Rose's parents were taken aback to say the least but Tony just pushed his way past to his sister and held on to her as he could see something was wrong. Rose led him over to the now newly draped with a clean cover sofa and sat him down and went to get the present they had got him to calm him down while Alec stepped aside to let her parents in, Jackie almost having to be led in by Pete.
Rose was sat by Tony as he played with his hastily unwrapped Police car that Alec had put rechargeable batteries in and there were more charging up nearby, Jackie sat herself down next to her son and Pete took one of the chairs, Alec the remaining one next to Rose. Rose had left dinner to simmer on a low setting but was keeping an eye on the time. Alec reached out for Rose's hand across the space of the sofa and the chair and took hold of it, Jackie glaring at him in full battle mode. It was Pete who finally broke the silence.
"Jackie, sweetheart, I told you Alec looked like him, didn't I? Rose, you told me he still had a beard the last time we spoke about him, didn't you?"
Rose look across at Alec then back to Pete "Mum, it's not like you weren't warned and he only shaved off his beard last Saturday night, I never knew he planned to do it, or ask me to marry him."
Tony looked up from his toy at his sister. "What does marry mean?" he asked her. "Alec, can I have a ride in your Police car? If you're living with my sister, does that mean you're my big brother now? Mum, is Alec my brother now? I always wanted a big brother."
Rose thought he sounded just like his mother.
His mother looked at him and ruffled his hair. "Well, we're just going to have to see about that, aren't we?" as she glared at Alec again.
Rose saw her opportunity to rescue Alec from her mother and told him she needed help with dinner. Her mother got up to offer her help but Rose insisted she and Alec did it, they were their guests. They closed the door to the kitchen and Rose put her arms round his neck and kissed him.
"That was a close one, Inspector," she said.
Alec nodded his agreement. "I still love you Rosie, it won't put me off. At least she's not slapped me yet," he smiled.
"Oh, there's still plenty of time for that, Inspector, she's not recovered from the initial shock yet," she teased.
"Well, I hope you don't take after your mother and start slapping me on the face but you can slap me elsewhere any time you like."
Rose just smiled back at him and patted his behind and started to get dinner out and Alec took a tray into the living room with a smile on his face.
During dinner, Jackie made her usual remarks, Rose kept glancing for Alec's reaction. He'd been nervous enough and Jackie wasn't helping. It was the first time he had sat down in a large family environment and it was showing. She smiled reassuringly at him as her mother kept going on about how domesticated Rose had got and was Alec helping with the housework and was Rose still working full time at the shop and how Alec should be supporting her and not making her work.
When Rose finally got a word in she informed her mother she had cut down to two hours a day, four days a week and yes, they shared certain household duties but she was now spending more time at home so there wasn't as much to do. She could tell Alec was getting agitated by the way his eyebrows were twitching, something again that reminded her of how alike he and the Doctor were but she was thinking less and less about it because there were Alec's little habits now, the man she loved.
Jackie went to put Tony to bed despite him protesting he wanted to stay and persuaded Alec to tell him stories about Police car chases before he went to bed. Rose had volunteered to take him but Jackie insisted and the Pete suggested they all go round to make it easier so Rose said they would be round after they cleaned the dishes. Alone at last in the kitchen Rose smiled in sympathy at poor Alec who was clearly out of his depth.
"Aw, my poor Inspector, you really don't know what you're letting yourself in for, do you?" as she kissed him and unbuttoned his shirt.
He tried to stop her but not by much, unbuttoning her top in return. He closed the blind and pulled out a chair and sat her down on top of him, reaching up her skirt.
"If your mother knocks at that door now, I'm a dead man," he laughed as he pulled up her skirt and top and pulled down her knickers.
Afterwards, they went to join the others next door and made plans for the weekend but Jackie had her own agenda. Were they planning an engagement party? Where will they get married? When will they get married? Did they want to get married at the Mansion? Alec was trying very hard to keep up with all the questions while Jackie was looking daggers at him.
Rose suggested they didn't really want a big party, they would be happy just having a party before everyone left so Alec came up with the idea of all going out on Sunday lunchtime with Ellie and the boys and having sort of a party then everyone would be happy. Rose said she would ring Jake and see if he could come down on Sunday and they could call and ask Ellie in the morning and then in the afternoon she'd take her mum shopping and Pete and Alec could take Tony to the playground and take his new Police car for a good run. Alec said he'd see if Ellie's boys wanted to go as well.
They all said goodnight and Alec and Rose went home with Rose saying her mum had ears that could hear a pin drop five miles away and so to keep the noise down to which Alec said he hoped she had earmuffs then because he wasn't prepared to tone it down just because her mother was next door. They fell into bed laughing, the events of Alec's nightmare first meeting with his future in-laws forgotten once he was wrapped up in Rose.
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After surviving the evening with Rose's family, all Alec wanted to do was go to bed with his Rosie. He'd been nervous enough that morning when he went to work and it didn't get any better when he got home and they came round for dinner, except for the part of actually getting home and being with Rose who always made it worth his while to get home on time. He didn't know what the rest of the weekend had in store. If he thought he'd just survived the first day, it was nothing compared to what he was in for.
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Rose went to invite Ellie and the boys to Sunday lunch as their engagement party then later she went shopping with her mum who had a million questions for her. She took her into the Gallery and introduce her to Clare and Carly, giving her a floral print to take home with her. They had agreed to meet up with 'The Boys' at the caf across from the Police Station. Tom had declined to go with them because they were going where his dad used to take them but they took Fred, assuring Ellie they wouldn't let him have more than one ice-cream and Alec would carry him if he got tired.
They made their way home, getting a large taxi as Fred was getting tired and dropped him off and Jackie offered to help Rose with dinner and just as they sat down there was a ring of the doorbell. It was Jake, who had managed to get away earlier than he thought and he urgently needed to talk alone with Pete. The two of them went back to Rose's house and it was not good news when they came back. Pete asked Jackie to take Tony back next door after they finished eating and when they left, they all went into the living room, Rose and Alec completely in the dark about what was going on but they wished they'd stayed in the dark because somehow, they didn't know how, Mickey Smith had regained some of his memories and was already in Broadchurch. He'd been spotted in London by a team member, after an alert went out for Rose and Alec when he'd done a general search on them, who had then had him followed and reported to Jake, who had driven down as fast as he could. Alec immediately put his arm around Rose as she looked to Pete and asked him how this had happened.
Jake said another team member was already on the way down and the one who followed him had him under observation. It seemed Mickey had not regained all his memories because he'd not noticed he was being followed. Pete said that Rose and Alec should continue with their plans tomorrow as normal but Alec said that they shouldn't go for their morning run. Jake however offered to go with them but they declined his offer, their morning run was a special time for them and they weren't willing to share it. They did however concede to Jake staying with them as long as he kept out of the way in the morning. They didn't want to alarm Jackie so they said they would just carry on as normal, hoping that if Mickey did indeed show up he'd have the sense of not doing or saying anything in front of her. Even Mickey was scared of Jackie, memories or no memories.
Pete went back next door and Alec rang Ellie to tell her what had happened and that they were still on for lunch tomorrow while Jake got his things from the car and settled in the spare room.
"I hope you two are going to keep the noise down tonight Rose," he joked, while Alec was in the kitchen talking to Ellie on the phone and making drinks.
"Ha, no chance Jake, just bring your earphones and music player and turn it up really loud," Rose laughed back. "Alec won't even keep the noise down with my mum being next door though she didn't say anything this morning."
Alec came back in and asked if he was the subject of their conversation thinking that would be twice they'd been talking about him then. "You don't have to stop on my account," he said as he sat as close to Rose as he could get and putting his hand on her knees.
Jake was eyeing the pair of them. This was the first time he'd seen them together. He hadn't stayed long the last time Mickey was bothering them because he thought it had been resolved but as he saw the way they reacted with each other, he could understand why Mickey had come over all jealous all of a sudden.
A family weekend was about to turn into disaster and Alec had not seen Jackie when she got going but the following day was going to make up for that.
As they went to bed, Rose turned to Alec and asked him how he was feeling. Mickey was obviously on a dangerous mission to try to either discredit Alec in front of Rose or he was going to do something even more stupid.
"Alec, please tell me this isn't getting to you because I need you to protect me. I know Jake is here to do his job but I feel a lot safer with you."
"Rosie, sweetheart, I admit this is getting tiresome but it's not going to bother me and you shouldn't let it get to you either. I've got four weeks leave to come so tomorrow after lunch we'll pack some bags and just go away somewhere. We'll get the ferry over to France and go see Paris or we'll get a Zeppelin and go to Spain or somewhere. There are always last minute holidays if you're all ready and packed. I'll go on the internet and book one. Mickey still thinks you live next door so you're perfectly safe here and Jake's in the next room. If anything, you should feel sorry for Mickey if he wakes your mother up, then Jake won't have to deal with him." Rose laughed with him.
As they stood in the bedroom, Alec just stood behind Rose and started to undress her, slowly. Sometimes he like to watch her and others he liked to do it which he knew she enjoyed the most so this was one of the times as he completed his task and pulled back the bedclothes. He also knew she liked to watch him get undressed and he figured she deserved it.
Jake just took Rose's advice and turned his music up as loud as it would go so he couldn't hear her screams as she was telling Alec she wanted more but it didn't help.
The following morning, after them trying to not make too much noise in the shower, Jake joined them for breakfast saying he could hear the two of them over his music last night and don't think he'd not heard them in the shower this morning. Rose just pulled a face and said he was only jealous because he was away from his boyfriend.
They had planned to go out for lunch taking two cars and that Jake could go with Jackie and Pete, much to Tony's delight and Rose and Alec would take Ellie and the boys, borrowing the child seat. Something caught Rose's attention the way Alec was putting the car seat in and placing Fred in it, just the way he did it, thinking that poor Alec had never even stood a chance with his daughter and now he was about to get a second chance at a real family, two people who really loved each other and they would soon be thinking about starting their own.
As they got to the pub for lunch, they didn't notice another car was following at a distance and it turned into the car park just as Rose and Alec were about to go in as Alec had been helping Fred out of his seat and Ellie had just taken him inside. Alec and Rose were outside, talking, Rose was saying her dad would insist on paying and Alec said it was their party and he should pay for it. They were stood in front of two wooden square plant holders marking either side of the path into the pub and Alec was just about to say something back to her and was still on the pavement as he suddenly heard the noise of screeching tyres and a revving car engine getting nearer and he turned as a speeding car was heading straight for him.