Emmett stepped back as the door slammed in his face – what was the blonde playing at? He'd had dinner with her last night, well not exactly, she had invited herself to sit at his table but he hadn't minded. It wasn't very often a blonde woman invited herself to sit with him, they normally avoided him like the plague. Then she had sat with him at breakfast and he had successfully avoided her questions, he was the one who asked all the questions, he wasn't used to answering them. Well if she wanted to play at being coy, then let her. He went to his room to take his pills and walked back downstairs to go get something to eat and if she tried to come and talk to him again then so be it but he wouldn't make it as easy for her this time.
Rose couldn't believe Emmett Carver had the nerve to knock on her room door and ask her to go down to dinner with him. What was he playing at and should he be eating again so soon after just finishing a rather large steak or was he just wanting to keep her company while she ate? Still, he had a cheek after denying he was even Emmett Carver, what was his game? She got changed and made her way downstairs to find him sitting at the same table as last night and he looked up when he saw her. She walked straight past him and sat a few tables away. She noted it only took him five minutes to get up and cross over to her table and sit down opposite her – he was playing games with her.
Alec Hardy had finished his meal and went to his room to start unpacking. His room was a far cry from his one at The Traders back in Broadchurch, this was heavily decorated in oak and he laughed at the thought maybe someone had actually thought at one point it was tasteful and olde-worlde, well in his opinion it was far from it - it was tacky to say the least. Still, apparently it was near the police 'precinct' as the Americans liked to call their Police Stations but he'd heard the place was right on the water's edge – typical. His mind wandered back to the strange way the blonde woman had greeted him and wondered who she was. He secretly hoped she wasn't actually this Carver's girlfriend. He was tired but he decided maybe later he would go get a drink and see if she was sitting in the bar and offer to buy her one and find out who she was. He would practice his detective skills if she wasn't forthcoming.
Emmett saw Rose coming in and avoiding him, what had he supposed to have done? He studied his menu and tried to forget it but his curiosity got the better of him after five minutes and he got up, startling the waitress who was just approaching him. He sat down opposite Rose and looked at her. She was pretending to study the menu and was ignoring him.
"Would you mind just telling me why you slammed your door in my face? Have I done something to upset you?"
He picked up the water pitcher and poured some into a glass, indicating if she wanted some. She didn't stop him. Rose wondered whether to keep her silence or enlighten him but he should know what he had supposed to have done. It had been less than two hours since he was stuffing his face with a steak and denying her the French-fries and denying who he was. Was his memory really that bad? If it was, he had no business being a detective then.
"You mean you don't know?" she finally said, taking a sip of the water he had just poured.
"Refresh my memory, humour me," Emmett said dryly.
He wasn't well known for his wit but she had actually had him laughing last night and smiling all the way down to the precinct, something he rarely did but he had made an exception but not for long. He'd spent a good deal of the day thinking about her. She hadn't even offered to give him her last name. How was he supposed to look her up on the internet? Just type in 'Rose' or 'English Rose'? Yeah, that would get him 250 million results. He could try 'Blonde English Rose' but had got tired of the different permutations and combinations he could have typed in and would have got him exactly nowhere.
He had to put his detective skills to use and at least get her surname before the night was over, buy her more drinks than he had last night and get her talking and maybe invite her back to his room. With a bit of luck she wouldn't notice he couldn't do anything about it except a bit of kissing and maybe get her to stay the night, just getting most of her clothes off. He would tell her in the morning she had fallen asleep on him and the evidence would be clear even if her head wasn't.
She wasn't going to faze him as she looked at him. "No, you really don't know do you? You were sat over there at half past four eating a steak and French-fries and said you weren't Emmett – more or less."
Emmett looked at her. "What do you mean? I was in my new office at the precinct at four thirty, I have dozens of witnesses who saw me and I wouldn't sit here eating steak."
"You mean you don't like steak?" Rose mused.
"I didn't say I don't like it, I said I wouldn't eat it." That much was true, especially since it was too rich for him and that, along with having sex, would probably set his heart off again. He had been warned about it more than once from his doctor back home.
"Emmett, I know what I saw, you sitting over there, eating and when I talked to you, you pretended you didn't know me. If it wasn't you, you have a twin brother then."
"Rose, I don't have a twin brother, I don't have any brothers. I really don't know what you're talking about. Now are we going to order before the restaurant closes or not? I'll buy you a drink later and you can tell me about my non-existent twin brother."
Fifty minutes later, they had moved to the bar, watched again by a slightly miffed Gemma Fisher who'd had her eye on the detective when he'd arrived but the English female guest had beaten her to him but with a new arrival, almost identical to Carver, she might be in luck. Still, she didn't get that many offers once they found out her interests so she kept it quiet until afterwards and never usually saw them again. Things could get complicated since both men were booked in indefinitely but if she didn't tell them, they wouldn't find out from her. Besides, the newly arrived Scotsman was more her type than the American, Miss Tyler was welcome to him. She hadn't seen the aforementioned since he'd arrived though, he must have been tired from his journey.
Emmett had bought a white wine and lemonade for Rose and a non-alcoholic drink for himself and sat down next to her and asked her explain in more detail what had happened earlier.
Rose smiled. "Are you interrogating me detective?" she laughed.
"What makes you think that?" he smiled back.
"Well if you are, you've not read me my rights yet, you American detectives are very big on that, aren't you? I mean, do I need my lawyer or something? It could take a while since mine's back in London. You might have to hold me in custody overnight."
Was she kidding? Emmett was thinking. He'd like nothing better than to hold her in his custody overnight and she was practically volunteering, who was he to disappoint her? Pity he'd left his handcuffs at the precinct, he really should carry them with him at all times, you never quite knew when you were going to need them and right now would have been a good time to have them with him.
Emmett just smiled at the thought. "Well Rose, since I haven't established your last name yet, I can't charge you with anything just yet, can I? I can take you in for questioning, I have 48hrs to charge you or release you. If you come in voluntary, you don't even need a lawyer."
"Yes, but shouldn't there be a second officer present at such an interview?" Rose laughed, finishing her drink and pushing her glass away, hinting she wanted another.
Emmett obliged her and got up to go to the bar. When he came back, he stood there and reached for her hand. "Why don't we go sit around the other side of the bar, I think we're being watched over there."
He moved his head back to indicate Gemma standing behind the bar and pretending to be wiping glasses and taking her time about it. Rose let him help her up and they moved around out of sight of the bar area. Neither of them saw Alec Hardy enter the bar and ask for a glass of cold lager. Gemma served him and he went to sit by himself just near where Rose and Emmett had been sitting a few minutes ago. On some pretence, she decided to go wipe the tables down and stopped in front of Alec.
"Sorry about the mistake earlier, I hope I didn't offend you. I mean I was being presumptuous, thinking you were someone else but honestly, you two could be identical twins."
Great, that was all he needed, as if one Alec Hardy in this world was not enough, he had to have an American twin of all things. Someone in the police department had a wicked sense of humour, having them working together and staying in the same hotel and everyone would confuse the pair of them but he had yet to see just how alike they were. He had fooled the hotel owner and the blonde woman earlier, things could get very complicated indeed.
Gemma continued wiping his table and sat down opposite. "If you're interested, your twin is sat around the other side of the bar with one of the female guests."
Alec thought that must be the blonde from earlier, obviously they had made up and she had forgiven him or maybe Carver was as good a detective as he was and worked it out. Either way, he wasn't that bothered, he would meet Carver the following morning and the fun would start, the precinct wouldn't know what had hit them. It was the blonde woman that interested him. How involved was she with Carver?
Rose was sat next to Emmett again and his arm had crept around the back of the seat and lightly resting on her shoulders. Rose didn't seem to mind and he felt slightly pleased with himself. He was more than out of practice but it was beginning to come back to him, if only he could remember what came next and in which order. Did he edge himself even closer, pretend to be interested in her neck and lightly kiss it or did he take hold of her hand? Maybe even both at the same time.
"So Rose, have I convinced you enough that it wasn't me you saw earlier then? Why would I talk to you last night and again this morning then pretend I wasn't me?"
Rose thought he had rather a good point? Why indeed. "Well if it wasn't you and I wasn't imagining it, then who was it?"
Who indeed? Then it occurred to him. "Rose, this man who you thought was me, did he have an English accent?" He had forgotten that Scottish people didn't like to be referred to as 'English'.
"Well, he sounded more Scottish to me, he barely spoke a dozen words to me, he was annoyed I'd interrupted his meal apparently, he more or less snapped at me."
"Well that wasn't me then, in case you hadn't noticed, I don't have a Scottish accent and I wouldn't have snapped at you."
That was true, while he had made very few friends on his first day in the Gracepoint Police Department, not even really wanting to be there anyway, he was not there to make friends but he could easily make friends with Rose.
"Let me get you another drink Rose, then how about you come back to my room and we'll discuss you possibly helping me with my enquiries? I have a new detective starting tomorrow, from England, so I was told but he could I suppose be from Scotland. You could describe him to me in greater detail. See if there are actually any differences between us?"
Emmett smiled and touched her hand, taking it in his. Perhaps it was time to make his first move, it was all coming back to him now. He got up to get some more drinks. Rose could feel the rush going through her, it was all coming back to her too. It had been a long time since a man had taken real notice of her, not counting Mickey of course, he didn't really count, he was someone from her teens and a long time ago, a whole universe away and she had changed. She was no longer the cheeky nineteen year old who had run off with a northerner in a blue box. As she waited for him coming back, she knew she was starting to like him a bit more than she should do. Perhaps she might go back to his room with him after all and snog him or maybe a tiny bit more, if he was lucky.
As Emmett approached the bar, Alec had given up and gone back to his room. Without moving tables he couldn't see his alleged twin or the blonde and he was getting tired of the hotel owner coming out from behind the bar every five minutes to clean tables where no-one had been sitting. There had been a few others in the bar but most had already gone. She was trying to chat him up but he wasn't interested. It may have been a long time since a woman was interested in him and since his operation, he felt now he might take one on but not her. The other blonde, maybe but she was sat around the corner with his new co-worker who he'd not even met yet and was beginning to get jealous of and he didn't even know the woman's name. "Get a grip on yourself Hardy," he told himself.
Emmett went back with the drinks, putting Rose's down and putting his arm around the back of the seat again then not so tactfully around her shoulders. Rose began to relax and let herself lean into his arm. She was on her third drink and three was her limit, without the anti-alcohol pills she use to take at Torchwood and she didn't want to be taken advantage of, she wanted to be in control if he was going to try and snog her either here or in his room.
Rose couldn't decide whether to bring up the subject of his double or not but decided to leave it for the questioning later, if he was actually serious or if it was just a ploy to get her to go to his room with him. Either way, she intended going with him and finding out, just to see if she could still get a man interested in her.
Emmett was tired of beating around the bush, she was obviously interested in him and hoped she wouldn't take too long finishing her drink. Maybe he should speed things up a bit and drop a few hints.
"So Rose, are you going to help me with my enquires then? While it's all still fresh in your mind, I wouldn't want you forgetting anything. Maybe I could help you remember."
Rose was game. "And what ways would you be helping me remember, detective?" she giggled.
Emmett grinned, he could think of one or two. "Well maybe we could start with distinguishing marks? Did you spot any?" he asked, taking her fingers in-between his.
"Well not outwardly though I didn't really get a good look. He was mean though, he wouldn't let me take any of his fries."
"There, that's a start, I wouldn't be that mean. Anything else?"
"Well his clothing was similar to yours, dark colours but he had a white shirt and yours is just grey. I don't know what he was wearing under his shirt though, I'd need a closer look to see if he had the same as yours."
Emmett was definitely getting somewhere. Rose put one finger on his beard then moved it along his chin. "Mmm, he had a beard like yours but I don't know if it was soft as yours."
Emmett kissed her finger and held onto her hand, keeping it on his face then pulling her nearer. "What about his face Rose? Did you get this close up to him?"
Rose shook her head. "No, his eyes were the same colour as yours but I didn't get this close to him."
Emmett shifted even closer until their faces were a fraction apart. "Did you get close enough for him to do this?" Then he kissed her.
TBC