Set just over 5 years after the end of the series, in 2015. And even though it's set in the future, I have no idea who the Prime Minister is in 2015 or what the popular children's books are, which is why it stands at Kevin Rudd and Harry Potter.

"You should come over for dinner. A friend of Brad's is coming over," Julia Walker (nee Croft) said to her friend Gabrielle Jaeger as they sat on the porch of the homestead of the Jaeger family farm, drinking coffee and chewing the fat.

Gabrielle made a face. "Another one of his Flying Doctor mates that you're trying to set me up with?" she asked, not needing Julia to answer. She, her husband Brad and her brother Paul had been trying to set her up since she had returned home to the farm she shared with her brother Ben three years ago. Gabrielle had resisted all attempts at matchmaking. Not only did none of the men take her fancy, but she resented what she saw as their pity project. She was well aware that as a single mother in her thirties, and hardly a knockout at that, men weren't exactly knocking down her door – especially not in a place like this, where it was quite possible to set off in any direction and walk for days without running into another human being. The ratio of animals to humans here was about a thousand to one, if not more.

So men weren't exactly thick on the ground, and what men there were wanted something better than a plain-Jane single mother in her thirties – even one who held half-interest in a very profitable farm and held down a job as Nurse Matron of the small hospital (more of a clinic than a hospital). Gabrielle had accepted it, and tried to be as dignified as she could about it – few women in her position never had moments of bitterness from time to time – and didn't want to suffer through endless dates set up for her by friends who meant well but tended to feel sorry for her because she wasn't married. Didn't even have a boyfriend. Was on her way to becoming a certified spinster, if you believed some people.

"Not interested," she said, slightly distracted as she kept an eye on her four-year-old son, Russel, racing around the front yard with his dog.

"But this guy's special," Julia insisted.

"They all are," Gabrielle pointed out.

"Yeah – but this guy's extra special. Look, leave Russel with Ben and Caitlin and come to dinner with us. It will be fun, I promise."

Gabrielle agreed, more to get Julia off her back than anything. "Wait, what's his name?" Gabrielle asked as Julia down the driveway to her car to head home and get dinner ready.

Julia spun around and flashed Gabrielle a brilliant, mischievous smile. "You'll find out," she said.


Jack Quade was bloody sick of his friend and colleague Brad Walker trying to set him up. He appreciated the effort Brad went to but he wasn't the dating type. He worked FIFO, and he didn't have a place he was settled at for his weeks off – he tended to spend them visiting his sister and friends in Sydney, or visiting places that had been recommended by patients, colleagues and friends alike. He had seen much of the eastern states that way, and he enjoyed his semi-nomadic lifestyle. He had spent the first ten years of his adult life buckling down and committing to some vague plan to move up the ladder of Sydney's medical community, and he had enjoyed spending the last five going where he pleased and doing a lot to help people who didn't live in a major metropolis. His semi-nomadic lifestyle meant he didn't have the means to commit to a proper relationship. To be sure, he had connections here and there, women he had a good camaraderie with who almost always had time for him when he was in town. Why would he want anything else.

"I'm busy," he had said when Brad had suggested Jack spend his week off with him, his wife Julia and their two girls at their farm near the Victorian border.

"Doing what? Hooking up with one of your casuals?" Brad asked. Jack had shrugged at that; it was none of Brad's business, and more importantly, it wasn't like he was hurting anyone. Every woman he was involved with knew what the score was. He had witnessed how his father's compulsive infidelity had destroyed the lives of everyone around him, and he had vowed never to do that to someone. Playing the field was fine, but if you were going to commit to someone, you committed to them, that was the end of it.

And there hadn't been many women in his life he had felt he could commit to. Two, in fact. And both of them had been hung up on their exes. He smiled at that. What had it been about him that he was drawn to women who were in love with other men?

In the end, Jack had agreed to meet this friend of Brad and Julia's, largely because he had nothing better to do. The people he usually caught up with in Sydney were otherwise occupied this particular week, and there was nowhere he had his heart set on visiting. Spending a week with a family would be a change of pace.

So here he was. Once upon a time, he would have been surprised that the house was so, well, modern. Once upon a time, he had had this image in his head that any property this far outside the city limits would be some wooden building like what you saw in The Man From Snowy River. "Yeah, we have this newfangled thing called electricity, too," Brad had joked when Jack had confessed his ignorance.

But that had been over five years ago. He had long come to realise that rural areas were far more modern than he had thought they would be, although they were still desperately lacking in the technology and infrastructure that he had taken for granted in Sydney.

Not that he regretted leaving Sydney. He had been back, briefly, and knowing that there were so many people out there who wouldn't have access to facilities like what he had been used to without people like the Flying Doctors had chafed at his conscience until Luke had ordered him back to whatever hole in the ground he had come from, because he was clearly happier there.

Ha, him, Jack Quade, Sydney boy born and bred, happier in isolated communities and with the Flying Doctors than he was at a major city hospital like All Saints. Even funnier that the VMO who had once begged a scrub nurse to sew his mouth shut now looked upon him like a kid brother.

God, how things had changed in six years. Ten, if you counted the time from when he had started All Saints to now.

"You came," Brad said when he opened the door, as if surprised.

"I do keep my promises, even if they're cajoled out of me," Jack said.

Brad invited him in and walked him through the house. "This is my wife, Julia," he said, introducing Jack to an attractive woman in her early thirties. "And this is – " he started to introduce their other guest.

"I know who she is," Jack said, slightly startled at seeing her. The first thing he noticed was how fit she looked. She had always been in good shape, but apparently having half-interest in a working farm meant she spent a lot of time outdoors, moving stuff around. She looked more toned and tanned then he remembered her being. Gabrielle Jaeger. His best mate, once upon a time, and someone he had thought about occasionally as more than just being a friend – but he had been wary of getting involved with her, and he had ended up being right. He wondered if Russel looked like Steve. The little boy would be four now, Jack realised. He had never met Russel so he didn't think of him visually. Actually, he hardly thought of him at all. Or Gabrielle. He found it easier that way. Easier not to think about how easily he could have crumbled when she was sobbing in his arms and begging for his comfort. Easy not to think about h he could have gotten his heart broken over someone who clearly wasn't over her ex.

"Hi," he said.

Gabrielle looked him over. He looked better than when she had seen him last, even though he was actually six years older. He seemed much more at ease with himself - something had knocked his city boy snobbishness out of him, and it suited him. He looked like his svelte figure came from actual physical labour as opposed to sweating it out at the gym. She hadn't seen him in over six years, and she knew that was largely her fault. She also knew he had been angry with her at the time, and she wondered if he still was. "Hi," she parroted him.

"You look good," he said.

"So do you."

"You know each other?" Brad asked.

"All Saints," Jack said. He couldn't stop looking at Gabrielle. "She was the only person who could handle the head of department. We managed to go through five NUMs in less than a year before her."

"Sounds just like Gabby," Julia piped up, her eyes sparkling, and not only because it did sound just like Gabrielle to be able to handle someone where five people before her had failed. (Actually, it was only four, because Jack had been counting Nelson twice.) There was also the fact that there was some serious chemistry between Gabrielle and Jack. Julia tried to remember what Gabrielle had told her all those years ago. She remembered Gabrielle saying something about a friend she had who she was close to – and who Steve couldn't stand. Julia remembered that because she had never been able to stand Steve either, and had wanted to smack Gabrielle when she decide for the second time to reconcile with the guy. You'd think she would have learnt after the first reconciliation that it wasn't meant to be.

But that was then and this was now, and right now, she was sharing some serious chemistry with a damn good-looking man.

"Sit down," Julia said, gesturing to the table where fresh bread was already prepared. Jack sat.

"You do look good," he said sincerely to Gabrielle. "Motherhood suits you." She had always had an authoritive, matronly look about her, and being a mother enhanced that.

"Thankyou," she said. "You seeing anyone?" she asked.

He shook his head ruefully. "With my work? I don't know how Brad manages it."

"Julia gets it. You do need to be pretty understanding. But I would have thought you'd already know that, it can't have been easy to juggle a relationship with being a surgeon."

"I didn't have a lot of relationships, remember?" Jack asked ruefully. Gabrielle nodded slightly. She was one of the few people who knew about the sexual abuse he had suffered as a teenager. It had crippled his ability to be in a healthy relationship, and he had made a lot of bad choices when it came to women. Jack caught her looking at him, and for a brief moment, he was transported to a time when they had been so close that he could tell her things like that. "I have honest relationships, though," he said, and Gabrielle wasn't naive enough to not get that that meant a series of sexual relationships.

Strange how that made her feel a little jealous. After all, it wasn't like he had ever owed her fidelity. It wasn't like they had ever even slept together.

"So, what was it like, working with Gabrielle?" Julia asked over dinner. "Never had the privilege myself."

Instinctively – you didn't live with a person for the better part of the year without anticipating their sense of humour, even if it was six years later – she knew what Jack was going to say, and flashed her eyes in his direction. He ignored her. "On her first day, she told me if I laid a finger on her she'd have me up on harassment charges before I could take my next breath."

Julia nearly spat out her food at that. "I'm sorry?" she asked, intrigued.

"He acts like he wasn't to blame at all," Gabrielle teased, finding herself slipping back into the easygoing camaraderie she and Jack had shared years ago. "He'd dated two of my processors, both of which ended badly – I had people coming up to me for a month telling me to steer clear of him."

"Seems you took their advice," Julia said drily.

"He's a sweetheart behind the reputation," Gabrielle said. She smiled at him, and was relieved when he smiled back.

Julia was smiling inwardly, too. She had only just found out from Brad that Jack and Gabrielle went way back; Brad had worked it out weeks ago and had since been trying to convince Jack to come to dinner. It probably would have been easier just to come clean. Or then again, maybe not, she thought. Gabrielle was extremely proud and stubborn, and may have resisted Julia's efforts to set her up even stronger had she known. Besides, something had clearly happened between the two of them that they hadn't kept in touch for several years – since shortly after Russel had been born, from what Julia could gleam. Maybe it had been for the best that they hadn't known they were being set up with one another.

But here they were, getting along well. Julia was pleased. She wanted Gabrielle to find someone who appreciated her, and even now, after all the time that had separated them, she and Jack had something special that she had never had with Steve.

"Where are you staying?" Gabrielle asked as the night drew to a close. She found herself reluctant to go home. She had forgotten how much fun she could have with Jack. No one had ever gotten her the way she did – not even Steve.

"Here, with the Walkers," Jack said.

"Then that practically makes you a neighbour for the week," Gabrielle said, although there was nearly fifty kilometres between the Walker house in the centre of Widgee and the Jaeger farm that made up the farming community that Widgee serviced. "Why don't you come over for lunch sometime? Meet Russel?"

It was on the tip of Jack's tongue to say no, that he had no interest in meeting the brat that was the end result of the relationship with Steve, a man who anyone but her could have told her was no good for her. But he knew that was childish, and that he would feel bad if he told her now. "Sure," he said. "How's tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow sounds good," she said, mentally going over everything she had in the pantry. She would have to make more bread. Thankgod, it was the weekend and she could get up early to cook. "Brad will give you the address. Actually, it might be easier if Brad just takes you there. Non-country people don't seem to get just how far it is."

"I've been working with the Flying Doctors for three years now, I do have some idea of distance," he said. But his eyes were twinkling and they both knew she hadn't been making fun of him too seriously.

"Great," she said. "I can't wait for you to meet Russel." And I can't wait to talk to you properly, she added silently. It had been great, spending time with him, Brad and Julia as a foursome, but what she really wanted to do was talk to Jack one-on-one, catch up with everything that had happened in the last six years – or, more specifically, the last four. They had lost touch abruptly shortly after Russel's birth, and she knew that was her fault. She wanted to tell him so, wanted to say that if she could do it again, she would never have made the choice she had.


It didn't take long for Russel to be looking at Jack with absolute adoration. He had that affect on kids. "How do you know all those stories?" Gabrielle asked after Russel went to play in the back yard. "Ben and I don't have a clue what little boys like."

"Neither does Adam," Jack said a touch smugly. "Me, I read everything I could get my hands on as soon as I was old enough to read. Any children's or young adult books published before two thousand I can list off the top of my head. I lost track after Harry Potter, but Zach isn't old enough to know that."

"You keep up with Charlotte and Adam?" Gabrielle asked excitedly. "And Zach? How are they? Sorry," she added when Jack looked at her quizzically, clearly thinking that Gabrielle should have kept up with them herself, given she was quite close to Charlotte. "I didn't keep in touch with anyone after I left Sydney. Things were so hectic with Russel and the new clinic and – " she shrugged helplessly, not wanting to admit that a fair chunk of it had also been that Steve, who had never liked the city, hadn't wanted Gabrielle to waste time and effort on her Sydney friends that could be spent on him, Russel and the clinic.

Jack figured that out for himself, but didn't say anything. "They got married two years ago. It was beautiful – Zach was the ring-bearer – my God, he looks so much like Charlotte, those cheeky blond good looks. And Adam's devoted to him."

"I got that impression," Gabrielle said. She knew Charlotte and Adam had been involved the last time she had heard, although how involved she had never found out. So they were married. She felt a twinge of guilt. She wondered if Charlotte had sent her an invitation to the clinic. Steve wasn't the most reliable when it came to passing on the odd bit of mail that came for her there. "I always thought he'd make a good dad. Often – " she stopped abruptly, realising what she had said.

"The ones from abusive childhoods do?" Jack offered. Gabrielle nodded sheepishly. "It's OK. I happen to agree. At least when they're willing to deal with it. And yeah, he does make a good dad. He's even humble enough not to get caught up in the crap about kids not being your own if they aren't you're flesh and blood."

"Do you see them often?"

"Once every few months. I'll probably see them on my next week off. You should come up to Sydney sometime, actually."

Gabrielle thought longingly of her friendship with Charlotte, then reminded herself of the reality. "Thanks, but I have the farm on top of a fulltime job and Russel," she said. "Are Charlotte and Adam still at All Saints?"

"Yeah. Actually, Frank resigned two years ago and Charlotte became the head of department. Made Adam 2IC, which pissed Bart right off. He lodged a complaint with admin about it, claiming it was nepotism. What he didn't realise was that Charlotte had handed the choice over to admin for that exact reason – Adam was far and away the best qualified for the position, but she couldn't just hand the job to her husband."

"Sounds like Bart," Gabrielle said drily. She had often found Frank's favouritism of Bart maddening. Anyone else would have been fired half a dozen times over for acting the way he had. And his relationship with Amy seemed to just make him even more secure in his position in Frank's affections. "What happened?"

"Bart had been pissing off admin for a while, and making this big deal about being passed over in favour of someone with seniority, more experience and his fellowship didn't exactly endear him to them. He quit soon after that. Last I heard, he was at Royal Perth. From what Charlotte understood, his marriage was really rocky so maybe he figured it was time to cut his losses and leave. Hell, for all I know, he actually found a boss who didn't make allowances for him and he's grown a bit."

Gabrielle laughed at that. While Bart had always had the best intentions, he also had a deep sense of entitlement born of a privileged life. His way was always the right way and nothing was ever so important as what he wanted. Blabbing a patient's details to his wife or getting involved with a patient were prime examples of this. "He and Amy split up?" she asked.

"Didn't surprise me. The two of them were two peas in a pod." Two entitled people who got on amazingly so long as they wanted the same thing, but when they started to diverge...

"I didn't realise you knew Amy that well."

"I went out with her once," Jack said.

"Really? You never told me that!" Gabrielle said.

"Yeah, like I was going to admit that I wasted an entire evening on that vapid, entitled princess. All night it was yap, yap, yap about her awesomeness and all the great things she did for the world that she didn't actually know anything about. I wasn't surprised to find out that she and Bart had married."

"You were never a fan of Bart, were you?" Gabrielle asked.

"It wasn't that I didn't like him, exactly – more that I couldn't relate to his privileged upbringing. Not just coming from a family with a bit of money, but being so sheltered and indulged to a point he thought nothing of some of the stuff he did. When you've spent two years of your life being raped and you're entire childhood being smacked around by a step-mother who hated you, you don't have a lot of patience for people who think not starting out their careers in their dream job is calamity. Amy was very much the same. So I wasn't surprised that they got married, and I wasn't surprised that it didn't take long for two people like that to self-implode before too long."

Gabrielle nodded. Jack had said it perfectly. She wondered what he thought of her own ever-ruinous relationship with Steve, then decided it was best not too ask. "So you've been working for the Flying Doctors all this time?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Only for three years. I travelled, went to Europe and South America, did some work in a rural community for a year – similar to the clinic you were telling me about, actually – then I ended up at All Saints for six months as the Head of Trauma."

Gabrielle spat out her tea at that point, because last she had known, Bianca Frost had been the Head of Trauma at All Saints, and she and Jack had hated each other's guts. Actually, Bianca had hated Jack, and Jack largely tried to avoid her. It had stemmed from a minor slight at uni that Bianca had held onto for years. "I'm sorry, what happened to – "

"Bianca Frost?" Jack asked, his eyes glittering. Four years after the fact, he was yet to get sick of retelling the story of Bianca's downfall. Gabrielle nodded. "Years ago – like, ten years – when Bianca was still just a resident and before she was married, she had a major clash with one of the nurses, Paula Morgan. Ostensibly she made this big deal about Paula being a single mother leeching of the system and a bad mum because her son Max acted like such a brat at times – it actually turned out that Max had undiagnosed ADHD – but what it was actually about was them both being interested in the same surgeon. Surgeon choice Paula, they got married and he accepted a position in the US, except, whoops, that surgeon was – is – Luke Forlano."

Gabrielle gasped and clapped her hand to her mouth. "You're kidding me," she said. She hadn't kept up with the movers and shakers of Sydney's medical community, but even she had heard of Luke Forlano, who had taken Mike Vlasek's position as Head of Surgery after Mike had retired and taken up teaching. And Bianca Frost had earned the wrath of his wife, and in turn, Luke. "I always knew that woman would piss off the wrong person one day," she said gleefully. "I didn't realise you knew Luke Forlano."

"I didn't. Or at least, hardly. He left soon after I started my residency and quite frankly, he couldn't stand me. Once asked a scrub nurse to sew my mouth shut. Can't say I really blame him, I was pretty stuck up back then. It was Mike who recommended me."

"And he took his advice?"

"Think he was too in awe of him not to. Come to think of it, I was too in awe of not to accept – and I liked the idea of being close to Bec again. And since I'd gotten over myself somewhat, Luke and I ended up getting really well." Jack looked off distantly for a second, remembering. "He's a Christian Brothers boy, and has this uncanny knack for sensing when someone had been sexually abused. Or at least, he did with me. He was one of the first people I could talk to who really got it. It turned out we had a hell of a lot in common." Same working class backgrounds, same hypocritical Catholic upbringing, same high intelligence and deep ambition. Or at least, Jack had once shared that deep ambition. What had been ambition had since been honed into a strong sense of community obligation. Once he had been exposed to the lack of facilities outside big cities, he hadn't been able to forget it, and eventually Luke had gotten fed up with him hanging out with the Flying Doctors as they airlifted patients in and told him to go back to whatever hole he had come from, since he was clearly happier there. "That's how I met Brad, actually. It didn't take much to convince me that I would be more fulfilled with the Flying Doctors than at All Saints, and that was three years ago. Growing up, I never thought I'd be in a job like this, and now I can't see myself doing anything else."

He sounded so happy, so settled despite the fact that he wasn't settled anywhere. He seemed a lot more at peace with himself. "I'm happy for you," she said, not realising she had said it out loud.

"Thanks."

So Frank had retired – to go to Europe to see more of his daughter like he had always threatened, Gabrielle assumed – and Von had moved to a retirement home where, according to Jack, she ruled with as much of an iron first as she had when she had been at All Saints. "She's having a ball there," Jack said. "I tag along with Adam sometimes and she still acts like I'm this annoying little shit chasing after Terri, but I think she appreciates it." Gabrielle smiled indulgently at that. It sounded very much like Von.

And Charlotte was head of the Department now – and got on remarkably well with Zoe Gallagher, in a friendly-professional-rivals kind of way, now that they were on equal footing with one another – with Adam as her 2IC. The only other person who Jack had known when he left still there was Claire, although with a few proffered details, he could recognise Elliot. Paula Forlano was the ED's NUM – "And she does it well, but it's easy to do it well when you don't have to work with Frank," Jack added loyally. Gabrielle struggled to imagine such a different ED, one without all the people she had been so familiar with – Frank – Von – Mike – Bart. "It must be so different," she said. "I can't imagine things not being just as I left them."

"We tend to do that. It's hard to think of people you knew for so long moving on with their lives just because you're not there."

There was a note to his voice that reminded Gabrielle that they hadn't seen each other for six years – and that that was mostly her fault. There had been a time where they had known each other's lives on a day-to-day basis – and now so much had changed. She would never have imagined him working for the Flying Doctors. But then, she had never imagined herself being a single mother. "Jack, about what happened with us – " she started.

He waved her away. "It doesn't matter anymore," he said good-naturedly.

"I thought I was making the right decision," she tried to explain.

"I know. I was angry at the time, but I get it now. I think I'd have done the same thing in your position."

"Bullshit," Gabrielle said. "You never would have let some woman make ultimatums like that."

"Yeah... OK. Honestly, I never understood why you let him make you choose like that. If he really loved you... oh, sorry," he said, realising he'd put his foot in it.

"It's OK. You don't need to be nice about it. Steve should have been secure enough to know that we were just mates. I should have been less of a doormat and told him not to be so insecure about it."

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Jack asked, his voice soft and interested, and Gabrielle understood that he truly didn't hold a grudge for the shabby way she had treated him and their friendship when Steve had informed her that if she wanted them to work as a family, she had to stop being friends with 'that interfering prick who thinks he's better than everyone else'. Steve went to great pains not to refer to Jack by name.

"It wasn't meant to be. Too much water under the bridge – I could never wholly trust him. And after Russel was born, he just wasn't attracted to me sexually. I think he has something of a Madonna/whore complex – once I'd had his baby, I was this non-sexual deity to be worshipped from a meter away. It didn't stop him looking at other women, of course, and after a year he admitted that if we kept on as we were, he would end up straying. So we broke up and I ended up back here."

"I'm sorry," Jack said sincerely.

"It's not your fault." What was it about Jack that he had more empathy than the people who had done the wrong thing by her? She had forgotten that about him. "I guess I could be grateful. Better that than we married like he wanted to and ended up cheating on me again."

"How come you didn't get married?" Jack asked. "Steve always struck me as very traditional about stuff like that."

"He is. He wanted to get married. Something kept holding me back. Guess it was my own instinct."

"Does Steve have much to do with Russel?" Jack asked.

"He sends money when he remembers – sees Russel less frequently. He has a new girlfriend who's a fair bit younger than him – twenty-one, I think – and I get the impression that she doesn't like having Russel around to remind her how old Steve was." Gabrielle shrugged. She had long ago accepted that Steve would make what effort he deemed fit whenever the hell he felt like it. "I could do worse."

"You could do better. I'd never treat you like that."

She smiled indulgently at him. "Of course you wouldn't. But I've never known anyone who loved kids the way you do. I bet Adam had a fight on his hands when he tried to claim his place as Zach's father-figure."

Jack poked his tongue out rather than admit that she wasn't far off from the truth. But hey, since neither Charlotte or Adam had any brothers, Zach was in need of an uncle-figure. "How do you feel about it?" he asked, and they both knew he meant about Steve calling and end to their relationship and having little to do with Russel.

"I was angry," she admitted. "I was so pissed off – I hadn't wanted to have Russel in the first place, and I let myself be drawn into the dream he had of us being this family and running a little community clinic and living happily ever after. I never would have had him if not for Steve's convincing. And then he called it off and I was a single mother and I was so angry at him. But then I realised I was angry at him for giving me Russel, and it seemed like such an ungrateful thing to be angry over. He's my world, even if I didn't want him in the beginning," she said, looking over at Russel, who was cycling his tricycle around the yard.

"You really love him," he commented. He knew that look only too well. Paula and Luke, Charlotte and Adam, even his own sister – he knew that look, and it made him a little jealous.

"Yeah," she said, and in that moment, he couldn't remember her looking that happy. For all that Steve had put her through the wringer, she was obviously the happiest that he had ever known her for having Russel. "I realise now that Steve and I weren't meant to be, but I wouldn't give Russel up for anything."

"It took you twenty years to work out that you guys weren't meant to be?" Jack teased.

"Haha. Actually, a lot of it was about you." Jack looked puzzled. He had disliked Steve heartily on sight, but never thought of himself in terms of a factor in Gabrielle and Steve's relationship. Well, apart from the time that she had kissed him to make Steve jealous. "Oh, Steve's from a time and place where he only understands that men and women can love each other in two ways; either as family, like Ben and I, or a couple, like he and I. He couldn't grasp that I could love you as a friend, so he defaulted to couple-love. He was never the most secure of men when he was sober – you don't have to look at me like that, I know he could be incredibly overconfident at times, but a lot of that was to overcompensate for the loss of security that alcohol gave him – but there was something about our friendship that drove him batshit. It was why he gave me that ultimatum. He wouldn't have given a shit if we were talking about, say, Frank or Adam. There was always this part of him that was convinced we had slept together."

"And you didn't set him straight?"

"I did, at least I tried, but – and this goes back to what I was saying about the place and time he comes from – he just didn't get that we could be close and live together and have nothing happen."

Jack decided not to mention the night they had found out about Erica's murder, when she had sobbed in his arms and would have let him do whatever he wanted - had wanted him to do it, in fact.

Gabrielle tried not to think about the night they had found out about Erica's murder, where he had gently but firmly told her that if she kept throwing herself at him he would be forced to leave her to her own grief. Funny how she hadn't thought of that particular detail in ages. It seemed to make Steve's actions in similar circumstances seem – well, a little unsavoury. She found herself wondering how different things might have been had it been Jack who had been there for her when her father had died...

"You OK?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, fine."

"You seemed – not quite here."

She smiled brightly. She didn't feel like thinking about what might have been when Jack was here and she was enjoying herself. "C'mon, I think I have some leftover apple pie in the fridge," she said. She knew it was Jack's favourite and she knew she had some, because she had made it first thing this morning.


"I can't believe how much Russel has taken to him," Ben said a few days later. It had seemed perfectly natural that Jack move from the Walker house to the Jaeger homestead when he was pleading lifts from Brad or Julia to take him to the farm every day. And Russel completely adored him. Ben had been there practically from day one, but Jack had an innate touch with children, despite – or more likely, because of – his own miserable childhood. Gabrielle had no doubt that the Forlano and Rowe – damn, what was Rebecca's married name? Jack had mentioned it, but Gabrielle had forgotten it – children flocked to Jack the same way as Russel did.

Once again, Gabrielle couldn't help but wonder how different her life would have been if it had been Jack there for her that fateful night...

"Do I detect a note of jealousy in your voice?" Gabrielle teased. "Don't take it personally, Jack had a way with kids that I suspect exceeds everything else he's tried his hand at." Right now, Jack was allowing Russel to lead him around the garden, showing him things that could only fascinate a four-year-old boy, and Jack was following him around with rapt attention.

As if he sensed they were talking about him, Jack looked up and smiled at Gabrielle. She smiled back and waved. God, it was so pleasant to have him around. He was handy around the house and had this way of making her feel like it was absolutely his pleasure. Not to mention it was lovely to have an adult to talk to who weren't her disgustingly in-love brother and sister-in-law. There was her work at the hospital, of course, but it wasn't the same as having someone to chill out with on a person, one-to-one basis at the end of the day.

"Something tells me Russel isn't the only one who likes having him around," Ben said slyly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gabrielle asked, shooting Ben an older-sister look that had worked so well when she had been twenty and he had been twelve. It wasn't so effective now.

"I haven't seen you this happy since – well, you know," Ben said. Since before dad died. Actually, it was before that, Ben realised. It had been since Jack had left. He had met Jack a few times after he had moved in with Gabrielle, and had quite liked the guy. He had seemed so in sync with Gabrielle – not that he had really known, since he had been seventeen at the time. But he had been thirteen when Steve and Gabrielle had broken up, so he didn't remember much about that relationship, either, except Jack seemed so much more in sync with Gabrielle than Steve had been.

He approved.

"OK, I do like having him around," Gabrielle admitted. "And not just because of Russel. We get along. We've always gotten along. I didn't treat him very well a few years ago and I always regretted that."

"And now he's here."

"Now he's here."

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"Ben!" Gabrielle admonished her younger brother. "You're as bad as Julia. He's just a mate. And he works FIFO."

"Brad and Julia make it work."

"We're not Brad and Julia. We're just mates. And he likes not being tied to anywhere – or anyone. I mean, he won't even base himself in Sydney for his sister – and he adores her."

"It's always a good sign when a guy cares about his sister," Ben said.

Gabrielle poked her tongue out at him. "Drop it, OK? And don't say anything to him. You'll scare him off."

"So you want him to come back, do you?" Ben teased. Gabrielle smacked him playfully on the arm.


"I've had a great time," Jack told Gabrielle at the end of the week.

"You don't have to be nice," Gabrielle said. "I know it's not as exciting as the Great Barrier Reef." Jack had filled her in on the places he had seen on his weeks off, and she was jealous. Her farm was bigger than a lot of towns, but she had barely been anywhere outside it or Sydney.

"I'm not being nice," he protested. "I really had a great time – and the company was far better," he said, meaning it. And given his 'company' in Queensland had been an attractive tour guide whose impressive talents went beyond knowing her way around the place. But Gabrielle – he had always known he and Gabrielle shared something special. Six years had helped him forget it, but a mere week had made him remember all over again.

Something told him he wasn't going to forget it anytime soon.

"I'd like to come back," he found himself saying, and meaning it.

"Really?" she asked.

"Gabs, I really did enjoy myself and I really do want to come back. God, what is with you? You never used to question yourself like this."

She thought about that. It was true. She had long become used to the idea that most men weren't interested in her. But then, Jack had never been 'most men'. She had allowed her cynicism and resignation to forget that about him.

Something told her she wouldn't be forgetting that again anytime soon.

"How about next time you have a week off?" she asked, instantly regretting how eager she sounded.

Jack cringed, and looked genuinely sorry. "It's the Forlano's tenth wedding anniversary," he explained.

She tried her best not to look disappointed, and you'd think she was good at it by now, given how disappointed she had been in the past. "Of course," she said. It wasn't like she could begrudge the guy for wanting to go to the ten-year wedding anniversary of someone who was not only highly revered in the surgical community but a friend of Jack's.

And Charlotte's. And Adam's. Suddenly she felt very isolated. She had never intended to lose track of her friends the way she had, but Russel and the farm and the clinic took up so much of her time that she couldn't think of anything else, let alone something so many hour's drive away.

"Hey, why don't you come?" Jack asked.

"Huh?"

"To the party," he explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to come to a wedding anniversary party of a couple she didn't know beyond professional reputation and only had ties to them via a handful of mutual friends. "It's at their house, so it's not like an extra person is going to make a difference. And Charlotte and Adam would love to see you again. I think Adam's even convincing Von to come; I think she had a bit of a soft spot for Luke."

"Jack, I can't just – drop everything and – go to a party of people I don't even know."

"You know me," he corrected. "And Adam and Charlotte. And you'll love Luke and Paula. You'll have plenty to talk about."

"What, like being a single mum?" Gabrielle asked. Jack had the decency to look sheepish over his comment. So many people assumed that being a single mother was some all-encompassing shared vocation that meant every woman who did it was a kindred sprit of every other woman who did it. Besides, Paula Morgan hadn't been a single mother in ten years, the same ten years that she hadn't been Paula Morgan in. "It's fine," she said. "But in case you haven't noticed, I have a farm to run, a four-year-old boy to raise and a real job to do," she finished a little wryly. People often mistakenly thought that as the only work she did that brought in regular pay, her work at the clinic was her only 'real' work.

Jack shrugged. He knew he had put his foot in it and not to push her. "OK," he said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. He didn't even know why he had gotten so excited about the thought of her coming with him to this party. "I'll come the week after that I have off – five weeks away."

Five weeks. Funny how five weeks seemed so far away when she hadn't seen him for over six years. "Five weeks it is, then," she said.


"When are you going to come back?" Russel asked plaintively at the end of the week. He sat on Jack's lap, his arms tightly around his neck, as if his weight – a weight Jack could piggyback around as if he were a stuffed bear – could physically anchor Jack to the Jaeger farm.

"Five weeks."

"How many days is that?"

"Thirty-five." Russel bit his lip, his four-year-old brain trying to comprehend what five weeks or thirty-five days was. "Here, I'll show you," Jack said, shifting Russel off his lap and walking him towards the Thomas the Tank Engine calendar on the wall. "This is what day it is today," he said, pointing to the square on the calendar that was the first to be crossed off. "And this is when I'll come back," he explained, circling the day he'd be back. "You can cross out the days if you want."

Russel responded by flinging himself into Jack's lap and wrapping his arms around his neck. "I'll miss you," he said, burying his face in Jack's neck.

Jack was surprised at how fond he had become of the little boy in just a week. But then, he'd always been fond of children. He hugged Russel tightly and wondered how Steve could ever ignore such a delightful little boy.