"What's your name, son?"
The irate man in front of him huffed so forcefully he almost blew steam from his nostrils.
"I think that's something you should be telling me," he flapped, "why are you in my office? And what have you done to the place?" he paused. "I thought 60 Minute Makeover was axed years ago!"
"What's your name?" Gene repeated calmly.
The man fumbled for his iPhone one last time before saying,
"Shoebury. I'm DCI Simon Shoebury."
For a moment Gene cringed. Great. Not only was his new DI going to have to deal with a demotion in his confused state of mind but he sounded like he was about to supply Gene with some excellent new footwear.
"Sit down," Gene told him. Simon seemed reluctant to move in any way, least of all toward the chair. With a sigh, Gene fished around for a second glass, slid it across the desk to his new DI and filled it with something strong and alcoholic. His new charge did not seem impressed.
"Drinking on the job?" he exploded, "What kind of set up is this?" he checked the corners of the room. "Where are the cameras?"
"There are three things you need to know about me," Gene began, "Number one, my name is Gene Hunt. Number two, I am your DCI and you are my new DI, so number three, when I give you a glass - you drink. Right?"
Simon studied the glass of liquid with caution.
"What have you put in here?" he asked.
"I haven't filled it with my own amber nectar if that's what you're thinking!" Gene began to lose his patience.
Simon pushed the glass back towards him.
"I'm teetotal," he said.
"We don't have any teabags," said Gene. He could feel a headache coming on. It was far from the first time he'd been through this but the further in the future his DIs came from, the weedier they were. Not only that but they were hardly going to sound like a tough crime fighting duo. Tyler and Hunt sounded like a strong team. Drake and Hunt - now that sounded powerful. But Hunt and Shoebury? They sounded like a team of foot-health inspectors.
He gave an involuntary sigh. The arrival of an iPhone-obsessed Simon had momentarily distracted him from the pain in his chest. The pain had come from a farewell he had never wanted to experience. He had no choice - once Alex found out the truth about herself and this world she had no choice but to move on. Those were the rules. One in, one out. Alex had to go and a new DI would begin his or her own journey.
He could feel his chest tighten further as he thought about how his whole world had fallen apart in the space of a day or so. He had never meant to keep anyone there for so long. He had just forgotten. He'd forgotten why they were there - why he was there. And aside from Alex, no one else had remembered either.
The main difference, he thought as he sipped his whiskey, oblivious to Simon's ranting, was that when you died right away you had no memory of the place from which you came. Ray, Chris, Shaz and Annie had come to him from their death and never knew anything was wrong. Sam and Alex, on the other hand… well, their lives were still hanging in the balance and their memories of their other lives were still dominant.
By the time Sam Tyler entered Gene's world there was no one around who knew it was not real. Gene's own memory had faded with time and the team he had around him were oblivious. There was something about Tyler that made Gene feel uncomfortable. Something in the things he said that brought a memory to the edge of Gene's mind but one that would never quite come forth.
After Sam made the decision to return to Gene's world things were different. Although Gene never knew what happened when Sam disappeared in the tunnel and returned by way of a leap of faith he could see a real difference in Sam. In the weeks and months that followed, Tyler grasped 70s life with both hands. He stopped hearing strange things and behaving in a bizarre way. He slowly forgot about life outside of the world he'd joined.
For several years things were perfect. Nothing seemed amiss. Then one day Sam began to feel his mortality. Things began to creep back; things he'd long forgotten. He started to feel threatened by tall buildings, getting a sense of vertigo and a rush like falling every so often. He brushed them off at first as being signs of overtiredness or stress, but soon things started to step up. He would catch a glimpse of stars where there should be a street or a building. He started to feel like the world was falling away beneath his feet.
It didn't take him long to realise his time was up. He'd started to feel invincible in Gene's world. He had forgotten his time there would be finite and taken it for granted that he could go on forever. His behaviour started to become erratic as he attempted to deal with the realisation that he was about to expire. The strain began to show in his relationship with Annie as he found he couldn't tell her what he was going through for fear of sounding like the 'crazy' man he used to be, not realising for one moment that Annie had started to see stars and feel echoes of her own mortality too.
In desperation he turned to Gene. He needed to get out. He didn't know what would happen to him when his time ran out and imagined how hurt Annie would be if he simply vanished one day. He implored Gene to take him seriously. Asking Gene to help him fake his own death wasn't a decision he took lightly and it wasn't something Gene had been expecting. He'd seen his DI's behaviour start to change over a few months and knew something was going badly wrong for him but he had no idea how severe the state of Sam's desperation had become.
As he listened to his friend talking, those memories that had always been on the edge of Gene's consciousness began to reveal themselves. The strength of the emotion and the pain that came with them were more than Gene could bear. Before he could acknowledge their true meaning he found himself agreeing to help Sam to escape this world. He felt a pain in his chest from the thought of losing a friend but he had to admit that he knew Sam had to move on.
One car in the water, one jacket planted as evidence and one missing body.
That was all it took. Gene knew that there would be an investigation, but Sam's body would never be found.
"Oi!" Simon thumped his fist on the desk, "are you even listening to me?"
Gene realised he'd been quiet for some time. He also didn't much care.
"Not particularly, no," he said.
"If you don't give me some answers right now I'm going to charge you with obstructing the law!" Simon sneered.
"I would very much like to see you try," Gene rubbed his temples and slumped into his chair," I've never seen a shoe shop attendant make an arrest before."
He fell back into deep thought as he watched Simon scrambling around in his pocket for what was presumably another iPhone, iPod or iSomething-or-other.
He remembered that last day, the last time he'd seen Sam. As he led him to the doors of the Railway Arms there was a strange energy all around. Gene's memory was still cloudy, but he knew that Sam had to pass through those doors, and after that he would never see his friend again.
"Pint, Gene?" Sam asked.
Gene hung back. This was one time the doors of the Railway Arms did not invite him.
"I'll pass for now," he said sheepishly.
Sam frowned.
"I've never seen you refuse a free drink," he commented.
Gene gave a short nod.
"You can owe me," he said.
He watched Sam nod back, then turn to the pub he'd spent so many hours visiting over the last few years. It had never glowed so brightly before.
Weeks followed where life started to hang in the balance. An investigation started which made Gene nervous, but found nothing. He choked on his words as he offered his sympathies to Annie and watched the rest of his team in mourning. None of them knew the truth. None of them could know. None of them remembered.
Sam's recall and demise had started off a chain reaction and there were some instances of echoes, voices and stars among his team. Gene could feel the mortality of his universe. He could see Ray and Chris beginning to notice and Annie becoming a shadow of the woman she once was. When the orders came for Gene to transfer to Fenchurch it felt for sure that his world was being given another chance. Perhaps its time, like Sam's, was finite but it still had a job to do and needed Gene at the helm.
When Ray and Chris agreed to transfer with Gene it seemed that his team would remain intact. The one exception was Annie, the grieving widow whose personality had changed so much Gene hardly recognised her.
Cut up with guilt, unable to tell her that the man she loved had gone to a better place, he agreed to meet her for one last drink before the move. The air was strange that night ad he walked toward the Railway Arms. He could hear echoes of Sam's voice in the air. As he reached the pub he could see that faint glow again, and as Annie walked towards him things began to make sense. He could feel a lump rising in his throat. Her time was also coming to an end. Without Sam she had nothing in this world to stick around for.
He looked at Annie seriously. He couldn't bring himself to explain it to her.
"Look, you, err…. You go in and get a round in. I just need to get something out of the car."
Annie frowned.
"You'll do anything to avoid buying a round, won't you?" she said.
"Call it a goodbye present," Gene told her.
Annie gave the slightest of smiles.
"Alright, fine, she said, "I'll get them in. Don't be long."
Gene watched as she walked up to the pub and opened the door, then disappeared within.
"I might be a while yet," he said to himself.
As he watched, a strange glow spread around the building. It felt warm and tempting, but it wasn't calling Gene. Not yet. He still had work to do. Another city needed him. Another DI needed him. One day he would get a round in, but not yet.
"DI?" Simon had found his new identity somewhere about his person, "DI?"
"DI Shoebury," Gene sighed, "I think you would feel much better if you sat down, relaxed and had a drink. It's almost knocking off time. That means the call of the bottle to us, pal."
"How about a call to my superintendent?" Simon countered.
Gene let Simon ramble, becoming more and more incoherent as he talked himself round in circles. Gene was tired. He thought he was ready for another go around but he wasn't, he truly wasn't. His mind turned to Alex. It didn't feel like that long ago she arrived in his world. By the time they met he had forgotten everything once again, although her strange comments brought back those feelings of anxiety just as Sam's had done on those early days.
He'd kept the nature of her existence to the back of his mind and exploded with anger when she tried to tell him the truth. He didn't think she was a liar. He knew she wasn't. He didn't think that for one moment. But the layers of denial had built up for so long that he had to lock out the truth. The alternative didn't bear thinking about.
The moment Alex found his body, the moment she found the truth, everything flooded back. The impact of the moment was more intense than he could have imagined. He crumbled, his world crumbled. The only thing that remained constant was Alex.
That's what made it all the more painful to say goodbye.
"…..but if you'll just find out which of those jokers took my iPhone and get it back to me I'll forget this whole incident ever happened," Simon bargained, "I'll go home, you put my office back to how it was and we'll say no more about it. I won't sue whatever set-up show you're from, and I won't sue the decorators either."
"Listen, you need to get one thing into your iBrain, Shoe-boy," Gene began to get angry, "while you are in my team you need to remember whose office this is. Mine. Not yours. You'll be dreaming on that for a very long time." He nodded toward the door. "Your desk is out there. My last DI left in…" his voice broke a little, "something of a hurry, so you'll have to clear it out yourself. Feel free to keep the stationery, I sincerely hope you won't want to keep the lipstick and the spare pair of tights."
"What the…?" Simon could hardly get his words out, "how dare you? Lipstick and tights?"
"Sorry," came a voice from the doorway, "you won't be able to keep those anyway. I'll probably need them at some point."
For a moment Gene's heart stopped dead in his chest. He almost couldn't bear to look past Simon. He didn't want it to not be true. His new DI had no such issue.
"And who are you?" he demanded, "were you the one who installed this migraine-inducing ceiling? Are you here to put it back the way it was?"
"No," Alex stepped slowly through the doorway, "I'm here to talk to the Guv." she paused and gave a charming smile. "If that's alright with you."
Simon's anger boiled over.
"Fine," he spat, "have him. Have my bloody office! Have my sanity on a plate! But when I get in tomorrow this place had better be back to normal or I'll… I'll…"
"Call the police?" smiled Alex.
Simon scowled, then kicked the desk in fury.
"Yeeooooowwwwww!" he howled, hopping around and clutching at least two - if not three - broken toes. "Owwww! Owwww! Owwww! Someone get me to hospital!"
"Nine, nine, nine," said Gene, "it's an easy number to remember. Maybe you can put that in your ePhone."
"iPhone!" screamed Simon and he hobbled out of the room, leaving Gene with no excuse not to look at the woman he'd sent on her way less than an hour ago.
"Drake," he stood up slowly, "I just sent you on a journey. It was supposed to be a one way ticket."
Alex stepped toward him, swallowing visibly.
"My ticket didn't take me where I wanted to go," she said.
"You've passed, Bolly," said Gene, "you can't go home."
Alex shook her head.
"No, you're wrong," she whispered, "I am home."
Gene hesitated. He'd never seen anyone leave The Railway Arms before.
"How did you leave?" his voice began to break up as he spoke, "I don't…. I don't understand. There's no exit."
"Then maybe that should tell you something," Alex said firmly, "that I wasn't ready." She let her lips flicker into a tiny smile. "That I have a job to do."
"Yes, getting me in a drink," said Gene.
Alex smiled fully now.
"Not yet," she said.
Gene raised an eyebrow.
"Then when?"
Alex glanced over her shoulder at the hobbling newcomer, still mouthing off about missing gadgets and restoring his usual décor.
"Oh, I'd say around the time this gentleman grows to love the… migraine-inducing ceiling," she said, "and goes for a pint."
"You'll be waiting a long time for that, Bols," said Gene, beginning to shuffle out from behind his desk, "he's teetotal."
Alex gave a broad grin.
"I'm sure we can fill the time somehow," she said.
As she moved forward and coerced a mildly-protesting Gene into a warm embrace she closed her eyes. Heaven could wait for some other time. This was her home. This was where she was supposed to be.
Gene and Alex slowed as they approached Luigi's. The restaurant was dark, the doors locked and bolted and the 'closed' sign displayed like a sad goodbye.
"Damn," Gene let out his breath, "I forgot."
Alex looked forlornly at the door.
"My flat," she said quietly, "I suppose I'm homeless too."
"Perhaps you weren't supposed to stay after all?" Gene asked quietly.
Alex folded her arms.
"You're not getting off that lightly," she said, "I'll find somewhere."
Gene looked around. The coldness of the evening was beginning to bite through his gloves.
"We need to find somewhere to get a drink," he said, "obviously not the Railway Arms. Our northern booze isn't good enough for you, apparently."
Alex glanced at him and could see that he was teasing.
"There's a wine bar just down this road," she moved her head to the left.
"A wine bar?" Gene spat in horror, "I've already lost my team and gained a twerp. I'm not losing my credibility in the same day!"
Alex ignored his protests and held his arm. She pulled him gently but firmly down the street. She became aware that times were merging and changing. Something in the events of the day were making a nonsense of days, months and years. With every step they draw closer to another time, '84... '85... '86... By the time they reached the wine bar they had truly become trendy.
Time slowed back down as they entered and set themselves up with a bottle. Alex hardly had time to take a sip of the warming red liquid before Gene asked her a question that made his voice crack a little.
"Why didn't you look back?" he asked.
Alex set her glass on the table.
"What?"
"When you walked into the Railway Arms," Gene continued, "you didn't look back."
Alex felt a sudden lump appear in her throat.
"Why didn't you call me back?" she countered.
"I couldn't," whispered Gene.
"I was waiting for you to call me back."
"I was waiting for you to bloody turn round!"
"Why would I turn round and look at someone who's just kissed me and then sent me away for the rest of eternity?"
"Why would I call for someone who didn't even put up a fight to stay?"
"I was trusting you!" cried Alex, "You asked me to trust you. I did. I trusted you when you said Molly…" she found her words began to stick in her throat, "when you said Molly would be OK. I trusted you when you said I couldn't stay. I did what you told me to do."
"For the first time ever," said Gene, "the one time when I didn't want you to!"
Alex froze.
"You were waiting for me to stop? To look back?" she asked, "and then what? Would you have asked me to stay?"
Gene hesitated. He sipped his wine and pulled a face.
"Ugh, what's this rubbish?" he cried, "Come back Luigi, all is forgiven!"
"Gene," Alex said sternly.
Gene gave a sigh. He put his wine down and looked at Alex with darkness in his eyes.
"Once you know the truth, there was no going back," he said.
Alex held out her arms.
"If there's no going back then how come I'm here now?" she asked.
"I don't know, Bols," Gene shook his head, "I don't know what happens on the other side of the door." he paused. "And anyway, I wanted you to be safe."
"Safe?" frowned Alex, "from what?"
"Keats," Gene spat as the word tasted worse than his wine.
"Keats?" Alex repeated, "Keats is… is nothing."
"He'd have done anything to get your soul, Alex," Gene told her.
"But he didn't get it," Alex leaned forward a little, "and he never will."
"If he knows you're back then he won't stop," Gene told her, "he'll try every trick he can. He'll tempt you with fifty scarves if he thinks they'll reel you in. The Railway Arms…" he paused. "Well, let's just say that's one place he's barred from. Permanently." He took another swig from his glass and contorted his face to show his disgust. "So," he looked back at Alex, "What happened? How …how come you're here?"
Alex swallowed.
"Because I wanted to be," she whispered.
The walk from Gene's arms to the door of the Railway Arms felt like the longest of Alex's life. Every step seemed to echo through her head. Every step took eons to complete. With every footstep she waited to hear him call her. She waited for a Bols or a Bolly; a Drake or even an Alex. She waited for a 'Stop' or a 'wait' or even an 'I'll get this round in' but by the time she reached the door and gripped the handle there was still silence in the air.
She thought about turning back. She thought about looking at him one last time, but it would hurt too much. If he'd called her… if he'd said her name… just once… she'd have turned around like a shot. But she couldn't face the thought of looking around. She didn't want to see the man who'd told her she had to go. She didn't want to face the thought of seeing him walking away or looking at her coldly, or just not being there at all. So she opened the door and walked inside.
She was surprised to find herself actually in a pub. She thought going to the pub was a metaphor for heading to heaven, or whatever else truly existed beyond Gene's world. She wasn't exactly expecting clouds and harps but she also wasn't expecting the sound of a smashing glass as Ray tried to carry too many pints in one go.
"Sorry," his voice sounded through the room.
Alex glanced around and saw her friends sitting not far away, with the exception of Ray who was trying to kick the shards of glass under the table. All around the bar were others, presumably coppers who had completed their time in Gene's world and moved on. They all seemed full of joy and life, happy to have their part in this place. Suddenly Alex began to feel very much alone.
"Ma'am," Chris called to her, raising his hand, "got you a drink."
Alex gave a thin smile.
"That's very thoughtful Chris," she said.
Shaz looked a little confused.
"I thought the Guv would be joining us if you were here, ma'am," she said.
Alex swallowed as she sat down.
"So did I," she whispered.
"Sure he'll be along soon, eh?" Chris tried to cheer her up.
Alex stared at the scarf in her hands. Even as she looked it was fading. One last attempt at temptation from the devil. She closed her eyes for a moment as she thought about Molly. Only now was it truly hitting her that she wouldn't see her baby again for a long time, that her little girl would grow up without her mum, just like Alex herself had done. The tears began to fall.
"Oh Ma'am," Shaz's heart broke to see her so distraught, "don't cry."
"I'm never going to see Molly again," Alex whispered.
"Molly?" asked Ray.
"My daughter," Alex whispered, "I can never go home. I can never see her again."
"I'm so, so sorry," Shaz whispered, "I don't know what to say."
"How can this be heaven," Alex's voice trembled, "if you're not with the ones you love?"
"Ones?" repeated Chris.
Alex blushed involuntarily.
"One," she corrected.
Chris and Shaz exchanged a glance and a tiny, sly smile.
"Ones," said chris.
"Ones, said Shaz.
Alex stared at her hands.
"I can't stay with him either," she whispered.
"Why not?" asked Chris.
"He told me to go," Alex said quietly.
"He wouldn't want to be without you, ma'am," said Shaz, "he was probably just waiting for you to tell him you wanted to stay."
"I tried."
"How hard?"
Alex began to reply but stopped. It was true enough, she hadn't fought very hard. She wanted to show Gene she trusted him so she did as she was told.
"I should have tried harder," she whispered.
Chris glanced toward the door.
"Nelson's locking up," he said.
Alex closed her eyes for a moment. It was loo late to do anything now.
"I know," she whispered.
She opened her eyes, preparing to drink herself into a heavenly stupor when suddenly the wall beyond them was replaced by dark sky and stars. She gasped and draw back in her chair.
"What's wrong?" frowned Ray, turning to face the direction Alex's eyes were glued upon.
"Do you see that?" she whispered.
Ray shrugged.
"I know it's not exactly modern but it's an old fashioned boozer," he said, "what did you expect? Walls have always been that colour."
"No," whispered Alex, "I mean…. don't you see them?"
Shaz made a face.
"Yeah, those stains are a bit suspicious if you ask me," she said, looking for a cloth.
Alex blinked and the stars faded away.
"No," she whispered, "stars… there were stars…"
Shaz gave her a concerned glance.
"Stars?" she repeated, "No… that's over…. We've made it here now."
"Maybe not," whispered Alex.
"I didn't see anything," said Chris.
"Nor me," shrugged Ray.
"Then maybe…." Alex got to her feet, "maybe that's because I'm in the wrong place."
"You can't go back," Shaz said gently.
Alex couldn't believe that. There was a way. There had to be a way. She glanced down at her shoes. Could she try clicking her heels together three times and repeating 'There's no place like home'?
"I'm going to freshen up," she said quietly, "where's the ladies?"
"Over there by the look of it," Ray gave a huge grin, spying a table of attractive female officers at another table.
Chris looked at Alex.
"Over there," he pointed her in the right direction.
Alex gave a tiny smile.
"Thank you," she whispered, and walked slowly toward the toilets.
What are you doing, Drake? she admonished herself silently as she climbed on the toilet and rattled the window. She pushed and pulled until it opened with a pop and a cold breeze poured in from outside. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. Air. Real air. Or at least, as real as it ever got.
She felt foolish as she hoisted her legs onto the thin window ledge and looked out. The stars were bright that night. Then she realised the stars were the only thing outside. There was no world beyond The Railway Arms any more. She closed her eyes and swallowed.
"Come on," she whispered, willing the world to appear again when she opened her eyes, but still stars and nothingness greeted her.
She thought about Sam. She remembered the leap of faith he took to get back to gene's world. She was coming at this from the opposite side; going backwards, but the sentiment was the same.
"After three," she whispered, "One… two…." she hesitated and closed her eyes. She didn't want to watch the stars streaming past as she fell. "Three."
She took a leap of faith.
"I thought I would fall forever," Alex whispered.
Gene took another mouthful of foul wine.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Nothing," said Alex, "I…. I didn't feel like I was falling. I didn't feel like I hit the ground. I was scared, Gene. I was scared because I didn't know what would happen when I opened my eyes."
"And what happened when you did?"
Alex felt a tear pricking her eyes.
"I was there," she whispered, "back at Fenchurch. In the car park." She paused. "It wasn't my time."
Gene emptied his glass and took a moment to think about everything Alex had told him. Escaping from heaven out of the toilet window seemed like a pretty far-fetched notion but if heaven was a pub then he supposed it had to have an escape route for bad dates and rumbled lock-ins.
"So where do we go from here?" he asked.
That was one part Alex wasn't sure about.
"We…. carry on?" she suggested, "from where we left off."
"The team's gone, Bolly."
"But you have a brand spanking, shiny new recruit to break in."
"The shoe shop man?" Gene gave a slight laugh, "he's going to be a piece of work, that one."
"Just as well you have me to help then," Alex gave a cheeky smile and sipped her wine.
"And what about the pub?" asked Gene.
"Well," Alex looked around, "I think we've found a new local. And when the time is right…" she looked into Gene's eyes, "I'm sure Nelson will have drinks waiting for us on the bar."
Gene hesitated. He took a deep breath and leaned back. He stared at her in silence for so long that was afraid that he was going to knock her back, take her back to the Railway Arms and send her on again. Finally he glanced around.
"We're going to have to find a better boozer than this," he said, "the drink tastes like Ray Carling's boiled sock water and the wallpaper's giving me an 'eadache. But the rest of your proposal, Drakey," he poured some more wine and eyed her, "it sounds good."
For the first time since her return a smile of relief flooded across Alex's face.
"Good," she said decisively, "then everything is back as it should be."
Gene took a swig of wine that almost emptied the glass and sighed.
"Your first task," he began, "is to go and visit Shoebury in hospital. Take him a bunch of grapes or something. And tell him to stop being so wet."
Alex grinned.
"He'll come good," she said, "he's got the best Guv to show him the way."
Gene nodded.
"I'll drink to that," he said.