"Ah, finally. I was beginning to think you'd run out on me, Alex."

Alex swallowed, quietly shutting the door to Keats' office behind her. She met his gaze with cold, hard eyes, the line of her lips and jaw rigid.

From his seat behind his desk, Keats gestured toward the chair across from him and smiled. "Where are my manners? Please, take a seat."

"I'm not here to talk pleasantries with you. I'm here to…" Here Alex faltered, her tongue struggling to wrap around her teeth to form the words. She curled her hands into fists and remembered the look of ashen defeat on Gene's face, the discordant silence of her team. "I'm here to agree to your terms."

Keats' smile split into a grin, eyes brightening. "Ah, wonderful. In that case, you really better take a seat, Alex. We need a chat first, just to make sure we're both clear on…everything."

Narrowing her eyes, Alex moved cautiously toward the chair. She pulled it a little away before sitting down. "I really don't know what there is to discuss about – "

Keats' lips had curled into a smirk, a malicious curve that Alex felt would always haunt her worst nightmares. The dim lighting of his office darkened his eyes and she felt, suddenly, very small, surrounded by clutter and filing cabinets and every secret that could tear this world apart.

"About me fucking you?" The word sounded vile in his mouth, the flash of excitement in his eyes causing Alex to tighten her grip on the edges of her chair. "Unfortunately," he drawled, opening a drawer in his desk and pulling out a sheet of thick, cream paper, "there are indeed a few things we need to discuss before we can… get on, shall we say?"

"You make me sick." The repulsed words seethed from between Alex's lips almost without her ordering them to. She gripped her chair tighter, eyes moving from the paper to Keats' face.

He merely raised a single eyebrow. "So you've said. I think I'll live, somehow." Pushing the paper over toward her, he picked up a heavy fountain pen and placed it in the middle of the desk. "A binding contract of our agreement, defining the terms of our exchange and ensuring the…" here, Keats cleared his throat, "full cooperation of each party. It already bears my signature; you just need to sign at the bottom."

Alex lowered her narrowed gaze to the paper, reading carefully. To her frustration, she couldn't fault it. It explained, in full and binding terms, that Keats would cease his mission to discipline Gene Hunt, would leave all of them, individually and collectively, alone, and would never return to bother them again or allow any other member of his department to seek them out. Their 'files' would be lost, disregarded and ignored. Gene Hunt's behaviour would be pardoned. They could all, each of them, carry on oblivious of the true nature of this world, of how they had died. No-one would be hurt. No-one would be killed. Gene Hunt would not have to watch his team lose faith in him, would not watch her die before his eyes and have the gun placed in his hands. Everything would be as it was. All she had to do was sign on the line.

"Sometime before midnight might be nice, Alex." Keats chuckled. "I believe I am on a promise, after all."

Glaring at him, Alex picked up the fountain pen and uncapped it viciously. "Go to hell," she spat, scrawling her name at the bottom of the contract.

Laughing again, Keats collected back the contract and pen. "Oh sweet, sweet irony." He stood, removing his coat from the back of his chair. "Shall we?"

A frown flickered across Alex's face. "Wh…where are we going?"

"We're – " Realisation dawned on Keats' face, an amused shadow darkening his eyes as he smirked down at her. "Oh. You thought, I suppose, that we'd be staying here?" He leant forwards onto the desk, looming over her with a glittering joy in his eyes, voice dark and amused. "You thought I was just going to fuck you over this desk and have done with it, didn't you, Alex?"

Slowly, the smirk twisted into a grin and he laughed the same horrible bark of laughter that made Alex's spine shiver. "Or…perhaps you hoped? A fantasy you have often involving Hunt, I presume?"

Alex started forward, hands fisting in the lapels of his jacket as she shoved him back across the desk, rage burning in her eyes, heart thundering against her ribcage. "You repulse me," she seethed, glaring into the pits of his eyes. "At least he would never have to blackmail me to get me into his bed."

Keats was unshaken. He only smiled, holding two hands up in surrender and righting his jacket as Alex released him with a shove. "I'm sure."

Crossing over to the door, he opened it wide and gestured for her to precede him out into the corridor. "Now, shall we? After all, as we've already established, I do have somewhere else to be once our little business deal has been…fulfilled."

.

He had directed her to her flat, and now Alex was shaking inside, mouth dry and stale as she looked around. The lights had been dimmed, there were candles on the windowsill and the bed had been made up with new sheets. She rounded on Keats.

"Not here," she said, the syllables dry and brittle in her mouth. "This is my home, this is – "

"Very cosy," Keats finished for her, shrugging off his coat and dropping it onto the sofa without a care. "It's lovely, Alex, truly. I took the liberty of adding a few things to improve the atmosphere. Thought they might make things… more intimate."

Alex could almost feel her flesh curling away from the bone beneath her skin as she shivered. She felt cold everywhere, pulse erratic in her veins as he moved toward her. Her back hit the wall.

"This isn't intimate," she hissed at him, trying to keep her breaths steady. "This isn't romantic, or charming, or anything remotely meaningful. This is just business, and you're just scum."

Keats seemed to close in around her, hands resting against the wall either side of her shoulders as he looked down at her. "You're such a fighter, Alex," he murmured, moving his right hand to cup her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. Trailing a finger down her neck, exploring, he hemmed her in closer to the wall. "Always so strong, so defiant… You know that's my favourite thing about you? I think it might be Hunt's as well."

The words escaped Alex as a gasp before she could restrain them. "Don't say his name. Don't – don't you dare mention him."

Keats only raised an eyebrow, smirk deepening the curve of his mouth as his hand moved to slip her blouse from one shoulder. Dropping his head, his lips explored the newly exposed skin there. They were too hot, too cloying and Alex screwed her eyes shut, clenching her fists as she willed herself not to squirm away. She felt the bile churn in her stomach as he scraped his teeth along her collarbone.

"That's fine by me, Alex," Keats whispered finally into her ear, fingers toying with the buttons of her blouse. "You and me…just good business."

Alex swallowed, trying hard not to gulp back her revulsion. She opened her eyes and wished she had kept them closed upon seeing the look of triumph and anticipation in Keats' eyes. "Just good business," she agreed, voice shaking.

Keats grinned and turned her, grip tight on her hips as he pushed her toward the bedroom, breath hot and heavy against the back of her neck. "Just look at you now, Alex… doing deals with the devil."

*shudders* I actually really dislike writing Keats, he makes me feel all ew, so I'm happy to say he won't be in the rest of the story per se... Please let me know your thoughts, good or bad, and I should have the next installment up pretty soon.

Eleanor :)

~ all usual disclaimers apply