Chris quickly glanced to his left and right and quietly knocked on the door. There was no answer so he knocked again.

"Shaz? Shaz, are you alright?" Shaz didn't reply but Chris thought he could hear someone sniffing. "Shaz, you know I can't go in there. Will you come out? Please?"

There was only silence. Chris stepped back from the door and sighed. Ordinarily, he would ask the Ma'am to have a word with Shaz, even if she wasn't hiding in the Ladies, but he wasn't sure how sympathetic she would be. Ray was on the side of the Ma'am and thought that the Guv could be forgiven. He hadn't been himself, Ray argued, and therefore technically had done nothing wrong. Chris was uneasy with this point of view but hadn't disagreed with it as dramatically as Shaz had done. When Alex had explained about the Stockholm Syndrome and so on, Shaz had stood up and said,

"So that's it? The Guv betrays us and you say it's all right because he wasn't himself at the time?"

"Is there a problem, Shaz?"

"Yeah, there is actually!" Shaz had shouted, her hands balling up into fists, "You were broken when he left, we all were, but you especially. There were days when I genuinely didn't know if I would see you at work of if we'd hear word that you had died too or what. All I knew was that Hunt wasn't coming back."

Alex watched Shaz, fascinated as she paused for breath. She was aware that she should stop Shaz, but she wasn't able to.

"But he did! After all of that grieving, all that worry about you, he came back and he wasn't dead after all! I hated him then but you were so happy, I tried to stop. After all, it wasn't his fault that he left and he tried so hard to get back to you." Shaz spat the last few words at Alex who flinched as though they had caused her physical pain.

"He couldn't- they were controlling him-" Alex protested feebly but Shaz just laughed, horrible sobbing laughs that were choked by the tears leaking from her eyes.

"You don't get it, do you? They weren't abusing him, he could have left. He could have chosen to not believe them and to return to our side, but he didn't."

"He did return to our side!" Alex shouted, no longer feeble, her own fist clenched and with patches of colour burning on her cheeks.

"It's too late!" Shaz screamed, her high voice so loud that it echoed off the hard walls of the CID office. There was silence for a few seconds until it was broken by heavy footsteps. With a pang of nausea, Shaz saw that the footsteps belonged to Gene Hunt himself emerging from the kitchen, where he had obviously heard every word.

Shaz stood her ground, lifted her chin, and looked Gene straight in the eye, trying not to shake.

"I'm not going to take back what I said just because you heard me," she said.

"I'd lose all respect for you if you did," he replied.

Shaz scoffed. "What respect? The respect of a tea girl? You were prepared to endanger my life! All of our lives, the lives of the people on the street that you're supposed to protect-"

"Enough," Gene said, and there was a finality in his voice that shut her up. "Shaz, I'm sorry you feel that way and I know I deserve it. But it's different now. I let you all down, it's not going to happen again."

Gene looked at Shaz and she stared back, knowing he was waiting for her to reply. He didn't want forgiveness, not yet, just a promise of the possibility of forgiveness in the future. She considered.

"No."

"Shaz!" Alex exclaimed.

Shaz turned on her, because it was somehow easier to hurt her than to attack the Guv. "I'm not falling for this shit! You can be stupid enough to take it if you want, but I won't!"

"Granger, that is your-" Gene began, but by this time, Shaz had found the self-righteous anger she needed to attack him again.

"Superior officer, I know! Just like you are, I suppose? I've had enough of this. If you want me to resign, I'll be more than happy to oblige."

She stormed out, leaving her colleagues dazed and emotionally injured. Alex gave Gene a look that said, "office, now". He understood, and they went in, not speaking to Ray or Chris, who looked at each other in shock.

"Part of me wants to call her a bitch for the things she said, the other half thinks she's right," Gene sighed, his eyes drawn to his 'obituaries'. He turned away, feeling wretched.

"She isn't, but her feelings are understandable," said Alex, "She's hurt and confused so she'd lashing out."

"You didn't scream or shout. I'm not saying what you did wasn't worse, but you held your temper."

"I am older and wiser than Shaz," said Alex wearily, and Gene saw how this was true in the lines around her eyes and how her mouth drooped down, not up. "I know where the base of my anger is from and I know enough psychology to know not to blame you for what has happened to you. Because that what Stockholm Syndrome is, it isn't something you are or something you get, it's something that happens to you, an event in your life. You can, and must, move on from it."

"Am I your husband or your patient, Alex?" said Gene quietly.

Alex didn't falter in her answer, "You are both. I hope to God that one day that isn't the case but for now, I need to understand you and be able to predict you."

"You're like Shaz," Gene said, "You don't trust me either."