Series 8 Episode 1: New Revolutions
The sun slowly rising over the Leopards Den ands Mara reserve, Danny woke up and stretched out his arms and let out a huge yawn, Alice was due back today with little baby Robert.
"Oh someone looks a little stressed today, I wonder who that could be Trevanion, eh?" Dup chuckled as he was pouring himself some tea.
"Yeah thanks for the support Dup but remember Alice is here for 6 months as a trial to see if things can work for us all out here and if they don't well that's it back to England for us it is then!" Danny replied sighing.
"Yeah, yeah whatever you say and what about polo boy and his so called 'wife' over at Mara, if you go he'll think he bloody owns the place!" Dup declared.
"Anders I do wish you would give it a rest! Ed Lynch is a nicer man that what you have him down for and just remember we also own Mara aswell as Leopards Den!" Caroline appeared and lectured her husband.
"All right, all right yes I know owning both Mara and Leopards Den is good but what will Alice say when she hears that we have gone into business with a posh stables? That's not what the project is all about?!" Dup replied.
"Dup I can see where you're coming from but just remember we have still to find an alternative source of funding for this place and if not we are just a joint game park with Mara! So the contract with the stables is providing stability for us!" Danny answered.
"There is work to be done you know Trevanion so I had better go and muck out those pens down by the hospital and prove to Alice that at least one person is still doing what they used to do when she lived here!"
Du Plessis headed out the kitchen exit and started to head for the animal hospital and Danny just sighed knowing that this was a make or break situation and hoped that Alice would know about what to do for the financial situation it was times like this when he missed Sarah the most.
Caroline decided to take it upon herself to head over to Mara and pay a visit to the Lynch's when she arrived she found Ed looking through a catalogue of very large sheds. "Do excuse for asking Ed but why on earth are you looking at giant sheds?" she asked cautiously in case he took the head off her.
"Well if you must know Caroline I thought well over here at Mara all we have is a clinic for animals and not a hospital like the one at Leopards Den so I thought if i invested in a shed this size it could easily become an animal hospital for Fiona and I!" Ed informed her with venom in his tone.
"But Ed you do remember your wife is a pharmacologist not a vet?" Caroline pointed out.
"Of course I do, I'm not a halfwit she could run blood tests there and also if she wants a research facility for animals then she could have on within the hospital on our own land!" Ed argued.
"I see well when Alice arrives today we are having a welcome home party for her tonight over at Leopards Den, would you and Fiona like to come and join us?" Caroline calmly invited.
"Well I see that was the reason for your venture, well I don't see why not what time?" Ed asked.
"Around 6 30pm ish?" Caroline responded.
"Right that's fine see you there and thank you for the invitation now I had better get on with some work and by the way Caroline not a word to Danny about my plans for an animal hospital at Mara?"
"Superb! Oh don't worry not a word, my lips are sealed." she assured him.
Danny was busy treating a pregnant black rhino, the family had been back in possession of Leopards Den for 7 months now and Danny attempted to leave to go back to the UK 6 weeks ago as it was what Alice wanted but after having told the driver of the taxi to turn around and head back to Leopards Den he persuaded Alice to return for a 6 month trial period with baby Robert to see how things would work out.
The rhino was 6 months gone pregnant and still had another 9 to go before it would have the baby. Danny was testing to see if it was more than just the one offspring and once he had finished the tests he would have to wait for 3 hours to get the results.
"Dad are you sure Alice is coming back because you know that's 2pm now and her flight was due in at the airport at 11 30 this morning?" Rosie queried.
"Look Rosie I have full faith that she is coming, I mean she promised me she was looking forward to coming back and I promised her that things would work out!" Danny pleaded that she was coming.
"Sorry to be an optimist here Danny but you also promised her that you would go back to England and live with her there for a year and that didn't happen so maybe she's giving you a taste of your own medicine?" Dup implied.
"Oh do shut up Anders, of course she is coming Danny, Alice isn't the kind of person to not stick to her word!" Caroline reassured her former son in law.
Suspense was in the air at Leopards Den 2 30pm came so did 3 30pm and there was still no sign of Alice and all Danny could do was sit at the outside dining area staring at the entry gates to the house in the hope that possibly within the next few seconds Alice would arrive with their baby boy.
"What the bloody hell is he playing at? We have work to do and even if Alice was here he would leave her to get on with it and go straight back to examining an animal!" Dup declared.
But out of the blue there was dust swirling in the distance and the noise of a car engine. Danny slowly stood up his hopes were running high, was this finally the moment he had been waiting for since he last saw her when Robert was born all those months ago!
The vehicle that had been making the noise was indeed a taxi but who was inside, the only suspect was Alice but what if it was some unexpected guest or some long lost child of Ed's?
The taxi came to a halt right outside the front door of the animal hospital and out stepped a woman with long black locks and huge sunglasses on and they covered her eyes, she had a build that was recognizable to anyone at the reserve.
"ALICE YOU MADE IT!" Danny yelled with joy.
"Did you ever doubt I would Mr Trevanion?" she smirked.
"Wheres Robert?" he asked.
"Oh him, I put him up for adoption and he is currently living with foster parents in Birmingham, why?" she answered.
The look on Danny's face went from that of delight, to that of morbid depression.
"What the hell do you mean foster parents! ALICE THIS HAD BETTER BE A JOKE!" Danny bellowed with anger!
Everyone at the front doors of the house heard this and were all in shock and just looking at each other as if to say "she wouldn't have...would she?!"
"You are still so easy to wind up, the whole lot of you fell hook line and sinker for it! He is in the cab and ecstatic about seeing Daddy again and the rest of his family for the first time!" Alice chuckled.
Everyone was relieved and could now make light of the situation in hand.
The party was going brilliantly and Danny and Alice were all over each other! Ed and Fiona were also in top form and making conversation with everyone but Caroline was growing ever more suspicious of why Ed wanted an animal hospital at Mara. Dup went up to Ed and said to him "Look I know that you have been looking into making Leopards Den and Mara separate reserves again but Trevanion will bloody knock you into next year if he finds that one out! I knew you couldn't be trusted, you or her!"
"Dup don't walk away from me now come and tell me how you know this, did Caroline tell you about the catalogue I was looking at this morning? DUP!" Ed shouted with rage.
Then Dup told everyone what Ed was planning to do and then Caroline shared the whole animal hospital story which led to Danny getting angry and Ed and Fiona storming off back home to Mara and the last words from Ed were "Stuff you all and your crumby little Endangered Species Project! Mara and Leopards Den have no future together as a joint reserve do you here me? NO FUTURE!"
TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 2: CHOLERA CHAOS...