So, there was a poll on my page, and it was 14-nil to write a sequel to Secrets of the Past. If you have not read that one, you need to read it, else you won't understand whats going on! :P Thanks to Rolephant for all her encouragement!

Whats gone on before: After Alex was shot in Manchester, she found herself thrust into ten year old Gene's life. Whilst Gene Hunt was remembering his childhood in 1982, telling her about it, she was experiencing it. After she had woken, Gene found an old letter from Lexi in his desk. He seemed to realise who she was, but did he really?

Chapter One: Old Nightmares Can Still Haunt

The day dawned bright and warm. Gene woke that morning in an extremely good mood. He didn't know why, Dad was getting more drunk than ever. There was hardly a time where he wasn't completely pissed, swearing and beating. For some reason though, this didn't bother Gene as much anymore. Sure, he still got beaten to a bloody pulp at least once a month, but he had Lexi.

Lexi had come into his life over four years previously. She had been his constant, the one thing that kept him from throwing himself in the river. No matter how shit the world seemed to be, Lexi could always seem to brighten it up. She was a bit strange, it was true, just because of the way she treated him.

Ever since the first day he had talked to Lexi, she had treated him like she knew him. When she was in their house recovering for the few months after he had found her, she seemed to pick him out of the rest of the family to talk to, even though she was over twenty years his senior.

Gene didn't mind though. There was something about Lexi that drew him to her. Something in her kindly smile, in her hazel eyes. Gene was planning on seeing her today. It was the perfect day to go out, warm, but not too warm, even though it was the middle of July. Maybe they could go out and sit by the river. Gene liked to sit by the river. There was something about the water rushing by always soothed him.

He walked downstairs, and Mam was making breakfast. Dad's snores could be heard throughout the house. Mam quietly set the food in front of Gene and his younger brother Stu, and finally served a plate for herself.

"What are you doin' today, Gene?" she asked quietly, although she always seemed to know what he planned to do before he had even planned it.

"I'm gonna go see Lexi," he said. She smiled softly and turned her attention to Stu. They sat at the table long after they had finished their breakfast, just enjoying the quiet conversation without the threatening the presence of his father. Soon enough, however, they heard the pounding of feet coming down the steps. Dad was coming down, and he was smiling.

"Mornin', Mary, Gene, Stu," he said cheerily. Gene stared at him in amazement. Why was he in such a good mood? He had to be hung over, he had drunk nearly half a bottle of whiskey the night previously.

"I've decided, I'm givin' up the drink, Mary. S'not good for me, or for the kids." He smiled broadly at them all. Gene did his best to hold back a humourless laugh. If he knew his father, he would be back on the drink by the end of the week.

"Now, don' lift a finger, Mary, cause me an' Gene'll be makin' lunch. His Mam gave a small smile, and exited the kitchen, followed closely by Stu. Gene looked up at his father distrustfully. This wasn't going to end well, he could already feel it.

"Now, listen, you li'l shit, you screw up, you will pay. Got it? Now, get some water to boil, and I'll peel potatoes." Gene nodded silently. He filled a pot with water, and started towards the stove with it. The handle was wet. He tried to grip it, but it was slipping through his hands. Suddenly, it landed on the floor, water spilling everywhere. His father turned, eyes glinting dangerously, knife in hand.

There was a burning pain, and his father's knife was suddenly covered in blood. Gene stared down at his chest in shock.

"Shit," he said, the word coming before he could stop it.

"Don't you dare bloody swear in front of me or your mother, you useless li'l bastard!" His father lunged at him, blows raining down, and Gene screamed, desperate for it to stop.

~(*)~

"LEXI!!!!" Gene sat straight up in his bed, screaming out her name. He was covered in sweat. His heart was racing, and the scar across his torso was tingling from shoulder to side. Gene got out of bed, and started walking around to calm his racing heart.

He had not had this nightmare in decades, since before Stu died. When he was younger, it had always pissed him off to have the nightmare. He couldn't stand the fact that he was weak enough that his father could haunt him even though he wasn't around. He had believed himself weak.

As Gene brewed himself a cup of tea, he thought of what Lexi said to him the last morning he had lived in her house, the morning that his father had nearly killed him for a second time.

"Gene, you had a traumatic experience a few years back. It's perfectly normal to have..."

He had cut her off then, yelling at her. Normal? How could he ever be normal? He knew his home life wasn't normal. How many other children had been beaten to near death at the age of fourteen and went to live with a posh southerner?

And speaking of posh southerners... Gene's mind drifted to Alex. He couldn't get over the fact of how much she looked like Lexi. Since reading the note the other night, he was convinced that Alex was Lexi reincarnated, or something along those lines. He had never really believed in reincarnation, or religion as a whole, but with Alex and Lexi, the similarities were really outstanding.

They had the same face, the same body, eyes, handwriting, everything. Lexi had even had brown hair before suddenly going blonde and staying that way the rest of her life. He didn't know why, he thought she looked fine as a brunette.

He had told Alex none of this. He knew that as soon as he said anything, she would laugh at him. But ever since he had read that letter the week previously, he could not stop thinking about the similarities. Gene had even gone as far as pulling out the picture during the middle of the day and sat in his office comparing each individual feature of their faces. Suddenly she had barged in, and he had not been able to stow away the picture before she saw him looking at it.

"What's that Guv?"

"What have I told you about knocking?" he growled menacingly, although that never seemed to bother her.

"Always knock before entering," she recited like a bored schoolgirl, before turning her attention to the photo in his hands again. "So, what are you looking at?"

He could tell she had come in just to bother him. He didn't really blame her; all they were doing today was catching up with paperwork. It was a mundane task to say the best about it. CID developed more colourful language than usual when their days involved only sitting doing paperwork.

Gene looked up at her, trying not to let the amusement show in his eyes. "Don't you have paperwork you should be doing?"

"Nope," she said lightly. "I made a bet with Chris and Ray, and pawned it all off on them."

"Oh really?" he queried. "And what was that?"

"Can't tell you unless you tell me what you're holding." The corners of her mouth were twitching. He knew she was just doing this to wind him up, and it was starting to work.

"DI Drake," he said in his most commanding tone, "I order you to tell me what you did."

She smiled at him. "I can't tell you all of it, but it involved your dartboard, and you being in the loo."

Gene looked up at his dartboard. Sure enough, the darts were in different positions than when he had played with it before. "You touched my darts?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, Guv. You should have heard them going on and on about how brilliant they were. Then they asked me about it, and I told them that I wasn't too good, so they bet me five quid. They won, so I bet them my paperwork. You should have seen the looks on their faces." She laughed, and the sound filled the air.

"You hustled them? Bolly, you're a scheming cow!" Alex just laughed again. Gene looked at her. Ever since she had woken out of her coma months ago, she had been a bit different, more carefree it seemed. When he had questioned her about it, she had merely replied "Most people get only one life to live. I get three. And this one's the most fun!"

Gene had nodded in confusion, but it helped with the reincarnation theory that was rolling around in his head.

"So," said Alex. "Do I ever get to find out what you're holding, or do I have to raid your desk later?"

"You're too curious for your own good, Bolly."

"I know," she replied simply. "My...uncle was always saying that as I grew up."

Gene looked at her, considering just taking the picture home with him that night. But he couldn't do that. Ever since he had first started in the force, he had had the picture in his locker, or his desk. Lexi had been like a mother to him. Sometimes she seemed more like a mother than his mother had. Silently, he handed the photo over to her, knowing it was the only way to get her to shut up.

She looked at it, a small dawning of realisation coming over her face. "This you?"

Gene nodded stiffly. "I was fifteen."

Alex looked at the picture a little longer. "That woman isn't your mother," she stated simply.

"How do you know that?"

"She doesn't look a thing like you." Was it just him, or did she seem to be covering something up?

"Yes, Bolls. You and your psychiatry are right again. That's not me Mam. Remember Lexi?"

She looked up, thinking. "The woman you told me about when I was in my coma right?" she said a little too quickly.

"Yeah," Gene said, looking at her. "That's Lexi. I stayed with her for over two years."

Alex smiled a soft smile. "That's really sweet Gene."

"Oi! I'm not a poofter. I'm not sweet."

"You are completely right of course," Alex said sarcastically. "How wonderful and manly it is for you to have a picture of someone who was like your mother in your desk."

He had wanted to stop her at that moment. He wanted to know how she knew Lexi was like a mother to him. Unfortunately at that moment, his phone had rung, and she moved out of his office, going to talk to Chris and Ray.

Gene stirred his tea, growing tired. It was only just gone three in the morning, and after the initial rush of adrenaline, the nightmare would take its toll on him. He wondered what brought it back on. Gene hadn't had the nightmare since before Stu died, since he had idiotically cut Lexi out of his life.

He had had so many questions to ask her, so many things he wanted to know about her. His curiosity as a child had never waned about her, to him she had always been an enigma. Why had she shown up like she did? Where had she come from? He had asked all these questions as a child, but she was always vague when answering them. That was her one quality that puzzled him most. How could one tell so much and yet so little?

He wondered if the fact that he had the nightmare was because he had been bringing up his past so much lately. First Alex had been in the coma, and he had told her all about his past. Now, it didn't seem like he could stop thinking about it. The pain of his father's beatings, the quiet, careful movements of his mother across the household, little Stu, playing with something he had put together from scraps. Most of all he thought about Lexi. What would have happened if she had not had the heart attack that day? How would their relationship have fared? Gene knew that he couldn't boot her out of his life again, the pain that he had encountered the first time doing that was enough.

Gene yawned loudly, surprising himself. He downed the last of his tea, and went back to bed, still thinking about her, and wondering how Alex and Lexi, two women that would have never met, were so much alike.

TBC! Reviews always appreciated!