CHAPTER FOUR

MARJORIE MACQUEEN

The Claire and Lee meet had gone absolutely horribly. Hardy had taken the time to plant cameras. He kept in the kitchen watching the back entrance. But some commotion started out of nowhere and suddenly he was rushing into the living room where there was no sign of Lee or Claire. He shouted for her. Raced through neighboring houses and asked around. Before he raced back into the Miller house to see Ellie looking at the cameras set down on the coffee table.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Checking the cameras. Ashworth turned them off," she said.

"Why didn't you see them?" he shouted.

She gestured out the window into the street where she had been confronted by a very angry and pregnant Beth. "I had Beth to deal with."

But he was seething, "What is the point of you? Give me your keys." He held his hand out for them, "Car keys! Now!"

"You're not supposed to drive," she protested.

"I'm gonna look for them because you didn't do what we agreed. Keys!" he demanded, snapping his fingers insistently.

She glared at him, "No, this is not my fault. Don't put this on me. I am sick of everyone putting their shit on me when I'm not responsible. I'm sick to the back teeth of taking flak for stuff I haven't done." When he didn't say anything, still holding out his hand for the keys, she groaned and searched through her purse for them, tossing them at him, "Fine. You have the keys. I hope you bloody well crash and have a heart attack while you are crashing!"

It had been a while since he had ever driven, the gears of Ellie's car grinding as Hardy struggled to think of where they could be, "Think, think, think. Where would you take her? Where would you go?"

Meanwhile, Ellie ran after Beth as the pregnant women – in labor presently – was trying to walk through the grassy verge to her own house. "Beth, what are you doing?"

"Ellie do not come near me," the pained woman snarled at her.

"Have you phoned Mark?"

"I haven't got my mobile, I ran out cos of you," she groaned as she was practically bent over in pain and could hardly waddle across the grass.

Ellie was at her side trying to support here even as the other woman tried to push her away. She pulled out her phone, "So I'll call him. Just take it slow. Were you having contractions before your waters broke?"

"Get off me," Beth tried to push her away, but Ellie held onto her arm. "Been having them for days on and off. Midwife kept saying they were Braxton Hicks."

"He's on voicemail," Ellie said as she put her phone away.

"Course he bloody is," Beth cursed to herself. Mark had been unreachable at weird times. It grated on her. That coupled with his resistance to her asking for a date made her feel like she had when she found out about Becca Fisher. What was going on with him?

"I'll call Bonnie. Maybe she can drive you to the hospital," Ellie offered.

"I'm not going to the hospital. I'm having a home birth," Beth said.

Ellie gaped at her, "What are you doing that for?"

"Will you just go away!?" Beth shouted at her.

Ellie wasn't having it anymore though. "You stupid cow I'm trying to help you. You can't even walk, now, lean on me."

"I don't want you here," Beth groaned quietly.

"Well, tough shit."

Alec ended up at the little house he'd gotten to hide Claire, rushing in and shouting, "Claire! Claire!" He stopped when Lee came out into the living room, and rushed at him, "Where is she?" Lee attacked back at him, flipping him onto the ground and putting a foot on his chest. His chest felt tight, "Argh!"

Lee smirked, "Where is who?" He pushed his foot down on Alec, making him groan. "You bugged us."

"Where is Claire? What have you done with her?" Alec gasped. He couldn't lose her. She was the key to closing the Sandbrook case.

"We're not suspects. We are not prisoners," Lee spat at him.

Claire rushed in, hearing the commotion. When she saw how Lee had Alec on the floor, she rushed over and pulled on Lee's arm, "Get off him!" She helped Alec off when Lee calmly stepped away, "You all right?"

"Course he's all right," Lee said.

"I want you out," Alec said, still a little wheezy.

"Or what, you'll call the police?" Lee guffawed.

"Out now!" Alec demanded.

"You don't set how long I spend with my wife," Lee snarled quietly before turning to Claire and cupping her face, bringing her in for a kiss right in front of Alec's eyes. Alec watched as she turned her eyes to him as Lee kissed her. When he finally released her, he smirked close to his face, "Got it? Now, I will tell you everything that you missed at Sandbrook when you stop pissing me about." He turned to Claire briefly with a smile as he exited, "I'll call you, babe."

As soon as he was out of the house, Alec turned his anger onto her, "What the hell are you doing? Why the hell did you go with him?"

"Because I was terrified," she excused, sitting on the couch, "I haven't seen him in a year and a half and I did what he told me."

"You should have called me," he told her.

She scoffed, "'Hang on, Lee, love. I'll give Alec a ring.'"

"Did you just jump out of the window?" He didn't understand how they got away.

"Ran across a few gardens and flagged down a taxi," she told him.

"You brought him here?" he asked incredulously, waving his hands around the small house. "The one place he doesn't know about."

She raised her voice defensively, "I had no choice. You put cameras in there without telling me."

"I wanted to know what he would say," Alec said heatedly.

"You don't trust me to tell you, no?" she poised for him, staring him down.

He gave her a look, "You want to talk about truth? Yeah?" He pulled out the envelope Ellie had told him she'd found – with a flattened bluebell inside. "What is this?"

"Dunno," she answered shortly, but he saw her face change when she saw it in his hands.

"Yeah? Don't lie to me, Claire," he responded, not believing her for a second. He pulled out the folded paper inside the envelope and showed her the flattened flower inside.

"It's a bluebell," she stated flatly. "It was sent to me like that... to... an old post office box I used to use, when I did mail-order hairdressing products. I..."

"Who sent it?" he demanded.

She shrugged, "I dunno."

"What does it mean? Why did you keep it?" he interrogated her.

She stood up and got in his face, trailing her fingers on his shoulder, "So you'd have something to find when sneaking through my cupboards. I don't want to talk to you. Get out."

"Claire," he cut in. "If there is anything you've not told me, about what happened with you and Lee, about Sandbrook, now is the time."

Her face shifted as she remembered the night – that night. And all that had happened.

What have you done? What have you done?

"I have told you everything."

Bonnie stared daggers at her mother, standing on her front steps with a big smile like no time had passed. "What are you doing here? I have a restraining order."

"In America," Marge waved her hand dismissively, not taking it very seriously. She waved her arms out expansively, "Look! We're in jolly old England now."

"The law still applies here," Bonnie said in clipped tones. "You are not allowed to approach me, stalk me, contact me. Don't think it helps that you've been passing along messages and mail through Uma. Because that's done too. And I don't even want to talk about how you found this address."

"I see you've gotten serious with this old bloke, eh?" her mother responded casually, using a poor British accent on the word 'bloke.' "What's his name?"

"None of your business," Bonnie said. "Leave."

"Oh, baby, I just want to talk to you," Marge tried to step forward and hug her daughter.

But Bonnie stepped back, glaring with hatred, "No. I'm not interested. I meant it when I said that I never wanted to see you again."

"You were eighteen," Marge dismissed.

"I said as much when I was ten and you dragged me and my father through custody court," she spat. "I said as much when I was fifteen and he died, and you threw his life insurance money meant for my college at a new house and new breasts. I said as much when I was eighteen and left home as soon as I was legally able. And I think I drove the point home when I changed my name."

"Kids rebel," Marge said, a bit tighter in her voice now. "They're supposed to fight against authority, their parents. They're supposed to run away."

"To their tree house, not another continent!" Bonnie shouted incredulously at her mother's attitude. "Listen to me, do not ever show your face around here again or I'll report you for harassment. Get far away from here."

She didn't bother even looking at the older woman anymore. She marched into the house after unlocking the door and slammed it closed, flipping the curtains over the glass so she couldn't see the other woman anymore. She couldn't stand the look of that woman. And she hoped she never would.

"They are every 40 seconds apart now. You're doing ever so well," Ellie coached Beth as the woman squatted in the water tub, screaming at each contraction.

The doorbell rang, and Chloe ran to get it, "I'll go."

"I need gas and air," Beth whimpered.

"Midwife is here!" Chloe called.

"Thank god for that," Ellie commented.

"It's coming again," Beth groaned, letting out a shout.

"Breathe into it," Ellie continued coaching her, holding her hand.

Bonnie was beyond upset now. She'd been angry getting the note. But to actually see her mother now. She brought out her phone and started instantly dialing her Uncles' number.

"Bon, I've talked to Uma and she-"

"Screw Uma!" Bonnie cursed loudly. "I'm done with her – for good. I never want to see or speak to her again. She's lucky I'm not pressing charges against her for helping Marge harass me."

"Slow down," he begged. "What's going on?"

"She was here!" Bonnie shouted, peering out of the curtains to see that thankfully her mother had gone. "Marge was here, right outside the door. Alec's door! I haven't even given you the new address, I can't bloody understand how she could have gotten it. But I'm damn sure I know where she got the name Broadchurch from!"

"I can't believe Uma would-"

"She would!" Bonnie cut him off. "You know Uma told her where I was Jay. If this blows up like it did when I first left, I may have to move again. And I can't put Alec through that. Which means I could lose him. This could derail my whole life if I can't get her to leave me alone!"

"I won't let that happen," Jay swore. "I'll talk to Uma."

She let out a derisive snort, "Fat lot of good that did the first time around. She won't listen. She won't respect my privacy or my boundaries. She's aiding a woman I have a restraining order against. I don't want her in my life any longer. I don't want to hear from her or see her. She's nothing to me any longer. She just isn't."

"I'm – I'm sorry, Bon-"

"Of course, you are sorry," she sighed, losing her fight. "You married her." Feeling she'd said her piece now, she hung up the phone and sagged into the couch.

After a while, she started nodding off on the couch, and was woken with Alec's grumbling as he creaked into the house. "Why are the curtains drawn?"

"To keep the vermin away," she groaned, just barely waking up.

"What does that mean?" he asked, yanking off his tie and jacket before sitting by her legs.

"Not tonight," she sighed, not wanting to see his reaction to the sudden return of her mother. "I just want to slip into bed next to you and fall asleep."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm here then," he said, slipping off his coat and tie. "Did you already eat then, because...?" he trailed off as he held up the white plastic bag of takeaway.

Feeling most of the tension from seeing her mother ease out of her body at the sight of him coming home to her with dinner, Bonnie smiled and said, "I'm actually quite starved – for dinner and other things."

Smirking at her implication, he started setting out their dinner.

Ellie was sitting on the stairs with Chloe for hours, as day turned to night, after the midwife arrived to help Beth. But Mark wasn't yet. He hadn't even answered any of their calls.

"You can go," Chloe said quietly.

Ellie shook her head, "It's all right. I'll wait with you. Did you phone your dad?"

Chloe shrugged, "Yeah, no answer. Will she be all right?" She would flinch every time they heard Beth's shouts.

"Yeah, she'll be fine. This is what it's like, it just takes a while," Ellie reassured her.

"Argh!" They heard Beth cry out as the midwife coached her.

Chloe turned to look at Ellie, "Did you really not know? About Joe and Danny?"

Ellie looked at her and softly said, "No. I'd have done something."

Chloe slowly nodded, finally accepting that they couldn't hold Ellie accountable for Joe's actions. "How do you live with it?"

"Don't have a choice. Like any of us," Ellie admitted.

Beth let out a big yell as they heard the front door open. Chloe quickly stood up to lean over the stairs railing and demand, "Where have you been?"

Mark looked up startled to see that she was still awake so late, "Chloe, what are you doing up?" He started making his way up the stairs but stopped short when he saw Ellie still seated on the stairs by Chloe's feet, "What are you doing here?" Another cry from Beth in the birthing room made him curse, "Oh, bloody hell," and race into the room.

They could hear Beth screaming at him, "Where have you been?"

"I'm here. I'm here take my hand."

Ellie decided to step outside to call and see if Hardy had tracked down Claire after all. She was slightly relieved when he said he successfully kicked Lee out of Claire's house, even if the murder suspect knew where she lived now. "Okay, well, at least she is safe. What are you gonna do now?"

At his house, Alec took the call outside while Bonnie busied herself with moving boxes out of the way in the living room. "I dunno. Claire wouldn't talk to me. I'm gonna need you to talk to her."

Ellie looked into the Latimer house, "That can wait. Beth's just had her baby. Little girl."

The mention of the baby made Alec look into the window doors of the house, watch Bonnie yawn adorably into her hand. "Oh, that's nice. Tell 'em... congratulations."

"Yeah. I'll see you at the court."

"Yeah, okay," he said as he hung up and walked into the house again. "I think it's time for bed."

She gave him a look, "Alec Hardy is conceding to normal human tiredness?"

He narrowed his eyes at her playfully – or as playful as Alec Hardy could be – and said, "I'm getting old."

She rolled her eyes as they walked into the bedroom to ready for the night. "You're not that old. You make yourself sound like Scrooge when you say it like that."

"I've been called worse," he joked as they started changing. "But you can't deny the facts, love. I'm over a decade older than you and it shows. I've got it all – heart problems, aching bones, impending retirement."

Bonnie took him by the collar of the T-shirt she'd gotten him and maneuvered so he was sitting at the foot of the bed. She sat astride his lap and held his chin in her fingers gently, "First of all, you say over a decade like our age difference is closer to twenty years than ten, we're eleven years apart, that's nothing. Second, you don't look as old as you think you do so it doesn't show. I just look more youthful than I really am. Third, your issues have nothing to do with age. Your heart problems came from stress of your very high-stress job. Your aching bones? Also, a result of your previously active career in the police. An impressive career despite your condition. And it's all of that that puts you on the road to retirement right now. Not your age."

"Do you want kids?"

She was startled to say the least. She had expected him to say something contrite and self-deprecating, even slightly spiteful that he would apologize for immediately. Or some lame joke about the length of her speech about his age. She hadn't expected him to ask about children.

"Excuse me?"

"Kids," he repeated. "Do you want them? We've never talked about that, I don't think. But now, you're living here, I believe we're pretty serious. Calls for a conversation, don't you think?"

"I think you made a little jump between conversations here, honey," she said, slightly teasing. "What made you ask that?"

He sighed, "Miller told me that Beth had her baby tonight – a little girl."

Bonnie glowed, "Aw, that's amazing. I'll have to look in on her after court tomorrow." He nodded along but she knew there was more to it, "And that led you to asking me about children?"

He nodded, "She told me and the first thing I thought of was you – us. And, you're the one who talks about the future, takes the initiative. Because I'm a bit of spoiled goods, aren't I? I've been married. I have my daughter. You're still fresh for the world."

"I get it," she realized out loud. "You're worried. Because you don't know if you want more kids other than Daisy, you perceive yourself as too old to start with a baby. And you're worried your feelings on the subject might force me to give up something – something big – in order to be with you. And you don't perceive yourself as worthy of that kind of sacrifice."

He looked at her for a short while before saying, "I thought I was the detective?"

She gave him a look, "I still have intuition. You know you don't have to worry."

"So, you don't – want kids that is?" he slightly stammered.

"I never gave myself the option," she explained. "Since I was young, since I started seeing what I see. I just forced myself to accept the fact that I wasn't meant to have kids whether I wanted them or not."

He slowly nodded along, "You don't want to pass it on..."

She nodded. "I was terrorized by seeing what I can see growing up. And sure, maybe it would have been better with someone other than my mother raising me with it. But I didn't want to burden any child I might have with the same things that plague me, that I moved out of here to get away from. I briefly thought about adoption when I was still at university but decided I wouldn't do that without a partner and never met anyone I could see a future with – until now. And now so much time has passed, I haven't thought of having kids of my own in a long while."

"I understand," he said. "I don't bring it up because I'm all that opposed. I haven't thought of more kids or marriage since my divorce from Tess. I'm the grouchy DI with a defective heart. I never thought I'd find someone I could do all that with again."

"And yet, here I am," she grinned, shuffling closer to him in his lap and giving him a slow kiss. "I love you, Alec. And I can't deny the little butterflies in my stomach at you talking about a future with me so openly. But please don't think you have to have children with me to have me stay with you. Whether we have children together or get married or any of that, I want to be with you. I want a future with you, and whatever comes with you. You don't have to worry about giving me everything you think I might have to give up otherwise to be with you." She slightly pushed him back until he laid back on the bed, "Do we understand?"

He let out a little grunt as he encased her hips in his hands, "I think I can at least table this discussion for another time."

She giggled breathlessly as she started kissing his neck and tug his shirt off of his body. "Show me how old you think you are..."

She was startled and let out a squeal when he suddenly flipped her onto her back and climbed on top of her as he pushed her nightgown up her legs. When she let out little gasps and mewls as he reached down and stroked her into readiness, he felt himself suppressing little shudders. He was still boggled in the head when he thought about how he's been lucky enough to be with her. To get a woman so mystical and open to want to be with his grouchy self. And to be able to make her happy when he failed to do so with Tess. In a way he never thought he would be able to do for anyone.

When he thrust inside of her and she held him tight, he felt like a brand-new person. Without the baggage and insecurities that weighed him down every day he was breathing in Broadchurch. He was twice as satisfied hearing her noises that egged him on as he moved within her than he could possibly get from just the sensation of being inside her.

Making love with Alec, for Bonnie, was confirmation of every thought she'd every had about him since meeting him. Seeing him at his most unguarded, was like peeling back the layers of former DI Alec Hardy and just getting the bare man that loved her and gave to her and didn't expect anything in return – simply accepted what she had to give back. It made her love him more each and every time. Especially since they had yet to try a position when they weren't facing each other. He looked into her eyes, even if they got glazed over or unfocused at times. He was always looking at her and seeing her as he made love to her and gave himself over to her.

And of course, she enjoyed the sensation of being filled, feeling that primal heat rising inside of her. That little windup that wound and wound and wound in her gut was just about to explode when he leaned down to kiss her, still moving but almost resting his whole weight on top of her. He poured everything into his kiss, like he did with every kiss he ever gave her – even the shortest ones. He said everything he was too guarded to say out loud with words.

She finally felt that wound up coil snap inside of her and her whole body exploded into tingles and stars, like she was outside of herself. He was still moving inside of her as she came undone underneath him, kissing her and egging her on into her aftermath until he finally let go as well, spilling everything he had, all of his energy and spirit into her. Until his whole weight was on her and they had to turn together to lay side by side, smiling into each other's eyes.

There's the first altercation between Bonnie and her mum. And a very serious conversation between Bon and Alec about their future... hmm...

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