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[oom] 1x06 Making Connections
Sometimes I feel I've got to run away...
She's tossing and turning again, red sheets tangled around her. Her body is heavy, thick with fatigue, and still the dreams come. A projector flickers to life somewhere behind her, the grainy image of her child self struggling with a Rubik's Cube.
"I remember this. I remember it..."
Molly watches from somewhere over her shoulder, watches child Alex work through the problem with her mother's encouragement. But Alex can't remember where she got the Rubik's Cube. A sheen of hoary frost creeps up the duvet, and her breath fogs in the air.
"Why can't I remember? This is like -- I'm not making connections. This is like I'm dying."
The bullet swims through the air at her, and she's falling, tumbling through open space, the sheets flapping around her in the wind, her hands grabbing at thin air, trying to find something to hold on to. There is no up and no down, no right way to come down.
She feels herself land in her own bed, feels the force of gravity reassert itself.
But she's not alone. There's a body in the bed beside her, shifting the gravity towards the centre. She turns to look as the figure pulls the sheet back but before she can see their face, the Guv's fists slam down on her desk, startling her awake.
"You wanna sleep on the job, join the Fire Brigade. Y'look as rough as a badger's arse."
She feels it too, but it doesn't matter. There's a tip to be tracked down. Into the Quattro and off after the blaggers. Two shotgun wielding bastards on a motorbike, faces covered with bandanas like old-fashioned banditos. She put one hand on the dash to steady herself.
It was going to be a long day, she could tell already.
~~~
It's a chill autumn morning and she does feel rough, unable to get warm. The frost from her dream clings to her bones, even as they interview the shop keeper.
The Guv is just in a right mood. But even still, he asks her advice, and seems willing to listen until the lads come up with some strange bit of testimony.
"Chaz Kale."
Off they go again, trailing in his wake. She keeps rubbing her hands together, and she can feel him watching her with concern.
Suck it up, Bolly. Soldier on.
~~~
Chaz Kale, it turned out, was an old nemesis of DCI Hunt's. The Guv was practically vibrating at the possibility of getting him on this charge. So they pulled him in for questioning. Turns out Chaz Kale was an epileptic, prone to violent seizures brought on by stress and adrenaline. His wife was viciously adamant that there was no way he could have had anything to do with this robbery. She almost flat out accused them of trying to set Mr. Kale up.
Alex wasn't buying it. Something about it seemed dodgy, and she was convinced he knew more than he was telling. Kale's body language virtually screamed guilt.
The news about Kale's health hit the Guv hard. She watched him waiver, challenged him to trust his gut instinct (and was that a moment ripe with irony). He fought her on the point, with the savage intensity of a wounded beast. And then he gave her some bollocks about knowing when to call it a day. And pissed off to the pub in the middle of the afternoon.
~~~
Her hands were freezing, even wrapped around a mug of tea.
"The tiny part of the brain that controls the temperature is on the blink. Why would that be?"
A series of images flash through her mind, the bullet spiralling towards her. The fireball of her parents car.
She's dying.
"At least this time, I can say goodbye."
~~~
Alex finds Caroline Price at home, and tries to explain that she's going away, tries to explain why it's so important to her to come and say goodbye. She breaks down in tears, trying to explain to her mother about her daughter, trying to fit a life time's worth of loss and emotion into a few succinct sentences.
Of course, Caroline is in a rush to get to the airport, so she doesn't have time to listen to Alex natter on. Her parting words to Alex are curt, but not unkind.
"Maybe it's time you took control."
~~~
Solve the case.
She can do that. She returns to the office with a vengeance, and within three minutes, has dispatched the lads to the pubs around where the robbery occurred, and nicked the Guv's car keys.
She pitches the Rubik's Cube in the dash of his car. Let him stew if he likes. She's going to do some old-fashioned police work.
The bins at the restaurant are foul. Which means the inside of the car smells foul. Just like the Guv's mood when she returns to CID and he gets a whiff of her evidence.
Off the team. Yeah, whatever.
~~~
She can't focus, and her limbs feel thick with icy lead. Shaz takes her home and she goes to bed, not even bothering to take her jacket off. She feels like the whole thing is slipping away so fast, she can't even begin to catch up.
"Mols? Molly, I wanted to talk to you. Because -- I don't think that I'm going to be able to get back to you." The tears come, and it feels like there's an anvil on her chest. "And uh, I wanted to say goodbye. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry so sorry."
She's shivering now, her body fighting against the cold, but she knows it's no use.
"It's ending here. I'm dying."
~~~
She sleeps. And dreams. Of the case and of the white clown, coming for her. The vision tears her awake and she stumbles out to the living room, resting her forehead against the calendar. A parade of red X's mark off the days until her parent's death, and there's still a few weeks to go.
"Can't go yet. It's too soon."
She falls asleep on the sofa, dreaming of falling, tumbling in space, tangled in red sheets, landing beside that figure again. A male figure. Before she can see his face, she's woken up by a pounding like to bring the rafters down. She opens the door to the sight of one DCI Gene Hunt, mumbling on about explaining to Luigi why he's drinking alone. But only until he gets sight of her.
"Look at me. You got the Lurgy, you 'ave. I know what you need. Come on."
She goes. (He feels real.)
~~~
Of course, they're fighting again inside five minutes. But she feels better, hands wrapped around a hot toddy and his coat around her shoulders. For the first time, she can feel the warmth moving into her blood and into her body.
Chris phones the trattoria and they're off again, questioning a suspect.
She never expected Donny. The young boy looked up to his uncle, loved him, that much was clear. But the older boy, Billy, he was a shifty bastard, using his young charge as an alibi.
Nothing for it. The bin bags were their next best hope.
~~~
The call came in half an hour later.
Billy had been shot in the back of the head while young Donny watched from the car. And on the boy's birthday as well.
She doesn't have any sense of triumph when the boy shows her the bag of cash and the Krishna statue from Mr. Chaturgy's post office.
He's only eight.
She thinks this place might be Hell.
~~~
The Guv takes them back to Luigi's for an impromptu birthday party. He's surprisingly good with kids. She's too tired to analyse that just now.
The mention of birthday candles makes her heart ache, and the chill returns.
Donny tells them his uncle lied about his alibi, and describes his uncle on the dirt bike, right down to the colour of his helmet. This sends the Guv back to the station, leaving her alone with the boy. Donny tried to cheer her up.
"Come on. Raise a glass and say Chaz. Come on, Chaz!"
"Why are you saying that?"
"It's wha' you say when someone gives you a drink. You say it."
"No no no, I say 'Cheers'."
"Yeah, 'cause I'm sayin' it how Billy says it. Like when 'e gave a high five to the man on the bike. Said Chaz. And on the phone tonight. Chaz!"
She leaves him with Caroline Price and goes to confront the Kale's in the restaurant, by herself.
Not the wisest thing she's ever done, but she's too thrilled that she's making connections, solving the case. She's not thinking straight.
~~~
She screams as they drag her into the freezer. Screams at the top of her lungs.
No one hears her. No one is coming.
She feels like all the colour is seeping out of the world, taking with it all the heat.
She focuses on the red balloon. The heat from the explosion. The ball of fire rising towards the pristine blue sky.
She sees his face.
~~~
She opened her eyes and felt the heat of his body above her. He'd found her, resuscitated her. Still, her hand fell on his cheek and she fell into those grey blue eyes.
"I worked it out. I made the connections, and I solved it. And you saved me. And if you saved me, maybe I can save them."
"Yeah, I think it's called concussion."
~~~
Shaz takes care of her head wound back at the station, and they all sit around discussing how the case wrapped up. Real team work. She's proud of them all.
He makes another playful pass at her in the corridor on the way out of the station. She hears herself fobbing him off again, almost by rote now.
Evan shows up with Donny, and the Rubik's Cube. Another connection made. They're off to see Donny's mum and his new baby brother, and Evan seems to want to see her home.
So she makes her apologies to DCI Hunt, and turns to leave.
A flash of red, the sensation of falling surrounds her for a brief moment, and she sees the figure beside her in bed, pulling the sheet back. A flush of warmth rises in her cheeks, like standing in a ray of sunlight.
It's Gene she was dreaming about.
When she turns back, he's gone.
And she tells herself, it's just a dream.
She's tossing and turning again, red sheets tangled around her. Her body is heavy, thick with fatigue, and still the dreams come. A projector flickers to life somewhere behind her, the grainy image of her child self struggling with a Rubik's Cube.
"I remember this. I remember it..."
Molly watches from somewhere over her shoulder, watches child Alex work through the problem with her mother's encouragement. But Alex can't remember where she got the Rubik's Cube. A sheen of hoary frost creeps up the duvet, and her breath fogs in the air.
"Why can't I remember? This is like -- I'm not making connections. This is like I'm dying."
The bullet swims through the air at her, and she's falling, tumbling through open space, the sheets flapping around her in the wind, her hands grabbing at thin air, trying to find something to hold on to. There is no up and no down, no right way to come down.
She feels herself land in her own bed, feels the force of gravity reassert itself.
But she's not alone. There's a body in the bed beside her, shifting the gravity towards the centre. She turns to look as the figure pulls the sheet back but before she can see their face, the Guv's fists slam down on her desk, startling her awake.
"You wanna sleep on the job, join the Fire Brigade. Y'look as rough as a badger's arse."
She feels it too, but it doesn't matter. There's a tip to be tracked down. Into the Quattro and off after the blaggers. Two shotgun wielding bastards on a motorbike, faces covered with bandanas like old-fashioned banditos. She put one hand on the dash to steady herself.
It was going to be a long day, she could tell already.
~~~
It's a chill autumn morning and she does feel rough, unable to get warm. The frost from her dream clings to her bones, even as they interview the shop keeper.
The Guv is just in a right mood. But even still, he asks her advice, and seems willing to listen until the lads come up with some strange bit of testimony.
"Chaz Kale."
Off they go again, trailing in his wake. She keeps rubbing her hands together, and she can feel him watching her with concern.
Suck it up, Bolly. Soldier on.
~~~
Chaz Kale, it turned out, was an old nemesis of DCI Hunt's. The Guv was practically vibrating at the possibility of getting him on this charge. So they pulled him in for questioning. Turns out Chaz Kale was an epileptic, prone to violent seizures brought on by stress and adrenaline. His wife was viciously adamant that there was no way he could have had anything to do with this robbery. She almost flat out accused them of trying to set Mr. Kale up.
Alex wasn't buying it. Something about it seemed dodgy, and she was convinced he knew more than he was telling. Kale's body language virtually screamed guilt.
The news about Kale's health hit the Guv hard. She watched him waiver, challenged him to trust his gut instinct (and was that a moment ripe with irony). He fought her on the point, with the savage intensity of a wounded beast. And then he gave her some bollocks about knowing when to call it a day. And pissed off to the pub in the middle of the afternoon.
~~~
Her hands were freezing, even wrapped around a mug of tea.
"The tiny part of the brain that controls the temperature is on the blink. Why would that be?"
A series of images flash through her mind, the bullet spiralling towards her. The fireball of her parents car.
She's dying.
"At least this time, I can say goodbye."
~~~
Alex finds Caroline Price at home, and tries to explain that she's going away, tries to explain why it's so important to her to come and say goodbye. She breaks down in tears, trying to explain to her mother about her daughter, trying to fit a life time's worth of loss and emotion into a few succinct sentences.
Of course, Caroline is in a rush to get to the airport, so she doesn't have time to listen to Alex natter on. Her parting words to Alex are curt, but not unkind.
"Maybe it's time you took control."
~~~
Solve the case.
She can do that. She returns to the office with a vengeance, and within three minutes, has dispatched the lads to the pubs around where the robbery occurred, and nicked the Guv's car keys.
She pitches the Rubik's Cube in the dash of his car. Let him stew if he likes. She's going to do some old-fashioned police work.
The bins at the restaurant are foul. Which means the inside of the car smells foul. Just like the Guv's mood when she returns to CID and he gets a whiff of her evidence.
Off the team. Yeah, whatever.
~~~
She can't focus, and her limbs feel thick with icy lead. Shaz takes her home and she goes to bed, not even bothering to take her jacket off. She feels like the whole thing is slipping away so fast, she can't even begin to catch up.
"Mols? Molly, I wanted to talk to you. Because -- I don't think that I'm going to be able to get back to you." The tears come, and it feels like there's an anvil on her chest. "And uh, I wanted to say goodbye. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry so sorry."
She's shivering now, her body fighting against the cold, but she knows it's no use.
"It's ending here. I'm dying."
~~~
She sleeps. And dreams. Of the case and of the white clown, coming for her. The vision tears her awake and she stumbles out to the living room, resting her forehead against the calendar. A parade of red X's mark off the days until her parent's death, and there's still a few weeks to go.
"Can't go yet. It's too soon."
She falls asleep on the sofa, dreaming of falling, tumbling in space, tangled in red sheets, landing beside that figure again. A male figure. Before she can see his face, she's woken up by a pounding like to bring the rafters down. She opens the door to the sight of one DCI Gene Hunt, mumbling on about explaining to Luigi why he's drinking alone. But only until he gets sight of her.
"Look at me. You got the Lurgy, you 'ave. I know what you need. Come on."
She goes. (He feels real.)
~~~
Of course, they're fighting again inside five minutes. But she feels better, hands wrapped around a hot toddy and his coat around her shoulders. For the first time, she can feel the warmth moving into her blood and into her body.
Chris phones the trattoria and they're off again, questioning a suspect.
She never expected Donny. The young boy looked up to his uncle, loved him, that much was clear. But the older boy, Billy, he was a shifty bastard, using his young charge as an alibi.
Nothing for it. The bin bags were their next best hope.
~~~
The call came in half an hour later.
Billy had been shot in the back of the head while young Donny watched from the car. And on the boy's birthday as well.
She doesn't have any sense of triumph when the boy shows her the bag of cash and the Krishna statue from Mr. Chaturgy's post office.
He's only eight.
She thinks this place might be Hell.
~~~
The Guv takes them back to Luigi's for an impromptu birthday party. He's surprisingly good with kids. She's too tired to analyse that just now.
The mention of birthday candles makes her heart ache, and the chill returns.
Donny tells them his uncle lied about his alibi, and describes his uncle on the dirt bike, right down to the colour of his helmet. This sends the Guv back to the station, leaving her alone with the boy. Donny tried to cheer her up.
"Come on. Raise a glass and say Chaz. Come on, Chaz!"
"Why are you saying that?"
"It's wha' you say when someone gives you a drink. You say it."
"No no no, I say 'Cheers'."
"Yeah, 'cause I'm sayin' it how Billy says it. Like when 'e gave a high five to the man on the bike. Said Chaz. And on the phone tonight. Chaz!"
She leaves him with Caroline Price and goes to confront the Kale's in the restaurant, by herself.
Not the wisest thing she's ever done, but she's too thrilled that she's making connections, solving the case. She's not thinking straight.
~~~
She screams as they drag her into the freezer. Screams at the top of her lungs.
No one hears her. No one is coming.
She feels like all the colour is seeping out of the world, taking with it all the heat.
She focuses on the red balloon. The heat from the explosion. The ball of fire rising towards the pristine blue sky.
She sees his face.
~~~
She opened her eyes and felt the heat of his body above her. He'd found her, resuscitated her. Still, her hand fell on his cheek and she fell into those grey blue eyes.
"I worked it out. I made the connections, and I solved it. And you saved me. And if you saved me, maybe I can save them."
"Yeah, I think it's called concussion."
~~~
Shaz takes care of her head wound back at the station, and they all sit around discussing how the case wrapped up. Real team work. She's proud of them all.
He makes another playful pass at her in the corridor on the way out of the station. She hears herself fobbing him off again, almost by rote now.
Evan shows up with Donny, and the Rubik's Cube. Another connection made. They're off to see Donny's mum and his new baby brother, and Evan seems to want to see her home.
So she makes her apologies to DCI Hunt, and turns to leave.
A flash of red, the sensation of falling surrounds her for a brief moment, and she sees the figure beside her in bed, pulling the sheet back. A flush of warmth rises in her cheeks, like standing in a ray of sunlight.
It's Gene she was dreaming about.
When she turns back, he's gone.
And she tells herself, it's just a dream.