They had breakfast the next morning, Rose keeping him in bed longer than he intended since she had apparently booked some time off to spend with him and since she had insisted she booked a weekend away and left him to pay for it, he could live with that, it would give them both a chance to be seen out with each other but he suspected he would be showing her off more than she would be showing him off, it was easy for a young blonde to get an older man interested in her but an older man getting a young blonde?
Just let those miseries in Broadchurch police see him now, especially Miller, maybe they should stray over to the town and accidentally run into his old colleague but that would be too self-indulgent even for him, the time would come he may possibly get offered his old job back and he would be surprised if Rose was still with him in six months time, well a month would be a challenge for her especially if he remained a grump and wouldn't let her do anything. Yes, he would give her a month and if she still wanted to be his girlfriend after all he threw at her, the other five months would be a breeze.
It remained to be seen if she was actually a worse grump than he was, Tess had been a cow when she had her time of the month, he'd been tempted a few times to just leave her to it and sleep on the sofa since she just turned her back on him and told him to get lost if he even so much as laid a finger on her to even get her to turn around and face him. He just hoped Rose didn't give him the same treatment or he may leave anyway if he could afford to rent something near his new station, what would be the point in putting up with another moody woman who wouldn't entertain him just because of nature's way for four days or so every month?
He swore Tess had taken longer than that but Rose had said he could use his purchase nearer her time so that was a good sign, wasn't it? Alec got ready to head off to see if he could take the South Kensington post and what his chances of eventually going back to Broadchurch were and wondering how the seaside town had grown on him after all he had been through there that he actually wanted to go back, it wasn't to see Miller, that was for sure.
As for Rose putting up with him, well if she wanted the job, providing she stuck to her agreement she wouldn't interfere, he could do worse than the Vitex heiress and apparent Torchwood agent and learning about the secret organisation first hand could be interesting to say the least. Maybe if his new boss wanted volunteers, he could submit his name and see if Rose's friend would pass him and also so if she dared to interfere with the process.
He had to admit to himself he was going a bit far with the whole non-interference agreement but that was how he wanted it, he couldn't change the way he felt about accepting help from any source. The chief in Broadchurch had felt sorry for him when he'd had nowhere else to go and risked Ellie Miller's wrath by giving him the job meant for her and that was the only and last exception he was going to make after it became impossible to stay where he was and they could only keep him administrative leave for so long.
He took Rose's advice and called a cab to take him back to New Scotland Yard and he said to give him a hour or so and he would join her at the shopping mall and he really hoped someone would pay him back for all the taxi receipts he had in his wallet but he'd have to pay for the one to meet Rose on his own unless he took the bus but Rose had told him he'd have to get a ticket before he boarded the bus or maybe he could just get Rose to meet him outside when he'd finished, she had mentioned she had a car down in the underground garage so why she didn't use it for work was beyond him. Maybe it was because of crossing a busy bridge she found it easier to use the tube station.
After Alec went to wait for his taxi, Rose got her laptop out and looked up hotels in Brighton and found a reasonably priced one on a discount site for two nights and called them since Alec said he wanted to pay for their weekend away. She wondered why he was so insistent he got no help in securing a new job or with anything else. She just hoped he wouldn't find out that she'd asked Pete to put in a good word with the police commissioner or he may leave her.
She had panicked the night before, he had caught her out when he'd asked why she had taken him home when she had found him in the tube station, she couldn't even explain it herself really. Something had come over her, probably from all that time being with the Doctor and Alec looked so lost and she had known she couldn't have just left him there. She hadn't expected for him to remain though, even after she'd offered as he seemed very independent. She thought she'd lost him when he'd mentioned Sheffield though. Now at least he was staying but only if they survived the weekend and he never found out that jobs in London had been made to sound more attractive than the others.
Maybe though he'd change his mind and go for the Brighton one but could they cope with a distance relationship? If they didn't get on over the weekend, it wouldn't even matter, he would be gone and that would be it. She wondered how he had got like that, that he didn't want any help so she had a bit of time and logged into the Torchwood database and looked him up. She was about to leave, regretting she had said she would meet him at Victoria and thinking there weren't that many shops up there, given the mall was above the railway station, when Alec called.
He'd finished his meeting and was less than pleased to be told that once he'd completed six months somewhere in London, he'd get put in for a promotion but it was added that the offer was to anyone, not just him as more officers were leaving to go out to the suburbs. When he asked about South Kensington though, the recruitment officer pointed out he would have to get two different tube lines to get to it, something Rose hadn't pointed out at the time when he admitted he was staying in Waterloo. He was told that there was one station quite close by and a car could be provided without involving him having to take the tube but Rose had warned him about the areas so he said he would manage on the tube and if he got lost, he would call someone and his girlfriend would take him on Monday morning. Well he hoped he could talk her into it if they survived the weekend.
Rose answered the phone. "So is everything sorted then?" she asked as she rode the lift down to the parking garage.
"Yes, everything is fine but I'll need you to take me there on Monday, if you will? Should I stay here and you come and collect me?"
"Yeah and we'll go shopping somewhere else, there's not much at Victoria, we'll head to one a bit further out where there's some parking. Just wait where I can see you, I won't be long, depends on traffic."
"Do you know where you're going?"
"Really? I know how to drive around London Alec, don't worry, I'll try not to get lost. I drive a blue Nissan, just watch out for me and try not to make it look like I'm picking you up for the wrong reasons, you being outside police headquarters."
"I'll try my best, just try not to look like you are picking me up for the wrong reasons or I may have to arrest you."
"Very funny Alec, though if I remain in your custody I don't mind, don't forget your handcuffs."
She easily spotted Alec when she reached her destination and set the satnav for a nearby shopping mall, parked up and he followed her inside, Rose heading for her favourite coffee shop. The mall had a cinema and she asked him if there was anything he wanted to go watch, they had the rest of the day but Alec wanted to get what they needed and maybe discuss his possible liaison with Torchwood before they went to her parents house for dinner.
So Rose said she would select some flowers that Alec could present to her mother and buy a boat for Tony's collection he liked to play with in the bath then Rose went off to buy yet another new dress and Alec said he'd give in and buy a couple of non-work shirts and some more t-shirts but only because she'd asked him to. They agreed to meet up at one, Alec not knowing what he was going to do for almost two hours and said if he got bored he would call and come and find her.
He did, while Rose was in a dress shop trying to decide between two dresses she liked so she told him to go to the dressing room area and she would wait for him. Alec was soon going to regret sitting outside after she showed him one dress she had tried back on again, a red flowery one that clung in all the right places, well to Alec it did then she came back out in a blue and white patterned one and Alec let out a low whistle.
He was standing in front of her, his purchases on the floor by where he had been sitting.
"That one Rose, it looks good on you and I'm not just saying that because I've been waiting twenty minutes for you, you are more than worth it. Why not treat yourself and get both? You can take one with you for our weekend away, to wear on Saturday night and I'll take you somewhere nice."
"Ok, why not? Aw! Thanks for waiting for me, I'm more used to my mother being with me, I'm not used to having a man waiting and paying me compliments. My last boyfriend ran at the words 'Dress Shopping' and would go hide somewhere. Before that, I never had the money to buy dresses unless it was for a wedding or something. I'll let you in on another secret, I never used to wear dresses or skirts until Pete adopted me, proper tomboy I was, ask my mum tonight. All I wanted for my twelfth birthday was a red bike despite the fact I lived in a block of flats."
Alec smiled. She didn't look like a tomboy in that dress, she looked great.
"I can well believe that Rose but don't you want some shoes to go with that dress? Isn't that what women do when they treat themselves?"
It was Rose's turn to smile. "Well if you insist but maybe we should have lunch first or we won't eat when we go out later, will we?"
She paid for both dresses, Alec asking if she wanted to return to the car but she said she would manage and it was too far to go so they ordered lunch and talked while they waited. Alec couldn't believe how he'd easily got into this with her after less than week, Rose chatting away about everyday things, that she was going to go to the drug-store to get some new perfume and he had to tell her which one he liked as she tried the testers and what colour nail polish she should get, Alec saying he would trust her judgement on that score.
He thought they were just like any other couple out shopping for the day and to all intents and purposes, they were but she was heiress to a fortune and he was a detective fresh out of the operating theatre only a few weeks ago, they were no ordinary couple. So while Rose was trying on shoes, Alec decided he'd get a pair of black comfortable trainers that looked more like shoes for the weekend away, Rose smiling as he sat trying them on next to her as she stood looking in the floor mirror.
Both finished, they went into a toy store and Rose explained her young stepbrother had an armada of boats he liked to take in the bath with him and for a novelty, she bought him a pirate one that she was certain he didn't have already, well on her last visit then their last call was the florist, Alec hardly believing the flowers there cost three times as much as the supermarket, where not that long ago he had got those for Miller when he'd gone to dinner and now knew why Rose had insisted her mother deplored them from supermarkets, knowing where her and Rose had come from.
Their shopping finished, Alec leaving the decision of the nail polish to his newly acquired girlfriend, Rose drove them back before the afternoon traffic built up and they'd get stuck in it. When they got back Rose asked how he had really got on about his new job.
"Well I got a shock when I was told if I stuck it out for six months I would get a promotion. I thought your stepfather had played a part in that until it was said they were offering it at any station I chose if I stayed in London, maybe to everyone. It's not a promotion as such, just a higher pay grade."
"Yeah, well if you stick it out and you decide to stay, you could afford a place of your own, if you ever get tired of living here."
"You sound like you are trying to get rid of me Rose, after all you did to try to persuade me to stay."
"Well you were the one that kept going on about Sheffield. Brighton I could cope with, I may have moved down there myself if you'd asked me to."
