As from now on, the story will be different from the TV-show.
No. This can't be true. He must've bribed the jury. Blackmailed them. Gotten help from the inside. This can't be the end of it.
Not guilty.
Ellie just doesn't understand. She feels so many emotions at the same time now, that she ends up looking blankly across from the balcony of the courthouse.
Not guilty.
She has expected so many things, but not this. There is one thing Joe Miller isn't, and that is not guilty. He killed Danny, kept it a secret for so long, pretending like everything's normal. The worst of them all is NOT GUILTY? The anger is boiling up inside her, but is soon replaced by absolute, total desperation when she sees the rest of the Latimer family together with their attorneys in the courtroom where everything just happened. They will not overcome this and she knows it.
Everything is destroyed. And she has been the cause. If she hadn't met Beth, Joe wouldn't have known Danny. None of this would have happened. And they must feel that too.
It was her fault.
She jumps a little when Hardy lightly touches her right shoulder to get her attention. She abruptly turns around and stares at him like a lioness who is hunting and sees her prey getting stolen away from her. He doesn't seem to notice (or might already be used to the look) and starts to talk in a low voice.
"Let's get away from here, Miller."
She can only look at him dumbfounded. "Sorry, what?!"
"There's nothing you can do here. While you can help catch a killer who is not getting away with it."
The anger boils in her while she tries to apprehend what Hardy is implying.
"You seriously think I'm gonna go with you now? You forgot what just happened there? THEY LET GO OF MY MURDEROUS HUSBAND. BECAUSE I DIDN'T SEE THAT THE WORST OF ALL WAS STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME THE WHOLE TIME. HE KILLED DANNY AND IS GETTING AWAY WITH IT!"
Still, Hardy seems reluctant to give in, is almost getting more eager to convince her to come.
"This anger inside of you, boiling, you need to use that anger for getting justice for these little girls, Millah. I used to feel the same way, I feel the same way now! But this is exactly the kind of feeling we need to catch the Ashworths once and for all."
"I'm not going with you! Solve it yourself!"
He tries another time. "So what, you are gonna keep on standing here, crying, while no one cares about you here? While you know you're all alone right now? There's nothing to do for you here. Nothing at all."
She surprises even herself with the calmness she answers him, since she has never felt so angry before in her life. "You can go to hell. To hell with your new heart and your blindness for everything around you except for yourself. And your justice. Because this is only about you. You don't give a shit about anything or anyone. You only care about yourself and your career. I see why you don't have any friends, Sir. You're pathetic at even the slightest piece of what we call emotions. You can solve it yourself. Or don't. I honestly don't care. Screw you."
She turns on her heels and moves away from him, towards somewhere she doesn't even know, never looking back to the man who came the closest to a friend she had the last few months. And who she now had offended in the worst way possible.
After her outburst, Alec Hardy removes himself slowly from the courthouse. He feels all eyes staring at him, since about everyone just heard Ellie Miller practically blaming him for being the worst human being possible. And when he secretly looks up for a few seconds, looking anyone in the eye who's staring at him too, he knows Miller just told him what they all think about him. A worthless human being, and a useless detective as well.
He pulls up the collar of his coat, trying to get as invisible as possible, and takes some large strides to finally exit the building. In a glimpse, he sees Joe Miller leaving by taxi, and another ping of guilt hits him. Was Miller true? Would this case have been solved if he hadn't been the lead investigator? Didn't he also screw up the Gillespie's case, just because he so eagerly wanted it to solve?
Maybe he was the worst cop in Britain after all. Maybe he shouldn't have ever leave Scotland. Or even better, he shouldn't have ever become a cop.
All the satisfying feelings he had felt after waking up from that surgery were gone. She had succeeded in smashing all his new hopes and dreams he had about Sandbrook. And Joe Miller. And Broadchurch. There was no place for him here, not now, not ever.
With his eyes fixed on the road beneath him the whole time, he increased his pace to flee towards his boathouse, and to flee from everything concerning her. Ellie Miller.
Tess immediately senses something's wrong. Let's say, more wrong than expected. She had followed the verdict from a distance, and had anticipated on an angry Alec and an evening of discussions, or even fighting. And somehow, she was looking forward to it. Because after yesterday, after their intimate conversations, her taking care of him, him being so kind and nice to her, she had a feeling that everything could be alright. If only she would put some energy in it. Tell him her side of the story and let him speak his'. And maybe, even maybe, the evening would end up with the two of them agreeing on trying to get together again. Just maybe.
But the moment Tess saw him walking towards the house, she knew that scenario wouldn't happen tonight. Something was up, and it was going to be terrible.
And that night they fought. Not like she intended to, but they really fought. Or more, she was fighting with him. For about the first time in his life she could remember, he wasn't fighting back. It almost looked like he had giving up. No matter what she said or did, he kept on answering with the same words.
"Just go, Tess. I'm no good for you. And maybe you're not good for me too. But I'm definitely not good for you. Or for anyone for that matter."
The first time she heard it, she was struck by it. "Excuse me?! When did you make that one up? After you took the blame for pendant? After you took the blame for Joe Miller? Well, I'm going to tell you something: You. are. not. to. blame. for. that. None of that is your fault. You know how the pendant got stolen. And it certainly wasn't you who got Joe Miller out. You had him arrested for Christ's sake. It was you who found out he was the killer."
But Alec Hardy wasn't to be reasoned with. Stubborn as always, he had taken the truth from someone whom he had gotten very fond of these last months. Whom he had trusted more than he had trusted himself. Ellie Miller. She blamed him. Therefore, he blamed himself. End of story.
"I'm sorry Tess, but you have to go. I'm not changing my mind. You can't be with me. You shouldn't want to be."
"And what about Lisa and Pippa then? You are going to stop chasing after their murderer as well?"
He hasn't really thought about that, but knew the answer anyway.
"I won't ever stop chasing him. But I need to do that on my own. I can't bring any of you along with it." Again, Alec looked at Tess with an expression that didn't leave any room for arguing with him.
Tess tried one last hopeless effort. "And what about Daisy?"
Daisy. His only real light of his existence. The one choice he didn't regret. But deep in his heart, he knew he wasn't good for Daisy either. You only care about yourself. Maybe Miller's words were true. It was about time he shut everyone out. For everyone else's sake.
"She hates me most of the time anyway. It's better she doesn't see me for a while."
And that was the end of it. Tess knew it.
"When did you get this stubborn? Before all of this happened, before the whole pendant story, you used to be so soft, so nice. You were Daisy's whole word. You were my world."
Tears started to roll along her cheeks, and she noticed the watery eyes of her ex-husband as well. But he didn't reply. He just stared at her. Looking all pitiful, helpless, and handsome.
Tess finally bowed her head and starting packing her things. After a while of just standing where she had left him, Alec started to help her out. In complete silence, they finished the task and soon her bags were packed. He helped her carry the bags towards her car and still watched in silence while she walked around and opened the driver's door. She took one last look at him, and realised how incredibly vulnerable he looked. Fragile. And thin. He must've lost many pounds due to his condition, the diet they put him on, and all the pressure of trying to solve something he may never could. She felt the stinging of tears in the corner of her eyes again.
"Just look after yourself, okay? Don't destroy yourself. There are still people who care about you. And you'll find it out, one way or the other. But just don't give up on yourself in the meantime. Please? Do it for Daisy?"
He looked at her while keeping his balled fists in his pockets to prevent her from seeing him on the brick of breaking down. He could only nod and did just that. She seemed to be satisfied with his answer since she finally set down behind the wheel and started to drive away from him.
He slowly walked back towards his house and settled himself on his bed. The rest of the night he just sat there, staring to nothing in particular, thinking about everything in particular. He never thought about eating, or drinking anything. He never thought about taking his suit or tie off. He just sat there. Nothing happened. And nobody came around. He was, indeed, all alone right now.
When she entered her house with Tom right behind her, she still felt miserable about the verdict. In fact, she had needed to stop the car alongside the road twice to throw up. Tom had just sat there, watching her from the passenger's seat, and had said nothing. And she knew why. Nothing was left to be said, and everything had been said with those two words.
Not guilty.
She tried to pick up the pieces she had left, and started to make a sandwich for herself and Tom. She settled herself next to her oldest son and after a while, they did however started talking. About nothing in particular and about everything in particular. They even laughed a couple of times when Tom brought up anecdotes of their time together when he was younger. But mostly they cried together. During that night, she felt herself getting stronger and knew she still had two boys to fight for. And she knew she would fight for them until her last dying breath.
Very late during that night, they were interrupted by her mobile phone ringing. She looked at the screen, and in surprise read Beth's name on it. Her heart was beating in her chest when she took the call.
"Beth?"
She heard the woman on the other side of the line sniffing as a result of hours and hours of crying, Ellie knew. The next words she had never expected to hear from her former best friend.
"We're going to take care of him, Ellie. Get him out of our lives forever. You with us?"
Although she had no idea what Beth meant with that, Ellie knew she would do whatever it took to make that happen.
"Yes. I'm with you. Always."
"Good. We call you. Tomorrow morning."
She ended the call and continued talking to Tom, with a tiny feeling of hope raising up in her chest.
She didn't think about Lisa, Pippa and the Ashworths that night. She didn't think about Alec Hardy that night either.
He never knew when he fell asleep. He assumed he never would after everything that had happened the last two days. But he did. He never planned on falling asleep so soundly he never heard his front door being opened and a man slowly making his way towards him.
When he did wake up with a sense that something was wrong, it was already too late. He woke up with a jolt and a jolt from his ICD, and tried to fold his hands around the huge hand now closing in on his neck, slowly pushing the air out of him. His eyes became wide when he looked right into the man's face he immediately recognized. The grip around his neck became tighter, although he felt like he wasn't going down that easily.
Just when he started to free the hand around his neck a little and felt a small gasp of fresh air enter his throat, he felt a gun pulled firmly against his left temple.
"Finally, it took about forever for you to fall asleep. Now lay still and don't scream, or I'll shoot you in the head".
That was it, chapter two!
Let me know what you think :)