Alex and Gene were curled up on the sofa together, watching an old movie on the TV. Alex shifted uncomfortably and moved away from Gene – he just sighed, not knowing what to say or do.

They sat in silence for a few moments. The couple on the TV were now kissing, and Gene flushed as he felt Alex's eyes on the side of his head. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Alex jumped up to get it. She opened the door and came face to face with Jim.

"Evening, Alex," he said, with a charming manner.

"Jim..." Alex didn't really know how to reply, "I'm a bit busy at the moment – can we talk tomorrow?"

"Alex, who is it?" Gene called through from the lounge suspiciously.

Jim raised his eyebrows, smiling. He reached out for her hand, "Why not now?"

Alex wrenched her arm away from his grasp.

"Alex?" Gene seemed to be getting even more impatient now.

"Two minutes," she shouted back. She met Jim's gaze; his eyes were bright blue, and somehow he looked quite handsome. She shook herself – she loved Gene. "Go away, Jim. Please. Leave us, just for one night."

Jim nodded and turned around to leave. Alex closed the door quickly behind him, sighing with relief, and returned to the lounge.

"Who was that?" asked Gene.

"No one," mumbled Alex. She sat back down at the other end of the sofa, and they both stared at the TV for a while longer, but neither of them were paying any attention to the film.

"Why do you keep secrets from me?" Gene questioned her eventually, sounding hurt, "I thought we were supposed to trust each other."

"Just go then, if you're going to be like that," Alex snapped, tears springing to her eyes.

Gene swallowed, speaking more gently, "Please, just tell me what's wrong."

"You're as bad as him, aren't you? You don't care. I don't need any of you any more," Alex threw his coat at him and pointed to the door, "I want to be on my own."

Gene hesitated, then left. He carefully shut the door behind himself, hitting his head against it before he walked away.

Alex cuddled herself, sobbing. She wanted Gene to be there with her, to tell her everything would be okay. But she was too scared to tell him what was going on – she didn't know how he'd take it. She decided to go to bed; still crying, she slowly walked to the bedroom and curled up under the covers. She wondered if Gene really loved her, or if he was just pretending.

When she was sad, she thought of Molly. She prayed every day that she'd get to see her daughter again; she was so scared that she'd be trapped in the past forever. She loved Gene, but she needed Molly more.

XxXxX

The next day, Alex awoke to the sound of loud knocking on her flat door. She shuffled out of bed and wandered across to the door, hesitating before opening it

Jim stood in the entrance, his voice shocked as he talked, "Alex, you need to come quickly! Shaz has gone missing!"

"What?" Alex felt her heart beat faster against her ribs; Shaz could be a little annoying sometimes, but they all loved her, "What happened? When was this?"

"We don't know. She had an argument with Chris – she said she was going to find him after he left the office. He came back, but she didn't..." mumbled Jim.

Alex scowled. She didn't know whether to trust Jim, or if she wanted to help him anyway. But this was Shaz, and she couldn't just leave her if she really was in danger. What should she do?

"She was really upset!" Jim pleaded, "She loves you, Alex – she'll calm down if you talk to her. Please! For her, if not for me."

"Okay," Alex followed Jim reluctantly, and they drove off, but she quickly noticed Jim wasn't driving in the right direction. She gasped as she realised what was happening, "Jim, where are you taking me? Let me go!"

Jim ignored her and kept on driving.

"Jim! What are you doing?" asked Alex nervously. She tried pulling on her seatbelt, but it was jammed.

Jim's eyes were still bright, but now they looked evil too. She couldn't believe she'd ever liked him, even for a minute. "Just sit still, Alex. You'll be fine as long as you do what I say."

"But what do you mean? What are you going to do with me?"

Jim shook his head, driving the car faster and faster until they rounded the corner and flew straight into the lake. Alex spluttered as the car filled up with water. The seatbelt was still jammed, and the water was filling her mouth, so she couldn't scream for help. "Mmm!"

Jim undid his own seatbelt and climbed out of the open window, leaving Alex to struggle with her seatbelt. Alex managed to scream in the hope that someone would hear her, but no one came.

She could feel herself growing quickly weaker – she could barely breathe any more. Jim had swum up to the edge now and dragged himself up onto dry land. He just stood smirking at her as the water got even higher and washed over her head.

Jim pulled a bottle of petrol from his jacket pocket and waded into the water, covering the top of the car in petrol and setting it alight. He ran out of the water and took his radio out of his pocket. "Oh, Genie, you might want to get here!"

"What the hell have you done, Jimbo? Where are you?" Gene yelled back down the line.

"If I told you that, it'd spoil all the fun!" Jim cackled. He watched Alex as she finally shoved the seatbelt away, but couldn't get out of the car. The fire was spreading too fast to be put out by the water – in a few minutes, the car would explode into a petrol bomb and burn her alive.

Alex dragged her radio out of her pocket, but collapsed before she could speak into it.

Back at the station, Gene ran out of his office as fast as he could; when he finally got to the lake, he was sweating, and petrified for what he'd find. He saw the car, saw the fire, saw Alex... "No!"

Just as she couldn't hold on any more, Alex caught sight of Gene. He was throwing himself through the water, trying desperately to reach her. She managed a tiny smile despite what was happening – he did care. He loved her. Nothing else mattered apart from that. She fell unconscious.

XxXxX

Well, this is my second Ashes story I've put on FanFiction – this one was written by me and my friend Bethany this afternoon while we were reminiscing over Ashes to Ashes :)

Something to bear in mind; we have this kind of obsession where Jim is always the baddie in our stories! Hope you enjoyed this, I think we're going to work on a second part...

Please review and tell me what you think; thanks for reading xxx