Sometimes you tell the man by the bottle that he drinks.

When: Back during the "Heated Discussion".
Who: Alex.
Where: Drive room.
With: Cass, Seymour, Efof, Pancake, Jelena.
Why: It is the way of things.

The discussion was tense and frustrating, Seymour was being... Seymour, and Cass wasn't letting anything slip about her new found indifference to Chrysler. Seated at a console, Alex took refuge in the familiarity of a good ole smoke and decided to let them get on with it.
His mind wandered a little and he only half registered the fact that Cass was terrorising Stevens. After a while his subconscious prodded him, telling him something important was happening. He glanced at Cass.

"... we can escape while we have the chance and live a life of fun and adventure travelling through time..." she was saying.

Travelling through time. Travelling through time. He shook his thoughts back into order. He liked the sound of that. He really liked the sound of that. Perhaps they could return to the days before the accident, their original time. He could see his kids again, put things right. Maybe even sort things with... No. He couldn't see her ever taking him back. He wasn't even sure he'd want that. But the kids, he ached to see them.
And adventure, his lip twitched, yeah he was up for a bit o' that.
As long as he got to smegging rest a while first. He stretched, clicking his back, and thought on.

He'd clean up his act, no more drugs, no more alcohol, no m- He looked at the cigarette in his hand - well, maybe it'd be okay to carry on smoking. But he'd make amends for his crappy behaviour, the affairs, the gambling and his selfishness. Alex was a good man, but he wasn't a good husband.
He sighed, and rubbed his suddenly throbbing head.

He reckoned it was in his genes, he'd heard his dad tell tales of his great great great (some number of greats) grandpappy in the 1880s - a cowhand turned smuggler in the Old West. Also a drunk and a womanizer. Also named Alex. Perhaps reincarnation was true...

There'd also been another of his great great somethings, in the 1980s. A long-haired rocker named Alec Solvay. The frontman of a famous band. Alex always figured that's where his love of awesome retro rock came from. Alec was a remarkable singer... an alcoholic... and womaniser. Hmm. There was clearly a pattern there, the realisation of which shot a self-conscious fire through Alex's belly.

To be continued (Way Back When Week)...