Thanks to Emzi.x for her beta'ing

Disclaimer: I own no one!

Thanks for all the reviews, and for sticking with it after last chapter's horrors. Sorry this one's a bit shorter than normal.

Chapter 7

Monday 26 April, 1982

Alex was staring into the eyes of Arthur Layton. "What the? Where am I?" Alex exclaimed. Her hands were in the air in surrender, she was wearing her 2008 work suit. They were on the bridge again. Arthur Layton pointed his gun at her, the hostage crying in his arms. "Mum!" Molly ran from nowhere. "No! Don't shoot" Alex screamed, waving her arms at the snipers, instictively blocking their view of her daughter. Layton grabbed the little girl, releasing the hostage, and pulled her away towards the steps.

Alex breathed shallowly. Her head spun. What was going on? How was she here again? Why was she here again? Everything slowed down around her. She turned slowly, taking in the watching public, the surrounding police, and the clouds hazy against the blue sky. She felt the ground beneath her rock, causing her to sway gently.

A gun shot rang out. Time sped up. Alex ran down the steps, following the sound of the gunshot, her heart racing. She arrived on the pebbled beach. She looked around for Molly to stumble into her view. She didn't. Alex started to run, then stopped, her heart thumping hard against her chest.

"No!" she screamed, her voice breaking. Molly lay on her back, blood running down the side of her face. Alex rushed to her daughter's side, feeling for a pulse in her neck. There wasn't one. She fell backwards unable to bring herself to touch her again, shock over taking her senses, unable to even cry at the incomprehensibility of it. Molly wasn't dead. Alex had been the one who was shot.

"Come on, Alex, you'll be my ticket out of this mess." Layton pulled her to her feet, Alex too dazed to resist.

Alex opened her eyes. Her chin wobbled as she tried to stop the tears from flowing. The clown was in clear view, about ten feet in front of her. Standing in front of the clown was Molly. For the first time, Alex could see her daughter in detail, more than a peripheral vision.

"Mummy? I miss you." Molly said in steady tones. Behind them was a shimmering blackness. "You've been shot, Mummy, you won't wake up."

"I know" Alex whispered. She remembered it all now. Denial had blocked it from her consciousness. Her worst fears had come true, a fear that no mother should ever have to face. Molly was dead, shot in the head by a madman. Alex's stomach churned. As she had known in her heart that her father had been responsible for the loss of her parents; as she had always known about her mother's affair with Evan, she knew that Molly was gone. Layton had dragged her to that boat and shot her too. There was nothing for her to return to in 2008.

As if reading her mind, Molly said calmly: "Come with me, Mummy, you only have to shut your eyes and we can be together."

The deep voice of the clown echoed after her: "We are waiting for you, Alex."

"Oh baby, my baby girl!" Alex sobbed. My baby, she thought again. She looked down at her abdomen. "Gene?"

The Quattro screeched to a halt on the tarmac in front of two high rise blocks. Gene, Chris and Ray raced out of the car.

"Which block was it, Ray?" Gene cocked his gun, waiting for Ray's answer.

"That one" said Ray, pointing to his right. "Top floor, it says 'ere." Gene looked around him. They were the first to arrive; armed back-up was on its way. Gene knew he should wait but the little voice inside his mind spurred him on: she didn't have time for him to ponce about. He ran to the building, finding the lift upon entry. He bashed the lift button. No lights lit up. He tried again. His heart beat faster. Fifteen floors. He could sprint all the way.

She was naked, those ubiquitous tiny cuts now covering every part of her body except her face, interspersed with deeper, raging slashes that dripped blood to the floor, creating a pool about her: one on the inside of her left thigh, three on her back, one on her left arm, following the line of the muscle. And one on her neck, running just below the jugular down to the hollow at the base of her neck. He stood back to admire his handiwork. That would be the last one, the one that sent the shivers down his spine. She was muttering to herself, calling for her baby, addressing someone he couldn't see; she seemed as if she no longer saw him. Like the others, she no longer responded to the cutting. And that's when it ended for him. When they ceased to wince, to scream, to plead with him it was over.

"Gene." she thought, the image of him filling her mind's eye. The epiphany took only a split second. She had been shot in the head. She wasn't going to wake up. She was a second away from death not life. On the other side were Molly and…the clown. Death was all that awaited her. She could see an apparition of Molly but there was nothing else behind her. Sam Tyler had 'lived' for seven years in this world while seconds away from death. He had lived. And he had died. Eventually she would die too, the bullet would complete its journey and she would succumb. And Molly would still be there. Wherever Molly was, Alex would join her. But not now, not now that there was life growing inside her. Not like this, at the hands of another psychopath. She had to tell Gene. However long she had in this world, she wanted to live and breathe it. She didn't know what lay on the other side but she would find out eventually. For now, though, she would live.

As if looking through the wrong end of a telescope, Alex felt herself lifted from the chair. "No!" she cried inwardly. I'm not ready, Gene, I need Gene. The baby! Her mind was alert, at the point of death she realised her choice: death or life here, with Gene; and the tragedy that teh choice was being snatched away from her, it was beyond her control, her body was exhausted, the loss of blood too much for her to fight him. She heard the splash before she felt the cold water engulf her. He dropped her in the bath full of water, pushing her head beneath the surface. She tried to hold her breath, eyes wide but he put his hands around her throat. And she closed her eyes.

TBC...