Something's Brewing

Chapter 9: A Date of a Different Kind

The day after their first date, Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller were back at the beach to observe the get together arranged by Cath Atwood. They kept their distance, unwilling to share their budding relationship with the majority of those present, and most of them were suspects. Mark and Beth were obviously already aware, but Beth had sworn they would keep private any knowledge of the private lives of Alecy Hardy and Ellie Miller, at least until the time they decided was appropriate.

Later that afternoon, they were back at the station and Alec had just ordered Katie and Steve down to do surveillance on Aaron Mayfield. Alec then looked around awkwardly. "Right, uh—I'm away, Miller. You should be too. You should take a moment off, have a breather."

"You alright? It's not like you, clocking off after only twelve hours." She raised her eyebrow and grinned at him. "Have you got something planned?

He remained straight faced. "No, not at all."

"Oh, okay. Well have a nice night, doing whatever it is you're not doing." She grinned again, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed.

-*-*-

"Daisy, I want you to remove me from that dating app you put on my phone." Alec handed his phone to his daughter.

"Are you sure, Dad? What if things don't work out with you and—"

"I wasn't thrilled with the idea anyway, and now that Miller and I are—well, now that we're dating, I don't want them on my phone. Now please, remove the account, take off the app, whatever you need to do. Do it."

"Alright, alright." She rolled her eyes at her dad, tapping at the screen of his phone a few times, then handing it back. "Okay, it's done. It's not that I don't like Ellie, Dad. I do. I'm really happy for you."

"Thank you, darlin'." He finished pulling the jumper over his shirt and leaned over his daughter, kissing her on the forehead. Then stayed at her level to ask, "You sure you want to stay in tonight? You could come? I'm sure Fred would love to see you."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I'm fine. I've got studying to do." She kissed his cheek and he straightened back up, giving her a small smile.

"Alright, but if you change your mind, just call and I'll come back to pick you up," he said again as he grabbed his keys, then after a confirming nod from her, he headed out the door.

-*-*-

"Ah hah, I knew it!" Ellie said as she opened the door to Alec.

"You did not!" Alec shot back, a small smile crossing his face as he stepped past Ellie into the house.

"I knew after I told you what Fred said that you would not be able to resist showing up here—" Ellie was interrupted by the sound of a running child's feet.

"Awec! You came, you came!" Fred ran up to him

"Of course I came, wee Fred! I wouldn't miss this!" Alec said as he picked up the five year old and headed into the living room.

"It's about to start, Awec!"

"I know, we best get settled in. Come on, you can sit here next to me." Alec sat down on the couch and Fred sat down next to him, scooting up into his side as close as he could. As if on cue, the commercial ended and the Thomas the Tank Engine theme started.

-*-*-

*Earlier that day*

"How are the boys today?" Alec asked Ellie as they made tea and toast in the break room.

"Good. Fred is thrilled because some new Thomas film is coming on the telly tonight. He asked if you'd be coming over to watch it with him, but I reminded him how busy you are with work," Ellie said as she took a sip of her tea.

"Hmmm, yes," Alec said as he took a bite of toast and headed back towards his office.

-*-*-

Alec trotted back down the stairs, having put Fred to bed for Ellie after the young boy insisted on 'Awec' reading him a bedtime story. He went into the kitchen and found Tom sitting at the table, head buried in his hands with a textbook on the table in front of him.

"What's wrong, Tom?" he asked as he glanced back at the boy while getting a glass of water from the tap.

Tom groaned. "I'm supposed to be reading this for school, but it's so boring. It's gonna kill me!"

"No, it's me going to be killing you if you don't finish it. You've had all weekend; it was you who chose to wait till Sunday night."

"What are you reading?" Alec asked as he glanced over the boy's shoulder.

Tom groaned again. "Shakespeare."

Alec's eyes lit up. "Oh, Shakespeare! Brilliant! The problem is, Tom—Shakespeare was meant to be performed, not just read on a page. What play are you reading?" He pulled his glasses out and looked at the page again. "Oh, Hamlet—that's a good one. Come on, let's do it together. Ellie, come here—you play Osric. Tom, you be Horatio. I'll be Hamlet."

"How come you get to be Hamlet?" Ellie complained and Alec merely raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay, okay—you be Hamlet."

Ten minutes later, Tom was grinning. "Hamlet and Horatio were making fun of Oric!"

Alec playfully batted at the teenagers shoulder. "Exactly—see! It makes more sense when performed. You should at least read it aloud, that way you can get a bit more of the feeling. It's a shame they try and teach Shakespeare by making you read scripts. Maybe we can go see a production some time!"

"You're really into this!" Ellie said, more than a bit surprised.

"Of course, it's Shakespeare!" Alec said, as if that explained it completely.

Ellie just shook her head and walked back into the living room, leaving the two boys to their Shakespeare.

"Okay, Tom, now you just have to go over Hamlet and Horatio's last speech—come on, we'll do it together and you'll be all done." Alec pulled a chair up beside Tom and moved the book between the two of them.

-*-*-