Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I had a full day! Thanks for all the reviews,this chapters just mostly fluff, but I couldn't bear to take it out. I'm just gonna say now, this whole story is Unbeta'd so I don't have to keep typing it. Also Ashes isn't mine.... big shocker that one.
The rhythm beat through his head. It was the same rhythm that had been there for days. It was always the same pulsing rhythm, the same taunt. ALL YOUR FAULT! ALL YOUR FAULT! It never ended. But he deserved it. It was his fault she had gotten shot. All his fault.
**
Alex hesitated, not sure where to begin. "I guess I'll start with what happened about a year ago," she said.
Shaz leaned forward, already listening attentively.
"About a year ago, I received word that a man named Sam Tyler had been in an accident, which left him in a coma. I decided to study his case, for a book I was writing on trauma and the workplace. His case intrigued me. He had been hit by a car and woke up in 1973, but heard flashes of the future. I thought he was mad. Then one day, a few months ago, I was taking my daughter to school, and got called in on a hostage negotiation. The man was Arthur Layton."
Shaz gasped. She remembered Layton. She thought about how he had held her at gunpoint until Ray and Chris came to rescue her. "And the Guv."
"Layton took my daughter hostage but released her. I took Molly to her godfather and got in my car to get back to work. I looked in my rear-view mirror and screamed. Layton was there, with a gun to my head. He made me drive to the docks and took me on his boat. Then he shot me."
"Is that what you were always going on about, in '82? You always said something that you were about to die, or something."
"Yes, Shaz." Alex didn't want her to interrupt. She was getting quite caught up in reliving this tale.
"I woke up in 1981 on that boat of Markham's. I ran off and that's when Chris, Ray, and the Guv found me. I couldn't believe it. I had found my way into Sam's fantasy. At first I was determined that I would get home, but as the months wore on, I remembered less and less about it. Then I met a man who claimed he was from the same time as I was.
"He was sending me roses. He seemed to stalk me. I was afraid of him. He was the one who drugged me, in order to get information about why I was there. He told me his name was Martin Summers."
"Summers? But that was the PC...he was killed by Lafferty!"
"No. Summers killed himself and told me to get rid of the body. I was in shock. I did the only thing I could think of, which was what Lafferty had done. Anyway, Summers always alluded to Operation Rose. He gave that as the explanation for why he landed in 1982. He made me want to go back home. He told me that he knew of a way, but I would have to go corrupt. I couldn't. He continued to haunt me, trying to get me to switch sides.
"Finally, it was the day before the blag. I had gotten a message over my television that I had an infection, and they were giving me super-antibiotics. They would give me 50 mils of the antibiotics, and if I hadn't woken up by then, I would die. I believed the infection was Summers. I kept trying to go after him, to stop him, so I could go home, but the Guv got suspicious of what I was doing. He asked me to tell him the truth. I did."
"You told the Guv you were from the future?!"
"Yes, and he thought I was taking a piss. He pushed me away after that. I can't really say that I blame him. It all ended in our screaming match in front of all of CID. I thought that he hated me at that point, but I hoped that he would come around and figure out that I wasn't corrupt.
"The next morning, even though I was under suspension, I went to the blag. I believed it was my last chance to nail Summers. I watched on King Douglas, until he left and walked past me. I followed him into the courtyard, where he had disappeared. I turned, and felt a gun barrel in my back. It was him. He told me about how he knew that Operation Rose was his reason for coming back, holding me at gunpoint. Then from the entrance, I heard the Guv's voice. He told Summers to drop his gun or he would shoot. Summers just looked at the Guv, and said 'I know.'
"He cocked the gun, and pointed it at my face. The Guv fired. He ran over to Summers, and held him as he died. I thought that I could go home at that point, so I couldn't understand why I was still there. Then Jenette ran into the courtyard, demanding money and held me at gunpoint. The Guv told her to let me go. I tried to get out of her grasp myself, which caused her to shoot at the Guv. He ducked and fired back blindly. I felt a searing pain in my side, and knew I had been shot.
"I thought I was going to die. I wish I could describe what those last few moments were like, but it's impossible."
"I know ma'am. Remember, you brought me back to life after Gil Hollis stabbed me."
Alex didn't even hear Shaz. She was too caught up in her own story. "The world faded to white, a blinding white. The last thing I saw was the Guv staring at me. Then I woke up in my hospital bed with a doctor at the foot of it, telling me how lucky I was. I wanted to find out whether or not that world was real or not, so I went to CID and looked up your files. That's how I found Ray."
"That's how you know what happened to the Guv."
"Yes."
"Ma'am I am going to tell you something that you probably don't want to know. When you died, it tore the Guv up. He was never the same man. He never stopped blaming himself. When he was arrested, he seemed so...small. It was almost scary to see how much he had changed. And when you died, he...he died too. Well, his soul did. When you died, he had no reason to live anymore. So he just...exists."
Both of them were crying. They were both so happy that they had found each other after 26 years, but yet so sad for what they had lost.
Alex looked at Shaz. "Tomorrow, I'm gonna see the Guv."
TBC... Next Chapter's more interesting I promise!
