So obviously, I forgot I had this going... Its been...checking the doc manager... Almost 7 years since the last story I updated regularly, so this kind of dropped off my radar. I was having trouble with the final chapter, then I got a new job after being unemployed 4 months, started working 40 hour weeks, dropped a knife on my foot and long story short, fully severed a tendon, had surgery, and then got LOTS of therapy to get use of my foot back. So this fell even further behind. But then my husband and I were cleaning our guest room last Saturday and I found a (GROSS LOOKING) flash drive from 2010, which had SO much old shit on it, some unreleased things, some things that had been cut (definitely for the better on that part). And now I've been riding this nostalgia wave, remembered this and am updating.

A came to consciousness slowly, her head pounding. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar flat, the brown curtains drawn over the windows. As she rose to awareness, sensation started to return to her. She realized that she was seated on the floor, but she was tied to something that was keeping her supported. Her arms were tied as well, and as she looked down at them, she realised what...no...who was propping her up.

"Gene," she said, her voice almost a whisper. There was no response. She turned her head to look at him. From what she could see out of the corner of her eye, he looked like he was out cold.

A sighed, looking around the room. The flat was not abandoned. Of that she was certain. She was in a kitchen, one wall painted red as an accent. A half-full bottle of vodka sat on the counter, next to a dirty highball glass. Dishes were piled high in the sink and a bag of crisps sat open on the counter. Whoever had abducted her clearly wasn't overly concerned about cleanliness.

A heard ticking and noticed a clock on the wall. Nine-fifteen. They had been gone nearly four hours. Had anyone noticed they didn't make it to Chris's birthday? And should she be concerned that Gene hadn't come around yet? How hard did they hit him?

A remained in her thoughts for nearly half an hour before she felt Gene starting to stir. "What the fuck?" she heard him say to himself, before he started to struggle against the ropes.

"Gene," she said quietly.

"Alex?"

"Yeah."

"Where are we?" He sounded angry more than anything.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I'm not even sure what happened."

"He was looking for you. Who was he?"

"I have eight weeks of memory. Do you really think I'm the best person to ask?" she asked incredulously.

"So nothing then," Gene sighed heavily. "You know it's really annoying that you can't remember anything?"

"I mean, I've been annoyed by it once or twice, yeah," A replied her voice dripping with sarcasm. For the first time since she had woken in hospital, she actually wished for her memories. As it was right now, she had no idea why she had been kidnapped, only that Gene was in trouble because of her.

"Really? You've been annoyed? Because you haven't seemed bloody bothered by it at all." Gene sounded furious. A knew that he was taking out his frustration on her, and that made her angry.

"I've had to learn to make my peace!" she yelled back at him, knowing she was lying through her teeth. She pushed back those memories on purpose. She never had to make peace. She wasn't sure why, but there was something exciting about getting in an argument with him, something about the tension that filled the room, and she didn't want it to stop now. "I've lost all flashes of memory, any of the dreams of what happened! I assume they aren't coming back Gene."

"You could have at least bloody tried!" he roared.

"Going to Fenchurch, to Luigi's, trying to bloody bond with people I didn't know, that wasn't trying?"

"You know you weren't actually trying, Bolly," he said, his voice carefully calm. "This whole time, you've been puttering along, half-attempting at everything the psychologist told you to do so that you could say you did it. All you've been trying to do is get out on your own and leave. If you think you've been so secretive and perfect you're wrong."

"That's because no one would accept that I don't want the memories back." Her voice was as controlled as Gene's now. "Everything I have done, I have done to please you lot when I knew that it would spell danger if I regained them. I don't know what happened to Alex, but I do know she forgot for a reason. And no one will sodding accept that. You are all so concerned about what you have lost, getting the person you wanted to come back, you never asked if she wanted to come back. I know who Alex was, and I know how much she meant to you all, but it doesn't matter. She was close to coming back so many times, but she didn't want to. And she did it to protect you, Gene. Why, I haven't figured out."

"How do you bloody know all that if you can't remember anything?" he demanded.

"Like I said, in the beginning, I got flashes. They mostly ended the first time we went to Luigi's."

"What about the day in the alley?"

She closed her eyes, trying not to let the frustration with him show in her voice. "I don't remember. I remember you demanding a stab vest, and then waking up."

"I don't even know if I can trust you," Gene said, his voice quiet and guarded. "All you've done for the past two months is lie."

"I lied to survive."

"No, you lied to keep yourself happy," Gene replied shortly, before settling into silence. A wanted to say something, to resume the conversation, but she could think of nothing, so instead she stared at the clock, the only noise in the room, ticking every second away. Already, an hour had passed since she had woken up. She thought back to what had happened in her flat earlier. The man had given her chills when he had spoken. She knew he was from the Before, but who was he? For the first time ever, she wished he had Alex's memories.

Another half an hour passed before Gene spoke again. "Do you think we could get out of here?"

"We'd have to stand up together, undo locks, actually leave, go down the stairs and somehow make it to find help, all while tied back to back," she replied. "I mean, it's a possibility, but a difficult one."

"Or, since we're in the kitchen, we could find a steak knife and try to cut the rope," Gene said dryly. "Trust a woman to always find the most difficult way out."

A sighed heavily, choosing to ignore him. "Let's find a steak knife. How do we get up?"

"We should be able to push against each other to stand. On the count of three. One, two, three." She pushed against him and slowly, they were able to work themselves into a standing position before losing balance and falling over again. A swore she heard Gene mumble 'Bloody women' before they attempted to get up again. After three attempts, they were finally able to stand steady. She heard him mutter 'finally' before giving her instructions in earnest again.

"Move to your left," he said, leaving no room for questions. They shuffled their way awkwardly to a drawer. A felt her arm move a fraction, and saw Gene's fingers scrabbling at the drawer to open it. Slowly, it opened a millimetre. Gene continued pulling, a few centimetres at a time until it was half open. They both sighed in disappointment, easily recognising a standard junk drawer. "Alright, next drawer. Walk forward."

"Wait Gene. Move to your right so we walk in a circle."

"How is this going to help us get out?"

"Would you just do it?" Gene huffed and complied. As he saw what she had seen, he started swearing.

"Of all of the flats in the world, we have to get trapped in someone who is poncey enough that they need a sodding knife block?" he asked incredulously.

"Do you think we can reach it?"

"I doubt it. Have you looked at how we're tied? They wound the rope around one arm, torso, other arm, and back, all the way down to our elbows. We could barely get the drawer open." He sighed in frustration.

A stared at the door of the flat, thinking. "Do you think you could lift me?" she asked suddenly.

"Lift you? Bolly, we're tied back to back!"

"Yeah, but if you bent over, and I lifted my legs off the ground, do you think you could pick up a knife out of the knife block?"

"With my teeth? What do you suppose we do after I get a hold of it?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, what were we going to do after you pulled one out of the drawer?"

Gene was silent, and she could feel him seething against her. She couldn't help it. There was just something inside her she didn't understand that wanted to wind him up, no matter how dire their circumstances.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and two men were standing in the entry, staring at them. One had a large nose and small eyes. She recognised him as the man who had followed her off the Tube earlier. He must have notified the muscular man, the one with the voice from Before.

"Liam, look what we have here," the muscular man said. A felt Gene stiffen against her and realised he hadn't known that the door had opened. "I think it's some half-arsed escape attempt?"

The lanky man named Liam laughed. "That's what it looks like. We should have tied up their feet."

The muscular man nodded, walking forward to A, staring her directly in the eyes. "You shouldn't be alive," he murmured. "What happened to you?"

She looked up at him, willing her memory to flash into place, hoping that something would show up so she would have some reference. However, she had spent too long pushing everything away, and nothing returned. There was only one course of action.

"Am I supposed to know you?" she asked, trying to hover between casual calm and curiosity. A pretended not to notice the coldness in his eyes, the look that said that he would have no problems killing her.

"This isn't time for games, DI Drake," he responded, slapping her in the face, hard.

A staggered, but Gene caught her, keeping her up with his weight and balance. "She's not playing," Gene said. "She doesn't remember bollocks before eight weeks ago."

The muscular man looked at her, delight evident on his face. "Nothing?"

A shook her head, feeling as though Gene gave her away too soon. "I have no idea who you are or what you want with me."

"Liam," the muscular man said. "Hunt was onto us by himself! He had no help!"

"That's bloody incredible," Liam said.

"What happened to me?" A asked, finally wanting to know. "Why was I found on the boat?"

The muscular man looked at her again and grinned. "Because you're a copper."

"But I'm not… I'm not police anymore," she replied, as Liam cut the rope holding her and Gene's torsos together. He then cut the rope around their wrists and pushed her away from Gene. At the same time, the muscular man walked behind Gene, pulling a gun from its holster on his waist. He pulled the hammer down and pressed it against the back of Gene's skull.

"If either of you move without Liam telling you where to go; if either of you decide to try and be a hero, Hunt dies now. A could see by the set of Gene's jaw that he wanted nothing more than to turn around and punch the man in the chin. However, he stood still, watching with fire in his eyes and his fists clenched as Liam sat her on a chair, tying her hands in her lap. He pulled out another chair and sat Gene down on it, tying his hands behind the back and his legs to the chair. They looked at each other, uncertain of why A had not been more restrained.

"Do you know what I hate more than anything else in this world?" the muscular man asked, pulling A into a standing position. "Fucking police."

"I'm not police anymore," she repeated. He punched her in the stomach in reply, grabbing the back of her dress to keep her standing as her legs collapsed underneath her.

"You might as well be," he replied. "And you were 2 months ago."

A heard muffled yelling behind her and looked at Gene. He had been gagged, but his face was furious. He was struggling against his bonds, trying to stand.

"Shut up!" the muscular man said, dropping A to the ground. She heard the sound of skin meeting skin with force. A looked back up at Gene. He already had a bruise darkening on his cheek, and had fallen unconscious once more.

The muscular man gave a small smile at her as she pushed herself into a seated position. "I wish I had known about your memory before we kidnapped you, Alex. If we had, we would have left you alone and just taken Hunt."

"What did we do? What did I do? Let me know why I am going to die. " She felt tears coming to her eyes. They hadn't told her as much, but she knew that by the end of this, both she and Gene would be dead. She was already supposed to be dead. "Please," she whispered, as the first tear betrayed her, trailing down her cheek.

The man grinned at her again. "When we left you on the boat, we told you that if you survived, you couldn't tell Gene. And if Gene came after us and we found out you told him, we'd kill Gene and make you watch. Gene was coming after us. You were alive. But the fact you can't remember, that throws a spanner in the works. Gene's still gonna die, and you know what's happening to him. But you kept your end of the bargain. So maybe we'll take pity and kill you first."

With that, he kicked her onto her back, kneeling down and beating her. She tried to stop him, but her arms were tied, unable to stop the blows from raining down. his fist connected with her skull, sending a bright flash through her vision before the world turned dark once again.

Sorry...You didn't need to know my life story, but maybe I can finish this? Let's freaking hope!