tw: implied sexual coercion

"Curiosity killed the cat, Alex."

Keats' lips curled into a smirk in the silence that followed, something close to amusement in his eyes as he watched her blood run cold. He pushed his hands into his pockets, leaning back against the door, legs crossed at the ankle. "Well, come on then. I'm waiting."

Alex frowned at him. "For…for what?"

Keats threw his head back and laughed – a terrible bark of laughter that made Alex jump. His eyes fixed on her again, glowing with delight. "You'll never get away with this!" he said in a high, trembling voice, mimicking her she presumed. "You can't do this! I'm going to stop you!" His lips settled back into a smirk. "What's wrong? The great, mouthy DI Alex Drake with nothing to say?"

He pushed off from the door, hands still in his pockets as he circled her. He was a vulture, eyeing her like dead meat and Alex could feel herself becoming a carcass, rotting hopeless despair from the inside out. After what felt like an age Keats stopped behind her, too warm breath on the back of her neck, making her shiver in disgust.

"I'm going to win, Alex," he murmured, voice low as though the words were merely the sweet nothings exchanged between lovers across pillows and tangled sheets. "I'm going to beat you. I'm going to beat Gene Hunt. You're going to lose everything."

"I…I already have." The words trembled as they escaped her lips and she took a shaky breath in. "I'm dead."

"Oh now, Alex, let's not be melodramatic." Keats chuckled in her ear and she felt a warm, heavy hand rest on her hip. She tried to shrink from him, lean away from his touch but he only held her in place tighter, lips closer to the juncture of her jaw and neck, hot breath suffocating. She gripped the file tighter.

"You're alive here…very much alive, in fact, and…Well, nobody likes a liar, Alex. You haven't lost everything yet. Is Molly really the only person who matters to you? Is getting home really the only thing that's important?"

Alex swallowed. Keats let go of her hip and circled back round to face her, leaving her skin burning cold through her top where he had touched her.

"What about your team, Alex? What about your life here?" He cocked his head on one side, taunting her. "Your banter with Ray Carling, the developing mutual respect? Your mentoring of Chris Skelton? You've taken him under your wing, Alex. And Shaz, your friendship with her, your girly chats about politics and firemen? I've been watching you, Alex. These people matter to you. You care about them."

He said it as though it was a weakness, a chink in her armour that he could exploit to full advantage. Finally, a smile spread across his face, sticky and sweet. He leant back against the door again, arms crossed.

"And what about Gene Hunt, hm?" The smile turned into a laugh. "Now don't tell me that you don't care about him, that the great Gene Hunt isn't important to you."

Alex opened her mouth, but no denial could come. She steeled herself, drawing her spine straight and taught as she stared Keats down.

"You're not going to hurt him." She swallowed the shake in her voice, the tremble of her tongue as she heard the lie in her own voice. She was holding the evidence of Keats' impeccable planning in her hands. What could she do to stop him? She took a predatory step toward him anyway and hoped her nerves were strong enough.

"You're not going to hurt any of them." She held up the file. "This?" she spat. "This is madness and God help me, Jim Keats, I am going to stop you. I believe in Gene Hunt and despite all his bullshit bravado, the misogyny and the bickering, he believes in me too and you, and your little mastermind scheme, will not tear us apart. You won't tear any of us apart, not this time."

Keats slowly unfolded his arms and appeared to consider her carefully. "That's a pretty speech, Alex."

His next movement was so sudden Alex didn't have time to react. His body weight had her pinned against the back wall of the office in the space of a second, one of his arms worming its way round to the small of her back to work the gun loose from the waistband of her jeans. Her breath caught and there was a clatter as it was sent sliding across the floor, away from her.

Keats smirked, hips holding her in place as he brought his hands up to cradle her face, thumbs grazing her cheeks in a caress that made the bile turn in her stomach. The file had fallen to the floor and she was trapped absolutely, wide amber eyes drowning in the malice of his black ones.

"But that's the thing with you, Alex," he whispered. "You're all talk. You're just like him. You can string a fighting sentence together…" He pushed his body harder into hers so that he could feel every line and angle submissive to his, trapped and squirming. "But can you actually fight?"

"Let me go." The words were nothing more than a terrified whisper.

Keats laughed, moist breath suffocating her as she struggled against him, choking back a sob and feeling her heart thud in her chest.

"What are you going to do to stop me, Alex?" His head tilted to one side once more, eyes roaming her face as though it belonged to him. "What can you really do to stop me?"

When silence greeted his questions, he grinned, showing clean spit between his teeth in the dim light. "You can't do anything, Alex," he crooned, devouring the fear in her eyes and the set of her jaw. "I'm going to take this team down one by one… I am going to shatter them with the truth of who they are, of what they've done, of how Gene Hunt has lied to them… I am going to take their glorified image of Hunt and expose it to the air, watch it corrupt and fade away to nothing and I am going to watch them betray him. I am going to watch them walk out of this door and into my arms and leave him like the snivelling bastard that he is. He was given a job to do, Alex, and he didn't do it. He got too attached, wouldn't let some people go. Sinners have to be punished, Alex."

She hated the way her name slid from his tongue, the two syllables slick and taunting in his mouth.

"And you… I am going to lay you to waste, Alex… I'm going to make Hunt watch you die knowing he can't save you, not this time. And I am going to make sure he goes down for your murder and I am going to watch him fall apart beneath the weight of his guilt, his fury, his desperation for something he never even had because he was too much of a coward – "

"Please…"

The word had escaped Alex as a whimper, tears trembling in the corners of her eyes as she quaked beneath the weight of him and his words, the wall cold and hard at her back.

"Please," she whispered again. "I'll do anything, any…anything you want just…don't do this to him, to them…to all of us. Whatever you want, Keats, I'll do it, just don't ruin him, you can't… he's not your enemy; you're just doing your job. I get it, but please…please…"

A slow, sure smile crept across Keats' face at this, glee lighting up his eyes. "You…you're asking for a bargain? Always reason with you, isn't it? Psychology. You want to cut a deal, Alex?"

She took a moment to consider what she was doing, breath shaking between her lips. After a few seconds, she nodded.

Keats' smirk deepened. "Of course you do," he murmured. "You would do anything to save Gene Hunt and his team, because they saved you… Well this makes my job a lot more…enjoyable."

At the flicker of Alex's frown, he explained, hands still either side of her face, fingertips caressing and sending shudders to her spine.

"You, see, Alex…I am just a pencil-pusher, just doing my job, just following orders like anyone else… Gene Hunt is down to be punished, Alex, and I really do hate rule-breakers, but… I can make all this go away. I can leave Gene Hunt and you and his team alone and go bother the next person on my list. I can lose his file, lose all your files…tell my boss that I don't think anything really needs doing here, that Gene Hunt really isn't doing anyone any harm…"

"What do you want?"

Keats considered her carefully, taking his time to trace his gaze over her face as though examining her for faults. Alex stiffened and squared her jaw as he trailed a finger down to her chin, tilting her face up toward his.

"I think I'll take you," he said quietly.

Alex's eyes widened. "You're sick," she whispered, feeling the bile rise in her throat and her breathing constrict. She could feel him against her now, could see the glittering lust in his eyes and the delight in his smirk. He had her exactly where he wanted her.

"Oh come on, Alex, it won't be so bad…" He trailed a slow finger down the column of her neck, resting it almost gently in the hollow of her collarbone. "One night, Alex. Just one night, and I disappear for good. What do you say?"

She could barely breathe, could barely think beyond the fear eating her from the inside out, the disgust bitter in her mouth and shivering across her skin. His touch made the bile churn in her stomach, made her want him as far away from her as possible.

"I can give you some time to think about it, if you'd like," Keats told her quietly, tracing his finger back up to her chin, "Twenty four hours?"

He stepped back from her, leaving her cold and shaking against the wall, only just able to stand back up straight with wide eyes and a thumping heart.

"I'll give you twenty four hours," he said again, crossing over toward the door and placing his hand on the handle. He sounded like a businessman proposing a deal and nothing more. "Come back then and let me know what you've decided."

Alex gaped at him, frowning. "How-how do you know I won't just tell Gene… I could tell them all, everything, and…"

Keats began laughing again, taking his hand from the door handle. "Oh, Alex, sweetheart. I know you, and I know Gene Hunt. And I know you wouldn't throw away a chance to save him just like that." He levelled his gaze at her. "You're going to come back here tomorrow night and you're going to beg me to spare him."

With that, he opened the door and the cool air from the corridor outside made Alex shiver.

"Twenty four hours, DI Drake," Keats said clearly, gesturing for her to leave.

Alex needed no more prompting, Keats watching her closely as she slid through the doorway. "I'll see you tomorrow evening."

Alex spat at him. "Go to hell."

He smiled. "Oh, Inspector, I'm going to rather enjoy you."

He watched her all the way down the corridor until she disappeared around the corner, heels firm and resolute on the floor tiles even as her hands shook, balled into fists by her side. She slid down to the floor as soon as she was out of sight, gasping for air and breath and an escape and for some other solution that wasn't that – everything, anything but that.

I was so encouraged by all your reviews for the first chapter, and so happy to see I still have a readership! Thank you all so much and please let me know your thoughts.

I also want to say that I hope the trigger warning at the beginnning of this was sufficient for anyone who might not wish to read further...I'm so much more aware now than I was when I was younger of the need to alert people to certain themes, but please do let me know if you think any stronger or different kind of warning needs to be given. It's my responsibility to do that and please do not hesitate to ask.

Eleanor :)

~ all usual disclaimers apply