This was absolutely stunning. I loved how you helped Alex realize all the similarities of her story and the High Noon story; it was stunning and heartbreaking all at once, but still tinged with hope! Really lovely, and so well written! I might even be tempted to watch High Noon now!

I love how you've constructed and described Heaven/the Railway Arms. Definitely some emotional movements! The ending also worked well-I liked bittersweet, hopeful note.

:O

This story was so beautiful. I don't normally go for supernatural stories, its not really my interest but this one was lovely. It really showed their friendship and how, even in the Railway Arms...Gene Hunt is never really gone forever.

Loved it. xx

What a great imaginative idea KDN! The final After-Life & what it’s like for Alex. It is also interesting to see for the first time, the interaction between the Ashes and Mars characters.

And the dialogue was all so true to character in each case. I was particularly pleased that you acknowledged Phylis’s contribution to the series by giving her full voice. She’s a character whose part in the show I think is often understated. To me, Phylis is the female (‘would-be’) version of Gene Hunt. Another show centred on Phylis would be a real goer I think.

KDN, I liked the way you wrote your prose and dialogue – simple, succinct but very effective–your piece weaved in and out of conversations and back in again. It gives your writing a pleasing rhythm & I suspect you wrote this with the strains and dance-steps of your English Country dances, fresh in your subconscious! I often find that listening & moving to music, helps-soon after-with putting rhythm to my writing.

Gene is not there in person in your piece, but we still strongly feel his presence via Alex’s reflections. I love how, despite herself, Alex can’t help seeing echoes of Gene in every conversation she has with the other punters and every movie they discuss. As Alex says, ‘She expects him to change for her. Only she’s the one transformed!’

More please KDN!

'"That's right; he had amnesia. First he can't remember who he is, then he can't remember her." Phyllis was fairly sighing. "Cried me eyes out over that one when I was a girl. What was the name of that film?"' It's 'Random Harvest', Phyllis - I sobbed over that one, too. And are we to infer that Ray was more familiar with that film than he let on?

There's a sombre note to this story despite Alex's assurances that the afterlife is 'very good' - we all know, and apparently so do the other regulars at TRA, what (who) would make it so much better for her. Loved the different takes on 'High Noon', Ray looking out for Alex in his own unique way, and the P&P conversation.

Great read - thanks.

Shame alex and gene are not together. Liked the idea of reintroducing the characters mac and summers as well as CID to help Alex translate the meaning if genes favourite film. I am sure the happy ending will continue to give her great comfort. Well thought out plot. Thanks.

How perfect! I should like to read more from you. x

Know what? As much as I disliked the finale of A2A, I like visits to your version of post-series 3 and afterlife in The Railway Arms. The idea of a kind of serenity is lovely and reassuring. Repentance leads to redemption and no grudges and no lies.

But serenity doesn't necessarily mean complete happiness and no regrets. You show us that Alex still misses Gene and wonders if she could have - or should have - stayed with him. The love is still there. So even as she is somewhat satisfied with her afterlife and loves being with her mother again, will Alex always wonder? I'm curious to see if you bring us a few more scenes in Railway Arms.

Finally, I'm not sure about the Unforgiven and Ox-Bow Incident references. Been a long time since I've seen them. However, I can name that Garson/Colman movie: Random Harvest. And Robert Duvall's co-star in Lonesome Dove was Tommy Lee Jones.

Great story, you evoke Alex's melancholy well and your use of High Noon is very clever. Look forward to more from you.

PS: Do I get a point for spotting 'Random Harvest'? ;D (Ronald Colman's my mum's favourite!)

Oh god KDN, I can hardly see through my tears. You've hit the nail on the head about High Noon and the 'lone man doing his job' myth. I broke down when Alex realized what Gene's favorite movie really is about; I'd love it if Gene had in fact put down High Noon as his fave film with Alex in mind. Knowing what we know about M&A I really don't think it was the case. *sigh*

I'm very happy to see that your Ashes muse is alive and kicking, it seems there are quite a few of us who are still starved for good stories in this fandom. Thanks so much for this latest offering. :)

Once again another beautifully crafted piece KDL! I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the way you deconstructed the 'High Noon myth'

Really fantastic!

That was awesome! I love how you based it on the film and such... really, really good. I love it!

Jazzola :D

Another wonderful, heartbreaking piece of "inside the Railway Arms" angst to break my heart and get me weeping happily into my keyboard, a worthy successor to "A Couple of Desperate Cases". You make the Railway Arms into a kind of Heaven, good in many ways, yet show how, for Alex, there will always be a gaping emptiness at its centre without Gene. You sketch in all of the friends and former enemies surrounding her, capturing the essence of her relationship with each, while cutting across them with bittersweet flashes of memory. Sam's "Two lawmen. Best mates. Nothing at all alike." really grabbed me, and so did Ray's "The winner and still champion" (Dear Ray). The friction between Alex and Summers is particularly well realised - the rapport between them in ACODC has clearly not lasted as well as he would hope, perhaps because of his continued ability to say the wrong thing - one feels the pain at "Sometimes it's nothing but car crashes and explosions.", "It's the way of the world" and "He's too busy being a hero. Saving the world, or at least his little bit of it. His fantasy." The uneasy colloquy with Mac is good, too - they still find it hard to talk to each other, but there is reassurance as well as pain in "All that matters is what's true." (Why did he have to invoke memories of that song for her?).

Can't say I pick up the references to Unforgiven and The Ox-Bow Incident, but I do get a perhaps unintentional reference to LOM USA - "She wasn't Thelma, she wasn't Louise, driving off and leaving Harvey Keitel in the dust." And I like the reference to Matthew MacFadyen (I think Phyllis would like him, as well as Ronald Coleman). And although I'm still crying as I type this, thank you for leaving us with a ray of optimism - Nelson says that Alex has been sent to the right place, and the final words give us hope that Alex and Gene may have their happy ending when his final credits roll, one day.

This is really good. I love the way you leave us with a little ray of hope at the end, cos just like High Noon, Ashes was a love story, and they will be together again.

Brilliant thing to read on a Sunday afternoon. Thank you!

What a lovely Sunday afternoon treat - a new story.

I have to admit from the start that I had a lump in my throat at several points during this story - including the paragraph about Molly. In a few simple sentences you had me caring more about that little girl than I did during three series' worth of Ashes.

I loved how you wove the various story strands and especially the interplay between all of the characters - each on instantly recognisable in only a few short phrases.

While not quite easing the pain of 'The Ending', at least your story gives a ray of hope at the end - and that's all we can ask.