OOM: Room 6620

[the_gene_genie]

He's never really been one for sitting alone with his thoughts - to be honest, there aren't that many occasions that call for it. He tends to be confident in his actions and decisions and give little mind to his failings or mistakes.

This mood that Saffron put him in though, is actually more normal. And he'd defy any copper to deny they felt the same way, at times. It's a thankless job they do and a never ending one as well. Everyone copes with it in different ways. Gene's way, tonight, is to drink and then drink some more, shifting around the room as various parts of his body complain from his recent excursions.

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[the_gene_genie]

'Bollocks,' he says, his face just as resolutely determined.

It has to be bollocks. He pulls his head back, away from her ministrations.

'Stop fussin', woman, I ain't a ponce. An' then tell me why I'd ask you to spend Christmas wi' me.'

His expression turns suspicious.

'Are we shaggin'? You feelin' the magic brush of th' Gene Genie's wand, eh?'

[lady_bols]

She scoffs again. Sam didn't exaggerate much, did he? "You're not a ponce but neither are you bulletproof. And if you don't ice that ruddy thick slab of granite you call a skull, my guess is that it'll take twice as long to heal. You'll go stir crazy long before then, staring at these four walls, waiting to go back, and if you go back before it's healed, you'll have no reasonable explanation for such severe injuries."

That said, and the ice pack reapplied to the side of his face, her tone gentles somewhat. "You took me to Manchester because you didn't want me to spend Christmas alone, and because I'm your DI, you felt -- well, I don't know what you felt, honestly. But it was a lovely holiday, and your mum is a fantastic cook."

There's a genuine affection in her voice for Betty, and she blinks several times, looking back to the glass he poured for her. She drifts away from him, back to the drink which disappears in a few long swallows.

[the_gene_genie]

Gene pouts but lets her put the ice back on his head and holds it there. She has a point and he's not stupid. He does want to get back home sooner rather than later.

'Wouldn' ask Sam to me mam's for Christmas, an' he's on his own. How long we been workin' together?'

He wonders what the look on her face is about but doesn't really feel he can ask. There's obviously something more to this than she's saying though, every instinct is screaming it at him.

[lady_bols]

"Yes, well, Sam didn't watch ... " She lets that thought trail off, sighing with exasperation.

She turns back and gives him a long look. "A little less than a year. And we'd had a case just weeks before -- it turned out just as awful as anything I'd ever seen. Car bomb. Left a twelve year old girl orphaned, and her godfather having to suppress her father's murder-suicide confession from evidence. He didn't want the girl to know what her father had done. That he'd intended to murder her as well."

Alex's voice breaks and she lowers her gaze to her drink. "It hit me hard. And I suppose you took pity on me."

She didn't feel like it was pity at the time, but it's so much easier to put into words.

[the_gene_genie]

Hmmm.

'Was her name Alex, by any chance?'

He thinks he's held the icepack to his head for as long as is polite, so it gets chucked on to the table to free up his hand for his Scotch.

'She came in 'ere a week or so ago. She knew who I was bu' I'd never seen her before in me life. Her parents 'ad been killed in a bomb.'

And it's bloody depressing to hear that it was the father that did it.

[lady_bols]

Fine, be a stubborn arse with a head ache, she bites in her head.

"Yes. Alex Price. She was here?" That seems peculiar. She doesn't really recall having ever come to the bar until just before she was shot.

Her eyebrow quirks a bemused question. "She called you the Gene Genie, did she? Melted that cynical copper's heart, straight away I'd wager."

She brings her glass back and thunks it down on the table before him, clearing asking for another refill. The wobble is back in her step. "You did a lot for her that day."

[the_gene_genie]

He crosses his arms decisively.

'Know 'er, do ya?'

Melted heart, his arse.

'I prob'ly did what any good copper would've done.'

It obviously had meant a lot to her, whatever it was. But he's not one to sit around listening to compliments - at least, not when he's in a situation he's not all that comfortable with.

[lady_bols]

Yeah, you go right on believing that. I know you. I watched you destroy that tape just to spare the feelings of a little girl.

"You did your duty. Now are you going to pour me another or have you joined the Temperance Brigade?"

[the_gene_genie]

He rolls his eyes and reaches for the Scotch, all sharp, abrupt movement that speaks of frustration, or annoyance.

'Looks like you might've 'ad enough.'

The measure he pours is still pretty large though.

[lady_bols]

She laughs again, a sound rich and full, tinged with a delicious irony.

"What are, my mother now?"

She takes her glass and settles back onto the bed with a boneless grace, resting it on her thigh. (Blue jeans, painted on to ample hips and strong thighs, tapered down to her ankles, black socks with little white polka dots on them.)

"You know, Guv. You may not believe it, but you trust me. We're -- you're one of the best friends I've ever had."

Maybe it's the alcohol that's making her speak the truth of the matter. Maybe it's that this isn't her Gene, and he doesn't know her, can't see all the little ways in which he's got well and truly under her skin. Maybe it's that he's the one that's leaving this time.

[the_gene_genie]

'Gene Hunt is not friends with girls. I'd drown under all th' hormones.'

He's still trying to get used to the idea of a female DI, full stop.

'What am I doin' in London, anyway?'

This is the question that's been eating him up whenever he thinks on it.

[lady_bols]

That makes her brow furrow. (She'll ignore the other. She knows the truth.)

"You're doing the same thing you were in Manchester. Driving like a maniac, banging heads, foiling blags, putting scum behind bars." There's a hesitation, but just a momentary one.

"Fighting the worst of police corruption. Drinking the bar dry every night. Lather rinse repeat."

[the_gene_genie]

She presents a nice view, lying there like that. He can't imagine his older self not wanting to shag her - hell, he wants to shag her now - so it's weird to him that she says they're not. Unless she's not interested. It wouldn't surprise him, posh as she is. But if they're friends then she must like him at least, so why not?

'I'm bloody glad t'hear it.'

It does seem likely, he has to admit. He can't imagine himself changing that much. But he refuses to think about police corruption. He's had quite enough of that recently, more than enough for a lifetime.

'You don' strike me as someone who I'd have all tha' much in common with. 'Cept the job.'

He's still rather stuck on the concept of them being friends.

[lady_bols]

"Well, that's all there is, isn't there." Her eyes take on a distant stare.

"The neverending tide of shit, of bodies broken and used up by someone else's greed or hubris or worse, their heartless boredom. Good decent people who never get a break because the predators are always circling, and only us to keep them at bay. Or worse, only there in time to pick up the pieces, and hopefully figure out how to put the bastards responsible away so they can't hurt anyone else. A job made all the more difficult by the greedy and bent among us."

She takes a long drink, again. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[the_gene_genie]

'...you're a cheerful bugger, ain't you?'

But he's quite freaked out by the way her words mirror his thoughts from a few hours ago. Maybe they do have a bit in common after all.

'There's more t'life than workin', Drake. Gotta 'ave room for some fun as well.'

He's looking down at his glass as he says it, like he's not sure it's true. He has fun while he works. He also likes going to the football and the pub and clubs and on holiday. But he's never as truly alive as when he's chasing down some bastard and smashing their face into a cell wall.

[lady_bols]

She finishes her drink and stretches back on the bed again, looking across at him. Her tone is somewhat bemused, somewhat affectionate, and yes, as always, somewhat exasperated.

"You know, I'd consider that once. Fun. But then I found out my boss was a right terror, who has no compunction about knocking on my door at all hours, and dragging me out of bed to help pull bodies out of the canal. And if he's not doing that, he's keeping me up all night going over financial records and filling flip chart after flip chart with known associations and snouts and odd relations who might owe him a favour or two."

"If you ask me, he's the one who works too hard." That is definitely a tease, as her Gene has many times been the one to bugger off to the pub before she did.

[the_gene_genie]

Gene...quite frankly, looks horrified.

'...soun's like a righ' twat.'

What the hell happens to him over the next few years? Because what she describes couldn't be further from his personality. Well...OK, he's woken Sam up in the night to pull bodies out of the canal because that's hardly his fault, he doesn't control what time they're discovered. But financial records?

'Wha's a 'flip chart' when it's at home?'

This may not be a serious question.

[lady_bols]

Her body language tenses. "He's a brilliant detective."

And yes, her tone is obsidian sharp. Or at least as sharp as can be when she's this tipsy.

"He's -- just..." Better to answer the other question.

"It's a --" She waves a hand. "Paper. Large sheets of paper on a pad. For taking notes that the whole room can read."

[the_gene_genie]

Oh God. It just gets worse and worse. Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned blackboard? Always good for a giggle, that, seeing who could come up with the best doodle to annoy the WPC's in the morning.

There are far more important matters to deal with though. He leans forward, giving her the sort of penetrating stare she should be very used to by now.

'Where's Sam?'

[lady_bols]

Alex meets that gaze for a long time. This is by far a different man than the one who carried her up the stairs to CID on that first day. Just looking at this man makes her miss him. Makes her miss all the little things, all the understandings they've come to, all the things they don't have to say, they just know.

The corner of her mouth twitches, and it's a sad smile that settles eventually.

"Sam got married."

It's not an answer. She knows it's not an answer. But she doesn't want this Gene to hate her, too. At least, not for things she has no control over. (Her name is Molly.)

[the_gene_genie]

'Married.'

Oh. Well. That's perfectly acceptable.

'...that girl.'

Of course, it doesn't explain why he...or maybe it does. Maybe his wife doesn't want to move to London. Maybe...bloody hell, maybe Sam gets his job.

Nightmare. He doesn't want to think about it. And he's still staring at Alex that way.

'An' my wife?'

[lady_bols]

Here, Gene. Have another slice won't you? Take two, they're small.

She sighs, closes her eyes and rolls to her back again.

"You never talk about your wife."

[the_gene_genie]

'Mmm.'

He sits back. He doesn't talk about his wife even now. Hardly ever. It's not what men do. So this is, actually, a reassuring answer. There's nothing in it to suggest she's not around, there's no hint that he's not married. It doesn't answer any questions either but it's certainly not bad news.

'Wan' another drink?'

He's perked up a bit now, hearing that. The future doesn't look quite so bizarre. He might even ask the bar to let him see what a flip chart looks like so he can properly understand what she was on about.

[lady_bols]

Alex waves a hand from the bed. Her empty glass is on the bedside table. And the bed is soft, the room warm from their body heat.

And he hasn't once called her Bolly, or Bols, or Mrs. Woman. All the little things she usually thinks are annoying, and why the hell doesn't he just use her name? Well, today. She misses them.

When did her real name become Bollykecks? When did that happen?

How will she deal with that back in 2008? When everyone calls her Mum, or DI Drake, or that poncy little sneer that Evan can wrap around her first name, like he could apologise for all his transgressions and still be her father figure in the same breath. She closes her eyes even tighter, trying to remember the sound of his voice calling her from his office, demanding she drop whatever it was she was doing and attend him right this instant. 'Bolly!' When did that become so -- important to her?

She doesn't even notice how hard she's biting her lower lip.

[the_gene_genie]

He's reaching for the bottle again, all ready to cheer up with this new information and then he sees her face.

'...if you're gonna chuck, bog's that way.'