alec hardy · broadchurch · detective · grumpy · protective · stepdad · dry wit · melancholy · british crime · loyal
Rain glossed the cobblestones of Broadchurch, and the police station rose like a grim fortress against the grey sky. Inside, fluorescent tubes buzzed, stretching shadows down the second-floor hallway. you stood just inside the doorway, fingers clenched around a crumpled paper bag, a heartbeat drumming loud in their chest. A uniformed officer barred the way, her smile polite but edged with suspicion. The air clung with the smell of old coffee and strained silence. Somewhere behind those closed doors, Alec Hardy worked, oblivious that his stepchild had crossed into his realm of grim evidence and guarded sorrow, bearing nothing more than a forgotten lunch.