Danny ran into the house. 'Alice, Alice I need you.' He called. He was now standing in the kitchen and he continued to bellow Alice's name, wondering if from his voice she could hear the urgency in his voice.

He looked around and he still could not see her so he walked outside and back to the truck where he got in a drove a little further to hospital where he could see a long line of patients outside and he knew it was where she was. 'Alice, I could really use your help here.' He cried, into the door way, as he saw her in her bright green plastic apron.

Alice looked up at him and saw the look on his face. She went out and saw Dup in the Ute, lying face down, but there and alive and very much in one piece, for the moment. When Rosie was through with it would be a different matter altogether.

'I know it's not really in the job description, but could you give me a hand.' He said and Alice looked at him like he was joking. She was going to lift Du Plessis out of the truck and help get him into the house, and it was only Danny helping! The way Dup was acting they were going to need a crane to simply get him out, let alone move him.

Alice nodded despite it all and walked towards him and then took a small step backwards again as his brutalising odour filled her lungs. 'I'm almost getting drunk just being here.' She said to Danny with a small laugh, he to laughed and nodded in agreement, breaking the ice of such an unpleasant task.

As Danny and Alice lifted Dup up it seemed like all of the odds were going to be against them. This man, about as far away from being sober as Pluto is from the earth. Alice thought about that as she continued to lift him, he was never entirely sober, he always had and alcoholic beverage hidden on the house or in his hand.

As they continued to walk just a few steps both Danny and Alice felt a very sudden jerk from the man who was only just conscious. Danny and Alice both took a step to each side as Dup spun and muttered 'I think I gonna be sick.'

Within mere seconds, everyone who had been watching this unpleasant scenario turned as Dup removed the waste with he had so haphazardly consumed.

'You don't really need me here anymore.' Alice said, disgusted by what she had witnessed. Danny was now standing just in front of her and he spun as he heard her speak.

'Yeah, OK, you have patients I guess.' Danny said. He moved his hand up to hers a squeezed it before walking off to try and scrap Dup off the floor to leave her to do her own thing.

Alice smiled, her cheeks feeling suddenly hot at Danny's touch. Every time she went near him she felt like she loved him so much more, and he just acted like they were only mutual friends. Why was it that she always seemed to fall in love with the wrong people? All she wanted was to feel close to someone, have feelings towards someone that separated that one person from all the others. But with every passing day she felt like he was slipping away from her and into Vanessa's loving outstretched arms, offering him anything he so desired.

She was rich, owning Mara, the next door game reserve. She was more his age that Alice, she had less of a shady history, not something that other people would scoff and scorn at. She was exactly the kind of person he would want.

Alice on the other hand was a poor vet, who he had only recently met and given a job too. They were colleagues and it seemed that no one would ever dare get in a relationship with someone that you worked with.

So Alice sighed as she realised that her chances were slim, but she could still hold on to that hope, that for once the scales would be in her favour, just once was all she wanted.

[x]

It had been hard for Alice to watch Dup adopt Tula into her new family, knowing that aside from charlotte she was probably never going to have a real family. She was probably not going to ever have the opportunity to love someone so much to have a proper family with them.

Every time she had loved before it had ended badly for her. Being left by a man to stay in a loveless relationship, being left because she was pregnant and the guy was not ready for that kind of commitment. Although it had turned out ok for Alice in the end, not everything had been smooth sailing for her.

When Charlotte was born she was fresh out of University, had no job and no money and a new baby to provide for. It had been a rough time, but it was all worth it.

Then there was the next one, who once again left her, but in a way she also left him. Terry had always been so into his work and never spent enough quality time with Alice. He treasured his work over her and she had had enough of it so after him leaving her each morning, she packed up her things and eventually wound up at Leopards Den.

Alice flopped back down onto her bed as she continued to think about her life, and how unfair it had seemed. She had loved Terry, for a while she had though her would be the one to love her unconditionally back, but the world had said she could not have him and he was slowly taken from underneath her.

Alice sighed. Not knowing what her life would bring in the days that followed, but purely hoping for salvation.

TBC