Epilogue - Six Months Later

{{A bland, well-groomed man of indeterminate age stands in front of a large screen emblazoned with the words Close to Home.}}

"God, turn it off!"

"You sure you don't want to watch it?" Ellie asks with a teasing grin.

"Oh, God, no!" Hardy scowls with disgust. "I still can't believe Isabella and the others managed to force me into it again!"

"Good publicity for the charities," Ellie says, "and you looked very posh in that designer suit they wrestled you into."

He rolls his eyes so hard she almost hears them and she laughs.

"Come on, stop being such a grump!"

"Change the channel, Miller," he growls.

{{Jeffery: Good evening, I'm Collin Jeffery.

Francesca Livingstone. A young woman who disappears after a night drinking with friends. Two years later, one of those friends confesses to her murder and goes to prison.

This is not that story.

Instead, the story you're about to see is about a case not cold, but solved, and two suddenly famous detectives together again. What they discover changes everything.}}

*/*/*/*/*

{{Grace Heath voice over; on screen is footage of Archie Reynolds leaving prison: Sometimes out of tragedy, something beautiful grows. Sometimes it's just a small measure of justice.}}

Archie Reynolds is quietly released from prison and meeting him at the doors are Bianca and Della-and Dottie Livingstone.

They go to Dottie's, where they talk long into the night about the past, the good times and the bad, about Frankie and the others, about what Frankie had planned and what Archie had agreed to do. They struggle to understand, to find some truth, some beauty, in the ashes of the past.

In the end, they all cry and Dottie tells Archie she forgives him. She tells him spending nine years in prison for something he only thought about doing is more than enough time for anybody.

Archie eventually moves to Leeds and stays with Della until he finds a job and a flat of his own. Bianca applies for a transfer and hopes to join them soon. They all keep in regular contact with Dottie.

Sometimes the only thing left to do is cling together.

*/*/*/*/*

{{Grace Heath voice over cont'd; on screen is a long distance shot of Ellie as she comes out of the room she'd been given as a dressing room. She looks round, then pauses as another door opens and Hardy steps out in to the hall and looks the other way at first.: Sometimes it's friendships forged under the most trying of circumstances. And sometimes...}}

Ellie grins as Hardy looks round, trying to determine which way to go. He's been coaxed into a designer suit that fits his slender form like a glove. His tie is perfectly straight, his beard trimmed and his hair is slicked back and smooth, high off his forehead.

He looks about as comfortable as a cat stepping foot on a stove that had once burned it.

His eyes warm when he sees her, though, and a genuine smile curves his lips. She doesn't think she's ever going to get used to the way his smile-when he does smile-lights up his entire being.

"Well, they did a good job with you, Miller," he says.

She smiles and swirls round to show off the lovely print dress Grace Heath-much warmer in person than she seems on the air-had found for her. She's not sure why the show has gone to such trouble, but it's a beautiful dress and she feels beautiful in it, and she preens for a moment beneath Hardy's appreciative gaze.

"They did a good job on you, too, Hardy," she says, moving closer to fuss with his tie and the lapels of his suit. "Look at you, all poshed up."

He rolls his eyes. "Let's just get this over with," he growls.

"Na, na, just a minute." She surveys him with a critical air and reluctantly decides against dragging him in to her dressing room for a quick snog. The make-up and hair people would never forgive them. She settles for reaching up and giving his hair a good tussle. When she's done, his hair is hanging in his eyes and sticking up in tufts and she nods. "That's better."

"Miller-"

"Oh, stop! You love me and you know it!"

"Oh, aye, I do, but I'm beginning to regret it!"

She gives him a quick peck on the lips. "No, you're not."

He tugs her close and smiles down at her. "No, I'm not."

{{Grace Heath voice over as the scene freezes on Ellie and Hardy standing close, smiling at each other ...sometimes it's love, found in the unlikeliest of places.}}

*/*/*/*/*

Author's Notes

Oh, this fic, this fic, this fic...Where to start...

Original Scope of This Fic:

- this fic was supposed to be a relatively short little one-shot about Hardy becoming a media darling and ending with him surrounded by fan mail and wondering what the hell happened. Then Dottie appeared with the "I don't want an autograph! I want to hire you!" lines and the rest, as they say, is history...or a ~68K word fic...whichever.

Inspiration:

Part of the inspiration for this story was some idle wondering about the life Hardy had lost after the Sandbrook case fell apart. He wasn't always the grumpy misanthrope we meet in series 1 of Broadchurch. He had people he could call on for favours (his doctor and Alistair Murray in series 1; What-is-the-Point-of-You-Craig in series 2), he and Tess had friends, he was part of a community, he had enemies-he had a LIFE and everything that entails.

Part of the inspiration for this story was to explore some of those aspects. Ellie was in such a bad place in series 2, and she took her anger and grief out on Hardy and, in my opinion, defined him as the grumpy sod/emotionless misanthrope and that was where he was going to stay, so help her God - LOL.

Another piece of inspiration was to combine these two elements together: Ellie has Hardy in a set little category based on the person she knows. What would happen if she sees him back in his previous life? Ellie wasn't the only one who'd lost everything because of the actions of others, but she was in no emotional shape to recognize or understand that in either series 1 or 2.

Struggles and Headaches:

- I struggled a lot with the timing of events, especially when it came to Ellie being ready to start a relationship with Hardy. My head!canon is pretty firmly entrenched that Hardy's in love with Ellie at the start of series 2 (and he knows it by the end of series 1), while Ellie (my poor baby) is miles and miles (like, the distance to Mars miles) away from even thinking/feeling like that about any one, let alone a grumpy wanker like Hardy, for God's sake!

- Phoenix Rising takes place over a span of ~6-12 months from the end of series 2. This made it a real struggle for me to get Ellie to an emotional space where she could/would fall for Hardy and admit she's fallen for him. In my head!canon, it's just too soon for her to do that but I'd set the fic up and had to see it through. *pulls at hair* I could write a really long meta arguing both sides (i.e., it's too soon for her to trust any man again vs she already trusts Hardy without question (as he trusts her)(and that's just so damn adorable)) but that's too long even for this Author Note! :)

The Case:

- I thought it would be interesting to explore a case where the victim was less than sympathetic. As I've noted before (to the point of being disgustingly repetitive), I watch a lot of true crime documentaries. And it never fails that the people remembering the victim always say: "they were wonderful people"; "kindest person you'd ever meet"; "sweet and kind and would give you the shirt of your back"; "not an enemy in the world", and I just started wondering what it would be like to watch a true crime documentary where the victim's family said, "they were borderline psychopathic; we hated each other-but that doesn't mean they deserved to die!"

Shout-Out:

- While not really an influence or inspiration, I can't ignore the only other cold case detective fic I currently know about: RexAlexander's Where We Begin. While I didn't get the idea from her fic, it was simultaneous (sort of) inspiration. I had started another fic about Hardy/Miller as cold case detectives (which subsequently withered on the vine). It was already withering when I read a few chapters of Where We Begin; it just withered faster after that! Because Phoenix Rising is really about a cold case (a closed case, actually, but still...), I thought I should give Where We Begin a shout-out...and now maybe I can finish reading it!

Which brings me to:

I HOPE I CAN READ OTHER FICS NOW! Some of you will know that I don't read other fics in the fandom when I'm writing a multi-chapter story (it messes with my head!canon too much)(plus I get too envious of other people's talent-*pouts*). I've finally finished this one, and I'm feeling the urge to get back to my original novels (I'm going to publish this year come hell or high water) plus the only Broadchurch stories I have brewing in the back of my mind at the moment are a cross-over with Remington Steele and a follow-on to one of my previous one-shots. One's going to be short, and the other one isn't going to be as invested in canon so I should be safe to delve into Broadfic as a reader now. ;D

Thanks for coming along for the ride on this one-and sticking with it till the end! I'm going to miss this story and, of course, Hardy and Miller, my poor broken-hearted babies...{{hugs them tight}}.

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