Gene saw what was happening and threw himself down on top of Alex, just as the entire window smashed, sending razor sharp shards of glass into the room. He covered her with his body, protecting her from the piercing fragments of window pane that showered down on them.

Then silence. Complete silence. Everything was still. Alex could feel Gene's racing heartbeat, in time with her own and his breath on the back of her head. It made her shiver. It made her shiver not only because he was so close to her, but because once again, it demonstrated how real he was. Alex could not argue that Gene Hunt was just a figment of her imagination at that moment. Once they had laid there, in that same position, for around twenty seconds, Gene began to move. He lifted himself off Alex and cautiously stood up. Alex went to follow him but Gene swiftly motioned for her to stay where she was. Chris and Ray were peering, confused, into the office. Gene moved forward to look through the broken glass. He saw a figure, clad all in black, hurriedly run away, down a back alley and out of sight.

He grabbed his gun from where it lay on the desk and then proceeded to sprint all the way out of CID and into the street where he had seen the figure. Alex scrambled up from where she still lay on the floor, indicated for Chris and Ray to follow her, and ran out in the direction that Gene had just left in. The three of them found him standing in the middle of the deserted street frowning.

"Did you see anyone Guv?" Chris asked.

"Well, obviously he did…otherwise he wouldn't have run out here would he?" Ray rolled his eyes exasperatedly at his colleague.

Alex stepped forward and looked around.

"Gene…?" she ventured.

Her DCI turned to look at the three of them. His expression was grim and serious.

"Bring in any witnesses…now!" he yelled, sending Chris and Ray off down opposite ends of the street.

"Yes Guv." They replied in unison.

Alex looked at Gene. A trickle of ran down the side of his head. He appeared not to notice, or if he did, he chose not to do anything about it.

"You're bleeding." She pointed out.

He nodded and gingerly touched his head. He looked down at his hand and at the crimson that was now on it.

"Ruddy glass" he muttered and headed back into the building.

They spent the rest of the day bringing in possible eye witnesses and interviewing them about the that morning. Somebody was aiming for them. Somebody wanted to kill either her or Gene…why else would they shoot through the window and into his office? It confused her, and she wanted to know why. She was on her way to hand over some paperwork to Chris (who had temporarily taken on Shaz's job as well as his own, whilst she was recovering in hospital), and she saw Gene coming out of one of the interview rooms. She went to meet him.

"Any luck?" she asked.

"Nope..nothing. Diddily-squat, zippo. How about you?"

"The most I've got is an elderly woman who is claiming to have seen a tall man with…" Alex checked the papers she was holding. "…with a 'skinny frame'."

"Well, that narrows it down to abou' a thousand men in the city…fantastic."

They both carried on walking down the corridor. Alex stopped, causing Gene to carry on further until he noticed that Alex was no longer with him.

"Why would someone want to shoot into your office?" She queried.

"Oh, I dunno, how about…to kill someone?" Gene told her in a very patronising tone of voice. "I don't think some regular Joe is just gonna pick up a gun and decide to blast through a bleedin' CID office window? What d'ya reckon Bollinger Knickers?

"That's not what I meant. I mean…have you ever done anything that would really hack them off with you?"

Gene stared at her and raised his eyebrows.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you do sometimes have a tendency to…" Alex began.

"A tendency to what? What kind of man d'you take me for, Detective Inspector Drake?" Gene snarled, somewhat playfully.

"Nothing, nothing." Alex replied, "So, what are we going to do? Give up?"

Gene began to stride off again.

"Yep…problem?" He called back to her. "Game's on tonight anyway."

"Oi! You can't just abandon the case like that?" Alex protested angrily. "Fine, well if you aren't going to find out why someone attempted to kill you this morning then I will!" She finished off yelling at the empty corridor.