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A bit of a shorter chapter this time, but I promise the next one will be extra long.

Chapter 4

"Shit, I completely forgot I had a meeting with the Super this morning," Alex said as she was getting dressed." I can't be there in time if I need to get Molly to school."

"No problem Bolls. I can do that" Gene said, as he stretched out in his side of the bed.

"Really? Are you sure it's no problem?" Alex asked.

"Positive. I've got nothing pressing to do this morning anyway," he replied.

Alex walked over to kiss him. "What have I ever done to deserve you?"

"Dunno Bolls. Might be my legendary prowess as a lover?"

"Hmm..I've no complaints in that department," she murmured as she kissed him once more.

The rain was pouring down as Gene and Molly sat in the Quattro.

Molly turned to Gene, who was focussing on the road ahead. "Gene, can I ask you something?"

"Sure Molls, ask away. Just as long as I don't have to take me eyes off the road," he replied.

"Why aren't you and my mum getting married?"

Gene hadn't expected this question to come up, and slammed the breaks in surprise, which resulted in a chorus of honking from the surrounding cars in the early morning traffic.

"Christ on a bike Molls, it's only a quarter past eight in the morning. Does your brain ever stop for a microsecond or what?"

Molly grinned. "Occasionally it does. But don't change the subject. Why aren't you getting married?"

"Who says we're not getting married?" Gene replied as he tried to manoeuvre the Quattro through the busy traffic.

"Well, you haven't proposed to her, have you?"

"No, I haven't, but that's not really the point."

"What do you mean?" Molly looked confused. "We're all living together as it is, you two clearly love each other, and you're having a baby. Seems very easy to me. Unless you don't want to marry her?" Molly gave him a questioning look.

"I can assure you Molls, that is not the case. Of course I wanna marry yer mum."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Well, you see Molls, it's yer mum that's the problem."

Molly still looked confused. "I don't follow."

"Here's the thing. Yer mum's brilliant. Got a head full of brains that woman, but sometimes she talks in such psychotwattery riddles that she could give an amoeba a migraine."

Molly grinned at this remark. His way of saying it might've been a bit unconventional, but he had a point there.

Gene continued. "A few months back I had actually planned on proposing to her, but I was waitin' for the right time you know. And when she told me about the baby, I knew I couldn't do it anymore. She would only think I'd propose to her because it was the "honourable thing to do". So I decided to wait, and leave it for another time. But I just haven't found the right moment yet."

Molly let the information sink in for a moment before she replied. "You've got a good point there. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised at such a reaction from my mum."

"Daft cow, doesn't know what she's missing out on," Gene grinned.

"So you will marry her someday then?" Molly asked.

"If she'll have me, then yeah, I'll definitely marry her."

"Ok then." Molly felt a lot more reassured now. Gene made her mum happy, and he was in it for the long haul. It was good enough for her.

The Quattro pulled up in front of the school.

"Right then mini-Bolls, out ya go."

"Thanks for dropping me off Gene."

And with that, she did something that surprised both herself and Gene; she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before she jumped out of the car to join her friends at the school gate.

Due to the heavy rainfall it took Gene twice as long to get from Molly's school to work. It was close to 9.30 when he finally entered CID.

"Right then, what've I missed?" he asked as he looked around the room expectantly.

Ray filled him in. "Not much Guv. Can't seem to get in contact with the girl's family, and the Saudi Arabian embassy are giving us a hard bloody time. Apparently they want us to hand over the body yesterday and they don't give a toss about our murder case."

Gene sighed. "Well that's just bloody great. Anything else?"

"No, that's about it Guv," Chris added.

"Well I'll be in me office then, let me know as soon as you've made a breakthrough. Granger! Tea, five sugars" he barked to Shaz before closing the office door behind him.

At around the same time Alex walked into CID, looking extremely annoyed and just about ready to punch someone in the face. She went straight for Gene's office and went in without knocking first.

"Ah Bolls, so yer finally gracing us with your presence," Gene teased her. "How did the meeting with the Super go?"

"Don't ask," Alex said as she let out a sigh. "All he did was nag to me about maternity leave, the possibility of working part-time and all sorts of nonsense. He went on and on!"

"Not the best way to start yer day with."

"Definitely not," she said as she perched herself on the edge of Gene's desk. "I stayed very polite throughout so now I need to vent my frustrations. Got anyone down in the cells that I can punch?"

"Couldn't do that to our suspects Bolls, you've got a mean left hook." Gene said as he pulled his face into a pained expression to emphasize his point.

"So how do you suggest I should let off steam then?" she asked him.

"Dunno Bolls, perhaps you could take up knitting?"

This comment made Alex's facial expression turn from annoyance into pure outrage.

"If you run that suggestion by me again I'll make sure your jaw and my left hook will make their re-acquaintance before you can say beer o'clock."

And with that she turned around and stormed out of his office.

Gene thought it wise not to follow her immediately after her outburst, so he let her be for half an hour before going out to look for her. After a good fifteen minutes of suffering Alex's verbal abuse and him profoundly apologizing, followed by the promise to get her tea and Garibaldis, she finally agreed to come back into work with him.

The rest of the day was spend trying to puzzle the very meagre details of their case together, and occasionally receiving angry phone calls from the Saudi Arabian embassy about Rana's body. All in all it wasn't a very productive day so Alex went home early to be with Molly, while Gene and the rest of the team headed for Luigi's.

"Mum, what do you think has happened to me in 2008?" Molly asked as she absent-mindedly stabbed at her food with her fork.

Alex, caught off-guard by her daughter's question, looked up in surprise. "In what way do you mean Molls?"

Molly sighed. "Well, you're almost definitely dead there. They were going to…switch you off, so I'm assuming they went along with that. Which means you'll be in this time forever."

"I would think so, yes." Alex nodded in agreement, inwardly shuddering at the thought of being 'switched off'.

"So what about me then?" Molly asked. "I don't know what happened to me. When they told me they were going to let you die, I collapsed, and everything went black. Next thing I know, I'm in your flat above Luigi's."

Alex grabbed her daughter's hand, as she'd clearly started to look distraught by now. "Molls darling, what's worrying you?"

Molly's bottom lip started trembling, desperately trying to fight back her inevitable tears. "W-what if I'm not dead there. What if…if I suddenly just disappear from this world again, and wake up back in 2008? I don't want that to happen!"

By now, the tears had started to flow rapidly, and Alex quickly moved to her daughter's side and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I don't know Molls, but don't worry. Everything will be just fine. This is where you belong, with me and Gene."

Alex tried her best to comfort her daughter, but found it hard to do so convincingly. It frustrated her that she couldn't give her daughter a straightforward answer, or at least a more or less logical explanation. Alex liked logic, because it worked…at least it did, in most cases. But there was nothing straightforward or logical about the situation they had found themselves in, and so she felt lost.

She looked down at her daughter, and was met by a pair of watery blue eyes staring back up at her.

"I know I belong here mum, but you can't be sure about this can you?" She sniffed.

Alex decided honesty was the best option at this point.

"No," she said. "We can't be sure. But then again, we can't be sure about anything in life. My time-travelling adventures have taught me that much. We just have to take it day-by-day, and live life to the fullest, as much as we can. Will you try to do that for me?"

Molly nodded. "I will try, I promise."

"Good," Alex said as she planted a kiss on Molly's forehead. "Because life's too short to be spend worrying."

Molly had gone to bed early, clearly exhausted from her constant worrying. Gene wasn't home yet, which left Alex sitting alone on the sofa. Normally that wouldn't have been such a bad thing. She didn't have a lot of alone time these days, and usually she cherished those precious moments that she did have. But the things that Molly had said had put all kinds of thoughts and ideas into her head, and she didn't like it one bit.

What if Molly had a valid point? She asked herself. Strangely enough Alex hadn't given any of this much thought before. Perhaps because she'd been in this world for so long now it had all become so normal that she didn't even realise that there was the slightest possibility that it could easily end tomorrow. Perhaps not for her, as Molly had assured her that she was almost definitely dead in 2008. But what about Molly? She didn't know what had happened to her in the future, nobody in this world knew. Just the idea of her precious little girl being taken away from her again was almost too much for Alex to bear.

She had put on a brave face when she was talking to Molly, assuring her that everything would be fine. But in reality she was terrified. Terrified of what the future would have in store for her, whether it would contain all the people she cared about and who she needed most. What if, in some strange and twisted way, she was made to choose between the people she loved? She knew she couldn't, in whichever way possible. Whether it was choosing between the man she loved and her children, or even more cruel, choosing between her children, she knew it would be an impossible decision to make and that frankly she'd rather die. These thoughts alone scared her beyond her imagination, and all of a sudden she realised she was lying curled up into a ball on the sofa, sobbing and shaking violently at the thought of any of this happening to her in the future.

And at that moment her inner psychologist took over, and she made a conscious decision; she would push all these irrational thoughts from her mind and just live her life. It wouldn't be easy, after all it was difficult, if not impossible, to stop her brain from conjuring up these thoughts. But it was a necessity if she wanted to survive here and live a happy life. She had told Molly life was too short to be spend worrying, and it was about time she started listening to her own advice.

Gene came home at around ten o'clock. It was still early, and normally he'd have been happy to spend at least a few more hours out drinking with the lads. But tonight he had felt a sense of uneasiness creep over him that he couldn't seem to shake off. Initially he had tried to push the feeling away and tried to enjoy his evening, but eventually the feeling in the pit of his stomach had taken the upper hand and he had decided to head home.

He walked into the living room looking for Alex when he found her curled up on the sofa, where she'd fallen into a restless sleep. She was tossing and turning, and Gene could hardly bear to look at the pained expression on her face. He stood there for a moment, not sure of what to do. Clearly his feelings had been right, and it amazed and scared him equally. He always knew that they were the ones that had a connection, he'd even said as much on that dreadful evening before operation Rose, when everything had gone tits up. Looking back, he wondered how he could ever have doubted that connection between them. They completed each other perfectly, in every possible way. He instinctively knew what she was thinking and vice versa, and now he'd even started feeling when Alex was in a state of distress. He still didn't know whether to wake her or not, but that decision was made for him as she started to toss and turn more violently, and nearly rolled off the sofa in the process.

In a second he was at her side, gently waking her up.

"Alex love, what are yer doing 'ere sleeping on the sofa? Y'should be in bed."

Alex slowly opened up her eyes and saw his bright blue orbs staring back at her. She instantly felt a bit more relieved, knowing he was there for her.

"What's wrong Alex, did you have a nightmare or summat?"

"Oh, it's nothing serious Gene, don't worry. It's just that Molly wasn't feeling too great this evening and the worry must've taken the better of me. But it's ok now."

"Trouble with school? Or with 'er friends?" Gene asked.

"Just a small fight with a friend. But nothing serious, everything's fine now." Alex said quickly.

She hated lying to Gene like this, but she knew she could never tell him the real reason for Molly's distress. The only time she'd confided in him about being from the future it had ended disastrous, and it wasn't a place Alex wanted to return to. So she decided that this little white lie was in everyone's best interest.

Gene grabbed her hand and helped her get up off the sofa. "Come 'ere then Bolls, let's get you to bed. Can't have you looking like crap at work, or else I'll have nothing to look at."

Alex rolled her eyes in mock annoyance at his remark and made her way upstairs.

TBC

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