Prologue

"There's nothing like being back in your own bed," Alex sighed, sliding her arm across Gene's chest and resting her head against his shoulder. It had been a little while since they'd enjoyed the comforts of their own home. Their honeymoon had been fantastic; three glorious weeks of sun, sea and other more carnal things beginning with S. Despite one or two unexpected hitches which culminated in Gene acquiring the largest round in existence from one of the most notorious criminals of all time it had been a blessed break from the rat-race and a wonderful way to kick off their married lives together.

No sooner than they'd arrived back on home soil than they were heading north for a week in Gene's home town. Alex had found it interesting and fitting to finally see the places Gene had spent years regaling her with stories about, although their visit to the very non-etherial every-day Railway Arms had been a mistake.

"How fitting it is for you to arrive on London theme night!" Nelson had greeted them happily.

Alex hadn't even seen Gene run so fast when faced with Nick Nailer and a pocket full of change for the payphone.

"Back to the day job tomorrow," Gene sighed. Alex knew how he was feeling, There was a part of her that couldn't wait to get back into it, but there was another part of her that just wanted to stay in the little bubble that their honeymoon had created, just the two of them, enjoying their time as newlyweds without having to worry about anybody else.

"I know," she sighed.

"Think there'll be anything left of the place?" Gene mumbled.

"I think everything will still be pretty much as you left it," Alex told him, "except for Bammo whom, I'm reliably informed, has picked up a few body mods after Kim disapproved of him going after Simon with water balloons and a catapult."

"They'll all be flocking round ready to raid me duty free," Gene complained and Alex slapped him playfully across the chest.

"Are you going to spend our last day of freedom complaining about your colleagues looking for duty free or are you going to spend it with your wife, drinking the goods?"

Gene looked down a her, his fingers playing through her hair.

"You make a good point, Lady B," he told her, "they can't half-inch it when we've necked it."

"So go and get the bubbly out of the fridge and pay an emergency visit to latte land for a batch of their bagels and we'll make our last day one to remember," Alex suggested with a smile but as Gene's hand slipped from her hair and travelled under the covers Alex realised something else was on the menu.

"I'm hungry for something but it's not bagels and you can't get it in Latte Land," he told her which made her smirk a little.

"Not without getting banned for a fortnight," she said pointedly and Gene cleared his throat.

"Me hand slipped," he mumbled.

"So did my underwear," Alex pointed out.

As they dived beneath the duvet with thoughts of a lazy breakfast postponed for now Alex and Gene knew that although the honeymoon was at an end they'd barely started their married lives together. Four glorious week were only the beginning. It was time to get back to the daily grind, but the balance of the rings on their fingers showed a fundamental change to their lives. They'd had 4 weeks to get used to it themselves and now it was time for the rest of the world to see it.

Mr and Mrs Hunt were back in town

~xXx~

"...begins his appointment as Commissioner for the City of London police at the end of the week."

The news played out to the grotty little hostel room as Keats sat on the hard bed, his eyes unfocussed and bloodshot. He felt empty and broken. Where once the man and the monster had been battling it out for supremacy neither wanted to be in charge of an empty shell with no life, no future, no hope.

His eyes turned to the screen. He barely saw the images of the man on the news. He couldn't take them in, not really. He didn't dare because it was too painful, too unfair and too hard to handle. When he'd first seen the news a month ago it had almost ripped him apart. Zoning it out was all he could do. Zoning everything out was the only way to survive. Not that he was even sure he wanted to, but the alternative wasn't much better.

For a month he'd been numb. After running from Simon one time too many and seeing him move on, then seeing the man whose instructions led to his comatose state receiving such an accolade, something just snapped. He couldn't let his mind control him any more. He had to rely on autopilot. He barely ate, barely washed, barely moved. Why should he? He didn't even know who or what he was, except for bitter. Bitter and angry and broken.

The man had departed. The monster abandoned him too. No part of Jim Keats wanted control of a body that had nothing to live for. And for four weeks he'd lived that way, until that face arrived on the news again, his appointment coming ever closer and Keats' anger began to rise.

He felt something stirring inside of him as he watched, the fury that let his pulse rise and his heart race. Where had that come from? He'd blocked that anger out for so long that to feel the fire of rage burning through his veins again shocked him and left him trembling all over.

There they were all of a sudden; emotions. Flaming, burning, twisting emotions. The anger, the resentment, the fury. Oh god, he hadn't felt them in so long. He hadn't felt in so long. Now he couldn't do anything but feel, feel all the anger he'd been burying, all in one go, like a flood of fire in his gut.

There in the background were other emotions. Ones he'd had to work even harder to bury. He wasn't ready to acknowledge those. Not at all.

But the rage; that was different. He couldn't ignore that. He wasn't sure he even wanted to. He focused all his fury upon that man on the TV screen and knew that this time things were going to be different.

"This time," he growled through gritted teeth, "you are going to pay for what happened. I am your judge and jury. And this time you're going to pay."

He didn't lknow how. He didn't know when. But he knew it had to happen. He couldn't look after his younger self, he couldn't even choose whether to be a man or a monster but he could make that man pay for what he'd done to him. He'd stripped Keats of a normal life, stripped him of his chance to be a man.

Now Keats was going to give him his just desserts.

Tit for tat.

It wasn't revenge, it was simply justice. No come backs, no regrets. And the tiny human voice in the back of his mind that knew it was wrong would just have to shut its ruddy gob.

~xXx~

A/N: Welcome to another instalment of this ever-lengthening series of stories, and as anyone who I talk to on a regular basis will tell you, this is one I have waited to write for a VERY long time! I'm sort of nervous about it, I've been building up to it for so long! Thank you again to Jess for helping me choose the title because I could NOT narrow it down!

The start of this story may update a little less regularly than usual because there's a lot going on in the family so I've had less time to write but by the end of the month updates will be near daily again, hopefully!

Do I need to give a disclaimer? I'm just gonna get this tattooed somewhere. A2A does not belong to me. I'm just very happy to be in charge of Kim and Robin and Simon et al! First full chapter will be up tomorrow!