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.

Comments

[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."