First off, thank you to all who are reading! I haven't noted before, but this is unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine. "I'm sorry Guv. Its orders, and if they find out I ignored 'em, I'm off the force. I hate doin' this. Ya know that." The DC looked nervous. He, like everyone else in the department considered Ray and Chris the new leaders of CID, much to the anger of the new DCI. He couldn't help it; they had been the Guv's right hand men. Worried about DI Drake, and the Guv, their tempers had been flaring lately. If he brought the Guv in... He shuddered to think of what they would do to him. But he had to do it. It was his duty.


"Sure…Yer a good lad. Ya gotta stay on the force."

"You'll come quietly Guv?"

"No other way to go, is there? Ya won't kill me."

"I couldn't Guv."No matter what his duty was, he could never kill the Guv.

"Be better if I was dead. After what I did." He allowed himself a thought about the pale figure in the hospital bed. He had put her there. It was all his fault

_____________________________________

Alex was home. She had been for quite a while, sitting at the table. Persuading herself to open the files, something she had been doing since the second she entered her flat, proved more difficult than expected. Alex looked around the roomy flat. It was bigger than the one above Luigi's, but seemed less like home. It was too big, too sparsely furnished.

Before Layton shot her, she didn't mind it. In fact, that was the way she liked it. Nice and tidy, so when she and Molly were actually home, they didn't have to spend it cleaning. In the other flat, everything was a mess. She had hated it, but spent most of her time in CID or in Luigi's so didn't bother. Adding to the disaster was the fact that she had never finished picking up the mess Mac had made when he accused her of being corrupt. Now, she missed it.

"Everyone always depicts the future as stark and plain. They're right," she thought. Once again she looked at the files on the table. Her hand hovered over Gene's, and then settled on Shaz. "Right Shaz. Let's see what you've been up to."

An hour later, she only had two files left. Chris had retired as a DCI in 2001 and Shaz had quit the force after her first child, preferring to take care of her children. When Chris retired, they moved back up to Manchester so they could be closer to his family.

Ray had been shot in the back in 1994 and was paralyzed from the waist down. He had retired from the force after the accident. He still lived in London with his wife, Elizabeth. After being confined to a wheelchair, he received a psychology degree now had his own practice counselling young gays who had been disowned by their families for coming out.

Alex looked down. Two files. Her hand lingered over Gene's file again. She hesitated.

Gene…

The television flickered to life. Shaz and Chris appeared on the screen. "Ma'am, its Chris. I know you probably can't hear me, but we miss you. They don't believe us or the Guv. A DC took 'im in yesterday. They found where we'd been hiding 'im. Guv went quietly though. Said he understood. No one was happy, not even the bastard that took 'im in. Ma'am, if you can hear me, you need to come back. It's the only way to save the Guv."

"Not that we don't miss you ma'am," Shaz interceded quickly. "It's just, without the Guv, or you, CID can't run right. We're all torn up. We don't know which way to go ma'am. Please, wake up soon. I need my guardian angel back."

As quickly as it came to life, the television shut off, leaving Alex in a state of horror. "I CAN'T GO BACK! I HAVE MOLLY! I HAVE A LIFE! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

Alex looked around, and realized she was standing. Her head throbbed and she felt faint. She sat again, head in her hands and looked at the remaining files. "Okay Gene Hunt, let's see what happened to you."


TBC. And a note... Even after all the hints put in the Series, and Mac's note, I couldn't bear to turn Ray gay.... I thought his new job would be a nice compromise though!