A/N: Hi, it's been a while. I've been away for so long. Recently, I found joy in tv shows again and I've been rewatching Broadchurch in the background while I do other work but I can't help going down the rabbit hole of fanfiction and end up writing again. I've been meaning to get on AO3 but I'm still on the waiting list so meanwhile, I'm here. That aside, I meant for this to be a one-shot but... I end up with a few chapters drafted up. It definitely is not going the way I wanted it to. Do let me know what you think!

The orange and yellows of the evening sun always hurt his eyes. Being in a seaside town, Alec hated the fact that there was a broad horizon and a never-ending sky. And the wind.

Gosh, he hated the wind. Always messing his hair and ends up getting them in his eyes.

Though, at the very least now he made it a point to keep his fringe short, which resulted in the disproportionate ratio of both his hair volume and length - too thick and long in the back, too thin and short at the top. Then again, no one has ever complained about how the way he looked affected his work performance, hence he sees no purpose in a change.

Change.

He sighed at the word. Standing at the landing in front of his house, Alec folded his arms, taking in the saltwater breeze while overlooking the view before him - the sunset and its rippled reflection in the sea.

New house.

Rented though.

Just Daisy and him. It's a bit too big, in his opinion, despite housing just for two. Still, he had to consider her personal space if she was to be in the same vicinity as him. All in all, that's enough changes for now. He did not think he could manage any more than this.

"Dad," Daisy came up from behind him, "all right?"

Alec turned around, having snapped out of his reverie, he stared at his daughter, and just stood there blinking before he could mutter, "Aye."

"There's not much in the fridge but I can fix up a pasta salad or sorts for dinner?"

Alec shifted his weight, "It's all right. Get changed, if you want. We'll get dinner outside."

"But, we just came back from outside."

Alec rubbed his face. They had just returned from the pier where Ellie proposed going to the pub, slightly regretting the fact that he turned her down. Although he shudders at the idea of being surrounded by drunk people in a secluded place, he would not mind having a shot or two right now after all that he had to go through with the Trish Winterman case and Daisy's issue, "Dinner slipped my mind."

His daughter didn't say anything. She stood where she was for a bit, looking back at her father before she turned around to head inside, "Yeah, all right."

"I'll wait for you in the car. Thai's all right?"

"Yeah, okay."

Even though it was a short drive, it felt like forever. Both father and daughter were silent - one driving half-focused, the other staring out the window.

It was still.

No music or radio in the background.

Just the car engine as white noise.

The car came to a park in front of the Thai restaurant and before Alec could get out of his seat, Daisy muttered softly, "I'm sorry."

With one leg out of the car, he looked at her blankly before he sighed and sat back in his seat, closing the door, "No, Daise. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be angry at you."

They sat in silence for a while, neither of them looking at each other. Daisy faced down, fiddling with her clasped hands on her lap, "But I messed up."

Alec leaned back into his seat, resting his head on the headrest, pushing away all the anxiety he had pent up from Daisy's earlier attempt to run back to her mother. He sighed albeit too loudly, "Everybody does, Daise. I did too."

Silence dropped again.

"I didn't mean to cause you trouble, Dad," Daisy muttered a little too softly.

Alec huffed and shifted in his seat, turning only his head to face his daughter, "Daise, that's not your fault. And you're not a trouble. I just-,"

"What is it that you have to be sorry for?"

Alec stilled, pondering over her question, "Everything."

"What things?"

He rubbed his face, "I haven't exactly been a parent to you."

Daisy blinked at him sadly, "And?"

"We haven't exactly talked about this, have we?"

"Sorry."

Silence.

Alec realised there had been a lot of silences between them ever since Daisy was in his care full-time. Before the Winterman case, despite a way lesser workload, they barely spoke. Their dinners were always quiet and awkward, hours spent in the front room watching telly in utter stillness. He had tried over and again to hold proper conversations with her but having spent years on his own, he knows that socialising as a parent is way out of practice for him. Pairing that with a hormonal teenager who's been angry at him for a long time, conversations were not exactly something either of them would want to indulge in. Especially when both were not ready to confront their feelings and the misunderstandings at hand. The past two years he had spent trying to fix it was a disaster because it always ended up with a quarrel with Tess and Daisy storming off.

The only engagements he had had throughout were the ones at work be it interrogations, meetings, briefings, lectures(back when he was still not unfit) and the most recent addition - the bantering he has with Ellie Miller. Although he would argue he easily fell back on the last one the moment he started his position again back in Broadchurch CID as if he never left.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts, "I'm sorry, Daise."

His daughter only muttered softly, "It's all right."

Alec sighed, gripping both his hands on the wheel(he doesn't even know why he did so) and fidgeted in his seat before he turned his whole body to face his daughter, "I mean it. I'm sorry. I have never raised my voice at you but I did. I shouldn't have."

Daisy didn't budge, still looking at her fiddling hands on her lap, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed."

Alec took a deep breath, placing a hand over his daughter's hair, softly stroking it as he did to her when she was younger, "Daisy, look at me."

She raised her head just a little, still averting eye contact.

"Daise," Alec pulled back his hand and lay it limply on his lap, "I'm sorry I haven't been taking good care of you. I know I told you things would be different here."

"It's fine."

"No, listen," He grabbed her hand, "I'm sorry. For all the times that I was away before. I know I promised to care for you here but I'm sorry I have been neglecting you."

Daisy hissed a sharp breath in through gritted teeth, "Stop saying you're sorry. I'm sorry. I left you on your own and now that I messed up, you still take the blame. Enough. Just… stop."

"Daise-,"

"I'm sorry, alright? For leaving you. All those years, you were alone. I'm sorry."

"Darlin'-," Alec so much as whispered, "Sweetheart, it's my fault. It was my choices that led us here."

"This is a never-ending series of apologies." Daisy sniffled.

He chuckled, "We can save this conversation for later if you want?"

She let out a small laugh and wiped away a stray tear that streaked down her cheek, "This is so uncomfortable."

"We don't have to talk about it."

"No," She replied firmly, turning to face her father, "No more running. We have to address this somehow."

He managed a small smile, taking the hand that was holding hers to wipe away another trailing tear, "Aye. No more running. Dinner first, all right?"

They stepped into the restaurant together, his hand on Daisy's shoulder reassuring her. He was aware that she had not been a fan of being outside(it's not like he ever was either) ever since the incident. Chloe had been visiting but they did not go beyond hanging out in the front room watching telly, doing homework together or simply using their laptops without speaking to each other. But he was willing to push boundaries for his daughter.

This is a start, he thought.

He guided her to a table by the furthest corner of the restaurant, being as far from prying eyes as possible. Just as they were about to sit, he heard a familiar voice.

"Hardy!" A bright orange jacket came through the door with a small boy in tow, a taller broader one following behind her, "Thought that was your car outside!"

He grunted, "Miller."

"Daddy-daughter date, then?" She chirped as she approached their table, "Should've just told me."

"Told her what?" Daisy looked at her father across the table.

"Asked your dad out to the pub," Ellie replied with a scrunched nose, "he turned it down flat. Bit of a wanker, if you don't mind my language."

Daisy laughed, "Yeah, a bit daft he is."

Ellie turned to Alec, sensing that he wanted to be left alone, seeing he was pinching the bridge of his nose, "Right, then. I'll leave you two be."

"Stay," Daisy held her by her arm, "Join us."

Alec glared at her daughter before exchanging looks with Ellie.

Ellie caught on and as much as she wanted to roll her eyes knowing full well that he wanted to forsake all forms of social engagement, she maintained her spritely expression, "That's all right. You enjoy your time with your father. I'd love to get him out of my hair for a while. Spent too much time with him for the past few weeks."

"It's fine," Daisy kicked her father's leg under the table, "right, Dad?"

Alec shifted in his seat and sighed in reluctance, "Sure. Let's… get a bigger table."

Ellie was caught by surprise at his change of mind. But she knew better not to ask if he was sure about it because she was darned that Alec would turn back on his words. Instead, she beamed at him, "Well, that's nice!"

It's only been slightly over two months since Daisy and Alec moved to Broadchurch. Daisy was familiar with Ellie's almost regular presence in their new-found abode every time she came home thinking her father would be late, but she hadn't spent as much time at Ellie's and was as unfamiliar with her boys. Although she had seen Tom around in school, other than exchanging a simple 'hi' and 'good morning', they barely interacted, unlike their parents. As Daisy exchanged a head nod with Tom as they sat face to face at the new table, Alec had assisted Fred onto the high chair he requested from a waiter. Fred simply let himself be helped by the familiar stranger his mother told him to call 'Uncle Alec'.

Ellie excitedly settled herself as she went through the menu, "Haven't sat down with you for a proper meal ever since you got back. This is nice. Not that you eat much."

Alec settled himself beside his daughter, his mind already made up on a meal, "My treat."

Ellie was amused by the news, "Told you not to be nice to me."

"Just order up, Mil-," He paused after being kicked by his daughter from under the table for the second time. He sighed, "I can be nice."

"You tolerate me. That's different."

"I'm sure you're the only one he tolerates at work," Daisy joined in their banter, in hopes they would instead have a proper conversation.

"Pretty much, yeah." Ellie proudly replied.

"Only because you're the only person I worked with the longest," Alec defended himself.

"You mean I'm the only person you were willing to work with."

Across the table, Fred and Tom were becoming restless at the lack of attention. Fred fidgeted and fussed in his seat until his brother interrupted, "Is this how you are at work every day?"

The table went silent.

"I don't mean to be rude but how do either of you get any work done?" Tom continued.

Before either parent could answer, Fred chimed in, "Mum? Can we eat?"

Daisy let out a small chuckle as Ellie comforted her youngest. Alec could not help but sigh. It was going to be a tiresome dinner.

Much to both Hardys' surprise, their dinner was quite pleasant. Although Ellie and her father had spent evenings going through the Winterman's case for the past month, Daisy had never really seen her father in a social setting. During those evenings, all the two did was talk shop and nothing personal. But that night was a refreshing change. She could not remember the last time she ever heard him say he was going out with a friend for a drink. Imagine her surprise, hearing Ellie and her father exchange stories of what they had been up to for the past two years throughout the dinner, leaving her to wonder if they ever slipped anything personal or so much as gossip when it was just the two of them. She had learnt so much yet so little of their dynamic - only because her father barely said anything and Ellie hard-carried the conversation. But she also could not help sensing the tension between her father and Tom.

Daisy tried striking up a conversation with Tom, but it did not go beyond three-word sentence replies, which made it hard for her to be able to relate. Fred, however, was enamoured by Daisy's attention as she engaged him to share his day at the school. All in all, she was satisfied with the outcome of the dinner. It was not as bad as she thought it would turn out to be but she had to give credit where it was due. Ellie had managed to balance both a casual dinner conversation and maintain peace at the same time despite having a messy child to constantly clean up after and a grumpy partner to deal with.

Alec, on the other hand, could only think of making it home as quickly as possible to recharge his social battery. It was not so bad of a reunion dinner(he allowed himself to think so). It might be even the first time that he and Ellie had ever sat down in a restaurant to properly dine. The one occasion in Sandbrook did not count because he did not have anything and also due to Tess being present.

All those thoughts aside, Alec just wanted a quiet night. The past few weeks had been too much chaos when he and Daisy had barely moved in properly. The dinner, however, gave him that opportunity he could not offer his daughter - a glimpse of his world, of the days that he had spent alone in Broadchurch. He had hoped that it opened up his daughter to Ellie, regardless of their incessant bantering. He knew that even though Ellie had had a fair share of spending time in their house, Daisy was never able to see her as anyone more than a colleague to him. All they did was talk about work, anyway.

"Shall I make you tea?" Daisy asked as her father locked the door behind him.

Alec shrugged off his coat and threw it over the sofa before shuffling over and removing his tie, practically sinking into it. Daisy shook her head, wondering why he had not bothered to change out of his suit before going out to dinner.

"I'll have it, ta."

Alec let himself breathe for a bit and closed his eyes. His mind was racing - the case, dinner, Daisy's attempt at going away and probably a few other things he could not pinpoint. When he smelled the tea coming around, he sat up and ran a hand through his hair as he took a mug from his daughter, "Thanks, Daise."

"I'll be in my room," Daisy turned on her heels with her cuppa in hand.

"Darlin'," Alec called out tenderly, "would you… mind sitting with me for a while?"

Daisy blinked at him blankly for a while before making her way slowly to the sofa, picking up the sprawled coat and gently placing it beside her, setttling herself beside her father, tucking her feet under her as she did so.

"Do you want to continue that conversation?" He asked in what almost sounded like a whisper.

"It's fine. I know you haven't rested properly in days."

"You don't need to worry about me."

"Someone has to, Dad. You don't take care of yourself enough."

"I was just caught up with work."

"Not before Trish's case, you weren't."

"Darlin'-"

"I'm more than ready to talk about our situation. But I don't want to put the pressure on you. We always have tomorrow. I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere."

Alec sighed. He wished she did not say 'pressure'. He did not want her to think as if she was just another burden he had to carry, "You are no pressure to me, Daise. I hope you know that."

"I know. Because you won't allow me to feel otherwise. But that doesn't invalidate the fact that I think of myself so."

"I promise I will take care of you better. So that you will never feel that way again." Alec held his mug with both his hands, his elbows perched on his knees as he turned to sit facing his daughter.

It infuriated her, to think that her father still blamed himself for so many things - things that he need not explain himself for, things that were beyond his control, "Stop it, Dad."

Alec's eyes widened at her sudden outburst.

"I know you know about me finding out about what happened between you and Mum. I know you know that was the reason why I am here. But I was mad at you. Madder, even, at myself."

"Sweetheart-,"

"Why didn't you fight for me?" A single tear rolled down her rosy cheek. She stared into her mug, facing away so that her father did not have to witness her tears, "Why didn't you say something?"

Alec huffed, placing his mug on the floor beside him, making a mental note to get small coffee table. He pulled her in by her shoulders into a side hug and let Daisy lean into his chest, sniffling into his shirt as he rested his chin on top of her head, "I'm so sorry, Daisy."

"Stop apologising. Please."

"I didn't want to hurt you. But if I did say something, what good would it do you?"

"What good did it do you, then?" Daisy pulled out of her father's embrace, nearly spilling the contents of her mug. Her voice softened, eyes welled, "What good came out of it for you, then?"

"Daisy, please."

"You could have at least told me about your heart. I had to find out from Mum the day you came out of surgery," Daisy searched his face for an answer, an explanation, "What if you didn't make it?"

"I'm here now," Alec repeated her words, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear, "I'm not going anywhere."

"I left you on your own. For so long, I ignored you - your calls, your texts. It could have been your last."

Daisy was shaking, evidently holding back years of pent-up emotion, her body tensed. Alec grabbed her mug and placed it on the floor next to his, holding her by her shoulders, "That wasn't your fault, Daisy. I made those decisions. I've done my penance. But I'm here now - with you."

Tears were now free-falling as she searched her father's eyes, "But you shouldn't have to in the first place."

Alec took a deep breath, pulling her into his arms - one enveloping her, the other stroking the back of her head, "I know, darlin'. We're here now. We can start over, all right?"

Daisy clung to him tightly, surprising him for it had been a long time since she had hugged him like that, like a child holding onto hope. Although still shaking from all the crying, she managed a calm soft voice, "Don't leave me again."

He chuckled, pressing a cheek to the top of her head at the same time trying to catch a breath from Daisy's tight embrace, "When did you get so big, eh?"

"Please."

"I promise."

Alec had promised her things would change, he was ready to cross lines for her - lines he had drawn for himself. He had vowed to himself not to be too attached to this small seaside town. He would never be able to fit in, its residents were practically each other's family. There will never be a place for him after what he had done when Joe Miller's trial went down in absolute failure but he needed a place for both Daisy and himself. Even if there was not going to be a place in Broadchurch for both of them, at least - he hoped - there would be one for Daisy, even when she said she hated it there.

But he needed a place where he knew he could trust its people. Broadchurch had proved to him that despite the violence it had faced, its reputation tarnished and its hearts shredded, the community stuck together stronger after every storm that came their way.

When they eventually broke apart after what seemed like forever, Alec could see that his daughter's eyes were heavy and exhausted from all the crying, consciousness slowly slipping away from her as her breathing eventually slowed. He laid her down on the sofa, pushing her hair out of her face. Alec then went to his room and fetched an afghan, throwing it over her and tucked it underneath her before settling himself on the dining chair next to the sofa. He pinched the bridge of his nose, scrunching away the ache throbbing in his head.

"Dad?" Daisy mumbled half-asleep but her voice was still trembling, "Why come back here?"

Alec let the question hang in the air for a while as he pondered. There was nothing for him to ponder on in the first place. It was clear as day for him - ever since the day he left. But there was no need for him to explain his reasoning. Like everything else, he did what he always did best: kept it to himself. After a silence that seemed way too long, he replied with a sigh, "A second chance, Daise."

Alec watched her stir in an attempt to fall asleep as she hummed a 'hmm' in acknowledgement.

Tilting his head back with eyes closed, he took a deep breath and whispered to himself in assurance, "A second chance."