As Alec and Ellie landed at the airport in New York, Ryan and Esposito were double-parked outside and debating what Hardy's partner looked like, since they knew who Hardy looked liked.

"We're not gonna have any trouble recognising him Ryan," his partner was saying as they looked at the arrivals board and saw the flight from London landed a few minutes ago.

"Yeah, wonder what she's like though? If they worked together, maybe they're like Beckett and Castle used to be?" Ryan grinned and looked towards the arrivals gate.

"No-one could be like those two used to be, be thankful they finally got their acts together. We take them to the hotel and then collect them in the morning, they'll have what's commonly known as jet-lag though I've never travelled by plane so I don't know. Something to do with timezones and travelling too quickly between them, I'm no expert."

"Yeah, you reckon Einstein?" Ryan grinned and caught sight of a woman wearing a bright orange waterproof coat and thinking that had to be Miller.

He nudged his partner as she struggled with a case and a shoulder bag and the man behind her, wearing a dark overcoat and calmly carrying a large holdall and shaking his head followed her, looking around.

"That's them," Ryan told the other detective.

He moved forward towards Ellie and took her by surprise.

"Detectives Ryan and Esposito, you must be Ellie Miller?"

Alec stepped forward. "Hardy, so you've been sent to meet us? Do you know where we're staying then?"

"Yeah, Pete Tyler got you in the same hotel he's staying in, across town. Let me help you with that Ellie?" Espo asked her.

Ellie was not going to pass an offer like that and unlike Hardy, he was using her first name.

"Thanks, which one are you?"

"You can call me Harvey, that's Kevin Ryan. Detective Beckett said we'd to pick you up in the morning from your hotel, we've had some leads on the case so she'll fill you in then."

"Do we get to meet Richard Castle then as well?" she hoped as they walked to the car, a traffic cop backing away as Ryan flashed his badge at him.

"Is that all you're worried about Miller?" Alec asked her as he put his holdall in the trunk of the car.

Ryan was smiling to himself – this was just like watching how Beckett and Castle used to be. He and Espo looked at each other as the two guests got into the car, Alec checking himself and getting reluctantly into the back with Ellie.

"Ever been here before?" Ryan asked.

"No, this is all new to me, I couldn't believe I got an all expenses trip paid for," Ellie told him.

"It's not a sight-seeing trip Miller," Alec informed her and trying to fasten the seatbelt as Ryan drove off.

Ryan and Espo were smiling to themselves – this was going to be amusing.

"I never said it was, I was just saying, Pete Tyler must be desperate to get his stepdaughter back after almost a week, having us come over to help."

Alec still didn't know why he'd been singled out, well apart from apparently looking like the prime suspect in a homicide and a kidnapping.

"You probably were not interested until you heard Richard Castle's name," Alec mused, watching the tall buildings as they passed by towards the hotel.

"That was just a bonus," Ellie grinned. "Tom would have loved it here."

"Who's Tom?" Espo asked her.

"My eldest son, any chance I can get him an NYPD t-shirt or a baseball cap?"

Alec shook his head at her again, noticing the detective who had told Miller to call him 'Harvey' was looking through the mirror at him.

"You only just arrived Miller," Alec told her.

"I don't want to forget, Tom will never forgive me."

"Has he forgiven you though?"

"He moved back with me, didn't he? Can't you just leave that alone Hardy? I'm sure our hosts don't want to hear about my living arrangements. Anyway, you've some room to talk, Daisy talking to you is she?"

"I think that's a bit different Miller, don't you?"

Ellie pulled a face and turned to the window, trying to get used to being on the wrong side of the road to what she was used to.

"Don't mind us," Ryan told them grinning. "So you two, you just solved an old case then?"

"Yes, I hope we are going to be back for the retrial, one of them made an appeal. So what are these new leads you have then?" Hardy asked them.

He might have known Claire wouldn't go down without a fight, despite being found guilty of attempted murder, aiding and abetting her husband in the death of a minor and stealing evidence, amongst other charges he and Tess had come up with along the way, mainly giving him the run-around.

"Well, there have been a lot of similar unexplained incidents, involving public transport plus, we believe we have a name for our purple friend. We think he's called Kilgrave, though no first name as yet, we're tracking down those that claim they were held somewhere and don't remember much about it."

"Kilgrave? Don't think I've ever heard of anyone with that name, have you Alec?" Ellie asked him.

Alec wished she wouldn't use his first name, she could still call him Hardy, like she did when she was annoyed with him, which was most of the time these days since he'd been back to try and get Daisy on his side again. Apparently, not enough time had passed and it was all still fresh in the teenager's mind but how much longer did she need?

"No, I've never come across the name before, it could be he's concealing his real name and telling people that and if they don't remember him afterwards, he probably thinks he's well hidden. We may know more when you have located his past victims. You are treating them as victims?"

"Yeah, none of them have committed any felonies that we know of anyway and if they have, they probably did them under his influence, the DA will have to take that into consideration but we need to establish a pattern, that's what Beckett's working on, she'll fill you in on it tomorrow. Here we are, your hotel."

Alec looked up, it seemed a decent enough place, better than The traders in Broadchurch and hopefully, there would be no flirty owner. Pete was waiting downstairs for their arrival, wanting to thank the two detectives for travelling all that way, Mickey and Jake were joining in the canvassing of the area the accident had taken place last week. It had been a week now and they were progressing very slowly, too slow for his liking and had she been kidnapped at home, she maybe would have been found by now but at home, it would never have happened, he had contacts and the media on his side there.

While Ryan waited in the car, Espo helped take Ellie's case to the entrance and said he would see them in the morning.

"Thanks for the ride," Ellie told him.

"No problem Ellie, see you tomorrow."

Espo turned to go back to the car, Ellie taking the case handle.

"Stop flirting with him Miller."

"What? I was not flirting with him for your information. My sister was right about you Hardy."

Alec was thinking she'd gone back to his surname, he must annoy her more often then. Pete saw them and got up from his table in the lounge.

"DI Hardy, DS Miller? Pete Tyler, welcome to New York. I'll let you both get settled then my associates will be back later and we'll all meet for dinner. Did you have a good flight?"

"Nice to meet you Mr Tyler, call me Ellie." She wanted to add "And call him grumpy" but changed her mind.

"Right Ellie, call me Pete, we're all here for the same thing, to get my stepdaughter back. Her two friends are out canvassing the area Kilgrave was last seen but it's almost a week, people will have forgotten by now. DI Hardy, we hope you can help us with that? How do you feel about looking like our suspect?"

"It's very un-nerving to say the least. Still, if it gets your stepdaughter back, that's all that counts in the end. Do you know how Detective Beckett is getting on with other victims of Kilgrave's mind control?"

"No, I've not spoken to her today, she'll let us know when we meet her at the precinct tomorrow. Don't let me keep you, we'll all talk later."

Ellie and Alec went to complete their check-in and were shown to two double rooms that Pete had only just managed to secure for them, Mickey and Jake were still sharing a twin. Alec was a little annoyed they had adjoining rooms but thankfully there was no door between them. He wondered what Miller had meant by saying her sister was right about him, he barely spoke to the woman for fear she would say something to her reporter son.

It had been three months since the trial of Joe Miller, a long three months and how they had got those responsible for the Sandbrook murders to trial faster, he couldn't work out but he was glad it was nearly over and he hoped Daisy was still going to visit him, after he finally got back from this trip.

Ellie got unpacked and rang her sister to let her know she'd arrived safely.

"You're right about Hardy, he's still not loosened up, what's wrong with me Luce?"

"Nothing Ell, it's just him, maybe seeing his ex when he visits his daughter makes him want to get back with her?"

"You did not see the two of them together Lucy, trust me, he's well over her and no loss there either. No, I think it's either just me or the fact we work together, once bitten and all that?"

"Yeah maybe Ell but that doesn't account for me, does it?"

"No but you're my sister."

"So I've got no chance either? Thanks sis. Anyway, I'd better go, Fred's just woken from his nap and he'll be cranky and want you."

Ellie hung up and went to unpack, trying to work out why she'd seen the need to bring a suitcase and Hardy had brought a holdall, just typical of him.

Alec unpacked his few shirts, t-shirts and his shorts then got his phone out, wondering if Daisy was in class then put the phone away again. He'd leave it until later and let her know he'd arrived safely and then ask her if she'd told her mother he was going away. If Tess had known though, she would have called to let him know of her annoyance. He'd had very little contact with her after the Sandbrook case was finally laid to rest, then it had been business and not pleasure, as always where Tess was concerned these days.

Jake and Mickey had been out yet again, showing Kilgrave's photo to passers-by, each of them shaking their heads and Mickey thinking it was now a waste of time.

"Come on, let's go back to the hotel and see if Hardy and Miller have arrived," he suggested as he tugged on Jake's arm as he got another shoulder shrug from a woman with a small child.

"Yeah, it's too late now, people have forgotten about it, there's probably been dozens of such arguments in the last week or so but this isn't helping find her. You know that café we went in earlier? That girl looked scared when I showed her Kilgrave's picture."

"Well you never took it any further, it was probably nothing. We'll go to the precinct with Pete tomorrow, see if there's still any point in doing this now, we may as well bring Hardy here, someone might point him out, a real person beats showing a composite. I wonder how Jackie's taking it, we should call her."

"Rather you than me Mickey, she'll be mad Pete's not let her come over, I think if nothing happens tomorrow, he'll have to give in and let her, she must be going crazy and then she'll be trying to tell Tony nothing's wrong."

"He'll know there's something wrong Jake, he's a smart kid."

They all met for dinner, Pete introducing everyone and Jake saying about the girl in the café.

"When was that then?" Alec wanted to know.

"Sunday morning, the owner said she thought a man sitting outside wore a purple suit but when I showed the picture, she said she never saw his face, just him going out and she wasn't there went he collected his order. The girl looked at the photo and shook her head saying she wasn't sure either but you could tell she just didn't want to get involved."

"Maybe I should pay her a visit tomorrow?" Alec mused.

"Yeah but she might run off. It will give us some idea though, we might get something else out of her, maybe he tried to suggest something to her?"

"Such as?" Ellie wondered out loud.

"Who knows? He's a bloke, she's a young blonde, maybe that's really why he took Rose, for no other reason?" Mickey added.

"No," Pete insisted. "He wants her for a reason, she was in the newspapers saying she was accompanying me on a business trip and I should have left her out of it and I never should have let her out of my sight."

"Don't blame yourself Mr Tyler, she should have been safe enough getting out of a taxi. I take it you interviewed the doorman?" Alec wanted to know.

"I did though the detectives also questioned him," Pete answered him.

"Well no harm in asking again and I want to know why he was busy talking instead of helping Miss Tyler out of the cab. If it was the same doorman as was there earlier, he was talking to someone again, what's he getting paid for eh?"

Pete thought he rather had a point. If the doorman had been paying attention, the men would not have made a move on her.

"They must have been watching us return before then, how did they know she was going to be alone that day though?"

"Maybe they followed her from the meeting?" Ellie suggested.

"Well that's rather obvious Miller. What about you Mr Tyler? Did you notice anything the other times you got out of a cab? Anyone in a parked car or anyone standing around? This Kilgrave for instance?"

It was the first time someone had actually asked him if he'd seen anything suspicious after their arrival.

"Please, call me Pete. Well we arrived on the Thursday afternoon, our first meeting was Friday morning, we used different cab companies, the doorman hailing the cabs for us at both hotels so it was whoever was passing at the time. We stayed in the hotel on Saturday but Rose wanted to go sightseeing on Sunday so I hired a car and driver and we drove around for a while before having lunch then we went to some department store, Sears I think. Rose wanted to go on that tramway but I said we'd do that before we left."

"So you don't recall seeing anyone hanging around?" Ellie asked him.

"No, I don't and I should have been taking more notice but no-one knows us here, I had no reason to think we were being followed. The papers may have reported on it, maybe Kilgrave saw it was announced we were arriving for talks and if he'd been keeping up with news from England, he'd know about me being the head of Torchwood. He would have seen it as an ideal opportunity. Sorry Ellie but he knew what he was after – taking Rose to gain control of the organisation."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to imply he was after Rose for any other reason. Do you know if he's been trying to get into your website?"

"Only the public one and we don't monitor who accesses that, no password is needed and he's probably done a general search and got other bits of information such as any the public have reported. He may try and get Rose to let him into the website meant for the police and other officials, we limit that as much as we can and each time, there's a log kept."

"Then maybe if he does use it, Rose will try and alert you?" Ellie asked.

"No, she can't do it that way, there's only one password, if it's wrong, it just asks you to try again and after three attempts, it tells you to refer to the Torchwood operative it came from, which would be Rose herself so that's no help. Our only hope is when Kilgrave gets down to business and wants the real thing, then we'll have him, he'll get into a fake website, set up by Jake and we can trace the user. Rose knows all she has to do is make it look good and enter the password without hesitation and he'll be none the wiser."

"What if she can't?" Alec wanted to know. "What if he has her so far under his control, she'll do anything he wants?"

"That won't happen Alec, she's well trained," Mickey replied, a bit annoyed Hardy could even suggest such a thing.

"I'm sure what Hardy means is that she's maybe been worn down, it's been a week now," Ellie assured him.

"I know what he means," Mickey huffed, sitting back and crossing his arms, like he always did.

Pete managed a smile. "Mickey, I'm sure Alec meant nothing by it but we have to look at it from his point of view, he doesn't know Rose like we do. No Alec, she may have been weakened but she won't stop fighting. Let me tell you something about her and this goes no further, understood?"

Ellie and Alec both nodded, Alec relieved Miller was still calling him Hardy.

"You may have been told, she had a friend, a very close friend who looked almost like you Alec and she lost him but she never gave up looking for him."

Pete looked around to see the dining room empty apart from staff clearing away over the other side.

"This is highly confidential, his files are sealed but I'm trusting you here. Rose and her mother plus Mickey here, they are not from this world, they come from a parallel one, this friend of Rose's, The Doctor, he's still there, they all got trapped here after the Cybermen left. I'm not going into details, you both know what happened but after she got trapped here, we had these devices, to cross to other worlds and every time someone used them, she hoped they'd found him again. She's broken down several times over it, she's very delicate and Kilgrave, well he's not helping."

"Poor Rose, so you think she went willingly then?" Ellie asked.

"Well maybe if some men took her she had no choice but when she came round and if she saw Kilgrave and thought it was the Doctor? She would soon realise it wasn't him though, for several reasons but looking like the Doctor would have taken some of the fight out of her and she may be doing some of the things he wants, mainly to save anyone getting hurt. If he's using people to make her comply, he'd only have to suggest he'd make them do as he said and she would give in."

"Do you think he's abusing her, sexually?" Alec asked, hoping it wasn't a taboo subject.

Pete had known this question was coming but it didn't make answering it any easier.

"I sincerely hope not Alec but we've had several reports that women have gone back home and claimed Kilgrave used them and some were pregnant, Detective Beckett's following up on those few women, see how long ago it was as there were only brief reports. The women's mothers have said their daughters didn't want to be subjected to any further distress so they'll have to be contacted and see if they are still willing to talk but to answer your question Alec, I am afraid something like that will happen and she may not fight it, looking like he does and despite her knowing she should fight it."

Alec hated this kind of case, this was going to be very difficult and it could go against him, looking like Kilgrave could make her even worse when this was over or she could cling to him like her life depended on it if she got herself so worked up that she believed her abductor was this Doctor.

"Maybe she thinks somehow that Kilgrave really is her friend?" Ellie suggested.

"That's what we're afraid of Ellie, she'll have enough awareness to fight him some of the way but hers and the Doctor's relationship was an awkward one, everyone who saw them together knew they loved each other but he never got the chance to tell her, he left it too late."

"I see. So it will be a dilemma for her, having someone who looks like him show her some affection?" Alec asked.

"Come on Hardy, the poor woman won't know which way to turn, how will she be able to resist him?" Ellie wanted to know.

"We don't know if she will be able to, especially after a week. If Kilgrave has taken a fancy to her and he's used other women, he'll take advantage of the fact she's part willing, he'll know she's not completely under his control and he'll take it she's aware of what's going on and she wants to be part of it," Pete said sadly, cringing at the thought.

"So when she's found, it could affect her like it may have affected those other women?" Ellie asked Pete.

"We'll have to see what Detective Beckett can get out of them, they may not be willing to talk about it, they may still be traumatised or angry. They may not have been willing to seek help getting over it or been able to afford therapy. The detectives will also be looking at other people who may have come under his influence, there are several reports he used drivers, housekeepers, taken over people's apartments and locked them in one room while he's made himself at home."

"That may help then, if they can give us a picture of what he's likely to do. We still don't know the long term effects on her or the other women. Like Hardy just said though, if she's found someone who looks like her friend, she may not want to leave him. You'd best watch out Hardy, she may take a shine to you," Ellie smirked.

"Just what I need Miller, to take the place of her abductor and her old boyfriend."

The others managed a smile.

"Ah, don't worry so much Hardy, when she sees you she may slap your face or worse."

"Rose takes after her mother and she's very good at face slapping, so I've been told, eh Mickey?" Pete smiled.

"Trust me, I've had experience," Mickey smiled. "Jackie Tyler slapped the Doctor and he wasn't even her boyfriend."

He wasn't going to add that was before the Doctor had changed though.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind then but to be serious, having me around may cause more harm, I'd best stay away once she is returned to you."

"Oh I don't know Alec, she may think you are the Doctor?" Ellie laughed.

Just what he needed indeed.