Sorry, sorry, sorry! I feel so guilty. Sorry it took so long. In my defence (my only defence and it is a weak and pathetic one) I have had loads of exams. But here it is (finally) if anyone's still reading this enjoy!

And briefly I was reminded to update by an amazing video on YouTube called Stuttering, so thank you to 0345NoSleep whoever you are!

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I see a stranger and man I recognise but have never met. I see a mid morning sky and when I turn my head to see the car that hit me I see it. An Audi Quattro, red; except it doesn't have the number plate I associate with it. Instead of JLY 75IV there is a totally different one.

"Gene. What the hell? You knocked a kid over!" A voice fills my disorientated head. It's angry but I'm so confused it takes me a while to process his words. When I do I frown.

"I'm not a kid." I retort angrily.

"There we go then." said Gene, his voice recognisable despite the fact I've only heard him a few times on some videos. I stand up, mentally checking myself for injuries.

"You still knocked me over." I point out, brushing myself down; wincing at my taste in clothes. The other man laughs. I don't recognise him at all. He isn't the man who crashed into the office asking for his iPhone. I assume it the man after him or the man after that.

"Sorry. It was a mistake. Don't know how I managed it. You must have been in my blind spot." I raise my eyebrows at him.

I would like to say at this part that a little part of me was freaking out. The other part was doing cart wheels. 'I'm here; I can help' it says.

The other guy rolls his eyes. "It's a first, DCI Gene Hunt, apologising!" exclaims the other man. "I'm James Kingston. This is Gene Hunt. What's your name?"

"Alice, Alice Moorland." I offered the man my hand and winced.

"Are you ok?" James asked.

"I thought I was." I frowned, inspecting my elbow. I rolled up the sleeve of my ripped jumper to reveal a gash filled with grit.

"Ouch." James inspected it too. "How about this;" He proposed "we take you back to CID, patch you up and then give you a lift home? That way we can explain to your parents what happened."

I about to say 'sounds good' when Gene interrupts. "We are not a babysitting service!"

"Look at her elbow. That's your fault! You're the one who knocked her over" James whispered back, furious.

"We're not a hospital either." Growled Gene but when he saw my elbow he relented. "Maybe we should take you back to CID, a plonk'll patch you up."

"Thanks Sir." I replied, a tad cheekily.

"Get in." He said as he opened the door and pulled forward the front seat so I could climb into the back.

"All hail the mighty Quattro." I grinned. I was in the Quattro!

"What did you say?" He asked abruptly.

"Leave the poor kid alone." I heard James' voice faint from outside the car.

"I'm not a kid." I yelled. This time they both laughed.

When we got to CID there were several questions. Gene rather than answer them went straight to his office and poured himself a whisky.

"He knocked me over." I informed them all helpfully. At this there were several laughs (from the guys) and tuts and sighs (from the girls).

I was wondering how on earth I was supposed to bring up the subject of Alex, and how I was from the future and how I reckoned he must have 'done his time' as it were while a girl was patching up my elbow. She was picking out all the grit and cleaning the gash and dabbing in some antiseptic that hurt more than the cut itself. I was about to start a conversation when all the sounds of CID, the talking and the laughter faded out.

"Tell him Alice. Tell him." I could hear Alex's voice loud and clear.

"Tell him what?" I asked, frantically. Then I was back in CID with a worried plonk staring at me.

"Tell who what?"

"Tell Mr Hunt I'll get him for this. It hurts like hell." I grinned weakly.

"Are you ok dear? You look awfully pale."

"I haven't had anything much to drink today. Could I have a glass of water?"

"Of course." She smiled back at me "James! James! Could Alice here have a glass of water?"

"Sure!" He went over into the small kitchen area and I could hear the sound of water running. Gene had asked Alex out on a date there. What the hell could I do here? Gene was going to take me home soon; except I had no idea where home was or who I was in this world. How could I help them if I had no idea what way to go about it?

James gave me the cup of water "You all good?"

"I've had worse." I shrugged.

"So what do you think of CID?"

"It's cool." I replied. "It's exactly how I remember." James and the girl looked confused and I realised my mistake. "I mean, how the inside of a Police Station where my friend's mum works. My friend's mum was a DI. That's what I want to be when I'm older. That or an astronomer or a psychologist."

Gene had come over without me noticing. "Psychiatrist hey? I had a friend who was a psychiatrist."

I laughed. "Psychologist. It's psychology!"

He laughed too. "She always used to tell me off about that too."

"What happened to her?" I asked, pushing it. I wanted to know how he had explained Alex's disappearance. I also wanted to know how he had coped with it.

"She left" he said shortly.

"Oh." Not well at all then...

"So how is your elbow?"

"It hurts like hell." I told him bluntly.

"Yeah, sorry about that. If you're all patched up I'll take you home now and explain to your mum or dad."

I was about to object, but if I could get him alone maybe I could explain about Alex. "Ok." I grinned and hopped off my chair "Thanks!" I told the girl who sorted out my elbow.

Gene led me out to the Quattro, without talking. I was delighted, no one else was coming; I could bring up the topic of Alex.

"It's a great car." I told him (I was allowed to sit in the front this time) as I pulled on my seatbelt.

"It is." He agreed. I was about to bring up the topic of Alex but I couldn't resist a little teasing first.

"You aren't wearing your seat belt." I told him, mock seriously.

"I'm a DCI, not a girl guide."

"I'm wearing mine though. Is that allowed?"

"You're just a kid-"

"For the last time. I'm NOT a kid!"

"Well I you're not an adult and you're not a police officer and I'm giving you a lift after knocking you over so I'll make the exception."

"If I was a police officer would you tell me to take it off?"

"Probably."

"Did you tell" I was about to say Alex but I stopped myself just in time "your psychologist friend to take her seat belt off?"

"Yes. I did." I regret what I said as soon as he said that. The tone of his voice changed. It was like a door had been closed.

"Sorry."

"What for?"

"You miss her."

"I'm Gene Hunt. I don't miss her."

"I bet you don't dance either." I say, testing him again.

He looks at me, about to say something, but then his radio goes. "Hey Guv, we've got a body down at the canal, by the footbridge of St George's Street." It crackles.

"Looks like you might have to wait to go home." He says as he spins the wheel and did what I was sure is an illegal u-turn and made me glad I had put my seatbelt on. "Sorry kid."

I gave an exaggerated sigh and stared out the window. It looked like things were about to become interesting.

"Stay in the car." He said when we got to the scene of the crime.

"Why?"

"Because Kid, I said so." He said as he slams the door.

"I hate because I said so." I growled after him and I was about to follow but I noticed a hand lying in a pool of blood, the rest of the body hidden behind the police car.

I stayed put.

"It looks like a murder, pure and simple." Says Gene as he opens the door.

"Murders are never simple." James reminded him. Gene sighs and takes out a hip flask and takes a swig.

"You mind going in the back again Kid?"

"No problemo." I get out and get into the back.

"You ok coming back to CID with us for a while Kid? We've got a murder to solve and I haven't got the time to be a bloody taxi service."

"Suits me; I don't need to be back for a while." As well as I have no idea how to get back, but hey; details, details.

"That's good Kid because you won't be."

So I sit in the back and think about how the hell I'm supposed to tell him I know about Alex, and she loves him, and also what she meant by 'Tell him'.

I sit in a corner of CID getting more bored and more frustrated as time passes. Finally I ask if I could help. They look at me doubtfully but Gene shrugs "Let her help with ID-ing him. Gives her something to do and it speeds up the process."

"Why is she even here?" asks one man moodily. He didn't seem very happy at the idea of a kid in CID.

"Because I hit her with my car and I need to take her home and explain to her doting parents why their darling daughter has a huge gash in her elbow. Unfortunately we are in the middle of a murder investigation so I don't have time. Reason enough?"

The guy shrugged moodily and handed me some files, glowering. He was absolutely furious when I ID the guy.

"I think I've found him!" I shouted excitedly "Michael Elliot. 38, he was reported missing two weeks ago by his flat mate Thomas Ives. Address, Flat 7 Limetree House, Princes Street."

"Right James, Timothy, you get over there. Tell him his mate's dead, and bring him in make sure it is his mate. Find out enemies etc, anyone who might have wanted him dead."

"Ok Guv. Do you want us to take Alice home?"

Shit. Please no, no, no, no, no.

Gene glances at me. "Nah I'll do it later, I'm the one who knocked her over. I should explain."

"Whatever suits. Come on Tim" says James shrugging. He smiles at me as they leave.

"That ok Kid?" Gene asked me.

"Fine," I grin, "like I said I don't need to be home until later."

After a couple of hours going through files of local trouble makers I wasn't allowed to help with that, (classified information) so I just sat there, doodling and thinking. I sat in Alex's old place. There is a new desk. I am so tired, after all, it has been a very long day. I have woken up in a new world and help ID a murder victim, I've been knocked over by a car and I've tried to work out the impossible. Eventually I curl up underneath the desk on somebody's coat (I have a feeling its Gene's, it smells of smoke and I found a hip flask in it) which I nicked from the coat stand.

It'll be ok Alice. We're here. It's going to be OK. You'll be OK.

Molly has phoned the ambulance, it'll be here soon.

You're parent's have been told too, they'll be at the hospital when you arrive.

Hold on Alice. Hold on.

I sit up straight and whack my head on the desk. "Ouch" I yelp. CID is dark and silent. I crawl stiffly out from under the desk. I was worried they had left without me when I realised the light is on in Gene's office, he is sitting there, drinking, staring at something in his hand.

I go up to the door and knock it quietly before entering "Hello,"

"What the hell Kid? I thought you'd scarpered when no one took you home."

"No," I admit, as I rubbed my stiff neck "I fell asleep on your coat under Ale- I mean James' desk."

"You're parents will be furious, we'd better get you home."

"No." I say quietly.

"What?"

"No," I repeat more firmly, I could no longer be bothered prevaricating. "You can't take me home."

"Why the bloody hell is that?"

"Because I don't have one," I say, inspired "I ran away from home. My mum died when I was little, my dad drinks. He won't even have noticed I'm gone. My older sister can leave soon and my brothers can just about fend him off, but I couldn't, I was sick of it. When he got really pissed, he'd hit me. Sis was out too often, she camped out at her mates or her boyfriends when he came home too pissed, my two older brothers could tackle him and my younger brother was small enough to hide. I was the one he went for the most. Matthew and Billy would stop him if they realised, but they didn't always realise in time." Bloody hell where did that come from? I wonder to myself. "So I ran away. I can find somewhere to sleep most nights, and as long as I keep going to school no one asks any questions. I get along just fine."

Gene looked at me for a long moment before getting his coat. "Come on"

"What are you doing?" I ask nervously as he goes to the door "You're not going to take me to the police are you?" I realise there are so man pitfalls in my story.

"I am the police." He says as we walk along the corridor

"Social services?" We have passed the front desk.

"Bloody interfering gits." Out on the steps.

"So where are you taking me?" Outside his car.

"I'm taking you to Luigi's to get you a square meal and then I'll decide what to do with you."

"Ok." I smile, relieved. That gives me time, more than enough time.

"Good. Get in Kid." He opens the car door for me. As I get in I realise he has started to call me Kid. Well it's better than Bolly Knickers.