Misplaced Affections
Disclaimer for all Chapters: I don't own Wild at Heart…sorry if I did I would not need to do this J Also this will be a bit AU and people will not say exactly what they say in the show but that will make sense in a minute
[x]
Danny watched as she stepped out of the car, she was cute and her smile was from ear to ear. He knew straight away that they were going to get along just fine. 'I hope you're not the new Vet…' He said to her and the little girl smiled at him. He was glad to see that she thought he was funny.
However when her mother Alice stepped out of their Ute a sudden sense of tension came into the air. Here right in front of him was this beautiful women and he got to work with her. But after their first conversation and the rest of the day he knew that he was not going to get on as well with Alice as he already did with Charlotte.
And he was the one that had suggested that morning that they put the locum vet up at Leopards Den, now there was no escape for him. She was working with him, currently she was living with and she was showing him up in nearly everything he did. She was an awesome vet but she seemed to have taken a sudden dislike to him and Danny could not think why.
[x]
Alice looked up at the roof of her hut, she was anxious to get out of this place. Everyone seemed nice expect Danny Trevanion. He set her teeth on edge. She had taken an instant liking to her and she had felt the tension between them, she knew that two people in the same place that were so similar was a bad idea.
And Charlotte had taken an instant liking to him which was not good, the last thing she wanted was Charlotte getting attached to someone and then them having to move on again. She was a locum after all. She was almost homeless, she never stayed anywhere very long, moving around where the jobs were and as it happens this is where she had to be working now. On a quarantine operation that would end in a few days. Then she could move on again to wherever the job was. Charlotte was all the home she needed.
But there was something deep down in her heart, something that she had not felt in a long time, something that she could not put a finger on, not just yet.
He had asked her to stay and she had smiled into his eyes. No commitments for three weeks and then she could make her final decision. But Alice already knew what that was going to be. She was going to say yes, Charlotte was her family but the Leopards Den family could be her new family and maybe this one would not be as over-rated as the maternal one she had been born into. The only person in that family that she loved was her mother and she had died long ago. Her father and brother did not even want to hear about her anymore and hadn't in a long time.
Maybe things would turn out to be different this time, maybe this family would not mess with her feelings, belittle her and make her feel like she did not belong in the family that she had.
[x]
The days that followed that seemed to go quicker than they ever had before. With Rosie and Max's wedding coming up and so much to do in the surgery there was never a dull moment at Leopards Den.
But there was one thing that brought a down side to this place was the wealthy land owner next door that seemed to have her sights set on Danny. She was rich and beautiful and she wanted Danny and as she watched her interactions with Danny, Alice realised that she would stop at nothing to get him.
Then there was Dup, someone she could talk to, he made her laugh all the time and had a friendly feel to him. At nights she liked to stand out with him and tonight was no exception.
Dup stood on the veranda, one hand on the railing and a beer in the other, a pose he had adopted long ago and practiced each night without fail. Caroline was not coming back to Leopards Den, the love of his life was gone from his life and there was nothing he could do. There was no way he could become a city man and live in Bristol with Caroline and Olivia. That was simply not going to happen.
And since she was not coming back to him she was as good as lost. He sighed and took another drink as he stared out into the bush that surrounded his house, his life and his heart. It meant so much to him, part of the reason why he was not leaving.
He was so busy gazing into the distance that he did not even see or hear Alice come out of the house and walk up beside him. It was not until she spoke that he finally figured out she was there. 'You know Dup, I really am sorry about Caroline. It must be really hard on you, it wasn't really fair or Georgina to do that.' She said as she rubbed his arm.
Strangely this scraggily old man had a way of wriggling into people's hearts and he had done it to her. 'You want my advice Alice, when you love someone, tell them and don't let anything get in your way.'
Alice smiled. 'And what makes you think I love someone? Shouldn't I be giving that advice to you?' Her cheesy grin made him laugh.
'Alice, I know I may look stupid, and like there is no-one upstairs but trust me I can tell when someone is in love and you are in love.' He said, taking another gulp of his beer.
Dup was always so blank and plain and Alice was surprised when she took his words to heart. He was right, she was in love and she was in love with Danny. But her affections were wrongly placed because he loved Vanessa. She was pretty and beautiful and she ran a very successful game park in the past and compared to Alice she seemed amazing. But Danny was amazing and it made her heart ache when she thought about him loving another women.
To Danny Alice would forever be a friend. 'I know I am right Alice, you just need to let him know, because I am sure that Danny feels the same way.' Dup said, before turning around and walking back into the house mumbling something, something she did not understand leaving her alone in the night.
He had been right though she did love Danny, but the other thing he had said had shocked her. 'I am sure that Danny feels the same way.' He had said. What was that supposed to mean. And then he walked off and left her to her thought.
But she was so sure that he loved Vanessa because whenever she same around Danny buckled and did whatever she wanted, despite what he was already doing. He just dropped everything and ran after like a lovesick puppy.
Because that was what he was…lovesick and it almost made Alice sick, because Vanessa had something that she was likely to never have. She had loved before; there was the married man, Paul who had ultimately decided that he wanted his children and wife over her, even though she had one of his children. And then more recently there had been Terry. Part of her still loved him, but it was never going to work. She wanted stability but in his line of work that kind of stability in a home, settling down was never going to happen. So she kept on the move too, never letting her feelings misguide her judgement or get in the way of how she felt and she would just move on when she felt the time was right, and she would do it time and time again.
Expect at Leopards Den. Despite the fact that the man she loved, loved another women and she was stuck in a hopeless love triangle she could not bring herself to pick up her life, her daughter and the small amount of possessions that she owned and leave her, it just did not feel right.
The next day Danny was already in the clinic when Alice walked in. Rosie was there also, they were talking about Tula again. Every time she was down there they were talking about the cute little baby elephant.
Alice smiled as she saw the parent child relationship at a level that was higher than her own. It made her smile as she finally walked over to join them. The conversation was the same as it always was, they were thinking of changing the milk again, giving her some more medicine, doing this, doing that trying to keep the little elephant happy. Alice had thought about this a lot; Elephants were highly emotional creatures, much like humans were.
Tula had seen a lot, or so she had heard. Before they stole her from Mara with her mother, her life had been on the line since the second she was born. Then ultimately from all of it all her mother had needed to be out down because she was not going to make it. And she must have been pretty bad for Danny to have shot her, since she had arrived she had watched Danny work, despite how bad some of the animals were. So if Tula reflected in the slightest how her mother was it was no wonder she was in a bad way. But there were two things in combination that Alice thought were causing all of the problems.
The first was that she was lonely. People were good friends but they were not her family, not her own kind. The second problem, which Alice thought was a major contributor to the problem, was post-traumatic stress.
'Danny, could she be stressed about something?' Alice asked; keen to nudge Danny into the right direction.
Danny looked up, noticing that she was there. 'Could be, but what I really think she needs is a family.' Those words, hot close to home for Alice, she needed a real family too.
TBC
