Beautiful Surprise

This Story is inspired by the song from "Strictly Ballroom: The Musical" and I absolutely adored it (thought it is expected by a music fanatic like myself.) And I wanted to write a Strictly Ballroom story but I am not sure if I should or not. Thoughts? If I did would you read it? Maybe I will just write it anyway, if it helps me get my muse back, which to an extent it already has.

This is kinda sorta AU in its own way.

Anyway here are some of the beautiful lyrics from the Chorus' sung but the main characters:

(Also DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters of Wild at Heart, nor do I own Beautiful Surprise, Baz Luhrmann does.)

Fran:

"What a beautiful surprise,

My reflection in your eyes,

The thing we feel,

When it disappears,

Are the wings that make us fly,

I saw perfection in my reflection in your eyes."

Scott:

"What a beautiful surprise,

My reflection in your eyes,

If you could only see,

What you've given me,

Are the wings to make me fly,

I see perfection in my reflection in your eyes."

Anyway if you want to give it a listen then if you go the the website of the musical you can find it there. The Lyrics are as close as I can get them by listening to the song.

[x]

He looked at her. She looked at him. From an outside perspective it would have looked like this beautiful romantic situation, staring into one another's eyes. Everything being perfect, as they silently conveyed their love for each other.

That was partially true. They were indeed lovers staring into each others eyes. But something just wasn't quite right at the moment. Since Dup's death there seemed to be some unresolved tension in their relationship. And it had continued like that for a few months now and was really beginning to get out of hand. They were staring at each other, but the silent communication was totally absent from the glances that they had cast in the others direction.

Danny resisted the urge to smile. He so desperately wanted to walk over there, brush Alice's growing fringe from over her eyes and tell her that she was the most beautiful person he had met, (besides his late wives and daughters of course) but something was stopping him.

He wasn't quite sure what, or why he was resisting his urge. They had resolved their problems when Dup had so masterfully fixed all the problems in the family.

But since then it hadn't quite been the same.

Alice looked back at Danny, noticing the emptiness in both of their eyes. She wondered why he hadn't come over to her, she wondered why she hadn't gone over to him herself. She rationalised with herself that he needed to come to her, to show her that he loved her like he used to. But really in her heart she knew that she should do that as well, after all, they were equals in this relationship.

Just as Alice was summoning the will to take a step towards him a shriek broke their gaze. "Mum!" their teenaged daughter cried. It was an unusual occurrence for Charlie to scream out her Mothers name, which instantly alerted both her parents that something might in fact be wrong. Alice turned for the door and ran toward the direction of the scream, followed closely by Danny.

When they arrive together at their daughters side and Alice couldn't help a small laugh escape her lips.

"It isn't funny Mum." Charlie screamed again. But her Mother thought quite the opposite. Only a few weeks ago, an orphaned lion cub was surrendered to the vets at Leopards Den, and given to Charlie to raise. As the young cub got bigger and rougher Charlie had sustained a few small scratches, but nothing to major.

Until today that is. Before Alice and Danny was their daughter's hair clamped tightly shut in the mouth of the lion cub. "I'm sorry Charlie, but isn't t it just a little bit funny?" Alice questioned, only to receive a nasty glare from Charlie.

"Maybe it will be tomorrow, but right now just get him off me," she said, before adding "and if you can do it soon it would be good."

"Ok, Danny give me a hand." Alice said as he turned to her husband, but was dismayed to see that after only a few moments he had turned his back and began walking away. Alice fought back the urge to say something rude in front of their daughter, instead just moving towards the cub, and carefully prying Charlie's hair from his strong grip.

Once she was free from the jaws of her attacker, Charlie stood up to face her Mum. "Are you and Danny alright?" She asked. She and her Mother had always been good friends, for a long time it had been just the two of them. Their bond was incredible. And it still was.

Alice smiled at her daughter, noting that she called him Danny. She tended to switch between the two, depending on how she felt. "Things are just a little bit rough at the moment, but it isn't anything for you to worry about. Everything is going to be ok." Alice had to be brave in front of her daughter. She couldn't let her really know that she felt like there was no passion left in the relationship that that she and Danny hadn't felt any kind of connection in a few months.

But Charlie knew her Mum. "Come on Mum, you can trust me. I can tell that things are not great."

Alice sighed and nodded, for she didn't know how to answer. That was one thing that was interesting about her daughter. She could always spot a fake smile or a lie. Which was sometimes a good thing and sometimes not.

"Mum, you know you can always tell me anything, anything at all. Though maybe there are somethings I don't want to know about. But that's off topic. Anything you want, absolutely almost anything you can tell me. I'm on your side. We are a team remember. We always have been. Right since the beginning. It's just that there are a few more players now." Charlie said, and smiled when she saw a little smile on her Mum's face.

"I cannot believe the young lady you are turning into." Alice said as she embraced her daughter into a warm hug.

Charlie smiled, and then pulled herself away from her Mum. "So, if you want to talk, just let me know. Whenever. Ok?" Alice nodded.

"Thanks, maybe later?" She said to her daughter.

"Well, then I am going to go find that monstrous cub. Actually I think we should call him Monster." Charlie said. Nodding to herself. Monster was definitely the right name for that little guy.

Alice stood and watched her daughter walk away. She was really turning into a young lady that Alice was very proud of. When Charlie had completely disappeared from her vision, Alice walked in the direction of the Vet Clinic as it was her day to work today.

[x]

When Charlie was around the corner, and had located Monster she sat picked him up and walked in the direction of his pen, so that she could have a few moments to think. She had to do something to fix the relationship between her parents. It couldn't go on the way it was, because she would end up in England again, when she wanted to be in South Africa. And that was not allowed to happen.

When Monster was away Charlie walked up to the house to sit on her favourite bench to think about how she was fix her parents.

It wasn't like she could just say kiss and makeup. Though she had seen it work with Rosie and Max before when she first came to Leopards Den. But that was Rosie and Max, they were younger and hadn't been married long. But they had lost a baby. Somehow though she knew that this wasn't going to work. She sat there for a while until she remembered her Mum telling her something about the magic of staring into Danny's eyes and just seeing her reflection in there, and just feeling his love, without even needing to say anything.

That was it. She just had to get them to look at each other in the same way they used to. But that kind of thing was easier said than done. Everything would have to be carefully planned. There was not much time and she wanted to get it right on the first shot.

For the thousandth time since he had died, Charlie wished that Dup was here. He would know how to do this kind of thing. Being the cunning one was his role in the family, and he had been teaching her his ways, but she wasn't ready to do it on her own. After all, it was Dup who facilitated her parents getting together in the first place. And thats when it hit her. Alice had told her the story of how they got together in the first place.

It had started when the Storm hit and her parents had bravely gone out into the rain to release the giraffe who had been in a quarantine pen, waiting for a proper release. But the rain meant that he had to be released early. On the way home they had crashed into a tree and that is when Alice first kissed Danny. Then after a few other events, Danny had followed her to The Copy where they had actually kissed properly for the first time. They always spoke of how it was so romantic and was one of her favourite spots to visit on the whole reserve, but once she had shown Charlotte where they had crashed.

Charlie wondered, maybe if she could figure out where that was, take Danny there and get him to realise that everything that happened with Alice and that chain of events actually started there. She wondered.