"I'm so sorry mum." She cried and kneeled down. Then carefully, she began to touch the letters on the stone. With her index-finger she stroked each letter, one by one: Claire Louise Mcleod...Reading her name made her feel proud.

From a distance he saw her standing at her mothers grave, again. It touched him, as he knew how it felt; to have a parent, but not really know them. Like Charlotte knew her mum from just images and stories, he also knew his father like that.

Dispite the fact that he didn't got to know him, he'd always felt that his father was part of him. And even more now that he grew up and became a young man. With his eyes still locked on his mate, he breathed in deeply. He decided to leave her to it and ride to the homestead without her.

Charlotte had no clue that her best mate saw her when he was on his way to Drovers for the Homecoming of their uncle and aunt. She was still kneeled at Claire's grave, she had lowered her head: To think, to dream, to create order in her chaotic life. And when she felt her own breathing was more peacuful, she began to dry her cheeks with her long sleeves.

"I have always missed you...Is that weird? I really wanted to know you, but I only remember you vaguely." She sniffed. "No real memories, just flashes." New tears came up as she thought about her life right now. "I stuff up every time, but I really want this, you know. And now that Nick and Tess are coming home, it makes me feel even worse. More people to check up on me...And a niece who seems to do everthing right. I just have to prove that I can do this."

… … …

Tess was the first who got out the ute, that gorgeous wide smile of hers was still there. She ran towards Stevie, who was picking them up and hugged her "Well hello there again!" She giggled. "Christmas last year is way to long ago, we have a lot of catching up to do."

Stevie had tears in her eyes. "I'm so thrilled to have you guys back."

Behind Tess, Nick and Claire followed. A small, but very happy family, finally returned home -now perminently- after all these years.

When they pulled up the driveway, Nick got a scare when he saw Xander coming from the stables, he just looked so much like Alex. Nick had to blink his eyes a few times and then got out to greet him. He proudly smiled, put his arm around him and rubbed his hair like he always did. "Hey mate, what have you done to Xander?" Xander smiled back, it felt good knowing that his favorite uncle didn't see him as a child anymore.

Then, on his way to the ute to get the bags Nick grabbed his wife to hug her tight. Tess smiled and caressed his back, she felt why he needed this hug right now.

"Oh please...give me a break." Claire stated, seeing her mum and dad being this close. "You've got your own room here, remeber?" She blurted out.

Xander laughed and walked forward. "Hey."

Claire bend in to give him a hug. "Hi, good to see you again."

When they all walked towards the house, another youngster suddenly came from behind the homestead, she was walking a horse. A blond version of her mother. Tess immideatly felt tears coming up, not only because she noticed how much Charlotte had grown up in a short ammount of time and how much she'd missed her, but also because of the problems there where. She felt guilty that she hasn't been there for her and also angry at Peter, for taking her and even worse; for keeping her from Drovers Run. It was the best decision then, of course. As her father, Peter gave her a family, sisters, but he didn't realise what he took from her. Especially the time after Nick and Tess were back in Argentina and what he had done after Alex' his funeral. They barely had any contact after that and Peter just wouldn't alow it to visit Drovers. For some reason, he thought it might confuse or upset her. A few years later he accused Tess that Charlotte had mental issues because of her trauma's. Evantually he couldn't handlle her anymore, so finally she did return to Drovers Run, thanks to Stevie. So much had happened in 20 years.

Quickly, Tess wiped her tears away. "Charlotte! I'm so glad to see you again." She took her in her arms like her own daughter, Charlotte tightly embraced her, but after that she became a bit distant. A tall young woman – she looked older than she was- with curly (dark) blond hair, stepped forward to greet her. Claire; she knew everything better and was good in probably everything. Stevie had always mentioned how much she looked like her dad; Nick. And maybe even, a little bit like her granddad Harry. But when you heard her talk, which she was very good at, she sounded more like Tess. The fun-part was that sometimes she mixed english words with spanish. Claire really liked Charlotte and wanted to bond with her, but it was different the other way around.

Inside, they got their Homecoming Surprise-party; "Sup-riceee!" Meg & Terry, Jodi & Matt and their daughter; Jacky-Megan (after Jack and Meg) and son Johnny (after Matts father). Kate & Dave and their (foster-) son; Danny. Marcus & Ingrid and their twin boys; Allan (after Alex) and Brian (after Brice) they all waited for the big Homecoming of Nick and Tess.

Suddenly the house was full again, Meg remembered how it used to be, after talking to the Ryan's, she sat down and smiled. Thinking; 20 years ago...it wasn't very different, only a bit more crowded with all these kids. She reached for Terry's hand, who was sitting next to her on the couch, they both enjoyed it, like grandparents should. Jodi and Kate where busy in the kitchen, chatting. They baked, cooked and had prepared everything.

… … …

Tess couldn't wait to walk around, to check out the renewed Drovers Run, Stevie was anxious to lead the way.

Tess' eyes lit up. "Oh wow, everything turned out so beautiful! They have done a great job." Through the years Drovers Run needed renovation and to fit in two families it had to be extended as well. Nick and Tess aranged it from Argentina and trusted Matt and Jodi to hire the right people for the job. And it was perfectly done.

Tess asked. "Now that we're here, I can't keep myself from asking; don't you want to come back to Drovers?" In all these years Stevie stayed alone, which was a very clear choice. She couldn't let Alex go, her heart belonged to him. Tess knew of her choice, so she had always hoped Stevie would return to Drovers too.

Stevie shook her head. "No, Killarney is our home. And it's big enough for two families."

Tess smiled. "It's big enough here now too..."

"You're not used to see me living there, but I lived there for years now and wouldn't want to change that. I couldn't even do that to Xander."

Then Tess sighed deeply. "Before you know it, he'll start his own life."

Stevie forced a smile on her face, deep inside it hurt. "Let's not think about that yet, ok?"

Tess put her arm around her friend and smiled. "No. Let's celebrate...come on." And they walked back to the others.

… … …

The next day Nick and Tess wanted to get up early at Drovers Run, just like they did 20 years ago, but as they wanted to go downstairs, someone knocked on the bedroom door. It was Claire, she made breakfast. "Morning mum, dad...I thought you deserve to stay in bed a little longer, after our long journey."

Staying in bed wasn't a problem for them, but right now, all they wanted was to get to work. They couldn't wait to get started. Things had changed quite a bit on Drovers and they didn't even got a change to talk about all that. When they went back to bed again, Claire spoiled them with the food she'd made.

"That looks delicious. Thank you so much darling." Tess said proud.

She smiled, but then looked serious and plopped down in a big chair in the corner of the bedroom. She folded her arms and stared at her parents. "Now, what can I do around here?"

Nick petted the bed, gesturing their daughter to sit with them. "Look, we'd like you to think about what you want. Do you want to set up your own business, or do you want to mannage the properties with me...or maybe you come up with a different plan. Let us know, ok?" She nodded to answer her dad.

Tess added. "For now, we'd like you to spend time with Charlotte."

Claire reacted strongly. "I think she doesn't like me."

Tess sighed. "She's not like you, or like your friends at home Claire. Give her some time, try to bond with her. I'm sure, after a while, she'll come around."

"Yeah but what if she doesn't want anything to do with me?"

Nick frowned. "That's her problem then. Look, she went through a lot, ok? You have a perfect life."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Yeah right." and walked away.

"Hey?!" Nick yelled after her, she looked back and smirked. "Drink your coffee dad, you need it."

After eating breakfast, Nick moved the tray to the nightstand and than turned towards his wife again. "Now...where were we..."

Tess giggled "Nick?!" He tickled her.

They both laughed, Nick said "We have to inaugurate our new bed, don't we?" He caressed her shoulder and moved his hand to her cheek. Than they both lifted the blankets and dived under. They kissed and laughed and made love. A lot had changed, but not that...Nick and Tess still loved eachother just as much.

… … …

In the kitchen Jodi was on the phone with Kate, while Johnny and Jackie had a fight about who would eat the last sandwich. Jodi hung up.

"Ok that's enough. Stop it, you two." She touched Johnny's shoulder "You, get your bag and put on your shoes, because it's almost time to go to school."

Then she turned to her daughter, who was older. "And you should go upstairs and get yourself ready instead of teasing your little brother, because you will be picked up any minute now for college."

Jackie stood up and softly mumbled "Blablablabla..." as she slowly went upstairs. Jodi shook her head and started cleaning up, Matt and Charlotte were already working outside for hours and she couldn't wait to get started too.

"Go, I'm fine here Jodi. Matt needs you. You have to bring the cattle in, because Ingrid is coming for the pregnancy-checks, remember?" Meg said when she entered the kitchen, she knew how busy her daughters life was now and always helped her as much as she could. Not just Jodi, but she helped all the families that once started their lives at Drovers Run.

"But the kids are not ready yet..." Jodi complained. Not just today, it was always busy in the morning, especially weekdays. But Meg always stayed calm.

"They will be fine like always, Terry will be ready in a minute." Terry had to go to town anyway and therefor he always took Johnny to school.

Jodi nodded, she knew everything would be alright and went outside to help her husband running the farm.

… … …

"Oh wow, she can ride." She said with a sarcastic tone in her voice. "I never thought they'd use a horse, on a 'so-called- factory-farm'." Charlotte always thought they ran a factory farm up in Argentina and that it was all just business.

Matt frowned but didn't respond. Claire rode up to them. "Morning! I thought you could use a hand here."

"You're more than welcome, thanks." Matt answered, a bit surprised.

Charlotte only said "Morning." and turned the horse, to ride the other way. She tried everything to prove how good she was in rounding up the cattle and immediately started chasing a lost calve. But Matt still had to correct her a few times. Claire, on the other hand, seemed to be a natural. Of course Charlotte got jealous at her and that always kept her from really getting to know her niece and the possibility to become friends with her. After a while Nick and Tess showed up in a ute. Claire immediately rode towards her dad.

"I'm glad you're here, can I go with you now?"

Nick frowned, he didn't say 'no' often, he was generous. "What about the horse?" Then he turned a bit and whispered "and what about Charlotte?"

Claire frowned, just like her dad did. "She will be fine...and mum probably can't wait to help, so she can take the horse." Nick read the non-verbal part very well there, the conection with his daughter was very strong. He knew she would tell him everything in the ute.

Tess widely smiled and took the horse from her daughter without even asking. Nick proudly smiled, he loved it, to see his wife finally enjoy being home again, where she belonged. Charlotte saw Claire leaving and said out loud to herself. "Spoiled rotten, just like I always thought." Then she went back to work and mostly to prove herself, but she was to much focussed on that. Tess noticed and she had never worked with Charlotte before. Despite that it was so nice, it had always been a dream. But now it also opened her eyes, she decided to stick with her a bit more today. Tess felt like she knew Charlotte best, because she was very much like her sister Claire.

… … …

After they had brought the cattle in and Matt and Jodi helped Ingrid out with the pregnancy-checks, Tess asked Charlotte.

"I want to visit my sister's...your mum's grave today. Mind if you take me there?" Charlotte her eyes got bigger, she felt her heart pounding in her chest and her belly started to hurt. She had trouble to express her feelings and acted like it didn't mean much to her.

"Naah, I hardly ever go there. But if you can't find it, I'm willing to take you there."

Tess was quiet for a few seconds, but then responded. "I'd really like it if we would go together Charlotte." Tess had that sad look in her eyes, Charlotte noticed, but couldn't say anything about it to comfort her aunt.

She nodded "right" and started walking ahead of Tess, then she looked behind her. "What are you waiting for then?"

On their way there, they both thought of the fact that they had never visited Claire's grave together before. Last time they were there together, it was with Alex, a year after Claire had passed away. Tess couldn't hide her tears...

Charlotte seemed annoyed by it. But in fact her aunties tears touched her and she had to fight her own emotions. "We're not even there yet." She said when she saw Tess crying, it was very disrespectful to say something like that.

But Tess was aware of the problems she'd had and understood how Charlotte was, so she just started talking. "Last time we were here together, you were walking hand in hand with us, you know? Between me and your uncle Alex." Charlotte was walking ahead of her, she didn't respond, but she listened. Tess continued talking. "It was one year ago, that your mum had died. Do you have any memories of her?"

"Nothing" Charlotte answered shortly.

Tess always thought Charlotte may still have images of the accident, she was so little, but it was tremendously traumatic for her. Everyone hoped she wouldn't remember anything, but Tess always believed there had to be some memory left, or flashes of it, or maybe unexplaneble nightmares. Which would all explain her issues. For, now she decided not to push it to much, maybe Charlotte would open up somehow.

They stood closely beside each other when they were there. Tess lay her hand on Charlotte's back for a moment, caressed her with her thumb and then stepped forward and kneeled.

She whispered "Claire." and cried. Charlotte faught her tears, but lost her own battle. She just stood there, behind her aunt.

"Oh Claire, if I could only talk to you for a minute...about how happy I am, to be home again." Tess sniffed, new tears came up. "I still miss you so much."

Charlotte was unsure what to do, but she lay her hand on Tess' shoulder to comfort her. It was a first step to open up.