A/N Hope you enjoy :) Just a not to say that I wrote this before I'd seen either part of 'Ghosts' (4x5/4x6) :) Also the title comes from the poem 'The Heart of a Woman' by Georgia Douglas Johnson. :)

Title: In the Wake of Those Echoes

Pairings (Mentioned or otherwise): Annie/Alan

Rating/Warning: T

Summary: 'The noise is deafening in the silence and it shatters the illusion of calm that has fallen of the bridge. Annie knows, standing by the police car, that the sound will haunt her dreams - that when she goes to sleep it will be all she can hear - the sound of the bullet exploding from the gun.' - Jacky Mullen wasn't quite the coward everyone thought he was.

The noise is deafening in the silence and it shatters the illusion of calm that has fallen on the bridge. Annie knows, standing by the police car, that the sound will haunt her dreams - that when she goes to sleep it will be all she can hear; the sound of the bullet exploding from the gun.

From where she is, Annie can only see Alan's back as he falls. She feels like screaming but she can't find her voice and it seems, too, that she is unable to move. The patch of red on his chest is getting bigger by the second, the blood obvious against the white of his shirt and Annie feels like she has to do something. The sun beats down regardless of the chill now invading her bones - the cold that has fallen upon her.

Everything feels, to her at least, like it is going in slow motion - no one moves, they just stare at the tableaux seemly staged in front of them; Alan lying on the ground - Jacky Mullen, still holding his gun, standing above him. Annie stares at it, at the unexpectedness of it all, and tries to take a deep breath, trying to compose herself, but finds both difficult - nearly impossible really - and instead attempts to go over to Alan.

As she moves all hell starts to break loose and someone, somewhere, shouts instructions Annie has no intention of listening to. Before she gets very far - before she's even passed the front of the police car in fact - she feels a hand grab her arm and pull her back. When she turns, Ken is looking up at her, a serious look painted on his face. His grip prevents her from going over to Alan but Annie assumes he's only doing it to make sure she's safe. Mullen still has a gun - a gun which he has shown he will use if he deems it necessary.

But instead of shooting again like everyone has been afraid he would, Mullen throws the weapon to the floor and sinks to the ground, his hands up in surrender. Officers that Annie hadn't known where there appear and force cuffs on to him as others attend to Alan. Annie watches this as Ken starts to talk, telling her that Alan'll be okay, he'll be fine but she's only half listening and the moment Mullen is put in a police car Annie is off – moving towards Alan.

When she gets there, an officer she barely registers is trying to stop the bleeding by applying pressure with his hands. Annie, with a voice she doesn't recognise, offers to take over and within seconds she's there, on her knees, hands on Alan's chest. But it just won't stop and soon her hands are a glistening red, her shirt too. Paramedics, both young with sandy coloured hair, appear and gently persuade her to walk away because apparently 'they've got it'.

She finds herself, a moment later, back over by the police car. She had been there when he had been shot - crouching down by the door to protect herself. Ken stands by the still open door, his eyes flitting between her and his boss, who the paramedics are still treating. Helen leans on the roof - her eyes, though, are firmly on her bloodied colleague.

Annie looks down at the blood - his blood - that is now on her; covering her hands and making them sticky. She slips to the ground, leaning back on the car, her hands clasped out in front of her and again she tries to take a breath. She's trying, in vain it seems, to calm down but instead she realises that she's shaking - quite violently too. She is vaguely aware that someone has slipped down next to her but she can't focus on them as they're silhouetted against sun, blinding her. From the outline that she can see, Annie guesses that it's Helen beside her and her suspicions are confirmed when the shadow speaks with her voice.

Above the furore of the scene, Annie can hear sirens calling out and preys, silently, that there coming here to help - the more the better she thinks. "D'you think we better get you cleaned up?" Helen inquires in a voice that Annie would, if in a more calm state, liken to that of a teacher. They both remain sitting for the next few moments as activity rages around them; Annie can still hear shouting and the sirens are getting closer and closer with every second that passes. She still can't breathe, still can't take it - Annie guesses that she's in shock but doesn't think that it matters that much. Her heart beats in her chest and it feels like it's going to explode. She closes her eyes but all she can see is the gun, going off, and Alan, falling to the ground. When she opens them, Helen is standing above her - Ken stands beside her and they're having a conversation that Annie can't quite hear above the other noise.

After a few seconds Ken stretches out his arm and offers to help her stand - but she ignores it, aware of the blood on her hand, and stands on her own. Her colleagues watch as Annie climbs in to backseat of the car, a defeated look on her face. Ken rounds the car to get in and Helen takes the passenger seat and, everyone in, they drive off.

...

Ken drives to Annie's flat and Helen accompanies her upstairs. The blonde gives Helen her key, fished out of her coat pocket with blood stained hands, because she's shaking too much to open the door. When they get inside Annie goes instantly to the shower while Helen waits in the small kitchen.

The brunette makes a cup of coffee - one for each of them - while she waits and also checks her phone messages. She finds one from the chief super asking the three of them - Ken, Helen and Annie - to come to the station to talk about the situation. Helen is unsure of whether Annie will be in a suitable state of mind to go but when the younger woman emerges from the shower with a new outfit on, Helen is happy to see that she seems to be coping better. Thankfully the shower has stopped Annie shaking but Helen knows that the events are still plaguing her mind.

In silence they descend back to Ken, who has also got the message from the chief super and is ready to go. Once they're driving again Ken gives Helen a look, then glances back at Annie - who is staring out the car window and doesn't notice - as if to cast Helen's decision to bring her in doubt. The brunette just shrugs, Annie had wanted to come, nobody had forced her. But that isn't what worries Ken, no, it's the fact that in all of the four years that he had know her he has never seen her so quiet and it unnerves him a little.

When they get to the station Chief Superintendent Ron McLaughlin is standing on the steps to the entrance, waiting for them. They go up to CID's floor without speaking and when they get there they avoid Alan's office and instead take up seats near Ken's desk. Once they're all seated Ron starts to speak - explaining how Alan has been taken to Leeds General Hospital and isn't in a particularly good state. His words have a profound effect on Annie, who turns as pale as a sheet, having only just regained her colour since her shower.

When he stops talking - a good five minutes later - Annie isn't listening, instead her mind is back on the bridge. She's going through it again, second by second, the way she had done back in the shower in her flat. Every moment passes yet again and Annie tries to see an opportunity she were she could've stopped it - stopped Alan from being so bloody stupid as to think a double murderer wouldn't shoot him too.

Ron gets up, pushing his chair back and glancing down at the detectives. He sees the same look in all of their faces - a look of shock, of not quite believing it yet. "I'm going to interview Mullen," he says, unsure of weather any of them are actually listening to him- not that he would really blame them if they weren't. "You can go to the hospital if you want," Ron adds before disappearing out the double doors at the end of the room.

The others sit in silence for a few moments later until Annie, surprisingly, pipes up. "Has anyone contacted his family?" Both Helen and Ken, who had listened to most of what Ron had said, know the answer to this question but neither pick Annie up about the fact she obviously hadn't listened.

"They've tried to get through to Tracy but she hasn't picked up and his son isn't in the country at the moment," Ken finally says, sighing as he does so. Annie nods, taking in this information, before speaking again.

"Has anyone tried phoning his ex-wife - Tracy lives with her now so you could probably get through?" Helen shakes her head and stares across at Annie before replying.

"I could try, do you know the number?" She doubts, though, that Annie would have Alan's ex-wife's number on her phone but asks anyway - and to her surprise Annie slips her mobile out of her pocket and hands it over.

"She's called Sandra," Annie doesn't give an explanation as to why she has the number - in fact Alan had given it too her when Tracy had gone missing in case the worst happened - and instead turns to Ken. "Do you want to go to the hospital?" Her words surprise him but nods a few seconds later. Annie, with his confirmation, stands and walks off down the corridor leaving him alone with Helen.

"Do you think she's alright?" Ken asks, standing. Helen shakes her head slightly before speaking.

"I doubt it." The brunette looks across the room at the door before adding. "Are you okay?" He hesitates for a moment but Ken does answer.

"Yeah, probably," He waits for Helen to stand before they both walk out of the room. When Helen opens the door they see Annie, standing on the stairs, looking out to nowhere. Ken doesn't think she's seen them but as they start forward the blonde turns. Both he and Helen don't mention the tears that they can see in her eyes and instead the trio go down to Ken's car. Once there they all slip into the same seats they had occupied on the way back from the bridge - this time though, Ken turns the radio on to drown out the silence.

During the journey, Helen phones Sandra's number and is please when someone answers. The voice on the line is confused to start so Helen explains who she is and who she is trying to get through to. When she has ascertained that it is indeed Tracy's mum she is speaking to she tells her what has happened to Alan. As she does this she feels the mood it the car change, because saying it out loud makes everything that has happened in the last couple of hours finally feel real - Annie continues to stare out the window and Ken still tries to listen to the radio but Helen can see the resigned looks painted on both their faces and assumes that hers is quite the same.

Sandra tells Helen, her voice calmer that she would've expected, that she will try and get through to Tracy as soon as possible and when she has, she will ensure that her daughter makes the journey to Leeds General Hospital as quickly as she can- she does give a time frame, hoping that she'll get there in about two hours. When Helen ends the call a few moment later they are just driving in to the car park.

The three of them slip out of the car and enter the main reception of the hospital without another word. The petite blonde woman on the front desk instructs them to go up to Intensive Care - and they do so in silence. Annie realises, as the lift comes to a halt on the third floor, the she hasn't been to the intensive care wing of this hospital since Marcus Payne had been battered to a coma nearly four years ago. She had only just met Alan then. A lot has changed since then, she thinks, exiting the lift.

When they get to Alan's room a young doctor tells them that unless they're family they'll have to wait until Alan is more stable to go see him. The doctor, as an alternative, gives them directions to a small canteen on the floor where they can get coffee and wait for few hours. Once there, sitting at a round table drinking awful hospital coffee, the three colleagues start to have a conversation about the weather. It's mundane stuff really, and just to keep their thoughts from straying to the inevitable - to Alan and the fact that he might die.

Annie gives the impression that she's paying attention to the conversation and even adds some input - about how sunny it's been lately – but she's not focusing. To be honest none of them are and even though they're English, and the English are well renowned for talking about the weather, the chat doesn't last more than five minutes.

Helen slips her phone out of her pocket and so does Ken, both reading and sending texts to try and get their minds off the situation. Annie, on the other hand, just sits there, staring at the wall instead of thinking back to the bridge like she has been doing, Annie thinks of the last time she saw Tracy - six months ago now. It had been just before Alan had told her he loved her but needed more time - this memory takes the place of the shooting and starts to replay itself in her mind.

Again and again and again she sees him come towards her from the entrance of the station. She can remember the happiness she had felt when he had said the words she had wanted to hear for so long - 'I love you' - and can't forget the feeling she had had standing there as he told her he needed more time to think about everything. She wasn't a patient girl, never had been, but sitting in the hospital canteen she just wished she had been. Then maybe it wouldn't hurt quite as much as it did.

The trio's silence is broken by Ron McLaughlin entering the room. They've been in the canteen for over an hour, each of them wrapped up in their own thoughts but the chief supers presence pulls them out of their personal reveries. "We've got enough out of Jacky Mullen to charge Louis Hargreaves," he says, Helen nods and Ken lets a grin, however small, spread over his face - Annie, though, seems not to react at all. "They're both going to go away for a long time," Ron adds a moment later.

"You charged Mullen with double murder?" Ken asks, shifting round in his seat to see his boss. Ron nods; he hasn't sat down and instead stands uncomfortably by the table. He goes to speak but thinks better of it and stays quiet. He regards the three officers sitting in front of him; Ken looks the most lively, the most alert, out of the there while Annie - to Ron at least - looks haunted, as if past mistakes have chosen now to resurface. Helen keeps looking between him and Annie, her concern for the blonde evident. With a little hesitation Ron speaks yet again.

"There will have to be a professional standards report in to the circumstances of the shooting but I'm doubtful it will come to anything." He doesn't mention how Chief Superintendant Reg Chambers, the head of the Professional Standards unit, has asked him if Annie could take the case, seeing how well she had dealt with the incident with Helen the previous year. But he refuses to ask her to do something like that, at least right now, not seeing the look on her face - it's going to take a lot for her to come back from this, he realises.

Ron asks Ken to come with him, he needs someone to help write a report on the incident, and the two men leave Helen and Annie alone - disappearing through the doors at the end of the room. The women sit in silence for a few moments until Annie speaks; her words quiet. "He shouldn't've done it - he was a bloody idiot. What did he think was going to happen?" Her words are directed more at herself than at Helen, her way of rationalising what has happened, but the brunette replies regardless.

"He thought Mullen was a coward, that he didn't have it in him to shoot a police officer. After all, he didn't shoot you or Geoff Dwyer." Her words are met with silence to start with but Annie looks like she's going to speak and when she does, a few moments later, her voice is so quiet that Helen can barely hear it.

"I wish he had." Her words shock the brunette; surely she can't think that'd be any better. But it shows more of her mood, of how she's feeling, that anything else she has said or done since Alan had been shot. Annie herself isn't quite sure why she had said it - it had just been something she had started to think about while Helen was speaking, if Mullen had shot her at least she wouldn't be feeling how she was now. But she knows how horrible that line of thought is and banishes it soon after she speaks.

"You can't possibly think..." Helen starts but she doesn't finish because Annie interrupts her.

"Tracy might lose her father, Brian too and..." She trails off, her eyes wild with hurt.

"You might lose the man you love," It's not a question, but after a few moments to take it all in, Annie nods. To Helen it seems that this is the first time that she has ever admitted this to anyone, including herself. Annie tries to stop the tears, and once again finds herself almost unable to breathe.

She loves Alan. Alan who has been her friend for years now - the same man who needed just that bit more time. Alan Banks, who now lies in a hospital bed on the edge of death. Annie closes her eyes and struggles for breath. Tears start to fall yet again but this time she doesn't stop them, letting the fall down her cheeks. And she knows, finally, that she has made a horrible mistake of never telling him how she feels.

Helen watches the younger woman fall apart and finds herself unable to do anything. She can't invade, not on something like this - but the need to comfort her is overwhelming so she shuffles her chair closer and puts her arm around her. Annie continues to cry and Helen, sitting in the hospital canteen, feels more like a mother than a colleague.

After a few more moments like this Annie pulls away and Helen obliges. The blonde wipes the tears away, looking down at the ground, embarrassed. "I'm sorry." It's all she can manage at this point and to be honest Helen doesn't blame her - it's been a tough day for her and she guesses it's been even worse for Annie. They sit in companionable silence for a few moments as Annie tries to pull herself back together.

All she can think about though, it that she's might never see Alan again and it's killing her. Annie can barely stand it and the tears begin to threaten once more. She manages to stifle them as the door to the canteen opens and Tracy Banks enters the small room.

The girl looks exactly the same as when Annie had last seen her except maybe, her hair is a bit longer. Tracy's bag is slung loosely around her shoulder and she lets it fall on to the table as she takes a seat. Her face is leaden with confusion and her eyes look round the room sharply. "My mum's just talking to the um...chief superintendent," she says tentatively to the surprise of both Annie and Helen. Neither had expected his ex-wife to show up but in hindsight it makes sense, they had been married for years so there must be some feeling, however little, left.

Helen, feeling that Tracy wants to talk to Annie - for she keeps looking at the blonde and then down at the table – makes her excuse to go to the bathroom and leaves. Once there alone Tracy does talks. "He told me you broke up," she asks, causing Annie to look up. Annie finds it surprising that Alan had confided in his daughter, but then who else was he likely to talk to - Annie can't quite, however hard she tries, see him telling Ken about their relationship.

"Did he?" Annie finally says, her eyes on Tracy.

"Bloody stupid decision if you ask me," the younger girl states, a heartbeat later. Her words, as blunt as they are, make Annie raise her eyebrows as to ask why. "You made him happy." Tracy continues a second later. Annie has nothing to say to that and instead rises from her seat and moves over to coffee machine.

"Do you want a drink?" she asks and Tracy nods. Annie busies herself with the machine and has just turned, a plastic coffee cup in each hand, when Tracy speaks again.

"He still loves you, you know," Her words almost make Annie spill hot liquid over the linoleum floor but she manages to stop the disaster from occurring. Still, as she places Tracy's cup in front of her, she's shaking. She takes a large sip of the coffee and she can feel it burn her throat.

Annie goes to speak but the door opens and it makes her turn. A woman she can only assume is Sandra enters. She has brown blonde hair and, Annie notices, piercing blue eyes. The words she was going to say die in her throat, replaced by others, as Alan's ex-wife takes the seat next to Tracy.

"I'm DS Cabbot, one of your ex-husbands colleagues," Annie has no idea why she's being so formal, is not like she's here on any kind of police duty. She sees Tracy raise her eyebrows but she doesn't say anything about it, instead she turns to her mum and starts speaking quietly.

"What did the chief superintendent say?"

"Talked about how much of a shock it had been, that kind of thing," Sandra says before turning to Annie. "Have you seen him at all?" Annie shakes her head then asks if Sandra wants a coffee. She says yes and Annie once again heads for the machine. Sandra was not what she had expected but, then again, she's not sure what she did really expect.

"Is Brian coming at all?" Annie inquires as she hands Sandra the coffee. The older woman nods and takes a sip from the plastic cup.

"An early flight in the morning, I think?" she says, and Annie nods in understanding. "He's completing his final year of university in Rome," She adds almost needlessly a moment later, she's fiddling with a gold band that sits on the third finger of her left hand. From what Annie has gathered from both Alan and Tracy, Sandra married a bloke called Sean about a year after her divorce from Alan and then had two children with her new husband.

The three women sit in silence for a bit, all lost in their own thoughts, until Tracy pipes up. "How's Isla?" Annie takes a large gulp of her coffee to try and avoid answering the question but it doesn't work

"She's doing really well," It's the first time since the incident that Annie has thought about her daughter and thanks god that today was David's day off so he could look after her. Annie doesn't quite think she would've been in the right frame of mind to pick her daughter up. Sandra turns to her daughter as if to ask who this Isla is and Annie goes to fill her in but Tracy has already started speaking.

"Annie's daughter." she states simply, before adding. "She'd be what, eighteen months?" Annie just about manages a nod but can see the look on Sandra's face - she wants to know why her nineteen year old daughter knows about the private life of a random police officer from Yorkshire. Tracy picks up her coffee but Annie can tell she has no intention of actually drinking it. Sandra looks between them, watching each of their faces intently but doesn't say anything.

Annie stares down at her coffee as Helen re enters the room. She sits back down in the seat she had previously been occupying and looks straight at Tracy. "You've been in to see your father?" Tracy nods to the surprise of both Sandra and Annie who had assumed that no one had seen Alan - Annie though he was still in surgery but guesses she is wrong. "The man who did this," Helen starts after a few moments silence. "has been apprehended and he will be charged accordingly." Annie glances across at Helen and even though she looks pretty well held together, Annie can see the apprehension evident in her eyes.

"They don't think he's going to make it," Tracy states a moment later. "They didn't say it in so many words but..." she tails off, seeing the effect her words have had; Sandra is staring off in to the middle distance, probably thinking about her wedding to Alan or something similar, but both Tracy and Helen's eyes are on Annie. They can both see the tears burning her eyes even though the blonde is staring down at her coffee. She looks broken, Tracy thinks, like all her mistakes have come to the surface at once.

Tracy herself is trying to pretend that everything is just normal, that her dad isn't lying in a room not very far from where she is sitting, on the cusp of death. No, instead she puts her mind to the last time she spoke to him, three nights ago, on her birthday. He had seemed happy enough but when Tracy had mentioned Annie she had heard his voice sink. What a bloody stupid man, she thinks, for letting her go.

The young doctor who had instructed them to come here reappears -his face drawn into a frown with sorrow tugging at his eyes. He tells them that they can go in - only family mind - and see him but warns them that he's on a ventilator. Sandra has watched enough episodes of 'Casualty' and 'Holby City' to know what that means - Alan can't breathe for himself, at least not at that moment. She also knows that it's unlikely that he's going to make it back from this. Poor sod, she thinks, he doesn't deserve this. The doctor disappears, leaving the four women to their silences.

Annie's eyes are still on her coffee cup, now empty and cold. Helen glances at her and then across at Tracy and Sandra. She doesn't want to interrupt anyone's private hell but she feels she has to say something. "Annie," she starts, softly. "D'you think you should go home?" Helen's not even sure why the blonde is still here - she can't go and see Alan, the doctor made that perfectly clear, but Helen thinks it's probably something to do with some messed up version of loyalty, that Annie doesn't want to abandon him. Or, Helen thinks, Annie is cared that he will die when she's not there - either really. For a second she thinks that Annie is ignoring her but sure enough, a few heartbeats pass, and Annie nods. Another second later and she's standing. In fact, she's out the door before Helen can get up.

Sandra, left in the canteen, turns to her daughter. "She isn't just a colleague, is she?" Tracy shakes her head, confirming Sandra's suspicions. "She's in love with him?" she questions, a moment later.

"He's in love with her too," Tracy says, look at the door Annie and Helen had just left through. "Sad thing is Mum; I don't think either of them really realised."

...

When Annie gets back to her flat she pours herself a big glass of wine and texts David. For some reason she lies, telling him that something big has come up at work at she'll probably have to be in all night. So there she sits; glass of wine in hand, silence drowning her. After a few minutes David replies, saying that's it's fine and that Isla is already in bed. She thinks about phoning her mum, but doesn't and then thinks about Alan's dad. No one seemed to have contacted him about it, about the fact that his son has been shot.

She makes the decision in a heartbeat and leaves the wine glass on the table in her rush to get out of the flat. She pulls her coat from the side and slips in on, intent on visiting Arthur Banks.

As she gets to her car, the night air chilling her, she hears her name being called. When she turns, scared out of her wits, Annie sees Tracy standing on the pavement. "That woman, Helen I think her name was, gave me your address..." as she speaks Annie starts to get worried, why would Tracy search her out like this - Alan can't surely be... Annie can't even think it, think that Alan is dead without tears starting to brim at her eyes but, thankfully, Tracy soon assuages her fears "It's not my dad, he's still hanging on. I just wanted to see how you were doing - make sure you were alright I guess. You looked pretty shaken up at the hospital."

Annie is touched by the younger woman's concern. "I was going to see your granddad actually. I don't think anyone's told him," She thinks she sees Tracy nod but isn't sure, Annie's eyes haven't quite adjusted to the darkness yet. "Do you want to come, it might make it easier?" She adds a moment later. This time Tracy comes towards her and into the light being given out from the block of flats so Annie can be certain that she nods.

"I can drive if you want?" Tracy gestures at the keys held loosely in Annie's hand as she speaks.

"Yeah, if you want," The blonde replies, realises that Tracy probably has a better idea of where Arthur Banks actually lives compared to herself. If she hadn't of turned up, Annie thinks she probably would've got lost around Leeds and ended up in a hotel in York or somewhere. They get into Annie's car in silence and drive off into the night with the radio playing softly.

When they get to the house - a place Annie is sure she would have never found on her own - Tracy climbs out and disappears down the front path. During the twenty minute journey the two women had talked of inane things; the weather, how Tracy's new job was going, how Isla was growing up so quickly until, that was, they had started talking, almost absentmindedly, about David. This had lead, rather inevitably, back to Alan. So when they had appeared at Arthur Banks' small semi detached house, they had been talking about how Alan always managed to burn anything he tried to cook - including pasta.

Annie follows Tracy up the pathway and comes to a halt next to her on the doorstep. She wonders if Arthur will remember her, considering that they had only met recently she thinks it's likely that he would. Tracy knocks and soon enough the door is being pulled open by man who looks like he definitely wasn't expecting visitors. Annie glances down at her watch and is surprised to see that it's just gone nine o'clock.

"Tracy? Tracy, what are you doing here?" Arthur inquires, moving slightly to let them both in.

"It's just something about dad, granddad, that's all," Tracy says, entering the house. She hasn't been here in years, and just seeing the place is reminding her of her childhood; arguments with Brian as her mother and father talked with her grandparents. In fact, she doesn't think she has been here since her parents divorced when she was 15. Arthur leads them into his sitting room and gestures for them to sit. Both the women take a place on the sofa while he himself sits in an armchair by the fireplace.

"What's this about your dad then?" he says to Tracy but before she can reply he turns to Annie. "You're the girl who helped me after that incident on the high street. "You work with Alan don't you?" All Annie can do is nod; her stomach is a maze on knots, waiting in anticipation of breaking the news to him. Of course, Annie knows that Alan's relationship with his father is strained but he is almost all the old man has left now.

"Mr Banks," Annie starts, having managed to compartmentalise Alan like she would a murder victim - or thinks she has. "this afternoon, at about 5 o'clock, your son was shot in the chest," she continues, feeling like she's forcing the words out because they just won't come. "He is now at Leeds General Hospital but.." she tails off for a moment, not wanting to say it, but she perceivers - after all, she has done this type of thing before. "But I would prepare yourself for the worst Mr Banks." She sees a shadow of sadness flick over the old man's face but he doesn't say anything, just stares at Tracy.

The odd trio sit in silence for a few moments; just taking it all in. Arthur's gaze slips to the unlit fire and then back to his granddaughter. "Is your brother coming back over?' he asks, slightly hesitantly. Tracy nods, and Annie realises that they have the same eyes - Arthur and Tracy - deep brown, chestnut even. She closes her eyes for a fraction of a second and Alan's face floats into her mind and she sees that he too, has the eyes - a family trait she assumes.

"Do you want some tea granddad? I could put a pot on if you wanted?" Her words cause both Annie, who had been thinking about the night Tracy had interrupted her and Alan just before she had gone missing, and Arthur, who had been thinking of the day his son broke his leg playing rugby when he was eight, to look up suddenly, pulled from their respective reveries. "No love, I'll be fine I think." Arthur states a heartbeat later.

"What about you Annie?" The brunette inquires, turning to face her. Annie shakes her head. She's not overly sure what's she's going to do now. Now Arthur knows Annie could go back to her flat but she's not too sure she'd cope.

"I told him you were too good for him," Arthur starts, his brown eyes now on Annie. "But now I think," he continues. "That you would have been good for him," He pauses, glancing at Tracy before speaking again, less clearly this time. "You obviously care about him, and he..." again he pauses, casting his eyes down. "I think he probably cares for you too..."Arthur trails off, mumbling something that neither Tracy nor Annie can hear. He looks a tad embarrassed - it wasn't really his place to say anything but he couldn't help feeling like something had to be said.

Before the room can quite descend in to silence again, Tracy's mobile gives a shrill ring. The brunette picks up of the third, placing the phone to her ear and listening to whoever is on the other end. Annie turns to face Arthur and they share a look - they both know what this call is about. Tracy doesn't speak, just lets the other person do it all - but Annie sees her face fall, the tears start to appear in her eyes.

When she rings off she places the phone down on the table and looks up, first at her granddad and then at Annie. She shakes her head a little before speaking. "About ten minutes ago, he...he... there was nothing anyone could do," Her voice is shaky and for a moment after she speaks no one does anything, it seems to Tracy that no one even breathes.

...

Annie sits in Arthur Banks' spare room. She can hear Arthur pottering around down stairs and Tracy, sobbing quietly in the room next to hers. She hasn't cried yet, since she heard the news, and in a way she feels numb – like she can't quite believe it's actually happened. She had been shaking too much to drive, so Arthur had offered her a room.

She stares down at the carpet and when up to the mirror, hanging on the wall. This had been Alan's room when he had been a boy and Tracy, next door, will spend the night in Roy's. This means that when the lights in Arthur Banks' house finally turn off, however late in the night that may be, they will all be sleeping next to a ghost. Alan, Ida and Roy, all the people Arthur has lost - Tracy and Brian too.

Annie doesn't know if she's expected at work in the morning or not - she has a feeling, thought, that if she's not there someone will give an excuse or something. She wants to be there, wants to help nail the bastards who have done this, but isn't sure that she'll feel the same in the harsh light of day.

Annie opens her door and pads out onto the landing, she can't hear Tracy anymore so assumes the brunette has finally fallen asleep. As she passes her room she glances in and sees the girl curled in the foetal position, completely asleep.

She heads down the stairs, entering the kitchen and picking a glass from the draining board. Annie quickly fills it with water and drinks it down - washing the glass and placing it back where it came from. As she turns to go back upstairs she hears Arthur exiting the front room. "Thank you," she whispers, starting up the stairs. Arthur follows her up and disappears into his own room with a nod and a half smile.

She was right. Of course she would be. When Annie wakes, at 4 o'clock in the morning she has been dreaming about that bloody gunshot, of the noise that broke the silence. It haunts her and she thinks it might for the rest of her life - for it was the gun shot that killed Alan Banks.

Fin

A/N Please review if you have the time :)