"CHRIS!"

"CHRIS!"

And all of a sudden the world was a blur, as Ray and Shaz ran to the lifeless body of their DC, barely even registering the gunman being arrested, shaking Chris' shoulder, grabbing his hand, slapping his face, stroking his hair-

"Where's the wound?" Shaz asked frantically, her hands flitting over Chris' body, trembling with panic and fear as they pushed clothing aside, pressed to a hammering pulse...

"Er... WDC Skelton?"

"Not now!"

"WDC Skelton..."

"I am tryin' to save my 'usband's life! 'E's been shot! So shut up!" Shaz screamed at the constable trying to get her attention, pushing the edges of Chris' jacket aside. The constable sighed.

"WDC Skelton, your twonk of a husband hasn't been shot," he pointed out, somewhat indelicately. "The bullet went over there."

As Ray and Shaz raised amazed faces in his direction, he pointed to a small hole in the concrete wall of the chemist's, out of the depths of which something was being fished out by a man wearing latex gloves. Ray and Shaz stared in silence for a minute, and then in synchronisation looked back down at Chris, slumped on the floor of the shop.

"Yer great nancy," Ray groaned, shaking his head. "'E fainted!"

With one last slap to Chris' face, Ray stood up and walked off, sighing his exasperation. Shaz tried hard (and failed miserably) not to laugh.

"Ready for your turn?" Alex called through the closed door an inch from her face, her gaze almost innocent as she stood outside the bathroom stark naked, holding a strip of black silk in both fingers, twirling it provocatively round her waist as she waited for her husband. He's been in there for ten minutes now... what happened to 'I-can't-wait' Gene?

"Almost!" came back grumpily. Alex frowned.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, Gene. I can think of something else if you're really that keen not to." Even though I have been wanting to do this practically ever since I met you.

"'Ooever said I wasn' keen? I'm very bloody keen. Just... Christ, Bolls, seems a bit kinky, doesn't it?"

"Role play, Gene. Role play. Besides, that bit'll be over in five minutes, and then you'll be buried balls-deep in me and only able to think of how good it feels. Just indulge me, eh?"

"Didn' think it was your thing, dressing up."

"If you want, I'll don a nurse's uniform when we get back."

Silence.

"Gene?"

After another short pause, Gene's strained voice filtered through.

"Z y x w..."

Oh shit. I've nearly tipped him over the edge.

"Um... think of a naked DS Carling. With a naked DC Skelton. Doing things they shouldn't be doing."

"Bolly, I'm tryin' ter keep control of Sergeant Rock, I'm not tryin' ter top myself."

Alex giggled.

"Come on then, you. Out you come. Or are you scared you don't measure up?"

The door flew open.

Alex almost sank to her knees in a puddle of lust then and there.

Gene was standing in the door of the bathroom, endless legs encased from mid-calf down in cowboy boots complete with spurs, leather gloves on his hands, and a Stetson hat perched on top of his messy blond hair.

The rest of him was bollock naked.

"'Ow you doin', baby?" Shaz asked sympathetically as Chris took a sip of water, perched on his chair in CID and surrounded by jeering police officers. By now, Chris' tale of woe had taken several tours of the station; Shaz was laying bets on who would be the first to phone Gene and Alex to let them know and have a good laugh in the process. Ray, naturally, was the favourite.

"Alright," Chris muttered, turning away as Ray tried to catch his eye, the mother of all grins on his face. Shaz smiled at him, patting his arm as she headed back to her desk. Chris wondered whether she meant it condescendingly or not. She'd certainly been rather annoyed with him when he'd come round.

"How'd the shout go, Ray?" Viv asked innocently, strolling past Chris' desk with a wad of files under his arm. Shaz rolled her eyes. Here we go again.

"Well, alright really, Skip," Ray replied smoothly, his eyes glinting as Chris shuffled in his chair, picking his pen up and pretending to work on a piece of paperwork. The illusion was only ruined by the fact that the form was upside down.

"Alright, but Chris 'ere fancied a nap on the job!"

The laughter rumbled round CID just as Molly headed back in, rolling her eyes at Shaz and patting Chris' shoulder in solidarity. It wasn't his fault he was nervous. From what she'd heard from Gene about Chris' past, it was to be expected that the DC wouldn't like anything to do with guns or being shot one little bit.

"Leave him alone, I'm sure you've had an accident in your boxers more than once," she tossed back at Ray, who smirked.

"Remember that call-out in 1976, Chris? The one where yer couldn't find the loo in time?"

"Shut up," Chris muttered, his face closely resembling a tomato as Viv walked back out past him to his desk, trying and failing to hide the smile on his face. Molly turned her back on the sniggering DCs, sighing inwardly at the immaturity of her parents' work colleagues. How does Mum get through a day here without strangling one of them? Probably DS Carling…

"You know, people generally make fun of others because they feel inadequate, Ray. You're teasing Chris about his genitals… what does that say about yours?"

Ray choked indignantly on his mouthful of tea, glaring at Molly as Viv stuck his head round the door, a small smirk on his face as he clocked Ray's tea-splattered jumper.

"We've got a phone call from Fenchurch Street, an elderly lady took a fall and the person who called the ambulance thinks she was pushed," he called, raising his eyebrows at Ray's condescending look.

"Send it ter plod, Viv."

"The elderly lady had £2,000 of money raised for Macmillan Cancer Support in her handbag, which has mysteriously vanished," Viv added simply, stepping back for the whirlwind of DS that abruptly stomped out of the doors, yelling for Chris and Shaz to accompany him. Molly leapt up, giving Viv a hopeful smile.

"The elderly lady's in Interview Room 3. You could make her a cuppa and take her some biscuits, Molly," Viv suggested, waving a file in the air. "I'm up to here in paperwork."

"Every little helps," Molly sang, patting her back pocket and ignoring the confused looks from the rest of CID as she went through to make the cup of tea.

It was only when the kettle was halfway through boiling that she realised she'd got Tesco's and Asda mixed up.

How did I manage that?

"You are bloody filthy."

"You loved it."

"You are still bloody filthy."

"And you still loved it."

"I demand justice."

Alex laughed, snuggling up to Gene and pulling the Stetson hat down over his eyes, kissing the tip of his chin as he swiped it off and let it fall to the floor beside the bed.

"Come on. You can't say that wasn't brilliant."

"It was."

"So what's the complaint?"

"No complaint. Yer just filthy."

Alex swiped him with the strip of black silk, pressing an idle kiss to the crook of his neck and nuzzling his chest, leaning down to lick one nipple as he eased his head back, groaning with appreciation.

"Now yer've got my attention. Just… a bit lower… quite a bit lower…"

"You're insatiable."

"You started it."

"You're still insatiable."

"Bolly, you… ooohhhh!"

Well. That's one way to end an argument, Alex chuckled to herself as Gene's protest dissolved into a lustful moan. Mm… I like this way…

Molly was in the middle of a dilemma.

She was chatting amicably to the elderly lady in the Interview Room, having made a mug of tea and brought in a plate of her father's pink wafers. The lady Viv had shepherded in with his full-watt smile and made comfortable was very sweet, offering little anecdotes and laughing whenever Molly made a joke, but the girl's full attention wasn't quite there.

She was forgetting.

She'd got Tesco's and Asda mixed up earlier. She'd then got MSN wrong, and had been thinking about MNS until she'd caught herself at it and realised it was wrong. Her username on YouTube now completely evaded her, as did her Facebook password and the name of her BlackBerry's model. She kept wondering whether it was Redtooth or Bluetooth. Or was it Yellowtooth? Ahh! Who knows? It's not like I can bloody Goggle it… Google! It's Google! Right?

"You're very deep in thought there."

Molly didn't realise she'd left her elderly companion in silence until the woman broke it; she gave an apologetic smile, sighing as she lent back in the seat and offered the lady the biscuits again. She took one gratefully, watching Molly like a curly-haired hawk as the girl took one herself and munched absent-mindedly on it, spilling crumbs down her top in her distraction.

"I'm trying to remember some stuff. Stuff I used to know, but I've just… forgotten. And I shouldn't, it was important stuff."

"Important stuff can be hard to remember," the lady said softly, putting her hand on Molly's knee. "What kind of thing?"

"It's… hard to explain… passwords I used to use with my friends, and adverts, things I won't see again for a long time. Like I said, it's hard to explain."

The elderly lady smiled, leaning back to mirror Molly, picking her handbag up and foraging in it for her purse. Molly watched curiously, her eyes following the lady's fingers as they pulled a piece of paper out from the bottom of the purse, holding it up to the light.

"This piece of paper, Molly, has the exact marriage vows I made to my late husband, and the ones he made to me. But even though I carry it with me in my purse, I never forget a word, and I don't think I ever will."

Molly blinked, a little lost as to the moral of the story. The lady opened the paper briefly, her eyes scanning the words, the page paled with time.

"And that's because this truly is important. Always will be. But little things, like adverts… even if they were special at the time, you have to check how crucial they really are in the real world. Are they actually that important? Are they really something that you'd mourn?"

Molly's eyes were unfocused, staring at the piece of paper in her companion's hands. Are they important? Are they? No… not really. Not really. They were important, once upon a time, but they can wait, can't they? It's not like I'll be using Facebook any time soon.

"No," she said softly, so quietly the lady barely even heard her. "No, they're not."

"Then let them go, Molly," the lady said simply, taking another biscuit. "Focus on the here and now. Life. Live in the moment for a change, Molly, because I'm sure you'd enjoy it."

"Mrs Handoll?"

Molly and the lady both swerved as Viv opened the door a crack, smiling at both of them, his keys jangling in the quiet room. Despite the elderly lady's smile, Molly sighed inwardly. Couldn't you have been a couple of seconds later, Viv?

"Your daughter's arrived to take you home, Mrs H," Viv smiled, holding an arm out to her. The woman beamed, taking Viv's hand to lever herself up, patting Molly's shoulder as Viv made to accompany her out.

"Remember what I've said… don't remember. And before anyone says anything, that pun was completely unintentional."

Molly couldn't help but laugh, her heart suddenly feeling a lot lighter as Mrs Handoll vanished, leaving only the faint smell of talcum and rose perfume behind her.

Don't remember. I can do that.

A/N: I am so, so sorry for the delay! This fic has gone months now without so much as a sniff of being updated. I'm sorry! I hope you liked the new chapter, and I know I'm a twonk, but please, please review! Jazzola :D