A/N: I have never written a story with this many words. Usually I struggle to scrape 1000, but this story just came pouring out of me and it's a pretty awesome feeling. I hope you enjoy it.

Published: 19 April 2016

-CONTRIDICTIONS-

…Chapter One...

It was two weeks now since Hardy left Broadchurch. Since Joe got banished from Broadchurch, she corrected herself. By some miracle, her life did what her therapist always said it would, and it fell back into routine.

Fred was starting nursery school early thanks to his ability to be fully potty trained at three. It was a melancholic moment for Ellie to see her little Fredkins running onto the playground and leave her behind that first day. Fred was the youngest in his class, but the tallest by far. He had inherited the same tall legs from his grandfather like Tom.

On Fred's first day; Tom accompanied Ellie to the same nursery he had gone to. Ellie will never forget the image of Fred and his little fists clenched to a packed lunch, big blue eyes staring up at her. Tom gave his brother a high five and ruffled his mop of hair. Then, Fred stumbled up to Ellie and hugged her legs.

"Goodbye Mummy." he said.

Tom rolled his eyes when she teared up, but she couldn't help it. Her little baby had now become a little boy.

Ellie felt bittersweet for the rest of that day. Yes, she was proud of her son, but all along she felt a little guilty. Fred was growing up without a father, and that made Ellie wonder about a whole lot of things. She sighed when the memory of Joe and seven-year-old Tom busy skateboarding popped into her head. She knew it senseless, because Fred didn't remember Joe. He would grow up perfectly fine without a father - millions of kids before him have…

Yet, Ellie felt dejected. Just one year ago she was in Joe's arms, and they were a team dedicated to raising two sons. Just one year ago she fell asleep every night with her head pressed to his chest. Together they'd promise to try for one more child after Fred got off his feet. Another little boy, he'd say, and she would snuggle up close to him and then he'd kiss her temple.

All those memories felt so long ago. All of the were now spoilt. All those promises she thought were cast in stone, ended after three simple words.

Ellie didn't pretend to be the woman she was before Danny's death. She accepted that the tragedy had hardened her, and Tom too. She was just relieved that her anger had finally gone. As soon as she shut that cab door closed, she felt in charge. And as soon as Joe got banished from Broadchurch, her Broadchurch, she was not angry anymore. She didn't want Joe gone, she didn't want him dead either, she just wanted him forgotten. Now she finally say the good times she and Joe had were finally a thing of at the past. Distant memories that were still a part of her. A good chapter in her book with a bitter ending.

x

At the best of times, Alec Hardy can be an idiot.

He was sitting on a park bench, looking like the world had literally placed all it's weight on his back. His bony legs were stretched out in front of him, the bags under his eyes, a shade of violent purple. Hardy's long fingers pecked aimlessly at a packet of chips. His gaze remained fixed on one person.

How Daisy had grown. The last time he saw her walking around in this park, she must have been ten or eleven, running around with the other children. Her hair was short then. He could still remember her bulky blue shirt that with the acrylic splats on because - oh, how Daisy always loved painting. Now she was sixteen and had skinny jeans and a stylish top on. When did she start caring about clothes? Headphones and a beanie covered her hair. She lay down flat in the grass, staring at the shedding treetops.

He wondered what she may be listening to. A book perhaps. Music. What kind of music would Daisy listen to? Maybe she wasn't listening to anything. Maybe she was using the headphones as a way to block out the rest of the world. At least he used to do that.

The truth was that he didn't know his daughter anymore. It was three years since they had a decent conversation, that didn't involve the painful "How's school." or "How are you doing, darlin'?"

Hardy felt pathetic sitting there and observing her. Hardy felt pretty pathetic about pretty much everything now days. He always imagined the moment he solved the Sandbrook case to be this emotionally stimulating, liberating sentiment. He imagined walking out the police station smiling. Instead he felt (if it was even possible) more empty than before.

When he got out of surgery he felt angry, but alive. He felt like he had this reborn sense of purpose when he walked out that hospital. He felt like he could fly. The moment he walked out the police station and sat on the bench with Miller, he felt defeated. The feeling got worse when he left Broadchurch, and when he finally got onto the train, he felt like utter shite.

"Where to then, sir?"

"Train station." he said, eyes fixed on the horizon, darting to the cliffs. Those bloody orange cliffs.

"You sure, mate?" the cab driver asked hesitantly.

He told the driver to get a bloody move on. Once at the train station, he didn't turn back in the direction of sea again. He ignored the salty breeze and the lazy blue sky above him.

He had no more purpose in this town. None whatsoever. He had done his penance, solved Sandbrook and reclaimed his health. He came to this godforsaken town thinking he would die there, but instead it made him live. But now it was over.

Sandbrook was only place he could think of going. In his life there had only really been three places - Glasgow, Sandbrook and Broadchurch. Although he tried not to, all along the route back he thought of Miller. He thought of their handshake, her promise of "We're not all alone." and her oversized orange raincoat. He wandered what he was going to do day to day if he could meet Miller for coffee to discuss the their recent Sandbrook theories. His afternoon walks are going to be so empty without Fred. Who else was going to nag him on about little sleep he was getting? Who else is going to be nosy about his relationship with Tess? What about her morning coffee flasks and her silent tear in the hotel room?

Hardy's lip curled up in the train. She was the only person he'd miss in Broadchurch.

But Sandbrook it is. He was going back to his town. He was going home to Daisy and Tess. Back to his old life. All along the trip, the back of his mind told him to turn around. He knew the truth then, but didn't admit it. There was no old life to get back to in Sandbrook. Things were over with Tess. His life could not go back to what it was.

But there was nothing in Broadchurch left for him either. Miller didn't want this in Broadchurch. Ho one in that town ever wanted in there. When he was halfway to Sandbrook he disembarked the train and stood on the platform for a few minutes. Now you're really being stupid. After all, he did tell Miller he was going to get closer to his daughter, and that started by getting geographically closer to her.

And so he was closer to her, but not ever close to getting closer to her. Hardy sat on a park bench in the heart of the city, stuffing a cold chip into his mouth. He sighed. Chips. A reminder of Broadchurch. A reminder of Miller.

Shit, he cursed mentally.

He was so caught up feeling sorry for himself, that he didn't notice Daisy had gotten up. She pulled out her phone from her back jean pocket and held it to her ear. As it was ringing, she started walking in his direction.

Hardy hadn't noticed how empty the park had gotten. Two minutes ago he could have easily slotted in behind some walkers and disappeared, but now there was nothing obstructing Hardy from Daisy's sight.

As Hardy turned around and tried to hide behind some bushes, she spotted him. Confusion trailed down her face until she stared at him, frowning lightly so that he could see little creases on her forehead.

Shit.

If only Miller was here to give him a good bollocking, then he wouldn't be in this bloody park, stalking his own daughter.

Shitshitshitshit. Only idiots stalk their daughters.

"Dad?" she shouted. When he didn't reply, she stormed up to him and looked at him with discouragement.

"Hello Darlin'." Hardy said, half-smiling in embarrassment.

"What the hell, dad?"

x

Ellie got offered a promotion at the police station to a DS again. Even though the offer was overly generous from Jenkinson's side, she still could not help but feel a little degraded watching the new DI in his office. It was hard to not help but wander what it would be like if she was there behind at desk. Just imagining herself behind those glass windows seemed obscure. Danny's case proved that she was not emotionally ready for the job. Ellie needed time and that extra guidance from Hardy. She still wasn't there.

The new DI is nothing like Hardy, she found herself comparing when he first walked through the door. His name was Joshua Brown, but he preferred it if you called him Josh. He called her Ellie, and sometimes joked around with names as casual as El.

The others at the station really liked Josh. He was the kind of guy you'd ask to make a speech at your wedding because he was that good at talking, and making other people feel good about themselves. Josh greeted her in the mornings, occasionally paid for her cappuccinos and even told her about his tour to Italy last year.

He was nice, yes, but Ellie wondered if he earned the same respect from them as Hardy did from her.

One day wafter work when they closed a case on a local drug dealer, Josh offered to buy everyone drinks. Desperate for a night off, Ellie dropped the kids off at Beth's, and set off for a night of pints and dancing with Bob Daniels.

She felt more alive than she had in a while as Bob twirled her in the neon lights. The alcohol had peeled off layer upon layer of her stress. She felt herself smiling dimples at Josh's cheesy jokes. Ellie ordered herself another drink, and when she returned the others were collectively complaining.

"Thank fuck that he left, you're ten millions times better than that knob, Josh."

"Yeah, Josh, seriously, the guy was an idiot. Couldn't talk to a streetlamp. Shitface we used to call him."

"Shitface?" Josh asked with amusement.

"That was his nickname. 'Cause that beard looked like utter shit-"

The crowd of detectives giggled in drunken bliss.

"Hey, El's back! Did you get me a Gin too?"

"Yeah." she heard herself saying, smiling but not entirely feeling it.

Ellie regretted not clearing Hardy's name that night. Yes he was defiantly a knob. A outright stubborn, sometimes infuriating streak of a human being, but he did have a heart. And Hardy did care. He cared more than most, but more importantly, he was there for her when no one else was.

And yes, she still had the picture of Hardy slouching in his chair in her mind. She could see his flappy hair flap over his forehead. The only thing visible from under his spectacles being his big nose. The only thing proving he wasn't dead was the occasional grunt.

Since Joe's banishment, Tom was doing much better. Still a little broken, of course, but better. Paul Coats had signed him up for some online programming course, and he was busy. Always sitting on the sofa, half-attacking his Mac with his fingers. Tom might be busy, but that didn't mean he was happy. Tom still didn't smile half as much as he used to. He never voluntarily talked to her, and he hardly ever left the house. Ellie was doubtful that he never would ever smile as much as he did, and she was sure his depression wast going to end any time soon. But at least he was busy. At least he had purpose.

Staying busy was one of the things Ellie's therapist recommended for recovering after the case. She said finding a hobby could help you recover faster and connect with new people that wasn't part of the Joe scandal.

Ellie nearly laughed out loud when the woman suggested she should find one of those adult colouring-in books, and she actually did laugh when she suggested cooking. Ellie had never been good at cooking. That was always Joe's turf, and now Tom had made it his. The good news was that Ellie didn't need to go find a hobby. Instead, Hardy made her work on the Sandbrook case. At the time she was pissed because it made her feel like she was, once again, working for Alec Hardy. She only afterwards realised how much good it did for her. Working on Sandbrook gave her purpose again. Ellie hoped this coding thing would do the same for Tom.

If there was one reason Alec Hardy bombarded himself into her life, it was to teach her to put one foot in front of the other. I needn't matter if were so weak you couldn't walk. You could be trudging, swimming through rivers, you just have to keep on moving forward.

x

Hardy had felt like an intruder in his own house plenty of times throughout him and Tess's marriage, but never more that he now. He felt like he needed permission to make a cup of tea. He even had to ask where the bathroom was, because Tess had changed everything.

All the old photo frames of the three of them as a family had been replaced by ones featuring Daisy only, or only Tess, or Tess's sisters. Hardy wondered why all women had to repaint the house as soon as their husbands left. Miller had done that, but she made her house look better. She also had reason to. Joe was a murderer. Ellie had the right to start over.

Tess, on the other hand, was trying to create herself a new identity. She was covering up her life as if Hardy had never been apart of it. She painted all the walls white. Not white, but sterile, come-back-from-the-dead, hospital bed white. The fridge that used to be covered in Daisy's paintings and magnets Tess collected when they toured South America were all gone. When he had the chance, he peaked into their old bedroom and found a new mattress, bedside tables and redone wooden floors. The part that touched Hardy the most was that Tess had knocked out the walls of was his old study. His study, where he kept his books and his music and his stuff. The one part of the house that was his place had now been covered to a guest room and bathroom.

What was it with Tess? Hardy felt like he was some parasite she had to get rid of. There were no memories, reminders or traces of him even visible in this house, and as much as Hardy denied it to himself, it hurt. A lot.

Daisy had bought him home from the park about three days ago. Not to Tess's agreement, Hardy was sleeping in the guest room. He picked up Daisy from school every day and, much to Tess's rebellion, he cooked dinner each night.

Although he had the feeling that neither woman wanted him back in the house, he was staying as long as he could before Tess kicked him out. Again.

Daisy remained retreated in her room until Tess corned Hardy one day.

"When do you plan on leaving?" she asked in her most artificial friendly voice.

"Tess, I am going to stay here for as long as I can. I want to-"

"Yeah. I'd love you to come and invade my house and mess up Daisy's routine-"

"Your house?" Hardy asked, taken aback.

Tess's eyes narrowed. "Why did you leave Broadchurch?"

"I wanted to get closer to Daisy."

"Yes, okay, fine, but may I remind you this is my house now. It might still look like your house, but it's mine."

"It doesn't look anything like our house." Hardy snapped back. "You redid everything."

"And that's a bad thing, now is it?" Tess burst out. "I just wanted a new start-"

"You can't change what happened!"

Their eyes met, and he felt nothing but warning signs go up. It was like they were reenacting the years before they got divorced. Tess's gaze dropped and Hardy looked at his hands.

"What are we doing." he asked.

Tess sank into a chair and Hardy leaned against a sterile wall.

"There is still some of your old stuff under the stairs." She said calmly.

"In boxes?"

She nodded. "I thought you and Daisy might like to go through them."

"Thank you." Hardy said, and he meant it. Tess wasn't exactly known for being kind, so when she did do something thoughtful, you had to be grateful.

"I will stay until I went through the last box. Then I will leave." Hardy promised.

She nodded and Alec made his way to the guest room again. On the way, he spotted Daisy sitting on the staircase, obviously still busy eavesdropping on their conversation. She gave him a small smile, and then shuffled back to her room.

x

Sending her last email to Josh for the weekend, Ellie shut her laptop closed and went downstairs. On the couch was her two children. Tom was busy with his programming, and Fred was watching that episode of Shaun the Sheep where the goat eats everything on the farm for the sixth time.

"Lunch, boys?"

"No thanks, mum. We just had sandwiches."

"Lunch!" Fred held up a discarded plate and some crumbs rolled onto the carpet.

"Oh. I wanted to eat something at the pier. Why didn't you call me?"

"You were busy working." Tom said, "I know how that new guy keeps you busy."

Busy was an understatement, Ellie thought. She had the keep up with her workload, and half of Josh's as well.

"Well I'm going to the pier anyway. Do you want to come with? Fred?"

He looked at her with big eyes.

"Do you rather want to watch Shaun, hey, lazy boy?"

Fred smiled and turned his head back to the screen.

"I guess that's that then. You fine with looking after your brother, Tom?"

"Well it's not as if he's doing much."

"Right, I'll see you two in a bit. Behave!" she shouted when she left the house.

Her mind was on Josh. He wasn't exactly the best detective, and he used Ellie more like a secretary than a DS. She was forever watching CCTV evidence for him, answering mail on his behalf, and she was sick of it. She will have to go to Jenkinson on Monday, because otherwise she'll never have free time again.

Hardy would never have done that. He never did. With him it was always overlooking and making everyone else look unprofessional. She smiled at that. Hardy was the kind that would forget to sleep because of work.

But where the hell was he anyway? It had been two months since he left. Two whole months without a text message, phone call - nothing.

Was he working? Was he in Sandbrook? Ellie seriously doubted he would be in Sandbrook working. He and Tess can't stand each other in plain conversation, so how they react on a case. Ellie shook her head.

She and Alec Hardy were a much, much better team than her and Joshua Brown. When she and Hardy stopped bickering and fell into sink, they are like a case-solving machine. To think that together they solved Sandbrook in five weeks, which Hardy alone couldn't solve in two years. She and Hardy were opposites that just balanced out. It made her wonder what other great cases they could have been doing together.

She sighed. Alec Hardy. It was hardly him that she missed anyway - she missed the company he gave. She missed the presence of another human being by her side. If you spend every moment's free time with a person and they disappeared one day, of course you'd miss them. If the waves stopped crashing, colliding, kissing down on the shore, of course the sand would miss the water.

And it was not as if was not as if she was never going to see him again. She would probably have to show her face in court once the Sandbrook three go through trial. If he was working as a detective again they would bump into one another at regional meetings together. Maybe he'd ask her to have a catch-up cup of tea some time.

Ellie's face face turned scornful stared out at the sea. What was she thinking? This is Hardy. You won't heard from him if you beat the information straight out of him. She kicked a large clump of grass in that general direction of the beach below her.

And of course she bloody missed him. She did miss him, godforsaken bloody bony stick of a Scot he was, is - somewhere out there, with his daughter. She missed his long stares and quiet conversations. But he was somewhere far too far away for him to bicker with her.

Ellie stared out at the big blue horizon, for a few minutes, thinking of lost time and regrets, until the idea struck her. Hardy really wasn't further than her oversized orange pocket.

x

"Have you been waiting here the whole time, dad?" Daisy accused, looking rather disappointed.

"Nah- not the whole time. I've been reading the paper." He replied, putting on a rather obviously fake smile. "The world's going to shit, as usual."

Daisy shook her head. "You need to get you job back, dad. You're like a lost puppy." She said, looking at her father objectively.

He, just like mum, was defiantly in the middle of a midlife crisis. Daisy was doing her best to patch up her father, and she had made enormous progress. So far he had put on 3 kilos in the last week just by moving back in the house with Daisy and Tess. Daisy made him apply for a job again, and with a little sneaking around, Daisy made contact with his old pub friends. It was slow progress, but she had gotten as far as making him shave his scruff off one morning, but that was rather useless as he liked his beard.

Perhaps that only thing she really needed to give attention to was his head hair. It hung in his eyes like windscreen wipers, and made him look like a schoolboy at the end of a long holiday. Just as Daisy was about to suggest they go to the barber on the way home from school, Hardy's phone rang. Loudly.

He was so busy admiring the countryside rolling by, and the quiet music on the radio, that he jumped up from shock to the noise of Metallica, and his phone went flying to Daisy's side of the car.

"Bloody hell!" He yelled, and the car took a turn off the tar of the road.

"Shit! Dad?" Daisy caught it the phone with one hand and felt her seat belt doing it's job by gripping onto her chest. The Peugeot cut into some hedges, but Hardy swung the steering wheel and hit the breaks so that they came to a stop on the side of the road.

Still holding the phone in her had, Daisy's eyes turned to her father. They were like daggers.

"What the hell?" Daisy accused. "Was that Enter Sandman?"

Hardy looked at her and then at the phone, still screaming at him. He snatched the phone back from her, and in the process of getting it back, he hit the ignore button.

When Metallica finally shut up, it hit him that there was only one person who had that ringtone on his phone.

"Shit." He hissed at the phone, and then a louder "Shit!" at nothing in particular.

Daisy stared at him with wide eyes.

"Sorry, darlin'. Are you okay? Nothing broken?" he asked, gently reaching for her hands, until he got side-tracked. "Is the car okay!?" he exclaimed and hopped out like a spring hare. Tess would literally kill him if anything happened to her car. Hardy inspected the side of his door, and found no dents, but instead a few scratches from the hedge.

"Shit!"

Daisy got out the Peugeot. "Anything that mum will notice?"

"Your mother once noticed a small oil stain on her bumper and gave me three weeks worth of hell for it. If she doesn't notice this, I'll buy you a beer."

Daisy made the same noise that she made when Hardy showed her his pacemaker scar. The side of the Peugeot looked like an open wound of metal.

"Ouch. At least mum's got decent vehicle insurance. I think."

"Yeah- well shit. She'll make me to pay for it anyway. Or make me sandpaper and repaint her whole car for that matter."

"She won't, dad." Daisy said.

"And what makes you think that?"

"She won't trust you to repaint her car. She has insurance, I'm sure of it. She and Dave were arguing about it before they broke up. Besides, if she wants you to pay, I'll just give her the dad-is-unemployed-and-going-through-a-midlife-crisis-and-he-has-a-life-threatening-heart-condition lecture. She'll leave you alone."

And with that, their eyes met, and the two of them burst out into laughter. Good, proper laughter that made Hardy's bell ache and made Daisy snort like a pig. "You're a idiot, dad."

"Trust me, I know that." Hardy said, and she laughed even harder. After a few minutes of more car-related humour, Daisy asked squinted at her dad's phone.

"Who was that calling you anyway? With that heavy metal ringtone?" Daisy squinted to read the screen. "Miller? Is he a-"

"She." He corrected, "Millah's a she." He was looking at her like it was rather obvious.

The teenager stared at him for about two seconds, and then sighed: "Oh. I see how it is." Daisy raised her eyebrows and smiled slyly. How she looked like Tess when she did that. It actually scared Hardy. "You don't have to say anything more."

"Wh- What?"

"It's that Ellie woman, isn't it?"

"Howdoyu-"

"Mum told me about her." Daisy cut him off. It was scary how observant she was. Tess once said that you could give Daisy a few numbers and she'd trace them to the coding of a nuclear bomb. That made him wonder, what exactly Tess told Daisy about Miller. Hardy never really considered what Tess's opinions on Miller were.

"Well, don't just stand there, dad. Are you not going to phone her back?"

x

"This is DI Alec Hardy. Leave a message." As the beep sounded to leave a message, Ellie pressed it dead. Of course he won't answer his bloody phone, she thought to herself, kicking another clump of grass down the to the beach. Ellie made her way down the damp cliffs and ordered fish and chips by Uncle Bert. Half way making small talk with Jocelyn and Maggie on the way back to the top of the cliff, her phone rang again. She sat down on the nearest bench and set her fish and chips aside and answered the phone.

"Hardy?"

"Miller." he replied.

"Hardy?"

"I can hear you." he said. "Miller?" he said, pronouncing her name with out his Scottish rumble.

"Yes?"

"Well, you called me." he prompted.

"Right, well. I wanted to know where you are. It's been two months, you know. You haven't said anything. Not even a bloody text message." she said.

"I noticed."

"What?"

"I noticed it's been two months."
"And you didn't think to call?" Ellie didn't mean to get angry. She couldn't help it when he was acting like knob. She honestly didn't get any satisfaction from giving him hell. Well, perhaps a little. "You could have died, for all I know. Gotten another heart attack and-"

"You didn't call either, Miller." he said, boring down the line.

Ellie paused. She didn't really think about that. He didn't know what has been happening to her either.

"Anyway. Where am I? I am pulled off at the side of the road just outside Sandbrook."

"What? Why?"

"Because I almost crashed the car. Remember that time I had my phone on silent and you changed your ringtone on my phone?"

"Yes." Ellie recalled. "Yes. Wait - the Metallica?" Ellie recalled it properly.

"Yeah. That shite music you downloaded. Well, it caused me to pull into some hedges and-"

"You crashed your car because my ringtone gave you a fright?" Miller blurted out, suppressing laughter.

Hardy remained quiet for a while. "Well, yeah. Now that you said it." He was dead serious.

"Really? Now I feel terrible! It was supposed to be a joke. Are you okay?"

"Calm down, Miller. I'm fine. Nothing happened to Daisy either."

"Your daughter was also in the car!? I could have…"

"Listen now, Miller. Daisy is fine." Hardy assured her. Daisy looked at him when she heard her name. "She is fine, the car is fine. I'm fine."

"Aw, shit. You know I'm never going to forgive myself."

"It's okay. As soon as Daisy's cast comes-"

"What?" she stammered. Her insides curled up when she heard him chuckling. "You're joking."

"Yeah." he said in a amused tone. "Where are you, Miller. It sounds very windy."

"Harbour Cliff beach."

"Right. I can hear those gulls. Are you eating fish and chips?"

"How did you know that?"

"Just a guess." He smiled.

"So I take it you're talking to your daughter again?"

"Yes. Well, it's been hard, but I got her back." Daisy gave him a look. "It's going pretty good, actually. Except that I've been living with Tess again."

"With Tess? You didn't get back together with her?"

"No! God no." Hardy said. His eyebrows rose into his hairline. He never wanted to open the chapter with Tess again. "If anything she hates me even more. Tells me every day that I should find a job and get out of her skin. Well you know how she is."

"Yeah." Ellie agreed.

"How are the boys?" he asked, eager so change the subject.

Ellie told him about Fred starting school and Tom with his coding. Daisy didn't recognise the man she was seeing. Her father was smiling at everything this Ellie woman had to say. Ellie told him all the latest gossip in back Broadchurch. About Lucy's new boyfriend, how Jocelyn and Maggie moved in together. About little Lizzy starting to walk and about Susan Wright threatening Nige's life because he stole her PlayStation.

"He did what?"

"Stole her PlayStation. Broke into her caravan last Tuesday and then, well to make a long story short, they both spent a night behind bars. Nige for petty theft and Susan for confession of attempted murder."

Hardy almost chuckled. "Ridiculous town you live in, Miller. So glad I-"

"Dad?" Daisy called out from behind the Peugeot's bonnet.

"Hold on a second." he told Miller. "What is it-"

Hardy froze. Daisy was holding above her head, one of the grey wing mirrors of the car. The wing mirror. The car. The Metallica incident. Tess. It took him a few seconds to register that the wing mirror must have been attached to the Peugeot.

Daisy started laughing at his face, because it looked like he just saw something giving birth.

"Dad?"

"She is going to kill me." he whispered.

"I am not going to kill you." Miller said.

" 'M not talking about you, Miller." Hardy said, "The side mirror of Tess's car broke off in the accident."

"Oh."

"This is - I can't" Hardy stammered.

"Jesus Hardy, can't be the end of the world, can it?"

"Miller. You don't understand."

"It's a car part, it can easily be replaced-"

"No Miller. Don't you know... Tess Henchard loves cars more than she loves people."

"It's true!" Daisy shouted, still laughing at her dad.

Miller smiled. "Hardy?"

"Yes?" His voice wavered.

Miller joined Daisy, and pretty soon the three of them were struggling to breathe.

"She'll kick me out tonight, I'm sure of it."

"No she won't."

"Yes she will." Daisy said.

"Yes she will!" Hardy exclaimed between chuckles.

"Are you crying, Hardy?"

"What? No." he said, but that was quickly proven wrong by a gulp of air and a sniff. "Not crying." Hardy said again, fiercely wiping his hairy cheeks.

On the other end of the line, Miller dropped the phone away from her ear and stared at it in disbelief. She's seen him cry before, of course, but that was after he cried. It was the day he left, straight after they closed Sandbrook. His eyes were red and puffy that day. Hardy was his usual haunted self that day, not this stranger who was busy giggling.

"You still there, Miller?" he asked. His voice seemed light and vibrant, and she had herself wandering what his face must look like.

"Yeah." she said.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Daisy raised her eyebrows and shuffled away.

"Are you okay?" she parroted back, shaking her head.

" 'm fine. Just fine. Sorry for the - you know."

"No problem."

"It's just nice to hear your voice again." he said.

She was silent for a while until Hardy realised what he just said. Slowly, he asked another shy "Miller?"

"I'm here."

"I better get this sorted out. The car, I mean. Tess will..."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Well, bye then."

"Bye."

"Bye Miller." he said and pressed the red button. He got back into the car, wing mirror on his lap, Daisy spoke to him in a demanding voice: "So when are you going back to Broadchurch?"

x

When Ellie finished her last chip she walked home the long way round up Linton Hill. She thought long and hard about her conversation with Hardy. She thought about his complaints and about how he loosened up. And his stupid giggling and his shy little "Miller?" he spoke at the end. Right before she reached her front door, Ellie came to the conclusion that she needed Alec Hardy back in her life.

x

A/N: I may or may not write a sequel.