"We're just about to bloody close, you loonies," the man on the front desk muttered, standing up reluctantly as Alex flashed him her police badge. "The space has been there for twenty bloody years anyway, hard to believe you suddenly need it in such a fricking rush."

"Just get it open, you puff," Gene said darkly, sighing inwardly as the man gave him a look which doubled as both filthy and curious.

"A puff? Where the bloody hell did you get that from?"

He turned away, laughing quietly to himself at Gene's expense. Gene clenched his fists and Alex grabbed them both quickly, running her fingers over them to stop him doing something stupid. They unclenched a little, but not enough to say that Alex was still completely confident that the seedy man who was now unlocking the storage space wouldn't get hurt if he chose (unwisely) to throw another less-than-polite comment Gene's way.

"Let it go," she whispered to him, smiling as he turned and his eyes lost their fire, meeting hers and seeming to be doused by her sea-green irises.

"Thank you, Guv," she murmured as the door swung open and the man stepped back, his shoe catching on a rut as he did so and causing him to lose his balance and fall heavily onto his rear end. Gene sniggered as Alex leant down and helped him up, and after shooting him a silencing look Alex took the keys and proceeded into storage space number 12.

A glisten of red… four gleaming silver rings… a familiar numberplate, JLY 751V… the sleek emblem down the side door… the stout, slightly worn tyres…

Gene gave a gasp of delight as he took in nothing more or less than his mighty, lion-roar-emitting, seemingly immortal Audi Quattro, polished to look like new and with the bullet holes vanished, replaced by smooth, blood-red metal. A light sheen of dust covered the car, but, Gene knew, that would be wiped away the second this car set tyre on the street and got up to a reasonable speed.

"My Quattro…" he whispered, moving forwards and placing a hand on the bonnet, feeling emotions welling up inside him at the sight of the old car. Alex smiled at him and looked down at the keys, since Gene had eyes only for the beautiful, magnificent car under his fingers and the details he had thought he would never see again.

"Are these the Quattro keys, Gene?" she asked, holding them up. He shook his head.

"Don't think so. The key for the Quattro had a red fob on the end."

Alex looked down at the keys again, frowning. She was certain it was smaller than it had been a second ago…

Foraging in her pocket, she found the rest of the key, a bright red fob with the four Audi rings doodled on it faintly in blue ballpoint pen.

"Is that it?" she asked, holding the two halves together. Gene looked at them and nodded, a smile blooming over his face, which did two things to his normally sulky, sultry face; one, it made it look much brighter, like the sun had come out from behind a particularly stubborn cloud, and two, it made him look about ten years younger.

"If you're quite finished, I have to bloody lock up already," the man muttered, his eyes on his watch. Alex rolled her eyes at him.

"We'll just drive it out, then."

She handed Gene the key, smiling as her fingers brushed his and sent sparks up her arm, and slipped into the passenger seat.

Gene, a broad smile from side to side of his face, slotted the keys into the ignition and turned them quickly, expecting the roar and rumble of the powerful engine, the purr of its smoothness once they were going…

Instead, he was met with silence.

"What the bloody hell?"

Alex took a look at the petrol gauge. Empty.

"Oh… Guv…"

"This is not how I reckoned on getting back to your place," a very grumpy Gene Hunt muttered as the tow truck turned into Alex's street with the Quattro on the back and Gene and Alex still sitting in it. The truck had turned up with no petrol and the nearest station had been a mile away from the storage space, so the truck had just winched the Quattro up and taken it back. Gene had been intrigued by the whole thing, since it had been very different in the 80's, but once he was told that he wouldn't be able to drive the Quattro home his attitude towards the whole thing had cooled considerably.

"Stop whingeing," Alex sighed, putting her hand on his arm as they stopped outside her house and the Quattro was lowered onto her drive, with her Renault being parked in the street. Gene pouted, but let it go.

"Thanks for the lift," Alex told the guys in the tow truck, handing them a small wodge of notes and turning back to Gene as they drove away, one man turning round to have another look at Alex's arse. Gene narrowed his eyes at him and held two fingers up towards the retreating tow truck, and Alex tutted and lowered his hand herself.

"Come on, Guv, it's freezing, let's go back inside."

The door opened to an even icier house, since Alex had forgotten to put the central heating on. Gene stamped around the lounge in his snakeskin boots and rubbed his hands together, shivering under his thick coat but determined not to let Alex see ("Gene Hunt doesn't do shivering like some nancy puff," he told himself firmly), while Alex found the dial and turned the radiators and boiler on. It took a while, but eventually she and Gene were sitting in the kitchen, which was the warmest part of the house since she had put the oven on to make some food, with mugs of tea in their gloved hands and peace reigning throughout the house. Gene smiled at the Quattro parked outside through the window, and Alex laughed at him.

"You can't get enough of that car, can you?"

"Like I said before, Bolls, it's more a part of me than my own ball-sack," he grinned, his eyes still feasting on the glorious red and noticing some nosy neighbours having a peek at it as well. A small group of kids on skateboards and listening to iPods stopped to have a look at it. Alex rolled her eyes.

"You're going to have to be less crude here, Guv, people won't like it."

"How much has this bloody country actually changed, Bolls?" Gene grumbled, standing up and tracing the condensation on the lounge window with one leather-gloved finger. Alex considered.

"Well, you have to go through proper procedure in the police force now, and you aren't allowed to beat up suspects or just arrest them on gut feeling."

"My gut has never let me down, Bolly."

"I know, but you need concrete evidence now. There isn't a lot of, if any, police corruption, at least. Oh, I almost forgot…"

Alex peered through the window at the Quattro and sighed.

"No tax disc, Guv. It's not road-legal."

"Meaning?"

"I'll go and get it a disc online, and some insurance, I must have a decent amount of money here. You can't drive it on the road yet, Gene."

Gene sighed with frustration and plopped down on the sofa, only to jump up again as the phone shrilled through the sudden silence.

Alex moved quickly towards it, grabbing Gene's hand as she did so for comfort. Gene squeezed her slim fingers back and stood next to her as she carefully slid the handset off the stand and up to her ear.

"So, Alexandra. Beginning to get used to life back here in 2009, are we? And your precious Gene as well… let me tell you that you won't have him for much longer."

"Can you just tell me who you are, and where you're calling from?" Alex asked, but the sound cut off and a faint beeping came through to tell Alex that the caller had rung off, hanging up on her.

"Gene…" Alex whispered, turning to him with tears in her eyes. Gene pulled her into a comforting hug, resting his chin on top of her head as she blinked searing-hot tears back, breathing in his familiar smell and feeling the comfort of the rugged cloth and soft velveteen of his coat on her cheeks and forehead. He felt so solid, so real, and Alex gave a little sob as she remembered the face of the young man callously killed and left in a shallow grave on some farmland.

"Ssh, Bolls, don't cry, I'm not going anywhere without you," Gene murmured, rubbing her back gently and squeezing her slim shoulders. Her clothes were so different; he missed her slim, arse-hugging jeans and 80's fashion. At least he still wore the clothes he was familiar with, although they were a bit creased by now.

"Maybe we should go to bed," Alex whispered, looking up at Gene through tear-reddened eyes. Gene nodded, shyly pressing a kiss to her lips, his familiar hesitation coming through, and turned to head upstairs just as Alex grabbed his arm and pulled him back round, kissing him herself before letting him go up and grabbing some wine, pouring it for herself to get nice and drunk and push the pictures of Gene's death and Keats and Shaz and Ray and Chris and Molly out of her head.

A/N: Please don't forget to review, reviews make my day! Thanks to all my lovely readers, you guys rock :) Jazzola :)