This will be the last chapter, people. Thanks to everyone for reading! :)


Chapter 5:

Ellie felt exhausted when she returned from Sandbrook late in the afternoon. She hadn't had to battle so many emotions at once since her own family broke apart.

When she walked through the door of her home and Fred threw his little arms around her neck, excitingly telling her all about the great day he had with Uncle Alec, Ellie wanted nothing more than to take her baby and cuddle with him on the sofa for the rest of the day.

Apparently, Fred had already spent quite a lot of time there, judging by the stacks of children's books on the coffee table and his nap-time blanket which hung messily from the side of the sofa.

"Uncle Alec can do so many voices for the books." Fred told her zealously, eyes sparkling in awe.

Ah… who knew, thought Ellie and grinned at her typically unsmiling boss who appeared by the door, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment while also blushing quite a bit.

Questions about what happened with his estranged family were sitting right at the tip of his tongue; Ellie could see how much restraint it cost him to keep them in. But Alec let her be as long as her sons were bustling around her.

She prepared a little snack for Fred and let him tell her about his day for a whole while. Only when evening came and Fred retreated into Tom's room to watch him play video games, Alec finally asked Ellie to step outside and talk.

There was no room to avoid this conversation any longer. She had to tell him about her accidental reveal.

Oh, to say he was furious would be a vast understatement:

"For god's sake! You must be fucking kidding me, Miller! Please… tell me you're kidding!"

"I-I'm sorry, sir-"

"For god's sake!" he yelled again. "You mean, Daisy knows... about-" He turned away from her without finishing his sentence, running a hand through his hair and pacing a path of trampled yellow grass into her back garden. "Do you understand what this means? Do you understand what this will do to her?! Fuck… this is a bloody nightmare!"

Ellie said nothing. She knew she screwed up.

"She will feel obligated now. To help, to do something… it's not her job to do that! She shouldn't worry about me, she…" He forced himself to pause, swallowing his desperate agitation and briefly putting a hand to the middle of his chest when he was turned away from her. "She's just a kid. She's my daughter." he breathed deeply. "The last thing I wanna do is burden her... make her scared."

Ellie took a timid step towards him, reminding herself that, despite them slipping back into formal titles, they were still two friends, arguing. They were equally matched. "She's a great kid… a teenager." she emphasized. "Kind and very bright, too. And she would've worried, no matter what."

"She shouldn't have to!" he growled, making another sharp turn as he reached the end of his little up and down pacing path.

"Daisy loves you very much. Still does, always has, of that I'm sure." Ellie said. "I know I could've handled this better. I didn't realize she was listening in, but the truth is out now and no matter how she found out, she would've worried because, fact is, that you sacrificed your own happiness for hers and she understands that and she cares." Ellie stressed softly. "You'll always be her father but she isn't quite so little anymore."

The pacing stopped. For a short while he remained standing there, hand frozen in his messed-up hair, head bowed down. But his breathing picked up again as he wandered on. "I don't want this pressure to be on her." he muttered. "I don't want to push her to care for me."

At that point, Ellie wanted to strangle him. Had he even listened to a word she just said? Only the ringing of Alec's phone stopped her from railing and him from pacing. His eyes widened and his arm slowly relaxed and fell from his hair to his side as he stared at the display.

"It's Daisy."

The sudden tenderness in his voice made Ellie's heart soar. He wouldn't listen to her, but maybe he would listen to Daisy. "I let you talk to her alone." she announced softly and turned her back to go back into the house. She didn't see him, but she could hear the smile in his trembling voice as he answered the call:

"Hi, darling."

Ellie stifled a sob and wiped a tear from her cheek. Her kids shouldn't see her like that.

She stayed close, though, watching Alec from her kitchen window. She saw him pacing some more, ruffling his hair, crying silently through the relieved joy of hearing his daughter's voice. He stayed out there for almost an hour, reassuring and apologizing to Daisy by the looks of it, and when he returned back into the house, there was something different in his demeanour.

He was… calmer.

"Ah… I… I'd like to go back to my own house now." he announced with determination.

Ellie's heart beat faster but she swallowed the arising fear. "Are you sure? What did Daisy say?"

He ignored her question. "I'm fine. Just want to be alone now. Need to think… maybe call Tess back." he mumbled not overly thrilled.

Ellie chewed nervously on the inside of her lip, looking him up and down. "Are you sure you're going to be alright? You can stay longer if you like, it's not a problem."

"Nah, it's okay. I'm... I'm good."

"I can drive you home." Ellie then quickly added.

"You don't have to. I'll walk."

She glanced outside the window; it was just beginning to get dark. Her look didn't go unnoticed by Alec.

"Don't fuss, Miller." he said dismissively and it had another ring to it than the last time he had said these words.

Were they now back to their old normal? Just colleagues? Ellie wasn't entirely sure, but maybe this still was a good thing. At least he seemed to feel better now… right? "Well… I guess I can't stop you then, can I?" she said.

Hardy stared at her for a long time without saying a word. Eventually, he seemed to notice her disappointment and his steely, dark eyes softened to a warmer tone of brown that she just came to familiarize herself with. "Thank you." he mumbled quietly. "For everything you've done. I really appreciate it, Miller."

She smiled. At least they were still friends. Ellie was glad.

At the door Alec shrugged into his warm jacket and grabbed his overnight bag, ready to leave without an actual goodbye. Quickly, Ellie came after him. "Sir?"

He stopped, turning around.

"Just... promise me that you won't do anything stupid, alright? I promised Daisy to look after you."

Again one of those long impenetrable looks. "I promise."

"And you know you can call me anytime, right?" she reminded him, still nervous. "Anytime."

There was a smile. Very briefly, but it was reassuring. "I know." he said and then he was gone.


It didn't take that long for change to come into Hardy's life.

Thinking back, Ellie remembered that it was a gradual change over a few weeks, culminating in something that was actual, true happiness for him.

At first, there was still a bit of dread. She didn't hear from him until Monday and was rather nervous when she came in to work, almost expecting to see his place empty. Ellie had to push through the endless questioning of her colleagues who were all curious to find out why she had been so frantic when she called the station the week before.

Ellie was able to ignore them until she could take a look into his office.

She saw him there, reading glasses on his nose and a pen in hand, filling out forms. As if nothing happened.

He seemed to sense her looking and raised his head. There was a tiny smile on his face that caught Ellie completely off guard. As if he was slightly proud of himself for being here. When she had a chance to talk to him, it was getting clearer that the darkness was still within him, but he was fighting it. And he let her be part of his progress. He wasn't yelling at her for fussing, he was confiding in her. At least as much as the tight-lipped grouch was comfortable with.

Ellie wasn't sure if her colleagues noticed the slight shift in their relationship. Some of them kept asking if their boss was okay and Ellie always smiled nonchalantly and told them he was fine. She didn't care if they believed her or not. They were friends and she would protect Alec's secret as long as she'd live.

Because there were definitely times when memories of the night on the cliff haunted them, both, but Ellie noticed with relief that those memories seemed to frighten Alec just as much as her. As long as he was frightened, she figured, he wouldn't be longing to stand up there again.

Still, she kept a close eye on him over the next couple of weeks, looking for changes in his behaviour. Sometimes he would be annoyed by that and tell her to stop, sometimes he would just be thankful that she still cared. In a way, that was back to normal. Alec Hardy was gruff and impatient, but emotionally stable as far as she could see and he was no longer a threat to himself or his subordinates for that matter.

More obvious changes occurred when Alec started to take long phone calls, not allowing anyone to interrupt and not even telling Ellie to whom he was talking. She just noticed a spark in his eyes whenever he came back from such calls. A calm inner smile.

Ellie had her suspicions but soon his behaviour was getting even more bizarre.

DI Hardy took vacation days.

He asked Ellie to take charge of the station for a whole week. Under no circumstances was he to be disturbed at home, he threatened. But that was all Ellie could take. She had to know what was going on.

After a fair amount of prodding and relentless questioning, he finally spilled the news:

"Daisy is moving in with me." he said.

Alec could never really stop this particular train of thoughts that Daisy was doing this for the wrong reasons, but he also couldn't help the genuine smile that sneaked its way upon his face when he told Ellie.

She grinned. "Oh, that's wonderful!" she exclaimed excitedly. "How did that happen?"

He slowly raised his eyebrows at her and Ellie blushed a bit. Well, even if she was to blame for this, she refused to apologize now. He deserved to have his daughter living with him. He had to suffer in silence and all alone for long enough.

Ellie asked for more details but he was careful not to reveal too much. Apparently, Daisy still wasn't talking to her mother. She was furious with her for lying and for intentionally keeping her away from her dad. Reluctantly, Alec had reminded her of the fatal mistake he almost made and that he would probably continue to make mistakes concerning her upbringing, but, regardless, Daisy wanted to live with him. She wanted to rebuild their relationship that she'd never wanted to lose in the first place.

Ellie was so happy for him that she suddenly couldn't stop herself from giving Alec an unexpectedly tight hug. His body went rigid in shock and hers froze, too, as she noticed. But just as she decided to pull back, she felt him soften a little and, tentatively, oh, so awkwardly, he lifted his arms to pat her back. A little embarrassed they finally recovered from their unusual position and Ellie cleared her throat.

"Ah... I... I could ask around, get some people to help you two move." she offered.

Alec declined. "I want to do this with Daisy alone." he said. "Just the two of us, ya know?"

"Of course." Ellie smiled. "Well… at least tell me when you're done. I'll come over and bring some cake to welcome her in her new home."

Alec smiled back. "Yah. She might like that." he said softly. For a moment he stared into space. As if he was imagining his daughter sitting in front of his house, eyes on the sea, eating Ellie's welcome cake.

"Home." he added wistfully. "That sounds nice."


The End.

I hope you enjoyed this alternate version of how Daisy ended up in Broadchurch! If you do like it, please, let me know in a review below. Thank you and stay safe! :)