Notes: Oh, I hope you like where I'm going with this! Please leave me some comments, I really appreciate it when you do! And a huge thank you to my beta TheDoctorMulder, who is trying to catch up on watching season two just so she can help me with this :D
Chapter 11 – When You Thought it Couldn't Get Worse
Alec awoke, gasping for breath, as usual. Rose's face came into view, hovering over him, clearly worried. She had been the one to pull him from the nightmare and he found that they were both tangled tightly in the blanket they had been using on the sofa.
"Are you alright, love?" she questioned quietly, so as not to wake Ellie and Claire.
"Fine. I'll... I'll be alright," he replied as he tried to calm his breathing. He wrapped his arms around her and relaxed into her warm embrace even as she tried to kick their legs free of the blanket and flatten it out again. "Sorry I woke you," he whispered and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"I'll always be here for you, Alec. We fight each other's nightmares," she assured him. "How about I make some tea?"
He nodded and they both got up from the rather uncomfortable sofa bed. Alec folded it all away while Rose made tea and toast for them. He could hear Fred stirring where he had been put down and knew that Miller would be up soon to feed him as well.
It was an hour or so later, when he received a distressing phone call. "Ok, thanks. Be there as soon as I can," he said as he rang off.
"I don't like that look," Rose commented as he ran to the next room.
"Miller, we need you to drive us somewhere now. We can go and get Rose's car ourselves later," he told Ellie hurriedly, interrupting Fred's breakfast.
"No, I didn't sleep well, thanks for asking. Get a taxi," she snapped at him.
"A taxi will take too long. We need to be there now," he argued.
"Why don't you have your own car anyway?" she questioned.
"I can't. Medically. Can we go?" he responded impatiently.
"Go where?" Claire asked as she entered the room.
"I'll call you," he told Claire and pulled Rose with him out the door. He called over his shoulder, "Miller, come on!"
"What's going on?" Rose asked him as they got into Ellie's car.
"Hopefully, we can get Miller to just drop us off and leave. Beth is really going to need you when we get there. They're requesting another autopsy on Danny's body," he told her quickly before Miller came out to the car with Fred.
"Oh my god," Rose gasped. "That's horrible!"
Alec shushed her when Ellie joined them and they kept quiet about it as she followed his directions to the church.
"You know the wardrobe in that bedroom?" Ellie asked, breaking the silence. "I found a letter wrapped in cloth. Well, I say letter, it was a bluebell in an envelope."
"What do you mean, a bluebell?" Alec asked, concerned by the possible connection to the location where he had found Pippa's body.
"Well, just that, a single flower," she replied.
"This right, here," he directed.
"This is the road to the church. Why are we going to the church?" Ellie questioned in concern.
"Just let us out and drive away," Alec told her.
"No," she replied.
Ellie parked her car between the emergency vehicles and they were met by Rev. Coates as they got out. He looked completely at a loss as to what to do about the situation.
"Tell me they're not going to do this," Alec pleaded.
"They've got a court order," Paul told him helplessly. "Ellie," he said blankly when he saw her.
"Somebody tell me what's going on," she demanded.
"Back in the car, Miller!"
Ellie followed them despite everyone's warnings. And Paul explained, "Joe's legal team have requested a new autopsy on Danny's body. It means an official exhumation."
"Oh god, no," Ellie moaned.
They could see the white tent erected over the gravesite as they walked up the path along the graveyard. Alec wished that Ellie would leave as this was bound to be infuriating for the Latimers. He demanded to see the court order for the exhumation as soon as they arrived.
"Ellie," Paul warned and they turned to see the Latimers arriving along with their own legal team.
"My boy is in there! You!" Mark shouted angrily at the men who were moving Danny's coffin from its resting place. "Why can't you let him rest, eh?"
"I'm so sorry," Paul said to Mark, trying to calm him down.
"You couldn't resist, could you?" Beth accused Ellie.
"I didn't know this was happening," she responded softly.
"No, you never do. This is on you, Ellie. I hope you rot in hell for what you've done to us!" Beth told her with rising fury.
Rose placed herself between them and spoke to Beth firmly, "Beth, you need to calm down. Please. This isn't about Ellie. Let's go and talk, we can't stop them, believe me we tried, but we can't."
Rose looked back at Alec over her shoulder as she left with Beth to help calm her down. He nodded to her as he watched them go with Chloe.
"Do something, Paul," Mark pleaded. It took the efforts of Paul and Nigel to keep Mark from rushing in and interfering, but he eventually followed the rest of his family.
Ellie walked back to where he was still looking over the papers and he asked her, "You alright?" She could only shake her head as she fought back tears once again.
He looked up at the surrounding area and his gaze fell on a man standing on the hill overlooking the church yard. Alec recognized him immediately and walked out to face him directly, though at a distance. Ellie followed him and asked, "Who's that?"
"It's Lee Ashworth," he admitted.
"You're kidding," Miller responded.
"Look at him standing there, gloating," Alec sneered. He worried that this might be a threat. It was clear that Ashworth was following him or knew exactly how to find him. That meant that he knew about Rose as well. Lee was a very dangerous man and that meant that none of them were safe.
"Why are you so sure he killed those girls?" Ellie questioned.
He couldn't tell her, yet. He needed her to look at the files with fresh eyes, the way Rose had. It would allow her to come to her own conclusions without being coloured by his theories.
"I'll talk to you about it later. I've got all the files, we can go over it. You didn't sleep well, Miller. Just go home and get some rest with Fred, alright?" he told her.
After a few text messages with Rose, she met him with a taxi to go retrieve her car. Once they were in the privacy of her car, he told her, "Lee Ashworth was watching us at the graveyard."
"You're kidding! Well, what does that mean, then?" she wondered.
"Letting me know that he's watching me, I think. I don't want you alone, alright? Stay in public or close to me. I couldn't bear it if that man did something to hurt you because of me," he pleaded worriedly.
"Hey, it'll be alright, love. I'm tougher than I look, yeah?" Rose assured him.
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Rose stood with their work supervisor, Officer Moore, as they watched Alec lecturing his class. It was clear to everyone that he was just going through the motions on this assignment. His only real interest was in solving Sandbrook and he couldn't tell anyone official that he was even looking at it yet.
The supervisor shook her head. "Why does he even bother?" she asked Rose.
"It's not like either of us really wanted to be taken off of active duty," Rose replied.
"Yes, but at least you put some effort into it," she told her before walking back to her office.
Rose overheard her talking to him on their way out for the day. She followed behind a bit, so as not to interrupt on their way to her car. He was staying at her house for now.
"Why the hell did you say yes to this job if you don't enjoy it?" Moore asked him.
"Not that bad, am I?" he responded.
"You'll demotivate our entire intake. We can't count on Rose to keep them all around on her own," she informed him. "The boredom drips off you."
"I was good at my job," he argued.
"Yeah, and you're no longer fit for it," she answered firmly. "So get good at this one or do something else."
Rose caught up with him when they had finished speaking. They got in the car and she started driving towards her house. They were almost there when Alec received a phone call.
"Hi... Ok, what did he say?" Alec said to whomever was on the phone. "Claire, I promise you're safe. Just stay there, I'll call you later," he told her.
As Rose parked her car, she noticed that Alec's gaze was locked with a man who was sitting on a bench nearby, smoking a cigarette. She was fairly sure that she recognized the man from the photos in the Sandbrook files as Lee Ashworth.
"I've gotta go, bye," Alec said into the phone and hung up. He got out of the car and walked toward Lee, a look of fierce determination set on his face. Rose followed him closely, unwilling to leave him alone with the dangerous man. "What do you want?" Alec demanded.
"Where's Claire?" Ashworth asked casually.
"Why would I know?" Alec responded.
"Don't mess me about. I wanna see her," Lee told him.
"Lisa Newbury's parents wanna see their daughter," Alec countered. Rose stood by his side, her arms crossed as she glared with equal ferocity at the man.
"For the last time, I had nothing to do with that," he insisted.
"I don't believe you," Alec replied darkly.
"Neither do I," Rose added, earning herself a threatening look from Ashworth. Alec quickly stepped between them defensively.
"You got it wrong," Lee said harshly. "It's over."
"Not for the parents. Not for me," Hardy told him.
"What about for me?" Ashworth questioned. "I lost my whole life 'cause of you. I had to leave the country."
"Should have stayed there," Rose interjected.
Alec glanced at her, his look pleading her not to antagonize this man. "So, why'd you come back?"
"I want my life back. Now tell me where I find Claire, or do I have to follow you around everywhere?" he sneered and cast a leering look over Rose.
"Yeah, give it a go," Alec replied warningly.
"Here's my number," Lee said as he stuck a business card into Alec's top pocket. "You tell her to call me. Sorry about your health," he added as he turned to walk away.
"What did you say?" Alec questioned, suddenly alarmed.
Ashworth turned back to look at him innocently, though his knowledge only confirmed that he had been the one to break into Alec's house. The statement was a veiled threat in and of itself. "Someone said you were sick," he responded.
They watched as he walked away and then went into Rose's house, locking the door firmly behind them. Alec quickly pulled Rose into his arms and hugged her tightly.
"You nearly scared me to death, Rose," he gasped into her shoulder.
"Hey. Hey, it's alright. Told you, I'm tougher than I look. I've faced down far worse than that wanker," she told him reassuringly. "Can't leave you all the fun."
"Fun?! Rose, that man is dangerous! I can't believe you would just antagonize him like that," he shouted incredulously.
"Honestly, Alec, calm down. I'm used to this kind of thing. I did this nearly everyday with the Doctor," she insisted.
He growled in frustration as he paced her living room. Clearly wanting to argue more, but knowing that it wouldn't accomplish anything. She stopped him in his tracks with a reassuring hug.
"Rose, he knows where you live. He knows about my heart condition. He knows I'm involved with Danny's trial, since he was there at the cemetery earlier. That was a clear threat out there," he insisted as he angrily pointed back towards the street outside.
"I know that, love. We can't stop him from knowing those things, but we also can't let him think that we're scared of him," she responded. "I've faced down alien dictators with three heads and spikes all over their body with the fate of the entire planet at stake. I will not be bullied by that arsehole out there."
Alec finally nodded in resignation. He rubbed his hand over his face as he realized that there was no winning this argument. His phone rang in his pocket as the police informed him that they would be over at his house shortly to investigate the break-in. Rose made sure that all of the Sandbrook files were locked in her safe before leaving the house, though they were relatively sure that it would be stupid for Lee to break into her house right away.
They hung around outside while the officers checked for fingerprints other than those belonging to Alec and Rose. They didn't find anything though and since nothing of value had been taken, they left shortly after. Rose helped him to tidy up from their search of the house.
"Would you... I mean, you don't have to, love. But, would you want to stay... at my place?" Rose asked him nervously when they were done cleaning.
"What you mean? I am staying at your place. Isn't that what we agreed already?" he responded, clearly confused by her question.
"I mean, well, not just because of the break-in and Ashworth. I mean, like, all the time?" she suggested hesitantly.
"Rose, are you asking me to move in with you?" he asked as he stopped her fidgeting by taking her hands in his. She avoided looking up at him, too nervous of how he would respond to the suggestion.
"I... well," she began, but was interrupted by Alec's mobile ringing just then.
"What?" he asked as he answered it. "No, but I can call her. Right, we'll be there soon," he said and rang off.
"Who was that?" Rose wondered.
"Jocelyn Knight. She's the counsel for the prosecution. She wants to see me and Miller about the case. You probably won't be able to be a part of the meeting, but I don't exactly want to leave you alone right now either," he told her honestly.
"I get it. I'll drive you and I can wait outside until you're done," she replied.
He called Ellie and she agreed to meet them there, since she would be coming all the way from Devon, but they agreed to have dinner together afterward and they could discuss the Sandbrook files. They walked together up the gravel road to Ms. Knight's house.
"Did she say what she wanted? What do you think it is?" Ellie questioned nervously.
"I don't know. Stop wittering, Miller," he chastised.
"Oi, rude, Alec," Rose told him with an elbow to the ribs.
"When isn't he rude?" Ellie responded.
"Ashworth paid us a visit earlier," Alec told Ellie. "Said he's looking for Claire and he's not gonna stop until he finds her."
"Well, you said that's what you wanted. Now you've got it," Ellie replied.
"Yes, we do. And we're going to use it," Rose added assuredly.
They met Jocelyn Knight at the gate where she was waiting for them.
"Alec Hardy," he introduced himself.
"I know," Jocelyn replied.
"This is Rose. Are you going to wait down here, love?" he added.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, Alec. Promise," she answered and gave him a kiss before turning back toward the cliff to watch the ocean.
"Ellie. Ellie Miller."
"Come in," Jocelyn told them and they all went inside, leaving Rose to her thoughts.
Rose sat on one of the larger rocks and considered everything that was going on. Alec hadn't answered her question about moving in with her and she was slightly nervous about that. Sure he was planning to stay for a while because of the dangerous situation, but would he stay after all of that? Then there was the matter of the danger itself. Lee knew where she lived and was following Alec all over Broadchurch. He was sure to find Claire eventually and she wondered if Alec had a plan for handling that yet.
They hadn't expected the trial. She hoped that it would all be over fairly quickly, since there was a lot of evidence and Joe had confessed when they arrested him. Ms. Knight asking to see them though, had her worried about what problems they might have. Rose knew she would have to be there for Beth and Alec, possibly even Ellie through all of this.
There was also the matter of Alec's upcoming surgery. He was terrified by the doctor's warnings that he might not survive. Rose thought maybe she should check with the doctors at Torchwood. Maybe they had some special equipment or medicine that might help improve his chances.
Beth was due to have her baby any time now. To think that she would have to deal with the stress of the trial and childbirth at the same time was just cruel, but when had the universe been kind lately? Perhaps by bringing her here to help Alec and Beth, and be helped by them in return. Karma owed them something at some point.
Rose was startled out of her thoughts by warm arms sneaking around her waist from behind. "Just me, love," Alec's gravelly voice sounded in her ear and she relaxed immediately.
"How did it go?" Rose asked looking back at Ellie who was standing nearby.
"Awful," she grumbled.
They walked down to the sea side to sit on the benches by the beach. Alec sat between the two women as they discussed the meeting with Jocelyn. Ellie was clearly upset and trying to calm herself.
"What's the problem?" Rose asked quietly.
"After Joe had confessed, I had to explain to Ellie what happened. She was understandably upset and demanded to see him. Ellie lost her temper and attacked him physically. There are photos as well as video evidence of it. Jocelyn feels that the defence will use that information to have his confession discounted from the evidence. They'll say that we intimidated him into confessing," Alec explained.
"Oh, Ellie," Rose said sympathetically. She knew exactly how she felt in that regard. If the agents at Torchwood hadn't held her back, Rose would have attacked the alien that had killed her husband for sure.
"Why didn't you stop me that day?" Miller demanded.
"Oh, it's my fault now?" Alec asked defensively.
"Why did you let me see him?" she argued.
"I felt sorry for you. I didn't expect you to go all, bloody, Bruce Lee on him," he replied.
"Everyone will find out now. Shit! Tom will hear about it. His mum beating up his dad in a police station. Oh, god. What do I do?" she despaired wringing her hands. "I just wanna run away or hide or emigrate or... Oh, god."
"Alright, you two. Dinner at my house. Let's go," Rose told them as she got up from the bench.
"Oh, Rose, I really don't think..." Ellie began.
"Nope. You're coming over, Ellie. I've got stuff prepared in the fridge, it just needs to be heated up. We all need something relatively normal to take our minds off of all this," Rose insisted.
They walked back to where they had parked and drove separately to Rose's house. She put the casserole she had prepared into the oven while Alec worked on setting the table.
Ellie looked around curiously. "You've been here a while then, Rose?" she asked as she looked at the framed photographs on the mantle.
"Ooh, about five months or so. I started working here late last September," Rose replied and joined her in the living room. "That's mum and dad, with my little brother, Tony," she said, pointing to the photos. "That one is me with... with John. My husband. He was killed last June."
"I heard about it. I'm so sorry, you must have been devastated," Ellie said sympathetically.
"I was. I had to get out of London. Away from all the memories and everyone just staring all the time. Then I nearly had a heart attack when I met Alec," she admitted and he smiled at her from the doorway to the dining room.
"I can only imagine. It really is uncanny, the similarities," Ellie told her as she looked closely at the picture of Rose with the Doctor.
"Looks, yeah. Down to the freckles. But everything else about them is completely different. I love the differences. It helps me to keep them in their own separate places in my heart. I'll never forget him, I'll never stop loving him, but that doesn't mean that I can't love again," Rose said assuredly and gave Alec a hug.
"After dinner, we can go over those files if you like," Alec told Ellie.
While they were eating, they started to discuss some of the issues at hand. "What's your plan for Ashworth, Alec? You've been waiting for him to come after Claire, so you have to have some kind of plan," Rose questioned.
"Claire needs to meet Ashworth," he replied around a bite of casserole. "I wanna put them together."
"And you don't see that as a risk?" Ellie asked skeptically.
"No. No, it's not a risk, it's an opportunity," he informed her. "It's only gonna come once."
"Don't you see, Ellie. If they've been hiding something together, this is when they're going to talk about it. We need to use this to our advantage," Rose added.
"Do it officially. Talk to Jenkinson or one of your old bosses," Ellie insisted.
"Nobody cares, Miller. That case is tainted. Nobody wants to go near it. That's my failing. I've got to put it right," Alec told her firmly. Rose took his hand and squeezed it supportively.
"What if he didn't do it? What if you're wrong?" Ellie questioned.
"I've got all the files here, Ellie. We don't have to talk to Claire tonight. Let's look over it all and you can draw your own conclusions about it. I've tried, but this isn't the kind of work that I did with Torchwood. I'm trying to draw some connections, my husband always said I was good at that. Let's see what you come up with and we'll talk to Claire tomorrow," Rose negotiated.
"Alright, I'll take a look," she acquiesced.
It took about an hour of going over the files before Ellie agreed that if Ashworth wasn't responsible, he was at least involved in some way. She promised to help them convince Claire to meet with Ashworth and went home for the evening.
Alec and Rose prepared for bed as they often did when they spent the night together. But somehow, it felt different this time and Rose remembered what she had asked him earlier. He never did answer her. She washed her face and brushed her teeth before curling up next to him under the duvet.
"You never did answer my question, Alec," she said softly, almost afraid of his response.
He turned to face her lying next to each other on the bed. "About moving with you, yeah?" he questioned and she nodded. "I don't know. I mean, are you sure, Rose?"
"Alec, I feel safer with you here. You help me with the nightmares and I hope I help with yours. I worry about your heart condition when you're all alone. What if something happened and there was no one around to call an ambulance or something? Most important though, is that I love you, Alec," she explained honestly, stroking the back of his hand with her fingers.
"Alright, love. You've made a very solid argument for your case. It's very difficult to refute your logic," he replied with a smirk.
"I learned to argue from the best of them. You haven't met my mum, yet," she teased and threw one of her legs over his hip playfully.
Alec rolled onto his back and grasped her hips to steady her as she sat on top of him. His fingers played along the edge of her knickers as her sleep shirt rode up. "I'm sure I can only escape that fate for so long. Although, she sounded rather pleased with how well I've been taking care of you when we spoke over the phone," he responded.
"I suppose, if you keep me happy, she'll be pretty happy," Rose told him with a smile.
"So, what would be the best way to make you happy tonight, love?" he asked suggestively.
"Mmm, I have a few ideas," she sighed and pulled her shirt over her head, tossing it behind her.
His hands slid up her sides slowly from her hips to her now naked breasts and she closed her eyes as he squeezed them gently. She rolled her hips against his where she could feel him getting harder through his pyjama bottoms. He groaned at the friction she provided and pinched her nipples in retaliation. She tugged at the waistband and they both stripped down to nothing rather quickly after that.
Rose retrieved a condom from the nightstand and they were quickly falling over into the blissful glide of their bodies against each other. Her lips pressed against his as his tongue found its way into her mouth as if tasting her. His hands squeezed her arse as he pulled her against him forcefully. Rose gasped when her body clenched around him, and called his name breathlessly.
"Oh, Rose," he groaned and flipped their positions so that he was on top of her. She wrapped her legs around his hips, her heels digging into his arse to urge him on. Alec began pounding into her so fiercely that Rose started to worry about his heart. It wasn't long though until his rhythm faltered and he moaned loudly as he pressed into her through his release.
Something felt different when he rolled off of her, however. They looked at each other with some concern when they realized that the condom had broken.
"These things happen, love. I'm sure everything will be fine," Rose assured him and after cleaning themselves off, they both snuggled together closely and fell asleep.
