(Untitled)

[unbreakablelion]

Who: Gene, Open
When: Night
Where: CID Office, Fenchurch East
What: Cleaning up Jimbo’s mess
Warnings: Gene has an obsession with swearing

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[bolliknickers]

How long Alex has stood mute in the doorway, she'll never say.

Eventually, she came in and started to pick up the pieces of the room.

[unbreakablelion]

Gene took a drag of his cigarette, elbows resting on the edge of his desk as he kneels on the floor. "Didn't hear you come in..."

He can't help but hope she didn't see him punch Jim in the face. It wasn't one of his shining moments right now.

[bolliknickers]

"Well," she said, dropping to a crouch to examine the typewriter.

Then, after a little while: "Are you okay?"

[unbreakablelion]

"Me? I'm fine. Top of the world... Why wouldn't I be?" He was far from fine. Jim got under his skin and made him angry, angry and nervous - never a good combination in a man like Gene Hunt.

[bolliknickers]

"You look like shit," she told him quietly, piecing the typewriter back together.

[unbreakablelion]

So much for compliments. "Long day." Gene pushed himself to his feet, piecing the file back together before laying it on his desk. He stubbed out his cigarette and moved over to get another clean glass for Alex, filling it and his own with scotch.

He brought the drinks over, leaning against the edge of one of the other desks. "Bin it. It's knackered."

[bolliknickers]

"No, I think if I just --" she tinkered a little longer, gritting her teeth.

"There." Smiling, she took the scotch and raised it in salute. "Thank you."

[unbreakablelion]

Gene gave a nod in response, bringing his own glass to his lips to take a sip. he was well on the way to being half drunk, after all he had been drinking before Jim appeared, and then a few scotches with Jim.

"Our good friend Jimbo tried to make me an offer. A deal of sorts."

[bolliknickers]

"Promise me that you will never, ever make any plans, deals or agreements with him without me being there."

Deadly serious, she fixed him with her eyes and would not (could not) relax until he conceded.

[unbreakablelion]

"I don't make deals with the devil, Bolly." In every sense of the word. His backhand dealing days were over (unless you counted the round about way of getting his hands on the new Quattro and the dodgy, illegal switching of plates), and there was no way he would play Jim's little game.

"And I don't reap souls for my own amusement..."

[bolliknickers]

"Good," Alex nodded, relieved.

She helped him continue to put CID to rights. If Jim was back, she would definitely have to put some time in to get Gene's department back on track with paperwork, etcetera. None of them really knew what was at stake...

[unbreakablelion]

"Maybe I could just run 'im over with the Quattro a few times... It would be worth it." His tone was completely deadpan and it was hard to tell just how much of the statement was joke and how much was serious.

Gene picked the pens up and fiddled with one as he watched Alex with a level gaze.

[bolliknickers]

"Gene," she scolded mildly.

After things were (mostly) put to rights, she brushed her hands off on her jeans and crossed the room to his side. They'd not really been alone since the morning after finally sleeping together, and it was with that in mind that she made the point of crossing to him and brushing a kiss to his cheek.

"Do not let him get under your skin."

[unbreakablelion]

Ah yes. The morning after that night. Put Gene Hunt in a room with armed bastards and he could have them disarmed, cuffed and confessing with ease, put Gene Hunt in a room with Alex the morning after finally giving into feelings that had been building since day one and he was a nervous, awkwardly shy mess.

He gave a sigh, curling an arm around Alex's waist. "I know, I know. I should ignore him. He wants me to react and I shouldn't give him the satisfaction. Bloody Psychiatry and all that. But he just knows how to piss me off. And I'm too bloody stubborn to walk away."

[bolliknickers]

"How about we let it go for now, and go ho-- back to mine for fried egg and chips?" she suggested. Get Gene out of the immediate situation, she thought, and his cooler impulses will prevail.

[unbreakablelion]

"I ate earlier." Well, he had eaten half of a cold bacon butty and binned the rest. "... But I could do with some company. If you don't mind."

He hated showing weakness, especially in front of Alex, but at the same time she was the only one he dared lower his walls around.