Two Of A Kind Part 3 Chapter 12, a dempsey and makepeace fanfic

Ok, here is something a little different hope you like it. the song I've used here is Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die' This song has fantastic lyrics...apart from the title lol, but you can ignore that line. just think it fits D&M well...what do you think?

Chapter 12

Dempsey groaned as he slowly came too, his head buzzed with an incessant noise like a poorly tuned radio. He reached behind and massaged his painful neck, stretching and rocking his head back and forth attempting to bring his battered muscles to life again. He then reached up to his pounding head, wincing as his fingers felt a trail of semi dried blood oozing from a cut on his temple. He tried to move more, but realised he was in a tight confined space restricting his movement...then he remembered where he was...he was buried...alive! Well, he was damn sure heaven didn't feel like this...or smell like this. There it was again, the acrid chemical stench which filled his nostrils and burned at the back of his throat.

Drip, drip, drip.

Dempsey held still and tuned his hearing to the sound Drip, drip, drip. "Sheesh!" he muttered as he realised one of the barrels was leaking its toxic cargo. Dempsey couldn't decide what was worse, being shot to death, getting crushed or being slowly gassed. Drip, drip, drip.

He was amazed to find he had woken up still alive, surely sixty barrels of steel equalled curtains? In the pitch black he felt around his surroundings. His fingers found wood and lots of it. It was the pallets which had saved him, creating a wooden box and forming a barrier between him and the metal. He trailed his hands beneath him and felt something soft and warm...Harry!

Dempsey recalled flinging himself on top of her seconds before the avalanche 'Shit!' he quickly tried to shift his body to the side, conscious that his weight would be adding to the crush on hers.

"Harry?" there was no response "Harry, speak to me." He grabbed a part of her body, which, he wasn't too sure and gently shook it "Harry!"

"Oooohhhff!" he was relieved to hear her whimper.

"You okay?" he breathed.

"Uurrrgh! How long have I been out?" She murmured, rubbing her aching head.

Dempsey couldn't keep the sense of relief out of his voice "I dunno, night, day...who knows? We're alive that's the main thing."

"I've got an awful headache."

"Can you move?"

"Ahh!" she tried squirming on her back "Not really, I think your hip is digging into me." She fumbled around in the dark searching for the offending article, her fingertips brushed against his belt.

"Sorry, honey, ain't much room. You wriggle thattaway sos I can shift this way."

Harry wriggled sideways so that Dempsey could shuffle onto his side "That got it?"

"Better." She agreed "We do choose some peculiar places to get up close and personal." She joked with a smile, commenting on the proximity of their bodies. She was lead on her back with Dempsey now propped on his side lengthways to her body, his waist pressed into her hip bone.

"We sure do." She could hear the smirk in his voice "I preferred the first choice of venue."

Harry gave a small, wry 'hurumph' as she thought back to that night in the potting shed. The episode still firmly etched on her memory, she doubted she would ever forget it. "Dempsey..." she began "I didn't want it to happen like that." She ventured unsure of his response.

He sighed hard, he knew that the subject would come up eventually "Me neither. You gotta believe me Harry." He pleaded "I didn't want it happen like that, I didn't plan to do that to you. Not there, not then. It just kinda...y'know, thunder storms gets the blood racing..."

"I know," She sighed "spur of the moment, spontaneous craziness. I don't make a habit of it just to be clear."

"I just didn't want you thinking...well y'know...you already have a low opinion of me..." he took in sharp breath "I didn't want you thinking that's how I operate..all I wanted was a kiss and a squeeze."

Harry was stunned; did she really give him that impression? "James, I don't have a low opinion of you! Quite the reverse...you have proved me wrong in so many ways...I may have thought that of you to begin with...but not now..."

"Yeah right.." he scoffed.

" It's true!" she grounded " You're just different, and it's taken me this long to realise...the Monica thing, well was .."

"Don't mention that crazy broad!" he snapped " Is this how it's gonna be, huh?...you keeping on bringing her up each time we ..."

"No, certainly not!" she tried to make him underdstand "What I was about to say, that was out of character..a mistake, a daft mistake."

"Damn right! I have needs Harry...needs and she seemed to fit the bill alright, in a stoopid bar in a stoopid Spanish town...I am human."

"I...I know you are." She could hear the hurt in his voice and she was desperately trying to back pedal "This is exactly what I'm trying to say.."

"See, ya do have a low opinion of me. You think I enjoy going to bars on my own on Friday and Saturday nights, looking for chicks to take home for a one nighter? Boy, you don't know me babe."

"I know you better than you think."

"Yeah, yeah, course ya do." He huffed "has it ever occurred to you why I'm knocking on the door of forty and still single?...nah y'don't cos that's the way you think I like it..sleeping alone night after night, no-one to talk to, no-one to share my day with."

"I...I.." she stammered in surprise "I thought you liked being a bachelor and playing the field?"

"There ya go, you don't know jack.' He laughed mirthlessly "James Dempsey. Romeo, God's gift to women, he's got them falling at his feet, women who just want to sleep with him and don't give a damn if he's had rough day...cos believe me babe...they ain't interested. I have feelings too y'know, you're not the only one who's been hurt, sweetheart..." he stopped short fearing he was saying too much.

"Go on." Harry softly encouraged. Dempsey rarely, if ever, had opened up to her.

"It's old news." He dismissed.

"It's news to me."

She felt the need to comfort him, but held back sensing it would break his flow.

"Was it Simone?" she ventured carefully.

"Nah," he shook his head "She loved me...when she was sober at least and not yelling abuse at me."

Harry felt her heart constrict for him, he had been hurt as much as she had. She could also understand where he was coming from on the unsuitable partner front.

Dempsey felt Harry deserved some sort of explanation "It was a long time ago. I came home early from a night shift to find my girl all cosy in my bed with a local hood...didn't know whether to kill him or arrest him."

Harry grinned in the dark, she somehow found the idea of Dempsey being indecisive as to whether he should have a domestic punch up or do his police duty funny.

"What did you do?" she chuckled

Dempsey also saw the funny side "I beat the crap outta him then arrested him for obstructing a police officer." They sniggered together.

Harry became serious again "I do understand about people only wanting to sleep with you. That's all I seem to get... men only wanting me for my money or to take me to bed. Robert was no different; all I wanted from him was love and affection."

"Didn't he love ya once? Not even a little bit?" Dempsey was genuinely interested, it baffled him how Harry got together with Robert in the first place.

She sighed at the memories "In the beginning he said all the right words in the right places, showered me with expensive gifts, bought me flowers, chocolates and jetted me off to exciting places. Completely swept me off my feet, but it was all an act, a show so that he could have me as trophy on his arm. As soon as that wedding ring went on my finger he seemed to change...not that I noticed at the time. When I look back it all makes sense, I really don't know how I fell for it, guess I was too focused on my career."

"I promise you honey.." Dempsey spoke with mock seriousness "You ain't gonna get any of that from me."

"What the trophy wife bit?"

"Nah, the expensive gifts and the jet-set lifestyle...I ain't got no money." He grinned " The best I can offer ya is a trip to New York cattle class and some run down digs in Brooklyn..the Ritz it ain't. You'd raise the value of the real estate just by being on the street." Dempsey suddenly felt the need to put his arm around her. He snuggled closer and with effort in the confined space placed his arm around her neck. She accepted his invitation and wriggled to give him the room to slip his arm around her body.

Dempsey said with sincerity "I would never do to you what that lowlife prince charmless did. If you were my girl, I would hold on tight and never let go."

Harry felt her heart fill with enormous warmth and simply smiled "His loss is your gain."

Dempsey replayed her words in his head , did she mean it? Had Harry just told him she was his? He didn't dare ask.

They both fell into thoughtful silence, holding each other in the darkness; Harry noticed the sound 'Drip, drip, drip ,drip ,drip' "Er, that's not what I think it is...is it?" she asked apprehensively.

"Fraid so, one of bullets must have pierced one of the barrels. It's getting worse an all." He replied with a sense of foreboding. He could taste the chemicals in his mouth and the air had become much thicker making it harder to breathe.

'Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip' The sound of the leaking barrel seemed to echo around the little pocket of space...then a second drip could be clearly heard bouncing off a neighbouring drum 'Ping, ping, ping.'

Dempsey and Harry knew exactly what was happening, they could smell it, the chemicals were reacting with the air, eating up the oxygen and turning it into gas...they were running out of time.

Harry said in a wobbly voice "James, we are going to make it out...aren't we?"

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

"I dunno, it don't look good." He gripped her shoulders tighter in response.

Play:

'Faith don't fail me now,

Take me to the finish line,

All my heart it breaks, every step that I take,

But I'm hoping at the gates,

They'll tell me that your mine.'

Harry reached up and placed her hand on his chest smoothing the contours of his shirt, thinking about all that they had been through the past six months. It had been a rollercoaster and now that rollercoaster had ground to a halt, had they reached the end of the line? Dempsey, also, couldn't help but think how things could have been very different if he hadn't ended up coming to London. Coltrane hadn't managed to finish him off..yet..but a pile of barrels in a London car lot could twist fate cruelly.

'Walking through the city streets,

I its by mistake or design,

I feel so alone on a Friday night,

Can you make it feel like home, if I tell you you're mine,

It's like I told you honey.'

Harry smiled ruefully to herself, their situation was hopeless, they couldn't help themselves and were at the mercy of the emergency services. And here she was with the one person she wanted to be with. He could be loud, rude and offensive, but also kind, thoughtful and loyal. He made her laugh, he made her cry, but above all he stirred feelings within her which no man had ever done. She prayed help was out there and they would be rescued in time.

'Don't make me sad, don't make me cry
Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough
I don't know why
Keep making me laugh
Let's go get high
The road is long, we carry on
Try to have fun in the meantime'

She reached up blindly in the clawing darkness, fumbling her way up his body until she reached the dark curls on the back of his neck; she paused briefly to twirl the soft hair between her fingers. She loved the feel of his hair.

'Drip, drip, drip, plink, drip'

'Come on take a walk on the wild side
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain
You like your girls insane
Choose your last words, this is the last time
Cause you and I, we were born to die'

The pocket of air was rapidly filling with fumes and Harry felt her chest becoming tight with lack of oxygen. It was now or never to show him want he meant to her. With effort she raised her head upwards towards him and gently with her hand at the back of his head guided him down towards her. Their lips met and she kissed him tenderly, gently, softly.

'Lost but now I am found
I can see but once I was blind
I was so confused as a little child
Trying to take what I could get
Scared that I couldn't find
All the answers honey'

Dempsey responded, he felt it too, they were unlikely to make it out alive...this was a kiss goodbye. He deepened the kiss and soon it was passionate, his hand roaming to the back of her head pulling her closer to him...not letting go. He wanted her, boy he needed her.

Outside in the yard was frenzied hive of activity as the long awaited lifting equipment arrived and the fire crews burst into action. The two police teams had made steady progress and had shifted the majority of the barrels. The work was labour intensive, dirty and the stench clawed at the back of everyone's throat. Leroy and Ray were covered in dirt and sweat in the heat of the sultry July evening as they relentlessly lifted each barrel in turn to their colleagues. The barrels then travelled down the line through both sets of officers Gene, Dave, Watson, Fry, Chris, Spikings and finally to Shaz. They were relieved to see the fire officers appear with the hoists.

Shaz was exhausted, she had diligently rolled the heavy, awkward barrels to end of the car lot uncomplaining, Spikings constantly checked that she could cope. Gene, filthy and covered in grime, kept the momentum up by chivying the officers along.

Alex busied herself making tea and sandwiches, making sure the workers were well fed and watered. It had been a long day so far and it was showing no signs of ending soon. Although feeling left out of the main action, she didn't complain about her simple task, it was vital to keep the officers' energy levels up and what else could she do? Occasionally she poked her head out of the showroom door to see the teams progress. 'Please be okay.' She prayed, she couldn't begin to imagine what it was like for Harry and Dempsey buried under the mountain.

Soon the fire officers were working alongside them, not daring to tell their police colleagues to step aside, they were far too determined to see the task through. The daylight was starting to fade as they grafted into the summer's night.

'Come on take a walk on the wild side
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain
You like your girls insane
Choose your last words,
This is the last time
Cause you and I
We were born to die'

Dempsey and Harry were struggling to breath, but were determined to keep their clinch as long as possible. Eventually and reluctantly Harry had to break the kiss, her breath was coming in short rapsy gasps as she fought to get air into her lungs. The fumes were making her light headed, her mind becoming a haze. She clung on tight to Dempsey 'Never let go.'

Dempsey too was gasping for breath; he fought the fumes coughing and spluttering, desperate to hang on, It couldn't end like this. "Hold on babe." Harry was wheezing non-stop now, the fumes having taken over her entire body, she couldn't get enough air. The sensation was filling her with fear and hopelessness.

She was losing her battle to stay conscious. She couldn't think clearly, a fog had descended behind her eyes, her thoughts jumbled and incoherent. Her eyes slowly fluttered closed and Dempsey felt her go limp in his arms, all tension had left her body.

'Come on take a walk on the wild side
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain
You like your girls insane...
Choose your last words,
This is the last time
Cause you and I
We were born to die.

"Harry, hang on." Dempsey pleaded through gasps, but he was losing his battle also. He tried to keep the fume filled haze from invading his brain, but it was no good. The toxins had gripped his body like they had Harry's. He clung ever tighter to her; he couldn't lose her, not now he knew she was his and only his... His precious Harry. He wanted so much for them; a new start as a couple and now it was going to end like this. A coughing fit ripped through him, he had to fight although he was losing lucidity, he had to hang on, but as the chemicals got the better of him, he too closed his eyes and succumbed to unconsciousness.

Outside the sun dipped below the horizon as finally the rescue team had reached the bottom layer of the debris. It spurred them on to re-double their efforts.

Not sure what you all will think of that..but I hope it was ok? please R&R

Thanks