So I still don't have an ending for this lol. But I found it again, and so you get another chapter. So...yay?
"You shot a bloody copper!" The words echoed in her mind as she startled awake. She instantly wished she hadn't. Every inch of her body ached, and she was certain a few ribs were broken. Her hands were tied behind her and her legs were bound as well. She felt some relief that there was no gag or blindfold.
"You finally awake, Bolly?" Gene's voice said behind her. His voice was hoarse and quiet, and she could hear the pain in every syllable.
"How long have I been out?" she asked in response.
"Long enough for me to come round, have them shit beat out of me, pass out, and wake up again," he replied. "Can't give you an exact time. They moved us out of the kitchen."
She studied the room, but it was difficult. Everything was dark, so she could only see vague shapes around the room. She heard water running from somewhere and her throat burned suddenly with thirst before both sensations disappeared as quickly as they came. "Where did they go?" she asked finally.
"I don't know. Maybe to find another boat to put us on?" he replied, spitting the words out in anger.
She heard the sound of water moving against metal again, and her shoulder twinged in pain. "I don't get why we're still alive," she said quietly. "They've shown before they have no hesitation to go for a kill shot. Both men we've seen that they killed had a shot right over the left eyebrow, close range. They knew what they were doing and knowing them, they relished the fact. But they aren't doing that to us. They left me to rot on the boat. Are they punishing us more for being cops? Something must have happened in their past with the police. No one gets a hatred strong enough to let someone starve to death just because of their job."
"Bolly," Gene said.
"Yeah?" she answered quietly.
"Shut up. You're doing my head in."
She smiled at the comment, then gasped as her head throbbed in unison with her ribs. She wished she could curl up in a ball, to wrap her arms around her legs and let the world go dark, just for a while, just to escape the pain.
"Bolly," Gene said again, and she made a small noise to acknowledge that she heard him. "How did we meet?"
"I was undercover and you raided the yacht I was on," she answered automatically, worried about possible brain damage.
"How did you end up on the boat?"
"I fucked up the case," she replied, suddenly realising why Gene had asked the previous question. She felt the panic building inside as her mind started to try and block what was happening, but she stopped it, finally letting the memories flow forth. "I left evidence behind. I went to go get it, and I found the body. They were going to just kill me, but they saw my warrant card and decided to do something else. The only reason I made it to when you found me is that they gave me a last meal. If I hadn't had that last bottle of water…" She trailed off.
Gene was silent behind her.
"How do we get out of here?" she asked finally, as the silence stretched too long. Gene said nothing, and she realised that he must have slipped back into unconsciousness. She was certain they both had concussions, and she knew that the best thing to do was stay awake. If Gene...When Gene woke up again, she would need to find a way to keep him awake.
She didn't know what these men wanted, and that was the problem. If she could get them talking, maybe she could find a way in. But how? Her mind was tired, her body hurt, and the last thing she wanted to do right then was delve into psychology. The biggest thing she could use to her advantage was that they didn't know she had her memories back. It was official, she was Alex again.
The certainty of who she was filled her with strength. She had been hiding for the past eight weeks, but that was to save Gene. If she didn't act now, she would lose him. Alex knew that the men were going to come back at any moment. She had to do something, and fast to get Gene out of danger.
Alex felt the rope around her wrists, searching for a way to free herself from them. The men had been thorough, wrapping around both wrists before winding the rope vertically and tying the knot toward her back. She assumed her ankles were tied in much the same way. If she could get one hand out, the restraint should fall off easily. How could she get it off though? She knew that people could sometimes get out of restraints by breaking their hands, but that wasn't really an option she wanted to explore.
Alex sat up with some struggle, peering around the dark room for any shape that could help. Across the room, on some sort of surface, she recognised the shape of a lamp. If she could light the room, she could search it more easily. But without her feet or arms to use, it was going to be more difficult than she anticipated normally. She lay down on her stomach, wiggling her torso to move herself forward and using her feet to push herself along the carpeted floor. After several agonising minutes, her head finally bumped gently into something solid. She finally worked herself up into a kneeling position after many failed attempts, feeling along the lamp with her face for the switch.
Alex felt a small chain brush against her face and smiled. She grabbed the chain with her mouth and pulled, nearly falling backwards as the bright light assaulted her face. She squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as they could go, slowly allowing them to adjust to the light. She blinked a few times, taking in her surroundings.
She was in the bedroom of a flat, but she had no idea if it was the same one that they had been in earlier. A single bed was in the corner of the room, next to the nightstand that the lamp was on. The sheets were in a pile at the foot of it; the pillows looked well used. There were no other lights in the room. The walls looked dingy, but the lamp cast long shadows that may have made them look worse. Gene was lying on the floor on the opposite side of the small room, still unconscious. His face was bloody and bruised, both eyes swollen. He was tied in much the same way that she was, his arms trapped behind his back.
"Oh, Gene," she murmured, wishing she could touch his face. Seeing him with her memories intact resurrected all of the feelings she had had for him in the Before. They had always hovered the line between best friends and mortal enemies, were as often speaking to each other as they were not, but at the end of the day, she would always choose to sit with him at Luigi's.
Tearing herself away from looking at Gene, Alex finished her sweep of the room. She couldn't get into the wardrobe, and unless it was hiding something like a knife, Alex supposed there was no point in getting into it.
She sighed, relaxing back on the floor. There was nothing she could do but watch Gene, make sure that he stayed alive. As Alex counted his steady breath, she felt herself drifting off, but no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing she could do to stop it. After several minutes, she fell into a dark, dreamless sleep.
The door slammed open and Alex woke with a start. Her head started throbbing immediately in time with her ribs and she gasped in pain. She looked over at Gene. He had not moved since she turned on the lamp, but she noted with relief that his eyes were open. He was staring at her out of one eye, the worry evident on his face.
Jimmy swaggered into the room, taking in the positions of his captives and the fact that the light was on. "You've been busy then," he said, directing his comment to Alex. "Luckily we cleaned everything before you joined us."
He pulled out a gun then, the same one she had looked down the barrel of 2 months before. Jimmy made a big show of fastening a suppressor to the barrel. He then started loading each bullet individually, before putting the cartridge in the gun and pulling down the hammer. Alex felt herself loathing him as he put on his show.
Jimmy smiled winningly at her. "I talked it over with Liam and we both agreed. Since you lost your memories, and didn't lead Hunt to us, we'll be nice" He levelled the gun at her face. "You get to die first."
"But why? Don't I at least get to know why you're going to murder me? Why you left me for dead on a boat?"
"Because you're a copper."
"But I'm not anymore."
"As good as. And you still hang around with Hunt. HUNT!" he screamed suddenly. "Of all people! Fucking Gene Hunt!"
"What did I do to you?" Gene asked, staring at the man, hatred in his eyes. His voice was perfectly level, but she could see the worried glances that he cast her way.
"1981. You had to handle a robbery. She wasn't there yet," he said, pointing to Alex with his gun. "You know the one. Just down the street from Fenchurch East. There was one casualty. Just one."
"A seven year old boy," Gene said quietly, his voice filled with grief. "Scottie Payne."
"Scottie Payne," Jimmy confirmed. "I was in the Navy, stationed outside England at the time. I get home, expecting to see my son. And I find out he's dead. And you did nothing to stop it."
"I did everything I could. We tried to talk the man down. He wouldn't cooperate. We tried!"
"HE WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD!" Jimmy raged, and Alex could see the tears in his eyes that he refused to let fall. The gun was still trained on her, unwavering, even through this display of raw emotion. "I came back to a grieving wife, a dead son. Two months later, I had divorce papers in my hands. You ruined everything in my life, Hunt. No death is too poor for you."
His voice shook as he finished his speech, and for the first time since aiming his gun at her, his hand shook. He steadied it, taking a deep breath in.
"So if I were a cop from a different station, would we be here now?" Alex asked gently.
"All cops can burn in hell," Jimmy said, his voice raw. Suddenly, there was a small pop, and new pain blossomed across her chest. Alex looked down at the wound as Gene yelled her name, watching as the black of her dress slowly started to become wet with the blood her garment was too dark to show. She gasped a little in shock and pain, wanting to raise her arms to staunch the flow, but they were held fast by the rope around her wrists. It was a precise shot, one that had the potential to be fatal, but only if it wasn't tended to before a specific time. And she knew, there was no way that she would make it to hospital in time while the captive of these men. He wanted her to suffer before she died.
"Don't make her pay for this," she heard Gene say. "Scottie's death is my fault. Drake didn't even show up for another three months."
Every breath she took hurt. She could feel the blood trickling down her torso as the cloth of her dress became too saturated to hold any more liquid in that spot. It was hot as it ran out of her, something she appreciated but knew she shouldn't. The blood was warming her skin even as her insides turned cold.
"Everyone associated with you can die, Hunt," Jimmy was spitting his words out now. "I hated coppers before. But after that day, coming home, expecting my little boy to run into my arms...She had sent me a letter of course. It didn't get there in time. I had missed the funeral by two days. I went on duty, serving my fucking country, with a healthy boy to return home to. And because of you...My entire life was taken away from me. So now I get to take your life from you."
Black was eating away at the corners of Alex's vision now. The wound in her chest was starting to do what it was supposed to do, and she felt her breathing start to become more rapid. She could no longer support herself and slumped over, falling to the floor with a thud when she went too far.
"Bolly," Gene said, staring at her, his concern and worry evident. Alex was certain she saw fear on his face too. She wanted to respond to him, to reassure him, but she couldn't get the words out. Her body was too far gone now to let her do anything again. Instead, Alex just stared at Gene, feeling sorry for causing the agony in his eyes.
"You get to watch her die, Hunt. You get to watch her die, knowing that there is nothing you can do. And I'm going to watch you realise that the person that means the most to you in this world is gone. And do you know what? I'm going to fucking enjoy it."
Her breath came in ragged gasps now. The warmth of the blood did nothing anymore to dispel the chill that had settled in her core. She tried to control the tears of pain and sorrow, but she could not, and they fell freely, dripping softly as the carpet became soaked. The black had eaten away at all but the center of her vision, and Alex continued to stare at Gene. She felt bad. She knew that by watching him, she was hurting him, but she didn't want to look at anything or anyone else as she died.
The man continued talking to Gene, but sounds had disappeared. Gene's face faded from her as her vision went dark. The pain and the cold slowly seeped out of her body, much like the blood that flowed from her wound. However, now she felt nothing.
She didn't know how long she remained in that limbo, but suddenly, she was filled with the pleasant sensation of warmth. It felt like she had gone outside on a sunny day in the middle of spring. She basked in the wonderful sensation, feeling nothing but rapture. She knew by embracing it, she was accepting death, but she no longer cared.
She succumbed to the warmth and rapture, letting it take her over as it whispered only one word.
"Alex…"