Smithy and Alex had been driving round for a while. Everything was pretty quiet so they thought they would get a quick coffee.
"It's your turn to buy." Smithy said to Alex.
"Oh yeah, and how did you work that out?" Alex replied glaring at him.
"Well, you are the newbie and it's only right that you buy. After all, you want to impress your new colleagues don't you?" Smithy said, his voice dripping with laughter and mocking.
Alex just rolled her eyes. She knew better than to argue with him.
"Alright but you get the next one." She said as she walked off towards the coffee shop.
She came back a couple of minutes later with two steaming cups of coffee in each hand and a pack of biscuits in her mouth. Smithy wound his window down and took his coffee from her. She then walked around to the passengers' side and got back into the car.
She passed the biscuits to Smithy. "You can't say I'm never nice to you."
As soon as she put her cup to her lips the radio crackled into action.
"Sierra Oscar to all units, white ford mondeo reported stolen this morning index, Whiskey, X-ray, 51, Charlie, Charlie, foxtrot, has been reported speeding down Talbott Street. Occupants of the car are suspects to a robbery. Can any unit show as dealing?"
"Talbott Street, that's just round the corner from here." Smithy said, flinging the contents of his cup out of the window and turning on the ignition
"Isn't it always the bloody way." Alex said, as she also tossed her coffee out of the window.
"Sierra Oscar from 21, show us dealing." Alex said into her radio.
Just as Smithy pulled the car from the curb and switched the lights and sirens on, a white car sped straight in front of them.
"There they are." He said, putting his foot down.
"Sierra Oscar from 21, in pursuit of vehicle now. Turning left onto Rowland way…" Alex continued to commentate into the radio.
After heading down many residential roads and back allies, they headed into what appeared to be an industrial estate.
"Where the hell are we now?" Smithy said feeling a little disorientated.
"We're in Abblegate industrial." Alex filled in.
The car in front showed no signs of slowing down; and there was plenty of machinery to avoid. Smithy was a good couple of yards behind the car when a lorry pulled out in front of them. Smithy swerved to avoid crashing into it. However, he started to skid and couldn't avoid the stationary van that was parked next to a lot of large, wooden crates. The passengers side of the car, clipped the van and then into the crates which fell onto the roof and bonnet of the area car. When they stopped, Smithy was fairly shaken. His door was badly buckled where some of the crates had dented it. He wasn't hurt badly apart from a pain in his wrist, but when he looked across at Alex she was unconscious.
"Oh no, Alex can you hear me?" He said as he reached over to check for a pulse.
She had taken the brunt of the accident and had a large cut to her head.
"Sierra Oscar from 54, ambulance required to the Abblegate industrial estate. We've been involved in an accident and Sergeant MacDonald has severe head injuries." He placed the radio on the dashboard in front of him.
Come on Alex you can get through this, you have to. He thought.
As he sat in the car he could hear the faint sound of sirens in the background.
"Come on Alex, that's the ambulance now." He took hold of her hand and was sure he felt her squeeze back.
The fire crew worked hard to cut away the crushed areas of the car. The car was clearly a right-off. Smithy was out and being attended to by the paramedics.
Smithy couldn't believe what had happened. He just watched as they released Alex from the car. Gina was standing next to her friend as they placed Alex onto a spinal board and wheeled her into the ambulance.
"What are the paramedics saying?" Smithy asked as Gina approached him.
"It's too early to tell at the moment but they don't think the extent of her injuries is too bad. I'm going to the hospital with her." Gina replied. She noticed the look of despair on Smithys' face. "You can't blame yourself Smithy, it was an accident." Gina placed a hand on his shoulders.
"They think I've fractured my wrist so I need to go to St Hughes to have it x-rayed anyway." Smithy explained.
"Right I'll see you there then." Gina said, managing to squeeze him a slight smile.
In the ambulance the paramedics worked on Alex, they were cleaning her wounds and bandaging them the best they could. As they did this, Alex began to stir.
Gina looked over and saw her friend looking panicked and confused.
"Hey Alex, its ok. You've been in an accident." Gina said as she reached over and held her friends hand.
"Gina? Where am I?" Alex asked groggily.
Gina looked at the paramedics who nodded at her and allowed her to move next to Alex properly.
"You've been involved in an accident." She repeated. "You're in the ambulance to St Hughes." She explained.
Alex winced in pain as she tried to move. They were getting closer to St Hughes when Alex lost consciousness again.
The ambulance pulled up outside the front of the hospital and the paramedics wheeled Alex into A&E, closely followed by Gina.
Smithy sat in a cubical as he waited for a nurse to come and set his wrist in plaster. He was so worried about Alex that he hadn't notice how much pain he was in. He had a strong, sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. How was he going to feel if she died? How was he going to explain it to her children if the worst happened? He couldn't think like that. Alex was strong and would pull through, wouldn't she?
At that moment Gina walked through the curtain to his cubical, pulling Smithy out of his thoughts.
"How is she? Have they said if she's going to pull through?" Smithys' mind was racing. He couldn't get her out of his head.
"She's lost quite a bit of blood but apart from a few cuts and bruises, she'll be fine." Gina said. She was trying to hide how upset and panicked she felt.
Smithy felt slightly better now, but suddenly he felt very drained, both physically and emotionally. At that moment the nurse who was going to put Smithys' cast on, came through.
"I'll head back down to see how Alex is doing." Gina said to Smithy.
As she walked down to where Alex was, Gina bumped into the doctor as he came out of Alexs' room.
"Sorry doctor, I was in a world of my own. How is she doing? Is she awake yet?" She asked, still feeling a little frantic.
"That's quite alright Inspector. Yes she is awake. She regained consciousness about five minutes ago. She's a little doped up at the minute on the pain killers put you can go in and see her if you like."
"Thank you doctor." Gina said as she entered the room.
Alex was attached to a drip and a couple of machines. Gina felt fairly shocked at how fragile Alex looked. She sat beside her in the chair next to the bed.
"Are you awake Alex?" Gina whispered, not wanting to wake her incase she was asleep again.
"No, I'm awake." Alex said. She sounded a lot healthier than she looked.
"Fine first day you've put in. It's barely twelve o'clock and you're already back in bed." Gina joked. Alex tried to laugh in response but only winced in pain.
"Ow, please don't make me laugh, it hurts too much." Alex said whilst clutching the pain in her side.
Suddenly something dawned on Alex that made her panic.
"I'm supposed to be picking Molly up from nursery by now." She said.
Gina looked at the heart monitor and saw it increase as Alex became distressed.
"Shhh. I've phoned Liz and told her what's happened and she is picking her up." Gina soothed and watched as Alex relaxed a bit more.
"They've said I should get out in a couple of days. They're keeping me in tonight incase of concussion. It's mainly just my broken leg and a bang to the head. I'm lucky really. How's Smithy?" She asked.
"He's ok, just a fractured wrist. He's more concerned about you." Gina explained.
"Gina, would you mind doing me a favour please?" Alex asked.
"Course, whatever I can do to help."
"Would you mind looking after the girls for me? You know I hate asking, but I'm obviously not going to be able to look after them, and I think they'll find it a lot more comforting if they stay with you."
Gina just smiled. She hated the fact that Alex always felt like she was dumping on her when she needed someone to baby-sit. Gina loved to do it. She had a really close relationship with the three girls. The eldest was Cara, then Molly and then baby Gina (named after their favourite Inspector.)
"You don't need to ask more than once. I love looking after them so I don't know why you hate asking."
Alex started looking very tired again. Gina thought it best to head off and look for Smithy.
"I'll come back later with the girls and see how you're doing, yeah?" Gina said as she kissed Alex goodbye.
"Yeah see you later Gina." Alex replied, barely awake.
Gina walked out of the room and went to find Smithy.
