Ellie was about half way through washing the dinner dishes when the doorbell rang. Ellie wiped her hands on a dish towel then went to answer the door. She messed Toms' hair as she walked past him sitting at the island doing his homework. Ellie unlocked the door and smiled widely at Olly standing on the Veranda.

"Olly! You're early." She greeted him.

"Only by fifteen minutes. Traffic was really good coming out." Olly replied. Then he lowered his voice. "Aunt Ellie, are you sure everything is alright?"

"Yes Olly, everything is okay. Now why don't you step in? It's starting to get quite nippy at night."

Ellie stood out of the way so that Olly could step in then closed the door behind. She started down the hall to the kitchen.

"I was just doing the dishes. Tom is doing his homework at the Island and Fred has some colouring pages. You can sit with either one as I finish up." Ellie said.

"I'll see if Tom needs any help then try to wrestle some crayons Fred." Olly said.

"Thank you. I haven't had much time to help Tom with his schooling recently." Ellie said.

"It's no bother. It's a great test of my memory to see if I can remember what he's learning." Olly said.

Ellie smiled her thanks as the walked into the kitchen. Ellie returned to the sink to wash up the last few dishes while Olly sat down beside Tom and started to ask him about his homework. With their discussion of science and Freds' indistinct noises of happiness as he coloured, Ellie felt as though she could close her eyes and pretend nothing had changed, that her little family was still whole and happy.

After wiping her hands dry Ellie turned around to address her nephew.

"Now Olly, you already know what time the boys need to be in bed by but Fred will need a bath before hand. Be sure that the water isn't too hot!" Ellie said.

Olly rolled his eyes. "Aunt Ellie I've watched the boys before. I've put them to bed before. I know the routine."

Olly stood and grabbed her by the shoulders and started to guide her towards the front door. As they exited the kitchen Ellie turned her head to look back at Tom and saw the he was grinning for the first time since receiving the news of his fathers' crime.

"Tom" Ellie called. "No cartoons or movies until you finish your homework and don't forget about what we talked about."

Olly grabbed his Aunts bright orange coat from its hook and shoved it into her arms before opening the door and shoving her out as well.

"Everything will be fine. I'll talk to him a bit about my dad and we'll see if he opens up." Olly said.

"I know it's just maybe I should stay? I'll stay in my room or even in the attic room I'll ring Hardy instead." Ellie said.

"Aunt Ellie"

"Beside by the time I get there I'll only have what an hour before I have to head back here?" Ellie continued.

"I packed an overnight bag. You can stay out as long as you need so long as you make it back before sunrise." Olly said. "Tonight is as much about you as it Tom, so get in your car and go before I close the door and lock you out."

"You can't do that! I have the bloody key."

"And I can stand just on the other side and relock it as fast as you can unlock it."

"You've thought of everything haven't you?" Grumbled Ellie. "Maybe I should have ringed Lucy."

"You know she has her meetings on Tuesdays." Olly pointed out.

Ever since Joe had been taken into custody Lucy had decided to turn her life around. She had found a rehab program that allowed her to stay at home and continue working as a hairstylist. Tuesday and Thursday nights she would meet with her sponsor for a couple of hours and on Saturday there was a group meeting. It was slow progress after handing over her car keys to Olly to ensure that she couldn't drive herself to Bournemouth. She still got tempted with online gambling from time to time but she was actually trying this time. Olly had even suggested they cut off their internet service even though he needed it for work but Lucy had thought that unreasonable. He shouldn't have to make work sacrifices just so she could get better. Instead Lucy was learning how to recognize when she didn't have a handle on the situation and getting into the habit of ringing her sponsor for an emergency meeting when things got out of control.

Ellie sighed. "You're right. Can I at least grab my mobile before you toss me from my own house?"

Olly smiles. "Where did you put it?"

"Just let me grab it."

"Where did you put it?"

"Oh for the love of all! It should be on the counter by the fridge."

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" Olly then turned his head to shout back into the house. "Tom your mums' mobile should be on the counter by the fridge can you get it?"

There was the sound of a chair being pushed back before Tom called. "Got it!" He ran to the front door to give it his mum.

"Have a good night mum." Tom said. He gave his mum a hug.

"You too sweetheart." Ellie said. She kissed the crown of Toms head.

"Well I guess I'll be off then."

Ellie looked once more between Olly and Tom then left the house. She got into her car and reversed out the driveway, waving to Tom, Olly and Fred. Olly must have dashed back into the house to grab the toddler. She drove a few blocks before pulling over and turning off the car. Ellie pulled out her mobile and dialled Alecs' number. Between phoning Olly, dinner, getting Tom started on his homework and cleaning up she hadn't actually had time to call the other member of the former detectives club, even if she technically wasn't going to be a former detective anymore, to see if he was free for her come by and talk. If he wasn't then she would just stay out for bit. Maybe she would fully explore the area and see what the parks nearby were like.

"Hardy." Alec answered.

"Hi."

"Ellie? Do you need something?" Alec asked.

"Um sort of." Ellie said.

"Sort of?"

"Are you free tonight? I've kinda been kicked out of the house so Tom can talk to Olly and I really wouldn't mind talking to someone too." Ellie said.

"I'm free. You already in the car?" Alec said

"Yeah."

"Then I'll see you in forty five minutes." Alec said.

"Thank you." Ellie said

"Ah." Alec hung up.

Ellie started her car and started her drive to Broadchurch. If she pushed the speed limit combined with the little traffic of the hour she should be able turn that forty-five minute drive into a half hour one. Still the drive felt like forever. The brilliant colour of turning leaves was lost to the dark of evening. It was only a of couple days until October. The quickly depleting daylight hours and constant wet weather probably wasn't helping her or Tom recover but at the same time it felt good to have the weather reflect how she felt.

Sure enough Ellie pulled into the Trader's small side lot just a little over a half hour after she left. She sat in her car for a bit. She said she wanted to talk but she didn't know what she wanted to talk about. Her feelings were all jumbled up like the lines in one of Freds' drawings.

After five minutes Ellie got out the car and climbed the two flights of stairs up to Alecs' room and knocked. Alec answered immediately steeping out the way to let her in. He didn't say a word as he took up his now customary spot on the edge of the bed and she fell into what had become her chair. They sat silence for a bit. Alec studied her and Ellie looked everywhere about the room but at him. She really didn't know what to start with let alone how.

Finally she took a deep breathe and just dived in.

"Tom is struggling with what to call Joe. He keeps starting with dad then switching to Joes' name but when that can't fully come out he just say Him. Likes he'll get in some sort of trouble if he tries to call Joe anything else. I told him he can still call Joe dad. What Joe did doesn't change the fact the he is Tom's father and he was a damn good one too until all this crap happened.

"I just feel so inept at being a mother right now. For Christ's sake I can't even find a day care for Fred and I go back to work next week. And you want to know what Tom told me earlier when I approached him about talking to Olly while I came here? I told him I'd stay if he wanted me to that I would just ring you instead but he said I should come here that I couldn't help him if I was hurting too."

Ellie grew progressively upset as she spilled out the feelings that had been bubbling up inside her. By the time she had reached the end she was a mess of tears and she hated it. She had never been so quick to cry as she had been since they found Danny lying on the beach. But since Alec had figured out it was Joe she had cried at least once a day for some reason or another.

Across from her Alec was struggling to decide on what to do. He always felt particularly useless when faced with someone crying. Did he reach across and place a hand on her knee or get up to sit on the arm rest and place an arm around her shoulders? To add to it he was her former boss, still could be her boss if he had his surgery. Would one form of comfort be deemed more inappropriate than the other because of this?

Through her tears Ellie could see Alecs struggle. He really was socially awkward. All Ellie wanted right now was to be held to know that at least one person had her back that didn't feel obligated to do so because of blood relations. Well that and a good nights sleep in an actual bed.

"You know, I've always thrived off of contact with others but since Joe confessed I've barely had any. It's like I've become some sort of plague. The only interaction people will have with me now is to glare and ask 'how could you not know?' or to give me looks of pity. I think I know a little of what Beth felt now. The looks of pity are so much more worse then the looks of anger." Ellie sniffed. And God did she hate it but she looked shyly at Alec. "Could... could you?" She wetted her lips. "Could you just hold me for a bit?"

Alec didn't say anything in response. He just got up and walked around the bed and made himself comfortable sitting against the headboard. When he opened his arms for her, Ellie jumped from her chair and was beside him in an instant. One hand was fisted in his white button down the other wrapped tightly around him, her head pressed hard into Alecs shoulder.

For his part Alec wrapped his arm around his... friend? Is that what Ellie was to him? The first person to become his friend since Sandbrooke? He rested his chin on top of her head and gently rubbed her back. He really couldn't believe he was doing this. He couldn't even remember the last time he had held a woman's hand and yet here he was half lying in bed with one holding her tightly to him as she cried. But then this wasn't just any women it was Ellie. The absurdly cheerful, mothering cop who used to irate him so much with her inability to believe anyone in Broadchurch could have been a killer only to find out she went home ever night and sought comfort in a murderer. This was the women who saw him at his worst and still tolerated him even, he thought of the boots she had bought him, maybe even cared about him enough to consider him a friend. At the very least she trusted him more than anyone else as it was always him she came to.

Alec leaned his head back against the headboard and sighed inwardly. He wished he could have been wrong, that he could have spared Ellie all this pain. Instead all Alec could do was pull her closer to him. Slowly Ellie cried herself out and her breathing evened out. Ellie had fallen asleep. Alec carefully rearranged them so that they were fully reclined. He had no illusions as to how exhausted Ellie really was. Between sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag and waking up at least once a night to wake Tom from a nightmare and then no doubt having terrible dreams of her own Ellie must have only gotten a few hours of sleep a night. Alec closed his own eyes. He would wake her up in few hours so she could relieve Olly of babysitting duties. However without his permission Alecs own mind drifted into sleep.

The first thing Alec noticed when he woke up was that he hadn't awoken with a start like he usually did, the second thing he noticed was the his right arm was numb and the third was that there was a warm body pressed impossibly close to him. Alec opened his eyes and saw Ellie was clinging onto him in her sleep for all that she was worth. Looking at the clock Alec saw it was 11:30pm. Best he wake Ellie so she could head home. He gave her shoulder a little shake but she just moaned and somehow buried her face deeper into his chest. So Alec did what anyone did when trying to wake someone he shook her shoulder harder and said her name in low whisper. That did the trick.

"What?" Ellie mumbled.

"You need to get up and head home its 11:30." Alec said.

"Olly packed... over night. Don't need...be home 'til sunrise."

Ellie fell back asleep. Alec reached across her to his mobile on the night stand table and set an alarm for

half past four. That should give Ellie plenty of time to wake up and get on the road to be home for sunrise. Then after returning his arm back to Ellie waist Alec too fell back into slumber.

I'm still looking for someone from the UK to help me out with cultural and dialect differences. If you're interested please contact me.