A/N: The UK Police goes through a proficiency test annually called the Bleep Test where they have to run back and forth between two points that are 15 metres apart within a set time. So, do with the information as you will.
"Bloody hell, Miller. I don't need training!"
"Language, sir." Miller scolded him, pointing over to Fred who was on a picnic mat, laying down on his stomach as he watched Shaun the Sheep on his mother's phone accompanied by a basket of snacks and juice boxes.
It was spring but being the seaside town Broadchurch is, it was absurdly windy and Alec Hardy was in his shorts(way too short for his liking but it was the only one he had) and t-shirt standing next to a bright orange training cone, hands to his hips, in the middle of the field across Miller's house, frowning at the ridiculousness of the situation.
Miller, with the help of his daughter, was trying to measure the distance of 15 meters as accurately as possible, having only a STANLEY measuring tape that limited them to 5. But she wasn't as bothered as Hardy was, having dressed up in a pair of joggers instead of shorts.
"I don't think this works, Ellie." Daisy commented, holding down her mark to the grass, crouching next to her father.
Struggling to prevent the tape from flying as it kept getting caught in the wind, Miller responded back irritably, "Name a single better idea."
Daisy looked up at her father, "She's pretty set, huh?"
Hardy rolled his eyes, "You have no idea."
For the past years, Hardy had been exempted from the annual physical proficiency test due to his heart arrhythmia ever since it was made known to the force after he almost died during the chase. How he escaped the test the previous year, goodness knows.
Although he had been cleared medically ever since getting the pacemaker, he somehow managed to get his GP to provide him with a letter to excuse himself from it. But it wasn't an issue back then as he had spent the gap years after leaving Broadchurch being a trainer at the college of policing. As it was still considered light duty, exemption came easily for him.
His return to Wessex Police, however, required him to be on field and CS Clarke, upon learning of his close call running after Joe Miller the last time, had insisted he be properly cleared medically and physically. Now, CS Clarke composes herself to be a very reasonable and calm superior, which gives her an authoritative aura that no one can argue with if they couldn't make a strong point.
Hardy knew for sure that he couldn't wiggle himself out of this one and had no choice but to heed orders. Miller somehow managed to find out about this when she received an email of the scheduling for the next Bleep Test and saw that Hardy and herself were detailed together.
"When was the last time you ran?"
"Not now, Miller."
"Did you have to do the Bleep Test while you were teaching?"
"Drop it, Miller."
"Oh, you didn't have to, did you?"
"I'm busy, Miller."
"We should train together, then."
"Go away, Miller."
But he finally took her up on her offer because Hardy had to find out for himself if he was even fit enough to run without keeling over. Not that his heart was the matter anymore, but he hadn't exercised in years and that was no premise for him to turn up for the Bleep Test without building up his fitness level. They managed to rearrange their shifts so that their off day matched for that week and Miller had arranged for them to meet at her house for the weekend to start on their training.
Daisy wasn't exactly sure what part she was supposed to be playing during said training but her father had practically begged her to come along so she had no other option but to follow. The Latimers' house is just across the field anyway, she could just call Chloe out if she got bored.
"Can't we do something else?" Hardy was cold at this point, regretting his selection of sportswear for that day, "I don't think we should go straight to running."
"We should mark out first, at least." Miller insisted, Daisy now crouched mid-point while the former pulled the measuring tape for one last stretch to place the 15 meter mark. Victoriously, Miller put down the second orange cone, "There's that then."
Fred was becoming restless and had come up to stand by Hardy's side, with a pack of crisps in hand as he took a bite, looking up at the tall Scot, eyes squinted, "What are we doing, Uncle Alec?"
"Go back and sit down, lad." Hardy dismissed him grumpily. Wee Fred, who was by now used to Uncle Alec's lack of civility, simply shrugged it away and remained unmoved from the older man's side, munching away on his crisps without a care for the world. He chose to instead focus on his mum doing whatever it was that she's doing.
Miller went back to the picnic mat, collecting her phone and tapped away, "I've got the app downloaded."
"What app?" Daisy asked curiously, stood at the recently placed orange cone.
"The Bleep Test app." Miller replied brightly, "Well, we have to prepare ourselves for the test, right?"
Hardy rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief, Fred tilted his in confusion.
"Right. Warm ups, then." Miller said excitedly, clasping her hands together.
Warm ups, of course. Why didn't Hardy think of it earlier?
Chloe had made it easy for Beth that morning, attending to Lizzie and made breakfast for the three of them. That gave her the luxury of sleeping in – one that she barely has of late juggling between work and caring for a young child. But she had also gone to bed early the night before, which led her to wake up as early after almost a 13-hour sleep. She couldn't pinpoint where the exhaustion was coming from but the deep undisturbed slumber was something she knew she needed badly, being grateful that she got it.
It was only 9.12am when Beth walked into the kitchen, taking note of the time as she tried to figure how long she was out for. Passing by Chloe who was feeding young Lizzie her pancakes, she planted a kiss into her hair before walking over to the counter to get herself a glass of water. She has a habit of looking out the window while she does so, drinking in the view of the field and the open sky – the view she fell in love with when she set her heart on the house. However that morning, the view had occupants.
"Chlo?" Beth called out for her daughter, without taking her eyes off the occupants.
"Hmm?" Chloe responded as she fed her sister a fork of pancake.
"How long has Ellie and Hardy been out there?" She asked.
"What?" Chloe turned to her mum, clueless.
"Ellie and Hardy. How long have they been out there?" Beth repeated herself. Chloe hurriedly put the fork down and scurried over to her mother's side, tiptoeing to get a better view. "There's Daisy and Fred too. What the hell are they doing, anyway?"
"Seems like a picnic to me." The younger Latimer suggested.
Beth made a face, "At 9 in the morning?"
"Is DI Hardy in shorts?" Chloe asked, squinting to get a better focus, "He's not, is he?"
He indeed was, they finally concluded. Beth knitted her eyebrows in confusion as they continued to observe them further. Miller seemed to be leading in what they could only assume were jumping jacks, Hardy following the exercise half-heartedly as his long limbs flailed about while Fred could be seen enjoying imitating his mother, Daisy sat on the mat obviously zoned out, unmoved.
They then moved on to high-jumpers. Fred was definitely doing well: good form, constant pace, just like his mother. Hardy, however… nevermind. Let's just pretend that he did some instead of raising his arms up and down.
"For Christ's sake." Beth muttered, "I'm going to wash up and rescue Ellie from her insufferable boss. Chlo? Will you get Liz ready for me, sweetheart? Just leave the plates in the sink if you want to join me and save Daisy. Poor girl. She looks like she could use company."
Chloe could only nod and pursed her lips in agreement with her mother.
"For goodness sake, sir! Are you even trying?" Miller yelled as she held onto her phone, standing at the midpoint of the two cones, the bleeps on her app now coming in at 6-second intervals.
They were only at level 3.
He needed to get to 5.4 but it had been their second attempt and he had given up because Hardy forgot what he was supposed to do during the runs the first time around. Fred, on the other hand, had been running back and forth the two cones non-stop for the past 2 and half minutes considering the fact that he had attempted the first round together with his Uncle Alec as a form of moral support. It's amazing, really, how much energy a young child contains.
Daisy, still on the mat, had been playing a Spotify playlist of songs that she thought could motivate(or irritate, both works anyway) her father to run. It's currently playing CAKE's The Distance. Although her father was bent over, hand to his hips, gasping away trying to catch a breath, she managed to catch a glimpse of him rolling his eyes at her choice of songs.
He's not going for the distance, Daisy thought as the song played. And he was definitely going for speed.
"Hiya, El!" They heard a voice coming from a distance. All four of them turned to see Beth approaching in a tank top and running shorts, her hair tied up in a ponytail. She was soon overtaken by young Lizzie who zoomed past her, elated to see Fred.
Chloe came strolling behind them, waving a hand at Daisy in greeting, "What are you doing?
"Mornin', Beth!" Miller greeted back, "Not much, really. Just thought Hardy and I should start training for our Bleep Test."
"You haven't done anything." Hardy retorted, as he stood up straight, feigning regulated breathing, too embarrassed to seem like he was struggling in front of Beth.
"I pass my Bleep Test every year." Miller countered, "You haven't done one in years."
"And you're jumping straight into running? Wouldn't your pacemaker go off?" Beth frowned at the grumpy detective.
"I'm fine. I'm not an invalid."
"Yeah, but even normal people start off slow to build up their stamina, Dad." Daisy interrupted.
"I'm fine." Hardy insisted.
The ladies looked at him with knitted eyebrows, skeptical.
Somehow, it ended up turning into a group exercise with Beth leading them.
They had done burpees.
"On the grass?" Hardy complained. No one cared for his whining. While Miller seemed like she had no problems catching up with Beth's pace, Hardy was practically just lying on the grass and forcing himself to stand up repeatedly as fast as he could to match the women.
They did squats, which the ladies appreciated – for DI Alec Hardy had always been armoured by his suit. The exercise made them realise what a nice bum the detective kept hidden, further accentuated by the shorts he was wearing. They didn't make it obvious that they were definitely eyeing him up but Miller and Beth exchanged knowing glances, nodding to each other in approval.
Beth then suggested they should do sets of the shuttle runs instead, upon learning that Hardy has a stamina that was so embarrassing to be mentioned about. And while Miller breezed through the sets, Hardy wheezed through it. Fred and little Lizzie, thinking that the adults were racing each other, had been rocketing themselves back and forth the cones in absolute childish bliss and innocent ignorance that their elders were simply trying to keep fit.
The teenagers, occupied with their phones, were in a competition to collate as many running-related songs to play so as to annoy Daisy's father as much as they could. Said adult was too exhausted and had his heart thumping in his ears to be able to hear anything.
"Well, I'm sure we can get Beth to help you out. Maybe we could do twice a week instead, this time around?" Miller tried to comfort her superior as she settled herself down on the couch in his office, sipping on her cuppa. He had been in a mood(he always was, it's a bit more intense that day) since they got back from their Bleep Test the day before.
"Drop it, Miller. I'm not doing it." Hardy rebutted, his eyes not taking off the paperwork he was attending to.
"Clarke did threaten to take you off field duty." She reminded.
"She's bluffing." He dismissed flatly.
"Doesn't sound like it." Miller leaned back into the couch and crossed her legs, "Come on, sir. It's not that hard anyway."
"I'm busy, Miller."
"Think about it."
"Enough, Miller."
"Do it for Daisy." She suggested, knowing he would burn the world for his daughter, "She can't keep moving schools just because you got a transfer."
Hardy dropped whatever he was doing and sat back into his seat, removing his glasses, throwing them across the desk as he sighed, "You can't do that to me."
"You know she'll have to if you do."
He crossed his arms, infuriated, "By a split second, Miller. Can you believe it?"
"Well," Miller paused, "you did only train once a week for a month. I think that's good progress considering your circumstances."
"Can't they just close one eye? Bloody hell." He huffed.
"I'm sure you could pass it the next time around. You've got six weeks." She assured him.
"I'm not doing it." Hardy insisted.
"You have to." Miller argued, "Just… calm down and try thinking rationally."
"You'll be fine." Miller eventually got up, exhausted trying to convince her superior. She was about to take a step out when her phone beeped, her head tilting, confused seeing whom the notification was coming from, "Oh, it's your daughter."
He looked up, "Why? What does she want? Why didn't she text me?"
Miller tapped on the notification and a video started, Michael Bolton's Go The Distance playing in the background.
"What is it, Miller?" Hardy pressed.
She was trying her best to suppress her facial expressions. How could she possibly tell him that his daughter had made a ridiculously stupid edit of her father flailing to run in slow motion, his long limbs struggling to keep up to the soundtrack of Hercules?
"Nothing," She struggled to answer flatly, "just some silly Tiktok. You wouldn't know."
Hardy frowned, "Why doesn't she send me those kind of things?"
Miller couldn't give him an answer. Pursing her lips, she saw herself out of his office thinking she finally had something to hold against him.
Her superior in the background however, was restless, "Miller. Come back! What did she send you?"
She ignored.
"Miller! That's an order!"