A/N: I just wanted to say thank you so much for the reviews and for continuing to follow this story and all the others that have gone before it. Your support really does help inspire me to keep going. I'm feeling quite sentimental as the second anniversary of the end of A2A comes closer. I can't believe two years on I'm still writing the same string of stories that started in Out of the Window. So much for that being a one-shot! I really am glad (and surprised!) that people are still following this thread and have seen how the characters have changed and developed over time. I do hope that the character progression has been realistic considering the timescale they span. It's also funny to note that when I started writing these fics 2 years ago I was a mother of two… and have had two more children in the span of writing them! Anyway, enough mushy sentimentals, on with the story…

~xXx~

Chapter Twenty Two

Simon's couch was a harsh opponent as Robin spent yet another night trying to sleep on the damn thing. He tossed and turned, his shoulders bruised from knocking them against the arm and his back aching from the thinly-padded cushions. He had been sleeping there for a week now and still wasn't getting used to it. It had been fine for a night or two but if this was going to be a long term solution then he could see himself becoming sleep-deprived before too long.

He got up with a yawn, sinking his feet to the floor and slowly standing up straight, trying to get rid of all the kinks in his spine from the uncomfortable night he'd spent. God, he was tired. It had been a couple of days since he'd last slept. After the stakeout he and Simon had spent most of the next day in the hospital, on alert in case they were needed, then after Alex had managed to get herself discharged they'd gone to the station to wrap up as much to do with Layton's arrest as they could.

Unfortunately, that's where things had started to go seriously downhill.

"Shit," he cursed as he rubbed his eyes. The events of the previous afternoon and evening slowly came back to him. How the hell had such a thing even happened? It made no more sense now than it had the day before.

Oh god… and they were going to have to tell Gene –

"Morning," Simon sounded about as bright and rested as Robin did. He slouched into the lounge, his hair a mess and two days worth of stubble on his face.

Robin glanced at him.

"I'd ask if you slept well but I don't think there's much point," he said.

Simon shook his head and rubbed his eyes.

"Shit, we'll have to tell him this morning."

"I know."

Simon hesitated.

"Which of us is going to do it?" he asked.

"Bagsy not me," Robin said quickly.

"Rob, bagsies never worked when we were going out, now you've rejected me they're even less effective.

"Harsh." Robin narrowed his eyes at Simon. They both fell silent, each replaying the events of the day before. Once they'd left the hospital and gone back to the station a slight panic had already begun.

"What's going on?" Simon had asked as alarms were ringing.

"We've lost two prisoners," the officer in custody told him.

Simon knew instantly. It was like he had a sixth sense. He didn't need to be told who the two prisoners were.

"Shit."

It felt like all he and Robin had said since that moment was the same four-letter word.

No one could give them a decent explanation to what had happened. Keats and Layton had been left cuffed together on Gene's request. While the whole idea had been that Keats would be unable to disappear with Layton watching him, right by his side, no one had even considered the fact that they might both vanish into the ether.

Security footage showed they'd never left their cell. The door was locked, there was no other way they could have made an exit, quite simply one second they were in there and the next they'd gone. Robin was somewhat more disturbed by their disappearance than Simon was. Simon had half expected it; he'd seen Keats vanish into thin air more than once, it wasn't a shock to hear of it happening again, but to Robin it was a terrifying revelation. It wasn't every day you found out someone could seemingly dematerialise at will, after all.

Layton's disappearance, on the other hand, was new territory for both of them.

"This has never happened before," Simon told Robin, desperately trying to wrap his head around it, "Keats waits until there's no one around and then he vanishes. If someone's watching him then he doesn't do it... or can't do it…but Layton was right there – that's why Gene insisted they stay chained together."

They'd spent the evening talking over Keats's apparent ability to disappear into thin air, his connection with Layton and what their joint vanishing meant. They talked themselves round in circles and reached no conclusions except not to tell Gene until the next morning.

"Let him and Alex have one night together," Robin had told Simon, "just let them be together for one night before he has to know. Otherwise he might end up roaming the streets, looking for them instead of giving Alex the company she's been yearning for all the time they were apart."

Now it was morning and both had thought of little else but the vanishing suspects all night. Neither had come up with any answers, nor had they managed to resolve their worries about what Keats's latest trick meant.

"Look," Robin conceded, "I think we should go and tell Gene together. That way if he feels the need to do any… filing cabinet business then we each only have a fifty percent chance of getting the treatment."

Simon nodded slowly. It made sense.

"Agreed," he said.

Robin nodded towards the kitchen.

"Do you want any breakfast first?" he asked.

Simon shook his head.

"Not really," he said quietly, "I keep thinking about Keats and Layton, it's not helping my appetite."

"Do you want to get ready to go and talk to Gene then?" Robin asked.

With a slight reluctance Simon nodded.

"Where do you think he'll be?" he asked, "the station?"

"Doubt it," said Robin, "He'll probably be with Alex."

"Alright," Simon started to shuffle back towards his bedroom, "let me get dressed and we'll go straight round."

"Have a shave first," Robin pleaded.

"Why?"

"You're starting to get a bit of an Evan thing going on," Robin shuddered.

~xXx~

"It's my first morning back," Alex pointed out, "aren't you supposed to woo me romantically with bucks fizz and croissants?"

Gene sighed and flipped the bacon in the frying pan.

"You've been staying with bloody Batman too long," he said, "real people need grease in the morning."

Alex smiled distantly as she watched Gene slathering up a slice of bread with tomato ketchup, mentally ticking off all the things she'd missed so much that Gene had already done that morning; the bantering, the classic Gene Hunt fry-up, the hot-breath-in-the-ear wake-up call…

After their emotional talk in the night neither had fallen back to sleep for some time. They both awoke again around nine, each feeling somewhat delicate and tired and rose slowly together. There was a white elephant in the room; neither had mentioned the baby since they had woken, they both felt they'd done all the talking in the night that they were able to for now and needed to take a little time out from the subject to each learn to accept what had happened. But Alex wasn't blocking Gene out any longer and they both knew they could talk about it whenever they needed to. Alex knew that she was going to find herself thinking about her little girl all through the day and it was going to be difficult to focus on anything else. Just for now though she wanted to concentrate on Gene and slowly absorbing the fact that they had been reunited finally. It still felt so surreal to her. She felt thankful and blessed as she watched him burning his finger on a molten tomato.

"Have you cooked enough?" she asked sarcastically, "I think there's a third box of eggs in the fridge you forgot to use…"

Gene began to serve up the food he'd been preparing.

"You need to get some meat on your bones," he told her, "I'm having trouble even locating yer arse at the moment."

"I don't need it stamping for a second time," Alex told him.

A large platter of fried foods appeared in front of her.

"Here," he said, "the Gene Hunt special. The fix-all cure for hangovers and time travel."

Alex lifted her knife and fork.

"You should be running the canteen," she said.

"Me arse isn't big enough," Gene told her. The ringing of the buzzer was the last thing Gene expected or wanted to hear. He frowned and plonked his own plate heavily on the table.

"Unless this is someone coming to forcibly remove that bloody Red Dwarf poster they can bugger right off to Grimsby," he said, marching out to the entrance. He listened the intercom. "What?"

There was a moment's hesitation before a voice said,

"Gene?"

"Shoebury," Gene sighed, "apparently giving a man a bit of privacy on his first morning with his returning fiancé isn't a thing that exists in your world."

"We need to talk to you," Simon's voice sounded urgent and caused Gene to frown.

"Who's the other half of that 'we'?" he asked.

"Me," Robin's voice was just as anxious, "let us in, Gene, we've got news."

Gene closed his eyes and sighed.

"If you can deliver the headlines before me bacon goes cold it would be appreciated," he told them and buzzed them in.

When they arrived at the door a few moments later he felt shocked by their anxious expressions and drawn faces. The bags under their eyes showed him that no one had managed to get a lot of sleep the night before.

"We're really sorry," Robin told him quietly, "we didn't want to disturb you but this is really, really important."

Gene waved them through where they found Alex at the kitchen table, half hidden behind a mountain of fried goodies.

"Hey," Robin felt himself smiling despite the situation as he moved towards her and quite out of the blue wrapped his arms around her neck with relief. After seeing the state of her the day before he'd been so worried about her. He supposed that after he and Kim had spent so long in her company after she'd woken in the real world they'd all forged a friendship that wasn't going to fade out.

"Ouch, mind the wound," Alex flinched, the bullet hole in her chest throbbing.

"Sorry," Robin backed up a little.

"How are you doing, Alex?" Simon asked quietly.

Alex didn't like that question. She didn't want to lie but couldn't bring herself to tell the truth either.

"Surviving," she said eventually.

"Lovely as this little reunion is," Gene began, "I have a full plate and an empty belly, and I wish to reverse those roles. You've got five minutes."

Simon and Robin exchanged a glance. Finally Simon began,

"We've got some news, Gene."

"You said that. Four minutes and forty seconds.

"It's not good."

"Never bloody is."

"Gene, you need to listen," Robin interrupted.

Simon took a deep breath.

"When we went to the station we found something had happened while we were all at the hospital," he said, "I don't know how to tell you this."

"Then don't," sighed Gene, "I can hazard a guess."

Simon hesitated.

"You can?"

"Jimbo's walked through walls again, hadn't he?" Gene asked bluntly.

Simon frowned and looked at Robin who shrugged blankly.

"They… called you?" he guessed, "the station already told you?"

Gene shook his head.

"Nope," he said, flopping into a seat and picking up a sausage on the end of his fork before drowning the bugger in mustard, "lucky guess." He took a big bite, chewed it quickly and gulped it down. "Wouldn't be the first time, would it?"

"You don't seem very… upset," Robin frowned.

"Thing is," Gene began, "he was charged at Fenchurch East. He can vanish all he wants, the charges still stand. He wasn't charged at Fenchurch West. He can't make this one vanish."

"He has made something else vanish though," Robin said awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" Gene frowned.

Simon closed his eyes.

"Layton vanished with him." He said quietly.

Alex had seen enough of Keats to know that handcuffs and cells couldn't contain him. Nor could ex-bikers called Geoff. But the thought of Layton disappearing chilled her to the bone.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"They were cuffed together," Robin examined, "and they've both vanished. Wherever Keats went, he took Layton with him, at least temporarily. Where either of them are now, we don't know."

Alex shuddered and swallowed nervously. Even though the Layton who shot her and plunged the needle into her neck was 2012 Layton the fact that his 1997 counterpart was behind bars made her feel safe. Suddenly she felt very anxious indeed.

"Layton's on the loose," she whispered.

Gene stared at his breakfast.

"I'm not going to get to eat this, am I?" he asked miserably.

"I'm sure there's someone with a large backside who will give you something to tide you over," Simon told him.

Gene groaned, but there was little he could do about the situation.

"Right," he mumbled as he stood up and grabbed for his coat. He hesitated as he glanced at Alex. "Don't think you should stay here on your own."

"I'm not saying here, I'm coming with you," Alex's reaction wasn't exactly unexpected.

"You're staying here," Gene told her.

"Don't treat me like an invalid, Gene, I can do this."

"I'm not," Gene told her, "orders from higher up. They've given you a bloody elaborate story, explaining yer disappearance. You're me undercover lover. Been infiltrating Layton's business, apparently. You're not allowed back at the station until you get the word," he lied, "Sorry, Bolly."

"Like I'm going to listen to that," Alex stared to get to her feet.

"You'll have to listen if you want yer old job back," Gene told her, "Sorry, Drake. You're stuck here."

Alex sank angrily back into her chai, in two minds whether to believe Gene or not.

"I'll stay with her," Robin offered.

"I don't need a babysitter!" cried Alex

"Good, I don't feel like babysitting," said Robin, "Just wanted…" he glanced nervously at Simon and Gene behind him, "just wanted to talk… about some stuff… that's all."

Alex wasn't sure what he meant until she saw him clutching the ring on his hand with his right thumb and forefinger. She closed her eyes as she realised what he meant.

"That's OK," she said quietly. She looked at Gene. "You and your undercover lies are off the hook," she said, "I'll stay here."

"Lies?" Gene asked innocently knowing that her documentation had said no such thing about staying away. He decided to leave while he was ahead, "alright Shoebury, let's move before you wear out me carpet." He looked at Robin, "and if you don't remove a certain poster while you're here I'll be rolling it up and shoving it through yer ear so hard it'll core yer brain."

"F-fair enough," Robin said a little nervously.

Alex have a weak smile was she watched Gene and Simon leave, then turned to Robin.

"Well?" she said, "are you going to sit down?"

"No one's going to core my brain if I do, are they?" Robin asked a little anxiously as he sank into a chair.

Alex ignored the question.

"You want to know about Kim," she said quietly, "am I right?" she watched Robin's expression changing, a terribly sad look coming across his face.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "I don't mean to use you like some kind of go-between, I just…" he looked at her seriously, "I miss her so much and I'm so worried about her."

"Kim will be fine," Alex told him firmly, "You know what Kim is like. She'd tough. She can cope with anything."

"I'm not so sure," Robin said quietly. He was the only one who ever saw the softer side.

Alex nodded to his hand.

"How did you get the ring?" she asked, quite amazed that it had made its way over.

"God, I don't know," Robin shook his head, "I woke up one morning and it was there, on my finger." He looked at Alex seriously, "I got a message, from Kim. On the TV," he rubbed his forehead, "is it true? She's pregnant?"

Alex nodded.

"She's almost twelve weeks now," she said, "she's coping well. The baby's strong and healthy. One or two complications but they're keeping a close eye on things."

"Shit," Robin shook his head slowly. It wasn't as though he didn't know – he'd seen the message, of course – but hearing it from Alex made it more real somehow. "Did she really not know? For all that time?"

Alex couldn't help a little smirk.

"If you will insist on stealing all her symptoms then what do you expect?" she said.

Robin felt a little guilty as he looked at Alex. Should he even be mentioning this now? After what she'd been through and what she'd left behind? He bit his lip awkwardly.

"Alex, do you want me to… drop this subject for now?"

Alex shook her head slowly/.

"No. God, no, Robin," she brushed her hair over her shoulder, "whatever's happened to me, I understand you need to know." She paused, "It's no more than you did for Gene, after all, is it?"

Robin shook his head with a tiny smile. That was true. Alex was filling the same role for him that he'd done for Gene, filling in all the blanks from the other side of the line.

"Kim… in her message., she said she was hit by a car…"

Alex nodded.

"Yes, but she's healing well, "she assured him, "A couple of cracked ribs that she's ignored like crazy. You know Kim. You know she's not going to let that get the better of her."

Robin hesitated.

"Does she miss me?" he asked quietly.

Something about Robin's question, the look of sadness and longing on his face and the tone of his voice struck a chord with Alex. She knew how he was feeling. To be separated by worlds from the person you want to be with is the cruellest fate.

"Robin," she looked at him seriously, "She misses you every second of every day." She laid a hand on his arm as she said quietly, "The last thing she said to me before she –" she stopped abruptly. She knew Gene had seen Kim helping her home on one of Keats's tapes but she didn't know if Robin knew, and if not she wasn't sure he was ready to know. "Before I came home," she said instead, "was that she asked me to tell you she loves you." She braced herself for the tears she could already see forming in Robin's eyes. "And she does. She's been by your side every day."

"She does know… does know that it's her I want," he whispered, "doesn't she?"

Alex hesitated. Shit, this was hard. She could only imagine what it had been like for Robin trying to tell Gene all he needed to know.

"Robin, in all honestly, the last time I asked you even you didn't know which way your decision was going to go so Kim's obviously still has worries," she nodded to his hand, " but when two people buy engagement rings for each other secretly on the same day it does help to settle those fears a little."

Robin smiled distantly.

"Woman in the shop kept telling me the ring wasn't feminine enough," he gave a mock grumble.

"Kim doesn't seem to agree," Alex told him.

Robin smiled as he wiped his eyes. He tried hard to keep his emotions in check.

"So" he whispered, "when is it my turn?" he looked Alex. "You're back. When can I go home?"

Alex shook her head slowly.

"I don't know, Robin," she said quietly, "I wish it was that easy. But then if it was I'd have been back here months ago and Gene wouldn't be living in a flat full of Red Dwarf memorabilia."

Robin gave a distant smile.

"Sorry," he said, "I'll move the stuff as soon as I can. I need to start looking for a place of my own. No room for this much stuff at Simon's." he paused. "Even though he'd kill for that poster of Lister."

"There are some very strange things in here," Alex told him, "I found a lot of tattoo magazines. I think they've confused you with Kim. Oh, and I hope you don't mind but I don't have any of my own things at the moment so I borrowed your Pokémon t-shirt in bed last night."

"What Pokémon t-shirt?"

"The one in your wardrobe."

"I don't have a Pokémon t-shirt," Robin frowned.

Alex frowned.

"Well, that's strange then, she said, "Wonder where it came from."

Robin looked at her and bit her lip. He had one more serious question to ask.

"Alex?" he began.

She looked back at him.

"What?"

Robin hesitated.

"Will she be alright, all alone?" he asked quietly.

Alex's heart sank. The thought of Kim being left out there by herself was one she'd been struggling with too.

"I think," she said quietly, "that she'll be fine because Kim is the strongest person I know."

"Funny, she thought the same about you," Robin told her.

Despite exchanging a smile both felt their hearts sink as they united over their hatred for one of the fundamental parts of the world – the fact that it had the power to separate anyone from those they love, one way or another. But seeing Alex back gave Robin the extra push he needed to keep faith that he would return to is own side of the line.

He would find a way. Just like Alex had. And the Lister poster would be nothing but a distant memory

~xXx~

#...There's a place for us

Somewhere a place for us

Peace and quiet and open air

Wait for us somewhere

There's a time for us

Someday a time for us

Time together with time to spare

Time to learn, time to care

Someday, somewhere

We'll find a new way of living

We'll find a way of forgiving somewhere

Yes, there's a place for each of us

A place of peace and quiet

And we must try to pursue this place

Where love is like a passion that burns like a fire

And also fulfilment of two hearts' desire

Let our efforts be as determined as that of a little stream

That saunters down the hillside seeking its level

Only to become a huge river destined to the sea

Yes, there's a place for us

Somewhere a place for us

Hold my hand and were halfway there

Hold my hand and I'll take you there

Somehow, someday

Somewhere

Hold my hand and were halfway there

Hold my hand and I'll take you there

Somehow, someday

Somewhere…#

~ Somewhere – Pet Shop Boys