![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[oom] 2x02 I Thought I'd Lost You
(female, bullet wound to the head)
There's a young girl standing in the hall way of CID, her long hair obscuring her face. She's supposed to know this girl but she can't remember from where.
(pupils fixed and dilated).
She's in a school uniform and she turns to look over her shoulder at Alex.
"Molly?"
(press 10 millilitres)
She can't remember her face. She can't remember what's happening, why she keeps hearing the voices. It's like a waking dream. The world lurches beneath her feet and she's pounding on the door to interview one. Someone is calling her name.
(come on, Alex. breathe.)
She has to get home. Before she forgets herself entirely.
~~~
Operation Burning Ring. Jed Whitlow pulled a runner and of course, the Guv gave chase, like a lurcher on a hare, running him to ground. Alex could see the man's head nodding, could see that he was clearly intoxicated, but he kept driving, and the crash at the end was inevitable.
If only DCI Hunt hadn't seen fit to ram the car.
Again, SuperMac swept into the office, touting the straight line. Something about him made her skin crawl. Funny thing. If occurs to her later that if he hadn't made such a deal about it, if he hadn't insisted on manufacturing a press-worthy explanation for the crash, she might have let it go.
She confronted SuperMac about Kevin Hales in the hallway outside CID, and he shunted her off on Hunt. Hunt took her interest as a personal insult, and she told him in no uncertain terms just what she thought of his new found loyalties.
She couldn't believe Gene was going to stand by and let this happen. Again.
(He couldn't be bent. Not her DCI. Not him.)
~~~
The man's family have taken the body. As in, absconded with, before a proper autopsy could be done. She doesn't believe what she's hearing from Gene's mouth.
"Body vanishes, so does the inquiry."
She appoints WPC Granger as Romany liaison officer. And tells the Guv she's heading back to the gypsy camp to retrieve the body. He insists on coming with, though to be honest, she can't tell if it's because he's got an ulterior motive or if he just wants to make sure she's got backup.
He's still in a mood, either way.
~~~
That they're burning the dead man's belongings when they arrive is a surprise to no one. That Dr. Battleford, who'd been at the original scene, was still present in the camp was suspicious, at least to her eyes. When he started in on respecting other cultures, she knew something was fishy in Denmark, and then he offered to shake Gene's hand.
"No hard feelings. All square."
She'd heard about the Masons. But she never realised how far their reach extended.
They found the body. And a sizeable amount of drugs as well.
She also found Battleford tending to a young, very pregnant woman. The dead man's girlfriend, Alva. Curiouser and curiouser.
DCI Hunt had the entire population of the camp brought down to CID for questioning.
~~~
Turns out the dead man had been driving the Battleford's car. Oh he hadn't reported it stolen, didn't want to get anyone at the camp in trouble, just trying to help humanity. She smiled, and nodded, and remembered that proffered handshake.
He made her skin crawl even more than SuperMac did.
~~~
The words of the old gypsy woman rang in her ears.
"You've been taken away from a child. Far away. But you fight. You always fight to get back. Her face..."
"Sometimes I can't see her face..."
"Someone is stopping you from getting home?"
"Yes. Yes, is it somebody I have to fight?"
"Well, this is a magical ride to the wrong side of the wardrobe."
"Time is short. The life line... is.. How is the lifeline fading?"
"Don't tell me you buy all this crap, Inspector..." Gene's snarl didn't help.
She had to leave. Had to get some air. He followed her out into the hallway.
"What's with the heebie jeebies?"
"Just forget it. I need a drink."
"You know, I think you're taking all of this far too bloody personally. Jed Whitlow was a drug dealer, now 'e's a dead drug dealer. String up the bunting, one more off the streets. Soon as we find out if 'e 'ad any accomplices, we can ship all this lot back to shanty town."
She cut a glance at him, and looked away, unable to meet the harshness of his glare.
"You don' believe in all that voodoo nonsense, do you? I would suggest you keep that pretty little 'ead of yours in the real world, Drake."
"Mmm. But what if there's more than one real world?"
The look in his eye made her think, just for a moment not for the first time, that he knew more than he was telling her. That for some reason, she was beginning to think, he might be the real reason she was here in the first place.
~~~
The brakes on Battleford's car had been cut.
She knew he was involved. Knew it.
That didn't stop SuperMac from swanning in and letting him walk, all based on a funny handshake.
And Gene just stood by and watched.
~~~
This was the wrong side. This entire twisted mental construct of a world was the wrong side. She was in the real world with a bullet in her head, lying on the cold steel hull of that barge with a medical crash team hovering over her. She was fighting for her life there, and if she lost the fight here, she would lose there as well.
And she was not going to stop fighting, not for him, not for anyone.
~~~
The pathology report came back and confirmed her suspicions. Jed Whitlow's system was full of prescription sleeping pills.
She went back to the gypsy camp to talk to Alva, Whitlow's girlfriend. She wasn't sad to see Jed dead and gone, and she had nothing bad to say about Battleford. When the girl's grandmother called her away, Alex did a quick search of the caravan and came up with more prescription drugs. Prescribed by Battleford to Alva.
Back at the station, she tangled with Gene who again told her to leave Battleford out of it.
She didn't understand why, and he wouldn't tell her what was going on. It felt like he was choosing SuperMac over her, over their friendship. Over whatever it was they had that was more than a friendship. She pleaded with him, so close she could smell his aftershave. Too close, and not close enough.
And he still turned away from her.
~~~
She followed him that night. Followed him to the Mason's lodge.
Watched, stunned as he let them put him through their initiation ritual.
Gene Hunt, barefoot, his shirt torn open, a noose around his neck and a blindfold over his eyes. Gene Hunt, brought low in her eyes.
She thought her heart couldn't break any more.
Until she heard the voice. The man who had drugged and kidnapped her. The man who knew who she really was, who knew about Molly and the year 2008. He was one of them, there in the lodge. She couldn't see his face. He was standing under the stairs beneath her, and all she could hear was that voice.
He wanted her to work with him to get them both home, he wanted her to trust him blindly. He'd tortured, her. How on earth could he expect her to trust him?
She felt the world shift beneath her feet again. Nothing made sense. There was no solid ground to stand on. There was nowhere she could turn.
~~~
She called Battleford back in for questioning again. In the interview room with DC Skelton, she got out of him that he was sleeping with Alva. The baby was his. Whitlow had been blackmailing him, and it couldn't go on for much longer. He'd given him the car and he'd cut the brakes. He was the one who drugged him.
She had him dead to rights. Until Hunt swept in and told him to get out.
She lost it, she utterly lost it and he slammed the door, leaving the two of them alone.
He starts talking and again the world shifts beneath her feet. It was all nothing but a ruse. He knows SuperMac is bent, he knows the Masons are behind the corruption, he knows all of it and he was keeping her out of it to protect her. He's playing an inside game, has been all along.
She thinks she might cry again, the relief is so palpable.
She thinks she might kiss him. (He never let her down. He would never let her down. She knows that now.)
Shaz interrupts them before she can make a fool of herself. Well, more of a fool of herself.
~~~
She leaves Hunt to deal with the mess that Ray's made of things, only to find Alva in the middle of giving birth in the middle of a small glade of trees. Gene finds them there a few minutes later, in the worst of the hard labour.
She catches, he holds the girl's hand and shouts an impressive bit of encouragement. Like it was the dog races, she thinks, fighting the urge to laugh hysterically.
The sight of him carrying the infant while she helps Alva to the car makes her heart swell. Well, at least until he hands the kid off and goes straight for his flask.
Understandable, she thinks.
~~~
DCI Hunt somehow gets a confession out of Battleford. She doesn't want to know how, she's just glad he's done it.
He also chews her arse in front of all of CID, for SuperMac's benefit. She tries to look suitably cowed, not quite sure if she can pull it off.
And then Chris, out of the blue, proposes to Shaz. He does it proper, down on one knee, with a ring.
It truly lifts her spirits, for the first time in days.
~~~
"You're looking very chirpy, Bols, you been sitting on the washing machine again?"
"I think, I might not be alone in this place."
"Oh yeah?"
"Mmmhmm. In more ways than one."
"Listen, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
"What if -- you're real?"
"What if -- you were quiet?"
~~~
A good end to the day. Well, if you don't count the Guv's computer acting up again. She told Shaz, "These things will never replace a good old-fashioned typewriter."
It had some kind of message on the screen. "Crash team standing by... ETA minutes..."
She had no idea what that meant, and anyway, the team was decamping to Luigi's.
There was drinking to be done.
All dialogue taken from 2x02 Ashes To Ashes.
There's a young girl standing in the hall way of CID, her long hair obscuring her face. She's supposed to know this girl but she can't remember from where.
(pupils fixed and dilated).
She's in a school uniform and she turns to look over her shoulder at Alex.
"Molly?"
(press 10 millilitres)
She can't remember her face. She can't remember what's happening, why she keeps hearing the voices. It's like a waking dream. The world lurches beneath her feet and she's pounding on the door to interview one. Someone is calling her name.
(come on, Alex. breathe.)
She has to get home. Before she forgets herself entirely.
~~~
Operation Burning Ring. Jed Whitlow pulled a runner and of course, the Guv gave chase, like a lurcher on a hare, running him to ground. Alex could see the man's head nodding, could see that he was clearly intoxicated, but he kept driving, and the crash at the end was inevitable.
If only DCI Hunt hadn't seen fit to ram the car.
Again, SuperMac swept into the office, touting the straight line. Something about him made her skin crawl. Funny thing. If occurs to her later that if he hadn't made such a deal about it, if he hadn't insisted on manufacturing a press-worthy explanation for the crash, she might have let it go.
She confronted SuperMac about Kevin Hales in the hallway outside CID, and he shunted her off on Hunt. Hunt took her interest as a personal insult, and she told him in no uncertain terms just what she thought of his new found loyalties.
She couldn't believe Gene was going to stand by and let this happen. Again.
(He couldn't be bent. Not her DCI. Not him.)
~~~
The man's family have taken the body. As in, absconded with, before a proper autopsy could be done. She doesn't believe what she's hearing from Gene's mouth.
"Body vanishes, so does the inquiry."
She appoints WPC Granger as Romany liaison officer. And tells the Guv she's heading back to the gypsy camp to retrieve the body. He insists on coming with, though to be honest, she can't tell if it's because he's got an ulterior motive or if he just wants to make sure she's got backup.
He's still in a mood, either way.
~~~
That they're burning the dead man's belongings when they arrive is a surprise to no one. That Dr. Battleford, who'd been at the original scene, was still present in the camp was suspicious, at least to her eyes. When he started in on respecting other cultures, she knew something was fishy in Denmark, and then he offered to shake Gene's hand.
"No hard feelings. All square."
She'd heard about the Masons. But she never realised how far their reach extended.
They found the body. And a sizeable amount of drugs as well.
She also found Battleford tending to a young, very pregnant woman. The dead man's girlfriend, Alva. Curiouser and curiouser.
DCI Hunt had the entire population of the camp brought down to CID for questioning.
~~~
Turns out the dead man had been driving the Battleford's car. Oh he hadn't reported it stolen, didn't want to get anyone at the camp in trouble, just trying to help humanity. She smiled, and nodded, and remembered that proffered handshake.
He made her skin crawl even more than SuperMac did.
~~~
The words of the old gypsy woman rang in her ears.
"You've been taken away from a child. Far away. But you fight. You always fight to get back. Her face..."
"Sometimes I can't see her face..."
"Someone is stopping you from getting home?"
"Yes. Yes, is it somebody I have to fight?"
"Well, this is a magical ride to the wrong side of the wardrobe."
"Time is short. The life line... is.. How is the lifeline fading?"
"Don't tell me you buy all this crap, Inspector..." Gene's snarl didn't help.
She had to leave. Had to get some air. He followed her out into the hallway.
"What's with the heebie jeebies?"
"Just forget it. I need a drink."
"You know, I think you're taking all of this far too bloody personally. Jed Whitlow was a drug dealer, now 'e's a dead drug dealer. String up the bunting, one more off the streets. Soon as we find out if 'e 'ad any accomplices, we can ship all this lot back to shanty town."
She cut a glance at him, and looked away, unable to meet the harshness of his glare.
"You don' believe in all that voodoo nonsense, do you? I would suggest you keep that pretty little 'ead of yours in the real world, Drake."
"Mmm. But what if there's more than one real world?"
The look in his eye made her think, just for a moment not for the first time, that he knew more than he was telling her. That for some reason, she was beginning to think, he might be the real reason she was here in the first place.
~~~
The brakes on Battleford's car had been cut.
She knew he was involved. Knew it.
That didn't stop SuperMac from swanning in and letting him walk, all based on a funny handshake.
And Gene just stood by and watched.
~~~
This was the wrong side. This entire twisted mental construct of a world was the wrong side. She was in the real world with a bullet in her head, lying on the cold steel hull of that barge with a medical crash team hovering over her. She was fighting for her life there, and if she lost the fight here, she would lose there as well.
And she was not going to stop fighting, not for him, not for anyone.
~~~
The pathology report came back and confirmed her suspicions. Jed Whitlow's system was full of prescription sleeping pills.
She went back to the gypsy camp to talk to Alva, Whitlow's girlfriend. She wasn't sad to see Jed dead and gone, and she had nothing bad to say about Battleford. When the girl's grandmother called her away, Alex did a quick search of the caravan and came up with more prescription drugs. Prescribed by Battleford to Alva.
Back at the station, she tangled with Gene who again told her to leave Battleford out of it.
She didn't understand why, and he wouldn't tell her what was going on. It felt like he was choosing SuperMac over her, over their friendship. Over whatever it was they had that was more than a friendship. She pleaded with him, so close she could smell his aftershave. Too close, and not close enough.
And he still turned away from her.
~~~
She followed him that night. Followed him to the Mason's lodge.
Watched, stunned as he let them put him through their initiation ritual.
Gene Hunt, barefoot, his shirt torn open, a noose around his neck and a blindfold over his eyes. Gene Hunt, brought low in her eyes.
She thought her heart couldn't break any more.
Until she heard the voice. The man who had drugged and kidnapped her. The man who knew who she really was, who knew about Molly and the year 2008. He was one of them, there in the lodge. She couldn't see his face. He was standing under the stairs beneath her, and all she could hear was that voice.
He wanted her to work with him to get them both home, he wanted her to trust him blindly. He'd tortured, her. How on earth could he expect her to trust him?
She felt the world shift beneath her feet again. Nothing made sense. There was no solid ground to stand on. There was nowhere she could turn.
~~~
She called Battleford back in for questioning again. In the interview room with DC Skelton, she got out of him that he was sleeping with Alva. The baby was his. Whitlow had been blackmailing him, and it couldn't go on for much longer. He'd given him the car and he'd cut the brakes. He was the one who drugged him.
She had him dead to rights. Until Hunt swept in and told him to get out.
She lost it, she utterly lost it and he slammed the door, leaving the two of them alone.
He starts talking and again the world shifts beneath her feet. It was all nothing but a ruse. He knows SuperMac is bent, he knows the Masons are behind the corruption, he knows all of it and he was keeping her out of it to protect her. He's playing an inside game, has been all along.
She thinks she might cry again, the relief is so palpable.
She thinks she might kiss him. (He never let her down. He would never let her down. She knows that now.)
Shaz interrupts them before she can make a fool of herself. Well, more of a fool of herself.
~~~
She leaves Hunt to deal with the mess that Ray's made of things, only to find Alva in the middle of giving birth in the middle of a small glade of trees. Gene finds them there a few minutes later, in the worst of the hard labour.
She catches, he holds the girl's hand and shouts an impressive bit of encouragement. Like it was the dog races, she thinks, fighting the urge to laugh hysterically.
The sight of him carrying the infant while she helps Alva to the car makes her heart swell. Well, at least until he hands the kid off and goes straight for his flask.
Understandable, she thinks.
~~~
DCI Hunt somehow gets a confession out of Battleford. She doesn't want to know how, she's just glad he's done it.
He also chews her arse in front of all of CID, for SuperMac's benefit. She tries to look suitably cowed, not quite sure if she can pull it off.
And then Chris, out of the blue, proposes to Shaz. He does it proper, down on one knee, with a ring.
It truly lifts her spirits, for the first time in days.
~~~
"You're looking very chirpy, Bols, you been sitting on the washing machine again?"
"I think, I might not be alone in this place."
"Oh yeah?"
"Mmmhmm. In more ways than one."
"Listen, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
"What if -- you're real?"
"What if -- you were quiet?"
~~~
A good end to the day. Well, if you don't count the Guv's computer acting up again. She told Shaz, "These things will never replace a good old-fashioned typewriter."
It had some kind of message on the screen. "Crash team standing by... ETA minutes..."
She had no idea what that meant, and anyway, the team was decamping to Luigi's.
There was drinking to be done.
All dialogue taken from 2x02 Ashes To Ashes.