A/N: Thanks for the support and lovely comments so far.
After leaving the cliffs, and with the help of touch typing while Alec wasn't looking, Jack texted Rose, telling her to check out the Three Sailors pub. Luckily enough, she was only a ten minute walk away. It was a tiny pub at the corner of the street, but busy nonetheless.
She passed a group of middle-aged men sat down on benches at the front of the pub. Their eyes caught her, so they wolf whistled, hoping to get her attention. Rose wrinkled her nose, smelling the stench of petrol on their overalls as she stepped inside the establishment.
Once inside, she assumed a tourist façade to blend in. Rose sat by the bar and ordered a drink, carefully listening to the conversations around her. There were mummers of the hot weather and general chit-chat, but the interesting bit she overheard was the whispers of a funny smell coming from the beach.
The barman passed her a drink and returned to his conversation with an older gentlemen down the bar, who was wearing old clothing and mud encrusted Wellington boots.
"I can't believe what you're saying, Bill." the barman said. "Have you told the police?"
"Have I heck. Useless they are. Don't know what they are doing, the whole bloody lot." Bill complained.
They're not that bad, Rose thought.
"Especially that Hardy bloke. Look what happened last year with Jack Marshall." Bill continued.
That wasn't his fault. That was the press.
"Bastard." Bill added for good measure.
Bit harsh. Wait, why I am defending him?
"Reckon it was animal then, maybe a dog?" the barman asked.
"Possibly. Ten sheep dead. Completely stripped." Bill grumbled. "Horrible sight, like something out of a horror film."
Absorbing the information, Rose took a sip of her drink. However the loud sounds from outside quickly drew her attention and without hesitating, she plonked her drink on the bar, and leapt for the door.
The barman and Bill watched her abrupt departure. "Kids today. Always rushing." Bill muttered.
"You stupid bastard!"
"Piss off, Helen."
Rose reached the doorway, seeing a distraught red-haired woman, dressed in a nurse's uniform in the middle of an argument with one of the men she saw sitting on the benches from earlier. He staggered towards her as their voices got louder, but yet not alerting anyone else around. People just walked by, minding their own business, refusing to acknowledge the fight was even happening.
"Gary, you should have walked him home." Helen shouted, tears streaming down her face.
"He's a big bloke, he can look after himself." Gary remarked, before taking a gulp of his pint.
Rose glanced to the benches, the middle-aged men watched the dispute, she could tell they had no intention of joining in, but instead watching the spectacle of a hysterical, grief-stricken woman.
"He's dead because of you." Helen sobbed "You were his mate, you should have checked he was okay."
"No, he's dead because of you. He wanted to stay out longer because you suffocate him." Gary remarked, gaining the mutual agreement of his peers behind as they raised their glasses, laughing.
Hurt by his lack of compassion, Helen slapped Gary's hand, making him spill the pint, the liquid soaking his overalls. Furious, Gary stepped closer, making Helen regret her actions. "Now that was not very nice."
Helen flinched, scared how Gary would react. She stumbled back, falling to the ground. The drunken men on the benches laughed again.
Seeing enough, Rose marched over to protect the scared woman. "Hey, how about you back off?"
Gary spun around to her, the stench of alcohol on his breath overwhelmed Rose's senses. He wouldn't remember any of this in the morning. "This is nothing to do with you, Blondie."
Rose ignored him, grabbed Helen's hands and helped her to her feet. "Are you okay?"
Helen nodded, wiping away her tears with a tissue.
Knowing how Helen felt, Rose turned to Gary "Your friend had just died. A bit of respect for the people he's left behind, eh?" Her voice was darker than she intended.
Gary opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. He eyed the daring Blonde in front of him and sneered. "She started it." He tried pointing but his drunken state meant his sense of direction was off and was actually pointing at the wall behind her instead.
"I don't care!" Rose shouted, standing in front of Helen. "She's grieving. She wants answers."
Stunned by her authority in her voice, Gary backed down, retreating to his table like a dog with its tail between its legs. Rose heard his mutter his breath, calling her a "Crazy bitch".
His friends groaned, shaking their heads at him. One of them perked up and said "Come on, Gary, you going to let some silly, little cow talk you like that."
Rose led Helen away to another table away from bitter noise. "They're idiots, but drunken idiots." Rose muttered. "Don't take it to heart."
"What was I thinking?" Helen whispered. "I just saw them, happy. How can they be happy like at a time like this?"
"People deal with grieve in different ways." Rose turned to see Gary had resumed his drinking, "Some better than others." she added.
Helen let out a small giggle, drying the last of her tears away. "Yeah. Thanks by the way."
"Who are they?"
"His friends from work. They never liked me, always said he could do better. Gary doesn't like me because I turned him down a couple of months back when he was drunk at a party."
"Right. How about we get you home?" Rose said.
"No, can't, I have to get to work." Helen indicated her uniform. "The hospital isn't far from here. Thanks again."
Rose watched her walk away, and loosely crossed her arms. She understood grief better than anyone else, she'd seen it her entire life. Watching her own mother struggle alone after her father died when she was six months old. The hit and run accident that left Jackie broken.
Then history repeated, it all happened again. Rose saw the man she loved taken away from her, never having the chance to say goodbye. She knew all about the anger Helen was feeling, the sorrow that crippled her when someone she loved died, except Rose knew the full story and Helen never would.
Torchwood would cover their tracks, make it look like something else, something human. It wasn't right, an innocent woman led to believe something else had happened to someone she cared about. But the world wasn't ready to understand what was really out there, not yet.
Late that night, Ellie was re-evaluating the folders from Billy Hansen's murder in her dining room. In front of her was the autopsy information, the statements from his friends, his girlfriend and witness reports from everyone who had seen him in the pub the night he died. Ellie sighed, feeling the pressure of the case overwhelm her.
From out in the hallway, she heard a knock of the door, then heard Tom's voice.
"She's in the kitchen." he said.
Surprised, Ellie saw Alec standing by the door with a bottle of red wine in his hands. She gawked at the man, wondering what he was doing in her home so late. Alec noted her expression and scratched the back of his neck.
"We were still on for tonight?" She continued to stare at him, "Dinner?" he reminded her.
Ellie grunted in frustration. "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot."
"It's okay." Alec said.
"No, my head been all over the place." Ellie muttered, putting the sheets back in the folders.
"To be honest, I was expecting to be thrown out for last night." he said, half smiling.
"You're forgiven. I should be used to your temper tantrums by now." Ellie said. "Sorry about dinner, how about a takeaway?"
"Ellie, really, it's fine. I won't hold it against you." he said, waving the bottle in her face. "But you look like you need some of this."
Four glasses of wine and a takeout pizza later….
"… Really it was that bad. I just wanted to shout and tell them to piss off." Ellie told him, throwing her pizza crust back into the box. She told him about the incident outside the newsagent, it sounded more like a rant, not that Alec minded.
"You should have done." he smirked. "I told you—"
"Shut up! I know."
Alec emptied his glass, Ellie was the only one allowed and the only one brave enough to speak to him like that. She earned it after all.
Ellie took a sip of wine, gaining the courage she needed. "Freddie asked me today 'when is daddy coming home?' Oh, I didn't know what to say."
"He's too young understand right now and when the times comes he'll hear the truth from you, not anyone else. I know you want to protect them both but there is only so much you can do."
"I know. How was your day?" Ellie asked, standing up.
"Okay. I bumped into your friend actually."
"Well, that narrows down the list." Ellie said, sarcastically.
"Captain Jack." Alec muttered.
"No, Miss Tyler?" Ellie queried.
"Nope." Alec said, shaking his head. "He was on the cliffs, looking any more evidence."
He glanced to the other side of the table, seeing the folders of Billy's case. Alec leant forward and seized them while Ellie wasn't looking. She turned around and sighed.
"Did you find anything else on the cliffs?" she asked.
"No." Alec said, putting on his glasses. He studied the autopsy report closely "But I've been thinking-"
"Oh, don't want to do too much of that, sir." Interrupted Ellie, grinning for the first time that day.
"True. But the personal items were missing from both bodies, Billy and the case in Cardiff. No mobile phones or anything."
"Maybe the killer took them." Ellie suggested. "What did Jack say?"
"The mysterious Captain? Not much. He had this strange phone call on the cliffs. He said it was from his mother but I bet you a tenner it wasn't." Alec said.
"Who was the phone call to then?" Ellie said, glancing at the files again.
"Someone back in Cardiff, one of his teammates probably. The enigmatic Torchwood. They're very peculiar people. He said something about limited powers."
"Powers?" Ellie said, puzzled. "Maybe it's code for something."
"In their special little group." Alec said, taking off his glass, then rubbed his eyes.
"What do you want to do about it? Surveillance?"
"Yeah, find out where they are staying. If they have talked to anyone around here." he stated. "Also find the number of Billy's phone, we can try to track it down."
"We have to make a statement to the press at some point." Ellie said, mentally cringing.
"Yeah, let them know that there is a killer in Broadchurch who strips the flesh off its victims." Alec said, darkly. "That's a great line for the holiday brochure."
A few miles away, a green-skinned alien sat on the beach watching the waves, fascinated by the planet and its people, it's scrumptious people. The creature's hood was down, allowing it to feel the cool, gentle breeze on the back of its bold head.
It lifted a strange box up, admiring the delicate carvings, the language of its home world. The symbols in the box began to glow, the light bouncing off its pearly white, killer smile.
A familiar growl behind it made the creature turn to see a half mangled carcass on the sand, blood staining the grains. The alien rose to its feet, seeing its partner in crime, a second identical alien feasting on the corpse. The second alien lifted its head away from the body, blood dribbling from its mouth.
Next to the alien was pile of clothing, a torn, blood soaked nurse's uniform. And on that uniform was the name tag "Helen."