(Untitled)

[im_the_sheriff]

Gene Hunt never used to eat alone. He'd spent years making sure that he wouldn't have to, either by terrorizing Sam into going out with him, or by going home to make sure he could eat with the wife. Of course, once Sam was gone and the wife had packed up and left him, he'd had to learn to be on his own, to face whatever it was he'd always been

Comments

[neveraffordme]

A weaker individual than Alex Drake would have backed out the minute she saw Gene there, before he'd had a chance to notice her; there hasn't been another blowup since the Night of Infamy, but she's been rather pointedly staying out of his way in the meantime, and there's something distinctly unencouraging about the set of his shoulders.

But it's about damn time one of them did something, and it's hardly going to be him. Back there it would've been sorted already, considering that there's no way either of them would have managed to live this long without being able to speak to the other; not for the first time, she considers the disadvantages of having all the time in the world on your hands.

Besides, she's starving.

"I don't suppose you've made enough to share," she says, keeping her voice deliberately incurious.

[im_the_sheriff]

Glancing over, Gene let his eyes wander over her briefly, before shoving the plate in her general direction.

"You can have it," he said, his own appetite gone.

Any other day and he'd have finished it in seconds, but apparently thinking too hard was enough to put him off food for life, and after two bites he was full. Maybe he'd eat later after he'd had a few drinks and his brain was switched off, rather than running full gear.

[neveraffordme]

Alex's nose wrinkles briefly, but she's got the presence of mind not to say anything. She sits down across from him instead, leaning her elbows on the table, and the whole thing's so bloody familiar that if she squints, they could be back home.

Not that she's calling it that.

"So do I ask why we're eating alone in the dark?" she says. "Or is that not in the rules this week?"

[im_the_sheriff]

"It's not that dark," Gene replied, not offering up much else as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his seat.

"I was just thinking. Not that it's any of your bloody business," he added, meeting her eyes with his own as he spoke. "Wot's it to you anyway?"

[15_words]

"It looks like it," Jaye agreed as she strolled into the kitchen. There was a party that night, so she needed something to wear and a shower, and now she needed something to eat before dedicating all of her insides to alcohol.

"Wait," she said, pausing by the counter. "Bollocks is British for shit, right? We're talking about your sandwich..."

[im_the_sheriff]

"I'll have you know that this is a perfectly good sandwich, love," Gene replied, scowling at her. "You could do with something like it, you look like a bloody fence post."

[15_words]

"I eat," Jaye shot back with an offhand scowl. That whole starving herself in high school thing had just been a THING, not honest anorexia, just a plea for attention. So, a little defensive? Yeah, she was. "I'm more than a fence post and less than a walking tub of lard so that's okay by me."

[im_the_sheriff]

"Oh sit down and shut your gob. I'll make you one," Gene insisted, getting to his feet and pointing at a chair. "They're good for you."

[how_itgoes]

Sam slides into the chair opposite of Gene, feeling like it's all too easy to just do, not even having much at all to say, but having seen him from the door. Besides, people need to eat, all the time. Even him. He offers the Guv a polite smile and a nod of his head. "What now, Guv?" he asks, trying to keep the sigh from his voice. "Government bollocks or the general Gene-Hunt-Disapproves sort?"

[im_the_sheriff]

"Neither," Gene said gruffly, pushing his sandwich away with a frown. "Just bollocks."

Looking his DI over curiously, he raised a brow and he gave him a short nod. "You look better," he muttered, the words sounding almost like an accusation of some sort.

[how_itgoes]

"I feel better, thank you for sounding like it's somehow a slight," Sam says, managing to sound cheerful all the while he deflects that tone. "Went to the Clinic for a while, they gave me the all-clear and DI Drake paid a visit while there." Not that she needed to, being that he sees her every night, but still, it's the thought that counts.

[im_the_sheriff]

"I'm glad you girls are getting on so well," Gene said flatly, looking completely disinterested as he stared down at his sandwich.