What they didn't know was that the beach went all the way down near Claire's cottage and she had gone for a long walk, mainly to sober up from the night before and they had stopped at some rocks and sat down, Alec looking around and then leaning in to kiss her but Claire could see a fair distance and was certain it was them up ahead so she walked nearer, going behind a crack in the cliff to get a better view.
Rose was now sitting on Alec's lap, facing him and he had one of his hands down the back of her dress, trying to get it under her strap as they continued kissing. Alec pulled away, taking his jacket off and putting it around her shoulders and he reached under it, catching the zip and tugging it down and unfastening the strap, pulling the dress off one shoulder.
"If you carry on like this Alec, we'll get caught," she laughed.
"Shush love, I won't let us get caught, come closer."
His other hand was wandering as Rose leaned into his shoulder, Alec now kissing her neck and his hand reaching its intended target, Rose hoping no-one was passing but they were almost up against the cliff and he was keeping one eye on anyone who could be approaching from either direction though it would look like she was simply leaning on him as he had pulled the jacket to the side of her that wasn't resting on him.
"Rose, we really need to talk love, I think it's becoming clear we're more than friends?"
"Yeah, do ya think? What else is there to talk about?"
"Oh I don't know? Maybe about where you come from, besides London."
"Yeah, you first though."
"Ok but maybe we'd best finish this first eh? We can talk in the garden when we get back, this is rather a nice way of passing an afternoon, don't you think?"
Rose couldn't agree more as she put her other arm around his neck and pressed into him and they kissed again.
"I think I more than just like you Alec."
"I feel the same Rose, I more than like you. Let's go back to my place and finish this eh?"
"In the garden?" she mused.
"Well it will be more private than here but I can show you my bedroom."
"Yeah, I'd like that, will you fasten me up again?"
"With pleasure love though it was nicer unfastening the zip."
"Well next time, I'll wear something easier."
Just a few yards further down, Claire didn't need to use her imagination to guess what the two of them were doing, Rose had just taken Alec's jacket off and was kissing his cheek while handing it back, Alec swinging it around to put it back on as she got up.
"Are you ok?"
"Fine love, don't worry so much. Did you keep that water bottle in your shoulder bag?"
"Yeah and from now on, I'm going nowhere without it when I'm with you and when we get back to your place, give me a strip of your pills to keep with me, in case you run out of them and keep some at my apartment."
"So you are not taking any chances then?"
"When it comes to you, no."
"Then I know I'm in safe hands. You did promise you would tell no-one?"
"Don't worry, I've got no-one to tell anyway."
Claire was annoyed she couldn't hear what they were talking about. She knew she couldn't be that far from Broadchurch, unless they'd come by car but she could see another set of cliffs further up and wondered if she should carry on walking but it was getting on for four in the afternoon and it had taken her a fair while to walk as far as she had done.
One thing she knew for certain was that Alec had been lying to her earlier, he had been in Rose's bed despite him saying otherwise, he was male and despite how many times she'd tried, she had failed to get him to go with her but Rose didn't know that. She could spin her so-called friend a tale or two about when he'd gone to the hospital with her after Lee had been arrested and she'd been scared to keep the baby. Alec had been the only person she could trust and he'd stayed with her until it was over and driven her back.
Rose would be no wiser and it would put her off him because if she couldn't have him, why should Rose have him? She turned around as the two of them walked off, arm-in-arm, determined as soon as she saw Rose at work tomorrow, she would find out how serious they were and if Rose bragged she had a new boyfriend, that would be it, she'd make sure it didn't last much longer. She would drop a few hints then if that didn't work, she'd have to come up with something a little more drastic.
Once back at Alec's place, Rose made some tea and they sat in the garden.
"So, are you going to tell me more about yourself?" Alec asked her.
"Ok, right up until I met my second boyfriend, he was known as 'The Doctor' and he was a history professor but Mickey was my first real boyfriend, I grew up on a council estate, got a Saturday job in a London department store then went full-time but some students got in and dressed up as shop-window dummies and while they were messing about they blew up a gas main though thankfully, no-one was hurt. Then I met the Doctor and went on a research trip but we started getting too close for just a boyfriend/girlfriend and he backed off, he left me. He went back to the hotel and handed my ticket back home to the desk clerk. Then I met James and everything changed."
"Then you left him? Was it because you didn't want to be the one being left again?"
"Yeah, I suppose it was. He did something, after we promised each other and I couldn't get over it. I left our apartment and went back to my mother but she started going on at me, told me not to be so stubborn and go back to him and that we had a good thing going."
"Maybe you should have given him another chance?"
"I couldn't. If he broke his promise to me, how could I trust him again? He would have kept on doing it."
"Did he cheat on you or something? I know all about that and I never forgave Tess."
"No, he wasn't cheating on me and I swear Alec I can't tell you what it was."
"You have to trust someone Rose, I would like it very much if it was me."
She could maybe tell him some of it.
"He found out who The Doctor was, he knew him. He tried to find him, he wanted to know why he'd left me and why he'd never stayed in touch with him."
"Why would he have done that?" Alec asked her, pulling her over to sit in his lap.
"Because they were like brothers. I never knew Alec, after that, I knew he'd keep on trying to contact him and he'd never quit even after he promised me."
"I see then, it would have made it difficult for you, if this Doctor had come back into your boyfriend's life again."
"Yeah, you could say that. I couldn't understand why he never wanted to get an closer, it was like he was afraid of something."
"I'm not afraid Rose and my ex is well and truly out of the picture, she has someone else. You can trust me."
"I think I can Alec. I want to be more than friends with you."
"I'd like that too darlin' and I don't want to hide you. Never mind about Claire, I can deal with her and you need to know why I'm hiding her. I'm using her to lure out her husband and hoping that she'll tell the truth about the night Pippa died and Lisa went missing."
"I understand Alec. So there was nothing between you?"
"No and don't let her tell you otherwise, right?"
Alec went for some takeaway food later then led her upstairs, handing her a white t-shirt before she went into the bathroom to get changed. Rose spent the night with him again, a repeat of the previous one and making Rose feel like she was depriving him of taking the lead but he kept telling her it made no difference to him and he would get himself sorted as soon as he could.
When they lay together afterwards, he made her a promise.
"I am going to get well again Rose, you can count on that love but there are things you need to know. I may not come through the surgery, that's the reason I put it off so long but now I have a reason."
Rose smiled, running her finger across his chest. "Oh, what reason's that then?" she teased.
"Don't pretend you don't know, the reason is you. I had no-one to care about me then you came into my life from nowhere."
"I just came from London Alec, nothing mysterious about that, I didn't come from another planet or anything."
"Oh, that's a real shame, I used to read about people coming from parallel universes, I'm truly disappointed now."
Rose moved to prop herself up. "Are you being serious Alec?"
"Why? You are Rose, you're from a parallel universe? Your reaction tells me everything, I'm a trained detective so don't deny it. I used to write stories of people being able to come and go to other worlds and all that stuff that's been happening recently, planets in the sky, the spaceship that was supposed to be over London and that probe showing images of so-called Martians then the military organisation called UNIT declaring it was all a hoax. I've heard things Rose, being in the police then you mentioned that store blowing up and shop dummies coming to life. You told the wrong person love, you went to another universe but you came back."
"Blimey Alec, how did you know?"
"Come on Rose, it's what I do. Was it those Cybermen a few years ago and what were those other creatures they were fighting that came back when the planets appeared in the sky and the earth got moved?"
"Daleks, your worst nightmare, trust me. Did they not round people up where you were?"
"No, they were leaving smaller towns alone for some reason but everyone was scared then not long after that, Pippa and Lisa went missing, I was the one to find Pippa and part of me died that day, it could have been my daughter."
"I'm sorry Alec, you told me and I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, you could see how it would have looked. I went to another universe, one just like this, by accident the first time then I went back after Canary Wharf, I was trapped there and that boyfriend, he was a time traveller and he did leave me in Norway but not conventionally, he got a message through to me but a few years later, the stars were going out and it made it possible for me to get back."
"So he was this Doctor then? Who was James?"
"The Doctor was a Timelord with the ability to change if something happened to him. That spaceship over London? We were there, well I was, the Doctor had just regenerated and was recovering but he woke up in time to fight the alien leader for the planet but he had his hand chopped off and grew another one. A friend found the hand and kept it safe and he got it back and when the Daleks tried to take over, he got injured but instead of regenerating again because he liked the way he was, he healed himself and poured the rest of the energy into the hand."
"You do know how this sounds Rose? If it were anyone but me, you would have been locked up."
"I know that. Anyway, the Doctor had this friend called Donna, I met her family when I found my way back and went to find the Doctor but he'd just been shot by a Dalek then his ship was taken on board the Dalek mother ship, Donna was locked inside and the ship was deposited in the heart of the Dalek ship and from what she said, it got set on fire but she had this urge to touch the hand that he'd lost that was kept in a jar and when she did, James grew out of it, he was the Doctor's clone or brother or whatever you want to call him."
"A twin? Then what happened?"
"When it was all over, the Doctor took us back to the other universe, my mum and Mickey had followed me, she remarried and I've got a younger stepbrother and me and James settled down, until my stepfather and Torchwood found the right universe again and James altered the devices but we promised each other we would never go back and he broke that promise though he never found the Doctor but he would have carried on, he wanted some answers."
"So you never forgave him and came here yourself?"
"Yes, James wasn't the only one who wanted to know why he'd left us but when I got here and found him, he'd changed again and it didn't matter. I have a device to get back but James altered it so if anyone used it, we'd always go back to the right universe and just after we left so there were no mistakes but this universe phases in and out, well this timeline, there are others and it's out of phase and I don't know when and if it will be back."
"This is all incredible Rose but I know most of those things happened. So after the earth was put back where it belonged, you have no idea what happened here until you came back again?"
"No, James filled me in on what happened after I left until he went back with me, he had all his twin's memories but he was half human, he doesn't have the ability to regenerate. We realised the Doctor was trying to make up for never telling me he loved me and he'd given us another chance, James was essentially him and I accepted him without question but him going back like that, well it made me doubt him."
"Maybe he doubted himself, doubted why he even existed?"
"Yeah, I thought about that but I'd accepted it, accepted he was still the Doctor, maybe it wasn't enough for him after all? Maybe deep down, I never really accepted him either."
It was the first time it had made any sense since she had stormed out that night and gone to her mother's. Alec was holding her arm and looking at her, having turned on the bedside lamp when they had started talking.
"That's not all, is it Rose? James was his twin but the way you looked at me when I walked into Claire's cottage last Sunday, you thought since the Doctor had changed, James had followed you across, didn't you?"
Rose broke away and got out of bed, grabbing her underwear and glad she was still in possession of his white t-shirt, which she pulled down as she stepped into her lacy knickers and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door. Alec wondered what he'd just said then realised he was far too clever for his own good but he knew he'd been right, the way she'd looked at him and taken so easily to him, she felt at ease with him but had she just had sex with him, twice because she thought he was James?
He seriously doubted her motives for being with him but it didn't make any sense, since she'd left the man behind and not knowing if she was ever going back again but what did it matter? He got up and quickly cleaned himself up with some tissues, forgetting he'd still been wearing something while they'd been talking then retrieved his shorts and went to knock on the bathroom door.
"Rose, is everything ok in there?"
Rose had been trying to process how much Alec actually knew but he'd lived through it and after she'd left, she'd relied on James to fill her in and at least he seemed to believe her and knew she wasn't making it up, well maybe he didn't quite believe in time travel or Timelords but he hadn't said anything.
"Yeah, just give me a minute. Are you ok?" she called back, wiping her face.
"I'm fine, come out Rose, I'm not mad at you, you should have said."
Rose opened the door. "What did you want me to say when you had lunch with me the other day? Come out and ask if you were James?"
"No, I never meant that, you could have dropped a few hints that I reminded you of him. I take it he was beardless then?"
"Yes, they both were and I swear Alec, I never meant to hurt you or compare you to them, I never compared James and the Doctor, ever and we never argued about it. He betrayed me by not telling me he was going back, he left me behind when he promised he'd never leave me like his twin did, he could have been left here and the Doctor's idea of us finally being together would have been for nothing."
"You've done the same Rose," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You are the one that's been trapped here or did you intend for that to happen? It took you all that time to get back and you got his clone, how did it make you feel eh?"
"That's got nothing to do with it Alec, I accepted him, I loved him and he was going to leave me again."
"So you beat him to it eh? Did that even occur to you?"
"What are you trying to prove Alec? That I'm with you because of that? That James wasn't the real thing?"
"I'm not saying that love. Come back to bed eh?"
"What for Alec? You obviously think I have a thing for men who look like the Doctor."
He moved his arms around her neck. "You are being daft Rose, I think no such thing. I think I'm the luckiest man on this version of the world. The Doctor has changed again and you obviously don't like his replacement or you would not be here with me and if I look like him? It makes you happy and that's what's important to me. Now since I can't carry you, come back to bed with me and we'll talk more tomorrow when I finish work, if I'm still invited though I've no idea what time that will be."
Rose smiled. "What, leave your car at the station?"
"No, I'll drive the few yards and park where I did last night, I'll have to go home and get changed anyway or I'll give the game away."
"What game?"
"That I'm staying over at my girlfriend's place?"
She reached up to kiss him. "I thought that was the whole idea Alec?"
"Well yes but I need to let them get used to the idea, don't I? That man we met this morning, he needs time to spread the rumours."
"It will be all over Broadchurch by tomorrow night, can you handle it?"
"Come back to bed and I'll tell you. Was there anything you wanted to add by the way?"
"About what?" Rose asked as she put her arms around him.
"This Doctor, he was a time traveller and he had a ship, what sort of ship, was it a time machine?"
"Yeah, the Tardis, we went to other planets and other times, we met Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, she was the one who founded Torchwood, so James told me."
"Torchwood was destroyed at Canary Wharf."
"James said it was still active in Cardiff."
"You mean under the Millennium Centre? Sorry love but there was another massive earthquake there, nothing's left."
"Oh, then I wonder what happened to Jack, he used to travel with us, James said he ran it."
"I can find out for you, if you want? There was something involving children just after the earth was returned, it frightened the hell out of me and Tess, the kids were all under some sort of control."
"Crikey, James wouldn't have known about that. I don't think I want to know then."
"No, you are not meant to know or that new Doctor would have told you. So this spaceship then?"
"Well, she could disguise herself, in the shape of a police box, you know, from the 1950's."
"Are you insinuating I remember them?" he grinned, leading her back to his bedroom.
"Nah but there were still a few around even before I left, there was one outside an underground station in London though it looked a bit different but I'm surprised no-one's reported seeing one and then the next minute it's vanished."
"Well if the police got any reports, they would say the caller had been drinking too much. So how did it move then?"
"It sort of faded from view and reappeared somewhere else, I didn't believe it myself at first, it took some getting used to. I should maybe look up Donna, see how she is. When she accidentally touched the Doctor's hand, she merged with James and gave him is human demeanour and believe me, if the other Doctor could talk, well James sounded just like her and had her personality at times though he was still part Timelord and that became more dominant, thankfully."
"What was her name then, besides Donna?" he asked as they got back into bed.
"Donna Noble, she lived in Chiswick but she may not remember me, James said the merger would be too much for her and the Doctor would probably have to take her memories of him from her, it's sad really, she was the one who saved us from the Daleks in the end. Maybe I could contact her grandfather, Wilfred, he was a really nice old man. James took her surname when my stepfather set him up on his arrival. Oh, I forgot to tell you, when my mother remarried, she'd met my real father's counterpart."
"You know how to confuse someone Rose, get some sleep, you have plenty of time to tell me though that depends on my recovery."
"Why are you talking like you won't get over it?"
"I may not, that's what held me back but when I call the hospital, I'll ask if I can use my medical insurance, though I may have to put something to it but I'll get the money somehow."
"Aw, don't worry about that, I can help you there."
"Yes, about that Rose, there is no aunt who left you money in a will, is there eh?"
"Not exactly. Our Torchwood, all agents have a universal credit card they can use wherever they land, it has unlimited funding, don't ask me how it works though. I didn't think it was a good idea to admit that to a police detective, the tale of the trust fund sounded better."
"Yes, it did but I'll let it go though I'm not taking money from you."
"You wouldn't be, you'd be taking it from our Torchwood and maybe I know how it works. Pete assumed there would be a Torchwood wherever we landed or something similar and it taps into their accounts, without them knowing so no, you wouldn't be taking the money from me, would you?"
"I suppose not then but let's see how long I have to wait eh? If it's only a few weeks then I can manage with you looking after me but if not, then I'll consider letting you contribute."
"I may as well pay it all, what else do I have to spend it on?"
"Well we'll just have to see about it then, goodnight darlin' and I know you meant well, trying to shield me from the truth but I'm glad you could tell me."
"You guessed most of it, you're far too clever for me Alec Hardy."
"Aye just you remember that, Rose Tyler, you have no idea how clever I can really be."
Little did he know he was going to have to put that into practice as they went to sleep, holding onto each other, Rose being prepared for him waking up panicking he was drowning again and trying to calm him down. Claire Ripley was a few miles down the coast, scheming how to break them up and determined she was going to succeed.