"Daniel Hartley?" said the man, avoiding the gaze of the little boy as he looked innocently up into his face, clutching a teddy bear at his side. "It's about your Dad mate. He's had to go away."

"Oh." said the little boy, "when's he coming back then?"

"He's not I'm afraid. I'm sorry mate. But Daddy's not coming back." The little boy looked down at the floor for a moment, and then back up at the man.

"Daddy's with Mummy isn't he?" He said miserably, "and the hamster."

"Yeah." said the man.

"But I'll see Daddy again, won't I?" The man met Dan's gaze for the first time, silvery blue interlocking the large brown of the child's.

"Oh." said the man, "I'd bet my life on that one Danny-Boy."

The Bell and Bridge Inn, London 1990

"Happy Birthday Danny-Boy!" Gene handed over a card and a small parcel.

"Thanks Guv"

" 'S not much. Drinks are on me tonight."

"Bloody hell it must be a special occasion!" Gene snorted with mirth as Dan opened the envelope and drew out a simple birthday card. Opening it, he grinned at the uncomplicated message scrawled within.

Dan

Happy Birthday

The Guv.

It was Gene Hunt all over. Not florid or emotional, just plain and clean cut. Dan smiled up at Gene, "Tah." He propped up the card on the table and proceeded to open the package. Out fell a small green object. Dan drew his breath in involuntarily. For a moment he could not speak, he only stared dumbstruck at the object in his hands. slowly, he looked up at Gene, wanting to express his thanks but unable to form the words. His gratitude was too great to communicate. Finally, he managed to croak out two words.

"A stapler…" He shook his head, smiling in disbelief. "It's a stapler."

"Yeah." said Gene. "No need to get all…you know…girly over it. Just thought it'd be a bit of a joke. Remember when you first came, you never shut up about staplers."

"I remember." Dan smiled, "Thanks Guv." He clapped Gene on his upper arm in a simple gesture of thanks. Gene nodded in return smiling slightly before his face snapped back into his usual pout. Pocketing the stapler, Dan took a swig of his pint smiling benignly up at Gene. "Great life this, isn't it?"

"Great life," agreed Gene "catching scum, cleaning the streets, drinking beer."

" 'specially the beer." Dan grinned

"I'll drink to that." nodded Gene.

"What won't you drink to?"

"Not much."

Both men chuckled slightly. Their laughter faded away into companionable silence, Dan draining his pint and Gene still nursing his Scotch.

"Remember that Freddy Marshall?"

"Oh Aye," snorted Gene, "that bloke we nicked last year?"

"Yeah, the one in the passenger seat of his Ford Festiva with his trousers down. What was it he were reading?"

"Jane Eyre."

"Kinky sod."

Gene and Dan once again dissolved into laughter. The Bell and Bottle had become their usual haunt, and they could often be seen at their table by the bar, drinking and laughing. Sometimes deep in conversation, and at other times in silence. Dan felt like he knew Gene as well as anyone now. As well as anyone could know Gene Hunt. In the last couple of years they had become close. It was an unspoken friendship. Neither felt the need to tell one another how much the other meant to them, it just wasn't necessary. They were mates, that was it. No need to say anything about it.

They had been through a lot those two. In Dan's eyes, they had become the new Starsky and Hutch, Holmes and Watson, Rosemary and Thyme, Bert and Ernie. They were Hunt and Hartley, the formidable crime-fighting, scum-pounding hero team. Jokingly, Dan had once suggested they get lycra super-hero costumes, but had regretted it almost immediately when he noticed Gene turn white. Dan guessed, correctly, that he was remembering his ordeal at the Spandex Ballet and quickly changed the subject.

Yes, Dan felt like he knew Gene Hunt, but he also knew that he kept some things carefully guarded. Stuff about his past. Dan had never asked him. He didn't want to pry.. He had decided, immediately after the Keats episode to trust Gene even blindly, perhaps he had decided to before then. It was hard to pinpoint an exact date. All Dan knew was that his gut told him Gene was good. Dan had followed his gut and had come out on top, despite being most likely dead. He had a solid and trustworthy friend in Gene Hunt, and in the couple of years that had followed '88, Dan had never felt such a sense of purpose in life, as ironic as it may be. It seemed that getting a few inches of serrated metal in the back of the head had been the best thing ever to have happened to Dan.

"Another?" Gene grunted, gesturing to Dan's empty pint glass.

"Go on then." He grinned lazily, examining the beer mat as Gene shuffled off in the direction of the bar. He returned and sat down, placing a fresh pint before Dan, who watched as it bubbled invitingly. They continued their drinking in silence. This silence, however, was not the usual sort which fell between Dan and Gene, this one felt different. Dan could almost hear Gene's mind racing.

"Penny for them?" asked Dan.

"Just thinking." murmured Gene, not looking up.

"Less thinking, more drinking! Come on, it's my birthday!"

"Yeah…" Gene did not sound enthused.

"Come on then. What you thinking about?"

"Her."

"Ah."

"Yeah." There was a further silence, as Gene swilled his pint and Dan struggled over what to say next. Finally, he replied hesitantly, all too aware of his friend's easily riled nature, especially upon sensitive subjects.

"You…you haven't mentioned her very often. What was her name? Alex Darne?"

"Drake."

"Oh yeah. Who was she?"

"She was me DI about seven or eight years ago."

"You were close?"

"Yeah."

"I hope you don't mind me asking-"

" It's fine."

"Were you…very close?" said Dan, emphasising 'very' to convey his meaning.

"Sort of. Or we would have been…" Gene trailed off, still looking into the depths of his whiskey.

"Where is she now?" pressed Dan

"She left."

"Transfer?"

"Not really." replied Gene. He didn't really want to talk about it, but the nagging voice in the back of his mind (which, coincidentally tended to sound a lot like Alex's had) compelled him to tell Dan. There was just something about him. He was different from the rest.

"Why don't you go and talk to her? If you had an argument of something. I mean, you're obviously

still hung up on her…"

"Can't…she's gone Dan." Dan paused for a moment, trying to be gentle.

"She died?"

"Yeah." Gene regretted not being able to tell Dan the truth. They had to find out for themselves, that was the way it had to be. He consoled himself slightly when he acknowledged that it was not technically a lie. Alex had actually died, but that was before he had known her.

"I'm sorry mate."

"No trouble." Gene finally brought himself to look up at Dan and paste a smile on his face. There was no use getting emotional about this sort of stuff. It's not like he could have changed it. He was stuck here forever. At least she was happy.