If the subsequent discovery of the secret garden door had left her unsettled, finding Claire Ripley wandering in a field like some sort of gothic wood nymph some time later left her disconcerted at the least.

Against her better judgement, she got out of the car and approached the woman, asking after her.

"Has he told you what he's done?" Claire screeched at Ellie from across the field.

Ellie sighed, affirming the woman's question.

"So he's sent you along, has he? His pet, Ellie," came Claire's response.

Ellie ignored the barb. The woman seemed utterly beside herself, frantic and desperate and angry. Ellie knew Claire was only trying to get a rise out of her, and perhaps had become a little jealous of the relationship that the two former colleagues had with each other. The thought gave Ellie a little surge of satisfaction, even if she still didn't know what all had transpired between Claire, Lee, and the man in whose bed she'd spent the last two nights.

Ellie tried to explain that she'd only come to check on her.

Claire went on, screaming like a banshee, calling the quaint cottage that Alec had been renting for her, thrice the size of Ellie's flat, a 'shithole.' Ellie would have had something to say about that if this display of Claire's was not just exactly what they'd been hoping for.

"I've done nothing wrong and he just drops me like that," the woman finished, whimpering in frustration. Ellie just watched, taking in Claire's demeanour, making note of everything to recount to Alec later. "Can I come and live with you?" Was she serious?

Ellie explained her current living situation, the flat that was barely big enough for her and Fred.

"What about your house in town?" Claire asked. She was getting more desperate now, and Ellie was tiring of it. There was no way she was letting this woman into the home she'd shared with her family, back when they were happy, back before that horrible thing had happened. She told Claire as such.

"I thought we were friends," Claire said.

"Really?" Ellie asked, "I think you've been playing all of us."

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know." Ellie told her. You tell me.

But Claire didn't bite, changing the subject back to Alec. "He's just jealous because I've slept with Lee."

Ellie tried very hard to keep her expression neutral as she looked up at the near-hysterical woman in front of her. "He's not jealous of you and Lee, Claire," she told her, exasperated.

"How do you know?" Claire asked, turning on Ellie, "you've no idea what happened!"

"I've got an idea," Ellie replied, "but it was years ago. You really think he's still holding on to that? He wants to solve this case. And he thinks you can help him. That's all."

Claire turned to look at Ellie, a frown furrowing her brow. "He told you that?" she asked, the wind going out of her sails. She was watching Ellie with interest now, and Ellie could see the gears turning in her head.

She nodded. "Now, look, either you want protecting from Lee or you don't. You can't have it both ways."

Claire started to fidget again. "When I see him, I just lose myself. It's...it's the sex, Ellie." Ellie rolled her eyes. "It's just—something happens when we're together." That desperate edge had come back into Claire's voice.

"Oh, please," Ellie said with as much disdain as she could muster. "Have a little self-control." Ellie was aware that the fact that she'd been unable to restrain herself from shagging Alec Hardy for going on two nights now made her words somewhat hypocritical. But, she supposed, at least they could control themselves in each other's' presence for the remainder of the day. They could even work together without resorting to ravishing each other in the middle of a crime scene. "Look, if you want to be my friend, you tell me everything," Ellie told her. She was tired of this runaround. She wanted the truth, and told Claire as much. "And then maybe I'll have a little word with Hardy about you." Ellie added, taking a little satisfaction in having the upper hand here.

Claire seemed satisfied by this. "You come over and we'll talk. And maybe I can do your hair," she told Ellie, who looked up at her self-consciously. Had it been that obvious she'd been putting much less effort into her appearance lately?

"Well, it's...I-I haven't done anybody's hair in a long time," Claire explained. "Please?"

Ellie acquiesced, not particularly keen on spending time more time alone with her than was necessary. But this was something; leverage. Claire wanted back in Hardy's good books. Ellie wondered if she'd be able to get anything out of her by playing along.

Σ

She was so distracted by the courtroom, and with finding out what had happened with Tom while they were gone, she failed to notice her former partner fall back and take a seat on the opposite side of the defendant's box. She was riveted to Mark Latimer's testimony, and as the solicitors' questions revealed what her son had said, Alec Hardy was the last thing on her mind.

He perjured himself, she thought, lied on the stand to save his murdering father! She was livid, livid and heartbroken as she watched Mark retell the night he nearly left his wife. Mark was a shit, too, that she'd know for a while, but he was her friend, and his son had been brutally murdered by Ellie's own husband.

And then Beth was up and out of her seat, unable to listen to this latest of offences against her. Ellie was out of the courtroom and at Beth's side as fast as she could run. She didn't care who saw, didn't care if the stubborn cow still didn't want her.

She found her in the stairwell and held her close, pulling her towards her. She'd missed this, comforting her friend. And she'd missed her friend. Missed living near them and having the kids play together.

And God knew Beth needed someone, too, with a new baby to care for, her mother dead and her husband's sins laid bare now in a court of law.

"It's not Mark, it's Joe," she heard herself say, and she repeated it like a mantra even after she managed to calm Beth's tears and send her on her way.

She made her way through the atrium, down the stairs toward her sister and her eldest son, not caring one whit who was watching. She should have done this weeks ago, months! What was she thinking letting a twelve-year-old boy dictate her life to her? She was his bloody mother!

When she was finished, and tears threatening to fall, her heart hammering in her chest, she went back upstairs, collecting herself before reentering the courtroom. She hadn't noticed Alec Hardy leaving just ahead of her earlier, overnight bag in hand.

But later the bombshell of Mark's visit to Joe in prison was dropped and the jury was forced to leave the room. Then she took out her phone and suddenly noticed his absence very acutely.

I'm having the pacemaker put in today. Should be done by 7, was all it said.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me," she said to her phone before making a hasty exit from the courtroom.

Σ

"A text?"

"Don't start, Miller." She shook her head.

"You sneak off and send me a text, knowing my phone won't be on in the courtroom."

"I'll give you money to shut up." She was incredibly tempted to smack him. She should have brought a bag of grapes. With seeds this time.

"I'll give you more money to be less of a knob," she told him, not even trying to hide the hurt from her voice.

"I made it, Ellie!" he told her, and she could barely look at him, too fucking angry and terrified right then to even acknowledge him. "I made it through," he exclaimed, laughing. She made her way around the bed, to the open side, pulling up a chair as he grasped for her hand. She gave it to him, holding it tight in hers in spite of herself.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You'd only come and sit with me," he said, motioning to her doing just that.

"What is wrong with you?! Alec, for god's sake, I could be the mother of your child, here."

"Not yet, Miller, we've only done it, what, twice?" he said and the flippancy of his tone hurt.

"Yeah, well, didn't you listen when you were a teenager? It only takes once," Ellie told him, irked at him for making light of what they'd shared. "What if you'd died and left me with three kids to raise? Our relationship just starting out, you tragically die, leaving me unwed and pregnant. Might as well sew a big red A on the front of my top, the way they'd talk about me round here."

"It's not the 1950s anymore," he told her, his little smirk of incredulousness pissing her off.

"I'm only saying that you'd've left me in quite the dilemma. You've seen the way things get misunderstood around here. Everyone would be so sure it'd been going on the whole time."

"I had the surgery, that was our deal," he told her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." His apology was sincere, or as sincere as Alec Hardy could make it. She nodded at him as some of the tension left her body.

"When did you arrange it?" she asked, suddenly struck by the fact that he'd managed to get this scheduled rather quickly.

"Couple weeks ago," he said, quietly.

"Are you kidding me? Why didn't you tell me then? Two nights ago?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry." Ellie sighed before another thought struck her.

"Did you tell Tess? When you met up with her in Sandbrook?"

"Possibly."

"Alec!"

"She needed to know, for Daisy's sake," he told her. Ellie opened her mouth to speak. "And before you ask, no, I did not tell Daisy either. For the same reason I didn't tell you," he said. Ellie took a couple of breaths to steady herself. He was a knob, but he supposed he was correct in that he'd held up his part of the bargain. And he was alive! She almost laughed at that realisation, or would have, had she not still been livid with him.

"How does it feel?" she asked after a while, trying to keep her tone neutral.

"I don't know," he said, his free hand going to his chest. "Steadier?" he smiled up at her and she was helpless to follow.

"You have no idea what a weight this takes off me," she said, quietly. Alec reached over to her, pulling her arm across his middle. She laid her head on his shoulder.

"You're welcome," he told her, giving her head a quick peck. They sat there in companionable silence for a while. "How soon will you know if you're pregnant or not?" he asked.

"Why? Trying to plan your escape?"

"Miller!" he groaned, and she laughed in spite of herself.

"Well, not yet, it takes a while for it to show up. A week or two." She paused, counting back the days. "The timing's right, though, from my last period. I could still take that pill. Nip it in the bud?"

"What do you want to do?" he asked, and she loved him for it. She smiled.

"I don't know. Fate has been rather cruel to us lately. And here I am in a situation where either outcome is favourable." She turned her head to look at his face, waiting for an argument. She got none. "So let's let fate decide."

"Sounds good to me," he told her and she smiled into his shoulder. She just held him for a while, happy that he was here, and alive, and she that was here with him. That they had this, when there was so much other shit going on.

"I do need a lift home later, though," he said after a while.

"I can't," she told him softly, "I'm picking Fred up from Lucy's and I'm bringing Tom home."

"You what?" he asked, lifting his head to look at her. "How'd you manage that?"

"Told him off, in front of half the town at the courthouse." She laughed, and turned to see a big smile on Alec's face.

"Good for you," he said.

"I should have done that months ago," she told him. Alec shrugged.

"You did what you could, Miller," he murmured. "Try not to beat yourself up over it."

"Oh? You're one to talk," she said, and he laughed. They sat that way for a little while longer before the sound of throat being cleared brought them out of their reverie.

Ellie turned to see Tess Hardy standing a few feet from the end of Alec's bed, an almost smug look on her face. Ellie pulled away from Alec at once, standing in a flash.

"We were just—" Ellie started, feeling somewhat like she was being caught out.

"It's okay, Miller, she knows," came Alec's voice from her left.

"What? How?"

"Well I didn't tell her," he remarked, looking at his former wife.

"I can read him like a book," Tess offered, "always could."

"Imagine being married to that," he quipped, and Ellie turned to give him a smack on the shoulder. "Miller!"

"Behave yourself, then," she said, turning to see Tess watching them with an almost wistful smile on her face.

"She's good for you, Alec," his ex-wife told him. He groaned.

"Why did I have to survive this?" he asked, and Ellie had to smile. She glanced at the time on her phone and nearly had a heart attack.

"Oh, Christ, I've got to go," she said, turning to Tess. "Can you—"

"I'd be glad to," she offered, looking at Alec. "Doctors recommend you stay in." He groaned.

"Take me home," he said, and Tess nodded, sharing a smile with Ellie.

"Alright," Ellie told him, "I'll see you later." She bent down and kissed him softly on the lips, mindful of Tess's presence, but finding it hard to care too much. For once, things didn't feel like shit. "I'm glad you're alive, Alec."

"Well, we'll see how long that lasts," he told her, and she laughed, in spite of herself. Then, bidding Tess adieu, she left to meet up with Claire Ripley.

A sense of peace had come over Ellie at being back home with her sons, despite her earlier discovery of Claire Ripley wearing Pippa Gillespie's pendant. She would call Tess later, let them both know, and check on how Alec was faring.

But for now, she was home. Home. With both her boys, in the house they grew up in. No more tiny flat, no more tiny waterside hut (though she had to admit Alec's little house had been growing on her.) Finally they would make this home theirs again. They all needed this constancy, this routine. They needed to keep grounded.

Because the trial was far from over, and if she was right about what Claire's photograph meant, they were in for a very difficult few weeks.

But Ellie tried not to think about that as she helped Tom paint the ruddy bedroom walls that Joe'd always been too busy to do. Tonight they'd all bed down in their house, the three of them against the world. Maybe Alec would join them eventually.

But tomorrow was far away. Tonight they would rest.