"Alec, yes it is late. Can we talk tomorrow?"
"Please Rose, I need to apologise for my behaviour. I was wrong. Can I come in?"
Rose moved over and he stepped through the door. She wasn't going to make this easy for him. She knew he had been in the wrong, not her, why had she said she was sorry for something she hadn't done?
"You'd better explain yourself Alec because I have no idea what that was about earlier, it was totally out of order. Where on earth did you get such an idea from? Did one of those men who took you to the club put some stupid idea into you head? I thought you were different from all the other men who go in there but you just think I used you."
Alec knew he deserved it. "I know Rose, I'm sorry, I just got mad at something one of them said to me this morning and I just got this stupid idea they had put you up to it, letting me take you home. I know how wrong I was."
He went to put his arms around her waist but she shook him off.
"I trusted you Alec, you heard everyone say I never let anyone backstage or take them home. Just ask Nigel, he'll tell you I came home, on my own every night. Why didn't you believe me?"
"Rose, I said I'm sorry. Let me make it up to you? The case I was working on, it's all fallen apart and as soon as I wrap up the loose ends, I'll take that time off, take medical leave and get myself sorted because I know what I want now, I want you Rose. I want to take care of you, I want you to quit that job and let me look after you."
Rose looked at him, this was a turnaround from earlier when he had told her to leave. She didn't know if she was quite ready for that sort of commitment.
"Let me think about this Alec, you said some very hurtful things."
"I know Rose and I really am sorry. I'll go, let you sleep on it. I'll pick you up after I get out of work and we'll go back to my place and eat that food you cooked."
"I'll think about it, you have some apologising to do."
"Anything Rose, I'll get a bottle of wine to go with that food, what was it?"
Rose smiled. "Chicken and rice. Get some white wine and some lemonade and you can get me some chocolates, the cream ones and some flowers and I might forgive you."
Alec smiled, he could live with that, he'd been an idiot. If that was all it took for her to forgive him, he would make sure he went out of his way to do so. He opened the door to leave.
"Can I at least get a kiss?"
Rose kissed his cheek. He deserved that too. He set off to go back to the lift and made his way downstairs, he'd been stupid to think she would just forgive him without him having to work at it. He stepped out of the lift and spied Nigel, apparently watching something on a TV. Just then his phone went. It was Rose.
Rose had locked her door and stood with her back to it. Should she just take him back? Every couple had rows and forgave each other, well most of the time, look how many times she herself had taken a snivelling Mickey back because they had been miserable without each other but he had done it once too often, sneaking out of a party to watch football. She picked her mobile up and pressed Alec's number. He answered.
"Alec, are you still in the building?"
"Yes, well just about to step out. What is it?"
"Come back up, if you want. I'm ready to accept your apology."
"I'll be right up." He turned back to the lift and saw the amused look on Nigel's face. He must see it all the time. "Women!" Alec muttered as he got in the lift.
Nigel smiled and went back to watching his late night chat show.
Rose let him in. "I'm not saying I was guilty Alec, it was never about that. If you didn't believe me then you wouldn't have come back."
She was right. He took his jacket off and unfastened her robe, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. Rose looked at him. It was a good thing he was so damn cute or she might not have forgiven him so easily. She wasn't going to let him off though as she made him keep his shorts on in bed, he complained and she said it was his punishment.
The next morning, Alec had to leave early again and Rose said she would be ready when he called around later and would stay at his place, taking a few things with her. They kissed goodbye, Alec not getting his usual snogged senseless goodbye but Rose was still a bit mad at him so he let it slide. Things were not going to go so smoothly once he got to the station though.
His chief had them all in the office, shouting and carrying on at them all, especially Alec who leapt to his own defence and said his stupid ex wife had broken protocol and not gone directly back with the evidence and she should have been more than capable of delivering it. He now had to face going back to court and watching the suspect walk free but at least he could face it with Rose by his side even though he couldn't ask her to actually go to the court with him.
Rose had called her mother and apologised for deceiving her all this time, if apologies were going around, she owed her mother one. When Alec picked her up that night and they had the meal intended for the night before, they made up properly and Rose persuaded him to let her carry on working for the time being, to which he reluctantly agreed.
After he had laid her on the bed and gave her his full attention then they had switched places as Rose moved her hips on him and they both fell over the edge, Rose taking longer to come back down again than Alec, she said since they had two places to pay for and if he was taking a drop in pay, she needed to still work.
"Only until I go on leave, then we'll go away somewhere, anywhere you want. We can still manage."
"I have some time owed to me anyway, get the court over with and we'll go book something. What about seeing your doctor?"
"I'll make an appointment, I promise. Now let's make up for last night again."
He didn't know that wasn't going to be the end of it however. As expected, he went back to court and the case was thrown out due to lack of evidence and even though it had not been entirely his fault and had to accept the responsibility and since it was hardly time to admit there was something wrong with him, he asked for a transfer rather than medical leave. He wasn't too sure how long it was going to take and since the families involved with the case were out for blood, his chief decided it would be best if he went on administrative leave meaning he would only get half pay or he could stay where he was and put up with it. He decided to take the leave he was owed and hope he would get a transfer but now it was out he had allowed evidence to be lost, there wasn't going to be a long line of chiefs wanting to take him on.
Rose wasn't pleased when he hadn't gone on medical leave but she understood his motives. She still insisted he saw his GP and insisted on going with him to see what his chances were. After his examination, he was told to take it easy and come back, he had been under too much stress. That wasn't going to be easy and Rose would have her work cut out for her as Mickey was about to kick up a fuss.
Rose had gone back to work, saying she was going to take some time off when Alec had seen about getting himself sorted but on the Saturday night, Rose was doing her second turn and she saw Mickey. Not believing he'd had the nerve to turn up, she rang Alec after she came off stage and asked him to come and meet her after she finished and asked Mick not to let Mickey backstage. When Alec arrived just before Rose was due to come out, he had got out of his car and crossed the road to wait for her, knowing the door would be open and she would see him when she came out of her dressing room.
Mickey came around the corner, having worked out where Rose came out and confronted him.
"So who exactly are you then? Getting backstage without paying and forcing Rose into your car."
"I was not forcing Rose into my car and what has it to do with you? She broke up with you over two years ago. What's wrong with you? Can't you get your own girlfriend you have to come back into Rose's life and try to take her from me?"
Mickey was boiling. "What's a detective doing with a dancer? Isn't she a bit below you?" Mickey was determined that if Rose wouldn't go back with him, this Alec Hardy certainly wasn't going to have her. "She's too young for you anyway, how old are you? Late 30's?"
He stepped up to Alec but he sprang back. Alec regretted not taking his pills earlier, they were in his jacket pocket and he needed them. He would have to ask Rose to get some water for him so he could take them. Mickey sprang forward without warning and pushed Alec back just as Rose came out.
"Alec! Mickey, what are you doing? Leave him alone. He's not well."
Alec was stumbling back, his focus was going and he could just make out Rose coming towards him. Mick had seen what was going on and urged Rose to go out, he was not allowed to interfere outside the club. Rose caught Alec and steadied him. "Alec, where are your pills?"
"Inside pocket, I need some water."
Rose shouted for Mick to get some water and he was back out a few seconds later, Rose holding onto Alec while he took them. Making sure he was ok, she rounded on Mickey, who was just staring.
She lunged at him and slapped his face, hard. "Get out of here Mickey or I swear I'll take an injunction out against you if you ever come near Alec or me again. Now apologise to Alec, you could have sent him to hospital."
Mickey wondered how he was supposed to have known there was something wrong with the bloke. "I'm not apologising but I'll leave. I wanted you to come back Rose, to give me another chance."
Rose laughed. He had to be joking. "After your behaviour? Really? Come back to nights of you going down the pub, with or without me and ignoring me when the football's on? I don't think so. When I was 19 I didn't know any better, I thought all blokes were like that. Now I know they're not. Alec is a decent man, a far better one than you'll ever be so go away Mickey or I'll carry out my threat. I have witnesses to your behaviour towards me and Alec."
Alec was feeling slightly better, still holding onto Rose but now with one arm around her. "Come on Rose, leave it, let's go home, I'm ok now."
"No, it's ok Alec, we'll get a taxi and you can come back for your car, you can't drive like that. Come on, one's just arrived. Is that ok Mick, will one of the girls wait?"
"Sure Rose, take him home."
"Did you lock your car Alec? You didn't leave anything in it did you?"
Alec smiled and was about to say he wasn't called Tess but she wouldn't get the joke. Once back at her apartment, she made sure he was ok and he didn't need to go to hospital before going upstairs and made sure he didn't exert himself again.
"Alec, you can't keep on like this you know. Why don't you ask your GP to refer you to the hospital and get on the waiting list for an operation? Once you do that, we'll go take a holiday for a week and hopefully your transfer will have come through when we get back. In the meanwhile, why don't you give notice on your apartment and come and live with me so I can look after you?"
"I haven't been there long enough Rose, it's a minimum of six months and I've only been there five, I'll have to wait. I got offered a place teaching at the academy in Exeter, I was going to tell you when you got back. Should I take it? We'll both have to move and it's not until next term, September."
"Alec, you know you won't settle down there, let's just wait and if nothing turns up, then take it."
So Alec got a hospital appointment after his own GP said it was urgent and he was told it could be up to 3 months before he could have the pacemaker fitted anyway so he agreed to wait. Rose offered to pay for him to go private and that was a mistake.
"No Rose, I won't let you pay for it, I could use my medical insurance if I wanted to, there's no sense in you offering to pay, it's not happening."
Alec moved his personal belongings out of his apartment a week later, having to pay another month before he could give notice on it. Fortunately, it came furnished so he had nothing to worry about in storage arrangements. He was already annoyed about Rose paying for her apartment and carrying on working but they had booked a holiday to a resort in Spain for the end of the month and were looking forward to it.
After their holiday, Alec was about to accept the post at the academy, his operation was still almost two months away, he had just given notice on his apartment when he received another offer from the chief superintendent of a small town in Dorset, saying the position of detective inspector was open and only one candidate had applied, a detective sergeant so he was more than likely to be the one to be offered the job. He had three days to make his mind up.
"What do you think Sweetheart? We thought we were going to move to Exeter anyway in September, it's only six weeks early. We were going over to look at apartments anyway and this town, Broadchurch, well it's right on the coast. We could go down for a few days and look at places there. Rose?"
Rose was daydreaming. "Mmm, yeah, ok, we can do that. Why don't we go this weekend, I'll get Saturday off and we can stay a couple of nights. When do you have to start?"
"Right away, if my interview goes ok but I can't say anything about my health Rose."
"Won't they want you to have a medical exam before you start?"
"No, I've been on leave. Besides, I still have a while to wait for my operation, I'll get it moved to a hospital nearer there then once I've started the job, I'll take some medical leave, if everything goes ok, I shouldn't be off that long, I can go back part time. It's a quiet seaside town, what can possibly go wrong?"
The End!
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