Chapter 3: ""Bloody hell" he muttered, wiping his hands over his tired eyes. It had been one of the strangest days he'd had since he first opened his eyes to find 1973 staring bleakly back at him."

"1964 was a good year for me, Tyler" Gene started his explanation and at the same time, released his grip of Sam's jacket. "I'd been made a DCI, I had a beautiful wife who I loved, I was catching more criminals that anyone could hope to get, and The Beatles had just released 'A Hard Day's Night'" Sam snorted at that last comment

"always thought you were a Stones man, myself" he muttered, unable to stop himself.

"Yes, well they weren't that great until they brought out 'Satisfaction' in '65" Gene replied before shaking his head. "Anyway" he continued his somewhat clouded explanation as Sam looked at him with a smirk on his face, despite the seriousness of the conversation leading up to the moment. "All was grand, until my wife met a certain Mr Alan Cooper, one ex friend and ex colleague of mine" Gene took a breath. "Up until she met him, I had not a reason in the world to doubt myself, I loved her and I thought she loved me too - until I saw the way that she looked at him and I realised I was wrong" Sam realised that he was getting more information about his Gov then he could ever have wished for at that moment. He also realised that none of the information he was getting made any sense at all.

"Gov, what does any of that have to do with me?" he asked exasperated, trying to understand where he was coming from.

"You're like Alan bloody Cooper all over again" Gene said then "you're making me doubt myself whilst taking my team away from me and they're loving you more and me less every bloody day! And as for Annie…"

"So you are jealous then" Sam stated plainly "you're jealous that Annie likes me more than you" he thought he had it figured out now, and couldn't understand why Gene was so worked up about it really.

"no, you pillock!" Gene exclaimed then, unable to keep his frustration under control anymore.

"then what…?" Sam started before he was cut off

"I'm jealous of her having you, not you having her!" he spat out furious at himself, at Sam, at Annie and the whole damn situation. His heart was thumping against his rib cage so loudly he was surprised it was contained at all. He was so close to Sam now that he could easily have leaned forward a tiny bit and kissed him. God how he wanted to kiss him. He'd been dreaming out it often enough lately to imagine what it would be like - he wanted it to be soft and right, not born out of argument or anything remotely violent. Sam was worth more than that. He didn't know what to expect now that he'd opened his mouth and put both his size 10's into it. An expectant silence fell between them. Sam looked at Gene, and Gene looked back at Sam.

"oh" was all Sam could manage. That, he had not been expecting. He realised he was still holding onto his Gov's wrists, even though they'd dropped from his lapels a long time ago. "Oh" he repeated, releasing the older man from his grasp.

Gene seemed to snap out of his little dazed moment of calm then, as he suddenly seemed to stiffen and looked at Sam with a glare that would have scared the shit out of a weaker man.

"If you so much as breathe a word of this to anyone… I swear to God Tyler, the coppers in Hyde will never be able to find you in enough pieces to request you back there - do you understand?" he whispered as Sam nodded.

"Yes, Gov" he answered quietly, before Gene seemed to consider his answer.

"Good" he sniffed, before he stepped back and away from Sam and started walking away, leaving a very bewildered Sam Tyler in his wake to make his way slowly back to the Railway Arms, where his entirely platonic friend was still waiting for him, nursing a gin and tonic and conspiring with Nelson about where the Sheriff would bury his Deputy's body if he actually carried out his many threats to kill him.

Sam didn't stay long at the pub that night. He had a couple of drinks with Annie but convinced her that he had a headache and headed home. It wasn't entirely a lie, Sam mused as he walked back from Annie's flat to his own, massaging the temple that his DCI had decided needed an imprint of his knuckles on earlier in the day. He was still completely, utterly confused at the earlier outburst from his boss, but things were ever so slowly beginning to fit into place. The looks. The way that Gene sometimes stood so close to him. The apparent need Gene had to touch him, be it with his fists or his palms, it was still contact. The fact that his bad mood stemmed from when Annie had upped the ante on their little game of flirting back and forth. Then he remembered the way that he'd looked at him when he had him pinned against the wall back outside the pub. The look of unguarded desire that he'd seen in his eyes before Gene had rebuilt the defences and had threatened him with mutilation should he ever tell anyone what he'd said. It had been real. Sam had liked it. He found himself at his front door without realising where his feet had been taking him. He made his way up to the tiny bed-sit of a flat and fell unceremoniously onto his bed.

"Bloody hell" he muttered, wiping his hands over his tired eyes. It had been one of the strangest days he'd had since he first opened his eyes to find 1973 staring bleakly back at him. He drifted off to sleep quite quickly, but his dreams were full of faces merging into one to form some multi-faced beast that kept trying to swing an axe at him before the faces transformed again to form Gene's features with Maya's hair and clothes and Annie's voice. The many-faced monster then chased him down the street before he realised that his feet were slowly sinking into a bright white mist that was gathering around him and he couldn't run anymore. He was slowly being suffocated by the mist and that let the monster catch up with him. It had Gene's face as it was leaning over him and Sam wasn't sure whether he was about to be eaten or rescued, when he woke up covered in sweat and breathing hard. It took him a long time to get back to sleep again, more confused then ever.