Asking for Trouble
Title: Asking for Trouble
Rating: Green Cortina (I think - 1 use of a swear word)
Word Count/Length: ~1800
Notes: My very first fic, and very first thing I have ever written since college! So apologies in advance for the not-very-goodness. Think this has further to go, but wanted to get this posted just to see what people thought and whether to bother to continue (and lost the way in the middle and wanted it gone)! Any feed-back welcome - positive or not, it's all a useful learning curve.
Summary: Kinda angsty - and doesn't really go anywhere at the moment. Yup, awesome enticement to read on...damn
Part 1
'You bring this on yerself, y'know. If only you could do what you were told once in a while. If only you could follow my lead, my orders. I wouldn't have to keep trying to beat some sense in to you. You bring this on yerself, Sam'
Gene stared at the crumpled heap of his picky pain DI. Sam was curled into a near fetal position, as white as a sheet and sweating slightly at the temples. So just another Gene and Sam argument then. Just another day when the junior officer had pushed his senior too far, just another line crossed and just another set of orders ignored in front of subordinates.
The Guv had meant to throw him against the filing cabinet but had stepped awkwardly into the office while manhandling his struggling DI and had ended up shoving Sam hard against the corner of his desk. The unforgiving wood being driven right into Sam's kidney and, struggling to draw breath, he riled up against Gene's complete lack of remorse. The fighting was something he was getting used to. But that self-righteous tone was something he would never learn to bear.
'I bring it on myself?' Sam half whispered half sneered the question 'Then God help your wife, Gene'.
Despite the pain, or more likely because of the near certainty of more, Sam bolted out of Gene's office before his superior could fully register the comment. As he retreated back to his desk he half expected a heavy hand to land on his shoulder and drag him back to finish him off. But something in the tone and in the words themselves had stilled the legendary, formidable Gene Hunt. Shocked he stood alone in his office and stared at the door.
The one person he really trusted in this life, the one person he had actually 'let in' in so many years...Sam Tyler, the one person who could make him a better man, still thought of him as nothing more than a common thug. No it was worse than that, the man he had come to think of as his one true friend, thought that he was on the same level as the wife-beating scum the pulled in on a daily basis. Gene Hunt had never raised a hand in anger to a woman. Not in his whole life, and he never would. He was not that man. That man was Hunt Snr. Yeah the missus had left, but that was because he has stopped touching her at all, not because he was too rough with her.
Sinking into the chair behind his desk, he continued to stare at the door Sam had just shot through. His thoughts had slowed practically to a stop, so it was muscle memory alone that opened the bottom drawer and removed the bottle and glass concealed within. He poured himself a generous measure and knocked it back in one, still visibly reeling from the verbal lashing just received. Pouring another good measure of scotch Gene closed the bottle and returned it to the drawer. Throwing this down his neck to join the first he stood up, moved around his desk and grabbed his coat from the stand in the corner. Opening the door, coat slung over one arm, he called to Sam.
'Oi Tyler, stop day dreaming and get your coat. We've still got bad guys to catch, even if you did give them one ruddy great head start'.
Startled Sam stood up and retrieved his coat from the back of his chair. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it wasn't this. This seemingly normal (for a relative value) Gene Hunt threw him completely. An incandescent with rage Gene Hunt would have seemed more appropriate.
Sam hadn't quite meant what he had said. He had been in pain, sore and pissed off - oh yes - but he knew what he said must've hurt. He knew the Guv better than anyone in this room, knew more of his history too. Sam knew Gene would never hurt his wife, or any other woman. He knew Gene was terrified of becoming his father. But in the heat of the moment Sam had really wanted to hurt him, and that was the only way he knew how.
Sam slowly got the rest of his stuff together and moved towards Gene. Whatever happened next, Sam thought, he really had brought it on himself this time.
Part 2
The case itself passed by without any real incident. It had been a low-level blag, and the team were geared up to storm the warehouse and seize the dodgy electrical goods inside, along with any scum they found. Right up until Sam had insisted that Gene get more evidence and had voiced his opinions in front of everyone present. Which sadly had not included Chris and Ray, who had gone to the site as planned and only succeeded in alerting the gang to the police's interest in their activities. Once they had the missing intel Sam had required the actual arrests went smoothly and quietly for once. Having someone 'bang to rights' as Tyler said tended to make them cooperate more than when they knew you were beating them up on the basis of no real evidence.
However the mood in CID was not quite so calm and everyone had noticed a certain tension in the air. Despite seeming his normal, loud, forthright and brash self during the case, now it was over the Guv was clearly not in a good mood.
Gene had had time to brood on what Sam had said to him, and despite initially deciding to brush it off, he found that he couldn't let the callousness of it go. His mind came to rest again and again on the picture of his DI sprawled on the floor looking at him with such disgust and snarling words that Gene could not forget. The longer he turned it over in his head the bigger the pain in his chest became. At first he couldn't understand what he was feeling, then gradually it became apparent he was feeling remorse. A great deep sadness for the passing of something he had held dear but had never acknowledged until now. He was mourning the loss of someone he saw every day.
The distance between DCI and DI grew and everyone else in the team could feel it. The constant strain and the permanent tension where having a negative effect on everyone in CID. Something, or someone would have to give, and soon, before the whole department was ripped apart by the feuding men.
Part 3
"I'm sorry, alright Guv, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said during the Astley case. I was angry, frustrated and in pain so I lashed out in the only way I had left. I'm sorry, I know you aren't like that."
Gene gave a dismissive snort and continued to walk away. This was all getting too much for him, he just wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and his loquacious DI, before he heard anything he couldn't not react too.
Tyler continued to follow Hunt, determined to make himself heard. He had fucked up, he knew it and if only the stubborn old git would stop and talk to him for two minutes he could try and make it right.
"For God's sake Guv just stop and listen to me for a sec. I'm trying to apologise"
It was no good, Gene was having none of it and finally Sam's patience snapped. He had been trying to make it better, this atmosphere, but now - sod it.
"Fine walk away. I'm not the one who should be apologising anyway. I'm not the one who nearly broke my back slamming me into a desk, I'm not the one who thinks with his fists, I'm not the one who cares so little about his team he is prepared to see it torn apart out of sheer pig-headedness."
As he was still facing the Cortina Sam couldn't see the effect his words had on Gene. If he could he might have noticed the little wince as he said Gene didn't care. He cared plenty about his team, all of them, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was caring too damn much about one of them. Caring what that one person thought, about cases, about life and about Gene. Caring when that little prick didn't. Gene cared that Sam had such a low opinion of him. He cared. And it made him feel like he might explode with the shame and hurt of it all. But he wouldn't show it. Not now, not ever. But he did show it, all in one little flicker that Sam missed completely.
"No DI Tyler, I don't care."
The emphasis on the last word dripped with malice and sarcasm and as he turned to face Sam the younger man took a step backwards, away from the piercing green eyes that bore into him with an intensity that scared him.
Gene walked forwards and invaded Sam's personal space in the way that only he could, and knowing he started this delightful little conversation, and not wanting to look like he was running away Sam stood his ground.
"I do not care what you think. I do not give a rat's arse about your opinion of me or the way I handle my team. I do care, however, about you doing your job. So do me a favour and stop all this crap about 'caring' and 'feeling' right now, or get the hell out of my sight. You will do your job, and do it in the way I tell you. Do I make myself clear?"
Every sentence, every word practically, had brought Gene even closer to Sam. The distance between them now was so small that Sam could feel the heat radiating off of Gene's body, and he was so close that he had to look straight up to see him. All he had wanted to do was make this better, make their working relationship work again. But Sam felt the impossibility of it all hit him like a train, and he knew that this had stretched way beyond breaking point now. There was nothing to salvage, so Sam did the only thing he could. The only thing he was really any good at. He turned and walked away.
If Sam had bothered to look back he wouldn't have seen anything to make him stay. It wasn't until Gene was safely in his beloved car that he finally allowed some of what he was feeling to show on his face. What Sam would have seen then was a broken man, a man who had tried his whole life to be better than he was and a man who had failed so easily so many times. Gene was tired and he felt old, and he knew that his one chance of being the man he had promised himself he would be as a bruised but not broken kid, was walking away.
They were both too stubborn to look back.
Rating: Green Cortina (I think - 1 use of a swear word)
Word Count/Length: ~1800
Notes: My very first fic, and very first thing I have ever written since college! So apologies in advance for the not-very-goodness. Think this has further to go, but wanted to get this posted just to see what people thought and whether to bother to continue (and lost the way in the middle and wanted it gone)! Any feed-back welcome - positive or not, it's all a useful learning curve.
Summary: Kinda angsty - and doesn't really go anywhere at the moment. Yup, awesome enticement to read on...damn
Part 1
'You bring this on yerself, y'know. If only you could do what you were told once in a while. If only you could follow my lead, my orders. I wouldn't have to keep trying to beat some sense in to you. You bring this on yerself, Sam'
Gene stared at the crumpled heap of his picky pain DI. Sam was curled into a near fetal position, as white as a sheet and sweating slightly at the temples. So just another Gene and Sam argument then. Just another day when the junior officer had pushed his senior too far, just another line crossed and just another set of orders ignored in front of subordinates.
The Guv had meant to throw him against the filing cabinet but had stepped awkwardly into the office while manhandling his struggling DI and had ended up shoving Sam hard against the corner of his desk. The unforgiving wood being driven right into Sam's kidney and, struggling to draw breath, he riled up against Gene's complete lack of remorse. The fighting was something he was getting used to. But that self-righteous tone was something he would never learn to bear.
'I bring it on myself?' Sam half whispered half sneered the question 'Then God help your wife, Gene'.
Despite the pain, or more likely because of the near certainty of more, Sam bolted out of Gene's office before his superior could fully register the comment. As he retreated back to his desk he half expected a heavy hand to land on his shoulder and drag him back to finish him off. But something in the tone and in the words themselves had stilled the legendary, formidable Gene Hunt. Shocked he stood alone in his office and stared at the door.
The one person he really trusted in this life, the one person he had actually 'let in' in so many years...Sam Tyler, the one person who could make him a better man, still thought of him as nothing more than a common thug. No it was worse than that, the man he had come to think of as his one true friend, thought that he was on the same level as the wife-beating scum the pulled in on a daily basis. Gene Hunt had never raised a hand in anger to a woman. Not in his whole life, and he never would. He was not that man. That man was Hunt Snr. Yeah the missus had left, but that was because he has stopped touching her at all, not because he was too rough with her.
Sinking into the chair behind his desk, he continued to stare at the door Sam had just shot through. His thoughts had slowed practically to a stop, so it was muscle memory alone that opened the bottom drawer and removed the bottle and glass concealed within. He poured himself a generous measure and knocked it back in one, still visibly reeling from the verbal lashing just received. Pouring another good measure of scotch Gene closed the bottle and returned it to the drawer. Throwing this down his neck to join the first he stood up, moved around his desk and grabbed his coat from the stand in the corner. Opening the door, coat slung over one arm, he called to Sam.
'Oi Tyler, stop day dreaming and get your coat. We've still got bad guys to catch, even if you did give them one ruddy great head start'.
Startled Sam stood up and retrieved his coat from the back of his chair. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it wasn't this. This seemingly normal (for a relative value) Gene Hunt threw him completely. An incandescent with rage Gene Hunt would have seemed more appropriate.
Sam hadn't quite meant what he had said. He had been in pain, sore and pissed off - oh yes - but he knew what he said must've hurt. He knew the Guv better than anyone in this room, knew more of his history too. Sam knew Gene would never hurt his wife, or any other woman. He knew Gene was terrified of becoming his father. But in the heat of the moment Sam had really wanted to hurt him, and that was the only way he knew how.
Sam slowly got the rest of his stuff together and moved towards Gene. Whatever happened next, Sam thought, he really had brought it on himself this time.
Part 2
The case itself passed by without any real incident. It had been a low-level blag, and the team were geared up to storm the warehouse and seize the dodgy electrical goods inside, along with any scum they found. Right up until Sam had insisted that Gene get more evidence and had voiced his opinions in front of everyone present. Which sadly had not included Chris and Ray, who had gone to the site as planned and only succeeded in alerting the gang to the police's interest in their activities. Once they had the missing intel Sam had required the actual arrests went smoothly and quietly for once. Having someone 'bang to rights' as Tyler said tended to make them cooperate more than when they knew you were beating them up on the basis of no real evidence.
However the mood in CID was not quite so calm and everyone had noticed a certain tension in the air. Despite seeming his normal, loud, forthright and brash self during the case, now it was over the Guv was clearly not in a good mood.
Gene had had time to brood on what Sam had said to him, and despite initially deciding to brush it off, he found that he couldn't let the callousness of it go. His mind came to rest again and again on the picture of his DI sprawled on the floor looking at him with such disgust and snarling words that Gene could not forget. The longer he turned it over in his head the bigger the pain in his chest became. At first he couldn't understand what he was feeling, then gradually it became apparent he was feeling remorse. A great deep sadness for the passing of something he had held dear but had never acknowledged until now. He was mourning the loss of someone he saw every day.
The distance between DCI and DI grew and everyone else in the team could feel it. The constant strain and the permanent tension where having a negative effect on everyone in CID. Something, or someone would have to give, and soon, before the whole department was ripped apart by the feuding men.
Part 3
"I'm sorry, alright Guv, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said during the Astley case. I was angry, frustrated and in pain so I lashed out in the only way I had left. I'm sorry, I know you aren't like that."
Gene gave a dismissive snort and continued to walk away. This was all getting too much for him, he just wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and his loquacious DI, before he heard anything he couldn't not react too.
Tyler continued to follow Hunt, determined to make himself heard. He had fucked up, he knew it and if only the stubborn old git would stop and talk to him for two minutes he could try and make it right.
"For God's sake Guv just stop and listen to me for a sec. I'm trying to apologise"
It was no good, Gene was having none of it and finally Sam's patience snapped. He had been trying to make it better, this atmosphere, but now - sod it.
"Fine walk away. I'm not the one who should be apologising anyway. I'm not the one who nearly broke my back slamming me into a desk, I'm not the one who thinks with his fists, I'm not the one who cares so little about his team he is prepared to see it torn apart out of sheer pig-headedness."
As he was still facing the Cortina Sam couldn't see the effect his words had on Gene. If he could he might have noticed the little wince as he said Gene didn't care. He cared plenty about his team, all of them, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was caring too damn much about one of them. Caring what that one person thought, about cases, about life and about Gene. Caring when that little prick didn't. Gene cared that Sam had such a low opinion of him. He cared. And it made him feel like he might explode with the shame and hurt of it all. But he wouldn't show it. Not now, not ever. But he did show it, all in one little flicker that Sam missed completely.
"No DI Tyler, I don't care."
The emphasis on the last word dripped with malice and sarcasm and as he turned to face Sam the younger man took a step backwards, away from the piercing green eyes that bore into him with an intensity that scared him.
Gene walked forwards and invaded Sam's personal space in the way that only he could, and knowing he started this delightful little conversation, and not wanting to look like he was running away Sam stood his ground.
"I do not care what you think. I do not give a rat's arse about your opinion of me or the way I handle my team. I do care, however, about you doing your job. So do me a favour and stop all this crap about 'caring' and 'feeling' right now, or get the hell out of my sight. You will do your job, and do it in the way I tell you. Do I make myself clear?"
Every sentence, every word practically, had brought Gene even closer to Sam. The distance between them now was so small that Sam could feel the heat radiating off of Gene's body, and he was so close that he had to look straight up to see him. All he had wanted to do was make this better, make their working relationship work again. But Sam felt the impossibility of it all hit him like a train, and he knew that this had stretched way beyond breaking point now. There was nothing to salvage, so Sam did the only thing he could. The only thing he was really any good at. He turned and walked away.
If Sam had bothered to look back he wouldn't have seen anything to make him stay. It wasn't until Gene was safely in his beloved car that he finally allowed some of what he was feeling to show on his face. What Sam would have seen then was a broken man, a man who had tried his whole life to be better than he was and a man who had failed so easily so many times. Gene was tired and he felt old, and he knew that his one chance of being the man he had promised himself he would be as a bruised but not broken kid, was walking away.
They were both too stubborn to look back.