K, hopefully this makes up for the last chapter's shortness. I've not got much to say right now lol, so...
Sorry about the long wait, again, but y'know how long these chapters are! Stay with me on this!
Dedicated to..... EdibleElectricity and Debbie :) V.I.P
Vince gazed into the cracked mirror in the tiny bathroom in his flat and sighed, his face so close to it that his breath ghosted over the surface of it. Running his fingers through his hair, in an attempt to comb it into submission (He seethed at 1973's lack of style and straighteners). He stuck his tongue out at his reflection and smiled slightly, not sure how exactly he found it amusing, but grinned. He glanced down at his left hand again and pouted as he looked at his ring finger. It made him feel like crying, but he shook those thoughts away and beamed to his alter-ego in the mirror. Howard told him that he should be the sunshine kid, so here he was, being sunshiney. Rainbows, glitter and sweets were his world right now. And when he woke up, he'd be getting married. That put a real smile on his face as he shut his eyes and squealed loudly in his head.
He knew he was in a coma. And he'd seen on all those boring hospital programmes that Howard watched that people come out of them all the time. So he'd simply have to wait, listen to music, maybe solve a crime or two, drink. And before he knew it, he'd be back to Howard.
Suddenly, there was a crash in the main room, making him squeal out loud and grab the razor from the sink. That was the unmistakeable sound of a door being broken down, and now he could hear the person in his flat. He was about to creep out to face them when his cowardly side took over and he went to hide behind the shower curtain.
"Oi! Noir! Where the hell are you?!" He breathed out and remembered what he'd decided. Dropping the razor in the shower, he bounced out of the bathroom to be met by a glaring man, who already smelt quite a bit of whisky, or gin, or something. The DCI visibly recoiled at seeing Vince so happy,
"Bloody hell Noir, you were ready to kill yourself yesterday. Now you look like you've lost one pence and gained a pound" Vince looked at him doubtfully,
"I don't think so. I'd rather find about thirty quid, 'cause then I could buy a really genius pair of boots!" His eyes sparkled as he grinned at the DCI, who frowned,
"Are you a man or a bleedin' fairy Noir? And anyway, no-one buys shoes for thirty quid. I saw a good pair for about a fiver yesterday" Vince's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets,
"No way! What kind? Were they..." He trailed off, "Nah, doesn't matter, you don't really have that much style do you? I mean, have you seen those shoes on your feet?" He gestured down to his boss' shoes. Gene inhaled angrily, making Vince squeak and his face go into the ultimate defence mode, eyes big, face innocent, looking for all the world like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Gene slowly put down one of his fists, that had been bunched up and raised, and breathed out heavily,
"Get in the car, we've got a situation down at the station" Vince smiled cheekily and said,
"One sec, I need to find my boots," Gene growled but pointed at a pair on the floor, "Nah, not them, I think I need more of an ankle boot today, these trousers don't really suit cowboy boots. Whadd'ya reckon?" Gene snapped,
"I don't bloody care if you go in with pink bunny slippers on, stick something on, and get in the car!" He screamed in his new DI's face. Vince whimpered and stuck the cowboy boots on, frowning all the way out of the flat at his legs.
--
"Annie! AnnieAnnieAnnie!!" The WPC turned, hearing her name being called as if she was the person's mother,
"Morning Sir!" She said brightly to Vince, almost laughing at his enthusiasm, and bit her lip as the guv hit him around the head as he was about to run up to her,
"Don't touch my hair!!" He yelled at Gene before skipping over to her, "Hey Annie, guess what?!" She shrugged and tried not to make eye contact with the guv, as he was currently debating whether or not to come over and knock his DI's head off.
"I'm engaged!!" He squealed, making her squeal in a very similar way and throw her arms around him,
"Congratulations! Is it, y'know," She said, lowering her voice so that no-one else could hear, "Howard?" He jumped up and down and nodded, making her smile,
"When do I get to meet him then?"
"You don't. I mean, not in a mean way or anything, but I'm in a coma, so when I wake up, you'll be gone and I'll be able to get married to him! He asked me last night, through my telly" During all of this, Annie was nodding in a concerned way, but even from knowing him for a day, she knew he could get quite emotional and fragile. He almost jumped off a roof the other day for god's sake! So she smiled and said,
"Well, that's fantastic Vince!" He nodded happily, before having the scruff of his neck grabbed and was suddenly pulled into the office.
"Right you, to make up for your show of femininity back there, you get the main case of the day" Gene said, in a sarcastically thrilled way. Vince couldn't wipe the smile off his face, after telling Annie he was engaged, it all suddenly seemed more real. He was getting married! His boss shoved a file into his hands and snarled,
"Lucky for you, I'm in a good mood today" Vince raised a disbelieving eyebrow, which Gene chose to ignore, "You know why? Because we managed to catch an ignorant little scroat called Kim Trent" Vince sniggered,
"Is he a man?"
"Yeah" He snickered again and got a questioning glance from Gene,
"Sorry, just sounds like a girl's name"
"Right. He's done loads of armed robberies, post offices, banks, bookies. You name it. So you have the job of interviewing him. Take Chris, he can take notes for you" Vince rolled his eyes but nodded and bounded off.
"Chris!" The DC turned to see Vince bouncing up to him,
"Yeah Boss?"
"C'mon, we need to go interview some guy called Kim" Chris raised his eyebrow but followed his superior down the corridor.
--
"What're you doing?" Chris asked, as Vince pressed a button on the tape recorder.
"Taping what happens. It's better than writing it down". Chris looked to be storing this information for later use, as Vince started the interview,
"So Mr Trent, what're you doing back in London? Getting ready to rob somewhere else?" Trent looked at Vince with a murderous look on face and said,
"I'm visitin' my auntie" He sneered at Vince, who sat back in his chair, slumping down casually,
"Really? So if we went to your little meeting place you got arrested at, we wouldn't find," He stopped for a second, sifting through various papers on the desk, "Your friends Kevin Briggs or 'Brigster' or Freddy Washington waiting to do one last job together before you leave?" Trent shook his head, still sneering as Vince was getting a bored look on his face and started picking at some loose thread on his shirt. After a few minutes of silence, Chris piped up,
"Er, boss?"
"Mm?" Vince jerked his head up, evidently having been lost in his own thoughts, "Oh, yeah, er..."
"Don't strain yourself there Noir," Gene banged into the room, making them all jump slightly, "So Trent, why're you here?"
"Cookery classes. I'm havin' it off with Fanny Cradock" Vince couldn't help giggling, making Gene throw him a filthy before turning his attention back to Trent,
"I think you're a dirty liar Trent" With that, he thrust his hand into Trent's face. Vince gasped, never seeing someone being interviewed be hit before and leapt up, grabbing Gene's arm,
"What the hell are you doing?!" He asked angrily. Gene turned, his face calm and in no way out of control. This made Vince relax for a second before the guv grabbed his arm, twisted it around and dragged him out of lost property. Once out, he threw Vince to the wall and growled,
"I'll tell you what I'm doing you little prick, I'm trying to get some ruddy answers! They won't tell you anything if they're not scared of you!" Vince blinked and whimpered,
"You messed up my hair" Gene narrowed his eyes,
"Let me tell you something Noir. I could just about cope with your happiness (He spat this word out) and your bloody girly ways, but you ever question how I do things, I will make sure that for the rest of your life you'll have to eat through a straw!" WIth that he barged back into the interview, leaving Vince stood, stunned against the wall, trying to fluff his hair back up.
--
Half an hour later, Trent was walking out of the police station, whistling happily, with his hands in his pockets.
"We'll see you back here tomorrow," Vince yelled down the corridor after him, "When we have more evidence," Trent continued to whistle until he had rounded the corner and was out of sight. Vince looked up to see Gene stood right next to him, "We will get him," Vince said slowly, "But we need it to be water tight". Gene looked as though he was about to spit on him. Vince tried to look him squarely in the eye, but was unable to, the man's eyes practically had sparks shooting from them. After what seemed like hours, Gene simply sniffed and walked away slowly.
Vince just shrugged and bounded off, bumping into a cleaner as he did so, making a ring off one of her fingers fall off,
"Shit, sorry!" Vince apologized as she looked up, still smiling,
"Don't worry about it Sir! It's always falling off! It's my engagement ring" Vince nodded sadly and said,
"Oh cool, congrats, when's the wedding...er?"
"December, and my name's June" He smiled at her and nodded,
"If I was you I'd take it back to the jewellers, get it re-measured" She grinned and nodded, thanked him for his advice and went on her way. He walked with a bit more bounce in his step (If that was possible) as he was reminded that he was going to get married! He just had to live here a tiny bit longer, and then he could go home.
--
He was stood at the front of the dinner queue (Which was growing steadily longer as he pondered) and looked down at the food with some disgust. Usually he and Howard would go into dinner together, and he'd use some of the old Noir charm to get them both huge portions. But all of this food looked like crap compared with what he got back home. He couldn't help but giggle at the dessert menu. What the heck was spotted dick?
"Have you decided yet?" The WPC that he knew worked behind the front desk and knew only by hearing other people talk to her that her name was Phyllis. Her voice had a very bored tone to it, and he could hear tuts from behind him, but stuff him, apparently, he was superior to all of them. Unless Gene was there, but Vince guessed he'd be the type to barge to the front.
"Sir?" She upped the tone of her voice slightly, making Vince jump, pulled out of his thoughts,
"Erm, yeah, I'll have... er, what's that?" He asked, pulling a disgusted face as he pointed at what looked to be (In his opinion) cat sick.
"That's lasagne" She answered, in a voice that suggested she thought he was just a tad retarded. Suddenly, the door was thrust open and Gene busted in,
"Noir! Robbery in jewellers in process!" Vince dropped his tray and ran after the guv, praying to god it wasn't Trent, because if it was, Gene would probably rip his head off.
--
Vince sat in the guv's car, clutching onto the sides of his seat for dear life. Gene was a madman when it came to driving, and had appeared to be disgusted when Vince hadn't registered how good his car was. He had just shrugged and said, "So?" When Gene had remarked proudly that it was a such-and-such type of car with so much boot space, and it went from nought to whatever in thirty seconds. Like Vince cared. He couldn't even drive.
They swerved up to the jewellers and Vince was flung forward as Gene slammed the brakes down. They heard the shop's alarm going off as they both leapt out the car and just as they were running towards the entrance, three men wearing stockings on their heads and all three holding guns were running away from the scene.
"Oi! Stop right there you scumbags!" The 'scumbags' simply pointed their guns toward both officers, who had to dive into a car that was parked on the road. Vince was absolutely terrified as the bullets penetrated the windscreen and glass flew over him as he was lying with his arms covering his head in the back seat. Soo though, the firing stopped and Gene grunted slightly before getting up cautiously, shaking the glass off as he did so,
"You alright? Breathing?" Vince nodded, gasping slightly, the adrenaline still working it's way through his body. As he started to relax however, a body slowly fell sideways from it's position in the drivers seat of the car.
"Oh my god, June!! June, can you hear me?!" Vince cried out as he recognised the girl from the station earlier that day.
--
"Jesus, be careful with her" Vince nagged the ambulance driver, who was in fact being very gentle with the stretcher, but Vince had to let out his frustration on someone. As the ambulance drove away, it's red lights flashing and it's siren going, Vince silently screamed into his hands, June's blood still on them. He slowly pulled his hands away and walked over to where Gene, Chris and Ray were stood.
"You've got her blood on you" Ray remarked as Gene looked at him in disgust. Vince pulled out the little mirror he kept in his pocket and saw the blotches of blood scattered over his face. He wasn't particularly squeamish, but this was just a little too much, making him turn extremely pale and stagger against a wall, vomiting on the pavement next to it. To his surprise, he felt a pair of hands holding his shoulders as he was retching, and very slowly started patting his back, hesitantly. He finished and wiped a shaking hand against his mouth and looked up to see Gene staring back at him, concern actually glistening in his dark eyes,
"You ok Vince?" Vince nodded uncertainly and Gene nodded, "I'm not gonna go on at you for this," He said, waving a hand in the direction of the blood left on the floor, "But I will, if you don't get Trent arrested and have this case 'water tight' within two days. You got that?" Vince nodded again and Gene left, nodding his head towards the car when he passed Chris and Ray.
Vince unsurely made his way past the alley it had happened in and walked past a man with a hearing aid in, picking up litter, pushing around two huge bins. Vince shook his head sadly, remembering Howard's old job, and his 'street crew'. However, as he passed the man, he saw a huge dent and scratch in one of the bins. His brain working so much that it hurt, Vince pulled up next to him, flashing his badge at the man causing him to stop and look worried,
"Something happen to your cart?" The man wouldn't look him in the eye, and his flicked about uncertainly, "Relax," Vince soothed, "What's your name?"
"Lenord" Vince nodded and said,
"So what happened to your cart?" Again, his eyes flicked nervously from side to side, before he finally answered,
"It was a...a threat. I saw them, I saw one of them without their mask on and..." Vince nodded reasuringly and said,
"If I gave you protection, would you be able to identify one? If he couldn't even see you?" Lenord finally looked him in the eye. He swallowed slightly but nodded, making Vince grin and take his arm to take him to the station.
--
"Pull Trent in" Vince said to the guv, as soon as he and Lenord got in.
"Blimey you've changed your tune. Got any evidence?" Gene asked, mockingly, but he had to admit that Vince gave some pretty mean withering looks, as he replied,
"Not yet" The guv simply raised an eyebrow but all to gladly went to arrest Trent.
--
An hour later they were stood in the canteen. People were still having their lunches and they had a line-up in the canteen. Vince rolled his eyes as they got a few officers to stand in the line, next to Trent, as Lenord looked down the line, slowly. Vince saw his eyes widen as he recognised Trent, but he kept looking down the line until stuttering,
"It...it's none of 'em" Vince heard the guv make a small impatient noise behind him and said,
"Are you sure about that?" He could have sworn that out of the corner of his eye Trent pursed his lips at Lenord slighty, as if blowing him a kiss,
"I said it's none of them!" Lenord said, with some force, and stormed out of the canteen. Vince groaned and ran after him, before Gene could knock his block off.
"Lenord! Lenord!" Lenord turned hesitantly, and fixed Vince with an uncertain glare, "Look, I didn't know it was going to be like that. How about we do it a different way? If we let him go for the night, bring him back in the morning, then, you can come in and..." Lenord's eyes widened once more,
"But then he'll get me! He'll come for me!" Vince shushed him and rubbed his arm,
"Don't worry, I've thought of something. Annie!" He shouted over to the young policewoman stood talking to a PC, she looked up and smiled, before saying goodbye to the PC and heading over,
"Hello Sir, who's this?"
"Lenord, Annie. Annie, Lenord" He said, introducing them. Then, drawing Annie to one side, he said, "Lenord's the key witness in the jeweller robbery. He needs protection for the night, would you be able to stay with him? You'll have full backup, an unmarked car outside the house?" He trailed off, a questioning/pleading tone in his voice,
"Have you squared this with the guv?" Annie asked, amused. Vince shook his head, just as he heard a loud, obnoxious voice behind him asking,
"Haven't squared what with me, DI Noir?" Vince jumped half a mile in the air, but breathed evenly and turned to face his boss,
"Guv," He started, noticing it was the first time he'd called his superior that. Maybe he could start calling Howard it?..., "Guv, Lenord needs protection while we find a way to stop him feeling intimidated by Trent. So Annie's gonna go home with him, and Chris and Ray are gonna sit outside the front of the house in an unmarked car. Sound good?" Gene glared at him, and Annie took this as her prompt to leave.
"Fine," He spat, "But if this doesn't work, you'll be replacing June in that hospital bed" Vince gave a shout of bitter laughter as he walked away.
--
"You alright Annie?" VInce spoke into the radio in the station, being manned by Phyllis as Annie had a walkie-talkie with her.
"Fine. Well.... It's probably nothing, but I heard a noise round the back, I'm going to check it out" Vince leapt for the radio,
"Annie wait! First go out the front. Are DC Skelton and DS Carling out there?"
"Chris and Ray? They've not been here for about an hour. Look, I'm going to...Argh! Lenord, wait, argh!!" Vince jumped as he heard the screams issuing from the radio and shouted to Phyllis,
"Try and get hold of her!" as he ran out the door and down to the pub.
--
"You were supposed to be watching them!" Vince slammed through the door and found Chris and Ray stood there, playing darts with the guv. Gene looked round with a bored face, but narrowed his eyes at Vince's scared expression,
"They went there. To Lenord's. And Annie's there" Gene threw one more dart at the board and accompanied his DI to the station.
When they got there, Phyllis was still trying to get in touch with Annie,
"I've re-routed all available officers, and every car is at that estate guv," Phyllis said to Gene, "But she shouldn't be there on her own!". Gene could tell Vince was staring daggers in his back and turned to face the smaller man,
"Don't blame me you little prick! If you're so worried, take a car and get down there! I'll be along when I've gotten the others out the boozer" Vince blushed,
"I can't go". Gene's eyes widened,
"Why? You too scared of three men who can just about manage a spastic and a bird?" Vince shook his head,
"I can't drive"
--
Grumbling, Gene pulled up outside the estate, having to have gone straight there rather than go back to the pub.
"RIght, get out then" Vince nodded and got out, but jumped to attention,
"Guv I can see Annie and Lenord! And..." He trailed off, seeing Trent and who were undoubtedly the guys who had helped him rob the jewellers were running after them. Without another word, Vince ran off.
"Annie!" Annie turned to see the Di and nearly cried with relief, she doubled back, holding onto Lenord's arm, and almost lost the men, but as she came up to Vince, they found her again, and started forward, one carrying a huge chain, another carrying a plank with nails sticking out of it.
"Give him up copper" Trent sneered, slowly walking toward Vince with a gun in his hands. He had been backed up against a wall, with Annie and Lenord behind him, and was now extremely unsure whether he was going to come out of this alive,
"No way! And even if we did, we can arrest you anyway for threatening an officer" Vince said, trying to remain cool and collected, but Trent saw the gleam of fear in his eyes,
"No I can't. There'd be no-one to prove it. You've got no back up, no-one to miss..." As he said this he was hit over the head by a fire extinguisher as Gene snuck round the corner. The other two men instantly dropped their weapons in surrender and Vince gave a shaky grin to his DCI,
"You took your time!" Gene shrugged but managed to smile back slightly as Chris and Ray hauled Trent to his feet and fixed cuffs on the other two.
"Wait!" Lenord said, and walked uo to Trent. He pointed at him and looked back at Vince, wondering if he'd understand. Thankfully, he did, and grinned broadly at him.
"I think it's water tight now" He said to Gene, grinning cheekily as the DCI growled and told him to shut the hell up and get in the car.
Ok, I think I was going to have some fluffy angsty stuff at the end, but to be honest, I can't be arsed, and I've got a maths exam tomorrow, which I need to revise for :( I promise there'll be more Vince/Howard (Somehow, it's kinda hard when one of them's in a coma) in the next chapter. Promise ;) Oh yeah, I don't think I got the right names for Trent's two friends near the beginning, cause I couldn't be bothered watching it, so just ignore that ;) But if you know the right names please tell me :P
P.S, Shan, my mum said she sends her comiserations or something like that, and she wants her umbrella back :P