An: thanks for reading, not to keen on this chapter but here it is anyway xxxxx

Alex curled up on the sofa in her flat. Luigi let her move back straight away. That she was grateful for. It had been her home for a long time now. Everyone else had gone home. Almost as if nothing had ever happened. Nothing had changed. Gene had sent her to her flat telling her to sleep because he expected her and the others at the station by 8 the next morning. She smiled to herself. This was what she had missed. The Guv kept them all in line, kept them going. They were all separate pieces of a puzzle and now had found their way back together.

Sleep took over her quickly and when she woke to find herself tangled in a blanket on the sofa she smiled. Strangely this was the life she wanted now. Molly still was there in her thoughts but she'd had a lot of time to think, too long. She'd come to terms with the fact she wasn't going to see her daughter again.

She was surprised to find her clothes were still in the wardrobe. Good old Luigi.

Looking at herself in the mirror as she brushed her hair she took a deep breath.

Here we go Alex, new start.

Then she left locking the door behind her and silent fell over the flat as its occupant went to work with a spring in her step.

"I'm telling you, that's why they call it Shepard's pie." Ray tried to keep a deadly straight face as he convinced Chris they used to make Shepard'd pie out of real Shepards and still did in some places.

"That's sick." Chris groaned and Alex rolled her eyes going to sit at her desk wondering why the he fell for it every time. "Well I'm never eating that again."

Shaz walked over to Alex. "You want tea ma'am, just about to make some?"

"Thanks Shaz." Alex smiled. Yep. Things were definitely the way they used to be. Chris being a little dumb, Shaz being a life saver...Ray being Ray.

The phone rang and Alex answered. "DI Drake."

It was a PC calling about a murder, she took the details before getting up. "Forget the tea DC Granger." She smirked. "We've got work to do."

"Scum to catch Boll's?" Gene walked out of his shrugging on his coat.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Let's fire up the Quattro."

Alex looked at him confused. "Are you in denial about the death of your car? It was destroyed..."

"Went and got another one Boll's. Too good to change." He said before putting his hands on her shoulders and physically turning her around and giving her a bit of a shove.