It was a full two weeks later when Alice was back near civilisation. She and her boss had made the 3 and a half hour trip South, to the closest animal auction. They were stocking up on zebra and wildebeest, and hoping to bring in another female cheetah.
She still hadn't phoned Leopards Den. She had chosen instead to push it to the back of her mind, and get on with her job. Maybe one day, she would phone.
Various workers had followed Alice and her boss down, but the journey in the car with her older male colleague had been the longest 3 and a half hours Alice could remember. She had even fallen asleep at points because she was so bored. She was pretty sure she had fallen asleep while he was mid-sentence at one point too, his droning voice lulling her slowly to sleep.
So now, as Alice stood out in the blinding sunlight, she was in a pretty foul mood - made worse because her boss had left her, off to do the deals and buy the animals they needed. Again, she had been dragged out to do some work, and then he had taken over completely and she had been left with nothing to do.
Apparently, her job was to 'stay by the stock cars and Jeeps with the rest of the workers,' while he busied around the place.
Alice leant back against the Jeep's bonnet and yawned, feeling the tiniest of breezes float under her fringe and through her ponytail as she closed her eyes. She heard the people bustle around her. Someone was yelling at someone else about 100 metres away, shouting about how the lion hadn't been loaded up properly. There were shouts from the auctions, people staggered around after spending one too many hours in the beer tent, and animals neighed, roared and hissed.
Auctions were always immensely busy and crowded places, Alice had been to a few of them before, but never to buy anything - she needed a game park for that.
She opened her eyes and sighed, checking her watch. Her boss had been gone for half an hour, obviously not bothering to come back to tell her what was going on. She pushed her sunglasses further up her nose as they slowly slipped down, and she had a quick glimpse around.
A man squeezed himself between the trucks to Alice's right, and a young woman followed right behind him, a notepad in hand and a vet box in the other. Alice's eyes narrowed as she watched the pair walk, just a few feet from her. The man turned to speak to the young woman pointing out different points of the auction. Alice bowed her head and eavesdropped nosily.
'...and so it's always important to check them all over for the basic things. If you were to buy, say, a gazelle that was carrying a disease that shows no symptoms and you were to integrate it with other, healthy gazelle, the disease would almost certainly spread. I think you mentioned once that your game park had a break out of rabies not long ago, yes?'
'About...4 months ago, yes.' The young woman answered, still facing away from Alice and listening to everything the man before her said.
Alice's head snapped up when she heard the young woman's accent - she was definitely British. In fact, she sounded particularly familiar. And after hearing what she had just said, a smile was creeping up onto Alice's face. Her long brown hair was swept up into a neat ponytail, shining in the sun.
She was exactly as she remembered her.
'Well then I'm sure you don't need me to explain to you how dangerous diseases like that can be if you, as a vet, were to miss it.' The man said, pushing his brown hair out of his eyes. 'So, give me a list of some of the things you should be looking out for if you were to-'
'Rosie?' Alice called, removing her sunglasses from her face and walking towards the pair slowly.
The young woman turned in confusion at the sound of her name, and when she saw Alice, her eyes lit up.
'Oh my god! Alice!' Rosie called, and Alice quickly reached out to her, pulling her into a hug.
'How are you?' Rosie exclaimed, smiling kindly back at Alice as they pulled away from one and other. Alice had forgotten just how like her father she was.
'I'm great! How are you?' Alice asked, laughing happily.
Rosie nodded, 'I'm good!' She held her arm out to the older man standing next to her, 'This is Mr Bletox, I'm spending a week with him on placement for university.'
'Wow! Pleased to meet you.' Alice smiled as she shook hands with the man. 'So you're a vet too?'
'I am indeed,' Mr Bletox answered, smiling. 'I help run a game park not far outside of Cape Town.'
'Wow. You have both come a long way to get here then.' Alice smiled, swinging her sunglasses in her hand lightly.
Rosie shrugged. 'It wasn't too bad actually - 3 hours. Which from Cape Town isn't bad at all. How long did it take you to get here from Jo'Berg, about 2 hours?' Rosie asked.
'Oh, no, it took us about 3 and a half - I'm not in Jo'berg anymore, I'm way up North, working at another game park,' Alice said, gesturing to her navy and khaki outfit.
'Ahh yeah, dad had mentioned something about that actually.' Rosie smiled.
Alice turned to Mr Bletox, who was standing patiently. 'Sorry to take your student away from her work.' Alice smiled.
'Not at all. In fact, Rosie, I think we should take a little break. You've worked hard this week, you could use an hour to relax.' he said, with a smile.
Rosie beamed at Alice, and then back at him. 'Really?'
'Sure!' he said, laughing, and pushing his floppy brown hair out of his eyes again. '...I think I'll be in the beer tent.' he laughed, and wandered off, leaving Alice and Rosie standing together.
The two women raised their eyebrows in surprise and chuckled lightly as they watched him walk away quite happy.
'Legend!' Rosie laughed, before turning back to face Alice.
'So, are you here on your own?' Rosie asked Alice, as Alice gestured her for her to follow her back to her grouping of Jeeps and stock cars.
Alice shook her head as she pulled herself up onto the bonnet and sat down. Rosie copied her, so the two girls' shoulders were brushing together as they looked out at the auction.
'No, no, I'm here with my boss.' Alice's tone of voice and her raised eyebrows made Rosie laugh.
'God, is he that bad?'
'Nah he's alright.' Alice laughed, shrugging. 'He just doesn't seem to trust me with any jobs, frustrates me a bit sometimes. And he's a bit dull.' She added, pushing her sunglasses back onto her nose, shielding her eyes from the blinding sun. 'Anyway, how's Uni? How's Max? How's your Dad?'
Rosie laughed at Alice's bombardment of questions and Alice felt herself blush slightly as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt.
'Uni is great, I really love it. Like I said, I'm on a placement at the moment, and I'm really enjoying it - as you've just seen, Mr Bletox is pretty cool. It's hard being so far away from home though - I mean it's three hours to here, another 2 hours to Jo'Berg and then Leopards Den is another 2 hours the other side of that, so its a bit of a trek to get home to see them all. Max is fine.' Rosie smiled, shrugging, 'The great husband he has always been.' She added, and Alice smiled. It was clear she loved him completely.
'And, actually,' Rosie continued, looking into Alice's eyes, 'I'm hoping Dad will be here today!'
Alice's heart leapt.
'Wha-...Here? Isn't there an auction just an hour away from Leopards Den?'
'Usually, but it was cancelled last week, so he mentioned in his last email that he would probably be here. I told him I would be here too, but that I would be busy - so we were rather hoping we would just bump into each other. This place is pretty big but I'm sure I'll see him at some point today. You should come with me, we can go and find him now since I have a break!' Rosie said enthusiastically.
'Are you sure? Won't he be busy?' Alice asked, her heart beating nervously as she looked out over the bustling bodies squeezing past one and other in the baking heat.
Danny was somewhere out there.
'Probably!' Rosie laughed, 'But we can drag him away for 15 minutes. Come on!'
Alice wasn't sure why, but nerves began to build in her chest and she stuttered and raised her eyebrows at Rosie.
'Ah- Rosie I would love to but-...I mean I have to stay here with the vehicles, that's my job today. Unfortunately!'
Rosie sighed. 'Damn it, I never thought about that.' She looked slightly crestfallen, and Alice bit her lip as she thought things through.
She could disappear for just 15 minutes, and probably wouldn't be missed. The chances of her boss returning any time soon were slim, she was sure she would get away with it.
She could feel Rosie watching her face, trying to squint through her sunglasses to try to get a feel of how Alice was feeling about it all.
Alice exhaled heavily.
'Go onnnnn.' A tiny voice in her head egged her on.
'Right, come on, we'll go find him-'
Rosie squealed and clapped her hands excitedly,
'-But we have to be as quick as we can!' Alice laughed, holding onto Rosie's forearm to try to calm her down.
'Yes Mam!' Rosie declared, and saluted her.
Alice burst out laughing, and Rosie held her hand, beginning to drag her away.
The pair ran away as quickly as they could giggling loudly and not looking back.
-x-
The wandered through the crowd, both of them with their eyes peeled for any sight of Danny. Thankfully, he was taller than most and so would hopefully stand out.
As Alice walked with Rosie past the beer tent, something caught her eye and she spun round, searching for it.
She was sure she had caught a glimpse of a particular hat - a brown, aged one with a leopard print round the base of it. She stared at the crowd, waiting for a sign of Dup - or Dup's hat! - to emerge again, but no-one appeared.
'Did you see him?' Rosie asked, following Alice's line of sight.
'No, I thought I caught a glimpse of Dup's hat. I know it well, it's pretty much my most vivid memory from the rhino attack.' Alice laughed, and Rosie rolled her eyes.
'Lovely!' She answered sarcastically. 'Anyway keep an eye out, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dup is here, him and and my Dad seem to go everywhere together.'
Alice laughed quietly. 'I will. How long have we been looking about?'
Rosie checked her watch. 'About 10 minutes.' She said, and bit her lip as she looked back up at Alice. 'Should we get you back to the Jeeps?'
Alice looked into Rosie's eyes, her deep brown eyes as startling as Alice's own sapphire blue ones.
She shook her head with a smile. 'Not yet.'
'Oooooh, living on the edge.' Rosie laughed, and grabbed hold of Alice's hand once more to lead her through the crowd.
-x-
Alice and Rosie, being quite small women, were being jostled around a bit by the crowd as they made their way past an in session giraffe auction.
'Dad said he was looking into getting another young male giraffe - he might be here!' Rosie called over the noise.
Alice nodded and followed her as they weaved in and out of the men, eventually coming to the back of the crowd.
'Didn't spot him, did you?' Rosie asked, standing on her tip toes to look back into the crowd.
Alice turned on the spot, looking around her. Tiered seating was erected around various auctions, where people sat idly watching the goings on. Alice's eyes travelled over every face.
'Nope, never-' Alice stopped mid sentence, and a massive smile broke out on her face, Rosie spun around and looked to where Alice was staring.
Danny lounged half way up the tiered seats, watching them. He was shaking his head slowly and laughing, the sound not quite reaching them because of the general noise. His smile was infectious and happy, radiating off him.
'Dad!' Rosie shouted, and darted towards the seating, side-stepping between people to make her way to her father, whom she had not seen for a good few weeks.
As Rosie ran through the crowds, Alice stayed where she was and folded her arms, smiling up at him. She watched his eyes trail Rosie, before they snapped back to Alice, and he smiled gently. Alice could almost see his eyes smoulder from where she was standing, and she saw him sigh happily. Alice laughed quietly to herself and began to walk slowly through the crowd towards him.
When she reached the bottom of the tiered seats, Rosie was standing beside her Dad with her arm wrapped around him, chatting happily. She even pointed Alice out to him as Alice clambered up the levels as gracefully as she could.
'Well, well, well.' Danny announced, as Alice had almost reached him. 'If it isn't the illustrious Alice Collins.'
Alice looked up at him and beamed. His hair was neat and his stubble closely shaven, and he wore his khaki trousers with a brown shirt, which was buttoned up and tucked in. He looked very professional, and actually rather well off.
'Well, well, well.' Alice mocked him, ascending the last tier to his level. 'And if it isn't the rather smug looking Daniel Trevanion.'
He beamed and reached out for her, pulling her into a hug the second she reached him. Rosie watched on happily.
Alice rested her head against his chest, taking in the smell of his aftershave and closing her eyes. God she had missed him.
He pulled her away to look at her, and she felt his eyes delve deep into her own as he spoke honestly.
'I've missed you.' He told her sincerely.
'Really?' Alice asked. 'I've not given you a second thought in months.'
A flicker of panic crossed Danny's face, but before it could develop, Alice hugged herself close to him once more and laughed.
'I missed you too you big idiot.'
He sighed and rubbed her back. 'Good.' he told her simply. They pulled away and the three of them made themselves comfortable on the seating.
'Nice outfit!' Danny remarked sarcastically, and Alice narrowed her eyes, hitting him playfully as he chuckled. 'I'm kidding.' He sniggered, 'It's not that bad at all.' He told her with a happy smile.
'Anyway, what are you two doing together?' Danny asked, pulling his daughter back into the conversation. 'I hoped to run into Rosie today, but you're a bit of a surprise.' He told Alice with a smile.
'Actually, we just bumped into each other!' Rosie said, and laughed at the bizarre situation. 'It's so weird. And then Mr Bletox let me have a bit of a break from my placement work, he's off to the beer tent. So I guess I'll be driving back.' Rosie added, laughing.
'So how's the job?' Danny asked Alice, and she sighed.
'Decent. Not quite what I imagined, it turned out to be an assistant vet's job, and my boss doesn't really let me do what I am actually qualified to do. But it's well paid, and the place is nice, so, it'll do. It's still better than being a locum.' She added.
'Speaking of money...did you get my letter?' Danny asked.
Alice's heart leapt. She was suddenly very aware that she had never phoned, too scared as to how it would affect her. So did she deny any knowledge of the letter, or tell him the truth?
'Actually...' Alice started, 'I did. I'm sorry I never phoned you. If I'm honest, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I've been missing you guys, and I didn't want to upset myself or anything by reminding myself how far away I was from all of you.' Alice told him, deciding that he deserved to know.
To her surprise, Danny was nodding. 'It's okay. To be honest I wasn't sure if you would have even gotten the letter. When did it finally arrive?'
'About 2 weeks ago.'
'Really?' Danny laughed. 'I sent it months ago. I trust you read it though, yeah? I meant what I said - I'm so grateful for what you did for us.'
Rosie smiled warmly at Alice, aware at how much she given to them.
Alice blushed. 'It's fine.' She said quietly, smiling shyly at the two of them.
'How's everything back at Leopards Den then?' Alice asked after a moment.
'Much better.' Danny answered, and Rosie's mouth opened in mock shock.
'Dad! You're meant to say it's terrible without me!'
Danny laughed. 'Aww of course it is. But animal wise, we are much better now. Our ecosystem is no longer unbalanced now that we have the lions. And the rabies is long gone, thankfully.'
Alice smiled, 'That's great. How's Dup?'
'As jolly as ever.' Danny said sarcastically, and the three of the laughed. 'Nah he's alright, the old boy. He's here somewhere actually, although I don't think it takes much t guess where-'
'Oh CRAP!' Alice hissed, and ducked down, trying to hide behind Danny.
Danny had stopped mid sentence and looked baffled. 'What?' he asked, a small, confused smile on his face.
'My boss!' Alice hissed, and Rosie grimaced. Danny, however, was still lost.
'...I'm confused-'
'I'm supposed to be at the Jeeps with the rest of the staff. Just don't let him see me!'
Danny laughed when he realised what she was talking about, and helped to shield her from view from some unknown man in the crowd.
'Can you see him? Which one is he?' Rosie asked, peering into the crowd as Danny hugged her, trying to make the cover up look natural.
'Yeah, he's the old man with the greying hair, the one with the navy shirt on, he's heading...' Alice trailed off into silence, when suddenly realisation hit her like a bus. 'OH GOD! Rosie he is heading back out towards the Jeeps! I need to go!'
Danny released her from their hug and started to look concerned. 'Will he be angry?' He asked.
'I don't know!' Alice flapped, 'I haven't seen him angry before but I've never disobeyed any of his 'orders' before either!' Alice gushed, quickly standing up.
Danny's face fell. 'Are you leaving?'
'I think so.' Alice told him, 'It looks like he is done, I need to go.' She told him. The look on his face only made leaving him even harder.
'You only just got here, surely if-'
'I'm sorry Danny, really, believe me I don't want to go, I'll try and sort something out so I can see you two for a bit longer, but first I need to get back to the trucks! I've no idea how he is going to handle this, we just have to hope he is a laid back kinda guy when it comes to this.'
Danny stood up with her. 'I'll at least follow you so I can say bye.' He told her desperately, 'Come on, Rosie, let's go!'
The three of them charged down the tiered seating arrangements and began to snake through the crowd, moving as fast as they could in an already doomed race.
-x-
Chaos.
That was the best way to describe it.
Zebra were scattered around the Jeeps and stock trucks, and some of them were running around wildly, frightened.
Alice, Danny and Rosie all screeched to a halt.
'Oh-'
'ALICE!'
Alice turned and stopped mid swear word, seeing her boss move through the throng of people that trying to get away from the lose wild animals. His face was slightly purple as he pushed his way over.
'Where were you?' he shouted, demanding. 'The zebra I bought were brought here to be loaded up - you were supposed to be here and in charge of that until I came to help! Look at this!' He shouted, flailing his arms around and pointing at the 20 or so lose zebra. 'This is your fault! This was your task, and now the auction is most likely going to fine us for damage costs, and-'
'Oh God - Mr Bello, I'm so sorry, I just-'
'-somehow none of the zebra have been injured, which is a miracle!' Alice's boss continued, 'YOU have to clean up this mess and you have to do it now!' He shouted, pointing a finger at her before storming off to help the rest of the staff.
'...Oops.' Alice muttered. Danny exhaled next to her.
'Sorry.' Rosie whispered.
'It's not your fault Rosie don't worry.' Alice reassured her.
'We'll help you get this sorted.' Danny told her, rubbing her back as she bit her lip anxiously. 'Come on, lets go.'
-x-
With every zebra finally loaded onto the trucks, Alice turned to Danny and Rosie, who, like her, were slightly out of breath after rounding up the animals.
'Thanks you two.' Alice told them, making sure the deadbolt was pulled over properly on one of the trucks.
'Our pleasure.' Rosie laughed, and wiped her forehead. 'How do you think your boss is going to be now?'
'Not happy would be my best guess.' Alice muttered. 'I can't imagine my job will be held in good stead after this. I always moaned about how simple his tasks were for me and then I screwed it up.'
Danny and Rosie were quiet.
'It will be alright.' Danny tried to reassure her, unbuttoning his top button on his shirt and mirrored his daughter by wiping her forehead too.
'I'm not so sure. I've never been fired before.' Alice muttered, and held her face in her hands and closed her eyes.
'Hey! You won't get fired! It wasn't that bad Alice, it was just a mistake.' Danny told her, moving towards her.
'I don't know. He seemed pretty mad...Oh God. Here he comes.' Alice said, and looked at the ground, blushing.
'Alice, we're leaving.' He called to her. He glared at her, but turned on his heel and stormed off.
'Well...he didn't fire you.' Rosie sighed, trying to be optimistic.
Alice laughed lightly at her own expense. 'No, it's gonna be a fun 3 and half hour trip back up North though isn't it.'
Rosie and Danny exchanged a glance, and Alice looked back down at her feet.
'...I think I'm going top have to go too,' Rosie started, and Alice looked up to see her looking at her watch. 'I need to go and find Mr Bletox, my hour break is almost up.'
Danny sighed. 'And I suppose I better go and find Dup - I'm going to need his help to load up the giraffe I bought.'
The three of them exchanged glances, none of them really wanting to leave.
'It's been lovely to see you again Alice.' Rosie said, and pulled her in for a hug. 'I have no doubt that I'll see you again at some point, we always seem to run into you.' Rosie laughed, and Alice smiled at her.
'Bye Dad.' Rosie said, and quickly hugged her father. 'I'll email you when I'm back, I have a week off after my placement ends, me and Max were thinking about coming to see you guys for a while then.'
'That would be great.' Danny smiled, and kissed his daughter on the head in their embrace. Rosie pulled away.
'Bye you two.' She departed with a wave and a warm smile, walking off to go and find Mr Bletox.
Alice looked round to Danny, and he was shaking his head slowly with a small smile. 'Come on you, let's go.' he said, and they both started to walk around to the front of the line of vehicles.
'I'm so not looking forward to going back.' Alice said, running her hand along the side of the dark blue Jeep, the steel shell extremely hot as it sat in the sun.
Danny walked slowly alongside her. 'I'm sure it will be fine.'
'Mmmm.' Alice mused, thinking it all through. 'I suppose I'll just have to go and face the music.'
Danny sighed sadly as they stopped by the Jeep that Alice would be leaving in. Mr Bello, Alice's boss, already sat in the drivers seat, his hands gripping the wheel.
Alice raised her eyebrows at Danny as they both glanced at him.
'It's been lovely to see you.' She told him, 'I'm sorry it's not been for longer.'
Danny pulled her into another tight hug, and she sighed against him, feeling her heart ache as she new she was saying goodbye to him again, and as always, she didn't know how long it would be before - and if - she saw him again.
'Take care.' Danny told her, looking deep into her eyes, and Alice steeled herself against the tears that threatened in her eyes.
'It's all about dramatic goodbye's with us isn't it?' Alice said, exasperated, and laughing gently.
'Hopefully about dramatic and emotional hello's as well.' Danny told her. 'We'll see each other again, don't worry. You STILL haven't saved my life yet, we'll run into one and other at some point.'
Alice laughed lightly and pulled away.
'Goodbye Danny.' She said, and quickly hopped into the Jeep.
'Bye.' He told her softly.
They looked into each other's eyes, before Alice's boss sped away, and Alice closed her eyes to hold back the emotion that threatened once more.
-x-
A/N: next chapter coming soon, AM ON A ROLL WOO. L x
