I haven't updated this story in… well, anyway. I had the chapters on a memory stick which I, rather intelligently, left at home when I returned to uni. I now have it back.

I haven't dedicated chapters before, but LionessOfTheQuattro sent me a message wondering what had happened to me & this fic. So this chapter is for her, I guess.

Gene heard noises in the corridor outside and rushed out of CID. The lights were on and the night-time desk sergeant was peering at him through sleepy, confused eyes. Gene growled "get back to work" at him and tried the handle of the closest interview room.

The room was unlocked. The door swung open.

The main lights in the interview room were turned off and the only light came from an anglepoise lamp on the table in the middle of the room. At the table sat Alex Hunt, her elbows on the table and her chin gently resting on her hands. She wasn't supporting her head as though she was tired or upset, but like she was posing for some unseen artist. She didn't look up as Gene entered the room and the door gently clicked shut behind him.

"Where were you?" Gene demanded, "You can't just go swanning off in the middle of the night, Alex. You may think you're tougher than the steaks at Luigi's and maybe that's true but-"

"When did you realise I was missing?" Alex interrupted, her voice as neutral as one that had been computer synthesised.

"What?" said Gene, frowning, "I don't know. Ten, fifteen minutes ago maybe?"

"What were you doing when you realised I was gone?" said Alex, her voice losing its neutrality although she still didn't look at him. Gene wondered if his life would be worth living if he opened the door and ran.

"I was in the bathroom," he said, trying to make his voice sound even and truthful but Alex looked up at him scornfully, her expression made all the more frightening by shadows on her face cast by the light from the lamp across the contours of her skin.

"You weren't. You left and met Langley. The most senior name we have connected to the Animal League. I followed you, Gene."

"I was fishing for information. I was pretending-"

"Bollocks," said Alex, but she wasn't angry. She sounded more sorrowful than anything and Gene studied her face, every crease of her eyebrows and every degree of the curve of her mouth trying to read her. "If that was true, why keep it a secret?" She paused. "Someone is dead because of you."

"Not because of me," said Gene and Alex closed her eyes slowly, how dare he protest his innocence? How dare he deny responsibility? "He isn't. Langley knew he was a traitor, I didn't have to say anything."

"What was all that about 'last time' then? Someone followed you then, someone heard you betray the snout then. You could have told us Langley had made contact, we'd have followed you as back up and arrested the bastard."

Gene had nothing to say. No clever comebacks, no way that he could pull rank on her since she was a DCI and he didn't even work for the Met any more. He could only stand in silence and feel her fury and disappointment wash over him.

"The thing is, Gene," she said, "I should have known. This is a possibility that I should have been ready for and been preparing ourselves for. I just thought you were stronger than that, that's all." Gene felt as though he had been winded.

"I don't understand-"

"No," said Alex bitterly, "you don't, do you? If you knew what was happening to you, you would prevent it."

"What is happening to me?" Gene said, not quite sure if he was impatient or scared.

"Stockholm syndrome," said Alex, getting up. "You weren't starved, you weren't abused, you told me yourself that they treated you well. Your life is in danger only if you don't conform to what they believe. And I'm sure they talked to you, were nice to you, asked your opinions on things. And then they told you some of theirs. Maybe they showed you Dr. Burntwood's video, I don't know. All I know is you swallowed their propaganda and when they knew that you belonged to them and not me, that it was time to release you. You were safe to some back to me."

Her voice broke on the last word and Gene wanted more than anything to walk up to her and just hold her in his arms. He didn't move. He knew it was the wrong thing to do.

"I'm right aren't I?" said Alex. She was standing in front of the lamp now and she looked like some kind of heavenly being with the light behind her. "Aren't I? This is why they took you in the first place and why they let you go when they did. The only reason you came back to me is because they let you."

"No," said Gene with such conviction that Alex almost believed him, "I came back to you because I love you."

"What, and you just walked out? They were keeping you prisoner and you just jumped on a bus?"

"It was my idea to leave!"

"No it wasn't!" Alex shouted back, "You can't keep your story straight! You told me, one minute you were there, next minute you were a few streets from the lock-up. They need a spy in CID and there you were, all ready and nicely brainwashed."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I do though. I heard you tonight, telling Langley everything we know, swearing loyalty to him and betraying the snout. Another officer followed you on another night, so I have that person's testimony. You believe in their cause as well, I know you do."

Alex stopped talking and there was a silence. Secretly, Alex wanted to be wrong. She wanted Gene to turn around and explain everything that just happened in such a way that he couldn't possibly be the bad guy, that he was the lion they all looked up to and rallied around. But he didn't because he couldn't. His silver eyes pleaded with her through the darkness of the room but there was no substance. There was no reason to forgive.

"Cardoxymide," Alex whispered and she saw Gene hold himself very still.

"What about it?"

"I'm on it. You know I am."

"Your point?" Gene said, his voice shaking.

"Would you kill me for it?"

Gene shook his head. He opened his mouth, the shut it again and squeezed his eyes tight.

"Of course you would," said Alex through barely suppressed tears, "You've already helped plan this untold misery. You may have planned other terrorist attacks. You won't tell us anything you know but you'll give our secrets to them. And you would have me killed for going against the League's dogma."

Gene reached forward and touched her hair saying, "Bolly."

"Tell me to keep taking it," said Alex, "Tell me that the lives of all those animals, the screams and distress caused by those scientists are worth it if it means a healthy baby."

And for a moment, she saw it reflected in his eyes: the trauma, the pain of poor, defenceless creatures, the pictures he ran through in his mind, every day, to justify his betrayal of her.

She felt the hand that was in her hair involuntarily clench into a fist and she moved her head away from him. His fist stayed where it was, the knuckles turning white and glowing in the light from the anglepoise.

"You don't understand…" Gene whispered.

She opened the door and the sound of it must have brought Gene to his senses since he dropped his hand and span around to face her.

"Don't follow me home," said Alex, her voice hard. "Don't stay here either; sleep in the Quattro or something."

As she walked through the doorway, she heard Gene's voice.

"Bolly-"

"Don't call me that," she said. The door slammed shut behind her and she ran home as fast as her legs would carry her, her heart feeling as though it was crumbling to dust all the way.