| That Gene's head snaps up in surprise as
Sam opens the door to his office with such force that it
cracks against
the glass behind it with a dangerous-sounding crack is at
least some
slight consolation. "When were you going to tell me?" Guilt flashes across the expressive features and it tells Sam that what he's heard is true, even if he still doesn't believe it. "When?!" Sharp, glassy blue eyes flick away from him. "A month." Shaking his head, Sam takes three steps inside, anger and hurt vying for prime place in his head and heart. "How can you do this to me?" Those eyes roll towards the ceiling. "Sam�." "How? Better still� why? After five years! I thought we were partners." Gene pushes his chair back from his desk with a deep sigh. "And I thought you'd be breaking out the Party Sevens! This is what you wanted, Sam." "I'm sorry," he throws his arms out, palms up, dramatic, almost operatic, "remind me when I said that." "You always insisted you were a DCI, the first day you walked in here." "I got the promotion, Gene, two months ago. I wasn't aware it came with provisos." "Provys-what?" "Strings, Guv!" He feels tears in his eyes, a sensation he hasn't felt in a while, and drops his head back to take a deep breath, staring blindly up at the ceiling that's always reminded him of the roofs of NCP car parks. "Been a while since you called me 'Guv'." The gentle tone almost undoes him. Leaning forward like one of those drinking birds he used to get at the seaside he rests his hands flat on the desk. "Please don't leave." "You get CID, Sam. You'll be the Sheriff�." "I don't want to be the Sheriff!" Taking a deep, deep breath Sam falls arse-first into the chair beside his legs. His sight is blurring and he squeezes his lids shut. "The team need you. Besides, Ray won't take orders from me." He's shaking his head again when he looks up and he sees the truth in Gene's eyes. "Ray's going with you�. You bastard!" He's up again on his feet, chair flying backwards. "Sam�." "I hope you have a great fucking time." "Sam!" Whatever Gene has to say, Sam misses it as he storms out of the office, out of the corridor, out of the building. ~ Sam glances up as Gene leans back against the bar, elbows on the stained, sticky surface, head tilted sideways to regard his old DI with that familiar assessing gaze. "Go away." "Tell me why you're so upset." "If you can't work it out after five years, Detective Chief Inspector," he almost spits the title in his Guv's face, "I'm not going to tell you." "It's the Met, Sam, London. Not a foreign country." He picks up his drink and swallows the remaining Scotch. "Could be Hyde, Gene, it's the same betrayal." "Oh what are you talking about, Tyler? I was offered a promotion, I took it, I was asked if there was a DS�." "You didn't tell me!" He pushes away from the bar, sliding off the stool. "I had to find out from Phyllis. I thought we were partners, friends." He shrugs, loosing the volume. "Guess I was wrong." "Sam�." "What� what are you going to say to me?" He turns away, heading for the door, but Gene's lightening fast, large but surprisingly fine hand attaches itself to his wrist. "Stop storming out on me like some jilted lover!" "Why? You're dumping me aren't you? Running off to the big city with Ray!" Gene's stare suggests he might have gone a little too far, but he doesn't care. He can't believe how hurt he feels. He's given up so much to be here and however far away that decision and 2006 seems now, he can't help but feel his pot of gold is being taken away from him. "Sam, you big girl! I'm accepting a promotion not eloping!" "I thought we were a team." Gene's sigh is just the wrong side of theatrical. "We are a team, a bloody good one." "So what? You're leaving us behind. Your work here is done? Another city needs you? I thought you loved this one!" "Sam� I've arrested every lowlife scum in Manchester twice." "They need you arresting them! And Chris� he needs you to look up to. Annie adores you. Nelson� would go out of business without you." "Chris doesn't need me when he's got you to fawn over. As for Annie� I can't understand why you two aren't shacked up together yet. And Nelson will survive, won't you, Nelson? All these coppers keeping him company. This'll always be a CID pub - I trust you to keep up traditions, Sam." Whether he expects that small offering to make everything right or not, Sam can't bring himself to even smile. He twists his wrist from Gene's light grip and for the second time that day he walks out on his Guv. ~ When the door bursts inwards, the hinges protesting the rough treatment, Sam doesn't even look across from his prone position on the bed, staring up at the nicotine-stained ceiling. He knows who it is. He's being chased, followed, and it warms a part of him. "What do you want?" Gene closes the door hard behind him and apparently wants to make sure it stays closed as Sam hears the lock and bolt thrown. "Walk out on me again, Tyler, I swear I'll break your legs." "You're walking out on me, Hunt." Only when he hears the sofa creak loudly does Sam turn his head in that general direction, seeing Gene seated out of the corner of his eye. "Don't you think you're being just slightly girlie about all this? Turning on the histrionics. My wife was supposed to act that way, but instead she finally tells me 'good riddance' and you go off the deep end!" It takes a moment for the thought that Gene's missus has kicked him out to penetrate Sam's distracted brain. He drags himself up into a sitting position, legs off the bed, elbows on his knees, and tries not to feel like the jilted lover Gene's already accused him of being. It's for want of trying that it isn't an accurate summary and it's his fault. He's assumed he would have the rest of his life, assumed he could wait and push only when the moment seemed right. He's assumed he's important - they're important enough - for them to have the time. Wrong. He's always wrong. "She's left you." "I'm the one leaving her, Sam. She doesn't want to move to London and I knew she wouldn't. I don't�. It's not the same any more." "But you're leaving me too. Don't you� any more?" Gene looks up from his study of the floor. "Don't I what, Sam? Don't I love you any more, that what you're asking?" Sam swallows. Yes, but he's not going to admit that now. Instead he watches the same conflict flit across his Guv's features and the infamous camel coat inflates as Hunt fills his lungs. "You want to know why I'm going to London, Sam?" "Yes. I do." He reaches out to Sam, and at first Sam doesn't know what's expected of him. He leans forward and Gene grabs his wrist like he did in the pub, yanks him forward so that he slips off the bed and hits the threadbare carpet on his knees. Hunt's still pulling at his hand and it's a second before Sam realises where's he's being lead. Between Gene's knees, his legs, between his thighs� his heart thumps against his ribcage, hard and fast, his stomach rolls in anticipation and nothing about this is right but his palm's being pressed against Gene's crotch and the man's rock hard with an erection that makes Sam's whole body clench with need. Blue eyes, huge and wide, meet Sam's. "Every time I fight you, sit too close to you in the boozer, have you around me, this happens. I'm not a fairy, not a poof, yet you have this bloody effect on me and it's wrong!" Keeping back the smile that's threatening to burst out of him, Sam takes Gene's hand, more gently than he was grasped, and pulls it towards him until Gene's leaning forward, their cheeks almost touching, pressing his Guv's hand against the raging erection in his own jeans. "Happens to me too," he breathes into Gene's ear, "I've wanted you for months, maybe years. Don't ask me why, I have absolutely no idea. You are so far from being my type it's not even funny. But five years ago I made a decision and I decided that all I wanted was to be here with the team, and with you. I don't care what people think. I need you, Gene. Please." Backing up a couple of inches, Sam closes his fingers gently around the hard flesh at Hunt's crotch, brushes his lips against Hunt's lips, and the explosion is incredible. Gene's hand presses gorgeously against his denim-clad erection, other arm wrapping around his shoulders as the brief, ghost of a kiss is seized and deepened and Gene's tongue reaches for the back of his throat. Sam gets his arm around Gene, under his jacket, fingers spread over the damp cotton of his shirt stretched across his back - he's had Gene chasing him all day, seems that's all it took, to stop following and make what he wanted come to him. The kiss fractures for a second, and he hears, 'we can't' muttered breathlessly against his mouth. Bugger that. "We can," he sweeps the tip over his tongue over Gene's bottom lip and slips inside, "we are doing." Gene's hand is restless on him, stroking his shoulders, tracing the curve of his spine to the small of his back and up again, fingers teasing through the cropped hairs at the base of his neck. He knows they've gone way beyond the point of no return, it's too urgent, too needy, and he says, "Let me." Slowly, he inches Gene's fly down and slips his hand inside, through the opening in his underwear, to grasp the silky steel dick. Hunt tries to copy his actions but he shifts his feet back slightly, out of reach. For the first time ever he has complete and total control over Gene Hunt and he isn't about to relinquish it. ~ "I've cancelled my transfer," it's as simple as that, and Sam glances up from the door to door reports to watch the DS's reaction to this news. Ray looks crestfallen up at the Guv. "You're turning down the promotion?" A nod. "Yes." "Why?" Gene shrugs, like he's not really bothered either way. Perhaps he isn't. He's found something new in Manchester to keep him here but he isn't about to say that to Ray, a man so homophobic he makes Gene look like a spokesman for Gay Pride. "This is my city," he says quietly, "I don't fancy leaving it in the hands of a man from Hyde, no matter how much he's become one of us." It's an argument they both know Ray can't dispute despite the accord he and Sam have found over the years. Gene taps his fingertips on Ray's desk and tells him, "You can still go." And what Sam sees on his face, just for a second, is the exact same reaction he himself had to the news Gene was leaving. Ray shook his head a little too quickly. "No, it's fine. I'll stay here with you." Such loyalty Gene engenders, such love. Sam can't help but wonder if Ray feels the same attraction to his Guv as Sam himself does. Not that it matters - Gene's his now, heart and soul, because when Gene commits to something he throws everything he is into it with passion and unwavering devotion. It's like being drowned only it's a good, safe, consuming feeling, an addiction, intoxicating. There's a grin on Sam's face he can't seem to wipe off. Ray shoots him a hard glance, like he knows Sam has something to do with Gene's change of heart (everything to do with it, Ray). As far as DS Carling is concerned, Tyler's had some sort of hold over Hunt from the moment he set foot in the station, but as to the strength of that hold, the unbreakable nature of it, he'll never guess. Gene nods once, acknowledging Ray's answer, and heads for his office, where Sam joins him ten minutes later for an early Scotch, a strong cuppa and a stolen snog over the open files and crime scene photographs. The crisis is over, Sam knows he can settle back into the life he's become to accustomed and attached to. The only differences are that he'll no longer go to bed alone and he'll be waking up with more than just a hangover, he'll be waking up with Gene Hunt. Lovely. |