Rose giggled as he let her climb on top of him and brushed his lips with her own. Alec responded and they kissed again, he pushed her onto her back and she put her arms around his neck as he unfastened her pyjama top and she relieved him of his t-shirt. Now he was going to test how well he'd got over his surgery a few weeks ago though sometimes he was a bit sore if he touched where the stitches had been when he showered.

"Go easy on me Rose, I just had major surgery."

Rose tried to heed his words but at one thirty in the morning and contemplating having sex with a man she had only met a few hours ago, she was just happy to let him take his time, first kissing her then pulling down her pyjama shorts. She didn't care what time it was though, not being with a man for quite a while as they gently made love, Rose feeling sensations she thought she had forgotten and some more. Alec was more than pleased with his decision to go ahead with having his pacemaker fitted and if Rose really did know about him she knew why he was going easy.

They woke the next morning to her alarm and she told him to get a shower if he wanted and she would make some breakfast after they kissed and Alec lay on her again.

"Have you thought about making any decision as to where you'll go, when your meeting's over?" she asked as he joined her for breakfast of egg and toast.

"Not yet, they may even fire me for going behind their backs and conducting a murder enquiry while I was on medical leave but if they do, I'll just go to the press myself and blow it wide open, that they had the clues under their noses and never saw it, it took someone who hadn't been involved with it in the first place and someone on their last legs to solve it, I'd say it would make an interesting story."

Rose smiled. "Well if you need any help, you only have to say, I do have a famous stepfather you know."

Alec took it the wrong way, putting his fork down. "Do you not think I can do this on my own? They hung me out to dry, I redeemed myself with two cases, well one anyway, they had better take notice of me. Thanks for helping me out last night but that's it, I don't need anyone's help. I'll gather my things and be on my way."

"I'm sorry Alec, I'm just used to helping people, I didn't mean to infer you couldn't sort out your own problems. I'd like you to stay with me, while you're in London, please? I'll give you my spare key and the code to get in. I'm normally home for five thirty, I got delayed last night so why don't you meet me at the subway station at five fifteen and we'll go get something to eat? Then you can decide tonight if you want to go find that hotel or not, you can leave your things here. What do you think?"

"Ok then but no more talk of helping me get another job or out of any kind of trouble I may be in, understood?"

"Absolutely, I get it, loud and clear. Why don't you cancel that hotel reservation? Where was it anyway?"

"Somewhere near Victoria, I have the address, I'll call them and tell them I won't need the room tonight but I'll have to think about tomorrow night."

"Ah but tomorrow night, I could cook you a nice meal and you can tell me how your meeting went. Which is first anyway? Your cases or where they'll be sending you?"

"They'll discuss the cases and tomorrow, I'll find out my fate, if I remain a DI or get busted back to DS. They'll tell me what my options are, where there are vacancies and I'll have to choose one. I suppose I could go back to Broadchurch if they'll still let me, it was out of the CS's hands this time. I'll just choose the highest ranking one I expect."

"Do you want to stay in London or go home, wherever that is?"

"Stay in London? Well I suppose it will be better than getting sent to Sheffield."

"What's wrong with Sheffield?"

"Nothing except that was where Danny Latimer's killer went."

Rose pulled a face. "Oh, right, bad place to get sent to then? How long will you have to think about it?"

"Probably not long enough but I expect I'll get help with housing costs if I stay in London."

"There are a few empty apartments here, you could ask about one."

"I don't think the budget or my salary will cover the costs Rose."

"Well you can stay here as long as you want, if you decide to stay in the city and we'll make some arrangement until you find a place of your own. So I'll write down the address and you can get a taxi back, can you remember the way to the subway station?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I? It may have been dark and raining last night but I know where you brought me and I'm not in the habit of going off with young blonde women whom I talk to in subway stations. It's only the second time I've even been in one and the first time I would rather just forget when I came with my ex and our daughter for a visit."

"Well I'll be setting off soon, walk me there and you can get a taxi outside, it won't take you long to get there, unless you get a bus pass and want to try your luck on public transport?"

"No thanks, I'll give that a miss. Look Rose, I'll stay tonight but I don't know about any longer. Once I make my choice where I'll go, I'll be expected to start on Monday and I'll have to travel there and get settled."

"Well if you stay in London, there won't be any rush, will there?"

"Rose, I don't like owing people, ok? You accept a favour and someone wants one back."

"I don't want anything from you Alec. I felt sorry for you last night, I admit it but don't mistake that for doing you a favour. Good luck with your meeting though and if they have any sense, they'll see you as a brilliant detective who solved two murder cases when you were at death's door and if they don't, they're a bunch of ungrateful idiots. Will the commissioner be there?"

"I seriously doubt it, don't you? I'm not important enough for him to attend, today it will be other senior officers and tomorrow, either the disciplinary committee or the recruitment officer."

"Pity, you might have got somewhere with him."

"Why, is he a friend of yours or your stepfather's? If he is, forget it now, I don't need any help. Are you ready to leave?"

They left the apartment and Rose led the way back to where they had met last night, pointing out there were two entrances but she always used this one except on Sunday nights when for some strange reason the shutter closed at ten, some strange by-law she assumed, not that she used it on Sunday nights. She gave him a quick kiss after exchanging mobile numbers and pointed to a taxi rank across the road. She smiled all the way to work for the first time since she had been on this world and it showed once she got to her office.

Alec arrived in plenty of time for his meeting, thanks to Rose bundling him out half an hour earlier than he needed to be. After being shown into a meeting room, the board of senior officers asked him various questions of how he had put it on himself, being on sick leave, to solve an old murder case. He kept his answers simple, the main one being he knew who one of the killers was and it had almost killed him trying to bring him in.

As for the other subject of how Joe Miller had also walked free from court, after lunch, which was provided for him, Alec talked his way out of it stating the defence team and been over zealous in digging up the dirt and they had got lucky. One officer though wasn't going to let it go so easily and gave Alec a hard time.

"We have the transcript of the trial DI Hardy, you showed numerous signs of gross misjudgement such as allowing the wife of the suspect to attack him and allowing her to visit your hotel room and spend over two hours with you, alone."

"With all due respect Sir, she was angry, anyone would have been and as for her being in my hotel room, I had been kicked out while she had been seeing to her two boys, they were not left alone, they were asleep and she was there when they woke up. We were two colleagues trying to make sense of what had happened, is it against the law for two people who work together to talk? That defence team were digging up every little thing they could find and twisted it to suit their purpose."

"Well that's as maybe but if the mistakes hadn't been made, they would have had nothing to dig up, would they?"

Another officer spoke up. "I tend to agree with Hardy, the defence team were using underhand tactics to get their client released, they would have done so had they had the ammunition or not, regardless of if it had been Hardy or any other officer. The suspect obviously decided he wasn't going to own up and he was the one that got lucky and got the jury to believe his defence. We will reveal our findings tomorrow DI Hardy but at present, I'm sure my colleagues will agree so far, you did a good job on catching two killers and an accomplice on the Sandbrook case, let's hope we have better luck convicting them though the CPS thought they had a solid case on the Broadchurch one."

The previous officer spoke again. "Yes, then let's hope so, I reluctantly agree, you did good work on Sandbrook and redeemed yourself, despite not doing it officially but DS Henchard has spoken up for you which I'm sure surprises you. She told us you tried to get her to reopen the case and when missing evidence came into your possession, you handed it directly over the South Mercia Police and she conducted the initial interviews with you at Broadchurch Police Station. Thanks to her, no action will be taken against you on that count."

"Thank you Sir. I await your findings tomorrow then?"

A female office spoke up. "You were lucky it was your ex wife who was on that case, someone else may not have taken it so kindly you interfering with a case you were no longer involved with."

Alec leapt to his own defence. "If you'll pardon me Ma'am, that has no bearing on why I wanted to solve the case. I was not going to let it go, I thought it was going to kill me and it almost did and I know why I survived, to bring those two girls killers to justice, the fact it was my ex wife, whom I have no interest in ever getting back together with since she made that quite clear before the case was solved, is just a coincidence and she was the original reason the case was shelved. I'm sure she was as keen to get off the hook about it as I was."

Alec thought he had well and truly stuffed up any chance of remaining a DI now, he'd be lucky to be kicked back to DC.

Rose was having quite a good day as Alec was in his 'meetings' or as he thought 'grillings'. Jake had noticed the change in her mood as they discussed another alleged sighting of alien activity that had turned out to be another prank.

"What's up with you today Rose, you're in a good mood. Did you get lucky last night then and you weren't gonna tell me?"

"You could say that but it was more like in the early hours of this morning. I met someone on my way home last night but I'm not sure how long he's staying."

"I want details Rose or I'll tell your mother."

"Rat on me would you? Ok, short version, he's a police detective inspector who just solved an old case that had got away from him after another man he arrested walked free when his defence lawyer told a pack of lies to the jury."

Jake laughed. "Why didn't you just say it was that Scottish police detective who looked like your old boyfriend from the other universe?"

"Is it that obvious? Don't you dare tell my mother Jake or I won't forgive you."

"Ok but she'll find out sooner or later, tell her before she reads it in the morning papers under the usual headlines you were snogging some bloke at a party. Does he know who you are?"

"Yes but he doesn't like it. He's staying with me tonight and after that, it depends where he gets transferred to. I'm gonna try and talk him into staying in London somewhere but he hates the fact that he owes me for letting him stay last night."

"So where did you meet him then?"

"Waterloo underground station. The hotel that was arranged for him didn't have him booked in when he was about to set off for it, he'd called for directions. Then he tried to find another hotel and asked me where there was one. I recognised him and took him back to my place to get something to eat and find a place but you know the prices around there."

"Yeah, that's why I bunk with you instead of trekking halfway across London when we get to your place when we're hammered," Jake grinned. "Are you gonna tell Pete?"

"Why, if Alec's leaving?"

"What if he stays? You can hardly keep hiding him."

"He might not want to stay with me though, even if he remains in London."

"Who are trying to fool Rose? Yourself or me?"