Unbroken

[qthebadwolf]

Title: Unbroken
Rating: Blue Cortina, for language
Pairing: Sam/Gene (sort of)
Word Count/Length: 1050-ish
Notes: posted for the lifein1973 re-watch-a-thon, Episode 1 - many thanks to my betas, the brilliant 45eugenia and the divine gritsinmisery
Summary: There's a moment in the first episode that always makes me wonder, and I wrote this to answer the question it raised for me.
Warning: canon character death (sort of) and spoilers for Ashes to Ashes

He sat in the car. Waiting. They'd told him to wait. His instructions were to get the most ordinary, nondescript vehicle he could lay his hands on, and this poncy little Vauxhall Cavalier certainly fit the bill. Nothing like a real car, this one. His dead auntie could probably outrun it.

He finished his bacon sarnie, tossing the wrapper out the window and reaching into his breast pocket for a fag. For fucking years people had been telling him those things would kill him, but the joke was on them: he couldn't die. Not yet. He had one last job to do.

He checked his watch. Not time yet. He switched on the radio, trying to ignore his nerves, trying to ignore the bile and adrenaline rising in his throat...trying to find something decent amid all the gangsta rubbish that called itself music these days. People didn't know what real music was anymore. Back in the day, if someone had talked over a bit of a drumbeat and called it a song, they'd have been laughed off the airwaves. But in this flipping day and age, it passed for 'hip'.

He sighed. A bunch of bloody sissies, that's what the world had become. Everything was so bloody PC this and PC that. Everywhere you looked there was spineless language, no smoking, crap food, crap music, crap telly, and crap porn. No wonder Tyler had wanted to leave. He fiddled with the radio dial, secretly hoping to come across some Roger Whittaker on an oldies station.

Finally, he gave up. He took a long, deep draw on his fag, exhaling smoke at the endless traffic and trying not to think. He didn't have to do this. He could just say bollocks to the lot and let the bastards do it without him. But deep down, he knew there was no way he could walk away from this.

Almost in answer to his thoughts, a new song came on the radio. It was an old American gospel tune:

May the circle be unbroken
by and by, Lord, by and by...

Irritated, he reached down and switched it off. "Alright, you bastards," he muttered under his breath. "Don't rub it in. I'm bloody here, aren't I?" Yes, he was here. It might be ripping his fucking guts out, but he was here.

And then, suddenly...so was the Jeep.

He straightened in his seat, instantly alert. The light grey SUV matched the description he'd been given. He watched it closely, and sure enough, it was almost sideswiped by a red minivan before pulling off to the side. Right in the middle of the road. He gave a disapproving grunt. Tyler, you fucking twat... He swallowed, hit hard by a sudden rush of emotion. Twenty-six years. It had been twenty-six years since...

He cleared his throat. No time for going all Dorothy now. This had to happen. It had already happened. He tossed his fag out the window and revved the Cavalier's motor. One good thing about the poncy little blue matchbox: it had a quiet engine. Tyler wouldn't hear a thing.

He shifted into first gear. The Vauxhall rounded the corner, sighting its prey like a circling shark.

A man gets out of the Jeep - an achingly familiar figure in an unfamiliar suit.

The man leans down into the Jeep's window. Distracted. Upset. So lost in his own emotions that he never even hears the blue Vauxhall speeding towards him, its driver closing his eyes at the last moment so he will not see the impact.

But he still hears it.

***

For a long time, there is silence. He can't move. Not yet. If he just sits here, absolutely still, then he won't have to think about what he's just done.

In his world, Sam is already gone. Has been for the last twenty-six years, ever since that fucking bank heist and the empty car in the river. But if he'd said no, if he'd refused to do this, then he and Sam would never have met, and he'd lose whatever memories he had left of the fussy little git. He would lose Sam Tyler forever.

Fucking bollocks to that.

Finally, he opens the door. He's in his mid-seventies now, but he still moves like the old Manc lion he once was. He walks over and kneels down beside the crumpled figure on the pavement.

Sam's eyes are closed. Christ, he looks like a kid. The old man reaches out an unsteady hand to touch the face that he hasn't seen for a quarter of a century...but Sam's not there. He's thirty-three years away, starting a journey that hasn't happened yet: a journey that happened half a lifetime ago. Soon he would be entering the CID squad room, throwing a wobbly over his desk...and meeting his new DCI for the first time.

The old man's steely blue eyes give nothing away as he leans down to whisper in his DI's ear. But something in his voice is broken.

"See you soon, Sammy boy."

There are sirens in the distance. The ambulance is coming. The old man takes one long, last look...shots fired officer down oh Sam you fucking prick why didn't you listen to me?...and then slowly climbs back into the Vauxhall. He drives away and doesn't look back.

He could have said no. When the men from Hyde came to tell him what had to be done, he could have told them to go fuck themselves, and take their posh fancy Dago suits with them.

Could he, hell. Whatever else they said about paradoxes and nancy-boy science, the plain truth was that the thought of someone else killing Tyler made his blood boil. They had no right.

They didn't love the scruffy bastard like he did.

He drove to an abandoned lot. Cut the sedan's engine. Leaned his forehead against the steering wheel, gripping it tight in spite of the arthritis in his hands.

It was done. The circle was unbroken. The past would happen just like it was supposed to.

And Sam was gone for good.

For the first time in twenty-six years, DCI Gene Hunt closed his eyes and wept.


Q
concrit and feedback welcomed!

Comments

[silvaa.livejournal.com]

Lovely writing and a very interesting take on the situation, thanks for sharing

x

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

welcome. :)

[fawsley.livejournal.com]

Oh that moment always makes me wonder too, so much so that I can now say that great minds obviously think alike, because you've written the absolutely perfect partner fic to my Time and motion (http://community.livejournal.com/lifein1973/766281.html). Plus you made me sob like a great big girl (maybe because I am one) with the last lines. Great first fic - thank you so much for sharing!

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

*reads t&m*

hee! gmta indeed. :)

the thing that gets me in the episode is the fact that after the car hits sam, the driver just sits there...he doesn't open the door and start freaking out that he's just hit someone, or run to sam to see if he's okay, or drive away so he won't get caught. he just stays there and doesn't move. and while i do think that was probably more down to production constraints than anything else - ie, they didn't want to pay another actor to be the freaked-out driver, or have anything distract from sam's impending journey - that's still the kind of behavior that definitely raises the wondering flag in my head.

[fawsley.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! Plus the way that we see the car away in the distance but then it takes far longer than it should to arrive on the spot and hit Sam, almost as if it were deliberate... Which we both know it was.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

absolutely. the car's going way too fast for it to have been an accident, for a start.

also, and this is probably a bit sick of me, but sam's kvetching about gene's bad driving in every episode afterwards always makes me smile a bit. after all, if anyone has the right to bitch about gene driving like a maniac...

[walkerbaby.livejournal.com]

Gene killed Sam? OMG, that's somehow perfect. Poor Gene. You know somehow I've always wanted it to be Ray, or Sam himself, but A2A took away one possibility and I just can't see it with the other. Oh well. I like this better i think.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

when you get right down to it, i think gene's the only one who's strong enough to do something like that. and also selfish in a way...if given the choice between killing sam and keeping his memories of him, or walking away and forgetting sam ever existed, i definitely think he'd choose to keep him.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

oooh. *NOM*

thankee kindly. :)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

That's a question I thought about again last week, too. We never see the driver, and there is a sinister kind of inevitability in it being Gene.

Personally I hate the idea and love it at the same time, and you've done a wonderful job with it here.

The past would happen just like it was supposed to.

And Sam was gone for good.

That moment of finality is so moving; until now we can think that perhaps Gene has watched 2006!Sam moving up in his career, keeping an eye on him, gaining some comfort from his presence in the world. And now Gene will never see him again even at a distance, and all the best times are behind him.

Lovely job, thank you.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

thanks! :)

until now we can think that perhaps Gene has watched 2006!Sam moving up in his career, keeping an eye on him, gaining some comfort from his presence in the world.

yeah, absolutely. in fact, i originally had a prologue where old!man gene walked up and punched a totally bewlidered 2006 sam in the face for not following orders (ie, for pursuing the robbery suspects on his own and getting 'killed'). but its tone was completely different than the main story and too distracting, so i ended up losing it in the end.

re: the finality - that's something i love and hate, too. i suspect gene has never really grieved for sam up until this point, because there was never any body found, and thus some lingering uncertainty whether he was really dead or not. but once gene runs him over that's it; no more sam forever. and he can finally start to grieve for him.

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I don't subscribe to this business of Sam dying or disappearing in 1980. It doesn't fit my view of the life these two characters lead after they get together and so I ignore it. After all, we have had it rammed down our throats that Ashes to Ashes is not a sequel, and it's clearly not a prequel, so what is there left for it to be but an Alternate Universe?

That's how I see it, anyway, but if for the sake of argument we accept the A2A view of what happened to Sam, then this is definitely how Gene would react to it. Totally believable that he would hold it all together until this moment and then finally let go.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

yeah, a2a doesn't exist in my own personal canon either. the only way i can watch it (besides fast-forwarding through alex's scenes) is by thinking of what really happened to sam, since there was never any body found...my current favorite theory being that he's locked up in the guv's basement as a punishment for disobeying orders. :) (bad sam. naughty sam. i think he needs another spank, don't you?)

seriously, though - they can say what they want...my sam tyler is NOT dead. so there.

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

locked up in the guv's basement

I'll go and check him every night day if you like, I don't mind. You know - make sure he's OK, everything functioning as it should...

my sam tyler is NOT dead. so there.

Abso-bloody-lutely.

[amproof.livejournal.com]

re: the finality - that's something i love and hate, too. i suspect gene has never really grieved for sam up until this point, because there was never any body found, and thus some lingering uncertainty whether he was really dead or not. but once gene runs him over that's it; no more sam forever. and he can finally start to grieve for him.

I kind of feel like, with this story's scenario, if it were continued into the 2006 timeline, it would allow Gene to figure out a way to be there when Sam woke up, they'd get together, Sam wouldn't kill himself (or die in bank heist), and they'd be snuggly and happy forever and ever. *sighs*

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

thanks. :) the idea popped into my head probably the second or third time i saw that scene, and i've never been able to see it any other way since.

[amproof.livejournal.com]

At the second paragraph, I instantly thought "Oh, f*ck, Gene is waiting to run down Sam!" And I read the rest of the story with such tension and dread to see if I was right. I don't know why my mind instantly went there, if I'd had a similar thought, or if it seemed logical, or what. But it was gripping. I have to admit, I really wanted him to turn around!

I'm glad you continued it. The second part was very moving. It was difficult, but actually served as a recovery from the first. Hurts to think of the Genie under the thumb of Hyde...

Good job.

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

thanks. :)

i don't think of gene being 'under their thumb' so much...in my mind, they probably told him something like, 'sam tyler's accident is a part of history...someone's going to do this even if you don't; we only offered you first refusal out of respect for your close working relationship.' and like i said...no WAY is he going to let someone else run over his little deputy dawg.

[jean-geanie.livejournal.com]

beautiful and haunting, Gene's flashbacks of his Sam's death while he's waiting with this other Sam were heartbreaking.

One question though, were Annie, Chris and Ray in on the plan because in the first line you have Gene remembering that "they'd told him to wait. His instructions were to get the most ordinary, nondescript vehicle he could lay his hands on" it's such an interesting idea to think that the group of them might have discussed it over the years.

Brilliant first fic ;)

[space-oddity-75.livejournal.com]

An interesting idea, and well written, too! Kudos to you. :)

[dakfinv.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about that car, too. I've always loved the idea that Gene was the driver, and you have executed that brilliantly here. Awesome stuff!

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

You have this working wonderfully. You really show how everything connects and how Gene is doing something that has to be done. And yet his relief and pain show through in equal measure. Looking forward to anything else you choose to write in the future.

[culf.livejournal.com]

Welcome over!

Great story, I felt terrible for poor Gene! He would choose to be the one to kill him, though, if it was a choice between doing it himself or letting someone who doesn't even care about him do it.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

the thought of someone else killing Tyler made his blood boil. They had no right.

Yes.

[talkingtothesky]

Oh my gosh. This is PERFECT.

When I rewatched, I was thinking about the driver just sitting in the car too. Can't have someone kneeling in Sam's shot, but...there's every possibility it's something more sinister. You've explored that brilliantly here.

Gene being the one...it's not a new idea to me (I remember fawsley's but I hadn't seen yours) yet it still hurts as if it were. Gene is just selfish enough to do this.

Thank you for linking!

[qthebadwolf]

Welcome! And many thanks for your lovely comments. :)

The driver's actions in that scene seriously bug me. I mean...they just...sit there. They don't get out of the car, check on the man they just hit, or even panic and drive away. Who even does that? (From great frustration comes great art, I guess...?) :P

Anyway, if it's selfish!Gene you're after, I wrote a hell of a dark fic just as Ashes to Ashes was coming to an end, speculating what might have happened when Sam tried to leave the copper's limbo. It's as bleak as they come, that fic, but as you sort of hinted, Gene's actions in it would not be entirely out of character for him...