"What would really help me, Alex, is for us to become friends." An older woman, with short brown hair, who wore a suit, said. She was sat with a very attractive, younger woman, apparently called Alex, with permed short brown hair, wearing a grey dress.

"Really?" Alex sounded delighted.

"We could talk sometimes. You could tell me about things that go on at work."

Alex's smile falters. "What sort of things?"

"Things that should be in public domain, not in a dark police cell?"

"Oh." Alex said with regretful understanding. "Okay. You want me to spy on my colleagues."

"I want you to do what you know is right."

"No." Alex appeared pained, but determined. "No, not even in death. Not even to please you."

"Do you know the one thing worse than women being refused power, DI Drake?"

Alex pauses, before approaching the woman. "Can we meet again? I think, that we've got off, to a bad start..."

"It's women, fighting to get the keys to the kingdom, and then behaving like men." The woman stood up.

"Please, just get to know me... I... I might even be able to save your life."

"Don't want to get to know you. Thank God the only thing my daughter shares with you is her name. I'd be ashamed if she grew up to be like you."

I woke up with a start. It had been two years since my mother died. Two years that seemed to go at snail pace. I was now fifteen, and not a day went by without thinking of Mum. I managed to get A* in my first Biology exam... I was good at that, and Evan told me Mum always did well in that too.

I visited her grave a lot, but I hated it. The whole place had an eerie feel to it, and once I had explored it a few times, I started to go less frequently. My hair was now darker... just like Mum, whose blonde hair grew gradually darker.

The last time I saw Dad, was at the funeral, when I declared that I would rather live with Evan than him, and he took offence and stopped coming to see me. But that was cool. Evan knew just how to deal with me when Mum first passed... presumably because Evan had to look after Mum once her parents died. Poor bloke.

It was a weekend, thank goodness, so I didn't have to spend my birthday with all the idiots in my year. Some were alright... but they were quite silly. Immature. Maybe I found them ignorant... their lack of experience with life... they came from proper, religious families, where the parents didn't have a kid and split up at a young age, and where the mother didn't get shot in the head.

So instead I studied, and I think I'm one of the top in the year now. My goal was to study psychology, like Mum did. But school was becoming tedious. I had been attending the same Catholic school since I was four. People asked me if I even believed, what with everything that happened to me, but I never had an answer. It wasn't something I had ever thought about, and I thought about a lot of things.

Evan was out the morning of my fifteenth birthday... some lawyer business. Now that year 10 exams were over I didn't have any revision to do, so that meant by day could be spent purely by eating lots of food, and visiting Mum's grave. On my fourteenth, I refused to enjoy the day, which upset Evan, as instead I mused over how that was the day Mum was shot. I didn't want to do that this year, and I was almost excited.

I decided to have a long, relaxing shower to start the day... however, it was far from relaxing. The hot fumes must have done something to my head. I felt dizzy, and shut my eyes tight.

The same two women were together again, only this time they were sitting on different sides of a table in a small room. A police interviewing room.

"I think you need help, Alex." Caroline said.

"I'm trying to help myself... I have to get back to my daughter."

"What's your daughter's name?"

"Molly."

"That's a pretty name. My grandmother was called Molly. She was a suffragette, we're all very proud of her."

"Yes." Alex appeared to already know this.

"Go to your little girl, Alex."

"She needs me."

"You need her."

I came out of the trance, shaking like a leaf, despite the warm temperature. That was most definitely not a dream. I wasn't asleep, for start off. And they were discussing me. Grandma Price died in 1981... so this must be set then. That explained clothing... we did a project on 80's fashion once.

Mum said she was trying to get back to me. I don't recall her going on holiday at all away from me... it couldn't possibly mean... no... no, this was a dream slash vision, that has been brought on by my grief. I had read enough of my mum's psychology books to know that. Quickly, I escaped from the shower, beginning to feel trapped, and scared of another one of these visions I was having. I was having hallucinations... this could be hypnagogic hallucinations... I didn't even know. Perhaps it was as a result of this being the day. Nevertheless, I got dressed, dried my hair and went downstairs. Evan hadn't left any presents, as he liked to be there when I opened them, so after a quick breakfast, I left a note, saying where I was going, and I went to the graveyard.

The sun was shining, and the roads were busy, as I rushed to where my mother was buried. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the grass seemed extraordinarily green. The perfect day. I didn't need to think about where I was going, my feet automatically took me to where I needed to go.

In loving memory of Alexandra Drake, 1973 – 2008. Mother to Molly Drake, daughter to Tim and Caroline Price. An outstanding police officer. May she be reunited with her parents at last.

I replaced the dead bunch of roses, which protested the minute I placed them there a few weeks ago, and died pretty much straight away, for some strange reason. Instead, I placed down a bouquet of lillies, which glimmered in the sunlight. I sat down, cross legged.

"It's my fifteenth today." I liked to think she could hear and see me. "You must know that though. You've nearly been dead for two years. I never blew out the candles that year, or even last year... it didn't feel right. Evan got me a cake this year though, I found it on top of the fridge... like I wasn't going to find it there. When I blow out the fifteen candles... will you be there? Can you become a ghost and transport yourself down there? Or are you having a bottle of wine at some pub or something?"

At the word 'pub', I became dizzy again. A sudden nausea filled my stomach, like acid, and my eyes, once again, shut tight.

Alex was on an alleyway, walking away from some girls who looked like prostitutes towards a tall man, with floppy blonde hair who stood proudly.

"Are you stalking me, Hunt?" She asked.

"What are you up to?" He asked, as the two began to walk away, towards a red car with two, very 80s looking men leaning against it, smoking. The man, whose last name was Hunt, had a strong, northern accent.

"I'm warning these girls about Trixie's attacker, somebody has to. Maybe I should go down to Kings Cross."

"Why, are we not payin' you enough?" He asked. She glared at him, noting that he was joking about her becoming a prostitute herself.

"I just want these girls to be safe."

"Am I missin' something 'ere, but um, why are you so bothered about 'em?"

"Does there have to be a reason?" She sounded annoyed.

"Yes." He insisted. Alex sighed. The two of them stopped, and stood facing each other near the car.

"All right. Okay. The skeleton in the closet. The private education... years at Oxbridge... all counted for nothing, really. Because I, Alex Drake, was once... a prostitute."

"Bloody hell." Said one of the men leaning against the car, with dark floppy hair, as opposed to Hunt's blonde.

"I knew it." Said the other one, with tight curls, sniggering. Both had northern accents also.

"There. I said it." Alex said to Hunt. He chuckled to himself, and looked her up and down.

"Christ on a bike." He said.

"Well... that wasn't as bad as I thought it might be." Alex sounded pleased.

"Are you tellin' me that you lied to get into the force?" Hunt asked.

"No, actually." Alex said, finally having had enough. Hunt looked confused.

"Eh?"

"What I just told you was a lie. I said it to show how your preconceptions can inform your judgements about other people, especially prostitutes. Sorry." She didn't sound particularly sorry.

"Sometimes, I hate you, Drake."

Alex laughed slightly. "So I'm not how you expect a prostitute to be. If I said that I'd been raped, you would believe me, but not someone like Trixie, not a woman like that."

"No, not hate... despise." Hunt corrected himself. Alex was beginning to look annoyed.

"All right... so I'm not a hooker. But if I was," Alex began to walk closer to Hunt, "do you know something Gene? You... could never, ever, afford me." Their faces were right up close now, both glaring at each other. Once Gene Hunt started talking, Alex drew back slightly, annoyed and yet showing angry interest in what he said.

"You know, you might talk with a plum in yer gob, love, but I would rather go with one of them," He indicated the prostitutes behind him, "than waste my money on some bitter, twisted, messed up, clench arsed, toffee nosed bitch, like you."

Alex glared, then slapped him right across the face. He recovered, trying to keep calm and regain his stance.

"Do you feel better now?"

"No." Alex said. She then punched him in the face. "Better now."

And she walked away.

I opened my eyes. I was beginning to really not like these visions... as much as they intrigued me, the vividness and reality of them hurt me, because it was like losing my mum all over again after them. I especially didn't like that man, Gene Hunt. He seemed to me to be like a big bully, and very ignorant also.

"I don't know if what I just saw was real, Mum." I eventually said. "But if it was... which it can't be, as it isn't psychologically possible... I'm glad you hit him."

And then, feeling almost proud of my mum, I got up and walked away. When I got home, which didn't take me very long as I was very keen to get well away from that graveyard, Evan was home. He had a few more grey streaks now, and a couple more wrinkles, but other than that he appeared to be the same Evan.

"Happy Birthday, Scrap!" He greeted me, picking me up and swinging me around. "You're getting a big for this, now." It was true, like my mother, I was becoming very tall. He put me down. "You all right? You're very pale."

"I didn't sleep very well." I casually informed him. "Do I have presents?"

"No." He replied, his great attempt at humour. I rolled my eyes and followed him into the living room, where a few neatly wrapped presents were on the coffee table. I smiled slightly and went over to unwrap them. The first was a picture frame with a picture of me and him, in his attempt to make my new bedroom more... bedroom like. The second, some stud earrings, the third, a new iPod, which was awesome, and then finally, a Blackberry.

"I already have one?" I asked, confused.

"The contract was a two year contract, it expires today, so now you have a new one." Evan answered cheerfully.

"What did Evan get you for your birthday, Molls?"

"A Blackberry."

It had been ages since I'd been called Molls. A few tears filled my eyes, which I quickly blinked away. I remembered my promise 'no crying, no stubbornness, and no morbid talk'.

"Thank you." I smiled, and went to hug him.

"I hope you like them?" He asked anxiously.

"Yes. I really do." I smiled at him. I was nearly the same height as him now.

"You become more and more like your mother, everyday."

"I do?" I asked, quite pleased.

"Yes. Next thing you'll be swanning off to do a psychology degree and have to fight off every guy with clever talk."

I had a sudden flashback to the vision I had, where Mum was using her psychology skills to completely own Gene Hunt. I had a sudden thought... maybe Evan would know him? Evan knew everybody.

"Do you know anyone called Gene Hunt?" I asked. Evan frowned at me, looking wary.

"I used to... why?"

"I just heard the name." It wasn't really a lie...

"Where?" Evan demanded.

"Evan!" I protested. He sighed.

"He... was DCI of Fenchurch East when I was younger. I haven't seen him or..." He stopped in his tracks, looking very confused.

"What?" I asked, extremely interested.

"Nothing." He finally said. "Right, let's go for a birthday lunch, shall we? Pizza Express. Go and get ready, Scrap."

The lunch was nice, the afternoon and evening was pleasant, and I even got a birthday card from Dad, with twenty pounds inside! And I felt... okay. Evan bought me the Complete Works of Shakespeare while we were out, which I read for the majority of the evening, and I looked forward to taking in on Monday to school, to show that I read intellectual books such as that.

Blowing out the candles was quite emotional, I must admit. I just remembered Mum's final words to me "We'll blow out the candles together, okay?".

"Hello?" Alex called out. She was alone in the restaurant. She sat down, and she smiled slightly, as though thinking of something pleasant. "I've learnt something here, Molly. Something that I hope you always knew. My mother... loved me. And that love will... keep me going, will make me survive... Don't blow those candles out yet, Molls. I'll find my way home. I promise. I love you. And I will never, ever give up."

"But you didn't come back!" I burst out. Evan looked at me strangely.

"Scrap? Blow the candles out, love."

I looked down at the cake, all fifteen candles burning brightly. I, again, blinked away the tears in my eyes, and blew out the candles.

"Make a wish." He smiled. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on."

"Fine." I glared. I wished that I could see her again. It sounded silly, but I clung onto that wish for a very long time after that. Evan stared at me for a few moments.

"Are you okay, Scrap? Seriously?"

"Yes, I am." I smiled genuinely. I was starting to think I really, really, wasn't, but I was okay with that.

- Okay, so series 1 galore here. I was only going to have one moment, but then I couldn't decide which one, so ended up using four. I wanted to portray that Molly had actually gotten older, whilst still showing that she is the same person... hope I did that okay! I had the most fun writing the Galex moment... I had to choose a bit which showed the chemistry, whilst showing their personalities clashing, and that moment fitted the bill. I hope you're enjoying it thus far... it's all about to become more interesting, especially as Evan seems to remember the DI Drake from his past... being especially similar to the Alex he knew two years ago. -