"Come on, Bolly… you're pissed as a penguin, love, up to bed now…"
"No, Gene," Alex slurred, throwing her arms round his neck and making to kiss him. Gently disentangling himself from her, Gene picked her up in his arms and made for the stairs, Alex giggling uncontrollably and reeking of wine and sweat and worry. He bent his head as he struggled up, blaming himself for letting her get into this state. She was beyond drunk; she was completely and utterly legless, and he hated it when she was like this, when her usual composure and uptight stance was replaced with a woman who seemed to be almost falling apart.
"Which one's your room?" Gene muttered, looking into the rooms upstairs one by one and finding one with a cream duvet and a walk-in wardrobe full of smart clothes and evening dresses. Assuming this was Alex's, Gene slid her onto the bed and tucked the covers around her. Fighting his own fatigue, he went through to the little ensuite bathroom and got some water to pour into her mouth, then sat down in the chair next to the bed and gazed down at her, watching as she fell asleep, the deep slumber fuelled by the alcohol that had been flowing down her throat while he had been sitting up in the guest room, thinking hard and remembering and wondering and formulating little plans in his head. Gene punched himself mentally and lay back, letting sleep take him over.
As soon as his eyes closed, he was out.
Alex woke at midnight, still a little woozy from the booze but now sane again, and saw Gene in the chair, the moonlight from outside illuminating his sleeping, peaceful face and making him look young, tranquil, almost vulnerable. The pout and the anger had vanished, and in their place was peaceful blankness, not happiness but not sadness either. Alex reached out and brushed a lock of hair from his closed eye, and stood up, rushing through to the loo for a drink and a badly-needed wee.
Coming back, she saw that Gene hadn't moved, and smiled at him as he shifted slightly in the chair she knew to be uncomfortable to sleep on; she had done so once when Molly was little and had the flu and she had tucked her up in this bed and slept in that chair, watching over her. She walked over and shook Gene's shoulder gently.
"Gene? Guv?"
Gene opened his eyes blearily and saw his DI standing over him, a smile on her face and her hand on his shoulder.
"Mmh… hello, yes, what?"
"Did you want to go to bed?"
"Are you still drunk?"
Alex filled in the blanks in her memories of that night.
"No, I don't think so. Am I acting drunk?"
"No."
"Then there you have it. I'm not drunk."
"Fine."
Gene stood up and stretched, his stiff muscles cramping and almost unbearable, but he didn't give any sign of his discomfort and simply walked out, leaving a short "Goodnight, don't let the bed bugs bite" in his wake.
Alex hurriedly pulled off her clothes and got into her little nightie, rolling over on the mattress as she did so, burying her head in the pillow and receiving a faint gasp of Molly's scent as she did so, remembering her little girl again and wondering when she would be back as her mummy again. She silently vowed never to be nasty to Molly again, and promised herself and Molly that she would act like a proper mum when she got home.
Her last thought before she drifted off was wondering if Gene would make a good step-dad.
"Wakey wakey, Drakey…"
Alex opened her eyes to the sight of Gene standing over her, his eyes feasting on her in her skimpy nightie since the duvet had fallen onto the floor at some point during the night. She glared at him, but noticed that his eyes had a glint of playfulness in them and stopped, instead reaching for her dressing gown and standing up, pulling it over herself and stepping forwards to meet him.
"Morning, Guv."
He gave her a small smile and stepped outside the room to allow someone in.
"They said they were from transport or something."
A young man entered, smiling at Alex and handing her some papers and a tax disc.
"That's for your Audi Quattro, Ma'am, registration plate JLY 751V? You applied for a tax disc and for insurance from More Than."
"Yes, effective of today," Alex replied, taking the disc and documents and smiling. Gene looked annoyed that the man had referred to the Quattro as Alex's. "I printed the relevant papers out, they're just on the bedside table. Sorry that I wasn't up, I had a bit too much to drink last night," she added, smiling ruefully.
"We all need that sometimes," the young man replied, smiling again and moving forwards to check the papers. He left once he was satisfied, leaving Alex with the tax disc and insurance papers for the Quattro and one Gene Hunt who couldn't wait to get out with the car and drive it once again.
"Driving licence?" Alex asked him, and he took his out, putting it in front of her. She nodded.
"It's current, for some reason. You're fine to drive."
"Finally," Gene muttered, grabbing it back and walking out to the Quattro as Alex got dressed.
"Guv!" she yelled out the window as he unlocked it. "Hang on, just let me get dressed, would you? And we need to go to the bank, I've got no money and we need some!"
"Fine!" Gene shouted back, locking the Quattro again and stomping back up the path, his bad temper shining through but being quashed a little when Alex came out with the tax disc and the documents and putting them in the Quattro.
"Now you can drive, but carefully and don't exceed the speed limit, you'll be arrested. No special treatment for coppers now, Guv. I'll give you directions to the bank."
Gene nodded, smiling as the steering wheel slid under his fingers and jumped to life as the car started with a roar, startling two young children playing in a nearby garden and triggering several neighbours to look out of their windows and clock the bright red sporty Audi zooming down to the end of the street and turning onto the main road towards town.
"It's this way now, Guv."
Gene swung the wheel towards the third exit of the roundabout they were on, the indicator he had barely touched back in 1983 clicking steadily on the dashboard and shining onto the scrubby plants beside the road. Alex sat back, feeling slightly safer than she had felt riding in this car in 1983 and enjoying the purr of the engine and the feel of the familiar seat under her body.
Gene turned off and made to accelerate, getting up to the speed limit as the Quattro soared along, blissfully smooth and agile, as always. A car drew up beside them, and Alex turned to it, slightly confused at its close proximity to them and its speed.
As soon as it had reached the point where it was slightly ahead of the Quattro, it began swerving to one side, the side that Gene and Alex were on, making as though it was going to sweep them off the road. Alex managed to get one good look at the driver's face as he made one attempt and Gene swore, accelerating hard to get away from the ugly black Mercedes that was trying to run them off the tarmac. Their face was coated in a thick balaclava, showing nothing but cold, dark eyes as they flashed at Alex.
And then the bonnet lashed out and the cars made contact, the tortured metal screaming as the impact crushed the doors in and smashed the glass in the windows, thrusting the Quattro off the road and into the ditch next to it. Alex screamed as the world turned over with the Quattro, a blur of green and grey and blue and shards of red, and reached out to grasp for the driver of the car, feeling his suit rough under her fingers and thinking, If I die, Gene Hunt, I want to die holding you…
And then the world went black and Alex knew no more.
A/N: Oh, I love cliffhangers… XD Sorry people! :P Hope you enjoyed it, and please tell me how it's going! You guys rock :) Jazzola :)