Mickey didn't know what had happened to him. He had suddenly found himself in Leeds running a small office in one of the suburbs with a whole history behind him and he didn't know how it had happened. It started slowly, certain memories creeping through like suddenly remembering his old Gran and places that weren't familiar.
He didn't know that Torchwood had set everything up for him, given him a new background story, going back all his adult life.
Then he'd been on the internet one day, looking at the news and came across a small town paper in Dorset and seen the pictures of a Police Detective Inspector who had just got engaged to a young woman from out of town who ran a shop there. The announcement came with a half page story about the couple, who had met in the town after Detective Inspector Alec Hardy had been there for the best part of a year and the woman had been there just over three months and they had met at her shop. It went on to say the woman, a Miss Rose Tyler, was the step-daughter of a well known London businessman who had married her mother just over eight years ago and the Inspector was the Detective who had solved the murder of a young boy in the town last year. One picture showed the couple holding hands and showing off her engagement ring.
Something about the story stuck in the back of his mind. He was sure he had seen the woman somewhere before but she was from London and he'd never heard of the town, Broadchurch so where had he come across her? He thought more about her, certain he'd known her in the past. The couple had looked happy in the pictures and made Mickey think how miserable he was, no girlfriend or even friends and a dead-end job solving petty problems of anyone who could afford his measly fee who wanted someone following or to settle a domestic problem. Still, somehow he was making ends meet and surviving courtesy of Torchwood which was unbeknown to him. He remembered arriving in Leeds but was there trying to forget his past.
He woke up a few days after seeing the article and it was like he'd been hit with a ten tonne truck. Rose Tyler. He knew that name. Then 'The Powell Estate' suddenly popped into his mind for some strange reason so he looked it up and found it had been a council estate in London but had been knocked down eight years ago.
Other names and places started to emerge, Hendricks Department Store, walking plastic dummies, green blobby creatures, bats of the flying variety, Madame Du Pompadour, Cybermen. He stopped at the name of Cyberman, those metal creatures that a long time ago had tried to take over and convert people in London and other places and had visions of other small, rounder metal creatures and a battle going on inside a building and Zeppelins.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he did a search for this Rose Tyler and got redirected to something called Torchwood so he did one for this Alec Hardy and got the same. "Must be some glitch on the internet," he thought. He decided he would take a few days off and go visit Broadchurch and see this Powell Estate and see if he could remember who this Rose Tyler was, maybe seeing her would jog his memory. He didn't know his searches had created an alert and someone would be watching out for him.
So he drove down to London, seeing a large space where tower blocks had once been and new houses and it didn't ring any bells. He drove around for a while thinking he could either drive straight down to Broadchurch or stay the night. He chose a cheap hotel and thought it better to drive down the following day, Saturday.
He arrived in Broadchurch and booked into a hotel on the main street and thought it strange that the woman at the reception desk said, "Hello, Mr Smith, back again?" and dismissed it thinking she had mistaken him for someone else. He walked across to the local newspaper office and asked if they had a copy of the paper announcing the engagement of Rose Tyler and Alec Hardy, saying he was a friend from out of town. He got a copy and sat in the corner of the Tourist Information Office and a woman came over to him. He asked her if she knew the couple and she said only that he was a Police Detective and she ran a picture gallery down the road and told him where it was. He walked down and found the shop only to see a woman and a young girl inside and went in and enquired about Rose Tyler, saying again he was a friend of hers. The woman said she no longer worked on Saturday's and she was probably at home with her fiancé as her family had just arrived from London.
He left the shop and went back to the hotel and got a telephone directory but couldn't see either name listed. He went back out again in search of a late lunch and was sat in a café at the back when two women came in and one was Rose Tyler. They were then joined by two men with two boys, one looked seven or eight and one looked about two being carried by the tall man who looked like the man in the picture with Rose Tyler, this Alec Hardy. The older boy went across to the older woman, calling her mummy and the young woman took hold of the younger boy as he was put down and sat him down. He concluded that the young boy was theirs since there was no-one else with them. He sat there in the darkened corner and waited until they left.
They got into a large taxi and drove off. He followed them out of the café and saw the taxi drive up the hill. He knew the general direction, now he had to find them. He went back to the hotel and looked at a map and circled an area where they probably lived. This Rose Tyler was playing happy families with this man and he didn't know why but he felt like she needed his help to get away from Alec Hardy, the sooner the better because although he didn't know why, it was his job to get her away. Seeing them together though with a small child kind of made him start to have second thoughts. Maybe he'd been wrong about them after all, he seemed to remember his father not being there when he was younger and memories of being brought up by his Gran came back to him. Would it be fair to split up a family? Something though was still digging at him so he decided to sleep on it.
The following morning, his memories were becoming clearer, he was starting to remember things, of being here before and a street further up in the town. He sought some breakfast and set off to try to remember the street. He was just driving and suddenly, a street looked familiar to him. He drove down and turned around at the end. A blue car was parked in a driveway, he'd seen the blue car before so he drove on and parked up around the corner. He sat for what seemed like hours and by a stroke of luck, he saw the blue car, followed by another car turn the corner and drive away from him. He started his car and followed at a distance and saw them turn into a pub car park a few miles away. He saw another woman get out of the back of the blue car who took the small boy from the car after the man had let him out of the car seat and concluded maybe the small boy didn't belong to him and Rose Tyler after all. He sat there then revved up the car engine and put his foot down as the man was standing in front of a tall wooden planter.
What he didn't know was that the occupants of the car were aware he was in town and that another car was following him.
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Ellie was just taking Fred inside the pub, Tom had gone in with the Tylers followed by Jake. No-one heard the noise of a car outside as the pub was quite busy, that is apart from Rose and Alec and Jake had just excused himself past Ellie as he realised he'd been parted from Rose as he was supposed to helping Alec look after her. Jake just got to the door as Rose was at the bottom of the short pathway facing away from him talking to Alec when Jake heard the sound of a car, looked past Rose at Alec who was just about to follow her when he saw a car coming towards Alec, just as Alec heard it and turned round to see it heading towards him as he was still on the pathway outside by the wooden planter.
Jake shouted, grabbed a startled Rose as he dashed towards her and spun her past him into the pub doorway, Ellie turning around to see what was happening and Jake continued out towards Alec and grabbed hold of him by the arm pulling him off the pavement and onto the pathway just as the front of the car bumped into one of the wooden planters, right where Alec had stood a few seconds earlier. Rose had turned round and was screaming "Alec!" at the top of her voice, Ellie was outside holding Rose back as Jake was still hanging onto him having pulled him safely out of the way.
The car reversed back, leaving a dent in the front and spun around only to be stopped by a black SUV in its way. The driver tried to reverse but was prevented by a car parked in the way and it was blocked in. Alec had sufficiently recovered to lead Jake back out as the car driver was desperately trying to get away with no luck. The driver of the SUV got out and nodded to Jake, he was the Torchwood member who had been following Mickey but had been held up a few minutes down the road. Jake was round at the offending car's driver door in seconds, yanking it open.
Alec was at the passenger door and the other man joined Jake. A stunned Mickey Smith was sat in the driver's seat realizing he was surrounded and there was no way out. Pete was just coming out of the pub realising there was a commotion outside, leaving Jackie telling her to look after the boys and Ellie had bundled Fred into her side when she went out. Jackie was now standing at the door having picked up Fred who was asking for his mum, the two other boys inside and Tom holding on to Tony who wanted to follow his mum and asking where Rose was.
More people were looking out of the windows as their attention had been caught and others were trying to get to windows to see what the fuss was about. The door had been blocked by Jackie and Pete and Jackie demanded that Pete tell her what was going on and that Rose was outside with Alec and shoved poor Fred into a bewildered Pete's arms and marched past him. Ellie was still hanging on to Rose but as Jackie appeared, let go and handed her to Jackie and took Fred from Pete, Tom and Tony were still inside so Ellie went back in to see they were alright. She didn't know whether or not to call for backup but she had seen enough of Jackie Tyler to know she was better than the entire Dorset Police Department and decided to wait to see what Alec would do.
Jake signalled for Mickey to get out of the car. He knew that he'd probably got back most of his memories and couldn't figure out how that had happened. Was his jealousy of Rose and Alec so strong that the procedure to wipe Mickey's mind hadn't had the desired effect? He'd have to have a rethink on that.
Mickey got out of the car and was now surrounded by Jake and his friend and Alec, Pete came out to join them, with Rose and Jackie standing at a distance. Rose so wanted to just go to Alec but her mum just whispered for her to let them get on with it. Someone inside the pub must have called the Police not knowing there were two off duty Officers already at the scene and sirens could soon be heard in the distance.
As soon as Mickey got out of the car and Jake had just asked him what the hell he was doing aiming a car at Alec and did he really think he'd get away with it, Jackie broke loose. Everyone was astounded as she lay into him, especially Alec who had been warned about her but had yet to be the subject of her wrath. He wouldn't have wished that on anyone even Mickey who had just tried to knock him over. Jackie's tirade came thick and fast much to the pub patrons' amusement just as a Police car pulled into the car park. Alec got out his I.D card but as the officers got out they already recognised him. It was the very last thing he'd wanted, to get involved in a pub car park fracas even if someone has just attempted to put him out of the picture – permanently.
The officers got out of the car and saw Jackie was laying thick and fast into Mickey, who was now squirming something terrible at Jackie's tirade and they too were amused.
"Do you need any help, Detective Inspector Hardy?" one of them asked, looking at Jackie who showed no sign of letting Mickey off the hook and smiling to himself.
"No, I think we've got this covered, thanks," replied a very amused Alec who was hoping Rose really wouldn't take after her mother and nodded towards Jackie, who for a second saw the two Officers and demanded to know where they had been when this lunatic had been aiming his car at her future son-in-law, pointing to Alec and trying to ruin her daughter's married life before she had even got married and saying she would then never have any grandkids. He explained to the Officers briefly what had happened but no harm had been done.
Rose was stood with her hands covering her face, trying not to laugh at her mother's behaviour in what could have ended with her going in an ambulance with her fiancé to the hospital or worse but wasn't having any luck, Pete was just letting Jackie get on with it because unlike his first wife, there was no stopping this one when she got going and he knew better than to get in her way or face the music himself.
Jake and his friend were also looking amused and content to let Jackie get on with it, she was far more effective than ret-conning someone. The people inside the pub had got tired and gone back to eating and drinking when the Police arrived. Ellie sat the boys down at a corner table, Fred surrounded by Tony on one side and Tom on the other and told Tom not to let either of them leave and assured Tony that his mum would be back in a minute and would he please help Tom to look after Fred? Tony had nodded his agreement and started talking to them about Police cars.
Ellie came out to join them and she also knew the Officers who had just arrived and they nodded to her. They said they could see everything was under control and assumed the incident had been caused by the car with a dent in the front of it and the driver, who was still feeling the brunt of Jackie Tyler's wrath had been the instigator although they were concerned that the Inspector had been the intended victim of a hit and run but Alec assured them he was perfectly alright and that he and DS Miller would handle it.
They left bemused, having asked if the Inspector wanted them to arrest the driver or leave him in the capable hands of his future mother-in-law and Alec knew what his fate would be when he got to work in the morning. He gave them a stern warning look daring them to say anything about this to the rest of the people in the Station but knew it would be in vain.
Jake and his friend put Mickey, who had to be pried away from Jackie's clutches, in the back of the SUV, Pete went to park Mickey's car and said he'd drive it back down to Rose and Alec's house and someone would pick it up later and they drove off, Jake saying he'd collect his car later as well and Rose just ran straight to Alec's arms and kissed him, not caring who was watching, Ellie had gone back inside and Jackie was trying to shout at Mickey as he was driven off, Pete getting out of Mickey's car and trying to get her back inside.
"Some engagement party that turned out to be" Alec said to Rose as they went arm in arm back into the pub as he kissed her cheek and wondered what the hell he was getting himself into.