Chapter Twenty Three
Gene allowed himself to take a step back as he watched Simon taking on a proactive, forceful role he'd never seen him in before; taking charge, organising people in CID, even the new recruits – before Gene even had much of a chance to contribute Simon had sent everyone off searching, harvesting security footage from nearby, researching Layton's contacts to see where he might go next and even going on the latte run.
Gene was impressed. He had never seen this side of Simon before.
"Someone's been taking their efficiency pills," he commented, "take two before bed and get yer work done in half the time."
"I was trying to help," Simon said a little anxiously, worried he'd stepped on Gene's toes.
"Help as much as you bloody well want if you're going to work like this," Gene said. Where had this Simon been for the last year? He wasn't the same Simon who'd shied away from his responsibilities all that time, hated every minute of the job, resented the power he'd been given. Finally he was showing himself for the DCI he used to be when he was still alive. Whatever it was about the situation or the matter at hand, Simon seemed to have been spurred into action.
"I've got people checking Layton's known addresses and hangouts," Simon told him, "as well as visiting some of Nailer's old haunts, just in case he's hiding out in one of those. Once Robin gets back he can organise a manhunt with the dogs."
"If those mutts can manage to do something more useful than chewing up a couple of pairs of shoes," said Gene.
"Is there anything I'm forgetting?" asked Simon.
Gene shook his head.
"No, Simon," he said, genuinely impressed, "I think you've got everything covered." He picked up his coat, "which is why I'm leaving this in your capable hands."
Simon looked up, shocked and nervous.
"Oh no, that's too much responsibility," he protested.
"I need to get home," Gene told him, "to my role in proceedings – guarding Alex." He slipped his arms into his coat, "Keep me informed."
Simon stared after him as he left the station. That wasn't like Gene at all. Usually he'd be the one keeping a firm hand over proceedings and showing that much faith in Simon's skills was somewhat daunting. Anxious as he was about letting Gene down he also knew that Alex probably needed him more than Fenchurch East did right then.
"I will," he promised.
Gene nodded and left quickly. He just wanted to be back with Alex, to make sure she was alright. The law would be safe enough in Simon's hands. And besides, he needed to make sure Robin removed that poster, pronto-tonto.
~xXx~
Alex was surprised to see Gene arriving back so soon.
"Has he been found already?" she asked hopefully.
"No, but Shoebury's found his bloody work mojo," Gene explained, " he's taken over. The Gene Genie is currently superfluous to requirements." He shot a glare at Robin. "Poster?"
"Uh… dealing with it now," Robin said quickly, scrambling to get out of his seat.
Gene quickly took his place and looked mournfully at the cold breakfast still sitting on the table, a pool of congealed fat forming a moat around the sausages.
"So much for first morning luxury," he said.
Alex looked at him seriously.
"Is there any news on Layton or Keats?" she asked.
"Not yet," said Gene, "Jimbo will turn up sooner or later, can't keep his nose out of our business. As for our dear friend Arthur, " he shook his head, "he's too stupid to stay hidden for long. He'll slip up, stick one needle too many in his arm, flog a few pills to the wrong person and find himself with a brand new home, in the middle of HMP Fenchurch. They have some cracking en-suite rooms these days. Good quality buckets an' all."
"Got it," Robin nervously appeared at the door, waving the rolled up poster in the air.
"Good; now take it to a galaxy far, far away and bugger off back to work. Shoebury wants you to get yer canine friends on the trail."
Robin groaned.
"Oh great," he mumbled, "my favourite untrained batch of dogs Let's see them sniff out smelly shoes instead." he waved to Alex. "I'll see you later," he said, "and… and thanks."
Alex smiled.
"No problem," she said quietly. She watched him walk away and waited until she heard the front door open and close before she asked,
"Is he not happy with his work?"
"He's just sore because he's got Stringer's old bedroom buddy in his team," said Gene. He saw Alex looking a little confused and explained, "A certain Sharon Granger decided to try her luck in the brand new canine division."
"Robin's got Shaz in his department?" Alex found herself involuntarily pulling a face. "Oh, I bet that's comfortable."
Gene rubbed his forehead.
"Come on, Bols, tell me straight. Put an end to this nonsense. Batman and Stringer."
Alex stared, waiting for him to enlarge upon that.
"Yes…?"
"You can't be seriously telling me they're playing Mister and Missus out there?"
Alexsighed.
"Gene, honestly," she began, "I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. She cringed, "seen a bit too much, to be honest." She shuddered. She's seen and heard things that wouldn't have been out of place on the Adult Channel while she was staying with them. "Let's just say my time awake in the real world was even more surreal than anything this world could create."
"I find that hard to believe," said Gene.
"Don't be so certain of that," sighed Alex.
Gene leaned back and folded his arms, looking her in the eye.
"So tell me, Bollyknickers," he began, "what did happen?"
"What do you mean?"
Gene looked a little distant.
"I missed out on months of yer life," he said, "What did you go through over there?"
"Do you really want to know?" Alex asked incredulously.
"Not sure I want to," Gene admitted, "But I know I need to." He sighed and shook his head. "Need to fill in the blanks. Only so much Robin told me."
Alex let out her breath and stared at the table.
"I'm not sure there's much to tell you," she said quietly, "I spent three months filling up a flip chart, trying to get back to you." she glanced at Gene. He didn't seem happy with that explanation. She had a feeling she want going to get away with it that easily. "Look," she said quietly, "Gene, I sent most of the time recovering. Most of my memories of being back in the real world involve trips to and from hospital." She paused and looked away. "It was the end of October when I woke up."
Gene stared at her. Her expression was distant and sad.
"Go on," he grunted.
"I was devastated," Alex told him, unable to meet his eye. She knew if she did she was going to let her emotions free, "I'd lost everything. I was back in a world I didn't belong to any more. I was lucky – I had Robin and Kim to look after me, to keep me sane and help me home. I spent weeks learning to walk again, getting my strength back, just trying to get over the physical side of waking up from my coma."
"Come on, Bols, I know there was more to it than that." Gene reached forward, he turned her face to look at him. "I can see it in yer eyes."
"Why do you think I was looking away?" Alex tried to joke but Gene didn't laugh.
"I want to know," he said insistently.
Alex knew she wasn't going to get away with half-explanations. She had to tell him honestly.
"It was hard, it was bloody rotten," she said, her voice turning a little resentful, "I woke up and my body was weak and withered. All I could think about was getting back to you but what chance did I have when I couldn't walk… couldn't talk property… it took a long time to get some strength back. The hospital decided I wasn't allowed any 'shocks' so Robin and Kim had to hide more or less everything that had happened in the past year from me while I recovered. Then I discovered Evan was in prison, Keats had tried to kill me while I was unconscious and Robin and Kim were…" she cringed at the memory, "well, let's just say I was introduced to their relationship through the visual medium."
"You, uh," Gene cleared his throat, "you were there for Christmas, weren't you?"
Alex nodded slowly.
"I'm so sorry I wasn't with you for that," she said quietly.
"Batman's bloody turkey almost was," Gene mumbled.
"Gene, what happened with the turkey?" Alex sighed, "Kim and Robin were too traumatised to talk about it properly. All I know is, it caused them to develop a phobia of their oven and to have a lot to drink."
"Not ready to talk about that yet," Gene said.
Alex sighed.
"But you make me talk about this?" she cried.
Gene wanted to get back on track.
"So how did you get back, Bolly?" he asked
"Through blood, sweat and tears," Alex said quietly, "we went to Manchester. I thought I could get back if I…"she closed her eyes, "If I helped you to be at peace,. Out there."
She looked at Gene as he visibly paled and wondered if she should have told him that.
"In what way, find peace?" he asked quietly.
Alex took a deep breath.
"Your body," she whispered, "it was never officially identified. There were several people they thought it may have belonged to but because it happened so long ago…" she swallowed, "they didn't put a lot of time or resources into trying to identify you." she closed her eyes. "I tracked a very distant relative of yours, Gene. She was going to help us get you identified at last. It was her shop where Robin…"
Gene nodded as she trailed off. He could see how this was all coming together.
"So," he said quietly, "When you didn't get back…"
Alex took a deep breath.
"I went back to the drawing board. Or the flip chart in this case. And I found something in the Fiat."
Gene's whole expression changed.
"My car," he said wistfully, "how is she? Is she still in good condition? Stringer had better be looking after her."
"Gene," Alex's brow furrowed, "you're more worried about that car than you were about me!"
"You don't know what it's like to see yer bloody parking space empty and find out yer car's gone on a long journey by itself!"
Alex closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.
"Yes, Gene," she said through gritted teeth, "your car is in magnificent condition. Kim is taking good care of it –"
"Of her," Gene corrected.
"And I am sure she will treat it with the greatest of respect." She raised an eyebrow and waited until Gene seemed convinced by her words.
"Alright," he said, "carry on."
"Thank you," sighed Alex. She tried to remember where she got to. "One night a newspaper appeared in the car, and let's just say it wasn't hot off the press."
Gene frowned as a memory sparked in his head.
"Don't tell me," he said, "would the headline have involved deadly drugs?"
"That's the one," Alex nodded.
"Bugger," Gene sighed, "I accused Bammo of nicking that. Shoved a bloody grape up his nose."
Alex wasn't sure what to say to that. She decided to gloss over it.
"From then on, all I could think was that Layton was my ticket home," she said, "he started this. He was the one to finish it to."
Gene shuddered at her words, their similarity to those spoken by Alex on his TV screen uncanny.
"And you were right," he said.
Alex nodded.
"With a little help from Kim," she whispered. Silence fell between them. Alex could see Gene's concentration on his face as he tried to absorb her words, thinking them over, trying to process them. Eventually her curiosity got the better of her. "Come on then," she prompted, "your turn."
"My turn for what?" Frowned Gene.
"What was life like here while I was gone?"
"Believe me Bols, you don't want to know."
"Of course I do," Alex said quietly, "I worried about you every second I was away."
Gene exhaled loudly as he folded his arms defensively.
"Probably right to," he mumbled, "I wasn't exactly on form without you." He shook his head. "Spent all my time in the company of scotch and beer. Work went down the drain. Fletcher gave me a bollocking, I needed it too. He told me if they caught me pissed one more time, I was on a sabbatical, like it or not." he looked a little ashamed. "Next morning they found me trying to replace you in me affections with the plant pots outside the station."
Alex was torn between letting her heart break or giving in to some inappropriate laughter.
"Oh Gene," she sighed.
"I think we were getting on quite well too," he said, "til Shoebury interrupted us. " he shook his head. "Word got back to Fletcher and I was out on me ear." He looked at Alex. "For some reason Shoebury was soft enough to take me in, sober me up a bit. Gave me his couch to sleep on and let me borrow his Pizza Hut loyalty card. I suppose he knew what it was like. Felt sorry for me. Somehow they let me back to work but…" he shook his head, "didn't seem much point being there any more." he scratched his nose. "Took a trip to Manchester, looking for me favourite boozer, but bloody Nelson wouldn't let me through. He's been getting ideas above his station since he smothered the place with I Love London merchandise, I'm telling you. He stuck me out the back with Sam bloody Tyler moaning on at me until Simon turned up out the blue waving yer scan at me and dragging me back out the pub."
Alex's eyes opened wider.
"You… you got the scan picture?" she whispered. She remembered the night it vanished. She'd never known what had happened to it. She closed her eyes with a tiny flicker of a smile. At least Gene had seen the picture. It was a tiny thing compared to leaving the baby behind in 2012 but the thought of it melted just a little of the ice in her heart.
"Shoebury talked me into giving it on more night," Gene told her, "and if I hadn't change my mind by the next day then he wouldn't stop me." He looked at Alex cautiously. "Then I got a bombshell dropped on me that changed everything." He wasn't sure he was ready to talk about it yet but before he could decide otherwise the words escaped, "You already know, don't know? About me and Simon?"
Alex looked at him silently for a moment, then pulling her lips into a straight line she nodded.
"Robin told you, didn't he?" she asked quietly.
"I'd already found out, the night before Batman arrived," he told her, "but he confirmed it."
Alex looked at Gene seriously. She could tell from the way he fidgeted in his seat that he was a long way from coming to terms with the news.
"How do you feel about it?" she asked quietly.
"You tell me how I'm supposed to be feeling," he sighed, roughly rubbing his face, "you're the psychologist."
"I'm not you though," Alex said quietly.
Gene closed his eyes and nodded. That was true enough.
"I feel like a bastard," he sighed, "I feel worse than I did when it 'appened. I gave Missus Shoebury a ride on the Gene Genie express and sent her 'ome with a souvenir to remind her of her trip. Before, I was only a bloody cheater. Now I'm an absent father an' all." He put his head in his hands and slumped down in his seat as though realising for the first time all over again. "I screwed Simon's mother. I arrested the woman, accused her of pissing on tramps then took her home and put one up her."
"When I asked how you were feeling you were free to give me just the basics you know," Alex frowned, unsure how many more terms for having sex with Mrs Shoebury she could take.
"Sorry," Gene stopped rubbing his face and looked up, not quite daring to catch her eye. "I feel like shit, Bolly. I had a son. I never knew. Then me past came back to haunt me."
Alex gently reached out to touch his arm, bringing him back to reality.
"We couldn't understand how things worked, logically speaking," she said gently, "how this could happen in your world and yet Simon could be born in the real one."
"I bet that was a fun conversation," Gene mumbled, "You, The Metal One and Sci-fi Head."
"Gene, please," she managed to catch his eye and wouldn't let him look away, "talk to me."
Gene shook his head slowly.
"If you thought I was going to have a nice easy answer you're wrong," he said, "truth is, I feel like me world's flipped round a hundred and eighty degrees then bitten me on the arse. I don't know how it's possible, Lady B. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do now I suddenly have a son."
"Does Simon know?" she asked.
Gene nodded.
"Even Shoebury figured this one out eventually," he said, flinching a little, "bloody hell, I probably need to stop calling him that."
"And call him what instead?" Alex challenged, "Mini-Hunt? Hunt the Second?"
Gene shook his head.
"You've got a point," he sighed.
Alex found herself biting her lip.
"How did Simon take it?" she asked.
"The remains of me black eye will give you a clue," Gene said awkwardly.
Alex closed her eyes ad sighed.
"Gene, I'm sorry," she said quietly. She thought back to Simons earlier visit. "You seem to be on… better terms now?" she asked hopefully.
"Only because we're playing a fun game of burying our 'eads in the sand," Gene told her, "it's all civil until someone thinks about it. Then one of us turns into a drama queen and the other one starts throwing their son and heir against the filing cabinet."
"That's not healthy, you know," Alex told him.
"I know," said Gene, "Almost broke me wrist last time…"
"That's not what I mean."
Gene nodded.
"I know," he admitted.
Alex moved her chair round a little closer.
"You need to talk," she said quietly.
"What do you think I'm bloody doing?" cried Gene, "flapping me lips to entice flies? Human venus bloody flytrap?"
"You and Simon, as you well know."
Gene closed his eyes.
"Not sure either of us are ready for that yet," he said. He fell silent and his expression darkened until he finally spoke again. "My son is a geek."
Alex had a feeling this wouldn't sit well with Gene.
"I know," she said.
"He's a geek of the highest order and a member of the Rainbow Brigade to boot."
Alex nodded.
"I know," she said.
"And he gets attacked by toasters and has computers falling on his head."
Alex looked Gene in the eye.
"None of that takes away from the fact that he's your flesh and blood."
Gene really didn't know how to handle that. Alex's words were still hard to believe and even harder to accept.
"So what am I supposed to do now?" he asked, "Make up for thirty odd years of birthday cards? Backdate the child maintenance?" he sighed. "What are you supposed to do when a grown up bloody son lands on yer doorstep? Can you see me sitting him down for a gutload of fatherly advice?"
Alex's lips twisted into a nostalgic smile.
"I already have," she said quietly. She noticed he confused look on Gene's face, "in Bask? When Simon was trying to get up the nerve to propose to Robin? You certainly did a good impression of someone who knew how to give fatherly advice back then."
Gene looked uncomfortable.
"Must have been having an off-day," he mumbled.
Alex turned his face to make him look her in the eye.
"Gene, Simon's not going to be looking for a father. And I doubt you were trying to seek out a son. But I do know that you've built up a surprisingly strong friendship over the last year, despite all your differences, and I would hate to see you lose that over an uncovered secret." She reached for is hand, which he tried to move away but Alex wasn't going to let him escape that lightly. Grabbing it and squeezing it, she told him, "so talk to him. Sit down, break out the scotch and talk about this like adults. I know it's not going to be an easy thing to do, for either of you, and I have no doubt that Simon will feel the wrath of the filing cabinet at least once. But once you get past the accusations and the name calling and the guilt and the blame –"
"Yer not really selling this to me here, Bolly," Gene frowned.
"- after that the air will be cleared and you can make a fresh start," she concluded, "get back to the friendship you've built."
Gene ran his finger around a plate on the table.
"After Jimbo gave him the director's cut of the full event?" Gene shook his head, "All I am to Simon now is the hairy backside moving up and down over the mental image he has of his mother."
"Give him a chance," said Alex, "give yourselves both a chance. I think you'll be surprised." She got to her feet to clear the abandoned fry-ups away. "Someone drives two hundred miles to pull you out the pub – that's not just a mate. That's a friend. Don't give up that easily."
Gene dropped his head and thought about her words as she carried on clearing the table. Perhaps she had a point. Perhaps with time they could salvage something from the mess the revelations had caused. They'd been treading on eggshells and avoiding the subject completely but ultimately they needed to bring it into the air – and that was something Gene dreaded with a passion. Neither he nor Simon were particularly skilled a communicating honestly without stooping to either verbal or physical attacks. Perhaps they needed a referee?
Either way, he wasn't ready yet, This wasn't the time. But eventually they'd have to have it out and hopefully the air could finally clear. Their friendship had been solid before. Maybe they could survive this.
After all, a psychologist had told him as much.
And hers was an opinion he trusted above anyone's.
~xXx~
#...Twenty seconds on the back time
I feel you're on the run
Never lived too long to make right
I see you're doing fine
And when I get that feeling
I can no longer slide
I can no longer run
Ah no no
And when I get that feeling
I can no longer hide
For it's no longer fun
Ah no no
Well, you can say what you want
But it won't change my mind
I'll feel the same
About you
And you can tell me your reasons
But it won't change my feelings
I'll feel the same
About you
What I am is what you want of me
Yeh, now that I'm not there
I took the tables away from you
It's turned that I don't care
And when I get that feeling
I can no longer slide
I can no longer run
Ah no no
And when I get that feeling
I can no longer hide
For it's no longer fun
Ah no no
Well, you can say what you want
But it won't change my mind
I'll feel the same
About you
And you can tell me your reasons
But it won't change my feelings
I'll feel the same
About you
I've said goodnight
Try to sleep tight
Ah just dream of me
Go close your eyes
Cause I've closed mine
The sun will shine from time to time
Oh, when you dream of me, yeh
Well, you can say what you want
But it won't change my mind
I'll feel the same
About you
And you can tell me your reasons
But it won't change my feelings
I'll feel the same
About you…#
~ Say What You Want - Texas