Chapter Text
Daisy knew her father was not an outgoing person. She knew he wasn’t liked by a lot of people at his work, and she knew he didn’t have many friends in town. In fact, she was pretty sure Ellie was the only person he was willing to meet outside of the police station. Beth Latimer tolerated him, and perhaps Maggie didn’t have many negative things to say about him, either, but that was it. He didn’t really talk about his social life with her, and she never pushed. She had set him up for a date only once, and it had been such a fiasco that he made her swear it was the last time. He was just shit when it came to such things, and Daisy had to accept it.
But Daisy also knew that his relationship with Ellie was beyond any normal friendship. She had no idea how they met, or how their fondness of each other started growing, and if they had been like that since the beginning, but it was obvious to her what they were now. Unfortunately, she seemed to be the only one.
She couldn’t help but see how they made dinners for each other. How her father always cooked what he knew Ellie liked, and how Ellie always tried her best to make her own meals as healthy as possible just so he would eat it without making a face. She noticed the lingering touches whenever they were close, though she wasn’t sure if even they were aware of it, of how their hands seemed to pull them towards each other like magnets. They thought they were sneaky, but she could clearly see how they always tried to catch the other’s eye and stare from across the room. Finding each other in the crowd, that’s what they always did.
Her father could protest all he wanted, but Daisy guessed long ago that the reason he took her to Broadchurch and returned was Ellie Miller and nothing else. After all, there were many towns like this one all around England, all around the whole UK, where they could have had their new start and yet, he had chosen to live here, where she was.
A sound of steps pounding against the stairs snapped her out of her thoughts, and she looked up from her phone to see the newcomer. She expected to see her father, clad in his suit and ready for work, but instead, Ellie Miller appeared in front of her. The woman didn’t seem to notice her at first, and Daisy frowned seeing that she was not wearing her usual attire but robe. Her dad’s robe. Yawning, she turned around, startled by the sight of the teenager sitting on the couch.
“Oh,” she let out, surprised. Not as much as Daisy, however. “Morning, Daisy. I’m sorry, I just… your father’s occupying the bathroom and I thought I’d prepare something to eat in the meantime.”
“I didn’t know you were spending the night here,” Daisy claimed softly, raising her eyebrow at how amusing it was to see Ellie Miller blushing after being caught like this.
She knew Ellie visited them last night as there was a new case the police were working on, but she was sure she’d left. It was morning now, bright and early one, and the soft sunrays caressed her pale face and unruly curls that seemed to have forgotten what a hairbrush was.
“Your dad told me to stay,” Ellie began as if reading her thoughts. “It was the middle of the night when we finished working.”
“Did you sleep together?”
“No, that’d be disgusting.” She made a face, huffed and fixed the sleeve of the robe that was falling off her shoulder. She was clothed so, at least, Daisy could rule out some of the adult activities. She wasn’t sure how she’d feel with that. “He slept on top of the covers, and I slept under. That’s the arrangement.”
“Right…” She frowned, looked down at her phone again to make the sudden silence less awkward. She hoped Ellie couldn’t see her small grin and how her eyes laughed. “So, how often does it happen that you need arrangements?”
“Ah, you know. On and off.” Ellie smiled, and Daisy decided not to torture her further with even more questions. It’s not like she would mind if her father found someone. Not if that someone would be Ellie. Frankly, she hoped they could get together at some point because it truly was agonising to watch them jump around each other like this. Sometimes, she wondered if they knew about their own feelings and just pretended not to have them, or if they were just so oblivious.
Another set of footsteps stopped her from saying anything more, and both of them looked at Daisy’s father, his hair damp from the shower and with a towel hanging over his shoulder.
“Dais,” he greeted her immediately. “You’re up early.”
“Yeah, there’s this project for school I need to finish. It’s due today.”
“And you’re doing it now?”
“Chill out, dad.” She rolled her eyes, stood up and approached the two detectives, who just stood there in silence. “It just needs a final touch.”
He blinked, nodded and sighed heavily, looking back at Ellie. She gave him a slightly awkward smile and declared she was going to make breakfast before they had to go to work. Daisy returned to her spot on the couch, ignoring her father’s glare.
“She’s wearing your robe,” she whispered at last, when Ellie had retreated to the kitchen, and Daisy couldn’t help but think how many times DS Miller had been here to know her way around it.
“So?” her dad raised an eyebrow, took a seat beside her. Then, as if realisation dawned upon him, he rolled his eyes, already used to the girl’s implications. It was true that Daisy had been trying her best to make them see, but all her attempts failed horribly every single time. Her father always found some excuse for their couple-y behaviour. “She was cold.”
“You slept together.”
“For God’s sake,” he huffed, perplexed. “How many times, Dais? It’s just more convenient.”
“Right.” And that seemed to finish their short conversation. Her father sighed loudly and stood up, announcing that he was going to go help Ellie in the kitchen. Daisy simply nodded, her focus already on something else – on the phone number of the only person who might be able to help her.
‘we need to talk asap’, she typed and looked over her shoulder, but there was no one there anymore, the occasional clatter of plates and sounds of two adults bickering were the only things interrupting the silence.
*
Tom had just hit ‘nap’ on his screen for the second time when his phone lit up with a new text message. Groaning, he looked at it to see Daisy’s number displayed. It was weird, she hardly ever texted him – most of her messages were just her asking if her father had already left their house, or if he’d eaten something during dinner.
This one was very strange, but he decided to go along with it.
‘why’
It hadn’t even been two minutes until her reply came.
‘I’ll tell you later. Meet me on the beach in an hour’
He groaned again, running his hands over his face. God, he really wasn’t looking forward to waking up so early when his classes didn’t start anytime soon. Still, the fact she had reached out to him just like that, it didn’t worry him as much as simply intrigued him so he agreed, though quite reluctantly. He could almost imagine her smirk as she read the reply.
Tom got along with Daisy. As much as he could, at least, with her already preparing for university and him still being far from even thinking about such future. She came for dinners, sometimes, together with her father. He liked those evenings, even if their parents were nauseously and shamelessly flirting in front of them. Then again, Tom wasn’t sure if they even knew about it. Everybody else did, but they acted like fools around each other.
Now he didn’t really mind it. On the contrary, he was somewhat glad his mother had found someone, and if that someone was DI Alec Hardy, Tom had to accept it. Frankly, he already visited them a lot, always bringing red wine he hardly ever drank himself and chocolates (which he didn’t eat, either). When Daisy wasn’t with him, he even went as far as to stay at theirs for the night, but Tom didn’t like imagining what they were doing when his mum’s bedroom door closed.
He asked her about it once, wanted to know why they slept together in one bed even though there was quite a nice guestroom that was currently empty. That’s the arrangement, she always said to him without further explanation. Tom decided to let it go after that. Perhaps it was better if he didn’t know.
Still, it was insufferable to watch the two of them throw those heart eyes at each other without ever acknowledging it. Unless they were aware of it and just decided to keep their relationship a secret. If that was the case, though, they were doing an awful job at it. Even his friends asked him once if his mum had been dating that ‘detective she worked with’. How they knew, Tom didn’t even begin to imagine.
Not willing to spend too much time dwelling on it, he quickly got dressed and left the house. Daisy was already waiting for him when he finally joined her at their meeting place. She looked quite impatient and nervous. Or perhaps annoyed. He couldn’t tell.
“You’re late.”
“Sorry.” He shrugged, looked at the stormy sea. “What do you want from me so early?”
“Your mum’s at ours,” Daisy told him, and Tom raised an eyebrow. He knew, of course, she sent him a text yesterday evening that she was going to stay late at work. She did not mention, however, where she would do that so Tom assumed she would just spend the night at the station.
He should’ve known better.
“So what? Your dad was at ours like two days ago. Nothing unusual about it. Happens all the time.”
“Exactly.” She folded her arms across her chest, pierced him with that glare he hated. It reminded him too much of his mum right before she was about to scold him or his brother. “They sleep together, eat together and who knows what else they do together. I’m tired of them jumping around each other like they’re in some shitty romcom.”
He chuckled, shaking his head and kicking some pile of sand beneath his feet.
“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one.”
Daisy frowned, her lips parted. She turned to him all the way then, giving him a look he couldn’t really decipher this time.
“So you did notice it, too.”
“Of course I noticed!” he rolled his eyes, scoffing. “They aren’t very subtle about it, are they? The whole town sees it.”
“We need to put a stop to this.”
“What?”
“They need to finally stop beating around the bush and face each other’s feelings. Or I’ll go mad.”
“I don’t know…” he muttered, running his hand through his hair. A troubled sigh left his lips as their eyes met. “Should we really get into their business? I don’t think they’ll appreciate it. Besides, your dad’s scary. I don’t want him to bite my head off if he learns about it.”
Daisy rolled her eyes with a huff, dropping her arms to her hips and facing him now. The wind ruffled her hair, the sun blinding them both.
“Are you kidding me? My dad can be super soft and gentle if you know how to approach him. And trust me, they’ll be grateful when all is said and done. It’ll make our lives a whole lot easier, too. We won’t be forced to watch their heart eyes during every dinner together, for starters.”
That was convincing, Tom had to admit. Quite encouraging, too. He wanted his mum to be happy, of course, and she clearly was, with DI Hardy. Them being oblivious only made it harder for the entire family. Tom was quite sure, too, that even Fred would be able to notice something was between the two if he looked hard enough.
Now he wasn’t sure why his mum would not acknowledge her feelings. It might be the fear of them not accepting her new potential partner, or simply fear after the first marriage (which was, he supposed, rather understandable). But it had been years since the trial and everything, and Tom was tired. She deserved some happiness, and he would gladly help her find it, no matter how indirectly.
“Okay, fine. Let’s do this.” He grinned, watching Daisy do the same. “What’s your plan, though? If they’re as oblivious as we think they are, they will only deny anything we’ll say to them.”
“We won’t say anything to them. They will.”
“What? And how is it supposed to work? You think they’ll just face each other and say I love you’s if they aren’t even aware they’ve already been a couple for months?”
She rolled her eyes once more. A few seagulls flew over their heads. A couple with two little children was eating ice cream on the bench. It was their parents’ bench, Tom realised. Whenever they went for walks, they ended up here, and both his mum and Hardy always took the same bench in the same spot. They even sat on their own sides.
“Of course not, you idiot,” she began with a huff. “We need to plan a date for them.”
“A date?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, pride and satisfaction drawn in her face. Her eyes were shining with joy the idea made her feel. “I’ll take care of most of it, but I still need your help.”
Hesitant and pretty much out of his depth, Tom frowned, stood still in front of her, waiting for her to say something more. She did, after a while, as she shifted from one foot to the other, crossed her arms over her chest and leant over.
“Here’s what we’re gonna do.”