The Babysitter (Broadchurch Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

Alec didn't remember exactly why he said 'yes' in the first place. Maybe it was the way Miller busted into his office on Thursday morning with her usual smile but her not so usual worried eyes, or the way she stood there, longer than she would normally do, searching for her words. Miller never searched for her words. She would just yell at him and regret it later. Alec frowned. Did she come to announce bad news? Please, not another murder, Broadchurch was supposed to be a calm town and he probably wouldn't be able to handle one more murder. Yet she was smiling so it couldn't be that bad, could it? But it was that weird smile that didn't reach her eyes and Alec could see the concern floating in her eyes.

"What do you want, Miller?"

"Hello to you too." She answered with an exasperated smirk.

"Yeah. So?"

"Well," she said, taking her time to choose her next words. He didn't like when she did that. She was either going to say something terrible or trick him into doing something for her.

"Remember Tom has a football game on Saturday? Lunch with the team and all?" He nodded. The boy talked about it all week and so did Miller, supportive as she was.

"Well, I have this medical appointment I can't miss, really, called six months ago and it was already overbooked. A real nightmare, I tell you."

Alec remembered her screaming obscenities on the phone and tried his best not to smile. It took him a moment to realize where she was going with this and he sighed. Trick it was.

"Miller, I'm not going to this football game for you, I know you were excited to go, but I think Tom is old enough not to need a supporter, especially not me, and the last time I went to a game was in Scotland and I really don't want to do it again so-"

"Oh, no!" she interrupted. "That's not what I meant! I know he doesn't want me to be there, you know, fifteen and such, having your mom cheering for you can be very annoying. No. It's just my dad left with my sister a few weeks ago so I don't have anyone to look after Freddie on Saturday."

Alec stayed silent, confused. Miller started fidgeting with her hands, nervous.

"Can't Beth keep an eye on him?" he asked.

"No, I asked her but it's her day off and she wanted to go visit Mark with Chloe and Lizzie, and before you ask, I can't drop him at Lucy's, it's way too far away. She lives in Liverpool now, can you believe it? Liverpool?"

"So what are you going to do? Take him with you?"

"Well I thought that, maybe... Maybe you could look after him for the day?"

He opened his eyes wide. Oh no. She wanted him to babysit the kid? Why not Daisy? Daisy would do a wonderful job. Ah, right, Daisy wasn't there this week-end. But how could he take care of a child ? It was probably the worst idea she ever had. The last kid he looked after was Daiz and she was his kid, so it was very different. Oh god, here she was with the sad puppy eyes. He knew he was doomed.

"Hm, well." he managed after an awkward silence. "I-"

"You know what? You're right. It was a terrible idea. You'll probably be busy in here all day anyway, getting drown in work and not taking care of yourself as usual. Like, there is this really important case right? What could be more important on a Saturday than a woman who got her 150 quids worth garden gnome stolen? Who keeps a gnome that expensive in their garden by the way?"

Alec took a deep breath.

"Sure," he muttered.

"And you probably have plans with Daisy this weekend. She's staying right? Shopping? Do you even do shopping? You have like one suit and two jumpers, Hardy, this is so- wait, what?"