A/N: So as much as I love writing from Alec's POV, it is a little harder for me (hence the slower updates), but thank you so much for being patient with me! I really appreciate that!
Your support has seriously been everything to me! I truly love reading each and every person's thoughts about the story, and seeing the favs and follows is really inspiring too! THANK YOU.
Also, darling Anna! You have helped me so much! I don't think I'd be moving forward in this story without your help, so thank you very much! Some of your amazing suggestions to me will be popping up in the next chapter, I promise!
Chapter 3.
"It was him, Tess! Why would I make something like that up?"
Alec's head is pounding at the temples as he stands in the kitchen arguing with his ex-wife. Tess's face is flushed with passion. Her anger and disgust are familiar to him, only now at least those emotions aren't directed entirely at him. This time she's at last taking him seriously and not just dismissing the idea of Lee Ashworth lingering within easy reach of Daisy. He can tell that the news of him being so close has unnerved her, and yet she's still resisting the idea of getting Daisy out of Sandbrook.
"You saw him?" Tess' hands are on her hips and her agitation is palpable in the room. Daisy, Ellie and the boys are in the sitting room and can no doubt hear every single word. He is willing to bet that Daisy is squirming with embarrassment at her parents having a row, while Ellie is no doubt trying to ease her discomfort.
"From behind. He was getting into a car with no number plates. He spoke to Ellie."
Tess glances out at the sitting room, then back up at Alec's face. "Even if he was here, don't you think I'm better capable of protecting her? I have police resources at my fingertips."
"So do we, and Lee isn't familiar with Broadchurch. It's my territory. Even more so, it's Ellie's."
"Ah yes, the amazing Ellie. You've certainly got a high opinion of her."
"I do, one which she's earned regardless of my personal feelings for her. And what does that have to do with anything?" His temper, already paper-thin, is starting to shred at the edges.
"So you want to take my daughter down south, place her with a woman I don't know—one that you're having sex with—and just stay on here without getting in your way, is that it?" Tess asks him, her sarcasm cutting.
"Oh, for God's sake, Tess, stop trying to cloud the issue! I'm trying to do what's best for Daisy!"
"Well I'm not at all certain that she'll be safer with you!"
"I am not leaving Daisy here, not with Lee Ashworth on the bloody doorstep."
"And what happens if Lee follows you, eh? Just what do you expect to accomplish?"
"I can protect Daisy and solve this damn case once and for all." Alec is holding Tess's gaze, trying to make her understand. "I can give those families closure. We failed them, Tess. But we can make it right."
She turns away from him, her face a bitter mask. He can tell she wants to lash at him, she wants to tell him off for saying that they failed, but she knows he's right. And though he has never let her shoulder the burden alone, she also knows what led to that failure. It hurts him, to see her this way. He knows it shouldn't hurt him, but once he had loved her very much, and there are still echoes of that love there.
He turns away from her and heads into the sitting room. They'll probably have a few more words with each other before the evening is done, but it's clear that for now it's time to leave it alone. At any rate, no matter what else she has to say, he will not change his mind; he won't leave Daisy here with Ashworth lingering so close.
Ellie is the only one in the sitting room. She offers Alec a small smile, although there's a bit of a wince in there as well.
"Sent the kids upstairs when sex came up. Figured they didn't need to know any of the details," she says, standing as he walks over to her. He nods and then his gaze falters away from hers, dropping to the floor. The stress of Ashworth being so close, and the fight with Tess…they've both worn him out. And now they'll all have to sit around a dinner table and try to chat as though everything is normal.
"Alright?" she murmurs to him softly. He looks at her, not sure how to answer (he doubts very much that she'd accept a 'fine' after listening to his fight with Tess). She gives his upper arm a quick squeeze just as Tess comes out and announces that dinner is ready. She's composed herself while in the kitchen, but she catches the gesture between Alec and Ellie, and she stares at him while they head to the kitchen to wait for the kids.
Christ, this is going to be an uncomfortable meal.
Silence reigns at the table for a few long moments as the meal gets underway. Tess is openly watching him and Ellie, and she's also keeping a close eye on Ellie's interactions with Daisy. He finds it irritating, but he knows that snapping at her won't help matters, so he keeps his tongue on a leash. For now.
Daisy, perhaps sensing his disquiet, works extra hard to set everyone at ease. Fred is already her biggest fan: all through dinner he works hard for her attention, and he's so well-behaved that Ellie jokes about hiring her full-time. His daughter also coaxes some conversation out of Tom, and for a while they all listen to him talk about football. He's a fine boy—a fine young man—and a credit to Ellie. But inevitably, the polite conversation ends. It's clear that everyone at the table apart from wee Fred has questions, and there will perhaps never be another opportunity quite like this to ask them.
"So. You two worked together." Tess is looking back and forth between Alec and Ellie.
"He stole my job," Ellie answers, sipping at a glass of wine. Her smile is cheerful, almost playful. She's probably hoping to establish some sort of comradery with Tess, though Alec doubts it will be a successful venture.
"And you worked the Latimer case as partners?"
Ellie's smile starts to freeze on her face. She's maintaining it, but Alec can see a sudden wariness in her eyes. He clears his throat, hoping to draw his ex-wife's attention away from her.
"Best not, at least with the kids at the table," he says softly, but his tone is firm.
Tess pauses, and there is a silent battle of wills across the table, hers versus his. Tom shoves his food around on his plate and Daisy's cheeks flush a bit as she stares down at the table.
"I meant to say…that's how you got to know each other then, working the case?"
"Sure, sort of." Ellie tries another smile. Like always, she is doing her best to salvage an uncomfortable situation. Alec can't tell if that trait is annoying or endearing, but right now he's grateful for her patience. "If I'm honest, he nearly annoyed me to death the whole time. But…well…after the arrest, he was always there."
"You really are such a sop," Daisy tells him with an affectionate smile. Alec returns it, for a moment forgetting the awkward tension at the table. It fills him with warmth, instantly easing some of the tension in his neck and shoulders. Tess is not quite as amused.
"Typical Alec…he does have a thing for women on the job," she says, and although her tone is light and playful, there is a hard look in her eyes. Ellie's smile shrinks a bit as the two women stare at each other from across the table.
"He's not the only one though, is he?" she asks, and there's no mistaking the challenge in her tone. Tess's mouth opens in response to Ellie's thinly veiled reference to Dave, but words have failed her for a moment. And though the situation is dangerously close to slipping back into an altercation, Alec has to admit that one thing he's always admired about Ellie is her refusal to be intimidated.
"Alec mentioned that you and Daisy are friends?" Tess asks, steering the conversation back toward safer waters.
"Oh yeah, we met in hospital, during Dad's surgery. Ellie was really nice. She stayed with us the whole time, even brought him some grapes." Daisy's smile is bright as she looks to Ellie. "It really cheered us both up, having you there."
Ellie's answering smile for his daughter is brilliant, lighting the room. "You were brilliant, Daisy. Very brave, right through the whole thing."
Tess' eyes slip from Alec to Daisy to Ellie and back, taking in the warmth between the three of them. Alec wonders if she'll try to explain her absence that day, but then he realizes that of course she won't. She's too proud for that. She made a decision and she stuck to it, and he'll never know if she even considered coming to be with him at all. If she worried for him even for just a second.
She looks a little pale now, as her eyes move from Ellie's face to his. She can't seriously be jealous—can she? She had never seemed to regret the end of their marriage before. He wants to ask her why, but he won't do it in front of Ellie and the children. And perhaps it would be easier if he never asks her at all.
A silence settles over the table for a few minutes. Tom and Daisy have both decided to ignore their awkward parents and have started a side conversation about television shows while the adults focus, for a while, on eating quietly.
"Dinner is very good," Ellie says to Tess, once again trying to rescue the remainder of the evening.
"Tikka masala is one of Alec's favorites," the other woman replies, turning to flash him a smile. "Used to send someone to pick it up for everyone at the station once a week, especially if there was a tough case on."
This bit of familiarity surprises Alec, not because she remembered, but because she is suddenly warm and open when a moment before he could have sworn there would be shots fired across the table. He nods, remembering many nights of sitting in South Mercia Police Station's bullpen with all his DS's and PC's in a rough circle around a few of the desks, everyone washing away the day's stresses or horrors with a bit of hot food.
Tess lays a hand on his arm, perhaps sharing in these same memories. He feels a burst of nostalgia, remembering a time when she'd touched him with real love. His heart twists hard in his chest: she had fallen out of love with him long ago, but his feelings for her had been true and strong right up to, and even for a while after, he'd found out she'd cheated on him.
He pulls his arm away from her touch. Suddenly it's all too much: being in his old house, with Tess's hand on his arm, speaking of the old days. All he wants is to head back to Broadchurch with Ellie, the boys and Daisy.
As he thinks it, he realizes that he can't seem to draw in a full breath. He knows this could be a sign of complications, a sign that his pacemaker not working correctly, and in a flash of panic he leaves the table suddenly and without a word. He bursts out into the back garden, sucking in huge breaths of the cool night air. Reflexively, he looks around for any hint that Ashworth is nearby even as he takes a moment to steady himself. His hand comes up to his chest, rubbing the fabric of his shirt over his heart as he tries to calm down. Never in his life had he expected to long for the clean, bracing sea breezes of Broadchurch, but he is now. Sandbrook is stifling him. This house in particular…it's like all of his history here is reaching up to choke him.
His heart rate normalizes as he calms down, and as long as he doesn't focus too hard on the memories Tess is stirring up, he can breathe normally as well. He's still standing there working up the will to go inside when the back door slides open a moment later.
Ellie joins him in the garden, halting at his side. She doesn't say anything although her eyes are full of concern. When he looks at her, she tries to smile but doesn't quite pull it off. He's scared her a little, and he feels a pang of regret at that.
"Is it your heart?" she asks, glancing at the hand he still has pressed to his chest. He drops his arm.
"It's okay. Gave myself a bit of a scare, but I'm fine now."
She looks as though she might not fully accept this explanation, and her hand shoots out and curls around his arm. He opens his mouth to ask her what she's doing, and then she presses two of her fingers against the inside of his wrist, and he realizes.
"Are you checking my pulse?" he asks her, a bit taken aback.
"Of course I am, you knob. You're supposed to be checking too, remember? Now stop disrupting my count." He scowls at her but remains silent as she counts the beats of his heart, and she lets out a relieved breath when she drops his arm a moment later.
"You're alright," she tells him.
"I told you I was," he grumbles back at her, shoving his hands into his pockets. But his indignation is fading fast. He already feels better again, not so tangled up in the past. Not so trapped. Bickering with her, even superficially, has done much to improve his temper. And now that she's assured herself that he is, actually, alright, she tells him what he missed after escaping out here for some fresh air.
"Daisy's in there, trying to convince Tess to let her come down, at least for a few days." Her voice is quiet. "We should go back to the hotel soon, don't you think?"
He nods. The light catches in her curls and she is radiant to him in that moment. He can feel the muscles in his shoulders and back relaxing as he looks at her, and his eyes are soft as he studies her face. That sense of being overwhelmed is nearly gone now, and he brushes a kiss over her cheek before leading them back inside. Somehow, merely by being there, she has stabilized him. He doesn't know what to say, but he thinks she can tell how grateful he is: she's used to his wordless communication by now. But he makes a mental note to say thank you when they get back to the hotel.
Tess and Daisy are in the sitting room waiting, and while neither party looks especially pleased, Tess has finally relented.
"She can stay with you for the week. But I will be coming down on the weekend to see how she's doing and to make sure you've got her well protected. You say you have police contacts so I expect to find out she's had someone on active duty looking in on her. And where is she going to sleep?"
"I have a flat." It only has one bedroom, but he doesn't mention this fact to Tess. Another idea is already forming in his mind, but he doesn't mention it yet.
"And this doesn't mean I'm reopening Sandbrook, Alec." Tesss voice is a wall, high and cold, and he doesn't waste the time arguing with her about it. When he has new evidence, when he forces Ashworth to confess, that will be when he'll batter down that wall.
"She'll be looked after, I promise you," he says. "We're going to go back to the hotel for the night. Daisy, I'll be here in the morning to pick you up, alright?"
His daughter nods and, to his surprise and very much to his delight, gets off of the sofa and throws her arms around him.
"Goodnight, Dad," she says in his ear. He gives her an affectionate squeeze.
"Goonight, darlin'." He kisses her forehead and then helps Ellie gather Tom and Fred. He is utterly exhausted, but he's won the first battle. Daisy is coming home to Broadchurch with him.