Thank you to my wonderful Beta Aithusa for preventing me from committing one of biggest pet peeves in writing; not explaining the characters thoughts because, well, I'm the writer and I already know all their motivations.

I am so sorry for how long this chapter took to crank out. I was way more involved in the wildfire fight than I ever thought a seamstress would ever be but I guess someone has to make the abrasion covers for the longlines the helicopter crews use. Also I blame my co-worker for letting my borrow her Sherlock Holmes book that contain 37 short stories and the Hounds of Baskerville. It's near impossible to put down.

Not Guilty. Not Guilty. Not Guilty.

Joe's plea rang through Ellie's head. He pleaded not guilty. Mark stood up immediately and shouted at him. Ellie thought he'd said something about Joe knowing what he'd done, but she had been too far gone into her own shock to pay much attention to anything else. Did Joe know what he'd be doing to Beth, Mark and Chloe by pleading not guilty? What about her and the boys? The bastard had confessed for God's sake. He'd had Danny's mobile! The day had started off bad enough by getting caught in traffic and almost being late, (Alec had gotten a lift with Ollie and Maggie after giving them an interview) but now this? If Beth's glares had been withering when she'd seen Ellie walk into the courtroom, they could have killed as Ellie fled to the woman's restroom.

What was she going to tell Tom? She had let him stay home from school today and babysit his brother. The four of them were supposed to go out for dinner tonight with Lucy and Ollie to celebrate this chapter of their lives finally ending. Now Joe had only prolonged it with a horrifying plot twist.

Ellie heard footsteps approaching and quieted her sniffles lest anyone know that there was a grown woman crying her eyes out in a cubical. A knock sounded at her door. Oh great.

"It's occupied." Ellie said. She thought her voice sounded quite normal given the circumstances.

"I know. Come out." Replied a distinctly male voice.

Ellie stood up and whipped open the stall door.

"This is the ladies! You can't be here!" She hissed, stalking towards the sinks. Alec followed her and was about to lean on the opposite row of sinks when another woman walked in.

"Oi! It's closed for cleaning, can't you read?" He berated as the woman made a quick exit. Hopefully not to let security know there was a man in the ladies room.

"You alright?" Alec asked turning back to Ellie.

Wiping her face, Ellie shook her head.

"Don't let it get to you." Alec said.

"Oh brilliant advice! Joe just pled not guilty. Doesn't he know what this will do to the Latimers? What it will do to me and Tom? Oh God, Tom! He's waiting at home for us to call him with good news. What am I going to tell him?"

"Already took care of it." Alec said.

"What?!" Ellie asked.

"I rang Tom. Told him the truth. Joe pled not guilty so we'll be put through a full trial." Alec explained.

"How... how did he take it?"

"Not well. I promised him we'd be home as soon as we could and that I'd send Lucy or Olly to be with him in the meantime if he wanted but he said that he'd be fine alone for a bit longer." Alec replied.

"God, I wish we didn't need to go back to the station after this." Ellie said. "I don't think I'll be able to concentrate on work at all."

Alec pushed off the sink and pulled Ellie into a hug. She tried to pull away but Alec only tightened his grip on her.

"He'll go to jail for what he's done, Ellie. The prosecution has a solid case. Joe won't walk free." Alec soothed her.

Sniffling, Ellie buried her face further into her best friend's shoulder.

"I hope you're right." She said softly.

They pulled apart a few minutes later. Ellie took a few minutes to clean up her face. By the time she was ready to face the world again twenty five minutes had passed since she had fled the courtroom. Those twenty-five minutes meant that all the press outside the courthouse would be gone. Consequently it also meant that Ellie had forgotten what Alec had shouted at the woman who had walked in and what it had implied.

"Christ!" Ellie shouted as she walked into the sign that proclaimed the bathroom to be closed for cleaning. "Did you put that there?"

Alec had sense to look sheepish.

x-x-x-x

They had almost reached Ellie's grey car, when a female voice called out.

"Alec! Oh thank goodness I didn't miss you."

Ellie and Alec turned, Ellie with her key still in the lock, to see a woman of about Ellie's height with dark brown hair jogging up to them. A woman Alec obviously recognized if his suddenly stiff shoulders were any indication.

Ellie leaned closer to Alec and whispered. "Who's that?"

Alec answered by greeting the woman with, "Claire? What are you doing here?"

Which was as much of a greeting as Alec Hardy was capable of. The woman, Claire, eyed Ellie as Ellie rolled her eyes at Alec's rude greeting.

"Who's she?" Claire addressed Alec.

Ellie's eyebrow rose. She didn't think anyone would ever be able to compete with Alec in rude greetings but this woman had just proved her wrong. Well, best to lead by example, even if Alec had yet to catch on.

"Hello. DS Ellie Miller." Ellie said cheerfully with a nod.

The woman continued to eye Ellie with distrust until Alec said. "I trust her. She's my partner."

With a nod, Claire stuck out her hand. "Claire Ripley."

Ellie was barely able to get out a 'pleasure' before Claire turned back to Alec.

"I think he's back Alec. I've had nine calls, all from the same unknown number, in the last three days."

"Impossible." Alec frowned. "I have someone watching him. He isn't even in the country."

"Then how do you explain it? He's back, I know he is, and he's looking for me." Claire's voice was taking on a panicked tone.

Running a hand through his hair, Alec asked. "Why come to me now? If you're so scared, why didn't you take my offer after the trial fell apart?"

"Because I thought it would be easier to disappear without you coming to check on me every week." Claire said. "And for the past two years I was right."

Silence fell over the parking lot. Alec pinched the bridge of his nose as Claire looked at him with pleading eyes. Looking between the pair of them Ellie took the quiet as her cue to interrupt.

"Hi, um... sorry to interrupt but who is 'He'?" She asked.

Alec looked at Claire, who nodded, before ordering Ellie to get in the car and drive.

"Excuse me?!" Ellie asked.

"I'll explain in the car but not here; it's too open, anyone could hear." Alec said as he got into the passenger seat.

Claire had already taken her place in the back next to Fred's child seat. Ellie heaved a sigh and suppressed the urge to roll her eyes as she too got in the car. As she pulled out of the courthouse car park she saw Alec look at Claire in the rear-view mirror. Claire nodded her head again.

"Claire was a key witness in my last case before coming to Broadchurch." Alec wet his lips. "Sandbrook."

Ellie's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "Oh God."

"Claire testified against our suspect, a man named Lee Ashworth, at great personal risk." Alec continued.

"Why was it such a risk?" Ellie asked.

Alec looked at Claire yet again.

"Because..." Claire took a deep a breath. "Because Lee is my husband. I told the police I had been with him all night."

"And were you?" Ellie asked.

"No. No, I was at a friend's house that night." Claire said.

"So what does this have to do with Claire coming to you for help?" Ellie asked Alec.

"When the trial fell apart, I offered to hide Claire from Lee but she didn't accept. Now, apparently he is finally looking for her." Alec said.

Ellie frowned. "But why come to you? There are proper channels, like witness protection, for things like this." She said.

"Not when the suspect is acquitted on all charges." Claire put in. "There's nothing for me."

"So now you've come to Hardy to take him up on an offer he made years ago." Ellie concluded with a nod of her head. "How are we going to run this unofficial witness protection?"

A quick glance showed Alec to be looking relieved and Claire confused.

"We?" the dark haired women asked.

"Yes, we. As Hardy said, we're partners. If he's going to help you then so am I." Ellie stated.

Another quick glance at Alec showed his shoulders, which had been tense most of the day, had relaxed a little. Did the man actually think she'd let him do this on his own? After he'd been there for her the last seven months?

Claire too had relaxed a bit, though she still looked uncertain about Ellie's involvement in the whole thing. Her doubts weren't unfounded, for once Ellie had dropped Claire off at the Traders and paid for the room, (Alec would have paid but Ellie reasoned that if Lee was back in the country it would be easier for him to find Claire through Alec than herself because she had no connection to Sandbrook) Ellie turned to Alec and asked, "How does one run an unofficial witness protection?"

x-x-x-x

The atmosphere at the station when they returned was grim. Undoubtedly someone had been assigned to watch Olly's twitter feed for updates, for everyone they met in the halls had the same sympathetic look when Ellie and Alec passed. Just outside the CID they came across a group of curious looking PC's whispering to each other.

"Don't you lot have work to do?" Alec barked out, still in a bad mood from Joe's plea.

All five PCs jumped and spun around.

"DI Hardy, sir!" Two got out.

"You see..." Another tried to explain.

"There's a girl here to see you, sir!" said yet another.

"She looked pretty beat up. Do you have any domestics from Sandbrook still open?" asked the fifth.

"What?" Alec asked.

"She just walked in and asked to talk to you. Wouldn't talk to anyone else, not even to give her name. They've sat her down at Miller's station and she's been playing solitaire ever since." The fifth PC continued in a rush.

Alec glanced at Ellie then pushed through the PCs into the CID. True enough, sitting at Ellie's computer was a young girl of about 16 with long, dirty blonde hair, playing solitaire. Her chin was resting on her fist and she looked utterly bored. From their current angle Ellie couldn't see any evidence of her haven been beaten but that changed when the girl turned to face them as they approached. Ellie couldn't help the gasp she let out; the girl had a horrible black eye. Alec was taken aback as well and opened his mouth, no doubt to start his rapid fire line of questions, but the girl beat him to it.

"No, mum does not know I'm here. My ex-boyfriend did this, and yes I'm pressing charges. I'm here because his dad is mum's bosses boss, the Chief Superintendent. Yes, I'll tell mum where I am once I've been processed. Anything else?"

Not bothering to hide her grin at Alec's stunned and annoyed face, Ellie stepped forward and offered her hand to the girl.

"So that's how one gets a word in. I'm DS Ellie Miller, your dad's partner and landlord." Ellie introduced herself.

"Daisy Hardy." She took Ellie's hand. "How did you know I'm his kid? We don't exactly look alike."

"I've had to riffle through his wallet a few times. He keeps your picture there." Ellie explained with a brief, rueful smile. "Unfortunately Hardy can't take your case due to the familial connection but I'll gladly help you put the bloke who did this to you behind bars for a bit. Perhaps, afterwards, you could teach me your technique for stalling your dad's rapid fire of questions?"

As Ellie gently guided Daisy towards the interview rooms, Alec glared at everyone who had suspiciously stopped working.

"Get back to work you lot of gossips!" He yelled, before stalking into his office and slamming the door.

He needed time to process all that happened today. His mind was about to explode. At the moment he really wanted to give in to the urge to ring up Tess and interrogate her about this ex-boyfriend and in particular find out where he lived. Alec wasn't prone to truly violent outbursts, sure he yelled when he was angry and stressed but that was the extent of it, but seeing his daughter with a black eye, and there would undoubtedly be more under her long sleeves, made him want to go straight to the boy and teach how to respect a girl with his fists, consequences be damned.

Alec sat heavily into his chair and put his head in hands. His baby had been beaten by someone who was supposed to love her. This whole situation made him think of Tom. He was at the age when boys started dating. Had Joe given the boy the talk yet? Maybe he should talk to Ellie about sitting Tom down and talking about how to properly treat a girl so that Tom never finds himself in the situation the prat who beat Daisy was about to find himself in. Then again if Tom was actually his son and did such a thing Alec probably take the boy over his knee regardless of how old he was.

After Daisy's statement and photographs were taken for evidence, (where more bruises on her back, shoulders and arms were revealed) Ellie led the girl back to the CID. Many thoughts swirled around in her head; the first being that Hardy would be able to tell her whether or not she had just decided to end her career because was going to fight tooth and nail to get justice for Daisy. This boy hadn't just hurt her best friends' daughter; by extension of Alec Hardy essentially filling in the role of dad for her boys this boy had hurt her daughter as well.

Ellie was also worried about how this Chief Super would react to his son being charged. She could only see things going one of two ways. He would either try to sweep the whole thing under the rug or he would hang his son out to dry while hiring the best lawyer in country.

Ellie shuddered to think how she'd react if Tom or Fred ever found themselves in such a situation. No doubt she give them the worst tongue lashing of their lives and possibly a smack or two on the backside... maybe even do it all in public to let the lesson better sink in that they should never, never, harm anyone in anything other than self defence.

At the door to the CID Ellie stopped Daisy with a gentle pat on her shoulder.

"Your father's office is the third door on the left. I've got to go file the paperwork." Ellie held up the manila envelope that had been tucked under her arm.

Daisy gave her a faint smile before going into the CID. Ellie watched her until she disappeared into Alec's office before turning on her heel and continuing down the hall. On her way back to the CID an idea occurred to her, so Ellie made a detour to CS Jenkinson's office. Daisy's appearance hadn't changed plans for dinner but Ellie doubted Daisy would be able to handle her crazy family without some warning. Also, Ellie was sure Alec would want to spend some time alone with his daughter.