Molly finished zipping up Alex's new black dress with a smile. "There, all done."
Alex turned around and beamed.
Tears sprung to Molly's eyes. This was it. This. Was. It. The night. After months of waiting for Gene to decide it was the right time, after Christmas and New Year had passed and cold, dark January had arrived; Gene had tipped Molly the wink that tonight would be the night. January 15th, the night he would ask Alex to marry him. He'd even asked Molly to go to dinner with them but she'd told him off for being, 'such a wimp.' He had to do this alone.
They'd devised an elaborate scheme that involved them pretending to be going to dinner all together to beat the mid-week post-Christmas blues and then at the last second, Molly would 'remember' she had a huge History project due in tomorrow and so would have to stay home and finish it, all the while insisting Gene and Alex went to dinner without her.
At first, Alex had protested, refusing to let Molly stay home alone. Despite Molly's complaints, Alex had enlisted a last minute babysitter (with the promise of free beer,) in the form of 'Uncle Ray.' Molly had begrudgingly accepted, knowing her mum wouldn't let her stay back at the house by herself. Alex was even more protective than she had been in 2008. Much as Molly truly adored Ray she was pretty sure that at 13 she had earned the right to be left unaccompanied for a few hours.
Molly heard the doorbell ring and then Gene laying down the ground rules to his DS: Ray must not drink while in charge of 'his little girl,' he must not smoke, must not leave her alone or let her try beer, no matter how much Molly tried to tell him she was allowed. Molly excitedly said 'goodbye' to her parents before turning to Ray with an excited squeal.
"Gene's proposing tonight!" She thought she would burst if she had to keep the secret any longer.
"Flamin' Nora!" Ray exclaimed, though he was in no way surprised. He'd never seen his Guv so head-over-heels for a woman before.
"So you have to help me decorate." Molly began flinging a multitude of banners, balloons and streamers from her hiding place under the stairs.
Ray resentfully began to unfurl a homemade banner than proclaimed in huge, slightly squiggly capital letters, 'CONGRATULATIONS GALEX!' Confused, he asked Molly, "What's a 'Galex?'"
She rolled her eyes. "I ran out of space, okay? It's supposed to say 'Gene and Alex.' It doesn't matter, we haven't got long, let's just get this stuff up and the Bollinger on ice!"
"Okay, okay." Ray did as he was told and started blowing up balloons. He didn't think it was possible that anyone be bossier than Alex Drake... until he met Molly.
Molly knew something was dreadfully wrong when Alex arrived home, by herself, barely an hour later, soaking wet. She'd obviously walked back, alone in the rain.
"Mum?" Fear coursed through Molly's veins as Alex practically collapsed in her arms. "What's wrong? Is it Dad? Is he hurt?"
Alex shook her head to indicate he was not and as much as she tried to hide the fact something was wrong, she was still sobbing too hard to speak. Molly brushed the damp hair from her Mum's face, scared by the look in her eyes. She'd never seen her this... broken before.
Ray shuffled uncomfortably from foot-to-foot, desperate to do anything to get out of this situation. He mumbled something about, "Getting a glass of water," and practically bolted.
When he'd left the room Molly pleaded with Alex, "Tell me what's wrong."
Ray returned with the glass and Molly would have found the situation comical had it not been so serious. He really didn't have any idea of how to deal with a crying woman.
Molly made Alex take a shaky sip of water. Still with her arms around her, vowing to be strong and knowing her Mum wouldn't open up with her DS present, Molly told Ray, "You should go."
It was Ray's turn to shake his head. "No way. I'm not leaving her in this state." With Molly's presence in 1983 Alex and Ray had become closer, friends even.
"I'm okay." Alex's voice sounded so small and dejected, Ray hardly recognised that it could come from his normally-resilient DI.
"Course you're not!"
"Ray!" Molly interrupted. "We'll be fine."
After half a minute of consideration, and Molly mouthing 'trust me,' he decided it was best to leave after all. Collecting his coat, he kissed Molly on the forehead and then surprised all three of them by pecking his DI on the cheek quickly.
"You call me, anytime, love, no matter how late it is," he told Molly. "And Ma'am?" He turned his attention to Alex. "Whatever he did, he's a knob, okay?"
Ray let himself out of the front door and Molly just held Alex even tighter as she continued to cry. Something shocking must have happened. Where was Gene?
Alex felt completely crushed and broken. Gene had asked her to marry him and she'd just frozen. She swore after Pete she would never marry again, no matter what. She couldn't let her heart get broken and she couldn't put Molly through it for a second time. After five minutes of stunned silence, Gene had just drowned the rest of the beer from his glass, fixed her with a cool look and said,
"Forget it. I only said it to get in your knickers anyway. Besides, playing 'Daddy' is getting really old now..."
"Mum... Mum! You're bleeding."
Molly's voice snapped her back to the present, to this pseudo-reality. It was only then that Alex noticed the deep gash on her arm, an injury probably sustained from stumbling through the rain-soaked streets of London. Molly speedily fetched the first aid kit from the kitchen. Workmanlike, she poured some antiseptic onto cotton wool and apologised when the TCP came into contact with the broken skin and Alex hissed in pain.
"What happened?" Molly pushed, asking for what felt like the millionth time. She was panicking now, fighting the rising nausea, the bleeding just wouldn't stop. She concentrated on cleaning the wound and fixing a plaster over it, hoping it would stem the flow of blood. Alex didn't reply until she felt Molly touch her bare ring finger and she jerked at the contact, realizing,
"You knew?" Alex couldn't help the anger burning through her eyes. She wasn't really annoyed at Molly but she needed someone to take it out on and Gene wasn't around. "You let him humiliate me when I told you I never wanted to get married again?"
"Of course I knew! God, he asked my permission months ago. And it's *Gene,* Mum. You love him so much, he loves you, it's different this time."
Alex had to do something, to block out his words from echoing in her head, she couldn't stay here, God, she couldn't breathe.
"Get your things," she told Molly. "We're leaving."
"What? No!" Molly knew she was being obstinate and stubborn but she had faith that they could work through this. "What about dad? He'd be devastated if he came home and found us missing..."
"He's not your father!" Alex screamed. "Stop, Molly! He doesn't want us anymore, we have to leave."
From outside, Gene was watching the house from a safe distance. He was careful to keep out of sight as he watched Alex and Molly abscond with suitcases. The sight broke his heart. He knew he could be a thoughtless bastard sometimes but he'd never thought of himself as malevolent... until tonight. He was mortified by what he'd said, but he never had been able to take rejection well and he'd just... snapped. It had never occurred to him she might refuse his proposal. Well, not technically refuse, just sit there in stunned silence as if you'd told her aliens had landed on Tower Bridge. He couldn't believe he'd hurt his precious Alex so deeply and there was only one thing he could think to do now... leave. The confusion, the guilt, the anger, the rejection... he just couldn't take it anymore.
They'd gone back to the flat above 'Luigi's.' The kindly Italian hadn't asked any questions, he'd just handed the keys back over with concerned eyes and told 'the lovely Signorinas Drake' they were welcome to stay as long as they wanted and if they needed anything to call him.
Molly was sulking and blaming her mother for rejecting Gene and having them end up back in this 'pokey shithole.' Bad-temperedly, she'd told Alex she was 'too tired' to go to school and Alex was too exhausted to scold her for her bad language or argue. Deciding Molly needed some time alone and with no makeup on and a heavy heart, she headed to CID, not sure of what she would find when she got there. To her surprise, the first thing she saw was removal men packing up Gene's office.
"What's going on?" she asked Ray.
His eyes darted around the room awkwardly at having to be the one to tell her. "It's the Guv. He's scarpered, did a midnight flit and told Viv he wasn't coming back. Transferring..." He stubbed out the cigarette he'd been smoking and picked up a white envelope from his overflowing in-tray. "He left a note."
"Well, what does it say?" Alex's heart was hammering. How was she going to explain to Molly that Gene had run out of them? First Pete and now the man she considered to be her 'real dad...'
"Dunno. It's not addressed to me." Ray handed the envelope over. Alex turned it over in her hand and gasped. She'd expected it to be addressed to her, for the writing to read 'Bolly' or 'Alex' or maybe even just 'Drake.' It didn't. In Gene's familiar near-illegible scrawl it said, 'Molly...'