She had been driving in comfortable silence for a while now, and was only about 15 minutes away from her destination. She glanced over at him and he looked just as he did that morning on the sofa, eyes shut, chest rising and falling against the landscape whizzing by. This wasn't a coastal town, but it was beautiful nonetheless. The reds and yellows and browns and greens of autumn, the breeze carrying the fallen leaves through the air; it was a shame that he was missing it all.

"Are you just going to sleep your life away as these wonderful sights pass you by?" She wasn't expecting a response of anything more than a grunt, so she was surprised when she heard him speak.

"Yep, sounds like a plan." His voice was thick as he stretched his limbs and cracked his joints.

She hesitated for a moment. "Alec-"

"Wow, twice in the span of one hour, this better not be becoming a habit."

"Well, I just thought if I repeated it enough times you would get used to it. Is it working?

"Maybe." He turned away from her to finally look out the window.

She smiled. Unbeknownst to her, so did he.

….

After every box was unloaded and the movers paid and gone, she found herself in another prolonged moment of silence as he was helping her assemble her bed. She realized she was probably staring at him for too long when he spoke up.

"They gave me until the end of the year. Like some reward for solving the case, I don't know. Some reward that they won't even let me use the car anymore." He stopped what he was doing momentarily and looked up at her for a brief second before continuing. "By the end of December I either have to find another place to live or pay for the room myself. I figured I might as well stay there as long as they'll let me. Save money, or something."

"For your surgery?" He immediately shot up, his eyebrows furrowed with a frown on his face.

"I'm not having surgery." She looked at him like she wanted him to continue, to which he responded "I don't want to talk about it." She gazed at him for a while before deciding that she wasn't going to drop the subject, not this time.

"Pacemaker surgery isn't that risky, though. I looked into it." She paused. "Why don't you want to have the operation?"

"Because I'm-" he stopped midsentence as his face softened and voice lowered. "…scared." His eyes glistened and he jerked his head down as he got up from the floor. "I need a drink."

She got up with him, and stopped him from leaving the room by gently grabbing his arm. She stared at him for a bit while she held him, and then spoke. "I have some wine in a box somewhere." His attention turned to her with a confused look on his face. "Not boxed wine, real wine." She said as they shared a chuckle.

"It's noon, El."

"Never too early for wine."

His eyes were still a bit glassy and he hesitated a bit, using the time to search the features of her face before he finally muttered an 'okay' as the smile returned. She smiled back and ran her hand down his arm to entwine her fingers with his, lightly tugging him out the door.

….

She was drinking water, much to his protest because 'he didn't want to her to open a brand new bottle of wine just for him' though she reassured him that she was going to open it eventually anyway, while he seemed to relax a bit after each sip.

"It's how she died."

She wondered how his mind worked; he always seemed to bring back previous, seemingly ended, conversations, causing confusion multiple times throughout their discourse, like he enjoyed it. Over time, she got used to it, and prided herself in being able to decode it, him, but this time she was quite puzzled, and waited for his inevitable clarification.

"Mum. She had heart problems as well, and that's what they told us. 'There are little to no complications… she'll have a fast recovery time…she can live a long, normal life,' etcetera, etcetera. They messed up. That's what I believe, anyway; it didn't hold up in court. They said she was at risk for complications from the beginning looking at her autopsy, though I don't believe that one bit." He gulped down the last of the liquid in his glass and made a face as it went down his throat. "I told you not to open up a bottle of wine for me…now you have to finish it before it goes bad."

"Nah, we'll finish it tonight." She took a sip of her water.

"Tonight?"

"Yeah, after I've gotten the kids and done all my driving for the day."

"Alright, let me rephrase that. We?"

She inhaled a large breath, like she needed all the air she could get in order to let out what she was about to say, and held it for a moment before she spoke actual words.

"I've been thinking." Another long breath in. "I want you to live with us."

"You sure you haven't been drinking vodka there, El?"

"I'm serious. You've been living in that hotel room for god knows how long, and from the looks of it you don't really have somewhere in mind to move to after the year runs out and I don't want you to be homeless."

"I'll be fine, I can manage. I have done for quite a while."

"But I don't know if I can." She hoped she said that quietly enough that he wouldn't hear, or would ignore it because it was too soft for him to discern actual words, but by looking at the way his expression changed, it was safe to say that he had heard. He looked like he was searching his mind for the right words to say, so she decided to put everyone out of their misery and fill the growing silence. "I don't want to say goodbye. Not to you. Not yet." He placed his hand over hers on the counter and squeezed.

"Me neither."

….

The car ride back was uneventful apart from the occasional car game that he randomly started and ended just the same. She dropped him off at the Traders to gather his things ("What, all three suits you own? Do you sleep in them? Oh I forgot you don't sleep," to which he rolled his eyes and grinned as he got out of the car and said "You better come back for me.") as she went to her old house to get the kids and thank Lucy for all her trouble.

When she was strapping Fred in his car seat and Tom got in the car next to them, she decided to break the news.

"Tom, sweetie, you know Mr. Hardy has been helping me all day with the move?" he nodded as he buckled his seatbelt. "Well, he's going to be living with us, sweetheart." She awaited his response and tried to see what he was thinking through his facial features. Though, as she recently found out, there was a lot more to him than she could know. She thought about what Susan said. If he's his father's son, what is he capable of? She tried not to, especially since Nige didn't turn out to be anything wrong, though she didn't really want Tom to be like Nige either. She was pulled out of her thoughts abruptly.

"He is, isn't he!?" Tom exclaimed. "He's replacing dad!"

"No, sweetie, no not at all, he's not replacing anyone, darling. He needs a place to stay because he doesn't have a home." Tom was crying out of frustration and he tried to hide it but she finished strapping Fred in and went around to Tom's side to hug him. "It's alright honey, it's okay." She pulled back to look at his face, head held in hand. "Why are you crying, darling?"

"I still love Dad." He wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

"I know sweetie, I know." She hugged him again as he was trying to end his cry with ragged breaths. After he settled down as she ran smoothing hands down his back, she continued. "I'm going to ask you to be nice to Mr. Hardy though; he thinks that you don't like him."

"I don't." He responded quickly and she let out a tearful laugh.

"Well, I would really appreciate it if you could try. Can you do that for me?" She pulled away and stared at him again.

"Okay." He smiled. She responded with the same as she ruffled his hair and kissed his cheek. Her phone beeped as she closed the car door.

All packed. Waiting inside. Call when you get here.

She smiled. For one last time, she pulled out of the driveway of her old house, of her old life, leaving the town that had been her home for as long as she can remember. She was moving on to better things, off to make new memories. And the best part was that she didn't have to go through it alone.