Hey everyone! Sorry for yet another long delay between chapter. My life is pretty hectic at the moment. Thanks for all the lovely reviews, everyone's been so positive and nice. Hopefully you'll like this chapter, and it's a bit longer to make up for my absence :)

After opening the second bottle of wine, Alex's tears had stopped. Although she would never admit it aloud, Gene had been right: he had shot Stoke to potentially save her life, and she had slapped him for it. She had a horrible feeling that her outburst meant that Gene now thought she had chosen to fall for Stoke rather than him. Even after Gene had kissed her, opened up to her, she had still cried at Stoke's side, held him as he slipped away... but surely Gene realised that feelings can't just disappear? And, anyway, regardless of her feelings, Alex knew Stoke didn't deserve to die.

Regardless of how she felt about Gene, she never wanted any of this. Did Gene really think that I wanted to fall in love with a drug-dealer, a criminal, a potential murderer? Alex told herself that, even things had been different, she would never have fell in love and ended up with a guy like that. However, she had come so close to thinking she might, even in this reality, she had scared herself.

And she still felt the same about Gene as she had since their near-death experience in that vault. Whenever she was angry with him, infuriated at something he had said or done, she just thought of that man. The man with his arm around her, both of them terrified and vulnerable, who would take care of her. And now, there would be no elephant in the room; he had showed her how he felt, and soon she would show him.

Interrupting her thoughts was a knock at the door. She smiled, wiped away the drying tears from her cheeks and went to open the door. Her smile vanished when she opened the door to find, not Gene but Ray.

"Oh, it's you," she said, the disappointment in her voice painfully clear.

"Oh, thanks. You expecting someone else?" Ray chuckled, but stopped as Alex moved closer and into the light of the hallway and he saw that she had been crying. "Jesus, you alright?"

Alex nodded. "Sorry, did you want to come in?"

Ray looked her up and down, suspiciously. "Er, no, I just came to... well, I don't know whether..."

"Come on, spit it out," Alex said impatiently.

"It's the Guv."

"What? What's happened? Is he okay?" Alex had become very animated and panicky.

"Yes, well, nothing worse than usual. He's a little worse for wear, downstairs. He said he shot Stoke? And he keeps mentioning you, asking where you are. None of us can get any sense out of him and he keeps threatening to drive home..."

"And you want me to come down to sort him out?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Look, you know I wouldn't bother you normally, but I'm not thick. Something's obviously happened between you two. He only ever gets this drunk when it's about you."

Alex sighed. "Ok, Ray. I'll be down shortly. Thanks."

"Righto. I'd hurry though. Luigi'll stop serving him soon and, I'm telling you, it won't be pretty when he gets angry."

***

Approximately five minutes later, Alex descended the stairs down to Luigi's to find Gene Hunt slumped over the bar cradling an empty whiskey tumbler and whining like a petulant child that he wanted another. She had decided against getting ready like she usually would and so had just threw back on the clothes she had worn that day, minus the bloody jacket. She had forgotten to check that her cheeks were not tear stained and, as the CID team began to stare at her, she guessed that they were.

She took the bar stool next to Gene and greeted Luigi, who gave her some very exaggerated, sympathetic looks.

"A bottle of house rubbish, my good man," Gene slurred and pointed to Alex.

"Just a glass, please, Luigi," Alex smiled.

"But of course, right away," Luigi said softly, bowing slightly.

"You feeling slightly less hormonal now, Bolly?" Gene slurred.

Alex felt rage building inside her again, but simply took a deep breath and ignored his comment, feeling grateful that he was still using her nickname - it was 'DI Drake' when he was really angry.

"Ah, the silent treatment..."

"Look, I don't want you to overreact when I say this..."

"Me? Overreact?" Gene chuckled

"...but I wanted to thank you. You shot Stoke to save my life and I shouldn't have said otherwise."

"So, I'm right, basically?"

Alex sighed. "Okay, Gene, you were right. Happy?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm bloody fantastic."

"You don't look it."

"Oh, charming." There was a prolonged, awkward silence while Gene tried to find the right words to say. "So, what happens now?"

"Well, we file a report about how he died and then..."

"I didn't bloody mean Stoke."

"I know." She paused. "Well, what do you want to do about it?"

"Well, I suppose... I don't know. If you don't want anything to happen, which I don't think you do, I'd appreciate it if you'd forget about it. Saves me some embarrassment."

"What do you mean, embarrassment? What you did was brave. You let yourself be vulnerable and you showed your true feelings, which is something I should have done a long time ago. If I had, we might not have been in the mess we are now. I promise, from now on, I will be honest with you about... about how I feel. Do you think that you can do the same?"

"Why? I suppose because it's worked for me so far..."

"Gene, I'm still here aren't I? Look, I never wanted this to happen. I've been a bloody idiot and I'm sorry. Stoke... he sort of just sucked me in, and I have no idea how. I didn't want you to kill him because we've now lost any evidence he could have given us and, no matter what you think, he had a good side to him. Not because of how I felt about him. Because it was nothing, Gene. Especially compared to how I feel about you."

At this point, Gene looked up from the bar and looked into her eyes and saw that they were swimming. The tears brimming made them sparkle brighter than usual and he couldn't even bring himself to make a snide comment. "If it had been different... if you had met him in a bar, and if you weren't a copper, would you have fallen for him?"

"I didn't. It's complicated, Gene, and you know that. I'd like to say I wouldn't have but, you know as well I do, you can't help which way you fall."

As Alex said it, she put her hand on her stomach, where her gunshot wound had been, where Gene had left his mark for her. Gene was transported to their meeting in that garage, which seemed so long ago, when he was so worried that she would think he had shot her. Well, he had shot her, but he didn't shoot her...

"Did you and Stoke..."

"No."

Gene simply nodded.

"What little feeling I had towards him was... I don't know. I found him physically attractive but nothing more. By the end, I actually pitied him. He seemed like he felt like a small fish in a big pond..."

"Bloody hell, I think I'm starting to sober up..." Alex chuckled. "You never usually laugh at me."

"Well, I try not to. Then you'd think you were funny."

They both laughed. It was the first time Alex had seen him genuinely happy, genuinely laughing and enjoying himself. Both had bent over while laughing and as they looked up, they realised their faces were unusually close; within kissing distance. They had stopped laughing but neither of them moved.

"So, Bolly, where do we go from here?"

"Well, I think you should move in a bit closer for starters..."

"If I move closer I'll probably fall off the... oh, you mean... that, right, erm..."

After looking around shiftily, Gene looked at Alex again, and they both had passion in their eyes. Simultaneously, they stood up and, as their lips collided, their arms wrapped around the body in front of them. Cheers and wolf-whistles from the CID team ensued, and Gene felt Alex's lips curl into a smile.

As they broke the kiss, Gene slid his hands to rest on Alex's lower back. He leant into her neck and whispered, "how about we go upstairs and I'll really show you how I feel," and proceeded to kiss the nape of her neck gently.

Alex felt her face burn as she blushed and tried desperately not to gasp a small moan at the touch of his lips. "I don't want to take advantage of you. You're very drunk."

He leant back and smiled. "Don't be such a bloody poof."

She giggled and started to walk away as she felt his hand slap her bum, which again drew cheers from the CID team sat nearby. She turned back and gave him a seductive glance to which he comically pulled on the collar of his shirt and promptly followed her.

Gene couldn't keep his hands off Alex as they walked upstairs to the flat, sliding his hands around her and kissing her at every opportunity. Before even reaching the bedroom, Gene had shed his jacket and Alex had unbuttoned her blouse. With each moment, their intensity and urgency became more feverish, but Gene suddenly faltered.

"If you don't want, Bolls, we don't have to..."

Alex giggled. "Don't be such a bloody poof."

The end! Hope you all liked it. Please read and review. This will probably be my last ashes fanfic for a while because, as of Sept. 5th I'm entering the world of work! But I did promise a Rocky Horror fanfic to a reviewer so I won't be disappearing completely, and I will return to ashes to ashes again. Thanks so much for all the support for this story,

Emily xxx