Ashes to mars

Lifes to short

It hadn't take her long to get back near Arms.

She'd quite enjoyed the drive. So far she'd avoided a spin in the Cortina she just couldn't imagine it would match up to the Quattro.

She was already considering buying a car when she had the time. She could do a little exploring. She hadn't been up North much.

A police training seminar in Newcastle, a friend's hen do in Blackpool, she'd had a Liverpudlian boyfriend at uni so she'd been there a few times, but that was about it.

It was almost starting to disturb her how quickly she was adjusting to life here.

But without any connections to the real world or other world, she wasn't sure what to think anymore, she was lost.

What to do with her time?

Foil a blag, go to the pub that's what she'd be doing for the foreseeable future. Might as well buy a decent set of wheels.
Whether she should laugh or cry at those prospects she didn't know.

Sam could see the depression all over her face as she came back into the Arms.

So, he'd done what he thought best. Bought a bottle of wine and then another.

She'd lasted 48 hours without attempting to throw herself off a roof, that was one up on him, so she deserved to drown her sorrows and the least he could do was participate.

So, as the buzz of a crappy Chianti got to both of them and the boys from C.I.D raised eyebrows at their new-found friendship.

Sam entertained Alex with stories of cases, of old times, and of Gene Hunt.
He grinned as she giggled at the idea of Hunt impersonating a landlord; it didn't surprise her that he'd got bladdered, but his type of a good time always did.

"Hunt's not drunk and falling over stuff where you're from, then?" Sam grinned lazily, his words, like Alex's, already slugging over each other.

"Oh, he gets drunk," Alex confirmed, blinking slowly as she let the memories come to her
"but it's just us, in the corner of a little Italian restaurant." Her smile grew wistful, as Sam shook the last drop of wine into her glass.
"He's got four settings: angry, nostalgic and contently and annoyingly smug. He's a perv in all cases." She grinned again at Sam's snort. "More wine please, Nelson!"

Nelson came over, assessing the two who were both looking worse for wear. "You want a glass or a-"

"Bottle." They said simultaneously.
Chin in hand, that slowly becoming a running thing with her at this bar, Alex frowned at Nelson inquisitively.
"Sam says you're full of good advice-"

"I did?" Sam frowned, his brain not remembering saying that, even if he was drunk.

"In your case file, you did.
You got any advice for me?" She implored the bartender. "I could really use some."

"Nah, sister," Nelson said, setting another bottle down for them, "advice ain't what you need right now."

"Deep, isn't he?" Sam was back to grinning. "What's this about a case file?"

"Oh, well, when you..." She waved a hand, not wanting to say it but Sam simply raised an eyebrow, "- you jumped, there was an investigation; I was going to write a book about you."

Sam laughed. "About how crazy I am?"

Alex opened her mouth to contradict him, but found she couldn't. "Pretty much." She smiled, taking a slurp of her wine.

"I'm flattered."

"You should be." Alex insisted at his expression.
"God, I'm still surprised neither of us have cracked in here. Or maybe this is us cracking right now."