I had some trouble writing this chapter, mainly as I'm getting annoyed by certain characters. Anyway! Chapter 8 y'all!

Thanks to 5A7AH for being a brilliant plot buddy!

Chapter 8: It's Not All Fairytales and Ice Cream

Gene collapsed on the sofa, breathing a sigh of relief. He had brought Alex up from Luigi's about an hour earlier, and since then she had fought against him. Gene knew she was growing tired in Luigi's, she was getting snappy and surly, and not even her bear could keep her happy.

He wanted to put her straight in bed when they got back, but there was the small matter of the ring of spaghetti sauce around her mouth that she wouldn't let him clean off in the restaurant. After he started to draw a bath for her, he wet a washcloth and tried to wipe her face off. She had screamed for a good five minutes, trying to push him away, but eventually he had won and she got in the bath. He left the room and turned on the television, but couldn't hear it over the sound of her giggling and sloshing water around.

Finally, she had come out in her pyjamas, the bear dangling from her hands, and looked at him expectantly. Gene knew what this meant. Over the past three days, her bedtime routine had been the same. Gene would tuck her in and tell her a story, either until she fell asleep, or until the story was done. She didn't know that he told her stories from her past. By putting it in a fantasy land, and making himself a king, he had been telling Alex her entire life story.

As Gene sat on the couch, drinking a much deserved scotch, he mulled over the story he had told that night.

"Once upon a time, there was a King. He ruled over the land of Fenchurch. This was a special King. Instead of sitting on his arse...er...backside...all day, he went out and solved the crimes that occurred in the kingdom. The rest of the royal family helped him as well. There were loads of princes, but there was only one princess."

Gene had to be amazed at how quiet Alex was as soon as he started telling a story. He wasn't good at it by any means, but she treated each story like it was written by Shakespeare himself. However, every day, as soon as he mentioned the princess, she would interrupt.

"Was she pretty?"

"Extremely."

"What was her name?"

"Alex."

Alex giggled and then settle back down, eager for the rest of the story.

"Well, one day there was this peasant in the kingdom. He had raised a bunch of money to help one of the friends of Fenchurch, down in Africa. But all the money went missing."

Alex gasped.

"The king searched long and hard for the money. He followed everything that the peasant told him. He searched all over Fenchurch for the man and woman who took the money from the peasant. But no matter what, everything led to a dead end.

"The princess wanted a result just as much as the king. She persuaded him to send a message to all of Fenchurch. However, since the king didn't speak well, the servants delivering the messages relayed it poorly. This made the king mad. He stayed in his throne room all night, thinking about what they missed. Finally he realised that there were people watching where the peasant said the money was taken from him. So he went to those men, and he took them in. They fought against him, so he asserted his authority to bring them in. They told him that there had been no one there except the peasant. So he brought the peasant in again.

"The princess wasn't happy with him bringing in the peasant, especially because the King had to assert his authority once more. She talked to a spy, and made it so the King was dethroned and she was Queen.

"The King went to his favourite restaurant and waited for them to realise he was right all along. If he was right, then he got to go back and be King again. As he waited, he felt hungry, so he tried the new steak and chips pizza. It wasn't good, and he was left with a bad taste in his mouth that stuck there for a good three days."

Alex had fallen asleep by that point. Happy that he didn't have to continue the story, Gene left the room.

He watched telly in silence for about an hour until something disturbed him. Alex was making a lot of noise in her room. As Gene approached the room, he heard her start moaning before it turned into a scream of pain.

Gene raced in to find her still asleep, thrashing around in the bed, trying to escape the nightmare that had clutched her. He flipped on her light. She was tangled in her sheets, the bear and her pillows on the floor.

"Alex," he said.

She didn't hear him through her nightmare, moaning once more.

He sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently. "Alex."

Her eyes opened fearfully, before focussing on Gene. She immediately started to sob, clutching Gene as though he was her lifeline.

"I had...a...scary...dream," she said between sobs.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Gene asked, feeling ridiculous as he patted her back consolingly.

"There...was...a...man," she said, gradually starting to calm. "I was...tied to a chair. And it hurt. It hurt really bad! He was hurting me, Gene!"

"Where did he hurt?" Gene asked, slightly disturbed.

"Everywhere."

"What did he do?"

"He... he burnt me with a cigarette a lot. And he pulled out my fingernails and my toenails. And this tooth I don't even have," she said, opening her mouth and pointing to an empty space. "And then he started writing words on my chest with a knife."

"What did the words say?" Gene asked, knowing now exactly what she was describing.

"I don't know. But...I think they're the same thing as the marks on my chest," she whispered, looking around frantically before retrieving her bear from the floor.

She had dreamt about the day she had been kidnapped. Did this mean her memory was coming back?

Alex lay back down in bed, sniffling and holding the bear close.

"Can you finish the story, Mr. Gene?"

Gene nodded and settled down to tell her the story, slightly more hopeful than he had been before.

~(*)~

Two days later, Gene stared out at his CID, wondering when something would happen to ruin his day. It was going too well. Alex had been quiet and complacent so far, currently sitting in the corner, looking at a file with her bear. She had told him that she and Mr. Tiddles were going to play policeman today.

Gene didn't mind, as it had kept her quiet. It was a far cry from yesterday when he decided to let her sit in on an interview.

Alex was hyperactive, something Gene had noted, but didn't think would be too much of a problem when they got into the interview room. He had never been so wrong before in his life. She sat quietly for about three minutes. Then she had started playing with the bear she never let go of. About ten minutes in, she started poking him. Gene had ignored her, but eventually the poking had gotten so annoying that he turned to her.

"What?"

"Does that thing record?" she asked, pointing at the tape recorder.

"Yes. That's what we're doing. Recording the interview."

Alex grinned and leaned over him suddenly, grabbing the tape recorder. She ran to the corner, starting to sing Green Door into the machine. Gene walked over to the corner and stood in front of her.

"Alex, give me back the machine."

She looked up at him. "Not yet! It's time for Mr. Tiddles' solo!"

Gene was starting to get annoyed. He had put up with nearly a week of this. He didn't know how much more he could bear. He was sure he could deal with a five year old fine, but this was Alex. He couldn't help but feel like she should know better, even though he knew she couldn't help it.

Alex held up the bear to the recorder and was silent as she stared at it.

"Alex."

She glared up at him. "You just ruined his solo! Now we're going to have to do it again!"

Suddenly, the man they were interviewing started laughing. "What is this?" he exclaimed. "A crèche?"

Gene felt suddenly furious. He rounded on the man.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, did I?" he roared, delighted to finally have something to take his anger out on. Gene didn't notice Alex start to cower in the corner, nor did he notice when she fled the room. It was only when he stopped ranting, panting for breath did he miss her.

"Shit. Viv!"

Viv appeared at the door. "Take this bastard to the cells."

"Yes Guv. And Alex is hiding in the evidence room, just to let you know."

"Thanks Viv."

Viv just raised his eyebrows knowingly and started to escort the man from the room.

Gene had gone to the evidence room, and after much consoling and many promises of ice cream and biscuits, she had come out with him, her face stained with tears. She had still been sniffling when they walked into Luigi's an hour later. However, her face rapidly turned radiant when Luigi came out, a huge ice cream sundae in his hands.

He silently glared at the Italian, knowing that she'd be a nightmare to get to bed that night. And indeed, she was. It had taken four stories to finally put her to sleep. But today, she was quiet and complacent. And Gene was perfectly happy with that.

Gene's door suddenly burst open. Riley was standing in the doorway. Gene noted Alex look up at the man, absolutely terrified, before trying to shrink into a ball. He wondered what caused her to fear him. The only other person in CID she wouldn't talk to was Boyle. He had treated her terribly the first day she arrived, and she was terrified of him as well.

"What is it, Riley?"

He looked panic stricken. "Alex. She went to the loo, and she hasn't come back. I had Shaz check, she's not in any of them!"

Gene sighed. There went the perfect day. "Right. When did you last see her?"

"About fifteen minutes ago."

"I'll get plod on it."

Gene portrayed a calm exterior, but he felt nervous on the inside. The only thing they could do was wait.

~(*)~

Two hours later, they were still waiting. CID had been dispersed to scour the city, and Gene sat in his office with Alex, who was growing increasingly quieter.

"You okay, Alex?" he asked.

She looked up at him, distracted. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said abstractly, before frowning over the file she was looking at. The bear lay on the ground next to her, forgotten.

Gene frowned. There was something going on with her. "You still playing copper?"

"Yeah."

She said nothing more, continuing to frown at the file.

Gene sighed. There was nothing more he could really do here. Leaving Alex to muse, he went up to the front desk.

"Viv, get me Evan White out of the cells. I'm going to charge him."

Viv frowned at him.

"Evan White was released this morning Guv."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"DI Boyle said to release him. He said that it had been cleared with you."

"When was he released?"

"About an hour ago."

Furious, Gene strode back to his office to give Boyle a good bollocking.

"Boyle!" he bellowed. "What the hell were you thinking? Why did you release White?"

"DC Riley told me that you had told him to have White released," said Boyle, looking disconcerted.

"And you didn't think to check this with me?" Gene roared. "Where is Riley?"

"He went out for a fag right after. Said he needed some fresh air."

"And that was an hour ago. So where is the bastard now?"

Suddenly, Gene's phone rang. He snatched up the receiver, not noticing Alex, who was staring at the bear curiously.

"Hunt," he spat down the line.

"My name is Jeff Riley. I am twenty-eight years old. If you do not find me in the next sixty minutes, I will be killed."

Another voice came on the line, the voice he hated.

"No hints this time Hunt. Use your 'gut instinct.' By the way, you're only on step 5 right now."

The other end clicked and he slammed the phone down.

Turning, he caught sight of Alex, who was looking pale and confused, holding the bear in her hands.

"I don't understand," she said before collapsing in a dead faint.

to be continued