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October 5th 1983

It couldn't be Alex, could it? There was no way… She was dead, all evidence pointed to the fact that she was. And if she was free, what was she doing walking around down here? Why hadn't she come back to CID? A small voice in the back of his head answered. "Maybe she didn't want to come back. She had enough, and faked her death." But that didn't make sense either. Wouldn't she have been afraid of seeing him if that was the case?

All of this went through his mind in a millisecond. Alex looked at him with disgust in her eyes and muttered "How vulgar."

Ray and Chris had heard the Guv scream and ran in, guns ready. They stopped dead seeing the person standing in front of him.

"Holy shit," Ray said.

"Bloody Hell," Chris exclaimed at the same time.

Alex looked at both of them coldly. "Really, I know you're coppers, but are you really so crude that the first thing you say when you meet someone is a curse word?" Her voice was snobby, as if she thought she was superior to them in every way.

"Alex, cut the shit," Gene said, slightly angry that she had been alive for a year and hadn't contacted him.

"Alex? Who's Alex?" she asked honestly.

"You are ma'am," Ray replied.

"I think you have me confused with someone else. I don't even know a woman named Alex. My name is Catherine Williams."

"What are you talking about?" asked Gene. He was getting seriously angry, but a slight realisation was edging into the back of his mind. "We know that you are Alex Drake. So cut the shit!"

"I have already told you, Mr…?"

"Hunt."

"Mr. Hunt. I have already told you that I am not this Alex Drake. I do not know anyone by this name. My name is Catherine Williams and I will give my statement, but I would rather give it to someone who is not so foul-mouthed."

"Fine then, Ms. Williams," he growled. "We have to take you back to the station, but you can give your statement there."

"Fine. But I'll drive myself." She got into a posh looking car, which Gene didn't catch the make of, and drove off towards Fenchurch.

Gene, Chris and Ray walked back to the Quattro in shock.

"What do you make of it Guv?" Ray asked.

"That's Alex. It has to be. But she's not faking anything. She doesn't remember us at all Ray."

*

Catherine sat in her car, in front of the station waiting for the DCI's Quattro to pull up. "He'll be here in just a few minutes. He drives like a maniac," she thought to herself. Catherine stopped. How would she know that? She had only met the man an hour ago. But his face… His face rang a bell in her head, like she had known him from a different life.

Catherine thought back to the first day she could remember, the day she had woken up and had no memory. Matt had reassured her it would come back, but everything before that day was still buried too deep in her memory to find. She sighed and leaned back against her seat, only to jump when someone knocked at her window. It was Hunt.

"Are you gettin' out? Come on."

Catherine sighed and got out of her car. She followed Hunt into an interrogation room. Everyone stared at her, and she wondered how much like this Alex Drake she must look. She wondered what happened to her. Catherine settled into the slightly uncomfortable seat and waited.

*

Gene walked into CID, concerned. What had happened to make Drake forget him? He needed a psychologist. There was only one person who he knew other than Alex who was one. Gene picked up the phone. He dialled a number and waited as the phone on the other end rang. The person picked up.

"Hello?"

Gene took a deep breath. "Annie, I need your help."

*

Catherine had been waiting in the interrogation room for half an hour before someone walked in.

"Finally," she muttered. She looked up at the man. He was the man who had been at the front desk. He was in uniform.

"Are you here to get my statement?"

"No ma'am. The Guv just requested me to get fingerprints off of you."

"Fingerprints? Why the hell do you need fingerprints? I didn't commit the robbery!"

"I know ma'am. It's just, since you look so much like our DI; he wants fingerprints to prove to himself that you aren't her."

"Fine," she said angrily. Catherine looked at him again. His face seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. "What's your name by the way?"

"Viv, ma'am."

"Viv…" The name sounded familiar to Catherine. But, just like Gene Hunt, she didn't remember him at all.

Viv finished fingerprinting her and left.

"Wait! Come back! How long am I supposed to stay in here? Tell your Guv to hurry up so I can give my statement!" Catherine yelled at the door. No one came in. She settled back into her chair, preparing for another long wait.

*

Gene looked in the window of the interrogation room. Alex was leaning back in the chair, looking bored. There was coldness in her eyes that he didn't remember ever seeing before. She checked her wristwatch and sighed. Gene caught a flash of a ring on her left hand. She was married? Gene decided not to keep her waiting any longer. He walked in the door. Alex looked up.

"I already told you, I'm not giving you my statement. I'm giving it to someone civilised."

"Shut up," Gene growled. This woman may have the same face as Alex, but she certainly wasn't his Bolly. She looked up at him, her hazel eyes icy.

"I came in to tell you, someone from Manchester is coming in to get your statement. It will be a few hours. Now, you can sit in here for the rest of that time, or you can join me in CID."

"I want to talk to my husband."

"Your husband?"

"Yes, Hunt, my husband," she said angrily. "Don't I get a phone call?"

"You're not under arrest." Gene was getting increasingly frustrated. "You can call him from my office."

"Fine, but I don't want you in it."

"Whatever. Come on." He led her into CID, where everyone stared as she walked past. By now, they had heard the story that she didn't remember them. Shaz was still cleaning out her desk.

"Shaz, you can stop that. Hopefully, DI Drake will recover soon enough, and we won't need a new DI."

Shaz stopped, and looked up at the woman next to Gene. Yes, she looked like Alex, but everything about her was different. Shaz stood.

"What's this Hunt? You have a woman doing all the cleaning? How...chauvinistic. And a woman in the force. How...modern," the woman said disdainfully.

"I'm Shaz ma'am," Shaz said politely.

"Shaz. It's lovely to meet someone with proper manners. I'm Catherine. Very nice to meet you." She reached her hand out and shook Shaz's hand. The ice in her eyes melted slightly looking at Shaz.

"Same to you ma'am." Shaz was mystified, had she earned this version of Alex's respect too?

Gene couldn't stand it any longer. "I thought you wanted to call your husband, not sit and chat about the weather!"

Catherine shot him another icy stare and walked into the office. He followed her in.

"I am quite capable of calling my husband on my own, thank you very much."

"I don't care what you are and are not capable of, Catherine," he said, sounding her name out sarcastically. "I was just wondering, what is your husband's name?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but his name is Matt."

"Matt Williams?"

"Yes! Do you think that I would marry him and not change my name?"

"Really, at this point, I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what you would do." With that, Gene stormed out of the office and stopped by Ray's desk.

"Right, I want you to find out where a man named Matt Williams lives, and arrest him for something."

"What, Guv?"

"Anything you can think of. But there's loads of cocaine in evidence. If we get him on that, he could go down for a while."

"Right, Guv."

"Don't screw this up. Getting Alex back may rest on it."

TBC