A/N Thank you all for your reviews and feedback. I'm back to monkeying around (work) so updates might take longer...
Snapshot Four
Perched on a stool at the bar she had a good view of all her colleagues, immersed as they were, in their usual corner of Luigi's. Some things never changed, the ritual team piss up to celebrate closing a case being one of them. And some things, well they changed everything, not that she and Gene had sat down and discussed exactly how everything would, inevitably, change. She couldn't decide who was being the cautious one on that matter; they were both hesitantly skirting around the subject. She shoved that thought away as she watched Gene share a few words with Ray, probably about her sitting at the bar by herself sipping ridiculously expensive bottled water or maybe about the little scene from this morning.
She'd not completely forgiven Gene for his little stunt earlier that day but she knew it wouldn't be long before she did; for all his faults, and there were quite a few - she'd made a list once, an analytical mind as always, but had ripped it up and decided to follow her heart, not her head - there was a good man underneath, a man she couldn't - didn't - want to do without. She contemplated that as Gene made his way over to her, watching him closely as he moved, his tall stature and powerful aura daring anyone in the room to question his authority. That she was attracted to that side of him went without saying but it was the other side, the other Gene that she was privileged enough to see glimpses of, that deepened her attraction to him. And it hit her then, hard and brutally: she did love him. No 'possibly', 'perhaps', or 'maybe' about it. Given their circumstances it was probably just as well but it was a shock all the same.
"Luigi! People are dying of thirst over there," Gene said loudly, getting the owner's attention sharply and receiving a withering look in response, as he sat down on the stool next to Alex, who he thought looked rather pale. He hoped she wasn't going to be sick again. Or have another go at him about this morning. "You okay, Bols?"
She took a few moments to draw herself together, to decipher what he'd just said, and to summon up a response; and all she could come up with was a rather startled, "Fine." Given her years of expensive private education and her time at Oxbridge, it was strangely inarticulate of her. Gene seemed to accept it though, giving her a small smile before knocking back some of his whiskey, propping his head up on one hand to stare at her. That last stubborn, and logical, part of her brain tried to convince her once again that this was crazy, that she was crazy, but his eyes bore into hers with such an intensity that it convinced her otherwise. She wanted to tell him of her epiphany right then but she also didn't want to break the moment - and maybe she was also afraid of what his response, if she received one, would be. She didn't know how he felt. She didn't know if he'd ever tell her how he felt. But she did know how he made her feel.
Her view now obscured by him, it didn't prevent the raucous laughter of CID and Luigi's weary voice in response from reaching her, the noise jarring her from her thoughts and his gaze as Gene glanced backwards at the disruption. "You know they're probably talking about us, don't you?" she asked quietly, finally finding her voice but ignoring her earlier instinct, as his gaze settled back on her.
"Yeah," he nodded, his eyes wandering to his drink and thinking back to earlier that afternoon at the station, to the sea of curious faces. Worse than a bunch of women, some of them. Alex had been the one to suggest keeping their news quiet for now and he'd quickly agreed, for various reasons. He didn't want anyone knowing, not yet anyway; not until he knew where they stood because once the truth came out there'd be endless questions that he either didn't have the answers to or was wary of admitting. Because he was falling ever deeper and in real danger of, as Ray would say, 'going soft' and he didn't want anyone else knowing. He was having enough trouble admitting as much to Alex.
Alex watched him closely, he seemed so distracted that she half expected him to 'wake up' and ask what he'd just agreed to. "And we can't keep this quiet forever," she pursued, trying to catch his gaze, which seemed firmly locked on his glass.
"No," he agreed, eventually. Everything was going to change; before she'd come into his life his biggest worry had been the inevitable upheaval the force was facing and just how long he had before the axe finally fell on him. But she had changed everything, had re-ignited the fire in him and not just as a copper. She made him want things that he thought were long out of his reach. "Though some of them are so bloody useless you could give birth at the station and they still wouldn't have a clue," he half grumbled, meeting her gaze to find her smiling and he couldn't help but smile a little himself.
She leant in closer to him, "I think Shaz already knows." Though the others would probably just make jokes or wild accusations about her jaunts to the toilets and sudden sobriety, Shaz would put two and two together and get the right answer. And maybe she was paranoid but she thought Luigi had an inkling too, the way his eyes had twinkled as he'd poured her drink tonight.
Gene looked backwards once more, finding the WPC ensconced with Chris at a corner table, oblivious not just to him and Alex but to everyone else and though she seemed the picture of Essex girl ignorance, Gene figured Alex was right; Shaz, at times, had more brains than half of his team. And she'd already proven she was the most observant of them, himself included. Once Shaz told Chris there'd be no stopping it. "Let's keep them guessing a bit longer," he suggested, unable to tell her why but finding agreement in her eyes anyway.