Stevie had fallen asleep on the couch. Claire covered her with a blanket. She'd known Stevie had been acting strangely lately, but hadn't paid much attention. She was so thrilled to be home, and so caught up with Charlotte, she didn't stop to think. But now she realized that it was the anniversary of Caroline's death. It had been many years ago, but it was still fresh in Claire's mind, and no doubt in Stevie's too. They had never talked about it. And Claire always suspected there was something more to the story that she wasn't privy to.

Claire sat on the couch opposite and wrapped a blanket around herself. Now that Stevie was asleep, Claire's mind wandered back to that phone call today. She just didn't expect to hear from Michael again. Ever. It seemed like a life time ago, the last time she had spoken to him. Michael had been forgotten, completely erased from her mind and her life as if he never existed. But hearing his voice again today brought back a lot of memories and feelings that she believed were long gone. He hadn't even said goodbye. Just left a note. The last time she's seen Michael had been the last time she'd seen her father also. The day Jack died.

She recalled the last conversation she had with her father, Jack McLeod.

"This is my place Claire Louise McLeod and what I say goes." Jack's loud voice boomed.

"One day this place will be mine." Claire was almost, but not quite, as angry as her father, "and I'll do a better job running this place, and my life, with out you around!"

Claire pulled the blanket tighter around her at the thought of those words to her father. She could never take them back, never tell him that she didn't mean it. She'd been angry, but she'd do anything to have just one second more with him. Jack was the only family she had known for most of her life.

The rest of the conversation was a blur. They'd argued so much during that last week. Argued about anything and everything, but it was the issue of Michael that nearly drove them apart.

Claire recalled Jacks last words to her.

"…….Over my dead body"

"If that's what it takes" She replied in anger, turned her back and walked away.

He left the house, mounted Sirocco and rode off. And he didn't come back.

Claire tried not to think about it. Jack and Michael weren't the only people she lost that day. At the time, she couldn't imagine how she could go on with her life.

The first weeks had been difficult. Thankfully no one questioned her much that time, they all assumed she was grieving over her father. Which was partly true. And she had thrown herself into her work to help her forget. And now life was so different. It hadn't even been five years ago. That day she felt she lost everything. But now she had everything and more.

Everything changed the day Tess came back into her life. It seemed like they had never been apart. It couldn't be more perfect that Stevie was living at Drovers now too. They had always been best mates, and now had become like sisters. Jodi and Kate had become like part of the family also. She'd known Jodi all her life, but it was only recently they had become close. Claire was surprised that Jodi decided to stay on even after Meg left. But Claire now realized that Jodi had grown up on Drovers too, and it was almost impossible to walk away.

Then there was Alex. After the disaster with Michael she promised herself she'd be so much more careful next time around. She was sure Peter was the one. It had been a terrible mistake, but she couldn't think of it as an entirely bad thing, because without Peter, there would be no Charlotte. And it was now impossible to imagine life without Charlotte.

Alex was different to any other man she'd ever been with. They'd been friends for so long, and she trusted him completely. He'd fallen in love with her and with BOM, and it all seemed too good to be true. It was partly because of her bad experiences in the past that she wanted to take things slowly. But he had been understanding. He had wanted to move in, but she asked him to wait. And he agreed. This time she wasn't rushing in. Even though she did trust Alex, she was still so scared of getting hurt, or even worse, Charlotte getting hurt.

And Charlotte was the joy of her life. Claire never imagined feeling so fulfilled, or loving another human being so much. Before Charlotte was born Claire didn't know much about being a mother. She'd never really had a mother of her own. Now that she was a mother, she looked at the world through different eyes. Suddenly the choices she'd made in the past had come back to haunt her. Things that seemed so right at the time now seemed so wrong. And Claire was determined to find a way to set things right once and for all.

The following morning….

Jodi and Kate had slept in. Again.

"It's all your fault Jodi." Kate exclaimed

"Um excuse me how's it my fault, you were supposed to set the alarm squirt?" Jodi declared as she put her boots on.

"You kept me up all night talking and eating chips…Claire is gonna kill us, we're supposed to round up the cattle from the north paddock today and bring them to the yards near the house." Kate reminded her.

"Don't stress, the others will have started, we'll just catch up with them." Jodi responded.

Jodi and Kate made it to the north paddock in record time, and were surprised to find all the cattle still there, and no Stevie, Tess or Claire.

"I'm sure Claire said she wanted the cattle moved today. Where is everyone? Maybe Charlotte's sick? Or something terrible happened?" Kate suggested with a hint of panic in her voice.

"More like they have a hangover, I saw Alex's ute here late last night, maybe they had a party and we weren't invited!" Jodi decided that was far more likely.

The two girls decided to make a start with the cattle, after all they still had to be moved by the end of the week. By mid-morning they hadn't made it far. But they had done well considering the others hadn't shown up. They dismounted their horses and stopped to stretch their legs.

"Something is defiantly not right Jodi, where are the others? Lets leave the cattle here and go back to the house, we'll never get them all the way before dark anyway, and I have a bad feeling." Kate suggested

" I suppose we can finish it tomorrow. I wonder what happened to the others though. Let's just have our lunch and head back squirt." Jodi agreed.

Suddenly Jodi saw something that made her stop dead in her tracks, and caused Kate to crash right into her.

"JODI! What are you…." Kate started…but her voice trailed off when she saw it too.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead Tess had been trying for hours to get the phone working. Since Claire had "dropped" it last night it had been broken. She contemplated using the phone at the cottage, but she had two very important phone calls to make. One of the she didn't want Claire to hear, and the other she didn't want Stevie to hear. Determined to find a spot on the property for her cell phone to work, she bundled Charlotte up in her stroller and went for a walk. They were supposed to be moving the cattle today, but she couldn't take Charlotte anyway, so the cattle would have to wait. She remembered a spot by the dam that she had been able to make a call from when she first arrived at Drovers. She headed there and climbed a fence. Charlotte was laughing at her aunty from her stroller. With one hand on the fence post to steady herself Tess reached into her pocket for the phone and dialed the number.

Claire arrived at the main house to find it empty, Tess and Charlotte were gone, and so was Charlotte's stroller from the hallway. Claire felt slightly resentful towards her sister for taking Charlotte like that without asking her. Its not that she didn't appreciate all Tess's help, especially when she was in the hospital. And she loved that Charlotte spent time with her aunty. She told herself she was being silly. Still, the one thing she wanted that morning was a cuddle from Charlotte. Deciding they couldn't have got far Claire set off to find them. She hadn't been looking long when she came across the strange site of Tess clinging on to a fence post talking to herself. Oh wait, she was on the phone. Claire tried to make the words out as she crept up behind her sister.

"It's just not a good time now, maybe in a week or so…..No its never going to be a good time to tell Claire …but that's not it, there's a lot of stuff going on and this week just isn't any good. I know. Me too. But it will have to wait. Hello? Hello? Damn phone!"

"Hi there!" Claire greeted her sister, almost causing her to fall off the fence in fright. "Never be a good time to tell Claire what?"

"Nothing Claire, it's a surprise, I know you love surprises." Tess replied quickly, putting the phone back in her pocket.

"I hate surprises. And you know it. And I thought you were afraid of heights?" Claire responded.

"Well I am, but I had to make a phone call." She declared slightly annoyed. "Are you going to help me down or what?"

Claire extended a hand to help her sister climb down from the fence and reminded her "We do have a phone in the house Tess."

"Yes well you broke it when you 'dropped' it Claire."

Claire didn't respond, instead she picked Charlotte up from her stroller. The child smiled as her mother kissed her on the forehead.

The three of them headed back to the house, Claire carrying Charlotte and Tess pushing the stroller. Claire was curious about Tess's phone call, even worried as it didn't sound like she was going to approve of whatever was going on. But she didn't ask about it again. And Tess repaid the favor by not talking about the phone call last night or the smashed photo frame.