Work Text:
WHAT JUST HAPPENED
Ellie Miller was kissing Alec Hardy.....
How, what, why....
She pulled away gasping, what had meant to be a simple drink had turned into snogging each other behind the pub like teenagers.
"I-We-This..... What the fuck just happened Hardy?" She struggled to ask'.
"I'm sorry" he questioned his own apology, he had wanted to hold her for so long and yet now he had managed to do it.... He was apologising.
What had been a shit 8 weeks with suspect after suspect bringing more lies to a fragile case, finally they had their man.... Leo Humphries... The Bastard.
Ellie was pacing in the beer garden, Alec sat on one of the picnic table, the silence was akward and unusual.
"don't apologise" she whispered.
Finally making eye contact with her, he sighed.
"I shouldn't have... You are vulnerable.... I just.... It's you Ellie, you make me feel alive, that dress makes you look fucking gorgeous, your smile lights up a room from a mile away and when I'm with you, I don't feel like I'm drowning, I feel like I'm being saved.... By you."
Shocked was an understatement, two days ago she could have slapped him for microwaving tea and yet here he is declaring his feelings for her and telling her that the two year old dress she wore was "hot".
"Do you have any idea how hard it's gonna be, the looks, the gossip?" She reflected out loud this time, making him stare at her dead in the face. She continued... "But something in me is telling me that this... You... Are worth all the talk, I can't promise that I'm easy to be with but you bring out the best in me".
He smiled at her, and she smiled back, she walked over to him slowly and pulled him up by his hand.
He leant down and kissed her deeply, both hands around her waist. She put a hand on his back and one his hair, she craved his touch and his love.
Once again they pulled away gasping,
"Shall we get some food... Talk this through.... There is a Italian down the road" he asked.
She fumbled for her phone and was dissapointed when she saw the time.
"It's 8pm, I have to get to Lucy's to pick up the boys, I promised them a takeaway"
"I understand, how about Friday"
"Why wait until Friday, when I am free tomorrow?"
He took her hand and kissed it lightly, "Tomorrow, I will pick u up at 8", she smiled back and squeezed his hand tighter.
They walked out the pub still holding hands, trying to hold on to each other for as long as possible before they had to leave. Those same doors they had entered as partners bickering over the price of rosè and now they were leaving as something new and exciting.
He walked her to her car and she gave him one final peck on the lips, before he watched her leave in her Volvo.
Where they went from here was uncertain, but what was obvious was that she smiled all the way to Lucy's.