A/N So, it turns out I can't seem to actually write anything else other than this. Or stop watching Ashes To Ashes either. This story could potentially run and run, provided no one is actually interested in any kind of plot other than Gene and Alex?
Snapshot Three
It was either sweet or annoying, she couldn't decide which. Maybe it was both because he'd displayed both tendencies before but, right now, she decided as she stormed into his office, it was - he was - just annoying. "You did that deliberately," she slammed the door shut behind her, the resulting noise louder than her voice had been and, hopefully, leaving him in absolutely no doubt of how annoyed she currently was.
Gene looked up cautiously, his eyes first looking past her into the outer office and spying an amused Chris and Ray, amongst others, staring his way. He knew when his eyes finally met hers he wouldn't see any trace of amusement there. "Did what?" he asked innocently, noting that he was right and she most definitely did not look happy. Maybe he was getting better at this 'reading people' thing.
"Left without me!" She placed both hands on his desk, leaning in to glare at him. Definitely annoying, she decided and his playing dumb act was not helping.
He sat back casually in his chair, mostly to avoid the murderous gaze she was giving him but also to reassert his authority. "You weren't there," he said, in his best DCI voice, "Didn't have time to send out a search party."
Alex knew he was bluffing, a few minutes wouldn't have mattered; the first time it had happened she'd given him the benefit of the doubt but not this time, she had to stop this now. She hadn't expected him to go all 'protective' on her; it had always been Gene - sexist comments aside - who had given her the respect her position as DI warranted, it had been Gene who had cut the others down if they dared to question that position. And whilst her heart thought his actions were endearing her mind, and twenty-first century conditioning, screamed otherwise. "You knew where I was," she challenged, leaning further forward and keeping her voice low, "You could have waited." She'd been in the Ladies. Throwing up. Again. Sometimes she wished this world was actually real because, otherwise, her mind really was messed up.
"If you're not fit for duty-"
"Oh no," she cut in, raising her voice, "You are not blaming this on me - this is you! And your outdated ideas about women."
Gene sighed inwardly. They'd had a tip off on a couple of suspects in an armed robbery from last week, one that had turned violent. He didn't want her out there, at risk, not now. He didn't think it was wrong to want to protect her, but he had also known that she would think it was, so he'd been a little underhand about things, about certain cases. "Look," he began slowly, his eyes dropping to avoid hers, and wondering how he could ever convince her that he was right without going into too much detail. Though he could talk to Alex about things that he'd never tell the lads, usually when they were alone and he'd had a few drinks, he'd never bared his soul before, not to her, not to anyone. He glanced up again to continue but his gaze strayed past her and outside once more, only to find half of CID agog, the culprits quickly averting their eyes as soon as he'd spotted them, and he lost his momentum.
"You can't keep doing this, Gene," she said pointedly, as he didn't seem to have any intention of finishing that sentence and though she was curious as to what he was about to say, she let it go. Her words drew his gaze back to her - away from, what she imagined, was an attentive audience - and his face bore that pout, the one she was beginning to find so endearing, but also the one that basically told her nothing. Maybe she should have waited for him to say whatever it was that he had on his mind, whatever it was obviously had no place being said here. A lot of the anger she had entered the room with seemed to disappear then and she decided on a compromise: he was annoyingly sweet. But she wasn't going to let this go on, soon enough she'd have problems just sitting behind her desk, never mind anything else. "I'll be fine," she said gently and he stared at her for a long moment before responding.
"Shall we go talk to the scum we hauled in then, Bols?"
She wasn't expecting an apology, an agreement would have sufficed but she doubted she was going to get that either. All she got was an olive branch, of sorts. But it was one she'd take, for now anyway. She nodded her consent, standing straight once more. After a brief smile he followed suit, moving from behind his desk and circumnavigating it to reach the door. She followed his easy movements with an annoyed glare, one that he pretended to ignore, turning around as she did so and it was only when he had opened the door, barking orders at the rest of the team as he stepped outside, that she allowed herself to smile, one hand sliding to her still flat stomach.