*Flashback – Month 4 of Alec and Liv*

After Ellie left Liv's flat that morning, the Scottish woman sat at her office desk and powered up her laptop to continue her work on her next book. She planned to make a full day of it, and had let Alec and Ellie both know she planned on keeping her phone in the drawer and out of sight, so that she could have some peace and quiet.

Ellie walked into the station and made her way up to CID. There was banging and other construction noises coming from what would soon be her office. In the meantime, she kept her desk in the main bullpen. As she walked to her desk, she continued to consider her conversation with Liv that morning, and the veiled threats the Scottish woman was receiving via post and delivery. When she arrived at her desk, she found Alec sitting in the chair beside it, reading a file. "What are you doing out here?" she questioned him.

He looked up at her and she immediately saw he was in a sour mood. "They're banging about in your new office as if the rest of us don't have work to perform. I can't concentrate in there. At least it's a bit quieter out here." He glanced up at the clock on the wall. "You're a bit late getting in this morning."

"Liv asked me to go over for a cuppa this morning," she explained, hoping to brush it off. She should have come up with some other excuse, but she hadn't thought through it.

"Oh?" His eyebrow raised and he looked up again from the file folder in his lap. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Just wanted to chat, it's been a while since we've had the chance. Between work and this new boyfriend she's got, her time is quite monopolized," she said with a smirk at one corner of her mouth.

Having already gone back to the file, he huffed out a small chuckle, but then a moment later stopped and looked back up, closing the folder. "But you wouldn't brush off getting to work on time for a chat with Liv. She wouldn't let you. There's more that you're not telling me, Miller. You're a horrible liar."

Damn, she thought to herself. Almost got it by him. "It's nothing. Everything will be fine, I'm sure."

"Miller," he growled.

"Hardy," she said back, and the stare off began.

After a moment, he frowned. "Have I done something to upset her?"

Miller sighed and rolled her eyes as she went about checking her emails for anything important. "No, you've done nothing wrong."

"Miller, so help me God, I will sit here at your desk—All. Day. Long.—If that's what it takes to get you to tell me what's going on. I can see clearly that you are worried about something."

Four hours later, with a few stretch breaks in between, Liv was pretty satisfied with her progress for the day. She opened her emails, found a few from her publisher, and then her face turned to a frown. An email, and this time there was firm confirmation of who the notes had been from. An email, from Jim Wright.

"How the hell did he get my new private email address?" she growled to herself, slamming her fist down on her office desk with a loud bang.

Before anything else could happen, she was distracted when she noticed out the window a police car pulling up outside the building. She frowned, and wondered for a moment —but no, Ellie wouldn't have done that—so she got up to prepare herself a fresh cup of tea.

She had gone through another three cups of tea, taken a nap, gotten back up and was working away again. She glanced at her watch – it was almost ten o'clock at night. She thought about texting Alec –they hadn't talked or communicated at all the entire day. He knew, though, that she was planning on having a concentrated writing day, and she appreciated his silence as she focused. She pulled her phone out of the drawer and saw a missed call from him, but before she could type out a text reply, she glanced back out the window just as one police car left and another one immediately took its place. "That looks suspiciously like a shift change to me." she growled under her breath as she got up, grabbing her keys from the side table by the door, and walked out of her flat.

A few minutes later she was down the two flights of stairs and out the front door of the building, knocking on the window of the police car.

The window went down on the vehicle. She recognized the two uniformed officers, but couldn't recall their names. "Hello gentleman, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was just wondering if I should be concerned with the police presence outside my building all day today?"

The two men looked at each other nervously. They recognized this woman as well. In fact, she was the reason they were there. The man at the window turned back and smiled to her. "We're here under orders to keep the building under watch, ma'am."

"Oh, for what reason?" she asked, her voice almost sickly sweet.

"Um, possible threats to a resident, ma'am," he answered.

"Is that so?" she said through clenched teeth, but then attempted to smile again. "If you don't mind me asking, because I know you're only allowed to provide vague information to us residents, could you tell me who ordered the watch? Only then, I could perhaps request more information from them."

The two men looked at each other again. They were pretty sure no matter how they answered this question, they were going to be in trouble. Either with DI Hardy, or with Liv MacDonald. But, at least they could defend that it was a reasonable request for information from a citizen, so he caved. "Ma'am, DI Hardy ordered the surveillance, ma'am," he said nervously.

Her face dropped into a frown. "As I guessed. Thank you, gentlemen. I'll be leaving my residence now, so you might as well go take a coffee break. I'll be heading straight to see DI Hardy, so you can be assured that I'll be just fine. Thank you."

Fifteen minutes later there was a loud bang on the glass door to Hardy's hillside cottage. He had been laying in bed reading, and frowned upon hearing the noise. Before he was even up out of the bed, the banging repeated. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" he yelled as he stomped down the hall.

He hadn't made it to the door before he saw who was making the noise. He stopped in his tracks, seeing the glare of the red-headed Scot following his movements. Her eyebrow raised and she spoke, loud enough for him to hear through the glass, "Are you going to open the bloody door or am I going to break it down?"

That set him back into motion quickly and he made the few more steps required to reach the door and slide it open. She barged in, straight past him. She stared towards the far wall of the home, without turning to face him, and spoke quietly only this once. "Is Daisy here?"

"No, she's at Chloe's," he responded as quietly, knowing it was all she needed to hear before the storm started again.

She turned quickly and glared. "What the hell do you think you're doing putting a police watch on my flat? Without my permission? Without at least speaking to me first?"

"I do not need a resident's permission to place a police surveillance anywhere," he shot back at her quickly. As soon as he said it, he knew he was making it worse, not better.

"A resident's permission? A resident? So that's how you're playing this? As the responsible DI, not even the concerned boyfriend?" Her voice was going up in volume with every question. "The DI wouldn't even know about this if I wasn't dating him, and his partner hadn't grassed on her best friend!"

"Aye, and since you brought it up, let's talk about that. Why didn't you tell me you were receiving threats from your abusive ex-husband?! You didn't think that might be something your concerned boyfriend might want to know!?" His temper could flare just as hot as hers, and it was on fire.

"I didn't tell you for this exact reason! I knew you'd overreact!" she shouted.

"Overreact!? Is four years all it takes for you to forget that jerk beat you up so bad you had to go to the A&E on multiple occasions?" His arms flailed as he yelled. They had each taken up position on an opposite side of the couch, moving in circles around it as they argued.

"I have by no means forgotten what he did to me. I still carry the scars." Her yelling lost energy as the last part was croaked out. She inhaled deeply, unwilling to break down and show any weakness.

"Aye, that's for certain. But not just the ones you see when you stare in the mirror. Some of them are on that bloody big heart of yours. You would talk all day long to me about opening up, letting others in, trying to gain friends—but you? You're a hypocrite! Aye, you're friends with everyone in this bloody town. You've opened up about your past, aye. We've gone out on dates and had a terrific time. But you are scared to death of letting me actually care about you! Because that's what this is about! I care about you and I am worried for your life, Olivia! That man is crazy! It's been four years since you left him, three since the divorce, and now because you're back within arms reach he thinks he can go right back to abusing you! I won't have it, Liv! I won't let him touch you! I just want to protect you, can't you see that! If it wasn't for that bloody badge I carry around in my pocket, I can promise you there'd be more than a police surveillance outside your building. I'd have already been at that man's flat giving him a very clear reminder of the distance he needs to keep from you." He stopped, and sighed as he watched her. He could see her shaking from where he stood several feet away, her eyes staring down at an invisible spot on the carpet.. He slowly came closer to her, hands out in a placating gesture, as if he was proving he was unarmed. When he spoke again, it was just above a whisper. "Liv, please look at me." She did as he asked, and he could see her eyes reddening. "Liv, I love you. This is the harsh, stubborn, weak-hearted Scottish bloke who loves you. And I'm sorry, but that means I care, and that means I want to protect you."

"It's just—it's too much, Alec. He's pushing me from one side, you're pushing me from the other. I just—I can't handle it right now." And with that, she ran. She was out of his house and in her car pulling quickly away before he could even stop her. But he knew she heard him calling after her as she ran to the car, and even after she was in it. She saw him standing there, outside the house in his pajama pants and t-shirt, staring as she pulled away.