So sorry for the HUGE delay in gettign this chapter up. I can only apologise and hope you like the update :) Thanks once again to all my lovely reviewers – this chapter is for you!

You idiot Gene, you practicaly ran out of that flat. Now sat safely back in the comfort of his beloved Quattro, Gene was silently berating himself for running out on Alex so soon. The truth was that despite their relatively civil telephone conversation earlier Gene had still been prepared for some sort of argument, angry accusations, rejection or even a combination of all these things. When Alex had clearly been upset, apolegetic and confused Gene had felt even worse than before he saw her.

She thought I didn't want to see her? She really thought I'd have her transferred from the station voluntarily? He shook his head slightly. She must've really banged her head when she fell.

He felt the bile rise up from his gut as it had every single time he thought about the shooting since it happened. That sickly feeling had been a constant feeling in days when Alex had been unconscious in the hospital. He had spent all day sat in his cell in his station thinking thought after thought. He analysed how much his life had changed since DI Alex Drake had walked into his life. How she had driven him mad, defied practically every order she had ever given her, spouted nonsense that meant nothing to him whatsoever, questioned his methods and even his loyalty to the force at one point. He thought back to how he had been when he first met Sam. What would Alex say if she knew about the back-handers and the deciet. He thought about what he would do if she died and he was left alone once again. It wouldn't matter if he was found guilty of manslaughter or murder, it would't matter that he would be locked away in a tiny celll until he was an old cripple. There would be no-one on the outside worth getting out for anyway. Sure he had Ray and Chris and even Shaz up to a point but Ray would never need anyone and he wasn't sure Chris believed that the shooting had been an accident. Shaz was different. Although a close friend of Alex, he thought Shaz knew it had all been an accident. She was a lot smarted than she let on and she made no secret that she saw the same spark between her two senior officers that Gene himself had thought he felt until a couple of weeks ago.

I can't think about this anymore tonight. Need to sleep on it. Tired after a long and draining day, Gene put the car into gear with a heavy sigh and headed home, pretending not to know that he would get no sleep.

6.09am.

Alex gingerly pushed back the covers and padded out of the bedroom into the kitchen. After a fitful night's sleep involving a lot of tossing and turning, she had finally had enough and decided to get up. Unable to find a comfortable, painless position in bed and plagued with thoughts of Gene and Molly and time travel, sleep flatly refused to come.

At some ridiculous time of the night, Alex has resolved not to worry about why she was here in the 80's anymore. She had spent so long already doing that and had achieved no reasoning or explanation or any kind of solution. Instead she had worked herself up so much that she had severed her bond with the man she had formed such a vital but precarious relationship with and her brain had punished her by conjuring up a vision of vision of her own time and her daughter. She had destroyed Gene's trust in her in a desperate attempt to get home and it had all backfired. Alex knew that she needed Gene on her side in this world. She had to believe that one day she would get home to Molly but for now she would start living her life one day at a time until the time came for her to return home. She had to believe that, there was nothing else she could do. That much she had proved to herself. Molly would be OK in 2008 with Molly. Despite everything Alex had learned about her godfather in this time, if it was indeed true, she was convinced that he would never put Molly in danger, that was something else she had to believe in. Anything else was too unbearable.

Molly would be OK. She had Evan and she had her friends and family, her granparents. But here Alex was alone. She had no-one but Gene. Of course she thought of Shaz and Chris as friends but they were a young couple in love who had each other and didn't want an older woman hanging round like a bad smell. Ray too she had come to respect. In a similar way to Gene, although his methods may not always be respectable, his motives almost always were. But Ray was a grown man with a 1980's view on life and women and Alex wasn't sure their 'mutual appreciation' of each other at work made them the best of friends. Gene was different.

Alex couldn't help but smile at that thought. Thinking back to when she first arrived in 1981, Alex couldn't quite believe how much she had hated him. His arrogance, his 'hit first, ask questions later' attitude, his male chauvanism and his archaic attitude to women. But then she began to spend more and more time with him and something changed. She began to see sides of Gene that she had never realised existed before. Despite his demeanor he did care about people, especially those on his team. He kept himself at a distance from others to maintain his authority and prevent getting hurt. A tactic Alex could fully understand. After the breakup of her own marriage, she had cut herself off emotionally from everyone except Molly, not willling to go through anymore pain and heartbreak. She began to realise they weren't so different. Sure she had never resorted to booze, fags and prostitutes but she wasn't a man who grew up in the 1960's and 70's so she figured she had to give him some slack.

Now sitting on the sofa drinking a cup of tea Alex felt a twinge of pain in her stomach. She tried shifting to get into a more comfortable position but the pain did not subside. Rising off the sofa in search of painkillers, Alex somehow tripped on the leg of the coffee table in front of the sofa. Although she managed to put her arms out in front of her to break her fall, the sudden landing on the floor sent intensified pain shooting through her abdomen.

Lying where she fell for several moments, Alex closed her eyes and trid to bite back tears. When the pain had only got worse in a couple of minutes, Alex used one arm to drag herself along the carpet towards the side of the sofa where the telephone lay on the small coffee table. Instead of ringing 999 she dialled the only other number she knew by heart.

" 'llo?"

"Gene?" She heard her own voice crack.

Gene was immediately alert. "Bolls?"

"Gene? My stomach . . . it really hurts . . ."

"On m' way Bolls, don't move."

Not bothering to replace the phone, Alex brought her knees up to her chest and waited for him to arrive.

Gene was dressed and in the car within 5 minutes of putting the phone down. Pulling up outside Luigi's on the dark, empty street, he wasted no time in racing up to the first floor apartment. Knowing where Luigi kept the spare key after his many drunken stays there himself in the past, Gene pushed open the front door to a sight that made his heart stop and the breath catch in his throat.

Alex was crumpled up in a heap on the floot just inside the door next to the sofa with her back to him. For one awful second he feared the worst but then he heard the sobs in the otherwise silent flat. He felt the breath race back into his lungs. His relief was short-lived however when he moved closer to see her eyes clenched shut, arms crossed over her chest, knees curled up into a ball and her whole body shaking with the force of her sobbing.

"Alex?" he whispered, shoving the coffee table in front of her to one side so he could kneel on the floor in front of her. He wasn't sure she had heard him enter the flat but now she opened her eyes and looked at his through reddened, blood-shot eyes.

"Gene?" She looked almost shocked. "You came?"

"Course I came ya daft tart. Now come on, need to get ya in the car an' off to the hospital."

"No Gene", her voice came much stronger as she grabbed his hand that had previously been placed on his knee. Although Gene noticed her wince in pain at the movement she continued to shake her head. "Not the hospital please, I just need some painkillers."

"Alex this aint-"

"They're on the counter behind you Gene", she interrupted him. "Please?"

She had closed her eyes again and Gene decided to let her have it her way for now. Painkillers could only help so he retrieved his hand and went to the kitchen counter. After reading the dosage amount labelled on the front of the packet and filling a glass of water he returned to the living room. He placed them on the coffee table before turning to Alex and coaxing her into a sitting position, leaning her back against the sofa.

"Here take these." He watchd her swallow the pills and take a few sips of water before taking the glass from her shaky hand and returning it to the coffee table now on the other side of the small room.

"Half an hour Alex", he told her. "Half an hour an' if it's no better we're going down the hospital whether ya want to or not."

He saw her nod once before he sat down on the floor beside her and drew her into his arms. He felt her place her head on his shoulder and her arm snaked around the front of his chest as he placed his chin on her head and tried to ignore the smell of her shampoo as he listened to her breathing steady and her body begin to relax.

What did you think? As always, please let me know and I promise to update much sooner this time xxx