A/N: Think I'm finally making some progress and can at least sit to type again for short periods so I'm hoping to start catching up on replies to review, emails etc very soon, thank you for your patience and for continuing to read :)
BIG IMPORTANT A/N at the end of this chapter – help me decide how to celebrate the second anniversary of the end of A2A and the death of my decade of writer's block! :D
~xXx~
Chapter Thirteen
2012
The passing of days was a strange thing for Alex to experience. Since getting back to London the tables had been turned completely, with Kim as the ailing party who needed - as much as she protested against it – a lot of assistance and a bit of mothering as she tried to recover from her injuries and come to terms with all that she'd been through. Now not only was Alex trying to find her way home but Kim was desperate to find a way to bring Robin back from the other side.
To a degree, Alex felt like she was just going through the motions; her daily routine comprised of many things that she tried to distance herself from for her own sanity – texts from Molly, hospital check-ups – all she wanted was for the outside world to leave her alone so she could retreat into her little bubble with her flip chat.
She'd made some progress. Her brainstorm had expanded over the last few days and the sheet of paper had become increasingly full. She'd pinned the drugs story from the 1997 newspaper to the board to give her a focus for the next stage of her plan and she'd also drawn a rather unflattering caricature of Arthur Layton, bizarrely appearing to wear some kind of thong, alongside it.
Kim had been spending as much time as possible in hospital by Robin's side, leaving only when she was forced out for her own good. There wasn't a member of staff in Fenchurch General that hadn't received at least one rude gesture from her. While her ribs were slowly heeling and her bruises were fading the shock of everything she'd been through had left a wound that was taking time to heal. She had nightmares night after might, replaying the gunshot; dreaming of Robin, so lost and far away from home, waking in tears with a dark feeling in her chest.
Whether it was psychological now that show knew about her pregnancy or the fact that Robin was no longer there to suffer her symptoms for her she'd found herself slowly experiencing more and more of them. Although she tried to keep them hidden, more through embarrassment than anything, Alex noted quite fondly that she wasn't the only one spending half the night going back and forth to the toilet now, and had watched Kim dwelling a little longer than necessary outside of toy and children's clothes shops. It was just the air of sadness that accompanied it as Kim wished every time that Robin was there to share it with her that brought Alex back to earth.
Evening was heading towards night and Kim sat staring at the TV, not really watching the news. She played absently with the ring on her finger, the connection that kept Robin close to her. She almost dropped it in horror though as a floating beard icon appeared in the corner of the screen.
"And support for Beard Relief is hotting up," the newsreader said brightly, "with more celebrities backing the cause every day. Evan White is said to be 'touched and thrilled' while his beard is said to be 'overwrought with emotion.'"
"Oh god," Kim groaned, pulling her knees up towards her as though to protect herself from beard cooties, "this Evan thing isn't going away, is it?"
"No, it's not," Alex shuddered. She felt guilty for that. She felt as though she should really be supporting him but not only had her view of Evan been forever tainted by the facts she now knew but the concept of Beard Relief brought on a severe bout of nausea that nothing could repel. The level of revulsion was only one step away from rivalling the fishy biscuits.
~xXx~
1997
"Is this dust or –" Robin sneezed, "- something less legal?"
Since they were Layton's files it was impossible to be sure.
"I'm hoping it's just dust, otherwise the words are going to start dancing on the page in a minute," said Simon. He paused for a moment to look up at Robin whose whole focus was on the paper in front of him. He was reading intently, as determined to find out what Layton's connection to helping Alex home was as Gene had been. In his mind, if there had been a mix-up and he was there in Alex's place then surely helping her home would bring him back to 2012.
It felt extremely strange to Simon; sitting there, poring through files with Robin, so reminiscent of days when they'd sit round in the kitchen talking over cases from work, or just reading the paper together. And yet everything was different now. Things couldn't have been more different, in fact. It still felt incredibly strange to be with him again after so long of hoping and praying that Robin would cross his path, and yet it wasn't at all the way he'd dreamed it would be. To be together without being 'together' hurt. It really stung inside.
"Is there anything this guy hasn't been mixed up with?" Robin asked as he turned the page, "I mean, his name just keeps appearing. It's like he's the criminal underworld's odd-job man. Never found his feet again himself so he's spent years trying to get in with the big boys and work his way back up that way. He's determined to get back into the whole scene but it looks like every time he tries it all goes wrong. Seems no one wants a snivelling little rat hanging around."
Simon tried to stop focusing on Robin and focus on the job at hand instead. He laid one file on the desk and turned it a little for Robin to see.
"He's cropped up a few times in the files on Nailer," he said, "looks like he was low down on Nailer's chain of dealers, almost off the radar. Looks like Nailer tried to cut him out. His services were good enough to build a bomb but when it came to the actual goods Nailer didn't want him anywhere nearby,."
"Can't blame him either," said Robin. He sighed deeply, shaking his head. "Shit, I can see a real pattern emerging here."
"You man the pattern of a looser?" Simon commented.
"Last year when Alex needed help we took a bunch of files," said Robin, "we found out the truth behind why he shot her. It was Evan… Layton had been blackmailing him for money."
Simon hadn't heard about this. He hadn't heard any of this before. The last he knew of Evan had been as the charming and gracious man who had befriended him gratefully after he saved Alex from Keats in her hospital room.
"Why… how….. was Layton blackmailing Evan?" he asked, his eyes wide in shock.
"Evan's not quite the gentleman we thought he was," Robin told him, feeling awkward at having to break the news, "Simon, there's so much you missed out on. So much you don't know. Layton had this blackmail list… all the people he'd ever 'helped'. All the people he could dish the dirt on. It was more than just a blackmail list too. Layton had really lost the plot, bogged down with guilt about all the things he'd done. Every time someone paid him the money he demanded he treated it as an acceptance of blame, exonerating him from all guilt."
"Shit," Simon sighed.
"Layton needed the money because he'd got himself in trouble, trying to rebuild his empire. But he set up on someone else's patch and soon they were chasing him for money as 'compensation'. He got more and more desperate. He thought his luck was in when he came to Evan because the idiot paid up twice but when Layton went back for a third helping Evan couldn't afford it. It had become about more than money by now though."
Simon felt his spirits sinking. He felt as though he barely knew Evan after all.
"What was he blackmailing Evan about?" he whispered.
"Evan…" Robin closed his eyes and sighed, "he had an affair with Alex's mother."
Instantly Simon's whole expression darkened, his hatred of infidelity casting a shadow over the rest of the conversation.
"He what?" he hisses.
"that's not the worst of it," Robin tried to remember as much as he could about the grand reveal, up on the roof of the Falcon Building almost a year ago, "Alex's father was so devastated by it that he really lost the plot. He planned to… to kill himself, and his wife and Alex too, so they would all be 'together' and Evan couldn't get between them, destroying their happiness." He found himself becoming almost tearful as he thought about it; the desperation of a broken man, the senseless loss of life, the thought of Alex growing up as an orphan. While his own situation was too different to draw direct parallels it certainly stirred up some dark emotions of his own. "To make sure that they all died together he asked someone to build and fit a car bomb."
"A bomb," Simon whispered the words. Robin didn't need to elaborate on the identity of the man who constructed it for him, "Shit… And Evan knew about Layton building the bomb?"
Robin nodded.
"So when he popped up demanding money Evan panicked," he began, "he'd kept the truth secret for years. Alex had no idea. He paid up to prevent Layton from telling her, then after he'd paid once and admitted 'guilt' Layton came back for more and he coughed up again. But when Layton asked for more than Evan had he finally grew tired of his blackmail and called his bluff. He didn't believe Layton would tell alex the truth and certainly didn't believe he had her at gunpoint."
"Shit," Simon shook his head slowly. It was a lot to take in.
"And all the blackmail… all the searching for blame, it all came from trying to mess with the big boys and getting his fingers burnt," Robin concluded quietly.
Simon hung his head.
"Exactly what he's doing now," he said quietly, "he's slowly taking over Nailer's business. And doing it very badly." He looked at Robin, the full implication of Layton's sudden connection with the tainted narcotics coupled with Nailer's escape hitting him hard. "Shit, it's history repeating itself before it's happened, isn't it?" he hissed, "and this time he's stepping on the biggest toes of the lot."
"He's bringing forward his future and making it unfold even more dangerously this time around." Robin felt a cold dread settling over him. "I guess we have something to tell Gene."
Simon nodded.
"Not the happiest news, is it?" he mumbled.
"It was never likely to be," sighed Robin. He peered through the door. "How do we know when he's finished with the new recruits so we can tell him what we've found so far?"
"You generally wait for the metal clanking to stop," said Simon.
Robin flinched.
"Good answer," he said.
~xXx~
2012
As another few long, difficult days passed Alex began to realise increasingly that Layton's upcoming trial was looking to be some kind of focal point for getting her home. Now only days away both she and Kim had been briefed by the lawyer for the prosecution that morning. It had been a difficult and uneasy meeting for both of them. Both had been on the receiving end of bullets from the man; Alex's in the head, Kim's in the neck, and the memories that the meeting stirred up were hard for them both to deal with. On top of that, they knew they were going to have to relive their own ordeals again in the courtroom just days later.
"He was the one who started all of this," Alex whispered as she stared at her increasingly full flip-chart, "maybe he's the one who needs to end it." She closed her eyes, "somehow."
Would getting the man put in prison somehow be her route home? To see him finally receive the punishment he was due? Maybe simply helping Gene find peace wasn't enough – maybe she needed to find peace for herself too. When Manchester hadn't been the key it was the only other possibility she could think of.
She nodded to herself as she switched off the light and left her room. She tried not to laugh at Kim who was looking slightly annoyed and awkward as she sat in the lounge in one of Robin's shirts; the result of a rude awakening as what she'd mistaken for a little extra holiday weight had turned rather abruptly into a noticeable bump almost overnight had left her feeling self-conscious and awkward. She had become the poster child for 'showing earlier when you've already had a baby' and with all her old maternity clothes now in use by Alex she'd been forced to raid Robin's wardrobe for something to hide the start of the bulge.
"Anything interesting on the TV?" Alex asked her, quickly rephrasing her question as, "anything that isn't related to beards?"
"Oh. Ma'am, everything's related to beards now," Kim angrily switched off the TV, "Haven't you heard? If it's not got a beard in, it's been pulled from the schedules. They even pulled a repeat of Robot Wars because Razer was one of the competing robots and they thought that would be offensive to Evan."
Alex decided to change the subject. She felt a little nervous as she asked the question she didn't dare ask very often.
"Is there any news about Robin?" she asked quietly, "any change in his condition?"
She watched Kim's eyes turn downward as she shook her head.
"Not yet," she said quietly, "although he's stable there's been no improvement. They don't know why he hasn't regained consciousness but his heart stopped for some time so they're thinking there might be bran damage. They can't tell me f or sure what his chances are but that could definitely be better."
"He'll get back, Kim," Alex told her.
"If he even wants to," Kim said quietly. She still couldn't shake that fear; that Robin had made the choice and wanted to stay where he was. Alex shook her head. Somehow she just didn't believe that was the case.
"We'll both find or way back to the right side of the line," she said, "don't lose faith, Kim."
As hard as she tried not to it was difficult for Kim to stay hopeful. Now that so much time had passed she was starting to feel that there was no way back for him. He needed to find the escape route soon if he was ever going to make it. Kim felt scared to admit how much she needed him. She'd never needed anyone before in her life but meeting Robin had been like finding a missing part of herself. He had to come back, for both their sakes.
~xXx~
1997
"Where's Stone?"
The whole of Fenchurch West CID found themselves on Angry Keats Alert at the sound of his voice booming in bitterness. He didn't need an excuse to be angry and pissed off with Victoria but the fact that she was two hours late for work was a fairly decent one nonetheless. He stared at her empty desk as he heard the rest of the department mutter apologies for not knowing her whereabouts. He knew the previous day had been her day off but she should have been back that morning. Her absence was more than unusual. She usually had very high standards in her work – her timekeeping and efficiency both excellent, so for her to fail to show was a mysterious turn of events indeed.
"Someone get her on the phone, find out what kind of time zone she thinks she's in and get an ETA on when we're likely to see her."
The slamming of his office door signified that he'd passed that particular duty to the rest of his department and did not wish to be disturbed. He drew the shutters over his office door and began to pace. There was anger and bile burning inside of him. He was starting to have difficulty controlling it. Ever since Robin had entered the world and Gene's fire had started to return there had been an abundance of dark energy created to balance out the good and the strength that they exuded, which Keats had lapped up like a cat confronted with a big bowl of cream. But after months with a lower level of energy to absorb he was struggling to keep it contained. He'd never had that problem before. For the first time he was actually scaring himself.
He tried to pace off some of his dark energy. The news that Nailer had escaped from prison hadn't exactly been the best start to his morning and coupled with the non-arrival of his DI-slash-verbal-punch-bag the blackness that swirled around him like a cloak was growing ever darker.
He tried to keep a lid on the explosive anger that he felt brewing but knew that wouldn't last forever. He hoped that he could find an effective way to use the darkness before it grew too powerful to put to his advantage. Why he was finding it so difficult to handle, he could only hazard a guess. This was new and unsettling. A darker season was falling over Fenchurch West, and this time even Keats would find it difficult to handle.
~xXx~
2012
"I have to be honest, Mister Layton, it isn't looking good."
The lawyer's words ran around and around Layton's mind as he paced up and down in his cell night after night. He scratched at his arm anxiously as he felt the truth sinking in.
"DI Drake has recovered her full memory following her coma. She's going to be a very strong witness. DI Stringer is also recovering from her recent accident and it sounds like she's going to be a difficult one to crack. The only weak witness who will be available for your trial is Evan White. Even the remains of his beard are said to have their story straight."
As the days passed the fact that Robin was not going to be able to testify at the trial had become less and less important. The strength of the other witnesses had quickly overpowered the benefit that losing one would bring and Layton knew that he was going down for the things he hadn't done as well as those he had.
Every piece of information passed from his legal team brought him darker news and less chance of ever seeing freedom again. Night after night they grew to a crescendo in his mind until eventually that night it bubbled over and he could take no more.
It was time to ease the pain. Time to raid the stash. Finally he'd collected what he needed. He had everything, right there, ready and waiting for him. The needle felt like a long lost lover as he spun it around in his fingertips and the anticipation of that first hit after so long brought a wild excitement to his soul. He'd waited so long for this. He'd been patient. He had missed that exquisite sensation, the explosion of bliss, the sensation that would make the rest of the world disappear as all that mattered was him and his high.
And there it was.
X
It was his cellmate who hit the alarm at the sound of choking; a line of vomit running from his lips and pooling on the bed, his heart overtaxed by a substance that he was no longer used to surging through his veins.
With blue lights blazing and sirens wailing, Layton's journey to hospital began.
It was the start of a journey for somebody else too.
~xXx~
A/N: Guess what's coming up soon? The second anniversary of two things – the end of A2A and the end of ten years of writer's block that led to me starting my first A2A fic. Clearly I've never looked back! So, May 21st is the anniversary of A2A ending, May 22nd is the anniversary of me feeling so moved by the end of the series that I needed to start writing and May 23rd is the anniversary of writing the first chapter of Out of the Window which at the time was a one-shot. I can't believe how much I've written in the last 2 years, nor how fired up I still am about it. I finally have back the passion I used to have for writing, back when I was in my late teens, thanks to Ashes to Ashes :)
I really want to do something to mark both – the anniversary of the end of A2A and two years since my muse escaped from whatever cell he'd been locked away in. I have hit upon the idea of writing one or two missing/deleted scenes from past fics; scenes that either I'd planned to write at the time but changed my mind because they didn't fit as well with the story progression or things that I'd thought would be fun to expand on in their own right. I'm going to write at least one, hopefully 2 and post over those 3 days and I'd love some help choosing which to pick…
I've posted a poll on my profile – you can choose up to 3 and the couple of scenes with the most votes in a week or so will be the chosen ones. These are the possibilities I've come up with:
Out of the Window: There was a point at which a lot of the readers expected Galex smut in the next chapter, but not only did I want to keep the rating a T but I am really not a Galex shipper and hadn't planned on writing anything explicit. I had said at the time I'd write it as a 'deleted scene', and I did try but just couldn't. However, I'm willing to give it another go so the first option is the missing Galex smut scene following chapter 20 of OotW
Strangers When We Meet: I had originally planned to write a trilogy with Strangers being the last of the three and the original ending I had planned was very different before I had the split soul/two Alexes (Alexs? Alexii?) idea halfway through. I don't think I ever revealed how the story was originally planned to end. Option two is the original (and morbidly depressing!) ending to Strangers!
Whispering Her Name: Two ideas from this one: First of all, there's a throwaway line where 1995 Kim wakes up after being shot and alludes to the fact that she thought she'd 'gone home'. This was always something I wanted to explore fully one day, so this is one possible scene.
Also in Whispering, In the epilogue Robin, Kim and Kelly were all unfortunate enough to sit down for pizza just as Dispatches: Evan White: Where Did It All Go Wrong? started. I had always kind of wanted to write a chunk of the programme, just like I did with the Jim Keats 'Dispatches' episode. Warning: Will contain beards
Something Changed: Because I wanted to keep the rating as a T I left out a scene I'd have loved to write about the night Kim took Shaz back to Simon's couch, but I'd still love to write it now. What would that be called anyway? Kaz? Shim?
Chasing Rainbows: I had originally planned to write Kim's fake funeral which was going to be somewhat disastrous and humorous but it didn't really fit with the tone of the rest of the story so I decided not to. This is another scene I'd still like to write.
Strange & Beautiful: This wasn't an A2A fic but was one of the stories I wrote on Fictionpress featuring Kim and Robin. Once again Dispatches gets in on the act as the pair try to avoid watching DI March: Where Did It All Go Wrong? I would love to write chunk of the episode to reveal exactly what happened with the Nick Nailer cut-out, an HD video, 800,000 hits on YouTube and the incident going viral…
Eyes of Blue: It has to be done. It really has to be done. A full incident report of one of the many instances of Toastercide needs to happen.
So those are the choices – I'm going to open the poll for a week or so and you can make three choices. Blind poll so that it will be a surprise which scene(s) come out on top. Please vote and help me mark 2 years since the doors to the Railway Arms closed on Alex, Ray, Chris and Shaz – and on my writer's block, evil little dude he was too! x