The Long night
Set around events of 7.5 this so far AU story assumes that Ed & Danny acquired the ocelot and leopard by legal means and Ed surprises himself by asking Rosie to accompany him on the long drive to the lab. Rosie takes the time to try and convince Ed of Dup's true worth. I personally think Rosie should divorce Max and go off with Ed instead.
"I can't see what the problem could be," Danny Trevanion frowned, "the fact both the leopard and ocelot seem to presenting the same symptoms seems to rule out head trauma and a brain tumour."
"We should take samples," Rosie suggested, "I can drive through the night if need be to get them there for priority testing first thing tomorrow,"
"That's a smart idea," Ed replied. Despite his antipathy towards Dup he had a growing admiration for Danny because the man spoke his mind and his commitment to animal welfare went beyond the commercial. To begin with Ed had disliked Danny's familiarity with the animals first at Big Five and now Mara and Leopard's Den. He admired Danny's passion and he was more than a little impressed with Rosie. The young girl exhibited the same passion as her father and Ed knew she would be a great vet once she graduated from vet school in Johannesburg. He tried to push all other thoughts from his mind though; she was married and her husband was in Cape Town. There was enough tension at Leopard's Den as it was. Personally Ed believed that Anders Du Plessis was an old soak but the old man had good as saved his life when the fire-breaking had gone disastrously wrong. Ed had seen how much Anders and his wife, Caroline, did really love one another although they clearly drove one another mad on occasions. The Trevanion family relationships did confuse Ed a little but he felt that with time he would begin to unravel them. However even if Rosie hadn't been married to a man he had never met Ed knew that trying to initiate something would hardly ease things. The tension could be cut with a knife. But Ed was convinced that he and Danny could make this partnership work; in spite of Dup, in spite of everything. Thinking of establishing any other kind of partnership at this time was rather ill-advised. Ed Lynch may have been many things; a little pompous and arrogant and inclined to throw his weight around but stupid did not feature anywhere on the list.
OO
Rosie busied herself labelling the samples of blood and tissue that Danny was taking. She was shocked to realise that she had not thought about Max in hours; especially not with the tension closer to home. She had spent her time trying to be peacemaker which was difficult at best; especially because of the Du Plessis's stubbornness. The idea of a caffeine fuelled drive through the night rather appealed to her. She had to admit it; Ed Lynch was rather attractive. Tall with blonde hair and blue eyes he looked rather fetching in khaki as well as green veterinary scrubs; He was blonde where Max was dark and he had rather impressively strong forearms. He had also given her a lot of encouragement towards her veterinary ambitions; Max did not totally understand her. Danny had been a bit preoccupied since she had got back but Rosie knew that was because he was deeply concerned about Dupe and that he wanted them all to get along. After all; with Dup's previous heart-problems this stress was far from good for him and that was without knowing about him burying Christian Peters.
Ed put the samples in a small cool bag to keep them at a reasonable temperature for the South African night was hot despite a cool breeze.
OO
"I'll go and get Nonza to make you some coffee, Mr Lynch," Rosie said, "It's a long drive and to be frank the coffee you can pick up along the way tastes like dirty water,"
Ed pulled a face.
"That would be a good idea; the cafeteria stuff at Big Five was even worse,"
Rosie went off to the kitchen where Nonza began putting freshly brewed coffee into a large thermos and she added some sandwiches and an extra cup.
"But better than frozen pizza," Danny said.
"Quite." Ed smiled.
OO
"Your daughter will make a great vet," Ed said to Danny who was cleaning up, "But she could hardly fail to be; given her example."
"Thank you," Danny was taken aback.
"Would you object to me asking her to accompany me? I could do with the company to keep me awake; even with coffee."
"Rosie is her own person, Ed," Danny replied, "I'm not sure how Max would feel about it,"
"He isn't here Danny, and we are both adult enough,"
Just then Rosie returned with a basket containing the coffee and sandwiches.
"Rosie, would you accompany me?" Ed asked, "Only I could use the company and you can't talk to a thermos of coffee."
"Of course," she smiled, "
OO
They set out into the night. It was warm but there was a cool breeze that took the edge off the heat.
They got a good few miles in although the lab was still a good four hour drive through the bush.
"So have you always wanted to be a vet?" Ed asked.
"Not always; not really until we came out here to Leopard's Den and I saw the real difference dad was making,"
"It must have been hard losing your mother,"
"Yes it was and Danny married Sarah too soon after for my liking so we argued like mad when we first came out. I thought it was a mad idea, doomed to fail, and I'm ashamed to say that I gave her a really hard time. After what happened to her I still feel bad. Dad and Alice are happy enough although I know he wishes they were together, what with the baby and everything. Sarah is buried on Leopard's Den land and all the people from Mara and the township came to pay their respects; that made losing Leopard's Den even harder for us all."
"I can only imagine," Ed said;.
"I know how you feel about Dup," Rosie said, "I thought dad and Sarah were mad going into business with him but they proved me wrong. There is no one knows more about tracking and bush craft than Dup and he was born at Leopard's Den. He is stubborn but so is my dad and you are too, if you don't mind my saying so, but it's because you all want the best for the animals and Leopard's Den so I can't blame any of you for that and I have a stubborn streak two miles wide myself."
"I can see that," Ed smiled, "I think it's time we had some coffee."
"Good idea," Rosie said as Ed pulled over to the side of the track road.
