Sing For Absolution

London. July 20TH 2008. Glass buildings flickered past Alex Drakes' car window. Cold. Harsh. Spooky. All combined together in an origin of symmetry.

Molly Drake shuffled through her mother's case files

"My name is Sam Tyler, I had an accident and woke up in 1973, was I mad in a coma or back in time, whatever had happened it was like I'd landed on a different planet, if I could figure out why I was here, then maybe I could get back home ... yeah whatever, that is sooo lame"

"Return the classified document, thank you. What did Evan get you for your birthday, Molls?"

"A Blackberry"

"Oh yeah, I'll get you some more while you're at school and you can make a birthday crumble" Alex joked as Molly smiled. "Did your dad manage to..."

Molly cut her off, not wanting to talk about it. "No he's in Canada with Judy"

Alex tutted disapprovingly " oh"

"So this guy, Taylor"

"Tyler ... he died April last year"

"Schitzo, delusional, what's the German one? Is he going in the book?" Molly added sarcastically.

"DCI Tyler is getting a book all to himself"

Charlie 75 to DI Drake

"Roger that"

Southbank outside Tate modern, Gunman has taken a female hostage, Trojan units are assigned

"Shit... pass me the thing ... Molls, pass me the thing" Alex commanded, pressing her foot down on the accelerator as the siren wailed above.

A tall, grey, concrete building loomed above, surrounded by modern offices. A police car was parked and surrounded by officers chatting to one an other with a sense of urgency. A normal day in the life of DI Alex Drake.

"Okay, so stay put sweetheart"

"Mum don't go"

***

Police officers held back the worried crowds stood on Southbank, looking on at the crazed gunman in front of them. Fearing for their own safety, and the girls as he thrashed her about like the waves, gun pointing to her head. She screamed, pleading for someone to come save her from her own personal hell.

"Start talking Sergeant"

"IC1 male, Arthur Layton, He may be under the influence of drugs, he's taken a busker hostage, frankly he might do anything ma'am"

"Okay, I am taking my daughter to school, she's in the damn car with me, you can't seriously expect..."

"He asked for you by name ma'am"

"What?" Alex replied, confused, how would a man like Arthur Layton know a woman like herself?

"He says he'll shoot her if you don't talk to him"

Alex looked around desperately, looking for an escape route out of this mess.

"Armed response?"

"On their way"

"Excuse me, excuse me, please" Alex pushed herself through the crowds and strutted over to where Layton was standing

"You stop there"

" You asked to speak to me Arthur, I'm DI Alex Drake"

"I know who you are, you stop staring at me I don't like it!"

"Okay, I'll avert my eyes and if you let this young lady go we can discuss... discuss.."

"Discuss what? I'll kill her yeah, I'll kill you, do you understand? Get over 'ere now ..."

Layton pushed the woman to the ground as she squealed. Alex held up her hands in surrender. Another deluded psychopath that needed to be stopped.

Marksmen hold your fire, hostage negotiator approaching suspect

"I help people Arthur, I help people who are trapped, I help them to find an escape route"

"You stop looking at me, I don't like it ...Yeah I see you, I see you, this is my show, you understand? I knew you when you were a little girl, you got your mothers eyes Alex..."

Alex looked around nervously as Layton pointed his pistol at her. Her heart pounded. Maybe this was her end. It would only take one shot, and her blood would be spread across the tarmac.

"I'm sorry ...I don't..."

" I'm happy hope you're happy too, yeah, I'm happy hope you're happy too"

" What?"

"BOOM!"

Molly Drake squeezed her way through the crowd. "MUM...MUM..." She screeched as she ran forwards towards her mother and closer to the scene unravelling around her.

Alex sprinted towards Molly but Layton got there first, he grabbed Molly by her school blazer and dragged her with him, towards the steps leading down to the river Thames.

"You follow me and I'll blow her head off ... down them steps, get down them steps, stupid little girl."

Alex breathed in deeply, Arthur Layton had her daughter, he could kill her at any second and what could she do about it?

A gunshot rang through the air like the church bells of the nearby Saint Peters. Alex teared along the pathway and down the steps. She looked around nervously. Nothing. She preyed that Molly would be okay, she would lay down her life for her. If Molly died she had failed as a detective and a mother. That failure would be too much for her to bear.

Molly wandered out from behind a pier, dawdling slightly across the sand, dazed by her experience. Alex wrapped her arms around her comfortingly.

Marksmen stand down, I repeat marksmen stand down, suspect has left the scene, I repeat marksmen to stand down.

"Your godfathers going to take you home Molly, I got a stack of reports and I'm...Oh Molls come here... come here"

Molly pushed her away."You could have got killed in front of me"

"Honey, I told you to stay in the car, you know its a... its a hard screwed up world you know but if you trust me, I can try to help you get through it"

Evan white arrived, standing on the bridge in his smart silvery grey suit. Tall. Proud. He smiled down to them as he leaned against the glass barrier. Molly ran to him and folded into his hug.

"You Okay" He mouthed to Alex.

She nodded and smiled at him in return.

"Its alright scrap, lets say we get you a cake, a seriously chocolatey one and then I can pretend I know something about Shakira and you can take the piss out of me"

"Molly, we'll blow the candles out together, Okay?" Alex shouted to her as she departed.

"Okay"

"Come on scrap"

Alex walked back to her car, the stress of the morning springing around her brain as the cool air washed over her. She arrived at her car and sunk down into the leather seat and breathed in deeply.

"I'm happy, hope you're happy too" She pondered, there was something overly familiar about the phrase that she couldn't quite place. Something cold tickled at her neck, she turned around slowly, the colour draining from her face. " AHH God"

"Relax Alex, Just drive"

***

"How do you know me? What do you want?"

"Now you... you're going to be my ticket out of this mess, Alex Drake, yeah, move"

He pushed her along the tarmac of a carpark and down a rusty, painted boat ramp. Layton pulled out his mobile phone and dialled a number.

" Yeah Layton, Yeah well you're going to have to listen, I got a piece of your past, standing right in front of me ... Tim and Caroline Prices daughter"

"How do you know my parents?"

"And I'm going to tell her the truth about why her parents died ... GO...Well that's your choice"

He forced her onto a tatty old boat, green mould ran across the walls and water dripped from above, Alex sat down on a mattress, half the stuffing was coming out of small holes and it was covered in stains and surrounded by empty bottles and cans.

"What have my parents got to do with any of this... they've been dead a long time"

"I had an empire, yeah, back in the day, I had connections, I had dealers on every street corner..." He placed on his mirrored sunglasses. Blocking out his eyes from Alex's view.

"And things went wrong, do you want to talk about that? You feel trapped, I mean I can understand that, those officers were itching for a fatality outcome" Alex pleaded, tears falling from her eyes. Layton fired, and she saw a silvery bullet spinning towards her. This was it. The end was here.

***

I know that I just borrowed the start of Ashes to Ashes series one for this and appologise but its central to the story. Please read and review. More coming soon :)