I'm really excited about this! Haha, it took me ages to come up with a Christmassy oneshot idea this year, and then this amalgamation of stuff sort of popped into my head, and I couldn't really resist... And it kind of became a two-shot. So you've got the first 'six days of Christmas' here, and the other six will come along very soon! So, I hope you enjoy it, and a Merry Galexy Christmas to you all! God bless us, every one.

X :D

Disclaimer – Ashes to Ashes is not mine, I doubt it will be under the tree or in my stocking on Christmas morning... But I'll keep wishing, and praying... to Santa. :P

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Part One

Day One

"I'll be stuffing something of yours in a minute, and it won't be a bleedin' partridge!"

"Gene!" Alex's exasperated sigh came from behind him as she hurried out the door of Fenchurch East station, pulling on gloves and zipping her white leather jacket up. She spared a sympathetic glance towards the carol singers that were stationed at the bottom of the steps and felt slightly guilty for not having time to throw some change in the rather empty looking charity collection bucket in front of them. She made a mental note to give them some if they were still there when she got back.

"Sorry," she said as she rushed toward the Quattro, lest Gene get in and speed off without her, "He's a little highly strung this time of year-"

"Bolly!" Gene bellowed, smacking his hand down on the roof of the Quattro as he glared at her impatiently. "Are you getting your arse over 'ere now, or am I leaving it out here to freeze? Not that I'd mind giving it a good rub to warm it up."

With another hurried apology and whilst trying to suppress a smile at Gene's offer to give her arse a 'good rub', Alex hurried on to slide in the passenger side of the Quattro, her heels tapping loudly on the frozen concrete. She barely had chance to pull the door shut before Gene hit the accelerator pedal and they went speeding off at breakneck speed, tires squealing.

"Slow down, Gene, you can barely see a bloody thing," Alex snapped, leaning forward and trying to wipe some of the frozen mist and condensation from the wind screen with the end of her sleeve. She was thrown to one side during her attempt as Gene hurtled the Quattro around a sharp corner, paying her no attention. He merely reached out a hand to stab the off-button on the radio, cutting Paul McCartney off mid-'Simply having a wonderful Christmastime'.

"Bloody poofter seasonal drivel."

Rolling her eyes, Alex slumped back in her seat and gave up in her efforts to clear the windscreen and prevent Gene from sending her to an early grave. She had been putting up with this ever since mid-November. It was true that Gene's aversion to Christmas had hardly surprised her (since when had he ever been a fan of spreading 'goodwill' and 'cheer' to all men?), but she really hadn't anticipated this level of grouchiness from him. He was a true Scrooge, through and through, and it disappointed her a little bit, really. Because, well, she had thought that maybe...but if he wasn't into the spirit of the season then... Well, the tinsel trimmed corset could just be saved for some other poor bugger's enjoyment, couldn't it?

Gene's voice broke abruptly through her musings as the Quattro screeched to a halt outside what appeared to be some kind of dilapidated lock-up near the docklands. It was a miracle the car didn't slide everywhere, the amount of ice frozen on the London roads at this time of year.

"Pull yer stockings up, Bols, this is it. He twisted in his seat to retrieve something from the back seat. "Here."

Alex frowned at the crow bar her DCI was holding out to her. "Are you really expecting me to help you break in to this place? I'm not Lara Croft, you know!"

"Who?"

She let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes again, still not taking the crow bar from him. "Never mind."

"Yer a fruitcake, Bolly. Now take this bleeding thing and get out of the car. I'm not expecting yer t'help."

"Then what do I need this for?" Alex cried as she took it from him with a huff and got out of the car. She met his gaze over the striking red roof of the Quattro.

Gene shrugged and retrieved a baseball bat for himself. "Nothing. Just you, standin' there in those jeans, yer leather and 'olding that, gives me the horn." He moved quickly then, walking briskly to the lock-up of a suspect they currently had in holding for the murder of a middle aged car mechanic a few days ago.

Alex hurried after him, eyes wide with indignation. "What, so I'm holding this f-for your enjoyment?"

Glancing towards her with a wicked grin on his face as he battered the aged locks of the door in with the baseball bat, Gene shrugged and gave the door a good final kick. "No point having a female DI if yer can't enjoy the view occasionally." At her scowl, he knocked the door open with one final triumphant shove. "Cheer up, Bols; it's Christmas. Give a man a break."

Alex watched, appalled, as Gene simply breezed into the lock-up as if he had every right to be there, and every right to say those things to her. She shook her head and watched as her breath misted up when it escaped angrily from her mouth. "You are impossible sometimes!" she exclaimed in exasperation, before storming in after him.

"I could say the same of you, Bolly. Now shift, yer delectable arse is in the way of that box there."

Day Two

"He really hates Christmas, doesn't he?" Alex mused, absently running the tip of her index finger around the rim of her wine glass as she watched Gene grouchily bat at some tinsel that dared to hang too close to his head as he approached the bar. He shouted something to Luigi that she didn't quite catch, but rest assured, it was probably something racist, homophobic and generally insulting to the poor man who had just tried to brighten the place up a bit.

Beside her, Shaz gave a murmur of agreement and drained the rest of the wine from her glass. "Chris says he's always hated it... Or not bothered to celebrate it properly, at least..." She bit her lip, glancing up at her DI. "From what I can gather, Ma'am, I think his brother died around this time... You know, the one that was on drugs?"

Comprehension dawned on Alex face and she nodded, a small sad smile finding its way onto her face. "I thought there must be a reason..." The sad smile widened ever so slightly and her gaze flickered upwards to look at Shaz for a moment. "And here I was, beginning to wonder what it is I see in him."

"What, you - ?" The young WPC's mouth fell open a little way, and her head turned this way and that for a brief moment as she looked between Alex and Gene, who was loudly and grumpily ordering himself another drink. "You... Are you and the Guv...?"

Alex laughed quietly and shook her head, her eyes cast downward and drowning in what little wine remained in her glass. "No, Shaz... But..." She glanced wistfully over towards the man in question, and couldn't help the small wry smile that tugged on the corners of her lips. She looked back at Shaz again. "He has a certain charm, doesn't he?"

Giggling, Shaz bent her head and shook it, her bright gaze coming up to meet Alex's. She was beaming. "Don't ask me, Ma'am, not my type! Plus everyone knows he's only got eyes for you... It's got to be you and him. It always has been."

Alex smiled again and bit her lip, trying her best to not let her gaze stray towards her impressive DCI, who had made his way back to his table with Ray and Chris now. Usually, she sat with him, but she had put up with just about enough of his macho attitude over the past few days to be getting on with, and she had fancied a girly chat with Shaz. This hadn't quite been the conversation she'd had in mind, though.

"I don't know, Shaz, but... Just keep it quiet for now, alright?"

Shaz nodded and smiled delightedly. "My lips are sealed, Ma'am... But if you ask me, you should just go for it. He's a good man, despite all the shit he dishes out. Chris once said to me he could never imagine working for anyone else but the Guv."

"Oh, I know he is, Shaz. You don't have to tell me that," Alex said, her voice pensive and expression thoughtful. "In fact I think I'd even consider him a friend... But the question is, do I want to go beyond that?" She picked up her wine glass and swigged the last of her drink back before putting it down firmly on the table. Sighing, she pulled herself to her feet. "I'm off upstairs, Shaz, but thanks for keeping me company tonight."

"No problem, Ma'am... And think on what I said, yeah?" Shaz glanced towards her DCI, and then fixed her steady gaze back on Alex. "I know the Guv acts like a shag-'em-and-leave-'em type, but he's mad about you... It's something beyond that with you... Even Chris has noticed it, and that's saying something."

With a laugh, Alex sat back down again to pull Shaz into a hug. "Thanks, Shaz. You're wise beyond your years, you are. I've always said it."

She smiled. "Goodnight, Ma'am."

"Night, Shaz."

The intelligent Essex girl watched with a smile on her face as the Guv's eyes followed Alex as she left, right until she was completely out of sight. She had a feeling that this Christmas was going to be a very good one for everyone concerned. A very, very good one indeed.

Day Three

Alex stared at the shoes, chewing on her bottom lip as she deliberated. Next to her, Shaz wrinkled her nose a little and looked at her dubiously.

"Not sure, Ma'am. What if you end up looking a bit... y'know... Slutty? Not that you don't always look fabulous, mind, but... Don't want to give the wrong impression."

Laughing a little, Alex picked up the shoes again and examined them from every angle. They were red, a bright, deep crimson red - the colour of blood and lust and passion. The stiletto heels came down like daggers, and a thin gold zip ran artfully down from the back, around the outside and slashed across the toe.

"Well, considering what I have in mind, Shaz... The wrong impression might just be the right one." She laughed again and tipped Shaz a suggestive wink.

"Why, what do you have in mind? I thought we were just shopping for the Christmas party."

"Oh, we are, Shaz, we are..." Alex's smile had just a hint of suggestion, and Shaz recognised the mischievous glint in her eyes. Oh, Alex Drake wasn't just planning on going to the Christmas party. Alex Drake was planning on dressing to impress... And Shaz thought she had a good idea of just who would be on the receiving end of this outfit, too.

Alex laughed as this realisation dawned on Shaz's face, and she picked both shoes up again decisively.

"Right, I'm getting them."

Shaz's eyes widened. "Are you one hundred percent, sure, Ma'am? What with the dress and all, just don't want you getting a reputation..."

Here, the corners of Alex's lips turned up into something halfway between a satisfied smirk and a secretive smile. "Oh don't worry about that, Shaz... Besides, who says this is what I'm wearing to the party? I might just... save it for afterwards."

Shaz's eyes widened even further, and she almost tripped over a handbag someone had left next to a seat for trying shoes on. "Wh... What sort of things exactly do you have in mind, Ma'am?"

Eyes lighting up, Alex's laugh sounded again and she shook her head, miming a zipping action across her smiling lips. "Let's just say, Shaz, that all of Gene Hunt's Christmases are coming at once this year."

Day Four

"Come in," Gene said gruffly from where he was slouched in the seat behind his desk, cigarette nearly burnt down to the filter in one hand, whisky tumbler in the other.

Giving him a small, brief smile, Alex slipped inside the office and dropped a file down onto his desk. "All tidied up, Guv, just need you to sign it off."

With a grunt, Gene stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray that was in desperate need of emptying, and began searching around his desk for a pen. Whilst his hands pushed abandoned paperwork, newspapers and the occasional food wrapper aside, Alex smiled, and quietly cleared her throat.

Pausing in his search when he heard this, Gene flicked his gaze up to look at her, and what he saw then made his eyes widen and pupils dilate considerably.

Throat going dry, he watched with racing heartbeat as, with a small, absently seductive smile, Alex Drake reached down the front of her top, pulled out a black biro pen, and handed it to him with a flourish, as if it was nothing. As if this was normal behaviour, expected practise for a professional female DI in the metropolitan police force.

"Here," she said, and smiled at his expression. His eyes were wide, dumbstruck with something akin to a mixture of awe, arousal and confusion, and Alex just knew he was probably consciously telling himself not to let his mouth fall open.

Swallowing to wet his throat, Gene blinked, aware that he probably looked like a gormless schoolboy by now, and reached out to take the pen. With a steady hand that surprised him most of all, he signed the file off and handed that, and the pen, back to her. He tried to avoid her gaze as he cleared his throat.

"Got, ah, um, anything else down there I might be needing?"

Because really, she would wonder what was wrong with him if he didn't slip some sort of innuendo in there. But at that moment in time, he was wondering what was wrong with her. Since when did Alex Drake waltz into his office, smile at him like that, and produce a pen out from... ? He felt the sudden urge to pinch himself, because this was just too much like one of the fantasies he regularly found himself indulging in, involving himself and his drop-dead gorgeous DI...

The mischievous, alluring smile that Gene had only seen her direct at him one or two times since he'd known her spread across Alex's face, and Gene marvelled at the strength of his own self-control. It was a bloody miracle he hadn't thrown himself across the desk at her, pinned her against that bloody infuriating filing cabinet, all strewn over with tinsel, and...

"Not sure there's anything you'll be needing, Guv... But there might be something down there that you want..."

Before Gene could even react, before his pupils even had the chance to bulge out of their sockets and before he could manoeuvre his chair closer under the desk so that she wouldn't notice the rather... ah... awkward situation arising in his trousers, Alex had turned, and walked out of his office without a backward glance, file and pen in hand.

"Step one, complete," Alex whispered to herself, smiling.

Gene stared after her, agog. His knuckles were white from how tight he was clenching his fists. That bloody woman was going to be the death of him. Just what was she playing at?

Day Five

"Guv, are you coming?"

Gene turned, pout on his face, hands in his pockets, to look at Ray. "Well of course I'm bloody coming; this is my department, isn't it?"

"Alright, Guv," Ray muttered, turning back to his game of catch with an empty cigarette packet with Chris. "Was just asking."

At that moment, Alex re-entered CID through the double doors and just caught the end of the conversation. She looked around with slightly raised eyebrows. "Who's coming where?"

As Ray sniggered into his tea at the childish innuendo that immediately popped into his head, Gene swung round in his place to face her.

"I'm coming t' this Christmas do at Luigi's at the weekend. Though why Raymondo 'ere thought I'd be anywhere else is beyond me."

"Well, you never know, Guv," Alex said with a nonchalant shrug as she sat down behind her desk, her meaningful gaze never straying from his. "You might get... held up."

If the rest of CID noticed the edge of promise in her voice, they didn't let on, and Gene was left to stare at her, for the second time that week, lost for words. The bloody infuriating woman was teasing him... She was playing him like a fiddle and he was powerless to do anything but dance along. What the hell was she doing? If this was all some big bet she had on with Shaz or one of the other officers to make him look like a fool, there was going to be hell to pay.

But what if it wasn't? What if she really was just... gagging for it? He felt a small surge of pride at this thought and his chest puffed out slightly. But... Then he realised that was ridiculous. This matter had been settled months ago. Alex Drake, a posh bird, did not want to shag him, Gene Hunt, an over the hill, worn out copper the wrong bleeding side of forty. And that, quite simply, was that.

So she was playing him. But... there was always a chance, that maybe...

He sighed angrily and scowled at her, before turning away and striding back into his office. He didn't trust his own voice to provide her with a response.

Day Six

"The Guv shouted at me just for putting five sugars in his tea and not six earlier, Ma'am... I think your plan's definitely working."

Alex chuckled and turned off the tap, shaking the water off her hands before grabbing some paper towels to dry them properly. "I think it definitely is, Shaz... I'm sorry CID has to suffer for it though, I might need to let him cool off a little."

Laughing, Shaz leaned back from the mirror and dropped her mascara back in her bag. "Right, I'm off. Me and Chris are going to the pictures tonight – finally got 'im to do something I want for a change."

"You keep hold of him, Shaz," Alex said with a smile, dropping her paper towels in the bin and glancing in the mirror for a second to check her eyeliner was still in place. "He might be a bit of a div, as you call him, but he loves you."

Shaz returned the smile, her eyes slightly dreamy. "I know... He's my div." She beamed. "Oh, and Ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"I hope it works out this Christmas, what you've got planned for the Guv... You might just be teasing him at the moment, but you care about him, and he cares about you... I think that's something he really needs this year."

A wide, animated smile spread across Alex's face as she nodded, and a look of understanding passed between the two women. No, she wasn't just teasing Gene to see how long it would take for him to crack. She wasn't just trying to see how far she could push the unresolved sexual tension between them. She cared about him... And for the first time, Alex found herself admitting something to herself. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be able to slip into his office, draw the blinds and snog him senseless to the point where he couldn't walk straight for the next few minutes. She wanted them to make-out like teenagers in the stairwell leading up to her flat. She wanted to fall asleep with him at night and wake up with him in the morning. And although she knew Gene would probably throw up if he knew the sappiness of her thoughts in that moment, she didn't care.

"A Gene Hunt isn't just for Christmas, right, Shaz?"

Nodding, Shaz laughed and opened the door to leave. She grinned. "See you tomorrow, Ma'am!"

"Bye, Shaz."

Still smiling, Alex turned back to the mirror to examine her reflection. She reapplied her lipstick and tousled her curls a little, pulling on them to examine their length as she wondered if it wasn't time for a haircut. The perm she had arrived with was beginning to grow out a little, so the curls were more relaxed... She nodded decisively to herself. She would book an appointment at the hairdressers in the morning. Straightening her jacket, she headed for the door too. Snow was beginning to fall outside, she noticed, and the weekend, with the Christmas party along with it, was looming. It was time for the next phase. Oh no, Gene Hunt was not going to know what had hit him.

So that's just the first part! I hope you enjoyed it, because I really enjoyed writing it, and please review! The next six days are to come really soon, loaded with lots of Galex, and a Merry Christmas to you all! Because I love you. :D

X :D

P.S - Massive thanks to Jazzola for encouraging me to write this. She's got the power! :P