It had been a slow day at the Broadchurch police department. No new cases, no cases solved, nada. That was how DI Alec Hardy found himself summoned to investigate a car crash.

He'd rolled his eyes when he got the assignment. He'd dealt with worse things than a car crash. Some drunkard, he figured. After all, it wasn't horribly uncommon.

He rolled out in a car with the lights flashing, more curious about what you'd be making for dinner, since it was your turn to cook. Maybe you'd make that chicken recipe he really liked... Mmm, he could smell it already.

When he arrived on the scene, the sight that greeted him was a lot worse than he'd anticipated. 'Totaled' didn't begin to cover these two cars. They looked like a giant had thrown them in its mouth, chewed them up, and spit them out like watermelon seeds.

Worse was seeing the ambulance. Specifically, worse was seeing the person being taken into the ambulance.

They were your height.

They had your same haircut and color.

They were wearing your favorite shoes.

They were you.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Alec threw himself out of the car the second it was stopped and sprinted to the ambulance, bad heart be damned. That was you, his spouse, the love of his life being taken into the ambulance, a victim of drunk driving (certainly not the drunkard, you were too sensible for that). What the hell was a man to do?