A/N: This one goes out to KEPC, I hope this makes you feel a little better. Amongst my busy schedule I managed to make time for you. LOL!

This is set in season six when Harry dies and Alex goes and helps Stevie in the paddock.

Stevie rubs Alex's arm as she tries to think of the right thing to say.

It was no secret that she and Harry hated each other, but she would never wish him dead, not if it meant that Alex's heart was broken. She would have moved heaven and earth if she could take that pain away from him. It was harder watching him grieve than it was if the pain was in her own heart.

"Alex…"

He lifted his gaze and their eyes locked. There was something there that Stevie hadn't seen since the eve before Tess and Nick's wedding, when they were stranded on the side of the road. There was a look of desire and lust or was it something far deeper?

Before either one of them realized the consequences of their actions, Alex reached out his hand and touched her chin. Stevie drew in a breath, holding it in anticipation for Alex's next move. She wanted him to kiss her. God, she wanted him to kiss her so badly.

And when he did, it was like she was woken from a deep slumber and was alive for the first time in years, maybe ever.

She was not in control of her hands as they slipped around his neck. His hands settled on her waist and pulled her onto his lap as the kissing stayed in motion. Alex tasted like mint. Her favourite kind. She could feel the urgency in his kiss.

I'm kissing Alex Ryan, she thought hazily. I'm kissing Alex and he's engaged.

It took all the strength she had to push at his chest until they broke apart.

"Stevie…"

"I'm sorry, Alex. That shouldn't have happened." She pulled herself off his lap and brushed the dirt from her jeans. Her eyes remained fixed on the ground.

"Why?" he asked bluntly, his gaze not moving from hers as he remained sitting in the dirt.

"Because you're not thinkin' straight. Your father just died, Alex and you're engaged this isn't the time for this."

"So when is the time?"

"Alex, I…" she shook her head. He was going to hate her for it later. His head was a mess. This wasn't the time for all this. "Maybe-" Stevie was cut off by the beeping of the phone.

Grateful for the distraction, Stevie lunged for the phone and answered it. It was Fiona.

Damn.

Stevie handed the phone to Alex. "It's Fiona."

Alex blinked at her and shook his head. He didn't want to talk to her.

Stevie took a deep breath and placed the phone to her ear. "I'm sorry Fiona, he doesn't want to talk. Just give him a bit of time and I'll send him home."

"Is he at Drovers?"

"No. No, he- we're in the paddock."

"Can you just give him the phone?"

Stevie tried to keep the irritation from her voice. Man, that woman was annoying. Couldn't she take a hint. "Look, I'll talk to him and send him home. I've gotta go." She hung up the phone and returned it to Alex's jacket that was shoved over his Ducati.

"She hovers," Alex stated. "I hate it."

"She's just worried, Alex. We're all worried."

Alex shook his head. "I'm not used to it, you know. Having someone who doesn't like being on her own. I'm usually surrounded by independent women. I just- I'm not sure she's the woman I want to spend my life with."

Stevie's heart began hammering in her chest. Could there still be hope for them?

"You're grieving, Alex. It's not something you should be thinking about at the moment. You-"

"I know what I want," he stated. "And it's not her."

She was left speechless.

"Stevie?"

She forced herself to look at him. He pulled himself off the ground and took a single step forward, closing the gap between them. "Alex…" she was weak with desire, weak with longing. She didn't want him to do or say anything that he would regret later. She couldn't stand that, and so she stepped back trying to be the reasonable one, because at the moment he couldn't be. "I think you should go home."

He looked like he'd been slapped. "Right," he said coolly.

He turned to leave.

"Alex, I just…"

"I get it," he snapped.

Did he?

Instead of pulling him back and telling him that she loved him more than anything, she let him walk away, because she just couldn't have her heart broken again. She wouldn't survive it a second time. Not with Alex.

A/N: Hi… feel free to leave a review. They're so pretty

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