Thank you to everyone that's reviewed, I love them! Here is chapter six.

Dead

"Who are you?"

The girl simply smiled and turned away. She started running, small feet slapping lightly on the cold floor, mousy hair streaming behind her, like vapour trails from a plane.

So much like my hair when I was younger, thought Alex as she chased the girl. To her shock she caught her. A beautiful warmth nestled against her chest, affection accumulated in the crooks of her elbows and the valley between her fingers. Alex stood, barely able to breathe. Did this mean…?

"Moll-"

And she was gone.

XXX

Shaz walked along the corridors as quickly as she dared, clutching a bunch of daffodils in her right hand. She came to the room the receptionist had told her would contain her senior officer and pushed it open.

The Guv looked back at her with red rimmed eyes and wet cheeks. Shaz quickly turned away, putting the flowers in a vase of water. When she looked back, the Guv's cheeks were dry but Shaz knew that his hands wouldn't be.

"They're holding out hope for a full recovery," said Gene hoarsely.

Shaz said nothing, instead turning to look at the occupant of the bed. Gene turned to look too.

XXX

Alex was trying to talk to a witness when she heard someone cry out in pain. She looked up and she saw Gene fighting one of the robbers- but how could that be? Where had this one come from? Without really thinking about it, she took her gun out of its holster.

She watched as Gene stopped fighting. Alex strained to see what had made him give up and felt her heart leap into her mouth as a robber held a gun to Gene's head.

She hesitated only to aim.

There was a gunshot, then silence.

The robber fell on top of Gene and Gene pushed him off roughly. He held his fingers against the robber's neck and looked up as Alex ran towards him.

"Nice shot, Bolls. Right in the back of the head. You've killed him."

"Damn," said Alex, almost giddy with happiness that her nickname had been re-instated, "we can't question him now."

"Can't say I'm too upset, Bolly." There was a warmth in Gene's eyes that Alex hadn't seen for days. As Gene got up from the ground, they heard Ray's voice twice- once over the radio and once over the air, but saying the same thing at the same time.

"Look out! They're coming your way!"

Alex and Gene turned to face the Quattro. Running up behind the car were the other three robbers, Ray and Chris some metres behind them. One of the robbers took out a gun and pointed it forwards.

"Get him!" screamed another of the robbers, "Get Hunt!"

Gene heard Alex cry "No!" and the gun firing at the same time. Alex was in front of him and then she wasn't. She lay on the ground in front of him, blood leaking from her chest.

She had jumped in front of him. Alex Drake, the woman he had treated so appallingly, had taken a bullet meant for him.

"Alex," he whispered, kneeling down beside her. She looked back at him with dull eyes, blood trickling out of her mouth. Hazel orbs disappeared behind eyelids. Gene began to plead with her in a way he knew he never would had she been able to hear him.

"Don't shut your eyes. Don't sleep, not yet. Please. I'm sorry about everything, Bolls. You're a good copper, I'm sorry if I ever told you differently. You've saved my life twice in about ten minutes. Please don't die…"

Behind him, Ray and Chris cuffed the robbers that had tried to kill Gene Hunt and ended up shooting Alex Drake.

XXX

Gene looked from Alex's comatose form in the bed, back to Shaz. Shaz was already looking at him.

"They're right, you know Guv," she was saying, "she really will be alright."

"Can you promise me that, Shaz?"

Shaz's face crumpled into tears and she ran forwards, burying her face in Gene's chest. Gene gingerly patted her on the back and was relieved when she broke away.

"I'm sorry," she choked through her tears, "It's just I hate to see her lying there like she's… like she's…"

Gene finished the sentence for her. "Like she's dead."

XXX

Alex examined her hands and her arms, still tingling from human contact. Who this human had been, she couldn't say. She could taste something in her mouth, a rusty metal, but as soon as she identified it as blood, it was gone, replace by chilled air. Then came the vacuum and Alex felt as though the insides of her cheeks would be sucked down her throat. Then came the taste of dirt, bitter flakes of dry soil, a hymn sung by a young girl and a wail. A girl crying for her mother.

Then came nothing.