "I think we need a psychologist, and the only we have is..." Ray faltered, unable to say Alex's name.

Alice scoffed. "Are you really that dense? Look, it says she has to experience her worst nightmares. The Guv was attacked with chloroform. We can assume that Alex probably was also. The second note mentions a cold store, and the first was being shot. My guess is, they attacked her with the chloroform, are going to put her in a cold store, and eventually just shoot her."

"Her worst nightmares," Gene muttered. "All the stuff that happened here. All the stuff that should have killed her in the first place."

"Right. And now they're mocking her, and you, saying that you can't save her again. My guess is, they wanted you to see them too. To increase your worry."

"The problem is," Ray said, "she could be in a cold store, but we don't even know where. The Alla Casa was put under new ownership over a year ago, and the owners have never crossed the law."

"So how many cold stores are there in the city?" Chris asked.

Shaz looked at him. "Loads," she said quietly. "And if she's already in one, we're running out of time fast." Suddenly the radio crackled to life.

"Hunt," Neiman's voice came through.

"Where is she Neiman?"

"Nowhere that you can save her. I will however give you a chance... She herself will give you a clue, so you know that she's alive."

Gene's stomach jumped as he heard Alex's voice come through the radio. "Guv." Pain was heard clearly in her voice. He wondered what they had done.

"Alex, are you okay?"

"It's cold Gene. You shot out the window and its cold."

"Twenty minutes Hunt," said another voice. "Then she dies." He heard Alex scream slightly in the background. Then there was nothing but static.

"What the bloody hell was that supposed to mean?!" he asked angrily.

The four detectives stared quietly back at him, thinking. Finally Chris spoke up.

"It is the Alla Casa, Guv. She said 'it's cold.' That must mean the cold store. And then 'you shot out the window.' You shot out the window of the Alla Casa trying to save her."

Everyone stared at Chris in utter amazement. What had gotten into him today? He was almost...smart.

"I cannot believe I'm saying this, but Chris, I think you're right. Everyone, into the Quattro!"

Everyone ran to the Quattro, and Gene sped off, praying to God that he wasn't too late.

Alex came round again, this time her head throbbing. She realised she was not moving this time. They must have reached their destination. She opened her eyes slowly.

It couldn't be. She must be dreaming. She was in the Alla Casa. Only, if she was here, this was no dream. This was a nightmare.

Alex heard movement behind her, and tried to turn, but her hands and feet were still tied. She was also gagged. Alex struggled in frustration. Why did things always happen to her? What did she ever do anyone? It had only been two weeks since she had nearly died the last time. Couldn't they have at least waited a month or so? This was getting old.

"Aah. Alex. You're awake." She recognised the voice. It was Neiman.

"Very good. Now we can get on." Alex looked up to see Kelly standing over her.

"Take the gag off," Zoe commanded. Kelly looked at her angrily, but knelt down next to Alex. "You stay quiet when it's off," Zoe said to Alex, pulling out a gun. "Else we'll shoot you sooner."

Kelly removed the gag. Alex stayed quiet, mustering all the hate she could in her eyes. She knew that Gene would be awake by now; he would have already raised the alert. The whole team would be searching for her.

"You know, after all the years in the force, I realised something, Alex," said Zoe. "I realised that people always explain their story, and then they get caught. That's not going to happen to us. You will die, and then Gene will die. And then Boris and Carnegie will be avenged."

Alex suddenly realised, they must have been part of Operation Rose. That's how they knew that Gene had shot her. It didn't explain anything else, like how they knew about the cold store, or the chloroform. However, they performed the whole thing flawlessly. Everything they had mentioned were her worst nightmares, still causing her bad dreams, sometimes waking in a cold sweat.

The gunshot was the worst. Seeing Gene's face the moment he had shot her had broken her heart. Even through the overwhelming pain, the look of shock had her feeling sorry for him. When her eyes grew heavy, she knew she was dying, and had forgiven him with what she thought was her final breath. Then when she woke up in 2008, she was delighted more than she should have been. Alex thought it had all been over. When Gene's face had come over the monitor, proving it was all fake, she had been filled with an overwhelming rage. How dare he ask her to come back, after what he had put her through? He thought she was corrupt and evil, working with people like SuperMac, or Martin Summers. He had turned her away, and now he wanted her back?! Alex had held on in her fake 2008 for as long as she could, she was there for months, but eventually, inevitably, she woke up in the hospital in 1982. Seeing Gene's face had made her even angrier than she was in her fake world. She wanted nothing but to be rid of him, to get her thoughts under control.

And then he had grown cold. Then the transfer. All that she was experiencing now was because of that one night in Gene's office, when he had verbally slapped her, questioning her love for her daughter. And it was all her fault. If she hadn't become so cold to him after she woke up, if she had embraced him after he had sat by her side for a week, barely eating and sleeping out of sheer worry, none of this would have happened. Being shot by Gene was by far the worst nightmare she had ever experienced.

Neiman started fiddling with a radio. "Hunt," she said.

"Where is she, Neiman?" His angry tones screamed through the radio, filling Alex with an odd sense of relief.

"Nowhere that you can save her. I will however give you a chance... She herself will give you a clue, so you know that she's alive."

Zoe moved her finger from the button. "If you tell him exactly where you are, you will die on the spot." She depressed the button once more.

"Guv." Alex knew her voice was strained, her head hurt quite badly.

"Alex, are you okay?" Kelly gave her a look that said she wasn't allowed to answer that question. Alex thought quickly.

"It's cold Gene. You shot out the window and its cold."

"Twenty minutes Hunt," Kelly said into the radio. "Then she dies."

Alex screamed slightly as the gag was put back in her mouth. She struggled against Zoe, but with her hands bound behind her back, she could do nothing. Kelly looked at her coldly.

"There's no point for the gag. You can untie her too. At least her feet." Zoe looked at Kelly.

"Why?"

"She's just going in the cold store anyway. That thing is very nearly sound proof." Zoe untied the gag as Kelly untied her feet. They pulled Alex up to her feet and led her into the cold store. Alex struggled, but the two outmatched her for strength. They threw her in.

"No. Please no! What did I do?!" she cried as they closed the door. Alex pushed against the door with her torso, but it seemed to be locked. Tears fell down her face, and started to freeze. It had to be at least negative twenty. Alex shivered. Hypothermia would set in soon. If she spent too long in here she would die. She remembered the last time she had been stuck in here. Gene had rescued her then, just as she thought it was too late. Alex sat helplessly in a corner and prayed that Gene could save her once more.

TBC!!!!! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Alex has long. Can Gene save her?! (I know, I wish I knew too...:P)