She'd Never Really Noticed How Often Daisy Spoke To Her Father With Her Hands. It Simply Wasn't Any Of

She'd never really noticed how often Daisy spoke to her father with her hands. It simply wasn't any of Ellie's concern and she had other things to worry about, like her job and her boys, and whether or not she would eventually snap and murder Hardy when he was being a knob. And today she was absolutely furious as she walked through her front door.

The absolute nerve of him! Brushing off that boy's concern like it didnt matter at all, practically ignoring him and handing it to Ellie to handle. Where did he get off acting like that? Her mood was not improved when she realized she didn't have anything for dinner, and that meant going to the store to buy something. With a curse, she grabbed her coat and headed back outside without even having had the chance to take her shoes off.

The store was on the other side of town, and of course she was caught in traffic on the way. Cursing to herself at this blatant ill luck granted to her by the cosmos, she happened to spy two familiar figures walking down the sidewalk: Hardy and Daisy, out buying fish and chips together. Daisy was in full conversational mode, engaged with her story-- but then Ellie noticed her mouth wasn't moving.

Her hands were. Quickly, precisely, and so casually that it was clearly habit, and what was even more amazing was that Hardy was doing it right back.

Ellie sat with her mouth open until a car behind her beeped for not moving forward.

She finally understood what it was Daisy did with her hands, and it wasn't simply gesturing.

*****

"So why do you need to use sign language with your dad, Daisy?"

She said it easily, without judgment, the next time she stopped by the Hardy residence. By chance, he wasn't home yet but Daisy was, which made it the perfect time to ask her questions.

Daisy wide-eyed her, sizing her up. "I don't know," she said smoothly, "why does someone need to know sign language?"

"Don't be so sarcastic," Ellie said, " that's your dad's job. My guess would be that you use it to talk to him because he's deaf, but he wouldnt be a detective if that were the case--"

"Partially deaf. It was an accident years ago, I guess on a previous call out. He suffered an ear injury, and he's almost eighty percent deaf in his right ear, a little below forty in his left. He's gotten really good at reading lips and studying body language, but it's easiest to talk to him using sign language. He doesn't have to work so hard to understand that way."

"Why didnt he say anything, the knob?"

"He didnt want you to think less of him, this ability to do his job because he's so hard of hearing. Are you going to be?"

"I--" Ellie paused before she tried to use some excuse. Of course she would have judged him; she was a little judgmental now, but she was also hurt. They'd known each other a long time now-- did he still not think he could trust her? "Do you have any books on how to learn sign language, Daisy?"

The sunny smile she got for that question told her she'd asked exactly the right thing. "I'll give you lessons."

*****

Of course she didn't tell Hardy she knew about his deafness, but the day she approached him and signed, How are you today, sir?, the way his whole countenance lit up was well worth the surprise.

so idk why but I headcanon Alec Hardy as deaf/hard of hearing but I cannot, for the life of me, find a fanfic about it! So if anyone comes across one or even writes one, please send it my way. I just love the idea of him using sign language with Daisy and Miller seeing and finding out he's deaf/hard of hearing and learning sign language to communicate with him. I'd write it myself but I don't think i'd do it justice!