Summary: This had been a mistake. Coming back to Broadchurch at all had been a big mistake.

A/N: I'm back! God, I love Broadchurch. So many ideas, so little time. Here is my fix to the Beth/Ellie tiff at the end of episode 8.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Reconciliation

Ellie was nervous. Nervous beyond reason. She took in a deep breath as she stood in front of the familiar door, her hand outstretched to knock. She hadn't knocked on this door in over a year. She could hear the hustle and bustle of a happy household behind the threshold.

Her nerves and fear overtaking her, her hand half an inch from the wood, she retracted it slowly. She rearranged her purse on her shoulder and began walking back to her car, the brisk wind mussing up her hair and whipping her coat around her. This had been a mistake. Coming back to Broadchurch at all had been a big mistake.

Despite her retreat, she heard rapid footsteps and the door open behind her.

"Ellie!" she heard an exasperated Beth behind her. The former detective quickly turned around to see her old friend.

"I saw you from the kitchen window and..." Beth explained her rushed speech. Surprisingly, she didn't look angry or guarded; the opposite of what Ellie had been expecting.

There was an awkward tension as Ellie walked back to her friend's threshold, meeting her eyes for the first time.

Beth had not changed much in a year's time. A couple more wrinkles around the eyes, the eyes that seemed tired with the trials of motherhood. Beth shifted on her feet, wiping some remnants of baby food from her chin and crossing her arms from the chilly wind.

That's right. The new baby.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Ellie stated softly.

Beth chuckled and leaned against the doorframe. "Yeah, it has."

They were silent again, anticipating who would talk first. Both had been planning to say so much when they met for the first time after that night on the meadow, but both could find no words. Beth finally broke the ice, turning her head inside to hear the whistle of the kettle from the kitchen.

"So, I was just about to have tea." She backed up past the door frame. "Would you...?" She gestured inside. For both of them being such chatters, they were sure having a hard time communicating.

"Sure." Ellie agreed and walked through the door, Beth closing it behind them.

Ellie didn't know what to think. This nice reception from Beth was not what she expected at all. She had expected to be explaining herself and perhaps some uncouth begging before an invite in for a cuppa. So British.

"I just set her down for a nap, so we have to be quiet." Beth explained softly before going into the kitchen.

Ellie nodded and walked into the bright sitting room, placing her purse next to the sofa just like old times. It mostly looked the same, with a couple of new pictures added on the small table in the corner, including a large new portrait of Danny. One was a smiling and exhausted Beth holding the newborn baby girl in her arms, pink blanket shrouding the tiny beautiful face. Ellie smiled at the couple of others documenting the baby's progress, as she was slowly becoming the spitting image of Beth.

One other photo caught the former detective's eye near the front of the new pictures. There was a new one of Mark and a very pregnant Beth in Paris, holding hands and posing in front of the Seine River.

"The counselor said that we should go on a second honeymoon." Beth explained as she walked into the sitting room with their tea. She handed Ellie her cup and sat on the sofa. "She said that a trip would help us to heal after… everything."

Ellie felt a pang of sadness and envy looking at their smiling faces, healing and still in love. She felt the hot tears of ignominy prickling the backs of her eyes, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself before making a scene.

She never got to have the time to heal herself.

True, both her and Beth lost a lot last year, but Beth's loss lacked the pure shame and ridicule that Ellie was forced to endure because of her husband. Beth did not have to explain to her children exactly why their father had to be locked away.

Feeling herself slipping, she looked away from the photo. She took a testing small sip of her tea, finding it cool enough to drink properly. Ellie did not want to push her luck and sit next to Beth automatically, so she sat down gingerly in the arm chair facing the sofa.

Once again, they fell into an uncomfortable silence; the only sound in the room was the link of the ceramic cups on their saucers.

It was left to Beth again to break it. "So, where did you end up moving to?" She asked quietly. She looked guilty for not knowing.

Ellie switched her cup from her left to her right, nervously. "Um… A little parish called Langport. It's not too far from here."

Beth took a sip of her tea. "Oh, so still in Somerset?"

"Mm-hmm." Ellie tried to take the subject off of her. "So, how has Chloe been doing? Still working on her A-levels?"

Beth sighed and chuckled. "She's been doing alright, and yes, she is still working on it. She tried to get out of finishing them but we convinced her to stay on top of it. She's a bit of a dreamer."

Ellie smiled. "Yes, she is."

"And how is Tom adjusting to a new school and everything?" Beth kept rattling out questions, seeming to be genuinely interested in her old friend's new life away from Broadchurch.

It seemed like old times, them drinking tea and talking about their children, but anyone could see the tension between them growing.

Ellie sighed, thinking about her eldest son. He took the entire ordeal after the killer had been revealed very hard and very personal. It was a godsend having Alec around during the aftermath, a good male figure for Tom to look up to after his disgraced father had left them.

Truthfully, Tom was still struggling adjusting to a new small town; even though the children of the parish had no idea about the story of Tom's father, they had not given him the greatest of welcomes. His marks had plummeted some, and he often came home from school cross and taciturn, shutting himself in his room the moment he walked in the house.

"He's doing fine." Ellie lied. She was sure Beth didn't want to hear her sob stories, at least not yet.

"And when is Fred going to be starting?"

"He'll be starting pre-school this next fall." She smiled, thinking of that beautiful and innocent little boy at home. He was the luckiest of them all, remaining blissfully ignorant of the entire repercussions of Danny's murder and them being forced to move. Hopefully he would remain that way for as long as possible.

"Oh, that's great." Beth smiled and took another drink of her tea. Her brow furrowed and she asked. "Where are they right now?"

"With Alec," Ellie responded without thinking, coming to regret the answer as soon as she uttered it. She couldn't have just said 'at home'?

Beth perked up a little with her eyes going wide at the unexpected response. "Alec? As in DI Alec Hardy?" She asked with a quizzical smirk, setting her cup and saucer down on the table.

Well, now there was no way out of it.

"The same." Ellie admitted, relieved that Beth was finding the humor in it, and not focusing on her past extreme dislike of the man.

"So you two have kept in touch?" Beth questioned, attempting to veil the prying nature of her question.

That's an understatement, Ellie thought. Alec had been with them and has remained in their utmost hours of need. He was the one to calm down Tom when he would get angry about things he couldn't even attempt to understand. He was the one to keep Ellie sane when everything seemed to be falling around her at once. He was the one to trust to take care of Fred when she needed to get away from it all, even if it was just for an hour or two.

In return, Ellie and her sons had been there for him when he had finally faced the music and had the pacemaker surgery. They stayed at the hospital for the whole thing, and aided him in his recovery for a month or so afterwards. She had also had a hand in helping to reunite Alec and his daughter Bethany last Christmas, finally free from her mother's clutches and knowing the honorable deeds of her amazing father.

Both Alec and Ellie knew there was a spark between them from a couple months after their move away from Broadchurch. With the limited housing in Langport, they had found themselves sharing a house, which fanned the flames of their attraction for each other. Although they hid their intimate relationship from the boys as much as possible, Tom had revealed that he thought Alec was 'alright', which was high praise in a twelve year old's mind.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Ellie blushed a little at her extreme understatement. She really didn't know how Beth would react to the truth.

Beth smiled wider. "That's good. I'm glad you have someone to talk to." She said sincerely.

Ellie was done with whatever this was. This whole meeting had gone almost bipolar from what she had been expecting, and she exhaled deeply while setting her cup and saucer down on the small table with a little more force than necessary.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked bluntly.

The sudden turn of mood took Beth by surprise, her brow furrowing in confusion as she sat back further on the sofa. "Pardon?"

The former detective sighed, wringing her hands in her lap. "The last time we spoke it sounded as if you would never speak to me again, and here we are, sitting and drinking a bloody cup of tea. Why the sudden change?"

She watched the realization cross Beth's face at her understanding. She shook her head. "Ellie, that was a long time ago."

"It wasn't, Beth. It really wasn't." Ellie felt her voice rising, a little miffed.

"Well, it was for me." Beth responded, meeting Ellie straight in the eyes. "I have missed you, Ellie. I missed you a lot actually." She admitted.

Ellie snorted. "Well, you have a curious way of showing it. Not one phone call for an entire year."

She could tell that Beth was starting to get agitated too. Now this was more like how the detective had imagined it.

"Well, I'm not too happy either for not getting any calls either." Beth's face was starting to turn red.

"With the way our last conversation had ended, I had a feeling our friendship was over!"

"Ellie, that was the evening after the announcement, how did you think I was going to react?"

Ellie had begun to see red, finally their issues out in the open. This was what they needed, to get everything out in one fell swoop.

"I don't know, maybe by not accusing me of being blind and stupid?!"

She could see the anger and guilt across Beth's face as she spat back. "I never said that! I said 'how could you not know?'."

"What's the bloody difference?!"

Beth exhaled sharply, looking defeated. She shrugged and continued. "After you left I realized how hypocritical I sounded, never knowing about Mark and Becca, and I felt terrible, Ellie!"

Ellie let that sink in. She had forgotten about Mark's affair with Becca Fisher that Beth had absolutely no knowledge of until Ellie had told her. But that still didn't explain the radio silence that Beth had perceived through the entire year.

"Then why didn't you say something?" She asked quietly.

"By the time I pulled my head out of my arse and was ready to apologize, you had already left Broadchurch. I guess I could have called but it wouldn't have been a good conversation over the phone." She looked properly embarrassed, but Ellie sympathized with her.

They were quiet for a time, and Ellie heard sniffling from across the room. She saw Beth reaching up to wipe her eyes as she gasped a watery breath.

"I really am sorry, Ellie." She met her friend's eyes that were full of tears, and Ellie rose from the arm chair to sit next to Beth on the couch.

Through her light cries, Beth continued. "I am so sorry … that you had to go through this …whole change all alone, and I'm so… I'm so sorry for being so cruel to you."

"Oh, Beth… It's okay. I'm sorry, too." Ellie felt the hot tears finally rolling down her face as the two women met in a tight embrace, sobbing into one another's shoulder.

Ellie finally felt a sense of peace holding and being held by her closest friend once more. It had been so long since she felt any resemblance of normal in her life since it was turned upside down, and reconciling with Beth had been a major advancement in her progress of healing.

Maybe, just maybe, she would survive.

After they had calmed down a few minutes later they separated, still sitting close on the sofa. Beth grabbed the tissue box from the table and took a couple and offered the box to Ellie.

"We're a right mess, we are. " Beth chuckled, trying to brighten the mood.

Ellie laughed, taking some tissues and wiping her face and nose.

The sound of a baby fussing echoed through the house after they were quiet for a time.

"Oh, I'll go get her." Beth quickly ran up the stairs to the nursery. Ellie noticed that the nursery was in Danny's old remodeled room.

Beth came back down with the baby girl, mumbling her distress and rubbing her eyes while Beth shushed her calmly, rocking her up and down. The girl laid her head against her mother's shoulder, and Ellie felt a little bittersweet, missing how Fred rests on her.

"Do you want to hold her?" Beth asked, sensing her nostalgia.

Ellie hesitated at first, but then reached out to accept the toddler in her arms. She fussed at first, but Ellie's expert rocking had her quiet and resting in no time.

"Not out of practice, I see." Beth sat back down next to her.

The former detective chuckled, listening to the little girl's rhythmic breathing.

"Sorry, I never asked; what is her name?" Ellie spoke softly.

Beth smiled. "Yours."

Ellie's brow furrowed. "Sorry?"

"Her name is Ellie. Ellie Danielle Latimer."

By Beth's smile, she knew that Ellie had been named after her. It filled her with a great sense of joy and peace, and she grinned, looking down at the sleeping baby.

Beth continued, stroking her little girl's back. "And also, we haven't been able to get her christened yet, so, would you mind terribly being her godmother?"

She felt the tears coming back again. Now the proof of Beth's forgiveness was concrete, or in this case, in the flesh, the flesh currently residing in her arms. And she would be a part of this precious little girl's life.

"It would be an honour." Ellie stated. And it truly would be.

So, thoughts?

Until next time,

Nikki