This is my first fanfic. This chapter's a bit slow but it will pick up! Reviews are appreciated

The shot echoed in the courtyard. There was a searing pain in her side. Had she been shot? She must have, but the pain, it was gone now. She looked at him. He said something. She couldn't hear him. She felt tired. Surely he wouldn't mind if she just lay on the ground for a few moments. She was just so tired. She lowered herself to the ground and looked up. Why were they staring at her like that? It wasn't like she was dying. Then she realised, she must be. She tried to feel fear, but the only feeling she could find was contentment, even though she realised she would never see Molly again. She looked up at them again, but the light was too bright. It was much too bright. It hurt her eyes. She decided to close them, just for a moment.

He watched her as her eyes closed. He looked at her, and he knew. It was his fault.

__________________________

"BOLLY! BOLLS!" His voice rang through every monitor and television.

"Help me!" Alex ran through the hospital, desperately trying to hide from Gene's face. It was no use. He still called out from every screen. His face surrounded her. Alex sank down to the floor crying. "No! No!"

"Alex?" A voice sliced through her anguish. Relief spread through her. It wasn't Gene's voice. Alex looked up. His face had disappeared from the television behind the man who said her name.

"Alex," he said again. "What are you doing here? How did you even get out here?" Alex looked up and peered at the man through tear-filled eyes.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Samuel Gerard. I'm your surgeon, Alex. Now can you tell me how you got out here?"

"I don't know," said Alex, thinking quickly. If she feigned ignorance, they would pass this off as something to do with her injury. "I can't remember."

Gerard looked concerned. "I'll get a wheel chair and we'll go back to your room, okay Alex?"

"Yes…yes that's fine." He left and came back quickly, accompanied by her nurses who scooped her up into the wheelchair like she weighed nothing.

"Shit," said one of the nurses. "Look at her hand. She pulled out the bloody IV."

"Get her back to her room and take care of it," the surgeon said.

***

Several hours later Alex was lying in her bed, Molly asleep by her side. The room was blissfully silent. After being taken back to her room she had to face question after question, until finally she pretended to pass out from sheer exhaustion. The staff had finally left, leaving Alex alone to think. Although she was glad to finally be back in 2009, Alex found that she was tired of being in the hospital already. She was already counting down the days until she could be released.

Something didn't add up. How could she be in a coma in 1982? How could she possibly even think about leaving Molly, the only reason she came back. If Molly wasn't in 2009, she would have stayed behind in the world her mind created. In the world with Gene.

Gene….

Alex shook herself. She couldn't keep thinking about him. He was a fictitious construct and that was it.

But it had all seemed so real.

It didn't matter. She had Molly. She wasn't going back to '82. Gene hadn't meant to shoot her, but he had wanted her gone. He preferred Jenette. Not Alex.

"So stop entertaining silly fantasies," she said out loud. "It was all in your head anyway."

Molly stirred, hearing Alex's voice. "Mum? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Molls. Sorry I woke you."

"It's okay Mum. I'm just glad your back."

"Me too sweetheart." But what was back? Was she forever going to be plagued by seeing Gene in the television? Would she be able to deal with that? Or could she slip into her normal everyday 2009 life and ignore the calls of the past? As Molly adjusted herself to a more comfortable position in the chair, one question haunted her. Was Gene Hunt actually real?