Rose Tyler was new in town, just arriving on the afternoon coach from London. She'd been tired of working in the department store she'd gone back to after it had suffered a major fire several years back and she wanted a change, so going back to evening college, she got the basics and decided to embark on a new career, that of child-minder.
After all, she'd had enough experience looking after her cousins on the estate but she wanted to completely get away from not being paid for it. So she had done her research of where she'd be most likely to get a job and by some remote chance, she'd seen an advert for a job looking after the two year old son of a police officer in the town where all the fuss had just died down after a murder trial.
She had rung the officer concerned a few days ago and asked if the job was still vacant. Ellie Miller had tried everything after her last child-minder had suddenly let her down. Fred and his minder had really taken to each other and no matter how she'd tried during the trial to settle him with his aunt, the odd occasion was fine but now, Lucy had more or less gone to work for the paper full time now Maggie was looking after her new girlfriend.
Rose had been desperate to get away from everything so her conversation with PC Ellie Miller seemed to go fairly well until she was asked why she wanted to travel.
"Well," Rose had told her. "I'll be honest with you, my old boyfriend keeps trying to get me to go back to him and so I'd really like to get away and have him forget about it. While I'm still here, he'll just keep on trying."
Ellie Miller had laughed, at least the young woman was being upfront.
"He won't follow you down here will he?" she'd asked Rose.
"No Mrs Miller, I won't tell him where I'm going and he won't get it out of my mother, she'd tired of him asking about me anyway."
Ellie had been satisfied Rose Tyler was just what she needed, she'd had plenty of experience with toddlers even though she was newly qualified and she was prepared to pay for her own insurance even though Fred would be looked after at home, since she'd just moved back. Now all she had to do was break the news to Tom and her new lodger, Alec Hardy.
He had taken some persuasion to move into her newly decorated loft but the lease on his riverside chalet was going to be too expensive since he'd come back from his short trip to see his daughter, the owner had sold it and the new owners had thought to spruce it up and charge double. So he'd had little choice but to spend a few nights back at the hotel while Ellie put the finishing touches to the double loft and they'd come to a financial arrangement that included some meals with them or he was free to use the kitchen to his own ends and make what he wanted.
Alec Hardy, fresh from his near death experience with his pacemaker surgery was raring to get back to work properly. Working on the Sandbrook case unofficially had got him back in the game so his meeting with his old boss had gone fairly well.
"Are you sure you're ready to come back so soon Alec?" Elaine had asked him
Alec fidgeted in his chair, loosening his collar and tie a bit more, something he had a very bad habit of doing.
"I just locked up three people, that qualifies me to come back does it not? You never got another DI?"
"Well, I couldn't justify it, it all went quiet and Frank has been holding the fort, so to speak. If we'd had anything more serious, we'd have got someone from headquarters to fill in. Alec, it was not my idea to let you go but you gave me no choice. Had you declared your illness, I would have spoken up for you and put you on desk duty. You were the one to accept the teaching post."
"Yes and I almost bored them all to death but it meant I had time to work on the trial and Sandbrook."
"Have you heard anything about that yet?" Elaine asked, signing off his request to return to his duties though on reduced hours until the CMO declared him completely fit to start anything more strenuous.
"No, I expect Tess will let me know when I'm needed to give evidence though what they'll make of me pursuing it while on sick leave is anyone's guess."
"Ah, I might be able to help you there Alec."
"What is it going to cost me?"
Elaine smiled. "Nothing, if you'd cared to read the notice I handed you the day you walked off and brought Danny's killer in, you would have seen you were only retired from the case. You went off in a huff before I could explain it to you. After that, I had no choice but to insist you took some paid leave and what did you do? Nothing."
Alec tried not to look embarrassed. "I dealt with it in my own way, I wasn't expected to survive."
"So you were lucky, you got a reprieve? Well, now you can put it to good use but you have four hours a day – tops. I'll not put you on desk duty, just light duties, you can choose your own hours. Where are you staying?"
He could hardly say he was going to rent Miller's attic rooms. "I'll let the personnel department know."
So as Rose arrived in Broadchurch, Alec was giving notice on the hotel, to Becca's dismay since he was a good payer or rather the police were. Rose was unpacking and had an interview with Ellie Miller and her young son at three. She felt right at home as Ellie let her in and she saw Fred, with his curly hair sitting on the living room floor playing with some toy cars.
"Oh, he's so cute. Hi Fred, are you having fun?"
The boy looked up, then looked at his mum.
"Say hello Fred this is Rose, she's going to be looking after you. Tom will be home soon. He insists he doesn't need adult supervision but I've tried to explain it's not practical carting poor Fred to someone's house every day, not with the hours I'm expected to work for the next few weeks."
"Ah, that's alright, I can understand his reluctance but maybe after school, he'll be at a friend's or out playing football?"
"He's still not got that many friends, it was his best friend who died last year. You do know about us?"
"Yeah but it's not my place to judge. It happened, you couldn't have done anything about it. I expected that's why Fred won't settle, he misses his dad?"
Ellie looked sad to her and nothing she could say would make things better. Ellie seemed to brighten up a little as she heard the front door opening and an "I'm back Mum, is the new minder here yet?"
"Come in Tom, meet Rose and no, she's not here to pick up your school bag or clean your football boots for you."
Rose had to smile at the thought, he'd probably try, what thirteen year old wouldn't?
"Hello Tom, nice to meet you. I'll be keeping things tidy for your mum so you can help by taking your things to your room, yeah? I was thinking, if it's ok with your mum, we can maybe go for walks with Fred after you get home?"
"I'll think about it," was the only reply she got.
Tom went off to the kitchen and they all followed.
"Rose will also get your tea for you so tell her what you want. I'll make sure the fridge and freezer are well stocked but I'll have to nip up to the supermarket. Tom, watch Fred for an hour or so please?" Ellie asked him, getting her jacket and car keys.
"Oh, I don't mind stopping for a while, I've got nothing else to do," Rose volunteered.
"Are you sure? Well thanks then, Fred's getting hungry, why don't you put some fishfingers under the grill and open a tin of baked beans, he loves those and put some chips in the oven for Tom? Help yourself if you're hungry. Oh, there's just one thing if you're staying and I didn't want to bring it up over the phone."
"Yeah, I'm a bit peckish, I was gonna get something from one of the food stalls, there seems to be plenty of them. Why don't you get off, I can manage. What did you have to tell me?"
Tom looked at his mother, rolling his eyes. The teenager had been arguing that it wasn't such a good idea to invite the man who had locked up his father to come and stay with them but Ellie had argued back that no-one was responsible for the actions Tom's father had taken.
"Tom, we've been through this," his mother had told him when she'd come home after picking up Fred from his aunt's and she'd trusted him with his own key to look after himself for an hour. "We're getting a new child-minder who will come in and look after the house as well and she's willing to work my stupid hours until I can get my transfer back to the Broadchurch police. Beside, Alec Hardy will probably keep to himself, I've put that small TV up there and he won't want to be up and down two flights of stairs every five minutes."
"But Mum, we've just moved back, I thought there'd be just the three of us?"
"Tom, I have to pay the bills, I've given notice on my tiny flat but I still have to pay for another week, I've got travelling expenses and now another child-minder to pay for. The extra money the police will pay for his room and board will help a great deal. It's not compulsory to spend time with him," she had smiled at Tom. "It'll be ok, we'll be ok."
So now there was only the news to break to Rose. "The reason why I couldn't offer you a live-in position, I'd already agreed to rent out my loft to a colleague."
"Oh don't worry about that Mrs Miller, the B&B seems nice enough and it's right on the harbour. I just paid for a room, like you suggested, they were fine with it. Is it a female colleague?"
"Actually no, he's my old boss, Alec Hardy. He's just recovering from heart surgery and still needs to have someone keep an eye on him but don't worry, you'll hardly know he's here."
"Oh, I hope I'm not meant to be responsible for him?" Rose queried.
The last thing she wanted was to look after a convalescing detective who probably wouldn't want a fuss made over him. She'd seen him on TV and he'd kept his promise of catching the boy's killer but the justice system had proved anyone could get off and that had hardly been his fault.
Ellie laughed. "No, that's the last thing he'd want. You shouldn't have any trouble with him, if he starts bossing you around, refer him to me."
Rose smiled, picking up Fred, who wanted to go in his high chair. Ellie could see they were all going to get on well but as for Alec Hardy being agreeable, that was a different matter and she suspected he'd buy his own food and cook it when the boys had gone to bed. He'd still be a grump even though he'd got himself fixed, it can't have been easy trying to make up with his teenage daughter and now he'd agreed to live where there was a teenage boy.
"Right, I'll get off then, I might be a while, it'll probably be busy at this time."
"That's ok Mrs Miller, I'll have to get used to feeding the boys. You can give me a list of what they like, oh and what hours you'll be working until you get your transfer."
Ellie liked her already. She had just left when Alec pulled up outside in a taxi and paid the driver. He intended getting a car as soon as he could, he'd not been banned from driving but he'd not driven since he'd 'borrowed' Ellie's car and crashed the gears, since he'd only really driven automatics until he'd given up. He'd already been given a key but he'd not been warned Ellie's new child-minder was going to be present. When he'd been told, he'd been less than happy that young what's his name wasn't going to be out during the day.
When they'd spoken about it and she'd given him another key she'd had cut, Ellie had warned him.
"Hardy, she's there to look after Fred, that's all and to make sure Tom does his homework and gets fed. There are two rooms you know?"
"How am I going to avoid a toddler?" he'd objected, thinking it had been bad enough he'd let himself get talked into taking her loft.
"Then just stay in the other room and don't make a big fuss about it."
So now, as he let himself in and he had seen Ellie's car was gone, he'd assumed she had left Tom in charge and gone shopping but as he put his large holdall down in the hallway, he heard a female voice telling the youngster to finish his food then he could have icecream and he could now assume the child-minder had started work a day early.
He opened the kitchen door to see Tom finishing his food and a young blonde trying to give a tired Fred Miller a spoonful of beans. Tom had been told to call him uncle Alec, since his mother was trying to get Fred to say that.
"Oh hi Uncle Alec, mum's gone shopping, this is Rose, she's Fred's new nanny."
"Tom, I'm not a nanny. Hi, you must be Alec Hardy? Want a cup of tea or something?"
Alec could only pull out a chair next to Tom and accept, how could he be expected to live here now, when Miller was out, with a young blonde and a toddler?