He was lying on a hospital bed.

The ominous beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound in the room as she stood by his bedside, weeping silently.

She called out to him, but his eyes remained closed.

The intervals between beeps grew longer and longer.

She called his name, tried to scream it, but no sound came out. It was stuck in her throat, which was unable to produce a single syllable and she couldn't imagine why.

The intervals grew even longer.

Tears streaking down her cheeks, she knelt down to look at him in the face and cradled his hand in hers, resting on the deathly white sheets.

"Please don't leave…" she tried to say.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"Ellie…"

Her hold on his hand tightened drastically as her eyes lit up. "Alec, you're back! You'll be up and about in no time at all, you hear me? You've got to stay alive!" she pleaded.

He shook his head. "No, time's up for me."

"Don't say that," she sobbed. "You'll be alright, you will survive. You've always been a stubborn man; can't you fight it again?"

"I can't."

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it…"

"Don't talk like that…"

"Ellie Miller…"

The heart monitor flatlined.

Ellie broke down, collapsing on the bed on top of him. She cried until there were no more tears left in her.

"Ellie…Ellie!" She could hear a voice from somewhere distant, calling her, but she ignored it. Why couldn't they let her grieve alone?

"Ellie!" There was a hand on her shoulder. She turned around, seeing a bright light behind her.

"…Ellie! Are you alright?" She sat up in bed with a gasp. Alec was standing next to her, shaking her vigorously to wake her up.

"Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?" she asked in turn, more than a little annoyed, all traces of her dream having disappeared completely for the moment as dreams tend to do.

"You were screaming for me, bloody hell. Yelling my name repeatedly! What do you mean, why wouldn't you be?!" he asked, exasperated, glaring at her.

"I must have been dreaming, that's…" She trailed off as memories of her dream came back to her slowly, bit by bit, and it made her face burn hot. "Oh. Nothing. It's okay, I'm good. Just stress making me have a massive nightmare, that's all," she tried to explain hastily. "Go back to sleep."

He didn't buy it and folded his arms. "Something happened."

"It was only a dream, honestly it was," she replied rather truthfully.

"Was it a bad dream? It must have been," he persisted.

"…No it wasn't." This one, not so truthfully.

"Fine, Miller. Wake me up at 2 in the morning and then tell me it's nothing." He yawned. "I don't have time for your pranks. I'm going back to bed."

It wasn't a prank, she thought petulantly as she pulled the blankets over her head, trying to go back to sleep. But it was impossible. After that nightmare she'd just had, she kept having visions of Alec fainting on the floor or in a hospital bed and the like. It jerked her awake, and she didn't get any more sleep until the next morning.

By the time 7am arrived, she looked terrible.

Alec jumped when she made an appearance in the kitchen. "You look terrible, Millahr," he commented. "That nightmare bothered you again?"

"No," she muttered unwillingly. "I just couldn't sleep, that's all." Which was sort of the truth.

He turned around, taking a sip from his cup. "Remember what we said? No secrets." His voice softened and he strolled towards the table. "Tell me, Millahr. It's not good to bottle up like that. What's stressing you?"

"You're telling me." Ellie snorted sceptically.

"Come on. I just want to talk, I just want to help you," he pleaded, pulling out a chair for himself next to her and settling himself on it.

"Well…I had a dream about you dying," she began reluctantly, but was cut off by a surprised stare from him.

"You what?!" he blurted after about 19723 years of stunned silence.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She snorted again. "I knew you wouldn't wanna hear about it."

"But what have you been worrying about so much that it haunts you dreams?" he asked softly. "You don't have to care about me."

"I don't have to, but I do it because I want to," she replied, her cheeks flushing. She wished wholeheartedly that she didn't blush so easily. "You deserve a lot more care and credit than you ever admit."

"You know, sometimes," she continued, hesitant now, "I wonder what happened to turn you into the shell of a man you are today. It couldn't have only been Sandbrook and Broadchurch, couldn't it? You're way too hardened for that." Ellie stopped, feeling she had confessed too much. "I don't believe it's always this way. Something must have happened."

"What?"

"I don't believe everyone's born a prick." A thoughtful look came over her face. "Although with someone like you, it's not that hard to believe." Her eyes sparkled.

Alec chuckled inwardly and punched her arm. "Don't talk about your boss like that!"

"Former boss, if I may remind you."

"Idiot." He stood up, the hint of a smile on his face. "I'm going to check on Fred, we had a bet on whether he would be able to finish a jigsaw puzzle by himself." He left and was glad for the opportunity to use that as an excuse to turn his back towards Ellie, because his face was flushing too.

Ellie suddenly remembered that she'd left her wallet in the car by mistake. She went to her room to get the car keys to unlock the door, but stopped and tiptoed next to the door when she heard voices coming from her room.

"You did it!" A very familiar, gruff voice that lacked the usual rough edge to it, but instead had a softer, more fatherly tone to it.

"Yaaay! I did it!" A very tiny, excited voice.

Followed by a deafening crash and an equally deafening howl.

"It's okay, Fred, we can build it up again. See?"

Ellie peeped into her room to see Alec stacking on block on top of another to demonstrate. Fred caught on and began clumsily placing huge blocks on tiny ones. His tower fell apart again.

"No, no, you have to put the bigger ones at the bottom. Like that." He put his hand on top of Fred's hand and together they built the most massive block tower anyone in that room had ever seen in their life. Ellie could not help but smile at how sweet he was around children.

She abruptly remembered the car keys she had come to get in the first place and went in. "Sorry guys, I just need to get my keys and that's all." She walked over to the nightstand, but her keys weren't there. "That's odd. I thought I left them there. Well, sorry about that. Carry on!" she chirped and left the room. She did not notice something shiny and metallic sticking out of Fred's pocket…

A/N: Here's chapter 10! Hope you like it. Will update 11 soon (: as always, do leave me a review. Thanks!