So, now I'm going to be posting two stories at once! I was writing Revealing Hidden Truths when this story popped in my head and refused to let me write anything else. So, here you go. Thanks as always to Rolephant who knows how mad I truly am, but will not put me in a loony bin. (ahahah I already am...:P)

Chapter 1: Three Words, Three Murders

She had gone home alone that night. She had brushed off her boyfriend earlier in the night, needing time to be alone. It was a chilly night out, and she walked quickly to get home faster. Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her. She stopped, and so did the footsteps. She started up again, and she was certain she heard someone else's footsteps follow hers.

Her breathing heightened. Her pulse quickened. She felt fear pumping the adrenaline in her veins. The footsteps behind her were getting closer. She tried to run. Something caught her ankle and she tripped, sprawling onto the ground. She tried to get up, but he was already on top of her, holding his hand over her mouth, silencing her. She tried to bite him, but he seemed not to feel the pain as he pulled the knife out of his pocket.

The fear. The terror. The pain. Her body shrieked for oxygen, but she could get none. Suddenly she felt the cool blade of the knife pressed to her throat.

The fear. The terror. The pain. The last three things she could feel before her spirit left her body forever.

~(*)~

"What is the team going to say when we arrive together?" Alex Drake queried at her DCI.

"Well, Bolly," Gene said. "I'm assuming they'll be saying the exact same thing they've been saying since you arrived."

"What's that?"

"They'll be wondering whether or not we're sleeping together yet."

Alex looked at him, shocked. "What do you mean?"

"You mean you haven't heard the gossip?" asked Gene, amused. "For some strange reason CID thinks that you and me need to sleep together."

"I don't know where they would get an idea like that," Alex sniffed.

"Blame it all on Ray Carling, Bolls. He's got the dirtiest mind of the lot, and I think since the moment we had our first fight he's been waiting for us to shag."

"But why?!"

"You're the psychiatrist, Bolly. You tell me," Gene smirked. He was really only saying this to get a rise out of her, and it was working perfectly.

"Its psychologist," she said huffily, "and we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't kicked my door down."

"It's not my fault! You didn't answer your door!"

"I don't usually, when I'm in the shower, Gene! Its rather difficult to hear someone knocking over the water!"

"And the singing," he grinned.

Alex blushed. "There is still absolutely no reason for you to go smashing my door down."

"What did you expect me to think, Bolly? There is a madman on the loose in London, and you stayed late at the station tonight. Then you didn't come to Luigi's."

"It's a Monday! I never come down on Mondays! You should know that by now. I've only been working here for a year."

"I'm sorry that I didn't note the date! It isn't my fault that trouble seems to follow you around everywhere you go!" His voice was rising, but he didn't care. This was what he loved about having Alex as his DI. He loved the "cut and thrust" of a good argument.

"For the last time, Gene, I don't need you to watch over me! I'll be fine on my own! This man isn't going to come after me!" She was yelling at him now, her face flushed in anger. Gene could hardly believe his luck. He had gotten her riled up twice in one night, and she was spending the night at his flat.

In the past month, two women had been raped and murdered in alleys around London. Both women were brunette, in their early thirties and posh. Gene tried to keep the thought that this described Bolly perfectly out of his head, but kept popping up at random moments, making him want to protect her more. Tonight, he had been worried about her when she didn't answer the door. He hadn't even stopped to think that she didn't hear it or was in the shower. All he could think of were the two women lying in the alleys, bodies stripped bare of clothing, and a slash of red across their throat. When she wasn't with him, he was convinced that she was out there, alone and dying, and he was letting her.

When he had crashed through the door, however, it was a different story. He entered to hear Alex singing, but that was abruptly stopped as she heard the crash of the door down to the floor. She had emerged from the bedroom a few moments later in a dressing gown with a bat in her hands, and it took a few seconds of dodging blows before Alex realised that it was only him. For the next ten minutes she yelled herself blue at him, and then went over to survey the door before yelling at him for another ten minutes. When she had finally exhausted her supply of excess oxygen, he told her to pack an overnight bag, because she wouldn't be staying in the flat until he got someone to fix the door the next day. She had put up a fight again, but eventually he won, driving Alex to his flat, and making up the rather comfortable couch for himself. They had said goodnight, Alex rather frostily, and both fell asleep quickly.

They were wakened a few hours later, however, by the shrill ringing of the phone. Gene answered it groggily, and yelled at Alex to get out of bed. She glowered at him as she emerged from the bedroom fully dressed a few moments later, but Gene had ignored it as they clambered into the Quattro. If she hadn't been with him, she still would have had to get up at two in the morning anyway.

Gene pulled up next to an alley and turned to Alex. "We're here, Lady Bolls."

~(*)~

Alex looked down in pity on brunette woman below her. It was clear that the attack had happened the same way as the previous two. Raped and murdered. This kind of case was the reason she had joined the police force in the first place. No woman should have to go through the pain and torture of rape. She had had a friend when she was a child who had been assaulted sexually. Her friend had never recovered after that, eventually committing suicide out of shame and guilt.

That was a reason she had become a psychologist as well. Alex had always like to know what made people tick, and losing her friend had been almost unbearable. She wished she had known more to help her friend during that time, but Alex had only been fourteen, full of young crushes and too concerned about her mascara to help her friend when she needed it most. It was when her friend had died that Alex had hardened herself off completely to the world, becoming a psychologist to wade through all the shit that people did to each other, to find out why. Only two men had ever broken the exterior she had place around herself. One had broken her heart, causing it to increase tenfold, making hard work for the man that had come later. Slowly though, he chipped away at the barrier, without even realising it.

Gene walked up and stood behind her. "Her clothes were found in a heap next to her body. No identification of course. There wasn't a purse or wallet or anything."

Alex tried to get her thoughts under control. "She may not have been reported missing yet. If she had just gone missing last night, then no one may have noticed she was gone."

"Yes, thank you Bolls," Gene said sarcastically. "I did realise this, after the other two happened the exact same way."

"Sorry, Guv. I'm just trying to work this out."

"Building a profile?" he asked.

"Yes. What kind of a man would do something like this to a woman?"

"That's simple, Bolly. A cruel, twisted one. One that deserves prison more than anyone else in the world."

"Its just not right!"

"Nothing in this world is, Bolls. You sure you're okay to work on this case?"

"Yes," she snapped. "Just because I'm a woman does not mean that I'm more affected by this than you. So you can stop your chauvinistic sexism, Gene Hunt!"

"Good God Bolly. I know you didn't get much sleep, but calm down."

She glowered at him. "Right," he said. "I'm taking you home. We'll talk to the morgue in the morning."

Alex got into the Quattro, and Gene sped off into the night.

~(*)~

"I don't understand. Why can't anyone hear me? Who are you? Why do you keep appearing?"

Alex woke with a start. There was a woman at the end of the bed. She was a brunette with deep blue eyes, which were currently full of fear. The woman from the alley tonight.

"Hello?" Alex whispered to the woman. Was she just dreaming? Or was she having some kind of hallucination?"

The woman started, and looked directly at Alex.

"You can see me?"

"Yeah. But I shouldn't be able to."

"What do you mean?" The woman looked surprised.

"I mean, you're dead. I shouldn't be seeing you in front of me." Alex knew that this had to be some sort of dream. Otherwise Gene would be coming in from his sofa, demanding why she woke him up whilst talking to no one.

"But, I woke back up. I remember him, on top of me, and then it all went black. But then I woke up, and he was gone. I was fine! I am fine! Look at me!"

"I'm really, really sorry," Alex said, knowing that the woman was in a fragile state of mind. "He finished it."

"You mean I ended up like the other two?" the woman asked, her face full of revulsion and horror and her voice shaking. "Lying naked in an alley, just waiting for someone to find me?"

Alex nodded sadly. "I'm really sorry. I know it shouldn't have ended like that. But we're going to find this man."

"I don't believe you! How can you see me? If I'm dead, how can you see me?" Her voice was growing higher as the fear came to the forefront of her subconscious.

"I don't know. I don't know how any of this works. I don't know why I can see you. But I can assure you, you're dead."

Alex was trying to break the news as kindly as possible. She knew that the woman was in denial, but it still made no sense. Why could she see her? What was going on? She tried to persuade herself she was dreaming, but something was preventing her from believing it. She knew something like this could never happen, the logical part of brain wouldn't let her believe in this. However, she other part of her brain knew that if she could go back to the eighties from 2008 then seeing a dead person would be perfectly acceptable. She may very well be dead herself in 2008.

The woman looked as if she might cry. Alex had to find out her name. Gene may not believe her, but they could be one step closer to finding out who the killer was. The more Alex thought about it, the more she realised, this woman could help her solve the murder.

"Okay," Alex said softly. "Just calm down. First off, can you tell me what your name is?"

"Bolly."

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Bolly. Who the bloody hell are you talking to?"

Alex blinked, and the woman disappeared from her vision, replaced by the sleep-ruffled figure of Gene Hunt.

"Earth to Bolls."

"Gene?"

"Who the hell were you talking to?"

Alex looked around the room. The woman was nowhere to be seen. "Erm..."

"Have you gone more fruitcake-y on me than usual? God, you really do need more sleep. Take the morning off or something."

"No, Gene I'm fine. Just sleep talking." Gene frowned.

"With your eyes wide open?"

Alex could say nothing back. "What time is it?"

"Just gone seven. Go back to sleep. You can come in this afternoon."

"No. I'm coming in when you do."

"Can't get enough can you?" Alex smiled and Gene exited the bedroom, leaving her to get ready.

TBC!!!! :) Reviews are always appreciated