Five Times Someone Watched

Nelson was the first to see it, or maybe the first to understand it. He'd thought there was something different, a charge in the air almost, since the first time Sam walked into his pub months ago, and it hit him then, that night. He watched one very drunk Gene Hunt being helped in a calm, patient and almost tender way up off his bar stool and quietly out the door by Sam, one hand flat across Gene's lower back and the other extended outward, either leading the way or ready to catch the unsteady on his feet DCI. Nelson remembered taking a quick look around the place, no one seemed to notice them, or rather, no one seemed inclined to look at them, in fact he was sure they purposely weren't looking. He caught Sam's eye on his way out, offering him a quiet nod as they headed out the door.

Chris happened upon them late one night, after an unsuccessful date; not wanting to go home as to alert his mother to yet another failed blind date set up, he opted for some shut eye on the old sofa in the Guv's office. The sofa, he found, was already occupied by the time he got there, and he stood, frozen to his spot like a deer in headlights as he watched his boss and his Guv; boss on the floor, on his knees, settled between the Guv's thighs, head bobbing quickly up and down and Guv, head thrown back against the wall, eyes screwed shut and breathing shallow until he started to murmur, then pant and then whimper the boss' name, over and over again. "Sam...Sam...Sammy..." Chris hightailed it out of there and to the Railway Arms, heading straight for the bar where he ordered a small, no a large, no can I please just bottle of whiskey. Ray and a handful of other men in the corner teased him, asking him about his date before wondering aloud if the Guv was gonna' grace them with his presence that night. Chris and Nelson exchanged glances while Chris swigged right from the bottle of whiskey.

Phyllis needed something from Lost and Found. In a rare occurrence, someone actually called looking for something they had lost. She made her way over to the DCI's office, hoping to maybe find said lost item on his desk or perhaps elsewhere in his office, as was sometimes known to happen with 'lost' items around headquarters. She found the office empty and turned to ask Chris where the Guv had gone off to. "Uh, dunno', him and the boss maybe went out for lunch or somethin' " Was the shaky answer she got from him. "Chris, its ten o'clock in the morning." Phyllis shook her head at the man and muttered under her breath all the way over to the Lost and Found room. "Lunch" she started to say as she opened the door, rendered speechless at what she saw; DI Tyler holding DCI Hunt up against the far wall, wedged between dusty old shelves, snogging him senseless. She watched for a minute, two minutes...until they stopped to come up for air. She ducked down when she saw Gene look her way, her heart racing in her chest for more than one reason as she heard him ask Sam if he locked the door. Sam shut him up with another kiss and she made her way out of there and back to her desk, passing Chris along the way. "Find 'im?" He asked. "Yeah, they went out to lunch." She replied.

Ray thought he was having a dream, another dream about Chris. They were in the backseat of the Cortina, on some damned stakeout mission that Sam had set up, and Chris was reaching over him, hushing him when he tried to say they couldn't do it there, what if someone saw, before finally running a hand slowly up the front of his trousers, causing him to gasp loudly. He opened his bleary eyes, half expecting to throw Chris off of him, half expecting to be busted by Gene, or worse, Sam, but not at all expecting to see Gene leaning into Sam, whispering into his ear as he pumped his fist up and down, causing Sam to gasp and Gene to cover his mouth with his hand, letting the strangled groan die off in his throat as he came. Ray closed his eyes again, felt a tentative hand on his knee and opened them to see Chris staring him down, finger to his lips, hushing him into stillness.

Annie knew it had been a trying day for all of them, but none so more than Sam. The whole thing had gone wrong; Sam's plan had placed them all in danger and culminated with a gun point blank on Gene's temple as Sam kneeled, helpless and broken, forced to watch as the masked gunman pulled back the trigger, ready to end Gene's life. Annie doesn't know the dynamics of guns all that well, she'd never had proper firearms training, but she knew that somehow the trigger stuck, and somehow Gene was there with them now, alive. She went to look for Sam, ready to offer him up solace and a friend, maybe someone to wipe the tears away. She went to the Railway Arms, Gene's office, the Lost and Found room and even looked in the Cortina. Finally, she found Sam outside on the steps of the headquarters, cradled in Gene's arms as Gene wiped away the tears, stroked his hair and told him it was alright, he was alright, he was alive. Gene turned and looked at her as she was leaving, in much the same way he looked at Nelson that night at the pub, noticing the exchange between he and Sam, and in the same way he watched as Chris ran into the night after he found them in Gene's office, similar to when Phyllis left after catching them in the Lost and Found and like the way he watched as Ray mimicked his own actions in the backseat of the Cortina. Sam and Gene were watched at least five times, but Gene was always watching.