TITLE: Somebody That I Used To Know

AUTHOR: bolly69

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or concept; they belong to the BBC/Ashley/Matthew, etc.

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Hope you're sticking with this, my stats had frozen at zero but I know some of you have added this to alerts and reviewed so thank you all, and something must be broken! It's slow going for a couple chapters but it will be worth it in the end, Promise!

This will eventually be an M rating, please do not read on if you're easily offended by sex and/or strong language.

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Chapter 2

She'd forgotten.

All of it.

The 80's, the cases, the Quattro, the team.

Him.

She'd forgotten him.

By the time he lurched outside of the police building he was sweating bullets, and glancing down at his hands he saw he was trembling. Jesus, he didn't know it would be this hard seeing her again, to have her stand next to him, so real, so alive, so beautiful. And have her not know him.

He'd filled his nostrils with her new but soon familiar scent and noticed the small scar on her forehead, faded but definitely there; evidence of her journey to him and back again. And her eyes, those fantastic hazel orbs, giving so much and asking nothing in return; so full of Alex, and then so sad, so lost.

Standing in the bright sunshine he slowly did a 360 turn, taking in this modern metropolis, this brave new world; fucking scary new world more like. He shouldn't have come; he should have left her alone to get on with her life. He'd let the others go, seen them all safely to the pub when their time had come, when they'd righted their wrongs. And then his turn had come. He'd known it was his time, he felt it like a weight off his shoulders. And so he'd gone, ready and accepting; he was tired and weary, he was willing. It was bloody Nelson that scuppered those plans.

"Are you sure you're ready Guv?" he'd asked in that bloody fake accent. "No regrets, no unfinished business, Mon Brave?"

Gene had glared at him, narrowing his eyes, "Will you bloody well stop talking and let me in Nelson! I'm dying for that pint that's waiting for me on the bar"

Nelson wasn't fazed by Gene, "What if you had the chance to see her again Man? Would you take it?"

Oh Jesus, what was he playing at? "Nelson, don't you bloody dare. It's my time, I've handed over the reins and I'm due a very long retirement…" Gene took another step towards the door, but Nelson stepped in his way.

"Sorry Guv, can't let you in when there's unresolved issues"

"Christ you sound just like her! I don't have any unresolved issues" he was getting angry now, and pulled his hands into fists by his side.

"We both know that's not true Guv. Would you do it, if you could see her, would you take a chance?"

Gene raked his fingers through his hair and sighed, "You bloody know I would. I'd go through hell and back to see her one more time" He looked Nelson in the eye, "I already have… without her here with me…"

Nelson reverted back to broad Manchester, "That settles it then Gene. Come round to the side door"

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Gene knew she'd made it back home, to her own time and to her little girl. And probably to all the yuppie twat bastards who would be fawning over her, trying to impress her with their clever words and degrees and XR3's. Or whatever poncey cars they had in the future.

'Go to her' Nelson had said, 'work with her for a little while, put your mind at ease that she's doing okay. Then you can move on'. Why had he agreed to it? Because he'd thought of her every day since she'd gone; dreamt about her every night, about her being almost within touching distance but not quite close enough; he couldn't live without her if truth be told. That's why he was now eager to go to the pub, there was no fire left in his belly; not for the work anyway.

He didn't really know what had happened. Nelson had shown him into the side door and the blinding white light had disoriented him momentarily. The next thing he knew he was waking up on a park bench not too far from the police headquarters, the warm spring sunshine on his face, no one gave him a second look as though it was an everyday occurrence to see a hulk of a man in a long black overcoat asleep on a bench. In his pockets he'd found his wallet with enough cash and cards to get him by, along with his fags of course, and a ridiculously tiny phone and a note from Nelson with details he would need to know; where to find her, the hotel he was to stay in, and how to switch his phone on; the important things.

He'd sat for a while staring into the river nearby, studying the light dancing off the ripples as he tried to gather his thoughts before he made his way to the steel and glass building in the distance. Bitch on reception wouldn't let him get by her of course, but he kicked off just enough for a terrified young copper to come over and then scarper off in search of Alex. He felt nervous waiting for her, and lit up a cigarette, causing the reception bitch to holler at him to smoke outside. Bloody future progress; it was shit.

He'd seen her as soon as he walked back in; she looked younger than he remembered, with hardly any make up and her hair pulled back; more innocent looking. Still gorgeous though. But her eyes were reserved, shielded. And she hadn't remembered him. Of course she hadn't. But there was something, when she heard his name, a flicker of recognition maybe. She'd dropped the façade a little then, took pity on him and used his stupid phone to call hers, storing both their names and numbers in each. He knew it was just a gesture, a pity thing; she didn't need someone like him now, professionally or otherwise. Who had he been kidding? She was way out of his league anyway, always was, he was just too fucking stupid to realise it. There was nothing else for it, he'd find Nelson tomorrow and ask to leave, to end it now.

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Alex was intrigued by this man. She couldn't get him out of her head. He had held court in reception like she had never known, his sheer presence was electric. And those eyes, those bottomless pools of blue that she could get lost in, wanted to get lost in, needed to get… stop! And it wasn't like her to ask for a strange mans number, to pretend she needed it only to pass on to HR, let alone grip his arm like she wanted to hold on to him forever. The feel of him had shaken her too, so much so that she'd walked unsteadily back to her office, and couldn't get her mind back onto the report she'd been typing earlier; before he came; she felt nothing would ever be quite the same again. Shit, one brief encounter and she'd gone to bits.

Sat at her desk with her head in her hands, her thoughts were eventually interrupted by her iPhone message tone. Her tummy flipped, could it be? No, logically thinking he couldn't even switch his phone on so probably couldn't compose and send a text. It was a text from Molly to say she'd arrived at the ski slopes and was about to collect her skiing gear. Alex smiled as she remembered how excited Molly had been as she helped her with her packing; two weeks in Switzerland at 16 was undeniably exciting – no parents, surrounded by her friends, plenty of teenage boys and fit ski instructors to drool over. It didn't get much better than that. Before she had a chance to reply, her phone buzzed in her hand. Her heart sank as the name 'David' appeared on the screen. Reluctantly she answered it.

"Hi!" She tried not to sound disappointed.

"Alex, it's me. Listen, dinner tonight, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a rain check…" he didn't sound too upset at cancelling. And rain check? She hated that phrase, what the fuck did it even mean?

"Oh, really? That's a shame" she lied.

"I know. Bloody school open evening tonight and they just can't do without me. No organisational skills, any of them"

"Oh dear, they do take advantage of you dear" she tried to sound concerned but not too much, "don't worry, I'll have a quiet night in. I have loads of paperwork to be catching up on and as Molly is away I'll take some home" she was shocked at how relieved she was that she didn't have to see him tonight.

"Alex, you're a saint. Thank you, and I will make it up to you"

Urgh, the prospect of how he would make it up to her filled her with dread; it would either involve something utterly boring like a museum visit, or just a boring shag, "No need David, no need at all. Take care"

As soon as she had pressed the red 'off' button, she scrolled quickly through her contacts, stopping when she got to G.

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Gene made his way slowly to the hotel, walking through unfamiliarly clean streets and shining buildings. Canary Wharf glinted in the distance, the Gherkin in the foreground taunting him with its symbolic shape.

"Yeah, you can fuck right off, I don't need reminding of what I won't be getting this side of eternity", he growled.

He eventually found his hotel and made his way straight to the swish neon highlighted bar to try to get comfortably numb. Perched on a bar stool nursing a whisky, he watched some skinny telly with constant news reports on that seemed to repeat every 15 bloody minutes. All it showed were wars in foreign lands and that all politicians were bent. No change there then. He glanced around at men in suits typing on tiny keyboards with screens; sliding their fingers across glass things that looked like place mats you'd put your dinner plate on; they talked obnoxiously on small phones or at things stuck on their ears, like on star trek. "Fuck me, beam me up Scotty" he muttered quietly, shaking his head and feeling like he really was on another planet; he now knew what Sam had meant when he said he felt like he'd landed on Mars. Three large whiskeys in his stupid tiny phone rang, causing him to search his pockets for it, once he realised it was him that was ringing and buzzing, and then it took him an age to answer it.

"Hunt" He hadn't meant to sound so gruff, there was only one person with his number after all; he told himself it wasn't his nerves.

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Thanks for reading! ;-)

Thanks to Ash & Matt for giving us fantastic characters to play with, to whatever ends…

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