OOM: Let's fire up the Quattro

[the_gene_genie]

He'd kept a cab waiting, all the better to make a quick exit. He supposes it doesn't really make a difference now though, except the fact that he'd rather they come for him when he's already back in his office and not out here on the street like a scumbag.

She looks knackered. He doesn't say anything but does keep his eyes on her from behind his shades. Seeing her again, alive and awake - he can't articulate to himself how relieved he is. How right this feels, having her back.

But it doesn't stop it being awkward too. Impossible for it not to be, really. He did shoot her.

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[the_gene_genie]

He lets her look without comment, only shifting a little bit under her gaze. Eventually, he has to say something. It's been bugging him the whole time he was away, thinking about this moment.



'...look Bols, abou' that row.

We can forget it, can' we?'

[lady_bols]

Her brow knits, the emotions of that day returning through the haze of her memory. She'd been so livid with him, and he with her.

And in a heartbeat, he'd wiped that all away. None of it mattered anymore.

Her voice is low, barely more than a whisper.

"I didn't lie to you."

It's important to her that he knows that.

[the_gene_genie]

He just looks down on where her where she leans, the bottle suddenly heavy in his hand.

What can he say? That he still thinks it's bollocks but it's OK really, because she's just mental enough to believe it. As long as he accepts her private insanity, then they can function perfectly well.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out her voice recorder. It's been a while since he listened to that last tape and he refuses to dwell on why a lot of it is hazy to him - must be the drinking, he's being doing a lot of that. But he remembers some of it.


'You said a bloke was after you. Why didn' you tell me?'

[lady_bols]

Her gaze shifts to the middle of his chest, and suddenly he's too far away. He's been shouting at her in her dreams for months, angry and scared and lost, and now all she can think about is holding him close.

"I can handle myself. I am a police officer, you know." It's a half-hearted tease.

She keeps tight hold of the lip of the table instead. He hasn't forgiven her. She wonders if he ever will.

"I wanted to tell you, but -- the time was never right."

First Supermac. Then Chris. Then that blonde woman he was so intent on protecting. Tiny's sister. What was her name?

"What happened with Jeanette?"

[the_gene_genie]

He looks down at the ground. He doesn't know if she's asking what happened to her or what happened with her. Knowing Drake, the former seems more likely.

'Couldn't find her. No one would speak t'me. And then I 'ad to come away so I didn't have a chance of gettin' her to say what happened. I 'spect she'll turn up dead somewhere, to be honest.'

He doesn't look like he'd be too upset if that happened.

[lady_bols]

She doesn't have any claim on him as far as that goes. The simple fact resonates in her body, setting up an ache in her head and in her chest. They were unbreakable. What happened?

Her hand drifts out to touch his lapels, but she feels too weak, too shattered to pull him close. He is her strength. She needs to find her way back to him, or she's lost. She knows that know, and the how and the why of it doesn't matter.

"I thought I'd lost you."

[the_gene_genie]

The last time she said that to him, he hadn't known what to say. He has a bit more of an idea this time around, mainly because he's spent the last three months thinking the same thing.

'Thought you'd buggered off an' left us.'

He has to use us. A me would be far too close to the bone.

'An' it hasn't exactly been a barrel of laughs, neither. So don' do it again.'

Got that, Alex?

[lady_bols]

Her lips twitch. Almost a smile.

"I'll try," she says.

There's a long moment as the silence of the garage surrounds them. Ray's words from the bank of televisions in the shop come back to her. He's been on the run, cut off from his team. From his family. And at Christmas, too.

"Where did you go?"

[the_gene_genie]

'Abroad. The Isle of Wight, that was shit. So I tried the Costa Brava. D'you know, it was the best full English I've ever 'ad.'

The bottle's back in his hand. He never wants to think of these last months again.

'Then I thought, why am I running? Gene Hunt doesn' run.'

She's looking up at his face and he can't not be honest.

'I'm in a mess, Bols.'

[lady_bols]

"So am I."

He can see that much.

[the_gene_genie]

'Fightin' for my future.'

It doesn't feel like an overstatement. Things feel like they've changed. He's hoping it's just because the threat of D&C is looming but there's the nagging doubt that it might be more than that.

[lady_bols]

"Me too."

It feels like they've come to the ends of the earth.

[the_gene_genie]

She looks like she's been dragged to the ends of the earth. He's never seen her look so knackered. Maybe he shouldn't have...well. Maybe she's not alright.

'Get up. C'mere.'

He puts the whiskey down and holds out his hand to help her up, kneeling down and pulling up her T-shirt to see the scar.

He did that. He didn't mean to, but he did it. And for the briefest of seconds, he really really wants to kiss it better. That would obviously be a bad idea so he just straightens, drops her shirt and rubs over it a little, as if he could make it vanish.

'I'm sorry. I could've hit me target bu' you fell all wrong.'

[lady_bols]

He kneels in front of her and just a flash of sunlight catches his hair. It's gone golden, she thinks. From his time in Spain?

He lifts up her shirt, and her breath catches. There's a flash of pain, not in her side, but behind her eyes. She hears the gunshot (which? his? Or Layton's?) and the world dissolves into that same blinding white light for a moment. She thinks she sees the clock, ticking over. 9:06

And then he's standing again, touching her side, bashful, apologising. Sort of.

She chuffs a laugh, smiling up at him, appreciating the attempt.

"Sometimes in life, you can't help which way you fall."

The words twist in her mouth, and she feels the real truth behind them.

[the_gene_genie]

He looks at her, square on. And feels so much better, just because she's here, where she belongs. Things might not be perfect and the past can't be changed but they've got what they've got and it's better than nothing.

'You do know, when I walk through those doors they're gonna come for me.'

And he wasn't going to walk through them without her.

[lady_bols]

"Yeah."

She holds his gaze for just another moment. Maybe that's what she's here for. Maybe this world is giving her a chance to save him. With that thought in mind, she feels her strength beginning to return.

"Well there's only one thing for it."

She picks up the bottle.

"Let's fire up the Quattro."