#ashes 2

Alex:

...

“‘Ere. Wrote you somin, an’ all.”

She fingers the unevenly folded paper napkin. “What’s this?”

“You said I ‘ad no poetry in me soul.” He stabs the thing with a finger. “Read it an’ weep.”

“You wrote me a poem?” She picks it up and opens it, brows slightly raised. “To what? Prove a point?”

Gene huffs tiredly, head falling back against the wall. “Bolly, no bloke in all of human history ever wrote a poem for any other reason than to prove some point or other to some daft bird.”

The edges of her lips twitch towards a smile. “And your point is?”

His beady eye cuts to her. “Anythin’ you can do.”

“How touching,” she breathes.

He snaps: “You gonna read it or what?”

She turns the napkin round, right way up, squints at his careless scrawl and begins to read. “There once was a woman named Drake.” She glances at him from beneath her brows. “Original beginning.”

“Just keep readin’,” he mutters behind his ice.

She draws a breath, continues with a trepidatious expression: “There once was a woman named Drake, Who could be a right arse-ache. Oh. Gets better and better…”

He glares at her one-eyed. “That’s enough from the peanut gallery.”

Her lips twist but she reads on. “She came and she saw, she conquered ‘em all…” Alex hesitates, her smile beginning to fade. “Then left…without so much as an handshake.” Staring at the final line, she feels her eyes turn guilty. She lowers the napkin, murmurs in a quiet voice, “Well, the last line doesn’t quite scan.”

Gene looks affronted. “S’me favourite bit. I slaved over that!”

“Oh yeah.”

“Took me at least two seconds. And at least mine rhymes.” He taps the small pile of envelopes by her salt and pepper shakers, the one marked ‘Gene’ resting on top. “Bet yours doesn’t.”

She chuffs, sliding the napkin back across the table. “Don’t give up your day job, Guv.”

“Oh, no-no-no-no,” he mock insists, sliding it back towards her. “That’s all yours, sweetheart. Somin to remember me by after you skive off to wherever you’re always yappin’ on about skivin’ off to.”

“I hardly think,” she says, rising and heading for the fridge, “I’m in danger of forgetting you.” She secures the napkin to the fridge with a magnet of the Tower of Pisa then looks over her shoulder at him. 

“S’what they all say...” he rumbles, head lowered.

Alex hesitates. Then she steps closer and extends a hand.

Gene looks up, blue eyes wide. “Wha’s this?”

“A handshake.” She tilts her palm upwards, inviting his. “Just in case I don’t get to…you know….” her voice fades, her sentence failing, “later.”

He exhales heavily, drawing the ice pack away from his eye and letting it drop wetly to the table. “Think we both know,” he replies slowly and without looking at her, “I want more from y’ than an ‘andshake.” He grimaces at the linoleum, adds slightly lower, “Always ‘ave done.”

Gene/Alex Scenes That Made Me Go Whoa… [3/?]

I know, I know, I skipped over all the juicy Galex stuff at the beginning of this season/series. The rescue in 2.01. The whole “talk to me, trust me”/“I thought I’d lost you” business in 2.02. Alex’s obvious jealousy in 2.04. And I agree, it is ALL awesome -- beautifully written and perfectly acted. But I’ve skipped to this little scene because it is the culmination of all the dancing around each other they do at the beginning of their second year together, it’s the quiet but infinitely meaningful pay-off of all the care- and trust-building these two do throughout the previous seven eps. I’ve also chosen it because Gene Hunt sitting alone in his office in virtual darkness, sipping whiskey and looking all broody gives me powerful feels when he mutters one word to his Bolly: “Stay”. Alex all but begged him earlier in the series to talk to her and this is when he finally does. At first, she thinks it’s going to be another of those occasions in which she offers support and he shuts her out. She’s retreating in resignation and disappointment when Gene opens his mouth and speaks. It’s only one word but it’s a word that speaks volumes. It says not just “I trust you” but “I need you”, “I want you here for this”. Having learned to speak Hunt, Alex totally understands this. She may not understand precisely what is happening but she trusts him enough to stand by, wait and back his next move, whatever it will be.

She also understands at this point that, as much as she values and lives by words, Gene Hunt values and lives by actions. He is a man of few words but strong, clear actions. And a few actions here speak louder than any words he utters. For instance, it is not mentioned that the whole time Gene is contemplating his team, he never turns his suspicious gaze on Alex. He does not assign her a box, does not for a moment consider her to be the potential culprit. Also left undiscussed is the way in which Alex takes over the interrogation of Chris that Gene clearly doesn't have it in him to perform. There is no scene in which Gene asks her to do this or Alex suggests she do it. It just happens. And her manner in this scene is as aware of and sensitive to Chris’ plight as it is to her Guv’s feelings of anger, disappointment and betrayal. She doesn’t need to look at him to know what he is feeling. Her back is to him throughout the whole interrogation just as Gene’s is to her during his initial confrontation of Chris. But they are inextricably linked in these scenes -- tuned into each other’s needs and acting as a single, cohesive unit. If the beginning of this 2nd series depicts them as dancing around each other, then by this point, figuratively speaking, they are dancing together. Completely entwined and in sync with each other’s movements, habits and instincts.

This entwinement has clearly bled into their personal relationship as well, as evidenced by the final scene of this ep in which Gene shows up drunk and in need of company. Rather than his usual, jovial kind of drunk, here he’s a vulnerable, unbalanced kind of drunk. His pathetic attempt to share stalls but still roughly translates to “I need to talk and you’re the only one I trust”. Again, Alex understands this way of relating now, even finds it endearing. Hence, the covert but fond smile she sends his way as she sips her wine. She doesn’t protest his pretty protest-worthy behaviour. She just adapts, follows, falls into step with him. In fact, you kind of get the feeling that she is happy he turned up and interrupted her sleep, that she needs his company as much as he needs hers. After all, neither of them have anyone else to turn to. Whatever Alex was like in her first life, in this life there is nothing for her outside of CID but the memory of her daughter and the struggle to understand what is happening to her. As for Gene, there has never been any division between the professional and the personal. For him, the professional IS the personal and vice versa. Their work is merely a convenient context for their intimate personal dramas to play out.