Broadchurch: Blast From The Past

Chapter 16

TW: medical crisis, foul language

Ten years later...

Being a desk sergeant wasn't as laid-back as Alec thought it would be, or maybe it was just him. His old team said that wherever Alec Hardy went, chaos would follow, and they were right. In the ten years he manned the front desk, he talked down a gunman, broke up three drunken fights, found the parents of two lost children, applied lifesaving Narcan to an overdose victim, and punched a sex offender in the face. He earned two commendations and four disciplinary actions; he gave out more bollockings than anyone cared to count, and was soon the barometer by new officers were measured. If they were dumb enough to mouth off to the desk sergeant, they likely wouldn't make it in the Broadchurch department.

Ellie took over as Detective Inspector, leading the team they had assembled together. She and Alec remained unofficial partners despite working separately. Their shouting matches were legendary. She was the only one who could make Alec laugh, and he had dinner at her house every Friday, though their coworkers didn't know that.

Then a radio call went out, and everything changed—again.

"Control, we need an ambo at the station ASAP. We have an officer down."

Ellie's blood ran cold, and she just knew.

"Station, rolling an ambo now. Is someone wounded?"

"Member of the force collapsed."

Tires screeched as Ellie slammed on the brakes. She keyed up her radio with a shaking hand. "This is DI Miller. Is the subject Alec Hardy?"

"Yes, ma'am," the station answered.

"Control, be advised patient is fifty-six years old, history of heart arrhythmia," she reported as she whipped her car into a u-turn. "Patient has a pacemaker and two screws in his left shoulder. He's allergic to penicillin and walnuts. Be advised that patient will likely try to check himself out of hospital when he regains consciousness."

She got back to the station just as the ambulance was pulling away with Alec inside. She turned and shouted in the face of the nearest officer: "What the fuck happened?!"

The unfortunate officer took a step back in the face of her vitriol. "He just went down. Seemed like he couldn't breathe."

"He has rescue medicine, did you give it to him?"

"The syringe? He did it himself."

Snarling, Ellie spoke into her radio. "Ambo 51, be advised, I'm meeting you at hospital."

The reply was instant. "Negative, DI Miller. Sergeant Hardy says to stay there and do your job."

"Tell him to piss off. And to hang in there."

~~~

Alec refused to see anyone while in hospital. Then he showed up at Ellie's house around midnight, looking like a hungover corpse. Ellie crossed her arms. "Nice of you to come round."

"I've retired," he said bluntly. His voice was soft and hoarse. "The doctor recommended it. He said things would only get worse. My heart can't take the stress, even with the pacemaker and the pills. So I took early retirement, medical. Effective immediately."

The world tilted. Alec had always been there. Even when he wasn't her boss, he was always there to argue with, vent to, ask questions. Ellie wasn't sure she knew how to work without him. "What are you going to do?" she asked quietly.