Lunch that day at Drovers was awkward. The gang sat around the dining room table. The Ryan brothers joined the Drovers girls for the meal. To begin with Nick, Jodi and Kate were unaware of the tension, and began chatting about this and that. It wasn't long before Nick noticed that Alex, Claire, Tess and Stevie were distracted.

"Is everything ok?" He asked no one in particular.

No one responded.

Tess made an effort to join in the chatter, trying to ease the tension. She engrossed Nick in conversation about organic wheat. It wasn't hard to keep his attention; he couldn't take his eyes off her.

It didn't matter what words came out of her mouth, Nick wasn't listening anyway. Where had things gone so wrong for him and Tess? Now Sally had gone back to the City, and Liz had disappeared after the revelation that Harry wasn't Alex biological father. So what was standing in their way?

Alex looked down at his plate. He felt awkward around Stevie, and didn't want to make eye contact with her. He didn't know what to say, not that lunch was the time to say anything really. And the fire, it was strange it started in the shed, what could have caused it? He would go investigate after lunch. And Claire was acting so strangely. Jeremy. Why'd she say Jeremy? And then she had kissed him, he enjoyed it that's for sure, but he had recognized it for what it was, an attempt to change the subject.

Claire would normally tease Tess about the way she was flirting with Nick, but she had other things on her mind. Jeremy. She hadn't thought of the little boy in so long, had completely erased him from her mind, until now. And she would have to be more careful in future, she was starting to lose it, saying Jeremy's name in front of Alex.

But now that she had let herself think of Jeremy again, it wasn't so easy to forget the second time around. She distracted herself by thinking about Stevie, she was concerned for her friend, and couldn't help but wonder if there was something else on Stevie's mind, something other than Carrie.

Alex needn't have worried about making eye contact with Stevie, she was avoiding eye contact with everyone. More than anything she wanted to leave. It was torture sitting around all of these people pretending everything was ok. But she realized if she left it would draw more attention to herself, and someone would surely follow her. So she sat in silence and ate.

Kate and Jodi eventually realized something was not right with everyone.

"What's going on?" Jodi asked

"Nothing for you to worry about." Claire told her.

"Claire that's not fair, we live here too, we work here too, if something is going on don't we have a right to know?" Jodi asked her

"Nothing is going on." Claire told her, getting frustrated.

"Come on, you are all acting weird. And this morning Kate and I had to move the cattle on our own because no one showed up." Jodi was frustrated also about being kept in the dark. She was not a kid anymore, she had worked here most of her life, and she didn't like being treated like a kid and people keeping things from her.

"Well you better stop chatting and start eating so you can finish the job after lunch." Claire responded to her hoping this would end the conversation once and for all.

Jodi stormed off in anger, Kate grabbed an extra sandwich and followed her.

"Don't you think that was a bit harsh Claire?" Tess asked her sister.

"No I don't" Claire responded.

And the room was in silence again.

The silence was broken by the ringing of a mobile phone. Nick was never so happy to hear his phone ring

"Hello, yeah hi Dad, …yeah I'm at Drovers, they had a fire….Tess? um yeah she's here. You want to talk to her? To tess? Um. Oh. Ok sure."

"Um its dad, he wants to talk to you" Nick told Tess as he handed her the phone.

Tess took the phone and left the room receiving curious glances from the others.

Before thy could speculate about what on earth Harry and Tess were discussing, there was a knock at the door.

Nick got up to answer it. It was obviously not someone invited, as they were knocking on the front door. Nick came back, explained that it was a motorist with engine trouble, and he and Alex went to help out.

Claire didn't have to see the face of the man, or hear his voice, something deep inside her told her it was Michael at the door. She had told him not to come here, but she'd known he wouldn't listen.