Can I Hide With You?
Author: Jess_Who
Fandom: Ashes To Ashes
Pairings: Gene/Alex
Rating: 12+
Disclaimer: Only a fan, not the owner :'(
Spoilers: Series 2.6
A/N: This was a one-shot, now it will probably be a few chapters because I keep getting distracted. AU - Riley's men come to Alex's flat, a battered Gene finds Alex hiding behind the sofa.
....A2A...A2A....
A Midnight Stumble Into Old Memories
Alex still caught on the cusp of consciousness raises her arms up defensively and presses her feet into the arm of the sofa as she fights some imaginary foe.
A heavy hand shoves her shoulder. "Alex?" Calls a voice deep with worry. In her current state of panic her mind cannot process this person as good, but only as the someone in her dream.
A baseball bat smashes the TV screen. Breaks her lamp. Sends shards of glass across the room as he brings his wooden bat down on her coffee table. With each hit he only just misses her.
She scrabbles along the floor through glass and the compost from her potted Fern, desperately in search of safety, but finding none.
Where is Gene?
"Alex!"
Her eyes snap open as she hears Gene's voice clearly for the first time.
She flies out of her seat, knocks her cream coloured phone on the floor as she puts as much space between them as is possible. With eyes wide with unprecedented fear, she watches Gene as he struggles to stand up, for the time being favouring his uninjured ankle to take the strain of his weight.
"Bolls, it was just a dream. Okay?" He limps to her in evident pain, his eyes betraying his nerves. He looks at her like she is a wild animal and she wonders how much of a mess she must look, she hopes she does not dribble in her sleep or snore.
Kicking out and probably hitting your boss during a nightmare is bad, but she will be mortified if she discovers she snores in her sleep or makes other cringe worthy noises.
She is a strong, independent woman she does not need some secretly caring, more often than not bad tempered man with all his superior swagger and sexual innuendoes. He uses foul, usually despicable language and violence, which contrast greatly with her good manners and psychology. Yet despite the all the reasons she should not like Gene Hunt and the mental peep talk she has given herself she cannot deny the fact she only truly feels safe in his presence and right now wishes to be within the circle of his arms, held securely and never lost. Screw the feminist in her, she needs to be the little woman sometimes.
He unknowingly grants her wish as he cautiously puts his hands on her shoulders and waits for her to meet his eye - probably to reassure himself she is not about to turn around and wallop him one.
With a resolution that she will not cry again, she drops her head against his chest, breathes deeply and concentrates only on the feel of his warm hand sliding down her arm and sneaking around her waist.
Once her heart rate subsides to a relatively normal pace she nods, steps into his side and pulls his arm over her shoulder so she can help him walk with a little ease to her bedroom.
"Bolls?"
"It's too open in there," she says by way of explanation, leaving him sitting on the bed to look indecisively around the room.
"Another chair?" he asks, a slight chuckle hides under his question and she knows he is watching her arse as she manoeuvres the chair from her dressing table, across the room and wiggles it so it is tight under the door knob.
"They might come back." Alex pushes her fringe out of her eyes.
"They won't dare come back with me here."
"Gene, look at you! You're bruised all over and I'd bet money a pensioner could move quicker than you." Alex smiles teasingly, her tongue catching between her teeth.
"Oi! I'm trying to cheer you up." Gene huffs indignantly.
"I'm smiling am I not?" She asks, her head tilting to the side as she regards him.
Gene snorts, "At my expense."
Sitting softly on the bed next to him, Alex fiddles with the knot in Gene's tie as she slowly loosens it. "You know when I imagined us in my room it was never like this," she said without moving her eyes from the pulse at his throat, it jumped.
"You thought about it though," he said seemingly astonished.
Lifting his collar slightly she pull the tie from around his neck and in contemplative silence winds the strip of silk around her finger.
"Oh, you did," Gene teases, taking her silence as confirmation. She feels his eyes wandering over her face as she stares down at her hands, her cheeks hot having realised she has given away too much.
"No point blushing now, love, I already know your dirty little secret. Care to share them with me, feel free to talking in detail, embellish a little." His body language intent as he winks, allowing her the choice of taking the whole thing seriously or as a joke.
"You're not a very good patient." Alex decided not to encourage him.
"You'd look fantastic in a nurses outfit though," Gene says with a leer, tilting his head at an angle so that she can be sure he is checking her out, nodding agreeably at what he find, even though it is Alex in an over sized jumper and leggings.
Feigning a yawn to camouflage her smile; how is it this man is capable of making her feel desirable with tear stains on her cheeks she will never know.
"I think, Mister Hunt, we have both had enough excitement for one day," she says as she pushes herself up and off the bed with a heavy sigh.
Crouching by her chest of draws Alex procures the only pair of clean pyjamas' and throws the over-sized bottoms at Gene as she passes him on route to the bathroom.
: :
The reflection that stares back at her wearily in the bathroom mirror is definitely hers, just she is so pale she could pass for... Alex splashes frigid water on her face washing away the sticky feeling of salty tears and pinches her cheeks a little to add a little stain of colour to her otherwise whitewashed features.
Opening the bathroom door Alex allows Gene to check her out. She knows she is not exactly lit perfectly from behind and the shapeless shirt she is wears swamps her figure, but the way Gene's eyes travel from her ankles and up makes her feel like she is wearing her best frock. She basks in the feeling for a second longer then she should before switching the bathroom's 'not-so-ethereal-glow-creating' light off as well as the main light in her room, plunging them into darkness.
With a panicking sensation that the dark might just swallow her up, Alex walks across the room using memory alone and trips on Gene's feet. He howls out into the blackness, even as he catches her.
Alex grabs his shoulder with one hand, the other landing on her bedside cabinet and he makes another uncomfortable noise as she scrabbles for the lamp.
"Shit! Sorry, sorry." Alex struggles out of his lap without causing further damage, her face beetroot red at having found herself sprawled over his knees like a clumsy tart.
With less confidence than she feels Alex crawls onto the bed, pulling the corner of the covers over and slides beneath the cool sheets, Gene's eyes trailing after her.
"Sorry," She repeats.
"I'm fine you clumsy mare." She can tell he has already forgiven her and despite having been hurt in the proceedings he seems mostly amused by the whole event.
She feels smaller beneath the covers, but acutely aware that she is a woman and that he is a man, and it sets her off blushing all over again. She feels like a teenager with all these rushes of embarrassing hormones.
Alex shivers, the night is a cool one. She is always so cold and Gene with all this warmth is just sitting above the covers, a man so clearly trapped and she guesses she baffles him most of the time, she blows hot and cold, he must think she is half insane.
She folds the duvet back, pasts the mattress, "Get in," she sighs, pretends to be irritated when she is anything but; more terrified he is gong to laugh at her and call her a tart and mean it.
He gets in quickly, lays on his back and then changes his mind and roll to face her, "So are we going to act out one of your fantasies starring yours truly?"
She flinches slight, for once missing the teasing glint and only seeing the leer. It makes her wonder if sometimes she is blind, seeing only what she wants to see, believing anything except the truth.
What if the truth is he does not care about her, only cares about getting at what is inside her knickers. She has had him wrapped around her finger for a year and a half, but maybe it is a game. She could just be a challenge the old lion cannot turn down.
Some days she would willing race him to the finish line just to see what is on the other side of that ribbon... Home?
Staring at the deep bruise on his shoulder, tracing her fingers around so as not to think about anything else. Her face schooled to be impassive, she will not lay herself down as bait so that Ray has ammunition in the morning. She trusts Genes, but there are varying degrees of trust. Sometime those you hold closest are the ones that will break it the easiest. Alex sighs and reminds herself not all men are the same.
The bruise on his forearm is a livid purple that stares back at her angrily. How dare someone hurt her Manc Lion.
Hers? Since when did she think of him like that?
Her mind seems to be moving ten to the dozen and her emotions are tracking at a smiliar pace. Must be those pesky 'teenage hormones' or maybe it is his aftershave.
"Before with the nightmare," he asks obviously trying to divert from his battered ego, "It was just a dream, right?"
"Honesty I hid behind the sofa, like the Daleks were about to ran hell upon the earth."
"Dalek's can't get upstairs, Bolls."
"At least not till old Rusty gets his hands on them." Alex watches her fingers slide gently over Gene's soft shoulder, her mind far away with a little girl on a Saturday afternoon settling down in front of the TV together.
A blue eyed girl of nine years cuddles sleepily into her side, the blanket off the back of the settee keeps them warm.
"Molly, come on sweetheart. Bed time."
"What happened to the Doctor and Rose?" she asks wrapping her arms around Alex's neck.
"He's the hero, Molly, he always saves the girl, you know that."
"Who?" Gene's confused voice interrupts her musings.
"Never mind. Hasn't happened yet, for you anyway."
"You do come out with some nonsense." When Alex looks back at him after blinking back the painful memory, her eyes are wet and his smile is the softest she has ever seen it.
She does it again, takes refuge in him. She does not have anyone she can tell the truth to, not yet. She does have someone who will hold her. He might think she is crazy, but he knows when words are too much.
Alex shuffles forward, pulls his arm over her waist and snuggles into his chest with a sniff. His scent catches her off guard this time, but it stops her tears just as the first one tips from her bottom lashes and onto his vest.