Thanks to Aithusa for putting up with my mistakes. I know there were a lot of corrections to be made in this chapter.
Ellie groaned as she stuck a hand out from under her blankets and felt around the floor, searching for the source of the noise that had awoken her. She allowed herself a few more minutes within the warm confines of her bed, relishing in the fact that it had been one of those rare nights where she had been able to sleep the night through. She stretched before getting up and padding downstairs, still in her pajamas, to get stared on breakfast. Tom would be up soon.
It had been a week since Alec had been released from the hospital. They had kept him in for the full fortnight, much to his displeasure. In another week Alec would be able to leave his (hers, really) bed and join them for meals, so Ellie made a mental note to get used to getting changed before going downstairs in the future.
With the porridge bubbling happily on the stove, Ellie went back upstairs to change and to wake Tom. He was usually up by now. The boy had probably stayed up late on his phone to avoid falling asleep and having nightmares. Ellie allowed Fred to sleep for another half-hour.
Ellie knocked on Tom's door before going to her room to get dressed because Tom usually took a few minutes to get out of bed. When she had finished changing and Tom's door was still not open Ellie began to get frustrated. They had to keep to a tight schedule if they all wanted to get to where they needed to be on time.
"Tom, get up." Ellie called as she knocked on the door again. No noise could be heard from within. Ellie knocked again before entering the room.
"Tom..." She stopped short.
His bed was empty. The sheets were all askew but the bed was empty. Ellie felt a short stab of panic but tried to calm herself with logic. He might have already gone down to the kitchen and she just hadn't heard him pass by her room. Ellie quickly glanced through the open bathroom door but the room was empty and Tom wasn't there. His bedroom door had been closed too; Ellie usually closed it for him because he preferred to leave it open. She went back downstairs but the kitchen and downstairs bathroom were both as empty as his room.
Tom was missing. Heart gripping fear mingled with a morbid curiosity; was this what Beth felt like when she discovered that Danny was missing? This feeling of dread weighing her down and gnawing at her stomach? God, she hoped this had a better conclusion.
What if someone in Broadchurch had found out where she'd moved to and had decided to take revenge on her? During Danny's case it had become quite clear that Broadchurch was home to people who strongly believed in "an eye for an eye," and didn't believe she was as much a victim of the case as Beth and Mark. What if one of them had taken Tom?
Ellie quickly checked all the doors and windows on the first floor for signs of forced entry but found nothing. Ellie did, however, notice a faint burning smell. Breakfast! Ellie rushed back to the kitchen and took the porridge off the heat. It was still mostly edible. Hopefully if she added enough brown sugar and honey no one would notice. Ellie growled softly in frustration; what good was breakfast when Tom could be anywhere? Oh God, she hadn't checked on Fred!
Ellie bolted back upstairs and to her relief she found the toddler fast asleep in his crib. So where was Tom? A second look around his room confirmed that no intruder could have entered through his window. Tom wouldn't have snuck out in the middle of the night, would he?
Ellie stood in the middle of the hall, wringing her hands, and eyed the door to Alec's room. Should she alert him? He still had another week before he was allowed to come downstairs and eat with them. She didn't even have a couch for him to lie on and watch telly all day... or a telly for that matter. It was guaranteed that as soon as she told him Tom was missing he would try to get up and search for the wayward boy. It would probably land him back in the hospital and he would end up complaining more than he already was... but Ellie really needed Alec right now, even if he could only reassure her and give her a list of things to check before ringing the police.
Ellie took a deep breath to steady herself and gripped the door handle. She didn't want to disturb Alec. She just wanted to pretend that this was all some kind of cruel practical joke. Ellie turned the handle anyway and poked her head into the room.
Ellie started the sight before her and froze to the spot. There, curled up on the bed and wrapped in a rather protective embrace from a very-much-asleep and definitely-not-awake-and-about-to-complain-about-breakfast-being-late Alec Hardy, was Tom. Relief flooded every cell in Ellie's body. Her boy was safe and asleep... and going to be late for school. Ellie quietly closed the door before knocking loudly on it.
"Get up!" She called. "Breakfast is ready and you're going to be late for school Tom."
She pressed an ear to the door and heard groaning. She knocked again.
"Come on, up and at 'em you two!"
"'M up," Tom mumbled just before the door opened to reveal the bleary eyed eleven year old.
"So get dressed. Breakfast is on the stove." Ellie replied. She mussed his hair before going to wake Fred. She'd deal with her confusion over why Tom was in Alec's bed after she got her boys eating.
Walking back past Alec's door with Fred in her arms, she called out to him. "I'll be up with your breakfast in a minute."
She got a groan in return.
Back downstairs, Ellie settled Fred into his high chair with a bowl of dry Cheerio's and made up bowl of porridge for Alec. Tom was wolfing down his breakfast in an attempt to make up for lost time.
"Chew your food!" Ellie scolded as she walked past. She could almost hear Tom roll his eyes.
Ellie walked into Alec's room and placed the breakfast tray over his lap. She straightened up and pinned Alec with an unimpressed look. He sighed as he picked up his spoon.
"I'm on bed rest, Miller. That doesn't mean I can't sit up on my own." He took his first bite of porridge and frowned. He peered at the bowl of food. "Did you burn this?" He asked.
"Yes." Ellie crossed her arms. "While I was running around the house in a near panic looking for my son and checking for signs of forced entry. Why was Tom in here anyways?" She asked.
"Ach if I know! He snuck in here at about two and climbed in beside me. I think he muttered something about me being good at scaring off bad dreams." Alec grumbled. He put another spoonful in his mouth with a grimace, barely chewing before swallowing. He was as bad as Tom.
Ellie sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "It must be from the hospital."
"What?"
"On Halloween, when you invited him onto your cot. That was the first night since Joe's arrest that he didn't have a nightmare. He must have thought you'd chased them away." Ellie eyed Alec's haggard face. "Not that I blame him. You are in terrible need of a shave."
Alec glanced over his almost empty bowl, which he'd picked up to better shovel the porridge into his mouth. His scruff wasn't that bad. He didn't understand why Ellie had been so incessant about it over the past couple of days. Personally, he rather liked it. He set his bowl back onto the tray and Ellie stood to take it back to the kitchen.
"I don't want to find any evidence of you downstairs. I know you've been laid up for three weeks now but you still have another week." Ellie reminded him.
"And what would I do down there? You've brought the only form of entertainment up here already." Alec retorted and jerked his head at the rather large pile of books stacked beside the bed.
"I'm serious." Ellie said.
"So am I. Now go eat and get the boys ready to leave." Alec said.
He picked up the most recent book he'd been ploughing through and Ellie left. She was almost at the stairs when she heard him call after her.
"Try not to break too many speed limits on your way to work."
It was Ellie's turn to roll her eyes. She really hoped Fred never picked up on the gesture but Ellie already knew that her hopes were probably vain.
x-x-x-x
"How's Shitface?"
Ellie startled and looked up from her computer screen that she'd been staring at in boredom to look up at SOCO Brian.
"Grumpy and complaining about my cooking." Ellie replied.
Life had returned to normal at the police station and cases were slow. Back were the occasional domestic calls or drugs busts. Ellie didn't go to those anymore; she rarely went out on calls nowadays. The most interesting thing going on right now was trying to find the teenager who'd spray painted giant cocks on the sides of several businesses, the most prominent of which was the arcade.
"So, I was wondering...would you be up for that drink since you're no longer married?" Brian asked.
"If I didn't live an hour away and have Hardy and the boys to look after I would accept. It's been too long since I had a drink." Ellie replied.
"You'd do it then? Once Hardy is recovered and out of your hair?"
"More like once he's off bed rest and can cook dinner. I wouldn't mind getting some free babysitting out of him." Ellie noticed Brian's eyebrows shoot up. "I've discovered that he's a lot better with kids than he is with adults."
"I'm going to have to take your word on that." Brian said. He leaned against the edge of her desk. "I can't even imagine him smiling; the thought of him being good with kids, playing with kids... it's just..."
"I know, I thought the same thing." Ellie replied. "But as the old adage goes, seeing is believing."
"Well, I won't believe it until I see it. When is he off bed rest?" Brian asked.
"He's still got another week to go. Shall we make our pub night in about a fortnight to give him some time to get back on his feet?"
"Sure. Friday after work?"
"I was thinking Saturday evening in Broshire." Ellie said. "Hardy may be able to babysit but he won't be able to pick the boys up from school and day care."
Brian didn't seem to like the idea of driving all the way out to Broshire if his slight frown was any indication. Too bad for him, Ellie thought, he wouldn't be able to get her drunk enough that she'd have to spend the night at his place. If he was serious about asking out a single mother he'd just have to get used to the fact that she'd never want to stray too far from home, especially when a recovering open heart surgery patient was the one watching her kids.
After a few more minutes of back and forth Ellie had managed to whittle Brian down. She offered to let him spend the night so he needn't worry about getting too drunk to drive but he declined, apparently because he knew about a cheap motel in the area. He knew, like most of the station did, that Ellie had sold her furniture with the house and as such had neither a couch nor a spare bed that he could crash on.
x-x-x-x
As Ellie fixed dinner that night she had a lot on her mind. For one, she'd have to tell Alec that she'd volunteered him for babysitting duty in a fortnight. The second thing she needed to address was Tom sneaking into Alec's bed. Sure, Alec looked scarier with his near full beard but Ellie was his mother. She had chased away an uncountable number of nightmares in his life. Besides, Alec's stitches had just been taken out the other day, he couldn't afford to have his wound agitated by a restless sleeper. Alec already did that plenty himself if the near constant rustling that Ellie heard on the nights that Fred or Tom, or both, had her up were any indication as to how well her new house mate's sleep was.
Ellie was startled out of her worrying as the timer pinged to let her know that dinner was ready to be taken out of the oven. She'd have to sort everything out later. For now, she needed to get dinner out of the heat before she burned another meal.