Back in Town

Chapter 9: Post Trauma-Day Four, Part 2

*Flashback – Month 4 of Alec and Liv*

After Ellie left Liv's flat that morning, the Scottish woman sat at her office desk and powered up her laptop to continue her work on her next book. She planned to make a full day of it, and had let Alec and Ellie both know she planned on keeping her phone in the drawer and out of sight, so that she could have some peace and quiet.

-*-*-

Ellie walked into the station and made her way up to CID. There was banging and other construction noises coming from what would soon be her office. In the meantime, she kept her desk in the main bullpen. As she walked to her desk, she continued to consider her conversation with Liv that morning, and the veiled threats the Scottish woman was receiving via post and delivery. When she arrived at her desk, she found Alec sitting in the chair beside it, reading a file. "What are you doing out here?" she questioned him.

He looked up at her and she immediately saw he was in a sour mood. "They're banging about in your new office as if the rest of us don't have work to perform. I can't concentrate in there. At least it's a bit quieter out here." He glanced up at the clock on the wall. "You're a bit late getting in this morning."

"Liv asked me to go over for a cuppa this morning," she explained, hoping to brush it off. She should have come up with some other excuse, but she hadn't thought through it.

"Oh?" His eyebrow raised and he looked up again from the file folder in his lap. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Just wanted to chat, it's been a while since we've had the chance. Between work and this new boyfriend she's got, her time is quite monopolized," she said with a smirk at one corner of her mouth.

Having already gone back to the file, he huffed out a small chuckle, but then a moment later stopped and looked back up, closing the folder. "But you wouldn't brush off getting to work on time for a chat with Liv. She wouldn't let you. There's more that you're not telling me, Miller. You're a horrible liar."

Damn, she thought to herself. Almost got it by him. "It's nothing. Everything will be fine, I'm sure."

"Miller," he growled.

"Hardy," she said back, and the stare off began.

After a moment, he frowned. "Have I done something to upset her?"

Miller sighed and rolled her eyes as she went about checking her emails for anything important. "No, you've done nothing wrong."

"Miller, so help me God, I will sit here at your desk—All. Day. Long.—If that's what it takes to get you to tell me what's going on. I can see clearly that you are worried about something."

-*-*-

Four hours later, with a few stretch breaks in between, Liv was pretty satisfied with her progress for the day. She opened her emails, found a few from her publisher, and then her face turned to a frown. An email, and this time there was firm confirmation of who the notes had been from. An email, from Jim Wright.

"How the hell did he get my new private email address?" she growled to herself, slamming her fist down on her office desk with a loud bang.

Before anything else could happen, she was distracted when she noticed out the window a police car pulling up outside the building. She frowned, and wondered for a moment —but no, Ellie wouldn't have done that—so she got up to prepare herself a fresh cup of tea.

She had gone through another three cups of tea, taken a nap, gotten back up and was working away again. She glanced at her watch – it was almost ten o'clock at night. She thought about texting Alec –they hadn't talked or communicated at all the entire day. He knew, though, that she was planning on having a concentrated writing day, and she appreciated his silence as she focused. She pulled her phone out of the drawer and saw a missed call from him, but before she could type out a text reply, she glanced back out the window just as one police car left and another one immediately took its place. "That looks suspiciously like a shift change to me." she growled under her breath as she got up, grabbing her keys from the side table by the door, and walked out of her flat.