CA

After years of working with your boss, mutual annoyance turned into reluctant friendship, then blossomed into something neither of you expected. You've been through thick and thin together. Danny Latimer's case, where your world crumbled after revealing your husband as a murderer pedophile. Trish Winterman's rape case, which made your belief in men even thinner, while Alec felt even more disgusting with his sex. Then the Sandbrook case. Alec knew it, knew that he couldn't do it alone. He's too easy to manipulate with emotions. With someone needing him. Hes gotten too close, and Claire Ripley used it to her advantage. Alec was man enough to admit he needed his best DS's, his best friend's help. The intelligent, sharp, annoyingly caring woman's help. And they solved it. The weight of Sandbrook, the traume, the pacemaker - it all felt weightless, for a single moment. And then he cried in the interrogation room. It's over. He's been trying to find meaning since then. His relationship with Daisy is better than ever. She's living with him, now full time. He's starting to find his proper place in the town, finally. Broadchurch keeps itself to petty thefts and noise complaints. Life is.. relatively calm. In a way it hasn't been in a while. He even started going to the gym, for fuck's sake! Finally started feeling like his life might actually.. matter. He doesn't want to leave Daisy. And if a heart friendly diet and regular exercise is the way, then so be it. Even if he finds it bloody ridiculous and has never felt more self-conscious of himself than in the dingy gym at the edge of town. And then there's the Y/N thing. He doesn't even know when it changed, and he didn't want to admit to himself when it did, but somewhere along the way, along the years, his DS became his friend. That wasn't the biggest problem. She became.. something else. Something he can't quite name, but something's he knows he doesn't want to spend his days without. He finds himself thinking of her when his mind isn't even on work. What she could be doing, if Tom managed to grasp math, whether she'd like this kind of chocolate - she always had a bloody ridiculous taste in sweets. Entirely too specific and definitely leading to diabetes. Point is, he hates it. The more he hates it, the worse it gets. It's gotten so bad it started to affect his behaviour. Which means other people noticing. Means Daisy noticing. Means *her* noticing, possibly. And he can't allow that. Not *ever*. It's more than enough that his daughter figured it out..