I'm not giving anything away… Sorry…
I'm not giving anything away… Sorry….
(P.S. sorry it's been a long time since the last update)
Chapter 22
"I think the real 'Gene Hunt' has been out of the loop for long enough for us not to worry,
Gene Hunt has been out of the loop,
Out of the loop,
Out of the loop…"
Morgan's voice coiled around Gene consciousness waking him with a start.
"Bloody headache." Gene said aloud to no one through the darkness.
"He'll come knocking. Who's there? Ready or not, ready or not." The yellow girl swam into view through the gritty grey of the room.
"Who?" Gene demanded.
"Ready or not. It's coming, coming. Coming, come'in." She giggled at her play on words.
"Six feet under, Bashed your head, frostbite creeping, are you not dead?"
Gene could hear heart monitor bleeps getting louder and louder until he wasn't sure if they where inside his head or the only sound in the world that stretched out and buzzed as a storm fly drone.
"Gene! DI Hunt!"
Gene woke with a start to a voice coming from out in the hallway. Dragging himself out of bed, he felt his wrist for a pulse, still there. Staggering to the door he opened it to find a scruffy DCI Tyler dressed in a creased shirt, dark jeans and leather jacket, staring wide-eyed back at him.
"You look like you've been through a 'edge backwards." Gene said.
"Never mind that! Morgan's gone missing." Sam said, frantic.
"Bloody 'ell." Gene exclaimed before dashing back into his room to get himself into a fitter state of dress.
Barely a minute later Gene stumbled back out of his room after throwing on the first items of clothing he could find. Sam moved off down the corridor leaving Gene to jog briskly to catch up.
"How in the hell did that happen?!" Gene demanded.
"We're about to find out." Sam retorted as they headed outside and Gene realised it was still night, four O'clock at the most. The pair got into Sam's car, Gene once again driving and headed towards the station at break-neck speed.
"No need to be manic!" Sam said clinging on for dear life to the door handle.
"Shut up y'puff." Gene replied and Sam was taken aback.
Are we back to day one or something?
"I'd expect more respect from you, Hunt." Sam barked back, before closing his eyes as Gene cut-up a car he was over taking with barely inches to spare.
They pulled up outside A Division and just about ran the distance to the entrance. They headed over to a bewildered Desk Sergeant who Gene promptly grabbed by the lapels.
"What the bloody hell do you think you where playing at?!" Gene demanded as Sam tried to restrain the clearly stronger man as best he could. Gene gave the Officer a stare down before letting go and storming away. Sam paused, before chasing after Gene.
"What the hell is with you?" Sam demanded, finding Gene sat at a table in a deserted canteen. Getting no reply Sam moved closer to find Gene shivering profusely.
"You alright?" Sam asked.
"'Course I'm not bloody alright." Gene spat, "Hell, I feel like I'm dying." Sam reached out and gingerly touched one of Gene's hands that lay on the table, Gene pulled away quick, muttering..
"You're burning up Gene." Sam said, "You should go home."
"Don't you think I don't want to?!" Gene declared and Sam realised what he meant.
"What ever you decide to do, I'll be finding an escaped criminal." Sam said heading for the door. Pulling himself to a shaking stand Gene moved to follow.
"You should dress like less of a puff more often Tyler, makes you more ballsy."
Sam spoke a quick word to the Desk Sergeant then turned to Gene who clung to the desk for support.
"Where to start?" Sam said to Gene and Gene began to shrug but stopped.
"If I where to spring Morgan from jail I'd be someone we hadn't identified yet!" Gene said with a grin.
"The man in the CCTV footage?" Sam asked.
"We it's worth a try. Got a picture from the film?"
"I'll get it." Sam replied jogging off up the stairs to his office.
Hurry back, Gene thought, or you might have a dead detective on your hands.
Agonisingly long minutes later Sam remerged and presented the photo to the Sergeant. A quick nod was all the detectives needed who dashed quickly out to the car.
"Y'know, it's sort of useless driving if we don't know where to go." Sam commented.
"The canal." Gene said.
"What?" Sam retorted as they drove away. Sam worried as he looked at Gene's face in the amber lamp glow that flickered as they drove. Gene's eyes where manic, his hair matted with sweat.
"Let's just assume that criminals always return to the scene of the crime, or in his case, arrest."
"Bloody hell Gene!" Sam exclaimed, but continued no further for fear of being shot down by Gene's stare.
"Why've we stopped here?" Sam asked, confused as Gene pulled the car up on Queen Mary road.
"I need to get something." Gene said, getting out of the car and heading for the building.
Gene rushed into his flat he grabbed his relatively recently adopted gun from the sideboard as he left his room he spotted the yellow girl. Gene looked at his hand, gun still there, and screwed up his face in confusion.
"How are you here?" Gene demanded.
"Look before you leap." The girl advised.
"What?!"
"In the deep below, you see facets of yourself, it's wrong to think it's only seven years of bad luck for breaking a mirror."
"It's just bloody riddles with you." Gene shouted at her.
"Gene?!" Sam's voice asked and Gene spun around to find Sam in the doorway. Turning back, Gene couldn't see the girl anywhere and felt himself flush hot with anger or embarrassment he couldn't tell which.
"Are you ok?" Sam asked noting with a hand wave that Gene was once again shivering.
"What am I? Some sort of ponce. Of course." Gene retorted, stuffing the gun into the back of his trouser waist under his jacket before barging past Sam to leave the room.
"Is that necessary?!" Sam asked but got no reply.
The detectives pulled up by the canal to find that their car wasn't the only one. Sam swore under his breath, this was turning more sinister by the minute.
"I'll call for back up." Sam said.
"Suit yourself." Gene said and Sam quickly made the call.
Getting out quietly, Gene pulled his gun and Sam picked up a metal pipe for the ground, he'd forgotten any sort of truncheon or gun. The pair followed along a wall in the shadows until they spotted a definite outline of Morgan plus goons.
"Now what?" Gene asked and Sam swore.
"Are you telling me you've no idea?" Sam snapped under his breath and Gene shrugged.
"What's the worst that can happen?"
"We end up dead." Sam replied and Gene shrugged,
"Good point."
"Wait." Gene said before stepping out into the light. "Oi! Morgan!" Gene called out toward the figures that turned in response to Gene's voice.
"Hunt. So glad you got the message." Morgan said slyly and it made Sam's skin crawl to hear it.
"Most cryptic post-it note I've ever seen. Lucky I'm such a twenty-four carat detective." Gene replied heading towards Morgan in barely four long strides.
"You alone?" One of Morgan's men asked, the man Gene recognised from the CCTV footage, and Gene nodded.
"Brave." Morgan said raising a hand, "and stupid."
"Shit." Gene said under his breath before stepping forward half a pace and kneeing Morgan just before two men with guns opened fire.
"Sam!" Gene called as he dove for cover behind a wall that made up part of a small bridge that went over the canal. Sam quickly obliged by stepping into the open long enough to attract attention away from Gene so Gene could shoot. Sam ducked behind some crates and called out,
"Now what?!" From where Sam hid he could just about see Gene on one side, and Morgan and his goons on the other. The two that had guns, Gene had shot down and those without moved in to collect them up.
"Drop 'em." Sam said, raising the pipe like a racket to serve as he stood up and to his surprise all but Morgan stepped away.
Gene stood up and moved towards Morgan who paced towards Gene so they met at the foot of the bridge pathway. Sam came around the back of Morgan, and throwing the pipe into the water pulled out from his pocket a set of handcuffs, which Sam reasoned would be more useful by far at that point in time.
"Was that you're attempt at escape 'cos to be honest, not impressed." Gene said stepping up several of the steps onto the bridge as if to make a point about authority. Morgan followed and Sam trailed until they reached the highest point of the bridge, metres above the surface of the canal water. The low walls on both sides gave an almost unobstructed view of the jet black water below that failed to reflect the stars.
Sam moved in behind Morgan and Gene nodded before Sam clipped one part of the cuffs onto Morgan's wrist. As Sam did so Morgan kicked out, hitting Gene squarely in the stomach making him reel backwards against the bridge wall. Sam unable to hold onto Morgan with only one free hand stumbled forward as he let go in anguish and watched in horror as Morgan stuck Gene squarely on the jaw with strength he'd not expected for such a man.
As Gene fell over the edge he saw his own tortured expression reflected back at him in the perfect stillness of the water. Gene felt himself fall in slow motion through the air then water, and as he sank his thoughts flicked to the yellow girl's warning, and somehow, Gene managed to smile.
It had taken him a long time to get back to normal again after that night. He did wonder though, whether in the line of duty things could ever be considered normal. Squaring off some paperwork on his desk he heard a knock at the door.
"Come'in." He called out and the office door opened with a creak.
"Fresh cup, sir?" WDC Annie Cartwright enquired before walking in anyway and presenting Gene with a hot cup to replace his stone cold one on his desk. Gene handed the cold cup to Annie and as he did so, noticed a distinct coffee ring on the piece of scrap paper that he'd used as a coaster. Annie turned to leave but Gene called,
"Wait a sec love." Gene said, picking up a biro.
It had taken him a long time to get back to normal again after that night. He did wonder though, whether in the line of duty things could ever be considered normal. Squaring off some paperwork on his desk he heard a knock at the door.
"Come'in." He called out and the office door opened with a creak.
"This came through today, sir. I thought you'd want first look." DI Maya Roy said to Sam offering a piece of paper towards him.
"Cheers." Sam said tonelessly but gave Maya a smile.
"No problem, sir." Maya said making sure to emphasize the word sir before leaving but gave a quick smile back for good measure. Maya knew Sam still wasn't himself after they'd not recovered Gene's body and so closed the door quietly behind her.
The paper was folded in two and Sam opened it without hesitation. He scanned over it, then read it again.
Annual Police dinner for the Manchester area
Guest speaker, former DCI of A Division, Gene Hunt, speaking on the topic of policing
Then and now: 1973 and 2007
Sam refolded the paper and placing it on his desk, smiled to himself.
He got home.
The end
Well, I hope you all enjoyed that, 'cos I most certainly enjoyed writing it. All comments and criticisms about the last chapter and/or the fanfiction as a whole are greatly received. I'd like to thank all my regular readers and reviewers for being so committed to my work that has got rather long in truth and for all their useful constructive criticism that they have given me.
Thank you guys!!
(I know it's terrible to try and flog the same horse but I'm only doing it once more I swear. Check out for my next fanfiction called Hunky Dory, which sees Annie Cartwright comatose and thrown into a situation like no other.)
Thank you all once again.