(A/N: Wanting to tie this story up. So this is the second to last chapter. I'm just losing interest, so better to end it now, then to let it go downhill or uncompleted because I'm no longer interested in trying. So things are going to move a little faster. Also I'm writing in how Helga and Andrew met.)

…...

…...

…...

On the weekend Lara came over with a bottle of rum. Arnold shook his head.

"Do you think this is a good idea, considering how you've been lately?" he asked.

Helga smirked.

"I'm a big girl, Arnoldo, I know what I'm doing," she said. Then she frowned. "Stop being so bossy."

She sat down with Lara and started gossiping. Arnold watched the two woman, frowning. Everything seemed to be going well. Helga still seemed to have moments, but generally, things between them were going well. He sighed, not knowing what to do.

"Do you want me to get my husband over here?" Lara suddenly asked him.

"Oh, uh, no it's okay," he said.

"Seriously," Helga said, turning to Lara. "He needs a man to talk too. He had Andrew his last visit, but now . . ."

The mood in the room changed, til Lara smiled.

"I'll call him now!" she said. "I warn you though, there's a rugby game on tonight. You cheer for the All Blacks, got it?"

"Really, Lara, you don't need to," he insisted.

"Hey, honey, I have a favour . . . Yeah? Well listen, Helga has a gentlman friend staying, and he's a bit at a loss . . . Uh huh, I know, but he's american . . . Just a moment," she covered the mouthpiece. "He wants to know if you watch that pussy game Football?"

"Yeah," Arnold said, bristling slightly at the idea of Football being called a pussy sport.

"Yeah he does . . . Haha! Okay, see you soon. Okay, I'll let him know. Love you too, bye," Lara hung up and smiled at him. "Mate, your in shit."

Lara and Helga laughed and went back to talking. Helga had stopped going to Playcentre after Wirimu had left, so she was catching up on all the gossip from Lara.

Ten mintues later, Lara's husband, Sean, showed up.

"Where is the poor bastard?" he asked, walking into the house as if he owned it. Helga and Lara pointed at Arnold. He threw a black shirt at him.

"Some of the guys will be coming round, too," he said. "Sorry Helgs, but you know what it's like."

"Yeah, yeah, just keep it down," she said, getting up and closing the door to the hallway.

Five minutes before the game four more men showed up, all with boxes of beer in hand. Arnold smiled. Men, beer, sports. Some things were universal. He finally unfurled the shirt to see it was plain black with All Blacks and a silver fern sitting over the heart part of the chest. When the game started, the already boisterous men sang the anthem, then a couple got up and did the haka. Arnold sat back watching them. He'd never seen anything like it in a living room. He was also surprised to hear Helga singing the anthem as well. Both versions.

Half way through the game Helga handed him a piece of paper which explained the game to him in briefs. Afterwards he was able to follow the game, and actually got really into it. A little patriotic part in his brain was swearing at him, but he ignored it.

When the break came on, the men explained it a little more in depth. Then one asked a question he was surprised hadn't been asked earlier.

"So how'd you met sexy-pants, there?" he asked, nodding at Helga. Again he felt those hackles rising. He was glad he wasn't a dog.

"Met when we were three," he said, taking a sip of beer.

"And Ada's yours?" he asked. It was the same guy. Arnold frowned.

"Yeah," he said, looking down.

"Don't feel bad, man," Lara's husband perked up. "I aint seen my eldest in thirteen years!"

"Really?" Arnold asked.

"Yeah, my first girlfriend took off with my best friend. Battled it out in the courts, but typically they took the mothers side. I gave up after six years of fighting," he said. "Even when the police got involved, didn't matter. Bitch."

"Yeah, drama's with my baby-mama too," Karl admitted. "They're in Australia now."

"Your lucky," Sean said. "Helga's a good woman. Not many would let the man back in after drama. Some don't even have a reason, just bitches. Gotta be careful these days. All that shit about STD's and STI's, they don't warn you about the SFB's."

"SFB's?" Arnold asked.

The guys laughed.

"Slutty fucking bitches," Simon told him. "In it for the money. Pop out kids every couple of years, instead of getting off their slut butts and getting a real job."

"Oi!" Lara called out. "Woman in the house. Sharp objects in the kitchen!"

The men laughed again, then went quiet as the game came back on.

…...

Their guests left on foot that night.

"Too crash at Lara's no doubt," Helga told him. She was drunk, but in good spirits.

"Where's Olga?" he asked, realising suddenly that she wasn't there.

"Catching up with old friends," she told him, putting her arms around his neck. "Horney?"

Arnold smiled and shook his head.

"Is that all your interested in?" he asked.

"What? You thought I wanted to marry you?" she asked, laughing. Arnold stopped smiling. When Helga saw the look on his face, she stopped as well.

"Your fucking joking," she said. She pulled away. "Tell me your joking."

"I didn't say anything," he said, defensively.

"You don't have too," she said. "It's all over your face."

Arnold looked away.

"I thought things were going well," he said.

Helga stared at him.

"You really know how to kill a good night, you know that?" she said, turning away from him.

"Don't you want to be with me?" he asked.

Helga shook her head.

"No, Arnold. I buried my fiance a few weeks back. Not looking to replace him just yet," she said.

"Could have fooled me," he muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" Helga demanded, her eyes narrowing.

"Your so gutted about Andrew, and yet, every night so far where have I been?" he asked. "Oh, that's right. In your bed. With you. So a bit rich whining about replacing him now."

Helga slapped him.

"If it's such a problem for you, you can sleep in your own bed!" she yelled.

"Keep your voice down, you'll wake Ada," he whispered.

"Yeah, like you care," she snapped.

"I do, actually," he said. "Cut the bullshit, Helga. I have a lawyer here as well."

Helga stopped walking away from him and spun around.

"What?" she asked, completely astonished. "But-"

"You think I'd be so stupid as to cut myself off from my lawyer? He has a contact here that's getting in contact with me," he told her. "And you havent exactly been the most onto it woman of late."

Helga looked confused.

"What kind of game are you playing, Arnold?" she finally asked. "One mintue you want to fuck my brains out, the next your threatening me. I don't like to be threatened."

"You should know the game, Helga. You started it," he said. Helga glared at him for a moment, before looking away. He walked up to her. "I want you. And I want Ada. I want us as a family."

"Why though?" she said. "And for how long, Arnold? Til the next skirt comes along?"

"I think we should talk about this tomorrow," he said. He was feeling angry, and drunk. Not a good combination.

"Why not now?" Helga demanded, getting in his face.

"Because we're both drunk."

Arnold walked away. Helga stood there a moment and let things sink in. she was drunk. She always got drunk with Lara.

When she got to her room she saw Arnold was sitting on her bed.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"What do you want, Helga?" he asked. "Because I want us to be a family."

Helga sighed.

"I don't know," she confessed. She sat on her bed, looking across at him.

"I need to go back," he said, looking up and out the window. "I cant stay here much longer."

Helga nodded.

"Think about it, please?" he asked, turning and facing her. She nodded again. He moved in and kissed her.

…...

The first thing he noticed when he got home at last, was the smell of something cooking. He followed the smell into the kitchen to see a strange woman standing at the oven stirring a big pot.

"Arnold, darling," a voice said from behind him. He froze.

"Rhonda?" he asked, not turning around. He felt her arms snake around his waist.

"I'm back," she said, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I thought about it, and I forgive you."

"What?" he asked, backing away.

"I forgive you," she said.

Arnold stared at her, confused.

"What are you doing here?" he finally asked.

"I just told you," she said, taking a seat on the couch and patting the spot next to her. Arnold remained standing. Rhonda sighed.

"I've had time to think about it, you've had time to think about it. I think we should just get back together already," she said.

Arnold shook his head.

"I can't," he told her.

"Why not? Helga and the brat are gone now," she said, leaning back.

Arnold's eyes narrowed. What was she up to now? Just before Christmas she was berating him for having lied to her, leaving Helga to fend for herself with a child.

And now, here she was, calling his daughter a brat and acting like it was all just a mild inconveniance.

"I'm going for custody," he told her, remaining standing. He had the urge to run.

"Custody?" she asked. "Of the kid?"

"Yeah. She's a great kid, and I want her around. So I'm going for custody," he explained. "She'll stay here with me-"

"Us, you mean," Rhonda snapped. "I don't want a child running around ruining the furniture and breaking things, Arnold."

"No, I meant me. And Helga. And she's nine, Rhonda. She doesn't run around breaking and ruining things," he growled at her, getting defensive.

"My, my, this is a turn around," she said. "Should have known, though. You always were obsessed with Helga. Even as kids, you couldn't stay away from her."

She was too calm.

"So what are you doing here?" he asked.

Rhonda sighed.

"Because we've been together long enough for half of everything you own to be mine, too," she said cheerfully. "The house, the cars, whatever's in your bank account. Everything."

Arnold frowned. That was all?

"Okay, well let the lawyers sort it out," he said.

Rhonda smiled at him.

"Oh, I will," she said. "I'll be sure to tell him everything. About the numerous infedelities, which, by the way, plays in my favour."

"Excuse me?" he asked, smiling.

"There's things I could mention that would greatly help Helga's case, too," she told him. "You never stayed faithful to me, you'll never stay faithful to her, and there was that incident several years ago with that intern."

"Discharged without conviction. She admitted to lying," Arnold said.

"Doesn't matter. It was there. And you did sleep with her, didn't you?" Rhonda asked. "Does Helga know about that? What judge would grant custody to a man with that hanging over his head?"

"It's not hanging over my head," he said. "Look, Rhonda, cut the crap. Talk to the lawyers, sort it out."

He walked out of the room, leaving a pissed off Rhonda behind him. In the bedroom he sat down on his bed, and put his face in his hands. Why did she have to show up now?

"Do you know how ridiculous you've made me look?" Rhonda demanded.

"Arrrrrrrgh! I don't care!" he yelled at her. "I really don't, Rhonda."

Rhonda took a step back. She hadn't been expecting that. Arnold was usually so placid.

"Well then, you wont mind me returning the favour," she said.

Arnold sat there for a moment, staring hard at her. He had no doubt she would carry through with her threats, but he found he really didn't care. He looked at the woman he had spent eleven years with. And just couldn't bring himself to give two flying pigs about her. What was wrong with him?

Helga.

And Ada.

They were what mattered to him. He looked around his bedroom. It was nice, modern, but cold. It missed pictures on the wall. How had he ended up like this? His room as a child had been bright, and had knick knacks everywhere, photo's of friends and loved ones. It was warm. A place he looked forward to going home to at the end of the day.

This room, this house . . . it didn't feel right. Even when Ada and Helga stayed that night that everything changed, it wasn't a place he wanted to raise a daughter.

"Let's sell the house, cut the profit 50/50," he suggested, suddenly.

Rhonda looked surprised.

"What? No, I like this house. I spent ages decorating," she said.

"Fine, buy me out," he said. "I don't want this house. I don't want to live in it."

"Why?" she asked, curious.

"Because it's not a home. Its no place to raise a family," he told her. "It's cold."

Rhonda looked at him as though he were crazy.

Arnold leaned over and grabbed the phone that was beside the bed, and rung his lawyer.

…...

Helga was just setting Ada's breakfast in front of her when the phone started ringing. She rushed over and picked it up.

"Hello?" she answered, grabbing her toast out of the toaster.

"I'm coming back," a man's voice told her.

"Arnold?" she asked, dropping her toast on a plate and grabbing the margarine and marmite.

"Yes, Helga, me," he said. "Rhonda's buying out my share of the house. Selling the car's, have a few more things to sort out in regards to my job, then I'm coming back!"

"Back? Here?" she asked. "Wait, what's going on?"

"I told you, Helga. I want to be a family. And if that means moving down there to do this, that's what I'll do," he told her, excitedly.

Helga was quiet. Arnold was going to just up and leave his job, his friends, his family, to come all the way down here, to be with her and Ada?

"Mum, is that dad?" Ada asked, getting excited. Helga looked at her. What did she tell her. Instead of saying anything, Helga handed the phone to Ada, and sat down in shock.

"Dad? . . . Yeah . . . Oh my God, really!? That's so cool! Are you going to live with us?" Ada asked excitedly. Helga watched as her daughter's smile wilted a little. "But mum wont mind you living here . . . . What kid of things? . . . What kind of adult things? . . . I don't get it . . . Okay, here's mum."

Ada handed the phone over with a pout.

"What's going on?" Helga asked.

"I wasn't sure about living with you straight away," he admitted.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked. "It's a big move."

"I can get work there, Helga," he said.

"But the pay wont be as good," she told him, biting her lip. "And what about this custody business?"

"I'm dropping it," he said. "No point really, when I'll be living as close as I can."

Helga didn't know what to say. She looked over at Ada who was listening eagerly.

"Okay, well, I can put you up when you first get here," Helga said. "And see what happens from there."

"I already have an interveiw lined up," Arnold admitted.

"You do?" Helga asked shocked.

"I set it up before I came back," he told her. "I . . . I didn't want to come back, and I set it up so if I got here and decided against it, I could come back and go for an interveiw and get a job and set up."

"You did?" she asked.

"I havent been happy here for a long time, Helga. But being with you and Ada . . . It made me realise what I want. And it's not what I thought."

…...

Seven years earlier

Helga sat on the beach looking out at the waves, and watching Ada and Olga splashing around in the lagoon. She looked over towards the flags stuck in the ground, and back at the lifeguard tower.

"I'm going in!" she called out to Olga. He skin was starting to burn. She figured it was the black sand. It was hot and she tip toed as fast as she could across it to the damp sand, where the waves had been washing up. It was nice and cool under her feet. She watched a starfish float by. 'Poor thing' she thought, picking it up. She'd take it out to the water with her, and drop it.

Olga meanwhile, kept looking over her shoulder to keep an eye out for Helga. They had been to the beach often, but lately Helga had been getting a bit reckless. She had also taken up surfing lessons, which Olga didn't completely agree with.

"These are things you do before you have children, Helga. Not after," she'd told her.

Helga had smiled, and Olga knew it was falling on death ears. Helga had been moody of late. Retreating into her writing and art.

Helga had been watching some guys on surfboards further out, and didn't pay to much attention to the shoreline until she realised she couldn't feel the sand anymore, but felt a strong undercurrent pulling her towards the rocks of Lion Rock. She turned to swim across the rip, but it still seemed as though she wasn't getting anywhere!

Helga had gotten caught in a rip. She was starting to freak out and go under, when strong hands grabbed her under her armpits and pulled her out, draping her across a surfboard. She was coughing.

"Better sit up, or your gonna drown again," a guy's voice told her. She managed to get a leg over with the guys help, and finally looked at her rescuer.

He had these beautiful soft brown eyes, that were filled with mischief and fun, and a bit of worry.

"You alright?" he asked.

Helga nodded. He nodded.

"Let's get back to shore then," he said, sliding off the board and motioning at her to lie down. They moved along a bit, away from the swimmers who were still between the flags and rode the waves back in.

"You sure your okay?" he asked again, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, just a bit tired," she told him, looking up again.

"Ha, no wonder. Your not from around here, are you?" he asked. "Canada or America?"

"America!" Helga shouted, outraged. How could he not tell the difference?

He shrugged, smug arrogance settling on his features.

"All sounds the same to me," he said.

"Andrew!" a guy called out, running over to him. "Stop flirting with ht chicks, and come help with the barbie."

Andrew turned to her and smiled.

"You should come," he said. He told her the address. She told him about her sister and daughter. He just shrugged. "Bring a plate," was all he said, before taking off after the other guy who was now talking and pointing at her.

'Andrew' she thought, smiling. Her hero.

…...

Helga sat looking at the photo's of her and Andrew together, or her, Andrew and Ada. Or just Andrew and Ada, and various other members of his family. She had tears in her eyes. She had t let go of him. A love triangle between her, Arnold and a ghost just wouldn't work . . .