That's the 2nd part of the Sandbrook's trip, I hope you will like it. I might do a third part but only if you leave reviews as it takes me time and I'd prefer doing new ones rather than continuing that one.

If it does interest you to have Daisy's point of view of the meeting with his father and a discussion with Hardy and Miller on the car please leave a comment to let me know. Otherwise I'll just start a new fanfic later.


Pippa was floating on the river with her bloated icy face. He was drowning and searched desperately the ground to steady him as he was swallowing more and more water by now, he was choking and thought this poor child was the last thing he'd see, he looked at her and blurted "'M sorry".

She woke up suddenly to soft screams and groans coming from Hardy's side of the bed. He was shifting in the bed and it bothered her. When she turned to look at him, he was pale and sweating and he was holding tight the sheets, his knuckles turning white. She hesitated waking him up as he was certainly having a nightmare but suddenly his eyes popped open and he jerked awake screaming, coughing and sputtering. Miller was frightened by the situation and froze while Alec was coughing his lungs out and breathing heavily. He seemed in pain and rather disconcerted, his hand clutching his chest. He slumped back moaning on his couch with exhaustion and tears overwhelmed him making his vision turning all blurry. He couldn't fight it and muffled cries sounds came out. Miller was trying to feign sleeping but she was taken aback by what had just happened. Did that happened a lot she thought? He got up to take his pills trying not to wake Ellie he thoguht and got back to bed but didn't get to sleep again.
Miller sat up, now she'd decided she'd stop closing her eyes and get this sorted. He couldn't go on like this and she couldn't go on not having the full display of his condition.


It was twenty past four in the morning
"Hardy?"
He grunted still short of breath: "what?"
"You okay?"
"Yes 'm fine go back to sleep" he said nervously
"No you're not"
"Oh for god sake will you leave me alone?" He almost yelled, pretty much angry now
"No I won't because I deserve to know a bit more than that. What happened?" She asked seriously with confidence
"Nothing I'm fine"
"Oh don't give me that bullshit, I have eyes on my face, you may be mute but I'm not blind yeah?"
He sighed turning his back from her
"Come on, you scared the shit out of me, I thought you were having a heart attack or something" and then added "what the hell was that?"
" 's not a heart attack"
"Then what is it?"
He hesitated and stuttered "I'm - I'm having nightmares alright I feel like I'm drowning in that same river and then I wake up coughing. I take my medication, I calm down and it's all fine"
She stared at him and asked "I'm sorry. So, does it have something to do with your heart? Or at least if not, these brutal awakening must set it off?"
He finally gave in to give her full disclosure as he thought she deserved to know and maybe she should and she wouldn't let go anyway.
"Well, yes I think it doesn't help... I- I have heart failure, means my heart is not pumping blood properly as it should due to the many times it stopped"
She nodded expecting more
"Since my last heart attack on Briar Cliffs, I've reached an acute heart failure which makes my lungs filling with fluids that my heart can't pump, makes me cough a lot and particularly while I'm sleeping on my back. So I guess it contributes to my fierce nightmares" he confessed
"I see.. can't you do something about it?"
"There's a treatment for that, I've already had one but I can't have it now, we're on the middle of the trial and the case, not now"
"What do you mean not now? You can take your treatment even now. How does that change anything?
"It's not some pills you take after dinner Miller, if I take it I have to go to the hospital for days and I can't do that, I don't want to do that now"
"Then I'm sorry sir but you're stupid"
He didn't reply and a sharp silence followed. He wondered if he should tell her about the upcoming heart surgery that it was unlikely he would survive. But he didn't want to add this to her as she already had a lot on her plate at the moment. She was stressed enough with the trial, she didn't need to worry about him now.

Finally she spoke:
"Do I have to worry about you? Could you - I mean I don't know could you just die right there and now from a cardiac arrest?"
He stared at her horrified
"I don't know! How is that even a question?"
"It is when you're ill and I don't know anything about your illness, what am I supposed to do if something happens to you?"
"I don't know neither! I don't know, call an ambulance.. what sort of discussion is this?" he said angrily
"Don't be a smartarse" she rolled her eyes
Then she added timidly
"How did you found out about it?"
Did she really have to do this now? Then he thought he wouldn't go back to sleep anyway and Ellie neither until he would answer her

"My daughter was in hospital, I collapsed at her bedside and they had to shock me twice before they got me back"
"Oh my god" she said tensed
Then something else popped up in her tired brain. "Was it before the Sandbrook Case?"
"Aye" he mumbled
She sighed
"So you were sick all along?"
"Aye"
She sighed again and rolled her eyes at him

"You said 'the many times it stopped' earlier, did that happened a lot before? I mean your heart stopping, you needing resuscitation?" she said with horrified eyes curiosity taking over whatever privacy he had left
"Seriously Miller, do we have to do that?"
"I'm just wondering that's all. And I'm sure you won't go back to sleep anyway and neither will I"
He knew it. He mumbled a "yes, five -"
She gasped and didn't say anything and then dared saying "five like FIVE times?
He didn't reply anything and she added quickly without thinking, sleepiness that comes from four in the morning didn't really filter her words

"Didn't your brain get damaged by all these?"
He jumped to his feet, anger turning more into a hurting feeling. He looked at her with wide eyes "Really? Is that what you think? I can assure you that my brain is perfectly functional, got it?"
"'M sorry Hardy, didn't mean it that way" guilt taking over 'fuck fuck fuck' what was she thinking?
He stepped out to hide in the bathroom and came back half an hour later or so.


"You know I'm having nightmares too" she confessed. He looked at her more intrigued.
"I dream I'm with Joe everything is fine until I remember what he's done and then I want to bash his head against the walls. It frightens me, I've never felt that way before and I can't control it. I want to kill him"

"I know" he said softly and added "I'm sorry" he was tired and wanted to sleep but he was scared to even close his eyes as he was sure he'd meet the ghost of Pippa.

So, he didn't and insteas watched Ellie sleeping peacefully until the morning came.


Miller woke up to Hardy's phone ringing. He stumbled to get a hand of it and hang on. She presumed it was Claire half listening what he was talking about.

The meeting with Hardy's ex-wife went exactly the way he thought it would. It ended up with them arguing like always and Ellie
giving him a death glare "Unbelievable"
They did a short walk on the town and it was really strange to walk these same streets he walked everyday before.
He missed the town but had no wish to come back living here though. Ellie was bouncing and Alec couldn't catch up with her.
He had to stop to catch his breath his vision swimming a little on the edge. 'Not here' he thought, 'come on just a few yards'
When Ellie noticed Alec had stopped behind she turned around to see he was leaning heavily on a wall, face ashen. She approached him
to ask if he was alright, she knew she'd receive the same "M' fine" so she wasn't even sure wether she should ask or not but
worry took over. She was about to ask when he lifted his head and continued walking without a word.


The silence finally broke when Hardy asked to go back to the hotel saying he forgot to take something not precising what it was.
Actually it was his pills he'd forgotten interrupted by Claire's call. He was glad that he had somehow
managed to go on without needing them during his just recent episode. As soon as he saw the concerned face of Miller approaching
him, he knew he had to keep it together and go on. He would need his so precious medicines for the end of the day though and
needed some rest before embarking for the third step of the day: his daughter.

They were back to the hotel in silence, both were thinking too hard with their own brain.

Miller was torn by the trial, she thought what if he's free? What if the jury believes whatever bullshit they will feed them? Her anxiety was rising as she thought of Tom and Fred. How will they cope with life when their dad is a pedophile and child murderer? Thinking of how her life could have been teared apart so fast made her gag, she couldn't stop thinking of the great moments she had with Joe and it disgusted her now.

Hardy was so stressed to meet his own daughter. He was actually scared of how she would react seeing him after all this time and he was scared of how HE would react. He didn't even know his daughter anymore, he didn't know what he could ask her about, talk to her about, he was completely lost.
That's at that precise moment that his ex-wife called him to ask about where and when they'd meet with Daisy and he walked out of the room to have privacy.

Ellie took Alec's bag to put it somewhere else. Something fell from the bag, it was his medication and as she was about to place it back in the bag she found many others and was surprised of how many there were. She could read 'Heart arrythmia, stress, panic attacks' ; 'heart failure', 'low blood pressure'; 'light-headedness, vertigo, nausea'; 'sleeping pills' this seemed horrifying to her, did he have to take them all? This was again a reminder that we wasnt 'fine' at all.


The afternoon goes and went by and they finally reached the moment Alec was about to meet his daughter. He dreaded the moment but also he was excited to finally get to see his daughter, he missed her so much. There were many things he missed lately: his health, his job, his town even his ex-wife but his daughter he woke up every morning with tears in his eyes because he missed her so much that it actually hurts.

The evening passed and he was glad to see his daughter but he wasn't ready for Ricky's outburst. "There's nothing left for you here" his last words ringing into his ears.


Sorry the end is a bit short but I said I would upload the 48hours following the first chapter so here it goes. But as I said if you want more please leave a review - - -