I should of course have made it clear in the preambles to the first three chapters - BBC, Kudos and Monastic own Ashes to Ashes and all the characters. Lucky things. I own nothing but my ideas.

Thanks again to everyone who has read this, and especially those who gave me such encouraging reviews for Chapter 3, which is such strong stuff that I hesitated about posting it! No let-up in the angst yet I'm afraid...

Please keep those reviews coming in!

"We have no power to help him now…

In the black moment

When your friend suffers

Unearthly torment

We cannot turn our backs.

When horror breaks one heart

All hearts are broken.

We shall be there with him."

Montagu Slater - libretto for Peter Grimes, opera by Benjamin Britten

They were standing in Gene's office. She noticed a calendar for 1983 on the noticeboard. Below the newspaper cutting about Sam's death was a second cutting with her photograph and the headline

MET'S FIRST FEMALE INSPECTOR SHOT DEAD:

DISTRAUGHT SUPERIOR OFFICER PAYS TRIBUTE TO "OUTSTANDING COPPER"

For a terrible second, she thought that the figure hunched over the desk was not Gene. Then it raised its head. It was him, but she could barely recognise the fine, strong, powerful man she knew in the paunchy, bleary, drink-sodden wreck before her. His jowly face was graven with lines of hopeless grief.

"Gene! What are you doing?" She leaned over the desk, shouting at him as she had so many times before. "You've given up on yourself! This isn't you. You told me you would be out there making a difference until the last second!" She slammed the palms of her hands on the desk, but he took no notice.

"He can't see you or hear you," said Sam quietly. "You're dead. Like me."

Alex turned to him, tears streaming down her face. "What's happened to him?"

"His life has been worthless to him since the woman he loved died saving it," Sam replied sadly. "Thanks to you he'd managed to move past my death, but with yours he lost all hope. It's been all too easy for him to slide into a downward spiral of alcohol and despair."

"I didn't realise that he loved me so much," she sobbed, staring at the bowed figure. Sam said nothing, only looked at her.

"No. I did realise," she whispered. "I just didn't want to know. I loved him, but I wouldn't admit it, even to myself. I wanted to go home and I didn't want anything to get in my way."

Gene poured out a tumbler of whisky and gazed at a large photograph of Alex on the desk.

"I failed y'Alex. Forgive me," he slurred, and downed the whisky in one gulp.

"No, Gene, no, it wasn't your fault," Alex wept. "You can't blame yourself."

"But he does," said Sam. "He can't bear the guilt of being alive when you aren't."

As Gene was pouring out more whisky, there was a knock at the door and he guiltily hid the bottle and glass. He never used to do that, Alex thought. He knows he's drinking too much.

"Come in!" he barked, his voice harsh with too much drink. The door opened, and Ray came in with a sheaf of paperwork. He tactfully took no notice as Gene hurried the bottle and glass out of sight.

"Ray! You've known him longer than anyone else," said Alex, going up to him. "Can't you say something to him? He might listen to you." But Ray walked past her as though she wasn't there - and I'm not - put the papers on Gene's desk, and started explaining something to him.

"Ray's the DI now," said Sam. "He's not very good, but he and Gene know each other, and that helps them both. But he can't save Gene from himself. The only person who might have done that died two years ago."

She saw a tiny spark of Gene's old fire as he questioned something in the paperwork, but it was not enough to reignite the ruin of a man that he had become.

"Of course the team try to cover up for his mistakes," said Sam, "but they don't always succeed. Another year and he'll be on the verge of dismissal for drunkenness. Then -"

They were standing in an underground car park. Gene and Chris were crouched behind a car, guns pointing at a small van. Ray and another man whom she did not know - presumably the new DS - fanned out on either side, shielded behind concrete pillars.

"Bank raider," Sam explained. "He's cornered, vicious and desperate."

"You're surrounded by armed bastards! Drop your gun and come out with your hands up!" Gene yelled.

The back of the van flew open, and a man in a balaclava jumped out, holding a terrified blonde girl, his gun pressed against her temple.

"Bank cashier," said Sam softly.

Oh, no, thought Alex. Gene, Ray and Chris were always shit at hostage negotiation. Unless the new DS is brilliant, they're in trouble.

"Drop your guns or she gets it!" the raider barked.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Gene roared. Motioning to Chris to stay down and give him cover, he cautiously stood up, placed his gun on the car bonnet, and put his hands in the air.

"Okay, okay. I'm not goin' to shoot. I've put my gun down, see? I just want to talk to you."

"Well, well, well," the raider sneered. "If it isn't Hunt the Drunk. Hunt the Soak. Did you know that that's what they call you?"

He's trying to make you angry, thought Alex. Don't let him. It'll affect your judgement. But Gene appeared to be sober, concentrated on the task in hand.

"I've been called a lot of things in my time, and a lot of 'em I've deserved," he said levelly. "Those two among 'em."

"So what have you got to say that you think I'll want to hear?" the raider snapped.

"I'm askin' you to let 'er go."

"Oh, asking, are we? Why the hell should I do as you ask? Fuck yourself, copper filth. I'm asking you to let me drive away or I blow her head off - NOW!" He pressed the muzzle of the gun harder into her forehead, and she moaned.

Gene stood his ground. "I'm askin' you because she shouldn't be mixed up in this. You're robbin' scum to me, I'm copper filth to you, she's just someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong bloody time. She's got 'er life to live. Out there are people who love an' need 'er, just as she loves an' needs them. All their lives'll be destroyed if you get trigger 'appy. I know what I'm sayin'. I lost the woman I love to a gunman. That made me what I am now. You get 'old of a gun, it makes you feel powerful, but you don't know the 'arm you do. You don't want to know. So I'm sayin' again, let 'er go."

Be careful, Gene. So careful. You're making him angry. All the same, Alex was impressed. Gene always used to go in with all guns blazing. Perhaps his grief over me has taught him something. At least he's trying to negotiate. If only he could stay off the drink now, he might save himself.

As Gene spoke, out of the corner of her eye she could see Ray cautiously edging around behind the van. One speaks, the other acts. Keep him talking until Ray gets to her.

"I'm telling you, copper!" the raider snarled. "Let me drive away or you collect her stiff!"

Gene heaved a sigh, stepped out from behind the car, and held out his hand. "Give me the gun."

The raider chuckled, tightened his grip on the girl's throat and slowly swung the gun around until it pointed at Gene's chest. Ray, who had nearly reached the girl, froze.

"Here it is, Hunt the Drunk. Care to take it bullet first?"

"Oh, God, no..." Alex whispered. Beside her, Sam was absolutely still.

Gene stopped for a moment, then stepped forward. "You won't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because if you kill an unarmed police officer who's negotiatin' with you, you won't see the stars above your 'ead again 'til your 'air's grey. What you'd get for blaggin' a bank's a fuckin' tea party compared wi' that. An' if you do, it won't matter to me. I know me career's over, an' the people I love most are dead." A look of intense sadness crossed his face. "Maybe I'd see 'er again. An' Sam. So come on, gimme the gun." He took one more step forward. The DS was edging in on the other side now, but dared not move while Gene was held at gunpoint, and neither he nor Ray could get a clear shot at the raider with the girl in the way. Nor could Chris, who was marooned behind the car with Gene between him and the raider.

"One more chance, filth!" the raider shouted. "Back off!"

Gene shook his head. "I told you, I've already lost one woman to a gunman. I'm sure as 'ell not losin' another."

The raider seemed to consider for a moment. "Maybe you're right, Drunk. Maybe I shouldn't shoot a copper. But I can still shoot her!" As he spoke, he swung his gun around to the girl, and came face to face with Ray as he reached out to seize her arm.

Gene threw himself forward, the Lion once more, snarling with rage. The raider swung his gun back to centre and fired, just before the DS knocked him unconscious with his pistol butt and Ray dragged the girl clear. Gene reeled back, clutching his chest, blood spurting between his fingers. Suddenly everything was absolutely silent.

"Alex - " he whispered, and fell backwards like a stricken oak.

"Guv, Guv!" Chris was at his side almost as soon as he hit the ground, and started giving him CPR. Alex and Sam rushed to him and Alex sank to her knees beside the fallen figure, just as Ray reached the group.

"It's no use, Chris," he said heavily, putting his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "He's gone."

"But - but the Guv can't - just - die - like that," Chris gulped. "Can he?"

They all looked down at Gene. The blue eyes were wide open and the ravaged face oddly peaceful. It was as if the whole world had stopped instead of just that one great heart.

Alex flung herself, sobbing, over his body. She thought her grief would tear her in two. "Oh, Gene, Gene, why do you do that? It was suicidal - "

"Of course it was," said Sam bleakly. "You heard what he said. He had nothing left to live for. At least he died redeeming himself. He gave his life to save those of a hostage and a colleague. Ray and the girl will have to live with that. It's not the time to grieve for him now, Alex. He really died when you did, three years ago. He'd only existed since then."

He died like this because I abandoned him. I owed him my life, and I destroyed him.

"No!" Alex heard herself screaming. "No! It mustn't be like this!"

TBC